hath done great things for us that in the Ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his Power in his kindness towards us in rescuing us from the jaws of Death and keeping us from going down into the Pit and by his glorious Omnipotence turning our Captivity as the streams of the South And this Almighty Power of his has been of old exerted for the deliverance of his poor distressed People as we may see in the Churches appeal to it upon her Invocation in time of trouble Isa 51.9 10 11. Awake Awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord as in the Antient days in the Generations of Old Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon art thou not it which hath dried the Sea the Waters of the great deep that hath made the depths of the Sea a way for the Ransomed to pass over therefore the Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with Singing unto Zion and everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain Gladness and Joy and Sorrow and Mourning shall flee away As if she had said Thou hast formerly shined forth in the Glory of thy Power in cutting Rahab that is in plaguing Egypt in wounding the Dragon that is in destroying Pharoah and in drying up the Waters of the Red-Sea Oh put forth that power now in Freeing and redeeming us from our present troubles that we with them may sing those Hosannahs of Joy on Earth which will be perfected in Hallelujahs when we come to Heaven Tantum gaudebimus quam tum amabimus tantum amabimus quantum cognoscemus says the devout Austin We shall Rejoyce as much as we shall Love and we shall Love as much as we shall know Our knowledge of the glorious Attribute of Gods Power will then be perfect and our rejoycing at it will be in perfection also we find the Prophet in a dark and gloomy day when things lookt black upon the People of God had recourse to this great Power of God for his support and bearing up under the pressures of those sad and heavy things he saw a coming upon Jerusalem as you may see in that solemn and serious Prayer of his Jerimiah 32. verse 17 c. Ah! Lord God behold thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great Power and stretched-out Arm and there is nothing too hard for thee Thou shewest Loving kindness unto Thousands and recompensest the Iniquity of the Fathers into the bosome of their Children after them the Great the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in Councel and mighty in Work for thine Eyes are open upon all the ways of the Sons of Men to give every one according to his wayes and every one according to the fruit of his doings which hast set Signs and Wonders in the Land of Egypt even unto this day and in Israel and amongst other men and hast made thee a name as at this day and hast brought forth thy People Israel out of the Land of Egypt with Signs and with Wonders and with a strong hand and with a stretched-out Arm and with great terror This prayer is very argumentative and conclusive concerning the Power of God that it is able to effect all things since by it the vast globe of the World was made out of nothing the Lords Might anb his Mercy are the good Soul's Jachin Boaz the names of the two main Pillars in Solomons Temple the one signifying Stabllity the other Strength to note the Saints are safe and established in the the Power and Mercy of God. Thus the great Lord hath done great things for us Secondly The Lord the good and gracious God the Tender and Merciful God who hath proclaimed himself before Heaven and Earth before Angels and Men. The Lord The Lord God Mercifull and Gracious Long-suffering abundant in goodness and Truth the Lord who is good yea exceeding good whose Mercy endures for ever The Lord whose thoughts concercing Mercy are not as our thoughts nor his ways with respect to doing good as our wayes but as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are his Thoughts higher than our Thoughts his Ways than our Ways The Lord that is as ready to Grant as his People can be to Ask who is nigh to all that call upon him in sincerity when Troubles and Calamities do Surround them as you may see in his most tender affectionate answer to bemoaning Ephraim as soon as he came upon his knees before him Jeremiah 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my Bowels are Troubled for him and I will surely have Mercy upon him saith the Lord. God may seem a great while as one unconcerned at the troubles of his People but when they are so high as to overwhelm their Spirits and their Hearts are bowing and bending yea breaking under them he then hath Pity and Compassion upon them in their Distresses As Croesus's dumb Son who never spoke in his Life before when he saw one attempting to Assassinate his Father violently cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Man Do not kill Croesus So the blessed God cannot hold coming in with supplyes of Mercy when his People are ready to be swallowed up in the gulf of Misery Mercy is his Name and Mercy is his Nature there is nothing he delights in so much for Mercy pleases him as much as it pleasures