honourable in thy House 1 Sam. 22.14 Did not his most tender and natural affection beget him and render him rather a brother than a friend to David in this strait The like instance is Ittai the Gittite an alien Return saith David to him why shouldst thou go up and down with me seeing I go whither I may 2 Sam. 15.20 And Ittai answered the King and said as the Lord liveth and as my Lord the King liveth in what place my Lord the King shall be whether in death or life even there also will thy servant be What Brother or what Child or Father could more tenderly and naturally have spoken and done Had not his friendly affection begotten him a neer Kinsman a Brother to David in his adversity Plato endeavoured that meum and tuum mine and thine might not be heard of in that Common-wealth wherein he was And this was the friendship of the Primitive Churches and Christian World without which they could not have subsisted under such bloody Persecutions And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one foul neither said any of them that ought which he possessed was his own but they had all things common and so with great power gave the Apostles witness Act 4.32 The Historian saith that Queen Elizabeth commanded the whole Ocean and laid out all to the support of the Protestant Interest against the Papists every where By this tender and friendly love to the poor persecuted Protestants she was in that season of the Churches adversity born a Sister or a Mother in Israel as Debora is called for like reason Vse Learn from hence these things First That friendship is more than complement a how do you vain visits frothy foolish diversions as carrying to Stage-Playes which make calamity return more heavy when Persons are gone which know to fhew no better friendship And Joab fell to the ground on his Face and thanked the King and said now I know that I have found grace in the sight of my Lord the King in that the King hath fulfilled the request of his Servant 2 Sam. 14.22 Absalom was a banished Man and Joab was his hearty friend and he did not understand Court-complements But when things were done that might fully answer the distresses of his friend there he understood it Now saith he I know that I have found favour now thou hast fulfilled my requests and done things that may fully relieve the distressed Joab was born a Brother as it were to Absalom in his adversity by his friendly love and this written doubtless by the Holy Ghost to let us know that friendship had much more than slight service in it It hath much and through following and serving distressed causes and conditions till Petitions with God and Men be granted and some thing to purpose done that will arise to full relief The Heathen when they would make one another believe that there was more than words in what they said would use to cite their strong god Hercules as their Author Vt de Hercule accepimus as we have heard from Hercules therefore surely it will be accomplished A friend is a distressed Man's Hercules My friend hath said he will take care for me in this and in that distress therefore surely it will be done he will never cease petitioning God and Man he will never rest Night nor Day till he hath done some thing and some thing to some purpose to relieve my distress We have found a friend no where so deficient as where it hath been supposed to be most abundant saith Seneca Some have all their best gifts in their tongue these are unfit to make friends and yet the forwardest to pretend it Mephibosheth which had not dressed his Feet from the day that David fled till he returned and came so undressed to meet him is a fit Reproof of Complemental friendship Secondly Learn from this Description of a Friend that a Friend is a rare Jewel If we have hit the Description of a Friend rightly we doubt we shall not easily finde the Person All of you have conspired against me this day and there is none that sheweth me that my Son hath made a League with the Son of Jesse and there is none of you that is sorry for me or sheweth unto me that my Son hath stirred up My Servant against Me 1 Sam. 22.8 To him that is afflicted pitty should be shewed by his friend yea by any body by an Enemy but ye do nothing but play the censorious Persons against me said Job And truly in great distresses this is the Vinegar Gall and Wormwood which even Friends give in stead of Cordials in stead of compassions and pains and expence to make relief A great many severe enquiries How did he come into such want surely he is an ill husband he did not follow his business How did he come into all this trouble Surely he was a busie body he medled with that which he needed not have done His Wife and Children go too fine A thousand holes are pickt in the Man's Coat quickly and the reason because so poor and needeth some to help him and none of these holes found in his coat whilst it had a good nap upon it as long as he had no need of friends So that they that go for Friends are the worst of Enemies and afflict in stead of comfort and more afflict than an Enemy would do And yet alass this is commonly the friendship of this World yea of such too much whom God hath called out of this World and off of this World which is as if one should see a Man or Woman in the Field and bleeding to death and should spend nis time in curious enquiries how it came and who did it and why would he go that way alone and be out so late and never do any thing to stay the Man's bleeding or do any thing to save his