Brazen Serpent,a type ofChrifl. and fo they conquer, Iudg.7. 17. When God is to foyle that mighty Giant Goliah, a warriour fromhis youth,who. alone(at the fight ofhim) made all Ifrael runaway, I Sam. r 7.14 ; he choofeth not amanof warandprowefs,but a poore fhepheard,D avid, a boy as Saul calls him,ver.33. and hee not armed with fword and fpeare as Goliah was , but with a fling and a fcrip and five (tones ; withwhichwhen he had over- throwne him,he borrowedhis owne fword to cut offhis head. Thefe inflañces in (lead of many may ferve to fhew Gods ordinary cuftome and delight to effect the grea- teft matters by weakeft meanes, and toadvance his own power inweakeneffe. Thisdottrine maybe fruitfully applyed toour prefent times, in whichwee fee fuch tumults rayfed againft the I Church;fuch infolencies ofthe enerny,fuch hopes,yea & triumphs before victory. if God give his Church a check,and his people receive a foyle,ohhow theenemy laughs, and boafis, and blafphemes as ifall were theirs ; But let us rayfe our faith and confidence in confidering thsfegrounds. i . God can and doth often worke by unlikely and contrarymeanes. When he was to multiply Abrahams feed as the fbrres ofheaven, he begins his prornife with that precept ; Abraham take thy fonne,thy onely forane, and flay him in facrifice. What feemed more diametrally or direaly contrary to this prornife, yet hindred not but furthered it ? a. Gods word and promife for the prefent caufes of the Church fhall be accornplifhed either with meanes or without them, yea agarnft them. God bath deter- mined, and in his word foretold the fall of Antichrift, and deftruîion ofliabilon Ifa.6 ^.I z, the kin dome -that will notferve the Lord, jl alhedcjßroyed, much more that Á Kingdomewhich is moll oppofite to the Lord,as this s. 3'3 Vfcfull to us ira thefe times. Grounds foi faith in thefe troubles ofthe Churches.
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