of righteous or merciful men, they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be fatisfied. Pfal. xli. 1. 2. Blessed is he that confidereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble; the Lord will preferve him, and keep him alive, and he hall be blefel upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

There are likewife in the apocryphal books excellent fayings for the encouragement of charity, as that which will be particularly confidered and rewarded to us in the times of danger and diftress, in the days of affliction and fuffering, Tob. iv. 7. 8. 9. 10. Give alms of thy fubftance, and turn not thy face from any poor man, and the face of God fhall not be turned away from thee. If thou hast abundance, give alms accordingly; if thou haft but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little; for thou layeft up for thyfelf a good treasure against the day of neceffity, becaufe that alms do deliver from death, and fuffereth not to come into darkness. Ecclus iii. -31. fpeaking of him that gives alms, and is ready to do kindness to others, He is mindful of that which may come bereafter; and when he falleth he fall find a fay. And chap. xxix. 11. 12. 13. Lay up thy treafure according to the commandments of the Moft High, and it shall bring thee more profit than gold. Shut up alms in thy ftore houses, and it shall deliver thee from all affliction, it shall fight for thee against thine enemies, better than a mighty field and strong Spear.

I have often faid it, and am verily perfuaded of it; that one of the beft figns of God's mercy and favour to this poor nation, is, that God hath been pleafed of late years to ftir up fo general a difpofition in men to works of alms and charity, and thereby to revive the primitive fpirit of Christianity, which fo eminently abounded in this grace, and taught thofe who believed in God, to be careful to maintain and practife good works. And nothing gives me greater hopes that God hath mercy ftill in ftore for us, than that men are fo ready to fhew mercy. There are great objects

objects to exercite our charity upon in this time of the general fufpenfion of trade and bufinefs, from an apprehenfion of approaching troubles; by reafon whereof, both the numbers and neceffities of our poor are greatly and daily increased among us; and befides the poor of our own nation, God hath fent us great numbers from abroad, I mean those who are fled hither for fhelter, from that violent ftorm of perfecution which hath lately fallen upon them for the cause of our common religion. According to the compaffion we fhew to them, we may expect that God will either preserve us from the like fufferings, or gracioufly fupport us under them. What do we know, but that God is now trying us, and hath purposely put this opportunity into our hands, of preventing, or mitigating, or fhortening our own fufferings, according as we extend our charity and pity to those who have fuffered fo deeply for the cause of God and his truth?

7. Provided, in the last place, and above all, that we be fincere in our religion, and endeavour to be univerfally good, and holy in all manner of converfation, and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jefus Chrift, to the praise and glory of God. This is the largest fenfe of well-doing, and the moft neceffary of all the reft, to prepare us for fufferings, and to give us courage and conftancy under them; and likewife to engage the providence of God to a tender care of us, and concernment for us, if he fhall fee it fit to bring us into a state of fuffering.

But if we live in open contempt and violation of God's laws, if we make no confcience of our ways and actions, we cannot poffibly have any wellgrounded truft and confidence in God; for he hates all the workers of iniquity, and his providence fets itfelf against them for evil. Bad men draw many mifchiefs and inconveniencies upon themfelves, as the natural confequences of their actions; but befides this, the vengeance of God haunts and pursues evildoers, and his juft providence many times involves them in many difficulties and dangers, befides and beyond the natural courfe of things: Upon the wicked

(fays

(fays David) he will rain frares: fo that as ever we expect the comfortable effects of the divine care and providence, we must live in a dutiful obedience to God's holy will and laws.