us and as he is great in Mercy so he is rich in it and free in it without any previous condition or qualification in the Creature He is a most free Agent in the distribution of Mercy Romans 9.15 for he saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on on whom I will have Compassion No other reason can be assigned no other motive by the Wisdom of Men and Angels could be produced why God should shew any Mercy to any of the Sons of Adam but his own free-will to it and his gracious Complacency in it When he is angry with his People and visiting them with some Judgments as Tokens of his Displeasure he is said to come out of his place importing that when he is doing good and shewing mercy he is then in his own proper place the place he would for ever be in did not our Sins too often occasion his removal We likewise read of his delighting in mercy Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee That pardonest iniquity and passest by the transgressions of the Remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy O Admiration Admiration That a dishonoured provoked and highly-incensed God should keep in the Vials of his wrath and shew so much Love and so much Mercy to his distressed ones yea in his Love and in his Mercy to do such great things for them Indeed when God strikes he strikes to
purpose and that wound cannot be small which is of his making A Jove percussus non leve vulnus habet He may and many time does lay his Hand on his People and that hand must needs be heavy and the blows very terrible such as will make the stoutest heart to quake and the most couragious Spirit to faint away When thou saith David with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a Moth. God in his Anger doth great and dreadful things to a sinning a provoking People Oh! but when he ariseth to have Mercy upon Zion he will do greater things for them than ever he did against them and such are the great things the Church speaks of here in the Text. The Lord the Merciful Lord hath done great things for us whereof as we have great reason for it we are glad Thirdly the Lord The true and faithful God keeping Covenant with his People and will do according to every Promise of his and this is the thing he hath promised in his Covenant Joel 2.21 Fear not O Land rejoyce and be glad for the Lord will do great things And this Promise he hath doth and will make good to his People even unto the End of the World. Our Miseries are our Advocate to Plead the Truth and Faithfulness of his Covenant with him So we find it Exodus 2.24 And God heard their Groaning and God remembred his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob. Which was to bring them out of that place They had been there a great while under cruel Bondage and Oppression God was ingaged in his Covenant to their Fathers to deliver them And their Sighs their Sobbs their Groans through their hard Usage to speak by an Anthropopathie did put him in remembrance of his Covenant Oh! 't is a great advantage then to belong to the Covenant Externa foederis gratiae Communio est qua Vocati pro foederatis Dei populo censentur saith a Judicious Author and upon how much higher ground do such stand then all others in the World for they can plead Covenant-promises and Covenant-priviledges Covenant-Engagements and Covevenant-Encouragements from that god who would not have his People strangers to him nor think that he is a stranger to them He owns himself his Peoples God and hence it is that he doth and will help them 20 Exodus 2. I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage The Lord is pleased to own himself his Peoples God and gives therefore incouragement to all his to cry out with the Church Thou art our Father though Abraham be Ignorant of us What God doth for his People he doth as their God as God in Covenant with them And as this makes delivering Mercy the greater so it raises the Obligation to praises and thankfulness much the higher Covenant-Interest is the sweetest part in any mercy we can enjoy whether privitive or positive Moses that Blessed Servant of God was very sensible of this demonstrated in that Song of his upon Israels deliverance from the hand of Pharoah which you will find Recorded Exodus 15.2 The Lord is my strength and Song he is become my Salvation he is my God and I will Exalt him Q. d. This deliverance shews God to be our God our Fathers God and mindful of the Covenant he made with them VVe have great reason therefore to exalt him in our Hearts and Lives and to sing aloud of his Righteousness that hath given such a Glorious Instance this day of his being a God keeping Covenant with his Chosen Ones Not a strange God but the Lord Our God our own God keeping Covenant inviolably with all that Fear him and put their Trust in him It is HE even HE that hath done great things for us Fourthly The Lord the Lord that is a present help in time of Trouble the Lord that staid the Knife just at Isaac's Throat which gave occasion to Abraham to call him Jehovah-Jereh Deus providebit God will provide or as our Translators render it