his wares,

3. Lament after the Lord. This brought him back when gone, 1 Sam. vii. 2-6. The tears of the Lord's people, and their sighs after the Lord, go very far with a tender-hearted father. There are many things we cannot help; mourn over these, the sins of former, and present times. Alas! it is easy to speak of these, by what it is to be affected with the dishonour done to God by them. 4. Give him employment. Christ riseth not to pack up while sinners are about his hand, to buy them from him. a deep sense of need, and a distinct view of our wants, that would make us be hanging on about his hand; and need takes a sure hold of Christ, and he cannot go from such, Mark vii. 24-30. If any thing be the ruin of this generation, it will be wearying of God. And alas! that is written on our foreheads, and therefore God is like to be weary of us, and is saying this day, "Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies."

O! for

5. Improve his ordinances for the end for which they are appointed, and labour to get, and keep up communion with him in them. God has covered a table for us, these many years. How little the ordinances are regarded, is too evident. We have lost our appetite. God seems to be calling enemies to draw our table. O! that we were wise, at length, to prize them for their worth, before the want of them convince us of their value. If popery overspread this land again, what is now lightly valued, will, it is likely, be highly esteemed.

6. Study unity, and beware of division; 2 Cor. xiii. 11; Psalm cxxxiii. Our Lord lays an astonishing weight on unity amongst his followers: "That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Let no difference of judgment, in every point, break the bond of peace and communion. Our divisions, if they grow, will make us a prey to the common enemy, as they now make us a laughing stock to them. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If ever there was a time for professors uniting it is now; as the beasts in the ark, when the deluge was come on. It is to be feared, that the fire is begun, that will melt some to their cost, before it be put out. Shall we uuite in sin? No, by no means. But mark the apostle's rule. "Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in any thing, ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Lastly, Pray; O! pray that the Lord may not leave us. "Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished; as a mighty man that cannot

save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not." Our time is a time of need, that may make them pray, that never bowed a knee before. Prayer has done great things. It has opened the windows of heaven, James v. 18. Prison doors, Acts xvi. 25, 26. It hath held the destroying hand of God, Exod. xxii. 10. Prayer has defeated armies of enemies invading the land, 2 Chron. xx: Isa. xxxvii. God has all in his own hand, and prayer engageth him on a people's side. "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, ask me of things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me." Pray for yourselves, for the land, and for the church.

QUESTION 4. Whether we have any ground to think that Christ will not leave us altogether? Although we have no ground to think that we shall escape some judgment; yet that God will not utterly leave us, there are some things that give us ground to hope, as,

1. There are some, however few, in the land, that are wrestling, partly resolved never to give consent to Christ's departure, by word or deed, Psalm cii. 16-18. Moses must let God alone, ere he cut off Israel, Exod. xxii. His prayers did not prevail to hold off a stroke, but a final stroke. Never yet did God altogether frustrate the prayers of a wrestling remnant. "For the Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name, will put their trust in thee; for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee."

2. There are some, whose work it is to walk with God, and to fear the Lord, and endeavouring to keep their garments clean; and however few they be, God has made large promises unto them, Isa. xxxiii. 15-20. There are some, who have Christ's love tokens yet lying by them, to bring forth in a day of distress; who if the Lord should seem to cast off this covenanted land, would bring them forth and say discern to whom these belong, and we are his.

3. Our mother is yet bearing children to her husband. We dare not say that she is so fruitful as she has been, yet she is not become barren. She is still nursing some, and bringing forth others. As there are some yet, who drew their first breath in the wilderness, so there is a holy seed brought forth since the revolution, to be the substance of the land. And in several corners of the land, some young ones are looking kindly to Christ. When the gardner is planting new slips in the garden, it is an evidence he intends not to give it As Manoah's wife said unto him, " If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meatoffering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would at this time have told us such things as these."

over.

It

4. This land hath been married to the Lord in covenant. was entered into a covenant with the Lord, early after the reformation from popery. That work, indeed, hath suffered many interruptions from enemies, yet it hath always got up again. Many have laid down their lives for that cause. We had their prayers for the revival of that work, and we can scarcely think we have yet reaped the full fruit of their blood and prayers; or that God will divorce a people not willing to part with him.

Lastly, Much is said of the glory of the latter days, see Isaiah lx. The man of sin will be brought down; and if the pope fall, it is likely prelates will not stand. But yet, matters in the churches of Christ, will be according to the pattern in the mount.

But after all, there is like to be a sad stroke in the first place, and that some of our eyes shall be closed, and many of this generation taken out of the way, before the Lord return, if he were once gone away, as Micah vii. 11-13. It is like, our way to it may be through a red sea; so that we may say, as Balaam, "Alas! who shall live when God doth this?"

