SERMON XXXII. 445 vglorious support to the fearful soul. Several of his Psalms are tilled with the same heavenly cordials. You can hardly find three of them together, without some triumphs of faith in them. Ín the writings of the evangelists, and in the epistles you may read many precious promises scattered abroad, to allay your fears. Lt the second and third chapters of the Revelation, they stand thick as the spangles of heaven: They sparkle like stars in the firmament at midnight, and they ever shine brightestin the darkest sky. It is withunknown pleasure that the soul of a christian contemplates and'surveys those heavenly lights in the most gloomy and dismal hours, and,they turn the shadows of death into morning. Though it is of excellent use, to have the mindandmemory well stored with the various promises of the covenant, yet in some special seasons of trial, it is of eminent advantage to keep the mind and thoughts fixed upon some single promise, that is most suited to the present danger or suffering ; and to the present taste and relish of the soul. In such a season, the running speedily from one promise to another, and skimming over them with a slight smvey, will not be so effectual a relief; as fixing upon some peculiar and proper word of grace, and living upon it for a whole day together. Thus every morning you may take some new comforter with you, and let it abide upon your heart all day, and it will whisper to your soul with divine sweetness in the dark and solitary watches of the night. When some special terror possesses your thoughts, and the heavy oppression returns often upon your spirits, or when any fresh assault comes on you from without or within, fly to the word you have chosen for your refuge; repeat it, often, and cleave to, it by meditation. The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe; Prov. xviii. 10. And remember God has magnified his own word above all the rest of his name ; Ps. cxxxviii. 2. Try this method, it has been successfuland well approved, andI doubt not but that you will be able to attest the success of it through the aids of divine grace. III. Preserve the spirit of prayer always in exercise, and the spirit of fortitude will descend on you. Address the throne of God with earnestness and faith, and cry to the Lord the God of your salvation without ceasing. It is he gives spirits to re- new the battle, when we are almost tired and grow weary; Is. xl. 28, 29. He gives courage in the midst of terrors, fbr he can preserve and secure us in the extremest perils. We despaired of life, saith the apostle, and had the sentence of death in ourselves, but we were delivered, for we trusted in him that raiseth the 'dead; 2 Cor. i. 8, 9, 10. It is he that repels the most imminent dan- ger, it is he that rebukes the spirit offear, and givesus the spirit
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