Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

The Churches enemies are not to be feared; they may spring as the grass, but soon after do wither by their own inward principles of decay, or are cut down by the hand of God.^* They may be instruments of the anger of God, but they shall be scattered as the workers of iniquity by the hand of the Lord, that is high for evermore, v. 8. and is engaged by his promise, to preserve a Church in the World. They may threaten, but their breath may vanish, as soon as their threatenings are pronounced: for they carry their breath in no surer a place than their own Nostrils, upon which the eternal God can put his hand, and sink them with all their rage. Do the Prophets and instructors of the Church, live for ever? ^*No. Shall then the Adversaries and Disturbers of the Church live for ever? They shall vanish as a shadow, their being depends upon the eternal God of the faithful, and the everlasting Judge of the wicked. He that inhabits Eternity, is above them that inhabit Mortality, and must, whither they will or no, say to Corruption, thou art my Father, and to the Worm, thou art my Mother, and my Sister. ^*When they will act with a confidence, as if they were living Gods, he will not be mated, but evidence himself to be a living God above them. Why then should mortal men be feared in their frowns, when an immortal God hath promised protection in his word, and lives for ever to perform it?

The Churches enemies are not to be fear'd; they may spring as the grass, but soon after do wither by their own inward principles of decay, or are cut down by the hand of God.^* They may be instruments of the anger of God, but they shall be scatter'd as the workers of inquity by the hand of the Lord, that is high for evermore, v. 8. and is engaged by his promise, to preserve a Church in the World. They may threaten, but their breath may vanish, as soon as their threatnings are pronounc'd: for they carry their breath in no surer a place than their own Nostrils, upon which the eternal God can put his hand, and sink them with all their rage. Do the Prophets and instructors of the Church, live for ever? ^*