yours;' for this right is mutual. How else should all things be ours, if God were not ours; without whom all is nothing? And how should God the Father be ours, without that Son of his love, who hath said, 'All things that the Father hath are mine.' 'Thou, O Father, art in me, and I in thee.' 'No man cometh to the Father but by me.'' If then Christ be mine, all is mine; and if I have so oft received him, and so often renewed my union with him, how is he but mine? O Saviour, let me feel myself thoroughly possest of thee, whether the world slide or sink, I am happy.

LVII.

God will not vouchsafe to allow so much honour to wicked instruments, as to make them the means of removing public evils. The magicians of Egypt could have power to bring some plagues upon the land, but had not the power to take them away. Certainly there needed a greater power to give a being to the frogs, than to call them off; yet this latter they cannot do, who prevailed in the first. Moses and Aaron must be called, to fetch off that judgment which the sorcerers have brought upon themselves. Neither is it otherwise still: wicked men can draw down those plagues upon a nation which only the faithful must remove: the sins of the one make work for the others' intercession. Do we, therefore, smart and groan under heavy calamities? We know to whom we are beholden: Thus saith the Lord to this people, Thus have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet; therefore he will now remember their iniquity, and visit

A John, xvi. 15; xvii. 21; xiv. 6.

1

their sins. When they fast I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offerings and an oblation, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine, and by the pestilence.' Do we desire to be freed from the present evils, and to escape an utter desolation? They are Moses and Aaron, that must do it. He said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.'* When our quarrel is with heaven, it is not our force or our policy that can save us. Every faithful man is a favourite of the King of Glory; and can do more than command legions. Then is a people in some good way towards safety, when they have learned to know their friends. While we have good men's prayers to grapple with wicked men's sins, there may be hopes of recovery.

LVIII.

The aiming at a good end can be no just excuse for an unlawful act or disposition; but, if contentment did consist in having much, it were a sore temptation to a man to be covetous, since that contentation is the thing wherein the heart of man is wont to place its chief felicity; neither indeed can there be any possible happiness without it. But the truth is, abundance is no whit guilty, so much as of ease, much less, of a full joy: how many have we known, that have spent more pleased and happy hours under a house of sticks, and walls of mud, and roof of straw, than great potentates have done under marbles and cedar! And how many, 2 Psalm, cvi. 23.

1 Jer. xiv. 10. 12.

both wise heathen and mortified Christians, have rid their hands of their cumbersome store that they might be capable of being happy! Other creatures do naturally neglect that, which abused reason bids us dote upon. If we had no better powers than beasts or fowls, we should not at all care for this either white or red earth; and, if our graces were as great as the least of saints, we should look carelessly upon the preciousest and largest treasures that the earth can afford. Now, our debauched reason, instead of stirring us up to emulate the best creatures, draws us down below the basest of them; moving us to place our happiness in those things, which have neither life nor true worth; much less can give that which they have not. It is not for the generous souls of Christians to look so low as to place their contentment in any thing, whether within the bowels, or upon the face of this earth; but to raise their thoughts up to the glorious region of their original and rest, looking, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

LIX.

The holy Psalmist knew well what he said, when he called the thunder in the clouds, The voice of the Lord; a voice, powerful and full of majesty.'' The very heathens made this the most awful act of their Jupiter; which the Spirit of God expresses in a more divine language: The God of glory thundereth.' Upon this dreadful sound it is, that the Psalmist calls to the mighty ones,' to 'give unto

6

12 Cor. iv. 18.

2 Psalm, xxix. 4.

3 Ib. ver. 3.

the Lord glory and strength,' to give unto the Lord the glory due to his name;' as it were advising the great commanders of the world, when they hear it thunder, to fall down on their knees, and to lift up their hands and eyes to that great God that speaks to them from heaven. No man needs to bid the stoutest heart to fear, when this terrible sound strikes through his ear, which is able to drive even Neros and Caligulas into benchholes; but this mighty voice calls for an improvement of our fear, to the glory of that Almighty power whence it proceeds. Perhaps the presumption of man will be finding out the natural causes of this fearful uproar in the clouds; but the working by means derogates nothing from the God of nature. Neither yet are all thunders natural: that whirlwind and thunder, wherein God spake to Job3— that thunder and lightning, wherein God spake to Moses and Israel in Mount Sinai'-that thunder and rain, wherewith God answered the prayer of Samuel in wheat-harvest, for Israel's conviction in the unseasonable suit for their king—that thundering voice from heaven, that answered the prayer of the Son of God, for the glorifying of his name – the seven thunders, that uttered their voices to the beloved disciple in Patmos,7-had nothing of ordi

1 Psalm, xxix. ver. 1, 2.

2 This is a remark especially worthy to be remembered in an age like the present, when the wide diffusion of a superficial acquaintance with natural science is making practical atheists of so many; who in the discovery of the laws of nature, willingly forget the Lawgiver. For a reflecting mind, however, second causes are rather guides and steps to the First Cause, than obstacles to perceiving Him.-ED.

3 Job, xl. 9; xxxviii. 1.

1 Sam. xli. 17, 18.

7 Rev. x. 3, 4.

4 Exod. xix.

6 John, xii. 28, 29.

nary nature in them. And how many have we heard and read of, that for slighting of this great work of God, have at once heard his voice and felt his stroke! Shortly, if any heart can be unmoved at this mighty voice of God, it is stiffer than the rocks in the wilderness: for, 'The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.' For me, I tremble at the power, while I adore the mercy, of that great God that speaks so loud to me. It is my comfort, that He is my Father, who approves himself thus omnipotent; his love is no less infinite than his power: let the terror be to them that know him angry; let my confidence overcome my fear: It is the Lord; let him do what he will.' All is not right with me, till I have attained to tremble at him while he shineth, and to rejoice in him while he thundereth,

LX.

2

We talk of mighty warriors that have done great exploits in conquering kingdoms; but the Spirit of God tells us of a greater conquest than all theirs: 'Whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world and this is the victory, that overcometh the world, even our faith." Alas! the conquest of those great commanders was but poor and partialof some small spots of the earth: the conquest of a regenerate Christian is universal-of the whole world. Those other conquerors, while they prevailed abroad, were yet overcome at home; and, while they were the lords of nations, were no other 2 1 John, v. 4.

1 Psalm, xxix. 8.