when as many labouring under the said distempers are gone down to the chambers of death is this I. That you would own with thankfulness the healing mercies of God whereby you have been restored Let your thoughts often reflect upon your former weakness what pains and faintings seased upon you what the opinion of your Physicians and the fears of your Relations were when your pulses beat low and softly when you drew your breath short and painfully when paleness had covered your faces when the grashopper was a burden to you such was your weakness Job 16. vers 16. when the shadow of death was on your eye-lids and all the symptomes of death appeared in you and all this at such a time when graves were opened very many in most places when God himself was the preacher and that upon this text Isa 40. vers 6 7. All flesh is grass and the goodliness of it as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it which was fully confirmed every passing bell being a proof of the point and every dead corps a reason of the doctrine so that if ever now it might safely be affirmed the people is grass and you as grass might have withered into dead hay and though flowers might have faded into loathsome Carcases if the Lord had not preserved a secret sap at the root Oh consider to receive a message of life from the Lord when you had received a message of death from man to be kept alive by his almighty power when you were within an hairs breadth of death is a mercy worth the owning at all times but calls for more abundant thankfulness at such a time as this was when so many some out of the same houses and many out of the same Towns have been carried forth unto the places of burial when many of those had the same advantages for life yea greater some from men and means then ye had yet they are dead and ye are alive Oh these considerations lay great ingagements of thankfulness upon you especially if you seriously take notice what your sickness was by which ye received an arrest from the Lord it was not an ordinary disease it hath been very much ludibrium medicorum few Physicians have found out the true cause and the right cure of it the distempers have so varied and the effects have been so different in several persons and places so that with the Egyptian Sorcerers all have been forced to confess it was no other then the finger of God The Lord having made good upon us that threatning Deut. 28. Verse 61. In bringing a sickness among us which is not written in the book of the Law a Scripture parralel whereof in every particular cannot be found I shall represent it to you under these Considerations 1. It was general no County no Town no Family scarcely escaped the rod nay almost all persons found some alterations in their bodies as tendencies to that disease having as large a Commission as to smiting as the destroying Angel had Ezek. 9. vers 5 6. Go ye through the City and smite let not your eye spare neither have ye pity slay utterly old and young both maids and little children and women 2. It was suddain Many Diseases have their Prodromio's their forerunners which bring news of their coming some dayes or weeks before they seize a man but when men were in their apprehensions perfectly well and at their labour perceiving no symptomes of a sickness they were suddenly surprised some in the Towns some in the fields and brought home sick As if a man should walk in a Corporation and suddenly should be snapt by the Sergeants and carried to the Jaile when he feared nothing less 1 Thes 5.3 3. It was violent It seized many strong men with that violence at the first onset as though it would strike but once many thinking at their first surprisall they had been dropping into the grave like that Job 16. v. 12 13 14. I was at ease Read Mr. Jakson's notes in loc but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the neck and shaken me to peices and set me up for his marke His archers compass me about he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground He breaketh me with breach upon breach he runneth upon me like a Giant 4. It was weakning the strength of the strong man was suddenly taken from him that he was either chained to his bed or like an old man walked with his staffe in his hand through age Zech. 8. ver 4. for Job 6. ver 4. the arrows of the Almighty are within me the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit And Psal 38.8 10. I am feeble and sore broken c. My heart panteth my strength faileth me by reason of inappetency Psal 107. ver 18. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat 5. It was languishing many diseases do their work in a few dayes either the distemper wears off and health returns or else sicknesse prevails and death comes In some cases the Malefactour is committed till the next Goal-delivery and then set free with a little scarre in his hand But in other cases a man is kept prisoner from Sessions to Assizes and from Assizes to Sessions and knows not when he shall have his freedome or whether his life will be spared at last So some diseases have their fixed periods of time after which health is restored but in this distemper many have been referred from Sessions to Assizes have had many hopefull intervalls and yet are detained bound over from the feaver to a quartan ague and after long detainment find little strength and as little hopes of life at the last See Job 13. ver 26 27 28. and chap. 16. ver 8. thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witnesse against me grief had made surrows in his face and his tears filled them 7. It was inevitable No way to avoid the stroke Vid. Trap. in loc no Antidote would prevent it no closet could secure against it as 1 King 22. ver 34. like that Psal 90. ver 5 6. Arrows fly swiftly and secretly though Ahab had disguised himself that he might not be known and armed himself that he might not be wounded yet a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote him between the joynts of the harnesse 7. It was mortall to many persons in many places 1. In the present stroke some never came off from their sickbeds till they were carried to their death beds to wit their graves 2. In the effects and consequents of it though the disease it self kill'd not some presently yet it slipt them into Dropsies Consumptions and Quartans which have since been mortall to many Now then set home these considerations give God the glory of your lives in the words of the text ascribe your healing onely unto him in the words of
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
they can against him who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect who shall condemne who shall separate us from the love of Christ As if he had said O thou malicious devil that dost let fly at me with thy darts Mr. Banter Spirits wâ—tness to the truth page 124. Oh ye deluded Hereticks and infidels that fill my ears with your foolish Sophismes and trouble me with your disputes against the Lord my Redeemer go to them that make a Religion of their opinion and whose belief was never any deeper then their fancies go to them that never knew what it was to love Christ to desire after him to delight in his salvation nor to hope through believing for his promised blessednesse hereafter these you may possibly draw away from Christ and make Infidels of them that were never true Believers but do you think to do so by me what weapons what arguments do you think to prevail by shall tribulation be the means why I have that promise in the hand of my faith and that glory in the eye of my hope that will bring me through tribulation shall distresse do it why I will rather stick so much the closer to him that will relieve me in distresse and bring me unto his rest And so this reverend Author proceeds and you may further prosecute in your own thoughts Oh! that soul that hath the advantage of experiences and wisely improves the sense of grace received is bravely fortified against temptations to infidelity and will act faith upon the sure mercies of David the oath and covenant of God in the saddest conflicts 2. You will live best