of the Dispensations of GOD AND OF The pertinent Duties and Comforts of His PEOPLE in these Times WITH A Preface of the fulness of Scriptur sufficiency for Answering all Cases Hosea 9. 10 I found Israel like Grapes in the Wilderness Jer. 2 2. I Remember thee the kindness of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wantest after me in the Wilderness in a Land that was not sowen Numb 33 1. These are the journeyes of the Children of Israel which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron 2 Verse And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeyes by the Commandment of the Lord and these are their journeyes according to their goings out 1 Epistle of John 1 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Written in the Wilderness Edinburgh Printed by George Mosman and are to be Sold at his Shop in the Parliament-Close Anno Dom. 1692. THE PREFACE THE Jews have a Tradition of that Manna wherewith God fed Israel in the Wilderness fourtie years that the taste thereof was such and so various that it answered every mans Appetit and tasted to him of whatsoever food his soul desired And look how uncertain is that Jewish Tradition of the materiall Manna that was gathered off the Earth for the space of fourty years in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt So certain is this Christian Truth of the Spiritual Manna the word of God that bread of Heaven that Angels food wherewith God feeds his Church in all ages successively and every Child of his House the Israelite indeed respectively throughout the whole course of their life and travel in the World which is the great Wilderness that it hath in it a real supply of all their necessities and hath always in it a word in season to all persons at all times and in every condition To the Dead it is life to the living it is health to the weary it is refreshment to the weak it is strength to Babes it is milk to strong men it is meat to the hungry it is bread to the thirsty it is waters To the drooping soul and sorrowful heart it is wine to the faint it is apples and Pomegranats cinnamon safron spiknard Calamus and all spices of the merchant To such who love dainties it is marrow and fatness honey of the rock and droping from the honey-comb to the wounded it is the balme of Gilead to the blind and weak sighted it is eye salve and oyntment to annoint the eyes To such neat souls as love to be all Glorious within and to keep clean Garments it is a Crown chains of the neck braceless ear-rings pendents and Ornaments of all sorts and if they like to be in fashion and to go fyne in the court of a Heavenly Conversation and communion with God it presents them a bright large glass whereat they may dayly adorn themselves to purpose This Glass is no falsifying nor multiplying Glass but a just discovering and directing one here are also discovered not only all the obliquities of gesture and faults of feature and all spots upon the face or cloaths but likwise the very in most thoughts and intents of the heart with the most subtile imaginations of the mind are here manifested Here ye are directed to sit all your Soul-ornament in the fynest spiritual fashion and to compose your gestur and order your motion so as you may be able to stand in the presence of him who is greater than Solomon This large bright Glass doth stand in King Solomons bed-Chamber in the Pook of Canticles and in it you may see your self from head to foot There ye see the head beautiful with locks Cantic 4 There ye see the sweet comly Countenance of the Saint which the Lord is so much in love with that he is in continual desire to see it there you see those eyes that ravish his heart and so throughout even to the feet that are very beautiful with shooes Chap. 7. 1. For such as are destitute and unprovided the word of God is a portion to the poor it is Riches of treasure of choice Silver and fine Gold Here is that which dispelleth darkness cleareth doubts dissolveth hardness dissappointeth fears dischargeth cares solaceth sorrows and satisfieth desires Here is counsel and strength for peace and war Here is daily intelligence from Heaven And in a word here is the best Companion that ever a soul did choose And blessed they who can spiritually tone that short but high note Psal. 119. 98. Thy Commandments are ever with me And that they are not with the soul as a burden of idle attendants are with a man see what good offices they perform by their presence Prov. 6. 22. 23. They are as Hobab to Israel and David to Nabal Eyes and a Guard to us in the Wilderness In the World and chiefly in this World we change seats and Societies we shift conditions and habitations we go thorow the Wilderness of Baca from troop to troop we are driven from Temple Altar and Oracle and we are divided from our relations and dearest acquaintance whom we loved as our own Soul we are spoiled of our Companions with whom we took sweet counsel and went into the house of God But blessed that Soul who in all this can say I am not alone my good old friend the word of God the Bible the guide of my Youth hath not yet forsaken me it is with me yea it is in me in the midst of my heart and I bear about me daily a living coppy of those livly Oracles and they are more near me than my very self for my heart is within me and they are within my heart I may be separated from my self by death that parts the dearest Friends my heart may be pluckt from my breast and my Soul dislodged of my Body but my Companion the word of God and me shall nothing part Prosperity shall not cause me forget it And adversity will not cause it forget me I will never forget thy Precepts for with them thou hast quickned me Psal. 119. 