waiteth for him continually, Pfal. lxv. 1. 2. Paffively, and thus every thing that hath a being doth praife God. The birds of the air, the beafts of the field, the fishes of the fea, the fun, moon, and ftars, heaven and earth, and every creature, doth praise their glorious Creator, Pfal. xix. "The heavens declare the glory of God," &c.

Queft. How is it that the wrath of man doth praise God? Anfw. God levies a tribute of praise out of the wrath of

man,

1. By making it to redound to the glory of his name, and the illuftration of the perfections of his nature. He glorifies his power by ruling and over-ruling all the motions of their corrupt minds and actions; for wherein they deal proudly, he is above them, they are all under the check and controul of his all-governing hand, for "he rules in the midst of his enemies." He glorifies his wifdom many times in frustrating their defigns against his church and people, and by taking them in their own gins, Job v. 12. 13. He disappoints the devices of the crafty, fo that their hands cannot perform their enterprises; he taketh the wife in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is turned headlong. He turns the wrath of man to the praife of his own juftice and severity; for all the time that the wicked are raging against God and his intereft, they are "treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath ;" and God's righteous judgement, when it is actually revealed against them, becomes hereby the more confpicuous and apparent to the world. He turns the wrath of man to the praise of his adorable fovereignty. Never have the Lord's people had fuch awful impreffions of the fovereignty of God, as when they have been in the furnace of man's wrath, then they become dumb with filence. When the Chaldean and Sabean robbers are let loofe to plunder, and fpoil the fubftance of Job, he is made to view adorable fovereignty in it, faying, "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken; bleffed be the name of the Lord." It is in fuch cafe as this, that God says to his own people, " Be ftill, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the Heathen.” Thus the Lord levies praife, &c.

2. The wrath of man shall praise God, by making it subfervient to the advancement of his own work in and about his church. The wrath of man would feem to ruin the church; but God makes ufe of it to help up the building, though fuch a thing does not enter into their hearts.

Queft. What work of God about the church is advanced by the wrath of men?

Anfu. In thefe few particulars, which I do not infift upon,

because

i

because I had occafion to fpeak to them, when upon another

text.

ft, His difcovering work; for by the wind of man's wrath, he feparates between the precious and the vile, betwixt the chaff and the wheat. In the day of the church's profperity and quiet, hypocrites and true believers are mingled together, like the chaff and wheat in the barn-floor; but the Lord, like the husbandman, opens the door of his barn, and puts the wind of man's wrath through it, that the world may know which is which. O Sirs, much chaff is caft up already, both among minifters and profeffors; but it is like the wind and fift may caft up much more yet ere all be done.

2dly, God's purging work is advanced among his own children by the wrath of man; there is much of the drofs of corruption cleaves to the Lord's people while in the wilderness. Now, the Lord, he heats the furnace of man's wrath, and cafts his people into it, that when he has tried them, he may bring them forth as gold. "By this fhall the iniquity of Jacob be purged. He washes away the filth of the daughter of Zion, and purges the blood of Jerufalem from the midst thereof, by the fpirit of judgement, and by the spirit of burning."

3dly, God's uniting work is thereby advanced in a time of peace, and external tranquillity. The fheep of Chrift scatter and divide among themselves; but God lets loose the dogs upon them, and then the flock runs together; or like pieces of metal caft into the fire, they run together in a lump.

4thly, God's enlarging work, or his work of spreading the gofpel, is fometimes advanced by the wrath of man, Acts viii; 1-5. The gofpel, like the camomile, the more it is tread upon, the more it spreads.

3. The wrath of man praises God, by ministering matter of praise to the faints of God in the wilderness. The wrath of Pharaoh and of the Egyptians made up a part of Ifrael's fong, Exod. xv. "The enemy faid, I will purfue, I will overtake, I will divide the fpoil: my luft fhall be fatisfied upon them, I will draw my fword, my hand fhall destroy them:” and, Oh! what praife did it beget, when the heat of their wrath was quenched in the deeps of the fea, and they made to fink like lead in the mighty waters!

4. God many times extorts praise to himself out of the mouths of his enemies, especially when they fee God taking the field against them in a way of terrible majefty. Exod. xiv. 24. 25. Pharaoh, and his armies and chariots, pursue Ifrael into the midit of the Red fea; thereupon the Lord looks upon the hoft of the Egyptians with a frown, through the pillar of

fire and of cloud, and takes off their chariot wheels, makes them to drive heavily, and fo troubles them; upon which they are forced to praife the God of Ifrael by a folemn acknowledgement, "Come (fay they), let us fly before Ifrael; for the Lord fighteth for them." And thus you fee how it is that the wrath of man doth praise the Lord.

And if you ask me, Why is it that the wrath of man shall pay this tribute of praife unto God? I answer,

1. Because all beings muft pay this tribute to the Supreme Being on whom they depend. Of him, and through him, and to him are all things ;" and therefore to him mult" be glory and praife for ever," Rom. xi. "God made all things for himself; and the wicked for the day of evil," fays Solo

mon.

2. Because God loves to fruftrate and baffle the devil and all his inftruments. They defign to difhonour God, and to ruin his intereft in the world; but even that which was intended for their hurt, is turned about to their advantage. Thus in the death of Christ, the devil and his agents intended no less than the total defeat of the defign of his incarnation, and they thought, that when they got him in the grave, all was fafe and fure; and yet the very crofs and death of Chrift is made a triumphant chariot, in which Chrift " fpoils principalities and powers, making a fhew of them openly in it."

