greatest straits and perplexities and though all may say these things make against them yet all are for their benefit who are the called according to his purpose 3. He is a faithful guide one that will not betray or ensnare them his guidance is ever such as tends to their good As he knows which is the best way so he leads them therein Psal. 25. 10. His paths are truth He may deal severely with his servants but he cannot he will not deal falsly Isa. 54. 10. The mountains shall depart the hills shall be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Convenant of my peace be removed Sooner shall heaven and earth cease than he will prove unfaithfull his people have his Word his Oath his Being and Nature in security for their faith and confident dependance on him This promise is worth mountains of Gold How great a matter is it to have a faithful a skilful guide that we may put confidence in one that will not fail his people that is faithful in his promise and in his proceedings Prov. 13. 17. A faithful Embassadour is health 4. He is his peoples only guide so far is he above all other guides that there is none fit to bear that name with him Deut. 32. 12. The Lord alone did lead him that is the children of Israel There was indeed the Ministry of Moses but that was such a subservient inconsiderable thing that Moses himself declines the mention of it ascribing the conduct of Israel to God only And hence it is that his servants depend only on him Psal. 65. 2. Oh thou that hearest prayers and workest deliverance And ascribe their welfare only to him Psal. 4. 8. Thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety 5. He is a continual guide He is ready upon all occasions to conduct and lead them He do's it not for a day or two but during their whole lives Psal. 48. 14. This God is our God for ever he will be our guide even unto death Isa. 58. 11. And the Lord shall guide thee continually He never ceases guiding them till he have brought them through all danger till he hath received them up to glory 6. God is an effectual guide to his servants and that in two respects 1. He makes them close with his guidance when he sees them goe astray he constrains them to close with his counsel and to be obsequious to his conduct When he sees them wandring he calls to them saying Isa. 30. 21. This is the way walk in it When they are going astray turning to the right hand or to the left either in prosperity or adversity God takes them as it were by the hand and makes them to go along with him He delivers to them his advice and causes them to close with it Jer. 18. 2. Go down to the potters house and there I will cause thee to hear my words Ezek. 32. He caused me to eat the roll What a Magnetism was there in the words of Christ when he spoke to Simon and Andrew what an attractive and drawing power had they Mark 1. 18. For they straitway forsook their nets and followed him It was a strange thing that the words of a stranger and one that had no outward splendor nor authority and power no glory and lustre should so prevail upon men that were busie upon their imployments to throw all away and immediately follow him There went power from Christ to engage them secretly to yield to his commands 2. He is an effectual guide because he blesses his guidance to them insomuch that they attain the end which they propose to themselves in following him Mat. 19. 28 29. You that have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in in the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Those that follow him shall not do it for nought they shall not be losers though they leave father mother wife children lands for his names sake but shall receive an hundred fold and inherit everlasting life 2. What kind of counsel God guides his people with and there is a fourfold counsel that he guides them with 1. There is the counsel of his purpose The Holy Ghost useth to call the purpose of God his counsel Psal. 33. 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever The thoughts of his heart to all generations This is the purpose and councell that shall stand Prov. 19. 21. When the devices in mens hearts and their subtil and secret thoughts shall be cut off God can bring about his purpose that all things shall fall out according to the counsel of his will Let mountains lie in the way God can remove them if rocks God can divide them if waters he can dry them up if fire God can quench it God doth guide his people by his counsel inasmuch as he fulfils it upon them and conforms their condition to it As if a father take up such purposes concerning the government of his children and then manage all things towards them in a way agreeable thereunto he may be said to govern them by those purposes so it is in this case God doth rule and governe guide and direct his people according to his purpose and counsel set down with himself that nothing shall happen to them but what he hath designed and for very good purposes to them So Rom. 9. 11. That the purpose of God according to election may stand Jacob have I loved Rom. 11. 7. The Election hath obtained mercy in Christ. So strict herein is God that in all his proceedings with his children he still keeps close unto his purpose not departing so much as an hairs breadth therefrom So that we see though his purposes be no rule to us it is to him the perfection of his nature requiring that what he purposes he should perform 2. There is the counsel of his word that the Holy Ghost stiles his counsel Luke 7. 