a believer to imagine that he shall be exempted? When we shall have laid afide thefe rags of mortality, and thefe fouls fhall animate bodies of a more spiritual nature; bodies fashioned like to the glorious body of our dear Redeemer; then we may expect, nay certainly fhall be exempt from all mutation, and enjoy for ever the Reft that remains for the people of God; but fuch ftate of peace, tranquility and ftability, we fhall never find below. However this may comfort the believer under all the ebbings and flowings of his fpiritual joys, and under the greatest variations of his faith, that the object thereof is unchangeable, and it's foundation immovable; Jefus is the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Thou poor defponding creature, did not this fun fhine yesterday, or the day before, and because if is a little cloudy to-day shouldft thou conclude it is not risen, nor will ever rise again? Thou art perhaps at present in great heavinefs through manifold temptations, hear what the apostle Peter faith, it is for a feason, who knows how long that feafon may endure? But as there is need, 1 Pet. i. 6, it shall continue no longer than till the gracious purpose thereof fhall be accomplished; fuch beaviness may endure for a night, but joy fhall come in the morning, Pf. xxx, 5. Believers, are often like children long accustomed to the breaft, and if for a small season they are deprived of their joyous fenfations, (although parental kindness and infinite wisdom mean it for their good,) they fret and pine, and what is worft through unbelief, infinuate that God is unfaithful.

It is readily granted, that to live under the fmiles of the Redeemer's face, and enjoy without interruption

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the comfortable fenfations of his favour, is very defirable; but as this cannot always be experienced, the prophet Ifaiah has directed us what to betake ourselves to, under the hidings of his face, ch. 50. 10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that "obeyeth the voice of his fervant, that walketh in "darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in "the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."

9th, It may often ferve to alleviate the bitternefs of believers trials to confider that their trials are not peculiar to their person fo much as their ftate, I mean their spiritual state; for although no circumstances however favourable, can free us in the prefent life, from croffes and difficulties. ; yet these are exceedingly inultiplied from the time we commence difciples indeed of the bleffed Jefus. Somewhat of this our Saviour gave us reafon to expect from those words, "if ye were of "the world, the world would love his own, but "because ye are not of the world but I have "chofen you out of the world, therefore the "world hateth you." John xv. 19, fo that believers may expect trials from this quarter. And we may affure ourselves the devil will run to the utmost length of his line to difquiet and distress the people of God; for as his name fatan fignifies hatred or one that is an adversary from real hate, fo he is an adversary to all men, but efpecially to fuch as are born of God," and created "anew in Chrift Jefus :" and concerning these the apostle Peter says, your adverfary the de"vil," emphatically " yours, as a roring lion "walketh about feeking whom he may devour," 1 Pet. v, 8, yet adds the apostle, "refift him “stedfast in the faith, knowing that the fame afflictions

"flictions are accomplished in your brethren that 66 are in the world."

The faints of God in every age and place have had their trials, and oftentimes the greatest faints the greatest trials. Job was a one of a thousand in the earth, there was none like him in his day; yet you fee his trials were fuch as no other was tried with; both inward and outward he was oppreffed, wounded and fore fmitten; without were fightings, and within were fears; bruised by fatan, plundered by the Sabeans, afflicted with a griev ous disease in his body, and all these forrows heightened and increased by darkness and desertion in his foul, yet under all this weight of woe, he feebly hangs upon his God, but firmly refolves not to quit his hold," tho' he slay me, yet will "I trust in him," ch. xiii, 15. Few of the ancients were more eminent than David, yet he had many a bitter trial both inward and outward; as few in his day experienced more of the power and comforts of real religion than he, fo few knew like him, what it was to fuffer the pain of an abfent God, and be left under the hidings of his face. The Lord looked and David lived, but he hid his face and he was troubled, Pf. xxx, 6, and under dejections of foul at other times we hear him ftrengthening himself in God; Why art thou fo full of beaviness O my foul, and why art thou fo difquieted within me, put thy trust in God. &c. Pf. xlii, 11.

Asaph also a faint in the Jewish church, and a finger in Ifrael, bitterly complains in a time of darkness, and when his graces were at an ebbtide, as it were. "Will the Lord caft off for ever, and will he be favourable no more? Is

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"his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promife fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten "to be gracious? Hath he in anger fhut up his "render mercies ?" Pf. lxxvii, 7, 8, 9.

Peter's faith was ftrong enough to confolidate the waters of the fea, and make them as a pavement for his feet, to stand and walk upon to Jefus, yet in order that Peter fhould know from whence his help and fafety came, the wind and waves are ordered to affail his faith, and Peter now begins to fink, happy was it for him that the helping hand of Jefus was fo nigh. So that in all thefe inftances thou mayeft perceive poor doubting foul, thy cafe is not fingular; faith is precious and must be tried like gold, and if thou didft never doubt the truth of thy graces, under a fight and fenfe of the feeblenefs thereof, there is little caufe to think thou haft any grace at all. Jefus Chrift himself the great high-prieft of our profeffion had manifold trials and temptations, yea was in all things tempted like as we are, but he refifted unto blood, ftiving against fin, and is now as our forerunner entred into the holy of holies, and has left an example to his followers to tread in his fteps.

Laftly, Believers fhould not be furprized, nor greatly caft down, although they feel their corruptions ftrong and ftubborn, and their graces weak and feeble, nor fhould they under the most sharp and bitter conflicts of foul caft away, nor fuffer the devil to tear from them their confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. It fhould be always remembered, that so long as we are in the body we are in the field of battle; the world and the devil can never be reconciled to true grace

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and godliness, therefore you must expect many a buffeting from thefe irreconcilable adverfaries. and you may depend upon it nature will be nature ftill, and the war will never ceafe 'till nature die; grace and corruption, flesh and spirit, like fire and water, can never dwell together in peace, and untill the believer put off his body, he must never put off his chriftian armour, drop his fhield, or fheath his fword. Now from all the confiderations I have laid before you, (which I defire may be treasured up in your minds, against a time of need, that whenever through the ftrength of your corruptions, or the feebleness of your graces, you may like Rebekah be led to ask as touching the truth of your converfion, if it be fo, why am I thus ? You may anfwer the queftion and filence the doubt.) It appears, all things confidered, not fo ftrange that believers fhould in fuch foul-conflicts doubt of their state, as it is, that they doubt of it no more, and do not caft away all their confidence. But probably, thus much is permitted, to fhew! them what they are, to keep them humble and dependant; and no more is permitted, left the enemy should fay, I have prevailed against him, and the hearts of God's dear children, fhould be everwhelmed with too much forrow.

I now go on in the third place to give fome directions to the believer, for the strengthening of his faith and every other grace,and for his more comfortable progress through the wilderness of this world. And here let it be observed, that as the strength of the believer's corruptions, and the feebleness of his graces have frequently given him caufe to make the enquiry in my text, fo the weakening of the one, and the ftrengthening of the other,