of the Dispensations of GOD AND OF The pertinent Duties and Comforts of His PEOPLE in these Times WITH A Preface of the fulness of Scriptur sufficiency for Answering all Cases Hosea 9. 10 I found Israel like Grapes in the Wilderness Jer. 2 2. I Remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wantest after me in the Wilderness in a Land that was not sowen Numb 33 1. These are the journeyes of the Children of Israel which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron 2 Verse And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeyes by the Commandment of the Lord and these are their journeyes according to their goings out 1 Epistle of John 1 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Written in the Wilderness Edinburgh Printed by George Mosman and are to be Sold at his Shop in the Parliament-Close Anno Dom. 1692. THE PREFACE THE Jews have a Tradition of that Manna wherewith God fed Israel in the Wilderness fourtie years that the taste thereof was such and so various that it answered every mans Appetit and tasted to him of whatsoever food his soul desired And look how uncertain is that Jewish Tradition of the materiall Manna that was gathered off the Earth for the space of fourty years in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt So certain is this Christian Truth of the Spiritual Manna the word of God that bread of Heaven that Angels food wherewith God feeds his Church in all ages successively and every Child of his House the Israelite indeed respectively throughout the whole course of their life and travel in the World which is the great Wilderness that it hath in it a real supply of all their necessities and hath always in it a word in season to all persons at all times and in every condition To the Dead it is life to the living it is health to the weary it is refreshment to the weak it is strength to Babes it is milk to strong men it is meat to the hungry it is bread to the thirsty it is waters To the drooping soul and sorrowful heart it is wine to the faint it is apples and Pomegranats cinnamon safron spiknard Calamus and all spices of the merchant To such who love dainties it is marrow and fatness honey of the rock and droping from the honey-comb to the wounded it is the balme of Gilead to the blind and weak sighted it is eye salve and oyntment to annoint the eyes To such neat souls as love to be all Glorious within and to keep clean Garments it is a Crown chains of the neck braceless ear-rings pendents and Ornaments of all sorts and if they like to be in fashion and to go fyne in the court of a Heavenly Conversation and communion with God it presents them a bright large glass whereat they may dayly adorn themselves to purpose This Glass is no falsifying nor multiplying Glass but a just discovering and directing one here are also discovered not only all the obliquities of gesture and faults of feature and all spots upon the face or cloaths but likwise the very in most thoughts and intents of the heart with the most subtile imaginations of the mind are here manifested Here ye are directed to sit all your Soul-ornament in the fynest spiritual fashion and to compose your gestur and order your motion so as you may be able to stand in the presence of him who is greater than Solomon This large bright Glass doth stand in King Solomons bed-Chamber in the Pook of Canticles and in it you may see your self from head to foot There ye see the head beautiful with locks Cantic 4 There ye see the sweet comly Countenance of the Saint which the Lord is so much in love with that he is in continual desire to see it there you see those eyes that ravish his heart and so throughout even to the feet that are very beautiful with shooes Chap. 7. 1. For such as are destitute and unprovided the word of God is a portion to the poor it is Riches of treasure of choice Silver and fine Gold Here is that which dispelleth darkness cleareth doubts dissolveth hardness dissappointeth fears dischargeth cares solaceth sorrows and satisfieth desires Here is counsel and strength for peace and war Here is daily intelligence from Heaven And in a word here is the best Companion that ever a soul did choose And blessed they who can spiritually tone that short but high note Psal. 119. 98. Thy Commandments are ever with me And that they are not with the soul as a burden of idle attendants are with a man see what good offices they perform by their presence Prov. 6. 22. 23. They are as Hobab to Israel and David to Nabal Eyes and a Guard to us in the Wilderness In the World and chiefly in this World we change seats and Societies we shift conditions and habitations we go thorow the Wilderness of Baca from troop to troop we are driven from Temple Altar and Oracle and we are divided from our relations and dearest acquaintance whom we loved as our own Soul we are spoiled of our Companions with whom we took sweet counsel and went into the house of God But blessed that Soul who in all this can say I am not alone my good old friend the word of God the Bible the guide of my Youth hath not yet forsaken me it is with me yea it is in me in the midst of my heart and I bear about me daily a living coppy of those livly Oracles and they are more near me than my very self for my heart is within me and they are within my heart I may be separated from my self by death that parts the dearest Friends my heart may be pluckt from my breast and my Soul dislodged of my Body but my Companion the word of God and me shall nothing part Prosperity shall not cause me forget it And adversity will not cause it forget me I will never forget thy Precepts for with them thou hast quickned me Psal. 119. 