from that bondage and Christ had therefore his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 Because he shall save his People from their sins Though the Canaanites may dwell in the Land they shall become tributary they shall not sit at the Stern turning the Soul which way they please Christ brings Salvation from Hell he hath the Key of David that shuts and no man openeth and opens and no man shuts he delivereth from wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Salvation from sin and the most dismal issues and consequences thereof and from a temporal deliverance the Soul hath occasion to consider and think of these Salvations Psal 103. I suppose might be penn'd upon the occasion of some temporal deliverance for this reason because the Psalmist saith in the fourth verse The Lord did heal his diseases and redeemed his life from destruction what doth this make the Psalmist think of in vers 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases it made him think of pardoning Grace and greater Mercy that he was made partaker of through the Lords bounty and goodness Hezekiah from his temporal deliverance was raised to think of some higher pieces of kindness Isa 38.17 Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind my back Now if from this Branch of the Lord you have this fruit not onely of an Escape from temporal evil but freedom also from greater and the escape from temporal ones help to raise up the Soul to consider its interest in higher things then your Escape it self should render Christ more dear and precious to you then he hath been in times past This therefore may serve for the ground of the point why the Soul should from its Escape have higher Thoughts of Christ I come now to the second thing propounded for prosecution of this Doctrine When may a poor heart have some cause to conclude its Escape hath this effect attending it That it is accompanied with more precious thoughts of this Branch of the Lord I answer to it in five things 1. If in thy Escape thou findest thy heart more crucified unto the World that it is gotten out of thy heart beyond what it was it is to be hoped the Branch of the Lord grows in thy heart and flourisheth more then it did Methinks it is with the heart of a poor Creature with respect to Christ and the World as it is between the Sea and Land the Sea sometimes breaks out and overflows much of the Earth you can very hardly recover any Land out of the Sea and be able to fence it out or if you do it is at every turn ready to break in again and swallow up all that hath been recovered out of it this World breaks in like a Sea and swallows up the hearts of many poor Creatures it drinks up their Souls Eccles 3.11 Also he hath set the World in their Hearts the World is so rooted in them that it over-runs them Some are called in Scripture the men of this World Psal 17.14 From men of this World which have their portion in this life and they are called the Men of this World because there is nothing else they love and delight in How hard a thing is it for Christ to get ground upon the Heart so as to sence out this World witness that case Luk. 18. when one comes unto Christ and saith Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal Life he bid him at last ver 22. Go sell all thou hast and distribute unto the Poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come and follow me and when he heard this he was very sorrowful for he was very rich Some of whom it is hoped sometimes are recovered out of the World and the World in some good measure fenced out of their hearts that one would think there were no great danger of its returning yet it again breaks in like a torrent and carries them away so that all their Profession comes to nothing This World is a Sea that drowns thousands thousands of Professors are by it born down headlong yet some through the power of Christ over-come the World 1 John 5.4 Who ever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory we have over the World even our Faith Then the World is said to be overcome when it is fallen in a mans esteem and love when a Soul is convinced what Idolatry it is for this World to rule in the heart for Covetousness is Idolatry when the Soul comes to see that all below is empty perishing and vain and that that fades in the very using then it is overcome in some good measure Now Soul if thou canst say that thy Escape in the day in which God frowned upon the World hath made thee see all to be vanity and vexation of Spirit and that thy heart is an entertainment for something more noble it is to be hoped that Christ hath gained upon thee Psal 45.10 11. Hearken O Daughter and consider and encline thine ear forget also thine own Kindred and thy Fathers House so shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty for he is thy Lord and worship thou him You must not worship the World then you worship it when it hath that place in the Heart that Christ should only possess but if the love of this World be rooted out it is to be hoped that the love unto Christ hath expelled it and the sight of Christ more excellent hath made thee trample upon these terrene objects It was Moses his ardent love unto Christ that made him esteem the reproaches of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 