which will help to fix you and keep you from being blown over in the day of Tempests and Storms when other folk are made Ship-wreck Thirdly The nobleness of it lies in this this is it that will help you to brag all your Enemies out of it and it'l make you read your Fortune and the Fortune of your Enemies Though I fall I shall rise Nor for use of this Will ye tell me Sirs what knowledge have ye and what use ye are getting of your knowledge I trow it may be said of many of us that we have little knowledge and that the knowledge we have we get not the right use of it What use make ye of your knowledge now-a-days Sirs ye that has win to knowledge for it 's not for want of Light that the most part of you runs to the Devil but ye run to the Devil now a dayes with a Candle in your hand O but there is much thortering and murdering in Scotland but thortering with Light shall be the warisomest sin that ever Scotland medled with for thereby many a poor body shall have a debate in their bosom that they shall not soon win over whether or no they have sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost because they have gone over the belly of so much Light I will not say much to it but O but it is heartsome to win to these two much Light and the right use of that Light O but here is noble News the Cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor God will maintain it and it 's upon this account that when the Kirk and people of God cannot get righting from the Courts under the Sun but is wronged by the Sentences of the Councels of men they take in their wronged Sentences before God Therefore sayes David in the 17 Ps 2 v. Let my Sentence come forth from thy presence and let thine eyes behold these things that are equal We have gotten our Sentence from men now good Lord we must have our Sentence from thee and thou must judge upon things that are equal and see whether thy Sentence will not agree with theirs the Cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor God will maintain Now there is three things lying in the bosom of this First that the people of God hes a Cause in Scotland although many of them hes little in their owning of it there is a Cause own it as ye will O wo to many a man because the people of God hes a Cause to own in Scotland wo to many a man that we had a Cause for they have lost their Soul because they would not own it Thirdly though that Cause be good yet the owners of it be a very afflicted people yet a good Cause backed by an afflicted people shall have God to maintain it therefore cast not out with the Cause the owner of it be an afflicted people That I may speak a little to this I 'l speak a word to these three or four First what is the reason of this that a good Cause may have none to own it but a poor and an afflicted people Secondly what way doth God maintain that Cause when there is none to own it but an affl cted people Thirdly what ground of incouragement is this to an afflicted people owning a good Cause that God will maintain it himself Fourthly a word of Caution together with some uses and then go forward Now for the first how comes it that the Cause of the people God is good and yet they are but an afflicted party in owning of it It is upon three accounts that it is so First upon this account that though they own their duty yet they are not without sin and sinful faults and therefore though he will honour them to own the cause because they are his people and give them a reward for the same yet he 'l not miss to take vengeance on their Inventions and therefore though owning the Cause they are but an afflicted people Secondly he 'l have us an afflicted people that own his good Cause that he may train us up in the exercise of three three things First In the exercising of believing 3 Zephaniah 12. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord But I trow though we be an afflicted and poor people yet we have done as little at the believing Trade as if we had not been called to that exercise Thirdly he 'l have us train'd up in the exercising of waiting but I trow in stead of waiting on many of us comes to the far nook of our patience Fourthly he 'l have us thereby trained up in self-denyal on the one hand and dependance upon God on the other hand he 'l have us dying of our own bottom by affliction but O Sirs but self love may go through many a Cross with a Christian O but it may be long or a Christian win to that not I but Christ in me Fifthly he 'l have poor bodies train'd up in this to acknowledge God in all his wayes And Lastly he 'l have us an afflicted people tho we be owning his Cause for this reason that he may put all and every one of us to subscrive this with our blood as it were That it is a bitter thing to depart from the living God 2 Jerem. 