for thy truths sake Psal 115.1 and in all our duties and devotions when we do most for God and act highest for his glory let us breath out those humble acknowledgements of that holy man 1 Chro. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee So vers 6. O Lord our God all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy Name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own This will be a means to keep our hearts in an humble and dependent frame upon God and make us acknowledge with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God we are what we are and this grace which we humbly confess to be bestowed upon us will not be in vain but will make us labour more abundantly for God then they all that proudly assert the power of nature and yet in all our actings for God we shall cast down our crowns at the feet of the Lambe and self-denyingly say Not we but the grace of God which was with us not we but thy talents have gained other five 3. This makes a sad report of the dangerous estate that all men are in whilst they are under the power of corrupt nature they ly upon the brink of the pit they walk within one inch of Hell they hang by the twine thread of a frail and brittle life over that deep and dark dungeon of the great abysse ready each moment to drop in Oh! did they but hear the doleful woes which are denounced against them it would be a dreadful sound in their ears Oh their hearts are very hard and their beds very soft who can quietly sleep out one night under the apprehension of that sad estate yet such a lethargy and spirit of deep sleep hath seized upon most men that they nor onely take a little nap but fetch many a sound sleep in that dead and undone condition Oh! if a blind man should wander without a guide until he came within one step of a great lake of brimstone and fire and then his eyes should be suddenly open to see the danger he was near unto what a work would this have upon his spirit How full of rejoycing and amazement would he be filled with that he had escaped so great a danger Or suppose a man should be taken out of a ship when fast asleep and should be laid upon the top of a rock in the middest of a deep and broad Sea what sears would surprize him what expectations of certain and inevitable death would he be possessed with when he awakes and seeth neither ship nor land nor man near him but is left alone in the wide and wild Ocean Nay farther what would be the thoughts and afrightments of that man who should be chained to a brazen pillar and a thousand Cannons charged and mounted and ready to be fired upon him Sure he would be afraid each moment to be dasht in pieces But alas these and all other resemblances which the heart of man can possibly finde out fall far short of that deplorable estate natural men are in they are left upon a rock ready every munite to be engulph't and swallowed up by the deluge of Divine wrath all the curses and threatnings of the law are each moment ready to be discharged upon them nay whilest they are securely jogging on in the ways of sin and vanity the next step they take may tumble them headlong into hell and yet they are asleep and know not blind and see not the dangers they are dropping into and so are they shackled with the ferters of their own corruptions that they cannot step aside to avoid the danger Oh were their eyes opened as once Balaams were and they awakened as once Sampson was we might wonder that any natural man kept his wits that the whole world who lys in wickedness was not baptized with Pashurs new name Magor-Missabib viz. fear on every side Jer. 20.3 even round about them and to see that dreadful passage made good in every Nation and town Rev. 6.15 16. That the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free-man should hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and should say unto the mountains and recks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who way abide his coming Ah surely the sense of their dreadful misery would suddenly bring them into Nabals condition their hearts would diâ— within them and they would be as stones O how should the sense of this provoke the Saints to own with thankfulnesse recovering and renewing grace and especially if we consider what sad distractions the sense of this danger brought forth in us at our first awakening Many of the Saints under their first convictions have seen their misery past all hope of remedy Consid 2 They have had sad visions of wo and wrath at their first enlightening Many have been the terrours and great hath been the consternation of spirit which many have lain under at their first conversion Such a sense of sin wrath and judgement to come hath seized upon them that Felix-like they have trembled nay they have cried out with the Prophet Isa 6. ver 5. Wo is me I am undone I am in a lost and perishing estate and indeed needs must it be thus with them those especially who have been brought out of a state of great profanenesse who have acted high and long against the Lord and there is great reason for it because they are brought home by a through conviction both of sin and wrath alas fools as they were formerly they made a sport of sin it was but childrens play with them to swear be drunk profane Sabbaths commit uncleannesse c. they went as nimbly away with all the load of sin upon their consciences as Sampson did with the gates of Gaza on his shoulders they wondred at the down exact-looks and scoffed at the whining complaints of mourning sinners I but now the case is altered when the spirit of bondage is upon them to fear now they find that guilt in sin feel those pangs of conscience and fear that indignation from a sin-revenging God that there is no rest in their bones the arrows of the Almighty stick fast and deep in their souls now they are pricked in their hearts they feel as those Jews did Act. 2. ver 37. the nails wherewith they had crucified the Lord Jesus sticking like so many goads yea stings of Scorpions fast in their hearts and cry out men and brethren what shall we do or like the Goaler brimmed up with tetrour and astonishment they call out for help Sirs what must we
Hagar was at a loss yet God was not though the ground was dry to her yet God can bring up springs of water through the secret veynes of the parched earth Oh! there is much support in this duely to improve the Omnipotency and All-sufficiency of God 2. That the Saints themselves sometimes have their eyes so shut up that they cannot see these springs of goodness Sometimes the heads of these springs lye so deep and low that they are not visible either in promises or in providences Nay when they are open and run yet in some cases the Saints eyes are closed that they cannot see them all seemeth to be dry ground to them Indeed these fountains are shut up to the unbeleeving world alwayes sealed to the wicked so great a stone is rolled by an Almighty arm upon the mouth of this Well that all the strength of nature cannot remove it to dip a bucket in it but to the faithful it is alwayes open they need no Jacob to roll it away See that Zach. 13. vers 1. A fountain opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness This great Gospel fountain the blood of Jesus is open to beleevers to them that dwell at Jerusalem in the Spirit not in the letter of profession Now if this great Fountain be open which feedeth all the lesser springs referring to the blood of the Lord Jesus then sure no lesser springs shall be shut up to them He is the fountain of Gardens the Well of living waters Cant. 4. vers 15. What a precious priviledge is this to have all Gospel-springs open unto us yet here is our misery and it is very great though the springs be open our eyes are sometimes shut now what is a spring of water to a thirsty traveller if he see it not But you will say How shall the Saints get their eyes opened 3 God alone openeth the eyes of his people that they may see these open Fountains that they may behold these streams from Lebanon Hagar saw not the fountain neither could she untill God opened her eyes He that opened the heart of Lydia Act. 16. vers 14. opened Hagars eyes Jesus Christ who hath the Key of David can onely open and shut eyes by his anointing Spirit Apoc. 3. vers 18. This is true in the first work of conversion Act. 26. vers 18. So also in the passage of after comforts 2 King 6.17 The Lord opened the eyes of the young man that he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha The providences and protections of God do circumvallate and encompass the faithful His Angels encamp round about them yet the Lord must open their eyes else they cannot behold them A truth falling in with our own experience how many amongst us saw not that wall of fire which hath been round about us nor those Chariots of fire which have been so eminent a protection unto us in times of greatest danger But 4. God will open the eyes of his people to behold these springs of mercy when they stand in most need of them What had it been to Hagar if her eyes had been opened to have seen many Wells of water when she was in Abrahams family or if she had been in a land of fountains but to be in a wilderness in a land of drought to have the water in the bottle spent and knew not where to fill it nor how to keep her lad alive without supplies of water and then in this streight to have her eyes opened to see not a little water in a pitcher to fill her bottle once with and no more but to see a Well a spring of water where she might have constant supplies Oh! this was a seasonable and therefore a welcome mercy to her this was life to her self her son and to her hopes of after safety Oh this is marvellous sweet and an excellent means to get up the heart in sinking times and conditions 6. Her eyes are opened shee seeth the Well What doth she now do why she obeyeth the voyce of the Lord in filling her bottle with water and giving the lad drink this teacheth us That it is the duty of Gods people to lay hold â—n offers of mercy from the Lord to close in with to own and improve the providential dispensations of God for good unto themselves What is she in a wilderness her bottle-store spent a fountain opened and her eyes opened and doth she sit still is she sullen or is she pettish because supplies came not her own way or at her own time will she not dip her bottle in the fountain because it ariseth in this and not in that plat of ground doth she stand upon such niceties no no but presently she snatcheth up her bottle and goeth to fill it A commendable practice Oh! what we see her do do we likewise in all our streights let us haste to the Throne of grace and when mercy is offered help seasonably tendered let us imbrace it and improve it when Christ opened that fountain of grace shewing the wounds in his hands and in his side to Thomas presently he runneth to the fountain and dippeth his bucket in the Well acting faith by a personal application My Lord and my God Joh. 20. vers 28. So when the Lord openeth his Mercy-fountains to us and our eyes to see them let us not onely sip a little but fill our buckets yea brim our bottles drawing with joy and thankfulness of heart water out of those Wells of salvation Isa 12. vers 3. not quarrelling with men or means but owning the goodness of the Lord in the seasonableness and fulness of our distress What should I mention the Angels staying Abrahams hand when it was lifted up to slay his beloved Isaac What should I name Jacoh's Mahanaim the Host of God which appeared to him when he feared his brother Esau lest he should slay the mother with her children or Joseph in the pit or in the prison or Israel at the red Sea what should I say more the time would fail me if I should reckon up what the Holy Ghost hath recorded of this kinde How often may the saints and how many of them may truly speak the words of my Text Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence but God appeared relief came and deliverance was sent from the Lord in the very nick of time Oh! if God had deferred his help for one hour nay one minute nay less then one minute if time could be parcel'd out into a lesser moment I had been undone life and all had been lost But you will say what moveth the Lord to this full and seasonable appearance for his people in their greatest streights I answer Reason 1. Because God sometimes leadeth his people into streights therefore it is for his honour to fetch them out again Some Commanders have been very bold and forward to lead an Army on
who have cunningly drest up their opinions with such an Evangelical trimming that nothing of the Wolf appears even to them which hold him by the ears 7. That it is much blame-worthy in shepherds when they suffer their sheep to go astray and run themselves into danger the Lord chargeth high as a piece of great unfaithfulness in the over-seers of his flock when through their default his sheep do straggle and become a prey to the beast of the field you may hear him expressing himself in words of greatest distast Ezek. 34.10 Thus saith the Lord God Adonai Jehovah or Jehovah who is your Lord behold I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hands and cause them to cease feeding my flock t is known to most that in Scripture-language Magistrates and Ministers are termed shepherds and have in their respective capacities a joint over-sight of the flock committed unto them by the chief shepherd but alas how have ye Magistrates shuffled off the care of the flock to the Ministers and how have the Ministers shifted back the over-sight of it to the Magistrates and betwixt them both many sheep have wandered and some have been worried Though most were desirous that the Foxes should be taken yet it came under dispute who should take them and though at all hands it was agreed that deceiving Jezebel should be dealt withal yet how and by whom hath hitherto been the question Ask the Magistrate and he will tell you Ministers must do it by the sword of the spirit and ask the Minister and he will tell you that the Magistrate must do it by the sword of his civil power And whilst we have been disputing what to do and who should do it errors have sadly spread and a considerable part of the flock hath straggled and is become a prey to the beasts of the field the blame whereof is laid by some at the Magistrates door upon account of his tenderness and gentleness of spirit and countenance to such as differed onely in disciplinary points refusing to establish by his civil sanction that way of discipline as universal and imposing upon all which they own and would enthrone as the government of the Lord Jesus as also for their remisness and too much indulgence to evil persons and opinions in not punishing the one nor suppressing the other which amounteth to a toleration And many charge the blame hereof upon the Ministry by reason of morose austere and rigid carriage toward those who differ from them in the way of discipline or onely in some lesser doctrines that are not fundamental or because they remit much of that care watchfulness and oversight which the duty of their places and the present necessity obliged them unto but the day will declare it and t is not good for either to plead not guilty the Lord help us to mourn that the folds are broken up and that the flocks are scattered The Lord teach us all our duty and by his own spirit in the word determine that great question what is to be done and by whom That the sick may be healed the broken bound up the lost may be sought up those that are driven away may be brought again and the residue secured against future scattering And the Lord give stability of spirit to his people that they may be kept from topling in these tottering times when so many backslide some in profession not in opinion some in opinion who yet retain a profession and some in opinion and profession both stepping into Religion without any precedaneous and inward change and so soon in soon out making that good 1 John 2.19 They went out from us because they were not of us And now you will finde upon due trial this an excellent means to fix your spirits when you read over those acts of grace which the Lord hath drawn out upon your hearts in the blood of his own Son How did this fix the Apostles Joh. 6.67 Many of the disciples went back and walked no more with the Lord Jesus upon which he puts the question to them will yee also forsake me there was need of such a question for Nemo errat sibi-ipsi sed dementiam spargit in proximos the heathen could say no man errs to himself but evil men and erring do spread their madness unto their neighbors as weeds endanger the good corn bad humors the good blood and an infected house the whole neighborhood Therefore the Lord Jesus tryes their pulses whether this great defection had not tainted them with some infection and behold the fixedness of their spirits in Peters reply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God we have certainly and experimentally known by those glorious works which thou hast wrought before us and by the saving communication of thy grace and light unto us when we were in a dark and dead estate that thou art Christ the Son of the living God and therefore we will not leave thee this cemented and knit their hearts unto Christ it was a brave speech of old Polycarpus when the Proconsul perswaded him to deny the Lord Jesus Eighty and six years have I served Christ and he never did me hurt but good and shall I now deny him Oh! absit God forbid Thus Saint Paul argues back the Galathians Gal. 3.1 2. O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth See Mr. Baxter in loc crucified among you This onely would I learn of you received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith c Oh did ye much and often read over the passages of divine love unto you and would be true to your own experiences it would antidote you against many errors of the times and keep your hearts close with God 3. This serious recognition and review of the Lords mercies brings most comfort unto the soul and sure he lives best to himself who lives most to his own comfort a life of comfort is the sweetness the desireableness and life of life What is life to the bitter in soul which long for death and dig for it more then for bid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they finde the grave Job 3.21 22 23. And what comfort have men in living upon a natural account when those dayes are come wherein they say we have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12. ver 1. and is it not so in a spirituall sense a wounded spirit who can bear but a good conscience is a continual feast and the Kingdome of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. vers 17. Then do we come nearest heaven and live in the suburbs of it when we are filled with peace and joy in our soules
are reprooved who though they remember the mercies of God tell large stories of their eminent preservations and seem to be much affected in reporting of them which signifies little in Gods account yet they do not live up unto them they do not receive any teaching from them more to engage their hearts to God but live as loosly and as much off from God as to any real actings for God as though they were under no extraordinary Obligation unto God which is a brand upon them and notes out a very dis-ingenious and unworthy spirit Vocal thankfulness is the least part of gratitude the whole man should be wholly taken up in the duty it is not the water which passeth through a single spout that will turn this great wheel but the full stream which through many pipes flowes from the fountain All that is within me praise his holy name David thought the all of his soul in every faculty little enough for that great work Psal 103.4 nay too little and so Psal 116.9 he saies I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living indesinenter ambulabo I will not onely take a turn or two with God but will walk constantly to the end of the race thorough the exercise of every grace the faithfull discharge of every duty the conscionable performance of every service yea though all the Acts and parts and methods of Religion and all this he engageth as a Testimony of his thankfulness to God for eminent mercy in that full and memorable deliverance which he obtained happily in the desert of Maon 2 Sam. 23.25 26. When God fetched off Saul who had begirt David and his men with his Army where he was in eminent danger to have been surprised had not the Lord in way of seasonable Providence alarum'd Saul by the Philistines who then invaded the land This was a right improvement of such a mercy But alas How few be there who tread in David's steps who act up with such resolution and fixedness of spirit for God under the sence of admirable and obliging Providences How little are Providences taken notice of how little are they improved by most so as to quicken them up to more activity for God are there not many who steal murder commit adultery and swear fasly as though they were delivered to do all these abominations Jer. 7.9 10. do they not act as high in waies of sin as ever It is with many in this point as it is with some vapouring tradesmen who live and spend all in riot and luxury till they are clap'd up by their Creditours but when their friends have compounded for them procured their enlargement and given them a trading stock again they promise fair and fair what good husbands they will be and tuckle hard to their trades for a while but within a short space they forget their poverty and imprisonment and lash out again as much as ever so 't is with many men who being brought off by the Lord from some pressing calamity they speak good words and carry it very well for a little time but then they break out into the same excess of sin and vanity as ever what a sudden and strange work was upon Israel when God had set them upon drie land Exod. 15.31 yet Moses and Miriam had scarcely finished their Psalme of praise when Chap. 15.24 The people murmured and spake high against God O take heed of this spirit lest the Lord swear unto you in his wrath as he did to Rebellious Israel that you shall not enter his rest I shall shut up this Use with that Memento of the Apostle Jude verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance how the Lord having saved the people out of Egypt afterward destroied them that believed not that acted not up by faith to those mercies received that improved not those advantages of mercy and providential Administrations which the Lord had put into their hands in subserviency to his glory and their own establishment in that inheritance the Grant whereof God had given to their forefathers Ah friends we have much of Israels blood in our veins of Israels impatiency murmuring rebellion and dis-ingenuity upon our spirits Our feet have often stood upon the brink of Jordan and yet we have not passed over into our land of Rest at least the Canaanites are still in the Land O take heed of Infidelity and unsuitable returns after such signal and astonishing Deliverances both personal and National lest the destroyer come amongst us and disinherit us but let us all learn the minde of God in these glorious Transactions live up unto them and acknowledg before Angels and men that Vnless the Lord had been our Help our soules had dwelt in Silence FINIS A Table of Errata's Page 2. l. 32. read seasonableness p. 4. l. 16. r. people 6. r. Jer. 45. ib. last adde h to the first word 7.10 leave out And 12.8 r. on 14.2 leave out over against the sea 24.21 r. Deut. 4.37 26.4 adde a to gain 28.17 r. his ib. 32. r. confuteth 32.35 r. unto holiness 32.12 r. habitation 33.30 r. Cant. 8. 35. add me in the margin 35.30 r. is 36. 1. r. appearances 37.36 r. commented 40.20 r. 1 Kings ib. 22. r. means of safety 41.25 r. ereâ—ture 42.18 r. undo 43.30 r. a tempting 46.32 r. was 55.24 r. just complaints 56.3 r. of Jesus 59.25 Leave out the first yea 60.6 leave out those 62.13 leave out our 64. r. cucurrimus 64.14 r. unite 65.30 r. Salvianus 66.6 r. how raw and unskilfull ib. 12. r. expert 67.27 r. possession p. 68. 5. r. slashed 70.9 r. once of you 71. r. that in the margin under the second head ib. 35. adde us 72.25 r. begin to raise ib. 29. r. ye champions ib. l. 30. r. Christ's ib. 34. r. sealed 74.24 r. psal 107 ib. 30. r. census 78.27 r. If they have wearied thee in the land of peace then what wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan Jer. 12.5 89.9 r. beam 90.7 r. cues ib. 34. r. rescuing 92.14 r. Vzzah 100.7 r. Ezek. 9. 102.35 r. discourseth 105.5 r. Witches Samuel ib. r. 1 Sam. 28. 106. II. read nepheshi 107.15 r. the praises of the Lord 109.25 r. and with his own arm 121.35 r. ghnal-banim 122.4 r. quiet 122.4 in the Margin r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 133.21 r. unsuiteable 154.34 for exact r. cast 163.16 r. looked 164.27 r. praiseth 178.18 r. heart-communing 176.39 r. discoursed 181.2 r. woofe 184.31 r. feats 189.32 r. get 194.15 r. propositum 211.22 r. of their 224. II dele But 228.27 r. setters 237.23 r. Isa 43. 241.12 leave out Next ib. 21. r. diseased ib. 24. r. dele not 242.29 r. waxed ib. 38. r. saw Dedica or damnationis Christianorum is to be placed in the Margin of 242. 243.12 r. change 247.18 dele as ib. 25. r. your 251.34 r. physitians 253.7 r. was to ib. 38. r. your 257.22 adde the greatest sinners 260.25 r. Doegs 262.17 vieth 267.3 r. 1 Sam. 13.8 and 1 Sam. 10.8
