tection of angels, experiences of mercy, issues of temptation and the like, are heavenly and constant revelations out of the Word, manifested to the souls of the faithful by the Spirit. Thirdly. The Spirit is a comforter in those effects of “joy and peace," which he works in the heart. For joy is ever the fruit and companion of the Spirit; and the joy of the Spirit is like the intercession of the Spirit, "unspeakable and glorious," not like the joy of the world, which is empty, false, and deceitful,-full of vanity, vexation, insufficiency, unsuitableness to the soul-mingled with fears of disappointment and miscarriage, with tremblings and guilt of conscience, with certainty of period and expiration; but clear, holy, constant, unmixed, satisfactory, and proportionable to the compass of the soul,-more gladness than all the world can take in the "increase of their corn and wine." "Wilt thou not the promise seal, -- Good and faithful as thou art,- JUNE 15. DR. BATES. And the hypocrite's hope shall perish: whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.—Job viii. 13-15. WE should search the ground of our hopes, whether they are saving, and will attend us to the gates of heaven. If they purify us, they will certainly be accomplished in heavenly blessedness: If we be like our Saviour in grace, we shall be like him in glory. But carnal and loose hopes will issue in disappointment. Our Saviour tells us, that every visible Christian, in a spiritual sense, is a builder, and raises a fabric of hope, that may appear fair to the eye; but there is a time of trial coming, that will discover how firm it is. It is our wisdom to descend to the foundation of our hope, that we may understand whether it be a rock that can not be shaken, or the quicksand that can not bear the weight of it. Those who hear the words of Christ, and do them, build upon a foundation more stable than the centre; the perfect veracity of God is engaged in his promises: but those who hear without doing, build upon the sinking sand. Carnal men will pretend they hope for salvation, only from the infinite. mercies of God, and merits of Christ. It is true these are eternal foundations; but to secure a building, the superstructure must be strongly fastened to the foundation, or it can not resist the storm. If we are not united to Christ by the sanctifying Spirit, and a purifying faith, our hopes will deceive us. When sin has dominion, which is certainly discovered by the habitual course of men's lives, when there is a remaining affection to it in men's hearts, which is known by their reflections upon past sins with pleasure, and the prospect of future sins with desire, their hope is like a spider's web, that can bear no stress. Hope is subordinate to faith, and faith is regulated by the promise. Some believe without hope. They are convinced of the reality of the future state, of the eternal judgment, and the consequence of it, but are careless and desperate in their wickedness: others hope to be well hereafter without the belief of the gospel. Indeed, there is none can bear up under despairing thoughts, when they are raging in the breast. He that is absolutely and with consideration hopeless, falls upon his own sword. The tempter deals with sinners according to their conditions. If they are swimming in prosperity, he stupefies conscience, and induces them to be secure; if they are sinking in deep distress, he is so skillful in all the arts of aggravation, that he plunges them into despair. And both temptations are fatal; but the most perish by fallacious hopes. It is strange that the greatest number of professors are more unwilling to suspect the goodness and safety of their condition, than to mistake, and be deceived for ever. But they are so strongly allured by worldly objects, that though in their lives there are the visible marks exclusive of salvation, they are unconcerned. They are satisfied with carnal vain hopes, which are the seed of all the evils committed, and the spring of all evils suffered. Hope that should encourage holiness, emboldens wickedness; and that should lead men to heaven, precipitates them to hell. How great will their fall be from a conceited heaven into a real hell? He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. Hope of all the passions, is the most calm and quiet; but when utterly disappointed in a matter of high concernment, it is most turbulent; for the consequent passions, despair, impatience, sorrow, rage, are the cruel tormentors of the minds of men. Now what will become of the hope of the hypocrite, when God shall take away his soul? He may feed and cherish it while he lives; but in the fatal moment, when he dies, his blazing presumption will expire, not to be revived for ever. But the righteous has hope in death. The sanctified spirit inspires and preserves life in it, till it is consummate in that blessedness that exceeds all our desires, and excludes all our fears for ever. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them.