life All People almost make distress and calamity the subject of censure and not the object of compassion and friendship Either it is thus or else it is I will shew kindness to Hanun as his Father shew'd kindness to me 2 Sam. 10. I will invite such for they invited me and I will visit such for they visited me and these kind of Friends there be and few at any higher rate A Samaritan is a rare Man who though a stranger and upon no account in the World but as the wounded Man needed him fell in with him unasked and gave him a full relief and what is more needed put that upon my account said this stranger And now saith Christ which is the neighbour and friend Such a Neighbour now and Friend I fear is hard to be found A Friend saith Seneca is not only rare in a House but in an Age. Aliter de amore atque est accipis saith one Thou thinkest otherwise of love than it is and so we think otherwise of friendship than it is we think it a
punished Seven times more 't is an ill presage as to the whole Nation that God may be laying an Axe to the Root of all My heritage is to me as a speckled Bird the Birds round about are against her assemble all ye Beasts of the Field come to devour they have made it desolate and it being desolate mourneth to me the whole Land is made desolate because no man layeth it to heart Jer. 12.9 10 11. This Text sheweth us the evil to come which my Text speaks but darkly of General insensibility foretelleth general ruine A poor speckled People are most Protestant Churches at this Day and greater spots me-thinks we get still by gadding to change our way which I fear are not the spots of his People For these things Plague and Sword and Famine have desolated much the Protestant Countreys Cities and Nations and we seem now to be drawing after For these things these Nations mourn that is the welfare of many mournes but Persons are still insensible The City being desolate it mourns and the Land being desolate it mourneth but we are jovial and drink Wine in Bowls and stretch our selves on our Beds of Ivory and chant to the sound of the Viol c. which presageth worse still to come than yet we feel You have by your insensible sottish carriage under all the dealings of God made great Graves for a great many good Men and good things and you will make a greater for all the rest that remain and rowl a stone upon the mouth of it that the whole City may be desolate the whole Land be desolate and no remedy If ye do not lay things to heart A Third Motive is this lay to heart present mortal strokes or else you will be surprised with those that are to come else the evils approaching will justly overtake you unawares You will as the fool be singing a requiem to your souls Soul take thine ease and be quiet thou hast got a good Air to dwell in and all Neighbours about us be well yet there is not one sick of the Plague in all the Parish and thou hast got an excellent receit against the Plague such and such used it all the last great Plague and were all well on some such Lees will you settle and so be surprised with God's Visitation I will visit them that are setled upon their Lees saith the Lord and a Visitation when People are thus secure will be a Plague with a vengeance to Soul and Body an Eternal Plague that by dying you will die This Plague is spoken of Isa 29.9 Stay your selves and wonder cry ye out and cry they are druncken but not with Wine they stagger but not with strong drink for the Lord hath poured cut upon the Spirit of deep sleep and hath closed your eyes your Prophets and Rulers the Seers hath he covered and the vision of all is become unto you as the wonder of a Book that is sealed I am afraid that this is the Plague of the Plague that is upon us A spirit of deep sleep is poured upon all ranks wherefore cry out and cry if ye can ye handful which are here this day yet in the Land of the living that ye with all the rest be not surprised with the Evil that is yet to come Fourthly You are the Men and Women which have seen afflictions as the Prophet Jeremy said I am the Man that have seen affliction by the Rod of his wrath Lam. 3.1 You have not only read the Bills but you have been at the Burials you have been of the Mourners that have gone about the Streets You have seen the black trains of dead Corses going by Sixes and Tens to their long home therefore your eyes should affect and afflict your hearts Alass if we here in the midst of so many Thousand deaths be Soul-dead and lay nothing to heart how is it likely that they in the Country which see none of these Sermons should be deeply affected They have scarcely the Word to quicken them in many places and you have the Word and the Rod and the Marks of the Rod upon your Bodies and upon the Bodies of yours the Marks of the Lord Jesus wrath you that have such feeling Sermons and not feel how will this be cryed out upon GOD that is come so neer to judge you that have been so neer the Grave if not Hell that have dwelt in Golgotha among nothing but Tombes Graves Sculs and lean walking Ghostes for so many Moneths this Year when others have been out of the sight and hearing of all these things if you weep not to them 't is very unlikely that they will weep unto you Finally This duty of laying to heart the promiscuous mortal strokes of God is a duty wherein God will help you and succeed you therefore up and be at it God hath promised to take away the heart of stone and to give a heart of Flesh and that with weeping and supplication he will lead us