the unquenchable fire He loves them as his own Son Joh. 17.26 27. Who can tell the love God bears to his Son the same love he bears to his Saints His name is love his nature is love his Son is the token of his love his Spirit is the earnest of his love the Gospel his love letter Hence it is that they are so happy who are committed to Gods keeping because he is so loving a Guardian All the while that his people suffer he doth sympathize and he will support them As a tender father he proportions the burden to the strength of his childrens back He doth like a Lutanist to use Chrysostoms similitude who will not let the strings of his Instrument be too slack lest they mar the musick nor suffer them to be too hard screwed up lest they break He who taught the Husbandman to use several instruments for the threshing of several sorts of grain and not to turn the cart wheel about upon the Cummin Isa 28.25 will certainly himself not suffer his people to be afflicted aboue what they are able 2 Cor. 10.13 His love will set all his other Attributes at work for his peoples good His Wisdom will contrive his Power will act and his Faithfulness will perform whatsoever he promiseth for the comfort of his Church and all because he loveth them What would not David have done for Absolom whom he affecteth so dearly when Absolom rebelled against him and sought his life his heart relented towards Absolom out of love What a charge doth he give his Captains concerning him Deal gently for my sake with the young-man even with Absolom What will not God do for his chosen whom he loveth when they wander and run from him he followeth after and wooeth them For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his own heart Mark Here is a childe in a great crime his Father corrects him and instead of kissing the rod he kicks at the hand that holds it He went on frowardly in the way of his own heart Well what is the fruit of this frowardness you might expect greater severity upon such contumacy surely if few stripes will do no good many must be laid on or if the rod will not do the ax might be used But lo what love doth I have seen his ways and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comforts to him and to his mourners Isa 57.17 18 19. Well though he be undutiful yet he is my child I will throw away my rods and draw him with the cords of love though he freez under the nipping frosts yet he will thaw under my warm beams 13. He is the most Faithful friend He is constant in his love Some are able and loving also for a time but their love like a candle though it burn a little in a closs room and calm weather is easily blown out by a stormy wind If a Christian be called to the cross he is like the Deer that is shot by the herd pushed out of their company but God is a lasting yea an everlasting friend his love like the Sun can never be abated much less extinguished by the greatest tempest but is always going forth in its full strength A brother is born for adversity A friend loveth at all times Prov. 17.16 Such a friend is God who when few men will never fails to appear for his suffering servants 2 Tim. 4.16 17. Basil ventured very far for a persecuted friend and being blamed for it answered Ego aliter amare non didici I have learned not to love otherwise The Antients pictured friendship in the shape of a fair young man bare headed with his breast open meanly apparelled with this inscription on his cloaths To live and to dye with you and this on his Forehead Summer and Winter and with this on his heart Prope longè far and near God is such a friend as will never disown or deny his people In the furnace the three children shall have his presence where ever he is absent When men are mutable and appear as Tertullian saith of the Peacock all in changeable colours use their friends as we do Sun-dials look no longer on them nor regard them then the Sun shineth on them God is a faithful creator 1. Pet. 4.19 will be sure to mind the house that he hath built and that most of all when it s out of repair and ready to fall Bucholcerus upon his friends going to Court to teach the Prince Electors children told him I will give you one piece of counsel which may do you good whilst you live His friend hearkned to him I commend saith he to you the faith of Devils Take heed whom you trust Indeed there are many men like ponds clear at the top and mud at the bottom fair in their tongues but foul in their hearts The greatest mens words are often like dead mens shoes he may go barefoot that trusteth to them But O what a faithful friend is God who never faileth his he is such a Physician as will be sure to visit his Patients often when sick although he may pass by their doors when they be well He is faithful to his promise his Word is the truth Col. 1.5 His Church is the Pillar of truth not to bear it up but to hold it out 1 Tim. 3. his Sacraments the seals of truth he himself is the Lord God of truth Psal 34.5 Who feares to be deceived when truth promiseth He keeps his promise to a word Quis falli tâ—… m at cum promittâ—t veritas Aug. confes lib. 11. cap. 1. Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that there hath not one good thing failed of all that the Lord promiseth Josh 23.14 The birth of the promise will answer their conception and they bring forth in full feature and glory God is usually better but never in the least worse then his word In sacra scriptura non solum bonitas est quod praecipitur faelicitas quod promittitur sed etiam veritas quod dicitur Hugo His promise is equivalent to possession He keeps touch with his people in the time of performance to a day The self same day Israel marched out of Egypt Ex. 2.4 The four hundred and thirty years were that very day expired nay to a night Dan. 5.30 In that night was Belshazer the King of the Chaldeans slain When the big-bellied promise had gone its full time the seventy years being then expired it could not stay till morning for its delivery but fell in labour that very night and was safe delivered The promises are the flowers of which the cordial Julips are made which refresh you in fainting hours but as Gods love is the root upon which they grow so his faithfulness is the hand that must bring them to you T is your happiness that your riches lye
