prohibited 2. An effectual remedy prescribed 3. A singular encouragement to apply that remedy 1. An evil practice prohibited Fear not their fear neither be afraid This is that sinful principle which was but too apt to incline them to do as others did scil to say a confederacy Sinful fears are apt to drive the best men into sinful compliances and indirect shifts to help themselves Their fear may be understood two ways 1. Subjectively 2. Effectively 1. Subjectively for the self same fear wherewith the carnal and unbelieving Iews feared a fear that enslaved them in bondage of Spirit a fear that is the fruit of sin a sin in its own nature the cause of much sin to them and a just punishment of God upon them for their other sins 2. Effectively Let not your fear produce in you such mischievous effects as their fear doth to make you forget God magnifie the creature prefer your own wits and policies to the Almighty power and unspotted faithfulness of God if you say but how shall we help it 2. Why in the next place you have An Effectual remedy prescribed But sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and your dread The fear of God will swallow up the fear of Man a reverential awe and dread of God will extinguish the slavish fear of the creature as the Sun-shine puts out fire or as one fire fetches out another so will this fear fetch out that By sanctifying the Lord of Hosts himself is meant a due ascription of the glory of his Sovereign power wisdom and faithfulness not only in verbal and professed acknowledgments thereof but especially in those internal acts of affiance resignation and intire dependence on him which as they are the choicest respects of the creature towards its God and give him the greatest glory so they are certainly the most beneficial and comfortable acts we can perform for our own peace and safety in times of danger If a man do really look to God in a day of trouble and fear as to the Lord of Hosts i. e. one that governs all the creatures and all their actions at whose beck and command all the Armies of Heaven and Earth are and then can rely upon the care and love of this God as a child in danger of trouble reposes on and commits himself with greatest confidence to the care and protection of his Father O what peace what rest must necessarily follow upon this Who would be afraid to pass through the midst of Armed Troops and Regiments whilst he knows that the General of that Army is his own Father The more power this filial fear of God obtains in your hearts the less will you dread the power of the Creature When the Dictator ruled at Rome then all other Officers ceased and so in a great measure will all other fears where the fear of God is Dictator in the heart This is the Remedy 3. And to enable us to apply this remedy in the worst and most difficult times we have a singular encouragement proposed If we will thus sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself by such an acknowledgment of and child-like dependence on him in times of danger then he will be to us for a Sanctuary i. e. he will surely protect defend and provide for us in the worst times and cases then will the Lord Create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence and there shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a covert from the storm and from rain Let the winds roar the rain beat the lightnings flash you are in safety and have a good roof over your heads Hence these two points of Doctrine offer themselves 1. Doctrine That the best men are too apt to be overcome with slavish fears in times of eminent distress and danger 2. Doctrine That the fear of God is the most effectual means to extinguish the sinful fear of man and to secure us from danger These two points take in the substance and scope of the Text but because I design to treat in the following Chapters of the Kinds Nature Uses Causes Effects and Remedies of Fear I shall not distinctly prosecute them but proceed in this order in the following Chapters CHAP. II. Wherein the kinds and nature of Fear are opened and particularly the distracting slavish Fear of Creatures SECT I. THere is a threefold Fear found in men viz. Fear 1. Natural 2. Sinful 3. Religious 1. Natural Fear of which all are partakers that partake of the common nature not one excepted Natural Fear is the trouble or perturbation of mind from the apprehension of approaching evil or impending danger The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from a Verb that signifies Flight this is not always sinful but it is always the fruit and consequent of sin Since sin entred into our nature there is no shaking off Fear no sooner had Adam transgressed but he feared and fled hiding himself among the Trees of the Garden Gen. 3. 8. when he had transgressed the Covenant he presently feared the execution of the Curse First he eats then he hides And this afflictive passion is from him transmitted and derived to all his children To this natural Fear it pleased our Lord Iesus Christ to subject himself in the days of his flesh he was afraid yea he was sore amazed Mark 14. 33. For though his humane nature was absolutely free from â—in yet he came in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. This fear creates great trouble and perturbation in the mind 1 Iohn 4. 18. Fear hath torment in proportion to the danger is the fear and in proportion to the fear the trouble and distraction of the mind if the fear be exceeding great reason is displaced and can conduct us no farther as the Psalmist speaks of Mariners in a Storm they are at their wits end Psal. 107. 27. or as it is varied in the Margin all wisdom is swallowed up and this is the meaning of Deut. 28. 25. that they should go out against their enemies one way and flee before them seven ways i. e. so great shall be the fright and distraction that they shall attempt now one way then another striving every way but liking none for fear so far betrays the succours of reason that their counsels are always in uncertainty and at a loss and the usual voice of a man in this condition is I know not what to do I know not which way to turn Evil is the object of fear and the greater the evil is the stronger the fear must needs be and therefore the terrours of an awakened and terrified conscience must be allowed to be the greatest of terrours because in that case a man hath to do
should all that fear God be affected with the appearances and signs of his indignation So was David Psal. 119. 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgments He that feared not a Bear a Lyon a Goliah yet trembleth at Gods judgments So did Habakkuk chap. 3. v. 16. When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entred into my bones Expressions denoting the deepest seizures of fear and greatest consternations not that I would perswade you to such slavish fear or unchristian dejection as it is not only sinful in it self but the cause and inlet of many other sins But to a due sense both of the evils of misery that will befal the Nation when Gods indignation comes upon it and the evils of sin that have incensed it and to such a fear of both as may seasonably awaken us to the use of all preventing remedies And first 1. O that all would lay to heart the National miseries that Gods indignation threatens upon us It is said Psal. 107. 34. A fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein It was long since told England by one of its faithful watchmen The Nation and Church in which we are is the common Ship in which we are all embarked and if this in judgment be cast away whether dashed against the rocks of any Foreign power or swallowed up in the quick-sands of Domestick divisions it must needs hazard all the Passengers Or if you were sure that for your parts you might be safe would it not be a bitter thing to stand upon the shore and see such a glorious vessel as this Nation is to be cast away To see this glorious Land defaced the blessed Gospel polluted the golden candlestick removed it cannot but affect men that have any bowels Or if this move you not yet to see a stranger to Lord it in thy habitation and thy dwelling place to cast thee out for your delightsome dwellings your fruitful pleasant and well tilled fields to be made a prey for you to sow and another to reap Impius has segetes for the delicate woman upon whom the wind must not blow to be exposed to the lust and cruelty of an enemy and be glad to fly away naked to prolong a miserable life which they would be glad to part with for death were it not for fear of the exchange For the tender Mother to look upon the Child of her womb and consider must this child in whom I have placed the hope of my age for Omnis in Ascanio stat chari cura parentis He that hath been so tenderly bred up must he fall into the rough hands of a bloudy Souldier skilful to destroy It had been well for me if God had given me dry breasts or a miscarrying womb rathan to bring forth children unto murtherers or if you might be safe how could you endure to see the miseries that should come upon your people and the destruction of your kindred Thus far he But alass What security have any of us as to our earthly comforts from the common calamity We may please our selves as Baruch did Ier 45. 