him thy servant slew both the lyon and the bear and what doth he infer from hence that This uncircumcised Philistin shall be as one of them seing he hath defied the armies of the living God I but these are the words of a proud youth and words are but winde Thrasonical bravado's what bottome hath he for his confidence why faith is up and experience keepeth it steady The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistin What is this Golliah in the hands of a mighty God more then the Lyon and the Bear And why should I doubt the good presence of God whereof I have had so late and eminent experience A like passage you have 1 Sam. 30. vers 6. David was greatly distressed his own army mutinies against him and talketh of stoning him Surely it must be an high provocation which maketh an whole army to rise up as one man against their General and sure the distress must needs be great when a multitude of armed men and enraged too set themselves against a single person this was General David's case The soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sonnes and for his daughters Oh! such losses come near the heart well might they rise high in their lamentations and high in their indignation also against David because he had led them out upon a designe and in their absence the Analekites had sinitten Ziglag the city which Achish had given to David Chap. 27 vers 6. and burnt it with fire and had taken their wives and their sonnes and their daughters captive and were gone away with them But what doth David do in this straight he encouraged himself in the Lord his God the word is derived from Chazak and importeth he laid hold on God with all his strength as men when they are in danger of drowning will lay such fast hold that their fingers will sooner be broken then loosened thus David being almost under water stretched forth his hand of faith strengthened with promises and experiences and layeth sure hold on the rock of ages whereby his head and hopes are kept above water in this dreadfull storme what a noble gallantry of spirit did good Nehemiah shew Et Turnum fuglentem haec terra videbit Omnia de pâ—aesumas prater fugam Palinodiam was a brave Speech of Luther to Staupicius when Shemaiah advised him to take sanctuary in the Temple because the enemy had designed to fall upon him by night and slay him a word of advice which a carnal heart consulting more his own safety then Gods honour would readily have listened unto but what is the answer of this heroick saint Neb. 6. vers 11. Should such a man as I flee and who is there being as I am would go into the temple to save his life I will not go in why not go in what safety could he pretend unto you may suppose him arguing thus I am under an eminent call from the Lord to build the city of the sepulchres of my fathers I have seen the face of God in bowing the heart of King Artaxerxes to contribute his royal aid and commission me to the work I have found the Elders of the Jews willing to owne my authority and to rise up as one man to build strengthening their hands for that good work Chap. 2. vers 18. as it was 2 Chron. 30. vers 12. In Judah The band of the Lord was to give them one heart Oh that the Lord would give that oneness of heart unto us in the work of our God Hence Nehemiah gathereth up his spirits and speaks like a brave man Should such a man as I flee a choice spirit a gallant pattern to be ey'd by all who are called forth by the Lord to serve out their generation in doing his work and if it hath a direct aspect to any age or nation surely to none more then to ours both in an eminent call to work and in eminent preservation of the workmen We may experimentally apply that promise as very much fulfilled upon us Isa 4. vers 5 6. The Lord hath created upon every dwelling place of mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoak by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory there hath been a defence Chuphah The word implyeth a covering Cherube or nuptial vail under which the bride the Lamb's wife hath been hid from the rage of men Oh! how should this fortifie the Saints against future dangers and argue them to a dependent resting upon God! for them to cry out with the prophets servant Alas Master what shall wee do or with the disciples when tempest-tost wee perish as though there had been no hope of escaping as an high dishonour to them as Saints but more to the Lord Jesus as King of Saints especially to sink so low in their Faith as to say The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me this argueth them to be low in the sence of the care and love of God expressed to them in former mercies Oh then ye distressed of the Lord take sanctuary in this point and bewray not your infidelity by a sinking spirit in an evil day Is it so that the appearance of God are eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples distress Vse 2 Of Caution hath he given in security unto them by experienced preservations that he will be the Lord their Redeemer Oh this is a choice dish upon the Saints table they need not faint nor famish that have such a mess to feed upon yet as wholesome food may send up unwholesome vapors if unseasonably eaten or to excess and good Physick may produce bad effects if due order be not observed so this soveraign potion may nourish ill distempers if not rightly ordered And therefore I shall entreat you to take this Cordial with these cautions 1. Take heed you do not precipitate your selves into needless hazards and rashly cast your selves into dangers under the protection of this truth It is sinful to argue and would be unsafe to attempt it that because Elijah forded Jordan and made it passable with his mantle therefore thou wilt attempt the same rather then step out of thy way to go over the bridge or because the three Jewish worthies were preserved in the fiery Furnace therefore thou wilt throw thy self into the flames and presumptuously expect the same preservation no God will have his people learn the difference between tempting and trusting him It is folly not faith for a man to drink down a draught of deadly poison and say I believe the promise of Christ Mar. 16. vers 18. and expect to be antidoted against the venome of it the Israelites Numb 14. vers 44. are a said witness to the danger of presumption read the passage The Lord liketh not this language We will
they might get a name and repute among believers and be counted somebody would be forward enough in this work speaking lies in hypocrisie and pretending to great things which they never expe rienced like that Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.6 7 8 9. who told David a fair tale how he stood upon Saul and slew him and took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was upon his arm c. and all this that he might win credit with David and gain his favour by slaying his enemy who stood betwixt him and the crown when as the whole story was false this would be the case of some false-hearted hypocrites Again some of the servants of the Lord who are real converts would be at a loss within themselves not being able to give an account when and how the Lord first wrought upon them who can onely say with the blind man Joh. 9.25 This one thing I know that whereas I was born blinde I now do see the work of grace upon the hearts of some as to the quando and quomodo time and manner is undiscernable by them The Lord spiritualizeth their morals sanctifies their principles of education and drops down his spirit upon the seed and his blessing upon the off-spring so that they spring up as among the grass as Spring Flowers which lye buried under ground the Winter season and sprout forth as the year ariseth Isa 44.3 4. To this the Lord Jesus speaketh Mark 4.26 27. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and the seed grows up he knows not how God sows the seed by the hand of a godly Parent or Pastor and in due season when and how they know not neither Parent Pastor nor the Person himself it bringeth forth fruit the word works sometimes many years after as they say of the Elephant that she brings not forth till the thirteenth year after she hath conceived The first springs in the womb of grace are precious and carefully preserved by the spirit and when they put forth it may be without any noise For the Kingdom of heaven doth not always come with observation Thus Timothy knew the holy Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3.15 not onely the bare letter and form of words that 's but little but knew them so as to love them to read them with delight and look for salvation wisdom in them through faith which is in Christ Jesus and probably by the care of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice sure gracious parents and godly education do contribute much though not infallibly to the seasoning of tender years and it was well if parents would make it much their care as blessed be God some do to furnish their children whilest children with Gospel-knowledge Mr. Trap. in 2 Tim. 3.15 It is reported That the Lady Wheatenhall so plyed her young Neece Mistris Elizabeth Wheatenhall that before she was nine years old she could say the New Testament by heart and was able to name the book and chapter where any word or passage was A singular president worthy of admiration Oh that Christian parents would take this hint The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 That 's the genuine and native fruit of it at least through the blessing power of the spirit conversion is in it and from it and who knows whether the word being engraffed by godly parents may not bring forth early conversion in their children Sure we are there have been and are young Saints in the world who have rellished the ways of God and walked in them before they have travailed many years journey from their mothers wombs now to these I do not direct this particular advice but to those whose conversion hath been visible their change so signal that the whole Town ye Country hath rang of it some such there are who are able to say that at such a time under such means by such a word in such a way the Lord was pleased first to work upon them they can circumstantiate their conversion in all the occurrences of it Paul could tell the errand he went upon which was bad enough the company with whom the time of the day the manner how and the plat of ground as it were upon which he fell when the Lord fell in with him by converting grace as he discourseth at large Act. 22.6 7 8. compared with Chap. 26.12 13 c. Now then to such in a more peculiar manner I speak as thou dost observe and discourse over the passages of Gods providence toward thee in helping thee out of great straights and tellest thy friends what they were and how nigh unto death thou wast and how the Lord came in at such a time in such a manner and by such means and brought thee off with safety so be much in observing and shewing forth what God hath done for thy soul what providential passages were antecedent to thy conversion what awakening teaching and leading providences were in order to thy conversion whether God did not first awaken thee by such an affliction give a check to thy spirit in the high careers of sin by such an humbling providence or made way for the entertainment of Christ and Gospel by disappointing thee in such a worldly design or won upon thee by some notable deliverance as was the Jailors case Act. 16.28 or how the Lord was pleased to bring thee into such a family or into acquaintance with such godly Christians or under such a powerful and soul-searching Ministery these all through grace have had a sub-serviency to the great end of God in bringing sinners home unto him Then again consider those ways of God which were concomitant and as means were instrumental to thy conversion in what method the Lord was pleased first to work upon thee what measure of the spirit of bondage to fear thou wast under what sin thou wast first convinced of how long thou wast under conviction before conversion was brought forth in the fruits and evidences of it what lust the spirit first struck down in thy flesh what repentance and godly sorrow for sin was wrought in thee what attempts the divel made upon thee how forceable they were and with what success and how long thou didst ly under the sence of sin and wrath before thou hadst any quieting apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through the blood of Jesus let these and things of like nature be observed by thee and reports thereof seasonably made to others Nay Lastly take notice of the after-visits of the spirit of God and grace to thy soul what sweet and suitable returns the Lord gave thee in to thy prayers what seasonable succours thou receivedst in an hour of temptation what power from the spirit of holiness came in in thy contesting with some Lady-lust what measure of consolation was cast in after thy days of mourning how far thou hast been sealed with
full assurance verse 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Calvin Beza c. P scator Ambrose August Erasmus Dodate Great Annotations of the Assembly Mr. Baxtes Spirits witness to Christianity page 121. Expositors do much differ about the sence of these words some understand them as speaking of Christs love to us some of the sense and feeling of Christs love unto us others of our love to Christ or in a conjunct sense both of Christs love to us and our love unto Christ But surely the Apostle speaks at this rate what can unclasp those mutual embracements between Christ and his people or what can separate us from Christ by withdrawing or destroying our love to him and consequently turning his love from us we have many assaults but all in vain for when a Believer reflects upon what Christ hath done for him considers the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ with the precious fruits of all unto his soul and that out of pure love who deserved to be an object of eternal hatred this makes the pulse beat quick and high in holy affections to the Lord Jesus And the want of this due reflection upon what by nature we were and what now by grace we are dasheth the rising flames of an holy affection in us to the Lord Jesus 3. You will live best unto God because You will live most in thankfulness unto God when you live in the sence of what God hath done for you it is the consideration of divine grace and mercie which drawes out the soul in praises unto God the thoughtfull Christian is the thankfull Christian he that pondereth most upon mercies prayeth God most for mercies Oh! when you take a serious review of that change which is upon your hearts of the drawings of your soules heaven-ward and holiness-ward and compare time with time state with state what you were with what you are how once you affected sinne but now abhor it how once you loathed Ordinances but now you love them how once the wayes and people of God were distastefull unto you but are now delightfull how little you had once to shew for heaven and how much you have now through grace to shew against Hell Oh! this will give the heart a notable vent and fill the cup of praise up to the brim Psal 103. ver 1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul sayes holy David but doth he stay here no and all that is within me bless his holy name every instrument must be put into tune every musical key must be touched every fret must be stopt and every string must be struck to sound forth the praises of God nay again Bless the Lord O my soul and why so what 's the reason of this thankfulness O soul thou hast great cause to be thankfull For 1. He forgiveth all thine iniquities thou hadest the the guilt of many and great sinnes upon thee which would have sunk thee down into Hell and Jehovah hath given thee pardon of them all nay farther 2. He healeth all thy diseases thou wast full of noisome and unclean distempers many running sores of filthy lusts and Jehovah hath vouchsafed healing grace unto thee Thou art now a justified and a sanctified person 3. Thou