It was his value for Christ made him under-value these things I desire I might reach every of your Consciences that read these lines if God will own me so far I would urge it upon you We are yet escaped through infinite mercy hath your escaping had this effect to raise up in you higher thoughts of Christ than formerly Can you witness it by this evidence You are possibly some of you those that have had much to do in the World and concernments of it if you have not been entangled by it and found that it hath been very apt to get upon your hearts I must say Either you know not your hearts or you have sped much better then most in your capacity But can you say It is now turn'd out of doors that the leasure-time you have had hath helped you to look above this Earth to view things of a more excellent nature and Christs glory hath so ravished your Souls that you can say that there is nothing that your souls love above or equal with him Put it to your Consciences I charge it upon you as your duty from the Lord. And 2. If you can say Sin is out of your Heart more then it was it is to be hoped Christ is there if that be down Christ is
their hearts under the sad thoughts of past and what future slaughters may be and to commend Saintship to Sinners that they may be desirous to get into that number I have avoided affected strains and Jingles that sound of words which in my apprehension are but dead flies that corrupt the Boxes of otherwise precious Oyntment that the design may be heeded more then the expression and have sought to speak something that may be suitable to every case I have not much more to adde Onely 1. If what I have written fall into the hands of any in any place not reached by the hand of God this day Remember the cup doth many times go round your turn may yet be to come Be not secure 2. Let none be discouraged though you seace sudden wished effects of the slaughter the Lord hath made God is in his way and will do his work with sober speed He could have made the World in one hour but took six days for it God saith of Zidon Ezek. 28.23 24. He will execute Judgments in her he will send into her Pestilence and Blood in her streets and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the Sword on her on every side The issue of this Vers 28. There shall be no more a pricking Brier unto the house of Israel nor any grieving Thorn of all that are round about them that despise them The Promise is true Faith and Patience is our work 3. If thou art a Soul that knowest the Plague of thine own Heart and art in some measure delivered from it thou hast enough and God will bear thee in his Arms and bring thee to himself however things may be in the World I have this onely to request of thee That thou wouldst look this little Piece through and if one page suit not thy case another may If it serve thy spiritual Welfare in any measure Give God the Glory and beg that he may feel the power of all Truth upon his heart which he recommends to thee and is thine to serve thee for Jesus sake T.B. EBEN-EZER Or Some MEDITATIONS Upon ISAIAH 4.2 In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious and the Fruit of the Earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel THat you may have a little light into these words it will be expedient to consider two things 1. What we are to understand by the Branch of the Lord and the fruit of the Earth and 2ly To what Time and what Persons these words do relate As for the former you shall find in Scripture there is one who is called the Branch Zac. 6.12 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts saying Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH and Zac. 3.8 For behold I will bring forth my Servant the Branch in these Scriptures and also in the Scripture I am upon by Branch we are to understand Jesus Christ and that we are to take Christ to be thereby intended is evident from Jer. 23.5 6. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute Judgement and Justice in the Earth in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his Name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness or Jehovah our Righteousness He that is the Lord our Righteousness is this Branch and that is certainly the Lord Jesus He is called the Branch of the Lord upon the account of his Divine Nature that he is the Son of God the onely begotten of the Father that lay in his Bosom from Eternity as also because he was a Branch growing out and appearing in his glory and splendour before the Sons of Men by the appointment and Decree of the Father As for the Fruit of the Earth who may that be You find sometimes in Scripture Jesus Christ is said to be a Rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch growing out of his Roots Isa 11.1 And there shall come forth a Rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his Roots He is so called upon account of his humane Nature as he is Man he is of the Seed of David and upon the same score he is here termed the Fruit of the Earth Christ the Branch of the Lord as he is Man is of earthly extract and Original Man is of the Earth and Christ as Man is made of the same mould with the rest of the Children of Men he was made Man and being of the Seed of the Woman