X.

not refift; and become Objects of his Mer-SER M. cy, from whofe Justice otherwise there is no efcaping.

God

3dly, THE confideration of the Greatnefs of the Divine Power. is a fure ground of Truft and Confidence to virtuous and good men, at all times and under all diftreffes. Pf. lxii. 1, O put your trust in God always, ye people; pour out your Hearts before him, for he is our hope: Spake once, and twice I have alfo heard the fame, that Power belongeth unto God. And Pf. xci. 1, He that dwelleth in the fecret place of the most High, fhall abide under the fhadow of the Almighty; Surely be fhall deliver thee from the fnare of the fowler, and from the noifom peftilence;

Thou halt not be afraid for any terror by night, nor for the Arrow that flieth by day; For the peftilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the deftruction that wafteth at noon-day, This is alfo excellently expreffed in the book of Job, ch. v. 19, He shall deliver thee in fix troubles, yea in feven there fhall no evil touch thee; In famine be fhall redeem thee from Death, and in War from the Power of the Sword: At deftruction and famine

VOL. I.

R

thou

X.

SER M. thou shalt laugh, neither falt thou be a fraid of the Beasts of the Earth; For thou shalt be in league with the ftones of the field, and the Beasts of the field fhall be at Peace with thee. And by the Prophet Habukkuk, ch. iii, 17, Though the figtree fall not bloffom, neither shall fruit be in the Vines; though the labour of the olive fhall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; though the flock fhall be cut off from the fold, and there fhall be no herd in the Stalls; yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation. All the afflictions and calamities of This World, may poffibly in the courfe of things, fall upon the best of Men; but he that made the World is their defence and deliverance. Oppreffors and Tyrants may hate and perfecute them for a time; but mortal men, whofe breath is in their noftrils, wherein are they to be accounted of? For God breaketh the Arms of the Mighty, and bringeth the Counfel of the Wicked to nought. The Devil may affault them with variety of Temptations, and ftir up against them all the Enemies of God and Virtue: But God is infinitely fuperiour to all the Powers of Wickedness, and has referved

X.

referved those Apoftate Spirits in chains SER M. under Darkness, unto the judgment of the great Day. Such perfons, faith our Saviour, fhall never perish, neither fhall Any pluck them out of my hand; For my Father which gave them me, is greater than all, Joh. x. 28. And St Paul, 2 Tim. i. 12, I know fays he, whom I have believed, and I am perfwaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against That day. This is That Faith and Truft in God, for which the Patriarch Abraham is fo juftly commended, Rom. iv. 17. Who relying on God, who quickneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were; Against Hope, believed in Hope; and Staggered not at the Promife of God through Unbelief; but was ftrong in Faith, giving Glory to God; and being fully perfwaded, that What he had promifed, he was Able alfo to perform. And Heb. xi. 8, 10, 17, 19, By Faith Abraham when he was called, went out, not knowing whither he went; and fojourned in the land of Promife as in a firange country; -for he looked for a City which hath foundations, whofe Builder and Maker is God.

SERM. By Faith, when he was tried,—be offerX. ed up his only begotten Son ;- -accounting

Heb xi.

12. and

Rom. iv.

19.

that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence alfo be had received him in a figure; (He had before received him from the dead in a figure; that is, the Birth of his Son in his old age, when his own body was now already as good as dead, was even as great a Miracle as That which he afterwards expected, of his being raised again.) This alfo is That Faith of Mofes, ver. 24, by which, when he was come to years, he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter; chufing rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a feafon; Efteeming the reproach of Chrift greater riches than the treafures in Egypt; for he had refpect unto the recompence of reward, -and indured as feeing Him who is invifible.

4thly and Laftly; THE confideration of the Omnipotence of God, ought to teach vain Mortals Humility, and that the Potfherds of the Earth (as the Prophet elegantly ftiles men) should not proudly infult and domineer over each other. Pride was not made for man, nor furious

Anger

X.

n

Anger for them that are born of a Woman,S ER M. Eccluf. x. 18. Whatever power any man has, he received it from God; and God, who gave That Power, is infinitely Higher than All; Nay, the meaneft ministring Spirit in the Armies of the Angels of God, is far fuperiour to all the Power of all the Potentates of the Earth together. Yet even God himself uses not arbitrary and abfolute Power to Evil; nor does wrong, even to the meaneft of his creatures. Be

wife now therefore, O ye Kings, Pf. ii. 10, be inftructed, ye that are fudges of the Earth. For 'tis the greatest Glory of the greatest Men, to imitate in This Particular the Great King and Sovereign of the Universe.

R 3 SERMON