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A27353 Nehemiah the Tirshatha, or, The character of a good commissioner to which is added Grapes in the wilderness / by Mr. Thomas Bell ... Bell, Thomas, fl. 1672-1692.; Bell, Thomas. Grapes in the wilderness. 1692 (1692) Wing B1804; Wing B1803_PARTIAL; ESTC R4955 138,914 254

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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
exchange of heart● are there What concentering of Affections What returns of Love What uniting Raptures ● What reflections of Beauty What Echo's of Invitations and Commendations with such likeness of voices that sometimes you shall hardly discern who speaks Moreover we find this complianc● universal in the Saint swaying all that was in him to the Lords Devotion his understanding is re-newed in knowledge after the Image of him tha● created him he understands with God from God and for God He can do nothing against the truth but for the truth He lighteth his Torch at the Su● and taketh his light from the Candlestick of t● Sanctuary the Law and the Testimony his fait● hath the image of Christ Iames 2. 1. It is th● faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory And Christs Superscription Revel 3 ● These things sayeth the Amen the faithful and true witness And we have the mind of Chris● Conformably his will is swayed whether for acting Lord what wilt thou have me to do or for suffering Not my will but thy will be done he is an Orthodox Monothelit And for his affections he loveth and hateth as God doth and because he doth it And finally in his conversation he is Holy as God is Holy merciful as he is mercifull and perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect Hence the old Philosophers seeing thorow the darkness of nature have said That good men are visible mortal Gods and the Gods are invisible immortal men Which as it is litterally true of their fictitious fancied Gods so with respect to the true God it proveth Symbolically that the mystery of the Incarnation is no absurdity there being such a high affinity betwixt the Divine and Humane nature in its integrity for we are also his off-spring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17. 28. 4. In mutual claim to and interest in the Persons and things of one another the result of mutual choice gift and Covenant contract My beloved is mine and and I am his I will be their God and they shall be my People All that is in God is God and all that is in God is for his People he is a God to Israel all that his People are or have or can is for him 1 Cor. 6. 19. 20. ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods And none of us liveth to himself neither doth any of us dy unto himself but whether we live we are the Lords or whether we dy we are the Lords And our Communion with God consisteth much in holding up a Trade and keeping a bank with God in getting from him and bestowing for him and though a man cannot profit God nor reapeth he where he sowed not yet he must have his own with the use Hath a man communion with God What hath he done what hath he given or what hath he forsaken that he had or refused that he might have had for God Numb 24. 11. Balak could say to Balaam Lo the Lord hath keept thee back from honour but we may say to some The Lord hath not keept thee back from Honour for like the Apostate Jews they love the praise of men better than God or the praise of God But Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11. 24 26 The Apostles forsook all and followed Christ A good bargain a thing much prized by the spirits of our time a hundred fold in this present life and in the World to come life everlasting A man may forsake all for God but he can lose nothing for God Take Galeacius Caracciolus for a sufficient witness who proved the matter Italy the Garden of the World Naples of Italy Vicum of Naples farewell all for Christ freely But now if the son of man should come shall he find faith in the earth Who believeth indeed that He who snared not his own son will with him give us all things freely Are the consolations of God small with thee Thinkest thou so meanly of God and Christ the gift of God all the fulness of God the treasures of hope the earnest of the Spirit the Riches of saith the first fruits of the inheritance Didst thou ever sing Psal. 4 7. Thou hast put more gladness in my heart than in the time that their corn and their wine increased All these things have I given thee and yet I will do more for thee if thou canst but for goe a little for me Poor Soul mayst thou not spare it 5. In fellowship of converse And therefore in Scripture it s called a wal●ing with God before God in Christ a dwelling in his presence and walking in the light of his countenance Psal. 73 23. I am continually with thee Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee 2 Cor. 16. 16. I will dwell in them and walk in them Rev. 21. 2. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God Men live together for mutual comfort and help of life his comforts delight the soul and he is the God of our life Men converse together for Counsel Counsel is mine sayeth the wonderful Counseller and ●e giveth his People Counsel and therefore the Godly Souls desire is to enquire in his temple Men ●onverse together for business and O how much ●ath the Soul to do with God! Who doth all things 〈◊〉 it Men pay visits to one another and what find visits pass betwixt God and his People Men ●ast and sup together I will sup with him and he with me Rev. 3 20. Prov. 9. 2. Wisdom hath killed her beasts she hath mingled her wine she hath also furnished her Table Psal. 23 5. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine Enemies Isa 25. 6 A feast of fat things a feast of Wines on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined Cant. 4. last and 5. 1. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant Fruits I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse c Ea● O Friend Drink yea Drink abundantly O Beloved Friends Converse in Presence and Correspond in Absence and at a distance The Godly Soul cannot endure Absence or Distance from God for the Light of his Countenance i● better than Life But if it fall at distance it keep● up a correspondence In my trouble I sought the Lord and my cry came before him ever into his Ears O ye Daughters of Jerusalem you see him whom my Soul loveth tell him I am Sick of Love When my heart was over whelmed within me thou knewest my way From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee O when shall I come and
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 w●y have ye brought us up out of Egypt Just like many in our Generation why say they your Re●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