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ever, in his infinite love and wisdom, he sees best for his people, he is almighty to bestow it on them. They can want no promised good, nor suffer any outward evil; but he is able to give the one, and to deliver from the other. Their wants are many, their sufferings great.. Sin has brought disorder upon the whole creation. The outward state of man in the world is full of misery, not only following him, but also in him, in his very frame and constitution.-Pain, sickness, mortality in his body, emptiness in his enjoyments, disappointments, losses, worldly cares, something or other in body or estate troubling him; for man is born to trouble. What manner of love then is this, that God our Saviour would take these things under his government, and manage them for the good of his people, whom he would have to be happy in him in this world, as well as in the next. He has given them many great and precious promises relating to the life that now is, and he is faithful who hath promised to supply their earthly wants, to sanctify their sufferings, and to make all things work together under him for their good. He has kindly undertaken their temporal, as well as their spiritual concerns; for nothing was left out of the covenant of grace. It was ordered in ALL things. The outward state and condition of believers, their poverty or riches, health or sickness, trials of every kind, how great they should be, how long they should continue, are all appointed and unalterably fixed; nothing left for chance to do. When the Lord God determined to bring many sons unto glory through Christ Jesus, the means by which he intended to bring them unto that end, were in his purpose, as well as the end itself: therefore all things were ordered and made sure, even to the very hairs of their head; for they are all numbered. What a continual source of comfort is this to believers! Their present happiness is provided for as well as their eternal, in the covenant of grace. God is become their God, has made himself known to them in this covenant-relation, and has thereby bound himself to give whatever he sees will

be the best for them. But because he knoweth their frame, and how apt they are, under hard and long trials of faith, to be discouraged, he has therefore made them many sweet temporal promises for their support. Lest they should be weary and faint in their minds, he has engaged to deliver them from all evil, “Many "are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord de"livereth them out of them all," Psal. xxxiv. 19. He delivers two ways, either by entirely removing the affliction, or by changing its nature; for he takes the curse out of it, and turns it into a real blessing, he makes it the means of increasing faith and patience, sweetens it with a sense of his presence, and demonstrates that it comes from love, by its increasing love to him in the heart of the righteous. This is the best deliverance, as one of the greatest sufferers for Christ witnesses, who, upon the mention of his afflictions, declares: "Out of them all the Lord delivered me," by saving me from the evil that was in them, and by making them yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

The Lord has also engaged to bestow upon believers all good: "They that seek the Lord shall not want "any good thing," Psal. xxxiv. 10. Their loving Shepherd will see that they lack nothing, no good thing will he with-hold from them. To the same purpose are the promises in the New-Testament, Mat. vi. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, food and raiment, and all necessaries, shall be added unto you. I your God and Saviour give you my word for it; trust me, and you shall never want. With confidence, did he believe it, who said to the Philippians, iv. 19. "My God shall "supply ALL your need, according to his riches in glory "by Christ Jesus." What a powerful motive is here for the strengthening of our faith, that be our wants ever so many, ever so great, our God has engaged to supply them all! We may boldly then cast all our care upon him, since he careth for us, and may rest assured of his managing our whole outward estate, infinitely

better than we could for ourselves. What trouble, what burdens shall we be hereby eased of! What peace of mind shall we enjoy, when we can give up all our temporal concerns into the Lord's hands, and by faith see them all conducted for our good, by his infinite wisdom and almighty love! Blessed surely is the man who thus putteth his trust in the Lord his God. He is delivered from the anxious care of getting, and from the fear of losing what he has got: he is easy about the present, the future he leaves to the Lord: his conversation is without covetousness, and he is content with such things as he has, and thereby he escapes thousands of the common troubles of life. In this sweet peace he enjoys his soul, because the Lord has said to him-" I will never leave thee nor forsake "thee," in any state, in any want, or in any distress -I will be ever with thee to turn all things, seem they ever so afflicting, into real blessings. Trusting to this word, which cannot be broken, he may boldy say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me: let the world persecute me, my trade fail, poverty pinch me, sickness pain me, friends leave me, and all outward comforts forsake me, nevertheless I am a happy man. The Lord Christ is my portion, my allsufficient-portion still, and these things, being of his appointment, are for the best. I find them so, glory be to him. He makes them the means of weaning me from the world, deadening the old man of sin, bringing me to a more intimate acquaintance with himself, and to a greater experience of his goodness to my soul; whereby he enables me to trust all things for time and for eternity in his hands, who hath said unto me, and faithful is he that hath spoken, who also will do it, "I "will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

