not And therefore how is God said to be the confidence of the ends of the earth To this we must answer according to a double acception of these words the ends of the earth They may be taken either collectively or else distributively 1. If we take these words collectively for all nations in all places then two things may be answered to the question 1. Though many nations as yet know not God yet in those nations there is sufficient meanes given from God to let them know that he only should be their trust and confidence In all nations there are such demonstrations of Gods power such declarations of his goodnes that he hath not left himself without witnes and that he only is to be depended on for all their good and to be trusted and confided in Two scriptures proves this We saith Saint Paul preach to you that you should turne to the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein who in times past suffered all nations to walke in their owne wayes notwithstanding he left not himselfe without witnesse in that he did good and gave us raine from heaven And fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse We see that God vouchsafed to all nations common outward temporall mercies that very heathens if they would but observe and take notice of it might thence have sufficient proofe and witnesse that he only is to be trusted in And so likewise Gods severity and judgements in smiting nations as yet not knowing him these are proofes that such nations ought to know that God only is to be confided in The wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who hold the truth in unrighteousnesse because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it to them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are cleerely seene being understood by the things which are made even his eternall power and Godhead so that they are without excuse So then though many nations do not actually make God their confidence yet God hath witnessed to them that he is or should be their onely trust and confidence 2. Though many nations do not as yet make God their confidence yet all nations shall one day do so and so for the present it is prophetically true that God is the confidence of all the ends of the earth David in spirit foresaw the great honour and glory which God should have in all nations and therefore he being a prophet and knowing what God would do in these later dayes he seeing this before spake of the universall adoration of God in all nations and of their taking him for their only God in a confidentiall reposing themselves on him And because of the certainty of the fulfillance of all this in due time therefore David speakes of it as if it were already come to passe and here he calleth God the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of those who are a farre off upon the sea This is not only implyed in this title here ascribed to God but David hath so much in another place Aske of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And againe All the ends of the world shall remember themselves and turne to the Lord and all the kindred of the nations shall worship before him And againe He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the end of the earth all Kings shall fall downe before him all nations shall serve him Take then the words as prophetically spoken of the time when God shall by terrible things shake the nations being the desire of his people and then it will appeare that he hath bin the Saviour of his from all their troubles and oppressions and then all nations will come in and choose him for their God and Lord one nation after another till all have made him their confidence and so in time these words shall be fully accomplished that God is the confidence of all the world of all the ends of the earth If the words were handled in this sense according to this exposition they would affoord much instruction touching the expectations which we are to have of the conversion of the nations of the world and concerning directions to pray for it that the arme of the Lord may be revealed to all people according to that of David God be mercifull unto us and blesse us and cause his face to shine on us that thy way may be known on earth thy saving health among all nations It is a blessing and mercy from God on his Church that for the present it knows him but it will be a new glimps of the light of his countenance on it when the nations come thoroughly to understand and praise him aright with it as their only confidence We should expect this and pray for it and desire the Lord to remove all impediments of it which for the present are very great For every valley must be filled and every mountaine and hill must be brought low the crooked must be made straight and the rough wayes made smooth People of lower and higher ranke in all places must be filled with grace after they are brought into a state of humiliation and whatsoever is crooked among them must be made straight brought to the rule be squared by the word and the wayes which are rough or offensive shall be smoothed just offences truly scrupling offences shall all be tooke away and then after this all flesh shall see the salvation of God all nations shall then come to know that Christ is the Saviour and salvation which God hath set out to the world There being no other name under heaven by which men can saved These things might be prosecuted with much instruction and comfort to all Gods people but I chuse to leave the Propheticall handling these words to the ages to come who shall experimentally finde the things now spoken of to be very true Let it suffice us to know that these words are prophetically true God is the confidence of all nations because he will be so when all nations shall come to acknowledge him for their God And so wee may safely understand the words collectively which so understood they are a full answer to the question 2. If we take the words distributively for the severall countryes of the world in parts and therein more particularly for the severall inhabitants for the particular persons dwelling in the earth and on the sea yet then the doubt remaines still How God can be said to be the cōfidence of every particular man in the earth It seemes otherwise experience teacheth us that there are very few who trust God and confide in him how then is this true that he is the
