SERMON LV. 171 living by faith, as seeing him that is invisible; Heb. xi. 27. and we are much better prepared by such a conversewith God on earth for a more intimate blessed converse with him in the world of sight and enjoyment. 4 -. Those who regard not the works of the Lord, provoke him to deprive them of all the blessings' of life, and to abandon them to utter ruin. How can they ever hope that the Lord will bestow repeatedmercies upon them, when they take no notice of his power and his hand in the blessings they have already re- ceived? How can they expect to enjoy the continuance of pre- sent comforts ? " Israel did not know that I gavethem corn, and wine, andoil, thereforeI will return and take away mycorn in the season thereof, andmy wine in its season, andwill recover my wool which was given to cover their nakedness ;" Hos. ii. 8, 9. If this be our practice, we may justly 'expect to be left of God, andbereaved of the mercies that relate to 'this life and the life to come. If we like not to retain God in our knowledge, and tó glorify him as God, \vemay justly fear to be given up to a repro- bate mind and to final destruction ; Rein. i. 21, 28. Let such stupid and regardless sinners read the threatenings of the Lord against such brutish people in the words that follow my text. ap Therefore my people shall go intocaptivity, because they have no knowledge ;. their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst: Therefore hell bath enlarged itself ; and opened its mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it" A just vengeance on such impiety ! I pro- ceed now to The third general head which I proposed, and that is, to " apply the sense of my text to the particular event of the last week. And I shall divide the circumstances ofthis great event, viz. the death of one king, and the succession of another, toge- ther with the notices we should take of it, under the three parti-. cuiars before mentioned, viz. We are called to consider what there is in it of an awful and afflictive kind; what blessed mixtures of mercy attend the afflictive providence, and what are our present duties, both to God and man, which are de- rived thence. I. Let us consider what there is ip this providence that is awful and afflictive, and what lesson's of serious instruction we may draw from it. 1. Here isthe death of one of the greatest menupon earth : -f1 king whose dominion was spread from sea to sea, and who :reigned over several nations: A prince whoheld the balance of Europe, and determined the superiority to which side soever he inclined: One that was arbiter of peace and war among the po-
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