Lord has always had a people, though they have been often hidden from the general notice and obfervation of men. He that fitteth in the heavens laughs his oppofers to fcorn, and maintains his own caufe in defiance of them all. Surely if this work was not of God, the united efforts of kings, councils, popes, philofophers, the great, the wife, the decent, and the profligate, must have overthrown it long ago. If a miracle be demanded in proof of christianity, behold one! Though the world has been raging and plotting against it, from its first appearance; though it has been fiercely affaulted by thofe without, and shamefully betrayed by many within, it still fubfifts, it ftill flourishes. And fubfift it shall, for it is maintained by him, who has the hearts of all men in his hands, and can controul or change them as he pleases. He can, and he will, fuport and ftrengthen his people under all their fufferings. He can disappoint his adverfaries by unexpected events, divide them among themfelves, and fo manage them by his providence, as to make them protect and promote the very cause which they hate. And whenever he pleases pleases he can, as it were, from the stones*, raise up inftruments to carry on his work, and to fhew forth his praife. Therefore, 1. Let not his people tremble for the ark. Our eyes indeed should affect our hearts. It becomes us to be jealous for the Lord of hofts, to be concerned for the contempt and difhonour that is caft upon his government and grace, to be grieved for the abounding abominations of the day, and to pity and pray for obftinate finners who know not what they do. But we need not fear the failure of his promise. His truth and honour are engaged for the fuccefs of his gospel, and they must stand or fall together. It is a cause dearer to him than it can be us. The manifestation of his glory in the falvation of finners, by the doctrine of the cross, is the one great concern, for which the fucceffion of day and night, and of the feafons of the year is continued, and the vifible frame of nature is preserved. He will work, and none fhall lett it. The kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Chrift. The fulness of the Gentiles fhall come in, and the difperfed of Ifrael shall return to the * Matt. iii. 9. Lord Lord their God, and be faved. These great events, to those who judge by an eye of fense, and according to the present state of things, may appear improbable or impoffible. But the Lord of hofts hath purposed, and who fhall difannul it? His hand is ftretched out, and who fhall turn it back * ? 2. Think it neither ftrange nor hard, if any of you are called to fuffer for the fake of the truth. Think it not frange; for thus it has been from the beginning. Think it not hard; for our fufferings are small, if compared with the lot of many who have lived before us. We are not called to refift unto blood. Many prophets and righteous men have defired to fee fuch days of liberty as we are favoured with, but have not seen them. 3. Confider seriously, Who is on the Lord's fide? His is the strongest fide and must prevail. If you have yielded yourselves to him, and taken upon you his yoke, your best interests are safe, your final happiness is secured. Nothing can separate you from his love. You shall be kept by his power through faith, and no weapon formed against you shall profper. But *Ifa. xiv. 27. if you are against him, tremble, for the day of his wrath will come, it will burn like an oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly fhall be as ftubble, and the day that cometh fhall burn them up, faith the Lord of bofts, and fhall leave them neither root nor branch *. Turn therefore in time from your evil ways, submit yourselves unto him, and implore his mercy while he waiteth to be gracious, that iniquity may not be your ruin. * Mal. iv. I. SER SERMON XXXV. OPPOSITION TO MESSIAH RUINOUS. PSALM ii. 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's veffel. T HERE is a fpecies of the fublime in writing, which feems peculiar to the fcripture, and of which, properly, no fubjects, but those of divine revelation, are capable. With us things inconfiderable in themselves are elevated by splendid images, which give them an apparent importance beyond what they can justly claim. Thus the Poet, when defcribing a battle among bees, by a judicious felection of epithets and figures, excites in the minds of his readers, the idea of two I mighty |