Owen - BV4501 O84 1844

OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. 191 his answer to thedespondent complaints of the church in its greatest dangers and calamities. Isa. xl. 28- 31. ' Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlastingGod, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faintéth not, neither is weary ? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint andbe weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' Take one instance, which is the continual concern- ment of us all. We are obnoxious to death every mo- ment. It is never the further from any of us, because we think not of it as we ought. This will lay our bodies in the dust, from whence they will have no more disposition nor power in themselves to rise again, than any other part of the mould of the earth. Their recovery must be an act of external almighty power, when God shall have a desire to the work of his hands : whenhe shall call, and we shall answer him out of the dust. And it will transmit the soul into an invisible world, putting a final end to all relations, en- joyments, and circumstances here below. I speak not of themwho are stout-hearted and far from righteous- ness, who live and die like beasts, or under the power of horrible presumption, without any due thoughts of their future and eternal state. But as to others, what comfort or satisfaction can any man have in his life, whereon his all depends, and which is passing from him every moment ; unless he hath continual thoughts of the mighty power of God, wherebyhe is able to re-

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