Thus Mr. Bradford, when the keeper's wife came running into his chamber suddenly, with words able to have put the most of men in the world into a trembling posture: O, Mr. Bradford ! I bring you heavy tidings; to-morrow you must be burned, and your chain is now buying. He put off his hat, and said, "Lord, I thank thee; I have looked for this a great while, it is not terrible to me; God make me worthy of such a mercy." See the benefit of a prospect of, and preparation for sufferings !

4. Unbelief leaves our dearest interests and concerns in our own hands, it commits nothing to God, and consequently must needs fill the heart with distracting fears when imminent dangers threaten us. Reader, if this be thy case, thou wilt be surrounded with terrors, whensoever thou shalt be surrounded with dangers and troubles. Believers in this as well as in many other things, have the advantage of thee, that they have committed all that is precious and valuable to them into the hands of God by faith, to him they have committed the keeping of their souls, and all their eternal concerns. And these being put into safe hands, they are not distracted with fears about other matters of less value, but can trust them where they have intrusted the greater, and enjoy the quietness and peace of a resigned soul to God. But as for thee, thy life, thy liberty, yea, which is infinitely more than all these things, thy soul will lie upon thy hands in the day of trouble, and thou wilt not know what to do with them, nor which way to dispose of them. Oh! these be the dreadful straits and frights that unbelief leaves men in; it is a fountain of fears and distractions. And indeed it can not but distract and confound carnal men, in whom it reigns, and is in its full strength, when sad experience shows us what fears and tremblings the remains of this sin beget in the best men, who are not fully freed from it. If the unpurged remains of unbelief in them can thus darken and cloud their evidences, thus greaten and multiply their dangers; if it can draw such sad and frightful conclusions in their hearts, notwithstanding all the contrary experience of their lives, what panic fears and unrelieved terrors must it put those men under, where it is in its full strength and dominion?

"O for a faith that will not shrink,

Though press'd by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe;-

"That will not murmur or complain
Beneath the chastening rod,
But, in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God;-

"A faith that keeps the narrow way
Till life's last hour is fled,

And with a pure and heavenly ray
Illumes a dying bed."

JUNE 27.

CHRYSOSTOM.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.-Matt. xxiv. 37-39.

OUR Lord directs his speech unto the city, in this way too being minded to correct his hearers, and saith, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! What means the repetition? this is the manner of one pitying her, and bemoaning her, and greatly loving her. For, like as unto a woman beloved, herself indeed ever loved, but who had despised him that loved her, and, therefore, on the point of being punished, he pleads, being now about to inflict the punishment. Which he doth in the Prophets also, using these words, I said, Turn thou unto me, and she returned not.

Then having called her, he tells also her blood-stained deeds, Thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would not, in this way also pleading for his own dealings; not even with these things hast thou turned me aside, nor withdrawn me from my great affection toward thee, but it was my desire even so, and not once or twice, but often to draw thee unto me. For how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not. And this he saith, to show that they were ever scattering themselves by their sins. And his affection he indicates by the similitude; for indeed the creature is warm in its love towards its brood. And everywhere in the prophets is this same image of the wings, and in the song of Moses and in the Psalms, indicating his great protection and care.

But ye would not, he saith. Behold your house is left desolate, stripped of the succor which cometh from me. Surely it was the same, who also was before protecting them, and holding them together, and preserving them; surely it was he who was ever chastening them. And he appoints a punishment, which they had ever dreaded exceedingly; for it declared the entire overthrow of their polity. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And this is the language of one that loves earnestly, earnestly drawing them unto him by the things to come, not merely warning them by the past; for of the future day of his second coming doth he here speak.

What then? Did they not see him from that time? But it is not that hour which he meaneth in saying, Henceforth, but the time up to his crucifixion.