he is here called the Fruit of the Earth Thus much for answer to the first Enquiry Who is meant by the Branch of the Lord and the Fruit of the Earth Secondly To what Time and Persons do these Words refer For there is a certain time unto which these words have relation in That day in what day is that it is a day of slaughter a day of great calamity for it refers unto the end of the foregoing Chapter without all dispute in the 25 and 26 Verses it is said Thy men shall fall by the Sword and thy mighty in the war and her Gates shall lament and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground it relates to a time when much slaughter should be made slaughter to a desolation when men should be exceedingly weeded out of the Earth then shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious and the Fruit of the Earth excellent and comely If that be the issue of Desolation we need the less matter it But unto what Persons doth this word relate I answer primarily unto the Jewish People and unto those among them that should survive and out-live the Calamities that do befall them it relates unto the surviving People among the Jews The Branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the Fruit of the Earth excellent and comely for them that escape and them that escape of Israel It relates secondarily I suppose and may indifferently have some respect to all the People of God or more largely to all those unto whom the Gospel of Christ shall come and they be thereby prevailed upon as Israel in Scripture was a name unto all the Jewish Nation unto whom the Oracles of God were committed and they owned a subjection to them so it may have respect unto all in all times of the Gospel brought over to Christ who falling under sore Calamities have this grace allowed them to survive and out-live those days of distress This may serve to give light into the words and two Truths I would note from them which lie fairly in them and which I judge as pertinent unto the present circumstances under which we fall as any in any one Scripture that I know of in the Book of God Doctr. 1. That it is a proper issue and a good effect of slaughtering-Judgement upon them that have escaped the
EBEN-EZER OR Profitable Truths after Pestilential Times Being some MEDITATIONS Upon ISAIAH 4.2 SHEWING The MERCY and the DUTY Of Those that have Escap'd the Slaughtering Pestilence As also That all Slaughter shall end in the Exaltation of CHRIST and the setting up of HIS KINGDOM Together with An Epistolary Preface To the Citizens of London Westminster By THOMAS BLAKE London Printed in the Year 1666. To the Citizens of LONDON and WESTMINSTER A few Things are humbly offered needful to be considered SIRS IN this day of the Lords Controversie a Cup of trembling hath been put into your hands and you have drank deep of it Such Slaughters rarely if ever have been within your Walls since their Foundations were first laid The memorable year of Twenty Five must not be compar'd with Sixty Five either for the number of the Slain the continuance of the Visitation or such unwonted reiterated Increases and Decreases And O that suitable to the dread of the Dispensation Effects might be wrought upon all your Hearts that the Lord may be pacified towards you and may not add to this Plague seven other and worse Plagues You are now comforting your Hearts with thoughts that the bitterness of Death is past your Trade will return and the Cloud that hath darkened your glory and splendor will vanish To which I heartily say Amen the Lord do so But if I thought it would be born and kindly received I would take leave to tell you I have my fears fears not bottom'd upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostles expression is 1 Tim. 4.7 profane and old Wives fables but upon Considerations as I judge more solid An account of which be pleased to take in a few words First Cities every way famous have had their Periods all worldly glory carrieth decaying Principles in its bowels It may as the Sun go forth in its beauty and strength until it climb to its Meridian and thenceforward it will decline until its lustre set in obscurity As they say of the World so of Cities they have their Youth and Manhood in which they are in their strength and vigour and after that Old Age until they return to the dust out of which they were raised Tyre a City of strength called the strong City Josh 19.29 an ancient and enriching City yet from the Lord went forth a Commandment to destroy it Isa 23.11 Babylon once the Metropolis of a mighty Empire and consequently stood upon suitable advantage-ground for its security yet could not bear up it self against that Sentence Isa 14.4 Thou shalt take up this Proverb against the King of Babylon and say How hath the Oppressor ceased the golden City ceased Ceased to be as well as to oppress It is the destiny of some that when they cease to oppress they must cease to be also Jerusalem the beloved City honour'd by the King of Heaven that Fountain of all true Honour against her cries the Prophet Isa 3.8 Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen God commands and threatneth concerning Tyrus Ezek. 26.4 Break down her Towers I will also scrape her dust from her and leave her like the top of a Rock not