the title El which as a learned Jew affirmeth doth not less clearly express his influence then Jehovah doth his Essence El and Elohim Abarbanel apud Joann Buxtorf fil in Dissertat de Nominibus Dei Hebraicè thes 39 41. in their most proper notion as he telleth us signifying the authour and producer of things by an infinite power Of this Relative goodness there are sundry distinct branches mentioned in this superexcellent Text which are spoken to in their order § 3. The First is Mercy The nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intra viscera recepit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 1. 78. whereof may receive much light from the Hebrew word which is here made use of It cometh from a root that signifieth shutting up in ones bowels as child-bearing women retain and cherish their dearest offspring within their wombs Accordingly we reade in Luke of the bowels of Gods mercy a phrase which implieth both inwardness and tenderness First inwardness our bowels are the most inner parts The mercy of God springs from within and hath no original cause without himself Humane affection is commonly both begotten and fed by somewhat without in the thing or person beloved as culinary fire must be kindled and kept in by external materials But God loveth because he loveth Deut. 7. 7 8. Exod. 33. 19. and sheweth mercy on whom he will shew mercy as celestial fire is fuel to it self He freely extendeth mercy to us in making us good then doth us good for being so is not this a mercifull God Secondly tenderness The forecited passage in Luke runneth thus in our translation Through the tender mercies of our God Of all parts the bowels relent and earn most In them we are wont to finde a stirring when strong affections of love or pity are excited as Joseph did upon sight of Benjamin Gen. 43. 30. God speaking after the manner of men useth this pathetical expression concerning his people How shall I give thee Hos 11. 8. up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together His people accordingly crie to him Where is thy zeal and thy strength the Isai 63. 15. sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Of all humane bowels those of mothers are the tenderest Can a woman saith the Lord forget her sucking Isai 49. 15. childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yet sooner shall all the mothers in the world prove unnatural then he unmercifull for so it followeth yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee § 4. Well may this notion of mercy put us in minde of returning bowels of love to God according to what David said in the beginning of Psalm the eighteenth I will love thee O Lord my strength where the word cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex intimis visceribus diligam te Psal 18. 1. the same forementioned root and intimateth exercising love out of his most inward bowels as also of extending bowels of compassion to those especially that stand in nearest relation to him according to that of John Whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up 1 Job 3. 17. his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him But that is not all the improvement we are to make of this Attribute As it is a most tender affection so is it to be most tenderly used Take we therefore diligent heed as of refusing it by unbelief so of abusing it by presumption First of refusing mercy by unbelief Many Jonah 2. 8. as the phrase is in Jonah forsake their own mercie by giving way to objections arising from the flesh like smoke out of that bottomless pit in Revelation Say not therefore God is so angry with me the arrows of the Almighty stick so fast and the poyson thereof doth so drink up my spirit that I cannot expect any mercy from him Know that the Lord is wont even in wrath to remember mercie and that the Habak 〈◊〉 3. correction which thou at present lookest at as an argument of wrath may perhaps be an evidence of love and an act of mercy God is not about to hew thee down as thy unbeleeving heart imagineth but to prune thee for prevention of luxuriancy Be sure the right hand of his clemency knoweth whatever the left hand of his severitie doth Thou hadst better be a chastened son then an undisciplined bastard There is no anger to that in Isaiah Why Isai 1. 5. should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more That in Ezekiel I will Ezek. 16. 42. make my fury towards thee to rest and my jealousie shall depart from thee and I will be quiet and will be no more angry That in Hos 4. 17. Tunc magis irascitur quando non irascitur Super oâ—nen iram miseratio ista Bernard Hosea He is joyned to idols let him alone Then is God most angry of all when he refuseth to be angry yea there is no anger of his to be compared to this kinde of mercy Men that are fatted to destruction often go prosperously on in the world have few afflictions in their life no bands in their death but as Erasmus once said From this prosperitie Absit à nobis chrissimi alis selicitas Erasm in concione de misericordia good Lord deliver us Say not I am unworthy and must therefore despair for mercy is free and if God should shew mercy to none but such as are worthy of it he should shew mercy to none at all seeing All have sinned and come short as of the glory so of the mercy of God Say not my sins are many and great too many and too great to be pardoned but oppose to the multitude of thy transgressions that multitude of tender mercies mentioned Psal 51. 