93. As those who live upon the shoar have a very just diall of the measure and motion of the water which they can make use of without the sun so are the ebbings and flowings of our affections to the word of God the surest most universall and constant witnesses of our daily condition for albeit the darkness that is upon the face of our Souls may pretend that it is night with us yet if it be full sea in our affection to the word of God we may be sure it is noon day and when it is low water in our affection to the word sure then it is mid night and the sun was never seen at mid night Be sure it is ill with that Soul that is out of conceit with the word of God Now to say nothing of the malignant qualities of gross ignorants prophane
he was a Fool who spoiled his Mirth with the thoughts of a Sword hanging over his head 2. It is confirmed clearly by the expectation of a future Reward Remember me O my God for good Till I see good Ropes twined of the Sand and the Sea beaten to powder I cannot be inclined to think that the World was made of Atoms And if it be ruled by chance what are Counsel and Art Wisdom and Folly Good and Evil Law and Justice but names of Fancies large as ridiculous as he who should command the motes of the Sun to dance a Measure or be who scourged the Sea for its disorder We know that pure chance obtaineth impunity by the Law both of God and Man Now this matter belongeth to the Ruler gravly to consider how inconsistent Atheism is with Government For to the Atheist Treason and Robbery is neither Plot nor Fellony but simple chance medley a French Aire or merry Jigg of Volage Atoms But by this fortuitous Act of Indemnity as the Atheist can do no wrong so neither can he complain of injury if he chance to be baffled robbed or dispatched violently If the World reel I cannot say properly be ruled by chance is not the Atheist not by Scripture only which never speaks good of him but by his own Principle also proven a forlorn Fool lyable in all things to unavoidable surprisal yea a liar also who knowing and warned of a continual surprisal can therefore never be surprised except into the absurdity of a Self-contradiction whereof his Principles of Fortuity are a fair Essay But to a wise Man If the World must be ruled by Counsel and Law how is it that Justice is not in this life universally and fully executed and every Man rewarded according to his Works But that there is a Court of Referrs A day of the restitution of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of righting all wrongs and settling all disorders Rom. 2. 6. to 13. Some are rewarded in this life to convince us of a Divine Providence others are not rewarded to warn â—s of a World to come Or what can perswade Nehemiah with all the wisest and best of Men deliberatâ— to chuse willingly to forgo the Worlds favour and measures and undergo all its toil and displeasure but â—â— eye to the recompence of reward by far more â—â—e better than it is the later The sence of the Souls â—nmortality is the indelible Character and solid â—â—reats of Authentick Nature exactly rendered in â—â—ery Man's coppy Only it is not illuminated in some â—â—rk Hereticks and desperate Monsters Satyres or â—â—ch doleful Creatures in humane shape where you â—â— as little of the Man as of Immortality for these â—â— all appear equally Yet it is shaddowed in all â—ens practice For look we backward What but â—â—e Aire of Immortality maketh Men so conceit an â—â—cient Pedegree Or foreward What moveth â—â—en to call their Children and Lands by their own â—ame and to endeavour to perpetuat all together it the expectation of Immortality Say it is their â—â—â—ty yet omne malum est in bono and there must some reality under that same vanity And truâ—â— the Souls Immortality is the early dictat of Naâ—â—re our Religious Mother the uncontroverted â—â—d universal Sentiment of all her posterity of whatever Religion Jewish Pagan Christian Mahumeâ—â— The Sadducees might well be the first Deniers O Lord O Lord I beseeth thee send now prosperity Yet all that will live goaly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution and through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God But let no man add affliction to the afflicted and scornfully with Apostate Iulian alledge to Christians this Doctrine to make their burdens heavier God will not be mocked but He will avenge his own Elect who cry day and night to him Though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Luke 18. 7 8. And men would remember that there is Suffering for evil-doing as well as for well-doing and he who inflicts the one may be rewarded with the other For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the Wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them Psal. 75. 8. And it â—â— a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance c. 2 Thess. 1. 6 7 8. 2. The belief of the Souls Immortality teacheth men effectually the Fear of God Fear not them that kill the Body and when they have done that have no more that they can do But fear ye him who can cast both Soul and Body into Hell I say fear him Luke 12. 