duty, and that will beget holy courage in times of danger.

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"Who will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?" 1 Pet. iii. 13. Or, if any dare attempt it, you may boldly commit yourselves to God in welldoing," 1 Pet. iv. 19. It was this consideration that raised Luther's spirit above all fear. "In the cause of God," said he, "I ever am, and ever shall be stout; herein I assume this title, ' Cedo nulli,' I yield to none; a good cause will bear up a man's spirit bravely." Hear the saying of a heathen, to the shame of cowardly Christians. When the emperor Vespasian had commanded Fluidius Priscus not to come to the senate, or if he did, to speak nothing but what he would have him, the senator returned this noble answer, that as he was a senator, it was fit he should be at the senate; and if being there he were required to give his advice, he would speak freely that which his conscience commanded him. The emperor then threatening him that he should die, he answered, "Did I ever tell you that I was immortal? Do you what you will, and I will do what I ought; it is in your power to put me to death unjustly, and in mine to die constantly." Righteousness is a breast-plate. The cause of God will pay all your expenses. Let them tremble whom danger finds out of the way of duty.

9. Get your consciences sprinkled with the blood of Christ from all guilt, and that will set your hearts above all fear.

It is guilt upon the conscience that softens and appals our spirits. "The righteous are bold as a lion," Prov. xxviii. 1. It was guilt in Cain's conscience that made him cry, "Every one that findeth me shall slay me," Gen. iv. 14. A guilty conscience is more terrified with imaginary dangers, than a pure conscience is with real ones. A guilty sinner carries a witness against himself in his own bosom. It was guilty Herod who cried out, "John the Baptist is risen from the dead." Such a conscience is the devil's anvil, on which he fabricates all those swords and spears, with which the guilty sinner pierces and wounds himself. Guilt is to danger what fire

is to gunpowder; a man need not fear to walk among many barrels of powder, if he have no fire about him. 10. Exercise holy trust in times of great distress.

Make it your business to trust God with your lives and comforts, and then your hearts will be at rest about them. So did David, Psal. lvii, 3; "At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee;" that is, Lord, if at any time a storm rise, I will shelter me from it under the covert of thy wings. Go to God by acts of faith and trust, and never doubt but he will secure you. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee," Isa. lxii. 3. God takes it well when thou comest to him thus; "Father, my life, my liberty, or estate, are hunted after, and I cannot secure them. O let me leave them in thy hand. The poor leaveth himself with thee;" and does his God fail him? No, "thou art the helper of the fatherless," Psal. x. 14; that is, thou art the helper of the destitute one, that has none to go to but God. And that is a sweet scripture, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," Psal. cxii. 7. He does not say, His ear shall be privileged from the report of evil tidings; he may hear as sad tidings as other men, but his heart shall be privileged from the terror of those tidings; "his heart is fixed."

11. Consult the honor of religion more, and your personal safety less.

Is it for the honor of religion, think you, that Christians should be as timorous as hares, starting at every sound? Will not this tempt the world to think, that, whatever you say, your principles are no better than other men's? O what mischief may the discoveries of your fears before them do! It was a noble saying of Nehemiah, "Should such a man as I flee? And who, being as I am, would flee?" Were it not better you should die, than that the world should be prejudiced against Christ by your example? For, alas! how apt is the world, who judge more by what they see in your practices than by what they understand of "your principles, to conclude from your timorousness, that how much soever you commend faith and talk of assurance, yet you dare trust to

those things no more than they when it comes to the trial! O let not your fears lay such a stumbling-block before the blind world.

12. He who will secure his heart from fear, must first secure the eternal interest of his soul in the hands of Jesus Christ.

When this is done, then you may say, Now world do thy worst. You will not be very solicitous about a vile body, when you are once assured it shall be well to all eternity with your precious souls. "Fear not them," says Christ," that can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." The assured Christian may smile with contempt on all his enemies, and say, Is this the worst that you can do? What say you, Christians? Are you assured that your souls are safe? that within a few moments of your dissolution they shall be received by Christ into an everlasting habitation? Well, if you be sure of that, never trouble yourselves about the instruments and means of your dissolution.

