prayers as the principall end of our requests It is the greatest argument and motive to move the Lord to hear and grant our requests Because Gods glory is the chiefest good mans life yea Reas 1 mans salvation is not to be preferred before it which made Moses to wish rather to have his name blotted out of the booke of life then that God should be dishonoured by the Egyptians which would be ready to say that God brought them out of Egypt into the wildernesse but was not able to bring them into the land of Canaan Secondly Reas 2 such as our esteeme is of God himselfe such is our respect unto his glory If we esteeme of God as wee ought as our chiefest good his glory will be our chiefest end in all our actions Whatsoever yee do 1 Cor. 10.30 doe all to the glory of God It is true this glory is eternall with God and admits of no addition or diminution As the Sunne would still retaine his brightnesse though no creature had an eye to see it But hereby wee set forth our high esteeme of it not that God reaps any good by it but the fruit redounds to us God loves his glory as he loves himselfe And as we love him so we love his glory It is the end that God purposeth to himselfe in all his workes Reas 3 his own glory God made all things for his own glory Psal 19. the Heavens declare the glory of God It is the end of our Redemption Yee are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 therefore glorifie God c. It is the end of our Adoption to the praise of his glory Eph. 1.6 And therefore this being the end of all his workes to set forth his glory we are not to prefer any thing before it And such as prefer any thing before his glory as too many do in these dayes the Lord at last will powre contempt upon them Let us apply this Vse 1 This may serve for a prop and stay unto the godly in the land at this time wherein God hath shewed so many tokens of anger and displeasure against our land and Nation by those wofull Changes our eyes have seen and our dayly feares of farther miseries that the gospell it selfe is departing from us by the daily increase of Sects Heresyes with all manner of sin and profanesse which increasing in a nation and kingdome where the Gospell hath been sincerely professed and maintayned have ever proved a fore-runner of desolation if not the departure of the gospell from such a people Surely now is the time if ever that the Spirit of the faithfull should be kindled in prayer And in prayer that we set before our eyes Moses example here that the Lord will take the cause of his Church into his owne hand and root out these Sects and Heresies that are crept in amongst us and every plant that is not of his own planting And this must be the Reason and motive that we must presse the Lord withall His owne glory that doth now suffer And this will be a powerfull motive to move the Lord to heare and help Because he is most most jealous of his own glory And if the Lord would be pleased to save this Land and Nation deliver his people purge his Church this will redound to his own glory Say O Lord what will become of thy glory should the enemies of thy truth Gospell still prevaile shall thy vineyard be trodden down shall this Land and Nation in the which thou hast taken delight to dwell and where thy Gospell hath been preached and thy name called upon for so many yeares now at last become an Habitation of Ohims and Zijmes that the Lord would be pleased rather to humble us if it be his good pleasure by any other judgement then this spirituall Judgment of the Gospels departure from us If Master Herbert some yeares before our troubles began could say that Religion doth on Tiptoe Stand Ready to passe into America Land What would he have said if he had lived at this day to behold those abominable Sects that now have gotten head amongst us O pray pray that the Lord would take his own cause and his Churches cause into his own hand and plead his glory that doth now suffer Secondly Vse 2 by this we may try the soundnesse of our hearts and the sincerity of our prayers we put up unto God viz By our seeking of Gods glory above all our carnall Interests many men in time of sicknesse misery and distresse can pray to God for help and succour but their prayers are but the fruits of selfe-love whilest they mind their own Benefit and comfort more then Gods glory they can be content that God should serve their turns and supply their wants if poor to releeve them if sick to recover them or in any misery to help them But all this while they have no eye at all to his glory neither do they plead that at all in their prayers Whereas a gracious heart and a prayer formed according to Gods will that shall prevaile with God hath ever Gods glory the principal end of it and Argument in it to move God David in extreame sicknesse flyes to God to be his Physitian Psal 6.5 And what Argument doth he use to move the Lord to pitty him In death there is no remembrance of thee and who will give thee thanks in the pit q. d. Thou maist let me live if thou wilt which if thou wilt I shall praise thee and glorifie thy name If I die Who will give thee thanks in the pit Thus he Challengeth his life at Gods hand from this very ground the glory and praise that God should receive by his recovery The like we have else where What profit is there in my blood Ps 30.9 when I goe down to the pit Shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy truth Shall the Dead arise and praise thee Ps 88.10 Selah It is a signe our hearts are sound and our prayers