learne righteousnes Or if the Lord deliver his Church by overthrowing only the plots and conspiracies of the wicked disappointing them in bringing to passe their mischeife yet this also is a thing Reverend it should cause us to reverence him because he is able to confound the wise and to be-foole the wicked with the workes of their owne hands or lastly if the Lord releive his Church by small meanes or by unlikely meanes or by no meanes yet all this should worke reverence in us to feare that God who doth so great things in so great and wonderfull and unexpressible manner doing for his Church above all that we can imagine and thinke of Thus every way God delivers and preserves his Church by terrible things we now see what these are Secondly that God will thus preserve his people by terrible things that is by things striking terror into adversaries and working wonder in his children and which workes or should worke reverence towards him from all sorts three reasons evince 1. God delights to meete with his Churches adversaries in their owne way he will out shoot them in their owne bow They desire to appeare terrible and formidable to it if they can but put men into feare they thinke they shall have the day they triumph if they can raise a terrour and feare in people and therfore God will serve them as they would serve others he will meete with them in a way of terrout searing them and making them slie when none pursues Adoni-bezek confessed that seventy Kings by him had their thumbes and great toes cut off as I have done so God requited me saith he Haman prepares a gallowes for Mordecai and the same gallowes hangs him God will be terrible to those who delight to be terrible The wicked have drawen out the sword and have bent their bow to cast downe the poore and needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation their sword shall enter into their owne heart and their bowes shall be broken Cruell terrible men shalt be dealt with cruelly at one time or other Ebedmelech shewed kindnesse to Jeremiah in prison and therfore God preserved him But the other Princes which had incensed the King against him were given up into the hand of their adversaries God will be terrible to those who seeke to put his people into horror and amazement Pashur smote Jeremiah and put him into the stocks all night he thought to have terrified the Prophet but the Lord threatens him to be terrified The Lord saith Jeremiah from the Lord hath not called thy name Pashur but Magor-missabib for thus saith the Lord behold I will make thee a terror to thy selfe and to all thy friends 2. God will save his people by terrible things because he will shew to all the world how terrible a God he is whom his people so dreadfully and reverentially adore All shall therby understand that he is a God working wonderfully Thou art great and dost wondrous things thou art God alone saith the Psalmist He himselfe challengeth his creatures to doe as he hath done Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the world c. Hast thou an arme like God and canst thou thunder with his voice The great ones of the earth which cause others to trimble and feare are hurled up and downe as piles of dust in a whirlewinde by the smoake of his nostrills God will have the world to know that he is more terrible then any thing which the world accounts terrible Wicked and sinfull men are many times a great terror But who art thou saith the Prophet that are afraid of man who shall dye and of the sonne of man who shall be made as grasse and forgets the Lord thy maker They may destroy the body but when they have done they can doe no more but feare God who can destroy both body and soule in hell fire Againe death is the terrible of terribles saith the Philosopher adversaries of the Church are so terrible because they come as it were armed with death and are ready to destroy but yet God is more terrible for he only can instict death It is not the rage fury and malice of adversaries which can cause any to die as God gives life so he takes it away he makes alive and he kills Now God will shew himselfe to be more terrible then they though they come armed with death by turning their owne terror death upon themselves He shall bring on them their owne iniquity and shall cut them off in their owne wickednesse yea the Lord our God shall cut them off And 3. God will save his people by terrible things that all the earth may stand in awe of him and feare him and know him only to be God Who would not fear thee oh thou King of nations there is none like thee c. saith the Prophet The Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King at his wrath the earth shall tremble and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation God would be terrible to Pharoh in his judgments to get himselfe a name in all the world and so he will be to the enemyes of his Church that the world may know that he is a terrible God and that the adversaryes may be compelled to cry out who is able to dwell with the everlasting burning and likewise that his owne people may therby learne to serve him acceptably with reverence and godly feare because our God is a consuming fire Wicked enemies may kindle a fire to scare a Nation and fill therby a Landfull of terror and trembling but yet God can keepe his own so as there shall not passe the small of fire on them for he will be with them when they passe through fire and water How ever the adversaries fire shall not be a destroying fire to Gods Church for when he beginnes to shew himselfe terrible to them he will be unto them a consuming fire and will quench all the fires which they have kindled and so free the Land from all their feare but yet all will be with a terrible destruction to the most terrible ones continuing unrepentant among the adversaries Behold all yee that kindle a fire that compasse your selves about with sparkes walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that you have kindled this yee shall have of mine hands you shall lie downe in sorrow Thus the point is cleared Because God will shew himselfe to be a God of terror a God of vengeance a God to befeared respected reverenced and dreaded therefore he will execute terrible things on the wicked and thereby preserve his Church and people by terrible things Thirdly We will now see what for practice may hence be learned And briefely 1. Seeing God will preserve his Church and people by terrible things then surely the world must expect no other but
