he has made way for this insinuation. How could it be thus with thee, and thou a strong believer? And if he can get thee to reason upon it, then he has thee fast, thou art catched in his snare.

But if the Lord has taught thee not to be ignorant of Satan's devices, as soon as the thought arises, whether thou art in Christ, because of such failings, thou wilt know from what quarter it comes, and wilt immediately resist it. So that the temptation will make thee stand faster; it will drive thee closer to Christ, make thy dependance stronger on his blood and righteousness; put thee upon making more use of him as thy intercessor and advocate with the Father, and help thee to live more out of thyself by faith upon him. Thus Christ becomes precious, thou art more humble. The snare is broken, and thou art delivered.

When the enemy sees this, his implacable malice will soon tempt thee again. He has another deep laid stratagem relating to thy duties, and that is from their being unsuccessful. Thou hast had something laid much upon thy heart, and thou hast carried it to God in prayer, and thou hast waited long, but no answer comes. Upon this Satan takes occasion to suggestNow you see God does not give you what you ask, although he has promised, ask and ye shall have; the fault cannot be in him, therefore it is plain you are not in his favour; his promises do not belong to you. And if he can thus work a little upon thy impatience, he will soon get thee into doubting and unbelief. Here thou mayest see how all the wiles of Satan tend to one point; namely, to separate thee from Christ, and how necessary then is it, that thou shouldest have this settled beyond all question, that Christ and thou art one. If this be maintained in thy conscience, then Satan's stratagem is defeated: for Christ being thine he will give thee every thing that he has promised; and although thou hast it not just at the time thou hast fixed thyself, yet he knows best. Thou shalt certainly have it, if his infinite wisdom sees it good for thee, and if he

does not see it good, his love will give thee something better. Thy faith must wait God's time. Strong faith can wait long. Having such a promise as this to depend upon-they shall not be ashamed who wait for "me," Isa. xlix. 23. thou mayest with confidence wait, and be a follower of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises; who by faith regarded the promises, by patience waited for the fulfilling of them, and although they waited long, yet they succeeded at last, and did inherit every grace and blessing, for which with faith and patience they had been waiting. Go, and do thou likewise.

Upon the failing of these temptations, the enemy has another ready. Since he cannot get thee off thy guard by bringing thee into doubting and unbelief, he will attack thy faith in another way. He will come like an angel of light, and seem to be Christ's friend and thine. He will allow thee to be a child of God, and to be strong in faith. The more clearly thou art satisfied of thy union with Christ, the more will he improve, if thou art not aware, this thy certainty to his own wicked purposes. He will try to keep thine eye upon thy great graces and high gifts, he will flatter thee exceedingly upon them, and will tempt thee to view them with a secret delight, every now and then insinuating, what a great christian thou art-how few there are like thee to what an exalted state thou hast attained-what temptations thou hast overcome-what victories thou hast gained over Satan-and how safe thou art now, fast upon the rock! And if he finds this pleasing bait is not instantly rejected with a Get thee behind me, Satan; then he will begin to work upon thy self-love, and to give thee many plausible reasons for self-admiration, so that thou shalt first look pleasing at, then fondly love, and at last sacrilegiously dote upon thy wonderous attainments. Thus he will lift thee up with pride, and will try to draw thee into his own crime, and into his own condemnation. What a dangerous temptation is this! How many have I known who fell

into it! If thou sayest, by what means shall I escape it? Mind the first approach: for it is coming upon thee, as soon as thou beginnest to think of thyself more highly than thou oughtest to think. Thou art in thyself a poor miserable helpless sinner, and to this very moment without Christ thou canst do nothing. Thou canst not do one good thing, nor overcome the weakest enemy, nor take one step in the way to heaven, without Christ: nay thou canst not think one good thought without him. What hast thou then to be proud of, and to stir up thy self-admiration? Nothing but sin. The humble abiding sense of this tends to thy safety: for while this is ever present with thee-" In me, that "is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing," it will lead thee to live by faith upon Christ for all good things. And being all his, and received every moment from him as his free gift, thou wilt be glorifying and exalting him in all and for all, knowing that he resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. The Lord keep thee humble, and then thou wilt have grace to escapethis cunning wile of the devil.