sincere when Gods glory doth principally affect us The Idolatry of the people whereby God was Dishonoured did most of all afflict Moses And the reproach done against God Dan. 32.19 by the blasphemous letter of Senacherib did more trouble the heart of good Hezekiah then all his threats against him and his people Esa 39.3.4 O well fare a gratious heart that can thus render Gods glory above all And lastly Vse 3 this serves for the just reproofe of many amongst us that albeit doe good things such as in themselves are lawfull commendable yet because they propound not Gods glory as the principall end of their actions can have no comfort in them If a minister of the word shall teach never so well and doe not propound the glory of God to himselfe therein but preach for gaine preferment vain glory c. Alas what comfort can he have in it So to give much to the poore as
God for protection For let men seek what shifts they can and use all the means they can to winde themselves out of misery yet unlesse the Lord keep them unlesse they seek unto him by repentance and prayer they shall be but as the bird in the net strive and struggle but shall never be able to get out but the more she strives the more she is intangled So the wicked the more they seek to avoid Gods judgments by their shifts and devices the more they are ensuared in them Unlesse the Lord be our habitation and dwelling place to protect and defend us by his owne power and providence Thirdly Use 3 the consideration hereof that God is our habitation and dwelling place to hide and shelter us when stormes and tempests are up and ready to annoy us The consideration hereof should serve to arme Christians with a holy resolution to keep in with God to obey him and to go on in a godly course and not to fear the threats and terrours of men or what man can do unto us Hath God undertaken to protect us and to be a habitation unto us to be our shield and buckler our defence and hiding place Whom then should we fear 'T is true Gods servants whilst they are here are subject to a world of dangers inward and outward But why should we fear when the Lord hath undertaken to be a buckler a shield a shadow and a hiding place unto us How oft doth David the to this Psal 18. in times of danger I love the Lord my buckler my shiâ—â—d and defence q. d. What though my troubles are many and my enemies are mighty yet I have at hand a buckler and a shield that will keep off all dangers He is my buckler my shield and my defence What a comfort was it to Jonas when scorched with heat God so seasonably provided the Gourd to spring up that refreshed him from the scorching beams of the Sun this God provided for him and thus will the Lord provide a shadow and shelter for us in times of danger What comforts have we here that may not fitly be resembled to Jonas Gourd riches honour power c. These may yield a shadow for a time but then comes the Sun shine the East-wind or the worm that nips them and they are gone Who would then trust to such shadows as these are the daies and times that we have lived to see hath declared this unto us that all earthly things are meer shadowes How is the Crown it selfe withered how many noble families and houses are now laid in the dust and what is it that we do enjoy that we can promise to our selves any certainty in at the best they are but weak helps But saith David The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong help If God be a dwelling place to his people Use 4 and that they are so safe under his wings whose faithfulnesse and truth shall be their shield and Bucker Then how fearfull is the condition of those that walk not in his waies and live not under his protection that have not God for their Habitation these lie open to all stormes and Tempests of Sathans temptations and all such miseries that a poor Creature can be subject unto Howsoever God may feed them and fill their bellies with the good things of this lise yet what comfort can they have in the evil day when conscience is let loose to speak terrible things to the soule and Sathan shall cast his fiery darts against them such must needs be at their wits end that have not a God to fly unto Doth not carnal policy teach us thus much to get into some Noble mans or some great mans Family and then we think our selves highly priviledged and wee looke for protection under them O where are our hearts Christians and where is that spiritual wisdom that ought to be in us that look no more after Gods service whose service is perfect freedom and which brings with it so much safety and security And the last is Use 5 that seeing wee may say as Moses here Lord thou hast been our dwelling place our Covert and defence in dangers thou hast protected and covered us by thy hand thou hast kept us in these contagious times wherein many have been sick many weak and many taken away by death Lord thou hast given us health after sicknesse deliverance from dangers consolation after all our sorrows and afflictions thou hast been our defence and protection Thou hast been a cover unto us or else wee had long a go perished O what shall we render to the Lord for all these benefits what rent do wee owe unto God for our Habitation and safe protection If we should finde this favour at any mans hand that he would let us have a dwelling place fit and needfull for us to defend us from storms and tempests and that for seaven years or twenty years together will he not look for some rent or service at our hands but the Lord hath