art now redeemed from Hell and destruction and wearest the loving-kindnesses and tender mercies of God as a royal Diadem upon thy head and therefore Oh my soul bless bless bless Jehovah Oh if ever we come to such a sence of pardoning healing redeeming crowning satisfying and renewing grace from the Lord as David we shall then take up David's harp and awake our glory to the praises of a good God could we but fasten this upon our spirits that distinguishing grace hath severed us from those heaps of rubbish that we were mingled with and cull'd us out from the rabble of the world that we were herded with our spirits would be turned to this evangelical duty and ditty and if so how like heaven it self would the Church look how would the militant resemble the triumphant Jerusalem and how would every nook of the Gospel-world ring with the praises of God Mr. Baxter Part 4 Saints Rest page 134. The liveliest embleme of heaven that I know upon earth is when the people of God in the deep sence of the excellency and bounty of God from hearts abounding with love and joy do joyn together both in hearts and voices in the cheerfull and melodious singing of his praises 4. You will live best unto God because You will live most to the glory of God sence of grace received will enflame you with a greater zeal for God and will put every wheel into motion We are naturally slow to action upon the best account the best drive on but heavily few drive at Jehu's rate very few there be whose soules make them as the chariots of Aminadab that make haste in Gods work like the roe or young hart upon the mountains of spices If ever Christians drove heavily the Christians of this age do if ever the elementary constitution of the Church was earth and water now it is little of fire appears unless in unhappy contentions and animosities or else in love to the world and thus most are red hot their affections all on a flame the Lord quench them But Oh! where is their zeal for God where is the courage activity and resolvedness for God where 's the minding of the things of God and holy contendings for God which the Puritans of old that were Puritans of the good old way have discovered there is too much of the Laodicean spirit too many Gallio's amongst us men are high indeed to enthrone their own opinions and perswasions whilest Religion in the main duties of it is neglected they are exact in rything mint and commin and annise whilest judgement mercy and faith the weightier matters of the Law are neglected Math. 23. vers 23. The great Zealots of the times are for the most part men of corrupt and Heterodox Judgments who are violent enough to impose their Errours and false conceptions the Lord take them off from their speed least they out run the Constable as they have done the Covenant He 's a stranger in Israel that knows not these things and he 's no true son of Zion that doth not bewail them but now would we have the water run in the right channel would we have our spirits up in a right zeal for God let our meditations be often and serious upon what God hath done for our soules Oh when a Saint fetcheth oyl from experienced loving kindnesses it makes the wheels run glib when he argues Hath God done thus and thus for me hath he left others of my kindred of my contemporaries of my
The Art of Divine Improvement OR The Christian Instructed How to make a right use of Duties Dangers Deliverances Both as they concern himself and others Opened and applied in several SERMONS By NATHANIEL WHITING M.A. and Minister of the Gospel at Aldwinckle A work very suitable for all sorts of Christians and very seasonable for these times 1 Tim. 4.8 Exercise thy self unto Godliness LONDON Printed for R. T. and are to be sold by Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms next to Grocers-Alley in the Poultry 1662. To the Ransomed ones of the Lord with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Dear Friends WHen with my own people I thankfully owned before the Lord an eminent Deliverance from an imminent Danger I then entred uppon this Discourse which was suited to that Providence And having often reflected upon that signall mercy duely considering the opportunities of doing and receiving good which I have had since that gracious reprieve from death I have since drawn up my Meditations which then were short suddain and confused into a more enlarged orderly and methodicall Treatise I do not covet the applause of men nor court your Acceptance with strains of wit an affected Eloquence new lights put into a dark Lanthorne or Seraphicall Notions high and sublimate but present you with a plain and practical Discourss desiring to speak from the heart to the heart The Treatise is Tripartite thereby resembling the heart which is Triangular and 't is my single designe to endeavour that upon the points or corners of your hearts may be engraven your Dangers Deliverances and Duties that so the mercies of God which are Records of greatest Import may be preserved with greatest care and you may be provoked to act with greatest Conscience for God We cannot look back upon Adam in his lapsed Estate but we may see a deluge of wrath breaking in upon whole mankinde at the breach of the first Covenant we cannot read over our own Diaries but we may read our own Dangers drawn up in black Characters of our sins as provoking God unto displeasure against us nay the times that lately passed over us presented us with danger from the sword of men in the heat of warr and now are we in dayly hazards from the arrows of the Almighty in various and violent distempers Again we cannot seriously study the Gospel but our great Deliverance from wrath to come by the precious bloud of our Crucified Jesus presents it self unto our view nor can we considerately survey our own Soules but we may read the counterpane thereof transcribed by the Eternal Spirit nor own Experiences but we may meet with large Volumes of eminent Deliverances personall and Nationall wrought for us by the outstretched arme of an Almighty God Again if we turn over those holy leaves of the Scriptures of Truth if we consult the Experiences of Gods people in the Ages that are past or seriously advise with our own spirits when in a right frame we shall finde many Duties charged upon us as our returnes to God for our great Deliverances The great God will not be a loser by his mercies he exspecteth some incomes into the bank of his glory if he have it not from us he will have it out upon us If we do not give it he will take it Deliverances are a great Talent put into the hands of men to trade withal for God They that lap up this Talent in a napkin by forgetfulness or squander it away by unsuitable actings heap guilt upon their own soules and shall be sure at the reckoning day to finde this sin as the Israelites did an ounce of their golden calf in all the rebukes of God upon them The sad Consideration whereof hath been and is much upon my heart and hath been a principall inducement to thrust this Treatise into the world which is not Polemical in the main intention of it my Standard bearing this Motto Zech. 8.19 LOVE THE TRVTH AND PEACE nor is it provoking I hope to any Iames 3.17 being the product of that wisdome which is first pure then peaceable c. I have avoided all bitterness that I might not stirr up any prejudice my business is to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you and to provoke unto love and good works as the genuine improvement of grace and mercy received I have not exactly methodised this Treatise nor cast it into the mould of the Title Page but laid down all Sermon-wise handling the Saints Dangers and Deliverances in the Doctrinall and their Duties in the Applicatory part of it in which I have respect as well to Spiritual as to Temporal Dangers and Deliverances and with respect to all as they stand in a personall or Relative capacity I will not Cramben bis coctam dare by Epitomizing in the Epistle what is largely pressed in the body of the Discourse I shall therefore onely entreat you to bewail before the Lord that root which bringeth forth wormwood and gall amongst us that discontent and sullenness of spirit by means whereof God is not owned in nor honoured for those glorious vouchsafements of mercy which have been matter of envie and astonishment in all the Nations about us that land-flood of corrupt Principles and practises which like a swift and spreading Torrent hath laid a great part of the Nation under water that spirit of bitterness and enmity against Godliness in the power and Religion in the purity of it and those sad divisions about which sadly hinder the work of a thorough Gospel-Reformation c. all which are sowre grapes yea clusters of Gomorrah and not such a Vintage which the Lord might reasonably exspect from a people of such rich mercies such signal preservations and under the enjoyment of such encouraging advantages as ours have been O that your souls would mourn in secret places for these things O that you were so affected with them that you would refuse your pleasant bread O that you would so reprove a carnal and careless Generation of men by your lively acttings for God that many yea all who have experienced the goodness of the Lord in eminent preservations may glorifie the name of the Lord by an Evangelical conversation that so the presence of God may still give us rest that our English Zion may be made an Eternal Excellency a joy of many generations Isay 60.15 18. that our walls through the divine Custodiency may still be called Salvation and our gates praise But though this spiritual Lethargy be incurable in many yet be ye O ye Ransomed ones of the Lord awakened unto duty and let the sense of mercy in the eminent appearances of God to your help in the daies of your distress carry you like wind and tide full sail in your zeal for his Glory in order to which I shall humbly offer these hints unto you and I entreat the people of my own charge to take special notice of them as
12. vers 3. not quarrelling with men or means but owning the goodness of the Lord in the seasonableness and fulness of our distress What should I mention the Angels staying Abrahams hand when it was lifted up to slay his beloved Isaac What should I name Jacoh's Mahanaim the Host of God which appeared to him when he feared his brother Esau lest he should slay the mother with her children or Joseph in the pit or in the prison or Israel at the red Sea what should I say more the time would fail me if I should reckon up what the Holy Ghost hath recorded of this kinde How often may the saints and how many of them may truly speak the words of my Text Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence but God appeared relief came and deliverance was sent from the Lord in the very nick of time Oh! if God had deferred his help for one hour nay one minute nay less then one minute if time could be parcel'd out into a lesser moment I had been undone life and all had been lost But you will say what moveth the Lord to this full and seasonable appearance for his people in their greatest streights I answer Reason 1. Because God sometimes leadeth his people into streights therefore it is for his honour to fetch them out again Some Commanders have been very bold and forward to lead an Army on but have had little care and skill to bring them off by means whereof many thousands have been slain in some desperate assaults but the Lord of hosts will not do thus he will not fall back with his reserves and suffer his Vriahs to perish by the sword of the children of Ammon he will bring off with safety when he putteth his own people upon danger Exod. 15.3 The Lord is a man of war the Lord is his name He knoweth the stratagems and postures of warre and like a brave Commander standeth upon his honour and therefore will bring off where he leadeth on Abraham had express order from Jehovah to offer up his son Isaac and we see how the Lord stepped in betwixt the cup and the lip as it were and biddeth him hold his hand when it was now lifted up to slay his Son Gen. chap. 22. Therefore Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-iireh The Lord will see or the Lord will provide ver 14. Moses and the children of Israel received orders from the Lord of Hosts for their march out of Egypt and had their way and quarters assigned by him Exod. 14. vers 1.2 The Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel that they turn and encamp before Pe-hahireth between Migdol and the sea over against the Sea over against Baal-zephon before it shall ye encamp by the Sea What could be more express then this well what followeth why Pharaoh with all his host pursues them and having got them up into this cramp maketh no doubt but the day is his own and well he might for if we view the ground we shall finde them thrust up into a narrow room and in very sad streights if they look before them and think to save themselves by flight the sea is there and they have neither bridg nor boats to pass over it if they think to wheel on the right hand high mountains are a baracado against them if they think to steal away on the left hand that cannot be done for they must climbe up high and plain hills which will give the enemy a full prospect of them if they think to retreat and to slip back into Egypt by some secret way Mr. Burroughs notes upon Hos 2. p. 30. that they cannot do because Pharaoh's Army is betwixt them and Egypt so that they must march through the head-quarters of the enemy if they attempt that nay to add weight to all they were before Baal-zephon the God of watching an Idol which the Egyptians had high exspectations from being set at the mouth of those mountains before Pe-hahiroth to watch the passage that none might escape without a passport out of Egypt Here Pharaoh overtook them vers 9. These were their streights and 't is plain God brought them into those streights but what doth God leave them in the lurch no God will save them by a miracle he will make a way in the deep for them As they marched between mountains of earth before so they shall march between mountains of water now and they who feared that their enemies would dig graves for them in the wilderness do now stand upon drie ground and behold the whole hoste of Egypt buried under two huge mountaines of water ver 28. and all this the Lord of hosts did to maintain his honour in point of faithfulness to his people and to evidence his power in point of omnipotency upon their enemies as Moses upon another occasion argueth it out with the Lord. Numb 14. vers 15.16 If thou shalt kill all this people as one man then the nations which have heard of the fame of thee will speak saying because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness An high impeachment against God in respect both of power and faithfulness a charge very dishonourable to the Lord and therefore the Lord bringeth them off at least the loyal and obedient ones with honour and safety from all those hazzards he had led them into Hence the Prophet David speaketh in the person of the Church Psal 66. vers 9 10 11 12. Rea. 2. Because sometimes the servants of the Lord meet with troubles in the world for their love to God and management of the Lords work They speed ill with men for their good will to God and are sufferers from men because they will not sinne against God therefore it is that the Lord espouseth their quarrel and taketh part with them This was the case of the three Jewish worthies Dan. 3. vers 12.13 they would not dishonour the true and living God by owning any thing of God in a dumb and dead Idol and therefore are bound and cast into a fiery fornace but how sped they did God suffer them to be cast into that fiery prison and perish there for his debt no God was with them in the fire and fetch'd them out without one peny damage to them their hair was not singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them vers 27. In like sort did wicked men deal with Daniel Chap. 6. vers 10. and the Lord brought him off without the least hurt upon this basis the Lord Jesus bottometh that precious promise Luke 21. vers 15. I will give you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist and wherefore are the vouchsafements of God so eminent unto them vers 12. because they suffered for his name and
