Jerusalem was surrounded with many great high mountains which were a great safeguard to it against all winds and storms such a shelter such a safeguard yea and a better Zech. 2. 5. will God be to mystical Mount Sion the Church against all winds and storms of affliction or persecution Psal 121. 3 4. He that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep He repeats the promise and sets it forth with a behold that it may stick the closer and warm our hearts the better The phrase is taken from Watchmen who stand on the walls in time of war to discover the approaching enemies and accordingly give warning Now though they may be careless treacherous or sleepy yet the Lord will be so far from sleeping that he will not so much as slumber no he will not so much as fetch one wink of sleep It hath been a tradition that Oppianus Plin. Hist lib. 3. cap. 3. Lions sleep not yet to think or say that they sleep not at all were absurd indeed their eye-lids being too little to cover their great eyes they do sleep with their eyes somewhat open and shining which hath occasioned some to think that they sleep not at all But sure I am that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah who is the Keeper of Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep he never shuts his eyes but hath them alwayes open upon his people for good he winks not so much as to the twinkling of an eye he alwayes stands Centinel for his peoples safety Isa 27. 2 3. In that day sing ye unto her a Vineyard of red wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment or as the Hebrew runs at moments or by moments lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day that is constantly continually without intermission And this constant care of God over his people was signified by those two Types the Pillar Exod. 13. 21 22. of Fire and the Pillar of a Cloud that left not Israel till they were in the possession of the Land of Canaan which was a Type of Heaven 8. And lastly 'T is an Active It was a strange speech of Socrates a heathen Since God is so careful for you saith he what need you be careful for any thing your selves Care a care that puts the Lord upon preserving his people and protecting of his people and making provision for his people and standing by his people and pleading the cause of his people and clearing the innocency of his people God is above his people and beneath them Deut. 33. 26 27. He is under them and over them Cant. 2. 6. He is before them and behind them Exod. 33. 1 2. Isa 52. 12. Isa 58. 8. God is in the front of his people and God is in the reer of his people he is on the right hand of his people and he is on the left hand of his people Psal 16. 8. Psal 121. 5. Psal 118. 15 16. Exod. 14. 22 God made the waters as a wall on their right hand and on their left God is round about his people Psal 34. 7. Psal 125. 1 2. and in the midst of his people Zech. 2. 5. Psal 46. 5. God is in the midst of her Isa 12. 6. Oh how safe are they that are under such a glorious care God is above his people and beneath them he is under them and over them he is before them and behind them he is in the front and in the rear he is round about them and in the midst of them Now what doth all this speak out but that the care of God towards his people is an active Care If the Phylosopher could say being in danger of Shipwrack in a light starry night Surely I shall not perish there are so many eyes of providence over me Oh then what may the Saints say Now by this argument 't is evident that the people of God stand upon the advantage ground as to their outward preservation and protection above all other people in the world Tenthly and lastly If you do but consider Gods great anger and deep displeasure against those that afflict oppose or oppress his people God sent his people into Babylon and their enemies added to all their sorrows and sufferings but will God put this up at their hands No. Zech. 1. 15. And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at case for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction I am very sorely displeased c. Or as Zeketseph from Ketseph which properly signifies such anger as causeth soaming and frothing as the tumultuous water tossed with the wind Eccl. 6. 17. Zech. 1. 7. boyling or soaming anger the word signifies a servour fierceness or vehemency of anger the Hebrew runs I am in such a heat as causeth fuming and foaming I am boiling hot and even ready to draw upon them and to cut them off from the Land of the Living For the Original word here used hath great affinity with another word that signifieth to cut down and to destroy 2 Kings 6. 6. and importeth an higher degree of displeasure a greater height of heat than either anger or wrath as may be seen in that signal gradation Deut. 29. 28. The Lord rooted them out of their land Beaph in anger Ubechemah and in wrath Ubeketseph and in great indignation The last of these three is the word in the Text and notes a higher degree of anger than the two former So Mal. 1. 