the dead.—Hosea xiii. 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plague: O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
l. The struggle of the church with all her adversaries, will have a surprising comfortable issue at length.—As weak as she is, and as strong and numerous as they are, she will infallibly have success, surprising success against them, attending the encounter with them, Micah iv. 11, 12, 13, &c.
And as to the present state of the church, learn,
First, It is not at all strange, nor will it make the case of this church hopeless, that prodigiously high mountains, higher than our fathers saw, are raised up against her, over-topping worm Jacob, and threatening to crush him: mountains of national guilt, of forty years gathering, laid upon the top of the mountains of guilt raised by our fathers;—prophanity overflowing and becoming fashionable;—conspiracy carried on in the house of her friends, against the grace of Christ and serious godliness, to palm upon us refined Heathenism for Christianity, the foundation struck at: mountains of damnable heresies and blasphemies against the person of Christ, and divine authority of the scriptures, and the advanced learning of the age improved to these monstrous ends.———But, thresh on the mountains of opposition that stand in your way from earth to hell, thou shalt get through them all at length, and thou shalt stand on the sea of glass, Rev. xv. 2, 3.
2 Thresh on the mountains of trouble, trials, and afflictions:—let none of them, be they never so high and formidable, prevail to separate betwixt God and you;—they will be beat to dust at last, and blown away before you, Rev. vii. 9, 10 14, &c.
3. Thresh on the mountains of corruption and in dwelling sin; threshing on every height thereof, particularly the top of it, that is, the sin that easily besets
you,
