him make use of to effect his purpose, yet never relies fo much upon them or his Own Wisdom, as not to fubmit entirely to the Supreme, Sovereign, Commanding Wisdom that difpofes all things. And thus wholly putting his Truft in God, and rightly confidering that He, who orders the Iflues of all Councils and Actions, knows what is beft and will bestow it on them that rely on him, and have ever in all their Actions a regard to his Commandments, let the Event be what it will, he is refolv'd to be entirely fatiffy'd and content; Thus does he every way walk Surely, and infallibly fecure a happy Event to all he undertakes: For he who has refign'd up his own Will to God's, can never be disappointed. By making God's Will his Will, he is fure His Will must be done.

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghoft, be afcrib'd as is most due, all Praife, Might, Majefty and Dominion, both Now and for Evermore. Amen.

SERMON XIV.

1

SERMON XIV.

PROV. X. 24.

The Fear of the Wicked it ball come upon him: but the Defire of the Righteoushall be granted.

I

T is obvious enough, but not unwor thy our Observation, that through this whole Book of Proverbs, the Words of the Wifeft Man bear fome resemblance to the Works of the All-wife God; For look upon all the Works of the most High, and there are Two and Two, One against Another: Good is fet against Evil, and Life against Death; fo is the Godly against the Sinner, and the Sinner against the Godly, Ecclus 33. 14, 15. So obferve all these Sayings of Solomon, and you shall generally find that in them alfo, as the fame Son of Sirach speaks, All things are

Double

Double One against Another. Ecclus 42. 24. Wisdom and Folly, Virtue and Vice, Hatred and Love, Poverty and Riches, The Lip of Truth and the Lying Tongue, the Diligent and the Sluggard, the Slow to Wrath and the Hafty of Spirit, the Refuser of Instruction and the Hearer of Reproof, with divers others equally oppofite; but more comprehenfively and most frequently the Wicked and the Righteous, fet against and compar'd one with another, make up and adorn this most Admirable and Divine ColleЯion.

ty.

And as St. Austin elegantly fets forth the Wisdom of the Creator, and the Beauof the Creation, from the well-order'd Oppofition of the Parts of it: So we may fay of these Proverbs of Solomon, that the continual Antithefis that runs quite through them, gives both Beauty and Force to the Work, and argues the Divine Wisdom of the Writer, For laying thus at once before our Eyes the Natural differences between the Things and Perfons that he describes, he makes each one fhine out more clearly, by being plac'd by its contrary; as in Painting, Light and Shade are both made more Intense by being plac'd near one another.

And in Moral Difcourfes, fuch as this Book confifts of, wherein Man's free-will and choice is chiefly exercis'd, this way of collating

collating and comparing things with their Oppofites, is not only, as in all other Inftitutions, the moft Enlightening and Inftructive to the Understanding, but the most fair and impartial way of propofing things to our Will and Election; which cannot be fo Juftly made, as when the two Contraries, out of which we are to choose, are at one view fet forth and difplay'd together. Thus God himself, as the Son of Sirach informs us, dealt with Man in the Beginning, when he left him in the Hand of his Own Counsel He hath fet Fire and Water before thee, ftretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. And thus Mofes to the Ifraelites, 1 call Heaven and Earth to record this Day against you, that I have fet before you Life and Death, Bleffing and Curfing; therefore choofe Life, that thou and thy Seed may Live. And thus in imitation of God and Mofes, does Solomon in this Book all along fet twoContraries together,that we may stretch forth our Hands unto whether we will.

The most frequent Oppofition, as I faid, and to which most of the reft may be reduc'd, is between Wisdom and Folly, or which is all one in his Language, between Righteousness and Sin in the Abstract, or in the Concrete between the Wicked and Righteous,between their different Thoughts, Counsels, Actions; and confequent to thofe, the difference of their State and Condition,

as