"if yet there may be hope:" He faith, "It is good for a man "to hope, and quietly to wait for the falvation of God." There are ufually fome glimmerings or dawnings of mercy through Chrift, in the midnight darkness of inward troubles; non dantur purae tenebrae. In hell, indeed, there is no hope to enlighten the darkness, but it is not fo upon earth.

Thirdly, The experiences of others, who have been in the fame deeps of trouble, are also of great ufe to keep up the foul' above water. The experience of another is of great use to prop up a defponding mind, whilft, as yet, it hath none of its own; and, indeed, for the support of fouls in fuch cafes, they were recorded. 1 Tim. i. 16. "For this caufe I obtained mercy, "that in me first Jesus Christ might fnew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on " him to life everlasting:" For an encouraging* Pattern, an eminent precedent to all poor finners that were to come after him, that none might abfolutely defpair of finding mercy through Chrift. You know if a man be taken fick, and none can tell what the disease is, none can say that ever they heard of such a disease before, it is exceeding frightful; but if one and another,' may be twenty, come to the fick man's bed-fide, and tell him, fir, be not afraid, I have been in the very fame cafe that' you now are, and fo have many more, and all did well at last ; why this is half a cure to the fick man. So it is here a great support to hear the experiences of other faints.

it

Fourthly, As the experiences of others fupport the foul under thefe burdens, fo the riches of free grace through Jefus Chrift uphold it: It is rich and abundant, Pfal. cxxx. 7, 8. plenteous redemption: and it is free, and to the worst of finners, Ifa. i. 18. And under thefe troubles it finds itfelf in the way, and proper method of mercy, for fo my text (a text that hath upheld many thousand drooping hearts) states it: All this gives hope and en-' couragement under trouble.

Fifthly, and Laftly, Though the state of the foul be fad and finking, yet Jefus Chrift ufually makes halte in the extremity of trouble to relieve it, by fweet and feasonable difcoveries of Min. 2

* The word Υποτύπωσις as well as τυπος (which is the word rendered Pattern in 1 Tim. 16.) fignifies the first draught of a picture, it is here taken for example, that men might fee what they might expect from God: That grace much more abounds, and is more powerful than fin, and that no believer may be diffident of the forgiveness provided for him. Pol, Synopf. on the Place.

his grace; cum duplicantur lateres, venit Mofes, in the mount of the Lord it fhall be feen. It is with Chrift as it was with Jofeph, whofe bowels yearned towards his brethren, and he was in pain till he had told them, "I am Jofeph your brother." This is fweetly exhibited to us in that excellent parable of the prodigal, Luke xv. when his father faw him, being yet a great way off, he ran and fell upon his neck, and kiffed him. Mercy runs nimbly to help, when fouls are ready to fall under the preffure of fin. And thus you fee both how they are burthened, and how upheld under the burthen.

Why doth God make the burden of fin lie fo heavy upon the fouls of fome finners?

laft place, why God makes the burThirdly, If it be enquired, in the den of fin prefs fo heavy upon the hearts of poor finners? It is anfwer

ed,

First, He doth it to divorce their hearts from fin, by giving them an experimental tafte of the bitterness and evil that is in fin: Men's hearts are naturally glewed with delight to their finful courses; all the perfuafions and arguments in the world are too weak to feparate them and their beloved lufts. The morfels of fin go down smoothly and fweetly, they roll them with much delectation under their tongues, and it is but need that fuch bitter potions as thefe fhould be adminiftred to make their "ftomachs rife against fin," as that † word used by the apostle in 2 Cor. vii. 11. fignifies, in that ye forrowed after a godly fort, what indignation it wrought? It notes the rifing of the ftomach with rage, a being angry even unto fickness; and this is the way, the best and most effectual way to separate the foul of a finner from his lufts; for in thefe troubles, confcience faith,. as it is in Jer, iv. 18. " Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is great, because it reacheth unto thy heart."

Secondly, the Lord doth this to make Jefus Chrift most welcome and defirable to the foul. Chrift is not fweet, till fin be made bitter to us. Matth, ix. 12. "They that be whole need "not a physician, but they that are fick." If once God wounds the heart of a finner, with the flinging fense of fin, then nothing in the world is fo precious, fo neceflary, fo vehemently defired, and panted for, as Jefus Chrift! O that I had Chrift, if I did go in rags, if I did feed upon no other food all my days, but the bread and water of affliction? this is the language of a foul filled with the fenfe of the evil of fin.

'Agavantnots, indignatio, ftomacbatio. Leigh's Critica, in verb

Thirdly, The Lord doth this to advance the riches of his free grace in the eyes of finners. Grace never appears grace till fin appears to be fia. The deeper our fenfe of the evil of fin is, the deeper our apprehensions of the free grace of God in Christ will be. The louder our groans have been under the burden of fin, the louder will our acclamations and praises be for our falvation from it by Jefus Chrift. "To me (faith Paul) "the chiefest of finners, was this grace given," I Tim. i. 15. Never doth the grace of a prince fo melt the heart of a traitor, as when trial, fentence, and all preparations for his execution have paffed, before his unexpected pardon comes.

Fourthly, The Lord doth this to prevent relapfes into fin: "In that ye forrowed after a godly fort, what carefulness it wrought!" 2 Cor. ii. 7. The burnt child dreads the fire, the bird that is delivered out of the talons of the hawk, trembles afterward at the noife of his bells. "After fuch a deliverance as this, fhould we again break thy commandments?" Ezra ix. 13, 14. Afk a poor penitent foul, that hath been in the deeps of forrow for fin, Will you return to your former courfe of fin again? And it founds in his ears, as if you should afk him, Will you run into the fire, will ye go to the rack a gain? O no, it hath coft him dear already *.