to God Because you will live most in the love of God when you consider much and with much seriousness what God hath done for you in order to eternity you will be drawn out in your affections unto God God will have more of your hearts then he hath of many others who make as big and bulke a profession as you do and how can it be otherwise when you fasten this meditation upon your hearts we might have been in hell in an undone condition past all hope or possibility of help from Angels or men had not God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins quickened us together with Christ Eph. 2.4 5. when you look upon the whole business of your salvation as transacted and carryed on by God and that in a way of free-grace rich mercy and meer good will and love this will marveilously draw out your love to God for amor amoris magnes love is the loadstone of love there is a magnetick vertue in it to draw out the very heart of a beloved person Cant 4.9 Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast behearted me taken away my heart as he that hath his head taken away is said to be beheaded Oh! Christ knew the affections of his Spouse unto him and therefore makes a full return of love unto her again So the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constrains me I am wholly under the power of love made willing to do or suffer any thing or to be led any whither by this cord of love that is cast upon me by the Lord Jesus Christ indeed the Lord is first in affection 1 Joh. 4.19 He first loved us The air receives its light from the Sun the Sun must first shine and send forth his beams before the air can be radiant So the Lord must let in some sence of good will into the soul before she stirs out in affections unto him but now when she comprehends with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and knows the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. and lives in the sense of Gods peculiar and discriminating love unto her Oh! this fills her with holy affections unto the Lord the Church is then sick of love David cryes out O how I love the Lord my heart is ready to break it is so full of love to God I cannot make a narrative of my love it is so vast so boundless unto God This fixeth the creatures love upon God the stability of the Saints love doth very much arise from this Satan will have a hard pluck of it to pull a truely-loving-believer from the arms of his beloved Jesus when he remembers that love of his first espousals how Christ took upon him and washed him from his blood and spake peace to his wounded self-condemned soul when he remembers the straights that his Jesus brought him out of and the miseries which he rescued him from when he thinks thus with himself Oh what sohould I have done if I had not had a Christ what should I have done in my fears and griefs what should I have said to an accusing conscience how should I have escaped the jaws of the devourer Oh! these reviews do mightily renew his love these thoughts and remembrances do kindle such a strong and sacred fire of love in his heart that many waters cannot quench it and all temptations to break with Christ are made invalid It is the heart and not the head that holds Christ fast I held him and would not let him go says the Church Cant. 3.4 Love will hold Christ when reason alone will let him go Rom. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ Paul puts the question in this verse but draws up a peremptory conclusion and that with a full assurance verse 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Calvin Beza c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—gust Erasmus Dodate Great Annotations of the Assembly Mr. Baxtes Spirits witness to Christianity page 121. Expositors do much differ about the sence of these words some understand them as speaking of Christs love to us some of the sense and feeling of Christs love unto us others of our love to Christ or in a conjunct sense both of Christs love to us and our love unto Christ But surely the Apostle speaks at this rate what can unclasp those mutual embracements between Christ and his people or what can separate us from Christ by withdrawing or destroying our love to him and consequently turning his love from us we have many assaults but all in vain for when a Believer reflects upon what Christ hath done for him considers the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ with the precious fruits of all unto his soul and that out of pure love who deserved to be an object of eternal hatred this makes the pulse beat quick and high in holy affections to the Lord Jesus And the want of this due reflection upon what by nature we were and what now by grace
truth of grace such may fetch much comfort from the appearances of God unto them in a day of distress they may argue Is not the life more worth them meat and the body then raiment Is not the soul more precious then name credit limbs and life Have the mercies of God been so signally remarkeable upon a temporal and shall they not be much more upon a saving account was the red sea dried up a pathway made through the wilderness Jordan made fordable and the Cananites slain even with hailstones from heaven and all this to give Israel possession of an earthly Canaan and shall not the outgoings of grace and outstretching of power be much more glorious to bring us to heavenly Canaan to that City which hath foundations and walls whose builder and maker is God Oh! reason up faith and hope to an exspectancy of after blessedness by considering the blessed presence and good will of him that dwelt in the bush in present comforts present succours and present deliverances I shall onely propose the presidency of Saint Paul under a remarkeable preservation even from the Tyrant Nero 2 Tim. 4. ver 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord will deliver me out of every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdome You may find much of this in David arguing from temporalls to eternals observe that Psal 23. ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever which sometimes is taken for heaven Domus majestatis that upper house that house of State in which Christ sayes John 14. ver 2. There are many mansions Saint Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. ver 1. an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so Psal 17. ver ult Oh in all your sinkings of spirit let the sense of mercy received be as a cordial unto you and assure your selves that if in famine sword peril nakedness c. ye have been more then conquerours through Christ that loved you get up your hearts to this perswasion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord Rom. 8. ver 37.38 39. or hinder you of heavens happiness which is the fruit of Gods Electing love and the purchase of the Redeeming love of Jesus Christ your Lord O then comfort one another with these words I am come now to the fifth and last Use Is it so that the best of Saints are often brought into suffering conditions that their afflictions are sharp and violent that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to their help in the day of their distress Is this a truth attested by the experience of Saints in all ages and cannot their enemies deny this why then here is a rod for the backs of fools a sharp reproof for the profane and carnal world in 3 Particulars 1. It reproves them for their uncharitable censuring of the suffering Saints what more usual then for wicked men to entertain hard thoughts and let fly in harsh speeches against the people of God in distress measuring their sinnes by their sufferings and if their calamities exceed others their iniquities exceed them also laying down this false position that the greatest sufferers are sinners and that when the rod is most the wrath of God is most also not considering that of the Apostle Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth laying down an exemption from the rod as a note of Bastardie or that Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten This was practised by Shimei in that great