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
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
iniquities and the Rods of men that is such corrections as men use upon misdemeaning Children I find this true of publik Affliction of a whole Church or Nation 4 It is clear that the Lords Rods whether publick or personal upon his sinful People â—ow from love in the fountain are mixed with â—ove in their course and run forth into love in the â—ssue If this seem strange to any let him remember that he who spareth his Rod hateth his Child â—ut he that chasteneth him betimes delivereth his â—oul Gods thoughts concerning his People are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give them an expected end Jer. 29. 11. And in the midst of wrath he will remember mercy Habbac 3. 2. Gods love to his People is very consistent with anger though that be even servent to the Degree of wrath but not with hatred and hatred not anger is lov 's opposite an angry love is ofttimes most profitable Heb. 12. 10. Let none therefore be so weak and Child-witted as to eonclude I am sharply scourged and sore smitten for my folly herefore my Father hath cast me off and cares not for me And yet we find Affliction that makth a wise man mad raising such apprehensions oftâ—â—s in the wise heart of strong David I do not here speak how the Lord causeth his People to pass under the rod and bringeth them within the bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20 37. and how he chooses them in the furnace of Affliction Isai 48. 10. and that was an Affliction for sin and sadly deserved Rod And yet the Lord when he would pick out a piece of the finest mettal goes neither to Coffer nor Cup-board where the glistering of Peace and posterity dazle the eyes of undescreet behold ers but he goes to the smoak and Soot of the furnace and there he pitcheth upon the rareâ— Saints of the last refine The Lord goeth down to the Land of Affliction and to the house of Bondage to visit his People and there he falls in love with them there he wooes them and there he wedds them in their mourning Garments For the get not the oil of joy nor the Garment of Praise till the second day of the Marriage and then theâ— rise from the Dust and shine their light cometh and the Glory of the Lord ariseth upon them See Isai 48. 10. cited Hos. 2 14. and foreward Isai 61. 3. and 60. 1. In fine the Scripture is full oâ— rare and satisfactory Expressions of Gods love to his People even under sufferings which their own wickedness hath procured whereof it will apper tain to speak more particularly in the sequel of ouâ— ensuing Discourse 5thly It is clear from Scripture that there is difference to be put betwixt sin procuring and bringing on Sufferings and bitter Afflictions and sin discovered in and by suffering Let God caâ— a Holy Iob in the furnace and it will discover scum that will cause him say My Transgressions are infinit And yet the Lord himself sustains Iob's Plea that it was not for sin that he was pursuing him 6. It is clear that there is a great difference often times betwixt the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Men Afflicting his People as we see frequently in David's Cases Yea I find an excellent rare comfortable Dispensation of God to his People that he will sometimes scourge them with the Golden Rod of Martyrdom and correct their faults in an Honourable way and chastile them soundly and yet never let the World know what is betwixt him and them The Lord loves not to proclaim and blaze the bemoaned faults of his People nor to make them Odious to the World which hath a bad enough Opinion of them alwayes But if I must correct my Child saith he I will stay till the World and he fall out in some point of Conscience in Faith or manners wherefore he must suffer and then in my Gracious Wisdom I will shew a rare Conjunction or meeting of these three Planets in one house 1. The correction of my Child 2. His Glory and 3. His acceptable Duty and I will let him earn a reward of thanks and Glory in that very suffering wherein I shall visit his iniquities and he shall give Testimony for me God can go many Earauds at once and sold up many Projects in one piece of Providence the Lord will finish the whole work and cut it short in Righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth Rom. 9. 28. The Lord is good at dispatches If the Question be then whether God will ever Honour a Man with whom he hath a Controversie to suffer for Righteousness I Answer Yes and I confess I should hardly have been of that Judgment if I had not found clear Divine truth going before me in it comparing the whole tenor of the 38 Psalm with the 20. verse thereof where at once the Psalmist is suffering from men for that which is good and from God for his foolishness and iniquity Verses 4 5 and 18. Here it is fit to remember Luther's seasonable warning that when David in his Prayers speaketh of his Righteousness we would refer it to its true correlative to wit towards men his enemies he was Righteous but towards God that is his Language Be merciful to me O God be merciful to me in the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquities Psal. 51. The accuser of Gods Children will be ready to carry ill reports betwixt him and them and to keep up an ill understanding betwixt them if he can and in times of suffering for their Duty he will not be idle he will tell them a thousand Stories of their own sins to weaken their hands and cause them believe that God will never accept service of them but that they shall come foul off with all their fair Essayes Ye have heard of Gods Gracious Wisdom and now these are the Devil 's malicious wyles but a Syllogism or Argument framed of one premise of Gods and another of the Devil 's will never infer a Conclusion of Faith and that can claime â—iducial assent Wherefore in such a mixed case which I desire may be remembred to be every caseable let a man freely declare his iniquity 〈◊〉 God and be sorry for his sin Psal 38. 