4 5 Psal. 76. 11. He ought to be feared And why verse 12. He cutteth off the Spirits of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain Jer. 10. 7. 3. It teacheth moderation in the desire and use of all things worldly We look not at the things that are seen which are Temporal but at the things that are not seen which are Eternal There is indeed the high spirit of Christianity courting immortality with so great disdain of all Worldly things that it cannot see them in its way This is the true Nobility of the Soul that exempteth it from the Egyptian slavery and servil drudgery of loading it self with thick clay for the brick-kilns of worldly projects and setteth it far without the reach of this Temptation And woe be to him who buildeth his House by Blood and his City by Oppression and delivereth it from the sâ—art of him Who will be Rich till He be peirced with many Sorrows and drowned in Damnation But this I say Brethren the time is short even short enough to him who every Evening may hear This night thy Soul shall be taken from thee It remaineth That they who possess the World be as they possessed it not they that use it as if they used it not and as not abusing it for the fashion of this World passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 29. and foreward But alas for pitty that this same Moderation and Indifferency should be both practised and applauded in the matters of God! And that it is so rare to be Seriously and positively Holy that Godliness may say O ye Sons of Men how long will ye turn my Glory into Shame How long will ye love Vanity and seek after Leasing Psal. 4. 2. 4 It teacheth us the best managry This Age hath learned to be wonderful Thrifty But O that they could study to be rich toward God! And could be perswaded that Alms and Charity is the best Husbandry and surest Art of Managry and would learn of the
and driven to the Wilderness Sometimes is more visible and glorious in the incorporat Societies of National Churches sometimes more latent and obscure in some few single persons scattered up and down in the World who it may be in their time are as little observed by the World as the seven thousand true Worshipers were by Elias in his time There is a time Prov. 28. 12. when a man is hidden And the Lord in the worst of times hath his hidden ones Psal. 83. 3. And when judgement returns unto righteousness all the upright in Heart will follow after it Psal. 94. 15. 2. God may utterly reject and totally cast off the visible Body of a particular Church Witness the Church of the Jews at this day and the seven famous Churches of Asia 3. God may sententially reject his People by Threatnings when he doth it not nor minds to do it eventually and effectually in his Dispensations God may list up his Hand against his People to overthrow them and he may say by his threatnings That he will destroy them as it is Psal. 106. 23. 26. When yet they are spared he may frame a Bill of Divorse against his Church but not give it her into her hand Zeph. 2. 2. The Decree or the threatning intimating the Decree is one thing and the bringing forth of the Decree or the execution of that Threatning is another thing Repentance will obtain both a Suspension and Repeal of a Sentence of rejection In a word God may cast out with his people and not cast them off for all that He may Censure them within doors when he minds not to put them to the door The Lord may say he cannot owne a Whore and yet he is Married to her and he threatens to cast off a Whore that so he may keep still an honest Woman 4. God may really and effectually cast out his People when yet he doth not cast them off A Whore may be put to the door and taken home again Ier. 3. 1. A Leprous Miriam may be put out of the Camp and taken in again God may not only say by his threatnings but seem to confirm it by his Dispensations that his People are out-casts and yet He gathers the out-casts of Israel Psal. 147. 2. The Lord hath oft times in his Dispensations so shewed himself to his People testifying his Displeasures against them that even those who were more than common Counsellors with God and were best acquaint with his wayes have had right sad apprehensions of total off-casting Ier. 14. 19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah Psal. 85 5 6. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all Generations Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoyce in thee And yet in the 9th verse and O! if this were the answer for the Mourners and inquirers in Scotland his salvation is near them that fear him that Glory may dwell in our land So that these are three very different things 1. Gods casting out with his People 2. His casting out his People And 3. his casting his People off 5. God may reject one Generation of a Church or Nation as a Generation of his wrath and yet his Covenant stand with the same Nation or Church Witness that Generation with whom the Lord's Spirit was grieved fourty years and whose Carcases fell in the Wilderness 6. God may cast off the Incorporation of a Church or Nation whereof sometimes he reserves a remnant to whom he will be gracious and with whom he will establish his Covenant Paul Rom. 11 at the beginning shews that be with Israel as it will God will not cast off his own Elect such as he himself was And Rom. 9. 