have work done by every servant he will not suffer idle drones to live in his family he will not allow any lazy loiterers to sleep within the walls of his vineyard he doth not keep any idle Serving-men in his house no he appoints them all to labour and 't was well if the patterne of God's house was observed if the Lawes of his family were executed by our Great Ones much sin would be prevented which is nursed at the breasts of idleness nay places of great eminency are no exemption from Gods work The nobles of Tekoah have a brand set upon them because they put not their necks to the work of the Lord Neh. 3. ver 5. And the Lord puts this as the highest mark of honour into the scutcheons of his greatest Saints that they were his servants Moses my servant my servant David c. Matth. 25. ver 20 21. He that received five talents traded and at the day of accounts his labour was not onely honourably accepted but gloriously rewarded entrance was granted unto him into his Masters joy 2. That Gods will is and must be the only rule of our work The Master expects as to have his work done so to have his own orders and directions observed in the doing of it to neglect the work of the Lord and to do it cross to divine order is equally sinful Vzziah died upon the place for touching the Ark and Vzziah was stricken with the leprosie for attempting to burn incense upon the Altar of incense both which expresly thwarted the appointment of God It was the peoples sin to eat the Passeover otherwise then it was written 2 Chron. 30.18 Therefore David in the person of the Lord Jesus joyns both together Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will yea thy law is in my heart as the standard by which I work and our Saviour writes vanity upon the forehead of all service which is performed to God upon the single authority of man without a warrant under Gods own hand for it Mat. 15.9 In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men what bundles of vain worships are layed upon Gods Alter by the Pontificians And how ought we to be humbled also for the vanity of many services which have been performed by us in this Nation 3. That the great God commands us not onely to work but to do the work of our own Generation David served out his own Generation he did the work which was allotted by the Lord to him in that particular age he lived in which was to fight the Lords battels to subdue the enemies of his Church settle the Nation in peace establish the worship of God provide for the service of his Sanctuary and prepare for the building of the temple these were the works of his Generation in those 2 capacities of Prophet and King and therefore the holy Ghost engraves this Epitaph upon his sepulchre which shall not be defaced so long as the world endures that David served his own generation by the will of God Instances of like nature the Scripture affords many Quest But the great Query is How shall we know what are the proper works of our Generation Answ I answer much of this nature hath been offered by learned and judicious Divines in severall Treatises and though they have not been so harmonious as was defired in their judgement as to the manner yet they have agreed in one as to the matter Indeed repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus with those generall duties of Religion which are comprehenhended under these two heads none deny or dispute except some of prophane or perverted spirits and judgements and that things of order and Government in the Church should be reduced to the Primitive Pattern and Practice few of sober and Orthodox principles do oppose yea most desire and surely that this is the generation which God hath called forth to act in these transactions may be spell'd if not legibly read in the dispensations of his providence towards us I do not set up providence as a standing rule to work and walk by when it is either crosse unto or receives not approbation from the written word for that was to perswade the Traveller to sleep all day when the sun shines bright and clear and to take his Journey in the night when the starres do onely twinckle and the wayes are dangerous and difficult to find mistakes have been sad and many of this kind Numb 14. ver 40 41. the mistake of Gods minde in that dreadfull message ver 39. occasioned the slaughter of many men for the people apprehending that God was offended with them for not going up to take possession of Canaan rose up early in the morning and gat them up unto the top of the mountain saying Lo we be here and will go up into the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned and what followed why their attempting to invade their enemies under this mistake cost them many of their lives Thus did Saul mistake the mind of the Lord 1 Sam. 23. ver 7. when it was told him that David was come to Keilah presently he infers that God had delivered him into his hand for sayes he he is shut in by entring into a town that hath gates and bars but it proved otherwise Yea Davids men would have put him upon the same mistake chap. 24. ver 4. when Saul came into the cave to cover his feet where David and his men lay hid they presently conclude behold the day of which the Lord hath said unto thee behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee A like passage ye have chap. 26. ver 8. when David and Abishai came into Sauls army by night and found