4 5. and dream of exemption but by so much the greater will our distress be when it shall surprise us 2. You that are the people of God ought to be deeply affected with the spiritual miseries that threaten us in the day of Gods indignation do you consider what the removing the Candlestick out of its place is A departing Gospel the going down of the Sun upon the Prophets the loss of your sweet Sabbaths and Gospel Feasts and the gross darkness of Popery to fill the earth O it is hard parting with these things it 's said 1 Sam. 7. 2. when the Ark was removed that all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Pity your own Souls and be deeply affected with the misery of others the poor Christless world who are like to perish for want of Vision Prov. 29. 18. In the Year 1072 saith Matthew Parâ—s Preaching was suppressed at Rome and then Letters were framed by some as coming from hell in which the Devil gives them thanks for the multitude of Souls sent to him that year 3. But especially labour to affect your hearts with the sins that have incensed Gods indignation So did the Saints in Ierusalem Ezek. 9. 4. they sighed and mourned for all the abominations committed in it So did Lot 2 Pet. 2. 7. He vexed his righteous soul from day to day So did David Psal. 119. 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men kept not thy law O who that loves God can refrain tears to see the God of pity the God of tender mercies a father full of bowels of compassion so incensed and provoked to indignation Oh it is an heart-melting consideration where there is any ingenuity If our afflictions grieve God to the heart as it doth Iudg. 10. 16. Our souls should be grieved for his dishonour 4. To conclude get upon your hearts such a sense of Gods indignation as may quicken you to the use of preventing duties So Amos 4. 12. Because I will do this prepare to meet thy God O Israel So the Prophet Zeph. 2. 1 2. Gather your selves together before the decree bring forth It was Moses his honour to stand in the breach Psal. 106. 23. And Abrabam's to plead so with God though he did not prevail CHAP. IV. Confirming the third Proposition viz. That God hath a special and peculiar care of his own in the days of his indignation SECT I. PRopriety and Relation engages Care and Solicitude in times of Danger we see God hath put such a Storge and inclination into the very creatures that they will expose themselves to preserve their young and it cannot be imagined that the fountain of Pity which dropt this tenderness into the bowels of the creatures should not abound with it himself is there such strong inclination in the very birds of the air that they will hazard their own lives to save their young â— much more is God solicitous for his people Isa. 31. 5. As birds flying c. to their nests when their young are in danger So will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem No mother is more solicitous for her dearest Child in danger and distress than the Lord is for his people Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee A woman the more affectionate Sex forget her child a piece of her self her sucking child which together with milk from the breast draws love from the heart This may rather be supposed than that the Lord should forget his people Two things must here be cleared 1. That it is so 2. Why it is so 1. That it is so will appear from 1. Scripture Emblems 2. Scripture Promises 3.
expectations of Gods righteous judgments It is indeed below faith to expect evil days with despondency and distraction but surely it is a noble exercise of Faith so to expect them as to make due preparation for them SECT II. ANd if we enquire for what End God gives such warnings to the world and premonishes them from Heaven of the judgments that are coming on the earth know that he doth it upon a threefold account 1. To prevent their Execution 2. To leave the Careless inexcusable 3. To make them more tolerable and easie to his own people 1. Warning is given with design to prevent the execution of judgments this is plain from Amos 4. 12. Therefore will I do this unto thee there is warning given and because I will do this prepare to meet thy God O Israel There is the gracious design of preventing it by bringing them seasonably upon their knees at the foot of an angry God You see the Lord expects it from all his Children that they fall at his feet in deep humiliation and fervent intercession whenever he goes forth in the way of judgment What else was the design of God in sending Ionah to Nineveh with that dreadful message but to excite them to repentance and prevent their ruine This Ionah guessed at and therefore declined the message to secure his credit well knowing that if they took warning and repented the gracious nature of God would soon melt into compassion over them Free grace would make him appear as a liar among the people for to that sense his own words sound Ionah 4. 2. Was not this my saying when I was yet in my Countrey Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God q. d. I thought before hand it would come to this I knew how willing thou art to be prevented by repentance therefore to secure my credit I fled to Tarshish 2. He forewarns of judgments to leave the Incorrigible wholly inexcusable that those who have neither sense of Sin nor fear of Judgment before might have no cloak for their folly nor plea for themselves afterward What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee Ier. 13. 21 22. q. d. What Plea or Apology is left thee after so many fair warnings You cannot say you were surprized before you were admonished or ruined before you were warned 3. God warns of Judgments before they come to make them the more easie to his people when they come indeed thus in Iohn 16. 4. Christ foretold his Disciples of their approaching sufferings that when they came they should not be found amazed at them or unprovided for them for unexpected miseries are astonishing to the best men and destructive to wicked men Luke 17. 26 27 28. Well then if it be so let all that are wise in heart consider the Signs of the times and seasonably hearken to Gods warnings The Lords voice crieth to the Citâ— and the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it Mica 6. 9. 'T is our wisdom to way-lay our troubles and provide for the worst estate whilst we enjoy the best happy is he that is at once believing and praying for good days and preparing for the worst Noah's example is our advantage Heb. 11. 7. Who by faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark. Preventing mercies are the most ravishing mercies Psal. 59. 10. And preventing calamities are the sorest calamities Amos 9. 10. And let us heartily bewail the supiness and carelesness of the world in which we live who take no notice of Gods warnings but put the evil day far from them Amos 6. 3. who will admit no fear till they are past all hope they see God housing his Saints apace yet will not see the evil to come from which God takes them Isa. 57. 1 2. The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come he shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness They hear the cry of sin which is gone up to heaven but cry not for the abominations that are committed nor tremble at the judgments that they will procure O careless Sinners drowned in Stupidity and sleeping like Ionah under the Hatches when others are upon their knees and at their wits end do Saints tremble and are you secure Have not you more reason to be afraid than they If judgments come the greatest harm it can do them is but to hasten them to Heaven but as for you it may hurry you away to Hell They only fear tribulation in the way but you will not fear damnation in the end Believe it Reader in days of common calamity both Heaven and Hell will fill apace CHAP. VI. Demonstrating the fifth Proposition viz. That Gods Attributes Promises and Providences are prepared for the security of his people in the greatest distresses that befal them in the World SECT I. HAving more briefly dispatched the foregoing preliminary Propositions it remains that we now more fully open this fifth Proposition which contains the main subject matter of this Discourse here therefore our meditations must fix and abide and truly such is the deliciousness of the subject to Spiritual hearts that I judge it wholly needless to offer any other motive besides it self to engage your affections Let us therefore view our Chambers and see how well God hath provided for his Children in all their distresses that befal them in this world it is our fathers voice that calls to us Come my people enter thou into thy chambers And the 1. Chamber Which comes to be opened as a Refuge to distressed Believers in a stormy day is that most secure and safe Attribute of Divine Power into this let us first enter by serious and believing meditation and see how safe they are whom God hides under the protection thereof in the worst and most dangerous days In opening this Attribute we shall consider it 1. In its own Nature and Property 2. With respect to the Promises 3. As it is actuated by Providence on the behalf of distressed Saints And then give you a comfortable prospect of their safe and happy condition who take up their lodgings by Faith in this Attribute of God 1. Let us consider the Power of God in it self and we shall find it represented to us in the Scriptures in these three lovely Properties viz. Power 1. Omnipotent 2. Supreme 3. Everlasting 1. As an Omnipotent and All-sufficient Power which hath no bounds or limits but the pleasure and will of God Dan. 4. 34 35. He doth according to his will in the armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou So Psalm 135. 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven and in Earth