4. Whereas Edom saith we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of hosts they shall build but I will throw down and they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever The Edomites were very great enemies to the Israelites they stood looking on laughing and rejoycing at Israels destruction God saw this and it greatly displeased him he being highly sensible of the least indignity done to his people and therefore he is resolved to pay them home in their own coyn Obed. 8. to 19. verse The very name and memory of the Edomites have long since been extinct and blotted out from under heaven they were a people of his wrath Isa 10. 6. and of his curse See Deut. z5 17 18 19. 1 Sam. 15. 1 Chron. 4. 42 43. and compare them together Isa 34. 5. So Amalek was a bitter enemy to Gods Israel but God utterly blots out his remembrance from under heaven and laying his hand upon his Throne he swears that he would have war with Amalek for ever Exod. 17. 14 16. Nahum 1. 2. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies The people of God ought to rest satisfied and assured that God sees and smiles and looks and laughs at
comes to pass that allthings seem to run cross and that Gods most just and righteous proceedings are not so clearly and fully discerned as otherwise they might be The wheels in a Watch or in a Clock move contrary one to another some one way some another yet all shew the skill and intent of the workman to shew the time or to make the Clock to strike so in this world divine providences seem to run cross to divine promises the wicked are spared and the righteous are taken away yet in the conclusion all issues in the will purpose and glory of God Eighthly and lastly God hath taken several of his own dear children away by the pestilence to wipe off that reproach which Atheists and wicked men are apt to cast upon the Lord as if he were partial and his wayes not equal God to stop the mouth of iniquity Ezek. 18. 25 29. the mouth of blasphemy hath taken away several of his dear servants by the raging pestilence when the Psal 73. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 9. Job 24. 12. Psal 50. 21. wicked walk on every side yea when hell seems to be broke loose and men turn'd into incarnate devils and all because they have not been plagued as other men nor visited as God hath visited some of his dearest children Sometimes Gods manner is to begin with his own people 1 Pet. 4. 17. Judgement must begin at the house of God and the Lord commands his destroying Angel to begin at his Sanctuary Ezek. 9. 6. Sometimes when God intends to bring a common and general destruction upon the enemies oppressors haters and persecuters of his people he is wont first to scourge his own till the blood comes I took the cup at the Lords hands he means the cup of Gods fury Jer. 25. 17. and made all the Nations to drink that is prophesied that they should certainly drink of it unto whom the Lord had sent me But who were to drink first of this cup Mark he tells us verse 18. Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the Kings thereof and the Princes thereof These were to begin in this cup to Egypt and the Philistims to Edom and Moab and the Ammonites as he shews in the verses following Now all these were bitter and implacable enemies to the Israel of God Ah sinners sinners do not insult over the poor people of God because here and there the hand of the Lord hath touched them and God hath given the cup into their hands for if God be God the cup must go round and he will make good that word Isa 5. 22 23. Thus saith thy Lord the Lord See verse 17. and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling even the dregs of the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again but I will put it into the hands of them that afflict thee which have said to thy soul bow down that we may go over and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over And that word Jer. 49. 12. For thus saith the Lord behold they meaning his own peculiar people whose judgement was not to drink of the cup that is the cup of my wrath have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt surely drink of it or drinking drink as the Hebrew runs I have not spared my own dear people saith God who might have expected this favour at my hands before any people under heaven upon the account of my relation to them my affections for them and my Covenant with them all and do you think that I will spare you No drinking you shall drink that is you shall certainly drink of this cup of my wrath and you shall signally and visibly drink of this cup of my wrath And that word Isa 49. 25 26. But thus saith the Lord even the Captains of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee and I will save thy children and I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine and all flesh shall know that I the Lord is thy Saviour and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob. Oh that those men would lay these Scriptures to heart who rejoyce and glory in the sufferings of the poor people of God and because some of them have fallen by the hand of the destroying Angel considering that the design of God herein is to stop the mouth of iniquity and that none may say that he is either partial or fond Such men that have been eye-witnesses of Gods impartial dealing with his own people in this day of his wrath should rather be down in the mouth than up in their spirits they should rather be silent than raving against the people of the Lord they should rather tremble than rejoyce for if God deal thus with his green-trees how will he deal Luke 23. 