the dwelling place of the Lord even of that God who is become my salvation and thus Psal 116. vers 1. I love the Lord my heart flameth out with hot affection to the Lord and why for vers 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling There 's nothing hears and heightens like unto a lively sense of the mercies of God in a day of distress The Saints are much wanting to themselves and more unto God in the neglect of this did we do this more God would have more of our hearts and hands too then he hath the love of Christ would constrain if we did often read over the story of it writ in his own blood Lastly Reason 5 The Lord cometh in seasonably and fully to his peoples relief in the day of their distress That he might blast the hope of their enemies and give their expectation the lye when they look for the down fall of Zion when adversity knocketh at the Saints door yea breaketh in forceably upon them then is the time come that the wicked looked for the day that they have longed after for surely the Serpents seed are true to their own principles they do really desire that the name of Israel was blotted out Cooperite cooperite diruite eximis sabvertite fundamentis Buchan and that their remembrance might perish from off the earth This was the language of Edom in the day of Jerusalem rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Psal 137. vers 7. Thus did the Egyptians gape and gaspe after prey Exod. 15. vers 9. I but God cometh in and dasheth their expectations in pieces yea beateth out the brains of that Leviathan and this maketh the hearts of their enemies melt and run like wax before the fire and thus God reacheth his great end which is to make void the hopes of the wicked Job 36.24 25. that all the world may see and say There is none like unto the God of Jeshurum who rideth upon the heavens for the help of Israel and in his excellency upon the skies The eternal God is their refuge and underneath are everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy before-them and shall say destroy them Deut. 33. ver 26 27. When the wicked thinks to fall upon them and cut them off in the open field then the Lord will be a retreating place unto them the eternal God is their Refuge when they lay load upon them and think to sinke them down with pressing calamities then underneath are everlasting arms to bear them up when they strengthen their leagure and think to cut off all supplies then the God of Jeshurum rideth upon the heavens for their help when they think to starve them out and bring in famine among them then The fountain of Jacob is upon a land of corn and wine when they think to stop up their wells of water and to slay them with thirst Then his heaven drops down dew upon them the Lord filleth their vessels with rain from the clouds so that their water shall not fail thus in all their contrivements The enemies are found lyars and their blossoming hopes are blasted by the Lord so that the Angels in their heavenly Chore may sing this song of triumph in behalf of the Saints Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency Thus have we seen the truth cleared that the appearances of the Lord are eminent and immediate in the time of his peoples greatest distress and the reasons of the point asserted we shall now gather the Vintage and press the full clusters of it to make a cordial wine for fainting Saints in an evill day The Doctrine thus cleared and asserted doth offer us many truths writ with a beam of the Sun known and read of all men As 1. Doct. That the Saints are a people of Gods special care They are much in the thoughts of God and lye near his heart It is a truth God eareth for man and beast he exerciseth a general and a providential care towards all his creatures The care of a Creator like the light of the Sun goeth through the whole world his going forth is from the end of heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Psal 19. vers 6. All men yea the worst of men on this side hell are debtors to God and owe all their safety to his care whose is their breath and in whose hands are all their wayes But he hath a peculiar and paternal care over the Saints That Distich of Musculus cometh in fitly Est Deus in coelis qui providus omnia curat Credentes nunquam deservisse potest A God there is whose providence doth take Care for his Saints whom he will not forsake Saint Paul that he might commend Timothy fully to the Philippians useth these expressions Phil. 2. vers 20. I have no man like-minded he could not finde so choice a spirit not a man of his minde he was a None-such and wherein did this singularity shew it self Why in this who will naturally care for your state as principles of nature carry out the Father carefully to provide for the safety of his children Childless persons drive on a single and selfish interest but parents do wrap up their childrens good in all their actings spending many a careful thought on them how to render their lives safe and comfortable So vers 20. When all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ good Timothy naturally tendered the Churches welfare laying out his thoughts and care how to promote her spiritual advantage A singular patern to which the carriages of few men run parallel in these selfish dayes of ours when the publick is too much drowned and swallowed up in private interests A sad deportment and that which ought to be lamented with tears of blood Oh! should the Lord write after this copy what a woe case were we all in but here is our comfort God careth for the righteous and this speaks his care with the shrillest Eccho that he naturally careth for them even with the tenderest bowels of an indulgent father See that 2 Chron. chap. 16. vers 9. The eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him his eyes run implying the celerity and swiftness of God in hastening relief to his people Isa 31. vers 5. As birds flying so will the Lord defend Jerusalem his eyes run through the whole earth implying the universality of help not a Saint in a dark corner of the world under any streights but the Lord seeth him nay run to and fro the providence of God moveth in circuitu if it be low water now it will be high water anon there are tydes of mercy So Isa
the Lord God of Israel And why so angry with Solomon why the reason is added which had appeared unto him twice The Scripture affordeth many paralel places Oh! the sinnes of Saints are dyed in a deeper crimson Who had his name Jedidiah because he was beloved of the Lord Neh. 13.26 and carry a greater guilt and this layeth them in oyl and maketh them lasting when they are committed under and after discriminating mercies and preservations Oh that the saints would gather up all the signal providences of God toward them and improve them as arguments against sinne It was Luther's advice to answer all temptations with this Christianus sum I am a Christian So let us argue after the Lord hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandements Ezra 9. vers 13 14. Oh if any nation under heaven may be lessoned holiness by astonishing mercies and a constant succession of admired preservations England may our Rulers may our Ministers may yea all the Saints may for how often hath the Lord defeated army after army broken confederacy after confederacy discovered plot after plot so that wherein soever the enemy hath dealt proudly God hath been above them Oh! that the heads of England would lay this to heart and that they and all the Saints would rise up with all their might against their lusts to destroy them unto Hormah viz. utter destruction Numb 21. vers 3. as the Lord hath pursued their enemies even unto Hormah that as they had said among the Nations concerning English Zion the Lord hath done great things for her Psal 126. vers 2. So it may be said by the Nations concerning her The Lord bless thee O inhabitation of justice and mountain of holiness Jer. 31. vers 23. Then would England be changed from glory to glory from the glory of being a people owned by God to the glory of being a people like unto God which last is the greater yea greatest glory 4. This inference may be drawn also That infidelity and dispondency of spirit in an evil day is very unsuitable to the saints of God for them to flagge in their faith and to be crest-fallen in their courage when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storme against the walls this is unworthy the name and frame of a right Christian Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord ought to be the charge of a Saint to his own heart even when he is brought to the very banks of the red Sea It is that which the Prophets of the Lord receive in Commission Isa 35. ver 3 4. strengthen yea the weak hands and confirme the feeble knees and how must this be done why it followeth Say unto them that are of a fearfull heart be strong fear not Alas how should weak hands be strong and a timorous heart cease to fear what is the cure of these distempers why Behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save y u he is on the way alreadie he will be suddenly with you and when he cometh he will save you I but saith a fearfull Saint What security have I for this why thou hast a double security First the Promises of God and secondly the experiences of the saints Psal 31. verse 19. Oh! how great is thy goodness which thou hast layed up for them that fear thee The new Covenant is Gods great Store-house wherein he hath stored up all help and comfort for his people Joseph in the time of great plenty built many store-houses wherein he laid up what corne could be spared and therewith gave a full supply to all the Egyptians when he brought it forth in the yeares of famine Thus the onely wise God depositeth mercy and goodness and power and comfort in his promises and when a time of dearth cometh upon his people then he openeth those store-houses and giveth them a full supply Then Secondly the other part of this security is in these words which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sonnes of men If the saints shall say we know there is enough laid up in the Promises but God keepeth the key and how shall we come by it at a time of need why here the Psalmist sendeth such querelous and distrustfull ones to the experiences which Gods people have had God hath wrought deliverances and wrought out the salvation of his beleeving ones in the times of their greatest straights yea the sonnes of men the seed of Ishmael have seen the opening of these store-houses to the people of God have seen how God hath hid them in the secret of his presence from the pride of men and kept them secretly in his pavillion from the strife of tongues and therefore be strong fear not The strength of the saints lyeth in the arm of the Lord and faith is the souls leaning upon it in a wilderness condition Cant. 8. vers 5. Now as the word of promise is the foundation upon which faith resteth So experience is the butteress that stayeth up faith which is to faith as Aaron and Hur were to Moses upon the mount Exod. 17. verse 2. They kept his hands steady to the going down of the Sun How did holy David stay up his faith even to the destance of the Philistine Champion who had defied the whole army of Israel at the sight of whom all the army of Israel fled and were sore afraid 1 Sam. 17.24 hear at what a rate of holy confidence he speaketh Vers 32. Let no mans heart fail because of him what a hurry is here in the camp what distractions are here amongst the valiant ones of Israel what a strange fear seizeth upon you do not trouble your selves I will go and fight with this Philistin bravely spoken it argueth a bold magnanimous spirit I but saith the King of Israel to him Vers 33. Thou art not able to go against this Philistin to fight with him for thou art but a youth and he a man of war from his youth and therefore it will be impar congressus a very unequal match and Israels condition is like to be very sad seing their perpetual slaverie or liberty dependeth upon the issue of this duel if thy life be lost Israels freedome is lost also A consideration enough to have cow'd a puissant and most expert souldier and that which in probability made Jonathan and the worthies of Israel decline the combat yet see how little David standeth upon his tip-toes and by faith overlooketh this towring Giant Ver. 34 35 36. David said unto Saul thy servant kept his fathers sheep and there came a lyon and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock and I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth I it may be he was a tame Lyon that would not turn upon him yes he arose against me and I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew
do and we will go when he bids not that men should bottome their safety upon the sandy washes of their own phantasies and fool-hardiness the same God who bids his people Isa 26. vers 4. Trust in the Lord for ever forbiddeth their tempting of him Deut. 6. vers 16. which text the Lord Jesus the best interpreter that ever commenced upon the Bible expoundeth to this sence Mat. 4. vers 7. The Devil had set Christ on a pinacle of the temple By the way Note that height of place giveth opportunity to the tempter temple Pinnacles are no safe standings when once Satan gets a man into his Rood-loft of spiritual pride his dangers great and near no marvail that mens heads should swim and their hearts swerve when they stand upon a Pinnacle of the temple when Satan had got the Lord Jesus so high he tempteth him to give a proof of his Divinity by casting himself down urging the charge of Angels to protect him but did the Lord Christ take the cue No he answereth It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Christ had no call from God at that time to cast himself into the hands of custodient Angels here is a full promise but we must also look to a clear call Psal 91. vers 11. He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways that is in all those courses which are appointed thee by God in all lawful and Christian undertakings for no further doth God or his holy Angels take charge of thee if thou keepest not within these precincts thou art out of his protection wefts and strays fall to the Lord of the Soyl the State secureth none who travail at undue hours Pro. 27.8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest so is a man that wandereth from his place God hath made a law to secure a bird upon her nest Deut. 22.6 but if she stragled away she lost the protection of that law so 't is with a Saint the promise is his security whilst he keepeth within Gods pale but if he breaketh his bounds he tempteth God and forfeiteth his protection Solomon gave Shimei his life if he passed not the brook Kidron but when he tried the Kings patience and ventured to Gath the condition was broke and Shemaiah was commanded to slay him 1 King 2.36 Oh take heed of passing over the brook Kidron least ye dye steer your course by Solomons compass Prov. 22.3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself See M. Iacksons Notes on this text seeth a tempest in the clouds and seeketh seasonable shelter under the shadow of Gods wings but the simple passeth on and is punished pusheth on without fear or wit and payeth dearly for his folly the same you have Pro. 27.12 Who acted at a higher rate of believing then David yet when Gibeon was infected 1 Cron. 21.30 The text says He could not go before the Ark which was then at Gibeon for he was afraid because of the sword of the Angel of the Lord he could not with safety to his person adventure himself into that infected place for 't is probable that Gibeon had faln within the circuit of the destroying Angel Consider Peter in the high Priests hall and infer That rash attempts seldom prosper