SER M. him; making him what St. Paul ftyles him, our IV. hope; our only hope; renouncing all other confidences not fubordinate to him. To do fo is a Tim. i. 1.duty evidently grounded as well upon the reafon of the thing, as upon the will and command of God; to do otherwife is no lefs a palpable folly, than a manifeft injury to God. For, in truth, neither have we or any other created thing any power, other than fuch as he is pleafed freely to difpenfe"; and which is not continually both for its being and its efficacy fubject to him, so that he may at his pleafure fubtract it, or obftruct its effect: No king is faved by the multitude of an boft; a mighty man is not delivered by much frength; a horfe is a vain thing for fafety: whence it is plain, that we cannot upon any created power ground a folid affurance of fuccefs in Ifa. xxxvi. any undertaking; it will be leaning upon a broken reed, (which cannot fupport us, and will pierce our hands) both a vain and a mifchievous confidence ; that will abuse us, bringing both difappointment and guilt upon us; the guilt of wronging our Lord many ways, by arrogating to ourfelves, or affigning to others, what he only doth truly deferve, and what peculiarly of right belongs to him; withdrawing the fame from him; implying him unable or unwilling to affift us, and do us good; neglecting to use that ftrength which he fo dearly purchased and fo graciously tenders; fo disappointing him, and defeating, as it were, his purposes of favour and mercy towards us. On the other fide, trufting only upon our Saviour, we act wifely and juftly, gratefully and officioufly; for that, in doing fo, we build our hopes upon moft fure grounds; upon a wifdom that

h Eccl. ix. 11. The race is not to the fwift, nor the battle to the strong.

By ftrength fhall no man prevail. 1 Sam. ii. 9. Pfal. xxxiii. 17. cxlvi. 3. xliv. 3.

i, Ifa. xliii. II. Befide me there is no Saviour. Hof. xiii. 4. 10. Pfal. cvi. 21. Jer. xiv. 8.

cannot

IV.

cxlvii. 11.

xxxi. 19.

ixxviii. 22.

cannot be deceived; upon a ftrength that cannot S ER M. be withstood; upon a goodness that hath no limits; upon a fidelity that can never fail. For that we act with an humility and fobriety of mind fuitable to our condition, and to the reason of things; for that we thereby declare our good opinion of him, as only able, and very willing to do us good; for that we render him his juft honour and due; we comply with his earnest defires, we promote his gracious defigns of mercy and kindness toward us. Hence it is that every where in holy Scripture God fo highly Pfal. cxlvi. commends, fo greatly encourages this duty of truft-i xliv. 6. ing alone in him; that he fo ill refents, and foxxxiii. 18. ftrongly deters from the breach or omiffion thereof; xxxiv. 22. Thus faith the Lord, Curfed be the man that trusteth in cxxv. 1. man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whofe heart de-ixi. 4. xci. parteth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in 4. cxviii. 8. the defart, and fhall not fee when good cometh; but shall xvi. 2. cxii. inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a falt 7• land and not inhabited. Bleffed is the man that truffeth lvii. 13.1.7. in the Lord, and whofe hope the Lord is: for he fhallxxvi. 3. be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth xvii. 5, 6, out her roots by the river, and shall not fee when heat &c. cometh; but her leaf fhall be green; and fhall not be careful in the year of drought, neither fhall ceafe from yielding fruit: thus in that place, thus in innumerable others we are threatened not only with difappointment and bad fuccefs in our undertakings, but with fevere punishment, if we betake ourselves to other fuccours, and neglect or diftruft, or, in fo doing, defert God: but are encouraged, not only with affurance of profperous fuccefs, but of additional rewards, if entirely in our proceedings we depend upon and adhere to God. Thus we fhould do in all, even our most common and ordinary, affairs, which no less than the reft are fubject to his power, and governed by his care. For you know how St. James doth reprehend it as a piece of naughty boafting and arrogance, to fay, The morrow we will Jam. iv. 13.

Jer. xiv. 8.

go

Matt. x. 29,

30.

SER M. go to this city, and stay there a year, and trade and IV. gain; inftead of faying, if the Lord will, we shall live,

and do this or that; that is, to refolve upon, undertake, or profecute any affair without fubmiffion to God's will, and dependance on his providence but efpecially we ought, in matters and actions more fpiritual, to practise this duty; for that to the performing of thefe, we have of ourselves a peculiar impotence and unfitnefs; needing therefore a more fpecial affiftance from our Lord; that the fuccefs of them more particularly depends upon him; that the glory of them in an efpecial manner is appropriate, and, as it were, confecrate to him.

