their duty, and suffer a proportional lofs in point of comfort.

1. Then, running to the name of God as their strong tower, implies the lively exercise of faith both in the power and willingness of God to protect them. It is only by faith that we can go to an invisible God. As faith must be the principle of all acceptable fervice to God, fo faith is evidently the immediate mean of all trust in or enjoyment of God. Therefore it is faid, with the greatest propriety, 'the just shall ' live by faith.'

You may obferve, I have faid the lively exercife of faith; for, befides the habitual persuasion of the great truths of religion, as the foundation of our adherence to God as our portion, there must be an actual contemplation of them as the mean of our support in trial or deliverance from danger. Whatever be the nature or fource of temptation, we must meet it, as it were, and refift it, by taking fuitable views of the fulness and all-fufficiency of God. Does the believer ftand in need of any thing fpiritual or temporal? is he diftreffed with the want of it? does he fee no human or probable way of his being fupplied with it? He runs to the name of God as his frong tower, by confidering, that the earth is the • Lord's, and the fulness thereof;' that his wifdom is infinite; and that, if it is really neceffary, he can eafily find a way of bestowing it. Pfal. xxxiv. 9, 16.

O fear the Lord ye his faints; for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, ⚫ and fuffer hunger; but they that feek the Lord shall not want any good thing. He dwells upon

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the univerfal prefence and the special providence of God, and endeavours to reafon down his anxiety and fear. Perhaps he may do it in the words of our blefTed Saviour, Matth. vi. 25. to the 33. verfe, 'There'fore, I fay unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye fhall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye fhall put on; is not the life ⚫ more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, ⚫ can add one cubit unto his ftature? And why take ye I thought for raiment? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet, I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like ope ' of these. Wherefore, if God fo clothe the grafs of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft ⚫ into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, Oye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, ⚫ faying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? ' or wherewithal fhall we be clothed? (For after all 'these things do the Gentiles feek;) for your hea• venly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these ⚫ things.

Is the believer diftreffed with enemies, malicious, powerful, implacable? does he fuffer, or is he afraid of fuffering from them, in his name, in his perfon, in his life itfelf? he confiders the power of God to fhield him from their attacks, or more than compenfate all the injuries which he may receive from them, and strength

en and animate him to a vigorous discharge of his duty in oppofition to them. Pfal. iii. 5, 6, 7, 8, 'I laid me 'down and flept, I awaked; for the Lord fuftained me: I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have fet themselves against me round about. Arife, O Lord; fave me, O my God; for thou haft ⚫ fmitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou ⚫ haft broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation be

longeth unto the Lord; thy bleffing is upon thy 'people. Selah.' He endeavours to deliver himself from the diftreffing fear of man, by the reasonable and dutiful fear of offending God, Luke, xii. 4, 6. And I fay unto you, my friends, be not afraid of ' them that kill the body, and after that have no

more that they can do. But I will forewarn you 'whom you shall fear: Fear him, which after he

hath killed, hath power to caft into hell, yea, I fay ' unto you, fear him. Dan. iii. 16, 17, 18. Shadrach, ⚫ Meshech, and Abednego, anfwered, and faid to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar ! we are not careful to an'fwer thee in this matter. If it be fo, our God, 'whom we ferve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King! But, if not, be it known unto thee, O King! that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.' Is the believer afraid of the ordinary evils of life? is he of a timorous nature, trembling at the thoughts of the accidents that may befal him? he runs to the name of God as the fupreme difpofer of every event, and thinks of the invisible power that governs and directs all visible things, and that the very minifters

Ser. I of providence have received a charge concerning all his people: Pfal. xci. 1,12. He that dwelleth in the fecret place of the Moft High fhall abide under the fhadow of the Almighty. I will fay of the Lord, he is my refuge, and my fortrefs; my God, ⚫ in him will I truft. Surely he fhall deliver thee from the finare of the fowler, and from the noisome peftilence. He fhall cover thee with his feathers; and under his wings fhalt thou truft. His truth fhall be thy fhield and buckler. Thou shalt not ⚫ be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the ar

row that flieth by day; nor for the peftilence that walketh in darknefs; nor for the deftruction that ⚫ wafteth at noon-day. A thousand fhall fall at thy fide,

and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it fhall • not come nigh thee: only with thine eyes fhalt thou behold, and fee the reward of the wicked, because thou haft made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Moft High, thy habitation. There • fhall no evil befal thee, neither fhall any plague come nigh thy dwelling: for he fhall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

To the power I joined the willingness of God to preferve and protect his people, on their fincere and humble application to him for it. This is abfoluteJy neceffary as a part of the object of faith. It would be in vain to run to any ftrong place, with a view of being preferved from our enemies, unlefs we have fome ground to hope we shall be received into it; and it would be madness to flee to a fortrefs kept by an enemy: but God is every righteous man's friend: all the divine perfections are engaged for his wel

fare: and therefore he may confidently run to God from every danger, and be affured both of a kind welcome, and of all that fafety which is neceffary for him.

Faith, in this refpect, has an immediate relation to the promises of God. It is his name, as I obferved on the former head, to which we are to flee, as revealed in his written word; and much of the life of practical religion confifts in attending to the tenor, and in a daily application of the promises. God himself requires us to call upon him in a time of trouble, Pfal. 1. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble; I ⚫ will deliver thee; and thou shalt glorify me.' Nay, he is graciously pleased to reckon our calling upon him an effential character of his own people, Zech. xiii. 9. And I will bring the third part through the 'fire, and will refine them as filver is refined, and 'will try them as gold is tried; they fhall call

on my name, and I will hear them; I will fay, it 'is my people; and they fhall fay, the Lord is my 'God.' He is pleased to esteem this, as giving him the glory of his truth and faithfulness, wisdom, power, and goodness, which we find represented in fcripture as fo many chambers of protection into which the righteous are called to enter for fafety and prefervation, Ifa. xxvi. 20. 'Come, my people, en

ter thou into thy chambers, and fhut thy doors a'bout thee; hide thyfelf, as it were, for a little ⚫ moment, until the indignation be overpast.

I fhall only further obferve that faith in both thefe refpects, as applying the power and promise of God, receives very much strength from the e