hand to produce a clear account, and fhew his receipt in full for the whole debt.-As to thy performances and obedience, they fall under a quite contrary clafs; as mere tokens of thy love and thankfulness to God. And, fo gracious is thy heavenly Father, that he accepts thy bent fixpence, and will not throw away thy crooked, broken mite. Love refuses nothing that love fends. Gurnall.

ACTIVITY.

Industry on our parts is not fuperfeded by the greatness and freeness of God's grace. As, when a fchoolmafter teaches a boy gratis, the youth cannot attain to learning, without fome application of his own; and yet it doth not therefore cease to be free, on the teacher's part, because attention is required from the learner; fo it is here. Arrowfmith.

AFFLICTION S.

Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.

Dr. Dodd of the last cent.

There is no affliction so small, but we should sink under it, if God upheld us not: and there is no fin fo great, but we fhould commit it, if God reftrained us not.

ibid.

A good old Scotch minifter used to say, to any of his flock, when they were labouring under affliction, "Time is fhort: and, if your crofs is heavy, you have not far to carry it."

When the grace of an afflicted faint is in exercise, his heart is like a garden of roles, or a well of rofewater, which, the more moved and agitated they are, the sweeter is the fragrance they exhale.

Anon.

As no temporal bleffing is good enough to be a fign of eternal election; fo no temporal affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of reprobation: for the deareft Son of God's love was a man of forrows and acquainted with grief. Dr. Arrowsmith.

Afflictions

Afflictions fcour us of our ruft. Adverfity, like winter weather, is of ufe to kill thofe vermine, which the fummer of profperity is apt to produce and nourish. Dr. Arrowsmith.

Every veffel of mercy must be fcoured, in order to brightness. And however trees in the wilderness may grow without culture; trees in the garden must be pruned, to be made fruitful: and corn-fields must be broken up, when barren heaths are left untouched.

ibid.

The Church below is often in a fuffering ftate. Christ himself was a man of forrows; nor fhould his bride be a wife of pleasures.

ibid. God may caft thee down, but he will not caft thee off. Mr. Cafe. Afflictions are bleffings to us, when we can blefs God for afflictions.

Dyer.

God had one Son without fin, but none without forrow: he had one Son without corruption, but no Son without correction.

ibid.

Christian, hath not God taught thee, by his word and fpirit, how to read the fhort-hand of his providence? Doft thou not know that the faint's afflictions ftand for bleffings?

Gurnall. Those whom God loves, he takes to pieces; and then puts them together again.

Anon.

Through Chrift's fatisfaction for fin, the very nature of affliction is changed, with regard to believers. As death, which was, at first, the wages of fin, is now become a bed of reft (they shall reft upon their beds, faith the prophet); fo afflictions are not the rod of God's anger, but the gentle phyfic of a tender Father. Dr. Crifp.

All the afflictions, that a faint is exercifed with, are neither too numerous, nor too fharp. A great

deal of ruft requires a rough file.

Mr. Mofes Browne, in converfation, Oct. 24, 1769. If we have the kingdom at laft, it is no great matter what we fuffer by the way.

Dr. Manton.

Nothing

Nothing can reconcile the foul to afflictive allotments, but looking on them as covenant-difpenfations. Mr. William Mason. David's pen never wrote more fweetly, than when dipt in the ink of affliction.

ibid.

When you see the refiner caft his gold into the furnace, do you think he is angry with the gold, and means to caft it away? No. He fits as a refiner. He ftands warily over the fire, and over the gold, and looks to it, that not one grain be lost. And, when the drofs is fevered, he will out with it prefently; it fhall be no longer there.

Crifp. Croffes and afflictions are God's call to examine our hearts and our lives.

Richardfon.

No affliction would trouble a child of God, if he but knew God's reafon for fending it.

ibid. Afflictions are as needful for our fouls, as food is for our bodies.

ibid.

The Lord's wife love feeds us with hunger, and makes us fat with wants and defertions. Rutherfoord.

It is a good fign, when the Lord blows off the bloffoms of our forward hopes in this life, and lops the branches of our worldly joys to the very root, on purpose that they fhould not thrive. Lord, fpoil my fool's heaven in this life, that I may be faved for ever! ibid.

ALL-MIGHTY.

99

Efto diabolus magnipotens; nunquam erit omnipotens," faith Luther: I confefs the Devil is all-mighty, but he will never be all-mighty, as my God and Saviour is. Arrowfmith.

ARMINIANS.

Arminians represent the universe as the governefs of God, inftead of reprefenting God as the governor of the universe. Mr. R. Hill, in con. March 6, 1770. The Pelagians and Arminians are for making nature find its legs. They perfuade man, that he can go alone to Chrift; or, at least, with a little ex

to

ternal help, of an hand to lead, or an argument to excite, without any creating work in the foul. Alas, for the blindness of nature! How falfe is all this stuff, and yet how glibly it goes down! Gurnall.

ASSURANCE.

Affurance of pardon is a free gift of God, as much as faith, or pardon itself. Arrowsmith. Nothing more enflames a Chriftian's love to God, than a firm belief of his perfonal election from eternity; after he hath been enabled to evidence the writing of his name in heaven, by the experience of an heavenly calling and of an heavenly converfation. When the spirit of God (whofe proper work it is to affure, as it was the Father's to elect, and the Son's to redeem) hath written the law of life in a Chriftian's heart, and caufed him to know affuredly that. his name is in the book of life; he cannot but melt. in fweet flames of holy affection. ibid.

ATTRACTIO N.

The loadftone draws all the iron and steel that comes near it, and alfo communicates of its own virtue to the iron it draws. Such a loadstone is Chrift. He draws many after him, and, when he has drawn them, communicates his own virtue to them; fo that they become ufeful to others: as a magnetic needle attracts other needles, by virtue of the power itself has received.

AVENGE.

When true grace is under the foot of a temptation, it will, even then, stir up a vehement defire of revenge, like a prifoner in the enemy's hand, who is thinking and plotting how to get out; waiting and longing, every moment, for an opportunity of deliverance, that he may again take up arms. God, remember me,' faith Sampfon, "this once, I pray thee; and ftrengthen me, that I may be avenged on the Philiftines, for my two eyes," Judges

66

xvi. 27. Thus prays the gracious foul, that God. would fpare him and ftrengthen him, that he may be avenged for his pride, unbelief, and all those fins, by which he has difhonoured God.

BANISHMEN T.

Gurnall.

There goes a rumour, that I am to be banished. And let it come, if God fo will. The other fide of the fea is my Father's ground, as well as this fide. Rutherfoord.

BELIEVE R.

The weakest believer shall partake of fuch hidden things, fuch excellencies of Chrift, as all the world fhall never be able to dive into, reach, nor comprehend. Crifp. A believer, in a poor condition, refembles a fine and valuable picture in a broken frame. Jenkin. Men are believers, because they are elected; not elected because they are believers.

Sladen. [Believers do, in general, with to experience little elfe but the fweet nefs and comforts of religion; whence Mr. Rutherfoord fays of him felf]

I am like a child that hath a golden book, and playeth chiefly with the ribbons, and the gilding, and the picture in the first page; inftead of reading the more profitable contents.

BELIEVING.

To believe the gospel, is but to give God credit for being wifer than ourselves.

Madan. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of thy own to it, and thou spoileft it. Wilcox.

BESTOW MEN T.

God is not only the rewarder, but is himself the reward, of his faints. A king may enrich his fub

jects