a man to kill himself for our time of life and death is only at Gods disposal Psal 31.15 My times are in thine hand Deut 32.39 I kill and I make alive Now as 't is unlawful for us to avenge our selves because it belongs to God to take vengeance Rom. 12.19 Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves for it is written Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord So because our times are in Gods hands and it is his Prerogative to kill and to make alive it is utterly unlawful for us to kill our selves 4. We are not our own 1 Cor. 6.19,20 Ye are not your own for you are bought with a price and therefore we must not take upon us to dispose of our selves as we see good but our lives and all that we have are to be at Gods disposal The Lord Jesus died for this end that he might be Lord of our lives and persons and therefore he that takes upon him to live as he list or to die how and when he thinketh good himself sinneth greatly against Jesus Christ for he goeth about to make void the death of Christ Rom. 14.7,8,9 None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself for whether we live we live unto Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living 5. He that kills himself breaths out his soul in the very act of sin and that not of a small but of a crying hainous sin Now we look upon their case to be very sad who die when they are drunk or who are cut off in the act of Adultery or who die cursing and blaspheming God and so it is But is not their case as sad who die in the act of murther 6. He that kills himself tramples under foot one of the choicest of Gods mercies for what mercy is of greater value I mean what outward mercy than life Life is beyond riches or honour c. and therefore it must needs be a great sin to cast away life 2. When Satan presseth upon you with this temptation to make away your selves resist him and thereby you will overcome him Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you if you yield he will trample upon you but if you resist him he will flee from you If you say How should we resist the Devil when he tempts us to destroy our selves I answer 1. Resist him by Prayer pray to God to take this temptation from you or to give you grace to overcome it and though the temptation continue after you have prayed to have it removed be not discouraged but pray still The Apostle directing us how to deal with Satan after he hath set down several pieces of the spiritual armour that are useful in our combat with this Adversary exhorts us to pray alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and to watch thereunto with all perseverance Ephes 6.18 If we continne to pray against the temptations of Satan either God will remove them or give us sufficient grace to hold out in the conflict 2 Cor. 12.7,8,9 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee 2. Resist the Devil with the Word When he tempted Christ to cast himself down from a Pinacle which was in effect to destroy himself Christ resisted this and all his other temptations with the written Word Matth. 4.4,7,10 Three times doth Christ repel Satan with the written Word to teach us to make use of the Sword of the Spirit in resisting all our temptations Doth Satan tempt thee to destroy thy self remember it is written Thou shalt not kill It is said of Luther that he was so violently assaulted with this temptation to destroy himself that for some hours together he was necessitated to press that Scripture upon his heart Thou shalt not kill 3. Resist the Devil by Faith There is a great efficacy in faith to resist and subdue the temptations of Satan Ephes 6.16 Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked 1 Pet. 5.8,9 Be sober be vigilant because your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the faith 3. When Satan follows you with this temptation to destroy your self flie for refuge from this roaring Lion to Jesus Christ cast your selves into his arms commit the keeping of your souls and lives to the Lord Jesus rest upon him to preserve you from being vanquished by this temptation Take some encouragements to flie to Christ and to rest upon him for relief when you are persued with this or any other temptation 1. The Lord Jesus is able to succour thee in all thy temptations Heb. 2.18 In that be himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted He conquered all the powers of darkness at his death Col. 2.15 Having spoyled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it He hath all the Devils in Hell under a lock and he keeps the keys of this lock in his own hands Rev. 1.18 I have the Keys of Hell and of death How easily can he command down any temptation that hath the Keys of Hell and that hath triumphed over all the powers of darkness and spoyled them of their strength In the dayes of his humiliatio he had all the Devils at his command he dispossessed them with speaking but a word Luk. 4.36 With authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits and they come out If in the dayes of his humiliation when he was in the form of a Servant he had such power over the Devils what power hath he in his Exaltation now that he sitteth at the right hand of God in the highest Heavens 2. Jesus Christ is very pitiful to such as are under temptation What God saith to the Israelites Exod. 23.9 Ye know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt The like may be said of Christ he knoweth the heart of such as are in temptation seeing he himself was tempted in all points as we are only he never sinned under any of his temptations That Christs being tempted doth encline him to be pitiful and merciful to us in our temptations you may see Heb. 4.15 We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin He was tempted to this very sin to destroy himself by casting himself down from a pinacle of the Temple and therefore knows how
those that have cast away their hope and hath encouraged them to seek and hope for salvation that have thought there was no hope for such as they were When some amongst the Jews thought God had done with them and given them over and would look no more after them God reproves them for it Isa 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God And at another time when they thought there was no hope but they must perish in their sins and looked upon it as an improbable if not as an impossible thing that such as they were should obtain life God swears to them that he did not delight in their death but rather did desire that they should repent that they might live Ezek. 33.10,11 Thus ye speak saying If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them How should we then live say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye die O house of Israel We find also God encouraging the Jews when they were in a despairing condition in Babylon Lam. 3.18,19 I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall But though they said their hope was perished God saith it was good for them to hope still Ver. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. God may have great mercy in store for them that think there is no mercy for them When the house of Israel said Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts God promiseth to do great things for them to put his Spirit in them and give them life c. Ezek. 37,11,12,13,14 And though Satan may make use of some Scriptures to drive us to despair yet he perverts the sense and meaning of those Scriptures for no passage of Scripture was written to drive us to despair but the design of the Scripture is to encourage us to hope in God Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope 4. Prop. No man ought to conclude that he is a graceless person or cast out of the favour of God because he is assaulted with this temptation to make away himself or because he hath often prayed to God to have his temptation removed and it continueth still in as great violence as ever The best of men may be tempted to the foulest of sins What sin is more hideous than for a man to fall down and worship the Devil yet the Lord Jesus was tempted to this sin Matth. 4.9 All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Dost thou think God doth not love thee because he suffers the Devils to tempt thee to make away thy self Christ was the beloved Son of God yet the Devil tempted him to cast down himself from a pinacle of the Temple which was in effect to have destroyed himself Matth. 4.5,6 yea God suffered the Devil to do more than barely to tempt Christ he suffered him to carry him from the Wilderness into Jerusalem and to set him upon the pinacle of the Temple Matth. 4.5 and from thence to carry him to an exceeding high Mountain Ver. 8. This is more than God permits the Devil to do to you yet Christ was the beloved Son of God Did not the Devil tempt Job who was the most upright man that lived in his days by the instigation of his wife to destroy himself Job 2.9 His wife said unto him Dost thou still retain thine integrity Curse God and die And though you pray to have the temptation removed and still it continueth so did Paul who was a chosen Vessel when he was buffeted with a temptation from Satan he prayed often to have it removed and still it continued 2 Cor. 12.7,8,9 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness But let thus much suffice for the preventing of this temptation of Self-murther 5. It is probable that Satan will tempt such as are brought low by this fire to use some unrighteous courses to enrich themselves especially if they be brought into great straits he will be urging of them to help themselves by some sinful means rather than to continue under their straits Agur prayes that God would remove poverty from him and gives this reason Prov. 30.9 Lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain which implies that Satan doth usually tempt such as are brought to poverty to help themselves by unlawful and sinful means I might suggest several things to prevent your yielding to this temptation As 1. You will lose more and better things than you will get by unrighteousness in your dealings though you should get a vast estate by this means For 1. Hereby you will lose the favour of God Deut. 25.16 All that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the Lord thy God And what is all this world compared to the favour of God 2. All that you get by sinful courses is the price of blood it is gotten with the loss of your souls Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth it shall die Now the soul is of that value that the gaining of the whole world will not countervail the loss of one soul Mar. 8.36.3 What you get unrighteously is purchased with the loss of Heaven 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 4. What is gotten unrighteously is gotten with the loss of peace of Conscience Isa 59.8 They have made them crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Prov. 20.17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel 2. You do not only deprive your selves of all good but you bring upon your selves woful misery by seeking to enrich your selves by unjust courses for 1. Hereby you bring down the wrath and curse and vengeance of God upon your selves Jer. 22.13 Wo unto him that buildeth his House by unrighteousness and his Chambers by wrong 1 Thes 4.6 That no man go beyond and defraud his Brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such Job 20.23 When he is about to fill his belly God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him while he is eating This is spoken of such as get their Estates unrighteously as you may see Ver. 19.
may encrease our inward spiritual comforts Hos 2.7,14 I will take away my corn and my wine and my wooll and my flax I will allure her and bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably unto her I might mention others of a like nature but I forbear by these you may see that God may intend his people much good when he depriveth them of their estates SECT 4. 4. Consider that though God hath taken much from you he might with equity and justice have taken away a great deal more from you and therefore you have no cause to repine that God hath taken away so much but rather to be thankful that God hath taken away no more from you For 1. God might have taken away your lives as well as your estates When Sodom was burnt Lot lost his house and his goods as may be gathered from Gen. 19. It was evening before the Angels came to him Vers 1. and in the morning about the time that the Sun rose God rained fire and brimstone upon the City Vers 23. Some time was spent in entertaining the Angels in going to his sons in law to acquaint them with the purpose of God to destroy Sodom in fleeing to Zoar so that he saved very little if any of his goods for what could a man that had such short warning of Sodom's destruction and was forced to flee for his life carry along with him Besides the loss of his goods and his house he lost his wife V. 26. and his sons in law and his daughters that were married to them V. 14. only Lot and his two Daughters that were unmarried got to Zoar yet he doth not murmur at his losses but looketh upon it as a great mercy that God had spared his life Gen. 19.19 Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast shewed unto me in that thou hast spared my life When the Jews were carried captive into Babylon and Jerusalem was burnt with fire though they had lost their liberties and their dwellings were consumed they did not murmur because of their losses but looked upon it as a great mercy that themselves were not consumed also Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not And notwithstanding their sufferings were very great such as could scarce be paralled by any that lived in former ages as we may see Lam. 1.12 yet they acknowledge that they had no cause of complaining seeing God had spared their lives Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain When the Ship in which the Apostle sailed was cast away and all the goods were lost he makes a light matter of their losses seeing their lives were preserved Acts 27.22,25 I exhort you to be of good cheer for there shall be no loss of any mans life among you but of the Ship Wherefore Sirs be of good cheer He calls upon them twice notwithstanding their losses to be of good cheer because their lives were preserved 2. God might have taken away your souls and cast them into everlasting burnings for you have sinned and The wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 The Angels are more glorious creatures than man yet assoon as they had sinned God cast them into Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment Now if God had dealt thus with you if instead of burning your houses he had taken away your souls and cast them into everlasting burnings your loss would have been incomparably greater than now it is though you had been owners of the whole world For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mark 8.36 5. God might have taken away his loving kindness from you as he did from the Jews Jer. 16.5 I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving kindness and mercies Now that would have been a far greater loss than the loss of your estates yea than the loss of your lives for Gods loving kindness is better than life Ps 63.3 Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee David spoke this when he was in the Wilderness of Judah as appears from the title of the Psalm and in this Wilderness he was destitute of all wordly comforts as appears by calling this place a drie and thirsty land where no water is yet enjoying Gods love in this desolate Wilderness he doth not murmur for want of what he enjoyed whilest he lived at home with his father or in Saul's Court but praiseth God for the sweetness and satisfaction which he enjoyed in the sense of Gods love And as David did so may we bless God if he hath not taken away his loving kindness from us whatever it be which God hath taken from us because his love is better than all other things SECT V. 5. Consider how you have sinned against the Lord and what you have deserved for your sins The reflecting upon your sins will make you patient under this and all other sufferings Micah 7.9 I will bear he indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins The calling to remembrance our sins may cause us to take patiently and contentedly the greatest afflictions on several accounts I will mention two 1. How great soever our sufferings are they are far less than our sins have deserved God never punisheth any man in this world either the godly or the wicked according to the desert of their sins Psal 103.10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities Job 's sufferings were very great he was the greatest man that lived in the Eastern part of the world and had all his estate taken from him in one day he did not only lose his estate but his children also his body was smitten with painful and noysome boyls and sores his soul also was full of trouble as he himself expresseth it Job 6.4 The Arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in aray against me yet Job's sins had deserved greater things from God than what God was pleased to lay upon him Job 11.6 Know that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth The afflictions which the Jews endured at the destruction of Jerusalem and during the time of their captivity in Babylon which lasted 70. years were exceeding great so great as scarce any people in the world endured the like as we may see by these two Texts of Scripture Lam. 1.12 Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger Dan. 9.12 Under the whole Heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem yet Ezra confesseth that all that they had suffered was far less than they deserved Ezra 9.13 After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our God hast panished us less than our iniquities deserve Our sins deserve eternal damnation Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall die They deserve to be punished with the loss of God and the loss of the Kingdom of Heaven to all eternity 1 Thess 1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord Matth. 