abound in the works of the Lord Oh sure there would not be that selfishness and sloth among Christians if this course was duely practised a draught of t his wine taken next thy heart every morning would make the lips of them that are asleep to speak Cant. 7. vers 9. it would shew its strength and generosity in a wakening and enflaming the spirits of believers so that the most dull and slow of speech would there be made good and cloquent speakers in the cause of God and thus live best to God II. You will live best to your selves to your own spiritual advantage if you live much in the sence of grace received Gain is a great incitive unto action what will you give me was Judas his question and is too much the compass by which many sail Christians are generally prudent and providential in their family provision That advice of the Apostle Rom. 12.17 Provide things honest in the sight of all men is followed by most and may be without blame if the care be moderate and the provision be of things honest that is if Christians follow lawful callings and so play above-board that they be not afraid who see what they do nor ashamed to be accountable to man for every penny which they return when they fear neither sin nor shame though all men were eye witnesses to their way of trading these are things honest indeed and if Christians onely provided these the mouths of many would be stopt yet I will shew you a more excellent way surely those things which tend to the well-being of the soul to the enriching of that and filling your coffers with grace and comfort that 's the way these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honest and good things which Christians should trade in and turn every stone to obtain now there is no way will sooner do it and with more safety then that which is mentioned that will bring in the quickest returns as will appear in these particulars if rightly improved 1. You will live best to your selves upon this account Because you will live most off from sin sence of pardoning and redeeming and renewing grace gives a notable check to lust and marveilously banks up corruption Rom. 6.1 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin we that are justified by faith so have peace with God through Jesus Christ shall we continue in sin we that have a surer standing in grace through Jesus Christ then Adam had when he had his standing in innocency shall we continue in sin we who when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son who shall be saved by his life and having now received the atonement do joy in God yee rejoyce in hope of the glory of God having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us shall we continue in sin Oh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein that were unreasonable and to an ingenuous renued nature impossible Oh! when a Saint seriously reads over the counsels of God ministred not with ink and paper but with the blood and spirit of his eternal Son and that in a way of free-grace and rich mercy his heart must needs rise against sin if it be in a right frame when he argues it out thus was I born a child of wrath within a hairs breadth of hell Did sin and death pass upon me and over me from Adam was I under judgement by one person and one sin to condemnation and have I received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life by one Jesus Christ And shall I sin against such a God against such grace Oh far be it did we often remember the dreadful terrors we lay under at our first awakening the doleful pangs of new birth the bitter wormwood wine which we drank in many and large draughts at our first repentance and sorrow for sin the sad fears of hell and wrath which overwhelmed us and then consider the riches of that grace which hath appeared tous in converting quickning quieting comforting and securing our souls against wrath to come we should find them singular yea sovereign antidotes against sin and may herewith put to silence the most audacious and importunate lusts See how the Apostle the weapons of whose warfar were mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of sin grapples with the national and common sin of Corinth 1 Cor. 6.13 14. ad finem and that was fornication and uncleanness a flesh-pleasing sin natures minion a sin for which Corinth was famous all over the world having store of Stews and Brothel-houses and a temple dedicated to Venus full-stockt with notable harlots yet the Apostle useth this way of Argumentation to bring them off I mean the Corinthian Professors from all unclean practices he lays before them First Their former estate how they were immersed in that sin of uncleaness and carried away with the torrent of those lusts some of you were fornicators adulterers effeminate Secondly The dangerous condition of those persons who lye and dye in those sinful practices they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven Thirdly The precious mercy of God unto them in recovering renewing pardoning and healing grace vers 9. Ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God Fourthly Their union with Christ and their engraffment into Christ vers 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Fifthly The indwelling of the holy Spirit whereby their bodies are consecrated to be the temples of God Know ye not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom ye have of God Sixthly That these bodies of theirs should be raised up by the power of God at the last day vers 14. And now what is the answer of a gracious heart to these arguments It is true I have lived in uncleanness that sin unpardoned excludes from heaven but through free-grace I am redeemed by the Lord Jesus and incorporated into him as a member into the head my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and it shall be raised up at the last day fashioned like unto the glorious body of my dear Saviour And shall I soil my self again in the sink of my former uncleanness Shall I spot my robe again which hath been washed and made white in the blood of the Lambe Shall I prostitute a member of Christ and defile a temple of the holy and eternal Spirit of Grace Oh no! Loetae vonire venus tristis abire solet I will not I dare not Surely such arguings will bring forth such resolutions as to an hatred of sin and love to holiness if we rightly improve
is upon me Lam. 1.12 It is the Devils masterpeice of pollicy to perswade tempted Saints that their sorrow is great that their sorrow is from the Lord that their great sorrow is from the Lord in a way of fierce anger and that it is a none-such calamity for hereby he perswades the Saints to hard thoughts of God and that God hath hard thoughts of them this he attempted upon Job by making his wife not a miserable comforter onely Reverend and learned Mr. Caryl in his Lectures upon this Scripture gives us the several judgment of expositors pag. 275 276 277 278. but a miserable counseller also when she sayes Job 2. ver 9. Dost thou still retain thine integrity Dost thou fear God still love God still have honourable thoughts of God still canst thou imagine that God should send or suffer all these evils upon thee and yet love thee yet bear the good-will of a Father unto thee surely no thou puttest a wrong Interpretation upon these sad providences and therefore answer hatred with hatred wrath with wrath revenge with revenge curse God let fly in the very face of God let the world know him to be such a God as thou findest him to be a harsh God an unmercifull God a cruel Master to his best servants and an implacable adversary to his best friends This seems to be the sence of those words curse God for Bereck as it signifies bowing the knee or speaking ill as 1 Kings 21. vers 10. The false witnesses laid it to Naboths charge That he did blaspheme God and the King yet the word is Berekath from Bereck Thus Job 1. v. 5. and Ver. 11. the same is used so that we need not study Arguments to acquit our Translatours of blame for rendring the word Curse God This reason is given by a learned Expositour Dr Richardson in locum That the crime of blaspemy was so odious yea execrable in those dayes that though the Hebrews had a proper word to express it by yet they chose rather to express it by a word which signifies to bless or praise God and there is much probabilities that this is the sence of the words Unless this Story of Iob was before the Law was given is the judgment of some Mr. Iackson in the 1 Ch. of Iob. Mr. Caryl and others Yet then had they the Law and light of nature by which they punished blasphemy with death Mr. Caryl in loc p. 28. because the Law against blasphemy was capital and punished the offender with death Levit. 24. ver 15 16. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin and he that blaspemeth the name of the Lord he shall surely be put to death and all the Congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger as the dweller in the land when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall he be put to death Now then the advice of Job's wife is this Curse God and die that is if thou cursest God the law of blasphemy will reach thee thou wilt be stoned to death and so have a speedy cure of all thy sores and sorrows Thus Mr. Caryl gives the sence page 281. and better it is to dy painfully then live miserably if she had intended a word of counsel unto him that notwithstanding all the sad Providences upon him yet he should bless and praise God under them why should she add and die this would not have made him culpable before man much less more provoked God against him and certainly Job's reply clears it up vers 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Nabal implies as well a wicked person as a fool as Psal 14.1 Nabal hath said in his heart there is no God and sure this person is a fool upon a Religious and moral as well as a natural account 2. Satan by this means would best reach the end he proposed and prove the truth of what he had asserted chap. 1.11 Put forth thy hand now and touch all his substance and he will curse thee to thy face So chap. 2.5 Oh the experience of tempted Saints is the best Expositor of this place they will tell you what sharp and sad assaults have been made upon them and what hard thoughts of God have been injected into them Oh that this might more caution us not to entertain any unworthy thought of God which in its kind is blasphemy as heart-adultery is adultery Oh bewail and beware of the Ranters spirit t is probable he began with an undervaluing thought of God which was the Serpents head and then that finding wellcome as the seed and spawn of an opinion and sect he wrigled in his whole body and tail also by bold and blasphemous oaths curses and Atheistical conclusions Ah friends it s our wisdom obstare principiis to stop the first leak that is sprung to scatter the first puff of this smoak which riseth from the bottomless pit