verfaries: This is the neceffary and indifpenfible Condition, without which we have no Title to the Protection of our God. Let every one therefore amongst us duly enquire into himself, and Commune with his own Heart Secretly Have I hearkened unto the Voice of my God, and have I walked in his ways? Have I diligently fought out his Will, and carefully endeavoured to fquare all my Actions according to that Rule? Have my Paths been the Paths of Righteousness, and have I walked faithfully with my God? He that upon fuch an Examination, finds his Confcience bearing Witness for him, may Expoftulate with the Almighty, in the Pathetical Words of the Prophet Isaiah; Look down, O Lord, from Heaven, aud behold from the Habitation of thy Holinefs and of thy Glory: Where is thy Zeal and thy Strength, the founding of thy Bowels, and of thy Mercies towards me, are they reftrained? Doubtless thou art our Father, tho Abraham be Ignorant of us, and Ifrael acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy Name is from Everlasting: But if upon a due Examination we find the contrary, as I fear it is the cafe of too

ma

many amongst us, upon a just and ferious Reflection, that we have hearkened only unto the Voice of our Lusts, and that our ways have been the ways of Death; let us then, in the Name of God, endeavour to renew our felves by a hearty Repentance, by a thorough Reformation; immediately fetting about to remove our Sins far from us, by which only we can be removed from the Protection of our God: Let every Man turn from his evil way, and from the Violence which is in his Hand; and God will affuredly turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce Anger, that we Perish not. Thus, if by a speedy and fincere Repentance, we make our Sins, that were red as Crimson, become whiter than the Wool; God also will certainly do his part, he will make us to bear of foy and Gladness, and cause the Bones which he had broken to Rejoyce: Then may we take up the Prophet David's Chearful Ejaculation, God fhall deliver us from the Snare of the Hunter, and from the noisome Peftilence; be fhall defend us under his Wings, and we shall be fafe under bis Feathers, his Faithful nefs and Truth fhall be our Shield and Buckler; we shall not be afraid for any

Ters

Terror by Night, nor from the Arrow that flieth by Day; a thousand fhall fall befide us, and ten thousand upon our Right Hand, but it fhall not come nigh us; for the Lord is our Defence, the God of Jacob is our Refuge. And this leads me to the Confideration of the

2d. Particular, namely, to prove, that if we are thus qualified, we fhall certainly be Protected, we shall assuredly fee the Salvation of the Lord. Fear ye not, ftand still, and fee the Salvation of the Lord.

Behold, the Hand of the Lord is not fhortned, that it cannot save; neither his Ear heavy, that it cannot hear; unless our Iniquities do feparate between us and our God, and our Sins do hide his Face from us; he will bear the Cry of fuch as call upon him, yea, of all fuch as call upon him faithfully. This we find to have been his conftant way of Proceeding with his chofen People; If they rebelled against the Words of God, and contemned the Council of the molt High; then he brought down their Heart with Labour, they fell down, and there was none to help: But when they cried unto the Lord in their Trouble, he delivered them out of their diftreffes; he sent

his Word, and healed them; and they were faved from their Destruction. The Truth of this Doctrine is undeniably made out, by the remarkable Deliverance pointed at in my Text. The Ifraelites were purfued by the whole Strength of Egypt; they could not turn on either fide, for the Mountains that environed them, their Progress was stopped by the Red-Sea before them, and their retreat cut off by the Egyptians behind them: The poor Fugitives thus miferably hemmed in, were a naked their very and defenceless Multitude; their number, which yet was all they had to truft too, was not their smallest inconvenience; being chiefly compofed of Women and of Children; whofe Tears and Lamentations, foftened those Hearts into tenderness and compassion, which fhould have been steel'd with Courage and Refolution: What should they do, being thus furrounded with horror and deftruction? We are told in the 10th. verfe of this fame Chapter, that when they lift their Eyes, and beheld Pharoah marching after them, they Cried out unto the Lord: And we find the confequence to be, that the Lord heard them; and turn'd that attempt which

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was

was defigned for their Destruction, into a fignal Inftance of his Favour towards them, and the utter Ruin of their insulting Adversaries. And fince in this particular our Cafe resembles that of the Ifraelites, namely, that the Caufe of the Malice of our Adverfaries, is only that we will not become Slaves to the Egyptians; and that we will not bow down before the Idols of Egypt; but are refolved to Offer Sacrifice unto the Lord our God; were our Condition as helpless as we find theirs to have been (and God be Praised it is most happily different) we are as justly intituled to a Miraculous Deliverance. But, we need not go abroad for Inftances of this Nature, our own Experience will abundantly supply, confiderable Examples of the Divine Protection. How wonderfully has God appeared in our Behalf, not only in Compleating that advantageous change in the Government of thefe Nations, by which our Religion and our Liberties were fecured; but also by watching over it in a peculiar manner, and defeating all Designs which were devised for its Deftruction! For, not to look backwards to former Deliverances, which are much too nuN

merous