18. Let him repent and mean himself to God who as I have said loves to keep his People's Counsel and to keep their faults sub sigillo confessionis and under the rose that is he will be to them a good Secretary but â—â—t them cleave to that which is good and incourage themselves in a good matter and beware of failing in present Duty in a discourageing sense of former iniquities for one fault will never â—end another and yet that is even the best method that Satan useth to offer in such cases But the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke him for troubling his poor afflicted People who are as â—rands plukt out of the fire I have
their Spectacles is sufficiently conspicuous and may be discerned that it is the hand writing of the Lord for that it hath a peculiar stampt of Divinity that cannot be counterfited If God creat but a louse in Egypt that is an original whereof the greatest Magicians can give no copy because it is the finger of God Exod. 8. 19. And yet many read the Epistle without the inscription many see the hand work and not the hand the Work and not the Worker Not to speak of Heathen Atheists of whom some have been darkned with the fancy of a voluble blind Fortune others dammished with the impression of on inflexâ—â—â—e inexorable fate both equally opposed to the â—th of a wisely contrived and freely exercised â—â—ovidence Nor to speak of heretical Manicheâ— who attributed all evil events of sin or pain to â—e Daemoniacal influence of a malum principium an dependent unprincipiated Principle of evil in â—ain speech a Devil-God nor of malicious blasâ—emous Iews who albeit that they could not â—ny that notable Works and Miracles were â—ought by Christ yet calumniously attributed at which was the finger of God to Beelzebub â—e Prince of Devils I say not to mention these â—w many are there in all Generations who have â—gmatically received the true principles of a geneâ— Providence that either of neglect do not of infirmity and mistake cannot or of malice â—ill not see the hand of God in particular events â—nd therefore we have this frequent Conclusion Gods dispensations whether of mercy or Judgâ—ent then shall they know that I am the Lord. Unbelief of a providence looseth all the pins and â—aketh the whole frame of Religion and the â—â—th and actual observation of a Providence sixeth that Atheisme looseth Upon this pin of an observed Providence the Saints do hang many excellent vessels of greater and smaller quantity â—nd what doth not David build upon this foundation the Lord reigneth Let us then observe â—rovidence ruling in all dispensations and in every one of these let us with old Eli both see â—d say it is the Lord and whether dispensations be prosperous or cross let us remember him thâ— hath said I make peace and I creat evil Onâ—â— let not the observation of providence either slaken our hands in any good Duty This evil iâ— the Lord wherefore then should I wait any longer 〈◊〉 him was an ill use of Providence And this is bâ— like the rest of Satans and Unbeliev's Conclusion Nor 2. Let it strengthen our hands in any sinâ— project or practice It was the Devil that 〈◊〉 cast thy self down from the pinacle because he hath â—â—ven his Angels charge of thee Let us not take Providence 3. for approbation of our practice Senacherib who could say that he was not come without the Lord against Ierusalem It was a wickâ—â— word in David's enemies to say God hath forsâ—â—â— him let us persecute and destroy him But David 〈◊〉 of another spirit when God delivered Saul iâ— his hand let not my hand saith he be upon bâ— for wickedness proceedeth from the wicked saith the Proverb of the Ancients 4. Let dispensations of Providence be determining evidences of our state before God for all things 〈◊〉 alike unto all and and no man can know either â—â— or hatred by all that is before him Eccles. 9 1. â—â— a great vanity in a wicked man to think the 〈◊〉 of himself for prosperity And it a great weakâ—â—â—â— in a Saint to think the worse of himself for affliction and adversity albeit all these come from the hand of the Lord. And yet none are hereupâ—â— allowed to be Stoically or stupidly unconcerned 〈◊〉 the vicissitudes of differing dispensations for â—â—cles 3 4. there is a time to weep and a time to 〈◊〉 time to mourn and a time to dance And chap. 7. 14. the wise God by the wise mans mouth bids us in â—he day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of adâ—ersity consider The 3d. thing to be observed in the works of God and his ways to his People is the Properties and Attributes of those his works for as omne â—actum refert suum factorem every thing made reâ—embles its maker so in the works of God generally and more specially in his ways and dispensations to his own we have a lively draught and â—elineation of all the attributes of the blessed Worker Here is displayed the soveraignity of God which is exalted equally above limited â—oyality and licentious Tyranny for the Kings â—â—rength loveth judgment Psal. 99. 