neglect, distrust, or revolt from thee, I can yet fay, Nevertheless I am continually with thee. The freeft of my defires and thoughts run out after thee; my chief delight is in thee; my largest expectations from thee; communion with thee can turn all my forrows into joy upon earth, and this perfected into fight, will make up heaven. In hope of this, and as breathing after it, however chaftened, afflicted, tempted and tried, Nevertheless I am continually with thee.

This is a temper becoming the people of God; and thus should they be with him at all times, and in every condition, particularly under the greatest tryals that befal them. Under these they Thould be with him.

1. By acknowledging his hand in determining their lot, how dark or afflictive soever it may be. Though the wicked flourish and the fervants of God are oppreffed, I must be far from thinking. this happens by chance, or without wife ends. He that made the world has not caft off the government of it, nor is unconcerned how matters in it. How bitter foever my cup may be, go it is of his mixing, who does all things according to the counsel of his own will, and all things well. I would therefore look above and beyond fecond causes, to him whofe kingdom ruleth over all, and receive evil as well as good from the hand of God: I would kifs the rod, as knowing who hath appointed it.

2. By refolved adherence to him, as their portion or chief good, however he see fit to deal with them. No trials fhall feparate between God and my foul. Afflictions fhall not drive me from

thee,

thee, O my God, but make me cleave the fafter to thee. I should not love thee lefs, but more, when having little of the things of earth left to draw off my heart from Thee and heaven.

3. By esteeming, and improving an intereft in his favour, as ballance enough against all the troubles of the world. Why art thou caft down, O my foul? and why art thou difquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Let them fret or repine, be ready to throw up their hope and die, who have no God to go to under their fufferings: But in the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts, O Lord, delight my foul.

4. They are with God, as the temples of his Spirit, enriched and adorned by his grace; and fo fuch in whom he delights to dwell, 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know ye not, faith the Apoftle to Believers, that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? By this Spirit they are inhabited now, as the guide of their way, preparing them for the glory with which they fhall e'er long be filled. This Chrift promifes to his disciples, as matter of fupport, upon his going away. John xiv. 16, 17. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it feeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and fhall be in you. The Lord hath chofen Zion: And what he speaks of the church in general, holds good as to every holy foul, he hath defired it for his habitation. And as entering into

it

it declares, This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell, for I have defired it, Pfal. cxxxii. 13, 14.

5. They are with him as confederates and allies, in whom he has a claim by covenant, and they in him. He remembers and records how it was made, and the helpless ftate he found them in, when he came to contract an alliance with them. Ezek. xvi. 6. When I paffed by thee and faw thee polluted in thine own blood, I faid unto thee when thou waft in thy blood, Live: Yea, I faid unto thee when thou waft in thy blood, Live. Ver. 8.. Now when I paffed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love, and I fpread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedefs: Yea, I fware unto thee,and entered into a covenant with thee, faith the Lord God, and thou becameft mine. The nature of the covenant is plainly declared, on their part and on his. Ifa. lv. 3. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, &c. and I will make an everlafting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David. Jer. 1. v. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. And this God is pleased to confirm upon their review of it, to every one that hath laid hold on it. P/alm lxxxix. 28. My covenant fhall ftand faft with him. And though tranfgreffion may awaken his rod he adds, Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor fuffer my faithfulness to fail. And the believer, when ready to fink, has recourse to this for his fupport. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Although my house be not fo with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things

.

and

and fure: for this is all my falvation, and all my defire.

6. They are with him, as his peculiar favourites now, and as heirs of the kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him hereafter. They are his favourites now, though they are apt to think otherwise, when walking in the dark, or under his rebukes. In that cafe, Zion, and this and the other of her children may be ready to fay, the Lord hath forfaken me, My God hath forgotten me: But he argues down the complaint, Can a woman forget her fucking child, that she should not have compaffion on the fon of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. They are in heaviness; but it is when need is; not for want of love, but from it. Heb. xii. 6. For whom the Lord loveth be chasteneth. No affliction is for the prefent joyous but grievous. And when it lies fore and long, it is no uncommon thing for a holy foul to let fall fuch complaints as these : Will the Lord caft off for ever? Will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger fhut up his tender mercies, Pfal. lxxxvii. 7. But they have been brought to own at last, that this was their infirmity, and that it was in their hafte that any of them faid, I am cut off from before thine eyes, Pfalm xxxi. 22. God fpeaks in another ftrain, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Whatever his people fuffer from, or for him. The Apostle speaks in their name what it becomes them to speak,

Who shall feparate us from the love of Chrift? Shall tribulation, or diftrefs, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or fword? Nay in all thefe things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us; adding both for himself and them, I am perfuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature, fhall feparate us from the love of God which is in Chrift Jefus our Lord.

By how many expreffions doth God intimate the nearness of his people to him, even when they are ready to doubt or queftion it, or conclude the contrary? In all their afflictions he is. afflicted: He that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his eye: Whilft he speaks against them, he earnestly remembers them ftill: His bowels are troubled for them: They are engraven on his bands, and are near his heart, and have a place in it: He hears their groans, beholds their tears, regards their fighs, and will e'er long fhew it. He hath formed them for his praise, obferves their concern for his honour, and is pleased with it. He hath set his mark upon them, as thofe he owns, and loves, and values now; and faith of them, They shall be mine, in that day when I make up my jewels, Mal. iii. 17.

Thus they are with him, as interested in his favour, even that which he bears unto his own: and not only fo, but as heirs of his kingdom. To this they are chofen, ordained, called and entitled This they are in fome measure already made meet for, and bid to expect it. Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to