day of Davids distress when he fled from his rebellious son 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Come out come out thou bloudy man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the bloud of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the kingdome into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken to thy mischief or taken into thy wickedness because thou art a murtherer as some Translations read it and as agrees with the Hebrew This was the Interpretation that Eliphaz put upon Job's sufferings Job 4.7 8. Rememember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same thereby wounding him in his holiness and heart-sincerity yea upon the matter charging him to be a son of Belial and that because God was now writing such bitter things in the bloud of his cattel servants and children yea in black characters of sore displeasure upon his own body It was not much to be heeded that the Barbarians fastened the guilt of murther upon Paul because the viper fastened upon his hand Aâ—s 28. ver 4. But that the viper should fasten upon the hearts of men and women under the same common Profession with us that the venom of the old Serpent should swell to such a degree of censuring and uncharitableness is much to be lamented and doubtless some will smart for these hard speeches when Jesus Christ shall come with ten thousands of his saints Jude ver 14 15. Then shall they know the English of that Text 1 Pet. 1.6 and the ends of God in afflicting his precious ones 2. For their unjust charge of Hypocrisie upon them who so envious as evil men who are so much the objects of their envy as the godly are and why is their malice so much against them surely it is upon the account of Religion of differencing Grace and holiness This was the seed of the first quarrel betwixt man and man this was that which made Cain a fratricide and wherefore slew he his brother because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous 1 John 3.12 and now though the laws of men and the power of God restrain wicked men from murdering the godly yet they shed the bloud of their soules and slay their sincerity by charging Hypocrisie upon them which is the highest degree of murther and that which the seed of Cain shall one day pay dearly for But what makes them so bold to call the Saints Hypocrites what colour have they for such a charge or what ground have they thus to traduce the sincere servants of the Lord why the false gloss they put upon the humbling Providences of God they expound unsoundness of body in them to an infallible Evidence of an unsound spirit rottenness in their bones to be the proper fruit of a rotten heart and that the voyce of the Lord in their present sufferings doth fully speak all their professing praying watching waiting humility and holiness to be but mere dissembling what do the arguings and deportments of Job's three friends import and in special that
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
no God but my sword they shall surely finde that the sword of Gideon is but a wooden blade if the sword of the Lord be not with it be much in working that passage upon your hearts Isa 10.15 Shall the ax boast it self against him that heweth with it or shall the saw magnifie it self against him that shaketh it c. Ye know concerning whom these words were spoken proud Senacherib and upon what occasion to wit the vaunting of his success in wars and what follows why vers 16. Therefore the Lord the Lord of Hosts shall send among his fat ones principal Officers leanness and under his glory he shall kindle a fire May not that contempt which the Lord hath poured upon some ones of you spring much from this root of pride I onely interrogate and such are the respects I bear to the Restorers of our peace and liberty that I wish the Dream may be to those that hate you and the interpretation unto your enemies Dan. 4.19 2. Own the people of the Lord who have owned you and the cause ye have ventured in They have had a large share in the fraughtage of that ship which by the blessing of God hath been steered by you through stormy Seas into safe harbour Read often Prov. 27. vers 10. Thine own friend and thy fathers friend forsake not You cannot own God fully if you dis-own his people who under him have assisted in the work ye have had many Auxiliaries who have helped the Lord and you against the mighty Some have jeoparded their lives unto death with you in the high places of the field Judg. 5.18 It would be very disingenuous to lay such aside as depontani and over-look them as men unworthy of your knowledge now ye sit in the high places of the Nation An heathen mans conscience smote him for this crime The Popish Souldiers that went against the Angrognians said that the Minities with their prayers conjured and bewitched them that they could not fight And â—id not ye at Edge-hill say with others now for the fruits of prayer and did not ye receive the fruit of it Gen. 11. vers 9. and shall the guilt thereof rest upon you And some again have been upon the Mount when you have been fighting with your enemies in the valley and they have not been your worst friends neither have ye received the least aid from them When Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed and when he let down his hands Amalâ—k prevailed Exod. 17. vers 11. Ye owe much of your success and safety in the late wars to a praying people It was observed and it was very observable that immediately after monthly Fasts ye got ground of the enemy in some places did not the Lord proclaime in your Camp that this and that victory was as well the procurement of a praying Assembly as of a fighting Army And that it was as well fetched from heaven by the tears of his Sanctuary as finished upon earth by the blood of his Souldiery Indeed ye deserve blame if ye sleight them who have wept and mourned fasted and prayed yea wrastled hard for you and by whom the war hath been much carried on in heaven and we are equally blame-worthy if we slight you who have laboured and marched and run the hazzard of limbs and lives yea fought and bled and by whom the war hath been carried on upon earth The Lord heal all hard-thoughtedness betwixt you and us and make us one as ever in the truth and cause of Jesus 3. Be humbled before the Lord A great Queen said she feared more the prayers of Ioha Knox and his Complices than an Army of thirty thousand men Trap in Mat. 18.19 for all the acts of violence and injustice either acted or permitted by you in the heat of war for all the breaches of Oaths or Covenants with God or man for all your failing in or falsifying of the Vows which ye made to God in the day of your didistress And that there hath been any root bearing wormwood or gall springing up among you that of your selves men have arose speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Act. 20. vers 19. It is too evident and hath been that the File-leaders and heads of many errours that I say not of all have been either of or found shelter in the Army both have many witnesses at this day living It took no great impression upon us that some stragling persons blurted off their pot-guns at us but when we were drawn upon by the Souldiery or by a sort of men abetted by them and marching under their protection this was great grief of heart unto us this was a sword in our bones and drew tears from our eyes in our secret mournings before the Lord This made our prophane neighbours scoffe at us when they heard those truths opposed those doctrines contradicted those wayes of the Lord evil-spoken of and those Ordinances sleighted for which ye and we had contested so long with tears and blood This made the Cavalier-Minister laugh in their sleeves and deride when they beheld the faithful Ministers faithful to the Lord to you and to the cause contended for vilified disdained and traduced and that by a party of our own Army when they themselves met with no such trouble from them This we looked upon as very disingenuous to us and as unsuitable returns to the Lord. The Lord clear up his great Gospel truths above