30. But the Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves This is the revelation of his counsel and eternal purpose and contains omne quod a nobis vult fieri multum quod ipse vult facere All that he would have us do and that much he himself will do but not all for it is enough and abundantly sufficient that God hath revealed what is our duty and what we should do This is that fixed and standing rule God hath delivered to us to walk by Psal. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path It is the Lanthorn that God hath hanged out of heaven to guide us thither Hereby he directs us what to do in order to our comfort here and happiness hereafter this word we are to have recourseto upon all occasions We must have an eye to the Law and to the Testimony Asaph went to the Temple heard the word of God then his questions were dispelled
near to God 3. It will inform us of the great difference that is between good men and others the one lives above the other below one upon the Creature the other on the Creator Some are so far from being ever with God that they desire it not They say unto God Job 21. 14. Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Psalm 10. 4. God is not in all their thoughts There is a vast difference between the dispositions of good and bad Take a good man and the frame of his heart is to be solicitous about God and thoughtful about God in duty Will this please will this honour God As to sin How shall I do this evil and sin against God As to Ordinances he seeks God in them and enquires whether he have met with God If God hath withdrawn himself he is troubled It is not so with the wicked they are not solicitous about any such thing their care thoughts and endeavours is how they may be well thought of reputed how they may drive on their covetous lustful or malitious designs How they may gratifie their senses They fense and keep of any passes that are made by Gods messengers to pierce them towards their conviction and amendment They will not bear the thoughts of God and their duty Use 2. of Exhortation If it be the property of pious and holy men to be with God to abide with him and herein to rise to this degree of being ever with him Then as ever we would be pious and holy men reputed such and found such let us endeavour ever to be with God spend our days with him No company is like unto God's you have heard in the Reasons Let the Divel the World the Flesh say what they will no company like society with the Father and the Son Let us seriously consider whether it be not as well our interest as our duty to live more unto and with God It may be for a Lamentation unto us that when some pious Christians have been spending all their time with God yet we have been but little taken up with that good company How little Lord have we been with thee even when we have stood before thee as thy people that desired to know thy ways and do thy will How little of our hearts hast thou had when with our mouths we have professed much love How have the world our lusts run away with our souls thoughts and affections and left thee the outside and carcases of Christians Let us run through all difficulties that we may get to God Idolaters would run through the very fire to get to their Idols 2 Kings 16. 3. A strange piece of devotion and this was partly to express their great zeal toward them and partly to be purged from their sins and so to be a fitter sacrifice for their Idols Let our souls then make hard after the true and living God though through difficulties and fiery trials Psalm 63. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee Hereunto take these directions 1. Withdraw your affections from the world Look upon it as below you to spend your pretious time in converse therewith Reason thus with your selves What hath God given me a a soul fit to converse with himself and shall I pass my time in converse with this dunghill this impure filthy world God forbid He hath designed me for nobler matters and shall I not do what I can to pursue them As ever you love God and would be with him to enjoy his love for ever love not the world withdraw your affection from it 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 2. Take pains with your souls to raise and lift them up to God They are naturally averse to be with God as children are naturally averse to be with their aged parents they would rather be in the streets with their play-fellows and children of their age and humour so natural men are averse to be with God they would rather be in the World about trifles By how much the more backward they are the more pains we should take take with our hearts say thus to thy self It is better for me to be at some pains and trouble now than to be in eternal flames and misery for ever David labours to lift up his heart Psal. 25. 1. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul. The heart is naturally addicted to sink down into sensuality it should be raised up Isa. 64. 