standing of a Minister whilest the jus praesentandi by a Law is vested in Honourable hands as to own God in his providential disposure so to acknowledge the favour of man in that Liberty he obtaines to do his Master's work Sure I am this was a mercy which some godly and gifted Ministers did long want whilest the Episcopal Monopoly lasted and long waited for yea after all their waiting could hardly without snares to their conscience obtain If my poor Labours have been answered with any success from heaven as I trust they have in my little Congregation the people have reason which some of them have done to bless God that your choice and their call had so full a concurrence in one person But though they should be silent I may not I cannot I am under such a sense of obligation that I am pressed in spirit to make some publick payment of my debt unto you in a ministeriall way which is a Symony neither sinfull before God nor offensive to good men Therefore Dear Sir I beg your acceptation of this poor Present Give your Minister leave from the press wanting opportunity by reason of your non-residency not his to speak often unto you from the Pulpit to minde you of that great deliverance you received from the Lord in the Thames how often the sentence of Death hath been reversed when you have been under painfull and languishing distempers in what way of Providence God hath loosened you from the noise and vanity of a Court what Respects you have from men good and great what safety you had in the late War what blessings the Lord hath heaped upon you in a dear Lady a numerous and hopefull Progeny and in what other wayes of mercy the Lord hath appeared graciously unto you O let all these have a kindly work upon your spirit to warme your heart more and more towards God his waies and people and let them by way of holy force fix your heart Joshua like with your house to serve the Lord that Jehovah may still cover you with his feathers in all future hazzards that you may fill up your dayes in peace Iob 5.27 and may come to the grave in a full age like as a shock of corne cometh in his season My next address is to you my Lord your Honour hath seen the work of God and his wonders in the deep you have conversed much with people of strange Languages contested with men of fierce and cruel spirits you have been a man of warre from your youth expert in all the stages and stratagems of a well-ordered battel you have long served the Interest of a forraign Prince and State where you have not onely been preserved but promoted God hath not onely given you safety but Honour also and though you was a Stranger in Name Nation Language and something in Religion also yet God bowed the heart of Prince Nobles and others to give you the respect your worth had merited and now after Twenty years voluntary Exile or more God hath brought you back with Three Sonnes to your native soil immediately after the storme of war was blown over it and that after an honourable rate all which are mercies worth your owning and are as silent Monitors from the Lord unto you Ah my Lord be much and often retired read over the story of Gods Providences towards you reckon up your Dangers and Deliverances How often the King of terrours hath faced you with a dreadfull look what bloudy fights God hath safeguarded your life in and how often you have been brought out of the field when thousands have been left wounded or dead upon the place though your Lordship hath the courage of a Roman not to fear death in the painfulness of it yet you have the spirit of a Christian to fear the consequences of an immature death and therefore have cause to bless God who hath lengthened out your day of grace and his patience hath brought you again into your own Nation where the White Flagge is held forth and the unsearchable riches of Christ are fully displayed in the powerfull plain and spiritual dispensation of the Gospel The Lord grant you to read the meaning of these Providences in the light of his own spirit and give your honour a large share in those spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Be like that good Centurion who was like your Lordship a man of war and Commander in the Roman Army fear God with all your house Acts 10.1 give much almes to the poor pray much unto God and wait much upon the Ministry of his faithfull Peters to whom is committed the word of Reconciliation fight under the Royal banner of the Lord Jesus in his spiritual warfare 1 Tim. 6.12 and fight the good fight of faith that so you may lay hold upon eternal life Lastly My Applications are to your excellency your standing is high in Israel and your name is dear to Gods people the Lord hath made you great and the Lord hath made you gracious without which all worldly honour is but a shell a shadow a meere vanity like that of Agrippa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You set out early for heaven God dealt with your heart betimes with good Obadiah You feared the Lord from your youth which early buddings of grace and holiness as they spake the intendments of God to use you in Honourable Employments so have they rendred you in regard of your large experiences and long acquaintance with the Lord his waies and people more meet to serve the Interest of the Lord and his people in that high trust you are called unto I shall not report what persons of great Honour and Integritie have spoken concerning your Pietie and Praierfulness Inventories are not taken untill men be dead he that is a Jew inwardly hath his praise from God and therefore exspects it not from man but shall humbly entreat your Excellency to consider how you went out a young Gentleman and a raw Souldier into the late warrs in which your eyes beheld much of God and your spirit tasted much of his Mercy how he protected your Person and prospered your warfare every bullet flew with his Commission and every weapon was guided by his appointment so that you walked in the midst of fire and smoak as the Jewish worthies did in the furnace and have had no hurt at least neither to limb nor life nay the smel of a bloudy warr hath hardly passed upon you O the power of an Almighty God! O the safety of Gods Noahs in his Ark of Providence when it sails upon seas of bloud O the security of the Saints who dwel in God 1 Kings 22 32. in the secret place of the most High Good Jehoshaphat experienced this when the Captains of the Chariots of Aram put him in great fear the Lord hard his cry and brought him off with safetie when his Confederate was slain in the fight and what return
Tripartite thereby resembling the heart which is Triangular and 't is my single designe to endeavour that upon the points or corners of your hearts may be engraven your Dangers Deliverances and Duties that so the mercies of God which are Records of greatest Import may be preserved with greatest care and you may be provoked to act with greatest Conscience for God We cannot look back upon Adam in his lapsed Estate but we may see a deluge of wrath breaking in upon whole mankinde at the breach of the first Covenant we cannot read over our own Diaries but we may read our own Dangers drawn up in black Characters of our sins as provoking God unto displeasure against us nay the times that lately passed over us presented us with danger from the sword of men in the heat of warr and now are we in dayly hazards from the arrows of the Almighty in various and violent distempers Again we cannot seriously study the Gospel but our great Deliverance from wrath to come by the precious bloud of our Crucified Jesus presents it self unto our view nor can we considerately survey our own Soules but we may read the counterpane thereof transcribed by the Eternal Spirit nor own Experiences but we may meet with large Volumes of eminent Deliverances personall and Nationall wrought for us by the outstretched arme of an Almighty God Again if we turn over those holy leaves of the Scriptures of Truth if we consult the Experiences of Gods people in the Ages that are past or seriously advise with our own spirits when in a right frame we shall finde many Duties charged upon us as our returnes to God for our great Deliverances The great God will not be a loser by his mercies he exspecteth some incomes into the bank of his glory if he have it not from us he will have it out upon us If we do not give it he will take it Deliverances are a great Talent put into the hands of men to trade withal for God They that lap up this Talent in a napkin by forgetfulness or squander it away by unsuitable actings heap guilt upon their own soules and shall be sure at the reckoning day to finde this sin as the Israelites did an ounce of their golden calf in all the rebukes of God upon them The sad Consideration whereof hath been and is much upon my heart and hath been a principall inducement to thrust this Treatise into the world which is not Polemical in the main intention of it my Standard bearing this Motto Zech. 8.19 LOVE THE TRVTH AND PEACE nor is it provoking I hope to any Iames 3.17 being the product of that wisdome which is first pure then peaceable c. I have avoided all bitterness that I might not stirr up any prejudice my business is to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you and to provoke unto love and good works as the genuine improvement of grace and mercy received I have not exactly methodised this Treatise nor cast it into the mould of the Title Page but laid down all Sermon-wise handling the Saints Dangers and Deliverances in the Doctrinall and their Duties in the Applicatory part of it in which I have respect as well to Spiritual as to Temporal Dangers and Deliverances and with respect to all as they stand in a personall or Relative capacity I will not Cramben bis coctam dare by Epitomizing in the Epistle what is largely pressed in the body of the Discourse I shall therefore onely entreat you to bewail before the Lord that root which bringeth forth wormwood and gall amongst us that discontent and sullenness of spirit by means whereof God is not owned in nor honoured for those glorious vouchsafements of mercy which have been matter of envie and astonishment in all the Nations about us that land-flood of corrupt Principles and practises which like a swift and spreading Torrent hath laid a great part of the Nation under water that spirit of bitterness and enmity against Godliness in the power and Religion in the purity of it and those sad divisions about which sadly hinder the work of a thorough Gospel-Reformation c. all which are sowre grapes yea clusters of Gomorrah and not such a Vintage which the Lord might reasonably exspect from a people of such rich mercies such signal preservations and under the enjoyment of such encouraging advantages as ours have been O that your souls would mourn in secret places for these things O that you were so affected with them that you would refuse your pleasant bread O that you would so reprove a carnal and careless Generation of men by your lively acttings for God that many yea all who have experienced the goodness of the Lord in eminent preservations may glorifie the name of the Lord by an Evangelical conversation that so the presence of God may still give us rest that our English Zion may be made an Eternal Excellency a joy of many generations Isay 60.15 18. that our walls through the divine Custodiency may still be called Salvation and our gates praise But though this spiritual Lethargy be incurable in many yet be ye O ye Ransomed ones of the Lord awakened unto duty and let the sense of mercy in the eminent appearances of God to your help in the daies of your distress carry you like wind and tide full sail in your zeal for his Glory in order to which I shall humbly offer these hints unto you and I entreat the people of my own charge to take special notice of them as being mainly intended for them 1. Be frequent in your reveiws of those feared dangers and fretting distempers those painful sicknesses and perplexing sorrows from which the good Hand of God has fetcht you gather up your dangers and deliverances your pressures and preservations how the Lord has granted you life and favour life with the comforts of it to make it sweet and desireable Iob 10.12 and his visitation has preserved your spirit has secured your lives in the midst of many dangers which surely have been many from infancy to gray hairs that so you may visite him in duty who hath so often visited you in mercy there are frequent visites past betwixt friends God is your best friend account that day lost wherein you do not visit him and keep up sweet communion with him It was a gallant speech of a brave man Marquess of Vico. accursed be that man who values the wealth of the world worth one daies communion with God Psal 34.2 4. and act up unto David's pattern I will bless the Lord at all times c. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my feares which were many and lay hard upon him when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech and acted the part of a mad man which so sober a person as David would not have done had not his fears been strong and his faith weak 2. Get your Spirits
This shews the folly of carnal men who boldly conclude from their present prosperous estate that they are in Gods favour 5 2. This meets with the mistake of those who think to sail up unto heaven upon a calme sea 6 3. This reproves those stony-ground Professours who cast off Christ when the Cross appears ib. Observation 2. That the people of God are sometimes cast upon such straits that all hopes of deliverance are cut off from them 7 1. This calls for much thankfulness from those Saints who have met with smiles and not frowns from an indulgent God 8 2. This stirrs up the bowels of rejoycing Christians to pitty their mourning brothren ibid. Observ 3. That the appearances of the Lord are eminent and immediate to the help of his people in the day of their distress 9 Gen. 21. vers 17 18. insisted upon in 5 particulars 10 11 12. The truth evinced in 5 Considerations Consideration 1. God sometimes leads his people into straits therefore he is engaged in point of honour to fetch them off 13 14 Consider 2. Sometimes the Saints meet with hard measure from men because they are faithfull in that business which is commanded them by God therefore there is much Equity in it that God should stand by them 15 Consid 3. It is the great designe of God to give real testimony of his hearty good-will unto his people therefore he engageth high for them in their greatest straits 16 17 Consid 4. God will lay great Obligations upon his people to love and trust him therefore he commands deliverance for them 18 Consid 5. The Lord will frustrate all the hopes of the wicked who look for the destruction of the righteous therefore he comes in fully and seasonably to their help when their enemies say God hath forsaken them 19 20. From these Considerations we may draw these Inferences by way of Information 1. That the Saints are a people of Gods special care 21 22. 2. That the Saints are a people of Gods special love 23 24 25 Eccl. 9.1 answered in 5 particulars 26 27 28 29 3. That the sinnes of Saints are circumstantiated with highest aggravations 30 31 32 4. That Infidelity and dispondency of spirit in an evil day is il-becoming the Lords people 33 34 35 36. 2. Some things are propounded by way of Caution 1. Take heed of rashly casting your selves into danger under the protection of this Doctrine 37 38 2. Beware of abusing this Doctrine by slighting lawfull means of preservation when offered 39 40 3. Take heed of laying too great a burden upon a creature-bottome 42 43 4. Beware of abusing providenciall preservations by a neglect of those duties we owe to God as our returnes for signall mercies ib. 44 45 46 47 The third use of Exhortation 48 1. To some particular persons in distinct capacity 49 1. To the Magistrates who are entreated 1. To consider the out-stretchings of Gods arm for them Ibid. 2. To consider what an honour God hath put upon them 50 3. How God hath been a shelter unto them when both their persons and their power were struck at and from hence excited 52 53 1. To bring forth Covenant-duties as a return for Covenant-mercies ibid. 2. To lay out themselves in the suppression of sin and wickedness 54 3. To countenance and protect the good people of the Land 55 2. To the Ministery who are desired to consider 1. Our share in National preservations 56 2. The present freedome we now enjoy 57 3. What yoaks hath been upon us ibid. 4. What oppositions we have met withall ibid. 5. What short Allowances some good Ministers have had for their great pains 58 6. How not onely Ministers but Ministery hath been shot at by men of bold and daring spirits 59 60 Which Considerations do bespeak us from the Lord 1. to pitty our poor Congregations especially the un-converted in them 62 2. To be painfull in all our callings ibid. 3. To carry it with tenderness one towards another in cases of smaller difference 63 4. To press after purity in Doctrine and worshipps 64 5. To breathe after unity in judgments and affections 65 3. To Military men 1. To consider their inexperience and unskilfulness in warlike matters when the Warr first broke out 66 2. To consider how low their spirits were at their first taking up armes ibid. 3. What Midianitish Armies for multitude they have encountred with 67 4. What personal preservations they have had in the heat of war ibid. 5. The great things which the Lord hath wrought for them and by them 68 Hence these duties are commended 1. Not to sacrifice to their own nets 69 2. To own the Lords people who have owned them 70 3. To be humbled for acts of violence and injustice permitted or practiced by them 71 4. To quicken up their first zeal for God his truth waies ministry and people 72 73 4. To Mariners and Sea-trading men 74 Psal 107.23 24. opened and enlarged upon 75 76 5. To the recovered ones of the Nation whom the Lord hath brought off from beds of sickness 77 78 1. That they would own with thankfulness the mercies of the Lord. 79 Considerations to quicken up to thankfulness 1. The disease was Epidemical ibid. 2. It seized upon men suddenly 80 3. It was violent ibid. 4. It was weakening ibid. 5. It was languishing 81 6. It was inevitable ibid. 7. It was mortall to many in many places 82 2. That they would make good their sick-bed thoughts and purposes ibid. Hezekiahs case stated and his example propounded 2 Chron. 32.25 83 84 85. 3. That they would commune with their own hearts to finde out those particular sinnes for which the Lord hath afflicted them 87 Severall sinnes pointed at as introducent of sickness ibid. 4. That they would consecrate their lives unto the Lord which they have received 1 Pet. 4.2 opened in some Particulars 88 1. That the time of mans abode in the flesh is fixed and determined by the Lord ibid. 2. That Whilest man lives to the lusts of men he lives not according to the lawes of his Creator 89 3. That he onely lives to the Lawes of his Creation who lives up to the will of God 90 Three Conclusions drawn from Acts 13.36 1. That the best and choicest Saints are not exempted from service 91. 2. That the great God commands his servants not onely to work but to do the work of their Generation ibid. Quaest How shall we know the proper works of our generation 93 Answ In some particulars 94 95 96 5. That they would get their hearts tinctured with an awfull fear of God 97 1. From the Consideration of his Power 98 2. From the Consideration of his Goodness 99 3. From the Consideration of his wrath uppon others ibid. Question Why should the Saints fear the wrath of God Answ 1. They see the provoking nature of sin ibid. 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath ibid. 3. They know that
any that go down into silence Hence the Latines call dead men Silentes silent ones 4. Welnigh or almost The word signifieth A little space of time or place as if he had said so near was I unto death that there was but a minute or hair's breadth betwixt me and it a parralel place though upon a spiritual account you have Prov. 5. vers 14. I was almost in all evil quasi parum or parum abfuit quin or with in a little of all evil This sheweth the nearness of the danger so that the Psalmist speaketh after this sort If the Lord had not seasonably and fully appeared to my help so great and unavoidable was the danger I was just dropping into I had been a dead man and my dwelling had been in the quiet and tenebrous cloysters of death The Text thus opened presenteth you with these three Observations Obser ∣ varion 1 I. That the saints Exodus to heaven is through a red sea and a wilderness Obs 2 II. That the people of God are sometimes cast upon such streights that seem to cut off all means of relief from them Obs 3 III. That the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to the rescue of his people in their greatest streights I shall speak to the two first but sparingly and be more copious and enlarged on the last the prosecution whereof is mainly intended And take up the former in the Applicatory part of this Doctrine Doctrine 1 That the Saints of God do meet with many dangers and much adversity in this life Their Exodus to heaven is through a red Sea and a wilderness Psal 34. ver 19. Many are the troubles of the righteous The Account of their sufferings riseth very high the gross smum of their affliction is very great Isa 43. vers 2. they must pass to their Land of rest through fire and through water Acts 14. v. 22. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdome of God Malcolm Plana via ad patriam coelestem est crux The readie way to heaven is the Crose-way If there be any way to heaven on horse-back Mr. Bradford surely this is the way saith that blessed Martyr The stones were not set into Solomon's Temple untill hewen neither is the corne laid up in the garner untill the flail hath passed upon it Flesh-pleasing formalists take up a delicate Profession thinking to divide betwixt Christ and his Cross coasting about in their wilde and roaving thoughts to finde out a way that will bring them to the Crown and yet baulk the Cross but alas their mistake will one day sadden their hearts when they shall read their present folly in their future disappointment Those whom John saw in the vision of the Spirit Apoc. 7. ver 14. cloathed with long white robes standing before the throne of God and of the Lamb are said to come forth of great tribulation implying they had been in great affliction they had all their share of breaking Oppressions This is a truth confirmed by the joint Testinonies of all ages and handed down to us writ in the bloud of many precious Saints 1. Then they that argue the certaintie of future blessedness from their present worldly happiness and conclude that God loveth them because they abound in those things which are beloved by them do reckon without their Host and must one day sore against their wills be constrained to reckon again The Rich man Luke 16. found it otherwise He was clothed with purple and fine linnen then which the best wore no better and fared sumptuously every day every day was a gaudie day to him second and third courses served to his table yet verse 22 23. This Rich man dieth was buried and turned into hell where he had misery without mercy sorrow without succour pain without pleasure he drank of the wine of Gods wrath without mixture Apoc. 14. ver 10. had judgement without mercy Oh that all cruel Oppressours and hard hearted Misers could consider this in time that suffer many a poor Lazarus to starve at their gates Oh! the time is drawing nigh when they shall be snatch'd from their full bowles and full barnes from their heaps and their hoards and shall be tumbled into hell from whence they may see despised Lazaras above in the bosome of Abraham Think of that unmerciful Courrier Christopher Landsale who suffered a poor Lazer to die in a ditch by him And he himself by the just hand of God dyed in a ditch also God sometimes payeth unmercifull men in their own coyn amongst whom the depopulating encloser leads the Van Isa 5.8 9 10. Hence they are asleep who dream of an earthly Paradise or an easie Religion Mic 2.2 as a meanes to arrive at that heavenly one and fancy a Profession without persecution a rose without prickles and a lilly without thornes Saint Paul sayeth otherwise Rom. 8. vers 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time concluding the present time to be a time of suffering and that all the day long ver 36. the whole course of a Christian's life is but a slaughter time or the whole day of the Gospel may be termed a slaughter day In Dioclesian's time 17000 Christians were slain in the space of one moneth In the Parisian Massacre 30000 in as little space and within the year 300000 as hath been computed And how fitly doth that sad story of the Christians of Calabria agree with this passage of the Apostle for being thrust up into one house together as into a sheepfold the executioner cometh in and taketh one after another leading them to a larger place Acts and Monuments fol. 859. where he cutteth their throats with his butchers knife untill he had slaughtered them all to the number of Eightie eight persons even as the butcher prepareth meat for the shambles 3. Hence then they are below the name at least have not the magnanimous the great mindes and gallantry of Christians who cast of Christ when the Cross appeareth that not onely throw off their cloaks but their coats also when the sun of persecution beginneth to scorch them and they also are blameworthy who discover a whining and pettish spirit under afflictions crying out with Baruch Jer. 43. ver 3. Wo is me now for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighing and finde no rest as though all was lost when the yoke presseth heavie upon them whereas that one Consideration Lam. 3. ver 39. may stop the mouth for ever Wherefore doth living man complain a poor clod of clay alive on this side the grave and Hell and complain and quarrel with God what equity is there in his complaints what reason hath man to murmur when as man is punished for his sinnes Man that complaineth is guilty of many sinnes the wages whereof is death nay afflicted man who eighteneth his sufferings was ever grief like mine did ever any meet with such Crosses disappointments hard
