they are efleemed; no: his half cannot be told nor known: admiration and fitting down fpeechlefs as overcome, is the higheft pitch they can fly in his commendation. You that are ftrangers to Chrift, fhould try him, before you fay he is a wildernefs; you cannot judge of colours while you are blind: if you would come and fee, or come and tafte how good he is, you would, as the Samaritan, John iv. 42. not commend him only from hear-fay, but from your own experience: your experience would tell more than we can fay.You that know him, and have any experience, fee that you bring up no ill report of him; you owe him a testimony let him not be to you as other beloveds, but extol him above them all, even from your own experience and let it be feen that you are at your centre, when you meet with him, and that there is no room for a plus ultra, that you need go no further, unless it be to grow in your knowledge and efteem of him.

2. Hence fee, that all we have ado in the improvement of him, is to take of him what he hath to communicate if we be weary, to fit down and reft; if fcorched, to get under his fhadow; if faint and hungry, to eat of his fweet fruit. It is faid, Acts xx. 35. "Remember the words of our Lord Jefus, how he said, It is more bleffed to give than to receive." Thus it is Chrift's bleffednefs to give, and not to receive; and it is our bleffedness to have to do with fuch an one, to whom we are called not to come and give, but to come and receive we have nothing to give, and he can receive nothing we have nothing but wants; and he feeks nothing but neceffities and wants to be brought to him : we have nothing but weaknefs; and he delights to make his ftrength perfect in weaknefs, 2 Cor. xii. 9. He delights to be washing and making white these tht have lain among the pots, Pfalm lxviii. 13. Yea, he delights to welcome apoftates, and these that have played the harlot with many lovers, and to heal backflidings, Jer. iii. 1. Hof. xiv. 4. In a word, Chrift alone is the only market for poor worthlefs fouls: be thy cafe what it will, he is even as meet for you as you could

wifh; and be thy cafe what it will, if you make ufe of him, you are happy; and if you be brought to trade and traffic with him, whofe blessedness is to give, and

not to receive.

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3. Hence fee, that Chrift is to be improven in every cafe, as being fully furnished for, not only fome, but for all wants if you want reft, or want a fhadow, or want food and fruit; "He is a fun and fhield, he gives grace, and he gives glory," Pfalm lxxxiv. 2. And if thefe be not enough, then it follows, "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."Coming under his fhadow, your grievances may grow, your troubles and difficulties may grow, but they can. not out-grow his all-fufficiency to fupply as your ftate alters and changes, he can give you change of raiment and change of armour; for, They that wait on the Lord, fhall renew their strength; and make you able to do all things through Chrift ftrengthening you:" and make you content, how to be abafed, and how to abound.. If you be called to fuffer and bear heavy reproaches, and heavy burdens that the world lay upon you, he can make your back invincible, fo as they fhall fooner weary to lay on burdens, than he shall weary to fupport you. In a word, believer, you are fo complete in Chrift, that it ill becomes you to go to another door; nay, let all your wants be upon him, and improve him for all. And you fhould employ him not in leffer diffi. culties only, and then give him over when furprized with great troubles, faying, " This evil is of the Lord; why should I wait on the Lord any longer?" as that wicked king did, 2 Kings vi. 33. no, by no means.Nor do you employ him in greater troubles, and think to wrestle alone with leffer; for the leaft trouble and temptation will be too hard for you, when you are alone without him; but, "In all thy ways acknowledge him :" and, In every thing make your requests known.

to him."

4. Hence fee, that cloting with Chrift, and fitting down under his fhadow, is the way to tafte of his fruits, and to have communion with him: to make use of him in every cafe, is the way to have a pleafant feafl with him;

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"In every thing by prayer and fupplication, with thankf giving, let your requests be made known unto God:" and then it follows, "The peace of God, that paffeth all understanding, fhall keep your hearts and minds through Chrift Jefus," Phil. iv. 6, 7. Only you are not to choose and ufe him for adverfities only, or to help you in particular exigents, but to fit down under his fhadow, and take up your reft in him as your everlafling reft. Hence the bride of Chrift runs to no other door, to no other tree, "Knowing there is no other God, (though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many, and lords many;) but one, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all things, and we by him." There are many trees that people run to for fhelter; but the believer runs to Christ, and cannot reft any-where elfe. The bride here had the watchmen to go to, the daughters of Jerufalem, but none of them please in his absence; "O tell him I am fick of love if you find him tell him." Your company will not please me, paftors, ordinances, public and private, means, duties, and devotions cannot be a fhadow to me; Chrift is the only relief to a fcorched foul. Mary came to feek Chrift in the fepulchre; the fees two angels in white, pointing out their glory; one might have thought that fight might have fufficed her, and made her fay with Peter, "It is good to be here:" no; but he wept, and faid, "They have taken away my Lord :" The fight of angels could not fatisfy her, when Christ was away; fhe could not fit down under any other shadow, but that of the Apple-tree.