7. There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee There must be a rowsing and stirring up of these sluggish and indisposed hearts of ours How vainly and unreasonably do many wicked persons reason themselves into Hell and destruction I am as good as God hath made me and shall I be damned for that averseness of spirit which is natural to me and I brought with me into the World This is Christians divelish arguing which Satan suggests and puts into mens mouths that he may drive them on farther to ruine You must be taken off your own bent and affections or you will be ruined for ever It had been better you had never been born than that you should rest in the same state of wretchedness wherein you are by nature Take pains therefore with your hearts though they shrink and draw back yet follow them from room to room from one idle excuse to another till they be driven out of all harbour Lay hold of them keep them fast say soul I must I will have thee up to God Thou must dwell with God here or else thou must never dwell with him hereafter 3. Allow not your selves in any sinful and ungodly course that sets God at a distance from you and begets a fear and dread in the soul that makes it run from God as offended till it recover the thoughts of Gods mercies and then the soul returns and comes toward God with trembling Now if the soul would be still with God with how much boldness might it approach into the divine presence If you do allow your selves in any unwarrantable course you stop that entercourse you might have with God therefore when you begin to feel your souls starting aside from God recall them charge them to keep close to God leave them not till you have brought them into some good frame and resolve as David Thy benefits are so innumerable they are so large a theme for my thoughts that Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee Yet he had a holy jealousie over him self ver 23. 24. Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Daved was a man that did commune much with his own heart and knew how things went with himself Yet he is desirous that God would make a
had need of patience that after they have done the will of God they may receive the promises But yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 36 37. Their miseries shall have bounds and an end They shall not always be sighing under their burdensâ— sobbing out their complaints there is a rest after all their travels a land flowing with milk and honey with rivers of pleasures for a dry and barren wilderness The wickedness of the wicked will come to an end the Devil may rage and roar and raise persecution and they suffer tribulation ten daies Rev. 2. 10. The Devils Agents have their hour Luke 22. 53. This is your hour and the power of darkness Nay all the calamities of the people of God are light and but for a moment if compared with eternity of glory 2 They shall be upheld and kept from eternall destruction The ungodly shall not stand in judgment nor sinners in the Congregation of the righteous Psal. 1. 5. They shall be cast and fall in the trial when the assembly of the first-born shall stand and be acquitted and received into those everlasting and blessed habitations with a happy welcome Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you They shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 2 Pet. 1. 5. 2. Having shown what God upholds his people from in the next place we shall shew by what God upholds them 1. By his own immediate hand without the interposition or ministry of his creatures as Christ caught Peter sinking This is called Gods creating of their happiness that they may be glad and rejoyce in that which he doth create when he creates Jerusalem a rejoycing brings about the prosperity of his people when there is nothing of sufficiency or disposition in matter and means to produce such an effect When by his Fiat he commands deliverance for Jacob. And although some creatures are made use of they are such as are inconsiderable and ineffectual without miraculous power to cause any thing of this nature and conduce the least naturally towards their deliverance nay it may be contrary to their nature and above their ordinary power they are commanded to their service and answer Gods command The sea is taught to distinguish between the Egyptians and Israelites and made a way for the ransomed to pass over Elijah is fed by a Raven When Daniel is thrown into the den the hungry Lions Forget their hunger and cruelty The vermine plague Egypt and trouble not Goshen At the sound of the rams horns and the shout of Israel the walls of Jericho fall God has secret and invincible ways of conveying relief to his people They cannot be in so close a prison so begirt with danger but he can come to them comfort and deliver them manifest that help and salvation is from the Lord. He sends in his comforts to them that can pass through guards and iron gates unseen unheard and not to be resisted which their enemies cannot hinder them of and these they cannot take away from them Hos. 2. 14. When he hath brought them into the wilderness he speaks comfortably to them he sends an encouraging message to Paul Be of good cheer and in the multitudes of their thoughts within them his comforts delight their souls Psal. 94. 19. 2. God upholds his people by his word whereby he affords them instruction encouragement and comfort When they are in distress they betake them thither as to a Sacred Directory and are preserved from evil Psal. 17. 