In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen The Saints Extremity is his Oportunity He is the Lord that of old has come in with succour most seasonable when Miseries have been lookt upon by his People as inevitable The Light of his help has been always rising when the Star of his Saints hope hath been setting He is then nearest to his People when all other expectation is farthest from them The Scripture is not barren of instances of this great Truth to buoy up the Anchor of Christians Faith in most imminent times of danger God will appear in one way or other for them according to His old wont He steps in in the nick of time Psalm 124.1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the Waters had overwhelmed us the Stream had gone over our Soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a Prey to their teeth Our Soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth This If hath spoiled many a cunning project of the Devil and his Instruments to ruine the Church of God They would certainly many times prevail in their cursed designs of crushing the poor Saints if God did not arise Ay but He doth arise and that spoils all He doth come to deliver at seasonable times which blasts all the Enemies purposes and fills their faces with Confusion We have a notable Emblematical confirmation of this thing in the story of the Disciples being in a Ship with our Lord and ready to Perish even in the judgement of the Mariners themselves through the fury of the Storm Mathew 8.25 26. And his Disciples came to Him and awoke Him saying Lord save us we Perish And he saith unto them Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great Calm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is more significant then the English word Calm some derive it from a word that signifies Milk to note that the Air was as white and clear as that in a Winter Night which is called Via lactea the milky way but I rather conclude with Piscator Scapula and some others that it comes from a Theam in the Greek signifying to laugh or to look marvelous chearful The word then imports that there was upon Christs rebuking the Winds and the Seas not only a great Calmness Stillness and Quietness but also a wonderfull Serenity the Heavens and the Sea did as it were Smile and Laugh upon them which before did so Frown
poor lost Man of that Gospel that proclaims Liberty to the Captive and the opening the Prison-doors to them that are in Bondage and lets the Prisoners go free of that Gospel that shews poor Creatures the way to Life and how to be made happy for ever which hath so unreasonably and spitefully been hindred by all the hellish Craft and Subtilty that could be used Oh! how have men Stretcht their Witts and Tenterhookt their Power to stop the shining light of the Glorious Gospell Though God hath commanded it to be Preached and spread to the utmost confines of the Earth though he hath Promised it shall be so spread in the last days when the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the Waters cover the Seas and though he hath demonstrated it shall be so in the Vision which John saw Rev. 2.14.6 And I saw another Angel in the midst of Heaven having the everlasting Gospel to Preach unto them that dwell in the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and People Had this Angel stood upon Earth as he was to fly in Heaven in our Climate we lately had a sort of People would have been ready to have clapt a Warrant on his Back and apprehended him as a disturber of the Peace though he was to Preach no other than the Gospel of Peace So eager were they to cross the Almighty Oh! Impudent Presumption in his purposes and decrees But now Blessed be God there is a large door set open that all that are gifted and spirited for the work may apply themselves thereunto without any fear of Opposition Ill-men may threaten and repine at it but they cannot hinder it Happy Blessed Glorious day This Door hath a long time been shut to the great Grief and Trouble of many poor Souls How many poor Creatures have been hungry for the Bread of Life but there was none to break it to them How many were thirsty for the Water of the Sanctuary but there was none to draw it for them There hath been a great Famine of Bread of Heavenly Bread I mean in our Land. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath visited his People and given them this Bread and that in abundance VVho hath brought forth his Ministers from their Prisons from their hiding places and hath given them liberty and oppertunity to open their Mouths in the great Congregations and to act according to the Tenour of the Prophets Commission Esaiah 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet show my People their Transgressions and the Sons of Jacob their Sin. Don't speak in a low flattering way don't read in a dull sleepy cold manner as though you were rehearsing a story out of a Book but cry and cry aloud speak and speak out with a lifted up voice Plenis faucibus voce sonora quasi Tubali and what a mercy 't is that we have such Golden Trumpets