so much as any Monument should remain Jamseges est ubi Troja fuit Others their memory is perished Psal 9.6 Thou hast destroyed Cities their memorial is perished with them Secondly Sins great Provocations have been precedaneous unto and the procuring Causes of the ruine of Cities God is known to be long-suffering to all among whom he is known he doth not strike much less destroy without a cause nor yet for every cause God can bear long yet will he not bear always Wickedness may in places of eminency as Diseases in the Body lurk up and down for a season till by continuance they grow strong seiz the Vitals and down goes the House of Clay Sin drowned the old World and burnt Sodom and Gomorrha and they are left upon record as Examples of Divine Vengeance to put a restraint upon the exorbitancies of sinful Cities Every publick sin of Cities as they are a Body and Community or the sin of them that are the visible owned authority in them acting as such is a stroke at their Foundations and many such may soon level them with the ground There are Prognosticks of decaies approaching Death not onely in the Natural but in Bodies Politick also The Death-Marks upon Cities of old have been such as these 1. Pride God resisteth the Proud is true concerning a Nation City or Man It it was Moabs height that laid him low We have heard of the pride of Moab he is exceeding proud therefore shall Moab howl for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn Isa 16.6 Tyrus said I am of perfect Beauty Ezek. 27.3 thence was she defaced and brought to nothing Foelicissima Dicta foret si non sibi visa fuisset 2. Oppression especially oppression and cruelty towards the Lords own People Wo to the oppressing City Zeph. 3.1 Rev. 18.21 With violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all and why so that follows vers 24. In her was found the Blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth God will make inquisition for Blood especially for the Bloood of his Abels that will cry all that have had their hands in it call themselves by what name of distinction they will will be found to be Brats of Babylon and they and their Cities may fall thereby One of the great Sins that came up into remembrance against Tyre and Zidon was this The Children of Judah and the Children of Jerusalem have ye sold to the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border Joel 3.6 3. Treachery and Unfaithfulness Amos 1.9 For three transgressions of Tyrus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they dilivered up the whole Captivity of Edom and remembred not the Brotherly Covenant 4. False-Worship Jer. 19.11 I will break this City as one breaketh a Potters Vessel that cannot be made whole again and they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place In Tophet they sinned in their corrupt Worship and there they must fall by this their iniquity Certainly wo to them who after Light received and solemn Covenants made dare to corrupt the Worship of God and defile the Sanctuary with their detestable things wo to them whether Persons or Places 5. The baseness of pretended spiritual men There is a wo against Jerusalem Zeph. 3.1 and why Her Prophets are light and treacherous Persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have done violence to the Law HER Prophets and Priests saith God not MINE some of their own making they do wickedly and would wrest the the Word and labor to make it speak for their abominations 6. Contempt of the Gospel This evidently was Jerusalems undoing They killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent unto them and upon
for a time they shall be dealt withall according to the violence done to the Saints of God The violence done to me and to my Flesh be upon Babylon shall the Inhabitants of Zion say Isa 51.22 23. I have taken the cup of trembling out of thy hand that is out of Zions hand even the dregs of the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee which have said to thy Soul Bow down that we may go over and thou hast laid thy Body as the ground and as the street to them that went over They shall suffer too according to the contempt of the Gospel and the dishonour done to Christ that way for he shall come to deal with all them that do not know him and obey not the Gospel and also according to the sin of despising the forbearance of Christ Indeed this day you are escaped and the patience of Christ is exercised towards you but let me tell you if you stand and abide in your sinful state you shall find that the abusing of the patience of Christ is but treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath 5. Those that have escaped and not Israel they shall be compassed about with eternal Sorrows and shall never rise out of them Says the Church Though I fall I shall arise again and though I sit in darkness yet the Lord shall be a light to me Then shall she be confounded that is the Enemies of the Church shame shall cover her That will be the portion of every sinner though he may escape for a season shame shall cover him misery and distress shall abide him for ever VSE III. HAving dispatch'd the Second I come now to a Third Use which the former Uses necessarily lead unto It is a little to encourage the hearts of poor Sinners