speeches and hard dealings as I meet withall Oh! this man that complaineth now on earth might ere now have cryed out in Hell He that weepeth on earth might long since have wailed in hell and he that gnasheth his teeth against God for his present sufferings might have had gnashing of teeth in endless and easless torments Oh then Wherefore doth living man complain Oh! this is a quieting Consideration to keep down all impatient risings of heart against God in a day of distress and will lead out the spirit to submit unto and trust God in the greatest streights For as it followes in the second head of Doctrine Doctrine 2 The Saints of God do sometimes meet with such distresses that cut off all hopes of deliverance from man Reason is at a stand heart and flesh fail carnal policy is at a loss all proud helpers stoop in vain yea Faith it self beginneth to flagge Thus Gen. 21. vers 14 15 16. Hagar with her sonne are cast out of Abraham's family and are now in a wilderness a place inhabited onely by wilde beasts their stock of provision spent and no supplies to be had What then what courss will Hagar take why she layeth down her beloved boy under a bush And what then she goeth a distance from him not being able to bear his dying groanes and cryes and having emptyed her bottle of water she seeketh to emptie her moaning heart by teares seeing nothing but the death of her Sonne as knowing no way to prevent it a great distress a sad streight but not her case alone Many of the Saints of God have come to the emptying of their bottles to cases of utmost extremitie a parralel case was that of the poor widow 1 Kings 17. vers 12. her whole store was spent and markets shut up as to new supplies a handfull of meal in the barrel and a little oyl in the cruse was her whole livelihood and she is now gathering a handfull of sticks to bake one cake for her self and her Sonne and what will she do when that cake is eaten did she see relief coming some other way no these were her thoughts she and her sonne would eat that cake and die It were easie to multiply presidencies of this kinde upon both accounts temporall and spirituall streights of bodie and pressures of spirit have been matter of the Saints complaint 1. Oh then thou that art a servant of the Lord who hast not been brought into these streights upon whom such a day of distress hath not been but findest the incomes of the spirit dost take in comfort from the promises walkest in the light of God's countenance and hast the candle of the Lord shining upon thy Tabernacle as 1 Kings 1.6 That hast been the Lords Adonijah Oh! charge it home by the way of thankfulness upon thy heart that the Lord should lead thee unto the land of rest and not by the way of the wilderness 2. Let thy bowels yearn toward the distressed of the Lord pity them pray for them and administer seasonable supplies of comfort to them considering thy self as being in the body especially let thy heart go out in tender compassions towards the afflicted in spirit to those who are brought into soul streights whose case runneth parallel with that of Heman Psal 88. ver 3. My soul is full of troubles Heb. is satiated with evills hath its fill is brimm'd up yea running over and these so pressing that my life draweth nigh to the grave and then vers 8. I am shut up I am a prisoner under restraint I but it is libera custodia he may go forth with his keeper no I cannot go forth Oh! t is a sad thing to be a close Prisoner to be so shut up that he cannot steppe one foot beyond the grate to take any contentment in the creature any delight in outward enjoyments or any comforts in relations Ah but Heman's case is far sadder he is so shut up that his spirit cannot go forth in prayer to fetch in comfort from the Promises nor healing from the Spirit nor life from Jesus Christ nor pardoning mercy from the God and Father of mercies nor evidence of Electing love nor assurance of Redeeming grace nor demonstrations of Adopting grace nay nor satisfying and soul-quieting conclusions of truth of grace but free amongst the dead like the slain in the grave whom God remembreth no more Dead to duty dead in duty dead from duty spirit dead and heart dead affections dead desires dead comforts dead hope dead faith dead yea all dead Oh! this is sad above what words can express onely the heart knoweth its own bitterness yet this day of distress hath been upon many precious Saints Oh! then draw forth the breasts of consolation to such sad souls Stay them with flaggons comfort them with apples And let this give you incouraging hopes of success in all your applications that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples greatest distress which is the main point I pitch upon as being the chief scope of the Text. Doct. 3 The Lord comes in often with seasonable and suitable mercies in times of greatest miseries He loveth to be seen on the Mount to be a present help in the needful time of trouble to help when none else can help when refuge faileth and hope is now at the giving up the ghost See that Gen. 21. vers 17 18. When Hagars fears were highest and her faith lowest as too oft is seen that when fear is up then faith is down when death was coming and life going when the water was spent her patience spent and all spent when she had received the sentence of death within her self for her self at least for her son whom she had given up for a dead childe Then then God heard the voyce of the lad and calleth unto her and biddeth her lift up the lad yea her own faith and hope and spirit for there was an universal sinking in her and telleth her he will make him a great Nation as if he had said Fear not the life of the lad for there are many lives bound up in his life if I should let him perish I should lose a Nation yea a great Nation and that distrustful thoughts might not arise in her heart God openeth her eyes and she saw a Well of water and gave the lad drink Let us pitch down a little upon this Quotation for it is a place of pleasant springs and draw these Observations 1. That the goodness of God is a springing fountain unto the Saints even in a wilderness Psal 107.35 There is alwayes water in this fountain Psal 36. vers 9. With thee is the fountain of life There are springs of providence and springs of promises both which do send forth refreshing streams unto the Saints There are alwayes supplies in the Lords store-house fresh cordials in the Lords closet yea he can and will create deliverances for his Jacobs though
thou not heard what a deaf people What keep no intelligence with heaven That the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary his strength is Almighty therefore he cannot faile his care is everlasting therefore hee cannot be weary of helping afflicted ones how eminent and various was the Lords care in Jonah's preservation There is a storm at Sea Jonah is cast over-board but God prepareth a fish ready to receive him but how shall he do for light in that dark prison How shall life be preserved in those Chambers of death What food must he eat in his three days imprisonment How shall he be kept alive so long in the belly of a living fish and not become meat to the fish Who shall open the bars of the gates and let lose the prisoner And who shall waft him to the shore when set at liberty Why God is not weary he will carry him through all what a bundle of mâ—racles are wrapt up together in the preservation of this one Saint well might the Apostle perswade the faithful to be careful for nothing Phil. 4. vers 6. which as the Seraphims in Isa 6. is answered by Saint Peter 1 Epist chap. 5 vers 9. Cast all your care upon God under this assurance that God careth for you were we not ignorant of Gods care over us or low in faith that we dare not believe his word of promise to us we might free our selves from much vexing solicitude and anxiety of minde wherewith we are tormented It was a noble speech of John Careless in a letter to Mr. Philpot I will now sing care away for now my soul is turned to his old rest again and hath taken a sweet nap in the lap of Christ I have cast my care upon the Lord who careth for me and will be careless according to my name It is our work to cast care it is Gods work to take care let us not then by soul-dividing thoughts take the Lords work out of his hand If the care of all the Churches came upon Paul 2 Cor. 11. vers 28. that it was his every days work with an holy solicitude to care for them Oh much more may we affirm that the Lord careth for all his people and suiteth his care to all their conditions to which his eminent appearances for them in a day of distress give signal testimony 2. A second truth which this Doctrine commendeth unto us is this That the Saints are a people of Gods special love they lye in the very bosome of God his Banner over them is love and as holiness to the Lord was engraven upon the bells of the horses and upon every pot in Jerusalem Zech. 14. vers 20. So love to the Saints is engraven upon every-dispensation of God to his people even when he rebuketh them he loveth them because his affection is much toward them therefore he afflicteth them Hear ye the rod saith the Lord Mich. 6. verse 9. Oh it speaketh love many of the Saints have read much of the Lords love writ in letters of their own blood How doth the love of God shine forth in its full â—lustre when he appeareth as an healing God in a blee◠〈◊〉 hour Who can express the sweetness of this 〈…〉 What a relish of love do the Saints taste 〈…〉 hearts-ease which the Lord giveth them 〈…〉 of a storm The outgoings of God were remarkable 〈◊〉 even to astonishment in fetching Israel from the Iron Furnace there were miracles of mercy heaps upon heaps the wisdom and power of God were writ in such capital letters that they that runned might read not digitum onely but dexteram Dei not the finger but the right hand of God and what were the motives to all these mercies the Lord draweth up all these lines into the center of love Deut. 6. vers 3. Because the Lord loved thy fathers therefore he brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt So chap. 7. vers 8. Because the Lord loved you hath he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharach King of Egypt Love was the bottome which bore all these great burthens the spring which set all the wheels in going because the Lord loved you indeed sometimes the dark side of the cloud is toward the Saints his love is like the Sun muffled up in a thick mist or rather as a candle shut up in a dark Lanthorn that they see no out-shining of Gods favour as in cases of desertion or great affliction Isa 8.17 sometimes light and love break forth in some small beams through the thick cloud of apprehended displeasure that it is with the Saints as with a traveller in the duskish evening or star-light night when the moon sitteth That the light is neither clear nor dark Zech. 14. vers 6. the ship neither rideth upon high waters nor yet sticketh upon the shallows they neither feed high at a feast of fat things full of marrow nor yet are kept to the bread of mourners nor wine of astonishment their condition is a mixt and middle estate hope and fear sorrow and solace are interwoven as chastened yet not killed as sorrowful yet in some measure rejoycing as dying and yet alive though the air be duskish yet they can discover some lines of love drawn here and there in such a mercie such a favour such an act of goodness such a gracious providence Oh! saith a servant of the Lord if the Lord did not love me he would not have called me off from such vain and vicious courses he would not have made known the counsels of his grace by his spirit unto me he would not have accepted my poor services nor given such returns to my broken prayers nor hasted relief unto me in such or such an afflicted estate Oh! this is much the case of weak believers they are often at the turning of the scales one while hope up and fear down another while fear up and hope down and sometime the ballance hangeth in an even poise It is oftentimes thus in a spiritual sence and truly 't is many times such upon temporal accounts they are much at a loss in their own spirits But now when the Lord turneth again the captivity of his people when he cometh in signally and seasonably to their help in the time of their greatest streights when they could not tell what to do and thought all lost Oh then the bright side of the cloud is toward them the vail is taken away and they behold with open face the glorious love of God unto them It is said Gen. 45. vers 27. When Jacob saw the wagons which Joseph sent to carry him into Egypt his spirit revived it put a new life into his dead heart and dead hopes the old man gathered up his spirits which were sunk with grief for the death of Joseph and fear of Benjamin's
the gates of Zion how doth this appear â—rap in loc All my thoughts are upon thee with greatest delight All my bowels are in tâ—eâ— making them to be the words of God promising plenty of grace and comfort to them as from overflowing overslowing fountain though other expositours think them to be the Psalmists word see Mr. Jackson in loc why vers 7. God saith All my springs are in thee his wisdome goodness mercy power c. are not in Zion as water in the cisterne pump'd in and soon run out but like water in the fountain streams of mercy flouds of favour and flowings forth of loving kindness Oh! it is clear God loveth Zion if all his springs be in her especially when drought is upon the earth and other parts of Judah are like Gideon's fleece Isa 38. ver 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption good Hezekiah read love in the dispensations of God toward him and putteth that Interpretation upon his miraculous restitution to health Surely he doth much offend against the generation of God's people and wrongeth the mercies of God also who concludeth that God loveth us not because he hath prospered our warfare and underwriteth hatred to all those glorious victories which the Lord of hosts hath given to his people in these Nations and then when a day of distress was sadly upon the godly and the contest was very much betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent Yet I desire we may all look after other evidences of divine love amongst us these are good superstructures where the foundation is well laid and are Zion's security against the gates of hell provided everlasting doors be set open that the King of glory may come in and keep court amongst us 3. This Inference may be drawn from the point That the siunes of saints are circumstanciated with highest aggravations the care of God over them and his love unto them in their distressed estate against both which they offend in sinning do give a sad tincture to their sinnes Sin is sin in any person but circumstances do render it much more sinfull It was high water as to the guilt of sinne for Zimri a Prince of a chief house of the Simeonites to bring a Midianitish woman into his tent and commit whoredome with her when the Lord had so eminently appeared for Israel in turning Balaam's curses into blessings and saving them from the sword of Midian Numb 25. vers 6. Yea when the whole congregation was weeping before the Lord for the business of Baal-Peor where the wrath of God brake forth upon them so that there fell in one day three and twenty thousand 1 Cor. 10. vers 8. The Apostle instead of the cloak of the heat of youth Trap. in loc putteth upon fornication a bloody cloak bathed in the blood of 23000 as one observeth How doth the Lord by his Prophet aggravate David's sin 2 Sam. 12. v. 7 8 9. I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Israel and Judah c. What an enumeration of mercies is here How doth the Lord expostulate with him And what doth the Lord inferre from hence why surely that David was acted by a spirit of great dis-ingenuity to sin against such goodness such bounty to break such cords of love which the Lord had cast upon him Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight what David commit Adultery what David put the bottle to his neighbour to make him drunk thinking to cover sin with sin what David slay Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon what David slay an innocent person in cold blood what David murther an husband that he might have his wife what David take the Adulteress into his bed and bosome what David do all this Does David give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme Had another person committed adultery or murther nay all this who had been under less obligations unto me who had onely shared in common providences and for whom I had done nothing extraordinary I should have taken it better at his 〈◊〉 and should not have reckoned it such an high dishonour but for David David to do this whom I honoured in the sight of all Israel when he was but a stripling in the slaughter of great Goliah of Gath the Philistines Champion David whom I singled out from amongst his brethren to pour the anointing oyl upon his head David whom I eminently preserved in six troubles yea in seaven when he was hunted as a Partridge upon the mountains David whom I carried as upon eagles wings to the throne through such amazing dangers that himself cried out I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul yea David whom I owned and gave this glorious testimony of I have found David a man after mine own heart who shall fulfill all my wills Oh! for David for this David to do all these abominable things which I hate Oh! Alluding to his gross hypocrisie in seeking to palliate and cover his sin and shame from man what aggravations are wrapâ—ed up together to render the sinne of David exceeding â—infull hence himself phraseth it the iniquity of his sinne Psal 32. ver 5. Observe that 1 Kings 11. vers 9. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel And why so angry with Solomon why the reason is added which had appeared unto him twice The Scripture affordeth many paralel places Oh! the sinnes of Saints are dyed in a deeper crimson Who had his name Jedidiah because he was beloved of the Lord Neh. 13.26 and carry a greater guilt and this layeth them in oyl and maketh them lasting when they are committed under and after discriminating mercies and preservations Oh that the saints would gather up all the signal providences of God toward them and improve them as arguments against sinne It was Luther's advice to answer all temptations with this Christianus sum I am a Christian So let us argue after the Lord hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandements Ezra 9. vers 13 14. Oh if any nation under heaven may be lessoned holiness by astonishing mercies and a constant succession of admired preservations England may our Rulers may our Ministers may yea all the Saints may for how often hath the Lord defeated army after army broken confederacy after confederacy discovered plot after plot so that wherein soever the enemy hath dealt proudly God hath been above them Oh! that the heads of England would lay this to heart and that they and all the Saints would rise up with all their might against their lusts to destroy them unto Hormah viz. utter destruction Numb 21. vers 3. as the Lord hath pursued
your spirits when ye first heard the sound of the trumpet and the Alarum for war how terrible the sight of an Army with banners displayed was and how dreadfully the clashing of Armor sounded in your ears were not many of you like the men of Israel who followed Gideon Judg. 7.3 Who when proclamation was made in the Army Whosoever is fearful and afraid let him return early from mount Gilead there returned of the people twenty and two thousand would not such a lieence for a retreat have found acceptation with many of you did not you wish your selves in your shops again at your employments again did you not blame your selves for your rash and forward undertaking so dangerous a service and yet how did the Lord heighten your spirits how did he cloath you with valour and undaunted courage how did the spirit of the Lord come upon you as upon Savl 1 Sam. 11.6 What kindlings of anger and warlike indignation were in you as in Saul when he saw the designe of the Ammonites to thrust out the right eyes of your brethren and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel and how did the progress of the war declare both your skill and valour your enemies themselves being Judges Valiant men of the valiant of Israel expert in war marching and watching with your swords upon your things because of the fear in the night Can. 3.7 8. 3. Consider what Midiantish Armies for multitude ye have encountred with what numerous bodies have drawn up against you how the Nations round about have been called in against you How many Armies of men of different languages interests and Religions have been formed against you And yet the sword of the Lord and of Gideon hath broken them in pieces the Lord by you hath done unto them A unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the brook of Kison which perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth their nobles have been made like Oreb and like Zeeb and all their Princes like Zeba and as Zalmunnah who said let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession Psal 83.9 10 11 12. Nay how have ye with the sharp threshing instrument of the power and justice of the most high God thrashed the mountains and beat them small and made the hills as chaff How have ye fanned many of them how hath the winde carried them away and the whirlewinde scattered them Isa 41.15 16. How hath this been made good at home abroad by Land and by Sea that ye and we may rejoyce together and glory in the Holy one of Israel 4. Consider what personal perservations ye have had how the Lord hath covered your head in the day of Battail How many bullets have been guided by the hand of God to miss your bodies when they have flown like storms of hail about you how they have glided off your Armor and not torn your garments or rent your garments not rippled your skin or rased your skin not reach't your flesh or though your flesh hath been lashed yet your lives have been secured Oh consder the distinguishing providences that have been toward you sometimes a right hand man dropping down sometimes a left hand man sometimes a pistol hath been fired at your breasts and would not go off sometimes a sword hath been lift up to cleave your heads and the Lord hath stayed the hand as once he did Abrahams sometimes your horses have been slain under you and ye have been mounted again or made an escape on foot O let your personal deliverances be gathered up and recorded by you 5. Consider all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for you and by you in this and other Nations What fieges have been raised by you when the distresses of your brethren have been very sad as Glocester and other places What strong Towns and Cities have been carried by you as Colchester and other Forts and Cittadels What eminent battails have been fought and won by you what slangther hath been made in the Camps of your enemies with what unequal numbers have ye taken the field sometimes and at all times almost come off with far different loss How again and again Armies have been raised and those Armies have been routed forces levied and those forces have been levelled even with the ground the proudest and stoutest of them Moab-like have been trodden as straw for the dunghill How various how voluminous have the mercies of the Lord been to you that in all encounters ye have come off with the conquest at least the issue of the war proclaims you Conquerors so that the Lord hath made good that promise to you Josh 1.5 There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life Nay Chap. 2.10 The hearts of all your enemies have melted neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you for the experience of many years and many wars hath proved the truth of that great promise Isa 54.15 Behold they shall surely gather together but not by me that all the gatherings together and musters of the enemy have been without the Lord for whosoever hath gathered together against you hath faln before you No weapon that hath been formed against you hath hitherto prospered this hath hitherto been your heritage and that it may be continued in mercy unto you and ye may be continued as a mercy to the land and to the Saints let me commend some few things unto you 1. Do not sacrifice to your nets nor burn incense to your own drags do not say your own sword and your own bow hath gotten you the victory and so shut out the King of Saints and his anointed ones from any share in your many victories Take heed of Elations and up liftings of spirit in ascribing too much to your own prowess and policy and so carry away the honor of the day from the Lord of Hosts it is much a fault in many who will not own God in you nor acknowledge you as a Battle-ax in the hands of the great God whereby he hath broken the enemy and dasht in pieces the powers of the world which hath stood up against the Lord and his people and it would be much your sin if ye should by a proud Monoply engross the glory of the work wholly to your selves if any thing of this nature hath been upon your spirits or faln unwarily from your lips let me bespeak you in the words of an excellent woman and think it not dishonour to be counselled by the mouth of a woman though Abimelech did to fall by the hand of a woman 1 Sam. 2.3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not arrogancy come forth of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed He that trieth the heart and weigheth the spirits will certainly weigh such carriages and finde them too light if souldiers say with Ajax I know
rebellion and disobedience But to go on how do the Marriners improve this mercy why ver 30. then are they glad because they are quiet so he bringeth them to their desired haven Hath this been your case hath the Lord calmed a tempestuous sea and steered your course by a good hand of providence to your desired harbour Let me ask you not whether you were glad but how you exprest your gladness did ye not sing and drink and swear and roar when your fear was past hath the sence of deliverance wrought you into an humble holy praising and thankfull frame which hath been the first place ye have visited when come to land the Tavern or the Temple and which hath been your first work pouring forth your soules in praises to God or pouring in of ale or wine to intoxicate your brains have ye been drunk with wine wherein is excess or have ye been filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymnes and spiritual songs making melody in your hearts and singing to the Lord Eph. 5. ver 18 19. Oh sirs is this all the return that God expects Is this all the improvement ye should make of so great a mercy surely no ver 31. The holy Ghost directs to a better O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his works unto the children of men that they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in Societies so the word importeth O friends lif ye read this doctrine read also your own duty in it If deliverances ingage any unto duty sure yours do yours are as eminent as any as immediate as any Ther 's nothing but the hand of God seen in your preservations in land-deliverances something of the creature is seen and man steps in for a share either by his power or policy prudence or providence but who can rebuke the windes and the seas but onely their great Creatour Caesarem vehis will not calme a rough sea such charmes will not be obeyed by the wilde Ocean That King found this true when walking upon the shore he commanded the tide to stop his course but so little the sea regarded the commands of this proud king though within his own Dominions that he found his safety lay more in his heels then in his head He alone who hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetuall decree can stay the tide in its full carreer and still the windes in their loudest bluster Jer. 5. ver 22. How apparently did the windes and sea fight for us in Eighty eight so that the enraged Spaniard said Christ was turned Lutheran Oh then Octogessimus octavus mâ—rabilis annus Beza Silete ne Dii vos hâ—c navigare sentiant was the Speech of an Heathen to wicked persons that sailed in a storm with him own God in all your sea-deliverances be awakened to a sence of them improve them upon a spiritual account wipe off that imputation which is cast upon you by men of In-land Countries that there is little of Religion among you Look after and lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ least yea be thrown over-board in a state of impenitency and unbelief and sink down not onely like lead into the bottome of the sea but into the bottomless pit also Oh 't is sad going to Hell by land or water O get into Christ who will be a Noah's ark unto you in which ye shall not onely sail safely to an earthly haven but into heaven and when the Lord brings you off from a sea-voyage with broken masts torne sails and a wether-beaten ship let the sense of that great deliverance affect your hearts and if ye have not already done it Give diligence to make your calling and election sure T is the Apostles advice to all 2 Pet. 1.10 and mine to you shew your seriousness in a point of so great importance it was well said by a reverend Divine Thy bed is very soft Mr. Trap. in loc or thy heart very hard if thâ— canst sleep soundly in an uncertain condition Oh minde this as the main for this being obtained though you should suffer a wrack at sea yet verse 11. An entrance shall be administred unto you into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ The Metaphor is accommodated unto you ye shall not get into Heaven as a ship hardly puts into the haven with Anchors lost Cables rent sails torn and masts broken which is the case of many but shall sail in with masts up Cordage whole Tacklings sound Sails full Flags displayed top and top gallant trumpets sounding and so shall everlastingly rejoyce in the everlasting Kingome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 5. The naturall improvement of this Doctrine gives much by way of advice to the recovered ones of the land to those whom the Lord hath brought off from beds of languishment and fetched up even from the gates of death And truly the number of such is great scarce ever greater the Providences of God have been sad and humbling sundry times in the land and in particular places yet seldome hath avisitation been so generall both as to persons and places The pale horse and his Rider have passed through our several Towns and Countries like an army in their march and taken up short quarters but of late they have billetted amongst us taking up not onely their summer but winter quarters also so that we may take up the Churches complaint Jer. 8. vers 20. The harvest is past the summer is ended and we are not saved sickness and death have not removed their quarters neither is there any amongst us that knoweth how long their abode shall be Psal 74. vers 9. Their commission being under the Privy Seal of Heaven and if their hostilities be so great this winter season what wasting and desolation may we fear at the time when Kings go forth to battle 2 Sam. 11. ver 1. if winter agues be so violent what will the summer feavers be if these diseases sweep our Townes so much what will the besome of destruction do If we have run with the footmen and they have wearied us then how shall we contend with horses If we have been wearied in the land of Jordan O that the sence of our present sickness and the fear of an approaching mortality invading the land was set home upon all our hearts that we might improve the Lords counsel Hos 14.2 to take with us words and turn to the Lord and say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously that we might prepare to meet our God with an entreaty of peace before the decree come forth Oh that all especially the men of wisdome in the Nation would hear the rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. vers 9. and receive teaching from it My humble advice from the Lord to those who have been sick and now are west who are now in the land of the living
