posed to the northern blasts, and others to the gentle gales of the south; some at more distance from one another, and others more close; and all according as best suits with their natures.

So the Lord, the great Creator of all, hath planted men in the world in various situations some in affluent circumstances, others in more straitened; some in eminent stations, some in low, some exposed to the sharp blasts of affliction, and others amid the sweet gales of prosperity; some, as it were, singly, without relatives, in comparison of others, and solitary; while others are set in families, Psal. Ixviii. 6., and these increased like a flock, Psal. cvii. 41., and have many friends: and all according as he in his infinite wisdom hath seen best for them.

Had some of these trees, which now grow in a low and moist soil, been planted on a high and dry situation, their growth had been much marred; and, on the other hand, had those which now grow in such a soil, been planted in a low and marshy ground,' they would not have prospered so well.

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Just so it is with respect to men in this world; that situation in which every man is placed is certainly the best for him. If many of the people of the Lord, who are poor this world, had been planted in high and opulent circumstances, it is very probable their fulness would have made them forget God, and thus their prosperity have retarded their growth in religion.

If poor believers would properly consider this, through divine grace it might be a means of reconciling them to the straitened situations in which they are placed in life; and would those, on the other hand, who are placed in exalted stations, fed with the finest of the wheat, Psal. lxxxi. 16. having abundance of this world's goods, and flourishing like a green bay tree, consider it is from the Lord they have received their ful- ness, and to him at last they must give in an account how they have used the goods he hath entrusted them with, it might, through grace, be the happy means of causing them make to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; so that when they fail, they may be received into everlasting habitations, Luke xvi. 9.

If this be not done, all the wealth which they possess will prove a curse only, instead of a blessing and what will they do when death cometh to them with this awful message, "Give an account of thy stewardship, "for thou mayest be no longer steward," Luke xvi. 2.

No doubt this grove was all at first planted from proper shoots, yet how many of its trees are become exceedingly crooked, misshapen, and knotty, which putteth me in mind of that beautiful passage recorded by the prophet, where the Lord expostulateth with his people, and telleth them he had planted them a noble vine, wholly a right seed; and asketh this confounding question, "How "then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" Jer. ii.

21.

Let me suppose the question asked by the great God at myself in particular, what answer should I give? Would it not certainly be this? Lord, I broke covenant with thee in Adam, voluntarily threw off thy yoke and service for that of Satan, by eating of the forbidden fruit, which thou dischargedst

me to touch, or taste, under the awful penalty of death, Gen. ii. 17. and iii. 3., and thereby fell from rectitude, having lost thy image, which is the reason of my degeneracy, and being crooked and thwart to thy divine and righteous law. But glory to God in the highest; though man did thus degenerate, and become the plant of a strange vine, in and through the covenant of grace, entered into betwixt God the Father, and God the Son, in the name of the elect from all eternity, he is again set right: the effects of which all-gracious covenant were, that God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the fulness of time came from heaven to earth, not to condemn the world, as our guilty fears might well have suggested, but to fulfil the covenant of works, which man had basely violated, by yielding a perfect obedience to the divine law, and undergoing the penalty which was denounced against man, in case of his disobedience, and to deliver those for whom he became surety, from going down to the pit: In and through whose obedience and all-atoning death, fallen men are not only delivered from the condemnatory sentence of a broken law, but also restored again to the favour and friendship of

God, being united to him, who is the true Vine, by faith.

Through regeneration the great Husbandman purgeth them from sin and dead works, and maketh them to bring forth more fruit, John xv. 1, 2.; so they grow up as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters, Num, xxiv. 6.

How much then doth it concern me to know whether I be broken off from the old stock of Adam, and ingrafted into Christ Jesus the true vine! And can there be better marks, or a more certain way of knowing this, than those which our Lord himself hath given us to judge by; for he hath said, By their fruits ye shall know them : As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me: He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. "Not every

"one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall "enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he "that doth the will of my Father which is