them all fast asleep not a Sentinell waking and Saul asleep also Abishai said to David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear unto the earth at once and I will not smite him a second time but David durst not slay the Lords Anointed under the protection and warrant of this providence as the following verses declare because it would have been an expresse violation of Gods will Instances of this nature might be multiplied But now when the speakings of God in his works run in a paralell line with the speakings of God in his word when they fall in with his revealed will they do then safely interpret the mind of God and are a good glosse upon the text both as to the quod and quando of a duty shewing that it ought to be done and that then is the time for the doing of it thus Abraham when he had received a prohibition from heaven not to sacrifice Isaac and beheld a ramme caught in a thicket by the horns interprets the mind of God by that providence and offers up the ramme in
my springs are in thee his wisdome goodness mercy power c. are not in Zion as water in the cisterne pump'd in and soon run out but like water in the fountain streams of mercy flouds of favour and flowings forth of loving kindness Oh! it is clear God loveth Zion if all his springs be in her especially when drought is upon the earth and other parts of Judah are like Gideon's fleece Isa 38. ver 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption good Hezekiah read love in the dispensations of God toward him and putteth that Interpretation upon his miraculous restitution to health Surely he doth much offend against the generation of God's people and wrongeth the mercies of God also who concludeth that God loveth us not because he hath prospered our warfare and underwriteth hatred to all those glorious victories which the Lord of hosts hath given to his people in these Nations and then when a day of distress was sadly upon the godly and the contest was very much betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent Yet I desire we may all look after other evidences of divine love amongst us these are good superstructures where the foundation is well laid and are Zion's security against the gates of hell provided everlasting doors be set open that the King of glory may come in and keep court amongst us 3. This Inference may be drawn from the point That the siunes of saints are circumstanciated with highest aggravations the care of God over them and his love unto them in their distressed estate against both which they offend in sinning do give a sad tincture to their sinnes Sin is sin in any person but circumstances do render it much more sinfull It was high water as to the guilt of sinne for Zimri a Prince of a chief house of the Simeonites to bring a Midianitish woman into his tent and commit whoredome with her when the Lord had so eminently appeared for Israel in turning Balaam's curses into blessings and saving them from the sword of Midian Numb 25. vers 6. Yea when the whole congregation was weeping before the Lord for the business of Baal-Peor where the wrath of God brake forth upon them so that there fell in one day three and twenty thousand 1 Cor. 10. vers 8. The Apostle instead of the cloak of the heat of youth Trap. in loc putteth upon fornication a bloody cloak bathed in the blood of 23000 as one observeth How doth the Lord by his Prophet aggravate David's sin 2 Sam. 12. v. 7 8 9. I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Israel and Judah c. What an enumeration of mercies is here How doth the Lord expostulate with him And what doth the Lord inferre from hence why surely that David was acted by a spirit of great dis-ingenuity to sin against such goodness such bounty to break such cords of love which the Lord had cast upon him Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight what David commit Adultery what David put the bottle to his neighbour to make him drunk thinking to cover sin with sin what David slay Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon what David slay an innocent person in cold blood what David murther an husband that he might have his wife what David take the Adulteress into his bed and bosome what David do all this Does David give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme Had another person committed adultery or murther nay all this who had been under less obligations unto me who had onely shared in common providences and for whom I had done nothing extraordinary I should have taken it better at his hands and should not have reckoned it such an high dishonour but for David David to do this whom I honoured in the sight of all Israel when he was but a stripling in the slaughter of great Goliah of Gath the Philistines Champion David whom I singled out from amongst his brethren to pour the anointing oyl upon his head David whom I eminently preserved in six troubles yea in seaven when he was hunted as a Partridge upon the mountains David whom I carried as upon eagles wings to the throne through such amazing dangers that himself cried out I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul yea David whom I owned and gave this glorious testimony of I have found David a man after mine own heart who shall fulfill all my wills Oh! for David for this David to do all these abominable things which I hate Oh! Alluding to his gross hypocrisie in seeking to palliate and cover his sin and shame from man what aggravations are wrapped up together to render the sinne of David exceeding sinfull hence himself phraseth it the iniquity of his sinne Psal 32. ver 5. Observe that 1 Kings 11. vers 9. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel And why so angry with Solomon why the reason is added which had appeared unto him twice The Scripture affordeth many paralel places Oh! the sinnes of Saints are dyed in a deeper crimson Who had his name Jedidiah because he was beloved of the Lord Neh. 13.26 and carry a greater guilt and this layeth them in oyl and maketh them lasting when they are committed under and after discriminating mercies and preservations Oh that the saints would gather up all the signal providences of God toward them and improve them as arguments against sinne It was Luther's advice to answer all temptations with this Christianus sum I am a Christian So let us argue after the Lord hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandements Ezra 9. vers 13 14. Oh if any nation under heaven may be lessoned holiness by astonishing mercies and a constant succession of admired preservations England may our Rulers may our Ministers may yea all the Saints may for how often hath the Lord defeated army after army broken confederacy after confederacy discovered plot after plot so that wherein soever the enemy hath dealt proudly God hath been above them Oh! that the heads of England would lay this to heart and that they and all the Saints would rise up with all their might against their lusts to destroy them unto Hormah viz. utter destruction Numb 21. vers 3. as the Lord hath pursued their enemies even unto Hormah that as they had said among the Nations concerning English Zion the Lord hath done great things for her Psal 126. vers 2. So it may be said by the Nations concerning her The Lord bless thee O inhabitation of justice and mountain of holiness Jer. 31. vers 23. Then would England be changed from glory to glory from the glory of being
enough as I believe too many be yet it will be more your honour to square a knottie peice of timber and polish a churlish stone when ye smooth a rugged spirit and make that plyable to the wayes of God it will more redound to your comfort And consider ye plough in hope and have a bottome from Jacob's success for hope to rest upon for he not onely commanded his houshold to wit children and moenial servants but also all that were with him some of whom probably came out of Mesopotamia with him and many of those Shechemites also that were lately taken captive by his sonnes were in company with him yet his command was given unto all and all submitted unto it for as well the strangers that were with him as his own houshold gave unto him all the strange Gods which were in their hands they freely yielded up all their Idols into the hand and power of Jacob their Governour never to see them more nor worship them more And the text sayes Jacob hid them t is like without their privity under an oak which was by Shechem now then take pattern from hence and act up in your families unto it How know you but the power of the mighty God may so awe the spirits of your servants that the most rugged and rebellious among them may stoop under your reproof How know ye but that they may deliver up their pride oaths drunkenness wilfull ignorance and Gospel enmitie into your hands if in the name of the eternal God as Christian Governours ye demand them And what a noble conquest would that be What a quieting consideration will this be to you at a dying hour 4. Observe further That great deliverances lay great obligations upon Governours to act high in personal and family Reformation If ye say here 's a great deal more urged then needs why did Jacob do this and why must we do this the enforcement is laid down by Jacob who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way that I went as if he had said I cannot discharge my self of that debt I owe unto God nor render my self a person in any measure worthy of his mercies if I should tolerate such principles and practises in my house which are dishonourable unto him and destructive to the very interest of Religion Oh! I will remember the day of distress which was upon me when my brother Esau threatned my life for the birth right and blessing which I obtained from him I well remember mine afflicted estate when I was in the day time consumed with drought and in the night by frost and my sleep departed from mine eyes whilest I served a churlish Laban and had my wages changed ten times by him Being an Hebrew Proverb taken from killing the bird upon the nest with her young ones Hos 10.14 I remember those fears yea great fears which seized upon me when Esau came against me with four hundred men at his heels at which time I wrastled with the Angel and spake before the Lord that I feared greatly least Esau would come and smite me and the mother with her children or ghnal-Bunim upon her children heaps upon heaps And now seing God was with me and answered me in all these dayes of my distress and hath brought me off in a wonderfull way of mercy with safetie to my life and security to my estate I dare not fail in this great duty of family-Reformation I cannot bear any longer the dishonours which are done to God in my Family nor quit my spirit any longer with my personall Religion and therefore I lay it upon you all by way of command as a Magistrace in my own family that ye put away the strange Gods which are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Beth-el Thus David 2 Sam. vers 1 2. When the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies The sence thereof was so lively upon his spirit that he suddenly and seriously resolved to build an house to the Lord and establish the worship of God in the Land to which he was encouraged by Nathan the Prophet at first but afterward received a flat prohibition that he should not build it yet see how the sence of mercies carried him out to prepare abundantly for that magnificent building charging and encouraging Solomon to the work and quickening up his Princes unto free-will offerings 1 Chron. 