r3S6 . 1he Trial. ~d . . SER. 25 ·So mJudgments, 'LJavtd s Chotce fell upon the J>eftile~ce rather than the Sword, Why ? God's Hand IS fweeter and fofter than the Devils than the Malignant's hard Hand~ Samuet ]s one ~f the beft C~ildren; becauie he is given of God, and is a Ch1ld of many Prayers. Jfaac the 7)yful Child, W-hy?. No Thanks to Nature, or to Sarah's dead "fVomb for him, he is the Son of an immediate Promife, Free-grace is rather Jfaac's Father and Mother than .Abraham and Sarah ; in Ordinances a Man fpeaketh, but if Chrift himidf would fpeak, 0 his Spikenard! 0 his own perfume! 0 his own Lips drop Honey ! 0 his own Lebanon-Jike Countenance! Alas, we think Chrift is not Chrift, except the King help him ; Religion is not Religion, except worldly 'Iborns bear it up ; the Gofpel is a very immediate Thing : The Lilly among(l the :Thorns, is Chrift's Lilly; the Church ftands more immediately by Chrift, than any worldly Thing doth. God maketh the Earth to bud and hring forth her Fruits : But the Sun, the Soil, the Seafon of the Year, and Nature are his Under-fervants ; God watereth the Earth but by Clouds. Kings are indigent and very mediate and dependent Crea_tures : They need Armies Multitudes, Navies, Prelates, Jlabytcn, IreJ~nd, France, Sp_ain, :!Jenmark, Holland, Moneys, Friends, Parliaments ; but Grace and the Gofpel are more immediate, and lcfs needy : The Gofpel can live without all-thefe. \ j SE R--
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