his gracious presence alone which gives success to every enterprize His blessing can turn not onely Water into Wine temporal mercies into spiritual benefits but even poison into wholsom food every stone thrown at you by your enemies into a precious stone he can cause the wrath of men as the hunter useth the rage of the Dogs for his own ends to work not onely for his praise but also for your profit as a wise Governour meeting with opposite factions in a state while each studieth and striveth to undermine the other serveth his own ends and secureth his own interest by both The wise and powerful God while wicked men plots against his people makes them to conspire for his people The worlds actings are against the Saints intentionally in regard of the malice of their hearts but they are for the Saints eventually in regard of Gods over-ruling hand That Knife which wicked men endeavour to thrust into some vital part of the beleiver to kill him doth but light upon some imposthume and thereby tend to his cure The scorching Sun of persecution doth but ripen him for a glorious harvest Now to this God who can blow upon all his enemies plots and they perish who can breath with his spirit upon his peoples actions and they prosper who can cause all his providences to tend to your spiritual profit and eternal peace I commend you and my prayer shall be Psa 20.2 3 4. The Lord hear you in the day of trouble and the name of the God of Jacob defend you send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion grant you according to your hearts gracious desires and fulfil all your counsels For your further comfort know that this God to whom ye are commended is an able friend a loving friend and faithful friend and therefore it is the greatest good I can do for you First God is the most able Friend To have a friend at Court is a great courtesie because such a one can command much but what is it then to have God for your friend who can command all things God is able to do more for you then you can ask or think He is thirty times called Almighty in Job He can do above all expressions beyond all apprehensions What cannot he do for you who made the whole World of nothing and hangs the massy earth upon nothing He is able to defend you from whatsoever is hurtful There is a Dialogue between an Heathen and a Jew after the Jews return from Captivity all Nations round about them being enemies to them The Heathen asked the Jew how he and his country men could hope for any safety because saith he every one of you is a silly sheep compassed about with fifty Wolves I but saith the Jew we are kept by such a Shepheard as can kill all those Wolves when he pleaseth God can with a breath a puff blast all the plots of his enemies and cause their persons to perish how happy are they then who have him for their strong hold The Egyptians had an Idol called Baalzephon Lord of the watch Tower whose Office was to fright such fugitive Jews as fled from their Masters but it seems he was a sleep when the Israelites marcht out of Egypt in a full body God is pleased to call himself the watchmen of his people but he is such a watchman as neither slumbereth or taketh those short sleeps by day nor sleepeth or hath any long sleep by night his eyes never close all his thoughts are waking thoughts for the good of his people If enemies come before them He is the Lord of Hosts If behind them he is their rere-ward It was said of the Palladium in Troy that whilst that Image remained there the City was impregnable and that till the Greeks found out a stratagem to steal that Idol away they could not take it Whatever fancy there was in that this is a truth that God is the defence of a people and while he is present they are safe Are your dangers bodily he can bear off those blows No evil can arrest you without leave from this King Al his Servants are Courtiers and thereby priviledged persons He can make an hedge about your selves your houses and all that ye have as about Job 1. and 10. and then neither men not Devils can make a gap for any to enter and injure you Hesiod speaks of thirty thousand Demy-Gods that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keepers of men The true God keepeth his in a Pavilion as a Prince his Favourite from the mischeif of others envy and malice Psa 31.20 If afflictions be near he will not be far off He ventures his fortune in the same bottom with his people When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee and through the waters it shall not come nigh thee Isa 43.2 If the Church be a burning bush it will not be consumed because God is in it As it is safe in the fire so also in the Water though it be a Vessel as that wherein the Disciples were sailing in a rough Sea tost up and down with tempestuous winds and boystrous Waves nay filled almost with waters and ready to sink yet there is no fear because Christ is in it for though he seem to sleep waiting onely for a fit opportunity to manifest and magnifie his power yet when the storm comes he will be sure to awake and with his word of command to cause a calm The Church as Hierom saith of Arcturus semper versatur nunquam mergitur is much tossed but never drowned God is in the midst of her she shall never be moved he shall defend her and that