presumption rarely goeth unpunished often unprotected 2. Beware you abuse not this doctrine to a slighting of means as 't is unsuitable to the principles of a right faith to tempt God by precipitating your selves into danger so it is inconsistent with true piety to expect miracles when means are present Means and miracles are both the products of Gods mercy to his people and have both their place assigned miracles come inwhen means are wanting or insufficient as in dividing the read Sea feeding many thousands with Manna and Quails in a wilderness c. And then is the time and place for means when there is no need of miracles as receiving nourishment by food warmth by cloaths health in the use of Physick c. Though God be able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think Eph. 3.20 yet God will not do it at least always when vain man would have him The holy one of Israel must not be limited neither as to time nor manner nor measure of acting because the Lord Jesus bids his disciples Mat. 6.26 Consider the fowls they sowe not neither do they reap nor gather into their Barns and yet they are fed by God Shall men therefore throw their ploughs into the ditch and expect harvests in an extraordinary way or to be fed by miracle without them sure he that gave his word of covenant That seed time and harvest should not cease Gen. 8.22 And be that instructeth the husbandmen in ploughing and sowing Isa 28.24 25 26. will not countermand him or in a way of miracle supply him if he cease his labor or refuse to act up unto his teaching how hardly will a tender mother be perswaded to expose her helpless infant newly divided from her bowels because God feedeth the young Ravens which cry unto him when forsaken by the old ones Job 38.41 Though a. Raven brought Elijah bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening to the brook Cherith by the special appointment of God in a time of famine 1 King 17.3 4 5. Yet this is not a patern for him to follow who hath money in his hand and Markets open I doubt he must take up with short commons and make many hungry meals that expecteth a Raven to be his Cook and Caterer David would not cast of the means of safety offered unto him by a timely escape when God had resolved him those two great questions That Saul would come down and that the men of Keilah would deliver him and his men into the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 23.11 12. neither did Saint Paul refuse to be let down in a Basket through a window by the wall when the governor of Damascus sought to apprehend him and the gates were shut up against him 2 Cor. 11.32 33. He did not argue the example of Elijah who brought down fire from heaven to consume the Captains and their fifties 2 King 18.9 10 11. nor that of Elisha who prayed the Aramites blind that were sent to surprise him 2 King 6.18 but improved that name of safety which by a good providence was afforded to him Thus did Brentius so soon as he had received this advertisement from a Senator of Hala Fuge suge Brenti cito cirius citissime Fleerspeedily away for thy life stay not they that interpret ye shall all be taught of God to a slighting of teaching ordinances which are the instituted means of grace and knowledge and expound The just shall live by Faith to a neglect of serving providence in the use of ordinary ways of help and comfort do both mistake the minde of God and the meaning of those texts Take heed of over-trusting means
among the Nations and their off-spring among the people so that all they that seem may acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61. vers 9. Suffer therefore an unworthy Son of Zion and Minister of the Gospel for the good of a part of that people over which the Lord hath set you to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you that mercies received may be improved by you and enkindle an holy zeal for God in you 1. To make good the Covenants and Oaths of your God which are upon you and into which by your authority and ensample at least many of you we entred that the sense of Covenant-mercies may provoke unto Covenant-duties for the advancement of the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus in unity peace purity and the power of godliness that Sabbath-strictness may be asserted by you Gospel-Ordinances may be vindicated a Professing-people may be countenanced a faithful Ministry may be still incourageed and protected such bounds may be set to that act for liberty that Heterodox opinions may not like a land-flood overflow the Nation but that horrid Impostors and notorious offenders may be punished that all Israel may hear and fear Deut. 13. vers 11. And that the anointing of God may give you safe rules of tenderness that guilt may not lye upon you from God nor just blame from good men for that softness of spirit you shew towards the Lords people who in these times of light and liberty do conscientiously act under different perswasions in indifferent things and therefore do much stand in need of Christian and prudent Moderators who may keep our fingers out of one anothers consciences may protect us from the violence of imposing spirits and principles and that uniformity may not be pressed with a Prelatical but with an Evangelical spirit in disciplinary points when the winde bloweth high and cross if the Pilot doth not wisely govern the helme the ship is in danger to be split at least much of the precious lading to be lost 2. That a sense of eminent preservations may stir you up to a careful suppression of sin and wickedness by a vigorous pursuit of such penal Laws as are now in force and by enacting more severe or adding to the former wherein they are defective that the Nation may not abound with oaths pride drunkenness thefts uncleanness oppression by depopulating inclosures and other abominations as it hath done and still doth nor mourn under a sad fear of that great controversie which the Lord may justly take up against it for them Hos 4. vers 1 2 3. That in order to this active and conscientious Magistrates may be placed in every County godly and stirring officers may be chosen and encouraged in every Town which affordeth persons meet for such a trust that the number of Ale-houses which have been the seminaries and seed-plots of vice and villanies may still be suppressed as they have lately been in great measure by the care of some worthy persons among us and that in order to both the Tables you may be a terrour to evill works not bearing the sword in vain Rom. 13. vers 3 4. having this inscription engraven upon all your Judiciary proceedings as was upon the sword of Charles the Great Decem preceptorum custos Carolus Charles is keeper of the ten Commandements and that upon account of your lenity and remisness to offenders that may not justly be said unto you by the Saints as was by the poor Smith to the Lantgrave of Thuring Duresce Duresce O infoelix Lantgrave 3. Improve your share in National mercies and personal yea Magistratical preservations to the comfort and countenance of the good people of the land though poor and inconsiderable upon any worldly account These all along have prayed for you and ventured all under you that you may speak those words Zech. 12. vers 5. The Governors of Judah shall say in their heart the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Surely the people of the Land who have a Covenant-interest in the Lord of Hosts have been much your strength under God both upon the Mount by praying and in the valley by fighting when your straights have been the greatest Oh then what Rabshekah spake in a bad sense give me leave to speak with some change of words in a good sense Isa 36. verf. 9. How then will ye turn away the face of one Captain of the least of my Masters servants So just how then will ye turn away your faces from the complaints of the least of my Masters servants the Saints and subjects of the King of Zion or how then will you dis-ingage the least of them that they should turn away their faces from praying for you much less turn their prayers against you Oh remember they have been your strength in the day of battel your sleighting of such in their addresments unto you and not pleading their cause in case of wrong and oppression when their Adversaries have been too mighty for them and relief could only be had from a Court of Equity and in a course of equity hath been much complained of upon earth and will hear very ill in heaven in the ears of the Lord of Hosts their God Oh then be Eliakims to the poor of the flock and make good that Prophesie That upon you may be hanged all vessels of smaell quantity from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flaggons Isa 22.24 Great vessels can stand upon their own bottoms And surely the fresh records of those glorious things which the Lord hath brought forth by you and for you will engage you to the things propounded yea to greater then these if set home by the Lord upon your hearts and that as returns for received mercies I shall apply this doctrine to my brethren of the Ministery suffer I beseech you a word of exhortation from one who is low in name and gifts in Israel yet your brother and fellow labourer in the Lords vineyard for the bringing in and building up of souls that I may give up my accounts with joy and through rich grace and free mercy in Jesus Christ may receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away when the great Shepherd shall appear 1 Pet. 5.4 whose glorious appearance we look for and long after and which according to Cronological computation and the opinion of some draweth near and indeed to believers ought to be ever at hand in the meditation and expectancy of it and mostly to the Ministers that we may be quickened up to duty and diligence That when our Lord cometh he may finde us doing his own works The elders therefore I exhort who also am an elder as the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 5.1 though unworthy of that honor and office that you would improve the appearances of God which have been eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples distress Ah brethren hath a day of
peoples distress 1. Consider how rare and skilful you were in all martial affairs at your first entrance upon the war how little of a Soldier as to the slights and stratagems of war Never hardly did an army go forth with lessconfidence on their own side or more contempt of their enemys did more bravely deceive both for in these following successes they proved such as would too much pose antiquity among all the Campes of the famed Heroes Heroes to finde a parallel of this Army T. M. in the hystory of the Civil war p. 114. were found in you at least most of you when you first took the field and yet what a teaching spirit from the Lord came upon you how suddainly even to admiration did the Lord of Hosts teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight Psal 144.1 So that a short time did make you expect in all the councels and carriages of a well-ordered Battail that ye were able to countermine all your enemies and prevent and pursue advantages with much warlike prudence Oh let this be owned in peace as a signal mercy from the Lord and as that which tended much to yours and our preservation and to the gaining of all those freedoms which we now enjoy T is a special owning providence when the Lord qualifieth persons for imployments 2. Consider how low your spirits were at your first taking up of Armes what fears and troubles and terrors were upon your spirits when ye first heard the sound of the trumpet and the Alarum for war how terrible the sight of an Army with banners displayed was and how dreadfully the clashing of Armor sounded in your ears were not many of you like the men of Israel who followed Gideon Judg. 7.3 Who when proclamation was made in the Army Whosoever is fearful and afraid let him return early from mount Gilead there returned of the people twenty and two thousand would not such a lieence for a retreat have found acceptation with many of you did not you wish your selves in your shops again at your employments again did you not blame your selves for your rash and forward undertaking so dangerous a service and yet how did the Lord heighten your spirits how did he cloath you with valour and undaunted courage how did the spirit of the Lord come upon you as upon Savl 1 Sam. 11.6 What kindlings of anger and warlike indignation were in you as in Saul when he saw the designe of the Ammonites to thrust out the right eyes of your brethren and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel and how did the progress of the war declare both your skill and valour your enemies themselves being Judges Valiant men of the valiant of Israel expert in war marching and watching with your swords upon your things because of the fear in the night Can. 3.7 8. 3. Consider what Midiantish Armies for multitude ye have encountred with what numerous bodies have drawn up against you how the Nations round about have been called in against you How many Armies of men of different languages interests and Religions have been formed against you And yet the sword of the Lord and of Gideon hath broken them in pieces the Lord by you hath done unto them A unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the brook of Kison which perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth their nobles have been made like Oreb and like Zeeb and all their Princes like Zeba and as Zalmunnah who said let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession Psal 83.9 10 11 12. Nay how have ye with the sharp threshing instrument of the power and justice of the most high God thrashed the mountains and beat them small and made the hills as chaff How have ye fanned many of them how hath the winde carried them away and the whirlewinde scattered them Isa 41.15 16. How hath this been made good at home abroad by Land and by Sea that ye and we may rejoyce together and glory in the Holy one of Israel 4. Consider what personal perservations ye have had how the Lord hath covered your head in the day of Battail How many bullets have been guided by the hand of God to miss your bodies when they have flown like storms of hail about you how they have glided off your Armor and not torn your garments or rent your garments not rippled your skin or rased your skin not reach't your flesh or though your flesh hath been lashed yet your lives have been secured Oh consder the distinguishing providences that have been toward you sometimes a right hand man dropping down sometimes a left hand man sometimes a pistol hath been fired at your breasts and would not go off sometimes a sword hath been lift up to cleave your heads and the Lord hath stayed the hand as once he did Abrahams sometimes your horses have been slain under you and ye have been mounted again or made an escape on foot O let your personal deliverances be gathered up and recorded by you 5. Consider all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for you and by you in this and other Nations What fieges have been raised by you when the distresses of your brethren have been very sad as Glocester and other places What strong Towns and Cities have been carried by you as Colchester and other Forts and Cittadels What eminent battails have been fought and won by you what slangther hath been made in the Camps of your enemies with what unequal numbers have ye taken the field sometimes and at all times almost come off with far different loss How again and again Armies have been raised and those Armies have been routed forces levied and those forces have been levelled even with the ground the proudest and stoutest of them Moab-like have been trodden as straw for the dunghill How various how voluminous have the mercies of the Lord been to you that in all encounters ye have come off with the conquest at least the issue of the war proclaims you Conquerors so that the Lord hath made good that promise to you Josh 1.5 There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life Nay Chap. 2.10 The hearts of all your enemies have melted neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you for the experience of many years and many wars hath proved the truth of that great promise Isa 54.15 Behold they shall surely gather together but not by me that all the gatherings together and musters of the enemy have been without the Lord for whosoever hath gathered together against you hath faln before you No weapon that hath been formed against you hath hitherto prospered this hath hitherto been your heritage and that it may be continued in mercy unto you and ye may be continued as a mercy to the land and to the Saints let me commend some few things unto you 1. Do not
