the devil and his inftruments; the Lord rebuke an erroneous fpirit; the Lord rebuke a backfliding spirit; the Lord rebuke the inftruments of the church's calamity. "The Lord is righteous, for we have finned." Say not, Such and fuch perfons have brought ruin upon the church; for, it is you and I, by our fins, that have provoked God to do it, and will provoke him to more terrible wrath, if we be not humbled for our fins; and particularly for our not remembering duly our Lord Jefus, the Deliverer of the city. But now,

Secondly, To forbear any further about the public, and clofe with what more particularly concerns every one of us, how may we lament our forgetfulnefs of Chrifl? Though his name be as ointment poured forth, we do not remember his love, his precepts, his promife, provi dence, and ordinances. How is this evident? Alas! when do we fit down and admire him, and his works of redeeming love? If you fee a curious piece of art, how are you aftonifhed? And yet how little filled with wonder at what God has done! We may pofe the coufciences of fome, whether they ever fat down a quarter of an hour, all their life-time, full of wonder at the great deliverance Chrift hath wrought for finners?-Again, when do you trumpet forth the deliverance that Chrift hath wrought, and declare to others what Chrift hath wrought for you, or for his church? This is the exercife of the faints, with a charming accent, to cry out, "Thou art glorious in holinefs, fearful in praifes, excellent in working, doing wonders."-Again, when do you meditate upon him, and upon what he has done for you, and the church, the little city? This is the exercife of the faints that remember him; "My meditation of him fhall be fweet." Alas! we all want confideration; "The ox knoweth his owner, and the afs his mafter's crib, but my people do not know, Ifrael doth not confider." Confider how finful and provoking this evil of forgetfulness is, and the hurtfulnefs of it: it is a manifeft contempt not to remember or regard the operation of his hand. If a skilful artift fhould fpend half his time in making a curious piece of work, and bring it to you, and you fhould undervalue it, how highly might the man be offended?

How

How much more may God be offended when you forget his works! God has spent fix days in the work of creation, near fix thousand years in the work of providence, and as much time, yea, an eternity itself, in the work of redemption; and fhall we forget and undervalue all? What a manifeft contempt is this of God, and his Christ! It is alfo horrid unthankfulnefs, that he fhould work for us, and work in us, and we never think upon it. It is a defeating the defign of his work. His defign is, that we may fee his attributes fhining in his works of grace and mercy, in which fo many wonders fhine: wonderful wifdom, wonderful power, wonderful holiness, wonderful juftice, wonderful mercy, wonderful truth. His defign is, that his doings may be incentives to duty in us, and that we may publish his doings to pofterity; but, by forgetfulness, we endeavour to defeat all his defigns. This forgetfulness is the mother of apoftacy. If we forget our duty, we forfake our duty; if we forget God, we forfake God, and depart from him. This forgetfulness provokes God: when the city forgets what he hath done for it, this provokes God to do no more for the city. It provokes God, inftead of works of deliverance and mercy, to work fome work of judgment, and to perform a ftrange work. If we forget God, we provoke him, by the law of retaliation, to forget us: yea, total forgetfulness of God brings on universal ruin; "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

Ufe 3. We might apply this doctrine for trial. Hence you may try your ftate. If you be in a fafe ftate, then,

1. You will be like a little city; you will be very little in your own eyes; a poor helpless creature in your own esteem.

2. You have feen yourself befieged; you have seen yourself to be under the wrath of God, under the power of the devil, under the dominion of fin and death: you have feen great bulwarks built up against you, which it was impoffible for you to bring down; and that you were undone for ever unless you met with a Deliverer.

3. If your ftate be fafe, you have a view of Christ, the Deliverer and Saviour; you have got a view of him as a man, a God-man, a poor man, a poor but wife man, a man found out of God for this work. Have you feen him to be the wifdom of God, and the power of God? And have you feen the wifdom of God fhining in his delivering the city, by fatisfying the juftice of God, deftroying the works of the devil, giving himself a facrifice for fin, and, by death, delivering from the fling of death, and fo the wifdom of God in deftroying the bulwarks that were built against you?

