me? Suppose thy yoke-fellow unsuitable, children | made partakers of at the table of the Lord
undutiful, parents unkind, friends ungrateful, neigh-
bours injurious, yet the comfort of our relation to
God may suffice to make up the loss of comfort in
any relation on earth. If man be false, yet God is
faithful: if man be harsh, yet God is gracious.
Though the waters of our rivers may be muddied,
or turned into blood, yet the fountain of life runs
always clear, and its stream as pure as crystal,
Rev. xxii. 1. It was upon the supposition of family
disappointments, that David, in his last words, took
comfort from the covenant of grace made with him,
2 Sam. xxiii. 5.

Are those who are dear to thee removed from thee by death? It is fit that which is so sown should be watered; but sacrament comforts will keep us from sorrowing, as those that have no hope, for them that sleep in Jesus. We have lost the satisfaction we used to have in them, but is not God better to us than ten sons, far better than ten thousand such relations could have been? And yet they are not lost, they are only gone before, and death itself cannot wholly cut us off from communion with them, for we are come to the spirits of just men made perfect, and hope to be with them shortly, Heb. xii. 23.

Are the calamities of the church and of the nation our affliction? It is fit they should be so, for we have eaten and drank into the great body, and as living members must feel from its grievances; but in the Lord's supper we have seen what provision the grace of God has made for his household, and thence may infer the protection under which the providence of God will always keep it safe. The promises that are sealed to us, are sure to all the seed, and the covenant of grace is the rock on which the church is built so firm, that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. The Lord (we see) hath founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall trust to that. Let us at this ordinance learn this new song, and sing it often, Hallelujah, The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

VI. Are the fears of death a trouble and terror to us? We may fetch from the Lord's supper that which will enable us, through grace, to triumph over these fears. This is a fear which is often found to have torment, and by reason of it many weak Christians | have been all their life-time subject to bondage, Heb. ii. 15. It is likewise a fear which often brings a snare, exposes us to many temptations, and gives Satan advantage against us. There are many, who (we hope) through grace are saved from the second death, and yet are afraid of the first death; being more solicitous than they need to be about a dying life, and more timorous than they need to be of a living death, a death that is their way to life.

But the arrests of death, and its harbingers, would not be at all dreadful, if we did but know how to make a due improvement of the comforts we were

We

there saw Christ dying; dying so great a death, a death in pomp, armed and attended with all its terrors; dying in pain, in shame, in darkness, in agonies; and yet the Son of God, and the heir of all things. This takes off the reproach of death; so that now we need not be ashamed to die: if Christ humbled himself, and became obedient to death, why should not we? It likewise takes off the terror of death, so that now we need not be afraid to die. When we walk through that dark and dismal valley, we have no reason to fear any evil; while the great Shepherd of the sheep is not only gone before us, but goes along with us, his rod and his staff they comfort us, Ps. xxiii. 4. He is our leader; and we do not approve ourselves his good soldiers, if we be not willing to follow him whithersoever he goes. He went through death to the joy set before him; and we cannot expect to follow him to that joy, but in that way. Through this Jordan we must enter

Canaan.

The death of Christ has broken the power of death, and taken from it all the armour wherein it trusted; so that now let it do its worst, it cannot do a good Christian any real prejudice, for it cannot separate him from the love of God. Surely the bitterness of death is now past, by Christ's tasting it, Heb. ii. 9. The sharpness of death Christ has overcome, by submitting to it, and so has opened the kingdom of heaven to believers. The sucking child may now play upon this hole of the asp, and the weaned child may put his hand in this cockatrice den: for death itself shall not hurt or destroy, in all God's holy mountain.

Nay, the death of Christ has quite altered the property of death. It not only ceases to be an enemy, but it is become a friend: the covenant of grace, sealed to us in the Lord's supper, assures us of the unspeakable kindness that even death itself shall do us. All things are yours ;—and death, among the rest, 1 Cor. iii. 22. As the death of Christ was the purchase of our happiness, so our own death is the passage to our happiness; it discharges us from our prison, and conveys us to our palace. The promise of eternal life sealed to us, and the earnests of that life communicated to us in this ordinance, enable us to look with comfort on the other side death; and then we need not look with terror on this side it.

