thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." See how David was supported under a heavy load, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. His city, Ziklag, was burnt, his wives were taken captives, his men spoke of stoning him; nothing was left him but his God and his faith; but, by his faith, "he encouraged himself in his God." The Lord comes and lays his cross on his people's shoulders; it presseth them down, they are likely to sink under it, and therefore cry, "Master, save us, we perish;" but he supports them under their burden; he bears them up, and they bear his cross. Thus the Christian having a weight of outward troubles upon him, goes lightly under his burden, having withal the everlasting arms underneath him. The Christian has a spring of comfort, which he cannot lose; and therefore never wants something to support him. If one have all his riches in money, robbers may take these away: and then what has he more? But though the landed man be robbed of his money, yet his lands remain for his support. They that build their comfort on worldly goods may quickly be comfortless, but they that are united to Christ, shall find comfort when all the streams of worldly enjoyments are dried up, Job vi. 13, "Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?" q. d. Though my substance be gone; though my servants, my children, my health, and soundness of body, are all gone; yet my grace is not gone too. Though the Sabeans have driven away my oxen and asses, and the Chaldeans have driven away my camels; they have not driven away my faith, and my hope too: these are yet in me, they are not driven from me: so that by them I can fetch comfort from heaven, when I can have none from earth.

Secondly, Christ supports his people under a weight of inward troubles and discouragements. Many times heart and flesh fail them, but then "God is the strength of their heart," Psal. lxxiii. 26. They may have a weight of guilt pressing them. This is a load that will make their back to stoop, and the spirits to sink: but he takes it off, and puts a pardon in their hand while they cast their burden upon him: Christ takes the soul, as one marries a widow, under a burden of debt: and when the creditors come to Christ's spouse, she carries them to her husband, confesseth the debt, declares she is not able to pay, and lays all over upon him. The Christian sometimes through carelessness, loseth his discharge; he cannot find it, however he search for it. The law takes that opportunity; and bends up a process against him, for a debt paid already. God hides his face, and the soul is distressed. Many arrows go through

the heart now; many long accounts are laid before the man, which he reads and acknowledges. Often does he see the officers coming to apprehend him, and the prison door open to receive him. What else keeps him from sinking utterly under discouragements in this case, but that the everlasting arms of a Mediator are underneath him, and that he relies upon the great Cautioner? Further, they may a have weight of strong_lusts pressing them. They have a body of death upon them. Death is a weight that presseth the soul out of the body. A leg or an arm of death (if I may so speak) would be a terrible load. (One lively lust will sometimes lie so heavy on a child of God, that he can no more remove it, than a child could throw a giant from off him.) How then are they supported under a whole body of death? Why, their support is from the root that bears them, from the everlasting arm that is underneath them. "His grace is sufficient for them," 2 Cor. xiii. 9. The great stay of the believer is not the grace of God within him, that is a well, whose streams sometimes run dry: but it is the grace of God without him, the grace that is in Jesus Christ; which is an overflowing fountain to which the believer can never come amiss. For the Apostle tells us in the same verse, it is the power of Christ: "Most gladly therefore, saith he, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, or tabernacle above me;" as the cloud of glory did on the Israelites, which God spread for a covering, or shelter to them in the wilderness, Psal. cv. 39, compare, Isa. iv. 5, 6. So that the believer, in this combat, like the eagle, first flies aloft, (by faith) and then comes down on the prey, Psal. xxxiv. 5, "They looked to him, and were lightened." And finally, they have a weight of weakness and wants upon them, but they "cast over that burden on the Lord," their strength, and he sustains them,' Psal. Iv. 22. With all their wants and weaknesses, they are cast upon him; as the poor, weak, and naked babe, coming out of the womb, is cast into the lap of one appointed to take care of it, Psal. xxii. 10. Though they be destitute, (as a shrub in the wilderness, which the foot of every beast may tread down,) 'the Lord will regard them,' Psal. cii. 17. It is no marvel, the weakest plant may be safe in a garden; but our Lord Jesus Christ is a head for protection to his weak and destitute ones, even in a wilderness.

Object. "But if the saints be supported, how is it that they fall so often under temptation and discouragements ?" Ans. (1) How long soever they fall at any time they never fall off; and that is a great matter. They are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, 1 Pet. i. 5. Hypocrites

may so fall, as to fall off, and fall into the pit, as a bucket falls into a well when the chain breaks. But though the child of God may fall, and that so low as the water goes over his head; yet there is still a bond of union betwixt Christ and him: the chain is not broken: he will not go to the ground: he will be drawn up again, Luke xxii. 31, 32, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." (2.) The falls of the saints flow from their not improving their union with Christ; their not making use of him by faith, for staying or bearing them up, Psal. xxvi. 13, 'I had fainted, unless I had believed.' While the nurse holds the child in her arms, it cannot fall to the ground:

yet if the unwary child hold not by her, it may fall backwards in her arms, to its great hurt. Thus David's fall broke his bones, Psal. li. 8, but it did not break the bond of union betwixt Christ and him: the Holy Spirit, the bond of that union, was not taken from him, ver. 11.