27 though a number like the sand of the Sea be destroyed Yet a remnant shall be saved as saith Isaiah chap. 1 vers 9. And that is the grand consolation when all goes to all That of all that the Father hath given him Christ will lose none Joh. 6. 39. A Son of perdition when he meets with a temptation may go from Christ's very elbow both to Hell and the Halter at once ' But however such may be lent to Christ to make use of in a common Service for a time yet certain it is that they have never been given to him for Salvation But yet God is good to Israel Psal. 73. 1. But here two distinctions are fit to be remembered The 1. is Paul's distinction Rom. 9 6. betwixt Israel and those that are of Israel Common Professors Carnal Hypocrites and unbelievers may expect little mercy in a time of publick off-casting of a Church or Nation The 2d distinction is Hosea's in this Chapter betwixt the Children of a Whore and the Children of her Whoredoms This Whorish Church had lawfully begotten Children Ammi and Ruchamah to whom the Prophet who likwise himself was one and a brother of those Children is commanded to apply himself and of these there were few in that time of publick Apostacy But then in the 4th verse of this Chapter there are the ill begotten Children of her Whoredoms whose names in the 1 Chapter were called Loammi and Loruchamah and these were many The Children of Whoredoms are those who comply in judgment or practice with the common course of a Churches Apostacy whose Faith and Principles if they have any are not the fruit of the immortall seed of the incorrupted Word of God but of the inventions and Commandments of men or the delusions and impostures of Satan which their Adulterous Mother the Church that so breeds them who is damned for that she hath forsaken her first faith is so fond of If a Woman be a gaudy light Person it may readily render her Children suspected but if she be an arrand notorious Whore then it is too likely and in the case of Religion it is almost necessary and certain that si Mater Meretrix Filia talis erit If the mother be a Whore the Daughter will be such also and so the Proverb shall be fulfilled Ezek. 16. 44. As is the Mother so is the Daughter Papists breed their Children Papists and other Folk breed their Children such as they themselves are and few Children make their Fathers Religion better and therefore sad is the case of young ones that fall into corrupt times and sad is the condition of these times wherein young ones are bred corrupt There is little appearance if Soveraign goodness interpose not that they shall soon be better Because a person ordinarly persists in those Principles wherewith they have been first possessed by education for Solomon tells us that whatsoever way a Child is trained up in he will not depart from it when he is old and quo semel est imbutarecens servabit odorem testa diu A new vessel will keep the first scent long But moreover there is real ground of fear that such times shall still grow worse and worse for evil beginnings have worse proceedings they
up the most distinct and audible voices in a confused insignificant sound But in Affliction as in a Wilderness the stillest whisper of a voice is soon discerned and seriously attended to Likwise i◠prosperity as in a plentiful City or Country men enjoy all things and esteem nothing but in Affliction as in a Wilderness wanting all or many things they account the more of any thing In a Word the Lord in the Wilderness and by Affliction is tuneing his People to Obedience that he may bring them forth singing the Songs of Deliverance Gods commands and his mercies will have another kind of lustre and relish to a Soul coming out of a sanctified Wilderness Formality in Religion with much vanity and many superfluities wait but too well upon Prosperity but the cold wind of the Wilderness bloweth these all away and strengthens the vital heat of the inward man and makes solk more Religious than formerly with less noise and adoe Prosperity is an unthankful Piece for readily the more it receives the less it accounts of what it receives and as a full Soul loaths the honey comb with a fastidious insolency it thinks and by falsely thinking truely makes abundance of mercy a very misery but as to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet the Wilderness and an afflicted lot blessed of God will give a man a good stomach for a piece of the bread of Adversity and a Cup of the cold water of Affliction and will teach him to say Grace to it thus I am less than the least of all thy mercies Genes 32 10. So said Iacob when he was coming from his twenty years travels in the Wilderness of his Afflictions in Padan Aram. Prosperity extenuates sanctified Adversity aggravates mercies to it any thing less than Hell is a mercy Lament 3. 22. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed to it any mercy is a great Mercy a great mercy is an extraordinary one and an extraordinary is a marvelous incomprehensible one Prosperity counts its mercies by Subtraction it will take its Bill with the unjust Steward and for a hundred it will write fourscore and for fourscore it will write fifty But in the Wilderness men learn to cast up their Mercies by Multiplication with the help of Division in the same place cited Lament 3. 