VO L. angels believe and tremble, believe, and are full

BUT, do you believe, and blefs GOD? Believe him actually reconciled, if you find your hearts do yield to him. Believe him willing to be at peace. Believe him when he testifies, that whofoever cometh to him fhall in no wife be caft out ". Believe him faying, Though thou haft forgotten "me, and haft fet up thy felf to be thine own "idol, and hast been perpetually affronting me; 66 yet do thou but accept my Son, and of par"don in and through him, and I will make thee "my friend, my affociate and my fon." Do but believe this, and try if it be in your power not to love him. This faith will certainly work by love. But take heed of believing what GoD hath never faid; and what the destroyer of fouls would make you believe he hath faid. For whatfoever thoughts tend to the making him unlovely, or not amiable in your eyes, have them far from you. And

6. MAKE him your own by an intire, and chearful choice, and acceptance of him for your Lord and your GOD. How mightily doth relation, intereft, and property command love! You cannot fee him it is true, but you may you may chufe and apprehend him for your GOD; which relation, once understood, will happily fupply the want of feeing him. Surely you would love your own child, your own father, your own husband, or wife, though you were born blind and could

" John vi. 18.

never

never see them.

X.

How many are apt to fay, when SER M. they obferve any thing lovely, in fuch or fuch a relation in another family; for inftance, a dutiful, ingenious child, "Oh had I fuch a one, how, "fhould I love him!" Why, you have an amiable defcription of your Go D; and do not your hearts fay within you, "If he were my GoD, how “fhould I love him?" And why is he not your GOD? he offers himself to be yours, and has put no harder terms upon you, than that you receive him for your Go D. Comply then with his righteous law, Thou shalt have no other GOD but me". Say therefore, "Thou shalt be my Go D wholly "and alone." As every covenant is made up by a mutual ftipulation, fo his willingness and yours make the bargain. He hath declared his own willingness, do you but make out yours, and the matter is effected, fo as that none can tear you afunder.

How

AND how pleasant a thing is it to have such a GOD your own to glory in, and to walk in his name! To be able to say, "GOD, even my "GOD fhall blefs me! I need no other." high matter of triumph was this to the Pfalmift! Let it be told to the generations following, This GOD is our GOD for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death. As if he had faid, We are willing that this should be known, in the prefent, and fucceeding ages. Let it be tranfmitted to pofterity. Let there be a perpetual everlasting monument of this, that we have had the Lord

y Exod. xx. 3.

Pf. XLVIII. 13, 14.

for

t

I.

VOL. for our GOD. Thus a certain noble person would have an infcription put upon his tomb, without any further enlargement, to this effect, That he had been a fervant to queen Elizabeth, counsellor to king James, and friend to fir Philip Sydney. By this it appears that he would have all ages know whofe fervant, counsellor, and friend he had been. In like manner fhould every good and pious foul declare to the prefent, and all future ages, that THE LORD IS HIS GOD.

7. LET your fouls be filled with this apprehenfion, that GOD is always and every where prefent. How sweetly moving are those thoughts of God's omniprefence in the cxxxix Pfalm? They were so to the Pfalmift, and they are so to all the faints. Whither fall I go from thy fpirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy prefence? If I afcend up into heaven, thou art there, if I make my bed in bell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the fea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand fall bold me. If I fay, furely the darkness fhall cover me; even the night fhall be light about me. bideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the

Yea, the darkness

day;

*The noble perfonage here alluded to is Fulke Grevill, Lord Brooke; whofe funeral monument is yet remaining in St. Mary's Church in Warwick, and has on it this infcription.

FVLKE GREVILL

SERVANT TO QUEENE ELIZABETH
CONCELLER TO KING IAMES

AND FREND TO SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

day; the darkness, and the light, are both alike to SERM. thee. And when the royal Pfalmift confidered, X. how GoD infinuated himself into every bone of his flesh, and particle of his frame, faying, Thou haft possessed my reins, thou haft covered me in my mother's womb; he breaks out at laft into these words, How precious alfo are thy thoughts unto me, O GOD! how great is the fum of them!

LET us then but habituate our felves to the apprehenfion of an every where present Deity, conceiving all things filled with the divine fullness, and this will supply the defect, or the want of feeing GOD. Let every creature, every place, every providence, put us in mind of GOD. Thus begins, and ends the vIII pfalm, the defign of which is to contemplate GOD in these things, regarding them all as the works of his hands; How excellent is thy name, O GOD, in all the earth, who haft fet thy glory above the beavens! And what an extafy do we find Mofes in, while he is celebrating a particular providence! Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praifes, doing wonders? If then we did but labour to make this thought familiar to our felves, that whitherfoever we go, or wherever we are, we have a GOD to behold, that there are footfteps of Gon, every where, for us to take notice of, or impreffions, and prints of his glory; this would habituate us to his converfe, and make

the

y Pf. cxxxix. 7-18.

Pf. vIII. 1,9.

a Exod.

XV. II.

I.

VOL. the motions and exercises of love eafy, and famí liar to us. This effect it had on the Pfalmift in the civ pfalm, who, after a glorious description of GOD, thus clofeth it up; My meditation of bim fhall be fweet, I will be glad in the Lord. He had been viewing GoD, as he was to be feen in the works of his hands; and his fpirit was now drenched deeply in the thoughts of GOD's active power and providence, every where diffused in the world.

WE, in like manner, fhould always have fuch thoughts injected into us, if we would but confider with our felves, that wherever we are, ftill we live, and move, and have our being in Go D. The whole earth is full of his glory. By him all things confift. We can fet a foot no where but still we tread upon his ground, and are in his dominion. We cannot live, but by a vital influence derived from him. How much would this contribute to the facilitating the exercises of love! By converfe love infinuates it felf into perfons, they are captivated before they are a ware. And there is no man of fo morofe, four, churlish a nature, but will have a fort of kindnefs for fuch, whom he converseth frequently with. Affiduous converfe wins hearts. How much more, when we have fuch an amiable object, fhould we affociate with him! It will then enfue of course, that we fhall be taken with him, and drawn by the cords of love into the happy bonds. 8. AND

Pf. civ. 34.