But some may say, Are there any persons who lives thus above the world, freed from its cares and fears, and troubles? Yes, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. He has promised to make all things to work together for good to them that love him, and he has

had witnesses in every age of his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises. Read that little book of martyrs, Hebrews xi. and you will see how happy they were in God, not only in prosperity, but also when all the world was against them. Great were the triumphs of their faith. They chose to suffer affliction rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; they esteemed the reproach of Christ, and set more value upon it than upon riches and honours. And we have a great cloud of witnesses in the New-Testament, who rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, who blessed their revilers, prayed for their persecutors, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. Hear one of them speaking the sentiments of the rest: "I account all things but "loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ "Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss "of all things, and I do account them but dung, that "I may win Christ." Still there are some among us of Paul's mind. The Lord hath not left himself without witness. We have a few names, (may the Lord daily add to their number) who can trust all their temporal affairs in the hands of Christ, and who find the happiness of having them in his management. He does all things well for them: what would make them unhappy he takes upon himself" cast thy burden on the Lord," says he, "and he shall sustain thee," and he does sustain the weight of it, and thereby frees them from anxious care, and gives them sweet content. They have enough, let them have ever so little of outward things, because they have got the Pearl of great price. Christ is theirs, and the Spirit of Christ enables them to make up all their happiness in him, and not in the things which perish in the using. Christ, with bread and water, is worth ten thousand worlds. Christ, with pain is better than the highest pleasures of sin. Christ, with all outward sufferings, is matter of present, and and of eternal joy. Surely these are the only happy people living. Reader, art thou not one of them? Art

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thou not a partaker of their happiness? If thou art a believer, it is thy privilege; thy title to it is good, and thou enterest into possession by faith, and if it be so weak that thou art not so happy as they are, thou shouldest take shame to thyself for dishonouring God thy Saviour, for robbing him of his glory before men, and for injuring thine own soul, by not committing all thy outward matters unto his guidance. What could he do more, than he has done, to encourage thee to leave them to him, that he might manage them for thee? He has given thee argument upon argument, promises in abundance, bonds which cannot be broken, immutable things, in which it is impossible that God should lie to convince thee that thou mayest safely trust in him for all temporal things which he knows will be for thy good. O pray then for more faith. Beg of the Lord to enable thee to walk more by faith, and less by sense, that thou mayest commit thy way entirely unto him, and may direct all thy paths. The more thou trustest in him, the happier he will make thee. Therefore daily intreat him to deliver thee from taking any anxious thought for thy life, what thou shalt eat, or what thou shalt drink; or yet for thy body what thou shalt put Since he knoweth thou hast need of all those things, and has sent thee to the fowls of the air, and to the grass of the field, to see what a rich provision he makes for them; art thou not much better than they? Oh! pray still for the increase of faith, that all thy worldly matters being resigned, and given up into the hand of the Lord thy God, thou mayest be eased of many weights and burdens, and mayest run with more patience and joy the race that is set before thee.

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As these fathers in Christ learn by daily experience, to live more upon him for the bread that perisheth, so do they for the bread that endureth unto everlasting life. They attain to a fixed settled dependence upon Christ for the conducting of all things belonging to their state of grace, to their comfortable walk in it, and to their finishing their course happily. They grow in

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