hearts; and the Spirit of a crucified Christ fires them and puts them in exercise, like as the fire was brought from the altar of burnt-offering, to set the incense on flame; then they mount heavenward, like pillars of smoke, Cant. iii. 6. But the best of incense will leave ashes behind it; yes, indeed; but as the priest took away the ashes of the incense in a goiden dish, and threw them out, so our High Priest takes away the ashes and refuse of all the saints services, by his mediation in their behalf.

An eighth benefit flowing from union with Christ is Establishment. The Christian cannot fall away, but must persevere unto the end, John x. 28. "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Indeed, if a branch do not knit with the stock, it will fall away when shaking winds arise; but the branch knit to the stock stands fast, whatever wind blows. Sometimes a stormy wind of temptation blows from hell, and tosseth the branches in Christ the true Vine, but their union with him is their security; moved they may be, but removed they never can be: The Lord will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, I Cor. x.. 13. Calms are never of any continuance; there is almost always some wind blowing; and, therefore, branches are rarely altogether at rest. But sometimes violent winds arise, which threaten to rend them from off their stock. Even so it is with saints; they are daily put to it, to keep their ground against temptation; but sometimes the wind from hell riseth so high, and bloweth so furiously, that it makes even top branches to sweep the ground; yet being knit to Christ their stock, they get up again in spite of the most violent efforts of the prince of the power of the air, Psal. xciv. 18. "When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." But the Christian improves by this trial; and is so far from being damaged, that he is benefited by it, in so far as it discovers what hold the soul has of Christ, and what hold Christ has of the soul. And look, as the wind in the bellows, which would blow out the candle, blows up the fire; even so it often comes to pass, that such temptations do enliven the true Christian, awakening the graces of the Spirit in him; and, by that means, discovers both the reality and the strength of grace in him. And hence, as Luther, that great man of God,

saith, One Christian who hath had experience of temptation, is worth a thousand others.

Sometimes a stormy wind of trouble and persecution, from the men of the world, blows upon the vine, i. e. mystical Christ; but union with the stock is a sufficient security to the branches. In a time of the church's peace and outward prosperity, while the angels hold the winds that they blow not; there are a great many branches taken up, and put into the stock, which never knit with it, nor live by it, though they be bound up with it, by the bonds of external ordinances. Now these may stand a while on the stock, and stand with great ease while the calm lasts: But when once the storms arise, and the winds blow, they will begin to fall off, one after another; and the higher the wind riseth, the greater will the number be that falls. Yea some strong boughs of that sort, when they fall, will, by their weight, carry others of their own kind quite down to the earth with them, and will bruise and press down some true branches in such a manner, that they would also fall off, were it not for their being knit to the stock; in virtue whereof they get up their heads again, and cannot fall off, because of that fast hold the stock has of them. Then it is that many branches, sometime high and eminent, are found lying on the earth withered, and fit to be gathered up and cast into the fire, Matth. xiii. 6. « And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away." John xv. 6. “ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." But however violently the winds blow, none of the truly ingrafted branches, that are knit with the stock, are found missing, when the storm is changed into a calm, John xvii. 12. "Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost." The least twig growing in Christ shall stand it out, and subsist; when the tallest cedars growing on their own root, shall be laid flat on the ground, Rom. viii. 35-39. "Who

shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" &c. However severely Israel be sifted, yet shall not the least grain, or, as it is in the original language, a little stone fall upon the earth, Amos ix. 9.

It is an allusion to the sifting of fine pebble stones from among heaps of dust and sand; though the sand and dust fall to the ground, be blown away with the wind, and trampled under foot, yet there shall not fall on the earth so much as a little stone, such is the exactness of the sieve, and care of the sifter. There is nothing more ready to fall on the earth than a stone; yet if professors of religion be lively stones built on Christ the chief corner-stone; although they be little stones, they shall not fall to the earth, whatever storm beat upon them. See 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6. All the good grain in the church of Christ is of this kind; they are stones in respect of solidity, and lively stones in respect of activity. If men be solid, substantial Christians, they will not be like chaff tossed to and fro with every wind; having so much of the liveliness, that they have nothing of the stone; and if they be lively Christians, whose spirit will stir in them, as Paul's did when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, Acts xvii. 16. they will not lie like stones to be turned over, hither and thither, cut and carved, according to the lusts of men ; having so much of the stone as leaves nothing of liveliness in them.

