place tliyself here awhile, and it were strange if the Spirit should not shake some fruit from one branch or another into tliy lap. Thou knowest not, hut as Isaac met his bride when he went into the fields to meditate, so thou mayest meet thy beloved, while walking by thy meditations in this garden of the promises.
Section III. — Lastly, Press and in-gc thy soul home with that strong obligation that lies upon thee, a poor humbled sinner, to believe. Possibly God hath shamed thee in the sight of thy own conscience for other sins, that thou loathest the very thought of them, and diu-st as well run thy head into the fire, as allow thj-self in them. If thou shoiddst wrong thy neighbour in his person, name, or estate, it would kindle a fire in thy conscience, and make thee afraid to look within doors, (converse, I mean, with thy own thoughts,) till thou hadst repented of it ; and is faith the only indifferent thing, a business left to thy own choice, whether thou wilt be so good to thyself, as to believe or no? Truly the tenderness of conscience which many humbled sinners express, in trembling at, and smiting them for other sins, compared with the little sense they express for this of imbelief, speaks as if they thought they offended God in them, and only wronged themselves by this their unbelief. O how greatly art thou deceived and abused in thy own thoughts, if these be thy apprehensions ; yea, if thou dost not think thou dishonourest God, and oflendest him in a more ti-an- scendent manner by thy unbelief, than by all thj' other sins. What Bernard saith of a hard heart, I may say of an unbelieving heart : lUud cor vere chinim, quod non trepldat ad nomen cordis diiri. That is a hard heart indeed, saith he, that trembles not at the name of a hard heart. And that an unbelieving heart indeed, that trembles not at the name of an unbelieving heart. Call thyself, O man, to the bar, and hear what thy soul hath to say for its not closing with Christ, and thou slialt then see what an unreasonable reason it will give. It must be cither because thou likest not the terms, or else because thou fearest they are too good ever to be performed. Is the first of these thy reason, because thou likest not the terms on which Christ is offered ? Possibly mightest thou but have had Christ- and thy lust with him, thou wouldst have been better pleased; but to part with thy lusts to gain a Christ, this thou thinkest is a hard saying. It is strange this should offend thee, which God could not have left out, and truly have loved us. Thou art a sot, a devil, if thou dost not think thy sins the worst piece of thy misery. O what is Christ Avorth in thy thoughts, if thou darest not trust him to recompense the loss of a base lust ? That man values gold little, who thinks he shall pay too dear for it by throwing the dirt or dimg out of his hands, with which they are fidl, to receive it. Well, sinner, the terms for having Christ, it seems, content thee not ; ask then thy soul how the terms on which thou boldest thy lusts like thee ; canst thou, thinkest thou, better spare the blissful presence of God and Christ in hell, where thy lusts, if thou boldest of this mind, are sure enough to leave thee at last, than the com- pany of thy lust sin heaven, whither faith in Christ would as certainly bring thee? Then take thy choice, and leave it for thy work in hell to repent of thy folly. But I should think if thou wovddst be so faithful to thyself, as to state the case right, and then seriously acquaint thy soul with it, giving it time and leisin-e to dwell upon it daily, that thou wouldst soon come to have better thoughts of Christ, and worse of thy sins. But may be, this is not the reason that keeps thee from believing; the terms thou likest highly ; but it cannot enter into thy heart to think that ever such great things as are promised should be performed to such a one as thou art. Well, of the two, it is better that the rub in thy way to Christ should lie in the difficulty that thy understanding finds to conceive, than in the obstinacy of thy will not to receive what God in Christ offers ; but this nuist be removed also. And, therefore, fall to v.'ork with thy soul, and labour to bring it to reason in this particular; for, indeed, nothing can be more irrational, than to object against the reality and certainty of God's promises. Two things well wrought on thy soul, would satisfy thy doubts and scatter thy fears tis to this. First, Labour to get a right notion of God in thy luiderstanding, and it will not ajipcar strange at all that a great God should do so great things for poor sinners. If a beggar shoidd promise you a thousand poimds a year, you might indeed slight it, and ask where he should have it; but if a prince should promise more, you would listen after it, because he hath an estate that bears proportion to his promise. God is not engaged for more by
4(52 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH.