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If your first deliverance were a deliverance without a promise, when you were without Chrift, what encouragement have you to depend upon him, when his end is answered in your repentance and converfion; and, being in Chrift, are entitled to all the promises.

Thirdly, and laftly, God's end in your marvellous preservations and deliverances is to furnifh you for, and to engage you to a life of praife. O how should the high praises of God be ever in your mouths! you have feen his works and wonders in the deeps; and this is it which the Pfalmift preffes upon you as a becoming return for your mercies, in the words following my text; "O that men would "praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to "the children of men !"

O with what warm and enlarged affections fhould you exprefs your thankfulness to the God of your falvation! and say as David, "What " am I, O Lord God, and what is my father's houfe, that thou "fhouldst do fuch great things for me?" Was fuch a life as mine worth the working of fo many wonders to fave it? O Lord, thou knoweft it has been a life spent in vanity. Thy glory hath not been precious in mine eyes, but my life hath been precious in thine eyes. Many more useful, and less finful than myself have perished, and I am faved. O Lord, fhew me the defigns and gracious ends of these deliverances. Surely there is fome great thing to be done by me, or elfe fo great a falvation had not been wrought for me. The Lord faw in what a fad cafe my poor foul was, to be fummoned immediately before his judgment-feat: that if I had gone down under all my guilt, I had funk to the bottom of hell: But thou, in love to my foul, haft delivered it from the pit of corruption, that I might yet enjoy a feafon for falvation, and be once more entrusted with the precious talents of time and means. O that I may not reject or abuse the grace of God in this new inftrument, as I have too often done in the former! let me not live as one delivered to commit all these abominations!

And now after all that is come upon me for my evils, feeing thou, my God, haft punished me fo much less than my iniquities deferve; and haft given me fuch a deliverance as this, fhould I again dare to break thy commandments? Ezra ix. 13, 14. "O let this new mer66 cy produce a new heart and life!"

THE

SEAMAN'S PRESERVATIVE

IN

FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

SERMON III.

PSALM CXXXix. 9, 10.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the fea; even there fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

IN

N this pfalm the omniprefence and omniscience of God are the fubjects of the Pfalmift's meditation; and these attributes are here promifcuously difcourfed, not only because of the near affinity that is betwixt their natures, but because the one is the demonftration of the other: It is evident God knows all things, because he fills all places. Touching the omniscience of God, he difcovers the infinite perfection of that attribute by the particular and exact notion it takes of all our ways: verfe 3. "Thou compaffeft my paths, and art "acquainted with all my ways." Of all our words; verfe 4. "There " is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it alto"gether." Yea, of all our thoughts; and that not only in the inftant of their conception, but long before they were conceived; verse 2. "Thou understandeft my thoughts afar off," even from eternity. Thus he difplays the omniscience of God: And then to make demonstration of the truth and certainty of this doctrine of God's omniscience, he proves it from his omniprefence: q. d. He that fills all things cannot but know all things. Now God's presence fills heaven, yea, and hell too, verfe 8. And all parts of the earth and fea, even the remoteft, verfe 9, 10. And therefore no creature, nor action of any creature, can escape his cognizance. It is not here as among men; if a malefactor be condemned by the laws of one kingdom, he may escape by flying into another; but it is far otherwife here; for faith the Pfalmift, (perfonating a guilty fugitive endeavouring to make an escape from the arrest of God's juftice), "If I take the "wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the fea; " even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold " me."

In which words you have these two things mainly remarkable. 1. The greateft fecurity and encouragement to a finner fuppofed. 2. That fuppofed fecurity and encouragement utterly deftroyed. 1. The greateft fecurity and encouragement to a finner fuppofed; VOL. V.

3 B

"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts " of the fea."* Where two things feem to offer towards his protection.

Firft, The place; the remoteft part of the fea; by which you are to understand the most obfcure nock in the creation; farthest removed from an infpection or obfervation.

And, Secondly, his fwift and fpeedy flight after the commiffion of fin, to this fuppofed refuge and fanctuary: It is here fuppofed, that a finner fhould fly as fwift as the light of the fun, which in a moment fhines from the east to the weft, and fo the meaning is, could I flee with a celerity equal to the fun, or his beams of light, which breaking forth in the morning, do in an inftant enlighten the remoteft parts of the hemifphere: Could I as fwiftly flee to the moft obfcure, remote, folitary place in all the world. Thus the finner's fecurity is fuppofed.

2. This fuppofed fecurity and encouragement is utterly deftroyed; "Even there fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right-hand fhall hold "me." The leading hand of God is not here to be understood, as a directing or guiding hand, to fhew the fugitive finner the way of his escape; but contrarily, "Thy hand fhall lead me," as a keeper leads his prifoner back to the place of cuftody, from which he endeavoured to escape. And the following claufe is exegitical: "Thy right "hand fhall hold," or detain me, viz. in ftrict cuftody. So that the fum of all is this:

Doct. That the whole world affords no place of fecrecy or fecurity for a finner to efcape the obferving eye and righteous hand of God.

Jonah fled from the Lord to Tarfhish; but could he escape fo? No, the Lord fent a storm after him, which brought back the fugitive, Jonah i. 3, 4. We read, Ifa. xxix. 15. of fuch" as dig deep, "to hide their counfels from the Lord," i. e. They plot, contrive, and study to conceal their wicked defigns, to fin with greateft fecrecy and fecurity. But what can poffibly be a covering from Him to whofe fight all things are naked and manifeft? Where can a finner be hid from him whofe prefence fills heaven and earth? Jer. xxiii. 25. The fcripture gives full proof to this great truth. It is clear from Prov. xv. 3. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the "evil and the good." And again, Job xxxiv. 21, 22. "For his eyes are "upon the ways of man, and he feeth all his goings; there is no "darkness, nor fhadow of death where the workers of iniquity may "hide themselves." Whoever goes about to conceal a fin in fecret, attempts a foolish and impoffible defign, Pfalm xliv. 21. «Shall not "God fearch this out? For he knoweth the fecrets of the heart:

He alludes to the fwifteft of all motion, even that of light, which springs in a moment from east to west. Calvin.