31. The Hebrews call good men green-wood and bad men dry-wood with the dry when God cuts down his best timber will he not either grub up or burn up the old stumps surely he will If judgement begin at the house of God where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear 1 Pet. 4. 17 18. If God deal thus with his best friends how will he deal with his enemies If God deal thus with his dearest children servants and slaves have cause to tremble And thus much for the reasons why some of Gods dearest children have fallen by the pestilence in this day of the Lords anger The Tenth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. That such saints as do fall by the sword or by the pestilence they receive no loss no wrong no injury by these sad dispensations they gain much but they lose nothing for by these sad providences they are but hastened to heaven to their fathers house to their eternal homes and to those blessed mansions John 14. 1 2 3 4. that Christ hath prepared for them Elijah went to heaven in a fiery 2 Kings 2. 11 12. Chariot and many thousand of the Martyrs went to heaven in fiery Chariots and in bloody Chariots and doubtless many worthies in this day are gone to heaven in a pestilen tial Chariot as in a Chair of State Heaven is a place of so much pleasure and delight that they are happy that can 1 Cor. 9. 25. 2 Tim. 4. 8. James 1. 12. 1 Pet. 5. 4. Rev. 2. 10. Nec Christus nec Coelum patitur hyberbolem Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized get thither any how There is laid up in heaven an Incorruptible Crown a Crown of Life a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Immortality a Crown of Glory and who would not shoot any gulf to come
Sam. 24. 11 12 13 18 19 25. compared And some learned men are of opinion that Lazarus died of the Plague and yet the Text tells us that he was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome Oecolampadius and many other worthies also died of it When Munster lay sick and his friends asked him how he did and how he felt himself he pointed to his sores and ulcers whereof he was full and said These are Gods Gems and Jewels wherewith he docketh his best friends and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world Gods dear love to his people is not founded upon any thing in his people nor upon any thing that is done by his people but only upon his own free grace and goodness Deut. 7. 7 8. The Ethnicks feign that their Gods and Goddesses loved certain Trees for some lovely good that was in them as Jupiter the Oak for durance Neptune the Cedar for stature Apollo the Lawrel for greenness Venus the Poplar for whiteness Pallas the Vine for fruitfulness But what should move the God of Gods and the Lord of Lords to love us who are poor worthless fruitless Trees Ezek. 16. twice dead and pluckt up by the roots This question is best resolved in three words Amat quia amat he loves us because he loves us The root of his love to us lieth in himself and by his communicative goodness the fruit is ours Gods love to his people is a Jer. 31. 3. 35 36 37. lasting love yea an everlasting love 't is a love that never decayes nor waxes cold 't is like the stone Albestos of which Solinus writes that being once hot it can never be cooled again The Seventh Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this viz. Many times when the poor people of God cannot carry it with God for the preservation of a whole Land or Nation yet they shall then be sure to have the honour and the happiness to be so potent and so prevalent with God as to prevail with him for their own personal preservation and protection Jer. 15. 1. Ezek. 14. 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 compared So Ezek. 9. 4 6. The Eighth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this viz. Sword Famine and Pestilence can only reach our outward man they only reach our bodies and our bodily concernments they cannot reach our souls nor our internal nor our eternal concernments No outward Judgments can reach the favour of God or the light of his countenance or our communion with him or our spiritual enjoyments of him or the joyes of the Spirit or the teachings of the Spirit or the leadings of the Spirit or the earnest of the Spirit or the witness of the Spirit or the sealings of the Spirit or the quick enings of the Spirit or that peace that passeth understanding or our secret trade with Heaven The Ninth Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this viz. There are no people upon the earth that in times of common calamity stand upon such fair grounds for their preservation and protection as the people of God do And this I shall make evident by an induction of Ten particulars First They are the only people in all the World that are under divine Promises of protection and preservation Exod. 15. 26. Job 5. 20 21. Isa 4. 5 6. Isa 8. 13 14. Isa 26. 20 21. Isa 31. 5. Isa 32. 1 2. Psal 91. throughout Turn to these sweet promises and remember that there are no men on earth that can or may lay their hands on these precious promises and say these promises are mine but only the godly man These Promises are Gods Bonds which the godly man may put in suit and urge God with and plead hard in prayer which no other men Sirtorious as Plutarch observes paid what he promised with fair words as Courtiers use to do but so doth not God Men often eat their words but God will never eat his hath he spoken and shall it not come to pass Josh 23. 