have tried both forts of pleafures, which you never did: They have tried the pleasures of fin, and they have tafted the pleasures of Chrift, and fo are beft able to make a true judgment upon both; and they have accordingly determined, "That one glimpfe "of the light of God's countenance, puts more gladness into their "hearts, than in the time that their corn and their wine in"creafed," Pfal. iv. 7. Nay, the wifeft Chriftians, upon trial of both, have rightly determined, That the worst things in `religion are infinitely to be preferred to the best things belonging to fin; the very fufferings and afflictions of the people of God, have been pronounced better than the pleasures of fin for a feafon, Heb. xi. 25, Could you but fee with their eyes, and were you but capable of making a right judgment as they did, there needed not a word more to be faid to perfuade you to let go your most pleasant, and profitable lusts, in exchange for Chrift and his beneficial, comfortable fufferings.

Secondly, The point affords variety of counfels and exhortations to the regenerate, who have opened their wills to Chrift, and are thereupon admitted into this comfortable ftate.

It is found, in experience, a difficult thing for a foul, after converfion, to bear and duly manage their own comforts, as it was to bear and rightly manage their troubles at converfion. My business here is to advife fouls, under their first comforts and feelings of the Spirit, how to manage and improve their spiritual comforts, that they may abide with them, and be growing things continually in their fouls.

Advice 1. And first, See that you humbly admire and adore the condefcending goodness of God to you, in all the comforts of the Spirit which refresh you.

that ever God fhould comfort fuch a foul as thine, that hath fo often grieved him! That Chrift should be a joy to thee, who hast been a sorrow to him! If you look into Eph. i. 3. you will find the spirit of the apostle there filled with the fenfe and admiration of this mercy, which breaks forth into this rapturous expreffion, Bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who "hath bleffed us with all fpiritual bleflings in heavenly places for things in Chrift)." Some there are that never enjoy an ordinary degree of earthly comforts, Job xxx. 3, 4, 5. others enjoy abundance of earthly comforts, but no fpiritual comforts, Pfal. xvii. 14 Some there are for whom God intends everlafting confolations in the world to come; but they are kept low, as to fpiritual comforts in this world, Pfal. lxxxviii. 15. O, what caufe have you to admire the bounty of God to you, for whom there is not only fulness of joys prepared in heaven, but fuch precious fortaftes and earnefts of it communicated in the way thither.

Advice 2. Cleave fast to Chrift and thofe freet and comfortable du

ties of religion, wherein you have found, and tafted the best comforts that ever your fouls were acquainted with.

This is one thing God aims at in the communication of these fpiritual refreshments, to glue your fouls faft by them to the ways of holinefs. The Lord knows temptations will befal you, difcouragements enough you fhall be fure to meet with; but these enjoyments of God, which you have met with in prayer and hearing, in meditation, facraments, &c. thould engage your hearts for ever to the ways of obedience. You never found that sweetness in the ways of fin, which you have found in repentance, and faith. When a temptation comes baited with finful pleafures, fay as the olive tree and the vine, in Jotham's parable, Judges ix. 9, 10, 11. Shall I leave fuch foul-refrething comforts as thefe, for the infipid pleasures of fin? God forbid.

Advice 3. Be communicative of the fpiritual comforts you enjoy, for the benefit and refreshment of others.

The Lord never intended you fhould engross the comforts of his Spirit to yourlelves, nor eat your pleasant morfels alone. 2 Cor. 4. "He comforts us, that we may be able to comfort them that "are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are "comforted of God." It is true, religion lays not all open, nor yet doth it conceal, and hide all. There needs a great deal of wisdom, humility, and caution, to fecure us from pride, and vanity in fpirit, whilft we communicate our comforts to others: As gftentation, fo alfo impropriation of our comforts, are against scripturelaw; he may be juttly fufpected that opens all, and fo may he too that conceals all. Spiritual comforts are not diminished, but improved by a wife, and humble communication.

Advice 4. Be much in renewing the acts, and exercises of faith; be frequent in that work.

Your first faith hath brought in your firit comfort; your renewing, and repeating thofe precious acts of faith, will bring you in greater ftores of comfort, than you yet enjoy. We are not to look upon faith as a tingle, but a continued act, i Pet. ii 4. "To whom "coming as unto a living stone." Thy foul, Chriftian, is to be in a continual motion towards Chrift; the more you believe, the more you will rejoice. You fee the door through which comfort comes into your fouls. Joy is the daughter of faith, Rom. xv. 13. your prefent comfort is the first birth of faith; but there are many comforts more in the womb of faith, which will yet be born to your fouls, if unbelief caufe not a mifcarriage.

Advice 5. Take heed you be not a grief to Chrift, who hath already brought fo much comfort to you.

It will be a fad requital, if after he hath given you the joys of heaven to drink, you thall give him that which is as wormwood

and gall; the Lord write that caution upon thy foul, reader, Eph. iv. 30. "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are "fealed to the day of redemption." The argument of the apoftle, in this place, strongly infers caution from comfort. Chrift hath been all joy, all peace, reft, and comfort to you; take heed you be not a grief and fhame to him. The intermiffion of thy duties, the falling and flatting of thy affections in duties, thy rash adventures upon fin, will be a grief to the heart of Chrift, who hath filled thy heart with fo much comfort; and if you grieve him, you cannot expect he should comfort you. A little fin may rob you of a great deal of comfort.

Advice 6. Be not flaggered, or dejected, if the first comforts Chrift gives you fhould afterwards abate, or be taken away for a time.

