of praife, fo it is to be to the Lord God for an everlasting fign that fhall not be cut off, Ifa. lv. 13. It is like the rainbow, that is a sign to God of the promise that he hath made to all men, that he will drown the world no more, and a fign to man that he fhall not be drowned. But to us the former is a fign that God will no more be wrath with us nor rebuke us, and a fure fign to us that we never shall be drowned in deftruction and perdition. The fir and the myrtle fhall not be cut off; they never shall be cut afunder with the fword of juftice, nor be separated from the communion and fellowship of God the Father, and God the Son: they fhall ever abide in the favour of both. I think my dear fifter is a good deal relapsed into legal bondage; fhe has loft the Lord's presence with refpect to fenfible enjoyment; and now the lives too near home she creeps too much into self, and pores too much over the members and motions of the old man; and fhe has lived upon the old stock of past experiences fo long that she has nothing left but the bare remembrance of them, and the hope which paft experience hath wrought in her. Manna in the wilderness was to be gathered every day, except the fabbath; and you know that hidden manna is promised to us under the gofpel. Water from the rock followed Ifrael, and they drank of it; and we have the promise of being watered every moment, and of being kept night and day. When the land of Canaan was to reft reft on the feventh year, a bleffing was promifed on the fixth; and on the eighth year, when the new crop came in, fome of the old ftore was to be found, that the householder might mix it with the new. And every fcribe inftructed unto the kingdom of God is to be like one of thofe old householders; he is to bring forth out of his treasures things new and old. But who are these stores for? The Lord tells you: "At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved!" Song vii, 13. The paffover offering was to be offered up but once in a year, in remembrance of Ifrael's great deliverance, and to lead their faith to their great Deliverer then to come, and to a greater deliverance by him; and we know that Chrift our paffover was facrificed for us, and we are to keep the feaft. But then there was to be a lamb offered every morning and evening throughout the year, which was called the daily facrifice; and with which was to be offered a perpetual incenfe. This was to lead their faith to look daily to the Lamb of God, both for help and for life; and the fweet perfume of unctuous prayer and praife, under the influence of the fpirit of supplication, muft, as our incenfe, attend our daily looks to the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world. We are to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us. At thy first deliverance thou hadft little elfe but banqueting banqueting for a whole ycar; then came weaning time; the breaft was put up, and stronger meat was brought forth; the fincere milk of the word was left for other little ones, who are coming after, and for thofe who are unfkilful in the word of righteousness; whilft knowledge and understanding are to feed them which are of full age. Ezekiel's roll and John's little book, were both to be eaten, and they were fweet in their mouth; but, when they came into the belly, and difcovered all the innermoft parts of that, attended with the candle of the Lord, it caused much bitterness there, through the rifings of inbred corruptions against the heavenly contents. John's little book produced the wife man's twofold ingredients: "The heart knoweth its own bitternefs; and a ftranger intermeddleth not with his joy." And this hath been the experience of all that ever received the word of God in power, in the Holy Ghoft, and with much affurance. As for those who receive it into their head, and have their natural paffions moved and ftirred up under the found of it, their joys feem long to abide; they are always the fame; they have no changes of joy and bitternefs, profperity and adverfity; they are not in trouble as other men, nor plagued as the people of God are; their ftrength is firm, until God's fan, or the midnight cry, comes on them; and then all their joys wither, like grafs upon the house-top," wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth bindeth fheaves his bofom." But God's choice of his people is made manifest to them in the furnace of affliction. When temptation and perfecution began to fall heavy upon the apostles and primitive faints, when the fun waxed hot, and the fiery trial came on, the wayfide hearers, the ftony and thorny-ground hearers, those who went a warfare at their own coft, and thofe who began to build and were not able to finish; all went back and fell away. But God will bring his own elect through fire and through water: the former fhall not kindle upon them, nor fhall the latter drown them; in the furnace their election is made fure to them; "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will purify them as filver is purified, and try them as gold is tried; they fhall call upon my name, and I will hear them, and I will fay, It is my people, and they fhall fay, The Lord is my God." Here is God's acknowledgment of them; he is not afhamed to be called their God: and here is their warrantable and compulfive claim upon him. By the faith of God's elect they fhall fay, The Lord is my God. And would my dear fifter escape the furnace? Would the wish to carry all her drofs and tin with her? Would the defire a whole heart that needs no phyfician? Doth not the Lord promife to look to, and dwell with, them that are of an humble and a contrite heart, and tremble at his word? to revive the heart of the humble, and the spirit of the contrite ones? Come, Come, old girl, thou haft been compaffing the old mount, and poring over the old fretting leprofy long enough; look once more, with Jonahı, towards the holy temple. Jonah did more by looking than he did by kicking. Looking at the brazen ferpent had better effect than looking at the bite, or complaining of the pain. Manoah and his wife did nothing but look on while the angel did wonderoufly before them; and this was all that the disciples did when the great work was finished. There was none to help, there was none to uphold. The difciples followed to fee the end. Matt. xxvi. 58. And what did we do when the great work was wrought in us? We looked to him, and were faved; we looked to him, and overcame him. And we must continue at this; we must not look at the things which are feen, for they difcourage us, but at the things which are not feen. We must look at the eternal things that Chrift is in full poffeffion of for us; yea, we must run the race fet before us, looking to great poffeffor, the author and finisher of our faith. the If accused by Satan, law, or confcience, where can we look but to the advocate? If exercised with God's chaftening rod, or the reflections of fatherly anger, there is no where to look but to the great Mediator. If iniquities prevail against us, there is no hope but in the fountain opened by Chrift, and in the fulness of grace treasured up in |