doth To invite them to our Table which have scarce nothing to eat at their own Table who to be sure cannot invite us again and to be Legs to the lame and Eyes to the blind c. But these are so unthankful that who can have any heart to do any thing for them I answer Such whose hearts are simple and who as David shew simple friendship they will look upon Criples as Criples and blind as blind lame and blind in their Souls as well as in their Bodies and if you would have People be thankful be simple in your kindness let them see that you do not seek theirs in the least but them every way the relief of them Mephibosheth was never like to make a Man of use to attend upon David to honour his Table this had been rather to have sought a friendship than to have shewed one It is a Custome amongst the Turkes not to believe a Christian's or a Jew's complaint against a Turk without a Turk's witness too and that is the reason why in such Cases Justice is much corrupted and so little to be had I only allude to this The cases and conditions of many oppressed poor and mean ones is such that unless they can get such and such as are great to witness to their cause and own them and stick to them their own complaints will not be believed nor heard not indeed will any take it in hand unless they see that which may be good self-encouragement and advantage so that falleth out to be true which that great Statesman observed in his Days The rich have many friends not only one friend of which the poor would be glad but many friends and the Poor is hated of his own Neighbour Prov. 14.20 And Prov. 19.4 Wealth maketh many friends but the poor is separated from his neighbour When ye see a gold Ring on a Man's Finger there you take him up and his cause is good as Absalom said and ye do but want one well to plead it and I will do it and I will do it and what a many friends the wealthy Man and the Man with the Gold Ring and long Hair hath but a poor Man that hath but one Ewe Lamb as Nathan's Parables is but a little estate left and that in danger to be all taken away too who strives to plead this Persons case and to own and to cleave to such a helpless one Wherefore I exhort be simple in your friendship as purely born for adversity Secondly Be tender and strong friends that is not in word only but in deed and in the greatest actions and labours and deeds which distresses need to relieve them What a friend Barzillai was to David in his distress against Absalom beyond Jordan How brought he him all Provisions for Himself and Followers which David much remembred because it was so seasonable And what a friend was Obadia to the Lord's Prophets when the violence of Ahab and Jessabel was great who hid them by Fifties in a Cave when it must needs be with the peril of his life And our Saviour seems to grant such a strength in friendship as to lay down the life for a friend Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his life for his friends Our Saviour seems to grant such a height in the love of friendship And the Apostle saith we ought to lay down our life for a brother And a friend is a created Brother of our own Creation and created of purpose for a plunge Therefore it will be lovely to get all the heights of true friendship in this evil Day because distresses and plunges are so high and hard and great Nothing less almost will relieve some poor distressed People unless we do much expose our selves as Obadia and the Brethren which rescued Paul out of the Tumult when he was knockt down and all thought he was dead And Rizpah the Daughter of Aiah took Sack-cloth and spread it for her upon the Rock from the begining of Harvest till Water dropped upon them and suffered neither the Birds of the Air to rest on them by Day nor the Beasts of the Field by Night 2 Sam. 21.10 Rizpah made a covering over her of this Sack-cloth and sate under it day and night with those dead Corpses of Saul's Family which friendship was very strong and tender and painful and David took it wonderful well at her hands And if she did so watch with the dead that no violence might be done by Birds or Beasts It was strong friendship in him which said come and let us go and die with him 'T were well if we could watch with the living and that we could play the friends so to many in Prisons and bonds and extremities which are not dead Corpse yet but almost so and many of them worse than so that is worse than if they were dead my meaning is that where distress is great we would become great friends Our Rule is to covet the best gifts to be most eminent and excellent in every Grace and be you in this of friendship Be thus always And Hyram King of Tyre sent his Servants unto Solomon for he had heard that they had anointed Him King c. for Hiram was ever a lover of David 1 Kings 5.1 This is the Property made of friendship in my Text A friend loveth at all times Had Hiram been a lover of David only sometimes and when David had no need of him doubtless David would have been cautious of him and not have put him among the number of his friends but he was always a lover of David And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great Woman and she constrained him to eat Bread And so it was that as oft as he passed by he returned in thither to eat bread Not once or twice coldly invited but she constrained him and as oft as he passed by and that she might be sure of him always when he went that way She said to her Husband behold now I perceive that this is an holy Man of God which passeth by us continually let us make a little Chamber in the Wall and let us set for him there a Bed a Table a Stool and a Candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he turn in thither 2 Kings 4.10 Friendship is a natural thing and what is natural is durable I have none that doth so naturally care for me saith the Apostle Paul of Timothy A friend becomes a Brother that is naturally affected as if flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and 't is supposed in nature that natural relations are natural always as hand and the foot to the head and the head to the hand and foot are tenderly and strongly careful and affectionate always Jonathan went to David in the Cave and strengthned his hand in God as well as when David was in favour with Saul and that their friendship