least it gather into such thick clouds about our souls that it dims our eyes damps our comforts and deads our hearts also and in all our temptations it would be much our wisdom to consult the experiences of the Lords tryed ones for surely such may much advance comfort and much advantage the recovery of tempted ones if they parallel their condition with their own and tell them thus and thus have we been tempted in all points like unto you and the Lord stood by us in the day of our tryal and hath now bruised Satan under our feet and hath with the temptation made a way to escape 1. Cor. 10.13 we have found that it is the common lot of all Saints to be tempted and that God is faithful in his supplies and succors when they are tempted and therefore the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and God of all comfort who hath comforted us in all our trioulation through temptation hath enabled us to comfort you in these your troubles by the comfort wherewith we our selves have been comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.3 4. for as the crosses so the comforts of Saints are parallel as the desease so the cure is the same which experienced grace and succour well applyed will much advance in the hearts of tempted ones 3. There is a third case wherein experiences imparted and improved would singularly tend to the comfort of others and that is in the dark night of spiritual desertion it is not always clear day with the Saints the Sun of righteousness is often clouded sometimes eclipsed to them and surely the voiage is very uncomfortable when for many days together neither Sun nor Moon nor Star appear unto them it is the presence of God that giveth light and life unto the soul and therefore when God hides his face they are troubled Psal 30.7 This cast the Spouse into a swooning fit you may finde her dead up the ground Cant. 5.6 My soul failed ceased all vital operation and if you inquire into her
in spiritualls Who is he that shall deliver out of my hands I le make you know that ye are wrastling not with flesh and bloud men that are your matches but with principalities and powers who are much above your match there is impar congressus a great disparity in strength and wisdome and all things between me and you What are all the powers of the world to the God of this world what are all the dark plots of men to the projects of the Prince of darkness What are all the whiffling waters to the great Apollion who is the destroyer why answer greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 thy power Sathan is but a limitted power Christ our Redeemer hath thy chain in his hand thou canst not break one link of it nor pass one hairs breadth beyond thy boundaries besides Thou canst have no power against me except it be given the from above If thy Commission hath not pass'd the Signet-Office in heaven it is but a blank piece of parchment Nay farther thy head and thy heart and thy hand too have been all at work in those mischiefs that were plotted and acted against us and yet thou seest we have a sure footing in peace and safety when we were under water we had never come up again but had been quackned in the deep if the strength of thine arm could have kept our heads down when we were shut up in prison we had never came forth if thy bolts and locks could have made fast the doors when we were under the power of our enemies we had never come of with life if thy malice could have turned the points of their weapons against us But God made us to be pitied of all those that carried us away captive Psal 106. ver 46. Our sicknesses had been mortal if thou couldest have spilt the potion or stirred up the humours to have encreased the malignancy of the distempers but in all things wherein thou didst deal proudly God was above thee and he that rebuked thee in thine instruments will rebuke thee also in thine agency He that defeated thee as worldly Governors will defeat thee as spirituall wickedness also That wisdome goodness and power which secured our temporalls against thee will much more secure their spiritualls If thou couldest not spill our blood much less shalt thou be able to split our souls If thou couldest not take away our credit we are sure thou shalt not take away our crown If our goods were out of thy reach much more shall our graces and our glory be He that delivered us out of the mouth of the Lion will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdome But further if Sathan shall argue Who doubts the power of God or who disputes against his omnipotency but wherefore should God put forth his Almightiness to secure you against me what claim can ye make to that mercy and goodness ye speak of let your reply be Gal. 1. ver 4. That Christ gave himself for your sinnes that he might deliver you from this present evil world according to the will of God even your father And that sin and Sathan are they that make this present world evill all evills flow from them If therefore God our father willed the death of his Son to deliver us from this present evil world he willed his death to deliver us from thee and that bastard brat of thine sin also And more John 14. ver 30. The Lord Jesus said of thee the Prince of this world hath nothing in me nor any power over me and if not in Christ then neither in us at least not over us so that thou shalt be able to undoe us and destroy us We are one with Christ he is the head and we the members and we can lay a