4. The Soverignity of God flows from his unlimited Indendâ—nt nature is founded upon his transcendent unâ—erived right in his creatures and runs in this method 1. he is over and before all things 2. all things are of him 3. all things are his and therefore 4. he may do with his own what he will â—e is the only potentat and to him belongs the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever Amen This â—overaignity of the works of God or of God in â—is works is a common pass-key that will open all â—he Adyta the secret passages of the most mysterious reserved works of God in his most surprizing â—ispensations to his People and gives the only answer to Questions about many of his dispensations otherways unanswerable instance these few Question Why hath the Lord elected one to Salvation and appointed another to Damnation and that it may be of two Brethren as Iacaâ— and Easu Twins born where all things are equal in the Object Answer Because the Potter hath power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel to honour and another to dishonour Rom. 9. 21. Question 2 Why iâ— pursuance of the design and accomplishment of the work of our Salvation did the Lord bruise his own Son and put him to grief It pleased the Lord Isai 53. 10. Question 3. Why doth the Lord shew mercy to one and harden another Answer So he â—â— Rom 9. 18. Question 4. Why to all those that anâ— really in a state of Grace doth the Lord dispensâ— Grace so differently in time measure method manner and other circumstances Answer thâ—â— is as the spirit of God will 1 Cor. 12 11. Question 5. Why doth the Lord distribute an equal reward of Glory to those whose works and service iâ— very unequal in the World Answer Because it is lawful for the Lord to do what he will with â—â— own Math. 20. 15. Question 6. Why doth the Lord vouchafe Grace to those most ordinarilâ— who naturally ly at the greatest disadvantages â— that the Poor the Fools Babes yea the most desperat forlorn sinners Publicans and Harlots aâ— called and do receive the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and enter thereinto whilst thâ— Wise the Mighty the Righteous Civil Well Natured and Well bred Pharisees are passed by Whâ— should all this be Answer Even so father for so seemed good in thy sight Math. 11. 26 Question 7. Why doth the Lord choose one People and â—ation to make them
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
up the most distinct and audible voices in a confused insignificant sound But in Affliction as in a Wilderness the stillest whisper of a voice is soon discerned and seriously attended to Likwise i◠prosperity as in a plentiful City or Country men enjoy all things and esteem nothing but in Affliction as in a Wilderness wanting all or many things they account the more of any thing In a Word the Lord in the Wilderness and by Affliction is tuneing his People to Obedience that he may bring them forth singing the Songs of Deliverance Gods commands and his mercies will have another kind of lustre and relish to a Soul coming out of a sanctified Wilderness Formality in Religion with much vanity and many superfluities wait but too well upon Prosperity but the cold wind of the Wilderness bloweth these all away and strengthens the vital heat of the inward man and makes solk more Religious than formerly with less noise and adoe Prosperity is an unthankful Piece for readily the more it receives the less it accounts of what it receives and as a full Soul loaths the honey comb with a fastidious insolency it thinks and by falsely thinking truely makes abundance of mercy a very misery but as to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet the Wilderness and an afflicted lot blessed of God will give a man a good stomach for a piece of the bread of Adversity and a Cup of the cold water of Affliction and will teach him to say Grace to it thus I am less than the least of all thy mercies Genes 32 10. So said Iacob when he was coming from his twenty years travels in the Wilderness of his Afflictions in Padan Aram. Prosperity extenuates sanctified Adversity aggravates mercies to it any thing less than Hell is a mercy Lament 3. 22. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed to it any mercy is a great Mercy a great mercy is an extraordinary one and an extraordinary is a marvelous incomprehensible one Prosperity counts its mercies by Subtraction it will take its Bill with the unjust Steward and for a hundred it will write fourscore and for fourscore it will write fifty But in the Wilderness men learn to cast up their Mercies by Multiplication with the help of Division in the same place cited Lament 3. 