Hosts and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a Sanctuary Do you set God before you and he will set himself by you and where the great God goes there goes a Guard of Angels Psal 34.7 His Wings be a Covert and his hand a Canopy with which he hides from the Storm and from Rain And that he is a mighty Saviour First Consider his Omnipotency He can do whatever pleaseth him He can make the worm Jacob to thresh Mountains and the Mountains to become a plague before Jerubbabel Zach. 4.7 All the Nations of the Earth are but as a drop of the Bucket or dust of the Ballance compared with him and all hearts are in his hands Therefore sayes the Prophet in Isai 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength or the Rock of ages He is no broken Reed but that strength in which we may Confide As David sayes Psal 46.1,2,3 Si fractus illabitur Orbis If the World be dissolved God is our refuge and strength c. therefore we will not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea c. Seconâ—ly Consider his immeâ—…tability We have standing Comfort in the unchangeablenesse of this God Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed And for this we have the experience of David Psal 9.10 They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee and the Churches experience Isai 63.9 he bear them and he carried them all the daies of old This great and unchangeable Saviour saves his people these four wayes First He will save and preserve from Evils and will be a Chamber of safety when the Indignation is abroad to hide from the storm Ezek. 11.6 Yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the Countries where they shall come I will be with thee is Gods great Promise and his Peoples Security it was Joshua's Guard and Jeremiah's Brasen-Wall Secondly He will save his people in afflictions as he did the three Children in the burning Fornace thus he delivers in six troubles and also in seven as 't is promised in Isai 43.2,3 When thou passest thorough the waters I will be with thee and thorow the Rivers they shall not overflow thee When thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the Lord thy God the Holy one of Israel thy Saviour Job's experience is an everlasting proof of this that when the Lead is Consumed the Gold is preserved in the Fornace Thirdly He will save or deliver out of afflictions 1 Cor. 10 13. In the midst of all temptations he will make a way for us to escape them Many are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of all He is Emmanuel God with us Our Redeemer from Hell and from Trouble Fourthly He will save by afflictions and by the evils they meet withall Prov. 29.15 The Rod and Reproof give wisdom and as David sayes It was good for me that I was afflicted All things shall work for good 2 Cor. 4.7 These afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The Vessel is usually covered with Dirt by the Clensers hand that it may shine with the more brightness So by afflictions God makes us partakers of his Holiness Afflictions and outward evils come alike to all but with much different effect All men fall into afflictions Good and Bad but as the Israelites and the Egyptians went both into the Red Sea and the one was drowned and the other passed throrough to Canaan So the Righteous and the Wicked fall under Calamity the one sinks through unbelief and the other passes thorough safety and by Faith and Patience comes to inherit the promise Secondly The Abode or Presence of God and Christ with Believers is instead of a sure Guide and Light unto them They can never want a Guide who have God with them As the Pillar of a Cloud by day and of Fire by night was unto Israel in all their March The same and more is God to his People in all their Pilgrimage Consider three things First Consider that Man cannot be without this Guide The best of men have very great need of the presence of God to lead them that they be not mis-led and that they don't faint in the way What can the Sheep do without a Shepheard Such is God to his Psal 23.1 without Gods abode with us 't is as Children without a Father and none to direct them and so left to run themselves into mischief What is the World without a Sun Jer. 10.23 The way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Secondly Consider that 't is our great wisdom to commit our way to the guidance of this God and Christ Every wise man will commit his way to God and not move a step without him as Moses in the Conduct of Israel would not move a foot without God That was a good Petition or rather Resolution of David in Psal 73.24 Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward receive me to Glory I am resolved to be guided by Gods Counsel and an excellent and imitable practise of Isaac in Gen. 26.24,25 that where he had met God at Beer-sheba and where God had blessed him There he pitched his Tent So we should move as God leads Thirdly Consider That if God undertake to Guide us we shall not miscarry he will certainly bring us saâ—e to Heaven Our feet may be almost gone but shall not be altogether gone Psal 73.2 My feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt So it may be with the choicest of Gods Servants but in the 23 verse Neverthelesse I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand The more dark and dangerous the times be the more we should desire Gods abode with us the nearer a night of trouble or of death is to us the more earnestly beg his stay as the two Disciples Luke 24.29 They constrained Christ saying abide with us for it is towards Evening and the day is far spent Thirdly The abode or presence of God and Christ with his people is instead of a Treasury and Store-house of all Provisions Where Jesus Christ is and where God makes his abode there is a Spring head of comforts that cannot be drawn dry Isa 33.16 Bread shall be given them and their waters shall be sure who have God with them So was God to Israel Deut. 29.5.6 He fed Israel in the wilderness forty years their clothes did not wax old You have not eaten bread neither have you drunk wine or strong drink that ye might know that I am the Lord your God Consider three particulars here First Consider God is