Art thou afraid to give up thy soul? Thou hast already given it up to God in Christ, to be sanctified; and, therefore, mayst then with a holy cheerfulness give it up to God in Christ, to be saved. The dying Jesus, by committing his spirit into the hands of his Father, has imboldened all his followers in a dying hour to do the same. Why should that soul be afraid to go out of the body, and quit this world of sense, which is through grace allied to, and by faith acquainted with, the blessed world of

spirits, and is sure of a guard of angels ready to convey it to that world, and a faithful friend ready to receive it into that world.

for their redemption draws nigh: death will shortly rend the interposing veil of sense and time, will shortly scatter all the dark and threatening clouds which here hang over our heads, and will open to us a bright and glorious scene in that blessed world of light, life, and love; where we shall enjoy the substance of those things, which at the Lord's table we are refreshed with the shadows of, and the full vintage of those joys, which here we have the first fruits of.

Art thou afraid to put off thy body? The covenant sealed to thee at the Lord's table, is a covenant with thy dust, and gives commandment concerning thy bones. Fear not the return of thy earth to its earth; it is in order to its being refined, and in due time restored to its soul, a glorious and incorruptible body. Spiritual blessings are, perhaps for this reason, in the sacraments represented and applied by outward and sensible signs, in the participation of which the body is concerned; that we might thereby be confirmed in our believing hope of the glory pre-treasure within the veil, and remitted thy best effects pared and reserved for these bodies of ours, these vile bodies; which, even while they lie in the grave, still remain united to Christ, and when they shall be raised out of the grave, shall be made like unto his glorious body.

Let the sinners in Sion be afraid to die. Let fearfulness surprise the hypocrites, when their souls shall be required of them: let their hearts meditate terror, and their faces gather blackness, who, hav- | ing lived a carnal, worldly, sensual life, have no interest in Christ and the promises; for they shall call in vain to rocks and mountains to shelter them from the wrath of the Lamb. But let them who have joined themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant, and have obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful to that covenant, lift up their heads with joy,

Learn then, my soul, learn thou to triumph over death and the grave: O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? Having laid up thy

and best affections thither, and having received the earnest of the purchased possession, be still looking, still longing, for that blessed hope. Fear not death, for it cannot hurt thee, but desire it rather, for it will greatly befriend thee. When the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, thou shalt remove to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Wish then, wish daily, for the coming of thy Lord, for he shall appear to thy joy. The vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie. Look through the windows of this house of clay, like the mother of Sisera, when she waited for her son's triumphs, and cry through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming, why tarry the wheels of his chariot? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

DIRECTIONS

FOR

DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD,

IN THREE DISCOURSES,

SHOWING HOW TO BEGIN, HOW TO SPEND, AND HOW TO CLOSE EVERY DAY WITH GOD.

nisters, what our business is, we hope we can truly | duty dictated by the light and law of nature, which say, it is (as God shall enable us) to assist and plainly and loudly speaks, Should not a people seek further you herein. Comest thou peaceably? said the unto their God? but which the gospel of Christ elders of Bethlehem to Samuel; and so perhaps you gives us much better instructions in, and encouragewill say to us to which we answer, as the prophet ments to, than any that nature furnishes us with; did, Peaceably; we come to sacrifice unto the Lord, for it tells us what we must pray for, in whose name and invite you to the sacrifice. we must pray, and by whose assistance, and invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace, and to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. This work we are to do, not in the morning only, but at other times, at all times. We read of preaching the word out of season, but we do not read of praying out of season, for that is never out of season: the throne of grace is always open, and humble supplicants are always welcome, and cannot come unseasonably. But let us see how David here expresses his pious resolutions to abide by this duty. 1. My voice shalt thou hear. Two ways David may here be understood: either,

While the lecture continues with you, you have an opportunity of more than doubling your morning devotions. Besides your worshipping of God in secret, and in your families, which this must not supersede, or justle out, you here call upon God's name in the solemn assembly; and it is as much your business in all such exercises to pray a prayer together, as it is to hear a sermon; and it is said, the original of the morning exercise was a meeting for prayer, at the time when the nation was groaning, under the dreadful, desolating judgment of a civil war. You have also an opportunity of conversing with the word of God; you have precept upon precept, and line upon line: O that as the opportunity awakens you morning by morning, (so as the prophet speaks,) | your ears may be wakened to hear us the learned,

Isa. 1. 4.

