fufe, ye know not if ever you will get another offer; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goeft." This day's delay may be an eternal loss, for you may be in eternity before another day. A new refufal is dangerous; God may take you at your word.

6. Our Lord is content yet to invite you to his work, notwithstanding your former refusals; you will ftill be accepted: "Him that cometh unto me," fays Jefus, "I will in nowife caft out."

7. Whatever hardships may be in the work of religion, it is not long ere you fhall be freed from them all; you fhall be made more than conquerors: "You fhall reft from your labours, and your works fhall follow you."

Laftly, If you will not, then remember death will make you change your mind, and you will get a long eternity to repent that ye did not repent in time. But fuch a change can then be of no avail, but to increase your mifery. Infinitely better, then, will it be for you if this change take place at prefent; "for now is the accepted time, and now is the day of falvation."

THE

THE NATURE AND EFFECTS OF A WEANED

DISPOSITION OF SOUL. *

SERMON IV.

Pfal. cxxxi. 2. My foul is even as a weaned child.

TH

HIS Pfalm is David's profeffion of piety, wherein he discovers what was the habitual bent of his heart, and course of his life. The occafion of it seems to have been the injury done him by Saul and his courtiers, who reproached him as a proud, ambitious, and turbulent man. His comfort is the teftimony of his own confcience, which witneffed, 1. The humility of his heart. This kept him from an afpiring temper, and within the bounds of his station. 2. His eafinefs in any condition with which the Lord was pleased to tryft him. God had promised him the kingdom, yet kept him from it long, and that in very hard circumstances; but yet he was eafy under it; he was far from that reftlefs itching after a crown, of which his enemies accused him.

In the text, he points out the spring of this cafi-.

F 3

nefs:

Delivered Sabbath afternoon, August 1. 1714.

nefs: My foul is even as a weaned child: That is, his heart was loosed from thofe things to which the hearts of men naturally are glewed. There is here, 1. Something supposed, namely, that the day was, when he was fucking the breafts which fallen Adam led all his children to, as well as others ; that he was even as fond of them, and could as ill want them, as a child the breast. 2. Something expreffed; that now there was a change, the child was weaned, fet to another way of living, and could want the breafts. God had taken off his heart from those things on which naturally it was fet, and now he fed at God's hand, instead of creatures. He does not speak of willingly forfaking these breasts of his own accord, but he was weaned by the power of grace. Now, this is his comfort against the afperfions of his enemies. From this fubject I take this

DOCTRINE, That grace makes a weaned soul.

In difcourfing which, I fhall inquire, I. From what does grace wean the foul? II. How is the foul weaned from these things? III. What are the effects of a weaned difpofition of foul?

IV. Make fome practical improvement.

I AM to inquire,

I. From what does grace wean the foul? Grace weans the foul, 1. From the dry breafts of the world. One part of pure religion, and undefiled, before God and the Father, is to keep ourselves unfpotted from the world, James, i. 27. For fays John, 1 Ep. ii. 16. "All that is in the world, the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

The

The foul of man is not felf-fufficient, and muft fetch in its fatisfaction from fomething without itself, feeing it is capable to defire what it hath not to furnish itself with. Our first father Adam did us two ill turns; he led us out of the path of life, not knowing how to get into it again, and so left us with a confcience full of guilt; he led us away from the living God, not knowing how to return to him again, and fo left us with a heart full of unfatisfied defires. Hence the poor foul is like the horfe-leech, having two daughters crying, Give, give; a restless conscience, and a restless heart, to each of which it muft fay, as Naomi to Ruth, ch. iii. 1. "My daughter, fhall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?" But, alas! the first way it goes for that, is through dry places, as the devil, when he goes out of a man. For the restless conscience seeks rest in the dry and barren region of the law, Rom. x. 3. "For they being ignorant of God's righteoufnefs, and going about to establish their own righteousness;" for the reftlefs heart goes to the creatures, saying, Who will fhew us any good? The poor foul, like a hungry infant, weeps and cries, fhifts about as it can, gaping for fomething to fill the mouth. The world is neareft, and there it faftens and fucks. The foul has fallen off the breasts of divine confolations, and cannot set itself on again, and therefore takes up with the breafts of the world; but grace takes off the foul again. And,

1. Grace weans the foul from the profits of the world: Heb. xi. 26. “ Mofes efteemed the reproach of Chrift greater riches than all the treasures in Egypt." The natural man fixes on them, drinks greedily at the broken cifterns. His hungry heart flies out after them, as a ravenous bird after its prey; he is reftlefs till he get them, as the child

is for the breafts; he is fond of them, when he has them, as the infant plays with the breafts. They say they are become rich, they have found out fubftance, Hof. xii. 8. But when grace comes, it ftops the chace. It makes the bulky vanity, that can only fatisfy the fancy of children, and not fouls of men, dwindle into nothing.

2. Grace weans the foul from the pleasures of the world. Pleasure is a neceffary ingredient in happiness, and men cannot but feek it; hence God propofes it to the foul in the enjoyment of himself, Pfal. xvi. 11. "In his prefence there is fulness of joy, and at his right-hand are pleasures for evermore." But the foul, instead of going to God for it, to drink at the pure fountain, naturally goes to the muddy ftreams of it in the world, and there fucks,-is as fond of the lufts of Egypt, flesh, &c. as the Ifraelites; yea, can as little live with-out them, as the fucking child without the breast: -2 Tim. iii. 4. "They are lovers of pleasure more: than lovers of God." But when grace comes, it makes the foul fall off, and loofes the heart from these things.

3

3. In a word, grace weans the foul from all worldly comforts whatsoever, making it take up its reft in God: Luke, xiv. 6. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and fifters, yea, and his own life alfo, he cannot be difmy ciple." The heart of man takes a greedy grip naturally of relations, liberty, life, and fuch things. These are their good things, which they can no more part with than the child with the breafts.. Take thefe away, what has the man more? He has not a God. He will rather part with God and Christ than these things. But grace puts matters right; it regulates the affection to these things,

and