what we call a good Confcience: For what Force is there in a good Conscience to give us Peace, but only this, That it is our Teftimony, that we have faithfully and diligently ferved our God; which is the Ground of our Hope and Confidence in him? And when we are thus armed, and can without Referve profefs, I have loved thy Law, O God, and my Delight bath been therein, we shall be fuperior to all the Evils of Life. The very Circumstances which give Terror to the worldly Man, and fill his Breaft with Horror, will give Eafe and Comfort to us. When he thinks of the Shortness of his Life, and the speedy Account he must give to God, his Blood retires to his Heart, and hardly there maintains its Poft: But when the good Man's Thoughts are fo fixed, his Heart fprings with Joy, and all his Hopes begin to bloom: The Profpect of that bleffed Day fo fills his Mind, and engages all his Thought, that he is loft in Pleasure and Delight, and forgets all the Pains and Calamities of Life: Not the Tyrant's Frown, nor the Executioner who waits for Blood, can rob him of his Peace: He looks on them as Meffengers fent by Providence to deliver him from his Pain, and to carry him

to

to the Haven of his Reft, where his Soul longs to be. This, this only was the Art by which Saints and Martyrs overcame the World, and looked upon Racks and Gibbets, and every Form of Death, but as fo many Doors opening into the Kingdom of Reft and Glory. By the fame Art ftill do good Men triumph under all the Trials of Fortune: By this they preferve their Peace in their latest Hours, and refign with Joy their Spirits into his Hand who gave them.

This is a Trial which Mortals muft undergo: The Time will come, and is now at Hand, when we must part with all that our Eyes delight to fee, and when we must go to render an Account to our great Judge: In that Day, where fhall we look for Comfort, and whom shall we call to our Affiftance? Your parting Friends will have nothing but Tears and Sighs to lend you. Then happy is the Man whofe Trust hath been in God; who can with Patience, full of Hope, wait the Coming of his Lord, and observe with Comfort the Degrees by which he haftens to his End. It is worth your while to lay the Foundation of this Peace betimes, that you may be able to look that

Day

Day in the Face, at which, even at a Distance, the ftouteft Heart may tremble: For it is not Courage, but Folly, not to think of Death with fome Concern, fince fo much depends from that Moment.

And were we fure of nothing else, in confequence of our Faith and Obedience, but to flip quietly out of the World, without fuffering the Agonies which guilty Sinners feel, and which none can describe; yet still our Labour would not be quite in vain: But, fince this Peace is but the Forerunner of eternal Peace, the Earneft of future Glory and Immortality, it is worth all our Pains to deny ourselves in this World, to take up our Crofs and follow Chrift, to labour to do the whole Will of God, that we may inherit that Peace which belongs to those, and those only, who love the Law of God.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE X.

PSALM CXix. 63.

I am a Companion of all them that Fear thee, and of them that keep thy Precepts.

T

ap

HERE is nothing more useful or neceffary in the Pursuit of Virtue and Holinefs, and indeed in the whole Conduct of our Lives, than to observe the Rules and Methods by which Men of proved Righteoufnefs, who are fet forth to us as Patterns and Examples in holy Scripture, did attain to that Perfection, which made them the shining Lights of the World, and the declared Favourites of God. If therefore we look into fuch Examples, and from thence draw Rules for our own Use, we fhall be fure of two very great Advantages;

vantages; namely, that the Rules we prefcribe ourselves will be both proper and practicable; practicable, because drawn from the Practice of Men like ourselves; and proper, because we aim at no other End than that which good Men before us have attained to by the Use of these very Means, and, confequently, for the attaining of which thefe Rules have already by Experience been found to be proper.

This Divifion of the 119th Pfalm, from which the Text is taken, fets before us the feveral Steps by which David recovered himself from the Sin in which he had been involved: In the first Verse he declares his Choice, Thou art my Portion, O Lord; and his Refolution to pursue that Choice, I have faid that I would keep thy Word: This he knew by fad Experience that he was not able to do, without the Affistance and Support of God; and therefore the next Step was to apply for his Affiftance, I intreated thy Favour with my whole Heart. Having thus prepared himself, he fet diligently to examine his Heart, and to form Resolutions, and immediately to put thofe Refolutions into Practice, I thought on my Ways: Iturned my Feet unto thy Teftimonies: I made Hafte,

and