out? All these are the occafions of our warfare, but thou haft made thy grace fufficient for them all.'

There are many other meditations among his writings of the nature and power of our paffions, and the methods of governing them; which fhew, that he kept fo fevere an eye over them, that he not only conquered his greater corruptions, but pursued his leffer failings with a moft active zeal; and being never fatisfied with his prefent attainments in religion, went on continually from one degree of piety to another, till all ended at last in glory.

The confequence of his victory over his paffions and defires, his humility and meeknefs, and deadnefs to the world, was thorough contentment of mind with his fortune and eftate. He had too juft fentiments of this world, not to be above the fordid fin of covetoufnefs, which he knew only in notion; as I might prove from many of his meditations against it, of which I fhall infert only two, which are as follows.

Free from the fin of covetouf.

nefs.

"Take heed and beware of covetoufnefs: • man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Bread, the ftaff of life, will not fuftain a man without God's bleffing; much lefs will riches, which make themselves wings and fly away. Take heed, my foul, of faying, this gain, or that fum, will furnith

thee

thee with a competency, or fubfiftence. This is too like the foolish householder's calculation, "Soul, thou haft goods laid up for many years.' Confider that riches avail nothing in themfelves, to procure the end men hoped for by them, being so easily loft or blafted; and that without a flock of thefe, God can make sufficient provision for thee from day to day: this thought will keep thee from being too intent on worldly advantages, and make thee more indifferent to gain, and by confequence, more difpofed to charity.

Take heed of thinking to lay in for a fiege againft Providence, and to fence thyfelf against him by abundance of outward provifion: rather throw down thy walls, and caft thy felf naked on his mercy; and he will be thy more fure defence, he will be to thee inftead of walls and bulwarks.

• Obferve thy good humours, take thy felf in the fits of charity. Art thou difpofed at any time to give largely? Do it out of hand, left the grace of God withdraws, and thou groweft cool in thy good purposes. No man ever repented of his charity, though it might feem to have been in excefs. Be it never fo large, affure thy felf thou wilt rejoice in having done it; even at a time when thou haft not heart or grace enough to 'do it, were it then to do.

And why fhouldeft thou defire poffeffions in this world? Sometimes thou art able

' to

to flight them, and fometimes thou forgetteft thyself, and thinkeft them fine things. Why fhouldeft thou have footing here? Look up to Heaven, fee if that abode (to which thou haft a title, as to an inheritance, when ‹ for God's fake thou dost despise this earth,) be not more glorious than the moft magni, ❝ficent earthly structure. God hath not thought fit thou fhouldeft be born to thefe; why then shouldest thou fix thy heart upon them? God has made thee loose to the • world; keep thy felf so, and think his pro•vidence a better provision, than any fund ⚫ of riches thou canst heap up or fave,

And then for pofterity, remember, that notwithstanding Abraham's numerous pro6 geny, "They are not all Ifrael, which are • born of Ifrael; neither because they are the feed of Abraham, are they all children:" but they are the true children of Abraham, • who follow his faith; and fuch, even out of ftones, were raised up to him. So that it is no matter for a worldly fucceffion; we live by faith, not by fenfe: we fpeak the language, and have regard to the ftate of the other world. Lift up then my foul thine eyes to the everlafting hills; con• template the ftate of the other world; and Our forget these transitory things below.

• converfation, our citizenship is in heaven; let us mind the customs of our country, and not be conformed to the vain fashions of this world.

• And

And do thou, O God, who inspirest the hearts of thy fervants with grace to seek thee, and draweft them after thee, ftay up my foul upon thy felf; keep it above the world; let it converfe with that heavenly 'country which thou haft revealed to it, and grow more and more acquainted with its • bleffed cuftoms; that it may become a • natural denizen of it, by breathing the air, • fpeaking the language, and having all its faculties influenced by the fpirit and genius of that happy feat. Let me with great unwillingness defcend to the concerns of 'this world, left I grow familiarized to it, and forget my own country; which yet is not mine, but as thou, my God, art pleased to make it fo. Thou who haft adopted me into it, art only able to keep me a living • member of it; let not my unworthiness • make thee repent of the favour thou haft granted me; perfect thy own mercy, and let me not live but to glorify thy clemency: ⚫ and that for the fake of the bleffed king of thofe heavenly manfions; who being the life and light of the whole region, fills all the bleffed inhabitants of it with joy, and peace, and love, and wonder, and neverceafing praises; the Lamb who was flain for us, and purchased us with his blood, the Son of thy love, the Lord Jefus Chrift. • Amen.'

Here follows the other meditation upon the fame argument.

• I have

'I have often dreamt to have found

great

riches, or to have been in much trouble, when yet I have known myself to have 'been in a dream, and have faid to myself. Though I hug these treasures ever fo' much, I fhall not be able to keep them, they will vanish before morning, and I shall awaken without them. So alfo when I have • been in fear and much trouble, I have faid to myself, Come, let me ftrive to awaken " out of this troublesome dream, and have' ' awoke upon it; but then it has been at ' miferable delufion, and a grievous trouble; when I have thought all real, and have not known it to be a dream, then my fleep has • been profound indeed.

• What is this world, O my foul, is it aný more than a dream? Thou art happy when thou canst know it fo, then thy fenfes are awake. But fadly art thou immerst in fenfe, when thou takeft it for a reality, thy ⚫ carnal flumber is then too profound.

с

Are

not our true fenfes as much opprest with the clog of this body of fin, as our vital fenfes are by fleep? Can it be other than a dream, when we are fubject to so many thoufand delufions in our opinions of things, and to fuch frequent forgetfulness of our true awakened ftate in another world? Sin, O fin, is a profound fleep, and grace brings fome degree of awakedness, to let us know that here we are but in a dream, and fee but dufkifhly and in part. The

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