Eliphaz Job 5. ver 18. He maketh sore and bindeth up he wonndeth and his hands make whole and go sing good Hezekiahs song to the stringed instruments all the dayes of your life in the house of the Lord Isa 38. ver 20. II. Make good your sick-bed thoughts and purposes what you intended when sick be intent upon now well what you then purposed now practise sick people usually have the best minds but the worst memories when they are under an arrest from the Lord and brought within sight of the Prison then conscience is awakened then their debts to God lie heavy upon their spirits then their thoughts are how to make even with God and fly to their surety then if mercy will but put in Bail for them if God will but spare them a little before they go hence and be no more if he will but have patience they will pay him all No Saint under heaven can promise fairer and further then they what they will do and what they will be if the Lord restore them to health Luke 11. ver 24. The unclean spirit often goeth out upon a sick-bed there is a cessation from sin that work goes not on then but alas sad experience hath let us see too often that words are but winde and all the sick-bed resolutions vanish into air the unclean spirit returns when restored to health and finds the heart swept and garnished then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked then himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last estate of that man is worse then the first As health comes on Religion goes off and they forget the vows of the Lord that were upon them Indeed it fares thus very often with the Saints themselves what a vow did Jacob bring his soul under when in distresse Gen. 28. ver 20 21 22. Mr. Calamy Con. in Psal 119.92 I knew a man who in the time of his sickness was so terrified in his conscience for sin that he made the very bed to shake upon which he lay and cried out all night long I am damned I am damned and made many and great protestations of amendment of life but became as wicked as ever yet this good man made slow haste to perform it until God was fain to jog him and be as a faithful remembrancer unto him Gen. 35. ver 1 2 3. then and not till then did Jacob purge his family and go up to Bethel to perform his vow which computing the time was about seven and twenty years after he made it good Hezekiah fell into this distemper also you shall hear how his spirit was up in thankfulness to God Isa 38. ver 19. The living the living they shall praise thee as I do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth that is I will perpetuate the memoriall of this mercy by handing down the knowledge thereof to my children yea my command shall be upon them as a speciall charge in my last will that they shall give God the glory of my recovery good words spoken and probably from a reall intention at that time But alas the sence of this great mercy was but an Ephimera it soon wore off 2 Chron. 32. ver 25. Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for the recovery was signal attended with many remarkable circumstances as 1. The sentence of death was reversed which was passed in foro externo for God had sent him a speciall message by the hand of Isaiah to set his house in order for saith he thou shalt die and not live chap. 38. Object But did not the Prophet speak his own apprehensions onely considering the mortality of that disease which had seized upon him Sol. No he prefaceth his message with Thus saith the Lord and 't is certain he knew the Lords mind concerning him at least so much as was then revealed there being not any person then alive who was Consiliarius è secretioribus to the most high God more then Isaiah was and who knew more of the councels of Heaven witnesse his glorious and Evangelicall promises and Predictions 2. The reversall of the sentence of death was the single return and procurement of his own prayers and tears for ver 5. The Lord gives a second command to the Prophet to go to Hezekiah and deliver this message from him Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayers I have seen thy tears so that as Hannah said of Samuel her son 1 Sam. 1. ver 27. For this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him The same might Hezekiah for my life I prayed and wept and the Lord hath given me my petition Nay the Lord makes a large addition to his life Psal 21.4 he asked life and the Lord gave him length of days the life of man twice told in our ordinary law compute even fifteen years which did very much accent the Lords mercy seeing Hezekiah was so exceeding earnest for life having then no Son to succed in the throne and the affairs of Church and state being very unsetled 4. This also gave a great Emphasis to the mercy in that he had such a suddain return to his prayer The Lord did not make him wait long for answer thereby tormenting his spirit with perplexing fears but before the Prophet was gone out into the middle Court 2 Kin. 20.4 the word of the Lord came unto him the Lord met him and sent him back with a message of life to Hezekiah Oh t is matter of great comfort to have a quick dispatch of business especially in things relating to life and death 5. Yet further the immediate appearance of power from the Lord in effecting the cure doth marvailously greaten the mercy that Hezekiah should be visited with so sharpe a distemper Leigh Crit. Sac. probably the plague of pestilence for Shechen signifies an hot ulcer boil or push and may refer to a Plague sore also however the disease in it self was mortal and that so slight an application as a plaister of figs should perfect his recovery and that suddainly within three dayes 2 King 20.5 whereas we finde lighter distempers are long in carrying off where able Physitians are consulted with and all means attempted 6. And then that the great God should work a miracle in heaven to confirm his faith in the certainty of the cure that he should command the Sun to a retrograde motion to go back ten degrees not onely the shadow upon the dyal of Ahaz for that had not been so visible and universal but the body of the Sun in the heaven for so t is Isa 38.8 So the Sun turned ten degrees by which degrees it was gone down Dr. Richardson in loc whereby that day became ten hours longer then otherwise it should have been allowing half an hour for a degree and the motion of the Sun regular
opportunities of grace That ye may be partakers of Gods Holiness Heb. 12.10 Consecrate your lives which ye have received a new from the dead unto the Lord devote your selves wholly to the service of the great God let me bespeak you in the words of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.2 That ye live no longer the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God and that not onely in the general duties of your general Callings as Christians but with a special eye to your particular standings and capacities as Magistrates Ministers or as Christians so and so related and qualified Three things are hinted in this verse 1. That the time of mans abode in the flesh is fixed and dedetermined by God That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and residue of time is stated in heaven I may here allude by way of resemblance unto a piece of cloath which as to the number of yards is laid in the warp so soon as brought to the Weaver and every hour he works in the woof he lessens the bulk of yarn that is wrapped upon the beam untill at length he finisheth the whole piece and cuts it off leaving nothing but the thrums behind the heathen had this in their three fatall sisters And Job alludes to it Chap. 7.6 My days are swifter then a Weavers shuttle before man is born into the world whilst his substance is yet imperfect in the wombe of his mother like raw yarn in the shop as all his members are in Gods book so the measure of life is fixed in the appointment of his great Creator and every day he lives Weaves off somewhat of his life until at length nothing is left upon the brain but the thrums of a crazy and putrid carcass which is cut off and thrown into the grave Hezekiah alludes to this Isa 38.10 12. I said in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherds tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life 2. Whilest man lives to the lusts of men he lives not according to the Law of his Creator Ego te non Catelinae genui sed Patriae as he said to his son I begat thee not to serve Cataline but thy Country so speaks the Lord Jehovah to man I created thee not to serve man but thy Maker not to live according to thy own or other mens lusts but according to my laws now the lusts of the flesh and the laws of an holy God they are inconsistent and opposite each to other It is a sad thing to be a servant of men in many cases but in none so sad as in this It was the great English Cardinals complaint in the day of his distress If I had served my God with half that faithfulness as I have served my King he would not have left me now or to this sence Many men have rued it and will at the great day of accounts that they have been such slaves to the lusts of men their pride avarice ambition uncleanness c. And have so cast off the easie and noble yoak of Gods laws many servants have much to answer for the Lord give them timely repentance and masters too else their own and their servants sins will stand upon their score 3. He only lives up to the rule of his creation who lives up to the will of God this is the royal standard under which we all must march This is the maine wheel which must govern all our motions Obedience to this is that which denominates us both men and Christians and as our duty obligeth us to obey the will of God in the gross and general so far as it is revealed so our Allegiance to God as men and more as Christians binds us to observe our particular calls and cries as God revealeth things to be his minde and will there are indeed standing commands which run through all ages of the world without the least variation to obey which all men especially Christians stand equally obliged But the wise God is pleased to parcel out his will in particular commands to persons as to time manner and matter in many things as his own councels ripen and bring forth his pleasure into the world now a Christian must not onely observe the will of God as it speakes to him in common with other men but as it speaks unto him and calls for something from him in such a standing and capacity and not onely observe the will of God which hath been owned in all ages as the entertainment of his Son sanctifying his Sabbaths waiting upon his own appointments c. But also to act up unto it in our respective stations as he makes it known to us in the present providences and products of it Mr. Hamner in his preface to his excerbitations on confirm And therefore as a learned Writer lately observes That God committed the receiving and refining of truth from Antichristian power and mixture to the forgoing worthies of this and foraign Nations which were happily performed by them but discipline and order seem to belong unto us and which the Lord hath preserved for this period of time wherein the work of reformation is to be carried on to greater perfection this doubtless the late providences speak to be the Lords will and his expectation from the men of this generation Oh then ye servants of the Lord whom he hath ransomed from the grave in these late sickly times live the rest of your time in the flesh to the will of God in the advancement of Gospel-purity and the power of godliness let this be your return to the Lord observe his finger pointing to this as the especial work of your generation and believe that God hath brought you again from the dead that ye may give life to reformation national at least Congregational which for many years hath laboured under painful throes and pangs and yet is not delivered The Apostle Paul in that excellent Sermon of his preached at Antioch Act. 13. Speaking honorably of holy David verse 22. produceth letters testimonial under Gods own hand concerning him in these words I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart who shall fulfill all my wills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gives this farther account of him vers 36. That after he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep Whence I note in general that the best men and most eminent both for parts place and piety must dye Josh 1.2 God tells Joshua this news Moses my servant is dead what he was and how eminent the spirit of God fully declares And David full of days riches and honor died 1 Chro. 29.28 And go therefore work whilst it is day walk in the light whilst ye have the light bestir your selves for God for though eminent
the world into nothing and blow down a great bubble with an easie breath that by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undress your soules by unpinning one pin c. I have read of a Persian Noble-man who lost his life by the loss of an hair plucked out of his bosome Mr. Vines Essex's Hearse in sport by his Minion 5. Get your hearts into an awfull frame get your spirits tinctured with an holy fear of God Rev. 15. vers 4. Surely they that have felt must needs fear him they that have found the power of his anger let out in soul terrours yea in breaking afflictions upon the body Read M. Jackson's Notes upon this place must needs fear him though indeed none but the damned in Hell experience the power of his anger Moses in Psalme 90. ver 11. put 's the question Who knoweth the power of thine anger implying that none knoweth it as none can take the dimensions of his love which passeth all knowledge so neither of his anger the reason is added because even according to thy fear so is thy wrath that is let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if he fall into thy hands Paul knew this when he laid down this Position as a fence wall about Profession to keep men from starting out by Apostacy Heb. 10. vers 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God surely if the burnt childe dread's the fire much more men of age and discretion who have been cast into the furnace of affliction have had their moisture dried up their skin writhled their flesh rosted and their very bones burnt with the scorching flames thereof have cause to fear that fire which so farre resembles everlasting burning that though it be not unquenchable yet it is not quenchable but by the bloud of Christ and the melting bowels of God's tender mercie Oh then Dear friends take forth this lesson from your late afflictions to fear that glorious and fearfull name THE LORD THY GOD Deut. 28. vers 58. Fear to offend God fear to do any thing which may displease him in this sence Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. ver 14. The Hebrew Midwives lost nothing by it Exod. 1. vers 17.21 1. From the consideration of Gods power he is able not onely to call you to an account 1 Cor. 10. vers 22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger Are we stronger then he As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel Are we the Lord's match can we outstrengthen an Almighty God Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9. ver 4. Jer. 5. ver 22. 2. Fear to offend him from the consideration of his goodness not onely that goodness which the Lord extends unto you in common with other men nor that speciall goodness which is the peculiar portion of his Elect in Christ but also that particular goodness which the Lord hath vouchsafed you in restoring health unto you when ye lay at the brinks of the grave and many other tumbled in Hos 3. vers 5. Oh Fear the Lord for his goodness 3. Fear an offended God though not provoked by you A tender spirited childe feares and trembles when his father is angry with others though himself hath done no fault God likes this tenderness of spirit in his children Psal 119. vers 120. David saith my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Samar horrâ—pilatio my hair stands upright as it doth sometimes in suddain and great frights Job 3. vers 15. The hair of my flesh stood up Amos 3. vers 8. The Lion hath roared Who will not fear Oh observe this Hab. 3. ver 16. When I heard my belly trembled c. Objection But why should the Saints fear the wrath of God who is in Covenant with them and hath promised to be a covering Cheâ—â— unto them Solution 1. They see 〈◊〉 provoking nature of sinne they consider that sinne is a thing of greatest abhorrency with God and therefore when they observe the growth of sinne in a place or nation they are afraid that God will ere long break out in wrath against them Hence that Numb 17.12 13. read Ezek. 7. from vers 1. to the 16. and apply it upon a national account 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath they know the English of that Isa 27. vers 4. Who would set the briars and thornes in battail against me I would go thorow them I would burn them together They know what briars and thornes are and what their end shall be They see that themselves are not exempted persons they are not sure to have their door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the Pascal lamb Exod. 12. that the marking Angel Exod. 9. shall give them a signature of safety in their foreheads How was the Church affected Acts 5. ver 11 Ezek. 14. ver 14. Oh then labour to preserve an holy fear of God upon your spirits think often of what Christ speaks Luke 12. ver 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have nothing they can do But fear him who after he hath killed hath power to throw into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Lastly Labour to make sure of heaven lay out for an Interest in the Lord Jesus let this be the teaching ye have received from the late sickness Call to minde your sick-bed fears and tears what pangs of conscience and woundings of spirit ye then were under what faintings of heart ye had when you found your evidences for heaven writ with so pale a hand that ye could not read them at least by that weak and wan light which then shined in your soules what a loss ye were at for the Lord Jesus weeping with Mary because they had taken away your Lord and ye knew not where they had laid him nor how to lay hold on him for peace and pardon nay perhaps your cases weremore desperate your sins were writ in so deep a crimson your Atheisme igâ—â—â—â—nce Gospel enmity your former scoffings at Religion your flouts and flings at godliness your contempt of Gospel-Ordinances and your rejection of Gospel-grace did so fly in your faces grate and gnaw so upon your spirits and filled you with such a sence of divine vengeance that conscience that bird in the bosome like the night-raven croaked many a sad and dismal note unto you and so presented you with the black side of the cloud that ye verily thought if ye should die at that lare ye should drop into Hell Remember what then your thoughts were how then ye resolved that if ye recovered health again ye would not leave heaven under such uncertainties hereafter ye would give diligence to make your calling and Election sure ye would not for all the world be harassed again with those dreadfull fears and terrours like unto an unwary Traveller
from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us What a hystory of his personal dangers and deliverances doth he make 2 Cor. 11.23 to the end That to commemorate and communicate the mercies of God is our duty appears because it is of divine establishment it is the appointment of God himself he hath not left it Arbitrary nor is it a meer humane constitution but it is the institution of the great Law-giver so that to fail in the duty is a transgression of his law and fastens guilt upon the soul And sure 't is the Saints wisdom to take heed of sin and to comply with the whole minde of God Deut. 32.7 8 9. observe also Psal 78.5 6. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers Here is a law established and a commandment given to inforce the observance of it here 's the people pointed out upon whom the obligation of this law taketh hold and here 's the explanation of this law what it imports to wit That they should not hide but shew forth the wonderful works which the Lord hath done and that not onely to their brethren whose lives might probably be finished as soon as theirs and so the remembrance of those great things might dy also but to their children who according to the course of nature might live to celebrate the memorial of them when their carcasses were mouldred unto dust As the great works of God are not usually the work of one generation onely but begun in one and compleated in another so God would not have them be the wonder of one generation onely he would not have one age wear out the remembrance of those great deliverances upon which he hath laid out so much of his wisdom power mercy goodness justice c. Therefore their children must know them nay the children which were yet unborn must hear of them nay it must not stay here but even they must stand up and declare them to their children and so a careful remembrance must be kept up of mercies by a succession of ages until time be swallowed up into eternity much of the Passeovers institution had an eye to perpetuate the memoriall of Israels Exodus out of Egypt so the golden pot of Manna the twelves stones set up at the brink of Jordan and many other things were the appointment of God as standing records of some glorious mercy which fully speak forth the mind of God that he would have his people report his acts of kindness and good will unto them O then be exhorted to the practice of this duty the fruits it bringeth forth are very precious 1. Fruit. It will bring a Saint into more acquaintaâ—ce with God the soul hereby comes to a more experimental knowledge of God when he beholds the banner of love displayed over him and considers those precious attributes of mercy goodness wisdom and power which were engaged for him in the day of his distress Oh! this begets more heart-familiarity and makes a servant of the Lord more earnest in his enquiries after God as it is among men when a man is brought into great straights either for estate or life and a stranger takes pity on him and through many difficulties procures safety and diliverance for him Oh how great a sence of this kindness will be upon the spirit of an ingenuous person how will he be often speaking of it and the more he thinks and speaks of it the more earnestly will he desire to know the man that hath done such great things for him Just so it will be with a good man when he hath been in a necessitous condition knew not what to do nor which way to turn him Refuge failed him no man cared for his soul he looked on his right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know him as was Davids case Psal 142.4 Nay farther his brethren were far from him his acquaintance utterly estranged his kinsfolks failed him his familiar friends forgot him his own servants counted him for a stranger Nay his breath was strange to his own wife as was Jobs case Job 19.13 14 15 16 17. when a Saint hath been brought to these exigents and then the Lord hath come in brought him off with his own arm hath brought salvation to him Oh what a sence of mercy will this beget How will a Saint awak his glory to speak of this How will he bewail his ignorance of God and follow on to know the Lord How will he press after a most inward acquaintance with the Lord who hath done such great things for him when Moses was fled into Midian and beheld the flaming bush on mount Horeb Exod. 3.3 He said I will turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt he contemplated the power and omnipotency of God in it and what farther meaning the Lord had in that great miracle and when the Lord had spake with and commissioned him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt he enquires into the name of that God who proffers so far on the behalf of an afflicted people vers 13. and would not sit down untill God had told him that his name was I AM THAT I AM or I will be what I will be Eheieh being the same with Jah and Jehovah which imply First Gods perfect absolute and simple being in and of himself Secondly Mr. Leigh 2. book of his body of Diuâ—nity page 133. Such a being which giveth being unto other things and upon whom they depend Thirdly Such a God as is true and constant in his promises ready to make good whatsoever he hath spoken nay when Moses had been upon the mount with God forty days ank forty nights And the Lord had spoke unto him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend Exod. 33.11 yet having experienced so much the power and wisdom of God and having brought forth the children of Israel by so many signs and wonders out of Egypt and all by the immediate commands and communications of God himself he could not rest in that knowledge of God he had already attained but goes higher vers 18. And beseecheth God to shew him his glory he would not stay a little until he came to heaven which could not be long his glass being now almost run out but he would have a full vision of God in all his glory here he would know all and a great deal more then frail man was capable to know of that God from whom he and his people had received such glorious such eminent deliverances Oh sure if people did more observe and count over the mercies of God Personal and National there would not be such a dedolent ignorance of God as there is God would not be such a stranger in our hearts houses towns and countries Ah how many houses may a man come into nay how many towns may he
