(2.) Because of God's love to his people. If he had never so great power, yet if he were not willing and ready to help them, we could not draw any security from thence. But we have no more reason to doubt of this than of the former. God, that is wise enough and powerful enough to defeat all opposition, is also good enough to do it. First, He knoweth their persons, and their wants, and all their dangers and necessities : Mat. x. 29-31, ' Are not two sparrows, sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father ; but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.' It is spoken to the dis- ciples, when ; Christ had first sent them forth upon his message. What is the comfort ? The malice of men can extend no further than the providence of God seeth fit to permit and order ; God hath the knowledge, care, and government of the least things that belong to his people ; their lives are dearly valued by God, and shall not be destroyed by any negligence and oversight of his, or prodigally wasted. He that taketh knowledge of the least creatures will much more take care of his servants ; so Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears in thy bottle; are they not in thy book ?' David at that time had been long from home, flitting up and down from wilderness to wilderness, and cave to cave ; but was God ignorant of his condition during the days of his exile ? No ; this was particularly known and considered by him, as if God had laid up all the tears that dropped from him, and kept a sure record and register of all his sorrows. Well then, since God knoweth all that befalleth them, will he be an idle spectator, or make a party with tkem to helj^ and deliver them? Secondly, How tender he is of them : Zech. ii. 8, ' He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye.' The eye is a tender part; nature hath much guarded and fenced it. Now to meddle with them is to touch the apple of his eye. The troubles of his people go near his heart. Cer- tainly they that are against God's people are against God himself ; benefits and injuries as done to them, God taketh it as done to him : Mat. XXV. 40, ' And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me ; ' and Acts ix. 4, 'And he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ' The Jews have a proverb, ' What is done to a man's apostle is done to himself.' Thirdly, It is his usual practice in the dispen- sations of his providence, namely, to regard them, and intend their
VbB. 31.] SERMONS UPON KOMAKS VIII. 329
good : 2 Chron. xvi. 9, ' The eyes of the Lord rua to and fro through- out the earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect with him ; ' there is a description of providence, and the persons that have benefit by it. Providence is described by the eyes of the Lord ; as the Egyptians in their hieroglyphics did set forth providence by the picture of an eye. God is all eye ; and those eyes are not represented as shut up or closed by sleep, but as open, to note his vigilancy, and in motion, as running to and fro, prying into every corner of the whole earth, to note the particularity of his providence. And the persons who have benefit by it are those whose hearts are per- fect with him. The world shall know that they are under the protec- tion of an almighty and all-sufficient God. As to knowledge he is all eye, so as to power all hand, which is the great comfort of his people. He will show himself strong, manifest this almighty power in preserving and protecting them. Fourthly, It is not only the ordinary practice of his love and free grace, but it is secm-ed by promise and covenant : Gen. XV. 1, ' I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward ; ' and Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' As to positive blessings, he is a sun ; as to privative blessings, he is a shield. As to way and end : by the way he is more a shield, till we are e^w/SeXet? : hereafter more a reward, and an exceeding great reward when our sun is in the high noon of glory. Well now, then it is blasphemy to say that either God cannot or will not help us. If he cannot save us, he is not God ; if he will not save us, he is not our God : if he cannot, he is impotent, and so unfit to be God ; if he will not, he is false, and must break his covenant ; which are blasphemies to be abhorred by every christian.