Fifthly, Laftly, This the Lord doth, to make them both fkilful and compaffionate in relieving others that are under like inward troubles. None can fpeak fo judiciously, so pertinently, fo feelingly to another's cafe, as he that hath been in the fame cafe himself t; this furnishes them with the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in feason to the weary foul; by this means they are able to "comfort others with the fame comforts "wherewith they themselves have been comforted of God," 2 Cor. i. 4.

Thus you have had a brief account, what the burden of fin is, how fouls are fupported under that burden, and why the Lord caufes fin to lie fo heavy upon the fouls of fome finners. The improvement of all will be in a double ufe, viz.

Of information, and direction.

First ufe for information.

Infer. 1. Is there fuch a load and burden in fin? What then

*Nolo tanti emere pænitentiam. i. e. I will not purchase repentance at so dear a rate.

Haud ignara mali, miferis fuccurere dico. Virg.
Like you, an alien in a land unknown,

I learn to pity woes, fo like mine own. Dryden.

SERM. IX. was the burden that our Lord Jefus Chrift felt and bare for us, upon whom the whole weight of all the fins of all God's elect lay! Ifa. liii. 6. "He hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on "him." Our burden is heavy, but nothing to Christ's. O there is a vaft difference betwixt that which Chrift bare, and that which we bear. We feel but the fingle weight of our own fins; Chrift felt the whole weight of all our fins. You do not feel the whole weight that is in any one fin; alas, it would fink you, if God fhould let it bear in all its aggravations and effects upon you. Pfal. cxxx. 2, 3. "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord who shall stand !" You would fink prefently, you can no more ftand under it, than under the weight of a mighty mountain. But Chrift bare all the burden upon himself; his understanding was deep and large; he knew the extent of its evil, which we do not: we have many reliefs and helps under our burden, he had none; we have friends to counsel, comfort, and pity us; all his friends and familiars forfook him, and fled in the day of his trouble: we have comforts from heaven, he had frowns from heaven: "My God, my God, (faith he in that doleful day) why haft thou forfaken me?" There is no compare betwixt our load and Christ's.

Infer. 2. If there be fuch a burden in fin, then certainly finners will pay dear for all the pleasure they find in fin, in the days of their vanity. "What one faith of crafty counfels, we "may fay of all fins; though they feem pleafant in their first

appearance, they will be found fad in the event:" they are honey in the mouth, but the gall of afps in the belly; they tickle the fancy; but rend the confcience. O finner, thy mirth will certainly be turned into mourning, as fure as thou liveft; that vain and frothy breast of thine fhall be wounded; thou fhalt feel the fting and pain, as well as relish the sweet, and pleasure of fin. O that thou wouldst but give thyfelf the leifure feriously to ponder thofe | fcriptures in the margin; methinks they fhould have the fame effect that the hand-writing upon the plaister of the wall had upon that jovial king in the height of a frolic, Daniel v. 5. Reafon thus with thine own heart, and thou wilt find the conclufion unavoidable; either I fhall repent for fin, or I fhall not: If I fhall not, then muft I howl under the wrath of God for fin, in the lowest hell for e

Confilia callida prima fpecie laeta; tractatu dura; eventu triftia. Livy.

Prov. xx. 7. Ibid. xxiii. 31, 32. Job xx. 12, 13, 14. James i. 15. Rom. vi. 21.

vermore. If I fhall, then by what I have now read, of the throbs and wounds of conscience, I fee what this heart of mine, this vain heart of mine, must feel in this world. O how much wifer was the choice that Mofes made, Heb. xi. 25. the worst of sufferings, rather than the best of fin, the pleasures of fin, which are but for a season !

Infer. 3. Is there fuch a burden in fin, then the most tender compaffion is a debt due to fouls afflicted and heavy laden with fin. Their condition cries for pity, whatever their tongues do; they feem to call upon you, as Job upon his friends; " Have pity, "have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God "hath touched me," Job xix. 21. And O let all that have felt the wounds, and anguish of an afflicted confcience themfelves, learn from their own experience tenderly to pity and help others. Gal. vi. 1. "You that are fpiritual, restore (* or fet him "in joint again) in the spirit of meeknefs, confidering thyself." Ifrael was commanded to be kind to strangers, for, faith God, you know the heart of a stranger. And furely if any cafe in the world require help, pity, and all compaffionate tenderness, this doth; and yet how do some flight spiritual troubles upon others? Parents flight them in their own children, masters in their fervants; the more brutish and wicked they. O had you but felt yourselves what they feel, you would never treat them as you do. But let this comfort fuch poor creatures, Christ hath felt them, and will pity and help them; yea, he therefore would feel them himself, that he might have compaffion upon you. If men will not, God will pity you; if men be fo cruel to perfecute him whom God hath fmitten, God will be fo kind to pour balm into the wounds that fin hath made: if they pull away the fhoulder from you, and will not be concerned about your troubles, except it be to aggravate them, God will not ferve you fo: but certainly you that have paffed through the fame difficulties, you cannot be without compaffion to them that are now grappling with them.

Infer. 4. How unexpreffibly dreadful is the fate of the damned, who must bear the burden of all their fins upon themselves, without relief, or hope of deliverance! Mark. ix. 44. "where their worm "dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

O! If fin upon the foul that is coming to Chrift for deliverance, be fo burdenfome, what is it upon the foul that is shut out from Chrift, and all hopes of deliverance for ever! For, do but ponder thefe differences betwixt thefe two burdens.

Karapris, laxta membra in fuum locum reftituere.