heal them; as mortar, a soft thing, is used to knit and bind other things together. It is observed by Socrates and Nicephorus, of Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople, that being a man of singular lenity and meekness, he did thereby preserve entire the dignity of the church; and, by his special prudence, healed a very great division in the church, bringing back unto communion thereof those, who had departed from it.

From the various vicissitudes and inconstancies of human events; whereby many times it cometh to pass, that things which for the present are judged very needful and profitable, prove inconvenient and dangerous for the future; as Polybius hath observed. Hereby we may, in all conditions, be taught moderation; not to faint or be dejected in the day of adversity, because God can raise us again; nor to swell or wax impotent with prosperity, because God can as easily depress us. It was a wise speech of the Lacedæmonian ambassadors unto the Athenians, in Thucydides, "That they who have had many alternations and vicissitudes of good and evil, cannot but deem it equal to be ἀπιστόταλοι ταῖς εὐπραγίαις, diffident and moderate in their prosperity:" as Cænus the Macedonian said unto Alexander, that nothing did better become him than ἡ ἐν τῷ εὐτυχεῖν σωφροσύνη, as Arrian tells us. And so, on the other hand, this grace of moderation doth so poise and balance the heart with Christian constancy and courage, that it is not easily tossed or overturned by any tempest: but, as they say of the palm-tree, beareth up above all the difficulties that would depressit:-as good Jehoshaphat, when he was distressed with a great multitude of adversaries, said in his prayer to God, "We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee." (2 Chron. xx. 12)

Lastly, From the nearness of Christ, which is the apostle's argument in the text, "The Lord is at hand."-" Prope ad auxilium,' near to help us; "The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him." (Psalm cxlv. 18. Deut. iv. 7) We have no sufficiency of ourselves to improve any talent, to manage any condition, to use our knowledge or liberty, our power or prosperity, to the honour of God, or service of his church; no power to rejoice in adversity, to forgive injury, to correct the exorbitancy of any inordinate and irregular passion.

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Only we have a Lord near' unto us; his eye upon us to see our wants; his ear open to hear our desires; his grace present to assist our duties; his comforts at hand to support our hearts; his power and providence continually ready to protect our persons, to vindicate our innocence, to allay the wrath, and rebuke the attempts of any that would harm us. This is one principal cause of all our impatience and perturbation, that we are so soon shaken and discomposed with every temptation, so soon opposed with every difficulty, that we do soon despond under every storm, because we do not, with an eye of faith, look up unto God as one that careth for us, and is ever near at hand as a sun and a shield, a sanctuary and a hiding-place, to secure us against all our fears.

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Prope ad judicium,' near to judge us; to take a full and impartial review of all that is done to us, and accordingly to recompense either rest or trouble,' as the apostle speaks. This is a fundamental doctrine which we all avow as an article of the Christian faith, (Acts xvii. 13. Rom. xiv. 10. 2 Cor. v. 10) that Christ shall come as the ordained officer, to whom all judgement is committed, in flaming fire, attended with all the holy angels, (Matth. xxv. 21. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. Jude x. 14, 15) to give righteous and impartial, and final doom and state unto the everlasting condition of all men. Before whose most dreadful tribunal we must all appear, stripped of all our wealth, honours, dignities, retinues, accompanied with nothing but our consciences, and our works, whether good or evil, to bear witness of us; and there receive a proportionable sentence to the things which we have done; holy men, a sentence of absolution and mercy, for the manifestation of God's glorious grace, when he shall come to be magnified in his saints, and admired in all those that believe:wicked men, a sentence of rejection and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, for the manifestation of his glorious power and justice; when all the devils in hell and powers of darkness shall be brought altogether, and be trodden down under his feet; when all the low and narrow interests of secular wealth, pleasures, power, and greatness which short-sighted men so passionately dote upon, and so eagerly pursue, shall, to their everlasting disappointment, be swallowed up in the general conflagration, and so vanish for

ever-when the poor and pitiful artifices, whereby angry mortals do countermine and supplant one another, and mutually project each others' vexations, shall, to the confusion of the contrivers, be detected and derided:-In a word, when nothing that ever we have done, shall afford benefit or comfort to us, any further than as it was, with a single and upright aim, directed to the glory of God, and managed by the law of love.