And therefore we should wait upon the Word in these his ways because he will meet us and assist us in the work of this day And God will not only assist but accept and prosper this work of humiliation I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still God doth surely hear all bemoaning penitent sinners and makes a book of remembrance They which go forth weeping sowing precious seed shall doubtless return with rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them And then will you be called the repairers of breaches and the restorers of Pathes to dwell in I conclude all with the saying of one Vt valet quisque accipiat Let every one weigh well what hath been said and receive these things as he seeth good and live in this dying day as he should or as he will FINIS THE DESCRIPTION OF A FRIEND Being A SERMON ON Prov. 17.17 A Friend loveth at all times and a Brother is born for adversity Prov. xvii Vers xvii A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity THe condition of the Lords People is very necessitous and yet like to be much more it may not be therfore now unseasonable to Preach unto you the Doctrine of neighbourly love that we may be stirred up to become helpsul one to another as the state of times doth or shall call for at our hands The nature of friendâ—hip and the use thereof in distressed conditions are the two main things of this Verse to be lookt into The nature of friendship is to love A friend loveth c. Love is as much the formality of a friend as rationality of a Man Humane nature begets a kind of Kindred between all Man-kind which state supposeth love Cum natura quandam cognationem inter homines constituat alterum alteri insidiari nefas est saith the Civilian Whereas nature makes a certain Kindred between Men for one to betray another is most wicked Now if
yet it doth not denominate the Person which so doth a friend according to the sense of my Text and yet he is a friend in a large sense or rather in a little sense A friend is a Man of a noble Spirit that soares high and far to fetch the biggest and best prey to feed and supply want Hence it is that one compares friendship to marriage because friendly love is stronger than that which runs in any other Channel Now how wonderful for strength and how unexpressable for pleasure and pleasantness Is marriage love as we have some signature of it through Solomon's love-Song where the word Friend is used to express Marriage-love and the highest love which passeth between Man-kind His Mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O Daughter of Jerusalem Cant. 5.16 And proportionable to such a great love is all industry and expence to help and bless with the best and most precious things As Araunah brought friendships like a Prince to David and yet but a friend and a stranger a Gentile And the wise Men of the East what Presents they made to Joseph and Mary and their Child or else they had had nothing to flee with all into Aegypt to save their lives And our Saviour who was Lazarus's friend how he sighed and groaned to make a Resurrection of Him so that standers by beholding his carriage his sighing his weeping over Lazarus Grave said Behold how he loved him which is written that we might have a right pourtraiture of a friend So Christ called Lazarus Our friend Lazarus is dead And Martha which was Christ's friend What a deal of care and how taken up to provide all that possible could be for Christ and thought she could never provide what was good enough And so Pharaoh when he became a friend to Joseph he thought he could never do enough for him he set him up next to himself over all his own Nation and Relations And so the Persian Emperor advanced Daniel and Mordecai A friend is a favourite and a favourite is a signet set on the heart by the finger of God than which What is of more estcem At such a great and unexpressableness of love as the true form of a friend pointeth that Scripture Deut. 13.6 And observe well the words at what a height a friend is put even by the Lord himself in some sense it should seem above all relations If thy brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome or thy Friend which is as thy own Soul entice thee The meaning of all these high expressions is that the love of a friend is very strong unexpressable no relation nor thing in this World dear enough nor full enough almost to express it A Brother a Son a Daughter a Wife yea ones own Soul a Friend is as neer as dear as any of these and being brought in in the close when he had named all neer Relations Or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul he would seem to give preheminence of love to a friend and set him as Pharaoh did Joseph next indeed to his own Soul and Life And if of due there go such a deep Channel of love to the Creature O! what an Ocean of love is due to Christ our good friend Fourthly A friend loveth thus as I have before-said and loveth thus not for a spurt and away Gâ—colampadiâ—s Capito Their friendship lasted as long as they lived but he loveth thus at all times A friend loveth at all times Cum dives eris plures numerabis amicos Whilst we need no friends we shall have more than a good many But the love of friendship is as the motion of the Sun all the year and in all weathers Winter and Summer Brutes love one another only whilst together and whilst they see one another but when parted they utterly forget one another and thus do most love which sheweth it to be short of the love of friendship