notable friend to Religion and provokes unto love and good works That soul thrives best heaven-ward which is most in the sense and serious meditation of the goodness of the Lord this will carry on the soul amain for God What a gracious frame was Jacobs spirit in when he had the lively apprehensions of rich mercies and great deliverances upon it Gen. 35. vers 2 3. Jacob said unto his houshold and all that were with him put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go to Bethel and I will make there an Altar unto God and why to Bethel or why make an Altar unto God Oh there is good reason for it He answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went There is very much in this passage and much to the present purpose and therefore I shall intreat your stay a while to observe the carriage of this good man there being much teaching in it and that in many particulars 1. Observe from hence That Family-reformation lyes by way of special care and duty upon the Governour of it The Master of a Family is vested with authority from the Lord to command the exercise of Religion in his own house he may authoritatively act within his own precincts and that for God It will not answer the demands of God nor satisfie conscience when awakened that he hath walked in the wayes of God himself and kept up close and closest communion with the Lord if he voluntarily connive at the wickedness of his family and leave them to their own carnal liberty in the things of God he ought to put to his own hand and move the wheels of Religion in his family and command his houshold to fear the Lord God himself gave this testimony of Abraham whose children we are if beleevers and ought to walk in the footsteps of his faith I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18. vers 19. ut faciant that they shall do it that they shall keep close to the way and act up to the commands of God It is too much the fault of Family-governours though good to slacken their family care in matters of Religion the best are too remiss in this point and if dealt withall what is the answer of many I hope my family walks orderly I see no ill carriages among them I do not observe a spirit of opposition in any of them to the wayes of God I allow them not in any vicious course they have no command nor countenance from me in any wayes that are evill This is something and more than a great many can say and speak in truth but this comes short of the pattern here proposed besides in matters that relate to your own interest you will see them do your own business you will often stand by them when they dress your horses it may be when they feed your hawks and your hounds ye will observe whether your worldly affairs prosper in their hands ye will follow them into the fields and meadows and see that your own work be done and that seasonably and throughly now why do you not see to the work of the Lord also if a groom be wanting out of your stable ye will misse him and ask for him nay if he give you not a good account ye will chide him or turn him away but when do ye misse him at the worships of God he may come late or not at all to the publick ordinances or family duties and hardly be mist or if mist get off upon easie terms a soft reproof will serve the turn like that of Ely's to his sons 1 Sam. 2.23 24. Why do you such things and do no more so Oh this is a Nationall fault and I fear there is much wrath bound up in it ye see another manner of spirit in Abraham he commands both children and servants to keep the way of the Lord I question not but ye use the imperative mood in your own and why not in the Lords work Ye are good Gramarians for your own and why not for the Lord's interest Masters may in civility entreat à nd gently treat their servants but if they refuse and be stublorn both the authority of a Master and the duty of a Christian obligeth them to command in the case of religion and if commands prevail â—ot David's practice is a worthy pattern Psal 101. ver 7. He that worketh deceit shall not tarry in my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight now to defraud God and their own souls is the greatest Mirmah the highest peice of cousenage if they pack for any fraud let them pack for that Surely if they do not couzen you in temporalls they make you go much to back-harrow in spirituals they steal away much of your comfort hinder much of that sweet communion which ye and your family might keep up with God if they do not set fire on your houses they make the wrath of God impendent over them for the curse of God which is the most dreadfull scarefire hangeth over the house where the swearer dwelleth and how few families can be found out wherein a swearer dwells not Oh that such a spirit of reformation in the power of it was upon all Governours of families as was here upon Jacob Oh that they were men of resolution like unto Joshua who resolvedly concluded though he stood alone I and my house will serve the Lord Joshua 24. vers 15. Oh that they were men of religion like unto Cornelius who feared God and all his house Act. 10. ver 2. I never hope to see religion flourish in the life and power of it and spread it self over Towns and Provinces untill great men be good and their families grow better Oh how sadly can some villages witness that popery and profanenesse have come down the hill from Lordship-houses and spread like a contagious disease almost over all the families the Lord reform this 2. It hath a great tendency to the promoting of religion when master and family walk together to the house of the Lord when publick worships are frequented by the heads of families and a due regard to Gospel-ordinances be kept up by them in the hearts of their whole retinue Oh 't is a sight that heaven and earth rejoice at to see great persons march in good aray to Bethel in the very front of their families It sadned David's spirit when an exiled person to remember how he had gone with his train to the house of God Psal 42. ver 4. as the meeter gives it and 't is pressed by way of patheticall exhortation by the Apostle Heb. 10. ver 25. upon believers not to forsake the assembling themselves together as ever they look for comfort at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the time whereof draweth
indeed But if thou beest in a state of Atheism and open prophaneness or notwithstanding thy carnal Gospelling or formal profession thy heart smites thee thy conscience condemns thee and thy daily practice bears witness against thee and all together tell thee to thy face that thou art not in a state of grace thou art not interested in the blood of Jesus and that Christ is not in thee the hope of glory Oh let these thoughts be often upon thy heart I have been sometimes in a way of mercy saved from drowning in the water Ah but what will this avail me If my foolish and hurtful lusts do after drown me in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 I have been by a hand of mercy pluckt out of Sodoms burnings but ah what comfort will this administer if I be cast into everlasting burnings I have been fetcht by a signal mercy from a deep and dark dungeon but ah what will this advantage me If I be thrown into the bottomless pit I have been antidoted from the raging pestilence but ah How can I rejoyce in that If the plagve of my heart be not cured and so the second death have power over me what contentment can I take in all my former deliverances If I be delivered up to eternal wrath Let such thoughts prevail with thee and improve thy present deliverances as warnings and awakenings from the Lord to provide for thy eternal safety The Lord Jesus preached very often upon this subject to those that he cured Behold thou art made whole sin no more least a worse thing happen unto thee Oh the worm that never dyeth and the fire that never goeth out will be far worse then all the miseries that thou hast suffered here this is much the fin of many they do not heed the outgoings of God nor consider the hand of the Lord that hath been upon them or for them in a day of distress the sence of great deliverances soon wear off and so the fruit of all is lost but if men would often say had not the Lord helped us the sea had swallowed us up and if we go on in these courses it will not be long before hell swallow us up had not the Lord procured my enlargement I had rotted in a noisom prison and if I walk on in these ways of sin I shall be certainly thrown into that prison out of which I shall not come untill I have paid the utmost farthing certainly if such considerations were more upon our spirits there would not be that Atheism dissolutness and profaneness amongst the worst nor that luke-warmness formality and deadness of spirit amongst the best as there is Sabbaths would be more duly observed ordinances more carefully attended on the season of grace more prized the messengers of grace more honoured the ways of grace more walked in and men would minde the great business of salvation in more good earnest then the most men do Oh then try this course and improve this councel least after all thy temporal deliverances eternal wrath may be thy portion 2. If upon due tryal thou findest a work of grace wrought in thy soul Christ formed in thy heart put it to the question how and when was this good work begun in my soul in temporal dangers and deliverances men are apt to speak what hazards of life they have been in what days of distress have been upon them and aggravate all by relating the circumstances of time place company c. and then how and by what means the Lord brought them off above and beyond expectation when they least looked for it and had least ground to hope after it Oh what stories will some men tell of this nature how will they delight in it and account it their honor to do it O follow then this pattern in a spiritual way discourse over and often the passages of Gods mercy and thine own misery what thou wast how vain how ignorant what an enemy to God what a hater of good men what a despiser of the means of grace and how regardless of thine own eternal peace and welfare so that if the twine thread of thy life had been cut when thou wast in that estate thou hadst certainly dropt into hell and perished without all hope of recovery and that then when no eye pittied thee nor thou thy self when thou didst not look after Christ but braved it out against God and all Gospel tenders then even then the Lord came in graciously and seasonably unto thee And according to his mercy saved thee by the washing of regeneration and renewings of the holy Ghost which he shed on thee abundantly by Jesus Christ thy Saviour Saint Paul was much in the review of what he had been and done and in owning and admiring free grace He is not ashamed to tell the world what he was before conversion when and how the Lord came upon him and wrought that blessed change in him And indeed some ancient Christians tread in the Apostles steps and still retain this practice sure 't was well if it was more done provided it was well done not out of pride and vain glory but in humility and lowliness of minde that God alone may be acknowledged and adored for his rich grace and others may reap fruit by it to their comfort establishment and support but I do not lay this down as the general duty of all under profession I know there be some who play the hypocrites in Religion and these out of meer pride and ostenration that they might get a name and repute among believers and be counted somebody would be forward enough in this work speaking lies in hypocrisie and pretending to great things which they never expe rienced like that Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.6 7 8 9. who told David a fair tale how he stood upon Saul and slew him and took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was upon his arm c. and all this that he might win credit with David and gain his favour by slaying his enemy who stood betwixt him and the crown when as the whole story was false this would be the case of some false-hearted hypocrites Again some of the servants of the Lord who are real converts would be at a loss within themselves not being able to give an account when and how the Lord first wrought upon them who can onely say with the blind man Joh. 9.25 This one thing I know that whereas I was born blinde I now do see the work of grace upon the hearts of some as to the quando and quomodo time and manner is undiscernable by them The Lord spiritualizeth their morals sanctifies their principles of education and drops down his spirit upon the seed and his blessing upon the off-spring so that they spring up as among the grass as Spring Flowers which lye buried under ground the Winter season and sprout forth as the year ariseth Isa 44.3 4. To this the Lord
Jesus speaketh Mark 4.26 27. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and the seed grows up he knows not how God sows the seed by the hand of a godly Parent or Pastor and in due season when and how they know not neither Parent Pastor nor the Person himself it bringeth forth fruit the word works sometimes many years after as they say of the Elephant that she brings not forth till the thirteenth year after she hath conceived The first springs in the womb of grace are precious and carefully preserved by the spirit and when they put forth it may be without any noise For the Kingdom of heaven doth not always come with observation Thus Timothy knew the holy Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3.15 not onely the bare letter and form of words that 's but little but knew them so as to love them to read them with delight and look for salvation wisdom in them through faith which is in Christ Jesus and probably by the care of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice sure gracious parents and godly education do contribute much though not infallibly to the seasoning of tender years and it was well if parents would make it much their care as blessed be God some do to furnish their children whilest children with Gospel-knowledge Mr. Trap. in 2 Tim. 3.15 It is reported That the Lady Wheatenhall so plyed her young Neece Mistris Elizabeth Wheatenhall that before she was nine years old she could say the New Testament by heart and was able to name the book and chapter where any word or passage was A singular president worthy of admiration Oh that Christian parents would take this hint The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 That 's the genuine and native fruit of it at least through the blessing power of the spirit conversion is in it and from it and who knows whether the word being engraffed by godly parents may not bring forth early conversion in their children Sure we are there have been and are young Saints in the world who have rellished the ways of God and walked in them before they have travailed many years journey from their mothers wombs now to these I do not direct this particular advice but to those whose conversion hath been visible their change so signal that the whole Town ye Country hath rang of it some such there are who are able to say that at such a time under such means by such a word in such a way the Lord was pleased first to work upon them they can circumstantiate their conversion in all the occurrences of it Paul could tell the errand he went upon which was bad enough the company with whom the time of the day the manner how and the plat of ground as it were upon which he fell when the Lord fell in with him by converting grace as he discourseth at large Act. 22.6 7 8. compared with Chap. 26.12 13 c. Now then to such in a more peculiar manner I speak as thou dost observe and discourse over the passages of Gods providence toward thee in helping thee out of great straights and tellest thy friends what they were and how nigh unto death thou wast and how the Lord came in at such a time in such a manner and by such means and brought thee off with safety so be much in observing and shewing forth what God hath done for thy soul what providential passages were antecedent to thy conversion what awakening teaching and leading providences were in order to thy conversion whether God did not first awaken thee by such an affliction give a check to thy spirit in the high careers of sin by such an humbling providence or made way for the entertainment of Christ and Gospel by disappointing thee in such a worldly design or won upon thee by some notable deliverance as was the Jailors case Act. 16.28 or how the Lord was pleased to bring thee into such a family or into acquaintance with such godly Christians or under such a powerful and soul-searching Ministery these all through grace have had a sub-serviency to the great end of God in bringing sinners home unto him Then again consider those ways of God which were concomitant and as means were instrumental to thy conversion in what method the Lord was pleased first to work upon thee what measure of the spirit of bondage to fear thou wast under what sin thou wast first convinced of how long thou wast under conviction before conversion was brought forth in the fruits and evidences of it what lust the spirit first struck down in thy flesh what repentance and godly sorrow for sin was wrought in thee what attempts the divel made upon thee how forceable they were and with what success and how long thou didst ly under the sence of sin and wrath before thou hadst any quieting apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through the blood of Jesus let these and things of like nature be observed by thee and reports thereof seasonably made to others Nay Lastly take notice of the after-visits of the spirit of God and grace to thy soul what sweet and suitable returns the Lord gave thee in to thy prayers what seasonable succours thou receivedst in an hour of temptation what power from the spirit of holiness came in in thy contesting with some Lady-lust what measure of consolation was cast in after thy days of mourning how far thou hast been sealed with the holy spirit of promise and hast taken earnest of thine inheritance since thou didst believe Oh be much and with much seriousness in all these particulars make a due collection of all and as thou carefully observest the great deliverances which God hath wrought for thee upon a temporal score so much more read over and ruminate upon that great redemption from wrath and condemnation and say with the Psalmist when envited to it by a seasonable opportunity Psal 66.16 Come and hear all yea that fear the Lord and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul of which this treatise will give the a further account with directions for the managing of it and the benefits which redound from it 2. Quicken up your selves unto duty in all your hard-heartednesse and damps of soul the best trees are subject unto mosse which stunts them in their growth and that stints them in their fruitfulnesse so the best Saints are liable to deadnesse of heart and damps of zeal the love of the world like mosse over-grows them or else there is some worm of pride security self-confidence c. at the root which drinks up the sap of life and blasteth the fruits of of faith and holinesse O how have I seen some fruitfull Christian grow as the lily cast forth their roots as Lebanon spread their branches and beauty as the Olive-tree and their sent as Lebanon Hos 14. ver 5 6. which afterwards
have been dwarfed in their growth dwindled in their fruit and decayed in their sent How was it with the Church Can. 2. ver 3 4.5 Like the apple tree among the trees of the foreest so is my well beloved among thâ—sons of men Isate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste At what a rate in this verse and some following verses doth she speak forth the praises and preciousnesse of the Lord Jesus expressing her delight complacency and acquiescence in him and the ardency and strength of her holy affections towards him again chap. 3. ver 1 2 3 4. How earnestly and instantly did she seek the Lord Jesus in his withdrawings from her How hastily did she get out of her bed and trudge to Jerusalem where the Temple Priests and ordinances were to find her beloved Jesus and how did she lay hold upon him and cling unto him clasp him with the embraces of faith and love and would not part with him untill she had her desires fulfilled like Jacob Gen. 32. ver 26. nay Chap. 4. ver 16. How fervently doth she pray for the graces and in-breathings of the spirit and invite her beloved to come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruit and yet what an unhandsome return and how inevitable to all those affectionate pangs did the Lord Jesus receive from her Chap. 5. ver 3. Christ gives her a visit and calls to her to open the door and entertain him and she from within replies I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them what a pictifull answer is here and what poor reasons are here produced I have put off my coat like that Luke 11. ver 7. Tr uble me not the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed I cann't rise A great businesse sure to have risen a little from his children and opened the door to relieve the want of a neighbour the flesh is wayward as well as weak I cannot sayes he how can I saith she well enough she was past a child and not yet grown so decrepid with old age but she could make her self ready at least she might have slipt on her morning coat and stept to the door without any danger of taking cold but sin and shifting came into the world together as one observeth and the brats of our own begetting are alwayes with us in the bed of carnall security and flesh-pleasing yet let us a little plead the Churches cause and advocate for her to take off the rigour of the charge It may be she was asleep and had then let fall the watch of the Lord no she sayes ver 2. I sleep but my heart waketh there was wakfulnesse in the hidden man of the heart though her eyes might be a little drowsie It may be Christ made no noise without nor gave any notice he was there yes he knocked it may be he did but onely knock and in the night we are not willing to open the door unlesse we hear the voice of him that knocketh I but Christ both knocked and called It may be she did not know his voice and therefore did not open a chaste wife will not at unseasonable hours arise and open her doors unto a stranger in her husbands absence I but she knew his voice vers 2. It is the voice of my well beloved that knocketh It may be Christ onely knocked and called like a friend in his journey onely to enquire how it fared with her or to speak unto her at the window nay he spake his plain meaning He had her open unto him which implies his desire to have entered her house It may be Christ had given her some distast had let fall some unkind words which made her a little pettish a common fault among women or else the match was broke off no Christ owns her as his Beloved and courts her with the most winning and amicable tearms of love My Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled I but it may be Christ was too quick for her gave but a knock and a call and was gone before she could rise and open the door No Christ stayed till his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Christ stands bare headed and that in foul weather yea in the night time wooing intreating and beseeching admittance yet could obtain none but must go seek lodging in some other place Dr. Richardson in loc as one says All these circumstances being put into the ballance do sadly speak out both the fault and folly of the Church and give full testimony to those distempers which seize upon the best Saints But how did the Lord Jesus the best and great Physitian bring off the Church from this distemper Why vers 4. He put in his hand by the hole of the door the key hole Why his hand the reason of the phrase may be this we know the hand is the chief instrument of action with that we work we write we fight c. So the spirit is as the hand of Christ by him he convinceth quickeneth teacheth comforteth illighteneth and strengtheneth his people as Act. 11.20 21. those that were scattered spake unto the Grecians and preached the Lord Jesus And the hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number believed and turned unto the Lord so powerful and present was the spirit of the Lord in succeeding their Gospel-Ministery that faith was wrought in many of the Gentile-Grecians here the hand of the Lord implyed the blessing power and concurrence of the spirit of Christ so Christ put in his hand by the key-hole that is sent in his spirit to awaken reprove and convince the spouse of her great unkindness toward him by the way take this note Note That the spirit can finde a passage into the heart though the doors be barred and bolted never so fast The key of David will open any lock Satan with all his skill and artifice cannot frame a lock of such cross and curious wards and work that this key cannot open the spirit acts with irresistibility in the saving communications of grace to the stoutest sinner Lord what wilt thou have me to do was Sauls question the lock was soon opened the spirit had quickly got into his heart So here the spirit was quickly within doors and what then her bowels were moved for Christ she had no rest in her spirit her bowels yearned after him There was a strange tumult raised within her Heb. the word carries that signification her heart aked and quaked being by the spirit convinced of her unkind and inconjugal carriage toward her dear Lord This brought her off from her bed now she could put on her coat and feared not the fouling of her feet she starts and stirs and hastens to open the door and as soon as she had taken the key in her hand Her hands