Now do your worst we are out of your reach and above all your terrors and affrights Be advised then to sit close to this work clear but this point once and the worst is past O lye at the feet of God night and day give him no rest take no denial from him fill thy mouth with pleas and arguments tell him Lord it is neither for Corn nor Wine that I seek thee but only for thy love bestow thy other gifts upon whom thou wilt only seal up thy love to my soul. And Lastly I advise thee Reader to be exceeding careful when God admits thee into the sense of his love to shut the door behind thee lest thy soul be soon expelled thence by the subtlety of Satan who envies nothing more than such an happiness as this that envious Spirit totally despairs of the least drop of such a mercy and therefore swells with envy at thine enjoyment of it but if ever thou fasten thy hand of faith upon this mercy loose not thy hold by every objection with which he will rap thy fingers 1. If he object the many sharp afflictions and manifold rods of God upon thee call not the Love of God in question for that but remember what â—he saith Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Fatherly Corrections are so far from being inconsistent with the love of God that his love is rather questionable without them than for them they are love tokens not marks of hatred 2. Yield not up thy claim and title to the love of God because he sometimes hides away his face from thee thou knowest the sun is up and going on in its regular course in the darkest and closest day My God my God saith Christ himself Why hast thou forsaken me believe he is still thy God and his love immutable when the sense and manifestations thereof do fail 3. Call not the Love of God into question because of thy great vileness and unworthiness say not when thou most loathest thy self God must needs loath thee too he can love where thou loathest Return return O Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee what will ye see in the Shulamite as it were the company of two armies The Spouse was exceeding beautiful in the eyes of others when most base and vile in her own What would you see in the Shulamite alas there is nothing in me at the best but Conflicts and Wars betwixt Grace and Corruption as it were betwixt two Armies Cant. 6. 13. 4. Quit not thy claim to the Love of God because he seems to shut out thy Prayers and delays to answer the long continued desires and importunities of thy soul in some cases David would neither censure his God no nor call in question his interest in him because of such a delay and silence Psal. 22. 1 2. My God my God The claim is doubled ver 1. and yet in the next breath he saith I cry in the day time but thou hearest not and in the night season and am not silent Thus I have offered you some advice and assistance how to secure your selves in these Divine Attributes viz. The Power Wisdom Faithfulness Unchangeableness Care and Love of God as in so many Sanctuaries and comfortable Refuges in the days of Common Calamity It is noted even of the Egyptians when the storm of Hail was coming upon the Land Exod. 9. 20. He that feared the Word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses Let not an Egyptian take more care of his Beasts than Christians of their Souls Stormy days are coming God hath provided you a Refuge and given you seasonable Praemonitions and Calls from Heaven to hasten into them before Desolations come The Lord help us to hear his Calls and comply with them which will be as much our Priviledge as it is our Duty And so much of the Fifth Proposition viz. That God's Attributes Promises and Providences are prepared for the security of his people in the greatest distresses that befal them in the world PROPOSITION VI. That none but God's own People are taken into these Chambers of Security or can expect his special Protection in Evil Times SECT I. THis Proposition describes and clears the qualified subject of this Priviledge God's own People and none but such can warrantably claim special protection in evil times and this is consonant to the current account of Scripture Isa. 3. 10 11. Say ye unto the righteous it shall be well with him Wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him He speaks concerning the day of Ierusalem's ruin and Iudah's fall as appears ver 8. So great a difference will God make even in this world betwixt the righteous and the wicked In Nah. 1. you have also a terrible day described wherein Bashan Carmel and Lebanon the most pleasant and fruitful places of the land shall languish ver 4. The mountains shall quake the hills melt the earth and those that dwell therein burnt up ver 5. The indignation and fury of God poured out like fire v. 6. The priviledged people in this terrible day are God's own people they only are taken into security ver 7. The Lord is good a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him i. e. he so knoweth them as to care and provide for them in that evil day and so throughout the whole Scripture you shall find the Promises of protection still made to the people of God When the Chaldean Army like a devouring fire was ready to seize upon the Land the sinners in Sion were afraid fearfulness surprised the hypocrites for who among us say they shall dwell with devouring fire and everlasting burning Yes saith God some there are that shall abide that day viz. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks i. e. God will be a sanctuary to them when others shall be as stubble before the flames Isa. 33. 14 15 16. But for the right stating of this Proposition three things must be heedfully adverted 1. That all good men are not always exempted from the stroke of outward Calamities in that sense the righteous may perish and merciful men be taken away yea they may perish in love and be taken away in mercy from the evil to come Isa. 57. 1. 2. Mica 7. 1 2. 2. That all wicked men are not all always exposed to external miseries but a just man may perish in his righteousness and a wicked man prolong his life in his wickedness Eccles. 7. 15. 3. But in this sense we are to understand the Proposition That none but the people of God have right by promise to his special protections in evil days and that all such shall either be preserved from the stroke of calamities or from the deadly sting namely Eternal Ruin by them
though they should fall by the hands of enemies yet they die as Iosiah did in peace 2 King 22. 19 20. If they be taken away it is but out of the way of greater mischiefs death doth but lay the Saints in their beds of rest when it hurries away others into everlasting miseries if they be not excused from troubles yet their troubles are sure to be sanctified to their eternal good Rom. 8. 28. And the Lord will be with them in their troubles Psal. 91. 15. Isa. 41. 10. Two things remain to be considered before we finish this last Proposition viz. 1. Who the People of God are 2. Why this Priviledge is peculiar to them 1. Who are the People of God The Scripture describes them two ways Negatively and Positively Negatively in opposition to those who are not the people of God but are 1. the servants of sin obeying it in the lust of it which the people of God neither are nor dare to do Rom. 6. 11 12. c. 2. The men of this world who have the portion in this life savouring and minding the things of the world only whereas the people of God are called out of the world Ioh. 17. 16. and principally study and labour after the higher concernments of the world to come Rom. 8. 5. 3. The vassals of Satan doing his lust and in subjection to his power Acts 26. 18. Ephes. 2. 2. from which bondage the people of God are made free 4. Nor yet are they their own living wholly to themselves and seeking only their own ends as others do 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. These all these are not the people of God God will not own them for such they but deceive themselves in thinking and calling themselves so but then Positively They are 1. a people regenerated and born again Ioh. 1. 13. Their regeneration gives them both the essence and denomination of the people of God it is as impossible to be the children of God without regeneration as it is to be the children of men without generation 2. They are a people in covenant with God Ezek. 16. 8. I entered into a covenant with thee and thou becamest mine For in this Covenant they give themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8. 5. They avouch the Lord to be their God and make over themselves to him to be his people Ier. 31. 33. devoting unto God all that they are their souls and bodies with every faculty and member inclusively Rom. 12. 1. Luk. 10. 27. All that they have Rom. 11. 36. all is dedicated and devoted to the Lords use and service and these only are the people of God 2. The last thing to be cleared is Why the people of God and none beside them have this peculiar priviledge of an hiding place in the day of trouble and the grounds of it are 1. Because they only have special interest in God and propriety is the ground on which they claim and expect protection I am thine save me Ps. 119. 94 Upon this very ground it was that David encouraged himself in one of his greatest plunges and distresses of his whole life 1 Sam. 30. 6. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 2. The people of God only are at peace with God and where there is no peace there can be no protection the Harbours and Garrisons of one Kingdom never receive into their Protection the Subjects of another Kingdom that are in open Hostility against them Now there is open War betwixt God and the wicked Psal. 7. 11. Zech. 11. 8. Till they have peace with God they can claim no protection from God 3. The promises of protection are made only to Gods people and where there is no promise there can be no warrantably claim to protection 2 Cor. 1. 20. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Common providence may shelter them for a time but the Saints only have the keys of the promises which open the Chambers or Attributes of God to them 4. None but the people of God walk in the ways of God and none but those that walk in his way can groundedly expect his protection for so runs the promise 2 Chron. 15. 2. I am with you whilest you are with me i. e. I am with you by way of Protection Direction Supportation and Salvation whilest you are with me in the duties of Obedience and exercises of your Graces see that you love fear and obey me and then depend upon it I will look after and take care of you 5. To conclude The people of God only flee to God for sanctuary and cast themselves upon him for protection Psal. 56. 3. At what time I am afraid I will trust in thee Psal. 18. 2. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high-tower This their confidence in God and reliance upon him engages him to protect them in their dangers Isa. 26. 3. All others put themselves out of God protection by making flesh their arm and so giving the honour of God to the creature Ier. 17. 5. And thus much for clearing this last Proposition also All that remains will be dispatched in brief and close Application of the Point thus opened and confirmed CHAP. XII Containing the first Vse of the Point in several informing Consectaries and Deductions of truth from it SECT I. Consect 1. FRom the whole of this Discourse we may be informed What a miserable and shiftless People all those will be in times of trouble who have no special interest in God or the Promises Sad and lamentable was the case of Saul as it is by himself expressed 1 Sam. 28. 15. I am sore distressed for the Philistines make war against me and God is departed from me and answereth me no more It is a wonderful and unaccountable thing how carnal men and women subsist and bear up when their earthly props and hopes sink under and fail them so long as any creature-comfort is left thither they will retreat for relief and succour but if all fail as quickly they may Whither will they turn for comfort having not a God nor a Promise to flee to which the people of God can do when all things else fail them Heb. 3. 17. Their different conditions in the day of trouble is clearly expressed in Zeph. 2. 3 4. Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment seek righteousness seek meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger There is Gods may be which is better security than mans shall be for their temporal deliverance But what shall become of others that have no refuge but in the creature Why the misery and shiftlessness of their condition follows in the next words Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon a desolation they shall drive out Ashdod at noon-day and Ekron shall be rooted up i. e. All their earthly securities shall fail
shew it self in distracting cares and fears about events which will rack the mind with various and endless tortures 2. Caution Beware of dejection and despondency of mind in evil times take heed of a poor low spirit that will presently sink and give up its hopes upon every appearance and face of trouble it is a promise made unto the righteous Psal. 112. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixes trusting in the Lord. The trusting of God fixes the heart and the fixing of the heart fortifies it against Fear but I know what many poor Christians will say in this case their timorousness and despondency arises not so much from the greatness of outward evils as from the darkness and doubtfulness of their Spiritual and inward condition which doubtless in the very truth of the case which brings me to the last use of this point Vse the Third Search and examine your hearts Christians whether those graces and qualifications to which God hath promised protection in evil times may not be found upon an impartial search in your hearts amongst which I will single out three principal ones as the proper matters of your self examination viz. 1. Uprightness of Heart and Way 2. Humiliation for your own and others sins 3. Righteousness in doing and meekness in suffering the Will of God 1. Uprightness and Integrity of heart and way To this qualification belong many sweet promises of protection such is that Prov. 2. 7. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly Psal. 7. 10. My defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart If your hearts be true to God these promises shall be truly performed to you but beware you deceive not your selves in so great a point as this is thy heart cannot be an upright heart except 1. it be a renewed heart the Natural heart is always a false heart 't is only regeneration that gives the heart a right temper and frame all the duties and labours in the world can never keep that heart right in its course which is not first set right for God by a principle of renovation 2. We cannot judge our selves upright except uprightness be the setled frame and standing bent of our hearts Psal. 119. 112 117. It is not our integrity in one or two single actions but in the general course and complex frame of our lives and ways that will prove our integrity to God 3. Then may we reckon our selves upright when the dread and awe of God's all-seeing eye keeps our hearts and steps from turning aside to iniquity Gen. 39. 9. 2 Cor. 2. 17. That 's a sincere and upright heart indeed that finds it self at all times and in all places overawed from sin by the eye of God upon him 4. That man's heart also is upright with God who purely aims at and designs the glory of God as the scope and end of his life and actions who lives not to himself neither acts ultimately and principally for himself but lives to God as a person dedicated and devoted to him Rom. 14. 7. 5. That heart also is upright with God which governs it self and its ways by the directions and rules of the Word Psal. 119. 11 24 133. Happy is that soul that finds such evidences of integrity in it self when it is brought to the trial of it at the Bar of the Word Heb. 4. 12. At the bar of conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. at the bar of afflictions Psal. 119. 87. and at the bar of strong temptations Gen. 39. 9. The eyes of the Lord shall run to and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of such whose hearts are thus perfect towards him 2. Another gracious qualification intitling the soul to God's special protection in the worst and most dangerous times is the true humiliation for our own and other mens sins Go set a mark saith God upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof Ezek. 9. 4. These that thus mourn when others laugh shall laugh when others mourn Lot was the only mourner in Sodom and he was the only person exempted from destruction in the ruine and overthrow thereof 2 Pet. 2. 7. That 's a sweet and blessed priviledge mentioned in Isa. 66. 10. Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the â—reasts of her consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory Be contented Christians to bear your part in Sions groans and sorrows you may live to bear your part in her triumphs and songs of deliverance it is an argument of the true publickness and tenderness of your spirits for present and as sweet a sign as can appear upon your souls That you are reserved for better days 3. Righteousness in doing and meekness in suffering the will of God is another mark or note distinguishing and describing those persons whom God will preserve in the evil day You have both these together in Zeph. 2. 3. Seek ye the Lord all ye the meek of the earth which have wrought his judgments seek righteousness seek meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their Prayers 1 Pet. 3. 12. If righteousness bring you into danger the righteous God will take care of you in that danger and bring you out of it O 't is a singular comfort when a man can say it was not my sin but my duty that brought me into trouble this affliction met me in the path and way of my duty 't is for thy sake O Lord that I am in trouble as the Martyr that held up the Bible at the stake saying This hath brought me hither To conclude Manage all your Sufferings for Christ with Christian meekness as righteousness must bring you into them so meekness must carry you through them if you avenge your selves you take the cause out of God's hand into your own but the meek Christian leaves it to the Lord and shall never have cause to repent of his so doing If thou have an upright heart with God a tender and mournful heart for sin and thou suffer with meekness for righteousness sake thou art one of these souls to whom that sweet Voice is directed in my Text Come my People enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be over-past FINIS Mr. Flavell's Two Treatises 1. A Teatise of Fear 2. The Righteous Man's Refuge Psal. 46. Hos. 5. 13. Asyli loco Praestabit vos inaccessos inviolabiles ab his regibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fugio perfect med 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 timor