If it be a folly and a crime, to think we can do any thing without God, it is much more so to think we can do any thing good without him; it is an arrogance, it is an idolatry, it is a facrilege much more vain and wicked to do fo *. To imagine that we can, by the force of our own reafon and refolution, achieve any of thofe moft high and hard enterprises, to which by the rules of virtue and piety we are engaged; that we can, by our own conduct and prowess, encounter and withstand, defeat and vanquish those so crafty, fo mighty enemies of our falvation, (our own flethly defires, the menaces and allurements of the world, the fleights and powers of darkness,) is much a worse prefumption, than in other affairs of greatest difficulty to expect fuccefs. without the divine affiftance and bleffing, than in Pfal. xliv. other most dangerous battles to think we can, by our own bow, and by our own fpear, fave ourselves; that we can obtain victory otherwife, than from his hand and difpofal, who is the Lord of hofts. Reafon tells us, and experience alfo fhews, and our Saviour hath John xv, 5. exprefsly faid it, That (in these things) without him (without his especial influence and bleffing) we can

6.

* Οὔτε γὰς ἀνθρώπινόν τι ἄνευ τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα συναναφορᾶς εὖ patus. Ant. iii. 13.

do

16.

IV.

do nothing; he tells us, that we are but branches, s E R M. inferted into him; fo that, without continually drawing fap from him, we can have no life or vigour fpiritual. The wifeft and beft of men have, by their practice, taught us to acknowledge fo much; to depend wholly upon him, to ascribe all to him in this kind. Why (fay St. Peter and St. John) do ye Acts iii. 12. wonder at this? or why gaze ye upon us, as if by our own power or piety we had made this man walk? — His name, (the name of Jefus) through faith in his name, bath made this man ftrong: that acknowledgment indeed concerns a miraculous work; but fpiritual works are in reality no lefs, they requiring as much or more of virtue fupernatural, or the prefent interpofition of God's hand to effect them; they make lefs fhew without, but need as great efficacy within : fo our Saviour, it seems, did imply, when he faid, He that believes in me, the works that I do he shall do, John xiv. and greater works than these. Every good and faith-12 ful man doth not work miracles; yet fomewhat greater, it seems, by the grace of Christ, he performs: however, to thefe St. Paul referred, when he affirmed, I can do all things in Chrift that ftrengtheneth Phil. iv. 13. me; nothing was fo hard that he feared to attempt, that he despaired to mafter and go through with by the help of Chrift; and, Not, faith he again, that we 2 Cor. iii. 5. are fufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves; but our fufficiency is of God: he was as fenfible of his own inability, as he was confident in the gracious help of Chrift. Thus fhould we do all things in the name of Jefus; and it is not only a duty to do it, but it may be a great encouragement to us, that we are capable of doing it; a great comfort to confider, that in all honeft undertakings we have fo ready and fo fure an aid to fecond and further us in them; ea ipir. confiding in which, nothing is fo difficult, but we Matt. xvii. may easily accomplish; (a grain of faith will be able Luke xvii. to remove mountains ;) nothing is fo hazardous, but 6. we may fafely venture on; (walking on the fea, treading 29.

upon

Οὐδὲν ἀδυνα

20. xxi. 21,

Matt, xiv.

5 ER M. upon ferpents and fcorpions, daring 'all the power of the IV. enemy.) In his name we may, if our duty or good

reafon calls us forth (how fmall and weak foever, Luke x. 19. how deftitute foever of defenfive arms, or weapons offensive,) naked and unarmed, with a fling and a ftone, go out against the biggest and best armed Philiftine, nothing doubting of victory: our weaknefs itself (if we be humbly conscious and fenfible thereof) will be an advantage to us (as it was to St. 2 Cor. xii. Paul;) to all effects and purposes, the grace of our Lord will be fufficient for us, if we apply it, and truft therein. But farther,

9.

VI. To do in another's name may denote, to do it with fuch regard to another, that we acknowledge (that, I fay, we heartily and thankfully acknowledge) our hope of profpering in what we do; our expectation of acceptance, favour, or reward to be grounded on him; that they are procured by his merits and means, are bestowed only for his fake. John xiv. Thus our Saviour bids us to offer our prayers in his xvi. 23, 24 name; that is, reprefenting unto God his meritorious performances in our behalf, as the ground of our access to God, of our hope to obtain from him what Eph. v. 20. we requeft. So alfo we are enjoined to give thanks

13. XV. 16.

in his name; that is, with perfuafion and acknowledgment, that only in refpect to him we become capable to receive or enjoy any good thing; that, in effect, all the bleffings by divine mercy vouchfafed us have been procured by him for us, are through him conveyed unto us. And thus alfo we fhould do all things in the name of Jefus, offering all our deeds to God, as facrifices and fervices unworthy of acceptance, both in themfelves, and as proceeding from us; but pleafing and acceptable to God only for his fake. We fhould do well, upon all occafions, to remember our natural condition, and the general ftate of mankind; fuch as it was before he did undertake, fuch as it would have continued fill, had he not undertaken for it; that

Our