all possibility of mistake by his own people and fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the Sea Isa 11.9 that ye and we may go forth by the footsteps of the flocke that ye may feed your kids by the shepherds tents and all of us may know where the Lord Jesus feedeth and where be maketh his flock to rest at noon Cant. 1. vers 7 8. For why should any of you be as they that turn aside by the flocks of strangers 4. Quicken up that ancient zeal those burning affections and that fixedness of spirit in you for the Lord his truth his cause his Ministery and his people which once ye had O if ye find your present peace and pleasure honor and full estates dignity and dominion to begin raise unwholesome damps in your souls the sense of grace received and mercies received so eminent as yours have been and the Nation in you will excellently scatter them if well improved Oh then the Champions of Israel who have vanquished Christ and his Churches enemies in the field draw up gallantly against corruptions in your own hearts As ye have subdued Kingdomes so work righteousness As ye have bled for Christ in time of war so bow down to Christ in time of peace As ye have sealed the walls of the mighty so pull down the strong holds of sin within your own bosomes As ye have cast down the high ones of the earth from their seats so cast down imaginations and every high
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
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
faithfull endeavours in raising Zion out of her dust and Religion out of the rubbish in the places where you live How would you have blessed God if you had found Religion in such a posture how would you have honoured the memory of your Predecessours if they had travailed to have brought that to pass which you are now encouraged unto nay more you may lend that word of saving advice to a carnal neighbour which may be paid you in again by the bringing home of a Prodigal childe Your covenants for money run to you and to your heirs the Debt is not lost if your heirs receive it so your heirs may receive in a spiritual sense the Principal with the loan when you are dead happy is he who makes such provision for his children one whom you have in the way proposed brought off from vile and vicious courses may see a childe of yours when you are at rest running in the same wayes and tell him ah friend just thus it was with me I was running headlong upon mine own destruction and your Father pittied me reproved instructed advised me brought me off from my desperate wayes and put me into a good way for heaven And now I desire to shew the kindness of the Lord to you by dealing as plainly and faithfully with you as I was dealt with by your father and who knowes but the same course may through grace produce the same good effects If David remembred and requited the kindness of Jonathan in shewing love to his lame Mephibosheth after Jonathan's death why not the spirit of David stirre up bowels in those whom you have helped heaven-ward to requite that kindness in your lame Mephibosheth there is ground of hope 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort it beareth fruit unto eternity the savour of this ointment doth not spend it self in this life Apoc. 14. ver 13. Blessed are the dead that dy in the Lord their works follow them This work of mercy which you shew in converting a sinner from the errour of his way and saving a soul from death Jam. 5. ver 20. shall follow you to eternity it shall be had in everlasting remembrance it shall be registred in that book of Records which was writ before the Lord for those that feared the Lord and thought upon his name Mal. 3. ver 16. They shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels The Prophet Daniel speaks fully to the Saints after recompence upon this accompt Dan. 12. ver 3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament they that be teachingly wise of Mascil that do prudently instruct so it propperly referres to the teaching Ministery but may not unfitly be referred unto instructing Christians and I hope without any force to the Word or any violence offered to a called Ministery Now wherein doth the wisdom of the wise shew it self so as to entitle them to this firmamental brightness why the onely wise among the sonnes of men doth determine it Prov. 11. ver 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life the genuine fruit of the righteous is to bring forth life in those he converseth with Salvation wisdome is the highest wisdome and he that winneth soules is by the Holy Ghost stiled Chacam the wise man and indeed Daniel himself expoundeth it to the same sence and they that turn many unto righteousness as the starres for ever Though there be some difficulty in this Text and some difference among expositours about the sense of it yet sure I may with much safety offer these positions from it 1. That man by nature runs off from his primitive and created righteousness unto by-paths of sin and unrighteousness This is clearly supposed 2. That Conversion mainly consisteth in our turning from sin unto righteousness from the power of Sathan unto God 3. That men are instrumental in the conversion of men to wit in turning them from sin to righteousness 4. That this turning of men from sin to righteousness hath a sure promise of future honour 5. That the work of Conversion is not onely limitted to a teaching Ministery it is not so proper to them as that it is exclusive to all others to have any hand or instrumentality in it Read Mr. Baxter in his Gild. salv Page 469 470 471. It was much that the woman of Samaria did towards the gathering of those fields which our Saviour saw beginning to be white as they that read John 4. may observe an unlikely means to effect so great a matter but what 's that to the Almighty as Mr. Trap speaks and brings in Junius professing that the first thing that turned him from Atheisme was conference with a country-man of his not farre frrom Florence enquire into Acts and Monum Fol. 767. Experience doth very much confirme this many servants may bless God who brought them under godly acquaintance I hope none will think that by this I derogate ought from the office of a called Ministery if the seed be sown by others it is ripened by them If the first course of stones be laid by others the building is finished by them Eph. 4. v. 12. a called Ministery doth perfect the Saints and edifie or build up the body of Christ If others are instrumental to their spirituall birth yet the Ministery goes forth in the spirit and power of Elias to make them ready as a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. ver 17. and that though men have ten thousand Instructours yet a Godly Ministery doth in Christ Jesus beget them through the Gospel that is perfect the birth 1 Cor. 4. ver 15. the Spirit makes the seed of the Word by them prolifical and generative 6. That the honour of converting sinners unto God shall be an everlasting honour 1 Pet. 5. ver 4. ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away But I desire the Reader not to mistake me herein as though 1. I did positively assert that none can subserve to the conversion of others Aliorum salutem sedulo nunquam curabit qui suam negligit Calvin in Act. 20. ver 28. who are unconverted themselves though some think and I among the rest also that God will not honour at least very rarely doth the Ministery of an unregenerate person with the Conversion of others though the called ones may be comforted and farther built up by gifted Ministers yet I think Instances be but rare of second-birth-Christians who call them Fathers 2. Neither do I affirme that to be instrumental in the saving of others hath any thing of merit in it toward the saving of a mans self 3. Nor that it is evidence enough in it self for heaven so that he who hath the seal of his Ministry may without farther enquiry into his own estate conclude he hath the seal of the living God in his forehead and is upon that single account sure of heaven 4. Nor that we should be so wholly taken