1. by the Psalmist not forgetting the gracious invitation by another Prophet Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughtss and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon or multiple pardon as the original phrase imports To the greatness of thy sins oppose the riches of Gods mercy and greatness of his love spoken of by the great Apostle God saith he who is rich in mercy for his Ephes 〈◊〉 4. great love wherewith he loved us Lo here a vast heap whereunto men may come with confidence be it never so much they have need of because these riches are not impaired by being imported The mercies of an infinite God are infinite mercies and so able to swallow up all the sins of finite creatures What though thou hast heretofore delighted in sin despair not for he delighteth in
the product of both sums be not soul-satisfaction and blessedness but vanity and vexation of spirit How often is the sword put into mad mens hands the bramble advanced to rule over better trees and walls of mud shined upon while marble pillars stand in shade How often do goats clamber up the mountains of preferments whilest the poor sheep Ambitio te ad dignitatem nisi per indigna non ducit Senec. Natural quaest in Praefat. lib. 1. Ambitio charitatis simia Charitas patiens est pro aeternis ambitio pro terrenis Didac Stella de Contemptu mundi part 1. pag. 88. of Christ feed below yea how often is greatness acquired by base and confounded by weak means Flattery held Absolons stirrup He that is every ones master now was a while since at every ones service Well might Stella call Ambition Charities ape for it also beleeveth all things hopeth all things yea and beareth all things too till what it hoped for be attained then grows intolerable it self It may further be observed that God usually taketh a course to break the staff of such pride by confounding the power of worldly Potentates not with Lions and Tigres but as Pharaohs of old by frogs and lice The Apostle I remember saith An Idol is nothing and yet the silversmiths cried out Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana then was a great nothing Such are those men of place idolized by common people when the Lord begins to blow upon them in his wrath like those nobles of Idumea concerning whom Isaiah said All her Princes shall Isa 34. 12. be nothing § 9. Secondly as for those saints whose wings are still somewhat clogged with the birdlime of this world I humbly desire them to consider how ill it becomes the offspring of heaven to go licking up the dust of this earth the womans seed to content it self with the serpents food Any one of the posterity of Japhet after he hath been perswaded into the tents of Sem to bring on himself Canaans curse A servant of servants shalt thou be by subjecting his soul to that which God made to serve its servant the body Verily if this present world or any thing in it be over precious in thy sight O Christian thou Cujus anima in oculis ejus est pretiosa in ejus oculis mundus est parvus Dictum Hebraeorum apud Buxtorf in florileg p. 225. Pecuniam habes vel teipsum vel pecuniam vilem habeas necesse est Senec. art become vile in the eyes of God yea in thine own for none can set an high price upon things without him till he have first undervalued his soul Time was when Satan shewed our Saviour all the kingdomes of this world and the glory of them If ever the world appear unto thee temptingly glorious suspect it for one of Satans discoveries Sure I am the Scripture useth diminishing terms when it speaks of creature-comforts as in styling the pomp of Agrippa and Act. 25. 23. 1 Joann 1. 17. Bernice much phansie no reality in calling mens temporal estates this worlds Matth. 13. 22 goods not theirs but the worlds deceitfull 1 Tim. 6. 17. Habak 2. 6. Amos 2. 7. and uncertain riches thick clay and dust of the earth winde grass and the flower of grass the least things hardly things Solomon Eccles 5. 16. James 1. 11. Luke 16. 10. 15. brings them down to the lowest degree of entity yea to nullity saying Labour not to be rich wilt thou set Prov. 23. 4 5. thine eyes upon that which is not § 10. Let Diotrephes then say It is good for me to have the preeminence Judas It is good for me to bear the bag Demas It is good for me to embrace this present world But do thou O my soul conclude with David It is Psal 73. 28. good for me to draw near to God Thou art now as a bird in the shell a shell of flesh which will shortly break and let out the bird This crazy bark of my body ere long will be certainly split upon the fatal rock of death then must thou its present pilot forsake it and swim to the shore of eternitie Therefore O everlasting creature see and be sure thou content not thy self with a transitory portion I do not Lord thou knowest I do not Of a small handfull of outward things I am ready to say It is enough but that which I long so passionately for is a large heart full of God in Christ Thou art my sun the best of creatures are but stars deriving the lustre they have from thee Did not thy light make day in my heart I should languish for all them in a perpetuall night of dissatisfaction There are within me two great gulfs a minde desirous of more truth and a will capable of more good then finite beings can afford Thou onely canst fill them who art the first truth and the chief good In thee alone shall my soul be satisfied as with marrow Psal 63. 