QUESTION LAST -But what shall we do in the meantime, in such a reeling time as this?

ANSWER. You that never covenanted with God, enter into a personal covenant with him' and let others solemnly renew their covenant, and make a solemn upgiving of themselves unto the Lord. "One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." This is a chariot, in which Christ's bride may ride safely to heaven, through fire and water. And as we are again called to national fasting, so in the meantime, let that be your exercise. "And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart."

2. Lay your accounts with, and prepare for suffering. Strive, like Paul," to be ready, not to he bound only, but also to die, for the name of the Lord Jesus." The market is like to be raised, and our lightness and frothiness like to be daunted. The tender mercies of Popish idolaters are cruel. Much blood is in the skirts of the whore and there may be more.

3. Labour to get yourselves wrapt up in a promise, Gen. xxxii. 12. Many of God's children, have dined, supped, and dwelt in a promise, in an evil day. It has been instead of all, and cheered their hearts under the want of all, Hab. iii. 17. It has been a comfort to them in distress, life, when half dead, Psalm cxix. 49, 50.

A song in the house of their pilgrimage, verse 54.

When the water

of God's wrath is coming down, he is a wise man that climbs to such a branch of the tree of life growing on the banks, and holds by it till the flood be over. Amen.

December 22, 1705.

ON THE Government of the TONGUE.

SERMON XXXVII.

JAMES iii. 6,

The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

THE keeping of the tongue is one of those duties, that entitles a man to safety from evil times, and therefore must now be urged as a seasonable duty. "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." The difficulty of this duty is such, that James saith, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." The wisest monarch could hardly govern a great part of the world; how difficult then must it be to govern a world, and that a world of iniquity. The tongue is a world of iniquity, a heap of evils; as in the world. many things are contained, so in the tongue.

I shall endeavour to make some discovery of this world of iniquity. As it is beyond my power, so it is not my design to make a full discovery of it. We must leave a void for the unknown parts of it. But behold a few of them: This world of iniquity is divided into two parts, undue silence, and sinful speaking. These are the higher and lower parts of this world, yet quickly may men travel from the one to the other. I shall speak of these in their order.

1. Undue silence, when the tongue rests idle, when God calls it to work. Our tongues are our glory, and should not be involved in a dark cloud of silence, when God calls them to shine forth.

1. Silence is unseasonable, when sin rageth and roareth. When men are dishonouring God, it is sad that our tongues should be nailed. When men declare their sin, as Sodom, it is sad that in our mouths there should be no reproofs. "Thou shalt in any wise

rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him." Our tongues testify that we are men, and they should shew we are Christians and in a covenant with God, offensive and defensive. "For the zeal of thine house," saith David, "hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee, are fallen upon me." By this undue silence, we are injurious to God, in that we do not vindicate his glory, bespattered with the sins of others. His glory, I say, who hath given us a tongue as a banner, to be displayed because of truth. To run away here with flying colours, doubles the dishonour of God; while he is once dishonoured by the sinner, and again, by the silent professor, Mark viii. 38.

This undue silence is also injurious to our neighbour. We see him pulling down the house about his ears, and yet we will not help him; selling his soul for a trifle, and yet we do not bid him rue his bargain. O horrid cruelty to stand with our tongues in silence, when the devil often casteth our neighbour into the fire.

It is injurious likewise, to ourselves, for thereby we adopt the devil's children brought forth by others, and set down their debts to our own account, Eph. v. 7-11. Other men's sins that we have occasioned, become ours, by silence, which gives consent; and the flame that burns up their house, will consume our own, if it be not quenched with a testimony against it. This silence also leaves a sting in our conscience, which remains inactive in the hearts of some for a while; but when the opportunity of bearing testimony against sin is gone, it bites dreadfully the hearts of those, whose consciences are not seared.

2. When an opportunity of edifying others inviteth us to speak, "let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth; but that which is good, to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the bearers." O what iniquity is contracted, by the neglect of heavenly discourse among professors. A dumb Christion is a very unprofitable servant. A philosopher seeing a man with a fair face and a silent tongue, bade him speak, that he might see him. When scholars or merchants meet, we know what they are by their discourse; and why should not Christians also discover themselves. When men of the same nation, meet in foreign countries, they speak the language of their own country. I will say but three things of this neglect:

1. Dumb Christians are very unlike Christ, whose ordinary way it was to spiritualize all things, and turn the current of the discourse toward heaven. This we see exemplified in every part of his history.

2. Either there is no religion at all, or but very little, in that