Certainly this is one principal reason of all immoderation amongst men, of despondence in adversity, of insolence in prosperity, of excess in delights, of perturbation in passions, of vindictive retaliations; one principal reason why they do not, with a single eye and an unbiassed heart, manage all their actions and designs to the glory of God, the credit of the gospel, the interest of Christianity, the edification and salvation of the souls of men, but often suffer weak passions, prejudices, interests, to state, model, and over-rule their designs; the reason, I say, of all is, because the terror of the Lord hath not persuaded them, because they are not sufficiently awed with the all-seeing Eye, and near approach of the Lord of Glory; before whom all their ways are naked, with whom all their sins are laid up in store, and sealed amongst his treasures. Let us therefore seriously resolve to regulate all our actions by our great account; to say with Job, "What shall I do, when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ?" (Job xxxi. 13) He hath entrusted me with many talents, with a rich treasure of power and interest, of wisdom and honour, of wealth and learning; he hath deposited with me the custody of his eternal gospel, the grand interests of the church of Christ, and of the precious souls which he redeemed with his own blood. God forbid that I should ever suffer any immoderate passions, or prejudices, or partialities, or low and narrow interests of mine own, so far to transport me, as that I should betray so great a trust, and provoke the wrath of so holy and just a Judge. God enable me, with that equanimity and singleness of heart, without hypocrisy, and without partiality, with a direct eye to the glory of God, the kingdom of Christ, the edification and peace of his church, the flourishing of his gospel, and the prosperity of the souls of his people,-so to discharge every trust reposed in me, as that I may be able

to give up my accounts with joy; and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, I may lift up my head in the day of redemption, and receive a crown of glory which fadeth not

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THUS let your moderation be known unto all men, because "the Lord is at hand," in his future approaching judgements. But hath not the Lord been at hand, near us, in the midst of us already, by many strange intermingled providences, by a series of glorious mercies, and a vicissitude of dreadful judgements? as if he would both ways try, whether by the one we would be led unto repentance, or by the other learn righteousness. Is it a small mercy, that we have had the gospel of salvation, in the purity of the reformed religion, for so long a time in this land? having brought forth so little fruit in answer to the light and grace which hath been therein revealed unto us? I have read an observation in one of the homilies of our church (if my memory do not greatly fail me) "That we shall not often find, that a nation which had the gospel in purity, and not brought forth the fruits thereof, hath enjoyed it much longer than one hundred years." I do not mention this as a sad presage; for I dare not set bounds to the infinite mercy and patience of God; his judgements are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out; the secret things belong unto him, and things revealed, to us and our children: it is not for us to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power :- only I desire, by this sad observation, to awaken both myself and you, timely to "consider the things that do belong unto our peace, before they be hidden from our eyes." For this is a sober and certain truth, that the sins of a church, as the fruits of a well-ordered garden, do ripen much faster than those of a wilderness: and therefore the prophet Amos calleth them by the name of 'summer fruit.' (Amos viii. 2) The prophet Jeremiah compareth the judgements threatened against them, unto the rod of an almond-tree,' (Jer. i. 11) which shooteth forth her blossoms before other trees. And therefore when we have reason to fear that God will hasten judgements, we have great reason to resolve with holy David, "to make haste and not to delay to keep his commandments."

Again; Was it not a great and eminent mercy, when God commanded up into the scabbard the sword of violent men,

swelled into pride and arrogance with their many successes? when he infatuated their counsels, shattered and dissipated their undertakings, and swallowed them up in the confusion of their own consultations?

Was it not a glorious and wonderful mercy, that, after a long and bitter banishment, the Lord brought back our dread Sovereign in the chariots of Aminadab, upon the wings of loyalty and love, unto his royal throne, without the effusion of one drop of blood,' and thereby made way for a stable and durable settlement both of church and state; to say nothing of the other ordinary mercies, of flourishing of trade, and plenty of provisions, wherewith this nation hath been for a long time blessed. And may it not be said of us, as it was of Hezekiah, that we have "not rendered again according to the benefits done unto us?" but we have surfeited and played the wantons with these great mercies? so that the Lord hath been provoked to lift up his hand in many sore and dismal judgements against us.

For after that thousands and ten thousands had fallen by the sword of an unnatural war in the high places of the field, he hath stirred up potent adversaries abroad against us; though (blessed be his name!) we have not hitherto been delivered to their fury, but by signal successes have had good reason to hope, that the Lord hath owned our righteous cause.

"Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still;" for he hath, in these two years last past, emptied this city and nation in very many parts thereof; as we may (I presume) with good reason compute, above a hundred thousand of her inhabitants, by the fury of a raging and contagious pestilence; the like whereunto possibly cannot be paralleled for some hundred of years. And yet after all this, "his anger hath not been turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." He hath likewise contended by fire; and, by the late direful conflagration, hath laid in ashes the glorious metropolis of this nation; hath made desolate almost all her goodly palaces, and laid waste almost all the sanctuaries of God therein. Thus "the Lord hath come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire; for by fire and by sword hath he pleaded with us; and the slain of the Lord have been many."