A friend loveth at all times when sick and when well when poor as when rich when absent as when present when dead as when alive And Naomi said unto her daughter in Law blessed be he of the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead Ruth 2.20 yea or any that are of him as David did Mephibosheth the Son of Jonathan He shall eat at my Table and be as mine own Children And Jonathan said to David go in peace for as much as we have sworn both of us in the Name of the Lord saying the Lord be between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed for ever 1 Sam. 20.42 The love of friendship hath a kind of Eternity in it a for ever The Lord be between my Seed and thy Seed for ever 'T is a love like the love of God a kindness like the kindness of God as David expresseth it that lasteth to the Third and Fourth Generation Is there any of the House of Saul that I may shew the kindness of God to him that is an everlasting love 2 Sam. 9.3 'T is noted by Historians of Queen Elizabeth that as she reformed corrupt Religion so corrupt Coin There is nothing so corrupt in these last days as love both towards God and towards Man as appears by the instability thereof towards both which involveth both Tables of the Law and so all Religion and this is above all powers to reform but God Fifthly and Finally A friend loveth at all times that is most tenderly and compassionately and especially in adversity which is the meaning of this significant and emphatical expression which followeth And a Brother is born for adversity The reading should be saith some And he is born a Brother in adversity that is through his exceeding tender compassion he become as the neerest natural relation and so is by his tender love and tryed love born and brought forth as it were a new neer Kinsman on purpose created of God to serve the poor Creature in this strait as a Creature new made and now made which what a great honour it is to him to whom God giveth a merciful heart he is as a Creature then extraordinarily and purposely born for such a great and acceptable service Abimelech the Priest loved David at all times but most especially when David was at a plunge when he and his followers were ready to starve for want of bread then he gave them the Shew-bread which was the Bread out of his own mouth beside the hazard he ran in it of his life and did not only give him hallowed bread on which the Priests lived but observe how he takes his life in his hand and speaks for David to Saul to blunt the edge of his fury against him And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David which is the Kings Son in Law and goeth at thy bidding and is
doth To invite them to our Table which have scarce nothing to eat at their own Table who to be sure cannot invite us again and to be Legs to the lame and Eyes to the blind c. But these are so unthankful that who can have any heart to do any thing for them I answer Such whose hearts are simple and who as David shew simple friendship they will look upon Criples as Criples and blind as blind lame and blind in their Souls as well as in their Bodies and if you would have People be thankful be simple in your kindness let them see that you do not seek theirs in the least but them every way the relief of them Mephibosheth was never like to make a Man of use to attend upon David to honour his Table this had been rather to have sought a friendship than to have shewed one It is a Custome amongst the Turkes not to believe a Christian's or a Jew's complaint against a Turk without a Turk's witness too and that is the reason why in such Cases Justice is much corrupted and so little to be had I only allude to this The cases and conditions of many oppressed poor and mean ones is such that unless they can get such and such as are great to witness to their cause and own them and stick to them their own complaints will not be believed nor heard not indeed will any take it in hand unless they see that which may be good self-encouragement and advantage so that falleth out to be true which that great Statesman observed in his Days The rich have many friends not only one friend of which the poor would be glad but many friends and the Poor is hated of his own Neighbour Prov. 14.20 And Prov. 19.4 Wealth maketh many friends but the poor is separated from his neighbour When ye see a gold Ring on a Man's Finger there you take him up and his cause is good as Absalom said and ye do but want one well to plead it and I will do it and I will do it and what a many friends the wealthy Man and the Man with the Gold Ring and long Hair hath but a poor Man that hath but one Ewe Lamb as Nathan's Parables is but a little estate left and that in danger to be all taken away too who strives to plead this Persons case and to own and to cleave to such a helpless one Wherefore I exhort be simple in your friendship as purely born for adversity Secondly Be tender and strong friends that is not in word only but in deed and in the greatest actions and labours and deeds which distresses need to relieve them What a friend Barzillai was to David in his distress against Absalom beyond Jordan How brought he him all Provisions for Himself and Followers which David much remembred because it was so seasonable And what a friend was Obadia to the Lord's Prophets when the violence of Ahab and Jessabel was great who hid them by Fifties in a Cave when it must needs be with the peril of his life And our Saviour seems to grant such a strength