7.23 Depart from me ye that work iniquity Now what are the losses and crosses that we meet with in this world compared with the eternal loss of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and with the torments of Hell that must be endured to all eternity 2. What ever we suffer for our sins we our selves are the causes of those sufferings and therefore have no reason to blame the Lord but our selves for provoking the Lord to lay such afflictions upon us Jer. 2.17 Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord that led thee by the way Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Jer. 30.15 Why cryest thou for thine affliction because thy sins were encreased have I done these things unto thee SECT 6. 6. Consider what abundance of mercy you have enjoyed in former times as well as what afflictions you under go at present this was one argument wherewith Job quieted himself and wherewith he laboured to quiet his wife when she advised him to curse God and die Job 2.10 What shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil As God in the way of his Providence intermingleth prosperity with our adversity and sets the one against the other that no man may find out any cause of complaining against the Lord Eccles 7.14 In the day of prosperity be joyful but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him So should we for the taking away of all occasions of murmuring under our afflictions set our mercies against our crosses our former and present mercies against our present afflictions and that will convince us that we have much cause of thankfulness but no cause to murmur under our greatest afflictions For 1. We may wonder more that God bestoweth one mercy upon us than at his sending of a thousand afflictions for we are altogether unworthy of the least of all Gods mercies Gen. 32.10 and have deserved all sorts of judgments Dan. 9.7 To us belongeth confusion of faces 2. Though we deserve all kinds of misery and no mercy yet they that have met with most and greatest afflictions if they take a view of Gods dealings with them from the day that they were born to this present time shall find that their mercies have been far more and greater than their afflictions Do we meet with some cross or other every day if we do yet the mercies of the day are greater than the crosses for God sends new mercies every day Lam. 3.23 They are new every morning We enjoy so many mercies every day that we are said to be loaded with them Psal 68.19 Blessed be the Lord who dayly loadeth us with his benefits Have our afflictions lyen long upon us Gods mercies have been of a longer date than our afflictions Psal 103.17 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him There are intermissions in our afflictions He doth not alwayes chide Psal 103.9 but there is no intermission in Gods mercies there is not one moment all our life long but he is conveying some good things to us Isa 27.3 I will water it every moment Lam. 3.22 His compassions fail not 3. Every affliction that we meet with in this life is allayed and tempered with mercy yea the bitterest cup that ever Gods people drink of hath more of mercy than it hath of judgment Psal 145.9 His tender mercies are over all his works Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies If we consider the sharpest affliction that God lays upon his servants in their procuring cause which is sin if with the good intended by them if in the principle from which they flow which is Gods love to their souls we shall be easily convinced that there is more of mery than severity in them and so consequently that we have much cause in every thing even in every affliction to give thanks but no cause at all to murmur at the hand of the Lord. SECT 7. 7. Consider that it is the will and command of God that we should be content with such things as we have Heb. 13.5 Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee It was but little which those persons possessed to whom the Apostle wrote this Epistle for they had suffered much for Christ their goods were spoiled and taken from them as we may see Heb. 10.34 yet he telleth them it was the will of God that they should be content with such things as they had If we have nothing more than food and rayment we ought to be content 1 Tim. 6.8 Having food and rayment let us be therewith content It is not said having dainty meat and rich attire let us be therewith content but having food and rayment though never so plain and mean we ought to be therewith content Though you have lost much and have very little left yet there are weighty reasons that may perswade you to be content with such things as you have As 1. Though you have very little left you have more left than you brought with you into the world and more than you can carry with you out of the world 1 Tim. 6.7 For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither 2. Though you have very little you have as much it may be more than Christ or the Apostles of Christ had when they were in the world Our Lord Jesus Christ lived in a very poor condition when he was in the world 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might become rich He was so poor that he had not an house to dwell in Mat. 8.20 The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head His diet was mean when he had nothing but barly bread and two small
fishes for himself and his Disciples and them that came to hear him he was not discontented because he had no better provision but gave God thanks for what he had though it was but barly bread Joh. 6.9,11 He was so poor that he received contribution from well disposed persons Luk. 8.2,3 when the Tax-gatherers came to him for tribute he had not wherewith all to pay them without working of a miracle Mat. 17.24,27 yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Tribute money which was demanded of him was no great sum not above fifteen pence of our mony Now shall we murmur or be discontented when we are as well or better provided for as to worldly things than Jesus Christ our Lord and Master was The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord. And as you have as much as Christ had so you have as much or more of this worlds goods than the Apostles had 1 Cor. 4.11 Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labour working with our own hands Paul speaketh here of himself and the other Apostles as you may see v. 9. And though they were so poor that they had scarce any thing that they could call their own yet they were as well contented as if they had possessed all the world 2 Cor. 6.10 As poor as having nothing and yet possessing all things Phil. 4.11,12 I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need 3. Though you have very little left yet you have more than you are worthy of as hath been hinted already from Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth that thou hast shewed unto thy servant 4. Though you have but little you may live as long and may live as blessed and comfortable a life as you might do if you had all the world You may live as long Luke 12.15 Take heed and beware of covetousness for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of those things that he doth possess You may live as blessed and comfortable lives though you be poor as they that have great Estates Luke 6.20 Blessed be ye poor The Apostle Paul who was so poor that he had nothing was alwayes in a joyful condition 2 Cor. 6.10 David had not more satisfaction when he sate upon the Throne enjoying all the delights that his Kingdom could afford than he found when he was in the Wilderness of Judah for when he was in this Wilderness he tells us that his Soul was satisfied as with marrow and fatness whilst his thoughts and meditations were taken up about God Psal 63.5,6 Yet in this Wilderness he was destitute of all worldly comforts He calls it a dry and thirsty Land where no water was ver 1. Many labouring men that work hard all the day to get their living enjoy more comfortable dayes and nights than they that have great riches Eccles 5.12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet whether he eat little or much but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep 5. Though you have but little yet it is far better with you than with those that want the Grace of God and enjoy great Estates Psal 37.16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked For what a righteous man hath he enjoyeth it with the love and favour of God but a wicked man is hated and abhorred of God Psal 5.5 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity Now it is said Prov. 15.17 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith A righteous man when he hath but little hath that which sufficeth him Phil. 4.11,12 But a wicked man is dissatisfied and straitned in his minde under his greatest abundance Job 20.22 In the midst of his sufficiency he shall be in straits 6. Though you have but little God can bless your little that it shall become a great deal before you die Jacob had but little when he went to Laban but God sent him away with a great Estate Gen. 32.10 With my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands It is the blessing of the Lord maketh rich Prov. 10.22 And it is all one with God to bless a man that hath little as him that hath much Bildad telleth Job after he had suffered great losses that if he would seek unto God Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter and should greatly encrease Job 8.5,7 But if God should continue you in a low Estate yet he can so bless that little that he hath left you that you shall have enough to maintain you as long as you live As it was with the Manna that fell in the Wilderness 2 Cor. 8.15 He that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack So it falls out by the providence of God towards his people that though they have but little yet they have no lack of what is good for them Psal 34.10 They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing It may be some will say we have so little that we have much ado to live though provision be plentiful and cheap but suppose times should grow hard suppose God should send a Famine how should we do then that have so little that have much ado to live now Answ If God send a Famine he promiseth to take care of all such as fear him and hope in his mercy Psal 33.18,19 Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in Famine Psal 37.16 and 19. verses compared In the 16. verse the Psamist speaketh of the happy condition of the righteous though they have but little and whereas some might think but what shall become of us that have but little if a Famine should come he adds ver 19. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time and in the dayes of Famine they shall be satisfied Job 5.20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death and ver 22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh When there was a famine in Israel God did so bless and multiply the widows handful of meal and her little oyl in a cruse that she and the Prophet and all her house were nourished therewith many dayes even till God sent plenty in Israel 1 Kings 17. from ver 9. to 17. SECT 8. 8. Consider that God hath left you more and better things then he hath taken from you and therefore how
is contained in them SECT 2. 2. When you feel any discontented thoughts arising in your mindes any fretting or repining against God labour to subdue all such risings of heart and all discontented troubled thoughts 1. By calling to minde such Scriptures as these James 4.7 Submit your selves unto God Lam. 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins James 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Psal 46.10 Be still and know that I am God John 14.1 Let not your heart be troubled Zech. 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord Rom. 9.20 Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it why hast thou formed me thus 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 2. Call off your eyes and your thoughts from your temporal losses and look within the veil to those eternal blessings which are prepared and reserved in heaven for you Overmuch pondering upon our losses will stir up grief and sorrow and cause dejection Lam. 1.2 She weepeth sore in the night and her tears are on her cheeks and that which among other things caused her sorrow is mentioned ver 7. Jerusalem remembred in the dayes of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the dayes of old David also found that the remembrance of his losses stirred his sorrows Psal 42.4 When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me But the diverting of our mindes and thoughts from those good things which we have lost and those evils which we suffer and looking to those great things that are reserved in heaven for us is an excellent means to keep us from fainting and sinking under our sufferings 2 Cor. 4.8,9,10,11,16,18 We are troubled on every side we are perplexed persecuted cast down alwayes bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus are alwayes delivered unto death yet in all these sufferings he adds ver 16. We faint not He telleth us also whence it came to pass that he did not faint ver 18. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 3. Chide and rebuke your souls for being cast down and disquieted about worldly things and call upon them to hope in God who is your portion and is able to revive you under your greatest troubles and sorrows Psal 42.11 Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenanee and my God 4. Look unto Jesus Christ to quiet your spirits he can take down all the risings of the heart and bring every thought into subjection unto his Holy Will 2 Cor. 10.4,5 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Our strength to resist and overcome sinfull motions doth not lie in our selves but in Jesus Christ As we are not sufficient of our selves to think one good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 So neither can we of our selves cast out one evil thought but through Christ Jesus we shall be able to do all things The Apostle Paul passed through variety of conditions he suffered the loss of all things he was frequently in prisons in deaths oft c. yet he had learned in whatsoever estate he was therewith to be content and how did he attain to this it was by Christ Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me SECT 3. 3. Trust in the Lord at all times and for all things live by faith upon the promises and stay your selves continually upon God this will be an excellent means to keep your souls in a quiet peaceable contented satisfied frame under all the losses and crosses that have befallen you or may befal you for the time to come Isa 26.3 Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose minde is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee Psal 36.7,8 How excellent is thy loving kindness O God therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings they that is they that trust in thee shall be alundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures Though they that trust in God meet with many bitter and sharp afflictions yet those draughts which God giveth them of the rivers of his pleasures do so sweeten all their afflictions that they remain abundantly satisfied under all Gods dealings with them See also to this purpose Jer. 17.7,8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit Here the Lord promiseth those that trust in him such a stayed satisfied mind that they shall be no more disturbed or disquieted by their afflictions than if they met with none at all And shall not see when heat cometh though it should be a time of drought and the drought should continue not only dayes or months but years yet God will keep their minds from being perplexed and disquieted with cares And shall not be careful in the year of drought SECT 4. 4. Labour daily to mortifie all inordinate affections to worldly things Most of that disturbance which ariseth in our mindes when we meet with losses or other afflictions proceedeth from inordinate affection If neither our desire nor fear nor hope nor love nor delight nor any other affection were carried out immediately after worldly things crosses and disappointments would not create any great trouble to us The Apostle Paul who was crucified to the world was as well content in his wants as in his greatest abundance and in his abasements as when most highly honoured Gal. 6.14 compared with Phil. 4.11,12 It was Jacobs immoderate love to his Son Joseph that did so much deject him and cause him to mourn so excessively for his supposed death that though all his Sons and all his Daughters rose up to comfort him he refused to be comforted Gen. 37.3,34,35 It was Baruchs inordinate desire after great things that caused him to be so restless in his afflictions and to faint under his trials Jer. 45.3,5 David went through many troubles yet kept his heart
