Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SERM. convinced that God is every where, that VII. his Prefence pierces into the lowest Dungeon, as well as fhines upon the highest Hill, this will enable us to approach with Confidence to the Throne of Grace, and offer up our Petitions to him without Doubting; for God ftiles himself a God hearing Prayers, unto whom all Flesh may come; his Ears are always open to the Complaints of the Poor and Miferable, and 'tis his Will, that in all Places holy Hands fhould be lift up.

THE Confideration of God's Omniprefence would alfo enliven our Devotions, and engage us to addrefs ourselves to him with becoming Gestures of Body, and suitable Affections of Soul,

FOR, tho' God is present in all Places, yet he, in a more particular Manner, dwells and refides in that Houfe which he has chofen to fet his Name in ; and therefore he expects that we should not only keep his Sabbaths, but reverence his Sanctuary.

LET me therefore befeech you, to bring along with you unto this Place fuch holy Frames of Spirit, to deck and adorn your Souls with fuch fervent Defires and Affections, and to behave yourselves after fuch a reverential and devout Manner, as becomes Men who approach the Prefence

of

of the great King of Heaven and Earth; SERM. for God is in a more particular Manner VII. present with us in this Place, though we know it not; and, where two or three are gathered together to worship him after his Will, he will be in the Midst of them.

LET us therefore worship and adore him; let us with Hands and Hearts lift up to him, befeech him, that he will imprint fuch an Awe of his Divine Prefence on our Minds, that, for the Future, we may not dare wilfully and prefumptuously to offend him.

SERMON

SERM.
VIII.

SERMON VIII.

Of PROVIDENCE. Of Lots and
Games of Chance.

PROV. XVI. 33.

The Lot is caft into the Lap; but the whole Difpofing thereof is

Lord.

T

of the

HE Defign of the Wife Man, in these Words, is to fhew that the Government of this World is not left to Chance and Fortune, but that there is a wife and powerful Being, who fuperintends human Affairs, and orders and manages all Things with a steady Hand; fo that the most trivial Matters, thofe Things which we think of least Confequence, are difpofed of by his Guidance and Direction: The Lot is caft into the Lap; but the whole Difpofing thereof is of the Lord.

THE

THE Generality of Mankind are will- SERM. ing to confefs, that this visible Frame was VIII. the wife Contrivance of fome skilful Artificer; but they are not fo univerfally agreed concerning the Government of it: For many (and thofe of the first Rank amongst the Mafters of Reafon, who have made it their Business to enquire into the Nature of Things) are apt to conclude, that when once God had fet it into Order, and linked together the Chain of fecond Caufes, he took no farther Care of it; and, they thought, that herein the Wisdom of God did confift, in difpofing this great and curious Machine after fuch a Manner, that it should move on in a regular and uninterrupted Order, without the leaft Jar or Disturbance; rather than in a continual Attendance on its Motions, and a providential Difpofition of every particular Accident relating to it.

BUT, if we confult the Holy Scriptures, we fhall find a far different Account of Things; God is there described like a careful and indulgent Parent, providing for all his Offsping, but more particularly indulgent to his moft dutiful and obedient Children; confulting their Advantage, and ordering and difpofing of all Things after fuch a Manner, as may beft fuit with

SERM. their feveral Neceffities, and promote their VIII. trueft Intereft; he is with them at their Going out and Coming in, he fets his Angels to keep Watch and Guard over them; he numbers the Hairs of their Heads, and fuffers not one of them to fall to the Ground, without his good Pleasure; he writes their Words, and their very Thoughts, in his Book, and even in the Casting of Lots, the most casual and accidental Thing in the World (if there is any Thing truly fo) he claims the Management and Difpofal of them.

BUT, because Men may from hence take Occafion to fall into the Perfuafion of a Stoical Fatality, and to believe that the Affairs of the World are fo ordered by God, as to leave no Freedom to the Actions of voluntary Agents, but that the Wills of Men are determined by an abfolute and irreversible Decree: I fhall therefore make it my Bufinefs, in the first Place, to clear up the Senfe of the Words of my Text, and then confider, what useful Obfervations may be made from them, being rightly understood.

Firft, IN Order to understand the full Import of the Words of my Text, I fhall confider,

« AnteriorContinuar »