22. That we are not consumed to some might seem but one mercy and that a poor one too yea but the lamenting Prophet finds mercies in that mercy And truely the mercies of the Lord are homogeneous things whereof every part hath the Nature and Denomination of the whole as every drop of water is water so the least piece of any Mercy is Mercy and the afflicted humble thankful Soul loves to anatomize and diffect the Lords Mercies into parts as Physicians do humane bodies that they may informe themselves the better of the number and nature of the parts and of the frame and structure of the whole The 136 Psalme hath this common with those Mercies which it recounts that there is more in it than every one can see This only to my purpose everyone may see how the Psalmist tells out the Lords Mercies by parts and insists upon one and the same Mercy to shew that every part of it is a Mercy and that as all the rest derived from the underived uncreated unexhaustible and ever runing fountain of the Lords Mercy that endures for ever Prosperity like the Widow and her Sons in the matter of the oil loses and comes short of many Mercies for want of the vessels of faithful accounts and thankful acknowledgments The Saint in the Wilderness as the Disciples in a desart place obeys Christs Frugal command it gathers up the remaining Fragments of mercies that nothing be lost and with those it fills whole baskets As by the blessing and miraculous Power of Christ the broken meat after that Dinner whereat so many thousands were well filled was more than that which at the first was set down whole O! but it is good holding house with Christ It is good to have our portion be otherwise what it will with his presence and Blessing and to have it coming thorow his hands And as the power of divine contentment can make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the half more not the whole so the Wilderness will teach the People of God the mystery of improving Mercies to make the increase more than the stock This as the rest of divine Arts is best profest in the Wilderness and therefore it is that the Lord sends so many of his most hopeful Children thither to be bred and there they are continued till the 〈…〉 past their Course and taken their Degrees and then they return Masters of the Arts able to teach others and to comfort them with the same comforts wherewith they themselves were comforted of Christ. 2 Cor. 1. 4. 4. The Lord brings his People into the Wilderness that he may lead them by and deliver them from that which is worse Exod. 13. 17 18. And it came to pass when Pharoah had let the People go that God led them not thorow the way of the land of the Philistins though that was near for God said lest peradventure the People repent when they see war and they return to Egypt but God led the People about thorow the way of the Wilderness of the red sea The Lord prepares his People a place in the Wilderness from the fury and persecutions of men Rev. 12. 6. And albeit before I called Persecution one of the parts of a Wilderness-Condition yet I would have it understood that every one that comes into the Wilderness is not led thorow all the Wilderness nor made to see all the evils thereof nor do all Afflictions tryst upon every afflicted person for often times God makes one a mean to prevent and escape another even as in the case in hand the Lord sends sometimes his People to enjoy Davids and Ieremys wishes in the Wilderness that so they may be ridd of ill neighbours for we say in the Proverb Better be alone than in ill Company And likwise the Lord by bringing his People into the Wilderness delivers them from the contagion and vexation of the sins of those with whom they conversed aforetimes Albeit the Wilderness as I before said be a place of temptation yet the Lord by some one tentation which his People can better guide many times leads them out of the way of some other one or moe which might be of more hazard to them Surely it is no small mercy to be out of the way when tentations are marching thorow all the land in solemn procession and they cry before them bow the knee and when the wicked walk on every side who but the viles◠men Psal. 12 8. would covet the preferment of the midst And would not any person of a Holy breath prefer a Cottage in a well aired Wilderness to the foul winds and corrupt infectious air of these plaguy
as thou livest and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing It is time our loins were girded our shoes were on our sect our staff in our hand and our stuff and provision upon our shoulder for we must to the Wilderness and what if we go out in haste It is good to be in good Company it is better if Moses had any skill to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. They who will not suffer with the people of God may suffer with worse Company They who will not go forth with Lot unto the mountains may possibly sit still till they get brimstone and fire from Heaven and the smoak of Sodom about their ears for he that will save his life unlawfully shall loss it unhappily and he that will loss his life in Resolution may find it in Reality Even as a man doth in stepping of a Ditch with any thing that is either of weight or worth to him his Clock his Case of letters or Papers of concernment his heavy purse or the like lest he loss and indamnage himself and them both he casts all over before him and so coming over with the less trouble he lifts all again upon the other side and so losses nothing of that which he cast away but that he might keep it and himself both whereas if he had kept all about him he might have lost himself and all together but all is not ost that is in peril Let us then with chearfulness turn our face towards the Wilderness The second Use shall be for Information to all such of the Lords People as are either upon their way to the Wilderness or are already arrived there they would not think strange of such a condition it has been it is and it will be the lot of the Lords Children Cant. 8. 