the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the Sea Isa 11.9 that ye and we may go forth by the footsteps of the flocke that ye may feed your kids by the shepherds tents and all of us may know where the Lord Jesus feedeth and where be maketh his flock to rest at noon Cant. 1. vers 7 8. For why should any of you be as they that turn aside by the flocks of strangers 4. Quicken up that ancient zeal those burning affections and that fixedness of spirit in you for the Lord his truth his cause his Ministery and his people which once ye had O if ye find your present peace and pleasure honor and full estates dignity and dominion to begin raise unwholesome damps in your souls the sense of grace received and mercies received so eminent as yours have been and the Nation in you will excellently scatter them if well improved Oh then the Champions of Israel who have vanquished Christ and his Churches enemies in the field draw up gallantly against corruptions in your own hearts As ye have subdued Kingdomes so work righteousness As ye have bled for Christ in time of war so bow down to Christ in time of peace As ye have sealed the walls of the mighty so pull down the strong holds of sin within your own bosomes As ye have cast down the high ones of the earth from their seats so cast down imaginations and every high thought which exalteth it self against the knowledge of God As ye have captivated Nations and people to the obedience of your commands so bring all the thoughts the Nations and people of those little worlds your hearts into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ and his Gospel-commands 2 Cor. 10. vers 5. Your war is an In-land war now the weapons of your warfare are not now carnal but spiritual your enemies are not High-landers but In-landers not Cavaliers but Corruptions not the wilde Irish but the wilde Asses Colr principles of proud corrupt nature And now as your conflicts are harder so your conquests will be happier As your enemies are more dangerous so your victory will be more glorious Prov. 16. vers 32. he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that scaleth a City Oh it would be very sad and much sadden the hearts of many of your Christian friends if any of you who Sampson-like have slain the Philistins should yourselves be slain by a Philistin Delilah that your locks should be cut and the strength of the Lord should depart from you Oh how would the Daughters of the Philistins rejoyce how would the Daughters of the uncircumcised triumph when this should be told in Gath and published in the streets in Askelon and how would the Daughters of Israel weep over you and say How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battel the spiritual warfare How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished 2 Sam. 1. vers 24.25 27. Oh then stand to your Armes make good your Sacramentum militare your military oath to be true to Christ and his cause there is not such a thing in a Gospel-sense belonging to your Christian warfare as an honorable retreat Mr. Gurnab part 1. of his Christian in Compleat Armour pag. 374. not such a word of command in all Christs military Discipline as fal back and lay down your arms till called off by death as a Reverend Divine saith Oh then now the war is ended and the Lord hath given us peace by your means attend that spiritual work and spiritual war and go to the Armoury of the great Captain of our salvation opened by St. Paul Eph. 6. vers 11 12 13. c. and take out such peeces as you want yea every peece of Armour that you finde in that spiritual Magazine that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand that so having fought the good fight of faith ye may hold on eternal life and receive that Coronam militarem that Crown of righteousness which the Lord will give to all those who love his appearing 2 Tim. vers 4.7 8. 4. Here is a word from the Lord to Mariners and Sea-trading men And O that our Sea-Commanders and Souldiers would rightly improve this truth If this poor Treatise shall come into any of your hands the good Lord set it upon your hearts If the appearances of God be eminent and immediate to any in a day of distress sure they have been so to you ye of all men do see much of the power and providence of God at least may see it if your eyes be opened and your mindes savingly inlightned The Psalmist tells us and though I be not a Seafaring man yet I beleeve it they that go down to the Seas in ships that do business in great waters these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep for he commandeth and raiseth up the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof they mount up to the heavens they go down again to the depths Psal 10. vers 23 24 25 26. Cannot ye comment upon this Text cannot ye seal to this truth their soul is melted because of trouble runs as thin as water they are ready to dye for fear of death Junius understands it of extreme vomiting as if they were casting up their very hearts One doubted whether he should reckon Mariners who were put to Sea amongst the living or the dead in the censure or Registry of a Nation Another sayes that a man will go to the Sea at first I wonder not but to go a second time it is madness They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man nutant nautae vacillant cerebro pedibus there is a great deal of elegancy in the phrase and it is very significant men that are full of drink that are loaden with liquor they go with a very unsteady and tottering gate reeling now against this wall and now against that if they walk in a narrow street so Mariners in a storm are thrown first on one side then on the other side of the ship A tempest is a sad Sea-quake which throws all on heaps nothing hardly keeps due order and its right place in the ship again a man that is down drunk as the phrase is is reason-struck his intellectuals are shattered he is fit for no head imployment so Mariners in a storm are at their wits end all their skill and strength fail them at once All their wisdom is swallowed up Heb. that is the art of Navigation is now of no use unto them Card and Compass and all laid aside and forced to let the ship run a drift hath not this been your case in great stress of weather Have ye not met with such a storm at sea which hath brought forth all these fears and terrors in you have ye not often thought ye should have been entombed within walls of water and
him that David was come to Keilah presently he infers that God had delivered him into his hand for sayes he he is shut in by entring into a town that hath gates and bars but it proved otherwise Yea Davids men would have put him upon the same mistake chap. 24. ver 4. when Saul came into the cave to cover his feet where David and his men lay hid they presently conclude behold the day of which the Lord hath said unto thee behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee A like passage ye have chap. 26. ver 8. when David and Abishai came into Sauls army by night and found them all fast asleep not a Sentinell waking and Saul asleep also Abishai said to David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear unto the earth at once and I will not smite him a second time but David durst not slay the Lords Anointed under the protection and warrant of this providence as the following verses declare because it would have been an expresse violation of Gods will Instances of this nature might be multiplied But now when the speakings of God in his works run in a paralell line with the speakings of God in his word when they fall in with his revealed will they do then safely interpret the mind of God and are a good glosse upon the text both as to the quod and quando of a duty shewing that it ought to be done and that then is the time for the doing of it thus Abraham when he had received a prohibition from heaven not to sacrifice Isaac and beheld a ramme caught in a thicket by the horns interprets the mind of God by that providence and offers up the ramme in the stead of Isaac Gen. 22. ver 12 13. by a divine Prolepsis anticipating that law of redemption which afterwards was enacted and published by God himself Exod. 13. ver 13. all the first born of man amongst thy children shalt thou redeem thus when the Lord met Moses by the way as he was going down to Egypt and would have slain him Exod. 4. ver 14 15 then Zipporah his wife probably by her husbands appointment circumcised her son concluding the neglect of that duty to be the speakings of God in that providence as appeared Read Babbingtons notes upon the place for when the child was circumcised the Lord let Moses go When Gideon heard the Medianites dream and the interpretation of it Judge 7. ver 15. he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel and said Arise for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host He concludes this providence as a clear exposition of the mind of God and a full confirmation of former promises How did the Elders of the Jews now being in Babylon interpret the Lord's mind in setting Cyrus the Persian upon the throne of Babylon and stirring up his heart to publish that gracious edict concerning their return to Jerusalem and rebuilding of the temple Ez. 1. ver 2 3. why they concluded that God had now put an opportunity into their hands both to quit the waters of Babylon by which they had sate down and wept and to enjoy the freedome of Gods worships in their own land ver 5. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the Priests and Levites with all them whose spirit God had raised to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem they owned this providence as a true paraphrase upon that passage Psal 102. ver 13. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come being penned as is thought by Daniel or some other holy man about this time of Cyrus's proclamation Now to bring this home to our selves that the reformation of State-abuses and male-administrations is the mind of God appears Isa 1. ver 17. Cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherlesse plead for the widow that the worships of God should be established in liberty and purity that Gospel-truth should be winnowed from the chaffe of errours and heresies that the people of God should walk in the fellowship of the Gospel and advance Religion and the power of Godliness the Scriptures plainly declare to be the will of God that such things are seizable that there is hope of a good issue in such undertakings we have the word of Gods faithfulness for Isa 1. ver 25 26 27. Isa 60. ver 11.19 20 21 22. Chap. 54. ver 11 12 13. Zech. 13. vers 2 3 4 5. Ezek. 11. vers 19 20. Zeph. 3. vers 9.11 12 13. If these and other Scriptures be consulted with they will afford matter of great encouragement to the Saints of God which breathe after Zion's beauty and glory And that it is a duty incumbent upon the Lords people to endeavour these things besides the inward witness of the Spirit in their own hearts we have the testimony of the Spirit in the Scripture of truth And that this is the period of time in the secret appointments of the onely wise God and the Saints of this generation the people assigned by him for the carrying on of these works may be read in the dispensations of God amongst and toward us what have the people of God had more in former Ages by way of call from God or encouragement from men then we have Did God give them rest and peace from their enemies forraign and domestick So hath he given us in some measure Did the Lord pull down those persons and powers amongst them who authorised or abetted Idolatry and profaneness hath he not done the same amongst us Did the Lord give them the protection and encouragement of prudent and pious governours is it not so with us had they the Prophets of the Lord to quicken them up and strengthen their hands have not we also faithful and learned Ministers who from press and pulpit call upon us and excite us to do great things for the Lord Oh what glorious work would those blessed Spirits who are now at rest have made in England if they had enjoyed our opportunities Let me commend the practise of the Saints unto you Acts 9. v. 31. Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samariah And how did they improve their Halcyon dayes why they were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost were multiplied the superstructures were carried on and new foundations laid old converts arrived at greater growth and new converts were dayly added Oh what a blessed peace would ours be if these two fruits were the products of it Oh ye servants of the Lord whom he hath ransomed from the grave and from the sword Magistrates Ministers and Christians lay aside your
private interests and animosities and fall upon these great works as your respective stations give you advantage and opportunity that ye may have this Motto engraven on your tombes Here lie such and such who David-like served their own generations by the will of God And let me adde these two Corrolaries 1. That God hath assigned you your particular times for working Stat sua cuique dies 2. That when ye have lived up that time your working tooles must then be laid aside When David had served out his generation he fell asleep And therefore I shall shut up with the Preachers advice Eccl. 9. ver 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest and though thou beest lately come from thence be not secure the winde may suddenly turn and waft thee back again Alas What is your life it is even a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. ver 14. How easily can the great God disperse that vapour and melt that cloud into dew there is a great Arbitrer of all things that can thunder the proud Emperour under his bed and write the great King in three or four words into trembling that can send a fly to fetch the triple crown before his Tribunal make an hair or the kernil of a raison as mortal as Goliah's spear that can unspeak the world into nothing and blow down a great bubble with an easie breath that by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undress your soules by unpinning one pin c. I have read of a Persian Noble-man who lost his life by the loss of an hair plucked out of his bosome Mr. Vines Essex's Hearse in sport by his Minion 5. Get your hearts into an awfull frame get your spirits tinctured with an holy fear of God Rev. 15. vers 4. Surely they that have felt must needs fear him they that have found the power of his anger let out in soul terrours yea in breaking afflictions upon the body Read M. Jackson's Notes upon this place must needs fear him though indeed none but the damned in Hell experience the power of his anger Moses in Psalme 90. ver 11. put 's the question Who knoweth the power of thine anger implying that none knoweth it as none can take the dimensions of his love which passeth all knowledge so neither of his anger the reason is added because even according to thy fear so is thy wrath that is let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if he fall into thy hands Paul knew this when he laid down this Position as a fence wall about Profession to keep men from starting out by Apostacy Heb. 10. vers 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God surely if the burnt childe dread's the fire much more men of age and discretion who have been cast into the furnace of affliction have had their moisture dried up their skin writhled their flesh rosted and their very bones burnt with the scorching flames thereof have cause to fear that fire which so farre resembles everlasting burning that though it be not unquenchable yet it is not quenchable but by the bloud of Christ and the melting bowels of God's tender mercie Oh then Dear friends take forth this lesson from your late afflictions to fear that glorious and fearfull name THE LORD THY GOD Deut. 28. vers 58. Fear to offend God fear to do any thing which may displease him in this sence Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. ver 14. The Hebrew Midwives lost nothing by it Exod. 1. vers 17.21 1. From the consideration of Gods power he is able not onely to call you to an account 1 Cor. 10. vers 22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger Are we stronger then he As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel Are we the Lord's match can we outstrengthen an Almighty God Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9. ver 4. Jer. 5. ver 22. 