work of redemption, " In wifdom hath he delivered the city. He made the earth by the word of his power, established the world by his wifdom, and stretched out the heavens by his difcretion," Jer. x. 12. And it is even he who, by his wifdom, delivered the city. Particularly,

1. By his wifdom he removed all the impediments that ftood in the way of our falvation, while he gave himself a raafom for many, fatisfied the law and jultice of God, defeated the devil, destroyed fin, and conquered death. And thus, except one great King, whom he brings to peace and reconciliation with the city, he deftroyed all the other great kings, and their great bulwarks, in fo much that we may fay, " He fimote great kings, for his mercy endureth for ever; and flew famous kings, for his mercy endureth for ever!" O the infinite wife Captain of falvation, who could, by his wifdom, deliver a little city, fo powerfully befieged!

2. By his wifdom he united the most distant and contrary extremes, while God and man are joined in one perfon: The infinite and eternal God, with a bit of clay; which is a mystery ten thousand times greater than if an angel had become a worm. He became a poor man, that he might deliver the poor city: "Great is the myftery of godlinefs, God made manifeft in the flesh."

3. By his wifdom he united the moft contrary interefts, God's intereft, and man's: the intereft of his glory, and our falvation; they are quite different, after the fall. In fome refpects (when man came to have no other interest but that of the devil) God's interest and glory feemed to require man's deftruction; and yet it was man's intereft to be delivered: God's intereft, in infinite wisdom, is made to agree with the interest of the little city, while Chrift is fet forth to be a propitiation, that the glory of God's juftice and righteousness might be reached, as much in faving the city, as it can be by deftroying them who are without the city, and

more.

4. By his wifdom he united the most contrary affections, namely, God's hatred and love; his hatred of fin, and his love to the finner. Nothing more hateful to God than fin, and yet nothing more dear to God than

the

the finner that is in Chrift, in whom God is well-pleated. Infinite wisdom contrived the reconciliation of the oppofite-like affection in God, that the city might be delivered by the wifdom of God in a myftery; the manifold wifdom of God.

5. By his wifdom he brings about the greateft things by the most unlikely means. In delivering the city, who would have thought that the feed of a poor woman, that was deceived, fhould bruife the head of the ferpent, the deceiver; that a poor woman fhould bring forth a poor man child; and poor man fhould conquer all the armed legions of hell; and that by his firipes we fhould be healed; and by his blood we fhould be wafhed; and this blood fhould fap the the foundations of all the great bulwarks that were raifed against the little city?

6. By his wifdom he brings the greatest good out of the greatest evil. Could there be any thing worfe than fin? Yet out of this, wifdoni brings greater glory to God, and greater happiness to man. God had built the fabric of the old covenant with brick, as it were; the devil and our firft parents pulled it down. But, fays God, I will build with cedar; and all the devils in hell fhall not bring it down: "Mercy fhall be built -up for ever," Pfal. lxxxix. 2. O here is wisdom! And we may fay, "To the King eternal, immortal, the only wife God, be glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen," 1 Tim. i. 17.

man.

IV. The fourth general head propofed, was, To fpeak of the ingratitude of the citizens, their proneness to forget their deliverer; Yet no man remembered the fame poor This is the fin that God has challenged in his church many times, Deut. xxxii. 18. "Of the rock that begat thee, thou haft been unmindful, and haft forgotten God that formed thee. Pfal. cvi. 21. They forgot God their Saviour, who had done great things in Egypt. They foon forgot his work."

I might here fpeak a little to these four things. I. Of the nature of their unmindfulness or forgetfulness. 2. The object thereof: they forgot the POOR wife man, and his work. The univerfality of this oblivion, No man re

mem

membered the fame poor man. 4. The reafon of this forgetfulness.

1. We are first to view the nature of this oblivion. For understanding thereof you would know, that forgetfulness of Chrift is either total or partial. A total forgetfulness takes place in the wicked, of whom it is faid, God is not in all their thoughts. A partial forgetfulness is coincident to believers themfelves, who may, in a great meafure, forget what God hath done to their fouls. Actual forgetfulness is what the godly may be guilty of, as David after his grofs fin of adultery, when he was con triving the murder of Uriah. But there is an habitual forgetfulness peculiar to the wicked, who defire not the knowledge of God; and never remember God, till they be driven to it with a vengeance, as it is faid of these, "When he flew them, then they fought him; they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer," They never remember till God bring a mortal ftroke.-But now, this forgetfulnefs imports the want of a fpiritual view and difcovery of God; and the want of that lively impreffion of him which the right view of him doth require. We cannot rightly remember God, if we fee not his perfections fhining in his work, as David did, when he says of God's works, "In wifdom haft thou made them all." When we see the wifdom and power, and other attributes of God, fhining in his works, particularly in his delivering the little city, the church, then and not till then, do we rightly remember them; and when we fee his great end in all is the glory of these perfections, and entertain due impreffions hereof so as to remember not only in a fpeculative, but in a practical and appropriating manner; and when we remember his delivering us, in particular from the power and policy of the great things that were against us, and render to him the praise due to his name.