4. By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the path of the destroyer Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal. 119. 11. They go to the word as a Sanctuary and in the word the Psalmist took sanctuary against his fears Psal 73. 17. He was perplexed till he came into Gods Sanctuary Some by Sanctuary do understand Heaven till he thought of heaven he was not satisfied Others by Sanctuary understand the place where Gods word was read and unfolded and there are that by Sanctuary will have the word of God to be meant Though Asaph might not mean the word by Sanctuary yet it was the word in the Sanctuary which afforded him comfort and resolution in that great perplexity And this was Davids comfort in his affliction the word of God quickned him Psal. 119. 50. 3. God upholds them by his creatures his Angels his ministers and their brethren in tribulation and suffering Our Lord himself was strengthned by an Angel Luke 22. 43. and Heb. 1. 14. Are they not ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation By his Ministers he doth mightily uphold and strengthen them They are given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till they come to a perfect man the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 12 13. VVe are helpers of your joy saith the Apostle to the Corinthians not exercising Lordship over your saith 2 Cor. 1. 24. What mighty confirmation were Paul and Barnabas to the Churches Acts 14. 22. They returned to Lystra Iconium and Antioch confirming the souls of the Disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith The people of God are mutually helpful for the establishing of one another Job did uphold many Job 4. 4. And Eliphas spoke true in saying That he had strengthned the feeble knees and weak hands and had upholden him that was falling And God blesseth some with special comforts that they may be a relief to others by their experiences and may tell what God hath done for their souls 2 Cor. 1. 4. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may he able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God 4. By his Providences which have been so signal and remarkable that have raised them out of their fears and revived their hope and confidence when their eyes have even failed with looking When mercies have come in which they have been almost ready to despair of And God hath turned the stream of affairs towards their relief and prosperity and brought about that which was improbable and they looked not for Thus Jacob was revived Genesis 45. 22. We come to the reasons Why God upholds his people And they are drawn 1. From the love of God His love to them is so great that they are called the beloved of his soul Jer. 12. 7. He hath more love care tenderness than the fathers of our flesh If they being evil know how to give good gifts unto their children how much more shall our heavenly Father give the holy spirit to them that ask him Luk. 11. 13. In correcting his people he sheweth more pitty and goodness For the Fathers of our flesh corrected us and for a few days chastened us after their own
his doubts and scruples resolved 3. There is the counsel of his Spirit whom he sends to them to acquaint them with the meaning of his word and to help them to accommodate it and apply it to their present case and condition The word through our weakness not being sufficient he sends his Spirit in to our assistance not to make any new revelations to us or to acquaint us with any more than the word contains but to enlighten our understandings that we may see the meaning of it and bow our wills to a compliance with it God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book that shall add to these things Rev. 22. 18. Joh. 16. 13. He shall guide you into all truth The Holy Ghost doth guide us into all those necessary truths contained in the word of God 4. There is the Counsel of his Providences God doth many times discover his will to his servants in them thereby declaring what he likes and what he dislikes what he would have them to do and what to decline Psalm 32. 8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go I will guide thee with mine eye The Master when he is in Company sometimes directs his servant by his eye what to do and so God There is an eye in his Providence he doth sometimes look upon his people when backsliden as Christ did upon Peter when he had deny'd him which makes them remember what they have done and weep bitterly The eye of this Providence saith a gracious soul is upon me I must do this and the other Duty Sometimes Gods Providences carry in them so much light and evidence and such plain intimations of his mind and will that there is no room for contradiction or doubting as Gen. 24. 50. The Providence mentioned by and afforded to Abrahams servant was so pat and evident that Laban and Bethuel answered The thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot speak unto thee bad or good that is either one thing or other against it It is as Munster and Fagius note a Synecdoche expressing both parts but intending only one Good they could not speak against it evil they would not The like Proverbial speech we have Gen. 31. 