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
ingratitude and fate of Joash 2 Chron. 24. Whereby is manifest that this observation is large as useful as true concerning the Ruler But the path of the Iust is as the shining light which groweth brighter and brighter unto the noon-tiâ—e of the day And such a one is the good Ruler Now from this illustrat Character shine forth in so many bright beams 1. The Original 2 Dignity 3 Duty 4. Necessity 5. Usefulness and 6. â—arity of the good Ruler All which so rich a piece is Scripture may be easily deduced from one sentence of Psal 82 6. I have said ye are Gods and all of you are Children of the most high And because I know that both is evil manners to come â—athly into and go hastily from the presence of a Ruler I shall for a salutation shut up my view with this seasonable exhortation That in this Atheistical age the Ruler would do his Author the Honour himself the pleasure and a discontented unbelieving World the favour to shew forth so much of God in his person and administrations that those who will not believe may see and those who will not see may feel That there is a God that God judgeth in the earth and that by his vicegerent that he be unquestionably good himself an incourager of those that do well and a terror of evil doers that by the shaddow of Divinity in the Ruler the World if possible may be convinced of the body and substance and by the sight of the beautiful portrait may be enamoured of the original And you O Christian People consider Christ is not divided nor contrary to himself He is by nature and eternal Generation Lord of the World and God of policy and order as well as of the Church by pact and dispensation and it is more than probable that Rulers hold not Christ as Mediator Christianity received into the policy is not so untoward or unpleasant a Guest as to disturb its own quarter and Religion but getteth the medlers blow when it sendeth a sword or occasioneth division for of it 's own nature it is a harmless peace-pursuer and they were sworn enemies and slanderers of our Saviour who said he was an enemie to Casar for he taught his followers to give unto Casar the things that are Casars and unto God the things that are Gods Learn then of him to pay what we owe unto the Ruler How much are we indebted to so rare and excellent a creature as is the good Ruler We owe the Ruler 1. Honour in heart and behaviour 2 Subjection in lawful obedience or in humble submission 3. Information and assistance in our respective stations 4. Tribute and the bread of the Governour 5. And with all our owing we owe Prayer 1 Tim. 2. 2. 1. Sam. 24. 13. As saith the Proverb of the ancients wickedness proceedeth from the wicked But God forbid that the hand of any that fear God should be upon the Lords anointed A tender conscience so far exercised to Godliness as to flee from all appearance of evil cannot digest the least approach to or appearance of wrong to the Ruler Say I this as a man or sayeth not the Scripture the same also ibid. 5 v. Davias heart smot him because he had cut off Sauls skirt The 5th view of this useful piece presents to us the Exit and retreat of the Ruler Rulers like men upon a Stage walk much in a disguise or like Mercury and Aeneas in a cloud but here we have the Ruler going off with open face and with an eye to God to himself and to his reward Remember me O my God for good His eye is upon God 1. As a Witness for remembrance is of things known and Gods knowledge is by sight and Intuition He that can say with David Psal. 119 168. All my wayes are before thee may save the travel and shun the woe of those that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark and they say who seeth us and who knoweth it Isay 29. 15. And their turning of things upside down is as the potters clay they attempt more than they are able and presume where they have no power A proud Ruler may say to the Lords Messengers who made thee of the Kings Counsel But they would remember that Elisha the Prophet could tell the King of Israel the words which the Syrian King spoke in his bed-chamber and who told him but God that heard them Let Rulers learn in their time to put God upon their counsels and make him a witness of their practises left when they must goe off they find with Jacob that God was there though they knew it not nor called him to the Council 2. As a Friend O my God Happy he Ruler or other who can say with his Saviour I go to my Father and my God He may in the Apostles words proclaim a bold defiance to all adversity If God be with us who shall be against us He may meditat terrour with the greatest security Isay 33 18. Though the World should be shaken and suffer sack he may say with the Philosopher but upon better reason that he is sure to be no loser yea though Hell were poured upon him and heaven should seem to have forsaken him My God My God even then shall support him Every one seeks the Rulers favour and the Ruler would study to have a friend of his Superior They who court alliance and interest would be perswaded that this is the highest Bewar of that friend that makes God an enemy and of that gain where God is losed Luther pronounces him a Divine who can well distinguish the Law and Gospel and he is no less a Christian Ruler or other who can reconcile them in my God Wouldst thou either get or know an interest in God take the short and sure method of the Psalmist who also himself was a great Ruler in that golden Ps. 16 2. O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord. 3. As a rewarder for his remember being a figure that putteth the antecedent for the consequent in proper speaking is reward me And shall not he render to every man according to his works Prov. 24 12. Ps. 62 12 And verily there is a reward for the righteous Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward I fear the bad reward of some hath tempted others to do well to themselves in their own time but with greater reason I fear that those who are thus tempted have but a faint respect to the recompense of reward But God who is not unfaithful to forget the service and labour of any will sure be mindful of a good Ruler If Iehosaphat be reproved his faults remembred and wrath threatned yet his good deeds are not forgotten Nevertheless there are good things found in thee 2 Chron. 19. 2. 3. Most frequently throught the Scripture the saints petition for reward is presented in the
Word Remember whereby they referr particulars to him who is able to do abundantly above all that they are able either to ask or think David sayeth remember me Ieremiah sayeth remember me Hezekiah and Nehemiah say remember me and Augustine sweetly rendereth Psal. 8. 4. ver Domine quid est homo nisi quia memor es ejus Lord what is man but that thou art mindful of him And happy he whose name is written in that Book of Remembrance that is before the Lord Mal. 3. 16. And when each man comes to be rewarded malicious opposers of reformation and profane corrupters of Religion and the Covenant of the priesthood may readily come to be remembred Chap 6 14 and 13. 29. 2. In his retreat he goes off with an eye to himself Remember me c. The Ruler who would make a honourable retreat and come fair off would look to 5 Things chiefly that concern himself 1. His conscience Can he say with Nehemiah chap. 5. 19. Remember me O my God for good according to all that I have done for this People and chap. 13. 14. Remember me O my God concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds and I have done for the house of my God and for the offices thereof Or with Hezekiah 2 King 20. 3. I beseech thee O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Or with Samuel 1 Sam. 12 3. I have walked before you from my Child-hood to this day behold here I am witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed whose ox have I taken or whose ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and I will restore it you Or if in any thing as a man he hath erred for that he must say to God with Nehemiah chap. 13 22. Remember me O my God and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy A good conscience is a strong comforter but Gods sweet and tender mercies are the sinners last refuge and sure salvation and it is Bellarmines own Conclusion Tutius tamen est adherere Christs Justitiae And if so why should unhappy men so voluminously dispute against their own mercy Psal. 119. 77. Let thy tender mercys come unto me that I may live was the suit of the man according to Gods heart the pattern of Rulers And truely this Generation would be advised to amend their manners before they change their Religion lest under the gilded large net of Popery by the Doctrine of merits they be involved and held in the inextricable grin of desperation Or if indulgence and pardon in end must do it what ails them at Gods which is infinitly better than the Popes and incompareably surer beside that it is manifestly cheaper But for the Conscience of a Ruler who can say with Titus that darling of mankind Non extare ullum suum factum Paeniteneum excepto duntaxat uno 2. His soul The Soul and Conscience are of such affinity that he who destroyes the one cannot save the other And what doth it profit a man though he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul The soul is the man and he hath got his prize who gets that for a Prey The end of our faith is the salvation of our souls Psal. 119. 175. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee was the rare and suit of that excellent Ruler And what a pitty is it to see a Ruler upon a retreat from the World and from the Body going off with such a amentable Dirgie as did Adrian the Emperour in Aelius Spartianus Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque eorporis Quananc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nudula Nee ut soles dabis â—ocos Or with such a hideous rage as Tiberius in Sueâ—onius like one speaking out of Hell Du me Deaeque ejus perdant quam quotidie perire sentio 3. His fame and memory a matter that highly concerneth the Ruler as in the last view shall be showen more fully â— His posterity natural or politick 5. His Works both which are expressed together in that Prayer of Moses the man of God Psal 90. 16 17. Let thy work appear unto thy servants and thy Glory unto their Children and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea the work of our hands establish thou it The good Ruler not like the Ostrich which God hath deprived of wisdom neither hath he imparted to her understanding that is hardned against her young ones as though they were not hers her labour is in vain without fear Iob 39. 16 17. This regard to the work of God and to the good of posterity made Moses record his Song Deut. 31 and 32. and moved him to bless the People chap. 33. This moved Ioshua to make a Covenant chap. 24 25. This begot in David such a desire to build house unto the Lord. This made Hezekiah weep bitterly that the begun Reformation was like to cease by his death This incited Paul that great Church Ruler so zealously to warn and guard thâ— believers against what should happen after his departure This made Moses and David before the death so carefully give charge to their successor concerning their duty This moveth all men naturally at their death to leave their Counsel and Blesing to their posterity And finally this induceth good Rulers in their time to establish good Ordinances by which being dead they may speak to posterity 3. Like Moses he makes his retreat with a respect to the recompence of reward Remember me O my God for good And that boâ— proposed in the promise 2 Sam. 23. 5. He hath made with mean everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire Or pledged in the testimony of a good Conscience 2 King 20. 3. Remember O Lord how I have walked before theâ— in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is right in thy sight He who can say with Iob My witness is in Heaven and my record on high may justly say with Isaiah my work is with the Lord and my reward with my God For surely there is an end and the expectation of the righteous shall not be cutt off Now by these last words of the Tirshatha the Ruler would be warned in time to think of his retreat how he may make it good with honour For whether slow footed Time which changeth not his pace for fair weather or foul for Summer or Winter advance at the ordinary rate of Journey or whether death take post or changes take wing and calamity come suddenly or whether all these hold the ordinary road with
Atheists and obstinate unbelievers who are habitually dissafected to the word of God nor yet to mention the willful groundless fits of pettish distempers in Saints who often times do even take up at their foot groundless and needless pleaes and discouraging apprehensions which they cannot so easily lay down again Psal. 42 5 Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted in me Psal. 77. 2. My sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted To pass these I say as bearing no direct impeachment of the abovesaid commendation of the absolute sufficiency of the word of God to answer all cases There are three Things that in a time of tentation in an hour and power of darkness do readily concurr to diminish the Saints respects to the word of God The first is that their case seems odd unparalleled and unpracticable in Scripture they find no case equal with theirs in all respects that hath been cured 2 In their weakness they thereupon conclude that their case is really hopless and irremedable But 3 The saddest of all is that they find the word not only silent for them but to speak directly and aloud against them as they think smiting hewing and hammering them with sad and heavy threatnings and intimations of determined wrath rejection and ruine to come upon them from the Lord. In all these they err not knowing the Scriptures But that yet for all this there is hope and that the Scriptures are not to be casten out with as unkind and uncomfortable Companions in such cases Let these things be considered for vindication of the Scriptures to Souls thus exercised And 1. Be it granted as the truth is that a Souls case may be such for Circumstances that the Scriptures mention none Parallel with it in all points to have been cured the same is all along to be understood respectivly of Churches and Nations as of particular persons yet I am confidently perswaded that there is no case now incident to any whether Nation Church or Person but the Scripture holdeth forth some either as evil or worse whether for sin or suffering that have been helped There hath no temptation taken you sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 10 13 but such as is common to man Is thy case sinful behold the Scripture tells us that he obtained mercy who once a day thought himself the chief of sinners 1 Timoth. 