Dart cometh so I believe will the Flood of these last times surprise and come as a Dart as a Wall swelling out to use the Scripture expression Actus morientium non possunt esse in suspenso 'T is the speech of them that study Nature Death when once it begins to knock beats down all apace and cannot be stayed Learn what need we have to beg that God would not lead us into temptation Extremities are terrible charges When Jona was beat upon with all God's billows and likewise Job how they both broke out and cursed the day wherein they were born and how David in like plunge fained himself mad and drivel'd at Gath. A tempted Soul with all temptations will have much adoe to bite in blasphemy I said in my hast all Men are lyars yea even Samuel which from the Lord had told him that he should be King Some dead Mens bodies putrified turn into Serpents See holy Ainsw in Gen. 3.19 Truly the better we are when overborn with temptations we become much the worse what Serpents and Scorpions some have become by these things in these times more fiery and worse than others who yet knows what may be in their hearts as to the main we know not How earnestly Christ desired that the Cup might pass and yet was not in danger of sin as we are how much more should we so desire who have not a body to bear being so crackt by sin but much less not such a Soul to bear trials as Christ being so wholly defiled and immersed with sin This on which I am now makes me think of David's speech to Jonathan who as you know he loved dearly If there be iniquity in me slay me thy self 1 Sam. 20.8 as if he had said let me dye by the hand of one that loveth me and then I shall dye but one death but if I dye by the hand of such as hate me I know not how many deaths I shall die There is a kindness in the Hang-man nor how many sins I may commit under such cruelties and inhumanities If the Cup may not pass ye◠beg that you may be deliver'd from the evil I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World saith Christ but that thou shouldst deliver them from the evil Upon this insist that you may have the benefit of Christ's intercession that no Wave may over-whelm any Grace or hide the face and favour of God a moment from you Peccatum tametsi non bonum tamen in bonum c. saith Augustin Sin though it be not good yet it may be ordered to good So afflictions though in themselves not good nor joyous yet God can order them to work about the peaceable fruit of holiness and so to make them very good and very joyous Learn from hence what great cause we have to be full of pitty and tender-heartedness one to another and what Monsters of Man-kind they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are hard-hearted close fisted without Man-friendship such as you read of Psal 69.26 They persecute him which thou hast smitten and talk to the grief of him whom thou hast wounded they gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink Job's friends sate down by him Seven Days and said nothing to him for they saw that his grief was great and when they did speak it had been better much they had held their peace they did so talk to the grief of him whom God had wounded A sore evil we are apt unto when all God's billows pass over any to have many hard things to say against them but very few merciful deeds to do for them May not their case become yours May not you whole become sick and you rich become poor and you Londoners may not you be driven here and there as well as they in the Country See therefore and take notice of all the lurking places of David and see where he hideth himself and come tell me saith Saul to the Ziphits 1 Sam. 23.23 You Londoners have been some lurking places for the Lord 's hunted ones long May not some Ziphits discover these lurking places and make you run and lurk for it too where you may And would not you then be glad when such billows beat over you to be pittied and shelter'd then think how much it becomes you to shew pitty to wounded souls and distressed bodies and to pour out your spirits and Purses to them whilst ye can A storm fulfils its course in a round and then bursts with its own violence saith Seneca and indeed the storm which hath been in divers parts of the Country will I believe fulfill its course in a round in which Circle this City will have its share and therefore take heed that that be not true of you which David complains of some when in his Cave Psal 142.4 I look on my right hand and behold but there was no man that would know me refuge fail'd me and none cared for my Soul Several bleed in soul and I doubt but few of you care for these bleeding sinking Souls to support them with your experiences and with your prayers Many flee to Caves and Dens to hide here and there and have not to put bread in the heads of them nor theirs and few I doubt visit David in his Cave Learn from hence that we should not sentence our Eternal condition by our temporal All God's Waves may pass over the best Man in this World Christ was exercised with all trials and miseries in this World was poor was hated was murthered was inwardly tormented his Soul was heavy to death and in a great Agony and so was Job and therefore were judged hypocrites and deceivers and accursed of God Paul when the Vipers was on his hand they judged him a Murtherer and when he threw it off and had no hurt then they would have worshipped him for a God There is no judgment of God's love or hatred by the things of prosperity or adversity but rather by our carriage in them Many will say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance and thou shalt put more joy into my heart c. Many can make no other estimate of Mans eternal felicity but as he is so and so prosperous in this World Crowns which begirt the Sun or the Moon last not long saith the Philosopher All the Crowns and adventitious Raies of riches and honours which begirt the Saints in this World to give light and conduct to it by Day and by Night they last not long some tempest or other blows them away and then when those painted Crowns are vanished away to judg and censure that therefore their Eternal Crown and Glory is gone too is to judg amiss of the Generation of the righteous Discord in the matter of exhalations maketh storms and tempests so discords in the matters of God's dispensations make storms not discover'd in his
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
