aril!s CareofhaChurch. der the prote&ion and provifionof him whocareth for us ) and is able to helpeus. A right judgement of God inChrift, and inhis Gofpell of falvation, will wonder- fully flrengthen the faith of men. Paul was not alba tried ofperfecutions,becaufe he knew whomhe had be- leeved, hee doubted neither of his care or power, anu therefore bee committed the keeping of his Ionic unto him againti the lafi day,and therefore whenall forfooke him,he flood to the truth, becaosie theLord forfook him nii4. The reafon why men trail in themfelves, or their friends, is, becaufe they are allured of their care and good-will tohelpe them s But ifmen did compare the affeolionsof Chrifl to other (-meows they would ra- ther choofe tobuild their hopes and akurances onhim. This confiderationof the care and the power of God, made the three Child= at apoint againfi theedia of an idolatrousKing,Our God isable to deliver awlbee r ill deliver us; And this made Abraham:at a point to of- fer his bonne without fiaggering, becaufe he refled upon the promife and the power of God, who was able to raife him from the dead, fromwhence, in a fort, he had received himbefore,namely,from adeadbody,and from a barrenwombe. And this is theground ofall diffidence that menconfider not the power and the care of God to them, but conceive of himas if he had forgotten tobe gratious,as ifhe had cat/ themout of hisfight, as if he had given over his thoughts of them and that ma- keth them feare feconol caufes, and feeke unto things which cannot profit. And therefore the Lord fuffereth kcond caufes to goe croffe,to faile and difappoint a man, becaufe he loveth to be glorified by our dependance on his all-fufficiencie andprote6lion. Hee fuffcreth friends to faile, to beoffand on, promifes to heuncertaineaffu- rances to vanifh, projeaions and frames of bufineffes to bee (battered, that men may know how to trail ; for man being impotent in himfelfe, mull needs have R 3 come- 241 VAR SE Z. ETiu.I.t2. 2 INIT1.4016071 Dan.3.16,17. Hebr. 17,19. Rorn4ao,21. ler.i7 5- g.
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