(1.) As promising himself a gracious acceptance with God, Thou shalt, that is, thou wilt, hear my voice, when in the morning I direct my prayer to thee; so it is the language of his faith, grounded upon God's promise, that his ear shall be always open to his people's cry. He had prayed, v. 1. Give

But this is not all: we desire that such impressions may be made upon you by this cluster of oppor-ear to my words, O Lord; and, v. 2. Hearken unto tunities, as you may always abide under the influence of; that this morning-lecture may leave you better disposed to morning-worship ever after; that these frequent acts of devotion may so confirm the habit of it, so that henceforward your daily worship may become more easy, and if I may so say, in a manner natural to you

For your help herein, I would recommend to you holy David's example in the text, who having resolved in general, (v. 2.) that he would abound in the duty of prayer, and abide by it, Unto thee will I pray, here fixes one proper time for it, and that is the morning: My voice shalt thou hear in the morning. Not in the morning only; David solemnly addressed himself to the duty of prayer three times a day, as Daniel did; Morning, and evening, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud, Ps. lv. 17. nay, he does not think that enough, but Seven times a day will I praise thee, Ps. cxix. 164. But particularly in the morning.

the voice of my cry; and here he receives an answer to that prayer, Thou wilt hear, I doubt not but thou wilt; and though I have not presently a grant of the thing I prayed for, yet I am sure my prayer is heard, is accepted, and comes up for a memorial, as the prayer of Cornelius did; it is put upon the file, and shall not be forgotten. If we look inward, and can say by experience, that God has prepared our heart, we may look upright, may look forward, and say with confidence, that he will cause his ear to hear.

We may be sure of this, and we must pray in the assurance of it, in a full assurance of this faith, that wherever God finds a praying heart, he will be found a prayer-hearing God: though the voice of prayer be a low voice, a weak voice, yet, if it come from an upright heart, it is a voice that God will hear, that he will hear with pleasure, it is his delight, and that he will return a gracious answer to; he has heard thy prayers, he has seen thy tears. When therefore we stand praying, this ground we must

Doct. It is our wisdom and duty, to begin every stand upon, this principle we must stand to, nothing day with God.

Let us observe in the text,

I. The good work itself that we are to do. God must hear our voice, we must direct our prayer to him, and we must look up.

II. The special time appointed and observed for the doing of this good work; and that is in the morning, and again, in the morning, that is, every morning, as duly as the morning comes.

I. The good work which by the example of David we are here taught to do, is, in one word, to pray; a

doubting, nothing wavering, that whatever we ask of God as a Father, in the name of Jesus Christ the Mediator, according to the will of God revealed in the Scripture, it shall be granted us either in kind or kindness; so the promise is, (John xvi. 23.) and the truth of it is sealed to by the concurring experience of the saints in all ages, ever since man began to call upon the name of the Lord, that Jacob's God never yet said to Jacob's seed, Seek ye me in vain, and he will not begin now. When we come to God by prayer, if we come aright we may be

confident of this, that notwithstanding the distance | if he had only said, "Let me hear from you as often between heaven and earth, and our great unworthi- as there is occasion; call upon me in the time of ness to have any notice taken of us, or any favour trouble or want, and that is enough :" but to show showed us, yet God does hear our voice, and will his complacency in us, as a father does his affection not turn away our prayer, or his mercy. Or, to his child when he is sending him abroad, he gives us this charge, "Let me hear from you every day, by every post, though you have no particular business;" which shows, that the prayer of the upright is his delight; it is music in his ears. Christ says to his dove, Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely, Cant. ii. 14. And it is to the spouse, the church, that Christ speaks in the close of that song of songs, O thou that dwellest in the gardens, (in the original it is feminine,) the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear it. What a shame is this to us, that God is more willing to be prayed to, and more ready to hear prayer, than we are to pray?