right early God is said to ride on the Heavens for his peoples help Deu. 33.26 27. That is either he will come speedily as the heavens move swiftly for his peoples deliverance he will not delay till it be too late but prevent them with his love Or he hath power and will command all his creatures to be serviceable to his Churches safety he rideth on the Heavens for thy help As a man that rides on an horse can command it or turn it and wind it with a curb and bit which way he pleaseth so can the Omnipotent God command the Heavens and all their Host for his peoples help Though enemies come with open mouth to swallow the Church up quickly yet she will be gravel in their teeth and should they ever take her down as the Whale did Jonah yet God will force them to vomit her up again and make them find by woful experience that she is too hard a morsel for the strongest persecutors stomachs to digest Are your fears spiritual God is able to be your defence It s probable your suspicions are great that you shall fall off or fall away The World is a slippery place but he is able to keep you from falling Jude v. 4. We are apt to fall on the right hand by its
of Divine supplies sutable to your sufferings That God like an indulgent Mother will be sure to tend his sick Children though he leave others to the Servants When Christ had caused Jacob to halt then the place was turned into a Peniel Beleive me there is no such joy in the World as the people of God have under the Cross saith Philpot. Israel never saw so much of God as in the Wilderness then Manna from Heaven then the Pillar goeth before them and the Rock followed after them Fourthly To be your Cordial in all afflictions The Rams-skin covered the Ark from the injury of wind and weather which typified the defence the Church hath by the Gospel from those miseries to which she is liable on earth This is my comfort saith David in my afflictions thy word hath quickened me When the weight of his afflictions was ready to sink him the Gospel like blown Bladders preserve him from sinking Some I remember expound that place Thou O God didst send a plentiful showre whereby thou didst refresh thine heritage when it was weary Psal 65.9 The Law was rained down with those heavenly Oracles on mount Sinai while the thunder affrighted the people the Law refreshed them If the Law did revive them in that terrible temp est what will the Gospel do If his precepts are sweeter then the honey and the honey comb how sweet are his Promises If his Statutes are the Saints songs surely the word of his Grace is his triumph Seneca going about to comfort his friend Polibius perswades him to bear his affliction patiently because he was Cesars Favourite The word of grace affords you infinitely richer cordials exceeding rich and precious promises wherein ye are admitted to be the friends of God the members of Christ the Temples of the Spirit and the heirs of heaven The feather of the promise hath dropt in some comfort into a broken heart when it hath been ready to die with despair and could take thing down That ye through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope This life would be little better then Hell saith Bernard were it not for the hope of Heaven but the hope of your future happiness which is discovered in the Gospel may like Cork to the line keep your hearts aloft all waters and afflictions Now ye have a storm but hereafter an everlasting calm now ye are tost too and fro and weather beaten but faith by the prospective glass of the Gospel discovers land and this without question may support your spirits Therefore when trouble comes take heed of fetching your comfort from any creature Alas they are all puddle water t is the word of grace which is the pure River of water of life clear as Chrystal the River whose streams make glad the City of God Thus I commend you to the word of his grace in this four fold respect To conclude all it is Reported of a friend of Cyrus that being asked where his treasure was he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Cyrus is my friend I hope if any ask you where your Treasure your Riches your Honour your Happiness is ye will say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where God is our friend Now to this God according to my power I have I do and I shall commend you to his favour and singular affection to his power and special protection and to his care and universal benediction I cannot commend you to one so faithful though others fall off like leaves in Autumn he will never leave you that are his nor forsake you I know not to commend you to one so loving he lived in love he in our natures dyed for love His love is like himself boundless and bottomles 'ts impossible to commend you to one so able he can suppy all your needs fill all your souls to the brim grace is lovely in your eyes who ever beheld it Glory is infinitely amiable in your judgments who ever beleived it He can build you up and give you an inheritance where all the heirs are Kings and Queens and shall sit on thrones and live and reign with Christ for ever and ever there ye shall have robes of purity on your backs palms of victory on your hands crowns of glory on your heads and songs of triumphs in your mouths there ye may meet together to worship him without fear and drinks freely of his sweetest dearest favour there your services will be without the smallest sin and your souls without the least sorrow If Pastor and People meet there they shall never part more It s some comfort now that though distant in places we can meet together at the throne of grace but O what a comfort will it be to meet together in that palace of glory But since we must part here Finally my brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified FINIS