1 15. And that as an exquisite and rare piece of mercy is set forth in the Gospel for a pattern to all those who should afterwards believe in Christ to life everlasting Christ loves to have sinners change and for that he puteth forth his pattern as Merchants do their samplers of Rich Wares and sure he hath since that time put off many such pieces and yet the pattern stands forth shewing that their is more abundance to serve all that have need To say nothing of Paul's sin which sure was great enough nor of many who since his time may have thought themselves the chief of sinners as well as he did where I think I see a kind of strife among mercies Clients who shall be most beholding to free Mercy and free Grace This pattern makes it fully certain that there is mercy for the chief of sinners be who he will and that he whosoever he that supposes himself the chief of sinners is â—ot thereby warranted to despair of mercy but rather to plead the greatest interest of necessity and to look upon himself as the fittest subject for the Lord wherein to display his Glory Is thy Case afflicted And thy sufferings extraordinary See Job's desperate Case see Heman's distracted Case see that Case of the Church in the Lamentations in whose Case there is hope though it had not been done under the whole Heaven as had â—een done to Jerusalem Look to the cloud of Witnesses Look to Jesus Heb. 11. and 12. Chapters But here is the great Case of the troubled Soul Cleanly sufferings for the Exercise of my Grace â—â— Job's or for the testimony of Truth and a â—ood Conscience as those of all the Witnesses and Martyrs I could well bear In these respects I â—ount it all joy to fall into diverse temptations and could count it my Honour and Mercy as well â—â— suffer for Christ as to believe in him I could â—o with such sufferings as Job would have done with his Adversaries Books I could take them upon my shoulder and bind them as a Crowne to me and as a Prince would I go near unto him â—ut Alas I suffer with an evil Conscience my afflictions are to me the punishment of my iniâ—uity and the fruits of my folly This case indeed if any requireth the Tongue of the learned and a word in season to the Soul that is weary of â—â— And if the word of God help me not here I have lost the Cause and come short of my Accounts But there is hope in Israel also concerning this thing Ezra 10. 2. And I find the Scripture clear in these particulars concerning this case 1. I find indeed a great odds betwixt cleanly suffering for righteousness and suffering meerly for iâ— doing The one is a thing thank-worthy and Glorifying of God in the highest manner actively the other is not thank-worthy but is the mans misery In the one a man hath a good Conscience and joy therefrom in the other a man hath an iâ— Conscience with terrour and sorrow proceeding therefrom The one gives a man good confidence of assistance and of the spirit of Glory and of God to rest upon him the other makes a man desponâ— and droop The one stops the other opens the mouths of wicked men Therefore sayes Peter Pet. 3 17. It is better if the will of God be so tâ—â— ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing 2ly It is clear that we ought to bear such Afflictions with the more patience Micah 7 9. I will beâ— the indignation of the Lord because I have finned again him Nor ought any living man to complain who suffers meerly for the punishment of his iniquity Laâ— 3 39. and if he must complain let him complain to God and bemoan his case in quietness to him It is far better for men to bear their yoke quieth and sit alone than to pine away in their iniquity Mourning one to another whilst they do not 〈◊〉 to the Lord. Too much whining and complaining to men will be found Labour which profitet not try it who will But as a man would complain to God so he would beware to complain of God he would leave his complaint upon him self Job 10 1. and lay the blame of his afflictions home upon himself Psal 38. 5. My folly makes is so 3. It is clear from the whole History of the Scriptures that most of all the Saints Afflictions whether conjunctly in the Body of a Church or Nation or severally in their own persons particularly have been the chastizments of their
insisted upon his case because of it self it is a weighty deserving one and I have not seen any who hath directly spoken to it but one who dispatcheth it to good purpose in a word It is worthy Mr. Scuder in his Christians daily walk this book was by famous Mr. Alexander Henderson recommended and gifted as a vade mecum or pocket piece to his â—riend at that time a young Gentlman going into â—rance where page 263 he speaketh thus You will say if you did bear Afflictions for Christ then you could think and expect well of it but you oftimes suffer Affliction justly for your sin I Answer saith he for he had been speaking of that Scripture 2 Cor. 4. 17 18 though this place principally point at Martyrdom and suffering for Christs cause yet it is all one in your case if you will bear Afflictions patiently for his sake A man may suffer Afflictions for Christ two ways First when he suffereth for his Religion and for his cause 2dly when a man suffereth any thing that God layeth on him quietly and for Christs will and commands sake This Latter is more general than the former and the former must be comprehended in this Latter els the former suffering for Christs cause if it be not in love and obedience for Christs sake out of Conscience to fulfil his will is nothing whereas he that endureth patiently endures Affliction for Christ though he never be put to it to suffer for profession of Christ and iâ— such an one were put to it he would readily suffer for Christs cause and such Afflictions as these thus patiently endured work also this excellent weight of Glory as well as the other By these and the like reasonings of faith you may world your Souls to patience as David and others have done by casting Anchor on God and on his word fixing their stay and hope in God Let the issue of your reasoning be this I will wait on God and yet for all matter of disquietment will praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God Thus Mr. Scudder and truely none could have spoken more nor to better purpose in so few words And thus have I spoken to Scripture examples of cases Parralleling the weightiest of cases incident to any man now living Only be it remembered that cases are as faces many agree in some things some in many things none in all things There is in every mans case something peculiar aggravating it beyond that of another man and as the Heart knows its own grief every man knows best the plague of his own Heart but he knows not at least feels not his Neighbours sores Hence every one judgeth his own case worst of all it may be the best is bad enough and yet the worstis not so bad but it may be better In the second place for Vindication of the Scriptures from the foresaid disheartning prejudices I shall lay down this very self-ground whereupon the querulous Soul doth walk though with a halting foot That those Cases are hopeful and cureable that are paralleled and practicable in Scripture that is to say That such whereof the Scripture gives account have been either hopeful and curable or actually have been cured and helped And thus I reason è converso or by exchange That case is hopeful and curable which is paralleled and practicable But such is thy case it hath a match in Scripture and therefore curable That is Paralleled and hath a match in Scripture I prove thus A case concluded hopeless hath a match in Scripture But such is thy case thou concludes it hopeless And therefore it hath a match in Scripture That a case concluded hopeless hath a match in Scripture it is clear in that the Lord finds fault with those in Ieremiah that said their was no hope and assures them there is hope if they will return and repent It is clear likewise from the Churches case in Isaiah who said her judgment was passed over of the Lord and for that is taxed that she spoke unreasonably Likewise from David's case in the Psalms that said He was cut off from God's presence and yet he found heart to look again to God and to cry to him and was heard notwithstanding his former peremptoriness Likewise from the case of the Church or Ieremiah for the Church in the Lamentations who with one breath said My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord and at the next breath could say This I call to mind therefore have I hope And thereupon hath left a general experimental instruction to all others That it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord Lament 3. 26. But in the third place The Soul affected is to be advertised and put in mind that it is an error and weakness to think that matchless and unparalleled cases are therefore hopless and uncureable For it is to be considered that Scripture instances and examples of parallel matching cases are neither the only nor compleat nor principal ground of curing and resolving cases For some cases were the first of their kind and so could have no precedent nor yet practicable example And yet in that case according to this crazie principle That no unparalleled Case is curable the very fixed examples and choice copies of curable cases should themselves have remained uncurable as having no precedent nor example but the only square and compleat ground of curing all cases is the whole Scripture whereof examples are but a small part and that too but as the illuminating colours and not the substantial lineaments thereof For exempla illustrant examples do but enlighten things and all that an example can do is to show that such a case is practicable and potentially curable But it doth not it cannot actually cure it Wherefore the principal yea proper ground of resolving and curing all cases are the universal fundamental truths of the Gospel the knowledge of God and Christ and of God in Christ according to the Gospel whereof the Covenant of Grace is the sum and text and this David knew right well 2 Sam. 23. 5. This Covenant will mend all the holes of the believers house and compleatly fit every case he can be in Till the foundations be destroyed it is never time to ask what can the Righteous do Psal. 11. 3. But so long as there is a God in Heaven that doth wonders so long as Christ is all and in all and â—o long as Gods Covenant with his Saints endures which shall be while Sun and Moon endure and longer too For his Covenant shall live to lay its hands upon those two shining Eyes of this corruptible World that is passing and posting off daily and which now like the first Covenant Heb. 8. 13. decaying and waxing old is ready to evanish and die So long I say as these foundations stand sure the righteous in every case may still know what to do For upon these
under a Christians Cognition to be resolved according to the Word of God which are determinable only by the Spirit of God eveâ— all these that may most desevedly be called to things of a man which none knows and therefore cannot competently judge of but the Spirit of God that knoweth all things and the Spirit the man and that not either without a special presence and assistance of the Spirit of God Nay you should conveen about these Questions a Council or General Assembly of the learnedst Doctor or ablest Divines in Christendome they could noâ— define them Such are the Questions of a Manâ— personal interest in God and his state toward God whether a man have the Spirit and be born of God and the like They may give evidences of theâ— things in the general and indefinitly which maâ— be as media to conclud upon and which they maâ— frame into universal propositions that he who haâ— these evidences is of God c. But to subsume those propositions and from these premisses to conclude particularly belongs only to the Spirit of God witnessing with our Spirits that we are â—e Children of God for by the Spirit we know â—â—e things that are freely given us of God The â—â—ke is to be said of many particular matters of fact â—hat concern a man I instance in one but it is a â—ain on The nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost I find the best advised Divines very warry as they have Reason to determine in and yet â—ore awar of personal application of their determinationss because of latent circumstances impossible to be infallibly reached and discerned by any â—an in his neighbour Now whether is my sin against the Holy Ghost is a Question so puzling and perplexing oftimes some know what I â—â—y even to such as are dear to God that it passes â—e reach of all created wisdom to ridd their doubt â—nd let me say only by the way there is no more compendious method in the World to draw or â—ther to drive a man to the sin against the Holy â—host than the apprehension that he hath already â—â—nned that sin for that apprehension renders him â—esperat and what will not a desperat man do O cunning Devil But O wiser God! that gives subâ—lty to the simple and makes them able to stand against the wyles of Satan But how is the Question ridd I answer the Spirit of God rids it thus according to the Scripture That surely is not the sin against the Holy Ghost whereof a man repenteth Now when the Soul is at its wits end â—nd ready to sink the Spirit of God sendeth such loose into the Soul of the sinner of Godly sorrow unto repentance for that sin whereof he was so jealous and the Soul of him so joyes in hiâ— sorrow and sorrows with his joy de peccato 〈◊〉 let de dolore gaudet that he cannot be satisfyed nor get his fill of that Godly sorrow which is so warme with love and so wet with tears thaâ— except a man that is wet to the Skin should deâ—â— that he has gotten the showre he cannot deny bâ— he repents of that sin And than sure he is not â—â— sinner against the Holy Ghost For it is impossible to renew such an one to Repentance I do noâ— here mean that only an overflowing power of Repentance such as I have spoken of is a cure 〈◊〉 the case no for the very desire of Repentance vindicats a man from any fear of this sin because a sinner against the Holy Ghost so sins and so delights to sin that sin that he would not do other wise if it were in his choise But when the Soul's perplexities about this question are over whelming then it is fit that they be cured wiâ—â— this measure of Repentance that is so overflowing I marked before and I mind it again as gooâ— Showrs calme and clear the Air so much Repentance it clears many doubts resolves many Cases ridds the Soul from many perplexities and settles it in a sweet calme and serenity The Fourth Direction I give to those thâ—â— would keep so in with the Scriptures as to maâ—â— use of them with comfort and profit is this thâ—â— they despise not the Discipline of tentations Book learned Christians and Divines are not the be Scholars but they that would be taught the mysteries and Acroamaticks of Religion and Divinity must be Luther's Condisciples and he was bred at the School of Tentations he confessed that his tentations had learned him more of the Gospel than all his books had done This School of tentations is of an old erection and not to speak of others here our Lord Jesus took all his Degrees Hence he was commenced Master of experiences and Doctor universal in all cases for in that he suffered being tempted he is able also to help those that are tempted and in all things he was tempted as we are that he might succour them that are tempted Heb. 2. 17 18. and 4 15. And as his temptations accomplished him highly for the rest of his Mediatory Work so particularly and especially for the Ministery these were his Tryalls for the Ministery Matth. 4. at the beginning he is tempted and in the 17 verse from that time Iesus began to Preach Wherefore let Ministers remember that if they be tempted the Lord is giving them the highest point of breeding for their imployment But blessed is the man that endureth temptation or bides out the Tryal for when he is tryed he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him James 1 12. Now having thus spoken at length to the Commendation of Scripture what excellent uses it serves to in all cases and what kind Offices it performes to the People of God in every condition Let us for Conclusion behold how it shewes to us the kindness of the Lord in that Iethro-like it comes to visit â—s in the Wilderness And let us hearken what it till say to us there For there we are Text Hosea 2. 14. Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably unto her INTRODUCTION WE have in the contexture of this Chapter a solemn confirmation of three great Truths that are noted in the Scripture of Truth 1. That the Lord will not cast off his People nor forsake his Inheritance Psal. 94. 14. Which general assertion it will be fit to clear in these particular Propositions 1. God will never cast off the universal Church nor leave himself destitute of a People upon the Earth who may owne him and his Truth and may hold forth the Word of Life shining â—s Lights in the World being blameless and â—armless in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Thus in our Creed We believe a Church Universal which sometimes is cloathed in Scarlet and sometime again is set upon the Dunghill Sometimes is courted of the multitude in the City and sometimes is persecuted
