learne righteousnes Or if the Lord deliver his Church by overthrowing only the plots and conspiracies of the wicked disappointing them in bringing to passe their mischeife yet this also is a thing Reverend it should cause us to reverence him because he is able to confound the wise and to be-foole the wicked with the workes of their owne hands or lastly if the Lord releive his Church by small meanes or by unlikely meanes or by no meanes yet all this should worke reverence in us to feare that God who doth so great things in so great and wonderfull and unexpressible manner doing for his Church above all that we can imagine and thinke of Thus every way God delivers and preserves his Church by terrible things we now see what these are Secondly that God will thus preserve his people by terrible things that is by things striking terror into adversaries and working wonder in his children and which workes or should worke reverence towards him from all sorts three reasons evince 1. God delights to meete with his Churches adversaries in their owne way he will out shoot them in their owne bow They desire to appeare terrible and formidable to it if they can but put men into feare they thinke they shall have the day they triumph if they can raise a terrour and feare in people and therfore God will serve them as they would serve others he will meete with them in a way of terrout searing them and making them slie when none pursues Adoni-bezek confessed that seventy Kings by him had their thumbes and great toes cut off as I have done so God requited me saith he Haman prepares a gallowes for Mordecai and the same gallowes hangs him God will be terrible to those who delight to be terrible The wicked have drawen out the sword and have bent their bow to cast downe the poore and needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation their sword shall enter into their owne heart and their bowes shall be broken Cruell terrible men shalt be dealt with cruelly at one time or other Ebedmelech shewed kindnesse to Jeremiah in prison and therfore God preserved him But the other Princes which had incensed the King against him were given up into the hand of their adversaries God will be terrible to those who seeke to put his people into horror and amazement Pashur smote Jeremiah and put him into the stocks all night he thought to have terrified the Prophet but the Lord threatens him to be terrified The Lord saith Jeremiah from the Lord hath not called thy name Pashur but Magor-missabib for thus saith the Lord behold I will make thee a terror to thy selfe and to all thy friends 2. God will save his people by terrible things because he will shew to all the world how terrible a God he is whom his people so dreadfully and reverentially adore All shall therby understand that he is a God working wonderfully Thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone saith the Psalmist He himselfe challengeth his creatures to doe as he hath done Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the world c. Hast thou an arme like God and canst thou thunder with his voice The great ones of the earth which cause others to trimble and feare are hurled up and downe as piles of dust in a whirlewinde by the smoake of his nostrills God will have the world to know that he is more terrible then any thing which the world accounts terrible Wicked and sinfull men are many times a great terror But who art thou saith the Prophet that are afraid of man who shall dye and of the sonne of man who shall be made as grasse and forgets the Lord thy maker They may destroy the body but when they have done they can doe no more but feare God who can destroy both body and soule in hell fire Againe death is the terrible of terribles saith the Philosopher adversaries of the Church are so terrible because they come as it were armed with death and are ready to destroy but yet God is more terrible for he only can instict death It is not the rage fury and malice of adversaries which can cause any to die as God gives life so he takes it away he makes alive and he kills Now God will shew himselfe to be more terrible then they though they come armed with death by turning their owne terror death upon themselves He shall bring on them their owne iniquity and shall cut them off in their owne wickednesse yea the Lord our God shall cut them off And 3. God will save his people by terrible things that all the earth may stand in awe of him and feare him and know him only to be God Who would not fear thee oh thou King of nations there is none like thee c. saith the Prophet The Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King at his wrath the earth shall tremble and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation God would be terrible to Pharoh in his judgments to get himselfe a name in all the world and so he will be to the enemyes of his Church that the world may know that he is a terrible God and that the adversaryes may be compelled to cry out who is able to dwell with the everlasting burning and likewise that his owne people may therby learne to serve him acceptably with reverence and godly feare because our God is a consuming fire Wicked enemies may kindle a fire to scare a Nation and fill therby a Landfull of terror and trembling but yet God can keepe his own so as there shall not passe the small of fire on them for he will be with them when they passe through fire and water How ever the adversaries fire shall not be a destroying fire to Gods Church for when he beginnes to shew himselfe terrible to them he will be unto them a consuming fire and will quench all the fires which they have kindled and so free the Land from all their feare but yet all will be with a terrible destruction to the most terrible ones continuing unrepentant among the adversaries Behold all yee that kindle a fire that compasse your selves about with sparkes walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you have kindled this yee shall have of mine hands you shall lie downe in sorrow Thus the point is cleared Because God will shew himselfe to be a God of terror a God of vengeance a God to befeared respected reverenced and dreaded therefore he will execute terrible things on the wicked and thereby preserve his Church and people by terrible things Thirdly We will now see what for practice may hence be learned And briefely 1. Seeing God will preserve his Church and people by terrible things then surely the world must expect no other but