4. Have you been brought to the believing remembrance of him, to a daily remembrance of him; and are you afflicted that you remember him fo little? But your errand to a communion-table was to remember him, and what he hath done for you; and is it your defire and endeavour to remember him ftill, and to remember his love more than wine; and to remember to live on him, and to live to him?

Ufe 4. I would now clofe with a word of exhortation. 1. That you would come to Chrift the Deliverer of the city. O finner! while you are without Chrift you are in a dangerous cafe; you are like a little city, having great kings against you, erecting great bulwarks against you.-God's bulwarks are fet against you; his juftice, his wrath, his curfe, his vengeance, how can you efcape? Are you able to fight againft God?-The devil's bulwarks are against you, and you cannot ftand against his temptations; he will tempt you to fin till he turn you to hell, if he get his will of you.-Sin's bulwarks are against you; the guilt of fin, the power of fin you ly under: fin will prefs you to hell if you be not delivered.-Death's bulwarks are against you; how foon you fhall die is uncertain; perhaps it may be this night, or to-morrow, or the next day; you know not precifely: but come death when it will, if it meet you out of Chrift, it will have a terrible fting, a terrible train of woes and miferies to all eternity; the first death will be followed with the fecond death, which is the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, Rev. xxi. 8. And therefore, O

finner! flee from the wrath to come; flee for refuge to Chrift the Deliverer.

Will you come to the God man for deliverance? Will you inlift yourself with the poor wife man? Will you go with this man? You have no wifdom to deliver yourfelves, no more than you have power; but he, by his wifdom, delivers the city. Though you have been playing the fool all your days, and though you be never fuch a witlefs fool, this man minds you; here is wisdom to deliver you: He is made of God to you wisdom. By his wisdom he fatisfied God's juftice; by his wifdom he defeat the devil; by his wifdom he deftroyed fin; by his wifdom he conquered death. O take on with the Deliverer, and you have the deliverance; for, he that is the Saviour is the falvation of finners. Though you can do nothing, it needs be no ftop to you, for wisdom can do all for you. O be content that you be nothing, and that he by his wifdom be all to you, and do all for you. It is a leading part of faith to know that you cannot fave or deliver yourselves, and to welcome the Saviour and falvation brought to your hand; and believingly to remember what he has done for you, and what he is ready to do to you. Say not, there ftands fo many things in the way; darknefs, deadnefs, hardness, unbelief, enmity, and innumerable evils that you need to be delivered from; for it is his office to deliver the city, to deliver the foul from all thefe bulwarks of hell; fince he by his infinite wisdom offers to deliver, put all the work in his wife and powerful hands.

man.

2. I would exhort you to remember the Deliverer; let it not be his complaint, No man remembered the poor wife O remember him that remembered you in your low eftate; that remembered you from eternity; that remembered you when he was upon the crofs; that remembers you now in heaven, when he intercedes for you at the Father's right hand; for he ever lives to make interceffion; and is he ever remembering you, and will you never remember him? Remember what he has done for you; believe all that ever he did was for you; his works of creation, providence, and redemption are on your account. You have an intereft in all his works: there

therefore, do not forget his works. Confider, that he remembers you when you forget him. Yea, when you forget yourself; Zion faid, The Lord bath forgotten me: but the Lord faid, "Can a woman forget her fucking child, that she should not have compaffion on the fon of her womb? Yea, fhe may forget, yet will I not forget thee."

We fhall now fhut up the whole difcourfe by giving you two directions.

1. O feek the Holy Ghoft to be your Remembrancer; fome on hearing the word have committed it to the Lord by fervent prayer, that he would keep it for them; and that very fame word has been brought home to their hearts, with unfpeakable pleasure in the day of their darknefs. The Spirit of God is the beft Remembrancer; feek he may teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance.

2. Seek for a new look of Chrift: Chrift looked upon Peter, and then Peter remembered Christ and his word. A look of Chrift will make you remember your fin with grief and forrow. O ftudy a perpetual remembrance of him, fo as never to forget him and his kindness; and a practical remembrance of him, fo as though you cannot remember him, fo as to mind all that he fays, yet you may remember to do what he fays, and to glorify your Deliverer with your hearts, lips, and lives. Remember what great things he has done for the little city, and what great things he has yet to do. Wait on him till he finish his work.

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