5. the high way to Christs mountain of Myrrh and hill of frankincense lyes thorow the Wilderness and there he comes forth to meet them and leads them up in his bosome leaning upon his own arms There doth no strange thing befall the Saints when the Lord brings them into the Wilderness for even as Moses Exod. 3. 1. led his flocks into the backside of the desart and was not that a presage of what followed when he led Israel as a flock through the Wilderness so doth the Lord oft times with his People albeit the Wilderness is a solitary unfrequented place where no foot of man cometh yet in it you may take up and trace the footsteps of the Lords flock who through much tribulation have entred into the Kingdome of God and there ye may follow them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises The Saints will find the footsteps of the flock in their greatest Wilderness and may be helped with the light of precedent Examples in their greatest darkness For now that the Lord through so many ages hath led his Saints to Heaven by so many different paths of Dispensations for there is but one common road of Religion the Kings high Way I doubt there is any untroden path remaining to be discovered by this Generation I only fear one difference which makes indeed a great odds in lots be found betwixt our case and the case of those that have gone before us and it is this That they were better men in as ill times for worse I would none But in that I pray whom shall we blame and know we not how that should be helped See that ye walk circumspectly as wise and not as fools redeeming the time because the days are evil Eph. 5. 15 16. If ill times find no good men let ill times make good men and good men will make good times or els bad times shall make good men better But of the Parity of cases I said much in the Preface The Third Use of the point shall be for Direction bsince the People of God may thus expect to be rought into the Wilderness it concerns them to take their directions for the Wilderness for our direction in such a condition I shall without insisting briefly hint at some things I to be avoided 2 dly some things to be endeavoured Things to be avoided by such as are brought into the Wilderness are I Unbelief Psal. 78. 22 23. the Israelites believed not God in the Wilderness and therefore he was provoked Heb. 3. 18 19. the Apostle tells us expresly that those who believed not their carcasses fell in the Wilderness and for their unbelief they could not exter into the land of promise 2 Discouragment would be avoided Numb 14. 1. the People through Discouragment cryed and weept for the report that the spyes gave them and frequently els-where they expressed their Discouragement upon the emergency of every new difficulty their cry was always that they should die in the Wilderness and in that they read their own fortune Numb 14. 28. for the Lord was provoked for their unbelief and other sins to do to them as they had said Beware of Unbeliefs bode-words for like the Devil's responses their accomplishments are always evil to those that take them In all the World I know no such ready way to Apostacy and utter forsaking of God as Discouragment Experience hath said so much to confirme this that I shall not need to bring reason into the field But this I must say have the experience of Discouragment who will they have it to their expences And if I were to die I would leave Discouragment this testimony that it is dear bought misery 3. Avoid Murmuring fretting discontentment with the Lords Dispensations with complaints of his unkindness Numb 14 2. all the Children of Israel murmured and Chap. 6 42. they murmured against Moses and Aaron But Moses could tell them what are we that ye speak against us nay but your words are against the Lord yea and Numb 21. 5. it is expresly said the People spoke against God and against Moses And still their tune was wâ—y have ye brought us up out of Egypt Just like many in our Generation why say they your Reâ—ormation your Covenant and your Ministers have served you well but verily their words are against the Lord for we owne his name in these and glorify him whom they dishonour When the Children of Israel murmured in the Wilderness they had forgotten how once they groaned because of their oppression in Egypt and in that they may be more excusable than we for the Red sea had ridd perpetual marches betwixt them and their oppressours but we get not leave to forget our oppression in the times of our former subjection to them who derive their power from her who is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Revel n. 8. I mean Prelats who are indeed the house of the Elder brother but fallen back for that they have come short of the blessing and now hold of the Pope the younger who hath supplanted them handsomely and got betiwxt