19. And last of all that he may make the afflicted people carry the afflicted and born down Cause over the belly of all the great and prosperous men in the world that opposes it That he may make out the Scriptures to make the things that are not to confound things that are that so the work may be seen to be of God and not of man for he 'l not have arme reveal'd by the arme of flesh therefore he 'l have none to own his Cause but an afflicted and poor people The next thing to be spoken to is what way God doth maintain this Cause when there is none to own it but an afflicted people There is eight wayes that God doth maintain the Cause when there is none to back it but an afflicted people The first way that he maintains it is this he gars the Cause speak and plead for it self when all poor bodies are laid by when there is none to plead for a Covenant and Cause and work of Reformation he 'l gar it plead with the arguments of vengeance that all the Prelats in Scotland shall not be able to answer the arguments thereof The Philistines when they got the Ark of God I warrant they thought they had a prise there was never one to appear to own them For it well sayes the Lord the Ark shall plead for it self and they shall be as blyth to quit it as ever they were blyth to take it as ye may see in the 2 Sam. 4 v. I will not say much Sirs but I am sure the Kirk and Work of God will
be troublesome on the Stomack of some of our Malignants in Scotland it'l make unrest when they think it to be disjeasted there is some sort of Meat though folk would fain eat it yet it will not disjeast on their Stomack but it comes up and gars them wirry them but shall not go down for a broken Covenant will plead with such vengeance that they shall not answer the arguments of it There is a second way that he maintains the Cause when poor bodies is laid by and that is by borrowing a yocking of some enemies Plough for plowing a yocking in persecutors Land to give the people of God breathing time and leasure to get their plough yocked so God borrowes a yocking of the Philistines plough to Till a Rigg in Saul's Lund when he was pursuing David while David got his Plough yocked there was nothing betwixt David and him but he 's e'n coming pursuing him down the one side of the Hill and David is going up the other well the Lord sends one to Saul to cry to him the Philistines is come in upon thy borders and leaves off from pursuing David and that was a yocking to Saul while David was made ready for him who wots but God may borrow a yocking of some enemies Plough to give Persecutors yet a yocking while the people of God get their Cords fixed A third way how he maintains the Cause sometimes and that is by making Religion take a grip of the hearts of some of the enemies that has been the Ring-leaders of the Persecutors of the Kirk and People of God and then there will be rest in the Church and People walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost in that 9 Acts Saul a Persecutor and Ring-leader of Persecution Religion grip'd him at the heart And then in the 31. There was rest throughout all the Church walking in fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost Is not that a brave way of maintaining of the Cause that the persecuted Cause shall take some great men be the heart and then there shall be rest in all the Churches walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost There is a fourth way that he maintains the Cause and it is this That be his Peoples Cause what will they shall be honourably dealt with and honourably carried through by him and there shall be nothing wanting whan they 'r put to sufferings to bear their expences for the honour of the Cause but it shall be a gracious Cause by their great expence in suffering this is clear in the 11 of the Revelations There the witnesses are slain and their Bodies left on the Ground unburied Well within three days and a half they rise again and are carried into Heaven and their being carried into Heaven is a greater terror to Enemies then all they did among them Our Master has so honourly born his peoples Expences that he has made the Cause more glorious than all the actings and many a time has his People had that to crack of the more they were persecuted the more they sang who would have thought but a Prison and a sore Skin would have gart folk forget singing and yet they never sang sweeter nor then some says if they were in Prison two or three days they would be carried out in Biers some says if they were in Prison they would forget singing there shall neither Prisons nor sore Skins keep me from singing II sing as well in Prison as in a Palace and our singing in Prison and Bonds shall be for the credit of our Cause as well as preaching at liberty Poor Paul and Barnabas when they got many Stripes and were easten in Prison
A SERMON Preached by Master Michael Bruice IN THE Tolbooth of EDINBVRGH The immediate Sabbath after he received the Sentence of Exile for Virginia Text PSALM 140. v. 12 13. 12. I know that the Lord will maintain the Cause of the afflicted and the Right of the poor 13. Surely the Righteous shall give thanks unto thy name the upright shall dwell in thy presence THere are three things of excellent worth to be known at such a time as this and I think ye should be labouring to know the worth of all these three things in this your day The first thing that is of excellent worth to be known is this To know that though we do not maintain the Cause yet go the World as it will God will maintain it says the Psalmist here Though we be an afflicted people that is during the Cause and do not maintain it yet it shall be maintained I know God shall maintain it and I will never quit the knowledge of that The second thing here that is of excellent worth to be known is Although we should be weeping all our days under