PART II. SERMON X. I55 faith and dependanee, among his sighs and groans, and commit his case afresh to Jesus his Saviour, with a humble and a holy ;acquiescence in him. Christ himself; who is the believer's life, must know and will'take care of all affairs which relate to his spiritual and eternal welfare. It is a matter of sweet consolation too, when a humble chris- tian, who walks carefully before God, is reproached' by the world - for a deceiver and a hypocrite, that he can appeal to God, with whom his life is hid, and say, " My record is on high; though my friends, or my enemies, may scorn or deride me, yet he know- eth the way that I take, and the secret exercises of my hidden. life : He knows my longings and breathings of soul after him, Mid that nothingbut his love can satisfy me : He knows my dili- genceand my holy labour to please him He knows the wrest lings and the conflicts that I go throughhourly, to maintain my close walking with my God : He knows that I live, though it is but a feeble life ; and the charges of the world against me are false and malicious," Itis witha relish of holy pleasure that the Christian sometimes, in secret, appeals to our Lord Jesus Christ, $s Peter did, and says, Lord, thou Who knoreest all things, knowest chat I love thee, John xxi. 17. IIId,Consolation. It is a matter of unspeakable comfort to a christian, that the most terrible things to a sinner, are become the greatest blessings to a saint : And these are death and judg> jment. What can be more dreadful to those who know not God than those two words are ; for they put an eternal end to all their present pleasures, and to all their hopes. But what greater hap- piness can saint wish or hope for, than death and judgment will put him in possession of? The one carries his soul upward 'where his life is, that is, to God and Christ in heaven ; the other brings his life down to earth, where his body is, for Christ shall then còtne to raise his dust from the grave. I confess, I finished my former discourse on this text, with a meditation on death and judgment ; how the gloom which hung around the saint in this life, is all dispelled at that blessed hour; and hewho was unknown and despised among men, stands forth' with honour amongst admiring angels : His hidden manner of life is for ever it an end. But in this discourse the secret and glorious springs of his life, viz. God and Christ, will naturally leadus to the same delightful meditationsof futurity, as the hid- den manner of it has done ; and there is sd rich a variety of new and transporting scenes and ideas attending that subject, that I have no need to tire you with unpleasing repetition, though sume the glorious theme. Let my consolations proceed then, and let the saints rejoice. At the moment -of death, the soul may say, Farewel, for
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