2. Fear to offend him from the consideration of his goodness not onely that goodness which the Lord extends unto you in common with other men nor that speciall goodness which is the peculiar portion of his Elect in Christ but also that particular goodness which the Lord hath vouchsafed you in restoring health unto you when ye lay at the brinks of the grave and many other tumbled in Hos 3. vers 5. Oh Fear the Lord for his goodness 3. Fear an offended God though not provoked by you A tender spirited childe feares and trembles when his father is angry with others though himself hath done no fault God likes this tenderness of spirit in his children Psal 119. vers 120. David saith my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Samar horripilatio my hair stands upright as it doth sometimes in suddain and great frights Job 3. vers 15. The hair of my flesh stood up Amos 3. vers 8. The Lion hath roared Who will not fear Oh observe this Hab. 3. ver 16. When I heard my belly trembled c. Objection But why should the Saints fear the wrath of God who is in Covenant with them and hath promised to be a covering Cherub unto them Solution 1. They see the provoking nature of sinne they consider that sinne is a thing of greatest abhorrency with God and therefore when they observe the growth of sinne in a place or nation they are afraid that God will ere long break out in wrath against them Hence that Numb 17.12 13. read Ezek. 7. from vers 1. to the 16. and apply it upon a national account 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath they know the English of that Isa 27. vers 4. Who would set the briars and thornes in battail against me I would go thorow them I would burn them together They know what briars and thornes are and what their end shall be They see that themselves are not exempted persons they are not sure to have their door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the Pascal lamb Exod. 12. that the marking Angel Exod. 9. shall give them a signature of safety in their foreheads How was the Church affected Acts 5. ver 11 Ezek. 14. ver 14. Oh then labour to preserve an holy fear of God upon your spirits think often of what Christ speaks Luke 12. ver 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have nothing they can do But fear him who after he hath killed hath power to throw into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Lastly Labour to make sure of heaven lay out for an Interest in the Lord Jesus let this be the teaching ye have received from the late sickness Call to minde your sick-bed fears and tears what pangs
133. Such a being which giveth being unto other things and upon whom they depend Thirdly Such a God as is true and constant in his promises ready to make good whatsoever he hath spoken nay when Moses had been upon the mount with God forty days ank forty nights And the Lord had spoke unto him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend Exod. 33.11 yet having experienced so much the power and wisdom of God and having brought forth the children of Israel by so many signs and wonders out of Egypt and all by the immediate commands and communications of God himself he could not rest in that knowledge of God he had already attained but goes higher vers 18. And beseecheth God to shew him his glory he would not stay a little until he came to heaven which could not be long his glass being now almost run out but he would have a full vision of God in all his glory here he would know all and a great deal more then frail man was capable to know of that God from whom he and his people had received such glorious such eminent deliverances Oh sure if people did more observe and count over the mercies of God Personal and National there would not be such a dedolent ignorance of God as there is God would not be such a stranger in our hearts houses towns and countries Ah how many houses may a man come into nay how many towns may he rid through and meet with very few that know any thing of God to purpose or that can give any considerable account of him though his appearances of late have been so glorious amongst us Oh that of Israel is sadly true of England Isa 1.3 The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters crib but Israel hath not known my people hath not understood The Lord heal this great ignorance and pardon it and quicken up all to keep up a sense of those great things God hath done for us 2. Fruit. This frequent discoursing of mercies healing redeeming quickning and soul-converting mercies c. will more endear God unto the Saints it will unite the heart into a more holy affection unto God Cant. 8. vers 5. When the Church came out of the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved when Christ was with her in the Desart and brought her forth from a wilderness where she was at loss in her self which way to go and what to do how to get her wants supplied how to have her life secured how to get her feet directed and how to free her self from those briars and thorns wherewith she was intangled and Christ had then come in had born her up upon everlasting Arms and had brought her forth into the plain field Oh how is she affected with this at what a pitch of love doth her spirit soar how doth she press upon Christ how would she get into the heart of Christ and bring Christ into hers vers 6. she puts up this request unto him Set me as a seal upon thy heart for love is strong as death which conquers all men jealousie is cruel as the grave which spares none and is never satisfied the coals whereof are coals of fire which have a most vehement flame many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would be utterly contemned What a Pyramid of love is here What an unquenchable flame What a pearl of great price is here and what is the fuel of this great fire What oyle doth kindle it and what preserves it Surely a strong and lively sense of Christs great affection to her when in the wilderness So were our thoughts and discoursings more upon wilderness-grace wilderness-convictions wilderness-illightenings wilderness-preservations and wilderness-deliverances our hearts would be more heated with holy affections towards God then they are Oh sure If there be any water at the bottome of the Well this Bucket will draw it up if any love in the heart sense of mercies will bring it forth and the more we discourse of mercies the greater will be our sense of them Nay farther a serious pondering of and a savoury discoursing over mercies received will bring forth a strong affiance in the people of God it will marvellously scatter those fears and desponding thoughts which too often seize upon the best in a day of distress and will excellently prevail with the heart to bring it off from creature-shiftings and seekings to stay upon God Tribulation worketh pationce and patience experience we should never so fully experience the power providence goodness and faithfulness of God if we should alwayes sail upon a quiet sea if our estate was ever prosperous if the scale of adversity were not sometimes the heavier but when we are cast upon rough and rocky seas when we are brought into streights and know not what to do why then we see what a God can do what bowels mercies and tender-heartedness there is in a good God toward us Alas men as men and the best men are but men sometimes and in some cases are apt to fancy God to be like themselves as streight-hearced and incompassionate as themselves to persons in distress but now when an adverse condition hath put it to the trial then they have found it otherwise That as high as the heaven is above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Psal 103. ver 11. Nay as the heavens are higher than the earth so are Gods wayes wayes of mercy to his afflicted ones higher than mans wayes And his thoughts thoughts of goodness and good will to his oppressed ones above mans thoughts Isa 55. vers 9. Now this experience workketh hope hope of succour and relief from the Lord in an evill day this works an holy boldness in the Saints makes them lift up their heads and hearts with comfort and say Supplies will come Deliverance will come we will stand still and wait for the salvation of our God They rowl themselves upon God when new troubles do arise quiet their spiritswith an expectancy of help from the Lord their sure friend their tried friend their good friend and in an high way of beleeving speaks Davids language Why art thou cast down O my sonl why art thou so disquieted within me hope thou in God for mercy will come supplies will come I have found the Lord to be a good God a faithful friend that never failed me a present help in the needful time of trouble Indeed men may fail as not being able to help but God is Omnipotent he can do abundantly above what we can ask or think or men may fail as being wearied out with often helping I but the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary Again man may fail as not knowing the straits we are in or how to bring us out I but our heavenly Father knoweth the
concluded though he stood alone I and my house will serve the Lord Joshua 24. vers 15. Oh that they were men of religion like unto Cornelius who feared God and all his house Act. 10. ver 2. I never hope to see religion flourish in the life and power of it and spread it self over Towns and Provinces untill great men be good and their families grow better Oh how sadly can some villages witness that popery and profanenesse have come down the hill from Lordship-houses and spread like a contagious disease almost over all the families the Lord reform this 2. It hath a great tendency to the promoting of religion when master and family walk together to the house of the Lord when publick worships are frequented by the heads of families and a due regard to Gospel-ordinances be kept up by them in the hearts of their whole retinue Oh 't is a sight that heaven and earth rejoice at to see great persons march in good aray to Bethel in the very front of their families It sadned David's spirit when an exiled person to remember how he had gone with his train to the house of God Psal 42. ver 4. as the meeter gives it and 't is pressed by way of patheticall exhortation by the Apostle Heb. 10. ver 25. upon believers not to forsake the assembling themselves together as ever they look for comfort at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the time whereof draweth nigh and to be gathered together unto him at his appearing and in his kingdome Ah how little is that prophecy made good in our dayes Isa 60. ver 8. That people flee as a cloud and as the doves to their windows where can ye find a town of which it may be affirmed paralell to that pattern 2 Chro. 20. ver 13. All Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children I can sadly attest against this and so can many others Indeed when this late reformation first began Assemblies were numerous Churches were thronged Lectures much frequented but now how do the wayes of Zion mourn because few come to the solemn feasts Lam. 1. ver 4. How thin are Sabbath congregations and much thinner lecture-Assemblies How hath Saul slain his thousands and David his ten thousands How hath Popery and profanenesse weeded out many and heresie more in our dayes A third part almost in some places are carried off to by-meetings well may the river be low when so many by-brooks carry away so much of the water no marvell that so few answer to the muster-roul when so many have listed themselves under other Captains Oh that God would bring back the people of this Nation who have so much departed from the gates of wisdome Oh that the Lord would magnifie his Gospel and make it honourable amongst us in all its ordinances And Oh that heads of families would be the Sermon bell in their own houses and ring all their domesticks to Church with this peal arise and let us go up to Bethel Heaven and God's wayes are up the hill children and servants had need be handed up by their superiours or else they will ly still at the foot of the hill or else straggle into the vail of Sodom how can we think the child should grow and battle when it refuseth to take the breast How can we expect that knowledge should encrease at least savingly when so many run to and fro and few to the ordinances may not the Governours of Judah find out some expedient with safety of their own and without any violence done to the consciences of other persons whereby the ancient repute might be restored to the ordinances and our assemblies might be filled God grant they may for hinc illae lachrimae both to me and others 3. Observe it administers great hope of much good when inferiours obey their superiours commands in their calls to religion and family-reformation there is a blessing power goes along with the pious endeavours of prudent Governours God very often if not alwayes appears and adds authority to their commands when their endeavours are serious and sincere to advance religion in their families Ye see here is a vote passed for God in a full house Nemine contradicente a motion entertained by all Jacob's people he did but propound a reformation and they readily consented to it the Text sayes Gen. 35. vers 4. They gave unto Jacob all the strange Gods which were in their hands to wit in their possession and all their earings which were in their ears Objection But ye will say They were Hebrews trained up in the fear and knowledge of the true God and possibly extraordinarily principled and moved at that time by an immediate impulse of the spirit of God it is not so with our Families Solution I Answer It is sadly to be lamented that any of this Nation grown up to years of maturity and in a rational way capable of teaching should be so ignorant and ill-principled as to oppose their Governours call and not submit to their commands when they command for God and call to those wayes which being walked in This Island hath the glory to be graced with the first Christian King hat ever raigned in the world which was Lucius Speed in his 6 Books Chap 9. Sub Lucio Britania omnium Provinciarum prima publicitus Christi nomen recepit Anton. Sab. lib. 5. Enned 7. lead to eternal blessedness and that considering what advantages this Nation hath yea of ancient times hath had in the light and Liberty of the Gospel this Nation being the first in all the world that embraced the Gospell by the authority of the supream Magistrate even by King Lucius about 170 years after Christ Indeed the Gospel was preached to other Nations before and many Churches were gathered out of many Pagan Cities and Nations when the Governours were Idolaters and onely tolerated the Gospel in their Dominions but here the chief Authority of the Nation was for the Gospel established the Profession of it by a civil Sanction yea made a Law that the Gospel should be owned and professed all the Nation over and now that the Gospel should have been in the Nation for almost 1500 yeares for certainly it was never quite extinct in the darkest times there was some glimmerings of light in the most gloomiest day and yet that ignorance and Atheisme should so generally prevail is very sad yet sadly true But where lies the blame of this much at the doors of parents and Masters of Families want of Education and of early seasoning of children both at home and at School is much the cause of that gross ignorance and generall profaneness which overspreadeth the Nation And truly Ministers remitting their care and pains in catechising is not the least cause of these forenamed evils Oh that the sence and experience of these things would awaken parents to a more carefull education of their children and that the Magistrates care
