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be said virtually to contain all the pictures which the ablest hand can draw with them, yet, without a skilful hand, can express nothing; so dull inactive matter cannot form itself into the meanest plant, nor insect, without a superior power; which superior Being, who formed all things, is God.

2. Another desolating evil, like to the former, is that of Deism, introduced by a set of men, who, taking no notice of the damage done by sin, assert the sufficiency of natural religion, to make men happy in both worlds, and so pour the utmost contempt on all Divine and supernatural revelation, how well soever it is attested, though by a cloud of witnesses, many of whom sealed their testimony with their blood; by a great number of miracles wrought in the presence of inquisitive, as well as of implacable enemies; and by a set of most remarkable prophecies, which have all along had their accomplishment, and are still accomplishing. The light of nature, when at best, is but like the shine of the moon, if compared with the sun-shine of the Gospel; and, since the fall, is like the moon in an eclipse: now, if the moon at full be not able, either to make or to rule the day, much less is it when in an eclipse. Deism, about a hundred years ago, was, in a manner, confined to France and Italy; but of late it hath passed the Alps, and crossed the seas, and spreads like a mighty contagion far and near here in England.

3. Another desolating evil, which not only threatens, but is come in like a flood upon us, is that of error in the things of God; particulary in the doctrines of the Gospel, from that of the Arian, to that of the Galatian error; or from those who deny the true and proper divinity of Christ, to such as say he is not the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believes; which is no new nor unforetold enemy; for the Apostle, so many years ago, hath told us, that there must be heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest. But, blessed be God, though the foundations may be attacked and undermined, they cannot

be removed; for if they could, what should the righteous do?

4. Another desolating evil, which threatens to carry all before it, is that of profaneness. This is supported by such as regard not the Sabbath; but cry down all public worship; make a jest of closet and family pray er; banter and burlesque Scripture, and pour the utmost contempt on a standing ministry; though it has been hitherto, and will, to the end of time, be supported by Christ, who said, Lo, I am with you alway, unto the end of the world.

5. Another desolating evil, is that of immorality. This is nearly allied to, but not the same with the former, and is propagated and spread, not barely by private conversation, but in print, by such as deny that there is any intrinsic real difference between moral good, and moral evil; who say, to tell a lie, is, in the nature of the thing, as commendable as to speak the truth; and to be a thief, as to be an honest man. But they may as soon persuade us, that there is no real difference between light and darkness, pain and pleasure, life and death: the mind in man is under a like necessity to own, that a dutiful son, or subject, excels one that hath murdered his father, or shot his prince, as the palate is to give the preference to wholesome pleasant food, before stinking carrion; or, as the eye is, to prefer a pleasant agreeable prospect, before a dark cave, or a dreadful precipice. It is not more evident to the mathematician, that the three angles of every triangle are equal to two right, than it is to all mankind, that justice and mercy excel tyranny and oppression.

6. Another desolating evil, which threatens to overflow like a flood, is that of libertinism, or turning the grace of God into wantonness. It is not unlikely, but Cain might presume, upon the grace of the first promise, in his murder of Abel; to be sure those libertines did on that of the Gospel, of whom Jude speaks, Jude, ver. 4. and thus do multitudes in our dark day; for though a work of grace cannot be abused, all the

doctrines of grace may. The outward court is full of libertines, who are not under the law to Christ; of whom the Apostle speaks, Phil. iii. 18. 19. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

These are the evils of our times; some of which we, who preach this Lecture, shall, in Christ's name, and under the influences of his Spirit, lift up the standard of the word against, even the truth, as it is in Jesus; who, as God, manifested in the flesh, was a full, unanswerable, visible, and most satisfying proof of the Being of a God; of the truth of the Old Testament; and consequently a matchless recommendation of the Christian religion, as it is contained in the New. Nothing could be expected from the word made flesh; and in that flesh sustaining the character of a Redeemer, that was not to be met with in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ: his divinity, sonship, and mediation, were written in charaterters full of greatness and glory upon all these; written, as to put angels to school again: those vast proficients in the book of nature, are represented as learning of the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, as it shines forth in the face of our Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph. iii. 10.

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The design of this Lecture, therefore, is not to oppose any other orthodox Lecture, nor to put a slight upon any of our brethren in the ministry; but to bear an extraordinary united testimony against growing infidelity, and spreading errors.

Now, we your Lecturers, though we neither expect nor desire the encouragement of the purse, want your prayers; that in a spirit of meekness, and not of wrath and bitterness, we may instruct those who shall oppose themselves, and defend, with a right Gospel spirit, the great truths thereof; for between true Chritian zeal and rage, there is a like difference, which there is be

tween the warm beams of the sun, and the desolating flames of Etna.

Brethren, pray for us, that we may neither study, nor preach, nor pray in our own spirits, but do all in Christ's Spirit; the promise of whom, as he is Christ's glorifier, is, in a way of eminency, the promise of the Father under the New Testament; as the promise of the Messiah was his promise under the Old.

For your encouragement who shall attend, as well as for ours who are to preach, take the following Scripture, and with it I will conclude, Psal. xciii. 3. 4. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves: Understand it of ungodly men, in all ages and places; especially of such as persecute the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus, though, for want of power, it be only with the lip and pen: The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters; yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

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The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

GOD created man upright, but he soon fell, and stripped himself of the robes of innocence and integrity with which he was clad, as he came pure out of his Maker's hands. It lay entirely in the disposing will of God, whether he would save man at all after his revolt; and seeing he thought fit to rescue part of Adam's posterity from the ruin which the fall brought upon them, he certainly had a right to pitch upon what method he thought fittest, to bring about their recovery.

Whether God could have accomplished the salvation of men as well any other way, as in the method he has taken of choosing them in Christ, entering into a covenant with him, as the surety, and with all the elect in him as his seed; and, in the fulness of time, sending him in the flesh, that he might suffer death, to purchase the redemption of such as he had given him, is a question too high for us to determine, and therefore is vain and unprofitable. It is insolently intruding into things not seen, for us to take upon us to determine absolutely what a God of infinite wisdom and

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