prison is, when he is set at liberty, that he may visit his friends, and follow his calling. The only grievous thing to a lovhig soul is to be hindered in his obe- dience : this is that which makes such a one out of love with the woi-ld, and being in it, because it cumbers him in his work, and many times keeps him from it. As a conscionable, faithful servant, that is lame or sickly, and can do his master little service, O how it grieves him ! Thus the loving soul bemoans itself, that it should put God to so much cost, and be so unprofitable under it. Speak, is this thy temper? Blessed art thou of the Lord ! there is a jewel of two diamonds, which this will prove thou art owner of, that the crown jewels, of all the princes of the world, are not so worthy to be valued with, as a heap of dust or dung is to be compared with them. Tlie jewel I mean is made of this pair of graces, — faith and love : they are thine, and with them God and all that he hath and is. But if the commandments of God be grievous, (as they are to every carnal heart,) and thou countest thyself at ease, when thou canst make an escape from a duty to commit a sin, as the beast doth, when his collar is off, and he in his fat pasture again, now thou art where thou wouldst be, and can shew some spirits that thou hast ; but when conscience puts on the trace again, thou art dull and heavy again ; O ! it speaks thee to have no love to God, and therefore no faith on God that is true. That is a jade indeed who hath no metal but in the pasture.
Secondly, The obedience of faith is full of self-denial. Faith keeps the creature low in what he hath, as in what he doth. ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' Gal. ii. 10. As if he had said, I pray, mistake me not; when I say, I live, I mean not that I live by myself, or of myself, but Christ in me. I live, and that deliciously ; but it is Christ that keeps the house, not I. I mortify my corruptions, and vanquish temptations, but I am debtor to Christ for the sti-ength. None can write here, as one did under Pope Adrian's statue, (where the place of his birth is named, and those princes that had preferred him from step to step, till he mounted the pope's chair, but God left out of all the story,) Nihil hie Dens fecit ; 'God did nothing for this man.' No, Paul, and in him every believer, acknowledgeth God for sole founder and benefactor too, of all the good he hath and doth. They are not ashamed to acknowledge who they are beholden to for all. ' These are the children which God hath graciously given me,' said Jacob ; and these the services which God hath graciously assisted me in, saith Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 10: ' I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me :' all is ex dono Dei. O how chary are saints of writing themselves authors of their own good works, parts, or abilities! ' Art thou able,' said the king to Daniel, 'to make known unto me the dream which I have seen?' Dan. ii. 26. Now mark, he doth not say, as the proud astrologers, chap. ii. 4, ' We will shew the interpretation :' that fitted their mouths well enough who had no acquaint- ance with God, but not Daniel's, the servant of the living God: though at that very time he had the secret revealed to him, and could tell the king his dream, yet he was careful to stand clear from any filching of God's glory from him ; and therefore he answers the king, by telling him what his God could do rather than himself: '"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,' &c. And what makes Daniel so self-denying ? Truly it was because he had obtained this secret of God by faith at the throne of grace, as you may perceive by chap. ii. ver. 15, 16, 17, compared. That faith which taught him to beg the mercy of God, enabled him to deny himself, and give the entire glory of it from himself to God. As rivers empty their streams again into the bosom of the sea, whence they at first received them, so men give the praise of what they do unto that by which they do it. If they attempt any enterprize with their own wit, or industry, you shall have them bring their sacrifice to their wit or net. No wonder to hear Nebuchadnezzar, who looked no higher than himself in build- ing his great Babylon, ascribe the honour of it to himself, Dan. iv. 30 : ' Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' But faith tea cheth the creature to blot out his own name, and write the name of God in its room upon all he hath and doth. When the servants, Luke xix. 16, came to give up their accounts to their lord, every one for his pound, those that were faithful to improve it, how humbly and self- denyingly do they speak! ' Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds,' saith the
ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4 J.f)