93. As those who live upon the shoar have a very just diall of the measure and motion of the water which they can make use of without the sun so are the ebbings and flowings of our affections to the word of God the surest most universall and constant witnesses of our daily condition for albeit the darkness that is upon the face of our Souls may pretend that it is night with us yet if it be full sea in our affection to the word of God we may be sure it is noon day and when it is low water in our affection to the word sure then it is mid night and the sun was never seen at mid night Be sure it is ill with that Soul that is out of conceit with the word of God Now to say nothing of the malignant qualities of gross ignorants prophane
he was a Fool who spoiled his Mirth with the thoughts of a Sword hanging over his head 2. It is confirmed clearly by the expectation of a future Reward Remember me O my God for good Till I see good Ropes twined of the Sand and the Sea beaten to powder I cannot be inclined to think that the World was made of Atoms And if it be ruled by chance what are Counsel and Art Wisdom and Folly Good and Evil Law and Justice but names of Fancies large as ridiculous as he who should command the motes of the Sun to dance a Measure or be who scourged the Sea for its disorder We know that pure chance obtaineth impunity by the Law both of God and Man Now this matter belongeth to the Ruler gravly to consider how inconsistent Atheism is with Government For to the Atheist Treason and Robbery is neither Plot nor Fellony but simple chance medley a French Aire or merry Jigg of Volage Atoms But by this fortuitous Act of Indemnity as the Atheist can do no wrong so neither can he complain of injury if he chance to be baffled robbed or dispatched violently If the World reel I cannot say properly be ruled by chance is not the Atheist not by Scripture only which never speaks good of him but by his own Principle also proven a forlorn Fool lyable in all things to unavoidable surprisal yea a liar also who knowing and warned of a continual surprisal can therefore never be surprised except into the absurdity of a Self-contradiction whereof his Principles of Fortuity are a fair Essay But to a wise Man If the World must be ruled by Counsel and Law how is it that Justice is not in this life universally and fully executed and every Man rewarded according to his Works But that there is a Court of Referrs A day of the restitution of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of righting all wrongs and settling all disorders Rom. 2. 6. to 13. Some are rewarded in this life to convince us of a Divine Providence others are not rewarded to warn â—s of a World to come Or what can perswade Nehemiah with all the wisest and best of Men deliberatâ— to chuse willingly to forgo the Worlds favour and measures and undergo all its toil and displeasure but â—â— eye to the recompence of reward by far more â—â—e better than it is the later The sence of the Souls â—nmortality is the indelible Character and solid â—â—reats of Authentick Nature exactly rendered in â—â—ery Man's coppy Only it is not illuminated in some â—â—rk Hereticks and desperate Monsters Satyres or â—â—ch doleful Creatures in humane shape where you â—â— as little of the Man as of Immortality for these â—â— all appear equally Yet it is shaddowed in all â—ens practice For look we backward What but â—â—e Aire of Immortality maketh Men so conceit an â—â—cient Pedegree Or foreward What moveth â—â—en to call their Children and Lands by their own â—ame and to endeavour to perpetuat all together it the expectation of Immortality Say it is their â—â—â—ty yet omne malum est in bono and there must some reality under that same vanity And truâ—â— the Souls Immortality is the early dictat of Naâ—â—re our Religious Mother the uncontroverted â—â—d universal Sentiment of all her posterity of whatever Religion Jewish Pagan Christian Mahumeâ—â— The Sadducees might well be the first Deniers O Lord O Lord I beseeth thee send now prosperity Yet all that will live goaly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution and through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God But let no man add affliction to the afflicted and scornfully with Apostate Iulian alledge to Christians this Doctrine to make their burdens heavier God will not be mocked but He will avenge his own Elect who cry day and night to him Though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Luke 18. 7 8. And men would remember that there is Suffering for evil-doing as well as for well-doing and he who inflicts the one may be rewarded with the other For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the Wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them Psal. 75. 8. And it â—â— a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance c. 2 Thess. 1. 6 7 8. 2. The belief of the Souls Immortality teacheth men effectually the Fear of God Fear not them that kill the Body and when they have done that have no more that they can do But fear ye him who can cast both Soul and Body into Hell I say fear him Luke 12. 