22. That we are not consumed to some might seem but one mercy and that a poor one too yea but the lamenting Prophet finds mercies in that mercy And truely the mercies of the Lord are homogeneous things whereof every part hath the Nature and Denomination of the whole as every drop of water is water so the least piece of any Mercy is Mercy and the afflicted humble thankful Soul loves to anatomize and diffect the Lords Mercies into parts as Physicians do humane bodies that they may informe themselves the better of the number and nature of the parts and of the frame and structure of the whole The 136 Psalme hath this common with those Mercies which it recounts that there is more in it than every one can see This only to my purpose everyone may see how the Psalmist tells out the Lords Mercies by parts and insists upon one and the same Mercy to shew that every part of it is a Mercy and that as all the rest derived from the underived uncreated unexhaustible and ever runing fountain of the Lords Mercy that endures for ever Prosperity like the Widow and her Sons in the matter of the oil loses and comes short of many Mercies for want of the vessels of faithful accounts and thankful acknowledgments The Saint in the Wilderness as the Disciples in a desart place obeys Christs Frugal command it gathers up the remaining Fragments of mercies that nothing be lost and with those it fills whole baskets As by the blessing and miraculous Power of Christ the broken meat after that Dinner whereat so many thousands were well filled was more than that which at the first was set down whole O! but it is good holding house with Christ It is good to have our portion be otherwise what it will with his presence and Blessing and to have it coming thorow his hands And as the power of divine contentment can make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the half more not the whole so the Wilderness will teach the People of God the mystery of improving Mercies to make the increase more than the stock This as the rest of divine Arts is best profest in the Wilderness and therefore it is that the Lord sends so many of his most hopeful Children thither to be bred and there they are continued till the 〈…〉 past their Course and taken their Degrees and then they return Masters of the Arts able to teach others and to comfort them with the same comforts wherewith they themselves were comforted of Christ. 2 Cor. 1. 4. 4. The Lord brings his People into the Wilderness that he may lead them by and deliver them from that which is worse Exod. 13. 17 18. And it came to pass when Pharoah had let the People go that God led them not thorow the way of the land of the Philistins though that was near for God said lest peradventure the People repent when they see war and they return to Egypt but God led the People about thorow the way of the Wilderness of the red sea The Lord prepares his People a place in the Wilderness from the fury and persecutions of men Rev. 12. 6. And albeit before I called Persecution one of the parts of a Wilderness-Condition yet I would have it understood that every one that comes into the Wilderness is not led thorow all the Wilderness nor made to see all the evils thereof nor do all Afflictions tryst upon every afflicted person for often times God makes one a mean to prevent and escape another even as in the case in hand the Lord sends sometimes his People to enjoy Davids and Ieremys wishes in the Wilderness that so they may be ridd of ill neighbours for we say in the Proverb Better be alone than in ill Company And likwise the Lord by bringing his People into the Wilderness delivers them from the contagion and vexation of the sins of those with whom they conversed aforetimes Albeit the Wilderness as I before said be a place of temptation yet the Lord by some one tentation which his People can better guide many times leads them out of the way of some other one or moe which might be of more hazard to them Surely it is no small mercy to be out of the way when tentations are marching thorow all the land in solemn procession and they cry before them bow the knee and when the wicked walk on every side who but the viles◠men Psal. 12 8. would covet the preferment of the midst And would not any person of a Holy breath prefer a Cottage in a well aired Wilderness to the foul winds and corrupt infectious air of these plaguy
as thou livest and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing It is time our loins were girded our shoes were on our sect our staff in our hand and our stuff and provision upon our shoulder for we must to the Wilderness and what if we go out in haste It is good to be in good Company it is better if Moses had any skill to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. They who will not suffer with the people of God may suffer with worse Company They who will not go forth with Lot unto the mountains may possibly sit still till they get brimstone and fire from Heaven and the smoak of Sodom about their ears for he that will save his life unlawfully shall loss it unhappily and he that will loss his life in Resolution may find it in Reality Even as a man doth in stepping of a Ditch with any thing that is either of weight or worth to him his Clock his Case of letters or Papers of concernment his heavy purse or the like lest he loss and indamnage himself and them both he casts all over before him and so coming over with the less trouble he lifts all again upon the other side and so losses nothing of that which he cast away but that he might keep it and himself both whereas if he had kept all about him he might have lost himself and all together but all is not ost that is in peril Let us then with chearfulness turn our face towards the Wilderness The second Use shall be for Information to all such of the Lords People as are either upon their way to the Wilderness or are already arrived there they would not think strange of such a condition it has been it is and it will be the lot of the Lords Children Cant. 8. 5. the high way to Christs mountain of Myrrh and hill of frankincense lyes thorow the Wilderness and there he comes forth to meet them and leads them up in his bosome leaning upon his own arms There doth no strange thing befall the Saints when the Lord brings them into the Wilderness for even as Moses Exod. 3. 