Are there any, for all the judgments fallen on us, or that threaten us, returning apace with regret and hatred of sin; hastening unto God, and mourning and weeping as they go? bedewing each step with their tears? Yea, where is that newness of life that' the world has called for so long, and now the word and the rod together are so loud calling for? Who more refraining his tongue from evil, and lips from guile; changing oaths, and lies, and calumnies, into a new languge, into prayers, and reverend speaking of God, and joining a suitable consonant carriage? who is eschewing evil and doing good, labouring to be fertile in holiness, to bring forth much fruit to God? This were the way to see good days indeed; this is the way to the longest life, the only long life and length of days, one eternal day, as St. Augustin on these words, one day in thy courts is better than a thousanda, Millia dierum desiderant homines, & multum volunt hic vivere; contemnant millia dierum, desiderent unum, qui non habet ortum & occasum, cui non cedit hesternus, quem non urget crastinus.

The reason added is above all exception, it is supreme, The eyes of the Lord, &c. If he that made times and seasons, and commands and forms them as he will, if he can give good days, or make men happy, then the only way to it sure must be the way of his obedience; to be in the constant favour of the great king, and still in his gracious thoughts; to have his eye and his ear, if this will serve the turn, (and if this do it not, I pray you, what will?) then the righteous man is the only happy man, For the eyes of the Lord are upon him, &c. Surer happy days may be expected hence, than theirs that draw them from the aspect of the stars; the eyes of the Father of lights benignly beholding them, the trine aspect of the blessed Trinity. The love he carries to them draws his eye still towards them; there is no forgetting of them, nor slipping of the fit season to do them good, his mind I may say, runs on that; he sees how it is with them, and receives their suits gladly, rejoicing to put fa

a Psm. lxxxix. 10.

vours upon them. He is their assured friend, yea he is their Father: what then can they want? Surely they cannot miss of any good that his love and power can help them to.

But his face is against them that do evil.] So our happiness and misery are in his face, his looks. Nothing so comfortable as his favourable face, nothing so terrible again as his face; his anger, as the Hebrew word is often taken, that signifies his face: And yet how many sleep sound under this misery! but believe it, it is a dead and a deadly sleep; the Lord standing in terms of enmity with thee, and yet thy soul at ease! pitiful accursed ease! I regard not the differences of your outward estate; that is not a thing worth the speaking of. If thou be poor and base, and in the world's eye but a wretch, and withal under the hatred of God, as being an impenitent hardened sinner, those other things are nothing; this is the top, yea the total sum of thy misery: or be thou beautiful, or rich, or noble, or witty, &c. or all these together, or what thou wilt, but is the face of the Lord against thee? Think as thou wilt, thy estate is not to be envied but lamented. I cannot say, much good do it thee, with all thy enjoyments, for it is sure they can do thee no good; and if thou dost not believe this now, the day is at hand wherein thou shalt be forced to believe it, finding it then irrevocably true. If you will, you may still follow the things of the world, walk after the lusts of your own hearts, neglect God, and please yourselves, but as Solomon's word is of judgment, Remember that the face of the Lord is against thee, and in that judgment he shall unvail it, and let thee see it against thee. Oh! the most terrible of all sights.

The godly often do not see the Lord's favourable looks, while he is eyeing them; and the wicked usually do not see nor perceive, neither will believe that his face is against them: but besides that, the day of full discovery is coming; the Lord doth sometimes let both the one and the other know somewhat how he stands affected towards them. In peculiar deliverSplendida miseria.

b

C

Eccles. ix. 9

ances and mercies, he tells his own, that he forgets them not, but both sees and hears them, when they think he does neither, after that loving and gracious manner they desire, and is here meant; and sometimes he lets forth glances of his bright countenance, darts in a beam upon their souls that is more worth than many worlds. And on the other side, he is pleased sometimes to make it known that his face is against the wicked, either by remarkable outward judgments, which to them are the vent of his just enmity against them, or to some he speaks it more home in horrors and affrights of conscience, which to them are earnests and pledges of their full misery, that inheritance of woe reserved, as the joys and comforts of believers are, of their inheritance of glory.

Therefore if you have any belief of these things, be persuaded, be intreated to forsake the way of ungodliness. Do not flatter yourselves, and dream of escaping; when you hear of outward judgments on your neighbours and brethren, tremble and be humbled. Remember our Saviour's words, Think ye that those on whom the tower of Siloam fell were greater sinners than others? I tell you, nay, but except you repent you shall all likewise perish. This seeming harsh word he that was wisdom and sweetness itself uttered, and even in it spoke like a Saviour; he speaks of perishing, that they might not perish, and presses repentance by the heavy doom of impeni

tence.

When you hear of this, there is none of you would willingly chuse it, that the Lord's face should be against you, although upon very high offers made to you of other things. You think, I know, that the very sound of it is somewhat fearful; and on the other side, have possibly some confused notion of his favour, as a thing desirable; and yet do not bestir yourselves, to avoid the one and enquire after the other, which is certainly by reason of your unbelief. For if you think of the love of God, as his word speaks of it, and as you will say you do, whence is

d Luke xiii. 1– 5.

it, I pray you, that there is no trifle in this world that will not take more deeply with you, and which you follow not with more earnestness, than this great business of reconciliation with God, in order to your finding his face not only not against you, but graciously towards you; His eyes upon you, and his ears open to your prayer.

Your blessedness is not, no (believe it) it is not where most of you seek it, in things below you: How can that be? It must be a higher good must make you happy. While you labour and sweat for it in any thing under the sun, your pains run all to waste; you seek a happy life in the region of death. Here, here it is alone, in the love and favour of God, to have his countenance and friendship, and free access and converse; and this is no where to be found but in the ways of holiness.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Nicholson, Printer, Warner Street.

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