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why should I wait for him any longer? 2, You can clear and justify God still, and lay the reason and cause of his silence upon yourselves. So did David, Psal. xxii. 2, 3. O my God, I cry in the day time, and thou hearest not; and in the night, and am not silent: but thou art holy, &c. 3. The suspension of God's answer makes you inquisitive into your own hearts, what evils are there, that obstruct your prayers; so the church, Lain. iii. 8. He shutteth out my prayer. And how doth he this work? You may see, v. 40. Let us search and try our ways. Well then, neither from hence may you conclude that God hath no love for your souls.

And thus I have shewn you, how to keep your hearts in a dark and doubting season from those desperate conclusions of unbelief. God forbid any false heart should encourage itself from these things: it is our unhappiness, that when we give saints and sinners their proper portions, that each of them are so prone to take

up the others part.

Season II. The eleventh special season, calling for this diligence to keep our hearts, is, when sufferings for religion come to an height, then look to your hearts, Mat. xxiv. 8, 9, 12. All

< these are the beginning of sorrows. And they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, • and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended. When sufferings for religion grow hot, then blessed is he that is not offended in Christ. Troubles are then at an height, 6 1, When a man's nearest friend and re'lations forsake and leave him, Mic. vii. 2. Tim. iv. 16. When a man is 5, 6. engaged alone. 2, When it comes to resisting to blood, Heb. xii. 4. 3, When temptations are presented to us in our sufferings, Heb. xi. 37. 4, When eminent ❝ persons for profession turn aside, and de6 sert the cause of Christ, 2 Tim. ii. 19. 5, When God hides his face in a suffering hour, Jer. xvii. 17. 6, When satan falls upon us with strong temptations, to question the grounds of our suffer6 ings, or the soul's interest in Christ. "Now it is hard to keep the heart from turning back, and the steps from declining God's ways.' The eleventh

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question then shall be this,

Case 11. How the heart may be kept from relapsing under the greatest sufferings for religion? If the bitterness of sufferings at any time cause thy soul to distaste the way of God, and take up

thoughts of forsaking it, stay thine heart under that temptation, by propounding these eight questions solemnly to it.

Quest. 1. What reproach and dishonour shall I pour upon Christ and religion, by deserting him at such a time as this? This will proclaim, to all the world, that how much soever I have boasted of the promises, yet, when it comes to the trial, I dare bazard nothing upon the credit of them? And how will this open the mouths of Christ's enemies to blaspheme? O better had I never been born, than that worthy name should be blasphemed through me! Shall I furnish the triumphs of the uncircumcised? Shail I make mirth in hell? O, if I did but value the name of Christ as much as many a wicked man values his own name, I would never endure to see it exposed in such contempt! Will proud dust and ashes venture death, yea, hell, rather than a blot upon their name? And shall venture nothing to save the honour and reputation of Christ?

Quest. 2. Dare I violate my conscience to save my flesh? Who shall comfort me, when conscience wounds me? What comfort is there in life, liberty, or friends, when peace is taken away from the innerman? When Constantius threatened to cut off Samosatenus his right hand, if he

would not subscribe somewhat that was against his conscience, he held up both his hands to the messenger that was sent, saying, he shall cut off both rather than I will do it: farewel, all peace, joy, and comfort, from that day forward, Had Zimti peace, that slew his master? said Jezebel; so say I here, had Judas peace? had Spira peace ? and shall you have peace, if you tread in their steps? O consider what you do!

Quest. 3. Is not the public interest of Christ and religion, infinitely more than any private interest of my own? It is a famous passage that of Terentius, captain to Adrian the emperor; he presented a petition to Adrian, that the christians might have a temple by themselves to worship God, apart from the Arians. The emperor tore his petition and threw it away, bidding him to ask somewhat for himself, and it should be granted': but he modestly gathered up the pieces of his petition again, and told him, if he could not be heard in God's cause, he would never ask any thing for himselt. Yea, even Tully, though an heathen, could say, he would not accept even of immortality itself against the common wealth. O if we had more public, we should not have such cowardly spirits!

Quest. 4. Did Jesus Christ serve me so, when for my sake he exposed himself to far greater sufferings than can be before me? His sufferings were great indeed; he suffered from all hands, in all his offices, in every member, not only in his body, but in his soul; yea, the sufferings of his soul, were the very soul of his sufferings: witness the bloody sweat in the garden, witness that heart melting and eaven rending out-cry upon the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet he flinched not, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Alas, what are my sufferings compared with Christ's? He hath drunk up all that vinegar and gall that would make my suf ferings bitter. When one of the mar tyrs was asked, why he was so merry at his death? Oh (said he) it is because the soul of Christ was so heavy at his death! Did Christ bear such a burden for me, with unbroken patience and constancy and shall I shrink back from momentary and light afflictions for him?

?

Quest. 5. Is not eternal life worth the suffering of a moment's pain?

If I suffer with him, I shall reign with him. O how will men venture life and himb for a fading crown, swim through seas of blood to a throne! and will I

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