they have happy successe in their undertakings yet looke through all on God as the donor and giver of it and as the worker of all their workes for them and in them A man who though he hath bread and sits downe therto yet knowing that he is not fed by bread alone but by Gods blessing by the word that proceedeth out of Gods mouth therfore he trusts in God and though he watcheth and buildeth yet still he lookes to God acknowledging that except the Lord keepe the city the watchmen waketh but in vaine and except the Lord build the house he labours in vain who buildeth it and if he plow and tills his ground yet confesses that it is God who gives him knowledge unto it and that blesseth his labours and therefore whilest he is about his ordinary imployments yet he hopes and trusts in God even in plowing there is hope the man who doth thus is one undoubtedly who maketh God his confidence and so also this is seene 2. When men make God their confidence though they have no apparent meanes of effecting what they are about or intend Gideon saw no way wherby God would give deliverance by him from the Midianites yet he trusted on God and relyed on him David going out against the Philistine onely with a staffe and a sling yet trusted in God The Lord that kept me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Beare he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine The Apostles and Disciples which went on Christs message without money and change of raiment yet trusted on God for provision and lacked nothing And so when men trust on God for a blessing on their callings labour though they see no likelihood of their thriving therin and so when a man in the use of spirituall meanes still trusts God he will make use of the ordinances he is attentive to the word he reades meditates prayes comes to the Sacrament and it may be he finds little comfort in all his soule is nothing more quickned nor at all setled by them and yet out of conscience to Gods commandements he useth these depending not on them but trusting to God that at last he shall have comfort settlement and peace by them though for the present he find none 3. When a man hath all meanes in appearance contrary to him every thing seemes to work against him yet he doth put his trust in God that God will still make good his promise shewing himselfe gracious and being still the preserver of his people This is trusting in God and making him our confidence here beyond all hope is a beleeving in hope against hope against all that is seene Thus when a man seeth all the world band together against the Church when Kings Rulers Nobles great mighty powerful wise and subtill ones yea people of all sorts combine and conspire to root out Christian profession and to bring a licentious Libertinisme and Atheisme into the world when he shall see the Church in distresses and perplexities as it were besieged on all sides yet then to trust in God and to bee able to see as Elisha moe for the Church then against it this is a making God our confidence it is a relying and trusting on him So when in great penury in the want of food and sustenance one yet relies on God it is a great degree of confidence Thus Eliah trusted to God for his feeding by Ravens and afterward for his food from the meale in the barrell and the oyle in the widdowes cruse It was a great degree of confidence in the Prophet Habbakuk that though the fig-tree should not blossome nor fruit should be in the vine the labour of the Olive should faile and the field should yeeld no meate the flocks should bee cut off from the fold and there should be no herd in the stalls yet he saith he would rejoyce in the Lord and would joy in the God of his salvation It is an high degree of confidence still to rely on God in the want of means and so it is to relie on him in the contrariety of meanes so David trusted in God when he seemed to be abandoned of all if he hath a favour to me said he I shall see both the Arke and this place And so in spiritualls when all seemes contrary yet then trust in God the Law perhaps thunders out death against the soule of a poore sinner the Gospell yeelds no comfort godly conference addes nothing holy exercises leaves him still as it found him comfortlesse and troubled yea perhaps more troubled because we have used them yet it still doth trust in God looking beyond sense peeping within the vaile and perceiving that God will at last speake peace and though hee slay yet with Iob it will still trust in him this is a very great exaltation of God and making him our confidence These and many like cases may be ours when the meanes appointed to do us good seeme to worke contrary and yet in conclusion they will do us good it is our duety how ever they worke to trust to God making him our confidence A man having a faithfull freind whom he knowes to be trusty and reall in any thing which he undertakes for him though he perceives that things go untowardly crosse in his freinds managing some affaires for him yet he relyes on him and is confident that he will do all to his advantage at the last or as when a man hath a faithfull counseller to follow his cause and plead it he sees perhaps his counseller much crossed and thwarted yet knowing him to be cordiall and wise and sollicitous in his undertaking and very carefull to take any occasion and to make use of any thing offered to promote his good he will depend on him for solliciting his cause to the utmost such a thing is our trusting in God though in a farre more eminent way we trust him as a freind to manage all for us and though we apprehend that things prove otherwise then wee expected yet wee still depend on God knowing that he will at last cause all things to work for our best We trust him also as our counsellour who will thoroughly plead the cause of his people and though they seeme a while to suffer yet he will at last give peace to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon In these respects God is said to be the confidence of his people in all places Thirdly the reasons or grounds why Gods people so confide in him or why God is thus their confidence are these two to name no more 1. His people in all places in all estates in all conditions desire to glorifie him above all and this they do most by confiding and trusting in him For. 1. They glorifie his providence while they thus rely depend and stay themselves on him Their trusting in him sheweth that they are a people at his