us looke to be partakers also of spirituall salvation when he saves us temporally otherwise his temporall salvation will prove but a reserving of us unto eternall destruction Thus we ought to acknowledge that God indeede is the God of our salvation Secondly Seeing God is the God of our salvation then let all of us learne whether we are to flie for any succour in a time of neede even unto this God intitled the God of our salvation Thus did David in every straite giving unto God such titles and names which intimate that God was all kinde of succour unto him And this we must do in our neede of either of these salvations 1. In our way spirituall to salvation We desire to be freed from many of our lusts passions and disordered affections for though perhaps God hath destroyed in his the dominion of sinne that it raignes not yet much corruption remaines keeping them under from thriving in godlinesse and of this they would be rid now in this case we must do as Saint Paul did beseech God against the messenger of Satan seeke to him for salvation yea for any salvation spirituall If Satan tempt it is God who must tread downe Satan under your feete shortly Satan is still a troubling though a conquered enemy seeking to espy all advantages and therefore we must to God who only inables us to resist that he may flie from us On perhaps complaines of an unruly unbeleeving yea dead heart let him remember that it is God that quickens it therfore seek to him resolving not to cease till he leave a blessing behind the more unbeleeving dead dull unruly melancholy dejected you find the heart be the more importunate doubling trebling yea multiplying suites for God at length will heare and free thee from an evill heart of unbeleife He hath the hearts of Kings in his hand and can turne them he only can change the heart and for this he will be sought that such a deliverance and salvation may be only ascribed unto him Another it may be is afraid that he shall one day miscarry yeelding to the temptations which daily assaults him one day he doubts he shall fall back giving out from his Christian profession let such a man seeke to God for he only establisheth upholds and strengthens in grace he only guides his servants making them persevere to the end and afterward he receives such so guided up to glory Thus we ought to seeke only to him for any thing needefull unto our spirituall salvation 2. Let us only seeke unto him for any temporall deliverance or salvation David Asa Iehosaphat Hezekiah yea all saints have done so and so ought we to do both for our selves for others and for the Churches of God The Church needes much salvation it was Davids prayer and it should be ours Redeeme Israell oh God out of all his troubles not from one but from all from its troubles from within and from its troubles from without yet seeke to God call in his helpe and his salvation unto her Our helpe standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth let us depend on him for it in a praying way so the Prophet Oh Lord be gracious to us we have waited for thee be thou their arme every morning our salvation also in the time of trouble The Church hath blessed be God for it many to fight for her but unlesse the Lord be their arme every morning strengthning them to fight all will for a certaine miscarry and though he do strengthen yet she may come into trouble for all that and then her duty is to pray that he may be her salvation in trouble And thus God is to be sought unto as to the Captaine of his peoples salvation both spirituall and temporall Thirdly seeing God is the God of our salvation let us his people labour to get assurance that we have an interest in the salvation which he workes As his people have interest in him so they have in his salvation To get this assurance let it be our care to have an interest in Iesus the Author of eternall salvation and the founder of all temporall deliverances for all and all manner of salvation is ratified and confirmed to Gods people in Christ We may be assured that we have interest in Christ and in the salvation which he hath wrought 1. If we be lost in our selves and sensible of our neede of salvation Christ was sent to the lost sheepe to such who in their owne apprehensions are lost being not righteous in their owne eyes He came to call sinners to repentance burdened sinners such who call to Christ for helpe least they perish such he will save come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you 2. If we yeeld obedience to him from whom we expect salvation it is evident that then we have interest in Christ and his salvation For Christ is the Author of salvation to all them that obey him A saviour he is to such to whom he is also a soveraigne for his saved people are saved to walke in holines 3. If we willingly heare and practise his word it is a signe that we shall be saved For God will have all to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth and salvation saith the Psalmist is far from the wicked because they seeke not thy statâ—â—es but I have longed for thy salvation and thy law is my delight Let us make Gods word our delight and God will make good to us this his title that he is unto us the God of our salvation And so much for the fourth observation The fift is this God is the confidence of all his people in all places The confidence of the earth of the ends of the earth yea of all the ends of the earth and as if that were not enough he is the confidence of those who are a farre of upon the sea The confidence of those on sea who are surrounded by sea of Ilanders and the confidence of those on land in all lands of the whole continent In handling this we will consider 1. How God can be called the confidence of all the world 2. What this confidence is which all his people every wher have 3. Why God is their confidence or what are their grounds of confiding in him And 4. What use may be made of this title given unto God who is here called the confidence of all the world First how can God be called the confidence of all the world This question may well be asked that the doubts which it affords may be removed For if by the ends of the earth be understood the inhabitants of the earth or the nations on it people dwelling on the earth and in the sea it will then be said that it doth not appeare that all these trust and confide in God There are many nations which know him
