been mistaken? how have I fed upon ashes, and a deceived heart turned me aside, so that I could not deliver my soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Then we can see that pardon of sin, interest in Christ, evidence of that interest, a sense of God's love, a life of grace, and an assurance of glory, are the only indispensibles. In a word, that Christ alone, is the unum necessarium (the one thing needful) and that all other things are but loss and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, and of interest in him, and in his righteousness: without which the soul is undone to all eternity. And therefore oh that christians would be wise, that they would not spend their money for that which is not bread, nor their labour for that which satisfieth not! but labour for faith which might realize and substantiate unseen and spiritual things, and give them a being unto the soul. They that will not learn this lesson in the school of the word, shall learn it in the school of affliction, if they belong to God, and therefore set your heart to

it.

18. TIME REDEMPTION is another lesson which God teacheth whom he correcteth. In our tranquility, how many golden hours do we throw down the stream, which we are likely never to see again; for one whereof the time may come, when we would give rivers of oil, the wealth of both the Indies, mountains of precious stones, (if they were our own) and yet neither would they be found a sufficient price

for the redemption of any one lost moment. It was the complaint of the heathen moralist, and may be much more our complaint, Who is there amongst us, that knows how to value time, and prize a day at a due rate? Most men study rather how to pass away their time, than to redeem it; and are prodigal of their precious hours, as if they had more than they could tell what to do withall: our season is short, and we make it shorter. How sad a thing is it to hear men complain, O what shall we do to drive away the time?

Alas, even sabbath-time, the purest, the most refined part of time, time consecrated by divine sanction, how cheap and common is it in most men's eyes, while many do sin away, and the most do idle away those hallowed hours? Seneca was wont to jeer the Jews for their ill husbandry, in that they lost one day în seven, meaning their Sabbath: truly it is too true of the most of Christians, they lose one day in seven, (whatever else) the sabbath for the most part is but a lost day; while some spend it totally upon their lust, and the most, I had almost said the best, do fill up the void spaces and intervals of the sabbath from public worship, with idleness and vanity! But oh when trouble comes, and danger comes, and death comes; when the sword is at the bowels, the piftol at the breast, the knife at the throat, death at the door, how precious would one of those despised hours be? Evil days cry with a loud voice in our ears, Redeem the

time. That caution was written from the tower in Rome, Redeem the time, because the days are evil. In life-threatening dangers, when God threatens as it were, that time shall be no more, then we can think of redeeming time for prayer, for reading, for meditation; for studying and clearing out our evidences for heaven; for doing and receiving good, according to opportunities presented; yea, then we can gather up the very broken fragments of time, that nothing may be lost. Then God teacheth the soul what a choice piece of wisdom it is, for christians (if it were possible) to be before-hand with time; for usually it comes to pass through our unskilfulness and unwatchfulness, that we are surprised with death; and we that reckoned upon years, many years yet to come, have not possibly so many hours to make ready our accounts: It may be this night the summon may come, and then if our time be done, and our work to be begun, in what a case are we! The soul must needs be in perplexity at the hour of death, that seeth the day spent, and its work yet to do. A traveller that seeth the sun setting, when he is but entering on his journey, cannot but be aghast: the evening of our day, and the morning of our task, do not well agree together; the time which remaineth is too short to lament the loss of past time. Fy such hazards God doth come upon the soul as the angel upon Peter in prison, and smites upon our sides, bids us rise up quickly and gird up ourselves, and bind on our sandals, that we

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may redeem lost opportunities, and do much work in a little time. It is a pity to lose any thing of that which is so precious and so short.

19. Affliction teaches HOW TO ESTIMATE, at least to make some remote and imperfect guess at THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS CHRIST. In our prosperity we pass by the cross carelessly and regardlessly; at the best we do but shake our heads a little; the reading of the story or Christ's passion stirs us up some pity towards him, and passion against his persecutors; but it is quickly gone; we forget as soon as we get into the world again; but now let God pinch our flesh with some sore affliction; let him fill our bones with pain, and set us on fire with a burning fever; let our feet te hurt in the stocks, and the irons enter into our souls; let our souls be exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud; let us be destitute, afflicted, tormented, &c. then happly we shall sit down and look upon him whom we have pierced, and begin to say within ourselves, And are the chips of the cross so heavy? what then was the cross itself, which my Redeemer did bear? Are a few bodily pains so bitter? what then were those agonies which the Lord of glory sustained in his soul? Is the wrath of man so piercing? what was the wrath of God, which scorched his righteous saul, and forced his very heart's blood through his flesh in a cold winter's night, so that his sweat was as great drops of blood falling down to the

ground? Are the buffetings of men so grievous? what were the buffetings of Satan, which our Lord sustained, when all the brood of the serpent lay nibbling at his heels? Is a burning fever so hot? how then did the flames even of hell itself, scald' my Saviour's spirit? Christ felt pænasin fernales, though not inferni. Is it such an heart-piercing affliction to be deserted of friends? what was it then for him, that was the Son of God's love, the darling of his bosom, to be deserted of his Father, which made him cry out to the astonishment of heaven and earth, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Is a chain so heavy, a prison so loathsome, the sentence and execution of death so dreadful? O what was it for him that made heaven and earth to be bound with a chain, hurried up and down from one unrighteous judge to another, mocked, abused, spit upon, buffeted, reviled, cast into prison, arraigned, condemned, and executed in a most shameful and an accursed manner? O what was it for him to endure all this contradiction of sinners, rage of the devil, and wrath of God, in comparison of whom the most righteous person that ever was, may say with the penitent thief on the cross, And we indeed justly, but he, what evil hath he done? He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Blessed be God, my prison is not Tophet, my burnings are not unquenchable flames, my cup is not filled with wrath; in a word, this is