4 5 Psal. 76. 11. He ought to be feared And why verse 12. He cutteth off the Spirits of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth Who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain Jer. 10. 7. 3. It teacheth moderation in the desire and use of all things worldly We look not at the things that are seen which are Temporal but at the things that are not seen which are Eternal There is indeed the high spirit of Christianity courting immortality with so great disdain of all Worldly things that it cannot see them in its way This is the true Nobility of the Soul that exempteth it from the Egyptian slavery and servil drudgery of loading it self with thick clay for the brick-kilns of worldly projects and setteth it far without the reach of this Temptation And woe be to him who buildeth his House by Blood and his City by Oppression and delivereth it from the sâ—art of him Who will be Rich till He be peirced with many Sorrows and drowned in Damnation But this I say Brethren the time is short even short enough to him who every Evening may hear This night thy Soul shall be taken from thee It remaineth That they who possess the World be as they possessed it not they that use it as if they used it not and as not abusing it for the fashion of this World passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 29. and foreward But alas for pitty that this same Moderation and Indifferency should be both practised and applauded in the matters of God! And that it is so rare to be Seriously and positively Holy that Godliness may say O ye Sons of Men how long will ye turn my Glory into Shame How long will ye love Vanity and seek after Leasing Psal. 4. 2. 4 It teacheth us the best managry This Age hath learned to be wonderful Thrifty But O that they could study to be rich toward God! And could be perswaded that Alms and Charity is the best Husbandry and surest Art of Managry and would learn of the
shall Mercy be built and Faithfulness established in the very Heavens Psal. 89. 2. I shall illustrate this consideration with the case of Relapses a case right perplexing to exercised Spirits and wherein they find the Scripture sparing of examples at least of frequent relapses into the same fault which makes them apprehend there is no hope These I write not that any should sin and sure for that very cause the Spirit of God in Wisdom hath beeen more sparing of such examples 〈◊〉 if any man have sinned and relapsed often into sin Let him remember 1. Christ's Seventy times Seven times Matth 18 22. And withall that as far as Heaven is above the earth so far are his wayes above our wayes and his thoughts above ours Isai. 55. 9. Let him remember 2 The indefinit promises Ezek 18. 27. and the like That when and what time soever a sinner shall repent he shall find mercy 3. Let him remember chiefly the blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1 7. And 4thly if he must have examples Let him read the History of Israel's relapses in the book of Iudges Notwithstanding which the Lord as often as he heard their penitent cryes returned and Repented and sent them Saviours And let him read a notable place Psalm 78. 38. 40. In the 38 verse many a time he delivered them and forgave them but how many times did he that in the 40. verse how many a time did they provoke him Even as often as they provoked him a◠often he forgave them And when any man shall tell me precisely how often they provoked him I shall then tell him peremptorly how often he forgave them A simple Soul may possibly think to prevail with God at a time by pleading thus after the manner of men Help me O Lord this once and pardon my sin and I shall never trouble thy Majesty again I apprehend such are sometimes the thoughts of some But when Heaven and earth shall be measured in one line when God shall be as man or as the son of man when his ways shall be as our ways and his thoughts as our thoughts when I shall see the man that shall not be beholding to mercy Or the day wherein we ought not to Pray forgive us our debts or the time when it shall be lawful to limit the Holy one of Israel then shall I think that a convenient Argument But if I understand the Gospel it might be more beseeming God and his Grace in the Gospel to plead after this manner O Lord be gracious to me and forgive me this once And if ever I need I shall come to thee again Providing always that the Grace of God be not turned into wantonness nor this our liberty used for an occasion to sin Now for confirmation of what hath been said in this consideration I shall apply my self briefly to two places of Scripture The first is Psal 22 7. where I observe these things from the whole tenor of the Psalm 1. A saint's case may be right odd and in many things without a match but I am a worme and no man a reproach of men c. 2. I see in afflicted Saints a strong inclination to aggrege their own case and to reason themselves out of case with a sort of pleasure verse 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou deliveredst them but I am not like other men I am a worme and no man the very language of dejected Spirits to this day 3. I see that when they have reasoned themselves never so far out of account beyond all example or match of case Parrallel there is yet some further ground for the faith of the desolate Soul to travel upon in its search for discoveries