will continue his care for his people 5. Though you have lost all yet it is possible for you to be as contented as if you had all the world The Apostle Paul suffered the loss of all things for Christ Phil. 3.8 yet he was as full of contentment in his greatest wants as in his greatest abundance Phil. 4.11,12,13 When he had nothing he was as well content as if he had enjoyed the whole world 2 Cor. 6.10 As having nothing and yet possessing all things 6. Have you not forfeited all that ever you did enjoy either by your unthankfulness or by not serving God cheerfully for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47,48 or by some other means if so you have no occasion to complain of God for taking away all that you had from you 7. Though you have lost all your Estates say not we are undone for if ye be such as have Faith in Christ and live godly lives God is yours and Christ is yours and Heaven is yours and this world is yours and things present and things to come are yours yea all things are yours 1 Cor. 3.21,22,23 All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods SECT 3. Obj. 3 I do not know how I shall do to live now I have lost my Estate if I could but tell how to live I could be content though my losses had been very great but because I cannot tell how I shall live now my livelihood is taken from me this perplexeth and troubleth my minde very sorely Answ 1. You have as much left you as you brought into this world for 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing into this world we brought not so much as a rag to cover our nakedness withal Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my Mothers womb And though you came into the world in this poor condition yet you have lived comfortably and plentifully many dayes yea many years together and cannot God provide comfortably and plentifully many years more though all that ever you had be taken from you If you say when I was born into the world I had a Father and a Mother and other Friends that took care of me to provide food and raiment and all things for me but now I have no Friends that will take care for me I answer It was not your Parents or your Friends that fed you and clothed you but God by them Jacob lived many years in his Fathers house and afterwards with his Uncle Laban about 20. years yet he doth not say his Father fed him for so many years and then his Uncle Laban nourished him but he saith it was God that fed him all the dayes of his life Gen. 48.15 The God which fed me all my life long unto this day 2. How did you live before by your Estates or by the Providence of God not by your Estates but by the Providence of God if you think otherwise consider such Scriptures as these Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being Deut. 8.3 Man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live Psal 66.8,9 O bless our God ye people which holdeth our soul in life Psal 36.6 O Lord thou preservest man and beast Now if it be God and not your Estates that have maintained you hitherto why should you distrust him for the time to come Is the Lords hand shortned Is he not as able to provide for you as ever he was 3. Remember the counsel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Math. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than rayment If the life be more than meat then doubt not but that God who hath given you your lives will give you meat to maintain your lives and he who gave you your bodies will give you raiment to cloath your bodies withal 4. If all that you have be consumed and you have nothing to live upon live by Faith upon the promise and providence of God Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his Faith We are not to live by Faith for spiritual blessings only but also for temporal And we ought to trust God as firmly by virtue of his promises when we have nothing left as well as when we enjoy greatest plenty SECT 4. Obj. 4. I do make a shift to live for the present but now I have lost my Estate I am afraid I shall come to want before I dye and the fear of want lyeth heavy upon me were it not that I feared I should want my losses would not much trouble me Answ 1. If you fear want now your Estates are gone and did not fear any such thing while you enjoyed your Estates this is a sign that you made your riches your confidence and not God and that is a fearful sin Job 31.24,28 If I have made gold my hope or have said unto the fine gold Thou art my confidence This were an iniquity to be punished by the judge for I should have denied the God that is above 2. Have you not food and raiment sufficient for the day if so do the work of the present day cheerfully and bear the crosses of the day patiently and cast the care of to morrow upon God By to morrow you may be in heaven where you shall need none of these things Mat. 6.34 Take no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof 3. Consider your relation to God 1. God is your Shepherd and thereupon you may be assured that you shall not want Psal 23.1 The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want David doth not say I am King of Israel I shall not want or I have a great Estate or I have rich Friends I shall not want but he grounds his confidence that he should not want upon this that God was his Shepherd Now every godly man in his lowest estate hath God for his Shepherd and thereupon may be confident that he shall never want 2. God is your Father and Fathers will not see their children want when it is in the power of their hands to relieve their wants Luke 11.11 If a Son shall ask bread of any of you that is a Father will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent When the prodigal Son began to be in want and goes to his Father for relief though he had been an ungracious Son that had spent all his substance in riotous courses yet when he came to his Father he calls for the best Robe and fatted Calf and entertains him in a very bountiful manner Luke 15.15,18,19,20,22,23
all that they owe but are disabled by Gods providence 3. Cry to God that 〈◊〉 would finde out some way for you and raiâ—… up some supplies whereby you may be able to pay you Debts When one of the Sons of the Prophets was felling a beam and the axe head fell into the water he cries out to the Prophet 2 Kings 6.5 Alas Master for it was borrowed And the widow that was in debt crieâ—â—o Elisha to help her and he did help both the one and the other The God of Elisha is more merciful and can do greater things than Elisha therefore do you that are in debt cry unto the Lord and see what he will do for you The willingness of God to help poor Debters to get out of Debt may be seen several waves I will mention two 1. God wrought two Moracles for this end to enable those that were in debt to pay their debts The one was the multiplying the Widows oyl 1 Kings 4.1 to the 8. verse The other was the making iron to swim that the axe that was borrowed might be restored to the owner 1 Kings 6.5,6,7 Now Gods working Miracles to help poor people pay their debts may encourage those that are in debt to cry to God to help them 2. God commandeth us to own no man any thing Rom. 13.8 And we need not doubt but God is willing to help us to keep his Commandments And as you should cry to God to help you out of debt so also humble your souls for your sins for sometimes contracting of debts is inflicted as a judgement for sin Deut 28.15,43,44 If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandments The stranger that is within thee shall get above thee very high and thou shalt be very low he shall lend to thee and thou shalt not lend to him he shall be the head and thou shalt be the tail The Lord hath promised concerning such as are careful to keep his Commandments that he will not only help them to pay their debts but he will so bless them that they shall have no need of borrowing but shall be in a capacity to lend to others Deut. 15.4,5,6 The Lord thy God shall greatly bless thee Only if thou carefully hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God and thou shalt lend unto many Nations and shalt not borrow The like is promised Deut. 28.12,13 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season and to bless all the work of thine hand and thou shalt lend unto many Nations and shalt not borrow And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail and thou shalt be above only and thou shalt not be beneath if that thou hearken unto the Commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day to observe and to do them Plead these promises with God and encourage your selves to hope in God to finde out some way whereby you may pay your debts And if God do answer your Prayers and raise up means for you whereby to get out of debt pay off your debts as fast as you can When God had multiplyed the oyl of the widow that was in debt the Prophet giveth her this advice 1 Kings 4.7 Go sell the oyl and pay thy debt and live thou and thy Children of the rest 4. It hath been the lot of men fearing God to die in debt and not to leave wherewithal to pay their debts We read of one of the Sons of the Prophets who did fear God that died in debt and left no goods behinde him not any thing in the house but a pot of oyl so that the Creditors came to seize upon his Children for bond-men 2 Kings 4.1,2 There cried a certain woman of the Wives of the Sons of the Prophets unto Elisha saying Thy servant my husband is dead and thou knowest that thy Servant did fear the Lord and the Creditor is come to take unto him my two Sons for Bond-men and Elisha said unto her What hast thou in the house and she said thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house save a pot of oyl So that if after all your endeavours you should not be able to pay your debts but should die in debt and leave nothing behinde you this may be some comfort that this hath been the condition of some eminent Servants of God for such was this widows husband he was one of the Sons of the Prophets he was known to be a man fearing God Thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. Yet he died in debt and left not any thing to pay his debts withal 5. If you should be unable to pay your debts that you owe to men yet make sure you get your debts that you owe to God blotted out of Gods Book of Remembrance Our sins are our debts Mat. 6.12 Forgive us our debts compared with Luke 11.4 Forgive us our sins We should be more solicitous about getting these debts paid than any whatever and because we have nothing of our own to pay we should go to the Lord Jesus who is our surety and desire him to undertake for us What is said of the men of Israels resorting to David 1 Sam. 22.2 Every one that was in distress and every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and he became a captain over them The like should we do when we have any thing burdens and discontents and troubles our mindes whether it be debt or any other distress we should resort unto Jesus Christ and he will give us ease Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest SECT 6. Obj. 6. I am brought into much misery and great straits already by my losses and may in a little time go through a great deal more and this doth much disquiet my minde Answ 1. Murmuring will not lessen your misery but encrease it for there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction murmuring will not procure you enlargement out of your straits but rather cause God to lay more burden upon you until he hath humbled and subdued your spirit and caused you to accept of the punishment of your iniquity 2. Call not your afflictions wherewith God correcteth you for to promote your spiritual and eternal welfare your misery rather account them a part of your happiness James 5.11 Behold we count them happy which endure Job 5.17 Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy law We should be so far from disquieting our selves because of our afflictions that we should account it a matter of great joy when God is pleased to exercise us with divers temptations James 1.2 My brethren
why hast thou made me thus 2. It is for our good to pass through variety of conditions for thereby God awakens the fear of his Name in our hearts and shakes off our security and promoteth the holiness of our hearts and lives A continued course of prosperity without some changes oft-times breeds a great deal of security and forgetfulness of God Psal 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God Jer. 48.11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth and he hath settled on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity therefore his taste remained in him and his scent is not changed If God by this change beger or promote the fear of his Name in your souls that will be better treasure than any that you lost by the late Fire Isa 33.6 The fear of the Lord is his treasure 3. The Lord would have us be so far from being dejected at our crosses that he would have us esteem them a ground of joy Jam. 1.2 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations He would have men of high degree rejoyce when they are brought low as well as men of low degree to rejoyce when they are exalted James 1.9,10 Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted but the rich in that he is made low 3. Remember how contentedly our Lord Jesus Christ bore his state of humiliation Though he was Lord of all things yet for our sakes he became poor and took upon himself the form of a Servant and made himself of no reputation to bring us unto eternal glory 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich Phil. 2.5,6,7 Let this minde be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant Yet there never came one discontented word out of Christs month neither did there arise one repining thought in his minde throughout all the dayes of his humiliation Observe also how contentedly the servants of God have born their changes when God hath brought them from an high to a low condition When David was driven from his Kingdom and necessitated to flee to save his life he quietly submits himself to God 2 Sam. 15.26 When he that was honoured by all the Princes and Elders of Israel had a man of Belial came and cursed him to his face David puts up all his railing language with a meek and quiet spirit 2 Sam. 16.5,6,7,8,9,10,11 5. Though you be brought very low and those that were your friends in the day of your prosperity should now slight and dis-regard you yet if you continue to serve the Lord he will respect and regard you as much as ever he did Psal 136.26 Who remembred us in our low estate for his mercy endureth for ever Psal 106.43,44,45 They provoked him with their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity nevertheless he regarded their efftiction when he heard their cry and he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies If your hearts be lowly as well as your conditions low the most high God will respect you more than all the great men upon the face of the earth that are of a proud spirit Psal 138.6 Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off Whatever account men may have of the Servants of God the Lord esteemeth very highly of them He counts them his Jewels Mal. 3.17 It is said of them Isa 62.3 Thou shalt be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal Diadem in the hand of thy God This high esteem that God hath of you may abundantly satisfie you under all the slights and dis-respect that you meet with from men 6. If you be brought to fare hard and meanly by this providence whereas before you had a very plentiful table this should not trouble you for 1. God can make a course and mean diet conduce as much to your health and nourishment as the richest fare in the world Daniel and his three companions who eat nothing but pulse and drank water were of a fairer countenance and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the Kings meat Dan. 1.12,13,14,15 2. Though you should be brought to fare very hard yet as good and better men than you are have fared harder than you and yet did not murmur against God We read of an hundred men that were the Lords Prophets that lived in a cave with bread and water 1 Kings 18.13 John the Baptist was a great person Our Saviour telleth us that among them that were born of women there was not a greater than John the Baptist Matth. 11.11 Yet both his habit and diet were very mean John had his raiment of Camels hair and a leathern girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wilde honey Mat. 3.4 and he drank neither wine nor strong drink Luke 1.15 Our Saviour himself eat very course diet and yet was thankful for it When many of his friends were about him that came to hear his word he had nothing better to refresh himself after his labours and to give to his Disciples and those that followed him but Barley Bread and Fish and they had no seats to sit upon at their meat but the grass yet Jesus Christ lift up his eyes and gave thanks John 6.9,10,11 Another time being weary and thirsty he had nothing better than water to quench his thirst and he could not with once asking obtain a draught of water to quench his thirst John 4.6,7,9 Jesus being wearied with his journey sate on the well There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith unto her give me to drink then saith the woman How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria 3. The meaner your diet is the less will be your temptation to excess Such as fare deliciously every day are under a great temptation to make their belly their God which is a fin that will bring unavoidable destruction Phil. 3.19 whose end is destruction whose belly is their God 4. God hath given such of you as are his servants his Son who is the bread of life the bread that came down from heaven John 6.48,51 and the water of life John 4.10 and why should you be discontented because your dyet is mean who have meat to eat that the world knows not of hidden Manna yea who have the bread of life and the water of life SECT 9. Obj. 9. I had a very sweet and commodious dwelling where I lived very comfortably and now I am greatly unsettled I
