SERMON'S. 435 



mity be past : but then on the sudden their trust 

 grows feeble, and their devotion cold, and heart- 

 less : No sooner delivered, but, like old Israel, 

 they forget God at the sea, even at the Red Sea; 

 — use him like Themistocles's planetrees, under 

 which men run for shelter in storm ; but the 

 shower once over, they pluck oiF the branches, 

 turn their backs, and away. 



Nay, but there is in Scripture language an in- 

 finite and an interminable donee, which never ex- 

 pires. * He knew her not, till she brought forth ; 

 nay, he never knew her. In spite of Helvidius, 

 aHTToc^^ivoq, (as the Greek church style her) a virgin 

 before, and in, and after the birth of our Lord, and 

 for ever. Aye, that's the virgin's soul indeed, that 

 keeps ever close to her heavenly spouse : not only 

 runs under his wings for shelter, when calamities 

 affright her, saying. Spread thy skirt over me, and 

 then strays away again, as soon as ever the flat- 

 tering calm, and sunshine of prosperity tempts 

 her abroad. As our Lord hath given us an ever- 

 lasting donee : Lo I am with you, saith he, till the 

 end of the world : (not that he will leave us then, 

 but take us yet nigher unto himself, and so we 

 shall ever be with the Lord, as the. Apostle 

 speaks if) so must we also have one for him of the 

 same latitude and extension. For ever under the 

 shadow of his wings ; till this single tyranny, as 

 in the old translation — all these calamities, as in 



* Matth.i. t//^ ^ t 1 Thess. iv. 17. 



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