Gospel claim which is a good title to all Christ and to all of Christ which is communicable to the creature The Apostle gives us good warrant 1 Cor. 3. ver 21. All things are yours and why ye are Christs yea so Christs as that Christ is yours a relative propertie as is between husband and wife Hence 1 Cor. 1. ver 30. He is made unto us of God wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption as if the Apostle had said the wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption which are in and wrought by Jesus Christ are by deed of gift through grace made over unto us So then against thy wiles and stratagems and cunning methods O Sathan We have the wisdome of Christ which is ours for direction to secure us Against thy accusations enditements and charges for sin we have the righteousness of Christ which is ours for justification to acquit us against those heart-defilements corruptions and concupiscences wherewith thou wouldst soil us and foil us we have the holiness of Christ which is ours for Sanctification in some measure to defend us and against thy might and malice treachery and tyranny we have the kingly office of Christ his authority his omnipotency which are ours as to Redemption to protect us Oh this this name of the Lord thus displayed and believed upon is a strong tower in the hour of temptation All the batteries of Hell cannot make a breach in it Now then get into this hold shut the doors upon you and let your temporal preservations be as locks and barrs to forbid Sathans entrance Lift up your shield of Faith embossed with your own experiences and wherever that Lion shall roar upon you give him battel fight him upon his own ground be steadfast in the faith keep true to your own experiences and believe without wavering the unchangeableness of Gods nature and Attributes and the Yea and Amen of all his Promises Improve the sense of eminent mercies and deliverances by way of comfortable assurance to your selves in all your castings down and fears of your eternal welfare But I shall speak little and warily on this head having touched upon it already in a foregoing use and least presumption should get up and carnal Professours should kindle a fire fetching fuel from this passage and compass themselves about with sparks walking in the light of this fire and in the sparks which they have kindled which notwithstanding all these confidencies their doom is pronounced by the Lord himself that they shallly down in sorrow Isa 50. ver 11. Indeed this humour is very ranck Ministers cannot with all their pains preach and pray and print it down And therefore I direct this discourse to the children of the new birth who have the witness within themselves of the work and truth of grace such may fetch much comfort from the appearances of God unto them in a day of distress they may argue Is not the life more worth them meat and the body then raiment Is not the soul more precious then name credit limbs and life Have the mercies of God been so signally remarkeable upon a temporal
all impatient risings of heart against God in a day of distress and will lead out the spirit to submit unto and trust God in the greatest streights For as it followes in the second head of Doctrine The Saints of God do sometimes meet with such distresses Doctrine 2 that cut off all hopes of deliverance from man Reason is at a stand heart and flesh fail carnal policy is at a loss all proud helpers stoop in vain yea Faith it self beginneth to flagge Thus Gen. 21. vers 14 15 16. Hagar with her sonne are cast out of Abraham's family and are now in a wilderness a place inhabited onely by wilde beasts their stock of provision spent and no supplies to be had What then what courss will Hagar take why she layeth down her beloved boy under a bush And what then she goeth a distance from him not being able to bear his dying groanes and cryes and having emptyed her bottle of water she seeketh to emptie her moaning heart by teares seeing nothing but the death of her Sonne as knowing no way to prevent it a great distress a sad streight but not her case alone Many of the Saints of God have come to the emptying of their bottles to cases of utmost extremitie a parralel case was that of the poor widow 1 Kings 17. vers 12. her whole store was spent and markets shut up as to new supplies a handfull of meal in the barrel and a little oyl in the cruse was her whole livelihood and she is now gathering a handfull of sticks to bake one cake for her self and her Sonne and what will she do when that cake is eaten did she see relief coming some other way no these were her thoughts she and her sonne would eat that cake and die It were easie to multiply presidencies of this kinde upon both accounts temporall and spirituall streights of bodie and pressures of spirit have been matter of the Saints complaint 1. Oh then thou that art a servant of the Lord who hast not been brought into these streights upon whom such a day of distress hath not been but findest the incomes of the spirit dost take in comfort from the promises walkest in the light of God's countenance and hast the candle of the Lord shining upon thy Tabernacle as 1 Kings 1.6 That hast been the Lords Adonijah Oh! charge it home by the way of thankfulness upon thy heart that the Lord should lead thee unto the land of rest and not by the way of the wilderness 2. Let thy bowels yearn toward the distressed of the Lord pity them pray for them and administer