SERMONS. 411 



casts off a cold shade. Or is it too cold ? the 

 wing affords a warm covering. Are the young- 

 lings frightened with a storm ? the wing is a ready 

 shelter. Doth the kite, or hawk, the tyrants and 

 freebooters of the air, hover over and threaten ? 

 the wing is a safe retreat. And thus in saans 

 Domini defensionibus, as Cassian speaks ; in God 

 and his holy protections we have all. 



That our troubles are not long since grown too 

 hot for us, it is because he cools and allays them. 

 That our comforts do not grow cold, and die away 

 in our bosoms, it is because he warms and rein- 

 forceth them. That we have heard it bluster 

 abroad for so many years together in a formidable 

 tempest, which hath drenched and drowned so 

 great a part of Christendom in blood, and yet the 

 storm hath hitherto flown over us : that the clouds 

 have been gathering at home too, and so long hung 

 black over our heads, and yet not poured them- 

 selves forth in showers of vengeance : that Gebal, 

 and Amnion, and Amalek, and the rest; that 

 Hell, and Rome, and their partizans, our enemies 

 on all hands, both foreign and domestic, have been 

 so long confederate against us, saying. Come, and 

 let us root them out, that they be no more a peo- 

 ple, that the name of the Reformed Church of 

 England may be no more in remembrance ; that 

 they have so often looked grim, and sour, and 

 roared, and ramped upon us, and yet not been 

 able to seize us : to what can we justly ascribe all 

 this, but to the gracious protections of God's 

 shady wings spread over us ? 



