was before Cain. I fhall pawn my honour in the miniftry upon this, and the present generation fhall bear witnefs to it; and I will leave God to justify his own conduct with refpect to fending out fuch bad spirited men as me, and to vindicate me if I am his fervant.

I wish every true Ifraelite to obferve what this enthufiaftic Micaiah faith, and watch the event. If I am the Lord's fervant, these weapons of women fhall not profper against me; but if I am not they certainly fhall. Zeref herself, the wife of Haman, though the daughter of the devil, could never predict fuccefs even to her own husband against the feed of the Jews, Eft. vi. 13. and God has declared that no weapon formed against his fervants fhall profper; and I believe he fpeaks as he means. What I have afferted I found on the teftimony of his own word, and upon the teftimony that I think he has given meteftifying my adoption, and my call to the miniftry, which I fhall fubmit to his will to own or difown according to his faithfulness and truth.

Thus we fee that the fervants of the Lord, both as labourers in the vineyard and as good foldiers of Jefus Chrift, have need of patience, and that in many refpects. 'Tis in patience that we are to poffefs our fouls; and this grace is coupled with faith, and is to be found in none but real believers; hence it is called the patience and faith of the faints. We fee that all forts of people will try

this grace more or lefs; not only perfecutors, devils, and ungodly men, but little children, as Elifha found it, and old women also.

I have received letters from all forts of people, women and all; fome have informed me that they have been intolerably prejudiced against me, and defired me to call upon them to remove it, which I did not fee to be a part of my duty as a minifter; for people that live in idleness can attend upon me better than I can upon them; especially women deftitute of grace, who rather command than intreat. I own Wisdom is gentle to them that intreat, but not to women that command. I did not get at my ministry so easy, and therefore dare not make it too cheap: Let them return unto thee, fays God, but return thou not unto them, Jer. xv. 19.

I received another long epiftle from a woman after the above, which I must confefs was pregnant with a deal of warm zeal; and 'twas fent by one who it seems is a ftaunch advocate for a certain evangelift; I opened it just before I went into the pulpit; but as I found no candour in it, I carried it into the veftry, and delivered it into the hands of Mr. BRAYNE, and defired that it might be read to the Deacons, which it accordingly was; and I was glad that they read it; for at the conclusion it favoured too much of spleen and bitterness, for fhe plainly "d-d me for a rafcal for writing against fo good a man." I do not pretend to say that this woman is not a proE phetess,

phetefs, for I believe she is, and one of the fame ftamp that bear that name in the 13th chapter of Ezekiel's prophefy; and fuch as the apostle Paul was troubled with in his days; yet I must do her juftice; for although fhe was found out upon the enquiry of the Deacons to be a common proftitute on the town, yet fhe did not print her letter and fend it after me from one place of worship to another; fhe had modesty enough to feal it up and direct it to me as a private rebuke, which was well taken, because she did not seem to wish to hurt the caufe of God on my account, nor to act the part of a devil at the chapel door; that is, fhe did not order an outcry to be made at the door of the congregation when the people were going out, as the devil is faid to do, who comes in the character of the wicked one, to steal away the feed that is fown in people's hearts, in order to make them unfruitful to God. In this fhe fhewed fome symptoms of fear and reverence, and fome regard for the caufe of God, though fhe thought it her duty to lay a private lash upon me. By these things it may be feen that a labourer in the Lord's vineyard, and a good foldier of Jefus Chrift, had need of patience.

I come now to treat of the meekness mentioned in my text, and wherein it differs from that which is common to flesh and blood, which produces what is commonly called candour, which is fo much admired by hypocrites.

This meekness is a grace that is never to be found in any but regenerate people, though fomething like it may at times be feen in an alarmed finner, or in a difcovered hypocrite, which has deceived thousands of gracious fouls, whose natural paffions have been moved at their trouble, as Samuel was at the calamity of Saul, for which God rebuked him; yet this meekness that I have to treat of has not corrupt nature for its foil; the embalmed hypocrite may counterfeit it, but never can produce it; the person that is a ftranger to real converfion, and to the operations of the Holy Ghost, has nothing of this invaluable grace; it is one of Zion's ornaments; an hypocrite may counterfeit it, as a whore does the dignity of a wife, who feigns to be the lady of a nobleman, or as a concubine puts on the diadem of a queen; who has just as much right to it as Satan had to his dignity when he told the Saviour that the kingdoms of this world were his, and to whom he would he gave them; but he could never make his title good.

Spiritual meeknefs is an ornament that God puts upon a regenerated and renewed foul, and has its existence in that which is called the new, or bidden man: Let your adorning be the hidden man of the beart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet fpirit, which is in the fight of God of great price, 1 Peter iii. 4. Here we learn that spiritual meekness exifts in that which is incorruptible, namely, in the Holy Ghoft, and

is a fruit of him-the fruit of the Spirit is meeknefs, Gal. v. 23. It is the compaffionate bowels of the new or hidden man of the heart; and as it is a fruit of God's Spirit, it is in his fight of great price.

This foftening humbling grace attends and affifts the faith of a real believer in his attending on the preached word, when he is enabled to mix faith with it. Spiritual meeknefs foftens the foil of the believing heart, and gives the word a deepness of earth to ftrike root in, and moistens it that he may not fall away for the want of root, Matt. xiii. 6. nor wither for the want of moisture, Luke viii. 6. This foftening grace makes way for the word of God to gender or ingraft itself under the operations of the Spirit, to every faculty of the heaven-born foul; infomuch that the word becomes an incorruptible feed in the believer, that lives and abides for ever, and affures him of falvation. Hence the believer is faid to receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to fave his foul, James i. 21. Without this fruit of the Holy Ghoft there is no feeding on the word there is no digefting nor concocting; a man may fill his head with notions, but not his foul with good: The meek fhall eat and be fatisfied; they shall praise the Lord that feek him, Pfalm xxii. 26.

I shall now fhew how this meekness is produced. We find it is to be found in none but regenerate men; this meeknefs is in the bidden man, and the

refidence