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
proceed saith the Prophet from evil to worse Jer. 9 3. And evil men and seducers saith the Apostle proceed and wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Timoth. 3. 13. I hid me and was wroth saith the Lord Isai. 57 17. And he went on frowardly in the way of his heart And what shall the end be and where will they stand if the Lord say not that also which followes in the 18. verse I have seen his wayes and I will heal him Prelacy will breed Popery to which it naturally inclines Profanness will make a straight path to Atheism and Barbarity Ignorance will nourish superstition Formality Indifferency Loosness Lightness and Luxuriancy of wanton-witted Preachers especially but God be thanked their skill is not so good as their will nor their wit so great as their wantoness and they are like evil favoured old Whores out of case to do worse and therefore they must entertain their paramours with painting for beauty and complement for courtesie will foster Heresy Ceremonies straight way will learn to say Mass and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord help it But the other sort of Children that are the Children of the Whore yet not of her Whoredoms but of her Marriage bed are these whose Faith is the off-spring of that first Faith of the Apostat Church and that unspoted chaste Religion which she professed before she forsook her first Faith and brake her Covenant of Marriage and who owne their righteous Father whom their Whorish Mother hath dishonoured and forsaken and who with grief and shame make mention of the lewdness of their Mother who mourn for her back-slidings and plead as here in the 2d verse they are commanded for the honour and right of their Father With these it shall not fare worse for their Mothers cause for they are fellow sufferers of reproach with their Father and they bear his name nor will he deny his interest in them they are Ammi nor yet will he refuse them Fatherly kindness and Duty they are Ruhamah to him And though their base Mother by Adulterating her Faith doth forfeit her dowry of the priviledges of a true Church yet their Righteous Father will find himself obliged by their Mothers Marriage Covenant and contract to give them the Inheritance of lawfully begotten Children and they shall be kept and brought up in his House when she shall be sent off to call her Lovers Baali with her Adulterous Brats at her foot who cry Father to Balaam If I might insist this consideration would clear the case well betwixt us and the Popish Church But to speak to a purpose nearer us If our Mother will Debord let us tell her of it and plead with her If that cannot help it let us be sorry for it But let us not in any thing be partakers with her Adulteries lest we be thought Bastards Let us owne our Father and Study to be like him even to be living Pictures of his Divine Nature that so it may be out of all question that we are his own lawfully begotten Children when we Bear his Name upon our Foreheads Rev. 22. 4. and that is Holiness to the Lord Zach. 14. 20. Now these are they even these who study sound Faith and sincere Holiness that go the World as it will and let Gods Dispensations and their own apprehensions say what they will shall never be forsaken nor cast off of God Psal 9. 10. Thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Psal. 37. 25. David in his old Age who had seen many things in his time Yet never had he seen the Righteous forsaken Joh. 6. 37. Him that cometh to me sayes Christ I will in no wise cast out Heb. 13. 5. the Lord hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee II. The Second grand Scripture Truth that is confirmed so solemnly in the context of this Scripture is That all the wayes of the Lord to his People are mercy and truth Psal. 25. 0. We see in the former part of this Chapter in the 8th verse so long as she obeys and serves God what kindness he shews her he lets her want for nothing And though 〈◊〉 most shamefully playes the wanton under all â—â—at Mercy yet long he forbears her and is still â—â—ving her till she begins insolently to reflect upâ—â— the Lord and to speak more kindly of her â—overs than of him Then the Lord as one that cannot endure to be so far disparaged as to have said that there is any Service or Fellowship so â—ood as his finds it now time that she be taught â—â—at she can no where do so well as with her own â—â—st Husband And this she must learn in the Wilderness where he remembers mercy in the midst of â—rath and as it were forgets what he had even â—ow been saying and from threatning falls a comforting and alluring of her and there intertains â—â—r with the most convincing expressions of Love â—â—d Respects And we may mark especially in â—â—e Text proposed how the Lord loves not to tell â—â—s people ill News and that he desires in a â—anner to tyne his threatnings in the telling if â—â— could be for his Peoples good or at least to â—ll them so cannily and convey them so artificialâ—â— and as it were insensibly and by the by and withall to drop them out so sparingly as that they may neither hinder nor hide his great design â—â— love and alluring Mercy I will allure her and â—â—ing her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably â—nto her And when the Lord hath gained his great â—esign and hath once won the Heart of her then followes mercy upon mercy and promise upon promise to the end of the Chapter where he deâ—ares that he will betroath her unto himself for ever in Faithfulness and that there shall be â—â— thing but inviolable kindness betwixt them in â—â— time coming The Lords Threatnings Froâ—â— and Chastening Rods are all necessary Mercy advancing the great Mercy of God's People in â—â— nearer Injoyment of himself And that which â—â— its own nature and at sometime is mercy at â—nother time to such a person were no mercy or cruel Mercy such as are the tender Mercies of â—â— wicked But God will not shew wicked mâ—n Mercies cruel Mercies to his People I compare the mercy of God to his People in all â—â— wayes to a white threed in a Web 〈◊〉 ing through many dark colours A child or â—â— that knows no better will readily think at eveâ— disappearing of the white that there is no whâ—â— there But when they look to the inner-side thâ—â— find the white appearing there that was interrupâ—â— and lost as they thought on the other side Evâ—â— so the mercy of the Lord which indureth â—â— ever to his People runneth uninteruptedly alonâ—â— all his dispensations to them and if they pointâ— any black part of the web and ask whereâ—â— your white threed now if they pitch upon aâ—â— sad dispensation of Providence and ask what
Lord that I cannot suffer and therefore will allure her Behold I will allure her She forgot me and could not tell wherefor except it was for my indulgence and that I spilt her with too much kindness as it is written for my love they are my enemies And I will pursue her love and follow her for her heart I will allure her and I will tell her wherefore not Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you Be ashamed and be confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel Ezek. 36 32. But I will not tell her wherefore but so it must be therefore I will allure her and if my former kindness and indulgence was a fault for the Prosperity of fools destroyes them Prov. 1. 32. that shall be mended I will bring her into the Wilderness For she is so wild that I must tyne her before I win her I must kill her before I make her alive I must loose her before I find her I must cast her down before I comfort her And therefore I will bring her into the Wilderness and I will speak comfortably unto her All this we are willed to Behold Therefore Behold c. In the words then we have these four things distinctly so be considered 1. The Note of observation Behold 2 The intimation of the Churches condition I will bring her into the Wilderness 3. The Lords great design upon his Church in this and all his Dispensations to her I will allure her which rules all the vicissitudes of her divers Lots as means depending in a due Subordination upon this high end whereinto they are â—ll to be resolved as into the last cause and reason This great design of God upon his People is as the Principles and fundamental propositions of Sciences which prove all particular conclusions whilst themselves only remain unproven by infeâ—ence as being received by evidence of all that â—re but acquaint with the terms For if it be asked wherefore God will afflict his Church and bring her into the Wilderness The answer is because he will allure her And wherefore will he comfort her Because he will allure her He must have her heart as I said before But if it be asked and wherefore will he allure her What sees he in her That thus he should Court her for her Kind ness That must answer it self that is the therefore that hath no wherefore but. Even so Lord for so it pleases thee 4. I shall consider the juncture and coincidency of her Afflictions and his Consolations I will bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably unto her Therefore behold FRom the first thing then the Note of Observation we have this Doctrine That it is our Duty and a weighty one well to consider the Lords wayes with his People and his Works towards them Therefore behold c. When God bids us behold it is sure we shall have something worthy of the seeing Now that this is a concerning Duty seriously to observe the Lords works and wayes towards his People is confirmed By these three things from the Scripture The 1. is Scripture Commands to this purpose such as the many Beholds that the Lord either prefixes or annexes to his works whereof we have one in this place and Psal. 37. 37. We are commanded to mark and behold the end both of the upright and of the transgressours And to the head of commands because I love not to multiply things without great necessity I refer all these things that are proper pertinents and pendicles of a command 1. Exhortations such as Ier. 2. 31. O generation see ye the word of the Lord. 2. complaints and expostulations such as Isai 26. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see 3. Promises such as Hosea 6. 3. Then shall ye know if ye follow on to know the Lord c. 4. Threatnings such as Psal. 28. 5. because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up with Psal. 50. 22. Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver 5. Commendations such as Psal. 107 43. whoso is wise and will observe these things c Hosea 14. 9. And he that was a wise man and a great observer tells us Eccles. 2 14. that the wise mans eyes are in his head 6. We have also Discommendations and Exprobrations wherewith the Lord upbraids such as observe not his works and ways Isai 42. 18. they are deaf and blind that will not see yea Ieremy 4 22. calls them Sottish and the Psalmists call them Bruits Psal 92 6. So then by the command of God which is the undoubted determiner of Duty it is a necessary concerning duty to observe the Lords works and ways towards his People The 2d thing that confirmes the point is this That the Works of God are wrought before his People for that very end that they may observe them and he makes his ways known to men that all men may observe him take but one pregnant place for this Isai 41 20. That they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy one of Israel hath created it The Holy one of Israel is no Hypocrite and yet he doth all his works to be seen of men The third thing that confirmes the point is the usefulness of the works of God There is never a work of God but it hath some excellent instruction to men that will observe them every work hath a word in its mouth There is something of use in every one God speaks no idle words every word of God is pure yea his words are like Silver tryed in the furnace seven times there is no dross nor refuse in the Bible the light of Israel and his Holy One works no unfruitful works like the works of darkness Gods works of Providence are an inlargement and continuation of his first piece of Creation and if the first edition of his works was all very good perfect and unreproveable how excellent to all admiration must the last edition be after so many But who is wise to understand these things and prudent to know them who hath these two useful volumes of the word and works of God bound in one and so makes joynt use of them in their dayly reading But howbeit many are unlearned and to many the book be sealed yet there are rare things in the book So then since the works of God are so useful it concerns us to observe them as things tending even as also they are intended to our great advantage And upon this very useful consideration we will find our selves obliged to observe seriously the Lords works and ways to his People except we can answer that question wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart
that make the true use of every dispensation that it requires that lament when the Lord Mournes that dance when he Pipes that tremble when he Roares that hearken when he teaches that answer when he calls and thus every Godly Soul is an Eccho to the voice of God The spirit says come and the Bride says come The Lord says return and the sinner says behod we come He says seek ye my face and the Soul says thy face will I seek O Lord. But as Christ says it is only he that hath an ear who will hear and as the Prophet Micah says it is only the man of wisdom that will see Gods name and hear the Rod. And I take him to have a bad ear and little skill in discerning voices that cannot give the Tune of God's present dispensations to his People in these Nations But it will appertain to the answer of the next question to give the particular notes of this tune and to hold forth the proper uses of present dispensations to the Church and Saints of God The 2d Question proponed was how are we to observe the Works and dispensations of God To the Question I answer that we are to observe the dispensations of God 1. with selfdenyal and humble diffidence of our own wisdom and understanding There is 1. so much of mystery in thâ— dispensations of God Verily thou art a good that hâ—est thy self O God the Saviour of Israel Isai 42 15 And 2dly So many even good observers Godly men have verily mistaken so far in their apprehensions of Divine dispensations Witness Job and his freinds who darkned counsel by words without knowledge Iob 38. 2. and 42 3. whereupon the Lord poses â—ob in the former place and which he freely confesses in the latter That it is needful in this point if in any to hearken to instruction Prov 3 5 7. lean not to thine own understanding be no wise in thine own eyes Humble David though wise David who for his discerning was as an Angel â—â— God 2 Sam 14. 17. would not exercise himself â—â— matter too high for him Psal 131 1. whereof the dispensations of God are a high part which hâ— acknowledges to be too hard for him to understand Psal. 73. 16. And his Son Solomon whose wisdom is so renowned taxes all rash and unadvised inquiry into the works of God Eccles. 7 10. There is no safe nor true discovery of the Works of God but through the prospect of his Word Psaâ— 73. 17. We must â—o to the sanctuary with Gods Works the Word will let us see that wicked men are seâ— upon slippery places even when they seem to stand surest Psal. 73. 18. And when their roots are wrapped about the earth and they see the place oâ— Stones while they lean upon their House and holy it fast While they are in their greenness they are cut down and as the rush they wither before any other herb Iob. 8. 