unloose Mat. 3.11 Whose shooes I am not worthy to bear 2. When it is in our hearts to do any service for God or our Generation God approves of what is in our hearts though we are not able or want opportunity to effect and bring to pass what we desired to do for the advancing of the Glory of God and promoting our own or others good 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be a willing minde it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Though God did not permit David to build him an house yet God was pleased that there was a desire and purpose in his heart to have done this thing and commends him for it 1 Kings 8.18,19 The Lord said unto David whereas it was in thine heart to build an house to my name thou didst well that it was in thine heart nevertheless thou shalt not build the house 3. God is the Lord and master of the whole world and it belongs to the master of the house to take what servants he pleaseth and to set them about what work he pleaseth and put them out of his service when he pleaseth We that are masters of Families take this liberty to our selves and shall not we grant that to God which we take to our selves 3. If you are troubled because you are disabled from serving God and your Generation use what means you can to prevail with God to call you again into a way of service and to render you useful in your Generation I will commend to you some means whereby you may prevail with God to make use of you to do him service in your Generation 1. Purge out your sins and labour for sanctified hearts and lives Sanctified persons are meet for Gods use and he delighteth to employ them in his Service 2 Tim. 2.21 If a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for his masters use and prepared unto every good work 2. Act your faith upon the promises of God wherein God hath promised to make his people useful in their places and serviceable to him in their Generation I shall name one or two to this purpose Deut. 30.9 The Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand for good Here are two blessings promised the one is that we shall be full of employment the other is that good shall come of what we take in hand Something of this nature is implied in that promise Mine Elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands Isa 65.22 God hath promised to make us serviceable all the dayes of our life Luke 1.72,74,75 To perform the mercy promised that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life 3. Mourn over your unserviceableness and cry unto God to admit you into his service and offer your selves to undertake any employment that he shall cut out for you and promise the Lord that if he will put you into his service that you will serve him with an upright heart as David did Psal 75.2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly When the Lord seeth such a spirit as this in us he will soon employ us in some way of service as Deborah said Judg. 5.9 Mine heart is toward the Governourrs of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people So is Gods heart towards such persons as freely offer themselves unto his Service the Lord ordained it for a Law that if a Levite came to minister with all the desire of his minde he should be admitted to minister in the name of the Lord Deut. 18.6,7 God will assuredly provide work for those that do so highly prize his service as to cry and mourn after it 4. If you are by this providence disabled from following your former Calling then follow some other Calling for God would have no man live without a Calling When Adam was in Innocency God would not permit him to be out of employment but gave him a Calling to employ himself in Gen. 2.15 And the Lord took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it Chuse rather the meanest Calling than to live without a calling And if God so order it that you must of necessity take a meaner less honourable and more laborious calling than you had before be not discontented at it but comply thereto with a ready and quiet minde Moses that was delicately brought up in a Kings Court by the space of forty years and was so tenderly nursed up by Pharaohs Daughter as if he had been her own Son did not disdain to serve his Generation for several years in a very mean Calling viz. the Calling of a Shepherd Exod. 3.1 Now Moses kept the Flock of Jethro his Father-in-law It is said of David that he served his Generation according to the will of God Acts 13.36 When it was the will of God that he should serve his Generation as a Shepherd he was content to be a Shepherd and when it was the will of God that he should serve his Generation as a King he was content to be a King when afterward God drove him from his Kingdom and put him into the condition of an Exile he was content with that condition also 2 Sam. 15.25,26 It is probable that our Saviour himself wrought in the Calling of a Carpenter some time before he entered into the Calling of the Ministry and that is both a mean and laborious Calling and this may be gathered from his Countrey-mens upbraiding him with this Calling Mark 6.2,3 From whence hath this man these things and what wisdom is this which is given to him that even such mighty work are wrought by his hands Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary If you say we would willingly follow some other Calling now we are disabled from following our former Callings but we do not know what Callings to fix upon How shall we come to understand our way and to know what Callings God would have us make choice of now he hath disabled us from following our former Callings Answ 1. Ask counsel of God what Callings he would have you make choice of that so you may serve your Generation arcording to the will of God and not according to your own will The Lord hath promised to direct you in your choice if you seek to him for counsel Prov. 3.6 In all thy wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Psal 25.12 What man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose 2. Consider your own abilities both in respect of parts and skill and also in respect of your stock that you have left to trade withal and what Calling you finde your self best able to manage that you may make choice of and look
strength and security and do we look upon the strength of the Nation to be much weakened by this dreadful fire yet remember God is the strength of his people Psal 28.8 The Lord is their strength and he is the saving strength of his anointed Isa 25.4 Thou hast been a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his distress a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall When the servants of God have no walled Cities to dwell in God will be a wall of defence to them Zech. 2.5 I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her When they have no Bulwarks to secure them God will be their strong City and his Salvation shall be their Bulwarks Isa 26.1 In that day shall this Song be sung in the land of Judah we have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks This Song was composed for a Song of praise after the Jews were delivered from the Babylonish captivity and at their return they found Jerusalem in a broken ruinous condition and some might be afraid to inhabit a City that had no Walls nor Bulwarks whereupon the Prophet tells them their City should be strong though it wanted outward Fortifications for God would appoint Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks Was this City a Sanctuary and a place of refuge to any of the Servants of God Though this place of refuge be gone the Lord continueth still to be a refuge to his people Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Psal 9.9 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Isa 8.13,14 Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And he shall be for a Sanctuary Psal 46.1 God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble Isa 32.2 A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest as Rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land This Man is the Man Christ Jesus as he is styled 1 Tim. 2.5 And at this time when the Prophet Isaiah tells the Jews that Christ should be their hiding place from the winde and a covert from the storm he tells them of the destruction of their Forts and Strong-holds ver 14. Was this City a place of great Traffick where was vended all kind of merchandize and so was a means of enriching many and is trading now like to fail and poverty coming upon multitudes like an armed man There is a merchandize which is better than the merchandize of Silver and Gold of which we may read Prov. 3.13,14 Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth Vnderstanding for the merchandize of it is better than the merchandize of Silver and the gain thereof than the gain of fine Gold They that are by this fire disabled from trading may Trade as freely for the merchandize of Wisdom as ever When mony fails God will be instead of mony to us Job 22.25 The Almighty shall be thy Gold So the words may be rendered as is intimated in the margent of our Bibles and according to this Translation the sense is When God doth not give his people silver and gold he will be in the stead of silver and gold unto them and they shall be as well by vertue of what they enjoy in him as any man that hath the greatest plenty of Silver and Gold in the whole world When your Treasure that was wont to come in by trade faileth he will give you better Treasure Isa 33.6 The fear of the Lord is his treasure Are many thousand Families undone by this burning God can as easily provide for many thousand Families that have nothing to live upon as for one man What had all Israel to live upon when they were in the Wilderness besides the promise and providence of God there grew no corn in the Wilderness neither were there any Markets to buy provision yet God fed them forty years together in that desolate Wilderness in a bountiful manner although there was a very great multitude of them There went about six hundred thousand out of Egypt besides children Exod. 12.37 Are divers Hospitals and Alms-Houses wherein many poor people lived comfortably consumed by this Fire and thereby the poor in danger to perish The God of these poor people continues still as mindful of their necessities and as able to help them as ever he was God by his providence taketh a special care of poor distressed persons especially of such poor people as pray to him He hath laid up good things in store for them Psal 68.10 O God thou hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor When they cry to God he will hear them Psal 69.33 The Lord heareth the poor When they are in want he will provide bread for them Psal 132.15 I will abundantly bless her provision I will satisfie her poor with bread When they are in affliction he will deliver them Job 36.15 He delivereth the poor in their affliction When any would deprive them of their right the Lord will maintain their right Psal 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor When they are oppressed if they do but sigh to him he will help them Psal 12.5 For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him When they have no body that looketh after them to relieve them God will relieve their necessities Psal 146.9 The Lord preserveth the strangers he relieveth the fatherless and the widow When they are in straits and dangers if they commit themselves to the Lord he will be their helper Psal 10.14 The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless 5. This great and dreadful Judgment shall promote the spiritual and eternal welfare of all the Servants of God that have been sufferers by it It shall promote their spiritual welfare by making them more holy Heb. 12.10 He chasteneth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness None of Gods chastenings are for the hurt but for the profit of his Servants Psal 119.71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Though their afflictions may cause sorrow and grief yet they tend to the bettering of their hearts Eccles 7.3 By the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better And as this judgment shall promote the spiritual so also the eternal welfare of the Servants of God 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a
wherefore thou contendest with me If any ask How shall we come to finde out for what sins God is contending with us I answer 1. Go to God and pray to him as Job did to shew you why he contendeth with you Job 10.2 Job 13.23 and after you have sought to God to discover the cause of his controversie observe what sins he brings to your remembrance and sets before you and gives you secret intimations from his Spirit that for such and such a sin he is now correcting you In times of affliction God is wont by his Spirit to present to the view of our souls the sins for which he corrects us Job 36.8,9,10 If they be bound in fetters and be holden in cords of affliction then be sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded he openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity 2. Consider what sin your consciences suggested to you when God first sent your affliction upon you for oft-times God represents to us by our consciences what the sin is for which he contendeth with us as we may see in Josephs Brethren Gen. 42.21 They said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us 3. Search into Gods word and see for what sins God hath been wont to impoverish men and bring them low in their Estates and also for what sins God hath either threatned or inflicted this dreadful judgment of Fire and if you finde that you have been guilty of the same sins you may then know for what sins you have suffered the loss of your Estates by the late Fire I will give some instances in both kindes 1. For what sins God hath either threatned or inflicted this dreadful judgment of Fire and they are such as these 1. Unbelief and distrust of the promises and providence of God Psal 78.21,22 A fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation 2. Neglect of prayer and seeking after God Amos 5.6 Seek ye the Lord and ye shall live lest he break out like Fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel 3. Forsaking of God after we have had much experience of Gods goodness in guiding us and delivering us from many dangers and bestowing many other mercies upon us Jer. 2.15,17 His cities are burnt without inhabitant Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast for saken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way 4. Neglecting to sanctifie the Sabbath in a spiritual manner or prophaning it by doing service or sinful works Jer. 17.28 If ye will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entring in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched 5. Taking of bribes to pervert justice Job 15.24 The congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate and fire shall consume the Tabernacles of Bribery 6. Oppression and unjust and unrighteous dealings Job 20.19,26 Because he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house that he builded not all darkness shall be hid in his secret places a fire not blown shall consume him it shall go ill with him that is left in his Tabernacle 7. Pride Idleness fulness of Bread and neglect of the poor Ezek. 16.49,50 Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom Pride fulness of Bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her Daughters neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy and they were haughty and committed abomination before me therefore I took them away as I saw good Now the way by which God took away Sodom for these sins was by fire Gen. 19.24 8. Resting in outward Reformation without seeking after a renewed heart Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore-skins of your heart ye men of Judah and Inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings 9. Murmuring at any of Gods Providences though they be such as bring us into straits Numb 11.1 When the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the Camp 10. Mocking and misusing of Gods Ministers 2 Chron. 36.16,17,19 They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword And they burnt the House of God and brake down the Wall of Jerusalem and burnt all the Palaces thereof with fire 11. Changing Gods Ordinances and breaking his Covenant Isa 24.5,6 Because they have transgressed the Laws and changed the Ordinances broken the everlasting Covenant Therefore hath the Curse devoured the Earth and they that dwell therein are desolate therefore the Inhabitants of the Earth are burned and few men left 12. Sins of uncleanness as Fornication Adultery c. for these God consumed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven as we may see Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to Fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire 13. Idolatry Deut. 32.16,21,22,24 They provoked him to jealousie with strange gods They have moved me to jealousie with that which is not God they have provoked me to anger with their vanities A fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn to the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains They shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction Several other sins for which God hath threatned this judgment of fire you may see in the first and second chapters of Amos and also in other Scriptures which I shall not mention Consider also for what sins God hath taken away or diminished others estates and brought them low and afflicted them with poverty and that may help you to find out your sins for which God hath impoverished you It is true that sometimes God takes away his Peoples estates to exercise and try their graces as we see in the case of Job but usually when he brings us low and bereaves us of our Estates it is for our sins Psal 106.43 They provoked him with their counsels and were brought