seasonable supplies of comfort to them considering thy self as being in the body especially let thy heart go out in tender compassions towards the afflicted in spirit to those who are brought into soul streights whose case runneth parallel with that of Heman Psal 88. ver 3. My soul is full of troubles Heb. is satiated with evills hath its fill is brimm'd up yea running over and these so pressing that my life draweth nigh to the grave and then vers 8. I am shut up I am a prisoner under restraint I but it is libera custodia he may go forth with his keeper no I cannot go forth Oh! t is a sad thing to be a close Prisoner to be so shut up that he cannot steppe one foot beyond the grate to take any contentment in the creature any delight in outward enjoyments or any comforts in relations Ah but Heman's case is far sadder he is so shut up that his spirit cannot go forth in prayer to fetch in comfort from the Promises nor healing from the Spirit nor life from Jesus Christ nor pardoning mercy from the God and Father of mercies nor evidence of Electing love nor assurance of Redeeming grace nor demonstrations of Adopting grace nay nor satisfying and soul-quieting conclusions of truth of grace but free amongst the dead like the slain in the grave whom God remembreth no more Dead to duty dead in duty dead from duty spirit dead and heart dead affections dead desires dead comforts dead hope dead faith dead yea all dead Oh! this is sad above what words can express onely the heart knoweth its own bitterness yet this day of distress hath been upon many precious Saints Oh! then draw forth the breasts of consolation to such sad souls Stay them with flaggons comfort them with apples And let this give you incouraging hopes of success in all your applications that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples greatest distress which is the main point I pitch upon as being the chief scope of the Text. Doct. 3. The Lord comes in often with seasonable and suitable mercies in times of greatest miseries He loveth to be seen on the Mount to be a present help in the needful time of trouble to help when none else can help when refuge faileth and hope is now at the giving up the ghost See that Gen. 21. vers 17 18. When Hagars fears were highest and her faith lowest as too oft is seen that when fear is up then faith is down when death was coming and life going when the water was spent her patience spent and all spent when she had received the sentence of death within her self for her self at least for her son whom she had given up for a dead childe Then then God heard the voyce of the lad and calleth unto her and biddeth her lift up the lad yea her own faith and hope and spirit for there was an universal sinking in her and telleth her he will make him a great Nation as if he had said Fear not the life of the lad for there are many lives bound up in his life if I should let him perish I should lose a Nation yea a great Nation and that distrustful thoughts might not arise in her heart God openeth her eyes and she saw a Well of water and gave the lad drink Let us pitch down a little upon this Quotation for it is a place of pleasant springs and draw these Observations 1. That the goodness of God is a springing fountain unto the Saints even in a wilderness Psal 107.35 There is alwayes water in this fountain Psal 36. vers 9. With thee is the fountain of life There are springs of providence and springs of promises both which do send forth refreshing streams unto the Saints There are alwayes supplies in the Lords store-house fresh cordials in the Lords closet yea he can and will create deliverances for his Jacobs though Hagar was at a loss yet God was not though the ground was dry to her yet God can bring up springs of water through the secret veynes of the parched earth Oh! there is much support in this duely to improve the Omnipotency and All-sufficiency of God 2. That the Saints themselves sometimes have their eyes so shut up that they cannot see these springs of goodness Sometimes the heads of these springs lye
Hezekiah was a good man few better and had obtained of the Lord such a notable cure circumstantiated with so many miracles yet he was no sooner come into the world again but the Pompe and Grandieur of it wash't away the sense of this great mercy for being taken with the King of Babylons complement Tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi he shews his Embassadors all his treasures and that out of pride and ostentation 2 Kin. 20.12 13. And therefore friends watch narrowly over your own hearts and be earnest in prayer that the Lord would keep them in an humble and holy frame or else you 'l soon finde that as health comes on holiness and humility will go off and your old companions and corruptions will complement your spirits into their former frame III. Commune with your own hearts be very strict and serious in your enquiries why the Lord hath so afflicted you God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 It is foraign to the nature of God who is a God of mercies to delight in acts of cruelty towards his creatures or causlessly to chastize his own children A discreet Father doth not take the rod untill his child provokes him by some miscarriage nor doth the Father of spirits by whom actions are weighed correct his covenant ones untill they have offended Psal 89.30 31 32. He will not visit with the rod untill they have transgressed nor with stripes untill iniquity hath been committed The widdow of Sareptha so soon as ever her son was dead presently chargeth her sins with his death and laies his blood at sins door 1 King 17.18 What have I to do with thee thou man of God Art thou come to call my sins into remembrance and to slay my son Holy David toucheth the same string in that mournful ditty of his Psal 38.3 4 5. