FOR we are made Partakers of Chrift, if we hold the Begin! ning of our Confidence ftedfaft unto the End, Heb. iii. 14.

What Oppofition to Sin ought the Part we have in Chrift to produce in us? For in vain do we flatter ourselves that we are admitted to a Communion of his Grace and of all the Bleffings he has purchased for us by his precious Blood, unless we perfe vere therein. If to subsist in Chrift, to be washed in his Blood, to be animated with his Spirit, and to be nourished with his Fleth, is only a rough Draught, a Sketch, a Seed of that which we are one Day to be in Him, good God! how can we poffibly fet our Affections upon the Earth? How can we for fo small a Trifle hazard fo vaft a Felicity?

Help me, Saviour, to hold faft

My Confidence in Thee, Art thou not the first and last,

Who lov'd and dy'd for me?

Thou, on whom I dare depend,

Wilt fill me with the Life divine, Love me ftill when Time shall end, Thro' endless Ages mine.

WHILE it is faid, To-day if ye will hear his Voice, harden not your Hearts, as in the Provocation, Heb. iii. 15.

Let us take Care, that this To-day, wherein God speaks to us in his Mercy, be not followed, in refpect to us, by a To-morrow of Silence, of Wrath, and of Indignation. Difobedience, Forgetfulness of God's Benefits, the Remembrance and the Defire of the falfe Delights of Egypt, led the Jews to Hardness of Heart. Let us take Care not to fall into the fame Misfortune, by the fame Degrees.

The Lord JEHOVAH calls,

Be ev'ry Ear inclin'd,
May fuch a Voice awake each Heart,
And captivate the Mind.
If He in Thunder fpeaks,
Earth trembles at his Nod;

But gentle Accents here proclaim
The condescending GOD.
Almighty God, pronounce

The Word of conqu'ring Grace;
So fhall the Flint diffolve to Tears,
And Scorners feek thy Face.

Nov. 5.

L

ET

every Soul be fubject unto the higher Powers. For there is no Power but of God: The Powers that be, are ordained of God, Rom. xiii. 1.

To own and acknowledge the Sovereignty of Princes, their Authority, in their Officers and in the fubordinate Magiftrates, and the Obedience which is due to them. Both are of divine Right. Let every Soul, both Clergy and Laity be fubject by a hearty Submiffion. Let us not confider their perfonal Failings, which proceed from themselves, but their Power and Authority which proceeds from GOD, and is always good. The King has no Perfon fuperior to him but GoD only, GoD is the first Majefty, the King the fecond. His Crown is independent on all created Power. No Arms are to be used against a King, but Sighs and Prayers; no other Refistance to Authority is lawful, but the powerful Tears of Piety, the gentle Endeavours of Pity, and the holy Violence of Submission and Humility.

Honour the King, who God adore,
The King his Place fuftains,
As Image of his awful Power,
As God's Vicegerent reigns :

And when the King of Kings, and Lord

Of Lords, from Heaven comes down He fhall our Royal Zeal reward

With an immortal Crown.

WE fee that they could not enter in, because of Unbelief,

Heb. iii. 19.

As there was no Land of Promife for the Jews, who obeyed not the Voice of God speaking by Mofes, fo there is no Salvation for Chriftians who obey not the Voice of God, who fpeaks to us by his own Son. God fwears this; and yet we do not believe him. The Event will make known, but too late, as it did to the Jews, what it is not to hearken to the Voice of God. Lord Jefus, do Thou continually take away this Heart of Unbelief, for to be accounted a believer by my Fellow Creatures it is not fufficient: Give me therefore a firm Faith on Thee, that works by Love, that purifies the Heart, that gains Admittance into the eternal Reft which remains for the People of God.

And let my Carcass fall
Here in this Wilderness,

So Thou my Soul in Mercy call,
And bid me die in Peace.

For my Rebellion paft,

Condemn'd 'till Death I rove, But give me to behold at last Immanuel's Land above.

NOW the Juft fhall live by Faith; but if any Man draw back, my Soul fhall have no Pleasure in him, Heb. x.

38.

Faith makes us belong to God, if it makes us love him; it justifies us, if it makes us imitate him; it makes us live, if it lives itself. In a Word, the Juft lives by his Faith, if he lives according to his Faith. We rely upon the Word of a Man of Honour; we part with our Subftance upon a little Credit; and yet we are afraid to advance any Thing upon the Word of God, and upon the Letters of the eternal, infallible, and Almighty Truth. Let us believe, upon the Teftimony of the Scriptures, that the good and the evil Things of this Life are only a Dream, that none are really fuch but thofe which are eternal, and that Eternity is at Hand; and then our Faith will make us live in cleaving to God alone, All the paft is counted for nothing, unless Perfeverance fecure the future.

But may the righteous Man, Who lives by Faith divine, Receive the faving Grace in vain, And from his God decline ?

His God he can forfake,

With Sin again comply,

Perdition's Son, he can draw back,
And unrepenting die,