ness of desires after a better state, is a common corruption that is apt to rise up under special enjoyments. If the disciples be on the mount of transfiguration, and Christ be glorified in their sight, and glorified saints from heaven in his company; then it is good to be here, say they; not minding that which was more needful for them and all the church. And if they heard (as is most likely) the discourse of Moses and Elias concerning the decease of our Lord which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, Luke ix. 30, 31. they were the more faulty. It is very hard to be truly desirous of heaven, when we have much of heaven on earth; yet it may be attained, and grace can help to it. Of which in the last place. 5. The grace of God, as it is needed, so it is useful and helpful to believers under special enjoyments.

1st, Grace can humble the soul under them, and by them. Though Satan make them temptations to pride, the Lord can sanctify them to be means of humbling. Great comforts do not natively tend to humble us; but all discoveries of the glory of God are humbling. Isaiah found it so, Isaiah vi. 5. Wo is me, for I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. The vision was great and glorious; it was a sight of God in Christ; as John xii. 41. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. We would be apt to think the prophet should rather have said, "Happy "am I, that I have seen now what I never saw before, what "few, if any, besides me, have seen." But such was the impression the Spirit of God made on the heart of this man, that this extraordinary manifestation of God affects him with more deep self-abasement than ever he had before. Happy is the man that lies still the more low in himself, and before God, the more highly the Lord exalts him. Job found this fruit of a clearer discovery of God, chap. xlii, 5, 6. Jacob (in Gen. xxxii. 30.) called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. This place where he wrestled all night with the Lord, where the Lord blessed him in the morning; this place he calls Peniel, to be the name of it to him and his seed; that whenever they saw the place, or heard of it, they might remember, that there the great God and a poor man met in great familiarity, and

the man was not consumed. Jacob wonders, that his life was preserved in such a meeting. Near approaches of God. to his children, are sometimes too hard for them to bear. This made one eminent saint cry out under such a high enjoyment, O Lord, destroy me not with thy glory;" and another, "Hold thy hand, O Lord; thy servant is a clay vessel, and can bear no more." And both these were persons not oppressed by his wrath, but overcharged with his love and glory.

2dly, Grace can help to record and remember special enjoyments. There are some spiritual enjoyments of God, that are like lightning, that dart from the one end of heaven to the other, that make a dark night to become like the morning. They come quickly, and they are quickly gone; they are of speedy access, and of as sudden a recess. But though they be but short in their continuance, their fruit may remain. And one way for making their fruit continue, is, to remember and record them. I will remember the years, the works, the wonders of the Lord, Psalm lxxvii. 10, 11, 12. I will meditate, I will talk of them, saith the saint. Thus David prays for Israel, 1 Chron. xxix. 18. Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people. What was this he prayed for Israel's remembering of, and for the Lord's keeping in their minds? It was, that they might remember with what joy they made their willing offerings for the service of God. We have a gracious promise of Christ, John xiv. 26. The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. And this promise we should plead, for bringing to our remembrance the things Christ hath done for us, as well as for what he hath said to us. And no man can imagine (but they that feel it) how one of these remembrances will fortify the soul in a day of distress. Spiritual things are so unlike to carnal things, that all comparisons betwixt them must needs halt greatly. That a poor, hungry, starving man, should, in a dungeon, or desolate wilderness, be refreshed, and made strong, by the bare remembrance of a feast he had seven years ago; this is impossible in nature. But in spiritual things it is otherwise. The savoury remembrance of a spiritual enjoyment long since

past, can bring back the taste, and power, and virtue of it, to the soul that wants it. Believers are usually upon their recovery from a sad disconsolate state, when they are exercised in remembering with savour their former enjoyments. Thus saith returning Israel, Hosea ii. 7. I will go and return to my first husband: for then it was better with me than now.

3dly, Grace can help to improve enjoyments, to desires of, and endeavours after perfection. We must not say, when it is well with us, It is good to be here; but rather, It is good to be there, where it will be a great deal better. Phil. iii. 13, 14. This one thing I do, (it must be a great thing doubtless that is Paul's one thing), forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, &c. There is a There is a forgetting that is our duty; and a remembering that is our duty also. To remember, so as to support our faith, and feed our praising of the Lord, that is duty but to forget attainments, so as to press after the mark, that is another duty. Alas! we are bad, both at right remembering, and right forgetting. You and I think, that if we had but a little of what Paul had in one day; if we had but a little of what he had that night he lay in the stocks, when he prayed, and sang praises unto God, Acts xvi. 25. we could never have forgotten it as long as we had a day to live. But Paul could forget all in his ardent desires of perfection. And so must you; and this grace can teach you.