11. and foreward Yea whilst the Saints look not upon their own state and Gods dispensations to them according to the Word they are ready to mistake right far I said in my prosperity my mountain stands strong and I shall never be moved thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled And upon the other hand when I said my foot slippeth Thy mercy Lord it held me up Wherefore let us ay be ready to hearken to better information in our apprehensions of Divine dispensations and particular events remembring that all men are lyars But for the general issue of things we may be well assured without all fear of mistake That it shall be well with the righteous and ill with the wicked for this is the sure word of Prophesie Isai 3. 10. 11. Yea not only shall it be well with the Righteous in the end but every thing how cross soever in the way shall conduce and concurr to work his wellfare And this is a truth that shall never fail and wherein there is no fear of mistake Rom. 8. 28. And the Scripture abounds with Noble instances of this truth But by the contrary all things how prosperous soever that fall to the wicked in his way shall in the end redound to his woe and turn to his greater misery of this likewise there are in Scripture instances not a few Learn we then to observe dispensations of particular events with humility and submission to a better Judgment 2dly We must observe the works of God with Patience if we would know the Lords going forth we must follow on to know Hosea 6. 3. In our observation of dispensations we must not conclude at a view nor upon their first appearance There is I so much of surprisal in many dispensations that often they escape our first thoughts verily says Jacob God was in this place and I knew it not Genes 28 16. when the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion sayes the Church we were as men that dreame Psal. 116 1 When the Angel delivered Peter he wist not whether that it was true that was done but thought he saw a vision Act. 12 9. There is 2 oft times much Error in our first thoughts of things that needs to be corrected by second thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 second thoughts are the wiser I say ays David I am cut off from thine eyes but I said it over soon I said it in my haste I took no leasure throughly to consider the matter And therefore I will look again toward thy Holy temple I looked but I must look again I said but I must say again The Scriptures gives many instances of the Saints mistaks and errors in the first thoughts of Gods dispensations and in these patâ—untur aliquid humani they are but like men Somtimes again 3 the Lord goes thorow in his dispensations by a method of contraries he brings his People into the dark before he cause light shine out of darkness he brings them as the Text says into the driery Wilderness and there he comforts them he wounds before he heal he kills before he make alive he casts down before he raise up And therefore there is need of Patience to observe the whole course of dispensations and their connexion for if we look upon them by parts we will readily mistake in our Observation I find likwise 4. In many Dispensations a reserve the Lord keeping up his mind as it were to bait and allure his People to observe Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God the Saviour of Israel Isai 45. 14. O Lord we cannot see what thou wouldst be at what I do thou knowest not now sayes Christ but thou shalt know afterwards Like a man if he see his hearers slack their attention to a serious discourse he breaks off and pauses a little to reduce them to a serious attention so does God in his works to gain us to a diligent Observation Threfore in our Observation of Dispensations we would be like Abraham's Godly servant Genes 24 21.
youth there is no lot so ill but a well exercise Soul can make good of it 3dly From the hope â— an out-gate in the issue verses 31. 32. the Lord will not cast off for ever but though he can grief yet will he have compassion according â— the multitude of his mercies 4. From the Lords unwillingness to afflict verse 33. for he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of men 5. From the Lords Soveraignity verse 37 38 out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good 6. From mens deserving justly the saddest things verse 39. wherfore doth a man complain for the punishmentâ— his sins and verses 35. 36. the Lord approvâ— no unjust dealing But true submission is not stupid idle heartless thing and if we suffer oâ— hearts wholly to be idle they will not fail like unemployed Souldiers to mutin and so find themselves both unhappy and unlawful Worlâ— therefore they must be diverted to that which good Take we then the 4th Use of present Dispensations to imploy our hearts with all and that is Seâ—â— examination verse 40. Let us search and try oâ— ways a pertinent and very necessary work for suâ—â— a time Amongst the many things we get leisuâ—â— now to think on let this be minded as none the least as the â—yning Pot for Silver and the Furnace for Gold so is affliction to a sinner a discovering and purging thing Affliction as I not before will cause men hear on the deafest side of their head it will open their ears to discipline it will cause them see things that before they would not see Let us then set in earnest to the Work of â—elf-examination while we have the advantage of â—uch a help The 5th Use of present Dispensations is Repentance in that same 40 verse and let us turn again to the Lord What ever by Self-examination is discovered to be amiss as hardly any man shall search himself faithfully but many such things will be â—ound with him let all that be amended for if â—ur scum be only discovered and go not out from â—s we shall be in hazard to be consumed in the Furnace Repentance well becomes a sinner at any â—ime but especially when God with rebukes is â—hastising man for iniquity and persuing sin with â— Rod And Gods hand will fiul be stretched out nor will his anger turn away till the People turn to him that â—nites them Isai 9 12 13. If we would freely turn to the Lord from all iniquity we needed neither fear the wrath of men nor be beholden to their kindness the Lord should then command deliverances for Iacob as it is said Psal. 44 4. and should cause the best of them be glad to go his Erands and serve at his Commands But our iniquities turn away and with hold good things from us Ier. 5. 25. O if once that sweet Word were going thorow the Land Hosea 6. 1. every one sending it to his neighbour and saying come and let us return unto the Lord. The 6th Use of present Dispensations is much Prayer verse 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the Heavens and if the People of God set once to Prayer in good earnest it will be high time for their enemies to fear a mischief for sure the cloud of the Saints Prayers will break in a tempest upon their fatal heads The three last verses of the Chapter are dreadful to them Render unto them a recompence O Lord according to the Work of their hands give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them persecute and destroy them in anger from under the Heavens of the Lord. And if the destitute People of God were mighty in Prayer wrestling with God weeping and making supplication to the Angel as Iacob did I could tell the Church of God good news that then the Lord would build up Zion and would appear in his Glory and thaâ— he would regard the Prayer of the destitute and noâ— despise their Prayer Psal. 102 16 17. For the Lord is even waiting his Peoples Call Isai 30. 18. 19 the Lord waiteth to be Gracious he will be very Gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee And what will he give us he will give us our removed Teachers with the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel in a plentiful and powerful Dispensation of the Word Isai 30. 20 21. O then Let all that love Ierusalem Pray and let us wrestle together by Prayer and each Pray with another and for another and to anothers hand and let us all join hands and see who can give the kindest lift and go nearest to raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen that we bear not the shame that this breach is under our hand Now all these uses of afflicting Dispensations are as pertinent to the Cases of particular Persons whose heart knows its own grief and who know every one the plague of their own heart And by all the rest Prayer by the Holy Ghost is prescribed as a chief ingredient in all the cures of an afflicted case Jam. 5 13. Is any man afflicted let him Pray Prayer hath its famous witnesses in the Scriptures of the great things that it hath done neither wants it its witnesses in the breasts all the Saints One word of sincere Prayer will cause Devils and men and lusts and fears and cares all run and will burst the strongest bands One word of sincere Prayer from the end of the earth will at a call bring God to the Soul and with him light joy peace inlargment and Soul-solace But if any be so obstinate as the Jews were in the case of the Blind man that they will not believe famous well qualified witnesses who know what they speak and speak that which they have seen I say but of Prayer to them as the blind mans Parents said to those of him John 9 21 ask him he shall speak for himself Try but Prayer in earnest and I have no fear to be found a false witness for its own works shall praise it self best and then I shall be thought to have spoken within bounds And thus I have answered the questions proponed for instruction in the Observation of divine Dispensations all which may serve as I said to state a clear difference betwixt Athenian curiosity and a Christian inquiry into the works of God and his ways towards his People Having already prosecuted the Doctrine in a way as I hope not unuseful there remains the less to be said to it by way of Use distinctly in the usual way Only be it remembered that we observe the Lords Dispensations in manner aforesaid and for incouragment take but one place Psal. 107. 42 43. the righteous shall see it and rejoyce and all iniquity shall stop her mouth Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And so much for the
yet with more Wit than Honesty Sirs ye know that by this Craft we have our wealth ib. verse 25. Yea if the Lord by his servants plead with some men in Prosperity for their iniquities anon he shall have a reply till he bring forth his Rod which is sitted for the back of fools and is the only cogent argument with such persons Take two instances shortly one is Isai. 31. 2. those people were bent upon Idolatry and when they were reproved and threatned for that by the Lord then they were confident in the assistance of Egypt and when yet they were taxed for that no doubt they would tell the Prophets Self-defence was not unlawful and many such witty stories till the Lord concludes the dispute with that yet he also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evil doers and against the help of those that work iniquity And now let those great Wits and grand Disputers say to it Jer. 13. 21. What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee Say to that Gallants or you have said nothing The next instance is Ezek. 17. from 11 verse to the end Zedekiah had given an Oath of fealty and subjection to the King of Babylon he Rebells against the King of Babylon and breaks his Oath the Lord pleads with him for that O! might he say mark you the Language of our times it was a forced Oath made against his will yea may be it was an unlawful Oath for him to subject himself and the Lords People to Heathens by a bond and therefore why might not he take his occasions to break it if once he had but strength to maintain the breach And may be as Papists think that Faith ought not to be kept to Hereticks so they call Protestants he thought neither ought it to be kept to Heathens But â— mark from the place 1. against the Popish whimsy that it is called significantly the King of Babylons Oath in the 16 verse I mark 2. In the same verse against other Covenant-breakers That whatever by Zedekiah was or might be alledged it was all but a prophane despising of the Oath for untill once it be lawful to take Gods Holy and fearful name in vain it shall never be any thing els but Prophanity and Perjury to break Covenant upon interest I mark 3. from the 20 verse against all Patrons of Perjury and such as teach Rebellion against the Lord the Lords great Argument which usually he reserves to the Conclusion of such Debates well says the Lord in the 19 verse he hath sworn an Oath and hath broken it but I will let him know what an Oath is I will Swear another and will keep it as I live saith the Lord surely I will recompense it upon his own head And in the 20 verse I will spread my net upon him and he shall he taken in my snare and I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me And this was performed 2 Kings 25. 6 7. and 2 Chron. 36. 20 21. Prosperity to many is as the day light to Owles and Batts it daz'ls their eyes and blinds them that they do not see their Errors till it be too late Zedekiah saw not his faults till he saw them without his eyes at Riblah in the Land of Hamath To say no more of this if other Arguments will not convince men that are guilty of Perjury there is a necessity they must go to Babylon for Instruction As the Lord lives they are the words of God and it is their meaning Perjury shall get a convincing stroak It is a Scots Proverb As sore greets the Child that is beaten after noon as he that is beaten before noon The Church of God and his Saints in these Nations have gotten a forenoons correction but wo to them that get the after-noon stroaks See the Parables Ier 24 throughout To conclude this reason then Let us not seek conviction of our sin the length of the Wilderness nor at the rate of bitter Affliction but let us all take the Councel Ier. 6. 8. Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my Soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited The 2d Account whereupon the Lord brings his People into the Wilderness for sin is for the vindication of his Glorious and Holy Name from all appearance of connivance at or partaking with his peoples Sins Numb 14. 21. As truly as I live sayes he all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord that is with the Glorious manifestation of his Justice against his Peoples Sins And he often threatens that those who profane his Name and make it to be Blasphemed he will return their shame upon their own Faces If any of us hath a Friend who is leud and dissolute and debauched we are ashamed of him because his Faults reflect upon us And therefore we hold our selves obliged for our own Vindication to testify our displeasure against him And so it is with the Holy one of Israel and his sinful People The 3d. Account is to imbitter sin to them Jer. 2. 19. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that his fear is not in thee As Abner said to Ioab of the war so I say to every one of their sin 2 Sam. 2. 26. Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end Prosperity sweetens sin to Sinners which of it self is sweet enough to their corrupted Palate But the Gall and Wormwood of affliction gives it its own kindly relish The 4th Account is that he may put a stop to his People in their course of Sin Thus Hosea 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with Thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her Paths and verse 7 She shall not overtake nor find her Lovers Many in prosperity are so engaged by custom to courses of Iniquity which nothing but affliction can interrupt and put a stop to and they must take their march into the Wilderness to divert them off the Paths of Wickedness O that all who are in Affliction and in the Wilderness would take this advantage of their impetuous over-hailing Lusts and Idols and had Wisdom to improve such a good occasion of a perpetual Divorce and Separation from the sins that were wont easily to beset them and as easily to prevail with them It is not time when people are in the Wilderness to rush every one to their course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel never once asking what is this I am doing But it is then seasonable Daniel 4. 27. To break off our Sins and Iniquities Least we go further on than that we can safely retire our selves The 5th Account is that they may truly repent and throughly return from Sin to God In the 7 verse of