of light and comfort for we see how he goes on complaining searching believeing and Praying till he arrives at Praise which ever lyes at the far end of the darkest Wilderness that a Saint can go thorow for when a Saint is in the thickest darkness and under the greatest damps there is still aliquid ultra something before them and that is light for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart 4. I see that a humble well tamed Soul will stoop right low to lift up such grounds of hope and incouragement as to a Soul that is lifted up might seem but slender and mean thou tookest me from my mothers belly and caused me to hope upon the breasts A humble faith will winn its meat amongst other folks feet and when all examples fail such they will find an example in themselves furnishing them with matter of hope 5. I see there may be extant signal and manifest evidences of Gods kindness to his People in former times and in cases as pressing as the present the Memory whereof for a long time may be darkned with the prevailing sense of incumbent pressures verse 21. save me from the Lyons mouth for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns 6. Though all Parallels and matching examples of other mens cases fail a Saint yet to him it is sufficient ground of Faith and matter of Praise that his own case hath been helped when once it hath been as ill as now it is thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns and therefore I will declare thy name amongst my brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee 7. If there must be examples of leading cases if so I may call them then some must be the example by being first in that case And thus oftentimes he that finds no Parallel before him leaves one behind him And indeed we should be as well content if so the will of God be to be examples to others of suffering affliction and enduring tentations as to have examples of others Therefore sayes he verse 27. All the ends of the World shall remember this and in the last verse They shall declare to the people that shall be to come that he hath done this The 2d place of Scripture I direct my thoughts to is Iob. 5. 8 9. Iob's case was clearly unparallel'd and absolutly matchless And sayes Eliphaz the Temanite I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause And that he might do that upon good ground he shewes in the 9 verse for sayes he God doth great things Why sayes the Soul mine is a great case then he doth great things Why I know what he doth No neither thou nor all the World knows that nor can find it out for he doth unsearchable things Whether that he is a God that cannot be known be a greater mercy or that he is an unknown God be to us a greater misery is that which I know not but this I know well that more of the knowledge of God and larger thoughts of him would loose many a knot and answer many a perplexing case to his People Yea but sayes the Soul it shall be a wonder a very miracle if ever my case
up the most distinct and audible voices in a confused insignificant sound But in Affliction as in a Wilderness the stillest whisper of a voice is soon discerned and seriously attended to Likwise i◠prosperity as in a plentiful City or Country men enjoy all things and esteem nothing but in Affliction as in a Wilderness wanting all or many things they account the more of any thing In a Word the Lord in the Wilderness and by Affliction is tuneing his People to Obedience that he may bring them forth singing the Songs of Deliverance Gods commands and his mercies will have another kind of lustre and relish to a Soul coming out of a sanctified Wilderness Formality in Religion with much vanity and many superfluities wait but too well upon Prosperity but the cold wind of the Wilderness bloweth these all away and strengthens the vital heat of the inward man and makes solk more Religious than formerly with less noise and adoe Prosperity is an unthankful Piece for readily the more it receives the less it accounts of what it receives and as a full Soul loaths the honey comb with a fastidious insolency it thinks and by falsely thinking truely makes abundance of mercy a very misery but as to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet the Wilderness and an afflicted lot blessed of God will give a man a good stomach for a piece of the bread of Adversity and a Cup of the cold water of Affliction and will teach him to say Grace to it thus I am less than the least of all thy mercies Genes 32 10. So said Iacob when he was coming from his twenty years travels in the Wilderness of his Afflictions in Padan Aram. Prosperity extenuates sanctified Adversity aggravates mercies to it any thing less than Hell is a mercy Lament 3. 22. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed to it any mercy is a great Mercy a great mercy is an extraordinary one and an extraordinary is a marvelous incomprehensible one Prosperity counts its mercies by Subtraction it will take its Bill with the unjust Steward and for a hundred it will write fourscore and for fourscore it will write fifty But in the Wilderness men learn to cast up their Mercies by Multiplication with the help of Division in the same place cited Lament 3. 