TWO TREATISES THE FIRST Of FEAR FROM Isa. 8. v. 12 13 and part of the 14. THE SECOND The Righteous Man's Refuge IN THE Evil Day From Isaiah 26. verse 20. By Iohn Flavell Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by H. H. for Robert Boulter at the Turks head in Cornhill 1682. A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR Wherein the various Kinds Vses Causes Effects and Remedies thereof are distinctly opened and prescribed for the Relief and Encouragement of all those that fear God in these Doubtful and Distracting Times By Iohn Flavell Minister of the Gospel Say unto them that are of a fearful heart Be strong Fear not behold your God will come with a vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save you Isa. 35. v. 4. Intellige in te esse etiam fortitudinem spiritus quomodo infirmitatem carnis ac jam hinc scias quid unde facias quid cui subjicias infirmum scilicet forti Tertul. Adv. Gentes LONDON Printed by H. H. for Robert Boulteraâ—t the Turks head in Cornhill 1682. To the Right Worshipful Sir IOHN HARTOP Knight and Baronet Sir AMong all the Creatures God hath made Devils only excepted Man is the most apt and able to be his own tormentor and of all the Scourges with which he lasheth and afflicteth both his Mind and Body none is found so cruel and intolerable as his own fears The worse the times are like to be the more need the mind hath of succour and encouragement to confirm and fortifie it for hard encounters but from the worst prospect Fear inflicts the deepest and most dangerous wounds upon the mind of man cutting the very nerves of its passive fortitude and bearing ability The grief we suâ—â—er from Evil felt would be light and easie were it not incensed by Fear Reason would do much and Religion more to demulce and lenifie our sorrows did not Fear betray the succours of both And it is from things to come that this prospecting Creature raiseth up to himself vast Hopes and Fears If he have a fair and encouraging Prospect of Serene and prosperous day from the Scheme and Position of second causes Hope immediately fills his heart with cheariness and displaies the signals of it in his very face answerable to that fair benign Aspect of things but if the face of things to come be threatning and inauspicious Fear gains the Ascendant over the mind aâ— unmanly and unchristian faintness pervades it and among the many other mischiefs it inflicts this is not the least that it brings the evil of to morrow upon to day and so makes the duties of to day wholly unserviceable to the evils of to morrow which is much as if a man having an intricate and difficult business cut out for the next day which requires the utmost intention both of his Mind and Body and haply might be prosperously managed if both were duly prepared should lie all the night restless and disquieted about the event torturing and spending himself with his own presaging Fears so that when the day is come and the business calls for him his strength is no way equal to the burden of it but he faints and fails under it There is indeed an excellent use that God makes of our Fears to stimulate our slothful hearts to greater vigilance and preparation for evils and there is a mischievous use Satan makes of our Fears to cast us under Despondency and vnbecoming Pusillanimity and I reckon it one of the great difficulties of Religion to cut by a thred here and so to manage our selves under threatning or doubtful Providences as to be touched with so much sense of those approaching evils as may prepare us to bear them and yet to enjoy that constancy and firmness of mind in the worst times that may answer the excellent principles we are professedly governed by These last times are certainly the most perillous times great things are yet to be acted upon the Stage of this World before it be taken down and the Scena antepenultima latter end I say not the last will be a Tragedy There is an Ultima clades adhuc metuenda a dismal slaughter of the Witnesses of Christ yet to be expected the last bite of the cruel Beast will be deadly and if we flatter not our selves all things seem to be disposing themselves in the Course of Providence towords it But Sir if our Vnion with Christ be sure in it self and sure to us also if Faith give us the daily visions and Praelibations of the World to come what well composed Spectators shall we be of these Tragedies Let things be tossed Susque deque and the Mountains cast into the midst of the Sea yet then the assured Christian may sing his Song upon Alamoth A Song composed for God's hidden ones This so poiseth and steddies the mind that we may enjoy the comfort and tranquillity of a resigned will when others are at their wits end With design to promote this blessed frame in my own and others hearts in these frightful times I meditated and now publish this small Tract to which a dear friend from whom I have often had the fair Idea and Character of your excellent Spirit hath occasioned the prefixing of your worthy Name I beg pardon for such an unusual presumption as also your charity in censuring the faults that will appear in it when it shall come under so exact and judicious an eye it may be useful though it be not elegant its seasonableness is its best commendation and its aim better than its performance As for you Sir I hope Faith hath really placed your Soul in that Serene and happy station where Seneca fancied Moral Virtue to have placed a good man Fatendum est cacumine Olympi constitutus supra ventos procellas omnes res humanas Above the Storms and Tempests of this unquiet and distracting World but there are many gracious persons at this day labouring under their own Fears and whose hearts are ready to fail with looking for those things that are coming to try them that dwell upon the Earth and possibly somewhat of relief may be administred to many such by this discourse Some bivious and staggering Souls may be established some discouraged and fainting Spirits may be revived some doubts may be dissolved that have long perplexed gracious 〈◊〉 Whatever use it may be of to any I humbly call in the aid of your Prayers to my own for a special blessing upon it and remains Sir Yours to Honour Love and Serve you John Flavell A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and to be Sold by Ro. Boulter at the Turk's head in Cornhil 1682. Folio BIshop Reynolds Works Calderwoods History of the Reformamation of the Church of Scotland from 1560 to 1625. Rushworth's Collections First Volume His Second Volume Pharmacopoea Londinensis Baily's Chronology Twiss De Scientia Media Sturmy's Magazine Curia Politiae Quarto Durham on the Revelatioâ— Baxter's Saints Rest. Owen
Prisoner and there put to this miserable choice either to forego his life or that which was more precious his liberty of Conscience neither could his liberty be procured by his great friends at any lower rate than to recant his Religion this he was very unwilling to accept of till his hard imprisonment joyned with threats of much worse in case of his refusal at last wrought so upon him whilst he consulted with flesh and bloud as drew from him an Abrenunciation of that truth which he had so long professed and still believed Upon this he was restored to his liberty but never to his comfort for the sense of his own Apostasie and the daily sight of the cruel butcheries exercised upon others for their constant adherence to the truth made such deep impressions upon his broken spirit as brought him to a speedy end of his life yet not without some comfortable hopes at last Our own Histories abound with multitudes of such doleful examples Some have been in such horror of Conscience that they have chosen strangling rather than life they have felt that anguish of Conscience that hath put them upon desperate resolutions and attempts against their own lives to rid themselves of it This was the case of Peter Moon who being driven by his own fears to deny the truth presently fell into such horrour of Conscience that seeing a sword hanging in his Parlor would have sheathed it in his own bowels So Francis Spira before mentioned when he was near his end saw a knife on the Table and running to it would have mischieved himself had not his friends prevented him thereupon he said O that I were above God for I know that he will have no mercy on me He lay about eight weeks saith the Historian in a continual burning neither desiring nor receiving any thing but by force and that without digestion till he became as an Anatomy vehemently raging for drink yet fearful to live long dreadful of hell yet coveting death in a continual torment yet his own Tormentor and thus consuming himself with grief and horror impatience and despair like a living man in hell he represented an extraor dinary example of Gods justice and power and so ended his miserable life Surely it were good to fright our selves by such dreadful examples out of our sinful fears is any misery we can fear from the hands of man like this O Reader believe it it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God Hadst thou ever felt the rage and efficacy of a wounded and distressed Conscience as these poor wretches felt it no fears or threats of men should drive thee into such an Hell upon earth as this is 2. And yet though this be a doleful case it is not the worst case your own sinful fears will cast you into except the Lord overcome and extinguish them in you by the fear of his name they will not only bring you into a kind of hell upon earth but into hell it self for evermore For so the righteous God hath said in his word of truth Rev. 21. 