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but devout Declaration, Thou shalt purge me* with Hyffop, and I fhall be clean: thou shalt wasb me, and I fhall be whiter than Snow?" I << have been guilty, I must confess, of the most <complicated and fhocking Crimes: Crimes, inflamed by every aggravating Circumftance, with regard to Myfelf, my Neighbour, and my GOD. Myself, who have been blessed "above Men, and the diftinguished Favourite

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of Providence; my Neighbour, who, in the <most dear and tender Interests, has been irre"parably injured; my GOD, who might juftly "expect the most grateful Returns of Duty, in

ftead of fuch enormous Violations of his Law. "Yet, all horrid and execrable as my Offence

is, it is nothing to the fuperabundant Merit "of that great Redeemer, who was promised from the Foundations of the World; in "whom all my Fathers trufted; who is the Hope of all the Ends of the Earth. Though my Confcience be more loathfome, with adul terous Impurity, than the Dunghil; though << the

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*Pfal. li. 7. Thou shalt purge. I prefer this Tranflation, before the new one. Because this fpeaks the Language of a more ftedfaft Belief, and gives the highest Honour to the Divine Goodness. Were the Words intended to bear no more than the common petitionary Senfe, and not to be expreffive of a noble Plerophory of Faith, they would rather have been

.Imperatives, not futures כבסני and חטאני

"the moft barbarous of Murders has rendered " it even black as the Gloom of Hell; yet, «wafhed in the Fountain opened for Sin and "for " for Uncleannefs *,' I fhall be I fay not,

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pure only, this were a Difparagement to the "Efficacy of the Saviour's Death; but I fhall

be fair as the Lily, and white as the Snow. "Nay, let me not derogate from the glorious Object of my Confidence; cleanfed by this "fovereign Stream, I fhall be fairer than the "full-blown Lily, whiter than the new-fallen * Snows,"

POWER, faith the Scripture, belongeth unto GOD t.--And in what majestic Lines is this Attribute of JEHOVAH written, throughout the whole Volume of the Creation? Efpecially, through thofe magnificent Pages unfolded in yonder ftarry Regions. Which are therefore ftiled, by the fweet and fublime Singer of Ifrael, "The Firmament of his Power ." Because, the grand Exploits of Omnipotence are there difplayed with the utmoft Pomp, and recorded in the moft legible Characters.

WHO, that looks upward to the midnight Sky; and, with an Eye of Reafon, beholds its rolling Wonders; can forbear inquiring, Of what were thofe mighty Orbs formed?Amazing

to

Zech. xiii. 1. Pfal. xii. 11. Pfal, cl. 1.

to relate! They were produced without Materials. They fprung from Emptiness itself. The Stately Fabric of univerfal Nature emerged out of Nothing.What Inftruments were used by the supreme Architect, to fashion the Parts with fuch exquifite Niceness, and give fo beautiful a Polish to the Surface? With what were the va rious Pieces of the complicated Structure cemented; and how was all connected into one finelyproportioned, and nobly finished Whole? A bare Fiat accomplished all. LET THEM BE, faid GOD. He added no more; and immediately the wonderful Structure arofe; adorned with every Beauty; difplaying innumerable Perfections; and declaring, amidst admiring Seraphs, its great Creator's Praise. "By the Word of "the LORD were the Heavens made, and all the "Host of them by the Breath of his Mouth*." What

*If this Thought is admitted a Second time, and fuffered to ennoble the next Paragraph; it is partly, because of its unequalled Sublimity partly, becaufe it awakens the moft grand Idea of creating Power; and partly, because the Practice of the Pfalmift, an Authority too great to be controverted, is my Precedent.The beautiful Stanza quoted from Pfal. xxxiii. 6. is a Proof, how thoroughly the royal Poet entered into the Majefty of the Mofaic Narration: The Repetition of the Sentiment, ver. g. intimates, how peculiarly he was charmed, with that noble Man ner, of defcribing the Divine Operations: While the Turn of his own Compofition. fhews, how perfectly

he

What wonderful Force fixed fome of those vaft Globes, on an immoveable Bafis? What irrefiftible Impulfe bowled others, through the dark Profound? And what coercive Energy confined their impetuous Courses, within the niceft, ftrictest Bounds?-Nothing but his fovereign Will. For all Things were at firft conftituted, and all to this Day abide," according to his Ordinance."

WITHOUT any toilfome Affiduity, or labo rious Procefs, to raise-to touch-to speak fuch a Multitude of enormous Bodies into Being ;-to launch them through the Spaces of the Sky, as an Arrow from the Hand of a Giant ;-to im prefs on fuch unwieldy Masses a Motion, far outftripping the Swiftnefs of the winged Creation *

;

and

he poffeffed the fame elevated Way of thinking. And this, long before Longinus wrote the celebrated Treatife, which has taught the Heathen, as well as the Chriftian World, to admire the Dignity of the Jewish Legiflator's Stile. Vid. Longin. de Sublim. Se&t. IX.

The

*To give one Inftance of this Remark. Earth, in the diurnal Revolution, which it performs on its own Axis, whirls about at the Rate of above a Thousand Miles an Hour. And as the great Orbit, which it defcribes annually round the Sun, is reckoned at 540 Millions of Miles, it must travel near a Million and Half, each Day.-What an amazing Force must be requifite, to protrude fo vaft a Globe: and wheel it on, loaded as it is with huge Mountains, and ponderous Rocks, at fuch a prodigious Degree of Rapidity. It furpaffes human Conception. -How

and to continue them in the fame rapid Whirl, for Thousands and Thousands of Years; What an astonishing Inftance of infinite Might is this!-Can any thing be impoffible to the LORD, the LORD GOD; the Creator and Controuler, of all the Ends of the Earth, all the Borders of the Universe? Rather, is not all that we count difficult, perfect Ease to that glorious Being, who only fpake, and the World was made+: Who only gave Command, and the ftupendous Axle was lodged fast, the lofty Wheels moved complete?What a fure Defence, O my Soul, is this everlasting Strength of thy GOD? Be this thy continual Refuge, in the Article of Danger; this thy never-failing ReSource, in every Time of Need.

WHAT cannot this uncontroulable Power, of the great JEHOVAH, effect for his People? Be their Miseries ever fo galling, cannot this God relieve them? Be their Wants ever so numerous, cannot this GOD Supply them? Be their Corruptions within ever fo inveterate, or their Temptations without ever fo importunate, cannot this mighty, mighty GOD fubdue the one, and for

tify

-How natural, how pertinent, how almost neceffary, after fuch an Obfervation, is the Acknowlegement made by holy Job: I know that THOU cant do every Thing, and that no Thought can be withholdem from Thee. Chap. xlii, 2.

+ Pfal. xxxiii. 9.

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