22. That we are not consumed to some might seem but one mercy and that a poor one too yea but the lamenting Prophet finds mercies in that mercy And truely the mercies of the Lord are homogeneous things whereof every part hath the Nature and Denomination of the whole as every drop of water is water so the least piece of any Mercy is Mercy and the afflicted humble thankful Soul loves to anatomize and diffect the Lords Mercies into parts as Physicians do humane bodies that they may informe themselves the better of the number and nature of the parts and of the frame and structure of the whole The 136 Psalme hath this common with those Mercies which it recounts that there is more in it than every one can see This only to my purpose everyone may see how the Psalmist tells out the Lords Mercies by parts and insists upon one and the same Mercy to shew that every part of it is a Mercy and that as all the rest derived from the underived uncreated unexhaustible and ever runing fountain of the Lords Mercy that endures for ever Prosperity like the Widow and her Sons in the matter of the oil loses and comes short of many Mercies for want of the vessels of faithful accounts and thankful acknowledgments The Saint in the Wilderness as the Disciples in a desart place obeys Christs Frugal command it gathers up the remaining Fragments of mercies that nothing be lost and with those it fills whole baskets As by the blessing and miraculous Power of Christ the broken meat after that Dinner whereat so many thousands were well filled was more than that which at the first was set down whole O! but it is good holding house with Christ It is good to have our portion be otherwise what it will with his presence and Blessing and to have it coming thorow his hands And as the power of divine contentment can make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the half more not the whole so the Wilderness will teach the People of God the mystery of improving Mercies to make the increase more than the stock This as the rest of divine Arts is best profest in the Wilderness and therefore it is that the Lord sends so many of his most hopeful Children thither to be bred and there they are continued till the 〈…〉 past their Course and taken their Degrees and then they return Masters of the Arts able to teach others and to comfort them with the same comforts wherewith they themselves were comforted of Christ. 2 Cor. 1. 4. 4. The Lord brings his People into the Wilderness that he may lead them by and deliver them from that which is worse Exod. 13. 17 18. And it came to pass when Pharoah had let the People go that God led them not thorow the way of the land of the Philistins though that was near for God said lest peradventure the People repent when they see war and they return to Egypt but God led the People about thorow the way of the Wilderness of the red sea The Lord prepares his People a place in the Wilderness from the fury and persecutions of men Rev. 12. 6. And albeit before I called Persecution one of the parts of a Wilderness-Condition yet I would have it understood that every one that comes into the Wilderness is not led thorow all the Wilderness nor made to see all the evils thereof nor do all Afflictions tryst upon every afflicted person for often times God makes one a mean to prevent and escape another even as in the case in hand the Lord sends sometimes his People to enjoy Davids and Ieremys wishes in the Wilderness that so they may be ridd of ill neighbours for we say in the Proverb Better be alone than in ill Company And likwise the Lord by bringing his People into the Wilderness delivers them from the contagion and vexation of the sins of those with whom they conversed aforetimes Albeit the Wilderness as I before said be a place of temptation yet the Lord by some one tentation which his People can better guide many times leads them out of the way of some other one or moe which might be of more hazard to them Surely it is no small mercy to be out of the way when tentations are marching thorow all the land in solemn procession and they cry before them bow the knee and when the wicked walk on every side who but the viles◠men Psal. 12 8. would covet the preferment of the midst And would not any person of a Holy breath prefer a Cottage in a well aired Wilderness to the foul winds and corrupt infectious air of these plaguy
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
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
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
your lusts Iam. 4. 1. Ungodly mens lusts are like themselves for extremes they are and they are like extremes that differ alike from themselves and from the mids A varice differeth as much from Prodigality her Sister Vice as from Liberality her contrary vertue But Godliness sets a man at one with himself it is a heart-uniting thing Psal. 86. 11. unite my heart to fear thy name It makes a good understanding betwixt the understanding the will the affections and the whole man And blessed be the Peace-maker shall she not be called the Child of God 5. Is it not the great Glory of Godliness that as many do sute her as few do espouse her and she hath as many pretenders as few matches Are not all men her pretenders Do not her greatest adversaries pay her the Devotion at least of a complement Is not their great request to her like that Isai. 4. 