2. The object of this forgetfulness: No man remembered the fame POOR WISE MAN. We are apt, and natu rally prone to forget our Creator, to forget our Redeemer, and Saviour, and Protector, and Benefactor, our beft Friend.We forget the Deliverer himself, the poor wife man found in the city. We forget his humanity,

that

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that he is a man; his divinity, that he is the wifdom of God; his humiliation and poverty, that for our fakes he became poor; and his deflination to this redemption-work; all is forgotten. We forget all the deliverances he hath wrought, the redemption he hath accomplished.-We forget his works of creation, though yet the heavens declare his glory.We forget his works of providence, both profperous and adverfe; both ordinary and extraordinary, as Ifrael did, of whom it is faid, Jefhurun waxed fat and kicked he forgot God that made him, and lightly efteemed the Rock of his falvation." They forget the plagues of Egypt; the drowning of the Egyptians; the folemn appearance of God on Sinai, when the hill trembled under the weight of God; and the flames afcended to the middle heaven.-We forget his work of redemption. He redeems from the fury of juftice, the curfe of the law, the bondage of fin, the flavery of Satan, the fting of death; from the wrath of God; that terrible wrath, that intolerable wrath, that interminable wrath, that powerful and eternal wrath, that ever-coming wrath; he delivers from the wrath to come: and yet we are apt to forget the Deliverer, and the deliverance: We forget this redemption, and the neceflity of it; the fufficiency of it; the excellency of it; the efficacy of it; the fulness of it; the acceptablenefs of it; all is forgotten. -We forget alfo his work of regeneration, the work of conviction, and humiliation; the work of converfion, and fanctification. Though this work of grace effectuates a real change, a fenfible change, an universal change; yet all may be forgotten, in fo much, that we may pose the believer himself, have you a regeneration-frame, the fame temper of fpirit you had in the day of believing? "Where is the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine efpoufals "Yea, communications and manifeftations, and communion-experiences may all be fearfully forgotten.

3. The univerfality of this oblivion; NO MAN remem bered the fame poor man. That this unbelieving forgetfulness of Chrift, the Redeemer, is univerfal, appears evident from two arguments.

เ

(1.) From the inftances of all ages of the world.VOL. V.

The

The firft man that ever was, began his apoftacy from God by his fin; he forgot the favour of God in giving him fuch an excellent being, and fuch excellent benefits; forgot the covenant that God entered into with him, forbidding him to eat of the tree, that was in the midst of the garden upon peril of eternal ruin to himfelf and his pofterity; yet the hiffing of the ferpent drove all out of his mind.-How quickly did Noah forget the great deliverance from the deluge, when all the rest of the world was overwhelmed in the midft of the waters; he was no fooner faved from water, than he was drowned in wine.How quickly did Lot forget the deliverance from the flames of Sodom, and fell into the fire of luft.-Solomon forgot the God that appeared to him thrice, and turned to idolatry.-David quickly forgot the Lord's delivering him from Saul, and fell into the fin of adultery and murder. Ifrael forgot God and all his works of wonder. The ten lepers, all but one, forgot to return and give praise to God that healed them.-The difciples of Chrift, quickly forgot the miracles of the loaves; they got fweet communion with Chrift, yet Judas and his party foon drove all out of their minds. membered the poor wife man.

No man re

(2.) It appears from the many remembrancers and memorials that the Lord Jefus has fet up of himself, and his works, as prefervatives against this forgetting him. God's works of creation are his remembrancers, while the heavens declare his glory.-God's works of providence are his remembrancers. "He hath not left himfelf without a witnefs," even among the heathen, giving them rain and fruitful feafons: every drop of rain is a memorial of God. God's ordinances are his remembrancers; why has he given us Sabbaths and facraments, but to be memorials of the works of Chrift, and the death of Chrift? Do this in remembrance of me. In a word, the Holy Ghoft is given to be a remembrancer, John xiv. 26. "I will give the Comforter, and he fhall bring all things to your remembrance." I have been long preaching among you, might Chrift fay, and given you many a sermon ; but all is gone, you forgot all; therefore, I will fend the Holy Ghoft to be your remembrancer.These things