14. Ezek 12. 25. Ch. 24. 14. may The Promises of God are a Christians Magna Charta his chief Evidences that he hath to shew for his preservation for his protection for his salvation Divine Promises are Gods deed of gift they are the only Assurance which the Saints have to shew for their right and Title to Christ to Heaven and to all the glory and happiness of another world O how highly do men prize their Charters and Priviledges and how carefully do they keep and lay up the Conveyances and Assurances of their Lands Oh how should Saints then treasure up those precious Promises which are to them instead of all Conveyances and Assurances for their preservation protection maintenance deliverance comfort and everlasting happiness The Promises are a Mine of rich treasuries they are a Garden full of the choycest and sweetest flowers of Paradise in them are wrapt up all celestial contentments and enjoyments and therefore study them more than ever and prize them more than ever and improve them more than ever Secondly If you consider their near and dear Relations to God They are his servants his friends his children his members his Spouse c. By all which 't is evident that they stand upon the advantage ground for preservation and protection above all others in the world Thirdly If you consider that high value and esteem and price that the Lord puts upon them He esteems them as the apple of his eye Zech. 2. 8. He accounts them as his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. He prizes them as his portion Deut. 32. 9. yea as his pleasant portion Jer. 12. 10. He accounts them his Crown yea his Crown of Glory and his Royal Diadem Isa 62. 3. Thou speaking of his Church shalt also be a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord and a Royal Diadem in the hand of thy God Yea he prizes one Saint above all the world Heb. 11. 38. By all which 't is most evident that they stand upon the advantage ground as to their preservation and protection above all other people in the world for God accounts all the world besides to be but as dirt as dust as chaff as thorns and bryars that are only fit to be cast into the fire to be consumed and destroy'd When Pearls grew common at Rome they began to be slighted But Saints are such Pearls of price that God will never slight Fourthly If you consider that they are the only people in the world that are in Covenant with God Psal 89. 30 31 32 33 34. Jer. 32. 38 39 40. Ezek. 20. 37. Deut. 29. 12. Jer. 31. 31 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Some do derive the word Berith which signifies the Covenant from a Root which signifies to purifie to separate and to select And verily when the Lord makes a Covenant with any he doth separate them from others he honours them above all others and he looks on them and owns them for his
hear Sermon more nor never read the Word more nor never enjoy the prayers of the people of God more nor never taste any of the dainties of Gods House more c. Fourthly It will put a full period to the patience forbearance and long-suffering of God Rom. 2. 4 5. Fifthly It will put a full period to all the pleasures of sin Now the sinner shall never have one merry day more In Hell there is no singing but howling no musick but madness no sporting but sighing no dancing but wringing or hands and gnashing of teeth for evermore c. Sixthly It will put a full period to all gracious reprieves The sinner in his life time hath had many a reprieve from many executions of wrath and judgement Oh but now he shall never have one reprieve more Seventhly It will put a full period to all the strivings of the Holy Spirit Now the Spirit shall Gen. 6. 3. Rev. 3. 20. never strive with the sinner more now Christ will never knock at the sinners door at the sinners heart more c. Eighthly and lastly It will put a full period to all gracious examples Now the sinner shall never cast his eye upon one gracious example more The sinner in his life time hath had many gracious examples before his eyes which it may be at times have had an awakening convincing silenceing and restraining power in them Oh but now he shall never have his eye upon one pious example more All hell will not afford one good example In a word now the sinner shall find by woful experience that death will be an inlet to three dreadful things 1. To judgement Heb. 9. 27. 2. To an irreversible sentence of condemnation Matth. 25. 41. 3. To endless easeless and remediless sufferings Not many years since in the Town of Yarmouth there was a young man who being very weak and nigh to the grave and under the apprehensions of the wrath of God and supposing that he was presently going down to the Pit to Hell he cried out O that God would spare me but two dayes O that God would spare me but two dayes O that God would spare me but two dayes This poor creature trembled at the very thoughts of wrath to come O who can dwell with everlasting burning who can dwell with a devouring fire Isa 33. 14. And as death is terrible to the sinner so it is desirable comfortable and joyful to a Child of God Cant. 8. ult Luke 2. 