1. only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach Do not her greatest enemys Glory to be called her servants Call an evil man good and you cannot please him beeter for he hateth as much to be called evil as to be good And loveth as much to be evil as to be called good And it is yet as much her Glory that few do enjoy her But pray whom doth she reject are they any but the Ungodly those unworthy Persons that were brought in upon her and came to mock her nor doth she despise any that have not first despised her or should she prostitute her self to such as care not for her none get a Rejection from her without their own consent and they take it before they get it for as none are Godly so neither are any Wicked against their will Lastly Beside the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come which makes Godliness profitable to all things 1 Timoth. 4. 8. It is the ready way even in ordinary probability to give a man honour wealth and pleasure and to continue these with him yea even in this World I would these tymes did give a better testimony to this Observation but I hope the Observation shall stand when some are fallen and shall continue when these times are past way for that these things are as naturally purchased by good and vertuous as lost by lewd and wicked practices And how shall a man have Honour who prostitutes himself to courses wherein he hath none but base and unmanly persons for his Companions Are not Pages Grooms and Lackeyes as good fellows as their Lord himself at Whoreing Drinking Swearing Carding where all are fellows Is not my Lord well Honoured when he sends his man to convoy a Whore to the Chamber who because upon the Road he uses to lead the way for his Master thinks he will do him the like service here and serves him with his own remains But who doth not Reverence the Presence and Honour the Face of a really Good man Yea many a time such an one hath more Reverence than God himself with Evil men who dare do many things in the Eyes of God that they will be loath to do in presence of such a man Yea how convincing many a time is the Carriage of a Godly man to his greatest Enemies Surely thou art more Righteous then I said Saul to David and when a Mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him Prov. 16. 7. An excellent Divine I think it is Greenhame sayes well Let not a Saint be afraid of Men for that by his Prayers he hath more Power of their Hearts than they themselves have And the Scripture sayes the same 1 Pet. 3. 13. And who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good And how well had it been with the Profane Ruffian that he had spent that Time Strength Estate and Credit for God in the way of Godliness with the sweet and sure gain of his Soul which he hath wasted in riffling and base living with the evident hazard of his Soul's ruine if that may be said to be ruined that was never repaired nor in case But be it yet that the godly man attaineth not to these advantages Temporal The Peace of Righteousness the Contentment of Soberness the Considence of Faith and the Rejoycing of Hope do more than compense all that is wanting elsewhere and cause that a good man is satisfied from himself Prov 14. 14. Now let all that hath been said be a reproof of the Worlds hard opinions of Godliness and give cheque to their unkind dealing with her as if she were a sorry Piece to be desired by none but such as would be miserable I have not yet travelled so far but that I can remember from whence I set forth In my entry upon the point I told my Erand was with Eleazar Abraham's Servant Genes 24. To seek a Wife to my Master's Son and to Espouse and bring home Souls to Christ And now to conclude Let me with them Gen. 24. 57 58. Call the Damsel and enquire at her Mouth Wilt thou go with the man And she said so be it said unto me I will go The fourth and last thing we learn from the point in a word Is to put a good construction upon all Gods Dispensations to his People for his thoughts towards them are Thoughts of Peace and not of evil to give them an expected end Jer 29. 11. And in complyance with the Lords great design in the vicissitudes of all our Lots let us learn to give him more of our Hearts For he brings his People into the Wilderness and there he allures them If these Melancholly times do but make us more tractable condescending and kind to Christ Iesus we may well expect that he will speak comfortably unto us I will bring her into the Wilness and will speak comfortably unto her ANd thus I am led by the hand into the fourth and last thing proposed to be considered in the Text. The juncture and coincidence of the Churches affliction and the Lords Consolations I will bring her into the Wilderness and I will speak comfortably un to her Hence the Doctrine is That the Lord useth to tryst his peoples sadest afflictions with his sweetest consolations He is a God that comforteth those that art cast down It is his way and use The Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 5. abounded in consolations by Christ as their sufferings for Christ abounded And reading through all the Scripture I never find the Saints more indulged with the sweet consolations of God and his kind manifestations than in the greatest afflictions Reasons of this are 1. His free love and kindness So it becomes him with whom the fatherless find mercy He loveth and preserveth the Stranger he is a Father of the Fatherless and a Husband to the Widow a Judge of the oppressed out of his holy habitation He will be known in adversity to be a Friend 2. Their necessity