"O, but a violent death," you may say "is terrible to nature!" But what matter is it, when thy soul is in heaven, whether it were let out at thy mouth or at thy throat? whether thy familiar friends, or barbarous enemies, stand about thy dead body, and close thine eyes? Alas! it is not worth the making so much to do about. Thy soul shall not be sensible in heaven how thy body is used on earth; no, it shall be swallowed up in life.

13. Learn to quench all slavish creature-fears, in the reverential fear of God.

This is a cure by diversion. It is a rare piece of Christian wisdom to turn those passions of the soul which most predominate into spiritual channels; to turn natural anger into spiritual zeal, natural mirth into holy cheerfulness, and natural fear into a holy dread and awe of God. This method of cure Christ prescribes in that forementioned place, Mat. x; like to that which is in Isa. viii. 12, 13. "Fear not their fear;" but how shall we help it? Why, "sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear and your dread." Natural fear may be allayed for the present by natural reason or the removal of the occasion, but then it is but like a candle

blown out with a puff of breath, which is easily blown in again; but if the fear of God extinguish it, then it is like a candle quenched in water, which cannot easily be rekindled.

14. Pour out those fears to God in prayer, which the devil and your own unbelief pour in upon you in times of danger.

Prayer is the best out-let to fear. Where is the Christian who cannot set his seal to this direction? I will give you the greatest example in the world to encourage you in the use of it, even the example of Jesus Christ. When the hour of his danger and death drew nigh, he goes into the garden, separates himself from the disciples, and there wrestles mightily with God in prayer, even unto an agony: in reference to which the apostle says, Heb. v. 7, "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong cries and tears, to him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;" he was heard as to strength and support to carry him through it, though not as to deliverance or exemption from it.

O that these things may abide with you, and be reduced to practice in these evil days; that many trembling souls may be established by them.

SECTION V.-A Season of Want.

The fifth season to excite this diligence in keeping the heart, is a time of straits and outward pinching wants. Although at such times we should complain to God, and not of God, the throne of grace being erected for a time of need, yet when the waters of relief run low, and want begins to pinch hard, how prone are the best hearts to distrust the fountain! When the meal in the barrel, and the oil in the cruise are almost spent, our faith and patience are almost spent too. Now it is difficult to keep down the proud and unbelieving heart in a holy quietude and sweet submission at the foot of God. It is an easy thing to talk of trusting God for daily bread, while we have a full barn or purse: but to say as the prophet,

Hab. iii. 17, "Though the fig-tree should not blossom, neither fruit be in the vine, yet will I rejoice in the Lord:" surely this is not easy.

The fifth case therefore shall be this-How a Christian may keep his heart from distrusting God, or repining against him, when outward wants are either felt or feared.

This case deserves to be seriously pondered, and especially now, since it seems to be the design of Providence to empty the people of God of their creature-fulness, and acquaint them with those straits which hitherto they have been altogether strangers to.

Now to secure the heart from the fore-mentioned dangers attending this condition, these following considerations, through the blessing of the Spirit, may prove effectual.

1. The first is this-that if God reduce you to straits and necessities, yet he deals no otherwise therein with you, than he has done with some of the choicest and holiest men who ever lived.

Your condition is not singular. Though you have hitherto been strangers to wants, other saints have daily conversed and been familiarly acquainted with them. Hear what blessed Paul speaks, not of himself only, but in the name of other saints reduced to like exigencies; "Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place," 1 Cor. iv. 11. To see such a man as Paul going up and down the world with a naked back and empty stomach, and not a house to put his head in; one who was so far above thee in grace and holiness; one who did more service for God in a day, than perhaps thou hast done in all thy days; and yet thou repinest as if hardly dealt with! Have you forgot what necessities and straits even a David has suffered? How great were his straits and necessities? "Give, I pray thee," said he to Nabal, "whatsoever cometh to thy hand, to thy servants and to thy son David," 1 Sam. xxv. 8. Renowned Musculus was forced to dig in the town ditch for a maintenance. Famous Ains

worth, as I have been credibly informed, was forced to sell the bed he lay on to buy bread. But why speak I of these? Behold a greater than any of them, even the