the sense of many Losses yet we shall win home over to God and dwell at last in his presence Therefore if all things were well considered the poor traitour Bodies that sells God for a tippence and their Consciences for a Livelyhood and their Souls for Goods and Geer are the most miserable Bodies in the World for they shall never dwell in his presence but they shall geet their Letters of Exclusion Depart from me under the Great Seal of Heaven never to be ranversed again There is a third thing of excellent worth no be well read by you in such a day as this and that is in the slippery sitting of the wickeds Case though they flourish as a Green Bay-Tree yet they shall soon be cut down He hath prepared Hunters to hunt them to Death will he not gar the people of God hunt them to death No no oft times he 'l not let the people of God fil their Fingers on them But there are three Hunters that oft times he sends to them wicked men to be their Death First he sends their own wiekedness to them and that is alse black a Hunter as ever hunted wicked men he makes their own iniquity to hunt them till they be ruined he makes wickedness slay them and their own iniquity to be their death Mischief shall hunt the violent man till he be ruined Secondly he makes the Creatures hund them to death that was ane unkâ— Hunter that poor Pharaoh met with he made the Red-sea hunt him till he was ruined Thirdly he 'l have their own will to hunt them to death he 'l have that which they lay as a Snare before the people of God to hunt them to death that which wicked mendelights most in and gloties most in will be their Hunter or all be done I wot well they are great Fools then to glory in that which will hunt them from hole to hole and from this Land to that Land and never leave them till it raive the throat out of them What will be thought of those poor Bodies that will be hunted to death with that they delighted most in Now the Words that we have read are the use that the Psalmist makes of all that he hath been saying through the Psalm or rather ye may take it in the time of his tossings his casting of his Anchor on a sure Foundation and there fixing and on this he composes his Spirit Now would ye know the Anchorage of every true Christian Then come to the words that I have read and ye will find three pieces of Anchorages for a Christian to fix on The first piece of Anchorage is this The Cause of the afflicted and the Right of the poor God will maintain Anchor on it sure for it is sure enough ey ye may anchor there and bide all the Storm over The Cause of the afflicted and the Right of the poor God will maintain that is a brave Anchorage and in it we have three things considerable First the designation of the persons that God will own in their biding by the Cause and that is the afflicted and the poor well is our day for that though we cannot get our selves in owning with the rich and great Folk yet I wot well we may get our names slipped in among the afflicted and poor and it these that lie nearest God's help it is these that he 'l own wel is our day for that Hes he not a bonny pack of us think ye Sirs it matters not he 'l take our Cause be the end feckless as we are A second thing in this is the party that will own us and that is God himself he 'l be our Advocate he 'l be our Agent he 'l be our Maintainer very good then he 'l maintain the Cause For my part I never desire a better maintainer of a Covenant nor God himself and I never desire a better maintainer of the Cause and Work of Reformation nor the Lord himself though we were dead and rotten such a Maintainer will gar the Cause and Covenant speak for it self in Britain and Ireland It 's a strange thing Sirs I 'l warrant you the Philistines thought themselves brave Folk when they had gotten the Ark of God among them but ere all was done they thought themselves alse unhappy in having of it as ever they thought themselves happy for God gart it speak with meekle black Vengance towards them and all that they could do could not answer the Arks Arguments it spake with such Judgment and Plagues as ever ye heard tell of as ye may read in the 1 of Sam. 5. chap. And I doubt not but these poor Bodies that hes overthrown our Covenant and Work of Reformation shall wish as much that they had non overthrown them as ever they were bly that their overthrow stay till God gar a work of Reformation plead for it self with Vengeance and stay till God gar Vengeance speak for a broken Govenant and then all the Prelats and all the Lords in Scotland will not answer these arguments let them try their parts against the Covenant as they please but all the Prelats in Scotland shall not be able to answer the arguments of a broken Covenant when it pleads with vengeance A second thing of this Anchorage is the way how he brings it in I know sayes he God will maintain the cause of the afflicted And it is not an Outward and External or bare Speculative knowledge but a knowledge with a perswasion founded on an Infallible ground and a piece of Anchorage for a Christian to fix on is this Surely the Righteous shall give thanks to God A man cannot express his perswasion of a thing better nor by this Surely the Righteous shall give thanks unto thy Name It shall not be a thing only in the Heart and Thought to do but it shall be a done Turn