God will either keep his saints from temptations, by his preventing mercy, or in temptations by his supporting mercy, or find a way for their escape by his delivering mercy.

A Christian that lives here among his enemies, should never stir abroad without his guard.

Satan tempts to sin, the spirit counsels against sin.

If you follow Satan, you will find the tempter prove a tormentor; if you follow the spirit, you will find the counsellor prove a comforter

OF THE WORLD.

Ir the world be our portion here, hell will be our portion hereafter.

We must neither leave the world, nor love it. The world promises comforts, and pays sor

rows.

Love the men of the world, but not the things of the world.

To have a portion in the world, is a mercy; to have the world for a portion, is a misery.

Whatever we make an idol of, will be a cross to us if we belong to Christ; a curse to us if wo do not.

We should endeavour to pass through this world with a cheerful indifferency.

Covetousness betrayed our Saviour, envy accused him, and the friendship of the world condemned him.

Man is not made for the world, but the world for man.

It is our business in this world, to secure an interest in the next.

The things of the world, the more they are known, the less they are admired; but the things of God, the more they are known the more they are admired.

There is no miss of the creature, where there is a full enjoyment of the Creator.

If thou art not afraid of the world, I fear thou art a friend of the world, and an enemy to God.

As you love your souls, beware of the world; it hath slain its thousands, and ten thousands. What ruined Lot's wife? the world. What ruined Judas? the world. What ruined Simon Magus? the world. What ruined Demas? the world. And, what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? To speak the truth freely: riches are dust, honours are shadows, and pleasures are bubbles, and man a lump of vanity, compounded of sin and misery.

OF THE WORD OF GOD.

THE word of God must be nearer to us than our friends, dearer to us than our liberty, and pleasanter to us than all earthly comforts.

Take the candle of God's word, and search the corners of your heart.

We speak to God in prayer; God speaks to us in his word.

Two things are to be trembled at; the presence of God which fills all places, and the word of God which reacheth to all times.

All arguments against the word of God are fallacies; all the conceits against the word are

delusions; all derision against the word is folly: and all opposition against the word is madness. When God threatens, that's a time to repent: when he promises, that's a time to believe; when he commands, that's a time to obey.

If a man believed the threatenings of the word of God, he would tremble, and fly to the promise for refuge.

As Christ came out of his Father's bosom, so the promises came out of Christ's side.

The church cannot live without faith, and faith cannot live without promises.

We have less power to stand than our first parents, but we have better promises.

Whatever promises faith takes hold of, it makes the good thing there promised to be our

own.

God's promises are a defence against man's threatenings.

The promises of the gospel are sealed to us by the oath of the Father, the blood of the Son, and the witness of the Spirit.

OF PROVIDENCE.

PROVIDENCES are sometimes dark texts that want an expositor.

God's providence fulfils his promise.

Count every day, as well as you can, the providences of God towards you that day.

Without God's providence nothing falls out in the world; without his commission nothing stirs ; without his blessing nothing prospers.

OF AFFLICTIONS.

Ir is a worse sign to be without chastisement than to be under chastisement.

Two things should comfort suffering Christians; viz. all that they suffer is not hell; yet it is all the hell they shall suffer.

Afflictions are not so much threatened as promised to the children of God.

To be a Christian, and a suffering Christian, is a double honour.

By affliction God separates the sin which he hates, from the soul which he loves.

The more a man fears sin, the less will he fear trouble.

Afflictions are of God's sending, but of sin's deserving. Sin is the poison, affliction the physic.

When God is humbling us, let us endeavour to humble ourselves.

If the servants of God are never so low, yet his heart is with them, and his eye upon them.

God takes it unkindly when we grieve too much for any outward thing; because it is a sign we fetch not that comfort from him which we should.

Though the hand of God may be against you, yet the heart of God may be towards you.

What if the providence of God cross you, if the promise of God bless you?

What is bearing a temporal cross, to the wear-ing an eternal crown?

Our enjoyments are greater than our afflictions, less than our sins.

Our sufferings should stir up our graces, as well as our griefs.

OF PRAYER.

FILL up the void spaces of your time with meditation and prayer.

They are safest who are most in their closets; who pray not to be seen of men, but to be heard of God.

Prayer doth not consist of gifted expressions, and a volubility of speech; but in a brokenness of heart.

Imperfect broken groans, from a broken heart, God will accept.

An hard heart cannot pray; a broken heart is made up of prayer.

It is a comfort to Christians apart to think their prayers meet before a throne of grace; and that their persons shall meet before a throne of glory. There wants nothing but a believing prayer to turn the promise into a performance.

God is a great God, and therefore he will be sought; he is a good God, and therefore he will be found.

When God pours out his spirit upon man, then will man pour out his heart before God. Prayer doth not consist in the elegance of the phrase, but in the strength of the affection.

Where there is a willing heart, there will be a continual crying to heaven for help.

Pray that you may pray.

Waiting upon God continually will abate your unnecessary carcs, and sweeten your necessary

ones

God counts all the steps we take to the throne of grace, and all the minutes of our waiting. Let nothing get between heaven and our prayer but Christ,