around him were reduced to despair : " In the Lord put I my trust ; how say ye to my sovd, Flee as a bird to your moun- tain? for, lo, the wicked bend their bow; they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart : and if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" What? " The Lord is in his holy temple ; the Lord's throne is in heaven ; his eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men : " and, as he knows all their machina- tions against me, so he knows all my necessities ; and will assuredly deliver me out of their hands J'. His deliberate sen- timent, on all occasions, was this : " Shall I lift up mine eyes unto the hills? (to any earthly powers?) From whence, then, cometh my help? My help cometh of the Lord, who made heaven and earth ^," and, therefore, is infinitely superior to both. Of St. Paul's confidence I forbear to speak, because that must of necessity occur to the minds of all who read the Holy Scriptures^: but this I will sa}', that there is nothing more severely reproved, throughout the inspired volume, than diffidence and distrust; nor any thing more highly commended than faith ^]
What, then, is my advice to all ? To every one amongst you I say,
L Study the Holy Scriptures —
[From human writings you may learn something of God : but from the Scriptures alone can you acquire such a know- ledge of him as it is your privilege and your duty to possess. In reading them, mark his every perfection, as displayed in his deahngs with the children of men. If you notice facts only, you will read to little purpose : it is his glory, as beaming forth throughout the whole, which you are chiefly to contemplate : and, if your mind be habituated to contemplate that, you can never want a ground of consolation or of confidence in any state to which you may, by any possibility, be reduced.]
2. Follow the examples of the Scripture saints —
[In comparing the character of those who profess Chris- tianity with that of the saints recorded in holy writ, one would be tempted to think that they were of a different species, and belonging to two different worlds : for really, if we heard of persons inhabiting one of the planets, they could not differ more widely in their sentiments and habits, than the nominal Christian differs from the Scripture saints. What, for instance, were St. Paul's sentiments? "I count all things but loss for
y Ps. xi. 1 — 4. Bishop Home's translation. ^ Ps. cxxi. 1, 2. The marginal translation. ^ Rom. viii. 31—39. ^ Jer. xvii. 5 — 8.
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