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A66555 David's distress and deliverance a sermon on I Samuel 30. 6. preached at Edinburgh March 22nd. 1696. By J:W: minster of the gospel. Wilson, John, ca. 1654-ca. 1719. 1696 (1696) Wing W2902; ESTC R219584 8,301 19

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to the lame Let us never entertain bad thoughts of providence till we see the whole frame That passage is more comprehensive than ordinary Christians are aware of Rom 8.28 All things work together for good to them which love GOD. There are some have uttered an expression which must be cautiously said and explained that their sins did them most good and their graces least not in their own nature but corruption or grace mingling sin became matter of Humiliation their graces of elation of mind Thirdly The promises of God are a Wellspring of comfort if infidelity did not dam up or divert its conduits There is more to be seen be a Gratious Heart in one promise than a thousand volumns where the Soul is convinced of Divine veracity and perswaded of the certainty of Divine revelation And I am perswaded that supposing a God and providence which none in their wits dare deny Yea in their secret thoughts must say quid si Supposing this I say the certainty and fullness of them suitable to all conditions events and circumstances is encouraging So that there is not any condition the Soul can labour under but it finds something in the word that meets it It were a transcibing Holy write to give particular instances I am perswaded none in the least degree acquaint with Christianity can deny it only herein lyes our error that as we are ready to mistrust the promises when they are due so also to trust to them when they do not belong 4 ly Experiences from GOD's actings on the Soul in every Condition are a great ground of Encouragement This extends not only to the Outward Course of Providence but especially to the Inward Actings on the Heart for the Infinitly Wise GOD discovers Himself unto us three wayes First In the Works of Nature this vast Frame all its Wheels are guided by an Architect that is Wise Great and Good and he that guides well the Universal Frame will much more his peculiar Servants 2 ly Of Providence there indeed things if we eye their outward Surface seem not to roule in so regular a Course being byassed by Mens corruptions Yet still without any confusion Things may indeed seem to us to act confusedly but GOD is Orderly in all His Workings and the wayes Men takes to build He takes to demolish For the same very Methods the Foolish World attempt to ruine the Gracious Soul by are the Wayes the Wise GOD is using for their Establishment Joseph's selling into Aegypt was designed for his ruine and defeating his Prophetic dreams while providence was making use of the same to raise both the patient and Agents Thirdly The experiences of his goodness appear signally in acts of grace his secret dealings on the Souls of men I shall instance only some of them suitable to the Text. Experience 1. When he shuts one Fountain he opens another David could have no room in Judah gets it among his very enemies in Zicklag And when he wants outward Ordinances wants not also Divine Consolations if his condition be straitned outwardly it s enlarged inwardly If Hagars Bottle be sp●nt there is supply at hand If Canaan yield no Corn Aegypt must If he take away the Staff of Bread and support without it we want nothing We are tyed to the means so is not he If he shut Ministers Mouths he can open their hearts If he withdraw maintainance from Authority before his Prophet want meat a Raven it self unclean to be eaten shall fetch clean food Experience 2. GOD is not alwayes against these whom men are Victrix causa diis placuit Sed victa Catoni said the Po●t Tho even among good men their corruptions may be striving against one another GOD is oft on the Sufferers side Saul indeed 1 Sam 28.15 may have the Philistins present and GOD absent But here there is distress from men and encouragement from and in GOD. The band of men may be near JESUS to Crucify but the Angel is as near to Comfort him Experience 3. Outward straits end not there but at length straiten the heart For troubles are not worthie of that name till they reach the heart Job 34.29 If he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and è contra As is the heart such is the man either Cloudy or comfortable Crosses or comforts either begin or end there If GOD's presence be not with us we move like Pharaohs Chariots in the red Sea but if the Oyl of Joy anoint the Wheels like the Chariots of Aminadab a willing People Neh 8.10 Experience 4 th The Fear and Love of GOD casts out the fear of Men David eying the Ziklagites saw nothing but stonning Eying GOD Encouragement Isa. 8.13 14. The fear of Men espyes nothing but a Conspiracy the Fear of GOD a Sanctuarie Perfect Love casteth out fear of Suffering be Men. 1 John 4.18 When there appears darkness overspreading the Hemisphere in a Storm or Ecclipse the Sun that is darkned is not set JESUS can tell John 19.11 Ye had not had power over me if it had not been given you from Above Experience 5 th Tho GOD permits to annoy yet gives no power to destroy them The Ziklagites that threaten stones might as easily have thrown them that which reached to Jobs Children substance and skin might have reached his life but none in Heaven earth or hell dare exceed their commission Nero burns the Christians but he could not consume Christianity Dioclesian erects his Triumphs Post deletum nomen Christianum But they were then alive that saw it wear the Imperial Diadem and purple All the advantage Men obtain by fighting against the Interest of CHRIST and Christians is that they get their Grave in the Quarrel which they digg with their own Hands Let Winds bluster Tides rise Enemies roar Shelves threaten and Self straiten the Ship of the Church and of particular Beleivers also Fluctuat nunquam mergitur Experience 6 th Before Deliverance Straits urge most the day before the Dawning is darkest Betwixt Malachie the last of the Prophets who according to Bishop Usher's Annals lived Anno M 3589 and our Saviour's appearing Anno M 3984 were 395 years not a Prophet sent in all this time till the LORD of all the Prophets appears Remark David here immediatly before his wearing the Crown straitned the next Chapter shews the death of Saul and thereafter his Solemn Investiture The Israelites at Baalzephon see how straitned Exod 14.10 Et Seq observe how it ends Chapter 15. throughout Eye the Psalms where many of them begins with Sadness end with Comfort Yea the Text begins with Distress and ends with Encouragement Thus it is also with private Christians as Experience will convince when the Clouds are thickest the Sky darkest the Soul overcasten neither Sun nor Stars appearing for many dayes a Harbour appears for the distressed Soul For Improvement HEnce we may learn first what it is that obstructs our Comfort It is true sometime indeed and very often in