Non accipitur deducere pro viam monflrare: fed deducet meʼmanus tua tarquem cuflos captivum fibi commissum deduxit, Vatab

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth," 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

Now in the handling of this point I purpose to fhew you,

1. That men are often induced to fin upon hopes of fecrecy and concealment.

2. That to fin upon these encouragements, ftrongly argues their natural atheism: They think they are fafe if men know it not; they reckon not upon God's difcovery of them.

3. That thefe encouragements to fin are vain things, it being impoffible any place can hide a finner from God; and how it appears that the eye of God is, and must needs be upon us, and our actions, wherever we are, and how closely foever we endeavour to hide them: And then apply it.

First, Men are often induced to commit fin upon the hopes of fecrecy and concealment. Sin (especially fome forts of fin) carry fo much fhame and odium in them, that it reftrains men from the open practice of them; but if Satan can perfuade them they shall never be divulged to their reproach, they will venture upon them. See that text, "The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, faying, "no eye fhall fee me, and difguifeth his face," Job xxiv. 15. Reckoning himself secure if he can carry his wickednefs under a vale of darkness, not caring what wickedness he doth, fo he may do it undifcerned: It is not the acting of fin, but the discovery of it that puts them into terrors. So it is added with refpect both to the adulterer and the thief, ver. 17. "The morning is to them as the fhadow of "death, if one know them; they are in the terrors of the shadow of "death;" i. e. If a man, especially a man in authority, a magistrate meet them, it is as if the image of death paffed before them in a vision. So thofe idolators, Ezek. viii. 12. "Son of man, haft thou seen what "the antients of the house of Ifrael do in the dark, every man in "the house of his imagery? For they fay, the Lord feeth us not " They conclude all is well, if nothing appear. This encouragement of fecrecy is the great argument by which Satan prevails with men to commit any fin that hath fhame or danger attending it: But his promifes of concealment are usually made good, as his promises of great wealth are to witches. This is the encouragement.

Secondly, Next I will make it evident to you, that to fin upon this encouragement argues atheism in him that commits it. This is plain, for, did men believe the omniprefence and omniscience of God, fuch an encouragement to fin as fecrecy could have no force with them. Thus, when the antients of Ifrael practised their idolatry in the dark, it is plain they thought God faw them not, Ezek. viii. 12. "For they fay the Lord feeth us not, the Lord hath forfaken the earth :" i. e. They did not really believe God's omniprefence and omniscience. And Job tells us, chap. xxxi. 26, 27, 28. “That if he had beheld "the fun in his brightness," i. e. to admire and worship it as a god; or, “his heart been fecretly enticed, he should have denied the God

"that is above." Every one that is enticed to fin upon the encou ragement of fecrecy. doth fo far deny the God that is above. If fuch a man did really believe there is a God that fees him, "whose eyes

are as flames.of fire," Rev. i. 14. "To whom the darkness and "the light are both alike," Pfal. cxxxix. 12. it were impoffible he fhould be so terrified at the discovery of a creature, and so secure and wholly unconcerned at the difcovery of God: It could not be that the observation of the great God fhould not so much trouble them, as the observation of a little child.

Thus we find the inward thoughts of men's hearts concerning God discovered by their bold attempts upon fecret fins, Ifa. xxxix. 15. "Wo to them that feek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, "and their works are in the dark; and they fay, who seeth us, and "who knoweth us ?" They think if their works are fhrouded under a veil of darknefs, they are fafe enough; if they can efcape the bar of an earthly god (a magiftrate) they fhall never be accountable at any other bar. We have another fad inftance of the fame impiety in Pfalm lxxiii. 11. "And they fay, how doth God know? And

is there knowledge in the Moft High?" If men did not fancy to themfelves there is no God, or (which is all one) that he is like unto themselves, one that cannot fee in darkness, they could never encourage themselves as they do, to fin upon fuch a foolish pre

tence.

Thirdly, But my proper bufinefs in this place, is to prove, that thefe encouragements to fin are vain things: That no finner can hide himself from the eye of God. This is plain both from fcripture and reafon.

The fcripture fpeak full home to this truth. Prov. v. 21. «The "ways of a man are before the Lord, and he pondereth all his paths." To ponder or weigh our paths is more than fimply to observe. and fee them. He not only fees the action, but puts it into the balances, with every circumftance belonging to it, and tries how much every ingredient in the action weighs, and what it comes to. So that God hath not only an univerfal inspection upon every action, but he hath a critical inspection into it alfo. "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and

by him actions are weighed," 1 Sam. ii. 3. So Jer. xiii. 25. 27. "Thou haft forgotten me, and trufted in falfehood: I have feen "thy adulteries and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredoms "and abominations;" q. d. Thou forgetteft there is a God in the heavens that beheld thee, and didft verily believe all was fafe, becaufe fecret from man. In this falfhood or cheat put upon thee by the devil and thine own atheistical heart, thou didst truft. But I have feen thee, and all thy fecret lewdness. It is a proverb among finners, Si non cafte, tamen caute. Carry the matter, if not honestly, yet warily: If thou haft a mind to fin, yet order it fo that the world may be never the wifer. But how vain a thing is this? If men do not, the Lord doth fee it; "I know, and am a witnefs faith the Lord," Jer. xxix.

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