this chapter when by affliction she is put to a stand in her course of sin it is yet intended further that she return to her first Husband and this is brought to effect Hos chap. 6. verse 1. Come sayes she and let us return unto the Lord For he hath torn c Simple cessation from sin without true conversion in time of affliction may put a person or People to Pharaoh's Expences of multiplyed Rods and Plagues one after another with the hazard of utter destruction in the end Learn we then in the Wilderness to say as is meet to be said unto God Iob 34. 31 32. I have born Chasitsement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Let us turn throughly from all iniquity and that with all our Heart And thus to the first reason and its several respects Why the Lord brings his People into the Wilderness It is their sin 2. The Lord brings his people into the Wilderness for their Tryal and Exercise Deut. 8. 2. The Lord did all that unto thee to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldest keep his Commandments or not Rom. 5. 3 4 5. Tribulation sets all graces on work in the Saints Thus the Lord dealt with the Church Psal. 44. from the 17 verse to the 23 and Psal 66. 10. Thus he dealt with Iob. The Lord is come to these Nations with his fan in his hand he is winnowing us as Wheat and he will throughly purge his floor Matth. 3 12. and who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refyners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner and as a purifyer of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as Gold and Silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness Malach 3 2 3. Now the secrets of many hearts are discovered now we â—ee the ground of mens stomachs and what corruption and rotten stuffe hath been lurking under â—he beauty of untryed profession Would not some have said am I a dog if that which they have how done had been told them a few years ago Now it is seen Daniel 11. 34. that many did cleave to the Covenant with flatteries but the next verse being the 35. says further That some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed Therefore blessed is he that endureth to the end And let him that standeth take heed lest he fall The strange discoveries the great stumbling and many off fallings â—f men in these times afford me the serious and confirmed thoughts how few there are that shall â—e saved and how hardly these few Malachie's â—efiners fire comprehends both all the tryals of a present time and also and specially the great and solemn last tryal of the Judgment of the great day when many a mans work shall be burnt up and himself shall be saved yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 15. â—hen shall all the sinners and hypocrits in Zion be affraid and surprized for that they cannot dwell â—â—th devouring fire nor with everlasting burnings Isai. â—3 14. There will be many amissing that day in the Congregation of the righteous that here haâ—â— sitten chief in the Assembly In general this is thâ— verity but towards the particular persons of â—â— ther 's I must walk with Charity as toward â—â— self with fear and humble Jealousie This oâ—â— all would remember that they who cannot enduâ—â— the wide sieve of larger tryals in a present time wiâ—â— never be able to abide the narrow search of a striâ—â— judgment at the end of time But as the Lord will have his People tryed so he will have theâ—â— likwise Exercised and their Graces imployed Idleness is a hateful and unhappy evil in People We faâ— an idle man must always have something to work he that ceaseth to do well will soon learn â—â— do ill To prevent that the Lord puts work 〈◊〉 his Peoples hand for he hath not given theâ— Graces and Talents to hide in a napkin under thâ— earth but to be imployed and improven to use and therefore he appoints affliction as a taâ—â— master to call forth all their Graces to workâ— and to receive the Tale of every mans Work that it may be known what profit they make Thâ— time of affliction should be a bussy time like Eating time and Harvest to the People of God But alas to many may be said in truth that which Pharaoh said to the Israelites in cruel scorn ye â—â— idle ye are idle Exod. 3 17. Only his inference and mine run very contrary ye are idle says he and therefore ye say let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord But ye are idle say I and therefore ye say noâ— let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord Now if the Lord bring his People into affliction for their Exercise hence it is consequentially inferred that if their Afflictions do not Exercise them to purpose they are not like to come out of them in haste I fear many but play with their Afflictions and look upon all the sad sights they see in the Wilderness but as so many farleyes fit to entertain their curiosity and to cause them gaze And I exhort all to be serious with their Afflictions 3. The Lord brings his People to the Wilderness that they may be the more fit to receive the impressions of his will and communications of his Goodness Thus we see throughout this Chapter the Lord designes jointly her Reformation and Consolation by all these bitter threatnings and afflicting Dispensations And Chapter 5 15. of this â—ame Prophesy of Hosea I will go says the Lord and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face In their Affliction they will seek â—e early And as the whole have no need of the Physician but the sick they now finding the disease of their Affliction to purpose and so being the better fitted for the Communications of the Lords goodness in their deliverance return to him in this confidence that he who hath torn will heal them c. and that his coming to them verse 3d shall be as the rain to the earth which being parchâ—d with drought is well ready for a showre People â—n Prosperity readily are not so fit to receive either the impressions of Gods will for then speak to them and they will not hear Jer. 22. 1. Or the Communications of his Goodness for then they an say we are Lords and we will not come to thee Jer. 2. 31. But Affliction fits them better both for the one and for the other In prosperity as in the noise of a City every thing is heard but nothing is hearkened to and the common noise swallows
times The plague of a general defection which as the Pest doth other deseases hath engrossed all abominations is now so common that except it were with Aaron Numb 16. 48. to stand between the dead and the living with the incense of much intercession that if it be possible the plague may by stayed I should think him a person of that stoutness which they call rashness and of a pretty well confirmed if not of a much hardned heart who otherwise could gladly come into the Company of or mix himself with the men of this Generation We say when all freits fail fire is good for the farsey if God cure this Generation of one Plague by another I shall think it no more than is necessary for Psal. 14. 3. generally they are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one And now I think I hear a voice from Heaven saying of this Generation as that other Rev. 18. 4 said to Iohn of Mystical Babylon come out of her my people that ye may not be partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues And there is another great mischief that the Lord leads his People out of its way in bringing them into the Wilderness and it is the Plagues that come upon wicked men and all Gods enemies The People of God want not their own visitations but they are not like the Plagues of the wicked their enemies Isai. 27. 7. hath he smiten him as he smote those that smote him or is he slain according to the slaughter of those that are slam by him Yea the Saints Afflictions are excellent Antidotes and preservatives against the Plagues of their enemies who are not as but indeed are the Ungodly and the Wicked We see the properity of the Saints Afflictions Psal. 94. 12 13. Blessed is the man whom thou chasteness O Lord and teachest him out of thy law that thou may est give him rest from the days of adversity till the pit be digged for the wicked A strange thing a mans motto to be perussem nisi perussem I had perished if I had not perished and that chastisment should hide a man from the day of adversity But both the History of Scripture and the Saints experience from time time in all Generations do yeeld abundance of particular instances in confirmation of this General assertion It appears by Lots slowness to depart that he took it as a grief to go out of Sodom filthy as it was and yet the Lord by that is sending him out of the midst of the overthrow It is no doubt a grief and great Affliction to many of the Saints and Servants of God that they are removed from their people and place But when judgements come upon aplace better to be away than in place And in the judgment of judicious and great Divines it prognosticats no good to a place when the Saints and Servants of God are driven out thereof Let any read Muscuus upon Math. 24. Alas then for her that bare me and whose Breasts gave me suck for the City the place of my Nativity and education for the word that is past upon her and the Prophesy When it shall be said to faithful Ministers of the Gospel go here or go there go to the south or go to the north but go not to Edinburgh then wo to thee O Edinburgh These are the words and Prophesy of Mr. Robert Rollock which are to be seen in Print before the translation of his book upon the Colossians And is not this the time spoken of 5. The Lord brings his People into the Wilderness to Humble them that they may know of whom they hold mercies and learn afterwards in prosperity to carry soberly When Israel was upon the entry of a land flowing with milk and honey Moses insists wisely throughout the book of Deuteronomy upon the Memory of their case in the Wilderness and tells them plainly Chap. 8. verse 2. The Lord did all that to humble thee To this end it was that the Lord commanded the pot of Manna to be kept by the Ark and for this was institute the feast of Tabernacles Prosperity is an insolent Piece and will readily cause men forget their maker that hath done all these things for them and came a free-hold of mercies we are Lords say they and therefore we will come no more unto thee Jer. 2. 31. Or els they will give the Glory of their mercies unto Idols in this same Hosea 2. 5. I will go after my lovers says she who give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oil and my drink and therefore the Lord is concerned for the mantainance of his right to put them out of possession till they make a legal entry by a humble acknowledgment to him their righteous superior and be repossessed by a novo damus as is clear from this Chapter And many other ways the insolency of Prosperity is expressed to the dishonour of God and damnage and hurt of our neighbours by Prophanity Presumtion carnal Confidence Intemperancy Oppression and the like and therefore sayeth the Lord Zeph. 3. 12. 13. I will leave in the midst of thee on afflicted and poor People and they shall trust in the name of the Lord and the Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity He that knows how he has gain'd his Estate should know how he imploys it and they that come to mercies hardly should use them well and humbly If ever God bring his Church and People again to good days and Prosperity O! Let it be remembred that once we were in the Wilderness And thus to the second thing in the point viz. Wherefore doth the Lord bring his People into the Wilderness Follows the Use which is the 3d thing in the point The first Use is of warning and I would sound an alarme and proclame a march into the Wilderness to all the People of God Our Leader and Commander Iesus Christ the Captain of our Salvation hath long since taken the field and is gone out on our head Heb 13. 12 13. Let us then who have taken the Sacrament and Military Oath of Christ and have given our names unto him go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach The cloud is now lifted up from over the Tabernacle and therefore it is time for the Children of Israel to set forth yea the Ark of the Lord his Ordinances and his People with the best of their Leaders are already in the fields and are suffering hardship as good souldiers Let us not then for shame lunch at home let us learn the Religious Gallantry of Uriah the Hittite that valiant man 2 Samuel 11. 11. And Uriah said unto David the Ark and Israel and Iudah abide in tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are incamped in the open fields shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to ly with my Wife
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
in Intimate and more than ordinary fellowship with God as I cited of Moses before we would enter the Clouds and go up into the Mount to God and we shall be no homlier than welcome Cant 4 8 invites us to this We never find David higher upon it than in the Wilderness We owe that sweet 63 Psalme to the Wilderness of Iudah in the 8 verse where of it is said my soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me and in the 5 verse my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfal lips If a Soul make a visit to God from the Wilderness they may expect Joseph's Brethrens entertainment they may resolve to Dine with him at noon Our Lord Jesus learned this of his Father This is a desart place says he and we cannot send the People away fasting lest they faint by the way Yea and after they may have that sweet Musick my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips and Psal 57. 7 8. my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed O Lord says he I am now well at my heart I will sing and give praise Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and harp I myself will awake early and that was also a Wilderness Psalme We owe the 4 Psalme to the Wilderness likwise and the 84 whereof more anone Take we then the direction that the times of our affliction be times of more than ordinary Communion with God 5. In the Wilderness we would be diligent to seek good occasions and means for the relief of our Afflictions and supply of our wants Need must make vertue with us Psal. 84. 5 6. Blessea is the man in whose heart is the ways of them who passing thorow the vally of Baca make it a well We must not like the unjust Steward refuse in this case both to dig and beg we must use all means lawful both spiritual and natural with God and men we must with Nehemiah both Pray to the Good God of Heaven and supplicat the King Nehemiah 2. 4 5. The day has been when the Nobles and Estates of Scotland and our Courtiers would have suted and courted the King for a Commission to build the City of the Lord and of their Fathers Sepulchers the Church owning that Faith wherein their Fathers Died who have left there to Posterity the Sepulchers and lasting Monuments of their Fidelity Zeal and Religious gallantry when a Great man would have pleaded for a liberty and protection to a faithful Minister Then Israel and the Lords People in their bounds in commendation of their Zeal and Diligence sang that song Numb 21. 