24. God chargeth Laban as he was pursuing Jacob that he should not speak to Jacob neither good nor bad by no means direct or indirect to do him violence by flatteries or threats to detain him Why doth God doth thus guide his people by his Counsel Réason 1. Is taken from their necessity of it And that proceeds partly from the difficulties attending our present condition partly from our inability to manage them and get through them As for the difficulties attending us they are many and great Psal. 34. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all Acts 14. 22. That we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God And then for the due management and getting through them we are not of our selves able to do it Were we furnished with natural light and wisdom sufficient to direct us upon all occasions and help us through all our troubles the Counsel of God might be spared But alas still our abilities are so weak natural or acquired and we are surrounded with temptations to lead us as ignes fatui do many out of â—he way and into danger if not destruction And have such deceitful hearts that entertain the enemy many times pollute and profane Gods Ordinances we have need of Gods deliverance and guidance The best of Gods servants are not without their sins Deut. 32. 28. We are void of Counsel neither is there understanding in us How ignorant blind and dull were Israel an holy people in the matters of Religion How were their neighbours ever and anon drawing them to Idolatry or rather they like wantons gadding abroad to learn the fashions of the heathenish abominations When Moses their guide was in the Mount how do they run mad upon their Idolatry How much more should we lye open to all wickedness had we not God for our guide God sees our frailty and weakness and therefore complies with our necessities and conveys his guidance to us 2. From their prayers to him for his guidance and Counsel being sensible both of their difficulties they must encounter and inabilities to overcome them and get through them of themselves they betake themselves to him and crave his help Psal. 31. 3. Thou art my rock and my fortress therefore for thy names sake lead me and guide me David was wiser than his teachers had made great progress in Religion yet with what argument and importunitie With what sense and affection begs he the guidance of Gods spirit For thy name sake lead me as if he had said such are my straits and infirmities that except thou guide me by thy Counsel I shall perish I shall be lost and undone What influence their earnest and believing prayers have on God appears from Gen. 32. 26. saith the Angel to Jacob Let me go Jacob would not let him go unless he blessed him Thus as a Prince he hath power with God and prevails for a blessing So Moses wrestles with God Exod. 32. 10. till God says Let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them God speaks as one that is held back from beating his child Oh the mighty power that poor praying believing Jacobs and Moseses have with God to hold as it were his hand striking not that there is any impotency in God but to give a greater lustre to his Ordinance 3. From the mercy and goodness of his own nature which puts him upon helping his people in their Distress When the father sees his child faln into distress he runs and helps So God when his servants are perplexed and fallen into doubts he resolves them by his Counsel when they are dangerouslly wandring amongst pits and snares of temptation he runs in to their preservation or rescue and leads them in a safe way He will not stand over them and see them perish but when they are sinking he puts forth his hand as Christ to Peter and saves them Whence doth this proceed From his mercy to them that will pull them out of danger as the Angels did Lot his wife and daughters taking them by the hand So Isa. 49. 10. Hunger or thirst heat or Sun shall not hurt them For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them Which is mentioned not only as a description of his nature but likewise as the reason wherefore he would do it He hath mercy on them therefore he will do it upon the account of that mercy that is in his own bosom 4. From his promise whereby he hath engaged himself as they stand in need to administer advice to them to furnish them with matter of hope and confidence Psal. 32.
to be their portion inasmuch as he hath settled himself upon them in order to their sustentation and happiness First I shall shew what a portion is and Secondly what a portion God is to his people 1. What a portion is To that I answer that a mans portion as you that are but little experienced in the world know is a certain measure or parcel of Money Lands or Goods which is made over to him and settled upon him for his subsistence and livelihood Thus the prodigal Luke 15. 12. saith to his Father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me Now when the Scripture saith that God is the portion of his people we are to understand that he is somewhat bearing resemblance thereunto as that he hath made over himself to his people and settled himself upon them for the subsistence and livelihood both of their bodies and souls Therefore the Priests and Levites should have no inheritance among their brethren because that the Lord was their inheritance Deut. 18. 