Bad men may make a profeffion of the true religion, and may in fome fort believe it, though they do not live according to it; and yet perhaps for all this, out of a mere generofity and obftinacy of mind, they cannot bear to be threatened and terrified out of the profeffion of the truth and will endure a great deal of trouble and inconveniencies, before they will renounce it; knowing themfelves to be fo far in the right, that they ftand for the truth, and hoping perhaps thereby to make fome amends for their bad practice. Eut when all is done, nothing gives a man true courage and refolution, like the teftimony of our own hearts, concerning cur own fincerity, and the confcience of well-doing. And on the contrary, he that hath not the refolution and patience to mortify his lufts, and to reftrain his appetites, and to fubdue his irregular paffions for the fake of God and religion, will not eafily bring himself to submit to great fufferings upon that account. There is confiderable difficulty in the practice of religion, and the refolute courfe of a holy life; but furely it is much easier to live as religion requires we fhould do, than to lay down our lives for it; and (as I have told you upon another occafion) he that cannot prevail with himfelf to live a faint, will much more hardly be perfuaded to die. a martyr. I proceed to the

III. Third point, namely, what ground of comfort and encouragement the confideration of God, under the notion of a faithful Creator, does afford to us under all our fuffering, for a good confcience and a good caufe: Let them that fuffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their fouls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. And in this I fhall be very brief.

And this is a firm ground of comfort and encouragement to us, under all our fufferings for God, to confider him as the author of our beings, or, as it is

expreffed in the text, as a faithful Creator: one that is not fickle and inconftant in his affection and kindnefs to his creatures; but it is true to his own defign, and will not abandon and forfake the work of his own hands. So great a benefit as that of our beings, freely conferred upon us, is but an earneft of God's further kindness to us, and future care of us, if by our ill carriage towards him, we do not render ourselves unworthy and incapable of it. That we are God's creatures, is a demonftration that he hath a kindness for us if he had not, he would never have made us; as it is excellently faid in the Wisdom of Solo. mon, chap. xi. 23. 24. Thou haft mercy upon all, for thou loveft all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou haft made: For never wouldst thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it. And ver. 26. Thou fpareft all, for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of fouls.

To whom then may we with fo much confidence commit ourselves, as to him who freely gave us our being? From whom may we expect fo tender a regard and confideration of our cafe, and all the circumstances of it, as from this great founder and benefactor? For he that made us, knows our frame, and whereof we are made, and how much we are able to bear; he confiders our strength, or rather our weaknefs, and what courage and refolution he hath endued us withal, and what comfort and support we stand in need of in the day of tribulation. And as they who make armour, are wont to try that which they think to be good and well tempered with a ftronger charge, not to break and hurt it, but to prove and praife it: fo God exercifeth those whom he hath fitted and tempered for it, with manifold temptations, that the trial of their faith, as St Peter expreffeth it, 1 Pet. i. 7. being much more precious than of gold tried in the fire, may be found unto praife, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jefus Chrift.

So that this confideration that we are God's creatures, does (as I may fay) oblige him in faithfulness to his own act, and in confequence of his bringing us

into being at firft, to be concerned for us afterwards, fo as never to abandon us, nor quite to take away his loving-kindness and mercy from us, till we are good for nothing, and do in a manner cease to be what he made us, that is, reasonable creatures. A perfon or people must have proceeded to the utmost degree of degeneracy, when God will confider them no longer as his creatures, nor fhew any pity or favour to them: Things must be come to extremity, when God deals thus with us, as he threatened the people of Ifrael, If. xxvii. 11. When the boughs are withered, they fhall be broken off, and fet on fire; for it is a peuple of no understanding: Therefore he that made them, will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them, will shew them no favour.

And now I have done with the three points which I proposed to handle from this text; and the difcourfe which I have made upon them, does all along apply itself, by directing us how we ought to commit ourfelves to the providence of God, in all cafes of danger and fuffering, efpecially for the cause of God, and his truth, viz. in the faithful difcharge of our duty and a good confcience, and by a firm trust and confidence in the wisdom and goodness of the divine providence; not doubting but that he who made us, and knows our frame, will have a tender care of us, and not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able.

And as to our prefent danger, and that terrible ftorm which threatens us, let us pray to God, if it be his will, to divert it; but if otherwife he hath determined, to fit and prepare us for it. And let us be fervent and earneft in our prayers to him; not that he is moved by our importunity, but that we may thereby be qualified and made fit to receive the mercy which we beg of him.

And let us take this occafion to do that which we fhould have done without it, to break off our fins by repentance, and to turn every one of us from the evil of our ways; that hereby we may render God propitious to us, and put ourselves under the more imme