alas all the arguments and oratory boastings and bravadoes of Arminius will be but as the staff of Elisha to the dead child or as the Jews tears shed over the grave of dead Lazarus or as the exorcismes of the sons of Sceva they will avail little either to light or life grace or growth without the concurrance of the spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christians do finde by daily and sad experience that the power of godliness would be but poorly advanced in them if they had no other power to act by then that of nature and the work of holiness would be carryed on but slowly in them if they had no better friend then free-will to promote it they would soon stick upon the shallows if the gales and tides of the spirit did not waft them off their hearts would soon be dead if the spirit of the Lord did not quicken them their affections would soon be chilled if the spirit of the Lord did not warm them their desires would soon be straightned if the spirit of the Lord did not enlarge them if the spirit of the Lord did not help our infirmities how listless should we be unto prayer and how lifeless in prayer Oh whatever proud men do vainly boast let not us sacrifice to our own nets nor burn incense to our own drags but say with the Psalmist not unto us not unto us O Lordâ— but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truths sake Psal 115.1 and in all our duties and devotions when we do most for God and act highest for his glory let us breath out those humble acknowledgements of that holy man 1 Chro. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee So vers 6. O Lord our God all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy Name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own This will be a means to keep our hearts in an humble and dependent frame upon God and make us acknowledge with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God we are what we are and this grace which we humbly confess to be bestowed upon us will not be in vain but will make us labour more abundantly for God then they all that proudly assert the power of nature and yet in all our actings for God we shall cast down our crowns at the feet of the Lambe and self-denyingly say Not we but the grace of God which was with us not we but thy talents have gained other five 3. This makes a sad report of the dangerous estate that all men are in whilst they are under the power of corrupt nature they ly upon the brink of the pit they walk within one inch of Hell they hang by the twine thread of a frail and brittle life over that deep and dark dungeon of the great abysse ready each moment to drop in Oh! did they but hear the doleful woes which are denounced against them it would be a dreadful sound in their ears Oh their hearts are very hard and their beds very soft who can quietly sleep out one night under the apprehension of that sad estate yet such a lethargy and spirit of deep sleep hath seized upon most men that they nor onely take a little nap but fetch many a sound sleep in that dead and undone condition Oh! if a blind man should wander without a guide until he came within one step of a great lake of brimstone and fire and then his eyes should be suddenly open to see the danger he was near unto what a work would this have upon his spirit How full of rejoycing and amazement would he be filled with that he had escaped so great a danger Or suppose a man should be taken out of a ship when fast asleep and should be laid upon the top of a rock in the middest of a deep and broad Sea what sears would surprize him what expectations of certain and inevitable death would he be possessed with when he awakes and seeth neither ship nor land nor man near him but is left alone in the wide and wild Ocean Nay farther what would be the thoughts and afrightments of that man who should be chained to a brazen pillar and a thousand Cannons charged and mounted and ready to be fired upon him Sure he would be afraid each moment to be dasht in pieces But alas these and all other resemblances which the heart of man can possibly finde out fall far short of that deplorable estate natural men are in they are left upon a rock ready every munite to be engulph't and swallowed up by the deluge of Divine wrath all the curses and threatnings of the law are each moment ready to be discharged upon them nay whilest they are securely jogging on in the ways of sin and vanity the next step they take may tumble them headlong into hell and yet they are asleep and know not blind and see not the dangers they are dropping into and so are they shackled with the ferters of their own corruptions that they cannot step aside to avoid the danger Oh were their eyes opened as once Balaams were and they awakened as once Sampson was we might wonder that any natural man kept his wits that the whole world who lys in wickedness was not baptized with Pashurs new name Magor-Missabib viz. fear on every side Jer. 20.3 even round about them and to see that dreadful passage made good in every Nation and town Rev. 6.15 16. That the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free-man should hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and should say unto the mountains and recks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who way abide his coming Ah surely the sense of their dreadful misery would suddenly bring them into Nabals condition their hearts would die within them and they would be as stones O how should the sense of this provoke the Saints to own with thankfulnesse recovering and renewing grace and especially if we consider Consid 2 what sad distractions the sense of this danger brought forth in us at our first awakening Many of the Saints under their first convictions have seen their misery past all hope of remedy They have had sad visions of wo and wrath at their first enlightening Many have been the terrours and great hath been the consternation of spirit which many have lain under at their first conversion Such a sense of sin wrath and judgement to come hath seized upon them that Felix-like they have trembled nay they have cried out with the Prophet Isa 6. ver 5. Wo
thee for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee And therefore be comforted O thou deserted Saint the Lord Jesus stands at thy door and knocks open open then unto him and he will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Rev. 3.20 There is a table spread his comforts are dished out the chairs are all ready set and I am sent as a messenger from the Lord to invite thee to this banquet and to assure thee in the name of thy dear Jesus that thou shalt eat many a meal at his table and thy countenance shall be no more sad Prov. 12.25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad Oh sure these experiments as to desertion and as to consolation as to the withdrawings and the returns of Gods favour would marvailously revive a drooping Saint and make his stooping heart glad my reasons are these 1. Because the methods of God in correcting and comforting his people are the same their tryals and their triumphs are alike as face answers face in a glass so the condition of one Saint answers another There is no new thing under the Sun that which is now hath been there is no temptation happeneth to any but what is common to man 1 Cor. 10.13 Yea the best of men 2. Because experiments gain much authority with us we are apt to expect good from a probatum est in order to natural so to a spiritual cure Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ says the woman to the Samaritanes Joh. 4.29 and upon this they went out of the City and came unto him this was the method of Saint John in his first Epistle ch 1.1 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truely our fellowship is with the father and with his Son Jesus Christ 3. Because God will hereby set a greater mark of honor upon the Saints and make them with more affectionateness love one another when they find that the eye hath need of the hand and the head of the foot 1 Cor. 12.21 that they are mutually dependent upon and mutually serviceable one to another It is much my thoughts that in the way proposed the people of God would be more comforted one by another and their hearts would be more knit up in love one to another 4. You will live best to others when you draw forth the sense and experience which ye have found of the love of God by way of hope and helpfulness unto those that mourn under the want of the spirits witness to their Son-ship and salvation with what holy earnestness doth many a servant of the Lord press after assurance how would he accept of it as a good bargain indeed if purchased with the loss of all outward enjoyments and how is it with many as it was with Paul in another case 2 Cor. 2.13 I had not rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother Certainty of salvation is this Titus the absence whereof fills the soul with a strange unquietness breathing after it in every duty in every ordinance in every promise they are strangers to the prayers and practices tears and troubles of the Saints that are ignorant of this That certainty of salvation is attainable is a clear truth 1 Joh. 5.13 These things write I unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know ye have eternal life not with the certainty of hope onely as the Papists say but of faith also in the foretastes of after-blessedness Apoc. 2.17 To him that overcome will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone with a new name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that hath received it indeed this sealing of the holy Spirit of Promise is a certain divine impression of light a certain unexpressable assurance that we are the Sons of God a certain secret manifestation that God hath received us and put away our sins I say says worthy Dr. Preston t is such a thing which no man knows New Covenant p. 399. but he that hath received it it is a wondrous thing and if there were not some Christians that do feel it and know it you might believe that there was no such thing that it were but a fancy and Enthusiasme but it is certain that there are a generation of men which know what this seal of the Lord is now then if such as do experimentally know it and know how they attained unto it would be but free in their communications how might they be as faithful guides unto those Who ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward how might they set up way marks for them and led them by their ports within the view yea to the suburbes of heavenly Jerusalem telling them this course we steered we were much in prayer much in an humble attendance upon Gospel-appointments much in searching of the Holy Scriptures much in contesting against all corruptions much in a due and serious tryal of our own spiritual estate and gave much diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We did not go to the university of election untill we had been at the Grammer-School of vocation as one saith we began below at our sanctification at the work and truth of grace in our hearts and so gradually ascended step by step unto the top-stone of our election we framed a Sillogisme of assurance from the witness of water and blood and the Lord at length superadded the witness of his spirit This we did and blessed be the Lord we are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession Eph. 1.13 14. and therefore go you and do likewise pray in hope wait in hope and believe in hope under the perswasion that the vision is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come and will not tarry Hab. 2.3 we can set our seal of experience to this truth though we waited long yet the vision hath spoken our souls have heard the speakings of God by his spirit in peace and joy and a rejoycing hope of glory to come and blessed be God it doth not lye it is not a presumptuous brag an opinionative boast which vanisheth into smoak and air in a time of tryal but a real evidence of divine love and demonstrative assurance of our eternal
to the painfull endeavours of his faithfull Ministery and if you that are Christians act up with zeal to the course propounded how might the communion of Saints be maintained the Common-wealth of believers be enlarged and the places of our habitations be as the suburbs of heaven It layes a good foundation for posterity you are now sowing that seed the harvest whereof may be reaped by your children you are digging that well of which your Infants may fill their buckets Personall piety is profitable to posterity 2 Kings 10. ver 30. It was very much that was promised to Jehu for cutting off Ahab's wicked Family and destroying the temple and worshippers of Baal And the Lord said unto Jehu because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel And what a blessing doth the Lord entail upon the seed of the righteous Psal 112. ver 1 2. