SERMONS. 417 



grees digesting, and in the mean time preserving 

 and sustaining it by kindly heats, and vital incu- 

 bations. And to the like benign and gracious 

 purposes doth God still spread the wings of his 

 good providence over his people and their affairs, 

 in calamitous times, such as this is ; when he may 

 seem to stretch out upon the political world the 

 • line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness, 

 (Tohu and Bohu, the very words which describe 

 the first chaos,) as it is Is. xxxiv. 11. And if 

 hereupon we put ourselves (as we ought) under 

 the saving influences of his wings ; he will either 

 digest our confusions into greater order and beauty 

 than before, or at least support and cheer us while 

 we lie under them; which is the third and last 

 privilege implied in this expression. 



3. Comfort and refreshment in calamities, while 

 they are upon us. For the wing is not only the 

 retreat of safety from calamities, as in the first 

 particular ; nor only the instrument of deliverance 

 out of calamities, as in the second : it is also the 

 seat of comfort, and the fountain of refreshment, 

 when they lie heaviest upon us. 



And here I might spend the hour with much 

 delight ; for the prospect is fair and large before 

 me. But I am sensible that I have already staid 

 too long upon the first head of discourse pro- 

 pounded ; and so, perhaps, complied too much 

 with the common humour, which loves rather 

 to be tickled and amused with high privilege, 

 than instructed in necessary duty. I shall, there- 



VOL. II. E E 



