foes. So we are warranted to believe; for it is written, When the enemy fhall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

Shewing, that when the Enemy comes in like a Flood, the Spirit of the Lord fall lift up a standard against him.

WE

E come now to the laft general Head of difcourfe, viz. to illuftrate and confirm the truth of the propofition in the text, that, When the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord SHALL lift up a standard against him, or shall put him to flight. And, in the illuftration of this pleasant theme, let us attend to the following particulars.

The Spirit of the Lord hath lifted up a Standard againft the Enemy in all ages.

ET us look backward, and we fhall fee, that

from the beginning, the Spirit of the Lord has, in all ages, lifted up a standard against the enemy, when he came in like a flood. The flood has never rifen, but a banner has been difplayed.

As often as the enemy has caft out water as a flood, fo often has the Spirit lifted up a ftandard against him. Allow me to felect fome inftances of this confolatory truth.

On our first parents the enemy came in like a flood. Soon, foon did he sweep them from the plains of innocence, where they had lately walked with their God. He was ready to erect his trophies, and triumph over fallen man, as irrecoverably lost. How he rejoiced when he faw ICHABOD written, where of late, the glory, the image of the Lord had fhone! But amidst all his infernal triumphs, the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a standard against him. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, faid the Lord; and between thy feed and her feed: he fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel, Gen. iii. 15. Here was the standard first lifted up. The woman, fo lately deceived, was pluckt as from the paws of the lion. The devourer is told, that fhe fhould be at enmity with him; which implies her victory over him, through the promised feed. Our parents ftanding as by the banner of the Lord, could fhout and fing, God is with us; Jehovah is on our fide. The threatening to the enemy was in effect the mother-promise to them. They did not more include all mankind, than it did all the fubfequent openings of the promise. The banner displayed was infcribed with the incarnation, fufferings, and refurrection of the Redeemer :-his incarnation; for he was to be the woman's feed:his fufferings; for his heel was to be bruifed:and his refurrection; for he was to break the ferpent's head. What a ftandard was here lifted

up

against the enemy! To him it was the beginning of forrows, but an inexhaustible spring of confolation to the otherwise unhappy pair. Though banifhed Eden, they could build an altar in the wilderness, and call it, as in future ages, Mofes did his, JeHOVAH-NISSI, The Lord is my banner.

In Noah's time the enemy came in like a flood; for the earth was filled with violence, and all flesh had corrupted their ways. But, lo! the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a standard by the hand of Noah, that preacher of righteoufnefs. To men the Spirit preached, 1 Pet. iii. 19.; and with men the Spirit ftrove, an hundred and twenty years, Gen. vi. 3. Noah, the juft, survived a deluge of vice, as well as that of water.

In Abraham's time the enemy had come in like flood; idolatry prevailed, Jofh. xxiv. 2. But, lo! the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a ftandard against him, in calling the patriarch from his country, and his kindred, and in promising that from him Meffiah fhould fpring. It is probable, that he, like his fathers, ferved other gods, till he was called from Ur of the Chaldees.

In Mofes' time the enemy came in like a flood, and threatened to fweep away all the church of God, leaving them neither root nor branch. So high did the enmity swell, that all the male-infants were devoted to death, as foon as born, Exod. i. 16. But, O how glorioufly did the Spirit of the Lord lift up a ftandard in the field of Zoan! How po tent was the rod of God in the hand of Amram's fon! What plagues did the enemy fuffer by it's means!

He but fretched it out, and straight

Egypt's river was turned into blood, and into lice it's duft. Stroke fucceeded ftroke, till the enemy was glad to let Ifrael go, Pfal. cv. 38. When it was told him that the people fled, the enmity of his heart began to fwell of new, and he meditated nothing but vengeance. When he was just on the point of fatiating himself with blood and prey, the ftandard was lifted up, the rod of Mofes ftretched out; and, lo! the waters of the red-fea fled to make a path for the chofen feed. As the promise to our parents was a threatening to the enemy, fo the dividing of the fea, was falvation to the church, and deftruction to him. The rod was again ftretched out, the waters returned, and amidst them the enemy funk as lead. Thus the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a standard at the fea, even at the red-fea. There did he cause the church to reft, having covered the enemy with ruin, Ifa. lxiii. 11,-14. There the church's triumph was fung: And fo fhall the fong of Mofes and the Lamb, for ever and ever, Rev. xv. 3.

In the days of David, the enemy came in like a flood, The Philiftines gathered together their armies against Ifrael. There went out a champion from their camp, who defied the armies of the living God: Give me a man, faid the giant, that we may fight together. Full forty days, evening and morning he fhewed himself, and founded a defiance to all Ifrael. At fight of him they fled, and were fore afraid. But how foon did the Spirit of the Lord fill the enemy; and, as out of the mouth of a babe, he ordained ftrength! The fripling, David, the fon of Jeffe, is fent by pro

vidence from his father's flock, to lift up à ftandard against the enemy. In the name of the Lord of Hofts he went forth with his staff in his hand, his fling, and the five fmooth ftones out of the brook: and, in the name of the Lord, he did prevail. The haughty Goliath he flew, and the Philiftines he put to flight. Such a deliverance wrought the Spirit of the Lord, by Jeffe's youngest fon,

1 Sam. xvii.

In the days of Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, the enemy came in like a flood, threatening to overflow Immanuel's land in it's breadth and it's length. But, O how did the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard in both cafes! The Lord fet ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who were come against Judah, and they were fmitten, 2 Chron. xx. 22. On Sennacherib he sent a blast; an angel destroyed

his

army in a night, and, clothed with fhame, he returned to his own land. Thus in Judah God was known; his name was great in Ifrael: there brake he the arrows of the bow, the Shield, and the fword, and the battle. The ftout-hearted were spoiled, they flept their fleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. At the rebuke of Jacob's God, both the chariot and the horse were caft into a dead fleep, Pfal. lxxvi. 1, 5, 6.

In the captivity, the enemy came in like a flood. Away the people of God were carried. By the rivers of Babylon they fat; on the willows they hung their harps; and they wept when they remembered Zion. But when the time to favour

the fet time was come, the Spirit of the Lord