102 The Ufefulnefr of Confderation, Vol. H. them, and the ill ufe I have made of them, will be very bitter and grievous to me; after all Death will tranfmit me out of this World, into a quite different State andQcene of things, into the prefenceof that great and terrible, that inflexi- ble and impartial Judge, who will render to every Man according to his Works ; and then all the Evils which I have done in this Life, will rife up in Judgment againft me, and fill me with everlafling Confufion, in that great Affembly of Men and Angels, will banifh me from the Prefenceof God, and alt the Happinefs which flows from it, and procure a dreadful Sentence of unfpeakable Mifery and Torment tobe paft upon me, which Ican never get reverft, nor yet ever be able to Randunder the weight ofit. It Men would but enter into the ferious Confide. ration of thefe things, and purfue thefe Thoughts to fome Iffueand Conclufon, they would take up other Refolutions; and I verily believe, that the want of this hath ruin'd more than even Infidelity it felf. And this I take to be the meaning ofthat queflion in the Pfalm , Have all the workers ofiniquity no knowledge ? that is, no Confderation ; intimating that if they had, they would do better. All that now remains, is to perfwade Men to apply their hearts to this piece of Wifdom, to look before them, and to think ferioufly of theConfequence oftheir Aflions, what will be the final ate of that Courfe of Life they are engaged in ; and if they continue in it, what will becomeof them hereafter, what will become of them for ever. And here I might apply this Text, as God here does to the People of Ifrael, to the publick Condition of this Nation, which is not fo very unlike to that of the People oflfrael, for God feems to have chofen this Nation for his more pe- culiar People, and bath exercifed a very particular Providence towards us, in conduáing us through that Wildernefs of Confufion, in which we have been wandring for the fpace of above forty Years ; and when things were come to the Taft extremity, and we feemed to ftand upon the very brink of Ruin, Then (as it is Paidof the Peopleof Ifrael, ver. 36. of this Chapter) God repentedhim- felffor hisfrvants, when hefawthat their Power was gone : that is, that they were utterly unable to help themfelves, and to work their own deliverance. And it maybe fold'of us, as Mofes does of that People, Chap. 33. 29. Happy art thou, O Ifrael, 0 people faved bythe Lord, the fhield ofthy help, and who is the (word of thy excellency ! Never did anyNation ftruggle with, and get through fo many and fo great difficulties, as wehave feveral times done. And I fear we have behaved our felves toward God, not much better than the People of/five/ did, but like yefurun, after many deliverances and great mercies, have waxedfat and kicked, have forfaken the God that made us, and little efteemed the Rock ofour Salvation; by which we have provoked the Lord to jealoufse, and have as it were forc'd him to multiply his Judgments, and to fpend his Arrows upon us, and to hide his face from us, tofee what our end will be ; fo that we have reafon to fear, that God would have brought utter Ruin and Defiru&ion upon us, and fcatter d us into corners, and made the remembranceof tar to have ceafed from among men, had he notflaredthe wrath ofthe enemy, and left the adverfaries fhould have behaved themfelves llrangely, and left theyfhonldfay, Our hand is high, and the Lordhath not done all this ; that is, left they fhould afcribe this juft Vengeance of God upon a finful and unthankful Nation to the goodnefs and righteoufnefs of their own Caufe, and to the favour and afliftance of the Idols and falfe Gods whom they worfhip'd, to the Patronage and Aid of the Virgin Mary and the Saints to whom, contrary to the Will and Command ofthe true God, they had offer'd up fo many Prayers and Vows, and paid the greateft part of their religious Worfhip. But the Lord hath (hewn himfelfgreater than all Gods, and in the things wherein they dealt proudly, that he is above them : for our Rock is not as their Rock, even our enemies themfelves beingJudges. And we have been too like the Peopleof Ifrael in other refpe&ts alfo, fo fickle and inconfiant, that after great deliverances we are apt prefently to murmur and be difcontented, to grow fick of our own Happinefs, and to turnback inour hearts into Egypt; fo that God may complain of us, as he does of his People Ifrael, that nothing that hecould do, would bring them to Confideration andmake them bet-
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