5. Hence fee the folly of these who have fuch a fhadow as Chrift in their offer, and yet truft in a lye, and fit down under the fhadow of the trees of the wood, &c. that will fail them in the day of their need. I am afraid, that even in this company, there may be fome that are expecting relief under fome tree of the wood, and not under the fhadow of the Apple-tree.-Some reft themfelves fecurely under the tree of civility, as a fconce from any heat in the world: but remember, though you be civil, and moral, and honeft good.

neighbours, this will be a poor withering gourd that will never shelter you from the wrath of God; the publican that fmote upon his breaft, and cried, "God be merciful to me a finner," went home juflified more than the Pharifee, that could fay, he was not as other men, no extortioner, unjust man, or adulterer, but fafted twice aweek, and give tithes of all that I poffefs," Luke xviii. 9.-13.-Some fet themselves under the tree of legal righteousness, their good works and good frames joined with Chrift's righteoufnefs, which they think reafonable, feeing they do not offer to join with it their fins nor their evil works, but their righteoufnels; nothing but what the law of God requires, and the gofpel of Chrift calls for: but there is no other fhadow but Chrift and his righteousness; for, "If righteoufness come by the law, (in part or in whole,) Christ died in vain,” Gal. ii. 21.-Some truft to the tree of their own feigned faith we read of a faith unfeigned; but many have but a feigned faith: they fay they trust in God, and believe in Chrift; and thefe are but feigned words, and words of courfe; and they but fit down under the fhadow of their feigned faith, not under the fhadow of the apple-tree. Some truft to the tree of rude repentance when they commit a fin, they run away to God, and fay, "I have committed this; Lord, pardon me, “and I shall never do it again." Many lean much to' this tree; but, as Judas repented and caft away his idol filver, and faid, "I have betrayed innocent blood," and yet perifhed; fo will these that truft to any other fhadow, but that of the apple tree; "They walk but in the fparks of their own kindling, and will ly down in forrow," Ifa. 1. 11.

But these only are wife and happy that fit down no where elfe but under the fhadow of the apple-tree by faith; for, here is the fruit to be reaped, namely," juftification; being juftified by the faith of Chrift, and not by the works of the law, Gal. ii. 19. Sanctification: we read of them that are fanctified by faith that is in Christ Jefus, Acts xxvi. 18. Adoption flows from this; "We are the children of God by faith;" and, "To them that believe he gave power to become the children of

Ged,"

God," John i. 12. Fellowship with God flows from this; for, Chrift is faid to dwell in the heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17.-Here is the door of communion with God in grace and in glory.

6. Hence fee, that faith is a compofing grace; it is a fitting down under Christ's fhadow, under the covert of his blood, under the fhadow of his righteousness. And we may try our faith by this improvement it makes of Chrift amidst all outward or inward fcorchings, whether by outward afflictions or inward toffings, from the apprehenfion of God's wrath, and affaults with the fiery darts of Satan's temptations. It views Chrift as a complete fhadow and the fovereign cure of all, and makes ufe of him for that end; and in this ufe-making of him juft interpofes Chrift between us and wrath, and between us and whatfoever is troublesome and burden fome to us: this faith is just a man's quieting himself upon this ground; cafting anchor here when toffed with tempests and not comforted, faying, "Why art thou difcouraged, O my foul? and why art thou difquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I fhall yet praife him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God, Pfal. xlii. 11. Return to thy reft, O my foul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee," Pfal. cxvi. 7.

7. Hence fee, that as the exercife of faith is a pleafant and delightful exercife; fo there is not only plea. fure and composure of foul in this employment, of taking the benefit of the apple-tree for a fhadow, but alfo fweetness and fatisfaction in fharing of the fruits that grow upon that tree: here they eat and feed upon his fruits, that are exceeding fweet to their fpiritual tafte and experience. What fruit of his? His words, his works, his manifeftations, his communications.

(1.) His words are fweet; hence David cries, "How fweet are thy words to my tafle! fweeter than honey to my mouth," Pfal. cxix. 103. The Jews confeffed that "Never man fpake like this man;" and Peter fays, Thou haft the words of eternal life."

แ

(2.) His works are fweet; his incarnation, death, refurrection, and all the fruits of them; his afcenfion in our nature, leading captivity captive, and giving gifts

unto