1. led his flocks into the backside of the desart and was not that a presage of what followed when he led Israel as a flock through the Wilderness so doth the Lord oft times with his People albeit the Wilderness is a solitary unfrequented place where no foot of man cometh yet in it you may take up and trace the footsteps of the Lords flock who through much tribulation have entred into the Kingdome of God and there ye may follow them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises The Saints will find the footsteps of the flock in their greatest Wilderness and may be helped with the light of precedent Examples in their greatest darkness For now that the Lord through so many ages hath led his Saints to Heaven by so many different paths of Dispensations for there is but one common road of Religion the Kings high Way I doubt there is any untroden path remaining to be discovered by this Generation I only fear one difference which makes indeed a great odds in lots be found betwixt our case and the case of those that have gone before us and it is this That they were better men in as ill times for worse I would none But in that I pray whom shall we blame and know we not how that should be helped See that ye walk circumspectly as wise and not as fools redeeming the time because the days are evil Eph. 5. 15 16. If ill times find no good men let ill times make good men and good men will make good times or els bad times shall make good men better But of the Parity of cases I said much in the Preface The Third Use of the point shall be for Direction bsince the People of God may thus expect to be rought into the Wilderness it concerns them to take their directions for the Wilderness for our direction in such a condition I shall without insisting briefly hint at some things I to be avoided 2 dly some things to be endeavoured Things to be avoided by such as are brought into the Wilderness are I Unbelief Psal. 78. 22 23. the Israelites believed not God in the Wilderness and therefore he was provoked Heb. 3. 18 19. the Apostle tells us expresly that those who believed not their carcasses fell in the Wilderness and for their unbelief they could not exter into the land of promise 2 Discouragment would be avoided Numb 14. 1. the People through Discouragment cryed and weept for the report that the spyes gave them and frequently els-where they expressed their Discouragement upon the emergency of every new difficulty their cry was always that they should die in the Wilderness and in that they read their own fortune Numb 14. 28. for the Lord was provoked for their unbelief and other sins to do to them as they had said Beware of Unbeliefs bode-words for like the Devil's responses their accomplishments are always evil to those that take them In all the World I know no such ready way to Apostacy and utter forsaking of God as Discouragment Experience hath said so much to confirme this that I shall not need to bring reason into the field But this I must say have the experience of Discouragment who will they have it to their expences And if I were to die I would leave Discouragment this testimony that it is dear bought misery 3. Avoid Murmuring fretting discontentment with the Lords Dispensations with complaints of his unkindness Numb 14 2. all the Children of Israel murmured and Chap. 6 42. they murmured against Moses and Aaron But Moses could tell them what are we that ye speak against us nay but your words are against the Lord yea and Numb 21. 5. it is expresly said the People spoke against God and against Moses And still their tune was wâ—y have ye brought us up out of Egypt Just like many in our Generation why say they your Reâ—ormation your Covenant and your Ministers have served you well but verily their words are against the Lord for we owne his name in these and glorify him whom they dishonour When the Children of Israel murmured in the Wilderness they had forgotten how once they groaned because of their oppression in Egypt and in that they may be more excusable than we for the Red sea had ridd perpetual marches betwixt them and their oppressours but we get not leave to forget our oppression in the times of our former subjection to them who derive their power from her who is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt Revel n. 8. I mean Prelats who are indeed the house of the Elder brother but fallen back for that they have come short of the blessing and now hold of the Pope the younger who hath supplanted them handsomely and got betiwxt
out therefore do the virgins love thee yea he â—an give a Soul-charming vertue to the very words of his name and cause the very naming of him kindle a flame of love in the Soul that many waters cannot quench thy name is as ointment that is powred forth He can open with his finger the â—stest lock that is upon the heart of any sinner Cant. â— 4. my beloved put in his hand by the hole of the â—â—or my bowels were moved for him and if it â—o not open freely he can drop a litle mirrhe from is finger upon it that shall make it easy â— rose â—â— to open to my beloved and my fingers droped myrrhe verse 5 and 6. yea without once asking liberty he â—an ravish a sinners heart and when ever he comes â—pon such a design he coms rideing in King Soâ—â—mons Chariot the midst whereof is paved with love â—â— the daughters of Ierusalem Cant. 3. 9. 10. and after the Kings Chariot follows a large train the Chariots of Aminadab waiting to convoy and bring â—p his willing people Cant. 6. 