that possibly may be full of thoughts and desires that they might yet be brought into the number of Israel Methinks I do even hear some poor heart say If it be so well with them that are Gods Israel and so ill with them that are not Gods Israel What is there no hope for me though I am yet none of that number Must I for ever stay in that state of misery in which I am Must an eternal doom of Misery be entaild upon me I acknowledge my state is exceeding desperate and sad but is there no hope in Israel concerning this matter To that I answer If there be any poor sinner sensible of the misery of his condition that would gladly make an escape out of it Soul be not discouraged thy condition is not hopeless but be encouraged for there is a possibility that as thou hast escaped the dread and misery of this present day so thou mayst be delivered from that Christless state wherein thou art There are two Scriptures I would commend to you for this purpose the first is in Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the Name of Israel The words are both a Prophecy and a Promise and they do respect the Gentile-World that were at that time and long after in their sins in their state of estrangement from God here it is prophesied that yet there should be a flocking into Israel the number of Gods Israel should be greatly augmented and encreased It is promised that God would so prevail upon the hearts of some poor Sinners that they shall come and say I am the Lords and shall come and subscribe their hands to the Lord and shall sirname themselves by the Name of Israel that God would conquer them so far that they should see the need they had to be of that number that they shall resign and give up themselves to be of the Israel of God This is an encouraging word to the Sinner there is a possibility for them that were strangers to come and to name themselves by the Name of Jacob and subscribing to the Lord to take up that Name and so partake of the Priviledges of the Israel of God Take another Scripture Isa 19.24 25. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a Blessing in the midst of the Land whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the Work of my hands and Israel my Inheritance The import of the words is this Egypt and Assyria were some of the Enemies of God and his People at a very great distance from him but here is a Promise that they should come to be conquered and brought into subjection to the Lord and to be baptized into the Spirit of Israel to be blessed with the Blessing of Israel they shall speak the Language of Canaan they shall be of one Heart and one Lip with the Lords People Souls were you as Egypt and were you as the Assyrians Enemies to God and his People were you at the greatest distance from God that could be supposed Egypt had neither Ordinances nor Priviledges nor ought else that good was more then the creatures of the Earth and such-like things yet the Lord intimates here to us that they shall come to share in and divide a Blessing with Israel If thy estate were as one of them yet mayest thou as and according to the promise made to them be brought into the number that shall share in the Blessing of the Israel of God Therefore Soul though now thou art not of Israel yet it may be said to thee They have obtained Mercy which had not obtained This is the kindness of God that he is pleased to make blessed overtures of Mercy unto poor vile and unworthy Sinners But more then this for the encouragement of any Soul that may yet be in his Sins I would speak four or five things Thy condition is not desperate but thou mayst be brought into the number of the Israel of God and so partake of the same Mercy with them in thy escaping this day if thou dost consider 1. That Gods Israel came to be the People of God by choice and through the Grace and Goodness of God Israel were not born the People of God He chose Abraham and his Seed from the rest of the World to be a peculiar People to himself Hence it is that Israel often-times are called in Scripture Israel my CHOSEN so Psal 105.4 The Lord hath CHOSEN Jacob for himself and Israel to be his peculiar Treasure and in Isa 44.1 Israel is called there the Chosen of the Lord Yet now hear O Jacob my Servant and Israel whom I have CHOSEN They were chosen meerly from the good pleasure of God Choice it is a free Act in which there is no necessity and constraint so it was in God a free Act to pitch upon Israel to make them his People This account the Lord gives of it Deut.