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandements his seed shall be mighty upon the earth the generation of the upright shall be blessed But that Religion which you now advance may be of spiritual advantage to them when you are dead Psal 102. ver 18. This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord even for your faithfull endeavours in raising Zion out of her dust and Religion out of the rubbish in the places where you live How would you have blessed God if you had found Religion in such a posture how would you have honoured the memory of your Predecessours if they had travailed to have brought that to pass which you are now encouraged unto nay more you may lend that word of saving advice to a carnal neighbour which may be paid you in again by the bringing home of a Prodigal childe Your covenants for money run to you and to your heirs the Debt is not lost if your heirs receive it so your heirs may receive in a spiritual sense the Principal with the loan when you are dead happy is he who makes such provision for his children one whom you have in the way proposed brought off from vile and vicious courses may see a childe of yours when you are at rest running in the same wayes and tell him ah friend just thus it was with me I was running headlong upon mine own destruction and your Father pittied me reproved instructed advised me brought me off from my desperate wayes and put me into a good way for heaven And now I desire to shew the kindness of the Lord to you by dealing as plainly and faithfully with you as I was dealt with by your father and who knowes but the same course may through grace produce the same good effects If David remembred and requited the kindness of Jonathan in shewing love to his lame Mephibosheth after Jonathan's death why not the spirit of David stirre up bowels in those whom you have helped heaven-ward to requite that kindness in your lame Mephibosheth there is ground of hope 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort it beareth fruit unto eternity the savour of this ointment doth not spend it self in this life Apoc. 14. ver 13. Blessed are the dead that dy in the Lord their works follow them This work of mercy which you shew in converting a sinner from the errour of his way and saving a soul from death Jam. 5. ver 20. shall follow you to eternity it shall be had in everlasting remembrance it shall be registred in that book of Records which was writ before the Lord for those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Mal. 3. ver 16. They shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels The Prophet Daniel speaks fully to the Saints after recompence upon this accompt Dan. 12. ver 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament they that be teachingly wise of Mascil that do prudently instruct so it propperly referres to the teaching Ministery but may not unfitly be referred unto instructing Christians and I hope without any force to the Word or any violence offered to a called Ministery Now wherein doth the wisdom of the wise shew it self so as to entitle them to this firmamental brightness why the onely wise among the sonnes of men doth determine it Prov. 11. ver 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life the genuine fruit of the righteous is to bring forth life in those he converseth with Salvation wisdome is the highest wisdome and he that winneth soules is by the Holy Ghost stiled Chacam the wise man and indeed Daniel himself expoundeth it to the same sence and they that turn many unto righteousness as the starres for ever Though there be some difficulty in this Text and some difference among expositours about the sense of it yet sure I may with much safety offer these positions from it 1. That man by nature runs off from his primitive and created righteousness unto by-paths of sin and unrighteousness This is clearly supposed 2. That Conversion mainly consisteth in our turning from sin unto righteousness from the power of Sathan unto God 3. That men are instrumental in the conversion of men to wit in turning them from sin to righteousness 4. That this turning of men from sin to righteousness hath a sure promise of future honour 5. That the work of Conversion is not onely limitted to a teaching Ministery it is not so proper to them as that it is exclusive to all others to have any hand or instrumentality in it Read Mr. Baxter in his Gild. salv Page 469 470 471. It was much that the woman of Samaria did towards the gathering of those fields which our Saviour saw beginning to be white as they that read John 4. may observe an unlikely means to effect so great a matter but what 's that to the Almighty as Mr. Trap speaks and brings in Junius professing that the first thing that turned him from Atheisme was conference with a country-man of his not farre frrom Florence enquire into Acts and Monum Fol. 767. Experience doth very much confirme this many servants may bless God who brought them under godly acquaintance I hope none will think that by this I derogate ought from the office of a called Ministery if the seed be sown by others it is ripened by them If the first course of stones be laid by others the building is finished by them Eph. 4. v. 12. a called Ministery doth perfect the Saints and edifie or build up the body of Christ If others are instrumental to their spirituall birth yet the Ministery goes forth in the spirit and power of Elias to make them ready as a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. ver 17. and that though men
righteousness and will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Read and enlarge these and the following Verses in your own thoughts 3. Improve the consideration of temporal mercies by way of support under all your saddest and sorest temptations from the wicked one If the manchilde Christ Jesus in the spirit be formed in you and any actings of grace be brought forth by you the great red Dragon will wait to devour you He is your adversary an inveterate enemy he owes you an old grudg and will be revenged on the heel for the bruising of his head and that by your head It is his Interest to bestirre himself If Christ gaineth he looseth There 's a wedge loose with him when the word findes a welcome in a sinners heart There 's not a soul brought home to Christ but is fetch'd out of the Devils quarters not a convert gained but is wonne by Christ in a set battel Sathan sadly speaks those words of John the Baptist John 3. ver 30. he must increase but I must decrease The sea is in continual revolution when it is high water in one place its low water in some other so when it is high tide in such a nation country or town its low water with Sathan Christs gain is Sathans loss He knows how Christs and his own affairs go on in the world who gains and who looses and that his loss is Christs gain and therefore he tries all his tricks improves every method and turns every stone to keep his own ground to man his own forts maintain his own principality and withall to gain soules to himself to fetch them off from the embraces of Christ nay he is so bold and daring that though he sees the actings of godliness from the Saints and findes a work of grace in them which he doth find by those strong repulses the heart gives to his secret temptations which are his spies sent forth to search the land by whom he learns what frame the heart is in Though he sees his strong holds beat down and defaced by a conquering spirit though he observes the stream running in another channell and that the soul is now in armes against him believing repenting mourning praying watching hearing and all against him yet he will play an after game and not be wanting in skill or will to reduce the soul And he ploughs in hope and sowes in hope for he cannot read the Lambs book of life he knowes not the decrees of God they are Secret to him untill death brings forth a discovery and the soul is taken up to God and therefore though he fears such or such a Saint that is gone off from his quarters is under electing grace yet he hopes the contrary Yee see how busie he was with Joshua the High Priest Zech. 3. ver 1. and how hard he pressed upon him probably not without some hopes to have got him or the day against him until Christ rebuked him and told him he was a brand plucked out of the fire singled out by the purpose of the eternal Father to be a vessel of grace then he sleared away and left him Yet as our Saviour probably but for a time Luke 4.13 nay though he should read their names writ in heaven though he knowes the immutability of Christs love that whom he loves once he loves to the end John 13. ver 1. and of Gods counsel that his gifts and calling are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without repentance irreversible Rom. 11. ver 29. yet such is his malice and so great is his rage against the Saints that if he cannot keep them out of Canaan hee 'l sting them and scratch them in the wilderness before they get thither though he cannot put out their light hee 'l be a thief in their candle to swail away much of their comfort though he cannot reach them in heaven he will reckon with them on earth if they must to heaven he will send them cripples thither he will have a leg or an arm out of joint or broken or he will want of his will some way or other he will vex them buffet and disquiet them many long stories and sad ones too may be told of his exploits against the Saints my own experience can witness something of his trains and treacheries of his malice and the Lords mercy of his black designs and of the Lords gracious support and disappointments blessed be his holy name and adored for ever be his goodness O then in the name of the Lord lift up your banners buckle on your armour stand with your weapons in your hands ready to receive and charge your adversary and that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day gather up your experiences of God and meditate upon the great things God hath done for you in the day of your outward troubles what that power that wisdome that goodness of the Lord hath been which hath appeared unto you and engaged for you in the time of your greatest streights and what those streights and distresses how sharp and how pressing from which the Lord hath wrought your deliverance And then go to your spiritual Logick frame such an argument as this The Lord gives help to his distressed Saints in their outward troubles therefore also will he help them in their inward temptations now if Sathan shall argue that God doth not give in succours to the Saints in their outward troubles it 's true they and it may be ye had help and deliverance but it came not from God when ye were cast upon such and such sick-beds that ye despaired of life and your friends gave you up for dead then the Physician came and by his great skill administred such physick which wrought your recovery or when ye were in such streights the liberality of your friends relieved you or in such exigencies the wisdome and potency of your allies brought you off God was not seen in all your deliverances what will you do now why your business is to secure this fort by summoning your experiences and placing them upon the works saying that ye beheld the face of God in such deliverances that your help was onely from on high that men and means stood off and came not in no not for a reserve or though men and means were seen upon the wall yet God acted by the instrumentality of them though Christians were consulted with yet the blessing of God upon the means brought forth the cure be sure ye own God in every preservation how visible and potent soever creature-helps are or have been entrench your faith in this perswasion that whatsoever secondary causes contributed the chief agency was from God If Sathan beat you out of this trench he will soon take your standard and rout your whole army but if ye make good this ground if ye have the advantage of the hill ye are out of gunshot all his murthering pieces will not reach you ye may then quiet your
believed upon is a strong tower in the hour of temptation All the batteries of Hell cannot make a breach in it Now then get into this hold shut the doors upon you and let your temporal preservations be as locks and barrs to forbid Sathans entrance Lift up your shield of Faith embossed with your own experiences and wherever that Lion shall roar upon you give him battel fight him upon his own ground be steadfast in the faith keep true to your own experiences and believe without wavering the unchangeableness of Gods nature and Attributes and the Yea and Amen of all his Promises Improve the sense of eminent mercies and deliverances by way of comfortable assurance to your selves in all your castings down and fears of your eternal welfare But I shall speak little and warily on this head having touched upon it already in a foregoing use and least presumption should get up and carnal Professours should kindle a fire fetching fuel from this passage and compass themselves about with sparks walking in the light of this fire and in the sparks which they have kindled which notwithstanding all these confidencies their doom is pronounced by the Lord himself that they shallly down in sorrow Isa 50. ver 11. Indeed this humour is very ranck Ministers cannot with all their pains preach and pray and print it down And therefore I direct this discourse to the children of the new birth who have the witness within themselves of the work and truth of grace such may fetch much comfort from the appearances of God unto them in a day of distress they may argue Is not the life more worth them meat and the body then raiment Is not the soul more precious then name credit limbs and life Have the mercies of God been so signally remarkeable upon a temporal and shall they not be much more upon a saving account was the red sea dried up a pathway made through the wilderness Jordan made fordable and the Cananites slain even with hailstones from heaven and all this to give Israel possession of an earthly Canaan and shall not the outgoings of grace and outstretching of power be much more glorious to bring us to heavenly Canaan to that City which hath foundations and walls whose builder and maker is God Oh! reason up faith and hope to an exspectancy of after blessedness by considering the blessed presence and good will of him that dwelt in the bush in present comforts present succours and present deliverances I shall onely propose the presidency of Saint Paul under a remarkeable preservation even from the Tyrant Nero 2 Tim. 4. ver 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord will deliver me out of every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdome You may find much of this in David arguing from temporalls to eternals observe that Psal 23. ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever which sometimes is taken for heaven Domus majestatis that upper house that house of State in which Christ sayes John 14. ver 2. There are many mansions Saint Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. ver 1. an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so Psal 17. ver ult Oh in all your sinkings of spirit let the sense of mercy received be as a cordial unto you and assure your selves that if in famine sword peril nakedness c. ye have been more then conquerours through Christ that loved you get up your hearts to this perswasion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord Rom. 8. ver 37.38 39. or hinder you of heavens happiness which is the fruit of Gods Electing love and the purchase of the Redeeming love of Jesus Christ your Lord O then comfort one another with these words I am come now to the fifth and last Use Is it so that the best of Saints are often brought into suffering conditions that their afflictions are sharp and violent that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to their help in the day of their distress Is this a truth attested by the experience of Saints in all ages and cannot their enemies deny this why then here is a rod for the backs of fools a sharp reproof for the profane and carnal world in 3 Particulars 1. It reproves them for their uncharitable censuring of the suffering Saints what more usual then for wicked men to entertain hard thoughts and let fly in harsh speeches against the people of God in distress measuring their sinnes by their sufferings and if their calamities exceed others their iniquities exceed them also laying down this false position that the greatest sufferers are sinners and that when the rod is most the wrath of God is most also not considering that of the Apostle Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth laying down an exemption from the rod as a note of Bastardie or that Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten This was practised by Shimei in that great day of Davids distress when he fled from his rebellious son 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Come out come out thou bloudy man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the bloud of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the kingdome into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken to thy mischief or taken into thy wickedness because thou art a murtherer as some Translations read it and as agrees with the Hebrew This was the Interpretation that Eliphaz put upon Job's sufferings Job 4.7 8. Rememember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same thereby wounding him in his holiness and heart-sincerity yea upon the matter charging him to be a son of Belial and that because God was now writing such bitter things in the bloud of his cattel servants and children yea in black characters of sore displeasure upon his own body It was not much to be heeded that the Barbarians fastened the guilt of murther upon Paul because the viper fastened upon his hand Acts 28. ver 4. But that the viper should fasten upon the hearts of men and women under the same common Profession with us that the venom of the old Serpent should swell to such a degree of censuring and uncharitableness is much to be lamented and doubtless some will smart for these hard speeches when Jesus Christ shall come with ten thousands of his saints Jude ver 14 15. Then shall they know the English of that Text 1 Pet. 1.6 and the ends of God in afflicting his precious ones 2.