For since they were for ever accusing him of this, that he was a kind of rival God, and a foe to God, he moves them to love him by this, namely, by showing himself to be of one accord with his Father; and he indicates himself to be the same that was in the Prophets. Wherefore also he uses the same words as did the Prophets. And by these he intimated both his resurrection, and his second coming, and made it plain even to the utterly unbelieving, that then most surely they should worship

And how did he make this plain? By speaking of many things that were first to be, that he should send prophets, that they should kill them; that it should be in the synagogues; that they should suffer the utmost extremities; that their house should be left desolate; that they should undergo things more grievous than any, and such as never were undergone before. For all these things are enough to furnish even to the most senseless and contentious a clear proof of that which should come to pass at his coming.

men

For I will ask them, Did he not send the prophets and wise ? Did they slay them in their synagogues? Was their house left desolate? Did all the vengeance come upon that generation? It is quite plain that it was so, and no man gainsays it. As then all these things came to pass, so shall those also come to pass, and most surely they shall submit,

But they shall derive thence no advantage in the way of defence, as neither will they who repent of their course of life then.

Wherefore let us, while it is time, practice what is good. For like as they henceforth derived no advantage from their knowledge, even so neither shall we ourselves from our repentance for our wickedness. For neither to the pilot, when the bark is sunk in the sea from his remissness, will there remain any thing more; nor to the physician, when the sick man is gone; but each of these must before the end devise, and execute all things, so as to be involved in no danger, nor shame; but after this, all is unprofitable.

Let us also then, while in sickness, send for physicians, and lay out money, and exert unceasing diligence, that having risen up from our affliction, we may depart hence in health.

JUNE 28.

And joy in the Holy Ghost.-Rom. xiv. 17.

REYNOLDS.

PAUL tells us in this verse that the kingdom of God, consists in Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And this joy of the Spirit is grounded upon every passage of a Christian condition, from the entrance to the end.

First, The Spirit worketh joy in discovering, and bending the heart to mourn for corruption. For it is the Spirit of grace and supplications which makes sinners mourn, and loathe themselves! And such a sorrow as this, is the seed and matter of true joy: our Joseph's heart was full of joy, when his eyes poured out tears upon Benjamin's neck. As in wicked laughter the heart may be sorrowful, so in holy mourning the heart may rejoice; for all spiritual afflictions have a peaceable fruit! This was the first glimpse and beam of the prodigal's joy, that he resolved, with tears and repentance, to return to his father again. For there is a sweet complacency in an humble and spiritual heart to be vile in its own eyes, as to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Sacrifices, we know, were to be offered up with joy; and of all sacrifices a broken heart is that which God most delights in. "There is joy in heaven at the repentance of a sinner;" and, therefore, there must needs be joy in the heart itself which repents, inasmuch as it has heavenly affections begun in it. Therefore as the apostle saith, "Let a man become a fool that he may

be wise; so may I truly say,-Let a man become a mourner, that he may rejoice.

Secondly, The Spirit doth not only discover, but heal the corruptions of the soul; and there is no joy to the joy of a saved and cured man. The lame when he was restored by Peter, expressed the abundant exultation of his heart," by leaping, and praising God." For this cause, therefore, amongst others, the Spirit is called "the oil of gladness," because by that healing virtue which is in him, he makes glad the hearts of men. "The Spirit of the Lord," saith Christ, " is upon me, because the Lord anointed me to preach the glad tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind the broken-hearted:" and again, “I will bind that which is broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." Now this healing virtue of Christ is the dispensation of his word and Spirit; and, therefore, the prophet saith, " The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings; "where the Spirit in the word, by which he comes and preaches to men, is called "the wing of the Sun," because he proceeds from him, and was sent to supply his absence, as the beam does the sun's: and this Spirit the apostle calls "the strengthener of the inner man."

Thirdly, The Spirit does not only heal, but renew, and revive again. When an eye is smitten with a sword, there is a double mischief; a wound made, and a faculty perished: and here though a surgeon can heal the wound, yet he can never restore the faculty, because total privations admit no recovery ;-but the Spirit does not only heal and repair, but renew and re-edify the spirits of men. As he heals that which was torn, and binds up that which was smitten, so he revives and raises up that which was dead before: and this the apostle calls "the renovation of the Spirit," whereby old things are not mended and put together again, but are done quite away, and "all things become new: the heart, mind, affections, judgment, conscience, members, changed from stone to flesh, from earthly to heavenly, from the image of Adam to the image of Christ. Now this renovation must needs be matter of great joy; for so the Lord comforteth his afflicted people.

Fourthly, the Spirit not only renews and sets the frame of the heart right but being thus restored, he abides with it to, preserve and support it against all tempests and batteries. And this farther multiplies the joy and comfort of the church,