joyned together in the Scripture-phrase Our Day through many Clouds and Storms is very dark especially to some and yet the Day may more cease and become universally dark that what it is to any one at this Hour for calamity that it may be universally in one sense or another And when things are thus universally dark that every ones day is ceased it will look like a Dooms-day indeed and if you cannot look thorow the Clouds of your condition now How will ye do then If ye cannot run with the Foot how will ye run with the Horse The Jews hold that such as made not use of the Flood but continued in their unbelief were punished with scalding Water in Gehinnom And surely they that make not use of present Clouds and Storms upon their condition to get faith to wrestle well with these and to fit them for worse will be scalded indeed with those Waters which yet may overflow us The wo Trumpets are for the Idolatry of the Christian Empire As our own Personal matters are dark so are the matters of the Christian World dark in most parts though not so generally and universally as they may be I will give you two Scriptures to express my self in in this matter The one is Amos 5.12 13 14. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins they afflict the just they take bribes they turn aside the poor in the Gate from their right therefore the prudent shall keep silence for it is an evil time hate the evil and love the good establish judgment in the Gate it may be the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph Sins are now in the Christian World mighty and manifold oppressions of the just surely were never greater and yet must be silent must not Petition nor complain and all this is done Ex anima heartily yea with great malice and rage that reacheth up to Heaven God's wrath and rage is so provoked by this as we feel at this day that it is doubtful who of us will escape when he shall go on in his judgments for these things Therefore thus saith the Lord wailing shall be in all Streets and they shall say in all the High-ways alas alas and they shall use the Husband-man to mourning and all Vineyards shall mourn hate the evil c. It may be the Lord God will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph Sinners are so mighty in the Christian World and so many and repentance and faith so rare and scarce hating the evil and loving the good c. That judgments when they further come Famin Pestilence Sword surely they will sweep clean that we shall have cause to use the Prophets phâ—ase Wailing shall be in all Streets and they shall say in all the High-ways alas alas and it may be some of us shall escape If such as have most faith be brought to their may be by reason of such general calamity what will they be brought to who are wholly destitute of faith when such Floods overflow The other Scripture to set out the state of the Christian World at this day is Rev. 13.6 7. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them which dwell in Heaven and it was given unto him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them and power was given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations and all shall worship him whose Names are not written in the Book of Life The Anti-Christian world is at these heights of sin blaspheming the matters and People of God and at Warre with them shedding their blood and their success it seems will be general power will be given them over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and then when there is no Nation to flee to under Heaven when the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land i e. all places and corners of the World shall be shaken what need will there be of faith to flee to God In the Generations when the Son of David cometh say the Jewes the Scholars of the wise shall be rare and as for the rest of the People their eyes shall fail for sorrow and grief and great afflictions and soar decrees shall be so renewed that before the first is ended the second shall come Saith others of them In the week of Years in the which the Son of David shall come the first year that shall be fulfilled to wit I rained upon one City and not upon another Amos 4. In the second year The arrows of Famine shall be abroad In the third year the Famine shall be so great that Men Women and Children yea good and godly Men shall die c. I do not make this as Scripture but as I see a congruity in them to the Scriptures they are not be slighted Now what of all this is approaching upon the Christian World and at the Door I know not sure I am faith yea the faâ—th of David in my Text against such a dark hour would do well Thirdly Get faith this faith I am treating of or else you will be of little or no use one to another VVhen Senachetib came into Judea Hezekiah sets Captains of VVar over the People And gathered them together to him in the Gate of the City and spake comfortably to them saying Be strong and couâ—agious be not afraid nor dismay'd for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be more with us than with him with him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battel And the People rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah King of Juda 2 Chro. 32.6 7. How wonderful useful was Hezekiah by his faith to the whole Nation in that strait He put a fresh life and soul into them had he sunk they had all sunk with him and so the enemy and the wrath of God had justly preyed upon them all The Arabians if their King be sick all fain themselves sick too as Homines ad Jervitatem parati saith the Historian When Persons in place are sick of unbelief of a faint weak spirit in difficult matters all about them more than fain themselves sick too they are so in earnest and more down than ashes And truly ones use lost is more than the loss of ones life What a dead living Man is a useless Man and yet so shall we be unless we get the faith of this Scripture I am upon in some measure and the faith of this evil time wherein we live The evil spies made the hearts of the People to melt The Levites which kept the Doors were to try the offerings and God will try every Man by his offerings that is by his use Quest If you now ask me How shall I obtain such a faith A. I answer It is the proper adjunct of such a staâ—e a renewed state The eyes of the Lord are on