order to your establishment the God of all grace will make you perfect establish strengthen settle you your sufferings shall be in order to your setling your temptation in order to your consolation parallel to that 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory O then do but in the hour of temptation draw up the main body of your experiences and evidences of Gods love in Christ unto you and Satan cannot hurt you though his main battail be against you though he may pluck of some rath grapes he shall never destroy your Vintage though he may pick up some scattered ears he shall never carry away your harvest and though he may trouble you in your passage to heaven he shall never keep you out of heaven what a day of comfort is this unto the foul 3. Are you summoned by the King of terrors do his batteries play upon you are there breaches made in your mud-walls is there a mine sprung and your life in all likelihood to be blown up Why the lively sense and evidence of grace received will like a cordial water warm your hearts and stay up your spirits at such an hour as this is that light of life within you if heeded will clear up the counsels of God unto you as to your after and eternal well-being it will convince you of Gods soveraignty conquer your renitency and make you bow head and heart with much submission to the father of spirits this will ballance and ballast your souls too and poise them evenly between hope and fear that neither shall be inordinate and that in two particulars 1. Where grace sits at the helm of Government in the soul it brings the unruly passions into subjection to the divine pleasure and preserves the Saints from over-much hoping of life seeing their dayes are determined and their bounds set and antidotes them against overmuch fearing of death seeing the number of their mouths are with God Job 14.5 6. the indefinite is equivalent to an universal so that it was not Jobs single case but the common lot of all mankind and therefore you may safely argue that all the rare feasts which Paracelsus professed to do for the lengthening of mens lives the use of all remedies cannot make you out-live nor the missing of them cause you to fall short of those bounds which God in his secret and irreversible decrees hath set you This consideration will much quiet your hearts in God when you have the sentence of death within your selves it will excellently prevent that distemper which is an evil that I have seen even amongst the Saints of God viz. an over-eager desire of life and a greedy catching at any hopes thereof even to some neglect of that preparation and those precedaneous duties which the seriousness of death and eternity do call for at their hands not that I condemne a modest and humble desire of life or a sober use of means and medicines in order thereunto onely propound this as a cure of that heart-distemper mentioned and to perswade my self and others to say with David Here I am let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto him 2 Sam. 15.26 2. Your gathering up your experiences of converting renewing adopting and accepting grace in Jesus Christ will fill your souls with ravishing comforts upon an everlasting account even then when your nearest friends fill your heads with weepings sighings and sad lamentings as seeing your dying breath draw faint and short and other symptomes of death report your change to be very near you will then gather up your spirits as old Jacob did his feet and not be afraid to speak with your enemy in the gate the gate of eternity Oh grace improved will shew you your names written in the Lambs book of life will give you some foretasts of those joys which are in the presence of God will lead you in a vision of the Spirit into your fathers house that you may see those mansion places of glory which are prepared for you and will open your eyes that you may see the Angels of God those blessed ministering spirits waiting at your pillows to waft your souls into the everlasting embraces of your dear Redeemer that you may say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 to still the sobbings of your sad relations We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building with God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Dr. Kendall in his answer to Mr. John Goodwâ—n p. 53. That with Moses you may dye upon the mount of vision and with David full of riches and honor in a spiritual sense Oh this consideration will make death-tokens love-tokens and represent death as a messenger from your dear Jesus who brings the glad tidings of everlasting life if you fall by an arrow yet is that arrow shot by the hand of God in more love then Jonathans was to David if by a stroke of the pestilence yet that pestilence is no Plague but somewhat a harsher plaster of all miscries whatever be the fury of the disease it is but a chariot of fire to carry you to heaven None of the blessed Fathers ever complained of the untowardness of the way so happy are they in being seized of their inheritance among the Saints in light though they were hurried thither through the darkest valley of the shaddow of death Thus that learned Author O friends mind the annointings of the Spirit the sealings of the Spirit the witness of the spirit and draw up a fair Copy of all the gracious visits actings and workings of your blessed Redeemer by his Spirit unto and upon your hearts that your soules may often read therein that so when you come to die as needs you must and be as water spilt upon the ground which can be gathered up no more you may then be set down in the valley of Achor nay may finde the valley of the shadow of death as the valley of Baracha God hath pluckt out the sting of death and so death is given as a favour unto you O read your own blessedness in the light and print of the spirit Apoc. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord from * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e vestigio amodo ab ipso mortis articulo Mr. Trap. in locum henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them A Christian says one is here like quick-silver which hath in it a principle of motion not of rest never quiet like a ball upon the rackets a ship upon the waves but death brings him to his rest his body to the grave which is his bed of rest Isa 57.2 and his soul into Abrahams bosom That rest which remains to the people of God Heb. 4.9 And your works shall follow you mors privare potest â—pibus non operibus
Lord that which he wills with greatest pleasure and delight it notes the highest content that may be to wit delight which is the intention and strength of affection hence Isa 62. ver 4. the Church is called Hephzibah that is my pleasure in her the parables of the lost sheep and lost son do fully evidence this Luke 15. you cannot do a work that will find greater acceptation with God then acts of mercy Hos 6. ver 6. I desired mercy and not sacrifice the word in the Original is the same with that in Isaiah forementioned implying to will and desire a thing with a greatdelight and complacency Mr Eurroughs in Hos ver 6. pag. 599. so that a reverend Expositour upon the place brings in God speaking thus mercy is a thing so pleasing to me that I desire it at my heart nothing in the world is so pleasing to me as mercy shews that God had rather have it then all instituted ordinances and worships which by sacrifice are synechdochically meant and then instancing in cases of mercy His fourth case is the case of souls and that is in Christs case Mat. 9.13 Pag. 605. Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance we are ready to think that all things must give way to instituted worship but certainly immortall souls are of more worth then ordinances O surely the greatest act of mercy which we receive from God is our reconcilement to him whereby we are translated from darknesse into the kingdome of his dear son that being justified by his grace we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3. ver 7. and so the highest piece of mercy which we can shew to sinners for God is to be instrumentall in the saving of them bowels of mercy in us evidence Gods electing grace unto us Col. 3. ver 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy and sure we cannot shew more bowells in any act of mercy to man then in endeavouring his salvation Consider Consid 2. There is a great honour to the Lord Jesus Christ when sinners are savingly brought in unto him it is a jewell added to the glorious diadem of King Jesus Psal 45.3 David speaking in the spirit unto ' King Jesus bids him gird his sword upon his thigh which was the Ensign of his prowesse and regal power and adds with thy glory and thy Majesty implying that when people fall under him i. e. are converted and submit unto him it tends to advance his glorious Majesty Prov. 14. ver 28. In the multitude of people is the kings honour Zion and Babylon are the two great Empires of the world that under Christ this under Belial now one great part of Christs honour as he is King of Zion consists in the multitude of converts who being brought over from the devils quarters become his subjects it is said 1 Sam. 31. ver 12. That all the valiant men of Jabesh-Gilead went all night and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his sons from the walls of Bethshan and came and brought them to Jabesh let me allude this how is the glory of Christ advanced when all the valiant men Ministers and Christians go forth in the strength of the spirit of Christ to fetch off not the bodies onely but the souls also of men and women from Bethshan and bring them to Jabesh from sin to sanctity from Beth-aven to Bethel Converted ones are as Trophees after victory living monuments of honour to a conquering Christ Phil. 1.20 2 Thes 1.11 12. in the places where they live how then should the sence of that honour which is gained for Christ in gaining sinners from Sathan unto Christ act and spirit the Saints in this great undertaking Consid 3. Consider that the providences of God which have gone over and through these Nations in the years last past do speak the Saints duty and their hope of successe in what is now proposed how many storms of warre have been upon the land how fierce and full of rage hath the enemy been how many plots and engines of policy have been contrived how have men of popish and prophane principles and spirits struck at the very root of profession how have they designed the extirpation of the godly Being confident and insolent they bear their noses high in the air uttering loud and lofty languages as Rabshekah did 2 King 18. to which times this Psalme is referred by some Mâ— Trap. in loc They that hate thee have lift up their heads I do not say nor think that all they which lifted up their heads in the late warres under the royall banner were haters of God nor of his people as such though they were lifted up very high in their mistaken zeal for Kingly interest and in conscience of the oath of God which they judged lay'd such obligations upon them yet certainly without any breach of charity we may boldly affirm that there were a company of men not inconsiderable for number who took crafty councel against the Lord's people and consulted against his hidden ones ver 3. and spake out doubtlesse their very hearts and desires come let us cut them off from being a nation or from having any place of residency in the nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance was not this attempted at least against the godly party as Schismaticks and rebells so I limit their attempt for we had many pittifull Parliamentarians who might have gone in the throng of the most ungodly Cayaliers and in likelyhood would have found favour both for life and estate if the issue of the warre had gone for the King and hath not the Lord broken them and their plots in pieces hath he not fastened his people as a nail in a sure place Isa 22. ver 23. what think you then are not these mercies obligations upon you from the Lord to pursue his honour are they not opportunities put into your hands to advise exhort and perswade your families friends and neighbours and help them to heaven O what a pattern of Gospel-charity is good Cornelius Act. 10. ver 24. He had called together his kinsfolks and near friends to partake with him in that word of salvation which Peter from the Lord was to bring unto him how desirous was he to take them all into the Gospel-wherry that they might all be wafted over to the Lord Jesus therefore ver 33. he tell 's Peter We are all here present before the Lord to hear all things that are commanded thee of God O that such a gaining spirit such a winning carriage was in all the Saints Indeed when Religion was under the hatches in the nation and the old Puritans were underlins in every town they might have feared Lot's return from the wicked Sodomites and that dogs would have snarled at them if they had given
with utmost diligence to endeavour with much seriousnesse of spirit the winning over souls to God! How shall we answer the charge of our own consciences at a dying hour how shall we look our dear Redeemer in the face at the last day nay how shall we stand against the great accuser before the great tribunal when he shall charge this spirituall sloth and negligence upon us when he shall speak to the Judge of all the world and cry for justice against us urging that his servants have been more faithfull and serviceable to him then we have been to the Lord Jesus though he never bled to redeem them never underwent the wrath of a sin-revenging God for them never laid down his life to save them out of hell never gave them inward and heart consolations here neither prepared for nor ever promised unto them a state of everlasting blessednesse and fulnesse of joy in his presence forevermore hereafter and therefore shall call for sentence to be given out against us as being unworthy of that crown of glory O this is a consideration of great weight the Lord help us to take the right poise of it let us take shame unto our selves for our former negligence and be quickened up to more industriousnesse for the future Let not any of the devils drudges out-work us nor any of his merchants out-bid us much lesse any of his pedlers out-sell us for the time to come let not others do more to undo then we to save souls nor be more unwearied in their labours and travells to pervert then we are to convert men if there be a person that deserves as a badge of honour the name of that old Disciple trudge o're the world let not Jesuite and Heretick get it from us To shut up this I beseech you dear Christians into whose hands providence shall cast this treatise weigh these considerations laid down and let them with what others the spirit of the Lord shall suggest unto you or any of my learned brethren shall offer have an holy force upon your spirits to put you upon serious endeavours of doing good to your carnall neighbours if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. ver 25 26. and that you may be used by the Lord as instruments of their salvation listen not to flesh and blood which will be tampering with you to disswade you from it and will throw in an hundred objections and carnall cavils against it onely observe your stations invade not the ministery nor despise it be humble in all your applications to your ignorant neighbours and under any successe which the Lord shall answer your endeavours with and under all discouragements and deadnesse of heart to this duty improve grace received and temporall preservations as arguments to quicken you up to this duty and to other duties which are mentioned in this treatise that you may live best to God best to your selves and best to all others and alwayes wear this text as a sign upon your hands and as frontlets between your eyes to enmind you of the Lord's mercies unlesse the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence Vse 4. Are the appearances of God eminent an immediate to the help of his people in the day of their distresse have you experienced this truth have you seen the outgoings of the Lord in your personall safety and preservations why then fetch comfort and encouragement from hence and lift up your hearts and hands unto God in expectancy of help and succour in these following cases 1. When Church affairs do meet with dark and gloomy day when the Gospel is under some restraint as to liberty or under some corruption as to purity in word and worships reflect upon the outgoings of God unto you and consider that mercy that goodnesse that wisdome that power c. which were engaged for your rescue in an evil day then play the good Logicians and in a way of divine induction argue à minore ad majus from the lesse to the greater if the Lord extended help to me in such an eminent manner how much more shall the arm of the Lord be made bare in the rescue of many Saints if a single believer found the Lord so present in a day of trouble how shall a society of believers find him in such a day if a little sculler was brought safe to shore from off a stormy sea how will the Lord calm the raging waves when the ship of his Church is tempest-tost if his care was so great over one member sure the whole family shall not be neglected by him O there 's much sweetnesse and much truth in this way of arguing Thus did David Psal 30. ver 1 2. O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me O Lord thou hast brought up my life from the grave thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down into the pit here was a personal deliverance and what doth he inferre from hence namely that the Church and people of God shall receive the same measure of mercy from him in the day of their distresse therefore he saith ver 4. Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his I but may the Saints say we have little cause of mirth we may now hang our harps upon the willows the waters of Babylon by which we are set down do call for weeping rather then rejoycing no sayes he I read your safety in mine own for ver 5. His anger endureâ—h but for a moment ista nubecula cito evanescat as he said of Julians persecution weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning the Churches afflictions though they be sharp yet they shall be but short though they be violent they shall be transient this I assert sayes he as having been mine own case I have had many clear mornings after cloudy nights for the Lord hath brought my life from the grave he hath kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Again Psal 31. ver 22. I said in mine hast so great were my fears and so small was my faith I am cut off from before thine eyes I am a lost a dead an undone man neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cryed unto thee what doth he conclude from hence why ver 23 24. O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithfull and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer repayeth abundantly or with surplussage in seipso aut semine suo either in himself or in his posterity God will be sure to be meet with him and therefore he bids them be of good courage bear up bravely be stout and stedfast in the faith under trialls did the Lord hear my prayers and will he not hear his praying Church did he
appear to my help and will he refuse help to his beloved spouse was my trouble but as a racking cloud soon blown over by the wind of Gods favour and shall the Churches calamity be as a dark heaven set round with raine surely no though the nations do rush like the rushings of many waters yet God shall rebuke them the word signifies shall sharply and severely chide them or destroy them which implyed in the following words and they shall flee farre off and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a thing rouling before the whirlwind and behold at even tide trouble and before the morning he is not this is the portion of them that spoil us and the lot of them that rob us Isa 17. ver 13 14. O then be encouraged to hope and pray and pray in hope when the Church is brought into greatest straits when the Armies of Gog and Magog do go up on the breadth of the earth the number of whom is as the sand of the sea and compasse the camp of the Saints about and the beloved city that fire shall come down from heaven and devour them Apoc. 20.19 Let Davids practice be your pattern argue the Churches deliverances from your own if a man bestirre himself to quench a fire that hath taken hold of a remote cottage how much more will he lay out himself to preserve his manner house If a King send out his troops to secure a petty village from the Rovers how much more will he draw up his whole Army to secure the Royall city If the death of one Saint be precious how much more precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of many precious Saints O! God will be seen upon the mount Caelar-like he will either finde or make a way for their escape the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of every temptation 2 Pet. 2. ver 9. to fetch a Lot out of Sodom and a Judah out of Babylon The Churches extremitie is Gods opportunity when the tale of bricks is doubled then Moses will come as one saies 2. Improve your providential preservations by way of comfort in all your sufferings for the name and in the cause of Christ the Lord tells you tribulation in this world must be your portion and it is a characteristical mark of a true believer to be hated by the world they that have the crown in their eye must bear the cross upon their backs Now in the greatest tryal of affliction for the Gospel ye may draw forth and drink the wine of consolation ye may comfort your spirits by a serious reflection upon your experiences when ye remember what incomes ye had what strength what support what revivings of soul whilest ye lay upon such a bed of sickness were exposed to such hazzards environed with such dangers hedged in with such calamities when ye consider how the Lord fetch'd you off how seasonably Providence stepp'd in to your relief and how wonderfully God appeared for your deliverance Thus the Apostle argues in his own case 2 Cor. 1. ver 8. He tells the Church a great trouble which befell him in Asia it may be that at Ephesus Acts 19. ver 23. or that mentioned 1 Cor. 15. ver 32. but probably some other which Saint Luke mentions not which trouble he aggravates by three notable circumstances 1. We mere pressed out of measure above strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the burthen of a strong man should be laid upon the shoulders of a weak childe their being no proportion betwixt weight and strength 2. We despaired even of life had doubtfull thoughts arising in our hearts that we should not come off with life Note The most holy men have in this life their fits of unbelief 3. We had the sentence of death within our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the answer of death or we passed the sentence of death upon our selves I but God that raiseth up the dead delivered us from so great a death and what Inference doth faith make from hence why it begat an holy affiance in him that God would yet deliver him as if he had said I am yet to live in the world I have not yet finished my course nor fulfilled my Ministery and I know that bands and imprisonments for the Gospel yea trouble and persecution wait for me I but here 's the benefit of experience that God who supported me when I was pressed out of measure and above strength revok'd that sentence of death which I had passed upon my self and delivered me from so great a death he will yet deliver me he will graciously come in with supplies and support unto me that the gates of hell shall not prevail against me and why so confident Paul what bottomes this assurance why the name and nature of that God in whom he trusts his name is Jehovah I am I was and I am to come or I will be Now if you say there was danger I reply there was a God If you say there is danger I answer there is a God and if you fear there will be danger I believe there will be a God Jehovah answers to all these and he that was Jehovah to me in my former is Jehovah to me in my present and will be Jehovah to me in all my future sufferings for the Gospel He is I am in his nature as being yesterday to day and the same for ever and he is I am in his attributes and appearances for his people He is I am in his love to them he loves with an everlasting love even unto the end I am in his Covenant which is everlasting that he will be the God of his people unto death And he is I am in mine own experience I have found him to be so to me and therefore I do comfortably argue my heart into an expectancy of help from this God and may easily say He hath delivered he doth deliver and he will deliver me The same argument may the Saints take up by way of comfort and hope to themselves in times of persecution when they consider their former deliverances and Gods unchangeableness And now give me leave to make some digression in commending my thoughts by way of comfort to you and to my self in case we should be called forth to a suffering condition much hath been spoken and much to purpose on this subject yet all is little enough and many of the Saints have found it so in an hour of temptation 1. Lay this upon your spirits that your sufferings are upon you for God for his names sake it is ye are killed all the day long and led forth as sheep unto the slaughter ye suffer not as evil doers or busiebodies in other mens matters but for Religion sake the Gospel sake and for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers as the Apostle affirmes of himself Acts 26. ver 6. and therefore ye
persecutours and should give them a full commission not onely against your liberties but your lives also yet even your death would be life unto the dead in a saving sence unto others this hath been often witnessed that sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae the blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church Many Believers have arose out of the ashes of one dying Phoenix Indeed the Gospel is the white seed wherewith the Lord soweth the great field of the world having ploughed and prepared it by the law and here and there a Church groweth up in this and that Nation and here and there a Believer springeth up in this or that family and town Dedicator damnationis Christiancrum Tertuâ— This is the most usuall seed faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word preached Rom. 10. ver 17. Yet the Lord hath a red seed which sometimes he sprinkles the field withall and that 's the blood of the martyred Saints which also through a secret blessing-power is fruitfull both to the gain and growth of many souls Ecclesia totum mundum sanguine oratione convertit the Church converts the whole world with her praying and bleeding as the lilly is increased with her own juice that flow's from it so is the Church with her own blood Julian saw this which made him spare the lives of some Christians not out of mercy to them but out of malice to the Lord Jesus lest by cutting them off he should cast seed into the ground to bring forth a fuller harvest O did ye but work this consideration home upon your hearts how would it comfort you in an evil day How would it render you strangely willing not only to suffer joyfully the spoiling of your goods but also the spilling of your blood that so ye may minister seed unto the Lord and encrease his harvest what is it besides the glory of God and the discharge of duty with comfort and conscience which quickens up faithful Ministers to spend themselves and strength in the work of the Gospel is it not that they may gain over souls unto the Lord that they may bring sinners home to God and what encourageth to this doth not the hope and expectancy that they shall shine as the starres for ever and ever Dan. 12. ver 3. and not onely as starres of the lesser magnitude but even as the Sun in the kingdome of their father Matth. 13. ver 43. O! to what an height of glory shall a poor clod of clay be advanced How shall he be the object of divine love the wonder of Angels and the envy of devils to all eternity and that the saving of souls contributes much through grace to this glory that quotation in Daniel doth fully speak not to the attainment of it by way of merit but to the enlargement of it by way of mercy Now how much of argument is there in this consideration to perswade Ministers to breath and Christians to bleed out their lives to winne souls unto God give me leave to apply that passage Psal 126. ver 5 6. To this purpose though it hear another sence they that sow in tears shall reap in joy I know if ye die Martyrs in the presence of your relations ye will sow your bloud and lives in the tears of wives and children tears are a tribute that living friends do ow to the dead upon the account of nature and grace and if your death be a Martyrium cruentum a bleeding Martyrdome it will be a wet seeds-time with you I but ye shall reap in joy it will be matter of joy unspeakable and full of glory to you if the seed ye sow takes root to bring in souls to God There 's joy in heaven at the conversion of one sinner O if a blessed Martyr when in heaven and freed from that body of sin which hinders the soul in its purest acts of joy should know what a precious seed of grace through grace his bloud was to some poor sinners how they received life from his death what rejoycing would this bring forth in him if that fulnesse of joy in the presence of God will admit of any encrease however he that goeth away weeping bearing precious seed or his seed-basket with him shall doubtlesse come again with joy bringing his sheaves with him O the great day will be a day of solemn triumph untoyou when ye shall bring those Saints yea sheaves of Saints which were gathered in and rooted to life and fruitfulnesse in your bloud Come on brave souls let the sense of formeâ— deliverance fortifie your spirit against a day of persecution and adde to them this consideration we now propose and draw up gallantly after the pattern of your great Lord and master Heb. 12. ver 2. Looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of your faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God in glory or of the throne of God it is clear that the manhood of Christ or the man Christ Jesus considered in an abstracted notior from the Godhead feared death Heb. 5. ver 7. at leaâ— the ignominy shame and sorrow of the crosse therefore we hear him once and again praying that if it was possible that cup might passe from him Matth. 26. ver 39. and yâ— for the joy which was set before him he endured this crosse and despised the shame it brought along with it for malefactours of the highest rank were by the Roman Law nailed to the Crosse hence Isa 53. ver 9. the Prophet tells us he made his grave with the wicked that is suffered the death of the wicked the word imports ungodly lewd and turbulent irreligious towards God debauch't in manners and turbulent in the Common-wealth which sort of men David by the word of the Lord doomes to destruction Psal 9. ver 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell And now though the man Christ Jesus who is God blessed for evermore the Lord of glory feared death and was put to that shamefull and tormenting death the death of Hell-birds yet he endured it and despised the shame of it having his eye upon the joy set before him and what was that joy Sure much of that joy consisted in his compleating the work of his Redemption in bringing home the Elect unto God as Isa 53. ver 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied Hebr. shall sit down with acquiescence of spirit shall dwell there he shall receive joy and satisfaction from the saving of sinners as a man doth that dwelleth in his own house scituated with the best advantage of profit and delightfulness It was the saturity and satisfaction of his soul and the reason thereof may be gathered from John 12. ver 32. where he sayes and I if I be lifted up will draw all men after me he knew there would be such a magnetick vertue in his death