been our dwelling place twenty thirty forty years from time to time unto this day Now wil not the Lord look for some Rent and service at our hands even the Rent and service of obedience and thankfulnesse that wee should not displease our Landlord that we should not grieve him or provoke him to anger but keep his favour and good will and please him in all things this Rent of obedience and thankfulnesse doth the Lord require at our hands But alas how few do pay the Lord this Rent and perform this service who albeit they receive daily from him many benefits and mercies few with that Leper in the Gospell remember to return thanks From generation to generation Text. MOses doth not here speak in the present tense that God was their Habitation But that he was the same to their Forefathers Abraham Isaack and Jacob long before even from Generation to Generation Hence wee learn that the Church in all ages is one and the same Doct. 5 The Church is ever one and the same since the first Creation God hath ever had his Church and so from Generation to Generation God hath continued his Church in the world and ever will to the end 'T is true it was sometimes limited to one Nation as to the Jews He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and judgements to Israel He hath not done so with any Nation Io. 4.22 and Salvation is of the Jews But now in the times of the Gospell since the comming of Christ that Wall of separation is plucked up and Japhet is perswaded to dwell in the Tencs of Sem. Cant. 6.8 My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the onely one of her Mother And this is testified by that of Paul 1 Cor. 12.12 As there are many members but yet but one body so we being many are one in Christ And this doth our Saviour make clear and plain unto us Io. 10.16 when he saith
word speaking of God they shall at last rise again Thou sayest Return again ye sons of men This is a fundamentall truth and a principall article of our faith wherein we professe to believe the Resurrection of the dead Besides the Scriptures are most plentifull in this I am sure saith Job that my Redeemer liveth Iob 19.23 and that I shall rise out of the earth at the last day The dead shall arise Esay 26.19 even with my body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust This is acknowledged by Hannah in her song The Lord killeth 1 Sam. 2.6 and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up The Apostle Saint Paul proves the Resurrection by divers unanswerable arguments as If there be no Resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen 1 Cor. 15. verse 13. and then is the faith of a Christian vain his hope vain and the preaching of the Gospell vain and the godly departed this life perished all which were foul and grosse absurdities once to think or imagine Besides these there might be added divers other places of Scripture to confirm this Doctrine of the Resurrection as that of Paul If we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again 1 Thess 4.14 even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Rom. 14.8 And again Whether we live or dye we are the Lords But I will not insist upon so clear a truth Take the Reasons and Arguments which serve for the farther illustration of the point The first may be taken from that everlasting Covenant of grace that God hath made with his children Reas 1 to be their God for ever by an everlasting Covenant now this Covenant is not made only in regard of their souls but of their bodies also even to the whole man When God said I am the God of Abraham the meaning is not that he is the God of Abraham's soul only but also of his body And hence it is that the bodies of Believers although they are dead and rotten in their graves yet still are within the Covenant But is it not said Object that God is not the God of the dead but of the living In the sence of the Pharisees that denied the Resurrection of the dead Answ God is not the God of the dead But he is the God of Abraham being dead in body to be raised up to life again And so was he the God of the living and this is the meaning of Christ on that place Because all true beleevers being members of Christ have part in the Resurrection of Christ Reas 2 whom Paul calls the first fruits of them that sleepe 1 Cor. 15.20 25. Now Christ did not rise from the dead as a private person as Lazarus or as his widdowes Son but as the head of the Church and therefore said Ioh. 11. when I am lifted up I draw all men unto me Againe Reas 3 there could be no perfect happiness to the godly if these bodies of ours should not riseagain at last for the Soule cannot be perfect without the body the glorification of the body makes for the perfection of the Soule The Souls vnder the Altar cry Rev. 6.11 How long Lord which art holy and true c. They long for this Resurrection If the bodies of the Saints should not at last rise again Reas 4 they were of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 1â— for who are more hated scorned derided and persecuted then they what folly then was it in Paul to indure so many watchings perils and so much hardship as he went under but that he had hope in this Resurrection Reas 5 But especially Gods truth and promise lyes at the stake who is yea and Amen in all his promises and cannot faile Now he hath said When thou makest a feast Luke 14. call the blind and the lame And he gives the Reason for God shall reward thee in the resurrection of the just I confesse there is nothing that crosseth