he considers he is hereafter to sit in Abraham's bosom, and God says to him, "Remember thou in thy life-time received thy evil things." O my brethren, a fine school is the school of Christ! I never knew any one of my acquaintance that were believers, and I have been acquainted with some these twenty years last past, but what flourished most under the afflicting hand of God. I believe if the devil had his will, he would bid too high for every believer; he does not love money; a covetous man is worse than the devil, he loves that which the devil squanders away; but say they, we think we should be very good if we had a coach and six; so when they have it, they think they are too good to go to that chapel or foundery; it was a good place when we walked a-foot, but now we have a coach we will drive by. Happy is it for us that we are chosen in the furnace of affliction; that is a glorious petition in our litany, "That in all time of our tribulation, good Lord deliver us!" You may very well excuse me for preaching from such a text as this, because I have been in the furnace, and I find it is very sweet; it is very sweet walking in a burning fiery furnace when the Son of God leads by the arm. In the account we have of the three children being in the fiery furnace, the king could say, "I see one walking with them:" what an emblem of the children of God! O, say you, does the Son of God walk with you in the furnace? I answer, yes; make the worst of it, tell them the enthusiast, the babbler says, God walks with his people in the furnace; he walks with all that walk with him, and never walks closer with them than when they are in the furnace. Daniel is generally painted young, but he was four

score years old when he was thrown in among the tions, there he sits as sweet and easy, and no lion dares to touch one of his grey hairs. Nothing proves the truth of grace, and shows the love of God more, and you may be assured of it as you are of being in this place alive, that sanctified afflictions are the greatest evidence God can give you of his love; so that if we are chosen in the furnace of affliction, we are to expect it; and is it not a great shame for us, that the heathens out do us? when one came and told one of the heathens that his son, a darling son, was dead, he said, "I know that I begot him mortal," So Job said, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. O that God may bless this poor preaching to the raising up some drooping soul. Underneath thee, O believer, O sufferer, are God's everlasting arms; therefore the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety, because they dwell near him, and he that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of God's eye.

This may teach us, when one trouble is over to expect another; none of your requiems here. Abraham, I believe, thought when he had got his Isaac, he was to be tried no more; but after these things God did tempt Abraham. We know not what trials we are to have, but remember they are marks of our adoption: not that all afflictions do prove us children of God, because there are some afflictions that are not sanctified: God give us all to have sanctified afflictions!

If this is the case, let young believers know what they are to meet with; God forgive those, and visible churches are too much pestered with them, that daub with untempered mortar: formerly, when the church was under persecution,

they would forsake father, mother, and all: but now, blessed be God, we are for becoming Christians; we live in London, we live where the church is smiled upon, we may live where we are at ease. -My dear hearers, do you think that all the Londoners are converted? do you think they all bring forth the fruits of the Spirit; or have you heard that the devil is converted? can any body prove to me that the devil is not the same; can you prove that God is not the same; can you prove that the world is not the same, that the human heart is not the same? if you can prove that neither of these are what they were when Christ came into the world, I will give up the point; but if they are the same, we must expect the same trials our forefathers met with, if ever we hope to meet with them in glory; God forbid I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if any of us have a mind to set out for heaven, expect trouble. Indeed, if we have enlisted under the devil's banner, he shows you the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. When Peter said to our Lord, concerning his sufferings, far be that from thee; after having shown his displeasure, at it, as a sugges tion of satan's, he says to all his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And if you do not chuse the furnace of affliction, if you are too 'nice to enter in, you forsake the Lord, and are only preparing to be company for the damned in hell. This was the case with Dives; Son, thou in thy life time received thy good things; and for a man that fares sumptuously every day; for a man clothed fine linen, be tormented by the devil; that is to see God, Christ, heaven, with all he had, lost; and the torments must never cease. One moments

thought of this is very awful! God grant this may not be the lot of any of us! Come my dear hearers, may God of his infinite mercy grant this night, that some poor soul may be rescued from the devil, and enlist under Christ's banner! I have bore the cross thirty-four years; I never wore it long, but I found to my great comfort it was lined with the love of God. My yoke is easy, my burden is light, saith our blessed Lord. Suffering grace is given for suffering times; the reason we have not more comfort is, because we have not more crosses : happy they that say in this visitation, my Jesus, my Lord, I give up all for thee? my life, and all things, I cast behind.

A heart that no desire will move,

But still to adore, obey, and love,.

Give me, my Lord, my life, my all.

I wish you joy that run this course; don't be weary of it, don't think hard of God, don't say, never was any body tried as I am, never was any body tempted as I am, for if you was to go and tell your cross, there are a thousand in the congregation would, perhaps, say, dear I have had that and ten times worse. Óne Mr. Buchanan, a Scotchman, who died the other day, having lost his last child, said, "I am now childless, but blessed be God, I am not Christless." A noble lady told me herself, that when she was crying on account of one of her children's death, her little daughter came innocently to her one day and said, "Mama, is God Almighty dead, you cry so? the lady blushing, said, no; she replied, Madam, will you lend me your glove? she let her take it, and after that asked for it again; upon which the child said, Now you have taken the glove from me, shall I cry because you have taken away your

own glove? and shall you cry because God has taken away my sister." Out of the mouths of babes has God perfected praise, and will for ever. glorify God in the furnace.

If any of you are saying, don't tell me of your afflictions, I will live, I will drink, to-morrow shall be as to-day, and so much the more. If there be

any of you that say so, take care, take care, God himself can't issue out a worse sentence against you than this, Let him alone, let him alone; whom the Lord loves he chasténs. What a pretty creature would you make in heaven, if you was to go. there, without one of Christ's crosses on your back, you would be turned out; no there are none such there.

Christians endure the cross; happy ye that are tried, and happy they that are gone to glory. Where is Mr. Middleton now? where is my dear fellowlabourer, that honest, that steady man of God? Oh! he was thanking God for the gout in his head, in his feet, in his stomach, all decays; thanking God for that last trouble that cut the thread of life, and gave the soul a passage for heaven; if, in the midst of that torture, he could answer his daughter and say, heaven upon earth, heaven upon earth, and went to heaven but a little after; now surely he must say, heaven in heaven; must he not now he sees God, and sees Christ? and by his comfort, though in such great pain, it shows that God was kissing away his soul, he died at the very mouth of God. O may the blessed God bless his parents and children that are here tonight; I believe you may be glad that God has chosen him in the furnace of affliction. I am glad to hear that so many are desirous that something may be done for his family, and Mr., and M