which would attract all men to wit multitudes of men and women to believe in him The Spirit being to be sent forth and the Gospel being to be universally preached after his death O then ye believing ones look unto this Jesus and look unto this joy which in some measure will be given in unto you by the attractiveness of your deaths to draw soules to Christ and settle this upon your hearts that though your bloud may be spilt as water upon the ground yet by the wise appointment of a gracious God it may be as seed instrumentally not meri-toriously for in this sense onely the bloud of Jesus is of life and grace to poor sinners and be not so streiten-ed in your bowels to the Lord Jesus or to your poor brethren as to deny an handfull of seed if called unto it to encrease the greatharvest I shall subjoin but one Consideration more namely 5. That t is an honorable advancement to be called out by Christ to suffer for him a vouchsafement of grace Magna est huâ—us verbi Emphasis ex quo intellimus omnia deberi gratuitae Dei Electioni and that in a way of speciall favour to die a Martyr a right Martyr The Apostles Acts 5. ver 41. rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a way of grace they had this honour put upon them that they were reputed as persons worthy to wear an honourable scar in their flesh for Christ though they were onely scourged this made Paul and Silas so meray at midnight that they sung Psalmes probably of praise to God that they were counted worthy to be shut up in the inner prison and to have their feet made fast in the stocks for the testimony of Jesus Acts 16. v. 25. Hence he tells the Philippians Phil. 1. ver 29. to you it is given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is a grant of grace of rich grace in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him though that be an high honour but also to suffer for his sake as if he had said the Lord hath granted you this honour that ye shall believe on him when as he leaves thousands of your acquaintance country-men yea Betters upon a worldly score in unbelief This is worth your acceptation our admiration this calls for full returnes of praise and thankfulness but this is not all that this grant of grace conferres by way of honour upon you for ye ye that are believers shall also be sufferers be Martyrs for Christ and sure the crown of Martyrdome is a glorius crown and every soul won over to God by a dying Martyr will be as an Orient pearl and precious Diamond in his crown of far more value then that Adamant found about Charles Duke of Burgundy slain by the Switzers at the battel of Nantz sold for twenty thousand Duckets and placed as it is said in the Popes tripple crown Oh what foretastes of glory what ravishments of soul have many of the blessed Martyrs had in their suffering for Christ Hold Lord stay thine hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot bear too great a light and oh what thankfulness and joy of heart have many express'd Act. and Mon. Fol. 1553. It is the greatest promotion God gives in this world to suffer saies Father Latimer I thank God most heartily for this hour Mr. Glover wept for joy of his imprisonment God forgive me my unthankfulness for this great exceedingmercy that among so many thousands he chuseth me to be one in whom he will suffer Martyr â—tiam in catenâ— gaudet August Act. Mon. Fol. 136â— 1744 saies Mr. Bradford Martyr I am the unmeetest man for this high office that ever was appointed to it saies Mr. Sanders Such an honour is it saies John Carlisle Martyr as the greatest Angel in heaven is not permitted to have God forgive me my unthankfulness Oh then what the Apostle saies Heb. 12. ver 1. as the close and Epilogue of that Martyrology so say I Wherefore seing you are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you and run with patience the race which is set before you Ye know not what times ye may be called unto what quaimes of fears may be upon your spirits and what temptations to self pitty from Sathan and the flesh may then seize upon you Therefore store up Provision afore hand lay up Promises lay up Presidences lay up Arguments and lay up these considerations by an unworthy hand offered unto you keep a fresh sense of former deliverances and improve them by way of comfort and support in persecuting times Argue with David Psal 9. ver 13. Have mercy on me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me and probably in the cause of Religion thou that liftest me up from the gates of death ex praesentissimo en certissimo interitu from present and certain dangers which shewed me the grave gaping for me and therefore raise up your spirits and believingly say as vers 6 7 8 9. O thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end the date of thy commission against us is expired and shall never be renewed and thy destruction from the Lord is irrevocable and eternal but the Lord shall endure for ever vivit regnatque Christus Christ lives and raigns and shall judg the world in righteousness and will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Read and enlarge these and the following Verses in your own thoughts 3. Improve the consideration of temporal mercies by way of support under all your saddest and sorest temptations from the wicked one If the manchilde Christ Jesus in the spirit be formed in you and any actings of grace be brought forth by you the great red Dragon will wait to devour you He is your adversary an inveterate enemy he owes you an old grudg and will be revenged on the heel for the bruising of his head and that by your head It is his Interest to bestirre himself If Christ gaineth he looseth There 's a wedge loose with him when the word findes a welcome in a sinners heart There 's not a soul brought home to Christ but is fetch'd out of the Devils quarters not a convert gained but is wonne by Christ in a set battel Sathan sadly speaks those words of John the Baptist John 3. ver 30. he must increase but I must decrease The sea is in continual revolution when it is high water in one place its low water in some other so when it is high tide in such a nation country or town its low water with Sathan Christs gain is Sathans loss He knows how Christs and his own affairs go on in the world who gains and who looses and that his loss is Christs gain and therefore he tries all his tricks improves
every method and turns every stone to keep his own ground to man his own forts maintain his own principality and withall to gain soules to himself to fetch them off from the embraces of Christ nay he is so bold and daring that though he sees the actings of godliness from the Saints and findes a work of grace in them which he doth find by those strong repulses the heart gives to his secret temptations which are his spies sent forth to search the land by whom he learns what frame the heart is in Though he sees his strong holds beat down and defaced by a conquering spirit though he observes the stream running in another channell and that the soul is now in armes against him believing repenting mourning praying watching hearing and all against him yet he will play an after game and not be wanting in skill or will to reduce the soul And he ploughs in hope and sowes in hope for he cannot read the Lambs book of life he knowes not the decrees of God they are Secret to him untill death brings forth a discovery and the soul is taken up to God and therefore though he fears such or such a Saint that is gone off from his quarters is under electing grace yet he hopes the contrary Yee see how busie he was with Joshua the High Priest Zech. 3. ver 1. and how hard he pressed upon him probably not without some hopes to have got him or the day against him until Christ rebuked him and told him he was a brand plucked out of the fire singled out by the purpose of the eternal Father to be a vessel of grace then he sleared away and left him Yet as our Saviour probably but for a time Luke 4.13 nay though he should read their names writ in heaven though he knowes the immutability of Christs love that whom he loves once he loves to the end John 13. ver 1. and of Gods counsel that his gifts and calling are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without repentance irreversible Rom. 11. ver 29. yet such is his malice and so great is his rage against the Saints that if he cannot keep them out of Canaan hee 'l sting them and scratch them in the wilderness before they get thither though he cannot put out their light hee 'l be a thief in their candle to swail away much of their comfort though he cannot reach them in heaven he will reckon with them on earth if they must to heaven he will send them cripples thither he will have a leg or an arm out of joint or broken or he will want of his will some way or other he will vex them buffet and disquiet them many long stories and sad ones too may be told of his exploits against the Saints my own experience can witness something of his trains and treacheries of his malice and the Lords mercy of his black designs and of the Lords gracious support and disappointments blessed be his holy name and adored for ever be his goodness O then in the name of the Lord lift up your banners buckle on your armour stand with your weapons in your hands ready to receive and charge your adversary and that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day gather up your experiences of God and meditate upon the great things God hath done for you in the day of your outward troubles what that power that wisdome that goodness of the Lord hath been which hath appeared unto you and engaged for you in the time of your greatest streights and what those streights and distresses how sharp and how pressing from which the Lord hath wrought your deliverance And then go to your spiritual Logick frame such an argument as this The Lord gives help to his distressed Saints in their outward troubles therefore also will he help them in their inward temptations now if Sathan shall argue that God doth not give in succours to the Saints in their outward troubles it 's true they and it may be ye had help and deliverance but it came not from God when ye were cast upon such and such sick-beds that ye despaired of life and your friends gave you up for dead then the Physician came and by his great skill administred such physick which wrought your recovery or when ye were in such streights the liberality of your friends relieved you or in such exigencies the wisdome and potency of your allies brought you off God was not seen in all your deliverances what will you do now why your business is to secure this fort by summoning your experiences and placing them upon the works saying that ye beheld the face of God in such deliverances that your help was onely from on high that men and means stood off and came not in no not for a reserve or though men and means were seen upon the wall yet God acted by the instrumentality of them though Christians were consulted with yet the blessing of God upon the means brought forth the cure be sure ye own God in every preservation how visible and potent soever creature-helps are or have been entrench your faith in this perswasion that whatsoever secondary causes contributed the chief agency was from God If Sathan beat you out of this trench he will soon take your standard and rout your whole army but if ye make good this ground if ye have the advantage of the hill ye are out of gunshot all his murthering pieces will not reach you ye may then quiet your spirits in any assault when ye can say in your greatest distresses as Paul 2 Tim. 4. ver 16 17. No man stood with me but all men forsook me notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Here 's a clear appearance of God Or with Daniel My God hath sent his Angel and stopped the mouthes of the Lions that they have not hurt me or with David in my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me Psal 120. ver 1. And surely some of the Saints deliverances have been such I can instance in mine own which were singly and signally wrought by God But now in other cases where instruments have been used as many such cases there have been be sure you give them even all created helps the name of instruments and own God as the principal Agent that his arm moved everey wheel and his hand guided and wrought with every tool do this and ye are well enough Psal 77. ver 20. Thou leddesi thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron to wit through the the red sea Moses struck the waters with his rod I but God divided the sea thou leddest is onely applicable to God and by Moses onely intimates an instrument so Psal 88. ver 65 66. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep or like as a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine and he smote the enemies in the hinder parts he putteth them to a perpetuall shame However the
passage of Bildad Job 8.6 7. to the end of the Chapter If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make thy righteousness prosperous What doth this Hypothesis this uncharitable Supposition import but a secret charge of Hypocrisie may it not be sensed thus ah Job thou wantest that heart-purity and heart-uprightness which renders the Persons and services of Gods sincere ones acceptable in his sight thou hast had indeed a great deal of the name and form of godliness thou hast carried it fairly and plausibly before men and hast purchased to thy self the reputation of a godly person in the world but alas the heart-searching God whose eyes are as a flame of fire ten thousand times brighter then the light of the Sun hath scarched thy reins and weighed thy spirit and having followed the streams of thy devotion to the fountain hath found that Hypocrisie hath been the head and Self the spring of all thy services thou hast but serv'd thy self upon God thy Religion hath been but mercenary and thou hast been his servant onely because he gave thee good wages therefore hath this calamitous condition overtaken thee and the Lord doth not awake to thy help which he would certainly do if he found thy heart upright in his wayes This he confirmes by the observation of the fathers who were men of great age great wisdome and great experience in the world ver 8 9 10. and that by three elegant similitudes ver 11. from the rush which cannot grow up without mire 2. from the flag which cannot grow without water both which ver 12. being removed to a drie unwatered soil do die and wither at the root so ver 13. are the wayes of all that forget God and the hypporites hope shall perish being at a distance from the fountain of living water and having the root of his confidence in himself A third Similitude is laid down ver 16 17. He is green before the sun and his branch shooteth forth in his garden his roots are wrapped about the heap and seeth the place of stones Succâ—sus ex Tremel There being in many gardens fountains of stone Other senses of this passage are given by Expositours however all conclude that Bildad chargeth Iob with hypocrisie which is the chief thing I aim at in this quotation comparing an Hypocrite to a green and sappy tree which growes up under the warm influences of the Sun and spreadeth his roots receiving secret moisture from the garden-springs yet the ax shall be brought and cut it up being like the Cyparit which bears small berries and bitter leaves that yeild an ill smell before God and therefore he cuts him up and casts him out of his garden this further appears to be that which Bildad drives at and wherewith he chargeth Job upon the account of his present sufferings because Ver. 20. he affirmes that God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers That the perfect man in Scripture language however otherwaies glossed upon by some in our dayes denotes a sincere servant of the Lord one whose heart is upright with the Lord is clear in many passages now what measure Job had from Bildad and his companions the same have many of the suffering Saints had from the censorious and carnal world and that upon the same grounds but be wise O ye snarling doggs be instructed ye blind Barbarians call not a suffering Saint because in distress an hypocrite for they are branches bearing fruit in Christ and the great vine-dresser doth but purge them by affliction cutting off their luxuriant branches that they may bring forth more fruit Joh. 15.2 Take heed ye sin not by such uncharitable censures against the generation of Gods children lest his wrath be kindled against you and ye perish in the way even in this your way of traducing and slandering the footsteps of Gods anointed ones and lest the Lord speak suddenly against you as he did against Aaron and Miriam in the quarrel of Moses Numb 12.8 and say How were you not afraid to speak against my suffering servants 3. For that definitive sentence which they pass upon the Saints when under suffering as though they were cast off by God and delivered over by Justice unto destruction indeed wicked men are very peremptory in their conclusions against the Lords people and when they see load laid upon them by the Lord in some calamitous estate they presently determine upon the question that they are forsaken of God Thus David in Psal 71.7 brings in his enemies encouraging themselves in their furious attempts against him under this assurance that God had cast him off Hear at what a rate they speak God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him But why so confident that David is now one of the forlorne hope that his condition is desperate and irreparable have you not seen what stormes he hath borne up under and sailed against have you forgot the formidable armies he hath broak through and broak why should you think that Absalom's Rebellion or Sheba's Mutiny for it is conceived the Psalm was penned upon one of those occasions should cast such an old and experienced Souldier into a lost condition O! God was wont to go out with him and his good presence was as a munition of Rocks unto him whereby he became not onely safe but successfull in all his enterprises but now the case is altered David stands alone he fights with his own arme God hath now forsaken him but how know you that he is in a deserted estate O 't is clear and legible in those sore distresses that are upon him hee 's a man mark'd out to ruine God will not deliver him and thus deridingly did the wicked scoff at David Psal 22.7 8. Contemptus pâ—puli ludibriâ—s opprâ—briis declaratur applied by the Evangelist to the Lord Jesus Matth. 27.39 when he was nailed to the cross all they that see me in this afflicted and calamitous condition laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seing he delighted in him a gauling Sarcasm reproachfull language Good God! how great is thy patience to pardon at least to pass over for the present such blasphemous scoffs against thy self and against thy son and if it was done thus to the green tree what shall be done to the drie Post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit Let not the Saints be overmuch troubled at the taunts of the wicked when the Son of God himself suffered the same measure from them but stay speak no more so proudly O ye ungodly ones do you think the tender Mother has cast off all care all bowels all love because she lets her helpless Infant lie crying in the cradle a while no no she 'l come and take it up kiss it lay it in her bosome
and draw forth her breast unto it Thus doth the Father of mercies do though he may suffer his children to be brought into great and pressing calamities and to lie crying for some time upon the ground yet do not conclude that God hath cast away his people and cast off all care over them no hear at what a rate of love he speaks how he useth affection with a tender Mother and outvieth her Isa 49.14 Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me but what is the reply can a woman forget her sucking childe that she could not have compassion on the son of her womb Mothers usually have more tenderness and their affections put forth greater strength to their Babes then Fathers do Therefore the question is not can a man forget but can a woman again it is not can this or that woman but indefinitely can any woman yea the tenderest of that sex again it is not can a woman forget her Childe that she may a little when nursed at anothers womans breast but her Childe that drawes life and love from her own breasts and then too when it lies at her breasts and she feeds it with her own bloud again it is not can a woman forget a sucking childe another womans childe to whom she is onely nurse though this engageth much and much love runs through the milky veins even to the childe of a stranger yet shee may forget it but it is a sucking childe which is the son of her own womb nay further it is not can a woman forbear to kiss or can she at any time refuse to dandle her childe in her armes no but can she forget or can she withhold maternal compassion from it can she expose it can she shut up her bowels so that she ceaseth all expressions of care and compassion towards it which in women in Mothers in wives in chaste and loyal wives is very rare if possible yet be it so should a mother one of a thousand be found so hard hearted and unnatural to forget her sucking childe the son of her womb yet will not I forget thee no Jer. 31.20 Ephraim is my dear son all Gods sons are dear to him he is a pleasant child All Gods children are children of his delights so the Heb. reads it since I speak against him or chide him for all afflictions are the rebukings and chidings of God I do earnestly remember him still I have not forgot him nor the affections of a father unto him though I have dealt a little roughly with him and left him a little in a distressed condition My bowels are troubled for him like a tender Mother that bears her Childe company with her own tears whilest she is correcting of him she whipps him and weeps over him and drawes more tears with the rod from her own eyes then she does bloud from the flesh of her crying childe so 't is with God his bowels sound louder then his blows and whilest he punisheth as a Judge he pittieth as a father and as it is with a mother when she hath whipp'd her childe she speaks it fair sets it upon her knees and dries its cheeks and eyes again with her own lips so the Lord when he hath lash'd his Ephraim takes him into his armes and sayes peace my dear son be quiet my pleasant Childe for I will surely have mercy upon thee miserendo miserebor an Elegant Hebraisme implying the certainty of mercy from the Lord to his Ephraims but when will the Lord have mercy upon them will he hasten his help will he speed his supplies yes have you never seen a tender mother what hast she makes when the shrill outcries of her fallen childe sound sadly in her ears so Isa 31.5 As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem the Lords mercies are a as bird upon the wing they mount high farre above all opposition and they fly swiftly not to be overtaken by the malice of man nor succours prevented by the pollicie and power of Hell O! how doth this sweeten that bitter cup which is in the hand of an afflicted Saint how doth this support and stay up a sinking spirit how doth this charge folly and falsshood upon wicked men who cry out against the Saints in the day of their distress God hath forsaken them the Lord hath cast them off and how doth this comport with that great truth spoke unto in this Treatise viz. That the appearances of God are eminent and immediate certain sudden to the help of his people in their distressed estate For ever then let all black mouthes be stopped from belching forth reproaches against the Saints charging them to be the greatest sinners hypocrites and forsaken of God because they meet with many and sore afflictions in this valley of tears 2. This reproves those who strengthen themselves with the arm of flesh and lean upon the creature when afflictions overtakes them that forsake the fountain of living waters and hew out unto themselves cisterns even broken cisterns that will hold no water the choicest creature-enjoyment is leaking sin hath perforated the creature and fill'd it full of chinks so that all that comforting healing helping satisfying and relieving good wherewith God fill'd the creature at its first creation leak's out untill sin be pardoned and the leaks be stopped by Gods own hand This then speakes the great folly of men to lay any expectancy of help from the creature yet what more usuall Many men as they charge their sufferings upon the creature so they exspect help in their sufferings from the creature This was Asa's sin that in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians 2 Chron. 16.12 It is not simply evil to seek to Physicians but commanded and commendable but Asa's sin was this that he sought not the Lord quia in medicis so the Hebr. is rendered because he trusted in the Physicians and concluded he should have health and help from them it is worthy observation that Rapha which signifies a Physician is used also for a Gyant Deut. 2.20 that also was accounted a land of Gyants Rephaim Gyants were very proud and trusted much in their own strength David tells the Philistine Gyant that he came out against him with a sword and with a spear and with a shield 1 Sam. 17.45 implying his trust in his arms and arme of flesh as the Antithesis or opposite termes do shew but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts and is not this very much the fault of Physicians do not men bear themselves very high upon their learning skill and experiences do they not boast what cures they have wrought in what desperate cases they have been succesfull how they have raised up Patients from the very gates of the grave and to one that comes to a sick Person in the name of the Lord that attempts a cure in the strength of God ten may be found