in friendship as to lay down the life for a friend Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his life for his friends Our Saviour seems to grant such a height in the love of friendship And the Apostle saith we ought to lay down our life for a brother And a friend is a created Brother of our own Creation and created of purpose for a plunge Therefore it will be lovely to get all the heights of true friendship in this evil Day because distresses and plunges are so high and hard and great Nothing less almost will relieve some poor distressed People unless we do much expose our selves as Obadia and the Brethren which rescued Paul out of the Tumult when he was knockt down and all thought he was dead And Rizpah the Daughter of Aiah took Sack-cloth and spread it for her upon the Rock from the begining of Harvest till Water dropped upon them and suffered neither the Birds of the Air to rest on them by Day nor the Beasts of the Field by Night 2 Sam. 21.10 Rizpah made a covering over her of this Sack-cloth and sate under it day and night with those dead Corpses of Saul's Family which friendship was very strong and tender and painful and David took it wonderful well at her hands And if she did so watch with the dead that no violence might be done by Birds or Beasts It was strong friendship in him which said come and let us go and die with him 'T were well if we could watch with the living and that we could play the friends so to many in Prisons and bonds and extremities which are not dead Corpse yet but almost so and many of them worse than so that is worse than if they were dead my meaning is that where distress is great we would become great friends Our Rule is to covet the best gifts to be most eminent and excellent in every Grace and be you in this of friendship Be thus always And Hyram King of Tyre sent his Servants unto Solomon for he had heard that they had anointed Him King c. for Hiram was ever a lover of David 1 Kings 5.1 This is the Property made of friendship in my Text A friend loveth at all times Had Hiram been a lover of David only sometimes and when David had no need of him doubtless David would have been cautious of him and not have put him among the number of his friends but he was always a lover of David And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great Woman and she constrained him to eat Bread And so it was that as oft as he passed by he returned in thither to eat bread Not once or twice coldly invited but she constrained him and as oft as he passed by and that she might be sure of him always when he went that way She said to her Husband behold now I perceive that this is an holy Man of God which passeth by us continually let us make a little Chamber in the Wall and let us set for him there a Bed a Table a Stool and a Candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he turn in thither 2 Kings 4.10 Friendship is a natural thing and what is natural is durable I have none that doth so naturally care for me saith the Apostle Paul of Timothy A friend becomes a Brother that is naturally affected as if flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and 't is supposed in nature that natural relations are natural always as hand and the foot to the head and the head to the hand and foot are tenderly and strongly careful and affectionate always Jonathan went to David in the Cave and strengthned his hand in God as well as when David was in favour with Saul and that their friendship
might be everlasting how solemnly they swore one to another that their friendship might run along from Generation to Generation and yet Jonathan was a Brother to David by marriage and yet he rather chose to stick and trust to the bond of solemn friendship a Brother as made so by becoming a friend Now for Motives to press you to become such friends First This may be said God looks for it I was an hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye cloathed me not Mat. 25.43 I was a stranger and needed a friend and could finde none This complaint against Nabals at the great Day sheweth that GOD much expecteth this that we should be friends to such as are in distress and have no help nor cannot help themselves Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the Land of Aegypt ye shall not afflict Widows or Fatherless Children If thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all to me I will surely hear their cry and my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the Sword and your Wives shall be Widows and your Children Fatherless Exod. 22.21 22 23 24. The reason why the Lord would not have strangers nor Widows and Fatherless abused and that he will take it so ill at our hands to do it is because these usually are friendless and have none to help them whereas he expecteth therefore that we should and ought to be friends and help these and not do as all do or as the most do abuse them or at least not look after them By which it is manifest that God looks that we should be friends to our friendless 't is their due and therefore the friendless may look for it too as well as God With hold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Prov. 3.27 Many need friends in this day therefore become friendly And when Absalom's servants came to the Woman to the House they said Where is Ahimaas and Jonathan And she said they be gone over the Brook of Water And when they had sought and could not finde them they returned to Jerusalem And it came to pass after they were