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sins for mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me here he speaks of his sins in the gross sum but afterwards descends to particularize that sin which he owned as the introducent cause of his sickness My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness The word signifieth unadvised rashness saies Mr. Trap. And t is probable he meaneth that particular sin in the business of Vriah Thus the Apostle writeth the Corinthians sin in their unworthy receiving the Lords Supper upon the teasters of their sick-beds and the cause of their death upon their grave stones For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11.30 Oh then let your spirits make diligent search as Asaph did be much in searching untill you have found out the true cause of your late distempers I shall lend you some help in your serious enquiry by shewing you what sins are mentioned in Scripture as introducent of sickness and which God either threatneth or punisheth with diseases As 1. Covetousness Isa 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart 2. Deceit Mic. 6.10 11 12 13. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked and the scant measure which is abominable shall I count them pure with the wicked ballances and with the bagge of deceitful weights The inhabitants have spokenlyes and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee in making thee desolate because of thy sins 3. Murmuring 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmure ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Num. 14.27 c. Say unto them as truely as I live saith the Lord as ye have spoken in mine ears so will I do unto them your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbred of you according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein Lay this to heart for this sin is as Epidemical as our sickness 4. Neglect of Religious education of children Ezek. 16.20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy whoredoms a smal matter That thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them therefore verse 23. Wo wo unto thee saith the Lord God 5. Covenant breaking Levit. 26.25 And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant and when ye are gathered together within your Cities I will send the pestilence among you 6. Formal profession and hipocrifie Ananias and Saphira his wife so sadly bear witness to this who for their spiritual juggling and deceit were not onely smitten with sickness but with suddain death Act. 5.1 2 3 4 5. 7. Undue receiving of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 8 Heresies Apoc. 2.22 Behold I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation 9. Want of due respect unto and fear of the great name of God Deut. 28.58 59. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law that are written in this book That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed even great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance Cause these sins as Joshuah did the Tribes of Israel 7.16 to pass before your consciences to finde out the Achan for which the Lord hath so sorely afflicted you and having found out those particular sins be humbled for them repent of them and carefully avoid all future tendencies unto them as Samuel advised Israel 1 Sam. 7.3 Put away the strange gods from among you and Ashteroth So do I you put away from you the love of all sins and especially Ashsteroth that sin which hath been the root of your disease and think you hear the Lord Jesus by his spirit speaking these words unto you Behold ye are made whole sin no more least a worse thing come unto you Joh. 5.14 And improve your late visitation with the present opportunities of grace That ye may be partakers of Gods Holiness Heb. 12.10 Consecrate your lives which ye have received a new from the dead unto the Lord devote your selves wholly to the service of the great God let me bespeak you in the words of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 That ye live no longer the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the
shall rebuke them the word signifies shall sharply and severely chide them or destroy them which implyed in the following words and they shall flee farre off and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a thing rouling before the whirlwind and behold at even tide trouble and before the morning he is not this is the portion of them that spoil us and the lot of them that rob us Isa 17. ver 13 14. O then be encouraged to hope and pray and pray in hope when the Church is brought into greatest straits when the Armies of Gog and Magog do go up on the breadth of the earth the number of whom is as the sand of the sea and compasse the camp of the Saints about and the beloved city that fire shall come down from heaven and devour them Apoc. 20.19 Let Davids practice be your pattern argue the Churches deliverances from your own if a man bestirre himself to quench a fire that hath taken hold of a remote cottage how much more will he lay out himself to