4.37 And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he CHOSE their Seed after them and brought thee out in his sight with mighty power so Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor CHVSE you because you were more in number then any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you c. At first God did out of his meer accord chuse Abraham and his Seed and having in love chosen them he continues his kindness and goodness to them that he might keep his Covenant and his Mercy that he promised to Abraham Poor Soul this I would now say to thee Israel was found out by the Lords Grace and that Grace may also fix upon thee It was not any thing that was in Israel but meerly the good pleasure of God that chose them to be his People and the same Grace of God may chuse thee and plant thee among his People and give thee with them a pleasant portion 2. When God first chose Israel he found them in as wretched and sad a condition as thine can be thy case cannot be worse then the case of Israel was when the Love and Grace of God fixed upon them Ezek. 16.1 Thus saith the Lord to Jerusalem Thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother a Hittite Canaan were a People originally without the knowledge of God in their enmity against God This says God was Israel when first I found them without the knowledge of God and at as great a distance from God as persons could be Let the Devil say the worst against thee that he can he can but say thou art by nature at enmity with God filled with all the Principles of Sin and so was Israel as well as thou and that Grace that yet pitied Israel in this his low estate can also reach thy Soul 3. Israel when first God did him good was in as hopeless and helpless a condition as thine can be So he goes on Ezek. 16. And as for thy Nativity in the day thou wast born thy Navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all none Eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee to have compassion upon thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born What is more helpless and shiftless then an Infant just taken from the Womb not able to do its self the least service This was Israel's condition when the Lord first found them not in a capacity of moving one step out of that wretched sinful corrupt and rebellious state And truly to this day the Israel of God in themselves considered are altogether unable to act for God and his Glory but as they are assisted with power from on high Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I Righteousness and Strength even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Israel in their best state cannot glory in themselves nor in any strength of their own but must look upon themselves as weak Creatures onely as they are strengthened by the Lord unto any good Word and Work Soul this I would say Thou canst but be a shiftless helpless Creature unable to move a foot forward or to further thy own Everlasting Concernments in the least and this is to be in no worse state then God found his own People in and that Grace by which they were brought near to God can and may also work for the good of thy Soul 4. Consider further That the very same Promises of Mercy are made unto poor sinners to this day Promises of a part in those very good things which Israel is possessed of All the blessings of the Covenant are freely offered and tendred to Sinners to this hour Hence are all the gracious Promises made to the Gentiles up and down the Word of Truth of which you have more then a few The first of which as I suppose is in Gen. 9.27 God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his Servant This is the first Promise ever made to the Gentiles and some render the word Deus alliciet Japhethum God shall allure or perswade Japheth and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem Japheth is put for the Gentile-World for by him the Isles of the Gentiles were inhabited Gen. 10.2 and 5. compared You shall find if you look in Luk. 3.36 and downward Christ was of the Race of Shem and the import of the Promise is this When God says he will perswaded Japheth to dwell in the Tents of Shem he means he will overcome the hearts of the Sinners among the Gentiles to come to an amity and friendship with Jesus Christ as co-habitation denotes amity and it is a word full of Grace and Favour as it can hold But more plain and full is that word Gal. 3.13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree that the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ It was the design both of the Father and the Son that all the Blessings of the death of Christ should reach unto the Sinners among the Gentiles that what ever Blessing was promised first to Abraham unto his Seed the same Blessing also should be made over and given in to every poor sinner among the Gentiles that shall come and submit themselves unto the Lord Jesus Well then Is not this greatly for thy comfort If thou sayest I am not Israel yet here is room and way made for thee It is the intendment both of Father and Son to let in thy Soul into all the Blessings and Mercies promised unto the Israel of God 5. Consider this also poor Sinner if thou art yet in thy sin and estrangement from God That it is the real design and intendment of God both in the Judgement that thou hast seen and the Escape thou hast had in and under these Calamities to bring thee among the number of his own People What is the design of God in all his Controversies with the World It is to bring them to kiss the Son the great Controversie is That People will not take the Yoke of Christ upon them and therefore sometimes he drives sometimes he draws and all means he uses that he may overcome the hearts of poor Sinners See the goodness he shews the mercy he follows them with in sparing and preserving them it is to this great end That his goodness might lead them to repentance and to a real subjection to the Lord Jesus Therefore Soul though thou hast stood long in ways of Rebellion against Christ