to the world. By his providence, which ruleth over all, he manages their concerns upon earth, fupplies their wants, and gives them present and effectual help and support in their time of trouble. To him their eyes and hearts are directed, they look to him and are enlightened *, ftrengthened, and comforted. And under his protection they are safe. He having taken charge of them, and engaged to fave them to the uttermost, no weapon formed against them can profper. Now they may draw nigh to God with boldness, for they have One who interceffion for them. ever liveth to make Now they may lay afide all anxious uneafy cares, for they have a mighty Friend who careth for them. Now they may fay, each one for himself, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and my fong, and my falvation. Whether you have indeed fled to him for refuge as the hope fet before you, committed your foul to him, and accepted him in all his offices, as your Prophet, Priest and King, is a point of experience; if you have he knows it, for he enabled you to do it; and he will not disappoint the hope, and * Pf. xxxiv. 5. + Ifa. xii. 2. VOL. II. L expec expectation, which he himself has wrought in you. If you have, methinks you muft know it likewife. Have you not done it more than once? Do you not daily repeat this furrender of yourself to him? It is certainly poffible to affent to the truths of the gofpel, confidered merely as doctrines or propofitions, yea to plead and dispute for them with much feeming earneftnefs, and yet to be entirely a ftranger to their power. But I trust that they to whom I now speak will understand me. Our Lord reminded Nathanael of what had paffed under the figtree*, when he thought himself alone. Do not I remind you of feafons, when no eye but the eye of him who feeth in fecret was upon you? Did not you then and there, once and again, accept him as your Saviour upon the warrant of his own word, devote yourfelf to his fervice, refign yourself to his difpofal, and entrust yourself to his care? Then fear not. He that fitteth in the heavens is on your fide. If the premiffes be well grounded, the inference is fure. And though many may rife up against you, they shall not prevail, for he will teach your hands to war, * John i. 48. and your fingers to fight, will cover your head in the day of battle, and in the end make you more than conqueror. For the battle is not your's, but the Lord's. Your enemies. are his, and his caufe is your's. They who affociate against him shall be dashed in pieces, as the billows break and die upon a rocky fhore. II. The feebleness and infignificance of their rage against MESSIAH, is intimated by the manner in which he notices their proceedings. He holds them in derifion, he laughs them to fcorn. He has them perfectly under his controul, holds them in a chain when they think themselves most at liberty, appoints the bounds beyond which they cannot pass, and can in a moment check them, and make them feel his hook and bridle, when in the height of their career. It is the Lord's pleasure not only to favour and to fupport his people, but to do it in such a way that it may appear to be wholly his own work, and that the praise belongs to him alone. And therefore he permits their enemies for a feason to try if they can prevent his défigns. For a season, things take fuch a course that their attempts seem to L 2 profper; profper; they threaten, they boast, and confidently expect to carry their point. But the contest always iffues in their shame and confufion. He not only difconcerts their fchemes, but makes them inftrumental to the promoting of his own defigns. Thus when he fent Mofes to deliver Ifrael from Egypt, Pharaoh, instead of complying with his command, increased their burdens, added to the rigour of their bondage, and, though rebuked by a fucceffion of fevere judgments, he hardened himself the more, and was determined to detain them if he could. But he could not detain them a day or an hour beyond the appointed time, which God had long before made known to Abraham*. Then they were delivered, and Pharaoh and his hoft overthrown in the Red Sea. Hereby the name of the God of Ifrael was more known, noticed and magnified, than it would have been, if Pharaoh had difmiffed the people without reluctance or delay. In like manner when MESSIAH left the earth, his followers were confidered as sheep without a shepherd. The world confpired to fupprefs his caufe, and to root out the * Exod. xii. 41, 42. remem remembrance of his people. But the methods they employed counteracted their own defigns. They who were dispersed by the perfecution that followed the death of Stephen, preached the word wherever they went, the gospel spread from place to place, and the number of difciples daily increased. So that the Jewish rulers foon found themselves unequal to the task, and foreboded their own disappointment, doubting whereunto thefe things would grow *. In fome cafes the Lord fignally interpofed, and fhewed how entirely the lives and the hearts of his adverfaries were in his hands. The haughty Herod was suddenly smitten by an invisible hand, with a loathfome and mortal disease +. He fell, devoured by worms, but the fuccefs of the gofpel, which he had prefumed to withstand, greatly increased and spread. The furious zeal of Saul of Tarfus against the truth, was filenced in a different manner. Jefus, whom he ignorantly perfecuted, appeared to him in the way to Damascus, when he was breathing out threatenings and flaughter against the difciples, difarmed his rage, made him a monument of his mercy, Acts v. 24, + Acts xii. 23. Acts ix. and |