neuter; and if fo, is it not a fad thing for a Man to make a mighty Potentate his Ene my, and then to put himself under his Protection? And yet this is directly the Cafe of every prefuming Sinner, and these the Terms upon which he stands with Almighty God. But can that Man with any Confidence rest himself upon God's Power, whose Conscience fhall in the mean time proclaim him a Traytor to his Laws? Or can any People, Nation or Government whatsoever, in the doubtful Engagements of War, caft itself upon God's Mercy, while by its crying Sins of Profanenefs, Atheism, and Irreligion, (or, which is worfe, a Countenance of all Religions) it knows itself fo deeply in Arrears to his Juftice? No Man perfifting in any known wicked Course can rationally hope, that God fhould fucceed or profper him, in any thing that he goes about; and if Succefs fhould chance to accompany him in it, it is a thousand to one but it is intended him only as a Curfe, as the very greatest of Curses, and the readieft way, by hardening him in his Sin, to ascertain his Deftruction. He, who will venture his Life in a Duel, fhould not choose to have his mortal Enemy for his Second.

On the contrary, the fame Innocence, which makes all quiet within a Man, makes all peaceable and ferene above him. And that Perfon

Perfon cannot but have a certain Boldness, and a kind of Claim to the Favours of Providence, whofe Heart is continually telling him, that he does, as he should do; and that his Confcience having been all along his Director, cannot, in the Iffue, prove his Accufer. But that all Things, whether he looks forwards or backwards, upon what is paft or what is to come, fhall concurr in affuring him, that his great Judge has no other Sentence to pass upon him, but to fet a Crown of Glory upon his Head, and receive him with an Euge, bone ferve! Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. And if, being thus infpired and anointed with fuch fupporting Expectations, he fhould yet chance utterly to fink, as to all his Concerns and Interefts here below, yet having thus broke through them all to dif charge his Duty, the very Sense of his hav ing done fo fhall ftrengthen his Heart, and bear up his Spirits, though the whole World were in Arms against him, or in a Flame about him; fo that he fhall be able, from his Own Experience, to feal to the Truth of that feeming Paradox of the Apoftle in Rom. viii. 36, 37. that Perfons, thus affifted from above, even in Tribulations, Diftrefs, Perfecution, Famine, Nakedness, (the known Badges of Primitive Christianity) nay, in their being kil led all the Day long, and accounted as Sheep for

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the Slaughter, fhall yet, under these very Maffacres, become more than Conquerors, through that God, who makes thofe, who fight under his Banners, triumph more gloriously in losing their Blood for him, than their mightiest and most infulting Enemies do or can in their Shedding of it. For if a Man falls a Sacrifice to God, his Confcience, or his Country, it is not material by what Hand he falls: God accepts the Martyr, whofoever is the Executioner. And fo long as there is another World to reward and punish, no Man's Doom can be certainly pronounced from any thing, that befalls him in this.

And now at length, to come to a Clofe of what we have been hitherto difcourfing of, we have fhewn the Darkness and Intricacy of the Ways of Providence; and we have fhewn alfo, what incompetent Judges, and yet what confident Interpreters Men are generally of them; from all which what can fo naturally result, and so justly be inferred, as the fevereft Reprimands of the Blindness and Boldnefs (Qualities feldom found afunder) of the faucy Defcants of the World concerning these Matters? For what do they elfe, but in effect, arraign even Providence itself ? fummon Oniniscience before the Bar of Ignorance? and in a word, put a pitiful Mortal to fit in Judg. ment upon his Maker? The Text, I am fure, *pofitively

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pofitively declares, that the Works of God are paft finding out; and if so, is it not the height of Abfurdity, as well as Arrogance, to prefume, either from Divinity, or Philofophy, to affign any other Reason of the Works themfelves, but the fole Will of the Agent? or to pretend to give an Account of that, which we ourselves own to be unaccountable? Common Sense certainly muft needs fee, and explode the Groffness of the Contradiction; and convince us, that in things fo tranfcendently above our highest and most raised Speculations, the only rational and fafe Rule for us to proceed by, will be to make them rather matter of Admiration than of Argument, still remembring that, next to a direct Violation of God's revealed Will, is a bold Intrusion. into his Secret.

Now to the infinitely wife Governor of all Things, adorable in his Counfels, and ftu pendous in his Works, but effentially just and boly in both, be rendered and afcribed (as it is most due) all Praife, Might, Mas jefty and Dominion, both now and for ever more. Amen.

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A SER

A SERMON on Rom. VIII. 14:

DISCOURSE I

ROMANS VIII. 14.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the Sons of God.

..

HERE is that known Averfeness T in the Nature of Man (as now it ftands) to all Acts of Vertue (efpecially fuch as are of an higher Strain) and withall that deplorable Impotence and Inability to go through with them, whenfoever it undertakes them, that not only in the Chriftian, but also in all other Religions, Men have found it neceffary, in every great A&ti

on,