-Matt. xxi. 1-3. AND yet he had often entered Jerusalem before, but never with so much circumstance. What then is the cause? It was the beginning then of the dispensation, and neither was he very well known, nor the time of his Passion near; wherefore he mixed with them with less distinction, and more disguising himself. For he would not have been held in admiration, had he so appeared, and he would have excited them to greater anger. But when he had both given them sufficient proof of his power, and the cross was at the doors, he makes himself then more conspicuous, and doeth with greater circumstance all the things that were likely to inflame them. For it was indeed possible for this to have been done at the beginning also; but it was not profitable nor expedient it should be so. But do thou observe, I pray thee, how many miracles are done, and how many prophecies are fulfilled. He said, Ye shall find an ass; he foretold that no man should hinder them, but that all, when they heard, should hold their peace. But this is no small condemnation of the Jews, if them that were never known to him, neither had appeared before him, he persuades to give up their own property, and to say nothing against it, and that by his disciples, while these, being present with him at the working of his miracles, were not persuaded. And do not account what was done to be a small thing. For who persuaded them, when their own property was taken from them, and that, when they were perhaps poor men and husbandmen, not to forbid it? Why say I not to forbid it? not to ask, or even if they asked, to hold their peace, and give it up. For indeed both things were alike marvellous, as well, if they said nothing, when their beasts were dragged away, or if having spoken, and heard, The Lord hath need of them, they yielded and withstood not, and this when they see not him, but his disciples. By these things he teaches them, that it was in his power to have entirely hindered the Jews also, even against their will, when they were proceeding to attack him, and to have made them speechless, but he would not. And another thing again with these doth he teach the disciples, to give whatever he should ask; and, though he should require them to yield up their very life, to give even this, and not to gainsay. For if even strangers gave up to him, much more ought they to strip themselves of all things. And besides what we have said, he was fulfilling also another prophecy, one which was twofold, one part in words, and another in deeds. And that in deeds was, by sitting on the ass; and that by words, the prediction of Zacharias; because he had said, that the king should sit on an ass. And he, having sat and having fulfilled it, gave to the prophecy another beginning again, by what he was doing typifying beforehand the things to come. How and in what manner? He proclaimed beforehand the calling of the unclean Gentiles, and that he should rest upon them, and that they should yield to him and follow him, and prophecy succeeded to prophecy. But to me he seemeth not for this object only to sit on the ass, but also as affording us a standard of self-denial. For not only did he fulfill prophecies, nor did he only plant the doctrines of the truth, but by these very things he was correcting our practice for us, everywhere setting us rules of necessary use, and by all means amending our life. For this cause, I say, even when he was to be born he sought not a splendid house, nor a mother rich and distinguished, but a poor woman, and one that had a carpenter as her betrothed husband; and is born in a shed, and laid in a manger: and choosing his disciples, he chose not orators, and wise men, not rich and nobly born, but poor men, and of poor families, and in every way undistinguished; and providing his table, at one time he sets before himself barley loaves and at another at the very moment commands the disciples to buy at the market. And making his couch, he makes it of grass, and putting on raiment, he clothes himself in what is cheap, and in no respect different from the common sort; and a house he did not so much as possess. And if he had to go from place to place, he did this travelling on foot, and so travelling, as even to grow weary. sitting, he requires no throne nor pillow, but sits on the ground, sometimes in the mountain, and sometimes by the well, and not merely by the well, but also alone, and talks with a Samaritan woman. "Saviour, where'er thy steps I see, And I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.-Psalm lxxvii. 12. IF, in the definition of meditation, I should call it an unaccustomed and unpractised duty, I should speak a truth, though somewhat inartificially for not only the interior beauties and brighter excellences are as unfelt as ideas and abstractions are, but also the practice and common knowledge of the duty itself are strangers to us, like the retirements of the deep, or the undiscovered treasures of the Indian hills. And this is a very great cause of the dryness and expiration of men's devotion, because our souls are so little refreshed with the waters and holy dews of meditation. We go to our prayers by chance, or order, or by determination of accidental occurrences; and we recite them, as we read a book; and sometimes we are sensible of the duty, and a flash of lightning makes the room bright, and our prayers end, and the lightning is gone, and we are as dark as We draw our water from standing pools, which never ever. |