keep thee. And speaking of his church as a city : I, faith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. This is the believer's fecurity, his comfort, and the foundation of his hope for perfeverance in the good ways of God-the Lord's abfolute promife; who hath spoken in the word, and ftill fpeaks thus: Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not difmayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righte oufness. The church and people of God are continually furrounded with enemies, temptations, and fnares. The corruption of fallen nature, the exceeding deceitfulness of fin, the malice of Satan, together with the allurements of the world, would be too ftrong for the child of God, were he left to grapple with these enemies in his own ftrength. The believer would foon find fin which dwelleth in him, more than a match for all his inherent grace; and Satan would easily swallow him up, if the Lord was not his keeper. The grace of God implanted in the foul in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, does not deftroy the indwelling corruption of our finful nature; neither do the communications of divine grace deliver us from temptations and trials. The more the foul is under the influence of grace, the more he feels the finfulness and oppofition of his carnal heart rebelling against the holy will and law of God. The more communion the believer hath with God, the more Satan rageth, and the more his malice will be increased. It is truly marvellous, wonderful, and furprifing, how the Lord

preferves and maintains fpiritual life in the fouls of his people, notwithstanding all the conflicts, temptations, and oppofitions which they experience both from within and without themselves. You would look on it as a miracle in nature, if you faw in one channel, two directly contrary ftreams, running with a conftant courfe and force in direct oppofition to each other. The regenerate man experiences a like miracle in himself: he feels to his grief that there are two diftinct, oppofite principles in him, and that the flesh lufteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and that these are contrary one to the other. Sin and grace are both in the regenerate foul; and are both diftinct and oppofite in their operations: like water and oil which, though in the fame veffel, will never coalefce or mix with each other. This is the occafion of thofe foul troubles and inward conflicts which God's truly regenerate people experience. It is this which fetches thofe fighs and groans from their inmoft fouls, as it did from Paul, who cried out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Bleffed be God, there is deliverance for us in Chrift. And believers do at times triumph in the life, death, refurrection, and interceffion of Jefus, over fin, felf, Satan, and every enemy, faying, Who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift that died: yea, rather that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God; who alfo maketh interceffion for us. And though believers do not always by faith perceive it, yet bleffed be the Lord, he is their keeper. It may be you are ready to afk, how does the Lord

keep his people? Are they always fafe? Does no kind of evil befall them? Are they always brought off, in the ftrength of the Lord, more than conquerors? I will endeavour, by answering these queries, to point out to you the Lord's goodness expreffed towards his people in his keeping of them. I, the Lord, do keep them. The Lord is their keeper, and he glories in it; he keeps them by his mighty power, as in a garrison, through faith, in a dependence upon himfelf. He is their house of defence, and their fhield; all his power is put forth to protect his people from the power of hell, the gates of which fhall never be able finally to prevail against them. The Lord is with his people; the name of the church is, The Lord is there; and his prefence is a life-giving, a foulquickening, an heart-warming, faith-ftrengthening, and hope-encouraging prefence. He keeps the fouls and bodies of his people, their whole perfons, and hath undertaken to preferve them to the end, that they may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jefus Christ. And God is fuithful, faith Paul, to perform all this. The Lord, in the courfe of his dealings with them, does by the bleffed teaching of his Holy Spirit, as alfo from their own experiences, lead them to know and feel the need of his divine guardianship and conftant care. They find the Lord hath kept and will keep them even unto the end. This appears unto them from the word of promise, which cannot be broken: and from their experience, which hath been the fruit of God's faithfulness to his word and work. For they find that he doth not forfake the work of his

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hands, and that his grace is in them as a well of water, Springing up into everlasting life. Though it may be, they have their falls; yet though they fall, they are not utterly caft down, for the Lord upholdeth them with his hand. The fafety of God's people is thus expreffed: The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms; out of which they cannot fall. If they fall ever fo low, yet JEHOVAH's everlasting arms of love and mercy, truth and power, are underneath them, to fupport, bear up, ftrengthen, and preferve them. And the Lord's people are fafe, eternally fo. He is faid to be a wall of fire round about, yea, to be in the midst of, and a prefent help to them in trouble. This caufed the Pfalmift to exult, God is our refuge and firength, a very prefent help in trouble. Some fuppofe this, the 46th Pfalm, was penned on account of the fiege of Jerufalem by Sennacherib being raised in the time of Hezekiah; it certainly is applicable to any time of confusion and distress: and it is reported concerning Luther, that, when he faw a ftorm arifing against the church, he would fay, come let us fing the 46th Pfalm, and then let the enemy do his worft. In it a ftrong confidence in the Lord is expreffed. God is our refuge and firength, a very prefent help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the fea: though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the fwelling thereof. Selah. God is in the midst of her; she Shall not be moved: God fhall help her, and that right early: as, indeed, he did in Hezekiah's time, when

Jerufalem was furrounded with an exceeding great army, and yet in one night the angel of the Lord went forth, and fmote in the camp of the Affyrians a bundred and four score and five thoufand: and when the inhabitants of Zion arofe early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpfes. A bleffed proof this, that the Lord's prefence, his being in the midst of his people, is for their protection, fafety, and good. It may be, you will be ready to afk, are they always fafe? To which the answer is, that the Lord, when he brought the people of Ifrael out of Egypt, went before them by day in a pillar of cloud; and by night. in a pillar of fire, to lead, cover, and defend them: . fo alfo he is spiritually prefent with his people at all times, in all places, in all cafes, by his fpiritual covenant promise, which is their fecurity, preservation, and glory. He being always with his people, they are always fafe and secure. It may be you will further afk me, in what fenfe are they fo? I reply, they are fafe, under JEHOVAH's protection; and fecure, as he keeps them and in the 121ft Pfalm, which was written purposely to celebrate the Lord's goodnefs to his people, manifefted in his being their keeper, it is exprefsly faid, The Lord fhall preferve thee from all evil. How are we to understand this? The Lord's people are not in every fenfe kept from evil. In the Pfalm quoted, it is three times repeated to awaken our attention and quicken our obfervation to this bleffed truth, that the Lord is the keeper of his fpiritual Ifrael. Poor believer! thou haft a keeper who takes care of thee, and that keeper is the Lord.