27 28 29 30 31 32. 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 8. Phil. 1. 23. Rev. 22. 20 I desire death saith Melancthon that I may enjoy the desirable sight of Christ And When will that blessed hour come when shall I be dissolved when shall I be with Christ said holy Mr. Bolton when he lay on his dying bed Jewel was offended at one that in his sickness prayed for his life One whom I knew well a little before his death after a sharp conflict cryed out three times Victory Much more to this purpose you may find in my Saints Portion and in my String of Pearls Victory Victory he breathed out his soul his Doxology together Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ and so conquered Satan in his last encounter The dying words of my young Lord Harrington were these O my God when shall I be with thee Shall I die ever saith Austin yes or shall I die at all yes sayes he Lord if ever why not now When Modestus the Emperours Lieutenant threatned to kill Basil he answered If that be all I fear not yea your Master cannot more pleasure me than in sending of me unto my heavenly Father to whom I now live and to whom I desire to basten Mr. Deering a little before his death being raised up in his bed and seeing the Sun shine was desired to speak his mind upon which he said There is but one Sun that giveth light to the whole world but one righteousness one communion of saints as concerning death I see such joy of spirit that if I should have pardon of life on the one side and sentence of death on the other I had rather chuse a thousand times to die than to live So Mr. John Holland lying at the point of death said What brightness do I see and being told it was the sun-shine No saith he My Saviour shines now farewel world welcome heaven the day-star from on high hath visited me Preach at my funeral God dealeth comfortably and familiarly with man I feel his mercy I see his majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God he knoweth but I see things that are unutterable Mr. Knox found so much comfort from the Scriptures upon his death-bed that he would have risen and have gone into the Pulpit to tell others what he had felt in his soul And by that information that I have had from some good hands several precious Christians that have lately died of the plague have gone to heaven under as high a spirit of joy of comfort of assurance and of a holy triumph as any of the last mentioned worthies or as any other that ever I heard of or read of the remembrance of which hath been and still is a singular Cordial to all their relations and friends that yet survive them But as I was saying No godly man falls in any Common Calamity till his glasse be run and his work done so I say of all those dear servants of the Lord that have fallen by the pestilence in the midst of us their hour was come and John 7. 30. chap. 8. 19 20. 2 Tim. 4. 6 7. their course was finished Had God had any further doing work or suffering work or bearing work or witnessing work for them in this world 't was not all the Angels in heaven nor all the malignant diseases in the world that could ever have cut them off from the land of the living When Lazarus was dead his two sisters John 11. 21 32. Martha and Mary came to Christ with tears in their eyes and sad complaints in their mouths Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died said Martha and Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died said Mary And is not this the common language of many this day when such and such precious Christians have fallen by the pestilence Oh if such a Physitian had been here they had not died or if they had been let blood they had not died or if they had taken such a potion they had not died or if they had eat but of such or such meats they had not died or if they had not lived in such a foggy air they had not died or if they had not been shut up in such close narrow nasty rooms and places they had not died or had they been but so wise and happy as to have applyed such or such a remedy they might have been alive to this day Not
to these Crowns The goods things of heaven are so many that they exceed number and so great that they exceed measure and so precious that they are above all estimation What will that life be or rather what will not that life be since all good either is not at all or is in such a life Here is light which place cannot comprehend voices and musick which time cannot ravish away odours which are never dissipated a feast which is never consumed a blessing which eternity bestoweth but eternity shall never see at an end and who would not wade through a red Sea to come to this heavenly Canaan What are all the silks of Persia and all the spices of Egypt and all the gold of Ophyr and all the treasures of both Indies yea what is the glory of ten thousand worlds to that glory that those saints are now enjoying who have died by the pestilence in the midst of us When Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus after his return from Rome was asked by his Master what he thought of the City and State he answered That it seemed to him to be Respublica Regnum a State of none but great States-men and a Common-wealth of Kings Such is Heaven no other than a Parliament of Emperours a Common-wealth of Kings every saint in that Kingdom is Co-heir with Christ and hath a Robe of Honour and a Rom. 8. 