12. and if once the â—â—ul is got up into the Chariot the King bids drive the 13 verse return return O Shulamite return â—urn and then farewell thy Fathers house Psal. 5. 10. forget thine own people and thy fathers house â—ow the Chariots of Aminadab the Chariots of the â—ords willing People run upon these four wheels â— plain termes the inward power of Grace whereâ—â— the Lord allures sinners and gains them to himself consisteth and is carryed on of these Four â—1 A sound and clear Information of the understanding and Illumination of the mind as it is â—â—ten in the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God John 6. 45. out of Isai. 54 13. with Ier. 24. 7. and I will give them an heart to know me 1 John 5. 20. he hath given us an understanding that we maâ— know him that is true If a man by nature and study were never so judicious and learned yet ere he bâ— converted and effectually allured to ingage throughly in Covenant with God he hath need to be taught of God that the eyes of his understanding being opened he may know that which passes knowledge Otherways it may seem a strange saying but it is that which is noted in the Scripture of truth and the Scripture expressions of opening the eyes giving an understanding and the like make it clear That the meanest Saint and convert hath more knowledge of Christ and seeth somewhat in him that the most Subtile Seraphick Resolute or Angelick Doctor unconverted cannot see So that whatever differences there be betwixt Saving and Common knowledge there is certainly a difference even in regard of the intensive degree 〈◊〉 clearness or if it be not so let any man tell 〈◊〉 what such expressions mean 2 Cor. 4. 6 that God who commandeth the light to shine out of darkness hatâ— shined in our hearts to give the light of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and verse 3 and the Gospel is hid from those that perish for Satan hath blinded their mindes and no doubt many of these had more natural judgment and learning with more of the means also than some of theâ— that believed To conclude there is greater odd betwixt a Saint and a Rabbi than betwixt a Raâ—â—â— and an Idiot for the last two I now suppoâ— them unconverted are neighboured in Nature but Grace separats the first from them both 2. The inward power of Grace consisteth in a powerful inflection and Bowing of the Will. Psal. 110. 3. thy People shall be willing in the day of thy power the Lord findeth sinners Unwilling he worketh on them not willing and he makes them Willing The Will as I said before is the strongest hold of the Soul and the most wilful piece of the man command the Will and you command the man the New Will say Divines is the New Man and therefore the Lord is concerned to possess the Will and this he doth wherever he savingly allures a Soul for he scorns any should say that they serve and follow him against their will all his Souldiers are Volunteers his People are a Willing People I find a Godly Man once saying and all such must say it often the good which I would that I do not Even as by Conversion oft times the greatest sinner becomes the greatest Saint so the Will before Conversion the most obstinate and unplacable enemy doth afterward become the most kind and trusty friend to God for in the midst of many exorbitancies of affections and irregularities of Practice and Conversation the Will retains its loyalty and persists in its duty to the Lord and when the whole Soul is in an uproar and confusion like that of the City of Ephesus Act. 19. 32. a most lively Representation of a Soul in Perturbation wherein some cryed one thing some another for the Assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together All this while the Will is at ready to protest for the Lord as the superstitious Ephesians were for their Diana And when in a disorder all plead liberty I consent unto the Law says the will Rom 7. 16 and 25 with the mind I serve the Law of God 3. The inward power of Grace consists in a sweet Inclination of the Affections Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy Soul The Psalmist Prayes Psal. 119. 36. incline mine heart unto thy testimonys and Psal. 141. 4. incline not mine heart to any evil thing The Affections are ticklish things By much working and subduing with frequent turnings they become as ductile and formable as the potters clay whereof he makes a vessel as it pleases him Like those we call Good Natures they are sweet Companions but not so sure And as readily you do not leave them as you found them so you shall hardly find them where you left them nor know you when you have them or when you want them They are primi ocâ—upantiâ— they can refuse no body They welcome all comers follow all Counsels comply with all Companies And in a word they are compleat Conformists And they are courted by so many Lovers that it is much if they turn not common strumpets to the dishonour and grief of this concerned chaste Suter Who is broken with such whorish Hearts Ezek. 6. 9. Again they are like an Instrument with many Strings they make sweet Melody in Gods Service but with the least wrong touch you Mis-tune them Indeed the Saints have their affections frequently to Tune and it requires a time to do it This causes that the Affection of Grief which is the Basse of the Soul is oftest in Tune and keeps in Tune longest with the Saints Psal. 57. 7 8. When David's Heart was fixed his Harp was out of Tune when his