God takes it unkindly when we grieve tos much for any outward things; becaufe 'tis a fign we fetch not that comfort from him which we fhould.

Though the hand of God may be against you; yet, the heart of God may be towards you. What if the providence of God cross you, if the promife of God bless you ? What is bearing a temporal cross, to the wearing an eternal crown.

Our enjoyments are greater than our afflictions, and our afflictions less than our fins.

Our fufferings fhould ftir up our graces, as well as our griefs,

OF PRAYER.

Fill up the void fpaces of your time with meditation and prayer.

They are the fafeft who are most in their clofets; who pray not to be seen of men, but to be heard of God.

Prayer doth not confist in gifted expreffions, and a volubility of speech; but in a brokenness of heart.

Imperfect broken groans, from a broken heart, God will accept.

An hard heart cannot pray; a broken heart is made up of prayer.

It is a comfort to chriftians apart to think their prayers meet before a throne of grace; and their perfons fhall meet before a throne of glory. There wants nothing but a believing prayer to turn the promife into a performance,

God is a great God, and therefore he will be fought he is a good God, and therefore he will be found.

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When God pours out his fpirit upon man then will man pour out his heart before God.

He that lives without prayer, or prays without life, hath not the fpirit of God.

Prayer doth not confift in the elegance of the phrafe, but in the ftrength of the affection. Where there is a willing heart, there will be a continual crying to heaven for help.

Pray that you may pray.

Waiting upon God continually will abate your unneceffary cares, and fweeten your neceffary

ones.

God counts all the fteps we take to the throne of grace, and all the minutes of our waiting. Let nothing get between heaven and prayer, but Chrift.

Prayer, if it be done as a task, is no prayer. Sin quenches prayer, affliction quickens it. The fame fpirit of faith which teaches a man to cry earneftly, teaches him to wait patiently For, as it affures him the mercy is in the Lord's hand; fo it affures him, it will be given forth in the Lord's time.

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The breath of prayer comes from the life of faith.

Whatever you want go to God by faith and prayer, in the name of Chrift, and never think his delays are denials.

They that fpend their days in faith and pray. er, fhall end their days in peace and comfort.

OF ETERNITY.

Look backwards, and time was when fouls were not; look forwards, and our fouls will be when time fhall not.

Who would not deny himself for a time, that he may enjoy himself for ever?

What is the world to them that are in the grave, where our bodies muft fhortly be? Or to them that are in eternity, where our fouls muft fhortly be ?

Remember you are at the door of eternity, and have other work to do than to trifle away time; thofe hours which you spend in your closets, are the golden fpots of all your time, and will have the fweeteft influence upon your laft hours.

Our life is a paffage to eternity; it ought to be a meditation of eternity, and a preparation for eternity.

OF DEATH.

The longest life, is a lingering death.

First infancy dies, then childhood, then youth, then manhood, then old age; and then we make an end of dying.

Though thou mayeft have been nearer death (in thine own apprehenfions) than thou art now; yet it is certain, death was never fo near to thee as it is now.

Man does not die because he is made of earth, but because he is infected with fin.

Death to a christian, is a putting off rags for robes.

We need not be afhamed of that now, which we are fure we shall not repent of when we come. to die.

As the king of terrors leaves us, fo the day of terror will find us.

Death will be very terrible to him who dies not in his thoughts daily.

There is nothing terrible in death, but what

our lives have made fo.

It is death to many to think of death; they are as unwilling to be led into a difcourfe of death, as children into the dark: The thoughts of it are no more welcome to them, than Mofes was to Pharaoh; to whom he faid, Get thee from me, and let me fee thy face no more, Exod. x. 28.

Death fhuts in the light of this world, and is the day-break of eternity.

Let us familiarize death by meditation, and fweeten it by preparation.

The great comfort of a believer, on his death、 bed, is faith in Chrift, hope in the promise, and an intereft in the covenant.

This life is a middle ftate; we muft foon go higher or lower, where we must spend upon the treasure we here lay up, whether of wrath or glory.

We fhould think of death, not as though we were thinking, but as though we were dying.

It is the greatest business of life, to think of the end of life, and to lay hold of eternal life.

Let us make a friend of death and our judge; and then we fhall die out of choice, as well as neceffity.

OF HEAVEN.

If heaven doth not enter into us by way of holinefs, we fhall never enter into heaven by way of happiness.

If you would lay up a treafure of glory in heaven, lay up a treasure of grace in your hearts. If your fouls are rich in grace, they will be rich in glory.

The more you do for God in this world, the

more God will do for you in the world to come. As heaven is kept for the faints by Chrift, fo they are kept for heaven by the fpirit,

In heaven all God's fervants will be abundant ly fatisfied with his dealings and difpenfations with them; and fhall fee how all conduced like fo many winds to bring them to their haven; and how, even the rougheft blafts helped to bring them homeward.

In heaven God will never hide his face more, nor the devil fhew his more.

How can we expect to live with God in heaven, if we love not to live with him on earth?

If thou loveft to worship God here below, God will take thee up to worship him above. Thou fhalt change thy place, but not thine employment.

Heaven is a day without a cloud to darken it, and without a night to end it.

We would be feated in the heavenly Canaan, but are loath to be scratched with the briars and thorns of the wilderness.

In heaven there is the prefence of all good, and the absence of all evil.

Grace and glory differ but as the bud and the bloffom:What is grace, but glory begun? What is glory, but grace perfected?

We may hope for a place in heaven, if our hearts are made fuitable to the ftate of heaven.

If there will be any grief in heaven, fure it will be for this, that we have done no more for God on earth.

OF HELL.

They that will not fear the punishment in the threatening, fhall feel the threatening in the pun-fhment.