departed that they came up out of the Well and went and told King David and said arise and pass quickly over the Water for thus hath Ahitophel counselled against you 2 Sam. 17.20 21. Many of the Lord's People in these evil Days need friends to hide them the Antichristian World is so full of Achitophels pursuing of them be therefore as this Woman friends with your Houses with your Estates with your Interests The Disciples let down Paul at a Window in a Basket Alass ah and alass the straits which many have been put to in this day and how many may yet be who knows then how much it is needed that you become friends to the distressed For many of us Ministers it may be said of us as Livy Pastor accola ejus loci a Pastor that dwells hard by that Place And so we are Pastors which live by our Places some of us or rather indeed die by them but cannot live in them and more then many can do that To live by their places but must hide their heads one while and wander here and there another while to get Bread for them and theirs and well when they seek it if they can finde it And not a few Ministers and others in this condition how many then need friends Thirdly Consider the great service that you may do for God and for his People this way And three of the thirty chief went down and came to David in the harvest time unto the Cave of Adullam and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the Valley of Rephaim And David was then in an hold and the Garison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem 2 Sam. 23.13 And Adullam was but a little from thence and yet David's three Worthies came to him and relieved him in the face of them all Troop and Garison of the Philistines and so did him the service of Threescore or Three-Hundred Men. So one friend to a poor David in a Cave in a Prison one Ebedmelech to a Jeremia in a Dungeon is worth a Thousand Courtiers with all their fine words and a Thousand Citizens with all their Where is he And How doth he do And shall we never see him again Be kind to Barzillai and shew favour to his Sons and let them eat at thy Table for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy Brother 2 Kings 2.7 David sets them down with Emphasis so they came to me when I fled from Absalom thy Brother who was like to have carried away all from me and thee too and when few did stick to me on the other side of Jordan where the fight was between Absalom and his Father and in that side of the River where friends were thin and very tickle which side to take to then did Barzillai and his Sons own David and did at that strait a World of service in a little time David puts a so upon it and cites it upon his Death-bed For so they came unto me One saith of Friends that they are such Jewels that Kings can have none meaning no faithful friends and yet David had one Barzillai that did so come to him and help him Know your seasons your objects and become such friends and therein know your use Fourthly You may obtain great blessings in this way both here and hereafter David charged Solomon that he should take Barzillai's Sons to Court with him and make them to eat at his Table The Lord built the Midwives Houses for their friendship to Moses and what a reward did he give Ebedmelech for his kindness and friendship to Jeremiah see Jer. 39.16 17. Jeremia hath a Prophesie on purpose from the Lord Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts 〈◊〉 God of Israel behold I will bring my words upon this City for evil and not for good and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee but I will deliver thee in that day saith the Loâ—d and thou shalt not be delivered into the hands of the Men of whom thou art afraid for I will surely deliver thee and thou shalt not fall by the Sword but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee because thou hast put thy trust in me saith the Lord. What God will do with Cities and Nations of the World in these last and most sinful times who can tell O how glad would ye all be that in such a doubtful day of common danger if any could secure and if it were but your bare life how much more if any could secure you and yours your Families and Estates and in probability Ebedmelech did share in this
also as far as any did for the manner of God is not to give barely what he saith but something more and oft-times much more And what a kindness in this World did the Lord give the Shunamite when Elisha had kindness he gave her a Childe and then when dead gave him to her again and then after that warned her of the Famine that was to be Seven Years and willed her what to do and then at the end of that time when she returned God so ordered in his Providence that Gehazi telling the King the stories of the Miracles which his Master did whilst he was telling how he raised the Shunamite's Childe that the Shunamitish Woman came in and so had all her Estate again and the profits thereof for the time that she was absent in the Famine Accrevit pectori caespes you may get a Fence Breast-high against all danger yea Head-high safety to your lives to your Children to your Estates by becoming as the Shunamite friends and as Ebedmelech friends think of it And as you may obtain great blessings in this World so you may obtain great blessings in the World to come God doth reward of Grace though not of Merit Then shall the King say to them on the right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came to me then shall the righteous answer him Where saw