These special enjoyments of God are but rarely felt. Dote not on them, neither despise them. Mock not such as know them in their experience, though ye do not. If you be sound believers, ye may live in your souls, and live to his praise, without enjoying any thing very extraordinary. But if the Lord grant singular communications of himself, know that it is a season of special need of grace to guide them well. They would return more frequently, and would rise and spring higher, and last longer, if they were better improved. The greater the blessing be, the more provoking is the abuse of it; the greater the blessing be, the greater is the difficulty of guiding it well and the more difficulty be in our work, the more is our need of the grace of God; and the more frequent and fervent should our applications be to the throne of grace for that needful, Lelpful grace.

SERMON XII.

HEB. iv. 16.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

HAVING spoke of the need of God's grace, and of its helpfulness in general; I came to condescend on some seasons wherein the grace of God is specially needful and helpful. Of them I named six; three of which I have spoke to, and the other three remain to be handled.

1. The first season named, was the time of temptation. There was never a believer so little beloved of Christ, as to be given up as a prey to Satan; and never lay a believer so near Christ's heart, but the devil may get him into his sieve. There fore let us never flatter ourselves in a state of security from disturbance by the devil. Blessed be God, we are brought into a state of safety from ruin by him.

2. A season of spiritual decay: soul sickness, a weakness in the new creature. There are some people that never knew by experience what bodily sickness means, but have enjoyed perfect health all their life. But I am apt to think, that few, if any Christians, find it so as to the new creation in them.

3. A season of special enjoyments. Though these two seem to be very far from, and contrary to one another; yet they agree in this, that in both grace is needful and helpful. The unaccountable wisdom and sovereignty of the Lord our God, shines in his conduct of his people. Some of them have extraordinary receivings; others know little what they mean. There are some Christians, whose way to heaven lies all along in the depths and in the vales, when others ride on their high places. Now, these singular manifestations from God, though desirable and profitable, yet are not without special dangers. To prevent which, the Lord provides and ministers special physic to them: and it is strong and unpleasant; but the physician can bless it; as Paul's experience witnesseth, 2 Cor. xii. He had been in heaven, he knew not how; he VOL. I.

had heard, he could not tell what when he came back. But he well knew what he met with on his return, and how needful and useful it was for him. Lest he should be exalted above measure with what he had seen and heard in paradise, hell is sent to humble him. May we not infer this, How unfit are believers, while in the body, and a body of death is in them, to be in heaven, when any special enjoyment of heaven must have so dreadful a remedy administered to prevent hurt?

IV. A fourth season of special need of grace, is the time of affliction. Afflictions are of many sorts and kinds. I am apt to believe, that though there be some likeness in the afflictions of many, yet every afflicted man hath a particular affliction of his own. As it is with people's faces, so it is with their crosses. For as many thousand faces as are amongst mankind, though all are somewhat like, yet every one hath some distinction. The world is full of crosses; yet every afflicted person hath his own cross. Our Lord hints at it, Matth. xvi. 24. Let a man take up his cross. The Lord appoints a proper cross for every one: though people are ready to think and say, that their cross is unfit for them, and that they would bear another cross better. In crosses we must neither chuse nor refuse. David's case was singular, 2 Sam. xxiv. The Lord chuseth for us, and we must not, cannot refuse: Job xxxiv. 33. Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou chuse, and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest. There is a general distinction of afflictions. Some are from God's hand, for sin, or trial, or prevention and some are from man's hand, for Christ's sake, and the gospel's. In all of them grace is helpful and needful. But I would speak only something in general, that every one may apply to themselves according to their experience and exercise; and that on these two heads: 1. The needfulness of grace to the afflicted. 2. The helpfulness of grace to the afflicted, whatever their affliction be.

1. I would speak of the need of the grace of God to the afflicted. Some sense of this is engraven on the hearts of men by the light of nature. The Heathen mariners in the storm express this, Jonah i. 5, 6. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call