such who betake them to his appointed meanes It is a delusion to thinke to come to heaven without walking in the way to it it is as if men expected to reape an harvest and yet never sowed a graine of seede So likewise he never trusts God for outwards who doth not apply himselfe to an industrious way of obteining them why looke yee said Jacob to his sonnes one upon another I have heard that there is corne in Aegypt get yee downe thither and buy for us from thence A confidentiall man will be industrious in the use of meanes 4. He who makes God his confidence will not put forth his hands unto unlawfull means for his helpe David relied on God for the Kingdome of Saul but would not use unlawfull meanes to obteine it Such never trusted God who resolve to steale oppresse defraud lie and flatter and use wicked meanes to gain a penny They trust not God who take a pension from Mammon Nor they who when they misse a thing or when any thing is amisse with them will consult with witches and wizards as once Saul did with the witch of Endor and Abaziah sent to the God of Eknon 5. He who makes God his confidence will be undaunted in any condition Confidence in God makes the heart invincible It is true an holy confiding man when evill comes cannot but see it and be thereof sensible and troubled at it but though he be troubled on all sides as the Apostle speakes yet he is not in despaire though he be sometimes afraid yet with David he can say in this will I be confident in this he is confident that God is his refuge his present helpe in trouble his preserver from the hurt of evill Though I walke saith David thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill for thou art with me He may suspect his confidence whose heart in troubles is wholy spiritles and comfortles drooping and dwining away as Naballs did he may feare he is not yet resolved to commit freely his soule into the hands of God who is a faithfull creatour The confiding man will not be heartlesse though an universall death and desolation befall the land because he knowes that by death he shall be translated hence to see the goodnesse of the Lord I had fainted saith David unlesse I had beleived to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Thus every one good and bad may try whether they have made the Lord their confidence 2. There are also some signes which may helpe all Gods truly faithfull people to gaine assurance that they have undoubtedly made him their confidence Many of those I know complain of unbeleeving and despairing hearts that they cannot confide and trust in God as they should To whom for comfort I answer that true beleevers may know that they have really made God their confidence if ever the Lord please to bring them to one of these temptations 1. When the promises made by God seeme to be delayed and there is no appearance of their fulfillance then all such who have not made God their confidence will cease expecting and beleeving the word of promise like that prophane man this evill is of the Lord what should I waite for the Lord any longer But if notwithstanding Gods delayes the heart keepe still to the word of truth and is still confident that in time it will be fulfilled it undoubtedly is then an heart confiding in God A waiting heart is a confiding heart So the Prophet I will waite on the Lord and looke upon him A Merchant who rests on his factor for the returne of some commodity which he promised finding that his factour deferres yet will account him faithfull knowing that he on weightier considerations for his Masters greater profit uses not to returne commodities so soone as he expected So the soule which rests on God for the accomplishment of such and such promises will yet wait on him as faithful though they be not presently or so soone performed as wee desire because it is perswaded that God delayes for some further advantage to the soule to humble it or to exalt it more or to make his blessings more acceptable when they come A soule confiding in the delay and unlikelines of the performance of promises that God can and will fulfill his word when it shall be for the best is a soule which hath made God its confidence 2. If the Lord suffers you to be mocked by prophane men if at any time they aske wher is the promise of his comming and what advantage hath piety in these times can your God save you out of the hands of murthering destroying men will you still retaine your integrity do not the most religious suffer as much if not worse then others Now at this time if notwithstanding all these scornes and disheartnings you are willing still to keepe close to God and to passe through good report and evill report and are content to be yet more vile before these men for Gods sake and in Gods cause you have undoubtedly made God your confidence Gods people thus proved that they had done so as it is in the Psalmes All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant 3. If ever the Lord bring you into a state that he seemes to be an enemy by visiting the soule wounding the spirit giving it as it were a sight of hell as if he would have no mercy yet in this case you shall know that ye have made God your confidence if you still will waite on God boldly and trustingly reasoning with him as the Psalmist did hath God forgotten to be gracious will he shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure A soule in the lack of mercy being willing to stay it selfe on God because he will shew mercy being resolved however to dye at the foote of majesty to be crusht by his scepter this is a soul which confides in God And the Lord who knowes the anguish and distresse of this confiding spirit will heale and restore it to strength and comfort It shall be established when all the careles ones of the world shall be terribly shaken and shattered in all their hopes Consider what the Prophet writes Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israell my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God c. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall but they that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with winges as Eagles they shall runne and not be weary and they shall walke and not be faint Thus may every one try and experimentally find whither God is to them as he is to others the only confidence For