well as for those that are endued with greatest discretion 3. There is a special Providence of God which watcheth and taketh care of such as are simple and shiftless Psal 116.6 The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Who are more shiftless than strangers widows and fatherless children and we find that God taketh a special care of such as these Psal 146.9 The Lord preserveth the strangers he relieveth the fatherless and widow Were not the Disciples of Christ shiftless when they were sent forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Matth. 10.16 and yet had neither money in their purses nor staves nor scrip Vers 9 10. but for all this they wanted nothing as you heard before from Luk. 22.35 4. Though you are friendless as well as shiftless let not this discourage you as long as you have a God in Heaven that taketh the care of you you are well enough though you have no friends on earth to look after you 1 Pet. 5.7 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you When David was in distress and had no friend that took any care of him he stayed himself with this that he had a God that was his refuge who would not only give him Heaven when he died but also be his portion and take the care of him in the land of the living Psal 142.4,5 I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my soul I cryed unto thee O Lord I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living The fewer friends you have in the world and the less help and relief you are like to have from men the more you shall have from God for he is wont in an eminent manner to take care of such as are friendless and helpless Psal 27.10 When my Father and my Mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up Jer. 30.17 I will restore health uno thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an out-cast saying this is Zion whom no man seeketh after Psal 10.14 The poor committeth himself unto thee thou art the helper of the fatherless Object 3. But I can't work my age may one say my sickness and other infirmities may another say do disable me from working and how then shall I be able to live in these hard times when I can't work to get my living Answ 1. It is the will of God that as long as we have ability we should work for our living for by that way God is wont to supply our needs namely by industry and diligence in our imployments 1 Thess 4.11,12 That ye studdy to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you that ye may walk honestly towards them that are without that ye may have lack of nothing The promise of being fed runs on these tearms Trust in the Lord and do good and verily thou shalt be fed 't is not said trust in the Lord and then though you live idly you shall be fed but do good and thou shalt be fed Idleness will bring a man to want Prov. 19.15 Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger 2. If you would work but cannot because you are disabled by age or sickness or some other infirmity this should not hinder you from trusting in God to maintain you For 1. When you can't work you can pray and if you pray God will stir up some or other to relieve you he will by his Providence send in a supply of your wants so that you need not fear want as long as you can pray Psal 34.10 They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing 2. When you can't work God can and will work for you though God ceased from the works of Creation on the seventh day yet he still continueth to work for his people in the way of his Providence Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work 3. The Lillies cannot spin or do any other work yet the Lord sends upon them rain in due season whereby they are nourished and clotheth them in a very glorious manner Matth. 6.28,29,30 and why should you fear that God will not nourish and clothe you though you should be able to do no work What could you do when you lay in your Mothers womb and for some years after you were born into the world If the Lord provided for you when you could do no work for him or for your generation because of your infancy why should you distrust him for Provision when you are disabled from working by sickness or old age Object 4. But I begin to be in want already I that have lived plentifully heretofore have not now wherewithal to supply my personal and family necessities and it peirceth my heart to see my children orying about me and I have not wherewithal to relieve them Answ 1. If it be so that you are sometimes pinched with hunger yet remember 1. That better men than you are have been exercised with this tryall the Apostle Paul speaking of himself and the other Apostles saith 1 Cor. 4.11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and have no certain dwelling place Yea Jesus Christ himself was tryed with this affliction of hunger and when he was hungry he sought for relief from the trees of the field and was disappointed of his expectation Mar. 11.12,13 When they were come from Bethany he was hungry and seeing a Fig-tree a far of having leaves he came if haply he might find any thing thereon and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves At another time being weary and thirsty in his travel he asked a draught of water of a woman of Samaria and was denyed it Joh. 4.6 when he was upon the Cross full of pain and anguish which made him very thirsty when he cryed out to those that stood round about him I thirst No body gave him any thing to drink but Vinegar which encreased rather than mitigated his torment Joh. 19.28,29 Jeremiah one of the Lords Prophets was ready to die for hunger Jer. 38.9 They have cast Jeremiah into the Dungeon and he is like to die for hunger 2. This affliction of hunger as well as other afflictions is a fatherly chastisement and comes from fatherly love and is sent with a design to do us good Deut. 8.3,5,16 He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger Thou shalt consider is thine heart that as a man chastneth his son so the Lord thy God chastneth thee that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end 3. The grace of God will enable a man to suffer hunger or any other affliction contentedly Phil. 4.12,13 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every
every Promise of his Covenant which relates to our temporal as well as our spiritual welfare Psal 111.5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant 3. Consider what great a care God hath for the satisfying of such as are hungry 1. It hath been his manner of old to provide good things for the hungry Luk. 1.53 He hath filled the hungry with good things When the Israelites were hungry in the Wilderness he gave them bread from heaven to satisfie their hunger and fetched water out of a Rock to quench their thirst Neb. 9.15 Thou gavest them Bread from Heaven for their hunger and broughtest forth Water for them out of the Rock for their thirst He caused the Ravens to bring bread and flesh to feed Elijah in a time of famine 1 King 17.6 The Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening The Ravens of their own nature would rather devour and eat a mans flesh than bring him bread and flesh to preserve his life so Prov. 30.17 so that we see that God hath altered the course of Nature and wrought miracles to satisfie his peoples hunger And as he hath done great things of old for the satisfying the hungry and relieving the poor and needy so he hath promised to be mindful of them in all ages and to do wonderful and unusual things rather than they shall perish for want of necessary food as you may see in the fore-quoted Promises Isa 41.17,18 Psal 111.5 and he will keep his truth for ever in these as well as in his other Promises Psal 146.6,7 Which keepeth truth for ever which executeth judgment for the oppressed which giveth foed to the hungry 2. Gods care of hungry persons appears by the strict charge which he hath given to those that have ability to feed the hungry they must be so careful hereof that they must not neglect giving food to such as are hungry though they have been their Enemies Rom. 12.20 If thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink He hath not only commanded us to feed the hungry but also hath promised great rewards to such as feed the hungry Isa 58.20 If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfie the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day Matth. 25.34,15 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was an bungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink see farther Psal 41.1,2,3 yea so careful is God of hungry persons that he threatens to condemn those at the day of judgment who have neglected to feed the hungry Matth. 25.41,42 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels for I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink May not this care that God hath of the hungry incourage you to trust in God in your greatest straits when you fear that you shall perish with hunger 4. Consider that God is wont to be seen in the Mount our extremity is Gods opportunity When the Widows Provision was all spent to an handful of Meal and a little Oyl in a Cruse and she knew not where to have any more but verily thought that she and her son must die then cometh Elijah and multiplyeth her Provision so that she and all her family were nourished during the time of the famine 1 King 17.12,13,14,15,16 When all the water that was in Hagars bottle was spent and she knew not where to have any more but thought that she and her child must die and had cast the child under a shrub saying Let me not see the death of the child then God opened her eyes and shewed her a well of water by her Gen. 21.15,16,19 When the Altar was built whereon Isaac was to be sacrificed and the wood was laid in order and Isaac was bound and laid upon the Altar and Alraham's hand was stretched out and he had taken his knife then the Angel of God calls to him out of Heaven to spare Isaac and shews him a Ram that was provided to be facrificed in Isaac's stead Gen. 22.9,10,11,12,13 And this act of Gods Providence in refcuing Isaac when he was at the point of death was recorded to strengthen the faith of all Gods servants in all ages that they may trust in God in their greatest extremities as we may see Vers 14. 5. Consider how easie a thing it is with God to provide for you seeing he is the Lord of the whole world and hath all the times of the Sea and all the fowls of the Air and all the creatures of the Earth at his disposal Psal 24.1 The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein Psal 50.10,11 Every Beast of the Forrest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand Hills I know all the Fowls of the Mountains and the wild Beasts of the Field are mine yea he can if he please sustain you by his Word without giving of you bread Deut. 8.3 And he himbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live God can send an Angel from Heaven to bring you Provision as he did to Elijah when he fled into the Wilderness to save his life 1 King 19.3,4,5,6 God can turn stones into bread Mat. 3.9 God is able of these Stones toraise up Children unto Abraham If God can raise up Children from Stones he can also turn stones into Bread to nourish the Children of Abraham 6. Consider how willing God is to relieve you he is not only able but willing to feed the hungry This will appear from what was said concerning the care that God takes of such as are hungry Consider 3. However I shall add something farther concerning Gods willingness to supply your wants because it is no easie matter to trust in God when we come into great straits 1. Earthly Parents will not deny their Children Bread when they are hungry and cry for it Mat. 7.9,10 What man is there of you whom if his Son ask Bread will he give him a Stone or if he ask a Fish will he give him a Serpent And God our heavenly Father is more willing to give good things to us when we ask for them than Parents are to give good things to their Children Vers 11. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him 2. God hath regard to the dry ground though it lie in a desolate place in a
vain But whoever they are that seek and serve the Lord he will give them grace and glory and all good things Psal 34.10 They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 84.11 The Lord Godiva Sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glary and no good thing will to with hold from them that walk uprightly He doth not only 〈◊〉 but giveth great rewards to every one that keepeth his Commandments Psal 19.11 In keeping of them there is great reward 2. When God enyes his servants or takes from then temporal blessings he give them spiritual blessings When he afflicts their Bodies the is good to their Souls Laius 3.25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him The poorest of Gods servants that have least of the things of this world are blessed with all spiritual blessings Eph. 1.3 and spiritual blessings are for better than temponal blessings 3. The very afflictions and troubles of Gods servants are profitable to them as hath been before cleared from several Scriptures as Heb. 12.10 He chastneth us for our profit Psal 119.71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted It must needs therefore be unreasonable to say there is no profit in serving God because his servants meet with many afflictions 4. The great day of putting a difference between them that serve God and them that serve him not is the day of Judgment then it shall evidently appear to the whole world even to them that can see no advantage now in godliness how much it profiteth a man to serve the Lord Mal. 3.14,17,18 Ye have said It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Sord of Hosts They that is they that serve me shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jenels and I will spare them as a man sparrth his own son that serveth him then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not 2. Take heed of being drawn by this affliction to depart from God Satan hath prevailed with some upon the account of their afflictions to turn afide from God and to give over waiting upon him 2 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer As some took distaste at Christs words and departed from him John 6.60,66 Many of his Disciples when they had heard this said This is an hard saying who can bear it From that time many of his Disoiples went back and walked no more with him So many take such offence at the providences of God that they depart from God and will walk no more in his wayes If you should be followed with this temptation to prevent your yielding to it let me suggest to you these following considerations 1. Consider whom you forsake when you forsake the Lord God is your life and will you not cleave to your life Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of the dayes Acts 17.28 In him we live and 〈◊〉 and have our being And will you forsake that God without whom you cannot live or continue in your being one moment A man will chuse rather to part with his Estate his Friends his Liberty yea all that he hath rather than part with his life Joh. 2.4 Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life If life be thus dear should you not rather forsake all that you have than forsake God who is your life God is our glory Psal 3.3 Thou O Lard art a shield for we my glory Now many will chuse rather to dye that to part with their glory 1 Gor. 9.15 It were better for me to dye than that any man should make any glorying void God is your friend and hath been your Fathers friend Now no wise than will readily forsake a true and an ancient friend Prov. 27.10 Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not God is orought to be your chiefest joy Psal 43.4 I will go unto the Altar of God unit God my exceeding jay Most men are desirous of and follow after joy and will you be so foolish as to forsake your chiefest joy God is the chefest good there is nothing in heaven or in earth comparable to God Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there it none upon earth that I desire besides thee There are many that pretend at least to seek after that which is good Psal 4.6 There be many that say who will shew us any good And will you be so unwise as to forsake the chiefest good Whoever that was in heaven forsook heaven excepting the Devils The best thing in heaven is God Whom have I in heaven but thee and will you forsake the best thing in heaven Did not God make you and hath not he maintained you ever since you were in the world And will you forsake the God that made you and hath redeemed you out of all your troubles and hath maintained you to this day Deut. 32.6 Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee Whom have you to go to if you forsake God can any give you eternal life besides God John 6.67,68 Jesus said unto the twelve Will ye also go away Then Simon Peter answered him Lord To whom shall we go thon hast the words of eternal life Can any forgive your sins besides God Mark 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only and what a sad condition will you be in if your sins be not forgiven who can save you in time of trouble and who can save you from the torments of Hell besides God Psal 3.8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. You must shortly dye and unto whom will you commend your souls when you dye if you for sake the Lord Psal 31.5 Into thy hand I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth In forsaking God you forsake your own mercies and involve your selves in unspeakable misery 2. Consider how contrary this is to the example and practice of the Saints and Servants of God in all ages to forsake God because of your afflictions if you observe their practice and carriage you shall finde that they have cleaved to God and continued constant in their walking with God in the midst of their greatest troubles Psal 44.17,18,19 All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsly in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death Jobs afflictions were very