If thou shalt say, alas I am fallen into it, How shall I recover myself! Remember his case who in his prosperity said he never should be moved, the favour of the Lord had made his mountain to stand so strong, Ps. xxx. vi. 7. He was too confident in himself, and was moved. How did he recover his standing? "I cried "unto the Lord, and unto the Lord I made my sup"plication. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me, "Lord, be thou my helper." His prayer was heard, he found mercy to pardon his offence, and help to raise him up, and his mourning, he says, was turned into joy and gladness. Look up as he did to the Lord Christ. Plead thy pardon through his promised mercy, and beg of him to enable thee to walk more humbly with thy God. Then shall the Psalmist's experience be thine, and thou shalt escape the snare, which was laid for thy precious life.

These young men having thus overcome the devices,

which Satan had contrived to weaken their faith, must expect a fresh attack from him. He will tempt them concerning the ground of faith. He sees they are strong, because the word of God abideth in them, therefore he will use all his cunning and power to weaken their trust in the word and promises of God. By the incorruptible seed of the word faith is begotten, and by the same word it is nourished up, and strengthened, growing exceedingly from faith to faith. The word, which is the sole ground of faith, reveals the covenant made by the eternal Trinity for the salvation of sinners, and makes many free promises of every covenant blessing to him that believeth. These promises may most stedfastly be relied upon; because of the unchangeable nature of God, who makes them. All his perfections are engaged for the fulfilling of his word; so that what he has spoken has an actual being and existence. He says, and it is done-saying and doing are the same with him. Let there be ever so great a distance of time between the word spoken and the thing done, yet this is real as any thing now in being: because it exists in the mind and will of God, is revealed in his word, and by his faithfulness and almighty power is to be established at the time appointed. How is it possible then that this word should be broken? There is no matter of fact of more undoubted evidence, nothing in futurity, not even the rising of the sun to-morrow, so fixed and certain as the accomplishment of God's promises to him that believeth. These young men in Christ were most assuredly persuaded of this truth-They knew that heaven and earth should pass away before one tittle of God's promises should fail. They looked upon them all as made in Christ, in him Yea and in him Amen, made in him, and fulfilled to him, as the head of the body of the Church, and in him fulfilled to all his members. As certainly as every one of them has been made good to him the head so will they be made good to his members. He has all power in heaven and earth committed to him for that very purpose. Whoever by believing

is joined to him, he has thereby a right and title to every promise, and may boldly sue it out in time of need: and then it is Christ's office and glory to fulfil the promise. If mountains of difficulties stand in the way, the believer need not fear or doubt. Christ is upon the throne. What are difficulties against his almighty power? besides, Christ has already given him good security. He has put into his hands the pledges and earnests of the promised inheritance, and how is it possible he should fail in fulfilling his engagements, and putting him in due time into actual possession? Read what the apostle says of this subject. Turn to the passage; for it is too long to quote, Heb. vi. from verse 11 to the end of the chapter; in which you may observe these particulars.

1. The heirs of promise are apt to be full of doubt; and to have strife in their consciences about their right and title, to all the graces and blessings of salvation:

2. God was willing out of his infinite mercy to esta blish their right and title to them beyond dispute, and to put an end to all strife;

3. Therefore he engaged by promise to give them all those graces and blessings; and

4. To shew the unchangeableness of his will herein, he confirmed the promise by an oath.

5. It is impossible that God should lie in his promise, or that he should be perjured in his oath.

6. Therefore here are two immutable things to strengthen the faith and hopes of the heirs of promise: 7. While their faith rests upon those immutable things, it will always bring them strong consolation.

8. When enemies, dangers,. and temptations attack them, they are safe by fleeing for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before them in God's immutable promises.

9. This hope will be as useful to them at such times, as an anchor to a ship. By it they will ride out all the storms of life, until Jesus their forerunner bring them within the veil, where their anchor is now cast,