sounding in the Gates of our Zion such glorious Lights shining in our Horizon Oh! this is a great thing Our Meetings which of late were confined to the most private and retired rooms and that not withot a great deal of danger are now brought forth in open view in the sight of all Israel and before the Sun VVho can think of this and not break forth into Admiration Sixthly He hath given opportunity to the worst to sit under the best means to their Souls good The Ignorant and Prophane Persons who had most need to hear were for cogent reasons in most places shut out from the word People were afraid to admit them into their Private Meetings lest they should be betrayed by them and every one that knows the worth of a Soul will own this a great Mercy indeed that such may now come freely into the Publick Assemblyes and none have any suspition of them The Net is now largely and extensively spread over all and blessed be God there is a Spirit in such to come in the Nets way I have always observed that the worst men have a hankering after the best means This our Saviour hinted at in his answer to John Mat. 11.4 5. Jesus answared and said unto them Go and shew John again those things which you do hear and see The Blind receive their Sight and the Lame Walk the Leapers are Cleansed and the Deaf Hear the Dead are raised up and the Poor have the Gospel Preached to them The word in the Original is Emphatical and the Poor are Gospelliz'd not only poor in respect to the World but poor in respect of Grace That are in a Natural unregenerated Estate what a vast injury to the Souls of thousands of such has this late Persecution been Oh! that all concerned in it may seriously lay it to heart and I am confident it will be small ease to them to reflect upon it that so many by the heat of their Spirits have been kept from that word that might have been the Savour of Life to them but now they may come and be pertakers of it Take notice you Drunkards you Swearers you Worldlings you Atheists henceforth you can have no excuse for you may now come and hear from the Messengers of the Lord of Hosts the misery of your Condition of the dreadfullness of Living and Dying in the state you are of the manner of True Conversion of the freeness of Grace of the Fulness of Love and of the infinite Vertue and Value of the Blood of Christ the closing with which by faith must be your happiness if ever you are made happy These glorious Divine Truths are not now spoken of in a private Chamber but publickly Proclaimed as on the House top Prov. 20.21 22. Wisdome cryeth without She uttereth her Voice in the Streets She cryeth in the chief place of concourse in the opening of the Gates in the City She uttereth her words saying How long ye simple Ones will ye love Simplicity and the Scorners delight in their Scorning and Fools hate Knowledge Oh! what a great thing is this Seventhly And which is none of the least of these great things He hath turned the Heart of our Royal and Dread Soveraign to us as the Heart of a Father to his Children We are told Pouv 21.11 The Kings Heart is in the Hand of the Lord as the Rivers of Water he turneth it wheresoever he will. Oh! Blessed be God for this Turn how welcome how refreshing is it even as the breaking forth of the Sun after a tedious Night We may now go home to our Tents Rejoyce and Triumphing that we even we have a Portion in our David and that we even we have an Inheritance in the Son of Jesse Through the Interposition of some shaddowing Clouds we have not had for some years the Smiles of Caesars Face being continually portrayed before him as some Monstrous Creatures unworthy his Protection There have not been wanting Hamans in the Court suggesting to the Prince that his Crown
could not set fast upon his Head while such Disloyal Ones as we were at Peace in the Land. But we now stand right in our Soveraigns Favour he has been pleased to spread the Wings of his Clemency over us and this we humbly Acknowledge to be a great thing God hath done for us Now then If stopping the Mouths of our Adversaries which were so open if lifting up the Head of our Ministers which were so low if securing our Inhabitants which were so uneasy if giving Liberty of Conscience which was so tyrrannyzed over if enlarging the Gospel which was so opposed if making way for the worst to hear the Word who were so miserably kept from it if turning the Heart of our Soveraign To Vs who suffered so much by that Fatal Eclips If these are great things then God hath done great things for us I come now to the last part of the words Namely The Influence that this has upon all that fear God Whereof we are glad The word saith Light is Sown for the Righteous and Gladness for the Vpright in Heart And this seems to be the Harvest time for our God is returning after so long with-drawing and repenting concerning us his Servants He is satisfying us also with his Mercy and making our Hearts glad in this day Yea he is making us Joyful according to the days wherein he hath afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil his VVork is appearing