carnall and naturall reason more then this that these bodies of ours should moulder to dust and rottennesse cast into the Sea devoured of fishes burnt to ashes and scattered upon the earth that these bodies thus wasted and consumed should at last bee raised up againe To beleeve this our faith must bee taken up with the admiration of the mighty power of God and we must say with Iob I know thou canst doe every thing and that no thought is hid from thee till we looke upon this Almighty power of his and captivat our reason thereto we shall still stagger in our beleefe of this Article of our Resurrection Now let us apply this Seeing these bodies of ours by reason of sin doe tast of death Use 1 yet by a word speaking God at last shall raise them up againe Thou turnest man c. This may serve to strengthen our faith in this great Article of our beliefe the Resurrection of our bodies That these bodies of ours shall at last rise againe 't is a point that carnal reason is hardly brought to beleeve But why should we scruple or dispute that which God hath so plainly affirmed and the Scrptures so fully prove faith lookes unto Gods Almighty power as Abraham in the promise of Isaac he judged him faithfull and that God was able to do it Secondly Use 2 this Doctrine of our Resurrection that God at last will raise up these bodies of ours out of the dust and rottennesse and though they cast off Corruption they shall not perish in Corruption Saint Paul would have us to comfort our selves in these things 1 Thess â—â— ult wherefore comfort you 〈…〉 these words that is in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Quest But what ground of comfort can there arise to a Believer by the knowledge of it Ans Many and great are the comforts and consolations Comforts from the Doctrine of the Resurrection that a true believer may receive from the knowledge of it First of all this will arme us against the feare of Death T is true there is something in death that breeds feare and horror and dread that makes flesh and blood to shrink and to tremble To lie in the grave and there to bee eaten up of wormes and to bee made subject to corruption c. yet this may be our comfort that ere long we shall be raised out of this condition to a blessed and glorious estate It is but the putting off our cloathes at night we shall put them on againe in the morning Shall we bee like unto little children that cry when they put off their cloathes Secondly this may comfort us against all our troubles and sufferings that we meete withall in the world The worst that Tyrants can doe is but to kill the body yet when they have done that and put them to the greatest cruelty and torture that they can devise they shall be restored to us againe
and Peer rich and poor one and all there is no estate but hath misery enough attending upon it Who is there living amongst all mankind that is so happy and profperous in the world who if they should compare their comforts with their Crosses but must acknowledge that mans life is full of labour and sorrow No not the greatest Prince and Monarch in the world that is free from cares fears and troubles as we may see in David who was a man of trouble all his daies exercised sometimes by forraigne enemies sometimes by his own Courtiers yea by Absalom his darling son Their Crownes are continually attended with cares and fears of treasons and they are still filled with the cares and troubles of the Common-weal they are set over and are to look unto And those who have been highly advanced to honour and dignity as who but they waited upon by a great and sumptuous train in all glory and honour yet have suddainly been thrown down to the lowest degree of shame and dishonour And the like may be said of all ranks and conditions of men what with cares fears discontents crosses losses and dayly vexations and molestations we are incident unto and daily meet withall it is not the least of our misery to live long to bear them So that it may be said of man as it was said of the Angeil of Lavdicea Rev. 3.17 He knew not that he was wretched and poor and blind and naked Here is our case in the midst of all our pomp and glory and outward felicities in this world we are ignorant of what miseries daily attend us for what have we here that is not got with labour kept with care and fear and parted withall with griefâ— and sorrow so that in the getting enjoying and parting with what we enjoy here below we may say with the Prophet Hab. 2.13 The people shall even weary thomselves for every vanitle Like little children we sweat again in catching Butter-flies whilest in the mean time we neglect the true treasure of life and glory Besides the spirituall evills of this life as ignorance unbeliefe pride hypocrisy hardnesse of heart and the like these so pester and annoy even the best of Gods servants Ro. 7.24 that they often complain with Paul O wretched man that I am c. and with the father of the child Mar. 9.24 I believe Lord help my unbeliefe as Bradford that blessed Martyr of God was wont to do so that we have cause continually to groan under the burthen of our miseries here and subscribe this truth of Moses that our most happy and flourishing estate in this world is but labour and sorrow That herein and hereby the Lord might exercise our spirituall armour Reas 1 wherewith he hath furnished us to wit the shield of Faith the helmet of Salvation the breast-plate of Righteousnesse and the sword of the Spirit For wherefore should all these parts of our