SERMON

IV.

yea thy very Prayers and Devotions feem not able to make their Way to the Mercy Seat, but to be blown back into thy Face by fome envious evil Blaft, and thou art tempted to caft away all thy Confidence in thy God. These things are hard indeed, and seemingly against thee: But do not give Way to defponding Thoughts, "O: thou

Afflicted, toffed with Tempeft and not "comforted!" For what faith the Lord ? "For a fmall Moment have I forfaken "thee; but with great Mercies will I gat "ther thee."

Be not then dismayed, O Chriftian Voyager, tho' the Wind and the Waves be against thee: Nay, tho' Spectres and Devils should be in the Way, yet make refolutely for the other Side: Befides, what wouldft thou do! Thou art already half Way on thy Voyage; and shouldft thou turn back, even fo likewise thou mayft fuffer Shipwreck in the Storm: Or, in cafe of thy fafe Arrival in the Country which thou hadst forsaken, thou must expect to be treated with all the Reproach and Ignominy of a Deferter, and at last take up thy Abode in the City of Destruction, which shall shortly be confumed with Fire: Better then, far better,

IV.

if thou needs must perish, that thou perish SERMON in the right Way. Turn not back, then; nay caft not a wifhful Look towards the Devoted Shore, but fet thy Face unalterably fixt upon the Promised Land: Neither faint, nor flacken thy Diligence to hold on thy Course, tho' the Waters rage and fwell, and tho' the Mountains shake because of the Tempeft; for Deliverance is near at Hand; and the Lord is a prefent Help in Time of Trouble: That fame Jefus who encountered the bitter Tempeft of God's Wrath and prevailed, will overcome for thee in this Storm alfo. Behold! He is in the midst of the Sea, tho' thou knoweft Him not He hears thee when thou crieft unto Him in thy Trouble," and will deliver thee out of thy Diftrefs; for He maketh the Storm to ceafe, fo that the Waves thereof are ftill: So fhalt thou, and all they that truft in Him, be glad when thou art at reft, when He bringeth thee unto the Haven where thou wouldst be.

And now, O Bleffed Lord! who haft appointed thy chofen Servants to many Difficulties and Dangers for the Tryal of their Faith and Conftancy, and for the Glory of thy Name in their Deliverance: Suffer not the Spirit of thy feeble ones to

IV.

SERMON fail before thee in the Day of their Calamity and Diftrefs, but be with them in every Storm, and ftand by them in every Temptation. Thou haft graciously promised, that when we pass thro' the Waters thou wilt be with us, and that when we pass fhall not be burnt - Be it unto us, O Lord, according to thy Word: But above all, ftand by us in our last and greatest Extremities: In the Hour of Death, and in the Day of Judgment, good Lord, deliver us!

thro' the Fire we

SERMON

Spiritual Worship, the Religion of the Law and the Gospel.

Preached at the VISITATION of the Rev. JOHN BROWNE, D. D. Archdeacon of Northampton, held at Northampton, April 30, 1747.

JOHN iv. 23.

The Hour cometh, and now is, when the true Worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father feeketh fuch to worship him.

T

HESE Words are Part of a Con- SERMON ference between our Bleffed Lord

and the Woman of Samaria at Jacob's Well, and particularly refer to a Queftion of hers touching the true Place of Divine Worship; whether it was Mount Gerizim, as the Samaritans held; or theTemple at Jerufalem, according to the Religion of the Jews. Our Saviour declared in favour of the latter; Ye worship, fays he, ye know not what we know what we worship; for

Salvation

V.

V.

SERMON Salvation is of the Jews: Hereby not only condemning the Defection of the Samaritans from the Jewish Church, and that impure Mixture of Idolatry and heathenish Superftition, with which their Commerce, and Affinity with the Affyrians, had infected them, but also pronouncing the Jewish to be the true vifible Church of God; Salvation is of the Jews. In their Cuftody is the Law, and the Writings of the Prophets; among them is the Priesthood established by God, and that Form of Worship which he has appointed; and of them is the Meffiah, the Christ. Out of Zion, therefore, fhould go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerufalem.

Ifa. ii. 3.

But our Saviour, not content with fetting her right in this particular (for now Converts were to be made, not to Judaism but Christianity,) acquaints her, that all Disputes about Locality of Worship were frivolous and unconcerning, feeing that Diftinction of Place, which had till then obtained for the offering up of Sacrifices, and the more folemn Celebration of Divine Worship, was upon the point of ceafing, and the Time at hand, when God Almighty