5. and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips APHORISME II. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar Exerc. 1. in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness § 1. THere is no possibility of arriving at Blessedness without a safe conduct nor at glory without guidance No infallible guidance but by the counsel of God himself All which the Psalmist is like to have had in his eye when in his humble address to God he expresseth himself in this manner Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel Aph. 2. and afterward receive me to glory The Psalm 73. 24. husbands duty in relation to his wife is to be the guide of her youth Such Prov. 2. 17. hath Christ one of whose names is Counsellour been to his Church in former Isa 9. 6. times is at this day and will continue to the end of the world In Exodus we meet with the history of the Jewish Church her youth and her strange manner of guidance which when the Levites in Nehemiah came to Nehem. 9. 19. commemorate they do it thus Thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way neither the pillar of fire by night to shew them light and the way wherein they should go It was not onely a seasonable act of mercy to them in that age but may be looked upon as an emblem of that safe conduct which the Church in all ages may expect from Jesus Christ For as in that cloudy-fiery pillar there were two different substances the sire and the cloud yet but one pillar So there are two different natures in
thou finde in thy self any beginnings of salvation any hopes that it shall be perfected Remember what that great asserter of free grace hath left upon record to all posterity By grace Eph. 2. 8. ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Remember it so as § 3. First to beware of receiving the grace of God in vain it being ordained for better ends to wit purging and cheering of such as receive it The grace of Titus 2. 11 12. God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world All partakers of grace should not onely denie that gross ungodliness of conversation which the very sons of moralitie decrie and abhor but also worldly lusts which others are secretly indulgent to Neither should they content themselves with a negative purity such as that of the Pharisee was I am not as Luke 18. 11. other men not as this publicane not an extortioner not an adulterer Logicians say of this particle Not that it is of a malignant nature Divines know that the malignant Church is much built up by such negatives but also practise positive holiness by living soberly righteously and godly and that too in this present world not putting on a vizard of these as the manner of some is on a sick bed or death bed when they can no longer look at themselves as men of this world but of another As for cheering remarkable is that prayer made in behalf of the Thessalonians Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God 2 Thess 2. 16 17. even our Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts It implieth that whereas we cannot possibly raise from our selves any ground of hope or have any lasting much less everlasting consolation from the creatures Grace is a firm foundation for both And this is it which hath put the prince of darkness whose desire it hath always been to keep men in as hopeless and comfortless condition as he can upon using his utmost endeavours in all ages of the Church either to obstruct the doctrine of free grace as by Pelagian and Arminian tenents or to poison this fountain with corrupt deductions and inferences as by Antinomians and Familists Wherefore remember it so as § 4. Secondly In all thy tenents and discourses to magnifie and exalt that to which thou owest so very much indeed thine All that good is Think it not enough with some of a Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum thousand parts to ascribe nine hundred ninety and nine to free grace reserving but one for free-will for as Prosper resolves the case well It is not devotion to give almost the whole to God but deceit to retain the least part And again Grace is Gratia Dei tota repellitur nisi tota suscipiatur wholly repelled where it is not wholly entertained I list not now to dispute the point Onely let me have leave to commend to thy reading and observation a paper of verses inserted by certain Divines that were present at the Synod of Dort into their suffrage and comprehending a brief decision of the five Articles there debated with a pious inference from thence because with me they have ever been of great esteem since I first met with them in the Acts of that Synod Gratia sola Dei certos elegit ab aevo Acta Synod Dordrect in 4o. pag. 293. Dat Christum certis gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei fidei dat munera certis Stare facit certos gratia sola Dei Gratia sola Dei cùm nobis omnia donet Omnia nostra regat gloria sola Dei In English thus Free grace alone elected some to bliss Free grace alone gave Christ to death for some In some free grace works faith that saving is Some by free grace to perseverance come Since Gods sole grace doth all our good provide Let Gods sole glory all our motions guide § 5. A third branch of divine goodness is Long-suffering whereby God hath been pleased to put a notable difference between Angels that fell and the lapsed sons of Adam Of them Peter saith God spared not the Angels that 2 Pet. 2. 4. sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement This was quick and speedy work But the Lord saith 2 Pet. 3. 9. the same Apostle is Long-suffering to us-ward He exerciseth much patience very much even towards all though vessels of wrath For so Paul What if Rom. 9. 22. God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction How profane was the old world How wicked a place was Jericho yet was he one hundred and twenty years in warning those of that age before he brought the deluge upon them And he that made the world in six was seven days in destroying that one city The great Doctour of the Gentiles was not much more then thirty years old when God converted him yet we finde him looking at this as infinite patience as all long-suffering that he was born with so long I obtained mercy saith he that in me first 1 Tim. 1. â—6 Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering How sensible then ought they to be of this Attribute whom God hath born with fourty fifty sixty years and still continueth to cry unto as it is in Habakkuk Wo to him that increaseth that Habak 2. 6. which is not his How long as in Jeremy O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness Jerem. 4. 14. that thou maist be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee And again Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt Jerem. 13. 27. thou not be made clean When shall it once be All which places declare sufficiently that the long-suffering God doth in a manner long to see our conversion to him § 6. And that indeed is the most proper use we can make hereof according to Pauls expostulation Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance Rom. 2. 4. and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance Verily we cannot meet on this side hell with a worse temper of spirit then that which inclines a sinner to despise the forbearance of God and to kick against the bowels of his goodness As that profane Arian did who was executed at Norwich concerning whom Mt Greenham acquainteth us with this strange and prodigious narration Mr Greenham in his treatise intituled A sweet comfort for an afflicted conscience on Prov. 18. 14. circa medium This hellish heretick saith he for so were the deniers of Christs Divinity accounted of in those days whatever thoughts be had of
at that perfection of glory which is also the image of God as David hath it As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness EXERCITATION 5. Exerc. 5. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providentiall dispensations the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects Crosses how to be considered § 1. THe vicissitude of divine dispensations which I am to treat of next is exactly recorded by Solomon saying In the day of prosperity Eccles 7. 14. be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him It is most clear from hence that there is an intermixture of dispensations adverse and prosperous in the course of divine Providence and that we may see much of God therein It will appear in six particulars There are times I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs yet well with the publick which keepeth him from sinking into despondency Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands yet Let him take all said he 2 Sam. 19. 29 30. for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house The woman of Sparta whom we reade of And. Camerar cent 3. pag. 174. in Plutarch being told that all her five sons were slain in the battel but withall that the enemies were worsted and her countreymen victours uttered this Heroick speech Lugeant ergò miserae Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico Let such as are miserable lament I cannot but account my self happy now that my countrey hath had the better II. Wherein a mans personal comforts are multiplied but the Churches misery damps his mirth Nehemiah was much in favour at the king of Persia's Court yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard that the city Nehem. 2. 3. the place of his fathers sepulchres lay waste and the gates thereof were consumed with fire We read of Terentius an orthodox captain under Valens an Arrian Emperour who having done some eminent Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 2. 