confidence of the ends of the earth and of those on the sea To this I answer When it is said that God is the confidence of the ends of the earth we must not understand these words of every particular individuall person or nation but of some in all places of some in all nations and so it is very true that his owne people where ever they be make him their confidence They trust in him relye on him depend upon him So that the meaning of these words The confidence of the ends of the earth c. is Gods people in all the earth and on the sea where ever they are make God their confidence though others do not And so it proposes to us this doctrine God is every where the confidence of his people I say of his people of those to whom he is the God of salvation of those whom he answers for whom he workes terrible things in the earth This righteous holy people make God their confidence And that God is the confidence of his people in all places not only this scripture but also others prove Some saith the Psalmist trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God And from the text let us take notice of the description of this sanctified confiding people 1. They are called the ends of the earth the extremity of the earth as if they were a people shut up in a corner a people driven to the ends or out skirts of the earth to serve God there And moreover 2. They are a people farre off on the sea A people exposed to as great hazards and dangers as can be imagined as if they were a people cut off from others by the sea and destinated to be a people afflicted and continually to be tossed with waves and tempests Yet this people in this condition as it were an outcast driven to all inconveniencies of earth and sea shall still trust in God making him their confidence I know as I said before that this description aimes principally at the universality of the Church which shall extend and spread it selfe farre and neere in all places on the earth to the utmost bounds both of sea and land But yet withall it will imply this that I say that though Gods people be a people as it were shut out from the nations of the earth not reckoned among them though they were penned up in the utmost limits not thought worthy to treade and to live on the earth and therefore contemned of all people and exposed to a thousand miscarriages and hard usages though they be tossed in name in estate in their persons yet shall this godly people this seede which serves the Lord be accounted unto him for a generation And they shall make the Lord their stay and staffe their hope and confidence So saith the text He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of all them that are a farre off upon the sea all his people every where in all places in all busines in all hazards in all straites for all comforts do still make the Lord their trust and confidence And thus the first thing the question purposed is resolved how God is said to be the confidence of the ends of the earth c. Secondly consider what this confidence is which all his people every where make him what doth it imply The word here signifying trust or confidence is sometimes put for an hopefull security Ye shall do my statutes and keepe my judgements and do them and yee shall dwell in the land in safety that is in an hopefull confidentiall security Now this confidence is nothing else but a secure resting on God for all manner of succour and security in the good and comfort which we would have God is said to be the confidence of his people in these respects 1. In respect that they hope for all good from him Confidence is not only an expectation of the full fruition of himselfe as our portion but also of all things else together with him and of all things else which are good from him The Lord is my portion saith my soule therefore will I hope in him The soule lookes on all its good and comfort in heaven and earth as from the Lord who is its portion and as to be supplied from him as out of its portion It expects from him life and health and outward comforts friends good name foode rayment yea every thing if these faile it lookes to be supplied from the Lord its portion yea and for all its good spirituall temporall and eternall Not only the pardon of sinne and things spirituall and heavenly but likewise protection provision and things earthly are hoped for from God Whom have I saith the Psalmist in heaven but thee and in earth there is none that I require besides thee 2. God is said to be the confidence of his people in respect of their secure relying on him for security and safety and repulsing all evill from them David to shew that he relied on him for all manner of safety calls him his rock his for tresso his buckler the horne of his salvation and his high tower God was a rocke to him in the seas and waves of his trouble when afflictions like billowes came thick and threefold he broke them and secured him as on a rock And God was a fortresse to him in a siege a a sheild against a storme of darts a shelter against a storme of inconveniences an horne of salvation to push away adversaries and an high tower where he was safe Making God our confidence is a secure relying on him for safety and security against all the evill which is feared or which hath seised on us 3. God is said to be his peoples confidence in respect of their recumbency and dependency on him in all businesses and imployments thorough which they goe in this life A contented acquiescence resting on God relying on him for the bringing to passe according to his will what we have to doe is a true making God our confidence So David Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to passe And so Solomon Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to rhine owne understanding in all thy waies acknowledge him and hee will direct thy paths Now this confidentiall trusting to God in all that we have to doe is seen most eminently in one of these three particular acts 1. When men make God their confidence though they have most apparent meanes of effecting or working what they are about yet they will not relie on those meanes but on God his blessing upon it So the Psalmist I will not trust in my bow neither shal my sword save me but thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put them to shame that hated us And so men make God their confidence when though