28. ver 20. and Chap. 29. vers 1 2. and so forward Oh then I make it my humble request to all that read this passage that ye would improve mercies received and deliverances received according to Jacob's pattern that it may quicken you up to family care to set up Religion in your Families and promote it in the Nation that the Lord may feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father Isa 58. ver ult Think often and seriously what your Dangers and what your Deliverances have been and surely if there be any heat and life in the soul for God this will bring it forth there would not be that heart-deadness neglect of Family-discipline and that Formality even amongst Professours and Christians of long standing they would not sit down in such a lazie Profession and tolerate that Ignorance that profaneness and those abuses in their Families and Towns if they were throughly awakened by a due collection and serious communication of experienced mercies how often and how signal their deliverances have been from the jaws of death Oh receive in love this word of exhortation from an unworthy hand and the Lord set it home upon your hearts 2. I come now to the pure spiritual part of the exhortation Are the appearances of the Lord eminent and immediate for the help of his people in their greatest straights have you experienced this can you set your seal to this truth hath the Lord engaged for your help and brought you off with safety and comfort when you were under the greatest hazards then make a good use of such mercies and take my advice in these following particulars 1. Make a serious and speedy enquiry whether you are brought of from sin and wrath by Jesus Christ and what have been the methods of God toward you in your spiritual deliverance 2. Quicken up your selves to duty in all your deadness and damps of spirit 3. Be much in the sence and meditation of grace received keep up the consideration thereof To the first Improve your temporal preservatious by way of inquiry after your spiritual safety whether the Lord who hath made bare his Arm in signal deliverances for the life of your bodies hath also stretched forth the right arm of grace for the life of your souls and how the Lord hath methodized the ways of his grace unto you make these two particulars the matter of your great enquest 1. Put this question unto your souls and be serious in it as a matter
the hope of glory Oh let these thoughts be often upon thy heart I have been sometimes in a way of mercy saved from drowning in the water Ah but what will this avail me If my foolish and hurtful lusts do after drown me in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 I have been by a hand of mercy pluckt out of Sodoms burnings but ah what comfort will this administer if I be cast into everlasting burnings I have been fetcht by a signal mercy from a deep and dark dungeon but ah what will this advantage me If I be thrown into the bottomless pit I have been antidoted from the raging pestilence but ah How can I rejoyce in that If the plagve of my heart be not cured and so the second death have power over me what contentment can I take in all my former deliverances If I be delivered up to eternal wrath Let such thoughts prevail with thee and improve thy present deliverances as warnings and awakenings from the Lord to provide for thy eternal safety The Lord Jesus preached very often upon this subject to those that he cured Behold thou art made whole sin no more least a worse thing happen unto thee Oh the worm that never dyeth and the fire that never goeth out will be far worse then all the miseries that thou hast suffered here this is much the fin of many they do not heed the outgoings of God nor consider the hand of the Lord that hath been upon them or for them in a day of distress the sence of great deliverances soon wear off and so the fruit of all is lost but if men would often say had not the Lord helped us the sea had swallowed us up and if we go on in these courses it will not be long before hell swallow us up had not the Lord procured my enlargement I had rotted in a noisom prison and if I walk on in these ways of sin I shall be certainly thrown into that prison out of which I shall not come untill I have paid the utmost farthing certainly if such considerations were more upon our spirits there would not be that Atheism dissolutness and profaneness amongst the worst nor that luke-warmness formality and deadness of spirit amongst the best as there is Sabbaths would be more duly observed ordinances more carefully attended on the season of grace more prized the messengers of