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Our God's house is a great house, wherein are not only ́vessels of gold, but also of earth, 2 Tim. ii. 20. Both these are apt to contract filthiness; and, therefore, when God brings trouble upon the church, he hath an eye to both. As for the roccole Co u gold, they are not destroyed but purged by a fiery trial in the furnace of affliction, as goldsmiths purge their gold, Isa. i. 25. “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross." But destruction is to the vessels of earth; they shall be broken in shivers, as a potter's vessel, ver. 28. "And the destruction (or breaking) of the transgressors, and of the sinners, shall be together." It seems to be an allusion to that law, for breaking the vessels of earth, when unclean; while vessels of wood, and, consequently, vessels of gold, were only to be rinsed, Lev. xv. 12.

A ninth benefit is Support. If thou be a branch ingrafted in Christ, the root beareth thee. The believer leans on Christ; as a weak woman in a journey, leaning upon herbeloved husband, Cant. viii. 5. He stays himself upon him, as a feeble old man stays himself on his staff, Isa, I. 10.

He rolls himself on him, as one rolls a burden he is not able to walk under, off his own back, upon another who is able to bear it, Psal. xxii. 8. Marg. There are many weights to hang upon, and press down the branches in Christ, the true Vine. But ye know, whatever weights hang on branches, the stock bears all; it bears the branch, and the weight that is upon it too.

1st, Christ supports believers in him, under a weight of outward troubles. That is a large promise, Isa. xliii. 2. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." See how David was supported under a heavy load, 1 Sam. XXX. 6. His city Ziklag was burnt, his wives were taken captives, his men spoke of stoning him; nothing was left him but his God and his faith; but, by his faith, he encouraged himself in his God. The Lord comes and lays his cross on his people's shoulders; it presseth them down; they are like to sink under it, and therefore cry, Master, save us; we perish! Buthe supports them under their bur~ den; he bears them up, and they bear their cross. Thus the Christian having a weight of outward troubles upon him, goes lightly under his burden, having withal the everlasting arms underneath him. The Christian has a spring of comfort, which he cannot lose; and, therefore, never wants something to support him. If one have all his riches in money, robbers may take these away; and then what has he more? But though the landed man be robbed of his money, yet his lands remain for his support. They that build their comfort on worldly goods may quickly be comfortless; but they that are united to Christ shall find comfort, when all the streams of worldly enjoyments are dried up, Job vi. 13. "Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?" As if he had said, Though my substance is gone; though my servants, my children, my health, and soundness of body, are all gone; yet my grace is not gone too. Though the Sabeans have driven away my oxen and asses, and the Chaldeans have driven away my camels; they have not driven away my faith and my hope too: These are yet in me, they not are driven from me ; so that by them I can fetch comfort from heaven, when I can have none from earth.

2dly, Christ supports his people under a weight of in

ward troubles and discouragements. Many times heart and flesh fail them, but then God is the strength of their heart, Psal, Ixxiii. 26. They may have a weight of guilt pressing them. This is a load that will make their back to stoop, and their spirits to sink; but he takes it off, and puts a pardon in their hand, while they cast their burden on him. Christ takes the soul, as one marries a widow, under a burden of debt: And so when the creditors come to Christ's spouse, she carries them to her husband, confesseth the debt, declares she is not able to pay, and lays all over upon him. The Christian sometimes, through carelessness, loseth his discharge; he cannot find it, however he search for it. The law takes that opportunity, and bends up a process against him for a debt paid already. God hides his face, and the soul is distressed. Many arrows go through the heart now; many long accounts are laid before the man, which he reads and acknowledges. Often does he see the officers coming to apprehend him, and the prison-door open to receive him. What else keeps him from sinking utterly under discouragements in this case, but that the everlasting arms of a Mediator are underneath him, and that he relies upon the great Cautioner ? Further, they may have a weight of strong lusts pressing them. They have a body of death upon them. Death is a weight, that presseth the soul out of the body. A leg or an arm of death (if I may so speak) would be a terrible load! (One lively lust will sometimes lie so heavy on a child of God, that he can no more remove it than a child could throw a giant from off him.) How then are they supported under a whole body of death? Why, their support is from the root that bears them, from the everlasting arm that is underneath them: His grace is sufficient for them, 2 Cor. xiii. 9. The great stay of the believer is not the grace of God within him, that is a well, whose streams sometimes run dry; but it is the grace of God without him, the grace that is in Jesus Christ; which is an ever-flowing fountain, to which the believer can never come amiss. For the Apostle tells us, in the same verse, it is "the power of Christ. Most gladly, therefore," saith he, "will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, or tabernacle above me ;" as the cloud of glory did on the Israelites, which God spread for a cov