Sermons preached

Secondly, I will prove to you, That the true Apprehension of this is mightily useful to us throughout the whole spiritual Life. For no one thing keepeth the Creature upright, so much as to see All in God, and Nothing in the Creature. This establisheth our Dependence on God's Promises in the most difficult Cases. As, Rom. 4. 17, 18. What made Abraham to believe in Hope against Hope, and give God so much Credit and Glory as he did? By his Faith he believed in him that quickeneth the Dead, and calleth those things that are not, as though they were. Again, there is nothing that doth so encourage us in the difficult Services which God calleth us unto, as to remember God is All, and the Creature is Nothing. As when the Apostles went to preach the Gospel first at Jerusalem, in the very Face of Opposition, whose Interest led them to oppose it. When among the Gentiles, possessed of a Religion entailed upon them by the Tradition of many Ages, and for which they were zealous, the Devil stirring up the Hatred of many furious Spirits against them. The Doctrine was novel, and did not court the Senses, but persuaded Men to row against the Stream of Flesh and Blood, slighted by the People, disputed against by their wise Men, persecuted by the Powers that then were, had no temporal Interest to back it; and this to be promoted in the Face of the learned World by a few poor Fishermen, when all Civil Disciplines were then in their [Greek or Hebrew], and height. What encouraged them to this? The Apostle telleth you, 1 Cor. 1. 26, 27, 28. That though they had not many Mighty, not many Noble to own them; Yet God had chosen the Foolish things of the World to confound the Wise, and the weak Things of the World to confound ⟨p. 263⟩the Things which are mighty; and the Things that are not, to bring to nought the Things that are. In short, that though Magistracy and Populacy were against them, the Creature is as nothing, God All in All. Again, to depend on God's Providence in the midst of Losses, Wants, Straits, 2 Cor. 6. 10. As having nothing, yet possessing all things. Again, if we have a due Sense of God's Being, the tempting Baits of the World would scarce be seen; the Riches, Honours, and Pleasures of the World would be forgotten, as if they were not.