by which they are performed. Some build hospitals, make noble endowments, give large donations, and do many other great and wonderful works; all which are not to be spoken against in themselves, because they are of use to the world and especially to the poor: But it is possible to do all these, without a heart for God, without considering his glory, without faith in his mercy, or love of mercy to man, and without being in the least degree nearer to him or his holiness. A widow with two poor mites and a hand and a heart of faith, will be found to have done more than all these, in the sight of him who judgeth righteously.

If our heart be given to God, we shall not be barren or unfruitful indeed; but our fruit will not be for carnal vanity, but unto true holiness. Christ in us the hope of glory, is a principle of such power, that it turns a man (as it were) out of himself, delivers him from his own selfish whims and intentions, releases him from a multitude of slavish fears and concerns, and causes him ardently to desire and delight in those things alone, which may exercise a gracious gratitude in showing forth the praises of his kind Redeemer.

CHAPTER XLI.

ON LIBERTY OF SOUL.

THE real liberty of the soul consists in a happy freedom from the absolute dominion of sin and Satan. The christian therefore denies himself, because of sin in his mortal body; he shuns the spirit of the world, because by its sinfulness its promotes his inbred corruptions; he prays and watches against the evil one, because he is the grand tempter and stirrer of all iniquity both in himself and others.

The more this frame is maintained, the more will the heart enjoy the glorious liberty of the children of God. This is a holy and righteous freedom, which the christian pants after continually, and which is most sweetly experienced, when the soul is most abstracted from the low solicitudes and dull satisfactions of sense and time. The Father of mercies is the cause, the Son of his love is the means, and the Spirit of grace is the power, of all the spiritual freedom in earth and heaven, and of all the transporting blessedness resulting from it.

The world and the flesh are a dead weight upon the mind in its possession and exercise of this delightful liberty; and, therefore, in the mind's struggles to gain and secure it, the world and the flesh must be brought down and kept down, having, like the devil's jailers, nothing about them, but miserable chains and fetters, wherewith to blind and imprison the soul.

CHAPTER XLII.

UPON SICKNESS.

If we were

ALL sickness and sorrow arise from sin. not unholy creatures, we could not be unhappy creatures. Because of the ill habit, occasioned by transgression, every element fights against our health by changes and inclemencies; and the very food we eat, while it nourishes for a time, lays the foundation of disease in our bodies, already prepared by their own weakness and ill temperament to receive and increase it.

Sickness is a dismal scourge to the ungodly, and a painful spur to the gracious. To the one, it is the harbinger of terror and misery; but, to the other, a solemn remembrancer indeed, both of the vanity of all earthly things, and of the nearer and nearer approach of immortal glory.

When sickness comes, and grace can meet it ; 0 what a just representation do they make to the soul concerning the poor honors, riches, cares and pleasures, of this transitory world! How unimportant do all the struggles for power, splendor, titles, wealth, and pre-eminence, which have employed or enraged the past and present ages, appear! How childish and mean these objects pass before us, for which men have lavished their time, and thrown away their souls! What bubbles, what nonsense, what glaring and horrid stupidity, have filled and directed, have engaged and overwhelmed; the counsels of the world; and all to no other profit than a little fleeting vanity with a rapid descent to lasting oblivion or ruin! Thus the soul feels, when it is quickened by sickness to consider, the low and passing affairs of earth and time.

On the contrary, how inexpressibly great and tremendous do the things of God and eternity rise in full view to the mind! O the worth of worlds, what are they, in some of these soul searching moments! How is the mind astonished with the grandeur of God, and with the deep and wide importance of all that belongs to him! Rapt in the solemn contemplation of unutterable glories, how doth the mind tremblingly examine and carefully inquire into the truth and extent of its interest in them! And if grace seal an answer of peace upon the heart, how doth it flutter with gladness at its safety, and how will the whole frame be agitated with a new delight, in the sure prospect of an eternal concern in these valuable, these only valuable things.

The Christian will be wakingly alive to all this and more, if his disorder be such, as can admit of reflection. Blessed be God, however, whether he can thus reflect or not; yet, being a Christian, his state is equally safe with God through his gracious Redeemer. Whatever be the frame, the promise is sure, the covenant of God is ordered in all things and sure, and sure and faithful

is God himself to perform it. It is comfortable, and indeed desirable, to have pleasant foretastes and feelings of grace and glory, under the pain of decay of the body; but they are no otherwise material to the true believer's security for heaven. If he hath not these perceptions during the short time of his sickness, he will have them abundantly after it, if it ends in his dissolution; or if it do not thus end, the want of them is a loud admonition to make his calling and election sure, in the days that may yet be appointed him.

If we cannot think of Christ, through the power of disease, O what a happiness is it to be assured, that Christ thinks constantly and effectually of us! He makes all our bed in our sickness; that is, he turns the whole frame of our condition in it for our best advantage.

O Lord, leave me not, poor and helpless sinner that I am, in my most healthful state; leave me not especially, I beseech thee, in the low, the languid, the distressing circumstances of infirmity and disease! Jesus, Master, thou art said to have borne our sicknesses because thou barest the sins which occasioned them; take, take away from my conscience the guilt which brought disease, and then the worst part of its misery shall be done away too. And when, through my feebleness or disorder, I cannot act faith upon thy love; O catch my drooping spirit, carry me as one of thine own lambs in thy bosom, enfold me in thy gracious arms, and let my soul wholly commit itself and give up its all in quiet resignation to thee! If thou raise me from my sickness, grant that it may be for the setting forth of thy glory among men: If thou take me by sickness from this world, thou hope and Life of my soul, receive me to thyself for my everlasting happiness, and to be another monument of sovereign grace before the great assembly of saints and angels in thy kingdom of heaven!

CHAPTER XLIII.

UPON DEATH.

It is an awful and a solemn thing to die; and I am sometimes amazed at myself, that, seeing it is not only awful but sure, I can be so void of reflection or recollection, as I frequently am concerning it.

Some talk bravely about death, and of encountering it with great natural courage, or upon high philosophical principles. These may indeed defy or meet the sting; but they can neither soften nor take it away. For a sinner to bully death with no spiritual life in his soul, and no everlasting life in reversion, is the act of a raving madman, who laughs at a horrible precipice before him, and rushes down headlong to destruction.

O eternity! eternity! It is fearful indeed to burst the bands of life and to break forth into the boundless and unalterable regions of eternity! Nature, in its senses, cannot bear the shocking reflection, which death affords, either of being an everlasting nothing as atheists talk, or of enduring everlasting misery as sin deIt is grace only, which can inspire the heart with a hope full of joy and immortality, that, when this brittle transitory life is past, the soul shall possess a being, happy and long as the days of heaven.

serves.

Through Jesus Christ alone is death disarmed. When the Savior speaks peace and salvation through his cross and righteousness, this last great enemy is no more the king of terrors. He gives up his fearful sting, and destroys nothing about the Christian, but sin and the means of sin.

O how sweet is the smile of that Christian, who, dying in the body, feels himself just upon living for ever! "He is not sick unto death, but unto life" indeed. He quits his cares, his sorrows, his infirmities, and all