unto us and his Glory upon our Children Oh! That we could therefore make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord that we could serve the Lord with Gladness and come before his Presence this day with Singing Oh! That we could enter his Gates with Thanks-giving and into his Courts with Praise and be thankful unto him and bless his Name The Preacher saith There is a time to Weep and a time to Laugh a time to Mourn and a time to Dance VVe have had our days of VVeeping and of Mourning we have been in the VVilderness of Sin and as in the Vale of Siddim with Jeremy we have even had Furrows on our Faces and Isickles from our Eye lids with continual VVeeping with Origen we have almost been dead with Grief with Chrysystome we have been consuming our days in Sorrow with Basil we have been even old before our time and with Rebeckah we have been weary of our Lives but now Gaudia post luctus veniunt the Laughing time the Dancing time is come our Lord is now saying to us as to his Church 2 of the Cant. 10.11 12 13. My Beloved speak and said unto me Rise up my Love my Fair One and come away for lo the Winter is past the Rain is over and gone the Flowers appear on the Earth the time of the Singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land the Fig-Tree putteth forth her green Figs and the Vine with tender Grapes gives a good smell Arise my Love my Fair One and come away From whence should she come VVhy from setting in her Mourning-Chamber giving up her self to Sorrow and Lamentation for though it had been a blustering and stormy Winter with her yet it is now past though it had been a time of great and dismal Rain yet it is now over and gone and the Pleasant Spring time is come for the Flowers appear on the Earth and the Birds begin to Sing So it hath been with us The ways of our Zion have Mourned because none did come to the Solemn-Feast all her Gates were desolate her Priests sighed her Virgins were afflicted and she was in Bitterness But now our Condition is changed and we are called to Rejoycing and we shall Sin greatly if we do not Rejoyce Deut. 28.47 Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with Joyfulness and with gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things This was a great and a provoking Sin pray let it not be our Sin. But let us Rejoyce in the Lord our righteousness and glory in the Rock of our Salvation who hath done this great thing for us Give me leave very briefly to shew you how we should be glad First As it is an Answer of Prayer God hath manifested himself a God hearing Prayer in doing these great things for they are the very things we have been long Praying for as Hannah said to Eli. 1 Sam. 1.27 For this Child I Prayed and the Lord hath given me my Petition which I asked of him So for this day for this Change for this time of Liberty the People of God have been VVeeping and Praying and Crying aloud Oh! what floods of Tears have been poured out Oh! what volleys of Sighs and Sobs have been sent up in the Exhalations of the Spirits of the Saints unto the great God that he would do what he hath now done for them as it is of God that we are not destroyed so it is of God that we are delivered and shall we not be glad that he hath at length heard our Prayers and answered our Request Secondly VVe should be glad in respect to the Time of it He hath done great things for us at this time when we least expected it This Inhanced the value of deliverance of the Jews 7 Ezra 12. Artaxerxes King of Kings unto Ezra a Priest a Scribe of the Law of the God of Hâ—aven perfect Peace and at such a time Our King hath sent the blessed Message of Peace to the poor Ministers of the Gospel and to all the Churches of Christ in this Land and at such a time when we looked for nothing but Sorrow and Trouble and surely for this we should be glad Thirdly We should be glad demonstrated in our Vnion Bondage and Oppression hath not driven us together Oh! That Deliverance might since it hath pleased God to open a Door of Liberty for us all of what perswasion soever Oh! That we might heedfully attend to the Apostles pressing Exhortation Ephe. 4.3.4 Endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace There is one Body and one Spirt even as you are called in one hope of your calling I could heartily wish that all the unhappy Names of distinction which have kept up the feud so long among us might be now laid aside and that we might live together in Love and be sincerely loving one another as the fellow Citizens of the New Jerusalem Oh! This would be a great thing a glorious manifestation of our Gladness Fourthly We should be glad demonstrated in our Reformation There is a voice in Mercies as well as in Afflictions in Deliverance as well as in Persecution God hath been a long time speaking to us from the Fulminations of Mount Sinai and now is speaking to us from the sweet Irradiations of Mount Sion and his voice is that you will find mentioned Jere. 7.2.3 Stand in the Gate of the Lords House and proclaim there this word and say Hear the Word of the Lord all ye of