applause, it may be, and rear up a monument to thy honour in the opinions of men ; thou dost no more in this case than a soldier, who for the name of valour will venture into the mouth of danger and death ; only thou shewest thy pride under a religious disguise ; yet that helps it not, but makes it the worse. If thou wilt in thy sufferings be a sacrifice acceptable to God, thoii must not only be ready to offer up thy life for his truth, but sacrifice thy pride also, or else thou mayest tumble out of one fire into another ; suffer here from man, as a seeming champion for the gospel, and in another world from God, for robbing him of his glory in thy sufferings.
Section III. — A third privilege is, "When God flows in with more than ordinary manifestations of his love ; then the Christian is in danger of having his heart secretly lifted up in pride. Indeed, the genuine and natvu-al effect, which such discoveries of Divine love have on a gracious soul, is to himible it. The sight of mercy increaseth the sense of sin, and that sense dissolves the soul kindly into sorrow, as we see in Magdalen. The heart which possibly was hard and frozen in the shade, will give and thaw in the sunshine of love, and so long all pride is hid from the creature's eye. 'Then,' saith God, Ezek. xxxvi. 31, 'ye shall remember your ways and your doings, that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight,' &c. And when shall this be, but when God would save them fi'om all their uncleanness ? as appears ver. 25 ; yet notwithstanding this, there remain such dregs of corruption vmpurged out of the best, that Satan finds it not impossible to make the manifestations of God's love an occasion of pride to the Christian : and tndy God lets us see our proneness to this sin in the short stay he makes, when he comes with any greater discoveries of his love. The Comforter, it is true, abides for ever in the saint's bosom, but his joys come, and are gone again quickly. They are choice viands, with which he feasts the believer, but the cloth is soon drawn ; and why so ? but because we cannot bear them for our every-day food. A short interview of heaven, and a vision of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance or affliction, cheers the spirits of drooping Christians, who, might they have leave to build tabernacles there, and dwell under a constant shine of such manifestations, would be prone to forget themselves, and think they were lords of their own comforts. If holy Paul was in danger of falling into this distemper of pride from his short rapture, (to prevent which, God saw it needful to let him blood with a thorn in the flesh,) would not our blood much more grow too rank, and we too crank and wanton, if we should feed long on such luscious food ? And therefore, if ever, Christian, thou hadst need to watch, then is the time when comforts abound, and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love ; when his face shines with clearest manifestations ; lest this sin of pride, as a thief in the candle, should extinguish thy joy. To prevent which, thou shouldst do well, first, to look that thou measurest not thy grace by thy comfort, lest so thou shouldst be led into a false opinion that thy grace is strong, because thy comforts are so. Satan will be ready to help forward such thoughts as a fit mediimi to lift thee up, and slacken thy care in duty for the future. Such discoveries do indeed bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree and measure of it : the weak child may be, yea, is oftener in the lap than the strong. Secondly, do not so much applaud thyself in thy present comfort, as labour to improve it for the glory of God. 'Up, and eat,' saith the angel to the prophet, 'because the journey is too great for thee.' The manifestations of God's love are to fit us for our work. It is one thing to rejoice in the light of our comfort, and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit comforting us, as giants refreshed with this wine, to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity. He shews his pride that spends his time in telling his money merely to see how rich he is ; but he his wisdom that lays out his money and trades with it. The boaster of his com- forts will lose what he hath, . when he that improves his comforts in a fuller trade of duty shall add more to what he hath. Thirdly, remember thou dependest on God for the continuance of thy comfort. They are not the smiles thou hadst yesterday can make thee joyous to-day, any more than the bread thou didst then eat can make thee strong without more ; thou needest new dis- coveries for new comforts : let God hide his face, and thou wilt soon lose the sight and forget the taste of what thou even now hadst. It is beyond our skill
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