17 18. Spring up O well sing ye unto it the Princes digged the well the Nobles of the People digged it by the direction of the Law-giver with their staves But now since our Princes and Nobles turned herdmen to the Philistines and servants to Prelates their work hath been to stop and take away and strive for Isaac's wells to deprive the People of God moe ways than one of those occasions of pure and plentiful Ordinances which they had digged and drunk of had with labour provided and with refreshment enjoyed See the case in ane Allegory Gen. 26. from the 17. verse to 23. I fear when this generation is gone and if carcasses fall not in the Wilderness if God make not a clean field if he do not root out and make a speedy riddance of this evil Generation from the face of the earth wiser men than I are much deceaved that Nigrum theta or black mark shall be found written upon the Sepulchres of most of our Nobles Nehemiah 3. 5. that the put not their necks to the work of their Lord. And when it is come to that then who knows but the sons and little ones of our Nobles may be Well-diggers And as it was in the case of the drought Ier. 14. 3. may come to the waters and to the pitts may be such as shall seek out and labour for the means of their Souls refreshment The Lord may bring the little Ones of those transgressors whose carcasses fall in a Wilderness into a land flowing with milk and hony Numb 14. 31 32. Mean time let us be digging in the Wilderness let us seek occasions for our Souls and where we do not find them let us make them 6. In the Wilderness we would thankfully receave and improve thriftily all offers of accidentall occasions that providence layes to our hand Psal 84. 6. the rain also filleth the Pools that is the Lord will now and then be giving his out-wearyed People some unexpected means of present relief and refreshment which they must acknowledge and use till they get better and more lasting occasions Rain water in a Pool is neither so good nor so enduring as a spring or fountain of living Water and yet the former is good where the latter cannot be had for to the hungry Soul every bitter thing is sweet and little will do a poor man good If God give us an occasion of a good Sermon or a Communion or make any other good means to drop upon our heads as unexpectedly as the rain falls from the Heaven or if we have the benefit of the neighbour-hood of a faithful Minister for the time these things howbeit for their nature and vertue they be fountain water yet herein the best of them is but like a Pool that they are of an uncertain endurance For such is the condition of these Wilderness-times that where one day you have a fountain the next day you have nothing or an empty cistern nor is there throughout all the land so much as one Rehoboth Gen. 26. 22. one well that the Philistines do not strive for Therefore we must drink for the drought that is to come we must hear for the time that is to come Isai. 42. 23. we must make the best we can of every occasion that remaines or accidentally offers for the time and we must feed upon the little Oyl in the crâ—ise and the handful of Meal in the barrel till there be plenty in the Land 7. In the Wilderness we would make use of good Company yea we would make much of it where ever we can have it Psal. 84 7. they go from sirength to strength as our Translation reads it but the Original hath it They go from company to company or from troop to troop Indeed solitude and want of good Company is not the least of the evils of the Wilderness as I shewed above in the description of the wilderness and I believe the People of God in these times will bear me witness in this But we would seek good Company and make use of it Mal. 316 the fearers of God that were then in the Wilderness spake often one to another But wandering and unsettlment another great mischief of the Wilderness will not let the Saints lodge
to us Ier. 29. 5 6 7 10. Build ye houses and dwell in them c. For thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished in Babylon will I visit you and form my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place Our disposition looks like those that were to have a seventy years affliction and long continued Captivity And indeed considering Daniel 9. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our Prayer before the Lora our God c. I observe that Security and a slack disposition is the attendent or rather the presage and fore-runner of a continued Affliction And by the contrary a Spirit of restless importunity is a comfortable Prognostick of a speedy delivery See it confirmed in the instances of Daniel Nehemiah Ezra who upon the very point of the deliverance were stirred up and with themselves stirred up the People by Prayer and Fasting to ask Mercies of their God Take then the direction Isa. 62. 6 7. Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth And thus with patience I have got through the Wilderness and considered the intimation of the Churches condition which is the second thing in the words of the Verse In conclusion be it minded only that all that hath been said to this point doth alike concern the Church in general and Saints in particular For neither I nor any other who from this mount of contemplation do view the Wilderness at a distance can expect to have it said to us as was said to Moses of the Land beyond Iordan Thou shalt not go over into it but rather as was said to Abraham All the Land which thou seest shall be thine Arise and walk through the Land for to thee will I give it Not to speak of what we have had or at the time have none of us can promise in the Life of our Vanity that we shall not have if not at once yet successively one after another all the described parts of the Wilness for our Lot I will allure her THe third thing in the words is The Lords Design I will allure her Hence the Doctrine is That the Lords great Design in the vicissitudes of all Dispensations to his People is to gain them to himself that he may have more of their Kindness and Service The point is confirmed 1. From the account Scripture gives of Gods various Dispensations to his People Take but this Chapter for an instance he both afflicts her and comforts her and all that he may have her heart 2 From the first and greatest Command in the Law of God which is That we love him with all our Heart c. As the Law is understood to be the mind of the King so the greatest Command of God is the surest Evidence of his Will concerning this That we abide only for him and do not play the Harlot nor be for another man Chap. 3. 3. It is easie courting where we may command And in this the Lord hath he advantage of all other Lovers The Soveraignity of his Propriety in us bears him to challenge our Heart and Service without once asking our consent and to resent every repulse and refusal not simply as a displeasure but really as a wrong in defrauding him of what is his own by a just Title of many respects antecedent to our voluntary consent 2. The Lords design is so manifest in his kind way with his People that as it cannot be hidden so it seems he would have it known that every one may think him a Suter Even as when a man frequents the House of his Beloved presently by his frequency and other circumstances of his Carriage the meanest Servant of the House discovers his design Yea and the Lord is not ashamed here expresly to tell his Errand I will allure her Some men if they intend a match with and have a design upon a person they set their designs abroad either in Policy to further them and thereby to know how the person intertains such Reports that accordingly they may behave themselves in their intended Address or else in vain Glory to vaunt of them So the Lord causes the Report go loud of his blessed purpose that it may be seen he is both serious in the matter and glorious of it to have sinners love him Now the Lord allures either Morally and Externally or Internally and effectually Morally and Externally while he courts Souls with Arguments and Motives fit to take with rational and ingenuous Spirits Effectually and Internally when by the Power of Grace he makes such fit Motives and Arguments have their due weight and work upon Hearts According to this division for explication of this Blessed Design of the Lords alluring his People I shall first touch upon some of the chief Motives that are fitted to this purpose for to reach them all I presume not 2 dly I shall treat of the inward Power of Grace that makes these Motives effectual upon the Soul And 3dly shall conclude the point with Use. 1. Of motives the first is his own Glorious Excellency outshining every shadow of likness let be equality Who is a God like unto thee And that I am now upon a love designe and upon the imployment of Eleazer Abrahams servant Gen. 24 to seek a Wife to my Masters Son I am concerned as a Friend of the Bridgroome to express my self in the proper termes of such a Subject And O that my heart could indite good matter that I might speak the things that I have made concerning the King Let it then be condescended what is required by any but willing to be satisfied to commend a person to the heart of his beloved and in him you have it 1. for his Dignity and Descent he is the King and the Kings son 2. For his Induements in him are hidd all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge yea and he is full of grace and truth and if you speak of a Spirit a great Spirit Isat 11. 2. 3. the spirit of the Lord resteth upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of Counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord c. 3. For his Beauty he is white and ruddy the chief among ten thousand and fairer than the sons of men 4. For his Disposition and Humour he is tender compassionat loving meek condescending kind and Gracious O but the Soul may have many a good day and much sweet contentment in his Company 5. For his Estate and Fortune he is the possessor of Heaven and earth the heir of all things and there is no lack to those that have him and they have him that love him 6. For his Use and Vertue he is all and in all and in him we are compleat 7. For his
accordingly in this Chapter the Lord allures this whoorish Church with Gifts So verse 15. I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope A Gift is a tempting and inticing thing and therefore the Lord hath forbid Iudge the taking of Gifts For a Gift blinds the Eyes of the Wise and perverts the words of the Righteous And therefore Isai 33. 15. He is a rare man That can shake his Hands from holding Bribeâ— And the more strange it is that men can take so largely from God and not be thereby enticed after him Solomon sayes A mans gift make room for him and whithersoever it turneth it self it is so prosperous that Every one is a Friend to him that giveth Gifts Prov. 18 15. and 19. 6. But let us consider Gods Gifts His Gifts are 1. Free Gifts And what is freer than a Gift For if it were not free it were not a Gift None of us can earn the east benefit at Gods hand For who hath given to the Lord and it shall be recompensed to him again But of him and through him and for him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Rom. 11. 35. 36. 2. His Gifts are good gifts he is the giver of all good and from him every good and perfect gift descendeth he will with-hold no good from him that walketh uprightly I confess That sore evil undeâ— the Sun Eccles. 5. 13. may be seen in all other Gifts as well as Riches That they are often keepea for the 〈…〉 hereof to their hurt But God never gave men that Gift they have it of the Evil One by abuse to turn good Gifts into evil for themselves 3. His Gifts are Rich and rare Gifts Grace and Glory and every good thing yea himself For the Covenant Gift is I will be their God yea our Selves and our Souls He gives Life and Breath Act. 17. 25. â—er 38. 16 He gave us this Soul 4. His Gifts are large Gifts Act. 17. 25. He gives all things and 1 Cor 47. What hast thou that thou didst not receive And here I observe what a great advantage in his alluring us the Lord hath of us all by his Gifts If we possess and keep still his Gifts we cannot handsomly refuse his sute for our kindness and service for no ingenuous Woman will possess or retain that man's Gift whom she minds not to entertain But if any should presume disdainfully to return the Lords Tokens to him and to send back his Gifts then he hath yet the greater advantage For if we send back all his Gifts and return all to him that ever we had of him then must we needs with all send back and return our selves and our Souls and all that we are or have or can For he gave all these and he requires no more than what he gave So that of necessity we must either be all for God or we must be nothing or else we must be most base in being anything that we are not for God and in retaining his Tokens when we have rejected himself And now let wild ungracious sinners look how theâ— shall come handsomly off And this I would recommend especially to such as claim to more â— a Spirit and Breeding than ordinary if there be any Gallantry here is the opportunity to shew themselves men 5. His Gifts are frequently renewed or rather continually heaped Gifts He loadeth uâ— daily with his 〈◊〉 He is still giving and daily sending variety of â—â—â— Mercies and he is still heaping Benefits upon us and these if we intertain thâ— Giver and give him our Consent we are to take tokens for good and an earnest of greater things to be enjoyed For the Valicy of Achor is a door of hope The Fifth chief Motive wherewith the Lord allures his People is his Carriage and Demeanor towards them A goodly Deportment a quair Behaviour with an obliging Carriage is very taking Davia's and Daniel's Behaviours did much to allay if not to vanquish the fury and malignitâ— of their malicious Enemies The Carriage of 〈…〉 Vespasian the Emperour was such that thereby he was and was called deliciae generis humani the darling of mankind But O how transporting is the Lords way and Carriage towards his People Secular Lovers use to frame their Carriage as well as their Cloathes into the best fashion and dress and they study to make their entries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all their Sailes up and would seem to be rather what they should be then what they are and indeed be They put on their best Behaviour with their best Sute only at Shows and Solemnities for as they do not wear their best Cloaths â—o neither practice they the best Manners always at home But as the Lords Carriage to his People is alluring at his first appearing and in his first address to their Souls so they may expect to have it always the same For He is God and changes not and all that is but his ordinary But behold his Carriage I pray you with much Patience he waits upon his Peoples consent as if their Love were worth the waiting upon and indeed it it be not so it is enough that he account it so in much mercy he overlooks many faults in them and puts the best construction upon many of their unhandsome and unkind Actions In much kindness he makes them many a visit With much earnestness he invites them with much respect he intreats them calling them by all their best names in discretion fitting their Titles to his design In much condescendence and tenderness he complyes with them and applyes himself to them and all this he doth so equally constantly and faithfully that they must say if they be ingenuous that all his wayes to them are Mercy and Truth And for all this he is content so â—ar to condescend as to submit himself to their reasonable and impartial Consure O Israel what iniquity hast thou found in me and wherein have I wearted thee testify against me Micah 6. 3. Surely if ever I did any thing below my self it was in matching with thee â—f I had insisted upon particulars in this and the Motives already mentioned where had my rest been But of Gods Carriage and Way with his People this is the sum that it is not the manner of Men. And I think the Lords ravishing conversation with his People would easily pass into Admiration with him who professed â—â—ov 30 19 that he could not know matters much more easie O that the secular Courtier might after many changes oâ— shapes and fashions at last be turned into a seraphick lover And that the ingine and wit which is thrown where it evanishes into the Air of vanity were employed to court the Uncreated Beauty of that ever blooming flower of Eternity The Sixth chief Motive wherewith the Lord allures his People is the Example of others who have led them the way in loving choosing and commending him Example is