army is marshalled the stroak is from God the horse is prepared against the day of battel but safetie is of the Lord Prov. 21. ver 31. But suppose Sathan should deny the consequence of the Major for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a subtle opponent and argue though God did deliver in temporals yet he will not in spiritualls Who is he that shall deliver out of my hands I le make you know that ye are wrastling not with flesh and bloud men that are your matches but with principalities and powers who are much above your match there is impar congressus a great disparity in strength and wisdome and all things between me and you What are all the powers of the world to the God of this world what are all the dark plots of men to the projects of the Prince of darkness What are all the whiffling waters to the great Apollion who is the destroyer why answer greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 thy power Sathan is but a limitted power Christ our Redeemer hath thy chain in his hand thou canst not break one link of it nor pass one hairs breadth beyond thy boundaries besides Thou canst have no power against me except it be given the from above If thy Commission hath not pass'd the Signet-Office in heaven it is but a blank piece of parchment Nay farther thy head and thy heart and thy hand too have been all at work in those mischiefs that were plotted and acted against us and yet thou seest we have a sure footing in peace and safety when we were under water we had never come up again but had been quackned in the deep if the strength of thine arm could have kept our heads down when we were shut up in prison we had never came forth if thy bolts and locks could have made fast the doors when we were under the power of our enemies we had never come of with life if thy malice could have turned the points of their weapons against us But God made us to be pitied of all those that carried us away captive Psal 106. ver 46. Our sicknesses had been mortal if thou couldest have spilt the potion or stirred up the humours to have encreased the malignancy of the distempers but in all things wherein thou didst deal proudly God was above thee and he that rebuked thee in thine instruments will rebuke thee also in thine agency He that defeated thee as worldly Governors will defeat thee as spirituall wickedness also That wisdome goodness and power which secured our temporalls against thee will much more secure their spiritualls If thou couldest not spill our blood much less shalt thou be able to split our souls If thou couldest not take away our credit we are sure thou shalt not take away our crown If our goods were out of thy reach much more shall our graces and our glory be He that delivered us out of the mouth of the Lion will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdome But further if Sathan shall argue Who doubts the power of God or who disputes against his omnipotency but wherefore should God put forth his Almightiness to secure you against me what claim can ye make to that mercy and goodness ye speak of let your reply be Gal. 1. ver 4. That Christ gave himself for your sinnes that he might deliver you from this present evil world according to the will of God even your father And that sin and Sathan are they that make this present world evill all evills flow from them If therefore God our father willed the death of his Son to deliver us from this present evil world he willed his death to deliver us from thee and that bastard brat of thine sin also And more John 14. ver 30. The Lord Jesus said of thee the Prince of this world hath nothing in me nor any power over me and if not in Christ then neither in us at least not over us so that thou shalt be able to undoe us and destroy us We are one with Christ he is the head and we the members and we can lay a Gospel claim which is a good title to all Christ and to all of Christ which is communicable to the creature The Apostle gives us good warrant 1 Cor. 3. ver 21. All things are yours and why ye are Christs yea so Christs as that Christ is yours a relative propertie as is between husband and wife Hence 1 Cor. 1. ver 30. He is made unto us of God wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption as if the Apostle had said the wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption which are in and wrought by Jesus Christ are by deed of gift through grace made over unto us So then against thy wiles and stratagems and cunning methods O Sathan We have the wisdome of Christ which is ours for direction to secure us Against thy accusations enditements and charges for sin we have the righteousness of Christ which is ours for justification to acquit us against those heart-defilements corruptions and concupiscences wherewith thou wouldst soil us and foil us we have the holiness of Christ which is ours for Sanctification in some measure to defend us and against thy might and malice treachery and tyranny we have the kingly office of Christ his authority his omnipotency which are ours as to Redemption to protect us Oh this this name of the Lord thus displayed and believed upon is a strong tower in the hour of temptation All the batteries of Hell cannot make a breach in it Now then get into this hold shut the doors upon you and let your temporal preservations be as locks and barrs to forbid Sathans entrance Lift up your shield of Faith embossed with your own experiences and wherever that Lion shall roar upon you give him battel fight him upon his own ground be steadfast in the faith keep true to your own experiences and believe without wavering the unchangeableness of Gods nature and Attributes and the Yea and Amen of all his Promises Improve the sense of eminent mercies and deliverances by way of comfortable assurance to your selves in all your castings down and fears of your eternal welfare But I shall speak little and warily on this head having touched upon it already in a foregoing use and least presumption should get up and carnal Professours should kindle a fire fetching fuel from this passage and compass themselves about with sparks walking in the light of this fire and in the sparks which they have kindled which notwithstanding all these confidencies their doom is pronounced by the Lord himself that they shallly down in sorrow Isa 50. ver 11. Indeed this humour is very ranck Ministers cannot with all their pains preach and pray and print it down And therefore I direct this discourse to the children of the new birth who have the witness within themselves of the work and
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
they are not exempted from common calamities 100 6. Labour to make sure of heaven 101 The second part of the exhortation 1. in a mix'd sence referring both to temporal and spiritual Preservations in some Particulars 102 1. To perswade the Lords people to keep up memorialls of the Lords mercies ibid. 2. To communicate and impart them unto others 103 104 105 106 Psalme 66. enlarged upon From whence is observed That 't is a duty by way of special incumbency to commemorate and communicate the vouchsafements of the Lord unto them ibid. Arguments to perswade to this Duty 1. It will bring a Saint into more heartacquaintance with God 107 108 109. 2. It will more draw out the heart in love unto God 110 111 3. It will more strengthen faith 112 113. 4. It is a notable friend to Religion 114 Gen. 35. opened in some Particulars ibid. 1. That Family-Reformation lies by way of special care and duty upon the Governours of it 114 115 2. That it hath a great tendency to the promoting of Religion when Master and Family walk together in the wayes of God 116 117 3. It administers great hope of much good when Inferiours obey their Superiours command and call to Religion and family-Reformation 128 119 120 4. That great Deliverances lay great Obligations upon Governours to act high in personal and family-Reformation 121 122 2. The pure spiritual part of the Exhortation speaks in three particulars 1. It exhorts to make enquiry whether you are delivered from wrath and misery to come by Jesus Christ 123 1. To clear it up that you are brought home to God 124 125 2. How and when the Lord brought you home to himself 126 127 2. To quicken up your hearts to duty in all heart-deadness and damps of spirit 128 Canticles 5.3 4 5. Hos 8.5 7. insisted upon 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136. 