our spirits from our comforts! What sirs, heavenly mercies and carnal hearts, flat duties, earthly conversations! O shame yourselves before the Lord, blush, tremble to think of your unconformableness to covenant mercies! How far are you below these enjoyments! Doth not your unanswerable walking give just ground of suspicion, whether you have interest in these things or not? What sirs, are you saints and yet earth-worms? are you partakers of a heavenly calling, and yet walk so like the men of the world? Is it fit to see eagles on a dirty dunghill, or heaven-born souls in scenes of pollution? Either be better or quit your claim; you dishonour God, and discredit religion more than others. Alas friends, God will not be beholden to you for the mere title of being religious, he will not regard you unless you be really such. Mercies infer duty, and licentiousness is inconsistent with the nature and end of covenant mercies. You grieve God's spirit, cross his designs, wrong your own souls, sadden the hearts of the righteous, and open the mouths of wicked men. You little know what hurt you do by one visible act of sinning. Consider, that as the privileges of the covenant bespeak holiness, so the conditions of the covenant include holiness, and how then come heirs of promise to be so unlike their heavenly Father? what are the children of light doing when tampering with works of darkness?

[ii.] God's children sometimes walk very unsteadily, that is, they are off and on, inconstant, have good moods and emotions, but they wear off, and decay, they quickly lose their lively impressions, and are constant in inconstancy; they are zealous and forward for God

* Qui bonus est et justus, et mundus et immaculatus, neque malum aliquid neque injustum neque abominandum in suo sponsali thalamo sustinebit.-Iran. adv. Hær. lib. 4.

one while, at other times they are backward and indifferent. Ah sirs, is this a living up to these sure mercies of David, these constant, unchangeable, invariable mercies? This covenant is ordered in all things and sure, and so are the mercies of it. How comes it to pass then that covenanters are so often discomposed, disordered and unsettled? Sometimes they are for God, and sometimes not; they are halting betwixt two opinions; like drunken men, they are leaning sometimes to the right hand, at other times to the left; like Reuben," they are unstable as water," and so shall not excel; like Ephraim, † a cake half-baked, hot and hard on one side, cold and doughy on the other; or resembling the same Ephraim's goodness, like a morning cloud, or early dew that tarries not long, but is quickly scattered by the violent storms of persecutions, or dried up by the warm beams of prosperity. These unstable Christians are like James's waves of the sea-like Jude's || wandering stars or flying clouds carried about of winds—or like Paul's § children, tossed to and fro; they are like locusts that move to and again-like grasshoppers that are still up and down in variable motions; the hearts of such are as a cart wheel, saith one, and their thoughts as a rolling axle-tree. I know, the best of God's children are incident to liftings up and castings down in point of feelings and enlargements, and this may be the effect of God's affording or suspending the influences of his grace; but I speak this of a Christian's remissness, and his inconstancy through neglect and carelessness, and want of stirring up in his soul the graces of God's Spirit, and so losing the liveliness which he feels sometimes; and again he may be warmed and melted, but afterwards returns + Hos. vii. 8, and vi. 4. § Eph. iv. 14.

* Gen. xlix. 4.

James i. 6.

|| Jude 12, 13.

unto folly. This is often such a Christian's round, and how unsuitable is this for sincere believers? These stars are to be fixed in the firmament of the church, and are not to be wandering stars or meteors; these trees of the Lord's planting should be strongly rooted, and not like reeds tossed with every wind; they should be pillars in the house of God, and not feathers or weathercocks upon house tops; these living stones should not be round and rolling, but square and fixed, still settled upon the foundation.* If the testimony of Christ be confirmed in us, † we should hold fast our confidence firm unto the end, and pray hard for a more constant spirit, as David did, Psalm li. 10, that we may be like Jachin and Boaz, stability and strength; for if we be stable, we shall be strong, and so answerable to these sure mercies of David.