wilt not put an end to thy miseries but wilt plunge thy self irrecoverably into far greater miseries than those that thou lyest under how great and many soever thy troubles be for Murderers shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 Now all the troubles of this life are nothing compared with the torments of Hell if it were possible for one man to have all the pains and tortures inflicted upon him that have been endured by all the men upon the face of the earth since the Creation of the World and he should suffer them a thousand years this would be far short of what the damned suffer in hell What the Apostle saith of the glory that the Saints shall have in heaven Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us the same is true of the torments of hell all the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the torments that the damned in hell shall suffer to all eternity 3. It is the Devil tempts thee to put an end to thy miseries by putting an end to thy dayes God counsels thee otherwise he directs thee to a better way of getting out of thy troubles than by destroying thy self and that is by calling upon God and casting thy burdens upon him and flying for refuge to his Son Jesus Christ Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Satan desires to have thee come unto him that he may torment thee and to that end he moves thee to destroy thy self Christ calls thee to come to him that he may give thee rest Now whether is it better to obey the call of Christ which will bring rest or to follow the counsel of the Devil who seeketh nothing else but thy eternal destruction Plea 2. I lived in good credit heretofore but now my Estate is gone I must look to be despised and disrepected and slighted and I cannot tell how to bear the loss of that esteem and respect which I have had formerly I had as good dye as see my self slighted Answ 1. Though you be brought low yet if you have lowly hearts God will respect you as much as ever he did Psal 138.6 Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly He will not only respect your persons but your prayers also Psal 102.17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer If you live in the fear of God all good men will honour you as much as ever they did Psal 15.4 He honoureth them that fear the Lord. 2. If you should meet with shame and scorn and reproach this is the hand of the Lord he is to be eyed in this as well as in other afflictions Isa 43.28 I have prophaned the Princes of the Sanctuary and have given Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches Psal 44.9,13,14 Thou hast cast off and put us to shame Thou makst us a reproach to our neighbours a scorn and division to them that are round about us Thou makest us a by-word among the heathen a shaking of the head among the people and seeing it is the Lords doing you must bear it patiently you must not in anger cast away your lives because God hath taken away your repute and honour 3. Suppose you should lose that credit and respect which you have had in the world if you continue in well-doing God will give you immortal honour and eternal glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Rom. 2.6,7 Who will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But by destroying your selves you deprive your selves of eternal glory for all murderers shall be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven Rev. 22.15 Without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers Plea 3. I am afraid I shall be in want or be driven to beg my bread or must be forced to live upon others and I had better dye than live in want or live to be a burden to my self and others or beg my bread Answ 1. God hath given his Servants many encouragements to hope that they shall not want or if they be brought into a necessitous condition that they shall have their wants supplied 2. We should endeavour what we can to maintain our selves without being burdensome to others 2 Cor. 11.9 In all things I have kept my self from being burden some to you and so will I keep my self Acts 20.34,35 Yea you your selves know that these hands have ministred unto my necessities and to them that were with me I have shewed you all things how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive 3. If God should bring you so low as to live upon alms yet this should not make you weary of your lives there are many of Gods children that shall reign with Christ in heaven to all eternity that received alms whilst they were upon the earth as is evident from Matth. 25.35,36,40 Yea Christ himself when he was upon earth received alms Luke 8.1,2,3 Suppose you should be put to beg for your living yet know 1. That it is better to beg than to sin better to beg than destroy your selves for the one is but an affliction the other is a grievous sin 2. Lazarus who was an heir of heaven whose soul was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom was so poor that he begged his bread and would have been glad to have had the crumbs that fell from the rich mans Table Luke 16.20.21,22 There was a certain beggar that was named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans Table moreover the dogs came and licked his Sores And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom 3. Our Lord Jesus in his thirst asks a draught of water of a woman of Samaria John 4.7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith unto her Give me to drink 4. If you should be brought to beg your bread the Lord will not forsake you in this desolate condition but will give you his gracious presence Psal 37.25 I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous for saken nor his seed begging bread It is not ordinary for God to bring righteous persons or their seed to beg their bread but when he doth they are not forsaken of God in that condition 5. The great God condescends so low as to
exalted to give repentance unto Israel but what is that to me I answer 1. This Israel had embrued their hands in the Blood of Christ Acts 2.36 Let all the house of Israel know affuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ and in the words immediately foregoing that Scripture where the Apostle tells them God had exalted Carist to give them repentance he tells them Acts 5.30 The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hung upon a tree him hath God exalted to give repentance unto Israel c. Now was Christ exalted to give repentance to them that crucified him and do ye think that he will not give repentance unto you if you go to him for a penitent heart have you committed greater sins than the crucifying of Christ 2. If you question whether Christ will give you repentance you may be satisfied that he will from his own words if you go to him for repentance for he hath said John 6.37 Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Plea 5. I have committed may some say a very foul sin and I am afraid it should come to light and if it should I shall be ashamed to look any man in the face and I had better make away my self than live to be a publick shame Answ 1. This will not conceal your sins to make away your self for there is a day of Judgment coming wherein God will bring to light and publish in the hearing of the whole world all your sins even your foulest and most shameful sins which you have committed with greatest secresie Eccles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Luke 12.2,3 There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops 1 Cor. 4.5 Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts And therefore if you should escape the shame of your sins here you will at the resurrection and the day of Judgment when God shall disclose your sins to the whole world be put to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt 2. The way to get your shameful sins covered is to confess them to God and to humble your souls for them and to flee to the Blood of Christ for by so doing God will pardon them and cast them behind his back and when God hath pardoned them they shall not do you any hurt 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness When God forgives sin he is said to cover it Psal 32.1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered David committed a shameful sin when he murdered Vriah and committed adultery with Bersheba yet upon his confession of these sins God pardoned him Psal 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Plea 6. I am tempted in my straits to steal and to kill my Children because I cannot maintain them I am tempted also to other sins Now I am afraid if I live I shall fall by my temptations into some foul sin and thereby be a scandal to Religion and to the Gospel and it is better for me to dye than to scandalize Religion and therefore I am of the mind when I can get a convenient opportunity to make away my self that I may not become ascandal to the Gospel Answ 1. You must not commit one sin to avoid another Rom. 3.8 Not as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just It is a good thing to prevent sin and to prevent scandalizing of Religion yet we must not murder our selves which is a great evil to prevent other sins or scandalizing Religion because it is in the judgment of the Apostle a damnable tenent and practice to do evil that good may come 2. What greater sin or scandal to Religion than for a man that professeth Religion to murder himself and therefore it is a strange delusion for a man to design the making away of himself to avoid other sins or to avoid scandalizing of the Gospel 3. If you be tempted to steal or destroy your Children or any other sins and are afraid that you shall one day fall by these temptations there are better means of avoiding these sins than by murdering your selves and they are such as these 1. Pray to God to keep you from those sins to which you are tempted by Satan or unto which you are enclined by your own hearts Psal 19.12,13 Cleanse thou me from secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me Psal 119.133 Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me 2. Hide Gods Word in your hearts for there is great efficacy in the Word of God when it is treasured up in the heart to keep a man from falling into sin Psal 119.11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee 3. Rest upon Gods Promises wherein he hath promised you that he will not suffer sin to get the dominion over you but when he seeth your sins rising up against you and ready to prevail he will take compassion upon you and subdue your iniquities Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you Micah 7.19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Go out against your sins in the strength of these promises and though you be often soiled yet renew your combat hanging and cleaving to the promises of God and doubt not but you shall in the conclusion obtain the victory Plea 7. I am a man cast off by God and I am sure to go to Hell when I dye yea methinks I feel the beginnings of Hell already in my Conscience by those terrors of God that are in my soul and a seared Conscience and the longer I live the more I shall sin and the more I shall encrease my torments hereafter and therefore 't is better for me to put an end to my wretched life than to live to encrease my sins and my torments for I do nothing else but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Answ 1. God would not
have any man to say God hath cast me off and utterly separated me from his people Isa 56.3 Let not the son of the stranger that hath joyned himself unto the Lord speak saying The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people We are very subject to mistakes and to think that God hath cast us off when as we have found grace in his sight Psal 31.22 I said in my haste I am cut off before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cryed unto thee Zion thought and said God had forgotten and forsaken her when as she lay near Gods heart and was in his thoughts night and day Isa 49.14,15,16 2. Suppose God did cast you off yet you must not cast him off but acknowledge before God that it is just with God to leave you and cry to him and follow hard after him and hang upon him and hope in his word even at such a time as he casteth off your souls When Heman complained Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my soul He did not cease calling upon God Ver. 9. I have called daily upon thee I have stretched out my hands unto thee Jonah when he thought God had cast him off yet resolves still to wait upon him Jonah 2.4 I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again towards thy Temple When David thought himself cast off by God he encourageth his soul to hope in the Lord Psal 43.2,5 Why dost thou cast me off why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope in God 3. Say not I am sure to go to Hell when I dye for it is yet a day of salvation and the door of hope stands open there is yet time and place for repentance 2 Cor. 6.2 Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation Though a man be a perfect slave to sin and Satan yet there is a possibility that he may be brought to repentance 2 Tim. 2.25,26 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will and if God give thee repentance though thou hast been as wicked a man as lives upon the face of the earth yet thou shalt surely be saved Ezek. 33.15,16 Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 4. Suppose thou apprehendest thy self to have as it were the beginnings of Hell in thy soul yet thy case is not desperate Others that have had pains and horrors in their souls like the pains of Hell have found relief from God Jonah after he had fled from the presence of the Lord and was cast into the Sea and swallowed up by a Fish felt himself in such a distressed condition that he compares his condition to the belly of hell yet he crying to God in this condition was delivered out of it Jonah 2.2 I cryed by reason of mine affliction to the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cryed I and thou heardest my voice When David was in such a state that he compares his pains to the pains of Hell by crying to the Lord he was delivered Psal 116.3,4,6 The sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell got hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow then called I upon the Name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul I was brought low and he helped me 5. It is true that all the while a man liveth in an impenitent condition he treasureth up wrath against the day of wrath and as he encreaseth his sins so also he encreaseth his torments Rom. 2.5 Thou after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Yet this should not cause any man to destroy himself it should only make a man more earnest in seeking unto God to give him repentance As long as there is life there is hope God may give a man repentance God gave one of the thieves that was crucified with Christ repentance but a few hours before he dyed He calls some into his vineyard at the last hour of the day But after death there is no place for repentance Eccles 9.10 Plea 8. I will repent of my sins and confess them to God and pray God to pardon them before I make away my self and if I do so I hope God will pardon my sins and receive my soul into his heavenly Kingdom as soon as I am dead Answ As long as you have any bloody designs and purposes in your hearts your prayers will avail nothing with God Isa 1.15 When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of Blood Lo here though you make many prayers as long as you have any bloody projects either against your selves or others God will hear none of them Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Now so long as you harbour a purpose and resolution to make away your selves you do regard iniquity in your hearts It is said Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy You mistake the meaning of the Promise if you think that you shall finde mercy upon your confessing of this sin when as you still retain a purpose to commit it I might mention other pleas but I should then enlarge too far upon this head I shall therefore only adde a few propositions concerning this temptation of self-murther that may be useful to those that are exercised with it and so dismiss this point 1. Whensoever any man hath any suggestions or motions put in his minde to murther himself it is not God but Satan puts those motions into his minde how specious pretences soever do attend those motions What is said of the motion that was in the heart of Judas to betray Christ John 13.2 The Devil put into the heart of Judas to betray him the same may be said of the motions that come into our hearts to destroy our selves it is the Devil puts them into us If a man be perswaded to make away himself I may say here as the Apostle in another case Gal. 5.8 This perswasion cometh not of him that calleth you That it is not God by his Spirit but Satan puts these motions into your hearts is evident for 1. God tempts no man to any sin James 13. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man 2. The Spirit of God moveth no man to do any thing contrary to the word Now the word saith expresly Thou shalt not kill The word forbids us doing our selves any harm as well as doing harm unto others Acts 16.27,28 The keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing
the prison doors open he drew out his sword and would have killed himself But Paul cried with a loud voice saying Do thy self no harm If any say I have Scriptures brought to my minde to encourage and put me forward to make away my self therefore surely it is God and not Satan puts me upon this work I answer Though thou hast some portions of Scripture cast into thy minde to put thee forward to destroy thy self it is not God but Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light and wresting and abusing the Scriptures that puts thee upon this sinful work When Satan tempted Christ to cast himself down from a Pinacle he brings a Scripture to him he quotes a precious promise out of the Book of Psalms to carry on his temptation the more plausibly Matth. 4.5,6 If Satan made use of Scripture to carry on his temptations wherewith he assaulted Christ then there is no doubt but he will try the same way with us also Now this would be one good means of resisting this temptation to be fully perswaded that all the motions that are put into our hearts to destroy our selves come from the Devil 2. The design of Satan in this temptation is to devour and destroy our souls he is our deadly and implacable enemy and is alwayes designing our hurt when he pretends our good he intends our ruine and therefore what counsel Solomon giveth us concerning a deceitful adversary Prov. 26.24,25 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him when he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven abominations in his heart is very seasonable here when Satan speaks us fair we should not believe him for he hates us and hath abominable designs against us in his heart That Satan seeks to devour and destroy our souls by this and all his other temptations may be cleared from several Scriptures as 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour John 10.10 The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy John 8.44 He was a murtherer from the beginning Now did they that are tempted to make away themselves fully believe that these motions came from Satan and that Satans design in moving them to kill themselves is to devour and destroy their precious souls that he may draw them into the same place of torment where he himself is it would be a good help to resist the temptation 3. There is hope for a man as long as God continueth him in the land of the living that he may obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ if he repent of his sins and believe in Christ how desolate and distressed and desperate soever his condition seem to be I add this proposition because Satan can hardly draw a man to destroy himself till he hath brought him to despair and therefore if the person that is under this temptation could be convinced that there was hope of mercy and salvation for such an one as he is it might be an effectual means of preventing the temptation from taking place I shall therefore endeavour to prove that no man whatever is to conclude his case desperate so long as God permits him to live upon the face of the earth but there is a possibility yea there is hope that he may obtain salvation if he will use the means appointed by God for the saving of his soul and that I prove by these arguments 1. It is the will of God that the Gospel should be preached to every creature under heaven Mark 16.15 Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Col. 1.23 The hope of the Gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven As long as a man is out of Hell as long as he lives in the world so long he may have the Gospel preached to him and may have salvation tendered to him by Christ and as long as the Gospel is preached to a man so long 't is a day of salvation that is a day wherein he may obtain salvation if he seek after it 2 Cor. 6.2 I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have I succored thee Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation What time doth the Apostle mean when he saith Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation I answer He means the time when we enjoy the ministry of reconciliation the time when we have the Gospel preached to us as you may see in the former Chapter ver 18. 20. He hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God and then adds chap. 6.2 Behold now is the accepted time Behold now is the day of salvation The note of attention is mentioned twice behold behold to cause us to take the more diligent heed to this truth that we should account it a day of salvation as long as we have the Gospel preached to us 2. We are commanded to account the long-suffering of God to be salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation and therefore they that conclude all hope of salvation is gone and that God suffers them to live only to aggravate their condemnation wrong God and their own souls by harbouring such conclusions in their mindes he therefore suffers us to live that we may have time and space to repent ver 9. The Lord is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Rev. 2.21 I gave her space to repent 3. The Scripture holds it forth plainly that as long as a man lives in the world he is not to cast away his hope Eccles 9.4 To him that is joyned to all the living there is hope It is true if once a man be dead and hath not wrought out his salvation before he dies the door of hope is for ever shut against that man but while he is in the Land of the living there is hope that he may obtain mercy 4. Whilst a man continues upon the face of the earth Christ calls him to look to him for salvation and promiseth him salvation if he doth look to him Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Look unto me and be ye saved that is I will save you if you look unto me And whom doth Christ call to look to him for salvation All the ends of the earth that is all men that live upon the face of the Earth from one end of the Earth to another so that as long as a man is not cast into Hell but is permitted to live upon the face of the Earth he should not conclude his case desperate 5. We find God hath rebuked
good success When Solomon was building the Temple it is said 1 Kings 6.11,14 The word of the Lord came to Solomon so Solomon built the house and finished it So he built the house and finished it that is he was strengthened and encouraged by the word of the Lord that came to him to go on with and finish the building 9. While you are busily employed in building your own houses do not forget or neglect the building up of Gods House Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie waste Solomon setting his heart to the building of Gods House prosperously effected what ever came into his heart for the building of his own house 2 Chron. 7.11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the Kings house and all that came into Solomons heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house he prosperously effected When I stir you up to build Gods house whilst you are building your own I do not only or chiefly mean places for publick Worship though that also be a very good and laudable undertaking the Centurian who erected a Synagogue was highly respected and extolled by the Jews for this pious work Luke 7.4,5 When they came to Jesus they besought him instantly saying That he was worthy for whom he should do this for he loveth our Nation and hath built us a Synagogue but that which I chiesly intend is that you build up your selves an habitation of God through the Spirit Every true believer is styled Gods house Heb. 3.6 But Christ as a Son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end All true Believers are Gods Temple 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them They are Gods habitation Eph. 2.22 In whom you are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Now after the foundation of this spiritual building is laid by the souls being drawn to Christ there must be constant and consciencious endeavour to be built up in grace and holiness 2 Pet. 3.18 Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 Besides this giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. If you ask what shall we do that we may be built up a spiritual house unto the Lord I answer 1. You must lay a good and a right foundation The foundation of this spiritual building is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ see also Isa 28.16 Eph. 2.20 The fundamental graces which are wrought in the soul that is built upon Christ are faith and repentance Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God When God had given you repentance for your sins and faith in the Lord Jesus then the foundation of this spiritual building is laid in your souls 2. You must be daily carrying and casting away the rubbish that hinders the progress of this spiritual building After faith and repentance are wrought in truth there remain several relicks of the old man which we must be daily purging away we must make it our work to destroy our sins if we would be built up in grace 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises that is ye are the Temples of the living God I will dwell in them and walk in them of which he had spoken in the former Chapter ver 16. dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God We cannot go on to perfect holiness unless we do in good earnest set upon cleansing our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit 3. You must be daily looking to Christ and going to him to carry on and finish that work of grace which he hath begun in your souls Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith 1 Per. 2. To whom coming as unto a living stone ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house Do not only go to Christ but rest upon him for the perfecting and finishing of what he hath begun in your souls and to that end ponder upon such Scriptures as these Psal 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus taketh a great deal of pleasure not only in beginning but in finishing the work of grace in our souls John 4.34 Jesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work 4. After you have received Jesus Christ you must not only believe in him but walk in him and by so doing you shall come both to be rooted and to be built up in him Col. 2.6,7 As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him By walking in and with Christ you shall keep his presence with your fouls for he hath said If we abide in him he will abide in us John 15.4 Abide in me and I in you and 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while ye be with him Now by keeping Christs presence with your souls they will be built up in grace Cant. 1.12 While the King sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof When the owner dwells in the house it is kept in good repair if he leave it and it stand empty all things go to decay As Martha said unto Christ John 11.21 Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The like may a deserted soul that findeth it self fallen to decay upon Gods with-drawing of himself say unto God Lord if thou hadst been here these ruines and desolations had not come upon my soul 5. Prayer performed in a spiritual manner is a great means of building up our souls in the grace of God Jude 20. But ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost Though praying in a slightly dead-hearted customary formal manner availeth little yet praying in the Holy Ghost that is by the help and assistance of the Holy Ghost and stirring up and exercising the graces of the Holy Ghost in prayer as faith fervency reverence humility c. is an effectual means to build up the soul in the grace of God 6. Converse much with the word of God read it frequently treasure it up in your hearts make it your meditation night and day that is the way to be built up a spiritual house unto the Lord 1 Pet. 2.2,5 As
of fire is as great a mercy as to be delivered from violent men and therefore you should resolve to give God thanks for your deliverance as David did for his Be not only affected with this mercy for the present but let the sense and remembrance of it abide with you as long as you live When the Israelites escaped safe through the Red-Sea where the Egyptians were drowned they were much affected with this mercy for a little while but in a short time it was as much forgotten as if it had never been received Psal 106.12,13 They sang his praise they soon forgot his works David was of another spirit he charged his soul never to forget Gods benefits but to bless God and be thankful for them all the dayes of his life Psal 103.2 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Psal 34.1 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth Psal 30.12 O Lord my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever Psal 104.33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being We please God exceedingly when we give him praise and thanks by Jesus Christ for the mercies he bestoweth upon us Heb. 13.15,16 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name for with such sacrifice God is well-pleased Psal 69.30,31 I will praise the Name of God with a Song and will magnifie him with Thanksgiving this also shall please the Lord better than an Oxe or Buliock that hath horns and hoofs God accounts the praise that his servants offer up to him in the Name of his Son melodious and delightful musick Ephes 5.19,20 Making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ To raise up your thankfulness to God for sparing your houses and substance and not suffering them to be destroyed by the late dreadful fire Consider 1. What a great affliction it is to be destitute of an habitation and of necessary food When David was in a wandering unsetled condition he met with such difficulties as made him shed many a tear Psal 56.8 Thou tellest my wanderings put thou my tears into thy bottle And when God gave him a setled habitation he dedicates his house to God and resolves to be thankful all the dayes of his life Psal 30.12 O Lord my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever This purpose of giving thanks for ever relates to the time that he dedicated his house to God as you may see in the title of the Psalm When the Israelites were destitute of an habitation and were tryed with hunger and thirst it was such an affliction as made their souls faint within them Psal 107.4,5 They wandered in the Wilderness in a solitary way they found no City to dwell in hungry and thirsty their souls fainted in them When Jacob was forced to flee from his fathers house to avoid his brother Esau's fury and knew not what straits he might meet with he looked upon it as such a great mercy to have food and raiment that he Covenants with God to become his servant if he would but give him bread to eat and rayment to put on Gen. 28.20,21 Jacob vowed a Vow saying If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on then shall the Lord be my God To be stricken with hunger and not to have wherewith to satisfie our hunger is a greater misery than to be pierced through with a Sword Lam. 4.9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger for these pine away stricken through for want of the fruits of the field 2. Consider how many there are who lived as plentifully and comfortably as you do that were as good or better than you are that are brought to want and exceeding great straits by the losses they have sustained by this Fire And have not you cause to admire Gods goodness and to bless him as long as you live for sparing you when so many have suffered so deeply who yet it may be provoked God less than you have done SECT 3. 3. Let the great calamities that are come upon others and the goodness of God towards you lead you to repentance cause you to humble your souls before God for your sins and to put away far from you all iniquity and to be more careful and conscientious in keeping the Commandments of God Ezra 9.13,14 After thou hast given us such deliverance as this Should we again break thy Commandements Rom. 3.4 The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance God expects that we should be led to repentance by others sufferings as well as our own Daniel reproveth Belshazzar because he did not humble himble his soul before God notwithstanding he knew what great things his father had suffered Dan. 5.20,21,22 When his heart was lifted up and his mind hardned in pride he was deposed from his Kingly Throne and they took his glory from him c. And thou his son O Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this When Judah had seen the great judgments which God sent upon her sister Israel and was not brought to unseigned repentance by them God was much offended at it and Judah's case was rendered thereby far worse than Israels Jer. 3.7,8,10,11 I said after she had done all these things Turn thou unto me but she returned not and her treacherous sister Judah saw it And I saw when for all the causes whereby back-sliding Israel committed adultery I had put her way and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and played the Harlot also And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord And the Lord said unto me The back-sliding Israel hath not justified her self more than treacherous Judah When but eighteen persons suffered by the fall of the Tower of Siloam Christ tells us that the meaning of that Providence was to call all that heard of it unto repentance Luk. 13.4,5 In the time of the Law when but one person suffered exemplary punishment and that not by an immediate stroke from God but by the hands of men all Israel was to take warning from his sufferings and to be afraid of sinning against the Lord Deut. 13.10,11 Thou shalt stone him with stones that he die And all Israel shall hear and fear and shall done more any such wickedness as this is among you See also Deut. 17.12,13 Even that man shall die And all the people hear and fear and do no more presumptuosly If the suffering of one man by the hands