8. But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Behold here the Marshal Law of Heaven executed upon Cowards and Renegadoes whose fears make them revolt from Christ in the time of danger Think upon this you timorous fainthearted professors you cannot bear the thoughts of lying in a nasty Dungeon how will you lie then in the lake of fire and brimstone You are afraid of the face and frowns of a man that shall die but how will you live among Devils Is the wrath of man like the fury of God poured out Is not the little finger of God heavier than the loyns of all the Tyrants in the World Remember what Christ hath said Matth. 10. 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven Reader The time is coming when he that spake these words shall break out of Heaven with a shout accompanied with myriads of Angels and ten thousands of his Saints the Heavens and the Earth shall be in dreadful conflagrations round about him The last Trump shall sound the Graves shall open the Earth and Sea shall give up the dead that are in them Thine eyes shall see him ascend the awful throne of judgment his faithful ones that feared not to own and appear for him in the face of all enemies and dangers sitting on the bench as Assessors with him and then to be disclaimed and renounced for ever by Jesus Christ in the face of that great assembly and proclaimed a delinquent a Traitor to him that deniedst his name and truths because of the frowns of a fellow Creature long since withered as the grass O how wilt thou be able to endure this now put both these together in thy serious consideration think on the terrors of Conscience here and the desperate horror of it in Hell thiâ— as a perboiling that as a roasting in the flames of Gods insufferable wrath These as some scalding drops sprinkled before hand upon thy Conscience that tender and sensible part of man that as the lake burning for ever with fire and brimstone O who would suffer himself to be driven into all thiâ— misery by the fears of those sufferings which can but touch the flesh and for their duration they are but for a moment Think and think again upon those words of Christ Mark 8. 35. He that will save his life shall lose it It may be a prolonging of a miserable life a life worse than death even in thine own account a life without the comfort or joy of life a life ending in the second death and all this for fear of a trifle compareâ— with what thou shalt afterwards feel in thine own Conscience and less than a trifle nothing compareâ— with what thou must suffer from God for ever 3. Rule He that will overcome his fears of sufferings muâ—â— foresee and provide before hand for them The fear of Caution is a good cure to the fear of Distraction the more of that the less of this this fear will cure that as one fire draws forth another Heb. 11. 7 Noah being moved with fear prepared 〈◊〉 Ark. In which he provided as much for the rest anâ— quiet of his mind as he did for the safety of his person and family That which makes evils so frightful as they are is their coming by way of surprize upon us Those troubles that find us secure do leave us distracted and desperate Presumption of continued tranquillity proves one of the greatest aggravations of misery Trouble will lie heavy enough when it comes by way of expectation but it is intolerable when it comes quite contrary to expectation It will be the Lot of Babylon to suffer the unexpected Vials of Gods wrath and I wish none but she and her children may be so surprized
most terrible for magnitudinem reâ—um consuetudo subducit trial and acquaintance a bates the formidable greatness of evils they knew not the strength of that enemy they were to engage but we fight with an enemy that hath been often beaten and triumphed over by our brethren that went before us certainly we that live in the last times have the best helps that ever any had to subdue their fears we have heard of the courage and constancy of our brethren in as sharp trials of their courage as ever we can be called to we have read with what Christian gallantry they have triumphed over all sorts of sufferings and torments how they have been strengthened with all might in the inner man unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness 1 Collos. 11. How they have gone away from the Courts that censured and punished them rejoycing that they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ as the strict reading of that Text is Acts 5. 41. counting the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11. 26. which at that time was the Magazine of the world for Riches You read what Trials they have had of cruel mockings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments how they were stoned sawn asunder tempted slain with the sword wandred about in Sheep skins and Goat skins destitute afflicted tormented Heb. 11. 36 37. In all which they obtained a good report they came out of the field with triumphant faith and patience and this was not the effect of an over-heated zeal at the first outset but the same spirit of courage was found among Christians in after ages who have put off their Persecutors with a kind of pleasant scorn and contempt of Torments So did Basil truly sirnamed the great when Valens the Emperour in a great rage threatned him with banishment and tortures as to the first said he I little regard it for the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and as for tortures what can they do upon such a poor thin body as mine nothing but skin and bone And at another time when Eusebius Governour of Pontus told him in a great rage he would tear his very liver out of his bowels Truly said Basil you shall do me a very good turn in it to take out my naughty liver which inflames and diseaseth my whole body Their enemies have professed the Christians put them to shame by smiling at their Cruelties and and threatnings Ignatius his love to Christ had so perfectly overcome all fears of sufferings that when he was going to be thrown for a prey among the Lyons and Leopards he professed he longed to be among them and said he if they will not dispatch me the sooner I will provoke them that I may be with my sweet Jesus And if we come down to later ages we shall find as stout Champions for Christ The Courage and undauntedness of Luther is trumpeted abroad throughout the Christian world it would swell this small Tract too much but to note the most eminent instances of his courage for Christ The last he gave was by his sorrow in his last sickness that he must carry his bloud to the Grave The like Heroick Spirit appeared in divers persons of Honour and eminency who zealously espoused the same cause of reformation with him Remarkable to this purpose is that famous Epistle written by Ulricus ab Hutten a German Knight in defence of Luther's cause against the Cardinals and Bishops assembled at Wormes I will go through said he with what I have undertaken against you and will stir up men to seek their freedom Such as yield not to me at first I will overcome with importunity I neither care nor fear what may befal me being prepared for either event either to ruine you to the great benefit of my Countrey or my self to fall with a good Conscience therefore that you may see with what confidence I contemn your threats I do profess my self to be your irreconcilable enemy whilst ye persecute Luther and such as he is No power of yours no injury of fortune shall alter this mind in me though you take away my life yet this well deserving of mine towards my countries liberty shall not die I know that my endeavour to remove such as you are and to place worthy Ministers in your room is acceptable to God and in the last judgment I trust it will be safer for me to have offended you than to have had your favour It was also a brave Heroick spirit by which Iohn Duke of Saxony was acted to defend the Reformation who despising all the favours and offers of the Court and of Rome and the terrors of Death it self appeared as my Author speaks in its behalf against all the Devils and the Pope in three publick Imperial Assemblies saying openly to their faces I must serve God or the world and which of these two do ye think is the better And assoon as Luther's Sermons were forbidden he hasted away saying I will not stay there where I cannot have my liberty to serve God And now Reader thou hast a little taste of the courage and zeal of those worthies who are gone before thee in defence of that cause for which thou fearest to suffer Most men saith Chrisostom that read or hear such examples are like the Spectators of thâ— Roman Gladiators who stood by and praised their courage but durst not enter the Lists to undertake what they did If ever thou wilt get like courage for Christ thus improve such famous examples 1. Make use of them to obviate the prejudice of singularity you see you have store of good company the same things you are like to suffer for Christ have been accomplished in the rest of your brethren in the world 1 Pet. 5. 9. 2 Improve them against the prejudice of all that shame that attends sufferings here you may see the most excellent persons in the world reckoning it their glory to suffer the vilest things for Jesus Christ. Acts 5. 41. Heb. 11. 26. 3. Improve them against the conceit of the insupportableness of sufferings Lo here poor weak creatures which have been carried honourably and comfortably through the cruellest and difficultest sufferings for Christ. Our Women and Children not to speak of men saith Tertullian overcome their Tormentors and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them 4. Improve them against thine own unbelief and staggerings at the faithfulness of God in that promise Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee c. Lo here you have the recorded and faithful tâ—stimonies of such as have tried it with one voice witnessing for God Thy word is truth thy word is truth 5. Improve them against the sensible weakness of your own graces are you afraid your faith love and patience are too weak to carry you through great trials Why doubtless so were many of them too they were men of like