3. God will have it fo, that his people may truft him and glorify him in a way of believing, waiting and depending on him even in the worst of times; like Abraham, the father of the faithful," who against hope believed in hope, and ftaggered not at the promise through unbelief." The day of the wrath of man, is a day when God is efpecially calling us to put our trust in him, according to the example of David, Pfal. lix. 9. "Because of his strength (i. e. the ftrength, power, and rage of the enemy) will I wait upon thee: for thou art my defence."

III. The third thing in the method was, to inquire how is it that God reftrains the remainder of man's wrath? Anfw. He has various ways of doing it. As,

1. He fometimes reftrains their wrath, by converting them; a caft of converting grace will make the "wolf to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down peaceably with the kid." So Saul, Acts ix. when he is breathing out death and flaughter against the difciples and followers of Chrift, God meets him in his way to Damafcus, and gives him fuch a turn, that perfecuting Saul becomes a preaching Paul. It is eafy with

God

God to wreft a weapon out of the devil's hand, and turn it against him and his kingdom.

2. Sometimes by diverting them from their defign, as he did Sennacherib for a while, when his wrath was bent againft God's Ifrael: God raises up the inhabitants of Libnah against him, the rumour of which obliged him to defift from his wrathful enterprise at that time, 2 Kings xix. 7. So, I Sam. xxiii. 27. 28. in the cafe of David and Saul, God fends the Philiftines to give him a diverfion from pursuing after David. It is easy for God to give wicked men another tow in their rock, than to moleft the Lord's people, whom they otherwise would fwallow up quick.

3. Sometimes by deftroying them, as he did Pharaoh and the Egyptians when pursuing Ifrael, as we observed just now : "Envy flays the filly one."

4. By putting favourable thoughts of God's people in the hearts of their enemies, whereby their wrath is ftayed; for "when aman's ways please the Lord, he many times causes their very enemies to be at peace with him." Thus the heart of Nebuchadnezzar was turned toward the three children, whom he threw into a furnace feven times heated, Dan. ii. 46–48. See the like, Dan. v. 29. “The hearts of kings are in the hand of the Lord, and he turns them as the rivers of waters." How eafy is it for God to give orders even to the earth to help the woman, and befriend her.

5. Sometimes by disclosing their secrets, and revealing their angry and wrathful plots against the church and people of God. Thus the fecret plots of the king of Affyria were dif closed and revealed to the king of Ifrael, by the prophet Elisha, whereby his defign againft Ifrael was baffled, and his rage stayed.

6. Sometimes by blunting their courage, and taking away both heart and hand from them. "The ftout-hearted are fpoiled, and none of the men of might find their hands," when God binds them. Sometimes he just confuses and confounds the enemies of his church and people, by things which can do them little or no harm. Thus the Midianites, Judg. vii. are difordered and confounded with the found of the trumpets, and the breaking of Gideon's pitchers; and the Moabites are confounded and defeated by the fhining of the fun upon the waters, 2 Kings iii. &c.

IV. The fourth thing was the Use of the whole. Use first may be of Information, in the few following particulars. Is it fo, as you have heard, that wicked men are fo full of wrath against God, his people, and intereft? Then,

1. See hence the corruption and depravation of nature:

"The wicked are eftranged from the womb, they go aftray as foon as they are born." When we fee a wicked world full of envy, wrath, and malice, againft Chrift and his intereft, taking all imaginable ways they can think upon to ruin and rase it, we may clearly fee in this, that man's nature is not now what it once was; 66 every thought and imagination of the heart is only evil, and continually evil." And hence it is, that there is fo much of the foam of profanity, curfing, lying, fwearing, drinking, uncleannefs, Sabbath-breaking, and other evils break out of it, to the difhonour of God, and the fcandal and reproach of our holy religion. Oh! how much need of converting work in our day, which, alas! is at such a melancholy ftand!

2. See, from what is faid, the folly and madness of finners who fight against God, and his cause and interesft: why, they can never prevail; for God turns matters about fo in the event, that the wrath of man shall praise him; God's end shall be reached, and not theirs. So that they who fight against God, they are like madmen, rushing their heads against a wall of brafs; they may well dafh themselves in pieces, but they shall never do any hurt unto the cause of God: The wrath of man fball praise him.

3. See hence, that there is a holy and over-ruling providence in the moft gloomy and threatening difpenfations that befal God's people. The wrath of man, that would seem to fwallow up the poor people of God, is under the check and management of a holy and wife providence. We are ready, when God's way is in the fea, and in the whirlwind, to cry out, Now all is gone, the intereft of Chrift will fink, and God will be dishonoured; but stay a little, " He that believes thall not make hafte;" there is a wheel within a wheel, which will turn matters about fo, as the wrath of man fhall praife God, and advance his intereft, instead of ruining it.

4. See hence a notable antidote against the flavish fear of man's wrath, which causes a fnare, especially in a day when the wicked walk on every fide, and the vileft of men are advanced to power and authority; and they employing their power to opprefs God's people, and to ruin his intereft. Why, what ground is there to fear the wrath of man, when God has faid, that the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of it he will reftrain? "Who art thou, that art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be as grafs? and forgetteft the Lord thy Maker ?" &c. Sirs, let us never step out of God's road through the fear of man, great or fmall. Why, the wrath of man shall praise the Lord. In fhunning the wrath of man by any finful fhift, we run upon the boffes of God's buckler.