provoking to him that he threatens them to lead them into captivity for not considering of them. But above all look to the work that God is carrying on in your souls. Not a soul but he is carrying on soma work or other in it, either blinding or enlightening, bettering or worstening ; and therefore look to what God is doing in thy soul. All the motions of God within you are steps to eternity, and every soul shall be blessed or cursed, saved or lost to all eternity, not according to out- ward dispensations, but accoixling to the inward operations of God in your souls. Observe what humbling work, reforming work, sanctifying work, he is about in thy spirit ; what he is doing in that little world within thee. If God should carry on never so glorious a work in the world, as a conquest of the nations to Christ, what would it advantage thee if sin, Satan, and the world should triumph in thy soul, and carry the day there.
Leg. 18. Look as well on the bright side as on the dark side of the cloud ; on the bright side of providence as well as on the dark side of. providence. Beloved, there is a great weakness amongst Christians ; they do so pore on the dark side of the providence as that they have no heart to consider of the bright side. If you look on the dark side of the providence of God to Joseph, how terrible and amazing was it ! but if you look on the bright side, his fourscore years' reign, how glorious was it ! If you look on the dark side of the providence of God to David, in his five years' banishment, much will arise to startle you ; but if you turn to the bright side, his forty years' reign in glory, how amiable was it ! Look on the dark side of the providence of God to Job, oh, how terrible was it in the first of Job I but compare this with the last of Job, where you have the bright side of the cloud, and there God doubles all his mercies to him. Consider the patience of Job, and the end that the Lord made with him. Do not remember the beginning only, for that was the dark side ; but turn to the end of him, and there was his bright side. Many sins, many temptations, and much affliction would be prevented by Christians looking on the bright side of providence as well as on the dark.
Leg. 19. Keep up precious thoughts of God under the sourest, sharpest, and severest dispensations of God to you : Ps. xxii. 1-3, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring ? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not ; and in the night season, and am not silent.' There was the psalmist under smart dispensations, but what precious thoughts had he of God after all : ' But thou art holy, O thou that in- habitest the praises of Israel : though I am thus and thus afflicted, yet thou art holy ;' Ps. lxv. 5, ' By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.
Leg. 20. Hold on and hold out in the ways of well-doing, in the want of all outward encouragements, and in the face of all outward dis- couragements. It is nothing to hold out when we meet with nothing but encouragements ; but to hold out in the face of all discouragements is a Christian duty : Ps. xliv., ' Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death, yet have we not dealt falsely in thy covenant : our heart is not turned back, neither have we declined from thy ways.' It is perseverance that crowns all : ' Be thou faithful to the death, and I will give thee a crown
APPENDIX TO MEMOIR. lxvii
of life,' Rev. ii. 10 ; 'And he that endureth to the end shall be saved,' Mat. xxiv. It is perseverance in well-doing that crowns all our actions. If you have begun in the Spirit, don't end in the flesh ; do not go away from the Captain of your salvation ; follow the Lamb, though others follow the beast and the false prophets.
Leg. 21. In all your natural, civil, and religious actions, let divine glory still rest on your souls, Rom. xiv. 7, 8, 1 Cor. x. 31. In all your bearings, in all your prayings, let the glory of Christ carry it ; in all your closet duties, let the glory of Christ lie nearest your hearts.
Leg. 22. Record all special favours, mercies, providences, and experi- ences. It is true, a man should do nothing else, should he record all the favours and experiences of God towards him ; and therefore my legacy is, record all special favours, peculiar experiences. Little do you know the advantage that will redound to your soul upon this account by recording all the experiences of the shinings of his face, of the leadings of his Spirit. Many a Christian loseth much by neglecting this duty.
Leg. 23. Never enter upon the trial of your estate, but when your hearts are at the best, and in the fittest temper. It is a great design of Satan, when the soul is deserted and strangely afflicted, to put the soul on trying work. Come, see what thou art worth for another world, what thou hast to shew for a better state, for an interest in Christ, a title for heaven. This is not a time to be about this work. Thy work is now to get off from this temptation, and therefore to pray and believe, and wait upon God, and to be found in all those ways whereby you may get off the temptation.
Leg. 24. Always make the Scripture, and not yourselves, nor your carnal reason, nor your bare opinion, the judges of your spiritual state and condition. I- cannot see my condition to be good. I cannot perceive it. What ! must your sense and your carnal reason be the judge of your spiritual state ? Isa, viii. 20, ' To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this rule, it is because there is no light, no morning in them ;' John xii. 48, ' The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you in the last day.' The Scripture is that which must determine the'case in the great day, whether you have grace or no, or whether it be true or no.
Leg. 25. Make much conscience of making good the terms on which you closed with Christ. You know the terms, how that you would deny yourselves, take up his cross, and follow the Lamb wheresoever he should go. Now you are put to take up the cross, to deny yourselves, to follow the Lamb over hedge and ditch, through thick and thin. Do not turn your backs on Christ ; the worst of Christ is better than the best of the world. Make conscience of making good your terms, to deny yourself, your natural self, your sinful self, your religious self, to follow him ; and if you do so, oh ! what an honour will it be to Christ, and advan- tage to your souls, and a joy to the upright !
Leg. 26. Walk by no rule but such as you dare die by and stand by in the great day of Jesus Christ. You may have many ways prescribed to worship by ; but walk by none but such as you dare die by, and stand by, before Jesus Christ. Walk not by a multitude, for who dare stand by that rule when he comes to die %
Make not the example of great men a rule to go by, for who dare die