Nothing like the fear of God enables us to such a prevision and provision for them Heb. 11. 7. 4. Do â—e relieve our selves against Fear by committing all to God Surely 't is the fear of God that drives us to him as our only Asylum and sure refuge Malachi 3. 16. They feared God and thought upon his name i. e. they meditated his name which was their refuge his Attributes their chambers of rest 5. Must our affections to the world be mortified before our fears can be subdued This is the instrument of mortification Nehem. 5. 15. 6. Do the worthy examples of those that are gone before us tend to the cure of our cowardise and fears Why the fear of God will provoke in you an holy self-jealousie lest you fail of the grace they manifested and come short of those excellent patterns Hebrews 12. 15. 7. Is the assurance of Interest in God and the pardon of sin such an excellent Antidote against slavish fear Why he that walks in the fear of God shall walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost also Acts 9 31. 8. Is integrity of heart and way such a fountain of courage in evil times Know Reader no grace promotes this integrity and uprightness more than the fear of God doth Prov. 16. 6. Prov. 23. 17. 9. Do the reviving of past experiences suppress sinful fears no doubt this was the subject which the fear of God put them upon for mutual encouragement Mal. 3. 16. 10. Are the providences of God in the world such cordials against fear The fear of God is the very character and mark of those persons over whom his providence shall watch in the difficultest times Eccles. 8. 12. 11. Doth our trusting in our own reason and making it our rule and measure breed so many fears Why the fear of God will take men off from such self-confidence and bring them to trust the faithful God with 〈◊〉 doubtful issues and events as the very scope of my Text fully manifests Fear not their fear their fear moving by the direction of carnal reason drove them not to God but to the Assyrian for help follow not you their example in this But how shall they help it Why sanctifie the Lord of Hosts and make him your fear CHAP. VII Answering the most material Pleas for slavish Fears and dissolving the common Objections against courage and constancy of mind in times of danger THe Pleas and excuses for our cowardliness and faintness in the day of trouble are endless and so would his task be that should undertake particularly to answer them all 'T is but the cutting off an Hydra's head when one is gone ten more start up what is most material I will here take into consideration When good men for with such I am dealing in this Chapter see a formidable face and appearance of sharp and bloudy times approaching them they begin to tremble their hearts faint and their hands hang down with unbecoming despondency and pusillanimity their thoughts are so distracted their reason and faith so clouded by their fears that their temptations are thereby exceedingly strengthened upon them and their principles and professions brought under the derision and contempts of their enemies and if their brethren to whom God hath given more courage and constancy and who discern the mischief like to ensue from their uncomely carriage admonish and advise them of it They have abundance of Pleas and defences for their fears yea when they reason the point of suffering in their own thoughts and the matter is debated as in such times it 's common betwixt faith and fear O what endless work do their fears put upon their faith to solve all the Buts and Ifs which their fears will object or suppose Some of the principal of them I think it worth while here to consider and endeavour to satisfie that if possible I may prevail with all gracious persons to be more magnanimous And first of all 1. Plea Sufferings for Christ are strange things to the Christians of this age we have had the happy lot to fall into milder times than the Primitive Christians did or those that strugled in our own land in the beginning of Reformation and therefore we may be excused for our fears by reason of our own unacquaintedness with sufferings in our times Answer 1. One fault is but a bad excuse for another why are sufferings such strangers to you Why did you not cast upon them in the days of peace and reckon that such days must come Did you not covenant with Christ to follow him whithersoever he should go to take up your cross and follow him And did not the Word plainly tell you that All that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. And that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. Did we fall asleep in quiet and prosperous days and dream of Halcyon days all our time on earth that the mountain of our prosperity stood strong and we should never be moved That we should die in our nest and multiply our days as the sand Babylon's Children indeed dream so Rev. 18. 7. but the Children of Sion should be better instructed Alas how soon may the brightest day be overcast The weather is not so variable as the state of the Church in this world is now a calm Acts 9. 31. and then a storm Acts 12. 1 2. You could not but know what contingent and variable things all things on earth are Why then did you delude your selves with such fond dreams But as a learned man rightly observes Mundus senescens patitur Phantasias The older the world grows the more drowzie and doting it still grows and these are the days in which the wise as well as the foolish Virginâ— slumber Sure 't is but a bad Plea after so many warnings from the word and from the rod to say I did not think of such times I dreamed not of them 2. Or if you say though you have conversed witâ— death and sufferings by speculation yet you liveâ— not in such times wherein you might see as otheâ— sufferers did the encouraging faith patience an zeal of others set before your eye in a lively patteâ—â— and example Sufferings were not only familiarizeâ— to them by frequency but facilitated also by the dailâ— examples of those that went before them But think you indeed that nothing but encouragement and advantage to followers arose from the trials of those that went before Alas there were sometimes the greatest damps and discouragements imaginable the zeal of those that followed hath often been inflamed by the faintings of those that were tried before them In the Seventh Persecution under Decius there were standing before the Tribunal certain of the Warriours or Knights viz. Ammon Zenon Ptolomeus Ingenuus and a certain aged man called Theophilus who all standing by as Spectators when a certain Christian was examined and there seeing him for fear
one working upon their fear the other upon their hope 1. That which works upon their fear is a supposition of a storm coming the indignation of God will fall like a tempest this is supposed in the Text and plainly expressed in the words following For the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth ver 21. 2. The other is fitted to work upon their hope though his indignation fall like a Storm yet it will not continue long it shall be but for amoment better days and more comfortable dispensations will follow From all which the general observation is this Doctrine That the Attributes Promises and Providences of God are the Chambers of rest and security in which his people are to hide themselves when they foresee the â—orms of his indignation coming upon the world The name of the Lord saith Solomon is a strong Tower the righteous run into it and are safe Prov. 18. 10. And his Attributes are his name Exod. 34. 5. For by them he is known as a man is known by his name and this his name is a strong Tower for his peoples security now what is the use and end of a Tower in a City but to receive and secure the Inhabitants when the outworks are beaten to the ground the walls scaled and the houses left desolate And as it is here resembled to a Tower so in Isa. 33. 16. It s shadowed out unto us by a munition of rocks His place of defence shall be a munition of rocks How secure is that person that is environed with rocks on every side Yea you will say but yet a rock is but a cold and barren refuge though other enemies cannot yet hunger and thirst can invade and kill him there No in this rock is a store-house of provision as well as a magazine for defence so it follows Bread shall be given him and his water shall be sure And sometimes it is resembled to us by the wings of a fowl spread with much tenderness over her young for their defence Psal. 57. 1. Yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpast So Psal. 17. 