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as we do the crawling of the Worm Like Sanballat, when he mocked the Jews saying 'What do theſe Jews? Will they fortify themſelves? Will they ſacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the ſtones out of the heaps of rubbiſh which are burnt' Neb iv, 2.
4. Yet united to Chriſt, though a Worm, Worm Jacob, Our Lord Jeſus himſelf is of the Worm family, Pſal xx, 6. Worm Jacob, Pſal xxvii, 6. This is the generation of them that ſeek him, that ſeek thy face O Jacob' Compare 'Iſa xlix, 3. Thou art my ſervant O Iſrael in whom I will be glorified. This intimates an union between him and them as his Worm brethren, Heb ii, 11. Being lowered and humbled to the condition of the Worm they are knit to and built on him by faith. Luke vi. 48.
5. Lastly, Daring adventurers daring wreſtlers, Worm Jacob ventured on him that formed the mountain and wreſtled with him and prevailed too, Gen. xxxii 24. Hoſ x i. 4. What, wonder to find him then venturing on the mountains themſelves. He muſt have the bleſſing, and muſt be foreward whatever mountains be in the way, I proceed.
The ſecond thing to be conſidered, namely the Myſtery of grace carried on in them by Jeſus Chriſt, we may take it up in theſe two.
1. An apparently hopeleſs encounter they are led to by him. Worm Jacob threſhing the mountain. What a hopeleſs like counter is a Worm threſhing a mountain: ſo hopeleſs like are encounters of the people of God have to make their way to the eternal reſt. Theſe threſhers are certainly threſhers in hope. 1. Cor ix, 10. But the naked eye cannot discover the ground of hope in it: It is faith only that ſhews it hopeful: which ſight repreſents it as a hopeful caſe; and therefore they muſt cloſe their eyes and threſh in ⟨faith⟩ as Abraham did, Rom v 19. We take up this ⟨hopeleſs⟩ encounter in five things.
Frſt. The Lord lays in his people's way mountains