Abernathy - Houston-Packer Collection BX9178.A33 S4 1748 v.1

tragically improved. i i S of their defigns. It is Rill more fo in the S E affairs of religion than any other. For paf- V. fion has, or ought to have, lefs (hare in counfels of that fort: Efpecially it ought to be remembred, that our religious purpofes above all others, are immediately under the divine protection, and the fuperior aids of divine grace are moil neceffary to our hold- ing them Readily. He, therefore, who en- gages in any arduous fervice to God, with- out committing himfelf to his care and di- reftion, without placing his principal con- fidence in the fufficiency of God's grace, and his power, which is perfected in our weaknefs ; he that does fo, I fay, goes to war unarmed, and expofes himfelf to the hazard of a fhameful defeat. It is here, efpecially, that we ought to truft in the Lord with all our might, and he that trujleth in his own heart altogether, is a fool, as So- lomon * fpeaks. I do not mean by this, that good men, fatisfied from themfelves, and rejoicing in the teftimony of confcience concerning their fincerity, íhould not have good hope of their perfevering in it to the end; but firji, that the judgment of the mind upon its prefent moral Rate, its tein- * Prov. xxvüi. z6, 1 a per

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