spirituall armour be provided us of God but that we must look daily to have them exercised Secondly Reas 2 to wean us from the world whose practise is to mingle our sweet with soure And lastly Reas 3 to make us long after a better life where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes and sin from our soâ—ls Seeing this is so Vse 1 that our chiefest strength our best time and the most excellent and principall part of our life is not freed from labour and sorrow cares fears vexations and molestations but that our whole life is full of labour and sorrow As this should wean us from the world and put us out of love of all things here below so it should stir us up to seek that life where all these miseries shall be taken away where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes Rev. 21.4 and where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain but pleasure without pain and fullnesse of joy at his right hand for evermore Our best estate here is mixed with griefe sorrow care and trouble But happy and thrice happy are they which shall be judged worthy to inherit that life which shall last for ever and that without all cares fears labour and sorrow Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours Secondly Vse 2 seeing no estate of our life is free from sundry sorrowes and miseries troubles cares and fears it may serve to admonish us all to bear them patiently and not to forsake our callings and places wherein the Lord hath set us because of them For here we see that in this short life of ours the most excellent part thereof is not free from labour and sorrow There is no calling or condition of life but hath miseries enough attending upon it to make them wretched that live in it if they want patience to bear them And those that seem most happy and we look upon them as most free from those miseries themselves many times could wish rather to be any other then that they are and if we could change our estates with theirs it is possible we should wish to take our own again Why then should we be weary of those callings wherein the Lord hath set us but rather undergo the same and arme our selves against these troubles and sorowes and not to use unlawfull means to escape them for that will but encrease our sorrowes and make our selves more miserable For it is soon cut off and we fly away MOSES in the former part of this verse having shewed the miseries sorrowes and troubles incident to the best and flourishing estate of mankinde in generall in the latter part of this verse applies it to the state and condition of the Church and people of God in the Wildernesse and shewes But for us saith he our time is cut off swiftly and we flie away For so I take it it makes the sense plain though it seemes to be read otherwise in our common translation yet if we mark the scope of the Holy Ghost which is to shew that their estate in the Wildernesse was far worse then other peoples were Thus though the ordinary time of mans life be seventie years or eightie years yet we are otherwise dealt withall our life is neither so long nor yet so free from labour and sorrow as other men are because we are cut off suddenly in the turning of an hand we flie away and are gone Hence we may see and take notice of the hainousnesse of sin Doct. 4 Sin causeth many times suddain death and especially of the sin of Infidelity and murmuring against God it made the Lord to cut down his people confusedly and hastily even as a man by his Syth sweepeth down his grasse Even so the Lord is here said to cut down his people with the sharp Syth of his judgment as it had been grasse And surely amongst other sins wherefore the Lord even in
their harps to their pipes and to their pots and to merry company c. of whom it may be said Es 55.2 They lay out their labour for that which satisfieth not A poor comfort to give a Malefactor a cup of sack when he is going to execution The case of such miserable creatures is well desuibed by the Prophet Es 29.8 A man dreameth and lo he drinketh but when he awaketh behold he is faint and his soul longeth This Doctrine shall hold when all the seeming joyes of the wicked shall vanish away that the fountain of all true comfort is our peace with God when we come to be reconciled to him in Christ Because sin breeds enmity Reas 1 and sets God and men at odds and whilst this enmity continueth this mans person and actions are hatefull to God minde conscience and all is defiled Now what true comfort can such a one have whilst he abides in such a condition all the curses that are written in the book of the Law do wait upon him hardnesse of heart blindnesse of minde searednesse of conscience a continuall fear of hell Gods wrath and damnation to come all these doth the guilt of sin contract and draw upon us the misery whereof we shall never be set free from but by our reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ The Lord crowns all the sorrowes of his servants all their tears Reas 2 and pangs of their new birth whilst Christ is a forming in them with joy and comfort and all to provoke them to come in to God and to encourage them in prayer and seeking of him I love the Lord Ps 116.1 because he hath heard the voice of my weeping If the husbandman should alwaies think on his seed-time and of his labour and pains and never think of the harvest who would be a husbandman And what would become of the Christian in the midst of all his watchings fastings and temptations which here he undergoes were it not