vomit he also shall be in derision for was not Israel a derision unto thee was he found among thieves for since thou speakest of him thou skippedst for joy Do not trample upon those that are under Gods feet it is said of God Lam. 3.33,34 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth If the great God do not willingly grieve the children of men or crush under his feet the meanest sort of men the prisoners of the earth then it doth not become us to grieve or trample upon or crush under our feet any man how mean soever he be Do not oppress any one in his right that is become poor by this Fire in so doing you will be guilty of reproaching God Prov. 14.31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker it is the ready way to come to want your selves Prov. 22.16 He that oppresseth the poor to encrease his riches shall surely come to want It is said of Sodom Ezek. 16.49,50 She did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy therefore I took them away as I saw good If the men of Sodom were destroyed with fire and brimstone for neglecting to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy what shall be done unto them that weaken the hands of the poor and endeavour to make them more poor Do not exact upon those that are harbourless when they come to hire houses of you by demanding an unreasonable price for your Houses Shops or Ware-houses Nehemiah reproves those Jews very sharply that did exact upon their poor brethren after they had suffered great affliction by the Babylonish captivity Neh. 5.1 to the 14. verse By taking advantage of our neighbours necessity to set unreasonable and excessive rates upon our houses we may be guilty of extortion Our Saviour joyns these two together Extortion and Excess Matth. 23.25 Within they are full of extortion and excess Now Extortion is a great sin as we may see 1 Cor. 6.9,10 Ezek. 22.12,13 Have patience towards such as are endebted to you and are disabled by this Fire from paying their Debts and do not deal cruelly with them by casting them into prison or seizing upon that little which God hath left them but wait with patience till God shall enable them to pay what they owe God hath dealt mercifully with you and therefore you should not deal cruelly with your brethren Remember the parable of him that dealt cruelly with his fellow servant after he himself had found great favour with his Lord Matth. 18.28,29,30 The same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which ought him an hundred pence and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying Pay me that thou owest and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying Have patience with me and I will pay thee all and he would not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt And what was the issue of this cruel dealing His Lord was wroth and rebukes him sharply delivereth him over to the tormenters ver 32 33 34. Then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me shouldest thou not also have had compassion on thy fellow servant yea even as I had pitty on thee and his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormenters till he should pay all that was due unto him Do not exercise curelty towards the afflicted any of these fore-mentioned wayes or in any other kinde but let your hearts stand in awe of such precepts as these Zech. 7.9,10 Shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart Levit. 25.43,46 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour but shalt fear thy God Over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with rigour Rom. 12.10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love 1 Cor. 16.14 Let all your things be done with charity If you cast off all pity towards such as are impoverished by this Fire who knows but God may send a fire to consume your houses This very sin of casting off pity towards the afflicted is threatned with fire Amos 1.11,12 Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pity and his anger did war continually and kept his wrath for ever but I will send a fire upon Teman which shall devour the palaces of Bozra SECT 7. 7. Let Gods mercy in preserving your houses from this Fire cause you to dedicate your houses unto God When God gave David a peaceable and setled habitation he dedicated his house unto the Lord and composed the thirtieth Psalm at the dedication of it which beareth this title A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David Some conceive this dedication to have been after God put an end to his wanderings by reason of Sauls persecuting of him and gave him a setled habitation in Jerusalem Others think it refers to his returning to his house after he had been driven from it by Absalom Whensoever the time was that he made this dedication it may teach us thus much that when it pleaseth God to give us quiet and setled and comfortable habitations we should by way of gratitude dedicate our houses unto God Those mercies which we receive from the Lord we should return back again unto him as Hannah when she had obtained a son giveth him unto God 1 Sam. 1.28 He whom I have obtained by petition shall be returned so 't is rendred in the Margin unto the Lord as long as he liveth If any ask How should we dedicate our Houses to God I answer 1. Reform and cleanse your houses put away iniquity far from your Tabernacles if you be purposed to consecrate them unto God Job 22.23 We must not vow and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing lest we bring a curse upon our selves rather than a blessing Mal. 1.14 Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing If there were any thing of fraud and unrighteousness in building or purchasing your houses make satisfaction to your neighbour before you give your houses to God Isa 61.8,8 I the Lord love judgment I hate robbery forburnt offering Humble your selves for whatever sins either you or your predecessors have committed in your houses whereby they have been defiled for sin defileth not only a mans person but the place where he dwelleth Lev. 18.27,28 Jer. 2.7 2. If you would dedicate your houses to God let holiness to the Lord be written upon your
houses and upon all persons that dwell in them and upon all affairs that are transacted in your houses You know it is said Psal 93.5 Holiness becometh thy house O Lord for ever If therefore you would give your houses to God let those that are the masters of the house in the first place look unto themselves that they be holy in all manner of conversation and follow the example of David Psal 101.2,3,4 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me A froward heart shall depart from me Then endeavour to bring your Children and your Servants and all that live in your houses to serve God in holiness and righteousness Josh 24.15 As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Endeavour to get godly servants into your houses or at least to make them such after they are come under your roof Psal 101.6,7 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight Let holiness be written not only upon all persons but upon all your houshold affairs Be holy in your eating and drinking govern your Children and Servants and follow your Calling in an holy manner entertain all that come to your houses in a godly sort In a word be holy in all manner of conversation and do not think this to be too great preciseness for 't is no more than what is commanded 1 Pet. 1.15 As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation God would have us so eminently holy in managing our civil employments that all that converse with us may see holiness so evidently in what we do as if it were written upon our employments Zech. 14.20,21 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses holiness unto the Lord and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bouls before the Altar yea every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of Hosts 3. Suffer none that come to or dwell in your houses to speak or do any thing that may tend to the dishonour of God but endeavour as much as in you lieth to glorifie God your selves and to bring all that live with you so to speak and so to walk as that God in all things may be glorified Psal 29.9 In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory If you would have your houses become as it were Temples of God you must suffer no cursing no lying no scoffing no back-biting no rotten communication in your houses but every one must speak and walk so as God may be glorified When David dedicated his house to the Lord he begins the Psalm that he composed at the dedication thereof with a purpose and resolution to extol and glorifie God Psal 30.1 I will extol thee O Lord. Extol God in your hearts extol God in all your discourses extol God in your conversations extol God in all your wayes After David had been delivered from the hands of his enemies he thought it not enough to give glory to God himself but calleth upon others also to magnifie God with him Psal 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together Do you follow his example seeing God hath so graciously preserved your houses and substance from this fire do not only glorifie God your selves but call upon your Wives and Children and Servants and all that are in your Families O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together 4. If you would dedicate your houses to God make them houses of prayer pray with your Family every morning and every evening and besides praying with your Family go into your Closet and pour out your souls to God in secret and call to your Servants and Children to pray in secret as well as to joyn in family prayer Matth. 21.13 My house shall be called the house of prayer 5. Entertain with a willing and chearful minde all Gods friends and ghests that he at any time sends to your houses After you have dedicated your houses to God you should be as willing to entertain Gods friends and Gods ghests as your own If you ask who are Gods friends and who are his ghests I answer 1. All godly men John 15.14 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you When God puts it into the hearts of any of his servants to come to your houses you should most gladly receive them for they leave a blessing behinde them Matth. 10.41 He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward 2. All godly Ministers when you receive them into your houses the Lord Jesus taketh it as kindly as if you received himself or his Father John 13.20 Verily verily I say unto you he that received whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me 3. Such as are strangers Matth. 25.35 I was a stranger and ye took me in Heb. 13.2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares Job 31.32 The stranger did not lodge in the streets but I opened my doors to the traveller 4. Such as are driven from their own Houses or their own Countrey for Conscience sake Isa 16.3,4 Hide the out-casts bewray not him that wandereth let mine out-casts dwell with thee Moab be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler When we see any persons harbourless that are honest and well disposed we should take pity on them and receive them into our houses Isa 58.6,7 Is not this the fast that I have chosen Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh SECT 8. 8. Seeing God hath spared and preserved your Estates from this Fire by way of gratitude devote and dedicate your Estates to God and resolve to spend them according to his will and employ them for his glory We are commanded to honour God with our substance and we shall be no losers by spending any part thereof for the advancing of his glory Prov. 3.9,10 Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine If you ask how you should honour God with your Estates I answer 1. Do not spend them upon your lusts what is spent for the satissying of pride sensuality curiosity vain glory or the like that is spent upon your lusts and you may be sure that what
Children Orphans and Strangers these also ought to be considered in a more especial manner as being great Objects of Charity Job 29.12,13 I delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him I caused the widows heart to sing for joy God taketh a special care of the Widows and Fatherless and Strangers Psal 146.9 The Lord preserveth the strangers he relieveth the fatherless and widow And we should labour to resemble God see also Job 31.16,17,18,19,20 5. We should minde what opportunities God puts into our hands and embrace our present opportunities and we should be doing good to those unto whom our opportunity leadeth us to do good Gal. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might Prov. 3.27,28 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it say not to thy neighbour Go and come again and to morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee You see here we should not defer our opportunities of doing good so much as for one day I shall add no more upon this head but only put you in mind of the curteous carriage of the barbarous people of Melita towards such as had suffered shipwrack and were cast upon their coasts they received every one of the shipwracked persons in a curteous manner and at their departure did abundantly supply all their necessities Act. 28.1,2,10 When they were escaped then they knew that the Island was called Melita and the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire and received us every one because of the presentrain and because of the cold who also honoured us with many honours and when we departed they laded us with such things as were necessary Will it not be a shame for Christians to be wanting in relieving their brethren that have suffered the loss of their Estates by fire when as these Barbarians shewed great kindness to men that they never saw before when they suffered shipwrack and lost their ship and all their goods in the Sea SECT 9. 9. Render your selves to God by way of gratitude for his sparing of you from this sore judgment which hath fallen so heavily upon others Your Houses and Estates are too little to give unto God for this mercy and therefore you shall do well to give your selves both body and soul all that you have and are unto the Lord. When David was debating the case with himself what he should render to the Lord for his benefits he resolves to give himself to God to be his servant and that not only in profession but indeed and in truth Psal 116.12,16 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant 2 Chron. 30.8 Be ye not stiff-necked but yield your selves unto the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 But first gave their own selves to the Lord. What the Apostle said to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12.14 I seek not yours but you The like may be said of God He doth not seek ours but us he is more pleased when we give him our selves than with any other gift that we have to give him As a Christian looketh upon it as the greatest favour that God can bestow upon him for God to give himself to him he prizeth none of Gods gifts so much as the gift of himself so it is with God he esteemeth a mans giving up himself to God above all the gifts that he can give to God Let therefore the mercies which God hath given you prevail with you to give your selves your whole selves both body and soul unto God 1. Let Gods mercies prevail with you to give God your bodies Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service It may be some will say What Doth God care for our bodies Will that be an acceptable gift to God The Apostle assureth us it will be an acceptable present when they are preserved holy present your bodies holy acceptable unto God And he telleth us elsewhere that the Lord is desirous of our bodies as well as of our souls 1 Cor. 6.13 The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body Now then we give God our bodies when we keep our bodies in subjection to the will of God when we rule and govern all the members of our bodies by the Word of God when we are content to do or suffer any thing in our bodies for the sake of God that God and Christ may be magnified in our bodies Phil. 1.20 when we do not suffer sin to reign in our bodies neither do yield the members of our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but do readily yield up all the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness to do the will of God this is to give God our bodies And this is that which the Apostle calls for Rom. 6.12,13 Let not sin reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are above from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God 2. Give God your souls as well as your bodies otherwise you do not present your bodies to God a living sacrifice according to the forementioned exhortation Rom. 12.1 for The body without the spirit is dead Jam. 2.26 And if the body be a dead carcase without the spirit then we cannot present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God unless we give him our souls together with our bodies The soul is that which God desires above all things Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart Matth. 22.37,38 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great Commandement And why should any of us stick at this the giving our selves both body and soul unto God seeing it is our reasonable service Let me shew you the equity of what I am exhorting you unto that so such of you as have received great mercies from God may be perswaded by way of gratitude to give your selves the more cheerfully both body and soul unto the Lord. 1. Our bodies and souls are not our own but the Lords and shall we refuse to give God his own Shall we be backward to glorifie God with that which is his own 1 Cor. 6.19,20 Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods God did not make either our bodies or our souls for the service of sin or Satan but for himself 1 Cor. 6.13 Now the body is not for