self, that it might be constantly and chearfully believed and kept in mind.

my soul, thy time faileth, thy body is decaying, the world is daily changing, and nothing about thee continueth in one stay. Blessed be God, to thee likewise a change shall soon come, and come for the better in the midst of it all! Whatever alterations appear, thou hast an unalterable God, and an unperishing home before thee. If the earth fall into destruction, as soon it will, thy estate cannot be lost; for thou art only a pilgrim and traveller here, and thy inheritance is above, far out of the reach of ruin. Thy interest being safe in Christ, all is safe that is worth saving, with respect to thee. Thou canst only pass from death into life, from sin to holiness, from pain to peace, from earth to heaven, from mortals to God.

O how then should I rejoice in thee, my Saviour and my Lord! In thee, who makest all things mine; all, either as good, or to lead me to good. I adore thee that thou thus disposest the world, life, death, things present, or things to come, in my behalf; calling them mine, making them really mine, because they contribute to my welfare. Above all, I bless thee for the end. I am lost in love and admiration, when thou tellest me, that I am thine, O my redeemer; even as thou art God's.

What manner of love is this; that I, a mutable worm, should become an immutable

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spirit; that I, who live in a tottering house. of clay amidst a people of unclean lips, should be raised to a mansion of glory among the innumerable company of saints and angels; that I, a dull inhabitant of a miserable world, ruined and ravaged by sin and time, should be translated to a joyful rest, unchanging as eternity; that I, who was once a slave to satan, and deserve only to live with him, should be made and kept a child of God, yea, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ Jesus of a kingdom which cannot be shaken! O what manner of love is this indeed!

CHAP. XVIII.

ON THE PATIENT ENDURING OF WRONGS..

LIKE the blessed Psalmist, I have sometimes been rewarded evil for good, to the great discomfort of my soul. It seems trying to flesh and blood, that is, to my animal and corrupt passions, to bear all and to say nothing: But yet this is generally my wisdom and my duty.

It is my wisdom, because then I do not stir up further evil of strife in my own bosom, or in that of others; and I moreover engage my gracious master to undertake for me, by committing all in silent patience to him, who hath engaged to make every thing, and such

Sin, "is the great kill-friend," as one calls it; may I therefore beg to be guarded against sin, both in myself and in them!

O Lord, what a nature, and what a world do I live in! I groan under a nature, which is ready to meet all the evils and confusions that are in the world, and to make every one of them my own. How doth the unquiet spirit of man plunge himself and all about him, into confusion, miseries, and distresses; engendering unhappy discords among individuals, and bloody cruel wars among the nations! And how often, my blessed Master, instead of retiring to thy bosom, have I my. self allowed this spirit of violence within me, and met it in other men! How much have I wronged my enemies by not praying for them, as I ought, when they have vented their wrongs against me! With how little patience and submission to thy will have I endured these wrongs; not considering, that they could not have come, unless they had been permitted by thee, and were allowed to come altogether for my good! O Lord, wipe off my guilt by thy most precious blood, and enable me in future, as well not to take offence, as to be earnest to give none, So shall I appear indeed to be the disciple of thee, my Saviour, who, like a patient silent lamb, didst endure all manner of insults and injuries; and so, in following thee, I shall find peace at least both in thy bosom and in

obtruding themselves into things which they have not seen, nor vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind.---Then Christ becomes all in all to them; and they themselves nothing at all without him. Then it is that they lose their own lives, and find them again with great interest and sweetness in Christ.

If the love and word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, we shall desire to be much with Christ in our spirits, and to shut out all possible interruptions and hindrances in our communion with him. This is our great happiness, and the true life of God in the soul of man.

CHAP. XXII.

ON THE OPINION OF CARNAL MEN.

THE judgment, which natural men form. of spiritual life, is altogether wild and extravagant, gross and injurious. The things of God himself are foolishness unto them; neither can they know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And can those think rightly of the people of God, who have not the faculties to think rightly of the things, which. render them distinct from other inen, and which are the very grounds and principles. of God's conduct towards them? And ought

a christian to be moved exceedingly at the judgment of ignorance and error?

This world's opinion of all divine things is indeed very foolish and vain. It condemns what it hath not seen, and despises what it doth not know. It laughs at the wisdom of God, which it is too weak to apprehend, and sets up its own mutable reason, which is but folly, in its stead. A few years shall lay it low; and the wisest of the worldly wise will be the first to condemn themselves for the madmen and the fools. Wisd. v. 4.

Be satisfied then, fellow-christian, with the just judgment of God. Thou canst not be more despised than thy saviour was. He indeed deserved no scorn, but thou much more than thou canst have. If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub; shall those, who are of the household, think to escape a hard name?---No; let them bear it. for his sake: it will never disgrace them in heaven.

CHAP. XXIII.

ON THE ESTEEM OF GOOD MEN.

THOUGH a nice sense of honour, consistent with his profession, becomes a christian; yet an over-nice care to get honour from any man is neither the duty nor practice of the christian life.