[iii.] It is a sad thing to see the heirs of this covenant walk uncomfortably. What, are you partakers and possessors of mercies, and yet sad? have you interest in sweet and sure mercies, and yet are you dejected? what will lift you up, if mercy will not? 'and what can interrupt your peace, when mercy waits on you to cheer your hearts? thou mayest lose estate, health, good name, relations, liberty; yea, thy life is in continual hazard, but as long as these mercies of the covenant are sure, thou hast no reason to complain. An ancient writer compares a Christian that is disconsolate for outward losses or crosses, to a man that hath a fine orchard, the trees whereof are richly laden with store of precious fruit, and because the wind blows off some leaves, the man sits down and takes on heavily; he weeps and mourns and cries out he is undone; why, what is the matter? why, the wind hath taken off some leaves, but the roots, and trees, and fruits are safe: Non vacillantes, sed tetragonoi. +1 Cor. i. 6.

should we not judge that a fond and foolish man? Just thus it is with the Christian; God and Christ, promises and gospel mercies are sure and steadfast by an inviolable gospel covenant. Yet the sinful, silly creature lies whining and complaining for the loss of some leaves of worldly comforts, which he may live well without. Ah, saith the poor soul, but these outward things are not the chief cause of my trouble and discouragement; did I know that those mercies were made sure to me, I should be comfortable-but, alas, I fear I have no share therein. I shall answer this doubt afterwards, at present I only say, lay thy hand upon thy heart, and deal ingenuously. Is this the ground of thy trouble? is not this only pretended? is not something else the real cause? the heart is deceitful; look again, see what comforted thee before this outward trouble came, and what cheers thee when thy present pressure is removed? But suppose it be jealousies about thy interest; yet, why shouldest thou be uncomfortable? hast not thou ventured thy soul on a sure foundation? what reason hast thou for discouragement? a faith of adherence brings some settlement as well as a faith of evidence. Every act of faith brings some comfort; "whom having not seen," (saith the apostle, with reference to a corporeal sight, so may I say of a kind of spiritual sense and assurance) "ye love; in whom though now you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," 1 Pet. i. 8. Recumbency hath a kind of complacency; it argues want of faith to want joy, and unbelief is an aggravated sin, considering the assurances given us in the gospel; but more of this hereafter. But O consider, sirs, what wrong you do to yourselves by uncomfortable walking? you weaken and exhaust your strength and spirits. What discredit you bring upon

the ways of God, rendering them gloomy and forbidding in the account of others! What opposition it expresseth both to many positive precepts, and to these sure mercies of David! Methinks I hear the God of heaven thus bespeaking the gracious, troubled heart: soul, what ails thee? what is it thou wouldest have? I have given thee many glorious gifts; pardon, reconciliation, adoption, ordinances, the benefit of all my works of providence, a title to the good things of earth whilst thou livest, and a free admission into heaven when thou diest; nay, I have given thee myself, my Son, my Spirit, and that by the surest marriage covenant-and will not all this revive thy fainting spirit? what wouldest thou have more? and what canst thou desire in order to make it surer to thee? speak but the word and it shall be done. Have I not gone beyond thy expectation? and why then art thou thus drooping and disconsolate? is thy heart revived when mortal, deceitful man makes thee a promise of some outward good? and canst thou now faint, when the eternal God hath taken all this pains to assure thy troubled heart of thy interest in these sure mercies of David? O Christians, shame yourselves for your uncomfortableness! Are the consolations of God small unto you? Thank yourselves for your discouragements, and let it be matter of trouble that you have so many needless, useless troubles in your souls.

[iv.] Another fault in the heirs of the promises, whereby they are not conformable to these mercies, is unfruitfulness; herein, they do not live up to these mercies, and are exceeding defective and imperfect, especially in two respects—the fruit they bring forth is both small and sour.

1. It is usually, but small in quantity, short of that abundance and ripeness that should come off so good a