we thee thus and thus And the King shall answer Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto the Mat. 26.40 The Rule is to do good to all but especially to such as Christ will call his Brethren at the great Day but we may have rewards in Heaven for being kind and friends to them which never shall come there Hence it is that Christ else-where saith Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations He that is faithful in that which is least is also faithful in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much if therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon Who will commit to your trust the true treasure Luk. 16.9 10 11. If you be friends with your estates your estates will be great friends to you your transitory riches will receive you into everlasting Habitations they will make a large entrance for you into Heaven though may be none at all for them to whom ye shew kindness for they may be unworthy yet ye shall in no wise lose your reward 'T were well if friendships would convert all to whom they are shewed as they may do some for ought I know but if they do not convert any yet you shall have your reward in Heaven your riches by being made friendships to the distressed make themselves your friends and will receive you into everlasting Houses But observe what follows If ye be unfaithful in this unrighteous man that is the riches of this World with which and for which many make themselves unrighteous if ye do not shew friendships as good Stewards of a little Talent Who will give higher gifts to you as grace and glory So that you may shut up Heaven or open Heaven as to all ends and purposes as to grace and glory or no grace nor no glory as ye become friends to others or not friends with what you have now take your choice shew to the distressed of this Age that ye were born for this day to be friends to them or else it had been better ye had never been born The Ravens will rise in judgment against you who did spare the Meat out of their Mouths to feed Elijah in his distress and became friends to him Finally If we should be Friends as Brethren born for the day of the adversity of one or two then surely we should be friends to the whole Church of God and if we should be friends to this and that particular Person than much more to the whole Nation and to the publick compages of all Christ needs friends such as Abraham who was a friend of God and so doth his Church and People need friends faithful friends in this Evil Day wherein many prove false we are all born for this Day of adversity to save the whole from the wrath of God from Pestilence Sword and all the Evils which do assault us David was troubled at the Elders of Juda which should have been Leaders that they were the last to bring the King to his House 2 Sam. 19.11 So may him whom that King typified Jesus Christ be troubled that the great Ones put not their Neck to his yoke but are the last which set their hands and hearts to any works of the Lord to shew themselves friends to him and to the Church and States in which they live You have Ten parts in the Nation over what inferior and poor Persons have and so hath the Church and State Ten parts more in you than in others and therefore one of you should be Ten Friends twenty friends in this Day to lift up Jacob which is low to relieve the Widow the Fatherless all the oppressed and to see that Magistrates and Ministers faithfully keep the charge of the Lord and so make up the breaches of the City of David which are many and lie in the Gap and not make gaps and breaches by violence and rage and bad example FINIS GOD'S Troops Invading MAN Being A SERMON ON Psal 42.7 8 7. Deep calleth upon deep at the noise of thy Water spouts all thy Waves and thy billows are gone over me 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the Day time and in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my Life Psal 42.7 8. Deep calleth upon deep at the noise of thy Water spouts all thy Waves and thy Billowes are gone over me Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the Day time and in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my Life GReat afflictions and great Faith to see through them are the two great Things considerable in these two Verses Afflictions are set forth by a Metaphor taken from the Sea when * The Winds raise the Seas and take them at their backs saith Seneca Winds and Rains are tempestuous which are God's Water-spouts above these make the Seas roar and beat and break to and again which are his Water spouts below which Metaphor is to shew the great and vast nature of afflâ—ctions they are as the Abyss or bottomless Sea that cannot be fathomed such are the miseries