8. service was willed by the Emperour who intended him a just recompence to ask of him what he would He preferred a petition in behalf of the orthodox Christians that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in Valens displeased tore the petition and threw it away He gathered up the scattered pieces and profest that seeing he could not be heard in the cause of Christ he would make no suit for his own advantage That of Esaias Rejoyce ye with Isa 66. 10 11. Jerusalem c. that ye may suck and be satisfied is both preceptive and argumentative Jerusalem is compared to a nursing mother beleevers to her sucking children If the Nurse be in health the Childe hath cause to rejoyce in that and shall fare the better for it If she be distempered the childe will go near to suck the disease from her § 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity as in Josephs case He had been envyed sold imprisoned His feet were hurt in Psal 105. 18. the stocks the iron entred into his soul Yet afterward Pharaoh giveth him his own Gen. 41. 42 43. ring arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen putteth a gold chain about his neck maketh him ride in the second chariot he had caused the people to cry before him Bow the knee and appointed him Ruler over all the land of Egypt in which height of honour he lived and died IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels of long prosperity as in Jobs case The candle of God had long shined upon his head and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle His children then were about him he had washed his steps with butter and the rock poured him out rivers of oyl His Vers 3 4 5 6 19 20. root was spread by the waters and the dew lay all night upon his branch His glory was fresh in him and his bowe renowned in his hand which are his own expressions Job 29. But ere long his servants are slain with the edge of the sword his castle taken away by the enemy all his children killed at once vvith the fall of an house in vvhich they vvere feasting he himself afflicted in body vexed in spirit grieved by his comforters in a vvord brought from the throne to the dunghil so as to give just occasion to the proverb As poor as Job Fifthly Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns so as a man goes out of one into another in a succession of vicissitudes Thus it fared with Ezechiah After his comming to the Crown for divers years the Lord was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went forth But in the fourteenth year of his reign the tide of prosperity begins to turn Sennacharib comes up against him with a most formidable host and took his fenced cities He betakes himself to prayer and the Lord delivers him by a miracle sending an Angel to destroy one hundred eighty five thousand of his enemies in Chap. 20. 1. c a night But the next news we hear is that Ezechiah was sick unto death yet he dies not but had fifteen years added to his life and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery Yet presently after all this he receives a sad message from thence concerning the loss of all his treasure and the wofull condition of all his posterity See what a strange succession is here after glorious victories comes the loss of his fenced cities and an alarm given to Jerusalem it self After that a miraculous deliverance then a mortal sickness then a cheering sign but e're long a Message of very sad concernment § 3. VI. Wherein pleasure and sorrow joy and grief are so interwoven one with another as a man may seem happy and miserable both at once Jacob is at once scared with hearing of Esau's four hundred men and cheered with the sight of an host of Angels sent to gaurd him He doth at once receive an hurt in the hollow of his thigh and a blessing from the Angel that wrestled with him David at once is hated by Saul and loved by Jonathan Ahashuerus at once enjoys the glory of an absolute Monarch and is sleighted by his own wife Haman at once swims in an ocean of Court-delights and is tormented for the want of Mordechai's knee As one the one side Out of the strong comes sweetness 〈◊〉 Pet. 4. 14. when the spirit of glory and of God rest upon a suffering Saint because he is a Saint and a sufferer so on the other Even in laughter the heart is sorowfull Prov. 14. 13. Medio de fonte leporum Lucret. l.
seeing an infant she should imagine it an Hebrew be moved into pitty towards it adopt it for her own son and light upon the childe 's own Mother to be it's nurse yet upon this did Israels redemption much depend There were such real alterations in the heavens that the stars are said to have fought against Sisera in their Judges 5. 20. 2 Kings 7. 