Page:Last publick sermon, being a faithful and free one, preached by Mr. Hugh Mackaile ... upon the Sabbath immediately preceeding that 8th of September 1662, the day affixed for the removing of the ministers of Edinburgh from their kirks.pdf/18

( 18 ) of riling, ſo alſo of going down ; and by the Sun at Noon, when he is mounted up to his Meridian Point, he inſtant- ly poſts downward. Not only is the Lord powerful and wife, and ſo able to extricate his People from all Difficul- ties, but alſo his Power and Wiſdom is bound over to his People by a Promiſe, ſo that it ſtands him upon the Point of his Faithfulneſs to reſcue them ; He will not ſuffer the Rod of the Wicked for ever to ly upon the Lot of the Righteous, left righteous Men put forth their Hand to Iniquity. And let all thoſe who have lift up themſelves to caſt down his People, ſpeak their Experience of his Faithfulneſs; let Pha- raoh, let Haman, let Judas, let Herod, let each of them ſpeak their Experience of his Faithfulneſs ; let all that have Ears to hear, and, hearing, acknowledge, THAT NEVER WAS THERE ANY THAT MADE THEMSELVES REMARKABLE FOR PERSECUTION, BUT GOD MADE THEM REMARKABLE FOR HIS JUDGMENTS. Though they have been of ſuch Elevation a- bove the ordinary Level of Men, as none might fay to them, What doſt thou? yet God hath ſaid to them in the latter End, What haſt thou done? How terrible an Exaltation is that in Exod. is. 16. For this Cauſe have I raiſed thee up to flew in thee my Power, and that my Name may be declared throughout all the Earth. How does he, in a Moment, turn the Heart of Ahaſuerus againſt Haman? The ſame Hand, that had lifted him up, doth likeways caſt him down; he was advanced to a high Eſtate, and the Fa- vour of his Prince ſhrewded him from Envy, till once it be known that a Complaint may be acceptable, then one Complaint of him after another, firſt Eſther then Harbondh, Ether, vii. 6. 9. but none came to a more dreadful Ca- taſtrophe than Judas: He was intruſted by his Brethren with the Management of Matters of publick Concernment, AND HE BETRAYED THEIR MASTER, AND THEM BOTH. But God makes him ſuch a Terror to himſelf, that he proves his own Aſſaſſin; and the more violent a Perſecution be, ibis the