preserve his manner house If a King send out his troops to secure a petty village from the Rovers how much more will he draw up his whole Army to secure the Royall city If the death of one Saint be precious how much more precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of many precious Saints O! God will be seen upon the mount Caelar-like he will either finde or make a way for their escape the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of every temptation 2 Pet. 2. ver 9. to fetch a Lot out of Sodom and a Judah out of Babylon The Churches extremitie is Gods opportunity when the tale of bricks is doubled then Moses will come as one saies 2. Improve your providential preservations by way of comfort in all your sufferings for the name and in the cause of Christ the Lord tells you tribulation in this world must be your portion and it is a characteristical mark of a true believer to be hated by the world they that have the crown in their eye must bear the cross upon their backs Now in the greatest tryal of affliction for the Gospel ye may draw forth and drink the wine of consolation ye may comfort your spirits by a serious reflection upon your experiences when ye remember what incomes ye had what strength what support what revivings of soul whilest ye lay upon such a bed of sickness were exposed to such hazzards environed with such dangers hedged in with such calamities when ye consider how the Lord fetch'd you off how seasonably Providence stepp'd in to your relief and how wonderfully God appeared for your deliverance Thus the Apostle argues in his own case 2 Cor. 1. ver 8. He tells the Church a great trouble which befell him in Asia it may be that at Ephesus Acts 19. ver 23. or that mentioned 1 Cor. 15. ver 32. but probably some other which Saint Luke mentions not which trouble he aggravates by three notable circumstances 1. We mere pressed out of measure above strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the burthen of a strong man should be laid upon the shoulders of a weak childe their being no proportion betwixt weight and strength 2. We despaired even of life had doubtfull thoughts arising in our hearts that we should not come off with life Note The most holy men have in this life their fits of unbelief 3. We had the sentence of death within our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the answer of death or we passed the sentence of death upon our selves I but God that raiseth up the dead delivered us from so great a death and what Inference doth faith make from hence why it begat an holy affiance in him that God would yet deliver him as if he had said I am yet to live in the world I have not yet finished my course nor fulfilled my Ministery and I know that bands and imprisonments for the Gospel yea trouble and persecution wait for me I but here 's the benefit of experience that God who supported me when I was pressed out of measure and above strength revok'd that sentence of death which I had passed upon my self and delivered me from so great a death he will yet deliver me he will graciously come in with supplies and support unto me that the gates of hell shall not prevail against me and why so confident Paul what bottomes this assurance why the name and nature of that God in whom he trusts his name is Jehovah I am I was and I am to come or I will be Now if you say there was danger I reply there was a God If you say there is danger I answer there is a God and if you fear there will be danger I believe there will be a God Jehovah answers to all these and he that was Jehovah to me in my former is Jehovah to me in my present and will be Jehovah to me in all my future sufferings for the Gospel He is I am in his nature as being yesterday to day and the same for ever and he is I am in his attributes and appearances for his people He is I am in his love to them he loves with an everlasting love even unto the end I am in his Covenant which is everlasting that he will be the God of his people unto death And he is I am in mine own experience I have found him to be so to me and therefore I do comfortably argue my heart into an expectancy of help from this God and may easily say He hath delivered he doth deliver and he will deliver me The same argument may the Saints take up by way of comfort and hope to themselves in times of persecution when they consider their former deliverances and Gods unchangeableness And now give me leave to make some digression in commending my thoughts by way of comfort to you and to my self in case we should be called forth to a suffering condition much hath been spoken and much to purpose on this subject yet all is little enough and many of the Saints have found it so in an hour of temptation 1. Lay this upon your spirits that your sufferings are upon you for God for his names sake it is ye are killed all the day long and led forth as sheep unto the slaughter ye suffer not as evil doers or busiebodies in other mens matters but for Religion sake the Gospel sake and for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers as the Apostle affirmes of himself Acts 26. ver 6. and therefore ye have good cause to gather up your spirits and humbly expect that God will stand by you and strengthen you in the day of your tryal This made good Mordecai speak at that rate of assurance Hest 4. ver 14. Enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews though Hester the most visible and likely person to