This is a very common thing in the experience of moft Chriftians; you must not think your firft comforts are fuch fixed, settled things, that there is no hazard of lofing them; alas! nothing is more volatile than the joys of a Chriftian. You will be apt to lofe your first love, Rev. ii. 4. and if you lofe your first love, no wonder that you lose your first comforts: Yet if it fhould fo fall out, be not caft down and difcouraged; Chrift is not gone, though comfort be gone; and though comfort be gone, it is not gone for ever; renew thy repentance, faith, and obedience, and try if God will not renew thy comfort. There is a former, and there is a latter spring of joy; God will make thy comforts fpring again. Befides, thy juftification is ftedfait, though thy confolation be not fo. There are two things that belong to a Chriftian, one to his being, viz. union with Chrift; another to his well-being, viz. Comfort from Chrift: The latter is uncertain and contingent, the former fixed and ftedfaft.

Advice 7. Be filled with compaffion to others who want thofe comforts you enjoy, fpecially fuch as Ged hath knit to you in the bonds of natural

relations.

Art thou a father, or a mother, to whom God hath given those comforts, and. foul-refreshments, that have been opened in this difcourfe? And haft thou no compaffion for thy poor children, who never yet tafted one drop of thefe fpiritual confolations; Certainly it will do a man little good to be feafted abroad, whilst his wife and children are ftarving at home: Say to them, as Paul in another cafe," Would to God you were all as I am, except these "corruptions." Religion breeds bowels of compaflion. O tell them what fweetnefs there is in the ways of godlinefs; counfel, plead, and pray, that thofe that are yours may also be Christ's.

Advice 8. As ever you expect the continuance or enlargement of your comforts, fee that you walk circumfpeclly.

It is as much as all your comfort is worth to give way to a little

careleffnefs: That is a remarkable expreffion of the Pfalmift, Pfal. lxxxv. 1. "I will hearken what God the Lord will speak, for he "will speak peace to his people, and to his faints; but let them not "return again to folly. Sin, in this text, is fitly called by the name of folly; for indeed it is the greatest folly and madness in the world to forfeit and diveft ourselves of fuch fweet peace and comfort by returning unto fin, which hath coft us so much sorrow and trouble before. Are you willing to be in your former darkness. and fears, tears and troubles; to exchange the pleafant light you now enjoy, for the horrors you have formerly felt? This you must do if you return again to folly.

Advice 9. Long for heaven, where the fulness of thofe joys is, whereof thofe you taste are but the earnest and first-fruits.

One defign of God in giving them, is to fet us a longing after heaven to help our conceptions, and raife our affections: if thefe be so sweet, what muft they be? Rom. viii. 23. "We which have "the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within our"felves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our "body." We are not to fit down fatisfied, and say we have enough of these first fruits; but they are given to fet us a groaning after the fulness of thofe enjoyments. This anfwers God's end in giving.

Advice 10. Laftly, Improve every Spiritual comfort you have from Chrift unto greater cheerfulness in the paths of obedience to Chrift.

This is another end for which God communicates them, that our fouls being refreshed by them, we might pluck up our feet the more nimbly in the paths of duty. Pfal. cxix. 32. "Then will I "run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my "heart." Now God expects that you pray more frequently, meditate more delightfully, and perform every duty more cheerfully; and this is the way to perpetuate your comforts. How many Chriftians go on droopingly in the ways of duty for want of those encouragements you enjoy ?

WE

SERMON XI.

REVEL. iii. 20.

-I will fup with him, and he with me.

E have heard the firft encouragement or argument of Chrift to perfuade the hearts of finners to open to him, viz. That he will come in to them, and that not empty-handed; He

will also fup with them: And to make the encouragement complete, and full, he here adds, And he with me. This laft claufe fets forth that fpiritual, foul-refreshing communion which is betwixt Chrift and believers; begun in this world, completed and perfected in the world to come. Hence our eleventh obfervation is,

Doct. 11. That there is a mutual, fweet, and intimate communion betwixt Jefus Chrift and believers in this world.

Communion with Chrift is frequent in the lips of many men, but a hidden mystery to the fouls of moft men. This atheistical age fcoffs at, and ridicules it as enthusiasm and fanaticism; but the faints find that reality and incomparable fweetnefs in it, that they would not part with it for ten thousand worlds. When the Ro✩ man foldiers entered the temple at Jerufalem, and found no image there, as they used to have in their own idolatrous temples; they gave out in a jeer, that the Jews worshipped the clouds. Thus profane Atheifts fcoff at the moft folemn, awful, and sweetest part of internal religion as a mere fancy; but the thing is real, fure, and fenfible: if there be truth in any thing in the world, there is truth in this, that there are real intercourfes betwixt the visible and invifible world; betwixt Chrift and the fouls of believers, which we here call communion: 1 John i. 3. «Truly our fellow"fhip is with the Father, and with his Son Chrift Jefus." It is really and truly fo, we impofe not upon the world, we tell you no more than we have felt. The life of Enoch is called his walking with God, Gen. v. 24. O fweet and pleasant walk! all pleafures, all joys are in that walk with God. "Bleffed are the people that "hear the joyful found; they fhall walk, O Lord, in the light of "thy countenance," Pfal. lxxxix. 15. The joyful found there fpoken of was the found of the trumpet, which called the people to the folemn affemblies, where they walked in the light of God's countenance, the fweet manifeftations of his favour; and because the world is fo apt to fufpect the reality and certainty of this doctrine, the apoftle again afferts it, Phil. iii. 20. "Truly our con"verfation is in heaven." We breathe below, but we live above; we walk on earth, but our converfation is in heaven. To open this point, three things must come under confideration.

1. What communion with Chrift is.

2. That there is fuch a communion betwixt him and believers.

3. The excellency of this communion.

First, What communion with Chrift is, in the general nature of it. To open this it must be confidered that there is a twofold communion.