they carried him to execution, he smiled, and turning about, said, now I begin to be a martyr of Jesus Christ! I have heard that the lions have leaped from the martyrs, but when they come to me, I will encourage them to fall on me with all their violence. God give you such enthusiasm in a trying hour! This is to have God for our God: he that believeth hath the witness in himself, as it is written in this blessed word of God, and I hope it will be the last book that I shall read. Farewell father, farewell mother, farewell sun, moon, and stars! was the language of one of the Scotch martyrs in king Charles's time, and it is amazing to me that even Mr. Hume (I believe) a professed deist, in his history of England mentions this as a grand exit, and also that seraphic soul Mr. Hervey, now with God, that the last words of the martyr were, Farewell thou precious Bible, thou blessed book of God. This is my. rock, this is my foundation, it is now about thirty-five years since I began to read the bible upon mý pillow. I love to read this book, but the book is nothing but an account of the promises which it contains, and almost every word from the beginning to the end of it speaks of a spiritual dispensation, and the Holy Ghost, that unites our souls to God, and helps a believer to say my Lord and my God! If you content yourselves with that, the devil will let you talk of doctrines enough: O you shall turn from Arminianism to Calvinism: O you shall be orthodox enough, if you will be content to live without Christ's living in you. Now when you have got the Spirit, then you may say, God is mine. O this is very fine, say some, every body pretends to the Spirit: and then you may go on as a bishop once told a noble---

man, My Lord, these methodists, say they, do all by the Spirit, so if the devil bids them murder any body, they will say the Spirit bid them do it; and that very bishop died, how? why horrid! the last words he spoke were these, The battle is fought, the battle is fought, the battle is fought, but the victory is lost forever. God grant you and I may not die with such words as these. I hope you and I shall die and say, The battle is fought, the battle is fought, the battle is fought, I have. fought the good fight, and the victory is gained for ever. Thus died Mr. Ralph Erskine, his last words were, Victory, victory, victory! and they that can call God their God, shall by and by cry, Victory, victory! and that forever. God grant that we may all be of that happy number.

If we can call God our God, we shall endeavour by the Holy Ghost to be like God, we shall have his divine image stamped upon our souls, and endeavour to be followers of that God who is our Father and this brings in the other part of the text, thy God thy Glory. What is that? The greatest honour that a poor believer thinks he can have on earth, is to boast that God is his God. When it was proposed to David, that if he killed an hundred Philistines, he should have the king's daughter for his wife, and a very sorry wife she was, no great gain turned out to him; says he, do you think it is a small thing to be the son-in-law to a king? a poor stripling as I am here come with my shepherd's crook, what! to be married to a king's daughter, do you think that is a small thing? and if David thought it no small thing to be allied to a king by his daughter, what a great thing must it be to be allied to the Lord by one spirit? I am afraid there are some people that were

once poor that are now rich, that think it a great thing, that wish, O that my family had a coat of arms; some people would give a thousand pounds, I believe, for one. Coats of arms are very proper to make distinction in life, a great many people wear coats of arms that their ancestors got honorably, but they are a disgrace to them as they wear them on their coaches. But this is our glory, whether we walk or ride, whatever our pedigree may be in life, this is our honour that our God may be our glory. what manner of love is this, saith one, that the Lord doth bestow on us that we should be called the sons of God! born not of the will of man, born not of flesh, but born from above. O God grant that this may be your glory and mine!

My brethren, if God is our God and our glory, I'll tell you what we shall prove it by: whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God. Religion, as I have often told you, turns our whole life into one continued sacrifice of love to God. As a needle when once touched by a loadstone, turns to a particular pole,so the heart that is touched by the love of God, turns to his God again. I shall have occasion to take notice of it by and by, when I am aboard a ship for as soon as I get on board I generally place myself in one particular place under the com pass that hangs over my head, I often look at it by night and by day; when I rise the needle turns to one point, when I go to bed I find it turns to the same point: and often, while I have been looking at it, my heart has been turned too, saying, Lord Jesus, as that needle touched by the loadstone, turns to one point, O may my heart touched by the magnet of God's love, turn to

him! A great many people think, they never worship God but when at church; and a great many are very demure on Lord's days, though many begin to leave that off. I know of no place upon the face of the earth where the Sabbath is kept as it is in Boston: if a single person was to walk in Boston streets in time of worship, he would be taken up; it is not trusted to poor insignificant men, but the justices go out in time of worship, they walk with a white wand, and if they catch any person walking in the streets, they put them under a black rod. O! the great mischiefs the poor pious people have suffered lately through the town's being disturbed by the soldiers! When the drums were beating before the house of Dr. Sawell, one of the holiest men that ever was, when he was sick and dying, on the sabbath day, by his meeting, where the noise of a single person was never heard before, and he begged that for Christ's sake they would not beat the drum; they damned and said, that they would beat to make him worse; this is not acting for the glory of God; but when a soul is turned to God, every day is a sabbath, every meal is a spiritual refreshment, and every sentence he speaks, should be a sermon; and whether he stays abroad or at home, whether he is on the exchange, or locked up in a closet, he can say, O God, thou art my God'

Now, my dear friends, can you, dare you say, that your God is your glory, and do you aim at glorifying the Lord your God: if your God is your glory, then say, O God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world. What say you to that now? don't talk of God's being your glory, if you don't

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love his cross. If God is our Glory, we shall glory not only in doing, but in suffering for him; we shall glory in tribulation, and count ourselves most highly honored when we are called to suffer most for his great name sake. I might enlarge, but you may easily judge by my poor feeble voice this last week, that neither my strength of voice, or body, will permit me to be long to-night, and yet I will venture to give you your last parting salutation; and though I have been dissuaded from getting up to preach this night, yet I thought as my God was my glory, I should glory in preaching till I died. O that God may be all our glory! All our own glory fades away, there is nothing will be valuable at the great day, but this, Thou art my God, and thou art my glory. It was a glorious turn that good Mr. Shepherd of Bradford mentions in one of his sermons, where he represents Jesus Christ as coming to judgment seated upon his throne, in a sermon preached before some ministers. Christ calls one minister to him, Pray what brought you into the church? O, says he, Lord, there was a living in the family, and I was presented to it because it was a family living: stand thou by, says Christ. A second comes, What didst thou enter into the church for? O Lord, says he, I had a fine elocution, I had pretty parts, and I went into the church to shew my oratory and my parts: stand thou by thou hast thy reward. A third was called, and what brought you into the church? Lord, says he, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I am a poor creature, vile and miserable, and unworthy, and helpless, but I appeal to thee my glory, thou sittest upon the throne, that thy glory and the good of souls brought me there: Christ immediately says,