2. They were not to be sharers in the spoyl taken from the enemy as the other tribes were yet they had this to recompence it that God was their inheritance who did in a peculiar way make provision for their supply 2. VVhat kind of a portion God is And 1. He is a real and substantial portion As for the things of the world they are shadows and dreams void of reality and substance Prov. 22. 5. VVordly wealth is a thing of such a nature that it hath no real existence It is rather an empty shew than any real being so Hos. 12. 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the East wind Frivolous and foolish helps and comforts What bad food is the Wind It may distemper and disorder us but it cannot satisfie and nourish us Yet this is the state of all worldly things that they are of an airy windy nature void of matter and substance But it is not so with God he hath substance in him insomuch that what he seems to be that we shall find him to the full Prov. 8. 21. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for substance which signifies that which is really or as a Lapide as others note rem solide vereque subsistentem such a thing as is not a shadow or meer resemblance but hath a solid and true subsistence As for worldly portions they afford an appearance but want substance but now God is such a portion as hath substance durable substance and precious 2. He is a plentiful portion Some have portions but they are not commensurate to what is required to their subsistence but in God there is whatsoever is necessary for our subsistence comfort and happines He is exercised with strange wants whom God is not able to supply Psal. 50. 12. The World is mine and the fulness thereof And besides the world he hath an inexhaustible fulness in himself which would afford sufficient supply though the world should utterly fail Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield saith God to Abram and thy exceeding great reward It was he that made the world and he can supply his servants without it He can create comforts for his people if he sees needful And sooner than they shall want what is necessary for them he will proceed beyond the ordinary way of his providence and shew a miraculous power in raising supplies They have a God alsufficient whom no difficulty can pose and is able to bring about what is possible to be done and nothing can be necessary to any which is impossible to be Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect 3. He is a satisfying portion Though the portions of persons are never so great yet how few are satisfied therewith Nay commonly the more they have the further they are from satisfaction and contentment Eccl. 5. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase How insatiable are mens desires and how do their plentiful enjoyment sharpen their appetite to more and beget discontented cravings to an endless dissatisfaction and toil for that which dothnot satiate But God doth satisfie the souls of his people Jer. 31. 14. And I will satiate the soul of the Priests with fatness and my people shall be satisfied with goodness saith the Lord. He needs must be very unreasonable whom God will not satisfie 4. He is such a Portion as can make himself a blessing to us Now this is more than any other portion or the donor thereof can do Men may bestow portions but they cannot make them blessings to those who have them A father may leave his child a portion but he cannot command a blessing upon it nor absolutely promise himself that the child shall not turn it into a curse but God hath blessings at command Psal. 133. 3. As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended from the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore And it is not to be conceived how a man should have him for his portion and not have a blessing in him What have blessedness it self and not have a blessing of him that cannot be immagined 5. He is an everlasting Portion He is such that he can neither be taken from us nor diminished All the arts of men and devils cannot take him from his people Plutarch tells of the Tyrians that they chained up their gods lest their enemies by charms or such like arts should entice them from them And pitiful Gods they were first that might be chained 2. That must be chained least they overrun those who confided in them Our God forsaketh not those that trust in him And as he cannot be taken from his people so after they have lived upon him thousands of years they will find him as full as ever they did before He is fons indeficiens a never failing fountain Nothwithstanding his supplying heaven and earth from the Creation to this day yet he 's as full as ever he was before Though the Sun by its shining and the Sea by its flowing should suffer a diminution the one in its light the other in its water yet God after all his communications will be as full as ever for he is their Portion for ever 3. How became he their portion Answ. It was his own act and deed He did of his own free accord convey himself to us and settle himself upon us Seeing us a poor lost and undone people he did of his own meer grace and compassion bestow himself upon us Ezek. 16. 8. I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness c. Oh what a great act of grace was this If a man of a great Estate seeing a poor distressed child forsaken forlorn should adopt him for his Son and settle all he hath upon him would