grace more honoured the ways of grace more walked in and men would minde the great business of salvation in more good earnest then the most men do Oh then try this course and improve this councel least after all thy temporal deliverances eternal wrath may be thy portion 2. If upon due tryal thou findest a work of grace wrought in thy soul Christ formed in thy heart put it to the question how and when was this good work begun in my soul in temporal dangers and deliverances men are apt to speak what hazards of life they have been in what days of distress have been upon them and aggravate all by relating the circumstances of time place company c. and then how and by what means the Lord brought them off above and beyond expectation when they least looked for it and had least ground to hope after it Oh what stories will some men tell of this nature how will they delight in it and account it their honor to do it O follow then this pattern in a spiritual way discourse over and often the passages of Gods mercy and thine own misery what thou wast how vain how ignorant what an enemy to God what a hater of good men what a despiser of the means of grace and how regardless of thine own eternal peace and welfare so that if the twine thread of thy life had been cut when thou wast in that estate thou hadst certainly dropt into hell and perished without all hope of recovery and that then when no eye pittied thee nor thou thy self when thou didst not look after Christ but braved it out against God and all Gospel tenders then even then the Lord came in graciously and seasonably unto thee And according to his mercy saved thee by the washing of regeneration and renewings of the holy Ghost which he shed on thee abundantly by Jesus Christ thy Saviour Saint Paul was much in the review of what he had been and done and in owning and admiring free grace He is not ashamed to tell the world what he was before conversion when and how the Lord came upon him and wrought that blessed change in him And indeed some ancient Christians tread in the Apostles steps and still retain this practice sure 't was well if it was more done provided it was well done not out of pride and vain glory but in humility and lowliness of minde that God alone may be acknowledged and adored for his rich grace and others may reap fruit by it to their comfort establishment and support but I do not lay this down as the general duty of all under profession I know there be some who play the hypocrites in Religion and these out of meer pride and ostenration that they might get a name and repute among believers and be counted somebody would be forward enough in this work speaking lies in hypocrisie and pretending to great things which they never expe rienced like that Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.6 7 8 9. who told David a fair tale how he stood upon Saul and slew him and took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was upon his arm c. and all this that he might win credit with David and gain his favour by slaying his enemy who stood betwixt him and the crown when as the whole story was false this would be the case of some false-hearted hypocrites Again some of the servants of the Lord who are real converts would be at a loss within themselves not being able to give an account when and how the Lord first wrought upon them who can onely say with the blind man Joh. 9.25 This one thing I know that whereas I was born blinde I now do see the work of grace upon the hearts of some as to the quando and quomodo time and manner is undiscernable by them The Lord spiritualizeth their morals sanctifies their principles of education and drops down his spirit upon the seed and his blessing upon the off-spring so that they spring up as among the grass as Spring Flowers which lye buried under ground the Winter season and sprout forth as the year ariseth Isa 44.3 4. To this the Lord Jesus speaketh Mark 4.26 27. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and the seed grows up he knows not how God sows the seed by the hand of a godly Parent or Pastor and in due season when and how they know not neither Parent Pastor nor the Person himself it bringeth forth fruit the word works sometimes many
heart-uprightness which renders the Persons and services of Gods sincere ones acceptable in his sight thou hast had indeed a great deal of the name and form of godliness thou hast carried it fairly and plausibly before men and hast purchased to thy self the reputation of a godly person in the world but alas the heart-searching God whose eyes are as a flame of fire ten thousand times brighter then the light of the Sun hath scarched thy reins and weighed thy spirit and having followed the streams of thy devotion to the fountain hath found that Hypocrisie hath been the head and Self the spring of all thy services thou hast but serv'd thy self upon God thy Religion hath been but mercenary and thou hast been his servant onely because he gave thee good wages therefore hath this calamitous condition overtaken thee and the Lord doth not awake to thy help which he would certainly do if he found thy heart upright in his wayes This he confirmes by the observation of the fathers who were men of great age great wisdome and great experience in the world ver 8 9 10. and that by three elegant similitudes ver 11. from the rush which cannot grow up without mire 