no other way to do it so doth God imbitter our conditions in this World that so all the sweets which we have here we may use them as if we did not and possess them and they not possess us and our hearts David had many bitten upon his condition before he could say I have behaved my self as a weaned Child When the World was first crucified to Paul then at length he became crucified to the World when God whips us in this and whips us in that takes away this and takes away that then by degrees he takes away our hearts too and sets them upon better things but usually good things first die from us before we become so good as to die from them There is no labourer in Egypt that lifts up his eyes to Heaven they are almost angry with the Sun it doth so scorch them Few labourers in and after this World do lift up their eyes to Heaven much whilst the Sun-shine of prosperity is hot upon them but rather angry and vexed and cumbred with one thing or other that the World doth not tumble in fast enough Few in health and wealth are heavenly In those days was Hezekia sick unto death Isa 38.1 In those days When was that see the Chapter foregoing Assoon as he had obtain'd that great deliverance from the Assyrian by Prayer and all quiet now least he should grow as David when his War was ended sensual and wanton God smites him with the Plague and bids him set his house in order for he must die David being hunted up and down as a Partridge and poured from Vessel to Vessel what a Heavenly Man is he and when this is over what a carnal Man is he I am tossed to and fro as the Locust mark what follows My Knees are weak through fasting Psal 109.23 When we are tossed much then we fast and pray and go to Heaven much upon our Knees We read in History of an Emperor strangled putting on his Royal Robes nothing more choak the seeds of Grace and Heavenly life than the prosperity of this World and therefore usually one way or other God kills all things here to kill us throughly to all here The Apostle bids us endure hardness as good Souldiers In hard states and conditions grace best thrives and the most noble things and souls to be found Vse 1 Learn from hence what a great God we have to do with who can flat our conditions with all miseries in a moment as the Sea sometimes makes breaches upon the Land and swallows up Towns and Cities no more to be recovered I will have mercy upon the House of Juda and save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by Horse nor by Horse man Hos 5.7 As God saves without bow or sword so he can destroy without bow or sword even with his own hand from Heaven many ways Of which I will say as one doth of Mary's being with child by the Holy Ghost Mirari licet rimari non licet Such dealings of God may be wondred at but curiously search'd into they may not It may be said of God and the Engins he useth against Men as Hushai saith of David and his followers Thou knowest that David and thy Father be mighty Men and they be chaffed in their minds as a Beat robbed of her Whelps in the Field 2 Sam. 17.8 God sometimes when he sets upon the Sons of Men is as fierce Creatures chased and chafed and robbed of their young very fierce and so are all the Engins which he useth How fierce was Shimei against David and threw Stones and cursed him God hath set him on saith David We are made a spectacle or Theater saith the Margent to Angels and to Men and I think God hath sent us forth last for this sad service as appointed to death and slaughter in all that is dear 1 Cor. 4.9 It may be God hath appointed the best of Men in these last Days to the worst of deaths and calamities to close up a long and evil Day and that the Pit should as it were shut its mouth upon the Christians of these last times as the Whale upon Jonah Which should make us tremble and stand in awe daily to consider what a great and holy God we have to do with Secondly Learn what need we have of grace who are lyable to such floods of Evils yea of much grace Noah moved with fear being warned of God prepared an Ark and went into it and where else could he have lived in those great storms and floods which came upon the World Surely Gods storms and waves will beat much in these last Days If all of them may come over any Man then all of us need an Ark and to hast unto it that we be in a state of favour with God by Jesus Christ All our estates may fail us a Fire of God from Heaven may consume them All our Friends may fail us yea all our hearts may fail us Mens hearts failing them for fear What then will be a Cordial to keep us but the favour of God and a state of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ be with our Spirits Nine several times in the Ten first Verses of Pauls first Epistle to the Corinthians is Jesus Christ named saith one that hath well observed to note who it is that is all in all in storms for a Saviour yea indeed in all conditions It is Jesus as the same Observator saith that is made Mel in ore Bernard melos in aure Jubilum in Corde Jesus Christ in all conflicts is hony in the mouth Something like that terrible Monarchy of the Greeks 〈◊〉 bâ—fore Christ's coming in the Flesh will be before his coming again harmony in our ear a Jubile or great joy in our hearts when all the waves and billows of afflictions beat upon us yea when these Waters come into our Souls when Prophesie and prosperity failed the state of the Jews they had nothing to live upon but that promise that the desire of all Nations should come The Echo and the Pool of Bethesda under the great Tirannies of Antiochus and the Greek Monarchy these were the stays of their hearts that Christ would come and so by faith did bear up and he did come Floods may yea red Seas may break out and we may flote in our own blood therefore an Ark is very needful and that we be in it well in it by faith nothing but Christ can be a Jesus a Saviour to us all other things will but rather hasten and heighten the Floods upon us as the more riches and honour and the things of this World we have the more shall we be a fit prey for evil times and Persons What got the Caesars by their high advances Nisi ut citius interficerentur Grace therefore is necessary and speedily necessary The Flood which swallowed up the first World is called a Dart. Methusalah the