17. Scepter of Power and a Throne of Majesty and a Crown of Glory Now what doth that Christian lose who dies of the pestilence and by that means is brought to the fruition of all this glory Death saith M. Brightman that was before the Devils Serjeant to dragg us to hell is now the Lords Gentleman-Vsher to conduct us to heaven In the Ceremonial Law there was Levit. 25. an year they accounted the year of Jubile and this was with the poor Jewes a very delightful and acceptable year because that every man that had lost or sold his lands upon the blowing of a Trumpet rerurned and had possession of his estate again and so he was recovered out of all those miseries and extremities in which he lived before Now our whole life in this world is made up of troubles and trials of calamities and miseries of crosses and losses of reproaches and disgraces but death is the Christians Jubile it wipes away all tears from his eyes it turns his miseries into mercies his crosses into crowns and his earthly hell into a glorious heaven Though death though the pestilence be to the wicked as the Rod in Moses hand that was turned into a Serpent yet to the godly death the pestilence is like to the wand in Elijahs hand a means to waft them over into a better life The Heathen Gods held death to be mans summum bonum his chiefest good Solomon upon his Throne extol'd his Coffin above his Crown Death is a fall that came in by a fall For a saint to die is for a saint to be no more unhappy By death the saints come to a fixed and invariable eternity Death is but an entrance into life That is not death but life which joyns the dying man to Christ and that is not life but death which separates the living man from Christ Death will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory Death is a saints Quietus est All fearful disasters saith Gregory which rob the saints of life do but serve as a rough wind to blow them suddenly into their desired haven I mean heaven It matters not saith Austin whether a burning feaver or flash of lightning or whether a stone in the bladder or a thunder-stone in thy head sends thee out of this miserable world for God minds not saith he the immediate occasion of thy coming to him but the condition and posture that thy soul is in when it cometh before him The great thing that God will look at is whether thou art a sheep or a goat a sinner or a saint a friend or an enemy a son or a slave a believer or an infidel whether thou art growing on the Crab-stock of old Adam or art engrafted into Christ whether thou art cloathed with the righteousness of his Son or whether thou standest before him in the ragged righteousness of thine own duties The Eleventh Divine Maxime or Conclusion is this Viz. Though a godly man should die of the plague yet he shall be certainly delivered from the evil of the plague The smartest rod that God layes upon his own people is from a principle Rev. 3. 19. Prov. 3. 11 12. Heb. 12. 5 6 7 8 9. of love though he be angry with his peoples sins yet he loves their persons Though the pestilence comes as a judgement upon wicked men yet it comes onely as a chastisement upon the people of God When the plague comes upon wicked men it comes upon them by vertue of the first Covenant and as a fruit of the Curse but when it comes upon the godly it comes upon them by vertue of the second Covenant I mean the Covenant Psal 89. 30 31 32 33 34. of Grace and as a fruit of his love Hence God is call'd the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant Neh. 1. 5. But why is he called the terrible God that keepeth Covenant but because as he hath covenanted to keep them from the evil of the world and to purge away their Psal 119. 75. John 17. 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. sins and to save their souls and to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom so he stands bound by his Covenant to make use of any terrible judgements or terrible dispensations to effect these great and glorious things As we sometimes preserve those things in salt that we cannot preserve in sugar so sometimes God preserves his poor people in the salt of afflictions in the salt of terrible dispensations when they would not when they could not be preserved in the sugar of mercies c. Though the plague should come into a godly family yet God will deliver that family from the evil of the plague Psal 91. 10. There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling Beloved Though the plague should come into a godly mans house yet there shall not be any evil in it to the godly man When the plague comes into a wicked mans family it alwayes comes in the quality of a Levit. 26. curse but it never comes into a godly mans family in the quality of a curse for Christ was made a curse for Gal. 3. 13. them It never enters into a godly mans family as a fruit of Gods revenging justice or wrath Rom. 8. 8. Jer. 24. 5. Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Jer. 31. 3 33 34 35 36 37. When the plague comes upon the wicked it comes upon them as a fruit of Gods judicial wrath but when it comes upon the godly it onely comes upon them as fruit of Gods fatherly anger When it