30 H.OLY EpRTITUDE, DERM. XXX11. Christ, he can bid pains and anguish of body go or come .as he pleases; nor can they seize you without his com- mission, nor tarrywith you beyond his appointed mo- ment. ' Commit your flesh to him as well as your spirit: He is a Wise physician, and he will deal tenderly with You : He has worn flesh and blood, and has a sympa- thizing heart, nor will he grieve his own members be- yond what his wisdom and his love sees needful. Are you afraid of persecuting enemies, that hunt you from place to place,_ and would pursue you even to death? . Remember that they are but the. slaves of Satan, and they and their master are all in achain, under the sovereign dominion of Christ your Lord. The wicked öf the earth, in this sense, are called the hand of God, Ps. xvii. 14. They are .but as instruments to execute his divine purposes, and they cannot move nor act beyond his permission. He put a hook in the nostrils of Senna- cherib, that Assyrian, wild beast, and a bridle into his jaws; he suffered him to cotne and gaze at Jerusalem, then in one night the angel of death destroyed all his ar- my,' and the Lordput a song of triumph into the mouth of his people. In a time of persecution in the last century, some pious ministers were met together, expressing their. mu- trial fears, and consulting how to provide for their own safety: When one stood up in the spirit of faith, and ïáid, " We are all immortal till our work is done ;" where- bÿ he declared his lively sense of the restraining power of God over the malice of men, and his assurance that God would preserve them in life, so long as he had any service to employ them in. This was in truth a sublime thought: A. Roman orator, or a Greekpoet, would have been admired and celebrated for it by all the critics : This was, the language of faith, and it had a sublime and glo- rious effect, it dispersed their fears at once, and they ,went away rejoicing. VII. Recollect your own experiences of thegoodness of .God in carrying you through former seasons of danger and sorrow. Iwill remember, says David, the works of the Lord, and his wonders ofold, Ps. lxxvii. 11. I will remember the special deliverances I have obtained in times of most imminent peril. Think with yourselves how high the.tempest of your fears has sometimes risen,
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