3. To be much in the sense of Grace received 137 138 139 140 141 142. Three Considerations to provoke unto thankfulness for grace received Consid 1. The danger we were all exposed unto by the breach of the first Covenant 143 144. From hence is inferred That the necessity of sinfull man required that Christ should dye ibid. 1. Because man is under the first Covenant as he hath his standing in the first Adam ibid. 2. Because man in a state of nature is under such weakness and impotency which renders a perfect obedience unto the Law of works impossible unto him 145 3. Because as man stands in the first Adam and in the first Covenant he is a Childe of wrath ibid. 146 1. This shews the Saints how little they are beholding to old Adam for their spiritual comeforts and attainments 147 2. This shews us That eternal life is the free gift of God by Jesus Christ 148 149 Ten short considerations to prove this 150 3. This confuteth that opinion which adâ—anceth corrupt nature into the throne and makes it at least co-partner with Christ in the great work of Salvation 150 4. This shews the dangerous estate of all men whilest in a state of nature and unregeneracy 152 153 Consid 2. Consider what sad distractions the sense of this danger brought forth in you at your first awakening 154 155 Consid 3. Consider how welcome and unexspected grace and the good news of a Saviour were unto you in those bitter agonies ib. 156 157 Hosea 6.1 2 3. opened 158 159 From whence we may draw this Inference That the sence of recovering and relieving Grace is of excellent advantage to a Christian 160 The truth whereof is evinced in 3 particulars 1. It makes him live best to God ibid. 2. It makes him live best to himself ibid. 3. It makes him live best to others ibid. That he will live best to God appears 1. Because he will live most by faith upon God 161 2. because his heart will be drawn out more in love unto God 162 163 3. Because he will live most in thankfulness unto God 164 165 Psalm 103.1 2 3. spoken to ibid. 4. Because he will live most to the glory of God 166 167 2. That he will live best to himself is evinced 168 169 1. Because he will live most off from sin 1 Cor. 6.13 14 15. urged 170 171 2. Because his heart will be more fixed for God 172 173 Some Observations suiteable to our times drawn from Ezek. 34.5 6.174 175 176 3. Because he will live best to his own comfort 1. In Prayer 2. In Hearing 3. In receiving the Sacrament 177 178 179 180 4. This will give him comefort in every estate 181 1. In breaking afflictions from God ib. 2. In battering temptations from Sathan 182 1 Pet. 5.10 11. opened in five Particulars 183 3. In the sense of approaching death in 2 Particulars 184 1. It prevents a two-fold distemper an overmuch hoping for life and an overmuch fearing of death 185 2. It fills the soul with ravishing comefort under the assurance of a blessed eternity 186 3. A sober and serious Consideration of grace received will make a Saint live best to others 187 1. By encouraging young Converts 188 189 2. By supporting weak believers 190 191 3. By way of comfort unto others 192 1. In the black day of Persecution in Three Particnlars ibid. 193 194 2. In the sad hour of temptation 195 Job 2.7 ibid. 3. In the dark day of spiritual dissertion 199 200 201 202 4. In the bewailed want of the spirits witness to Sonship and Adoption ib. 203 204 205 4. By way of advancing Religion in the place where he lives 206 The Saints are the best neighbours 207 1. In communicating to the outward wants of the poor ibid. 2. In procuring the blessings of God upon the Families and places where they live ibid. 3. In diverting or delaying of Judgements impending 208 4. In lengthening out the day of Gods Patience to the prophane world 209 5. In promoting the Conversion of their carnall neighbours 210 Considerations to stirr up Saints to endeavour the Conversion of sinners 211 112 213 214 Consid 1. It is a matter of great well-pleasingness unto God 215 Consid 2. It is an honour to Jesus Christ 216 Consid 3. The Providences of God which have gone over the Nation ib. 217 Consid 4. That we ought to do unto others what we would have others do unto us 218 219 Consid 5. That what your carnal neighbours are you were 220 Consid 6. That it is a piece of good friendship to your selves 221 1. It is an high point of spiritual good husbandry ibid. 2. It makes much for your personall safety ibid. 3. It makes much for your personall comfort 222 4. It layes a good foundation for posterity 223 224 5. It hath a tendency towards your everlasting comfort 225 Prov. 7.30 compared with Dan. 123. 126. Six positions laid down 127 Consid 7. That bad men are very active and industrious to gain over others to their bad Principles and worse Practises 229
Proverbs 1.10 11. opened in some particulars 129 230 231 The 4Vse by way of comfort and encouragement in 4 cases 1. When Church-affairs do meet with a dark and gloomy day 232 233 234 2. When the Saints are under sufferings for the name and in the cause of Christ. 235 236 Some further grounds of comfort offered 237 1. That God will stand by you in the day of your suffering because your sufferings are upon you for God ibid. 2. That the spirits of all the faithfull will be up in prayer for you 238 239 3. That God doth many times so moderate and allay the fury of men that it extends not to the taking away of life 241 242 4. That your death will be life from the dead to others in a spirituall sense 243 244 245 246 5. That 't is an honourable advancement to be singled out by Christ to suffer for him 247 248 3. When you are under sore and sharp temptations from the wicked one 249 250 1 Cor. 1.30 opened 251 252 253 254 4. When you are under castings down from a fear of your eternall welfare 255 256 The last Vse of Reproof 1. The profane and carnal world are reproved in 3 Particulars 257 1. For their uncharitable censuring of suffering Saints ibid. 2. For their unjust charge of hypocrisie upon them 258 Job 8.6 7. opened 259 260 3. For that definitive sentence which they pass upon suffering Saints as though they were cast of by God 261 Isa 49.14 opened 262 Jer. 37.20 opened 263 2. This reproves those who strengthen themselves with the arme of flesh and lean upon the creature when afflictions overtake them 264 265 3. This reprooves those who will not wait the Lords time but discover Impaciency if helps come not at their own time 266 The evil fruits of impaciency 267 1. Vnbelief 268 2. Discontented murmurings ibid. 3. Vse of unlawfull means 269 Psalme 78.41 opened ibid. 4. This drawes up a charge against those that retain not a remembrance of the great mercies of God toward them neither give him the glory of them 270 Hosea 13.5 6. opened 271 5. Those are reproved who do not live up to the signal preservation they have received from the Lord. 272 273 274. