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The Gracious Providence of God does oftentimes prolong the Lives of his Servants, by proper Acts of Prefervation. For this must be meant by these, * and other Parallel expreffions in Scripture; Thou fhalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preferve them. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord fhall preserve thee from all evil. He fhall defend thee under his Wings, There fhall no evil happen unto thee. Inftances of Good men's providential Deliverances may be more Signal, and strike a Deeper Impreffion upon us; But Inftances of their Prefervation are more Frequent, or, rather to be accounted Conftant and Perpetual; An Invifible Divine Power is Always Defending them from the Invifible and unknown Designs of Evil Men, or, from Impending Evil Accidents, which would, otherwife, fall upon Life, and break it in pieces. It is Applicable to the Prefervation of Life, as well as the other circumftances of Good Men, that all things work together for good to them that love God: A Paffage of

* Pf. xii. 7. cxxi. 5, 7. xci. 4.

† Rom. viii. 28.

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Scripture, ever fupplying Comfort to the Expectations, and ever Confirmed by the Experience of Good Men. This Paffage is faid to have been Particularly recollected with high fatisfaction, by that great Example of Faith and Beneficence, Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis, in the Clofe of his Life, which was then drawn out to the Length of about a Hundred years.

Who can be fo Unjuft, as to withhold that Veneration, which is a Debt Indifpenfably due to Old Age thus crown'd with Virtue? Or, who can Doubt that This is à Scene of Delight and True Happiness? For if a Man's Happiness effentially confifts in his Firm Dependence on the Divine Favour, grounded upon a fenfe of his own Virtue and Goodness; then the Longer his Experience, and the more Extenfive the Effects, and the more Clear and Full the Tefti- · monies of his own Goodness are, the Greater must the measures of his Happiness be. A Long Life thus Improved, thus Accomplished, thus Bleffed, is no Faint Refemblance of That Immortality,

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which was the Portion of the First Adam, nor yet of That, which is purchased for us by the Second, the Lord from Heaven. The Felicity therefore, and the Dignity of fuch a state as This must be obvious and plain to every one, who paffeth a Right Judgment upon the Principles of Human Nature, upon the Promises of God to Good men, upon the Effects of Virtue and Religion, and upon the Nature and Conditions of Happiness.

2dly, Riches are oftentimes the Effects of God's Special providence over Good men; which seems evident from Gen. xxxix. 2, 3. Deut. xxviii. 8, 11, 12. Prov. x. 22. and many other Texts. Hezekiah's Riches were exceedingly Increafed by the fame Gracious Providence, which Prolonged his Life; And the same Divine Power and Goodness, which conducted Abraham into a Good Old Age, did fupply him with Riches in abundance. And we may Eafily conceive, that when God gives Wealth to his moft Sincere and Faithful fervants, he knows, that the Abundance thus bestowed upon them, will not prove Pernicious to them. Riches

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are not Let Loose upon a Good Man, ās Enemies to Wound him: Infinite Wifdom firft Guards and Fortifies him against all the Mischief they can do; And then puts them into his Poffeffion and Power, that he may extract all the Good, and Avoid the Poyson of them. And indeed it must be a wonderful Strength and Conftancy of Mind, that can render a Man Impregnable, and able to Hold out, under the many and Violent Temptations, which an Abundance of Wealth is always Playing against him. It must be a vast Weight of Wisdom, that can keep down that Towering Spirit of SelfSufficiency within him, which all his outward Circumftances do confpire in Raifing to the most Dangerous Height. Nothing but the Greatest Mind, and That Supported by the Holy Spirit, can Safely bear the Greatest Fortune. Glorious then and Admirable muft the Endowments of those Faithful and Holy men be, whom God does intruft with Large fhares of Earthly Treafures, because he knows, that they are Qualified to Enjoy them with intire Safety, and Improve

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them to the utmost Spiritual Advantage; that they will Teftifie the Generosity of their Souls by the Effects of it; and that they will be so far from Trusting in their Riches, that they will by proper Dispenfations, render them Inftrumental to the Confirmation of their Truft and Hope in God.

"Tis Remarkable in the Character of a Great Prince, that, when fome of his Friends, obferving his Unbounded Munificence, took the Liberty to ask him, What he would have Left for Himfelf under fuch a Conduct? He anfwer'd, Hope. And if an Heathen could fupport Himfelf, in his Acts of Munificence, upon the Principle of Hope, how Firm and Lafting Foundations of Satisfaction, and Safety, may be laid by Christians, in Their Acts of Liberality and Charity. They have plain and Full Evidence, that Their Good Works are an Unexceptionable and Undoubted Principle of their Affiance in God; and that Affiance in God is a Further, and High Recommendation of Them to His Favour.

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