for this harvest of comfort at last Seeing then that all sound comfort flowes from our peace and reconciliation with God Use 1 this shewes that the doctrine of the Church of Rome is most vile hellish and uncomfortable who affirme that no man in this life can know or be assured whether God loves him or no and that no man can know whether his sins be pardoned and whether he be reconciled to God yea or no I will say to them as Job somtimes said to his friends Miserable comforters are ye Alas what comfort can a poor sinner have or what joy if it arise not from Gods mercy in the pardon of sin What is this but to set up a gibbet to torture distressed souls How can a poor creature have any comfort in the service of God in prayer hearing receiving c. whilst he cannot tell whether the Lord loves him or hates him We utterly renounce that cursed Doctrine and believe this to be the truth of God that all sound comfort stands in the feeling of Gods love towards us in Christ and in the pardon of our sins and we should never rest till we be able in some measure to say with Paul Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded c. This will make us cheerfull in prayer and in all other duties of his worship and service Seeing all sound and solid comfort ariseth from our reconciliation with God and untill then Use 2 there can be no sound or lasting comfort What mad men are they then that take a preposterous course to raise their comfort that have the Creator blessed for ever and flie to the Creature run to cards dice and merry company c. as if a man to escape a burning feavour should leap into the fire whereas there is no sound comfort to be looked for but only from God in Christ Poor soul go thou to him confesse thy sins to him beg for pardon as for life and death intreat the Lord that he would according to the multitude of his mercies do away thy offences that he would be a reconciled God again unto thee that he would lay aside his displeasure and give thee the feeling of his favour and love again there is no other way to procure sound comfort to thy soul Comfort us THe Lord before had exercised this people with pressing sorrowes and sore afflictions both in Aegypt a long time and after that in the wildernesse and now they beg for comfort Doct. 2 Hence we may observe what is the outward estate of Gods children in this life The outward estate of Gods children subject to alterations and changes it is subject to such alterations and changes that they are sometimes up and sometimes down sometimes full of sorrow at another time filled with comfort Here Moses and the people of God pray for comfort being for the present comfortlesse perplexed and much distressed the Lord trieth humbleth and proveth this people here in the Wildernesse That he might do them good at their latter end Deut. 8.16 look we upon the estate of the Church in generall and upon the particular members of the same and we shall finde that our condition here is like the daies of the year sometimes winter sometimes summer sometimes fair sometimes foul What a long night of affliction did this Church and people of God endure in Aegypt for the space of four hundred and thirty years yet at the last the Lord raised them up saviours Moses and Aaron by whom he brought deliverance unto his people What a condition was the Church in in Hesters time when all the Jewes were appointed as sheep to the slaughter yet God laughed the counsell of Haman to scorn delivered his people and brought ruine and destruction to their enemies What a condition was the Church in in Jezebels time that slew the prophets of the Lord insomuch that Elias thought himselfe alone yet what a suddain alteration was there when Eliah slew the Prophets of Baal and restored religion again How was the Church of God in Christs time pestered by the High Priests who had given commission unto Saul to binde and to deliver bound at Jerusalem all that made profession of Christ yet at another time had the Churches peace and multiplyed So changable hath the estate and condition of the Church of God been in all ages and times of it And if we look into particular examples we shall also finde it true that the estate and condition of the best of Gods children hath been subject to diversities of alterations and changes Joseph one while hated of his brethren at another time advanced under Pharaoh at one time cast into Prison at another time made ruler over the Princes Jacob one while wrestling with the Angell at another time going away with the blessing David one while persecuted by Saul at another time swaying the Scepter Job Job 42. at one time plundered out of all at another time as wealthy as before Thus God is pleased in his wise
