We have many evil humours that require correction; and God sends adversity as a medicine for the soul. When it comes with grace into the spirit of a Christian, how doth it soften and blunt his rough and acid dispositions, how reform and lower his swelling and confident frames, how chasten and subdue his restless and impatient tempers; while the better part, his renewed mind, gathers strength, and holiness, and resignation, and hope! We shall indeed thank God heartily for all our adversities byand-by; and, though they are not to be counted as any part of our inheritance, we shall rejoice eternally, that they were graciously made a part of the means for bringing us to it. Lazarus himself can now rejoice over all his sores.

The apostle Paul was a chosen vessel, and dearly beloved of the Lord; but the Lord did not say, concerning him, what great things he was to do or enjoy, (though nobody perhaps ever did more for Christ, or enjoyed more of him upon earth,) but "what great things he must suffer for my name's sake." The flesh shrinks at this; but grace can enable the soul to count it all joy when it falls into divers temptations; not for the grief that is in them, for that would be unnatural, but for the peaceable fruits of righteousness which they shall produce in the end.

We must pray, then, to trust the wisdom and love of God in all sorrowful dispensations, since he doth not willingly or wantonly afflict his children, nor send one sorrow more than what is absolutely necessary to their true edification and welfare.

When we can bear all trouble as a part of the burden of Christ, and can obtain his assistance to bear it with us; we shall find it daily grow lighter and lighter, and at length press upon us only like the burden of wings on a bird, enabling us to fly the swifter and the higher towards heaven.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

On Prosperity.

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GOD's people are seldom trusted with much perity; and, when they are, it very rarely appears for their good. The things of earth and time, in affluence or abundance, have a fascinating power over the carnal senses, entice them first into the ways of evil, and then (if grace prevent not) intoxicate them with it. How many spiritual sots are there in the world, who, though averse to gross intemperance, are reeling instead of running in the path of duty, their heads being turned with the fumes of this earth, and their hearts "waxed gross" through the abundance of her delicacies ?" And it is one dreadful proof of the strength of this intoxication upon them, when they hate to be told of it, and feel angry, not at themselves, but at the friendly and faithful informer.

The gaiety, parade, lightness, and lofty airs of many religious professors, too well show, what a dangerous thing it is to possess much of this world,

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and how easily our hearts may be made drunk, and then drowned in sensuality, if not in perdition. Christ and his Apostles were now upon earth, in their plain and lowly form, it is much to be feared that they would be thought hardly good company enough for many of the present race of genteel and modish professors of religion.

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It is an excellent prayer, which Christians in worldly prosperity cannot remember too often, "In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us !" want his help then, more if possible than in adversity; lest the lust of other things, entering in, should choke the word, and it become unfruitful." We have weak heads and a disordered appetite, which are soon overcharged with a full cup of temporal prosperity. They were filled," says the Lord, speaking by the prophet to the Jews, "they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me."

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It was the good advice of a wise man: "Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly."

There is no doubt but that Christians, with worldly riches, may do abundance of worldly good to others; and it is one proof, that God is in them of a truth when they do so: yet there is very great reason to pray, that, while they are God's stewards to feed other people, they may be careful not to be starved themselves, and that no pride may arise in their hearts through these outward displays of zeal for the Lord of hosts. These may seem great things

to men; but, if we remember the widow and her two mites, we may understand that something else is greater before God, than any administration only of carnal and temporal things.

Our hearts need no gross damps of this world to cool them. On the contrary, God by troubles frequently stirs up his own grace and life in them, as we stir our fires, that they may kindle more freely, shine more brightly, and glow more strongly for our comfort. Whatever draws us nearest to God, cannot be real adversity. Whatever entices us from him, deserves not the name of prosperity.

CHAPTER XXxiv.

Luxury indecent for Christians.

LUXURY is to pride, what the body is to the soul. It gives substance to that depraved temper, which Satan occasioned to man, and which reigns in himself with the most malignant subtlety, ruling also, where it is permitted, the faculties of creatures and the grossness of matter. It first reduced him from angel to devil; and it hath degraded mankind almost to both devil and beast.

A very great part of the world's pursuit is indulgence to the flesh, by procuring not the mere necessaries, (for these are in a small compass,) but the pomps, the shows, the imaginary wants, or the real luxuries of this present life. . If they have much

goods laid up for many years, no higher thought remains, but to take their ease, to eat, to drink, and be merry. They have strange and wretched notions of spiritual and eternal enjoyments: heaven and heavenly things are necessarily in their very nature too refined for those whose heart is ever in the dirt, and whose whole life and hope are supported by what lives and grows upon it. Like a man whom I remember to have seen, they have no "desire to sit singing Hallelujah upon a bare cloud (as he expressed it) all the day long, without any thing to eat or to drink." This was his idea of heaven: and have those people any better or more solid thoughts of its glories, who prefer to them (as the men of this world uniformly do) the poor vile trash and sordid attainment of the earth? Alas! so it is; no natural man hath any true regard for God or his soul, but only for his carcass and the world.

The primitive Christians were distinguished as well for the plainness and simplicity of their manners, as for an exact frugality in all their affairs. They thought, and with great truth, that to do otherwise would be both unseemly for their profession, and injurious to the poor. People who want all for themselves, as the luxurious ever must, (except in some rare cases,) can have but little, if any thing, "to give to him that needeth;" and, what is worse, a luxurious pampered person hath usually no heart to give at all, but hath lost his bowels of compassion, through the excess and voluptuousness reigning within him. Hence it is, that the very rich and very great are commonly hard-hearted: while in the