an alluring thing And the World is more ruled by Example than by Law Example oft-times usurps upon Reason sometimes it agrees with her but seldom is it subject to Her And thus while men ask rather quid fit what is done nor quid fieri debet what ought to be done Many follow the broad way that leadeth to destruction while but few do find the narrow that leadeth to Life Many choose rather to go to Hell in company than to go to Heaven alone But in Religion and in Travel I would hold the rule to choose day Light rather than Company Nor would I willingly wait for any man till Night who in the dark Might lead or mislead me whither he would If once a man turn his eye off the fixed Light of Scripture the wandering Star of Example may lead him whither he knows not and lodge him where he would not Now how the Lord allures his People by Example see Cant. 1. 3 4 There the Church finds others before her whom she would gladly follow The Virgins love thee draw me we will run after thee Lord I love good company well and therefore let us all go together And as she finds good Example before her she leaves the like after her that allures others to follow her as she had followed others Cant. ch 5 and 6. Whither iâ— thy beloved gone O thou fairest among Women â—â—hither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee And all this by the Lords direction chap. 1. 8. Go forth by the footsteps of the flock O that God would raise up many Lights of Religion in this dark Generation Many who might be exemplary in Piety who might go before others â—s the hee-goats before the flock Jer. 50. 8. O that God would perform more in our days that which he hath promised of old Zach. 8. 21. the inhabitants of one City shall go to another saying let â—s go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts I will go also Mean time let us follow the Examples we have and that the Example of those who have chosen and owned the Lord and his way may be the more alluring to us Consider 1. that many of them were Kings and Great Men Religion and the strictness of Godliness is too far above every man to be below any man I fear those who think Godliness below them find it too far above them Prov. 24. 7. wisdom is too high for a fool 2. Many of them were Wise men Let our Sages Senators and our Counsellours remember this and if they say there are few Godly men Wise I can say to them there are as few Wise men Gody and chosen to obtain mercy 1 Cor. 1 26. not many wise men after the flesh are called and chosen But truely till the Cabiâ—â—â— Councils of secular heads and the Conclaves of the Clergy find me amongst them all four men whom they will undertake to match for wisdom with Moses Joseph Solomon and Daniel I cannot but think that Godliness doth as well become a Wise Man as Wisdom doth a Godly man withal consider that Godliness and Wisdome are one in Scripture 3. All of them were Righteous and truely Holy Men strange it is that so many should choose to be wicked whilst none can enâ—ure tâ— seem or to be called such and who but the worst man takes it worst to be told of his faults And as strange it is that every one should choose to seem and to be called Righteous and Good whilst so few do choose indeed to be such But is it noâ— as much the Glory of true Godliness that Hypocrits and Prophane Persons love to go in its Liveâ—y and to be called by its name as it is their reproach to have or hold the forme of Godliness whilst they deny the power thereof 4 They were Impartial and Uninteressed men that except upon Heaven could not with the least colour be suspect of any designe in their doings yea did they not renounce and go cross to all Worldly interests of nature Education Credit Profit Pleasure and the like 5. They were Resolute and Constant in what they did Indeed if the Saints had Repented their choice they might have renounced Religion when they pleased as is said of the Patriarchs Heb. 11. 15. that if they had been mindful of that Countrey from whence they came out they might have â—ad opportunity to have returned but now they desire a better Countrey that is an heavenly I should think it a poor office to perswade men to that which might repent them but if they whose example commend and whose Practise gladly I would perswade did with Constancy and Confidence without Relenting go thorow and pass the difficulties of the flatterings and Frownings the Fears and Hopes the Threats and Intreaties of a present World may I not conclude that Godliness is that which is not to be Repented of It now follows to treat of the inward power of Grace which maketh these external motives effectual upon the Soul If any should attempt by â—â—rce to storme the Soul of man it is so sure to be â—â—zed to the ground and brought utterly down â—â— nothing before it yeeld for voluntas non potest cogâ— the will which is the Fort Royal of the Soul cannot be forced that the Assailant may resolve to loss it before he win it and to win only the expensive loss of all his labour and to triumph ridiculously over a nothing for nature and invention have made the Soul a strength impregnable and unaccessable to any power without and all attempts thence may certainly prove ineffectual except a ready course be taken to gain a correspondency with these within Also sinners are naturally very shie and ill to be courted But the Lord as he is good at all that is good is excellently good aâ— courting and allureing an untoward heart Others it may be have got from her at once their leave with a repulse yea my servants in my name have possibly been so served but wild as she is I will not leave her so I will speak to her my self and I 'le in gage I shall quickly cause her say yea therefore behold I will allure her he can but say to a Soul follow me and it leaves all and follows him he can catch a sinners heart from him ere ever he is aware Ier. 20. 7. O Lord thou hast deceaved me and I was deceaved thou art stronger than I and hast prevailed He can mix a Love-cup to the Soul that shall cause it speak of him when he is gone and follow him faster than ever it fled from him and that even when he seems to flee we remember thy Love more than wine the virgins love thee draw me we will run after thee Cant. 1. 2 3 4. yea more he can make an ointment the very savour whereof shall cause sinners love him because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointmen poured
Then they need consolations and then they come in season Prov. 30. 6. Wine should be given to those that are of heavy hearts When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy Lord held me up This was a mercy that came in good season 3. Their fitness As then they most need consolations so then are they fittest to receive and intertain them The Lord will not have his Consolations to run by and be spilt by pouring them out into full vessels But Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for they shall be filled I spoke before upon the second part of the Text how afflictions fits for consolations and that therefore God sometimes brings his people into the Wilderness that thus he may fit them Most sweet are the Consolations wherewith the Lord trysts his people in their afflictions 1. He draws forth to them the bowels of â—ost tender compassions In all their affliction he is afflicted Isa. 63. 9. Jer. 31. 20. Since I spoke against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him Zach. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye It is a very acceptable consolation to an afflicted person to mourn with them and to be touched with their condition And the Lord cryes alas at every touch of affliction that comes upon people Nor need they fear he shall forget them For whatever is a mans pain it will not fail to put him in mind 2. He ownes them and takes notice of them when others sight them and care not for them Psal. 31. 7. He knows their Soul in Adversities Psal. 142. 4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me No man cared for my Soul I cryed unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living Jer 30. 16 17. and forward The Lord promises with great Mercies to owne his Church because in the 17 verse They called her an out-cast saying this is Zion whom no man seeketh after Lament 1. 12. It was nothing to those that passed by to see all that she suffered But her desire is frequently throughout the Chapter Behold O Lord for I am in distress Yea and he will behold For his eyes behold the things that are equal Act. 7. 34. I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people which is in â—gypt and I have heard their groaning This is a time wherein there be few to Resent the wrongs done to the Church of God and his Saints and Servants and fewer there be to right them And therefore that Prayer is good Psal. 17. 2. Let my Sentence come forth from thy presence Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal And the Saints may have justice for the asking For he Beholds mischief and spight to requite it with his hand Ps. 10. 14. 3. He vouchsafes them a more special presence Ps 91. 15. I will be with him in trouble Psal. 23. 4. In the valley of the Shaddow of death thou art with me Isai. 43. 2. When thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee c. The Lord is ever near to those that fear him but in affliction he goes very near them They have alwayes his special presence Ps. 140 13. The upright shall dwell in thy presence But in trouble they have a more special presence His presence is either a secret supporting presence whereby his people are held up they know not how For many a time when the Saints look back upon those times wherein they said their strength and their hope is perished from the Lord and see the way that they have come they wonder how they have win through But God was with them whilst they knew it not Or else his presence is a manifest comforting presence and that the Scripture calls his visiting of his people 4. Then the Lord vouchsafes his afflicted people many a kind visit And in those visits 1. He salutes his people with Peace He will speak Peace unto his people and to his Saints in the world ye shall have trouble sayes he but in me ye shall have Peace 2. He gives a hearing to all his peoples Confessions Complaints and Petitions Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble 3. He speaks his mind to his people both concerning their Duty and the issue of their lot The times of the Lords visits to his afflicted people are the times wherein he communicates most of his secrets to those that fear him The Soul that goes through manyfest afflictions is ordinarily the wisest and most experienced Soul Heman the Ezrahit who was so sore afflicted even from his youth was one of the wisest men in his time Speculation speaks of cases like a Geographer Experience speaks like a Traveller That sayes that which our ears have heard this sayes that which our eyes have seen declare we unto you 4. In his Visits he gives his people tokens for good He comes never empty-handed to them But gives them such things whereof they may say in their straits when he seems to have forgotten them Lord whose are these 5. And further as the original hath the words of the Text he speaks to his peoples heart He satisfies them concerning his Dispensations and convinceth them of the equity and kindness of his dealing with them He gives them such rational accounts of his dispensations as makes them say he hath taken the best way with them and makes them sing thou hast dealt well with thy Servants Ps. 119. 65. And by convincing them that good is the Word of the Lord Isai. 39. 8. He makes them say from their Heart that if variety of lots were in their offer they would choose the present O but that speaks well I will speak to her heart I will even speak as she would have me Thus he comforts by his kind visits 5. He comforts his people in affliction by being all things to them and doing all things for them Thus we find the Saints in their afflictions making applications to God with Titles suted to their condition And it is God faith the Psalmist that doth all things for me He is the Shepherd of Israel If they be scattered he gathers them if they go astray he leads them if they want he feeds them and makes them Lie in green Pastures by the still waters If they be in hazard He is their refuge Are they sad He is the Health of their countenance Are they weak or weary He is their strength and with him is everlasting strength Are they sinners and guilty He is the God of their Righteousness Is Law intended against them He pleads their cause and stands at their right hand Is the judge an unfriend to them He is their judge and their Sentence cometh forth from his presence Do Kings or others command them to be Afflicted Fined Beaten Imprisoned Confined Banished Then Psal 44. 4. Thou art my King O God command deliverances for Jacob Have they no Friends nor any to do for them He that is the kind Lord can cause men shew them the kindness of the Lord That which the Scripture calleth the kindness of the Lord. 1 Sam. 20. 14. hath as much in it as may shew us that the Lord makes men Instruments at his pleasure to shew kindness and do a good Office to his people And when the Saints and Servants of God come to count kindness I hope there will be found more of the kindness of the Lord than of men in Courtesies that are done them I am so little a Patron of unthankfulness That I shall thank him kindly and pray as our Scots Proverb is The Lord reward him that doth me good whether with his will or against it But truly when from men I meet with less kindness where I might have expected more and more where I might have expected less The Meditation of this Scripture expression To shew the kindness of the Lord hath taught me the more earnestly to ask mercies of my God and to leave the expressing and dispensing of it to himself by Means and Instruments of his own choosing He can make a Babylonian Enemy to 〈…〉 his own Servant Ieremiah well 6. To add no more for that hath all The Lord comforteth his afflicted People by Christ â—esus 2 Cor. 1. 5 This is the Saints unchangeable Consolation in all changes of Dispensations and truly our Consolations will come to a poor account if Christ be not the sum of them all in all Cases and Conditions Christless comforts will leave us comfortless Christians The Use of this point shall be for strong Consolation to the Saints in their greatest afflictions The Lord hath laid it straitly upon us to comfort his People in their afflictions Isai. 40. 1. 2. and here he takes it upon himself to be their Comforter He hath given this Name and O shee to his Holy Spirit The Comforter and shall not the afflicted People of God with these words be comforted and comfort one another But according to the rule of Scripture Comforts and Duties must be matched together Nor must we expect in the event a Separation of those things that God hath joyned in the intimation Wherefore if we would have much of the Lords heart Let us give him much of ouâ—s If we would have him comfortable to us we must be kind to him If we would have him speak comfortably to us we must give our consent to him If we would have him speak to our Heart we must be to his Heart for so the Text runneth Therefore behold I will allure her I will bring her into the Wilderness and I will speak comfortably unto her Now to the God of all Consolation Father Son and Holy Ghost be â—ll 〈◊〉 and Dominion and Praise for ever and ever Amen Written in the Wilderness 1665 FINIS See Grenhams directions for reading the Scriptures See the fulfilling of the Scriptures Remark how the Plague followed in London the next year 1660.