a loving Husband his Wife So if thou be a true servant of God thou maist assure thy selfe that God will let his worke appear to protect and defend thee And this lets us see the happy priviledge of the faithfull above all wicked and ungodly men Vse 2 whereas the wicked lye open to all miseries and dangers have no rock of defence to fly unto for shelter the faithfull have a sure rock of defence to flye unto in time of need Hath God made this known to thy Soul that thou art one that God hath taken into covenant with himselfe O happy and blessed for ever is thy condition Psal 144 15. Happy be the people that be in such a case Blessed be those folke that have the Lord for their God others may bee more rich in regard of these outward things but none more happy The prophet concludes the happiness of such when he sayth Ps 84.11 The Lord is a Sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that are upright 1. He will be a Sun to them that is as the Sun gives light and comfort so will God be all in all unto them 2. He will be a shield unto them nothing shall hurt them that are in covenant with him 3. He will give grace more to them then to all the world besides which is more worth then kingdomes 4. Glory I am thine sayth David O save me When Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall we appeare with him in glory 5. And lastly No good thing will he with-hold if he give the greater he will not deny the lesser If riches be good they shall have it If credit be good they shall have it if health peace prosperity c. if the Lord see them good for them they shall not want them But if afflictions povertie sicknesse c. be best they shall have them too See there what a portion they shall have that have the Lord for their God that are his servants and are in covenant with him All those gratious promises that God hath made in his word belong to thee And I tell thee that one promise is more worth then all thou hast in the world besides and will last longer and do thee more good yea more thou hast now to leave to thy posterity a promise that God will be thy God and the God of thy seed after thee which is more worth then all the portion thou canst leave them Let thy works be seene q. d. O Lord let all the world see and know that thou art a mercifull deliverer of thy people that thou art their mighty Protector so that it seemes they speake of some singular work and protection of God of his Church and people Hence we learne That of all the workes of God Doct. 3 there is none more excellent then this No work more excellent then Gods protecting his Church viz. the protection of his church people for this in a way of excellency is called the peculiar worke of God It is true indeed when the Lord doth punish the stubbornnesse and rebellion of his people their infidelity murmurings and unthank fullnesse c. then appears the power of God the truth Justice of God But in nothing more doth the Lord shew his power then in protecting of his Church and people against the face of their cruell and bloody enemies And this Moses here shews when he calls this in a way of excellency The worke of God Let thy worke in protecting and delivering us thy Church and people Appeare wherein Moses doth prefer this worke of God in taking care of his Church in protecting defending and delivering of it to all other the works of God whereby he makes his power knowne then by any other token of his besides As we may see in Pharaoh when did the Lord ever get himselfe a greater name then in delivering his people out of Egypt and over his armies at the red Sea Exod. 1. Come let us work wisely saith Pharaoh but the Lord let him see that there is neither wisdome nor counsell against him but the more he sought to suppresse the Church the more it multiplyed and increased Hamans plot against the Church was very dangerous and damnable Hest 3.7.9 but the plot that he contrived the Lord disappointed and himselfe fell into that pit that he had digged for others Zac. 12.3 The Church of God is such a heavy stone that never any lifted at it but was crushed in peeces So that of the Church the Lord speaketh thus Esa 59.16 I wondred that there was no intercessor therefore his arme brought Salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him What though the Church of God be but as a garden in comparison of the rest of the world yet it is a well fenced garden and though the godly in themselves are but few weake simple and so more shiftlesse then others yet they are strangely kept 2 Reg. 6.10 and strongly preserved and have more with them then those that are against them Not that the Church and people of God are free from perils and dangers It is enough that they are preserved in them and at last shal be delivered from them as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.8 We are afflicted on every side yet are we not in distresse in poverty but not overcome persecuted but not forsaken c. Now that of all the workes of God there is none more excellent then the protection of his Church these Reasons further shew First Reas 1 because this shewes that God is still present with his Church and is ready to succour them in time of danger Gather together on heapes ye people and ye shall be broken in peeces Zeph. 3.14 The reason is there given for God is with us and againe rejoyce O Daughter of Sion be joyfull O Israel for the Lord thy God is in the middest of thee The Lord indeed is present every where but in a speciall manner he is present in his Church He walketh in the middest of the seaven golden Candlesticks that is the Churches Secondly Reas 2 in regard his Church and people are most deare unto him He loveth the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob. Ps 87.2 Es 43.4 And Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honorable aod I have loved thee And hence is it that the Church is called Esay 49 22. The beautie of the whole earth The fairest amongst women c. Cant. 14.13 All shewing the high esteeme that God hath of his Church and people Thirdly Rea. 3 the Lord is pleased thus to work for his Churches safety protection and deliverance for his owne glory that his power might and stretched out arme might appeare As the Lord said to Gideon Iudg. 7.2 the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the