I fear who come with a sword with a spear and with a shield who attempt great things in their own strength rest more upon their own experience then Gods Providences and give more to their own prescripts then to divine presence which may be one reason why the Lord puts such new and various distempers into old diseases as Agues and Feavers that he may befool that generation of men Iob 9.13 who are so wise in their own eyes and this may be one cause why in ordinary cases they so often miscarry being therefore called Rephaim because through their rashness and in-advertency they send so many of their patients El-Rephaim unto the dead so 't is used Psal 88.10 Shall the dead arise and praise thee Prov. 2.18 It has been very common for men to place much trust in the power and prowess of Gyants and to expect great things from them How did the Philistines repose upon their great Goliah 1 Sam. 17.8 9. offering themselves to be Israels servants if any Israelite was able to conquer their Champion in a single duel O how do too many hang their hopes of health and recovery upon the Physicians skill if they can get but such and such a Doctour to their bed-sides they presently conceit themselves well at least in a safe way for Recovery This is a fault in both whereby an encroachment is made upon God and he robbed of his glory may not that question be put in this case 2 Kings 1.3 Is it not because there is no God in Israel that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron alas Galen himself is but a Baal-zebub as to the perfecting of any cure without the blessed presence of the God of Israel Asa sinned in trusting to the skill of an Israelitish Physician as well as Ahaziah in sending to enquire of his recovery of the God of Ekron 't is dangerous to rely upon means though the best of means we are commanded in trouble to call upon God but if we trust in our prayers or expect help and health from them we sin and have little ground to expect safety The ark was a signe of Gods presence and even Jordan it self was fordable when the feet of the Priests who bare the Ark of the Covenant came to the brink of the river yet when the Israelites in a defeature by the Philistines Army imputed their overthrow to the absence of the Ark and therefore sent for the Ark into the camp making the earth ring with their loud acclamations of joy at the approach of it putting themselves into the hazzard of a new battel under the protection of that sacred standard they made but a bad bargain for they were again smitten with a very great slaughter and the Ark of God taken 1 Sam. 4.3 unto the 12 verse Much more might be added to shew the danger of resting upon man and means but this hath been fully spoke to already in a former Use 3. If this be true that God appears to the help of his people in the day of their distress then blame may be justly charged upon those who will not wait for help from God who discover impaciency of spirit in an evil day if help do not suddenly come many men have paid dearly for it Saul had much to say for himself The Philistines were gathered against him in great numbers Israel was scattered from him and Samuel out-stayed his time appointed 1 Sam. 30.8 compared with 1 Chron. 10.8 and yet because he waited not for help in Gods way and at Gods time Samuel tells him vers 13. that he had done foolishly and ver 14. that his kingdome should not continue It is observable verse 10. that assoon as Saul had made an end of offering behold Samuel came Such is Mans Imprudent rashness that he will not travail Gods pace in the way of his own safety but will whip and spur and run full speed in wayes of his own invention though to his cost when as it sometime falls out that so soon as he hath made all things ready to have deliverance in his own way Samuel comes God appears opens a door of safety to him and in a certain way of Providence would have secured him against all his fears but now because he waited not Gods time the Lord refuseth help and his own devices perish and he with them The Israelites have left this truth writ in the bloud of many of them when they would not stay Gods leasure but would to Canaan upon their own legs Numb 14.44 whereas had they waited Gods time he would have carried them thither in his own armes Jehoram sinned this way when he broke out into such high language 2 Kings 6. ult Behold this evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer Oh this is a very great evil a teeming womb that brings forth many ill-favoured bratts 1. Unbelief is the issue of impaciency he that believeth doth not make haste Isa 28.16 Faith will not make more haste then good speed it will not out run the Constable but stay till the Promise speaks Isa 8.17 I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will wait for him I 'le not stirre a foot from the Promise nor step aside from the rule to any carnal shiftings but wait for help till God brings it but where there is an evil heart of unbelief it departs from God leaves him and his wayes if he be put to overmuch waiting 2. Discontented murmurings are the products of impatience if help comes not at the nick of time when 't is looked for then men are apt to let fly in the very face of God What petulancy and peevishness of spirit did Israel once and again discover in their murmurings in Egypt and in the wilderness and what was the ground of their quarrel why because they were kept longer in Egypt and longer out of Canaan then they had a minde to stay Hence the Apostle cautions the Corinthian Christians to beware of this sin 1 Cor. 10.10 Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer and then antidote's them against this distemper ver 13. First By asserting that affliction is the common lot and portion of all the Saints Secondly that no affliction of theirs was so signall and singular but that others have had the same Thirdly That God will support his suffering-ones under all their afflictions he will bear up the weight of the building with his own butteresses Fourthly That succours and salvation will come from the Lord unto them and therefore dehorts them from repining and exhorts to a patient waiting for the Lord in his own way and at his own time 3. When men are impatient under afflictions they usually step aside into unlawfull wayes and rush upon unwarranted courses 't is hard to retain an impatient Person from tasting the forbidden fruit 't is hard to keep his
dye ye must as many of great eminency in this age of ours have dyed who are yet lamented by some now alive and will be more unless the Lord fill up their empty rooms with others of choice and noble spirits 2. In particular I shall briefly commend these few things unto you as 1. That the best and choicest of Gods saints are not exempted from service God exspects to have work done by every servant he will not suffer idle drones to live in his family he will not allow any lazy loiterers to sleep within the walls of his vineyard he doth not keep any idle Serving-men in his house no he appoints them all to labour and 't was well if the patterne of God's house was observed if the Lawes of his family were executed by our Great Ones much sin would be prevented which is nursed at the breasts of idleness nay places of great eminency are no exemption from Gods work The nobles of Tekoah have a brand set upon them because they put not their necks to the work of the Lord Neh. 3. ver 5. And the Lord puts this as the highest mark of honour into the scutcheons of his greatest Saints that they were his servants Moses my servant my servant David c. Matth. 25. ver 20 21. He that received five talents traded and at the day of accounts his labour was not onely honourably accepted but gloriously rewarded entrance was granted unto him into his Masters joy 2. That Gods will is and must be the only rule of our work The Master expects as to have his work done so to have his own orders and directions observed in the doing of it to neglect the work of the Lord and to do it cross to divine order is equally sinful Vzziah died upon the place for touching the Ark and Vzziah was stricken with the leprosie for attempting to burn incense upon the Altar of incense both which expresly thwarted the appointment of God It was the peoples sin to eat the Passeover otherwise then it was written 2 Chron. 30.18 Therefore David in the person of the Lord Jesus joyns both together Psal 40.8 I delight to do thy will yea thy law is in my heart as the standard by which I work and our Saviour writes vanity upon the forehead of all service which is performed to God upon the single authority of man without a warrant under Gods own hand for it Mat. 15.9 In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men what bundles of vain worships are layed upon Gods Alter by the Pontificians And how ought we to be humbled also for the vanity of many services which have been performed by us in this Nation 3. That the great God commands us not onely to work but to do the work of our own Generation David served out his own Generation he did the work which was allotted by the Lord to him in that particular age he lived in which was to fight the Lords battels to subdue the enemies of his Church settle the Nation in peace establish the worship of God provide for the service of his Sanctuary and prepare for the building of the temple these were the works of his Generation in those 2 capacities of Prophet and King and therefore the holy Ghost engraves this Epitaph upon his sepulchre which shall not be defaced so long as the world endures that David served his own generation by the will of God Instances of like nature the Scripture affords many Quest But the great Query is How shall we know what are the proper works of our Generation Answ I answer much of this nature hath been offered by learned and judicious Divines in severall Treatises and though they have not been so harmonious as was defired in their judgement as to the manner yet they have agreed in one as to the matter Indeed repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus with those generall duties of Religion which are comprehenhended under these two heads none deny or dispute except some of prophane or perverted spirits and judgements and that things of order and Government in the Church should be reduced to the Primitive Pattern and Practice few of sober and Orthodox principles do oppose yea most desire and surely that this is the generation which God hath called forth to act in these transactions may be spell'd if not legibly read in the dispensations of his providence towards us I do not set up providence as a standing rule to work and walk by when it is either crosse unto or receives not approbation from the written word for that was to perswade the Traveller to sleep all day when the sun shines bright and clear and to take his Journey in the night when the starres do onely twinckle and the wayes are dangerous and difficult to find mistakes have been sad and many of this kind Numb 14. ver 40 41. the mistake of Gods minde in that dreadfull message ver 39. occasioned the slaughter of many men for the people apprehending that God was offended with them for not going up to take possession of Canaan rose up early in the morning and gat them up unto the top of the mountain saying Lo we be here and will go up into the place which the Lord hath promised for we have sinned and what followed why their attempting to invade their enemies under this mistake cost them many of their lives Thus did Saul mistake the mind of the Lord 1 Sam. 23. ver 7. when it was told him that David was come to Keilah presently he infers that God had delivered him into his hand for sayes he he is shut in by entring into a town that hath gates and bars but it proved otherwise Yea Davids men would have put him upon the same mistake chap. 24. ver 4. when Saul came into the cave to cover his feet where David and his men lay hid they presently conclude behold the day of which the Lord hath said unto thee behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee A like passage ye have chap. 26. ver 8. when David and Abishai came into Sauls army by night and found them all fast asleep not a Sentinell waking and Saul asleep also Abishai said to David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear unto the earth at once and I will not smite him a second time but David durst not slay the Lords Anointed under the protection and warrant of this providence as the following verses declare because it would have been an expresse violation of Gods will Instances of this nature might be multiplied But now when the speakings of God in his works run in a paralell line with the speakings of God in his word when they fall in with his revealed will they do then safely interpret the mind of God and are a
have good cause to gather up your spirits and humbly expect that God will stand by you and strengthen you in the day of your tryal This made good Mordecai speak at that rate of assurance Hest 4. ver 14. Enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews though Hester the most visible and likely person to advocate their cause lying in the bosome of Ahasuerus as his beloved Queen should hold her peace and this made the three worthies gird up the loyns of their mind and quit themselves like men yea like brave men in that great day of their tryal when in the cause of God they were threatened with a fiery fornace Dan. 3. ver 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fornace Able who question 's the omnipotency of God But how know you that he will deliver why as the eye of their faith was upon that promise Isa 45. ver 2. so it was also upon t heir former preservations they convider'd how eminently God had delivered them from the Chaldeans sword bathed yea made drunk with the bloud of many thousands in that sad day of Jerusalem how they had been kept alive in Babylon what power even to a Miracle God had put forth in preserving health and strength and beauty to them with pulse and water and had given them an honourable standing in that strange Land and therefore now they were brought forth to bear witness against the Idolatry of that Nation and to maintain the worship of the true and living God they concluded their preservation that God would own them and the cause they suffered in which made them speak with that gallantry of spirit He will deliver us out of thy hands O King This acâ— â—artyr also Daniel gave of his preservation Dan. 6. v. 22. My God hath sent his Angel and hath shut the mouth of the Lions that they have done me no hurt forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me That is he suffered as a righteous man in a righteous cause O sure it ought to be the care and wisdome of the Saints not to provoke and exasperate wicked men nor pull trouble on themselves by a contempt of or by any seditious practises against the persons of worldly Governours that when they come to a day of suffering they may speak Daniels words That innocency is found in them before the Lord and that before the Magistrate they have done no hurt by transgressing any Law of man which is consistent with the Lawes and honour of God This will quiet the spirit and bring in reserves of comforting hope and support in the saddest day How sweetly doth the Apostle argue 1 Pet. 4. ver 12 13. unto the end to the comforting and staying up believers in the fiery trial Oh! would you but sip often of this cordial wine and spice it with your own experiences of God unto you in former deliverances how would it antidote against Apostacy in an evil day and excellently prevent those sinkings of spirit which the fear of suffering times produceth in you 2. As there is hope of deliverance when ye suffer upon the single Interest of Religion and that with single hearts so also there wants not ground of hope because the spirits of all the faithfull will be up in prayer All the Saints will then hasten to the mount and put in for your safetie as being of a common concernment They consider that their lives are bound up in the lives of their brethren The Apostle argues thus Heb. 13. ver 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversity especially for the Gospel as being your selves also in the bodie This Chapter is called by a Divine The Chapter of Remembrances This is a good Memento a seasonable Item to particular believers Societies and Churches to remember before the Lord their Brethren that are in bonds as being bound wit◠〈◊〉 in regard of sympathy and fellow-feeling being members together of the same bodie as also in regard that the chain which is upon their brethren may suddenlie be fastened to their bodies when a scare-fire is begun in a Town every man will be readie with his bucket to quench it because he fears the fireing of his own house It was well said Tunc tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet and will be well applyed by Believers when they foresee their own sufferings in their suffering brethren and labour to put a stop to that scare-fire as hearing these words falling from the lips of their dying brethren hodie mihi cras tibi that which is my portion to day will be thine to morrow if the Lord do not stay the rage of bloudie men a scare-fire seldome ends in the first house the Pestilence doth not often stay at the first family nor persecution end in the death of one Saint if the Lord chain not up those mad dogs they will break into the fold and make havock of the flock therefore the Saints that are in the bodie and so are lyable to the same persecutions will up and tugg hard with God for a suffering Believer and that upon the account of their own safetie Thus Acts 12.5 When Peter was kept in prison prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him the whole Church prayed and that without any intervals until they had gotten Peter loose And why so hard at work Oh it was of common concernment It stood them in hand to do it for Herod stretched forth his hand to vex-certain of the Church had killed James the brother of John with the sword and because he saw it pleased the Jews he proceeded to take Peter also and the Church knew not how soon the cup might be put into their hands and therefore they bestirr'd themselves to obtain Peters freedome There is alwaies a base spirit in Persecutours to gratifie the people Affliction as it seldome comes single so seldome to a single person Dorotheus relates that on the same day Mr. Trap. in loc on which Stephen the Protomartyr suffered by stoning two thousand other believers were put to death This then will quicken up to prayer and may comfort the Saints in their suffering estates that prayer is made of the whole Church unto God for them and that without ceasing which how prevalent it is many notable returns do witness Melanction was much comforted when he found certain women and children in a corner tugging hard by prayer for the reformation in Germany and sure were there more of this tugging in England reformation would speed better amongst us then it doth if men would cry more unto God and less against their Governours we might sooner hope to see an establishment and Religion in a better posture which the Lord in mercy grant and as the Jews cry for the temple aedifica aedifica aedifica cito citius citissime so do I that our eyes may see Jerusalem a quiet habitation
and that the Tabernacle of David may be built up amongst us in our daies 3. This stayes up the spirits of Believers in suffering times when they see the resistance is not unto bloud that God so moderates and allayes the fury of men that it extends not to the taking away life as indeed the Lord very often laies such a hand of restraint upon them that they cannot exceed that Commission which he gave unto Sathan against Job all that he hath is in thine hand but save his life late times have been witness to this in the penalties fines confiscations imprisonments and exile of many precious Saints but their lives were hid with Christ in God the persecutours could not reach them and no doubt the reason was this God had set them their bounds in his goodness to the Saints which they could not pass The sense of this made the believing Hebrews so couragious and resolved Heb. 10. ver 32 33. ye endured a great fight of afflictions partly whilest ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions ye were reviled and hooted at and yet ye waded through all that mire with cheerfulness and partly whilest ye became companions of those that were so used surely there was then farre more good fellowship among Christians upon a spiritual account then now there is How did the old Puritans of England cling together what sincere heartedness of affection was there among them how would they owne one another in Courts and Conventicles and hug a brother notwithstanding all the dirt which was cast upon him but we are grown so fine-fingered now that we will not touch a soiled garment and so neat in our dress that we will nor suffer a spot upon our coat for Christ It were well if we were so curious in Saint James his sense to keep our selves unspotted from the world Jam. 1. ver ult or in Jude's sence next to hate the garments spotted with the flesh Jude ver 23. nay farther Heb. 10. ver 34. ye had compassion of me in my bonds relieved an imprisoned and a silenced Minister How did good Christians think it their honour to be Gaiusses and entertainers of good Ministers Nay further ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods this hath been made good also among us and how chearfully did Christians carry on their Profession under these sufferings as when the hand of the Lord is upon a family or town if the sound and healthfull see that the deceased recover and that the sickness is not mortall this takes off much of that fear which began to seize upon them they keep their dwellings and administer not unto the sick in like manner when persecution striketh at particular Christians and the Lord stayeth the rough winde of fire and faggot in that day of his east winde and that it is in measure not exceeding liberty or some less penalties others do keep their ground and shrink not from their colours Oh lay up this Confideration as a cordial by you when the fear of persecutions begets a fainting in you and as Jesus Christ said concerning Lazarus his distemper John 11. ver 4. This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God and that the son of God may be glorifyed thereby So when troubles and persecutions arise believe and comfort your selves in this that they shall not be unto death but for the glory of God and that the son of God might be glorifyed by them Thus when the Lord had given in Peter as an answer of the Churches prayers in so signal a manner and had smote the Persecutour with such a remarkable hand of Divine vengeance Acts 12. ver 24. The word of God grew and multiplied the seed lay a while buried under earth and the blade that began to put out was a little nip'd and hung the head Hered's persecution was a blasting wind and frost it did a little stock the wheat and made it change the colour but when Peter was delivered and Herod destroyed whose death was rather precationis opus quam morbi the fruit of the Churches seeking then his own sickness as was said of Arius the Heretick who was prayed to death by Alexander that good Bishop of Constantinople then the word grew not onely the blade but to the ear yea to the ripe wheat in the ear Knowledg grew Faith grew Hope grew Profession grew Godliness grew and Comfort grew nay the Word did not onely magnifie in the hearts of those where it was rooted already but even multiplied in the Conversion of many others these gracious actings of custodient mercy being as the warm sun and growing showers unto the earth Thus Phil. 1. ver 12. Paul tells the Philippian brethren that the things which happened unto him viz. the troubles and persecutions have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel they helped forward the Gospel in the fruitfull Profession of it and he gives this as an evidence of it ver 14. because many of the brethren of the Lord walked more confident by his bonds and became much more bold to speak the word without fear at his first answer before Nero no man stood with him but all forsook him the brethren were cow'd and creast-fallen stood alooff off as fearing the rage of that cruel Tyrant who orientem fidem Romae cruentavit embrued the rising Gospel with the bloud of its Professours enacting a bloudy decree that whosoever confessed himself to be a Christian should be put to death as a convicted enemy of mankind Hence he is called by one the dedicatour of the condemnation of Christians But when they say that the Lord stood by him and delivered him out of the mouth of the Lion 2 Tim. 4. ver 17. and that he had obtained liberam custodiam freedome to go abroad with his keeper nay that he had hired an house in Rome and received all that came unto him preaching the kingdome of God and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him that he was neither slain or shut up nor yet silenced then they took courage and not onely professed but preached the Gospel without fear and scattered that precious seed within the walls of Caesar's pallace Thus the Lord governs the sufferings of his people when not unto bloud to the strengthening of weak hands which hand down and the feeble knees and to the making of streight paths for their feet that the lame are not turned out of the way but rather healed Heb. 12. ver 12 13. There 's much healing mercy to weak believers who like Mephibosheth are lame of their feet as to profession and are apt to get a wrench in rough wayes when the Lord stayes the rage of men and brings off his suffering Saints with safety both of cask and conscience Lay up this Consideration against a day of tryal And let me add further 4. That if the Lord should leave you in the hands of bloody