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in heaven, but thee, and there none is ubon ITEM. earth, that I defire befides thee, my flefts and my heart faileth, but God is the firength of my heart, and my portion for ever,

3. Hence also, we may particularly reflect on our own minuteness, and the brevity of our existence here. We are but of yesterday, and are foon gone, but his years are throughout all generations. Our days are but as an hand-breadth, our age is as nothing before him, and at our best ftate we are but vanity. While a thousand years in his fight, are but as a watch in the night, we are carried away, as with a flood, like the grafs that groweth up. And this confideration of our short and transitory state here, may give us hopes in the goodness of God, of mercy and compaffion from him: that, as we are such minute creatures, he will be merciful to our finful failures; that he will not fet our inquities before him, to use the words of the Pfalmist, nor our fecret fins in the light of his countenance, but that as a father pitieth his children, fo he will pity those who fear him.

4. That God is eternal, is also just ground of comfort and fatisfaction to good men. For as he lives for ever, his E 3

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SERM. Wisdom, his Power, and Goodness can III. never fail, and his favour and mercies may be continued for ever. In the most diftant ages, and to eternity, he may be relied upon : he will ever be a refuge to them that fear him. Trust ye in the Lord for ever (says the prophet Ifaiah) for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Befides him, there is none, in whom we can always truft, and who can be eternally our security and strength. In man we fee there is often no help; he is fuddenly gone, and at his best ftate, he is altogether vanity, so that when we depend upon him, we are often deceived. He often cannot reach to us his assistance in this short space of our being, and far. less through the ages of the invisible. world. But as God invariably exists through Eternity, there can be no alteration in his power and purposes, in any revolutions of time. And therefore, whatever he has promised in the most distant periods, shall be made effectual. That eternal reward, that everlasting crown, which is promifed to good men, shall be fecure, as it comes from him, who is ever faithful to his promises, and is eternally powerful to bestow it upon them..

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As he reigns, and is ever glorious through SERM. endless ages, so the glory cannot fade, that is derived from him. He is the eternal and inexhaustible fountain, from which happiness shall continually flow. And therefore,

5. This confideration, that God is eternal, gives us an amiable view of the blessed enjoyments of the faints and angels in heaven. For as God is eternal and unchangeable, the happiness, in which he has placed them and promised to them, shall never come to an end. And this will compleat and enhance all their joys and pleasures, that they shall never fail; that when millions of ages are past, the everlasting God will continually supply them; his goodness will ever survive, and cherish, and bless them, and he will be their portion for ever. And O! what a pleafing profpect it must give them to reflect, that there shall be no limited time to their felicity; that as God lives for ever (to use the words of the Pfalmist) the rivers of pleasures, and joys that are at his right hand, shall never be exhausted. Nature may come to a period, and the whole frame of the universe may be difsolved, but the goodness of our God E 4 shal

SERM. shall continue for ever, to them who III. shall be accounted worthy of his falvation.

In the last place, the Eternity of God ought to give terror to wicked men, to those who rebel against his laws and government. They have just ground to fear, that, as they are at enmity with him, their happiness will ever be oppofed and destroyed by him, who ever exifts and reigns to take vengeance upon them. He can reach them in any state of their being, and make them everlasting examples of his justice. Their punishment he can eternally continue, and who knows, or can describe the power of his anger, that may be exerted through endless ages. The wrath of an earthly prince, whose breath is in his nostrils, may often be easily evaded; for his envy and hatred sometimes fuddenly perish with him; but alas! who can deliver from the wrath of the eternal king of the universe: no length of time can limit his power and vengeance. Confider this, all ye who forget God! Fear him who can destroy both body and foul in bell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

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SERMON IV.

The Tranflation of ENOCH.

GENESIS V. 24.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

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IV.

HESE words contain a short ac-SERM. count of one of the patriarchs who lived before the flood; and who is diftinguished to all generations, by the noble character which is here given of him, and the wonderful manner of his Translation. He lived in the times when men began to corrupt themselves, and when God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and he was, we may suppose, a living Example of righteousness, to a vicious and debauched world. He was one of those witnesses to the truth, whom God sometimes raises up, to give their teftimony to religion and virtue, in the midst of a general apostacy.

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