2. from the flag which cannot grow without water both which ver 12. being removed to a drie unwatered soil do die and wither at the root so ver 13. are the wayes of all that forget God and the hypporites hope shall perish being at a distance from the fountain of living water and having the root of his confidence in himself A third Similitude is laid down ver 16 17. He is green before the sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden his roots are wrapped about the heap and seeth the place of stones Succosus ex Tremel There being in many gardens fountains of stone Other senses of this passage are given by Expositours however all conclude that Bildad chargeth Iob with hypocrisie which is the chief thing I aim at in this quotation comparing an Hypocrite to a green and sappy tree which growes up under the warm influences of the Sun and spreadeth his roots receiving secret moisture from the garden-springs yet the ax shall be brought and cut it up being like the Cyparit which bears small berries and bitter leaves that yeild an ill smell before God and therefore he cuts him up and casts him out of his garden this further appears to be that which Bildad drives at and wherewith he chargeth Job upon the account of his present sufferings because Ver. 20. he affirmes that God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers That the perfect man in Scripture language however otherwaies glossed upon by some in our dayes denotes a sincere servant of the Lord one whose heart is upright with the Lord is clear in many passages now what measure Job had from Bildad and his companions the same have many of the suffering Saints had from the censorious and carnal world and that upon the same grounds but be wise O ye snarling doggs be instructed ye blind Barbarians call not a suffering Saint because in distress an hypocrite for they are branches bearing fruit in Christ and the great vine-dresser doth but purge them by affliction cutting off their luxuriant branches that they may bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.2 Take heed ye sin not by such uncharitable censures against the generation of Gods children lest his wrath be kindled against you and ye perish in the way even in this your way of traducing and slandering the footsteps of Gods anointed ones and lest the Lord speak suddenly against you as he did against Aaron and Miriam in the quarrel of Moses Numb 12.8 and say How were you not afraid to speak against my suffering servants 3. For that definitive sentence which they pass upon the Saints when under suffering as though they were cast off by God and delivered over by Justice unto destruction indeed wicked men are very peremptory in their conclusions against the Lords people and when they see load laid upon them by the Lord in some calamitous estate they presently determine upon the question that they are forsaken of God Thus David in Psal 71.7 brings in his enemies encouraging themselves in their furious attempts against him under this assurance that God had cast him off Hear at what a rate they speak God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him But why so confident that David is now one of the forlorne hope that his condition is desperate and irreparable have you not seen what stormes he hath borne up under and sailed against have you forgot the formidable armies he hath broak through and broak why should you think that Absalom's Rebellion or Sheba's Mutiny for it is conceived the Psalm was penned upon one of those occasions should cast such an old and experienced Souldier into a lost condition O! God was wont to go out with him and his good presence was as a munition of Rocks unto him whereby he became not onely safe but successfull in all his enterprises but now the case is altered David stands alone he fights with his own arme God hath now forsaken him but how know you that he is in a deserted estate O 't is clear and legible in those sore distresses that are upon him hee 's a man mark'd out to ruine God will not deliver him and thus deridingly did the wicked scoff at David Psal 22.7 8. Contemptus pâ—puli ludibriâ—s opprobriis declaratur applied by the Evangelist to the Lord Jesus Matth. 27.39 when he was nailed to the cross all they that see me in this afflicted and calamitous condition laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seing he delighted in him a gauling Sarcasm reproachfull language Good God! how great is thy patience to pardon at least to pass over for the present such blasphemous scoffs against thy self and against thy son and if it was done thus to the green tree what shall be done to the drie Post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit Let not the Saints be overmuch troubled at the taunts of the wicked when the Son of God himself suffered the same measure from them but stay speak no more so proudly O ye ungodly ones do you think the tender Mother has cast off all care all bowels all love because she lets her helpless Infant lie crying in the cradle a while no no she 'l come and take it up kiss it lay it in her bosome and draw forth her breast unto it Thus doth the Father of mercies do though he may suffer his children to be brought into great and pressing calamities and to lie crying for some time upon the ground yet do not conclude that God hath cast away his people and cast off all care over them no hear at what a