first thing in the Text the Note of Observation Behold I will bring her into the Wilderness THE second thing in the Words is the intimation of the Churches Condition I will bring her into the Wilderness And hence the Doctrine is That these to whom the Lord minds good may expect to come to the possession of intended blessedness by the way of a Wilderness Behold says the Lord I will allure her and speak comfortably unto her there is my design upon her and these are my thoughts of Good concerning her but first I will bring her into the Wilderness In the prosecution of this Doctrine three things are to be considered 1. What is this Wilderness 2. Wherefore doth the Lord bring his People into the Wilderness 3. What use we are to make of this intimation of such a Condition 1 First then what is the Wilderness I Answer 1. in general it is a Figurative expression of an afflicted Condition I will bring her into the Wilderness that is I will erercise her with such Afflictions as men are wont to meet with in a Wilderness And therefore 2dly I find a Wilderness Condition importing these things particularly 1. It imperteth a Condition of Want and scarcety both of Temporal and Spiritual things Heb. 1. 37. those of whom the World was not worthy were destitute of all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. The Apostles that made many Rich were themselves as poor and they that possessed all things were as having nothing Psal. 107 4 5. They that wander in a Wilderness are hungry and thristy and their Soul fainteth in them David Psal. 63. 1. says my Soul thristeth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thusty land where no water is he had no doubt his own temporal Wants and those great enough but his greatest Want was of the waters of the Sanctuary as is clear from the 2d verse To see thy power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary and the same was his Condition in the 42. and 43. Psalmes And this is the supposed Condition of all the People of God Isai. 41. 17. they are poor and needy seeking water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thrist The want of Water which is a most common thing denoteth the extremity of scarcety and want And this is the first thing in a Wilderness-Condition The many hungry Bellys and no fewer hungry Souls in these times which are crying my Leanness my Leanness do plainly say that we are entred more nor a days journey into the Wilderness The 2d thing imported in a Wilderness-Condition is Desolation and Barrenness Psal. 63. 1. and Psal. 107. 33. a Wilderness is a dry land a thristy land where no water is Jer. 9 12. It is burnt up like a Wilderness and likwise a Wilderness is a desolate place there no foot of man doth come there the Cities are made heaps there nettles grow upon the ruines of Glorious Temples This Desolation and Barrenness is the cause of scarcety and want in a Wilderness And this likwise we have felt in our Wilderness we Want but we know not where to get it the Wells are stopped good Occasions for our Souls are removed our Teachers are removed into Corners the Songs of our Temples are become howlings We may sing the 8 verse of the 46. Psalme with a sad note Come behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth and where Desolations end there beginneth Barrenness and dry breasts As in one place we have the Wells of water and the Streams from Lebanon stopped in the next place we come to we find Clouds without rain and Pits without water Trees whose fruit is withered and without fruit Epistle of Iude 12 verse men who either never had any thing or elss have lost what once they promised As if Christ O sad had come by and said henceforth never fruit grow upon you if we were thristy beside the water or hungry beside Food or sick beside the Physician or sorrowful beside a comforter or in darkness beside light we might the better bear it But that it is other ways shews we are indeed in the Wilderness 3dly The Wilderness importeth a Solitary Condition of Separation from comfortable sweet and useful Society David felt this in the Wilderness Psal. 42. 4. When he remembred that he had gone to the house of God with the multitude with the voice of joy and praise with the multitude that kept Holy day and for that his Soul was poured out in him Heman felt this in his Wilderness Psal. 88. 18. lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness The afflicted overwhelmed Composer of the 102 Psalm felt this likwise in his Wilderness 6 and 7 verses I am like a Pelican in the Wilderness and like on Owl of the desart I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top Isai 35 1. The Wilderness is a solitary place Good company and sweet comfortable useful Society hath this to prove it a choice mercy that as the rest of that nature it is never well known nor prized by us till we are denyed it and deprived of it And now with Pharoahs Butler Gen. 41. 9. I remember my faults this day and I fear I have too many fellows in the fault who either neglect disdainfully or els abuse good Company to the increase of vanity Now begin I to understand more of that Text Eccl. 4. 9 10 11 12. And what a woe is it to him that is alone and yet I doubt not but the kindness of the Lord is shewn to many even in separating and scattering them one from another And to confirm me in this judgment I remember the Opinion of some who have been in account for skill in things of that nature And thus they have thought that when a Family or Bairn-time incline to a Consumption which being a disease hereditary runs much in a blood in that case it is good that they part Company and live at a distance one from another for that the disease is strengthned by their social conversation I apply that the evil and hazard of the Company of those that are tenderly beloved Children of God may move him even in kindness to send them apart but they will find it a kindness not so comfortable as needful As I could like to be hungry beside good meat or weary beside good lodging so I would choose to be solitary beside good Company that is so to enjoy my self by my self as that I might likwise enjoy the help of Christian Company at will with conveniency And as I am sure that God was never the instituter of the Monks order so sure I am none can choose to shun good Company but such as would choose their own affliction and forsake their own mercy Only I must here mind that good People are not always good Company but a good Man or Woman are only then
Necessity he is the person that cannot be wanted by any that would be happy Deut. 30. 20. he is thy life and the length of thy days And if any think they may do as well elswhere let them answer the question John 6. 68. Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal Life Now this is my beloved and this is my friend O Daughters of Ierusalem Cant. 5. 16. The Lords second Motive and external allurement is his Words Words are very charming and enticeing things and how forceable are right words says Job Hence the Latines wisely give the name of verba dare to that which the Court calls a complement but the Countrey plainly calls a Cheat. Hence the way of Fishing which catcheth by the Ear applauded of the greatest Wits approven and much practised by Lovers the most ingenious because the most serious Anglers who busk their hooks with words and bait with the artificial flee of Complements Hence as the world goes he is the finest man that can say fairest to it and albeit Solomon both a Wise Man and a great Preacher and Spokes-man hath said Proverb 17. 28. even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise yet with most men even a wise man if he bold his peace is counted a fool But the truth is multum ille assecutus est qui bene didicit loqut bene qui tacere non minus assecutus est he hath attained much who hath learned to speak well and he hath attained no less who hath learned to hold his peace well But to say no more in general of the allurements of Words how specially excellent are the words of the Lord to the purpose of Soul-converting and heart-alluring Zach. 1. 13. They are good words and comfortable words Jer. 15. 16. Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of mine Heart Gold and Treasure is alluring unto any Honey and Apples to Delicate Persons And if it were even the mortal forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil yet if it be good for Food and I leasant to the Eyes and a Tree to be desired it must be had if the price should be Death Gen. 3. But the words of God are more to be desired than Gold sweeter also than Honey and the Honey comb Psal. 19. 10. Psal. 119. 72 103. verses If nature could propine the World with Golden Apples as a present of her first Fruits sure those would ravish the Hearts of the greatest Potentates and would raise Wars among Princes for the possession and keeping of the Tree that bare those they would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apples of Strife properly and indeed And the Words of God which are the Flower and first Fruits of all fit Words are Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Prov. 25 11. They Nourish Solidly Comfort Cordially and Inrich Mightily How charming the Lords Words are we have famous instances in the Gospel that with his Words he catched those that were sent and intended to catch and entrap him he sent them back with this Report never man spoke like this man And here in the â—â—xt it self I will allure her saith the Lord and I will speak comfortably unto her The third chief Motive and Allurement is The Works of the Lord and his Doings He hath done for his People and is daily doing to them that which cannot but rationally entice any ingenuous Soul to be for him If God had not loved us I should have wondered at every thing he does for us Love is the chief of the wayes of God to us God loved the World God so loved the World A Wonder indeed But after that stupendious portent of his Works to us That he loved us I shall wonder at nothing he does for us For what will we not do for those we Love But again I must wonder that he loved us and in this love to us he was humbled and emptyed for us For us he came into the World For us He took the likeness of sinful flesh and the form of a servant For us he suffered Temptations Crosses and Contradictions in his Life and for us he tasted death He gave him â—â—s for us He came under the Law and Sin and the Wrath and Curse of God for us For us he drank the Cup of astonishment which would have made all the Elect tremble to Eternity Yea and he rose and was victorious over death for us â—e hath also ascended Heaven for us and there he interceeds for us he is our Friend at Court he stands in the way there that nothing pass against us and when there is hazard he warns us and by his Word and Spirit he keeps intelligence with our Souls and gives us daily accounts of the true state of our Spiritual business Thence he issues daily many favours on our behalf Psal. 103 2 and forward Forget not all his Benefits who forgiveth all thine Iniquities c. And his negative Mercies are not the least part of what he doth for us That he prevents and holds off us so many temptations suares and evils that otherwise would even over-run us and that for all these he waiteth to be gracious to us at the voice of our Cry when he shall hear it And in a word that he is so wholly taken up for us as if he had nothing else to mind but us Now to a rational ingenuous Spirit and every one that deserves to be called a Man all these will be the Coras of a Man and Bands of Love Hos. 11. 4. Yea there is some secret alluring quality in the saddest and darkest of Gods dispensations to the Soul of the Saint Hence we never find the Godly Soul more fond so to speak of its beloved and more earnest upon him than in the time of desertion which of all dispensations is the most afflicting to such an one If the Lord withdraw such an one will fall down sick of Love to him and then go tell him O ye Daughters of Ierusalem that I cannot live in his absence And if he do not come quickly skipping like a young Roe or Hart yea and if he take not the nearest way over the mountains of Bether he may come too late to lay his hands upon the eyes of his distressed Beloved Psal. 28. 1. If thou be silent to me sayes David I shall be like them that go down into the â—â—t O Lord I cannot live I value not Life if thou be not the God of my Life I have resolved I shall never be glad till thou be the health of my Countenance and make me glad with thy Works For I see little difference betwixt Sorrow and Joy if thou be not my chiefest joy And in our Text the Wilderness is the alluring place to this ungracious froward Church The fourth chief Motive wherewith the Lord allures his People is his Gifts Gifts and tokens use to pass betwixt Lovers and