6 7 c. orders Elsewhere an imaginary noise was so apprehended by the Syrians as to make them flie and leave their tents whereupon followed great plenty after a famine II. Acts of all sorts whether voluntary or involuntary gratious or sinful Augustus his taxing the Roman Empire requiring every one to repair to his own city was a voluntary act on his part to enrich himself but ordered by Providence to further ends for hereby the virgine Mary comes to Bethleem and Christ was there born in the place so long before prophesied of Austin was once out in his Sermon much against his will but providence disposed it to the conversion of a soul The storie is this That holy man fell one day in the pulpit upon a large discourse against the Manichees contrary to his purpose and intention when he came thither At his return home spake of it asked Possidonius and others whether they did not observe it Credo quod aliquem errantem in populo Dominus per nostram oblivionem curari voluit Possidonius in vita August Their answer was they did and wondered Whereupon he said God I believe hath made use of my oblivion and errour to cure some one or other of the people Some two days after one Firmus a merchant comes to him and falling down at his feet with tears confesseth he had been nursed up for many years together in the heresie of the Manichees but was that day by his Sermon rightly informed truely converted and made a Catholick which Austin and others then hearing glorified and Profundum consilium Dei admirantes ac stupentes glorificaverunt ejus nomen qui eum voluerit unde veluerit quomâ—do voluerit per scientes per nescicntes an marum operatur salutem Idem Ibid. admired the profound counsel of God in converting souls when he will and by whom he will whether the Preacher know of it or not How gracious acts such as Obadiah's hiding and feeding the Prophets Ebed-melech's helping Jeremy in and out of prison are subservient to Providence in procuring the Churches good is easie to discern It is so even in sinfull acts themselves Such was the Philistines invading the land of Palestina yet there was a time when their doing it was so disposed of as to be a means of preserving David and his men Saul was then ready to seize upon his prey but was diverted by this news coming in that very nick of time Saul went on this side the mountain and David and his men on that side of the mountain 1 Sam. 23. 26 27 28. and David made hast to get away for fear of Saul for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them But there came a messenger unto Saul saying Haste thee and come for the Philistines have invaded the land wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David c. § 6. The second Text I have made choise of to insist upon is in the Prophesie of Esaias Chapter 27. verse 2 3. In that day sing ye unto her A vineyard of red wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day The Prophet had said before of this vineyard that God looking it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wilde grapes But it being Esal 5. 2. since purged here he calls it a vineyard of red wine that is of the best according to that in Solomons Proverbs Look not thou upon the wine when it is red Prov. 23. 31. when it gives his colour in the cup when it moves it self aright So as we are here by it to understand a reformed Church Such at this day are the Protestant Churches come out of Popery For we may distinguish a four-fold face of the Christian visible Church spoken of by Divines The first fair in the Apostles time she was then a virgin undefiled the second Spotted in the succeeding age of Fathers and Hereticks wherein traditions began to prevaile she was then a Wanton the third Deformed when Popery overspread all she was then an Whore the fourth Reformed since Luthers time she is now a Matrone and may exspect so far as it shall be for her good and her keepers glory that continuall irrigation and constant custody which is here spoken of Such as wish and project as some have done the total and final ruine of the visible Church must effect it in a time that neither belongs to day nor night for the Lord hath here promised to keep it lest any hurt it yea to keep it night and day There is a three-fold preservation which it and the members of it may look for from Divine Providence One from another in and a third by dangers First from dangers according to the promise in one of the Psalms Because thou hast made the Lord which is Psal 91. 9 10. my refuge even the most high thy habitation There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Austin had appointed to go to a certain town to visite the Christians Agnoscunt omnes miram Dei providentiam cui ut liberatori gratias meritò egerunt Possidonius in vita August cap. 12. there and to give them a Sermon or more The day and place were known to his enemies who set armed men to lie in wait for him by the way which he was to pass and kill him As God would have it the guide whom the people had sent with him to prevent his going out of the right way mistook and led him into a by-path yet brought him at length to his journeys end Which when the people understood as also the adversaries disappointment they adored the Providence of God and gave him thanks for that great deliverance II. In dangers So in Job 5. 19 20. He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee In famine he shall redeem thee from death and in war from the power of the sword In time of famine the widdow of Sarepta's store was made to hold out The Providence of God was with Daniel in the lions den shutting up the mouths of those furious beasts with the men in the fiery furnace giving a prohibition to the fire that it should not burn when they were in the jaws of danger yea of death The Church hath always been a Lilly among thorns yet flourishes still This bush is yet far from a consumption although it have seldome or never been out of the fire III. By danger there