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OLD JACOB's ALTAR newly Repaired OR THE SAINTS TRIANGLE of Dangers Deliverances and Duties Text PSALM 94. vers 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence THis Book of the Psalmes hath been honoured and that deservedly with high Commendations by the Antients being termed The Soul's Anatomy The Law 's Epitomie The Gospel's Index a little Bible The Summary of both the Testaments being alledged or aliuded to eighty four times or thereabouts in the New Testament as one observeth A sweet Field and Rosary of Promises Precepts Predictions Praises Soliloquies c. A Physick Garden richly furnished with all sorts of healing plants and Medicinal herbs suited to all the Spiritual distempers frail man is incident unto The holy Pen-man being a person of choice spirit and of large experiences meeteth with all the conditions of all the Saints in their state of militancy so that out of them as out of a Storehouse every Saint may meet with rich supply suting his respective condition and his addresses to God still finding much of his own estate in some Psalme or other as though the spirit of God spake de se in re sua of him and in his particular case As Athanasius observeth containing the Characters and Representations of his thoughts meditations affections and workings of spirit towards God towards man towards himself throughout all the changes of his Pilgrimage An Epitomy of the Bible or a little Bible as Luther calls it in this present world The Apostle James Chap. 5. ver 13. gives this general advice Is any afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalmes Lo here is the bread of mourners for sad spirits and here is the oyl of gladness for merry hearts here are healing potions for all heart distempers and cordial waters for all sinking spirits yea choice experiences to strengthen fainting soules in the day of their distress more pleasant then the pooles of Heshbon more glorious then the Tower of Lebanon more redolent then the oyl of Aaron and more fructifying then the dew of Hermon as one expresseth it and amongst many Psalmes though this hath not the Title Michtam of David affixed to it to wit A golden Psalme or David's precious jewel yet it is as the first borne among many brethren from a very small Parcel whereof viz. vers 17. we may consider a double acknowledgment 1. Of imminent danger set forth 1. By the nearness of it 2. By the greatness of it 2. Of eminent Deliverance in two considerable Circumstances 1. The reasonableness of Help 2. The sufficiencie of Help Which Considerations will appear to be very genuine and to be the plain meaning of the Prophet if we take the Text in pieces and examine each word apart 1. Except the Lord or if the Lord had not stood by me and appeared in the very nick of time this implieth the seasonableness of help the Lord usually reserving his hand for a dead lift as that passage Psal 124. vers 1 2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick the word is used Psal 119. vers 92. Vnless thy Law had been my delight I should then have perished in my affliction which was the Lantgrave of Hessen's support Melancthon reporteth that he told him at Dresda That it had been impossible for him to have borne up under the manifold miseries of his so long imprisonment nisi habuisset consolationem ex verbo divino in corde suo If the Word of God had not brought in consolation into his heart Joh. Manl. loc comm pag. 139. alledged by Mr. Trap. in Psal 119.92 2. Had been my help the word signifieth not onely Help but summum plenum auxilium an helpfulness or full help the Hebrew hath a letter more then ordinarie to encrease the signification as learned Mr. Leigh observeth There is the sufficiency of help 3. My soul i. e. my life the word in the Heb. being often translated life of which the soul is the spring and fountain as Job 2. vers 6. The Lord saith unto Sathan Behold he is in thine hand but save his life I give thee full commission against the body of my righteous servant Job to fill it with diseases and distempers as he did it to purpose but not to take away his life This argueth the greatness of David's danger his Life had dwelt in silence that is his life had been gone and his dead corps had been laid in the grave as Psal 115. vers 17. The dead praise not thee neither
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
exhortation to the Redeemed of the Lord to mention with thanksgiving the great things wrought by a great God for them Oh! bless our God ye people concerned in these mercies let your hearts silently breath forth his praises let your meditations be much and often taken up with thoughts of Gods goodness which is more I fear then most of us do but stay not here do not make this as the land-mark and boundary of your duty but make the voyce of his praise to be heard let it have an Eccho in the world by communicating and speaking over what and how deliverance came from the Lord unto you 3. He layes down the reason of this call to praise vers 9. because he holdeth our soul in life or puts our souls into life alas when a day of distress was upon us our hearts did even sinke within us life was gone joy was gone hope was gone and heart was gone too in some persons There is a strange recess and retirement of the soul under great and sudden calamities it lyes close like a poor debtor within doors the blood and spirits retire little of activity appears nay some in sudden surprizals have even dyed away into swooning through fear It was thus with Saul though a valiant Prince when he heard what evill was coming upon him 1 Sam. 28. vers 20. He fell streightway all along upon the earth and there was no strength in him And whence was this swouning fit why from fear he was fore afraid and why was he afraid because of the words of the Witches 2 Sam. 28.20 This was old Elies case when tidings were brought unto him that the Army of Israel was routed Hophni and Phinehas slain and the Ark of God taken 1 Sam. 4. vers 17 18. He fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck brake and he dyed I but here the Prophet saith God holdeth our souls in life or lives Be-chaiim and suffereth not our feet to be moved gives us a sure foot-hold and safe standing in our present peace and well-fare 4. He mentions the distress that were upon them in the nature and in the kind of them vers 10.11 Thou O God hast tryed us as silver is tryed How is that why in the fornace of affliction thou broughtest us into the net Thou layedst affliction upon our loins thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water How fully doth the carriages of former times paraphrase upon these verses How have the sufferings of many Saints ran parallel with these expressions but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place well-watered as the word implies a place of springs and rivers by which he means a prosperous estate in that full plenty and security which he with the Church then enjoyed And therefore vers 13 14. He speaks his sence of these mercies and the resolvedness of his spirit to act in thankfulness suitable to these engagements 5. I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings and will pay thee my vows which I promised with my lips and spake with my mâ—uth when I was in trouble A good resolution of a gallant man Oh! that such a spirit in the power of it was upon us Did not I Did not others Did not Magistrates Did not Ministers protect promise covenant in the day of our distress Have we paid our vows Have we performed our promises The Lord help us to see and to humble our selves much before the Lord for our violations of promises and protestations both to God and man 6. He stands upon the mount of God and by way of proclamation calls in all the people of God that they may hear the stories of Gods mercies unto himself when he had mentioned the great things God had done for his Church he comes down to a particular narrative of what God had done for himself vers 16. Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul Le-myrheshi which word being of a doubtful signification and used for both soul and life in reference to things of a temporal and spiritual concernment we need not confine it to either 1. Ye have the holy summons Come a word of much use both in a good and in a bad sence there is in Scripture mentioned a religious come and a rebellious come the Saints have their come and the wicked have their come there 's too much of the last come in our days and too little of the first if there was more communion this come would be more used 2. The persons to whom the summon is directed exprest 1. By a particular Character they are such as fear God 2. By a note of universality they are all that fear God onely they that fear God and all they that fear God are summoned 3. Ye have the matter of the summons or the end wherefore the summons is sent forth and that is that he might in the audience of them all make a full and true report of what the great God hath done for his soul So that the words hold forth a double duty 1. To consider the mercies of God 2. To communicate the mercies of God You may see from hence That it is a duty by way of special incumbency upon the Lords people to commemmorate themselves and to communicate to others the vouchsafements of grace and mercy which they have had from the Lord as to fix the sense and remembrance of mercies received upon their own hearts so to give their hearts vent like full vessels in frequent mentioning their preservations unto others it is a commendable practice there is much of God in it It hath the seal of the best men it hath much in it that speaks men to be good and that makes good men much the better See the practice of the Lords people Psa 78.3 4. Which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children shewing to the generation to come or as some translation reads it But to the generation to come we will shew the praâ—ses of the Lord his power also and the wonderful works that he hath done parallel to this is that Isa 63.7 I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the promises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness to the house of Israel Memorare faciam Azkir I will improve my care and interest that the mercies of the Lord may be kept up in the minds and memories of his people so the Apostle 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. We would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above our strength insomuch that we dispaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us
one is shie of me Before I was going on in the wayes of life now these wayes I am going in God knows and my conscience tells me are the wayes of death Oh it was better with me then then it is now I have been large in transcribing these excellent and precious passages because the times we are cast upon do much abound with backsliders and who knows whether God may not in a way of recovering mercy bring this Treatise and this particular passage under the serious view of some Apostate and bless it with a healing virtue to his soul who happily never read it nor should have opportunity of reading it in the large Volume of Reverend Mr. Burroughs And who knows what gracious effect this may have upon some unstable spirits to settle and fix them sure upon God that the evil heart of unbelief may never cause their departure from God However there is a suteableness in it to the head we are improving And sure the people of God will finde a serious reflection upon the goodness and good Providences of God as an excellent means to heal heart-distempers and damps of spirit as also to quicken up and enflame their zeal and affections more unto God that they will say with that holy man Psal 73. ver 28. It is good for us to draw nigh to God they will find that it is best with them when they are nearest to God and therefore will bring back their hearts upon any recess from God by a lively sense of the goodness of the Lord unto them 3. Be much in the sence and meditation of grace received keep up the consideration thereof vigorous and lively in your hearts pray much preach much hear much and act much in the sence of what you were compared with what through discriminating and renewing grace ye now are How that except the Lord had been your help your soules had not almost but altogether and for ever dwelt in silence Oh 't is of excellent use they that have tried have found the usefulness of it The Apostle Paul you know was much in this as many passages in his Epistles do fully speak to I shall onely instance in that 1 Tim. 1. vers 12 13 14 15 16. I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me worthy putting me into the Ministery There 's a great Emphasis in me that Jesus Christ should do this for me why Who was Paul or what was he that it should be owned by him as such a singular act of Grace to be put into the Ministery The next Verse tells you yea he himself tells you who was a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and Injurious bad enough and these words carry weight enough with them but I obtained mercy but how did he purchase mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus not onely Grace but exceeding grace not onely exceeding but exceeding abundant grace it is a pleonasme yea a superpleonasme and all little enough I had need of all I was a Blasphemer and so sinned against the first Table I was a persecuter and so sinned against the second Table and I was Injurious and so came near the sinne against the Holy Ghost and all these together do sadly speak me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gerson August at least in my own sence the chief of sinners primus quo nullus prior a file-leader one that marched in the Van and Front of the battel imo quo nullus pejor worse then the worst He strikes sail takes down all his Flags which he displayed Phil. 3. ver 4 5 6. sit's down in the dust and view's himself in his lowest abasement that so he might the more admire the riches of free grace and might bring his heart more under command for God the vouchsafements of whose goodwill had been so free and so full unto him neither doth he monopolize this and drive on a close trade betwixt God and his own soul as though he would engross all to himself and cared not how empty other mens coffers were so that his own were full like the Merchants of this world but he commends and by an Apostolick power command's this course unto others as Eph. 2. ver 11 12 13 14. When he had carried the Ephesian Saints up into the Paradise of God and displayed the mysteries and priviledges of grace even to the ravishment of their souls in the first Chapter and in the ten first Verses of this then he comes on with a Memento Remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh that at that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Ye were in as bad a condition as men could be in ye dwelt as nigh the borders of Abaddon as people could dwell no people were in worse trading for heaven then ye were in ye had nothing that brought you within the outward Court of the Temple or gave you the least advance toward happiness ye were like dogs without Apoc. 22. vers 15. and how could it be otherwise seeing your wants and withouts were so many 1. Without the Mark of an Israelite in your flesh as being uncircumcised 2. Without the Camp and Common-wealth of Israel as being neither Hebrews nor Proselites 3. Without the Covenants having no covenant right to any spirituall good thing no nor earthly neither as being neither of the Flesh nor of the Faith of Abraham with whom God entred Covenant 4. Without any hope from the Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having the hope of the Promise or not having hope of peace and reconcilement with God as being ignorant of the promised seed in the first or any following Promise 5. Nay without Christ without any saving Interest in Christ or knowledge of Christ untill the Gospel came amongst you for what could your great Goddess Diana make known unto you of God manifested in the flesh yea 6. and Lastly Remember ye were without God in the world ye were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye lived like and were Atheists in the world as 't is said of the poor brasileans at this day that they are sine fide sine Rege sine lege without common Faith or honesty without a King without a Law either to punish or protect them So was it with heathen Ephesus and thus also with our Pagan Predecessors Let me then be thy faithfull Remembrancer O England to put thee in minde what thy primitive and first estate was See thy face in this Ephesian glass what Ephesus was England was in each of these particulars but now how hath the Lord exalted thy horn and brought thy people near unto himself Psal 148. ver 14. nay may I not apply that of Israel to thee Deut. 4. ver 7. What Nation is there so great that
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
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
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
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