monly die in the cradle : they are like some fruit gathered green, which soon rots. Is it riches that is thus got ? Some are said to make haste to get rich, Prov. xxviii. 20. They cannot, by a reasonable diligence in their particular calling, and exercise of godliness, wait upon God ; no, the promise doth not gallop fast enough for them ; on, thererefore, they spur, and by base practices make haste to be rich. But God makes as much haste to melt their estate, as they to gather it. No care and providence of man will keep that estate from God's ciu'se, which is got by so sinful a pursuit, Prov. xiii. 11 : ' Wealth gotten by vanity' (that is, vain, imwarrantable courses,) ' shall be diminished.' Like the unsound fat which great drinkers and greedy eaters gain to themselves, it hath in it that which will hasten its ruin, Prov. xxi. 6 : 'The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.' The meaning is, such estates are tossed like a ball from one to another, and are not likely to stay so long in any hand, till they come into the godly man's, whom God often by his providence makes heir to such men's riches, as you may see, Job xxii. 17 ; Eccles. ii. 2(5. Again, is it comfort and inward joy ? Some make too much haste for this ; they are not like other Christians, who have a wet seed-time, and are content to wait for joy till harvest, or at least, till it be in some forwardness; and the seed of grace, which was sown in tears of humili- ation, appears above ground in such solid evidences, as in some degree to satisfy them concerning the reality and truth of the same. Then indeed the sincere Christian's spirit begins to cheer vip, and his comfort holds, yea, increaseth more and more, Prov. xiii. 9 : ' The light of the righteous rejoiceth ;' that is, over all his fears and doubts. But tliere are others so hasty, that they are catching at comfort, before ever they were led into acquaintance with godly sorrow. They are delivered without pain, and their faith flames forth into the joy of assurance, before any smoke of doubtings and fears were seen to rise in their hearts; but, alas ! it is as soon lost as got, like a too forward, nipping spring, that makes the husbandman weep at harvest, or a fair sunshiny day in winter, that is the breeder of many foul ones after it. The stony ground hearer is an instance for this, Mark iv., whose joy was as quickly doAvn as up. A storm of persecution or temptation comes, and immediately he is offended. In a word, take but one instance more, and that is in point of deliverance. Such hasty spirits, as cannot wait for the promise to open their prison-door, and God to give them a release in his time, but break out of prison, and by some unwarrantable practice wind themselves out of trouble, we see how miserably they befool themselves ; for while they think, by the midwifery of their sinful policy, to hasten their deliverance, they kill it in the birth, which, had it come in God's time, might have stayed many a fair day with them. The Jews are a sad instance of this, who, though God gaVe them such full security for their deliverance from the Babylonian hand, would yet take their own course, hoping, it seems, to compass it sooner by policy than they could expect it to be effected by Providence, and therefore to Egypt they went in all haste, not doubting but they should thence bring their deliverance ; but, alas ! it proved far otherwise ; for all they got was to have more links added to their chain of bondage, and their lordly masters to use greater rigour upon them, which God by his prophet bids them thank their own hasty, imbelieving spirits for: ' Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In retiu-ning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength, and ye would not,' Isa. xxx. 25. Indeed, if we look on such as have quietly waited by hope for God's coming to their help, we shall find they ever speed well. Joshua, who bore up against all discouragements from God and man, stedfastly believing, and patiently waiting for the land God had promised, did he not live to walk over their graves in the wilderness, that would have turned back to Egypt ; and to be witness to their destructibn also, who presumptuously went up the hill to fight the enemy, and take the land (as they vainly hoped) before God's time was come ? Yea, did not he at last divide the land, and lay his bones in a bed of honour, after he had lived to see the promise of God happily performed to his people ? So David, whose hope and patience were admirable in waiting for the kingdom, after he had the promise of it, especially if we consider what fair opportunities he had to take cruel Saul out of the way, whose life alone stood between him and the throne; neither did he want matter to fill up a declaration for the satisfaction and pacifying the minds of the
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