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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 Iffues of all Councils and Actions, knows what is best, and will beftow 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 do's he every way walk Surely, and infallibly secure 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.

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SERMON XIV.

Prov. X. 24.

The Fear of the Wicked it fhall come upon him: but the Defire of the Righteous fhall be granted.

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T is obvious enough, but not unwor thy our Obfervation, that through this whole Book of Proverbs, the Words of the Wisest Man bear fome resemblance to the Works of the All-wife God; For look upon all the Works of the moft 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 fayings of Solomon and you fhall generally find that in them also, 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 Refufer of Inftruction and the Hearer of Reproof, with divers others equally oppofite; but more comprehenfively and moft frequently the Wicked and the Righteous, fet against and compar'd one with another, make up and adorn this most Admirable and Divine Collection.

And as St Austin elegantly fets forth the Wisdom of the Creator, and the Beauty of 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 Intenfe by being plac'd near one another.

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And in Moral Difcourfes, fuch as this Book confifts of, wherein Mans free will and choice is cheifly exercis'd, this way of collating

collating and comparing things with their Oppofites, is not only, as in all other Intitutions, the moft Enlightening and Inftructive to the Underftanding, but the moft 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 display'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, I call Heaven and Earth to record this Day against you, that I have fet before you Life and Death, Bleffing and Curf ing; therefore choose Life, that thou and thy Seed may Live. And thus, in imitation of God and Mofes, do's Solomon in this Book all along fet two contraries together, that we may ftretch forth our hands unto whether we will.

The most frequent Oppofition, as I said, and to which moft of the reft may be reduc'd, is between Wisdom and Folly, or which is all one in his Language, between Righteoufnefs and Sin in the Abftract, or in the Concrete between the Wicked and Righteous,between their different Thoughts, Counfels, Actions; and confequent to those, the difference of their State and Condition,

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