The last benefit I shall name, is, the special care of the husbandman, John xv. 1, 2, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.-Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Believers, by virtue of their union with Christ, are the objects of God's special care and providence. Mystical Christ is God's vine, other societies in the world are but wild olive-trees. The men of the world are but God's out field; the saints are his vineyard, which he has a special property in, and a special concern for Cant. viii. 12, 'My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.' He that slumbers not nor sleeps, is the keeper of it, 'he, does keep it lest any hurt it, he will keep it night and day:' he, in whose hand is the dew of heaven, 'will water it every moment,' Isa. xxvii. 3. He dresseth and purgeth it, in order to further fruitfulness, John xv. 2. He cuts off the luxuriant twigs that mar the fruitfulness of the branch. This is done, especially by the word, and by the cross of afflictions. The saints need the ministry of the word, as much as the vineyard needeth one to dress and prune the vines, 1 Cor. iii. 9, "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.' And they need the cross too, 1 Peter

i. 6.

And therefore, if we should reckon the cross amongst the benefits flowing to believers from their union with Christ, I judge, we should not reckon it amiss. Sure I am, in their sufferings they suffer with him, Rom. viii. 17. And the assurances they have of the cross, have rather the nature of a

promise, than of a threatening, Psal. lxxxix, 30-33, 'If his children forsake my law,-then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him: nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' This looks like a tutor's engaging to a dying father, to take care of the children left upon him, and to give them both nurture and admonition, for their good. The covenant of grace does truly beat the spears of affliction into pruning hooks, to them that are in Christ, Isaiah xxvii. 9, "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin.' Why then should we be angry with our cross? Why should we be frighted at it? The believer must take up his cross, and follow his leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. He must take up his ilk-day's cross, Luke ix. 23, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily.' Yea, he must take up his holy-day's cross too, Lam. ii. 22, "Thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about.' The church of the Jews had, of a long time, many a pleasing meeting at the temple, on solemn days, for the worship of God; but they got a solemnity of another nature, when God called together, about the temple and city, the Chaldean army that burnt the temple and laid Jerusalem on heaps. And now that the church of God is yet militant in this lower region, how can it be but the clouds will return after the rain? But the cross of Christ (which name the saints troubles do bear) is a kindly name to the believer. It is a cross indeed, but not to the believer's graces, but to his corruptions. The hypocrite's seeming graces may indeed breathe out their last on a cross, as those of the stony ground hearers did, Matt. xii. 6, 'And when the sun (of persecution, verse 26,) was up, they were scorched; and because they had not root, they withered away.' But never did one of the real graces in a believer die upon the cross yet. Nay, as the candle shines brightest in the night, and the fire burns fiercest in intense frost: so the believer's graces are, ordinarily, most vigorous in a time of trouble.

There is a certain pleasure and sweetness in the cross, to them who have their senses exercised to discern, and to find it out. There is a certain sweetness in one's seeing himself upon his trials for heaven, and standing candidate for glory. There is a pleasure in travelling over these mountains, where the Christian can see the prints of Christ's own feet, and the footsteps of the flock, who have been there before him. How pleasant is it to a saint in the exercise of grace, to see how a good God cros

seth his corrupt inclinations, and prevents his folly! How sweet is it to behold these thieves upon the cross! How refined a pleasure is there in observing how God draws away provision from unruly lusts, and so pincheth them, that the Christian may get them governed! Of a truth there is a Paradise within this thorn hedge. Many a time the people of God are in bonds, which are never loosed, till they be bound with cords of affliction. God takes them, and throws them into a fiery furnace, that burns off their bonds; and then, like the three children, Dan. iii. 25 they are loose walking in the midst of the fire. God gives his children a potion, with one bitter ingredient: if that will not work upon them, he will put in a second, a third, and soon, as there is need, that they may work together, for their good, Rom. viii. 28. With cross-winds he hastens them to the harbour. They are often found in such ways, as that the cross is the happiest foot they can meet with; and well may they salute it, as David did Abigail, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me," 1 Sam. xxv. 32. Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian, that he moves but very slowly heavenward. God sends a wind of trouble that blows the burden off the man's back: and then he walks more speedily on his way: after God hath drawn some gilded earth from him, that was drawing his heart away from God, Zeph. iii. 12, "I will also leave in the midst of thee, an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." It was an observation of an heathen moralist, that "no history makes mention of any man, who hath been made better by riches." I doubt if our modern histories can supply the defect of ancient histories in this point. But sure I am, that many have been the worse of riches; thousands have been hugged to death in the embraces of a smiling world; and many good men have got wounds from outward prosperity, that behooved to be cured by the cross. I remember to have read of one, who having an imposthume in his breast, had in vain used the help of physicians: but being wounded with a sword, the imposthume broke; and his life was saved by that accident, which threatened immediate death. Often have spiritual imposthumes gathered in the breasts of God's people, in the time of outward prosperity, and been thus broken and discussed by the cross. It is kindly for believers to be healed by stripes; although they are usually so weak as to cry out for fear, at the sight of the pruning-hook, as if it were the destroying axe: and to think the Lord is coming to kill them, when he is indeed coming to cure them.

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