8. Keep me as the apple of thine eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings No part of the body hath more guards upon it than the apple of the eye God is as careful to preserve his people as men are to preserve their eyes and he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eyes But we need not go from one Metaphor to another to shew you where the Saints refuge is in time of danger you have a whole bundle of them lying together in that one Scripture Psal. 18. 2. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower Where you find all kinds of defence whether natural or artificial under a pleasant variety of apt Metaphors ascribed to God for the security of his people Now for the casting of this great point into as easie and profitable a Method as I can I shall resolve this general truth into these following Propositions which are implied or expressed in the Text and Doctrine thence deduced and the first is this 1. Proposition That there are times and seasons appointed by God for the pouring out of his indignation upon the world 2. Proposition That Gods own people are concerned in and ought to be affected with those Iudgments 3. Proposition That God hath a special and particular care of his people in the days of his indignation 4. Proposition That God usually premonishes the world especially his own people of his Iudgments before they befal them 5. Proposition That Gods Attributes Promises and Providences are prepared for the security of his people in the greatest distresses that befal them in the world 6. Proposition That none but Gods people are taken into these chambers of security or can expect his special protection in evil times And then I shall apply the whole in the proper uses of it CHAP. II. Demonstrating the first Proposition That there are times and seasons appointed by God for the pouring out of his indignation upon the world SECT I. THis is plainly implyed in the Text that there are times of indignation appointed to befal the world yea and more than this not only that such times shall come but the duration and continuance is also under an appointment Hide thy self for a little moment until the indignation be overpast The Prophet tells us in Zeph. 2. 2. that these Stormy times are under a decree and that decree is there compared to a pregnant Woman which is to go out her appointed months and then to travel and bring forth Even so it is in the judgments God brings upon the world We see them not in the days of provocation sed adhuc faetus in utero latet but all this while it is in the womb of the decree and at the appointed season they shall become visible to the world As there are in Nature fair Halcyon days and cloudy overcast and stormy So 't is in providences Ecâ—les 7. 14. God hath set one over against the other Yea one is the occasion of the other for look as the Sun in a hot day exhales abundance of vapours from the Earth and Sea these occasion showers thunder and tempests and those again clear the Air and dispose it to fair weather again So it is here Prosperity is the occasion of abundance of sin this brings on adversity from the justice of God to correct it adversity being sanctified humbles reforms and purges the people of God and this again by mercy procures their prosperity So you find the account 〈◊〉 in Psal. 107. 17. Fools because of their iniquities are afflicted then they cry to the Lord in their troubles and he saveth them out of their distresses And this appointment of times of distress is both profitable and necessary for the world especially Gods own people in it In general hereby the Being and righteousness of God is cleared and vindicated against the Atheism and Infidelity of the world Psal. 9. 16. The Lord is known by the Iudgments that he executeth Impunity is the occasion of many Atheistical thoughts in the world Ier. 48. 11. Moab hath been at ease from his youth and he hath setled on his lees and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity therefore his taste remained in him and his scent is not changed So Psal. 55. 19. Because they have no changes therefore they fear noâ— God Kingdoms Families and particular persons like standing waters and ponds are apt to corrupt by long continued peace and prosperity the Lord therefore sees it necessary to purge the world by his judgments When thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness Those Sermons that God preaches from heaven by
the terrible voice of his judgments startle and rouze the secure world more than all the warnings and exhortations of his Ministers could ever do Those that slept securely under our Ministry will fear and tremble under his rods those that are without faith are not without sense and feeling their own eyes will affect their hearts though our words could make no impression on them SECT II. BUt of what use soever these National Judgments are to others to be sure they shall be beneficial to Gods own people when others die by fear they shall live by faith If they be baneful poison to the wicked they shall be healthful physick to the Godly For 1. By these calamities God will mortifie and purge their corruptions this Winter weather shall be useful to destroy and rot those rank weeds which the Summer of prosperity bred Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged Physick in its own nature is griping and unpleasant but very useful and necessary to purge the body from noxious and malignant humours which retained may put life it self in hazard and it is with the body Politick as with the body Natural 2. National Judgments drive the people of God nearer to him and one to another they drive the people of God to their knees and make them pray more frequently more fervently and more feelingly than they were wont to do in this posture you find them in ver 8 9. of this Chapter Yea in the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early 3. In a word by these distractions and distresses of Nations the people of God are more weaned from the world and made to long more vehemently after heaven being now convinced by experience that this is not their rest When all things are tranquil and prosperous Gods own people are but too apt to fall asleep and dream of pleasure and rest on earth to say as Iob in his prosperity I shall die in my nest I shall multiply my days as the sand And then are their heads and hearts filled with many projects and designs to promote their comforts and make provision for their accommodations on earth The multiplicity of earthly cares and comforts take up their time and thoughts too much and make them that they mind death and eternity too little But saith God this must not be so things must not go on at this rate the prosperous world must not thus enchant my people I must imbitter the earth that I may thereby sweeten heaven the more to them when they find no rest below they will surely seek it above These and such like are the gracious designs and ends of God in shaking the world by his terrible judgments but yet though National troubles must necessarily come the wisest of men cannot positively determine the precise time of those judgments we may indeed by the signs of the times discern their near approach yet our judgment can be but probable and conjectural seeing there are tacite conditions in the dreadfullest threatnings Ier. 18. 7 8. Ionah 3. 9 10. And such is the merciful nature of God that he oft times turns away his anger from his people when it seems ready to pour down upon them Psal. 78. 38. The consideration whereof no way indulges security but encourages to repentance and greater fervency in Prayer CHAP. III. Opening and confirming the second Proposition viz. That Gods own people are much concerned in and ought to be suitably affected with those Iudgments that befal the Nation wherein they live SECT I. IF Gods people have no concernment in these things why are they called upon in this Text to run into their chambers hide themselves and shut their doors till the indignation be overpast Certainly though God hath better provided for them than others yet they are two ways concerned in these cases as much as others Viz. Account 1. Upon a Political 2. Upon a Religious 1. Upon a Political account as they are members of the community and so are equally concerned in the good or evil that befal the Nation in which they live their Cabbins must follow the fate of the Ship in which they Sail their Lives Liberties Estates and Interest sink and swim with the publick The good figs were carried away with the bad Ier. 24. 5. In these outward respects it often times bears as hard upon the righteous as upon the wicked Ezek 21. 3. I will draw forth my sword out of his Sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked In these outward respects as it is with the good so with the sinner Eccles. 9. 2. The same fire that burns the dry tree oftentimes burns the green tree too Ezek. 20. 47. Grâ—ce is above all hazards but creature enjoyments and comforts are not The sins of the Sodomites involve not only their own houses and estates but Lots also in the ruine and overthrow wicked men often fare the better for the company of the godly and the godly often fare the worse for the company of the wicked And it is not to be wondered at if we consider that even the Saints themselves have an hand in the provocation of these judgments as well as others Deut. 32. 19. And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters We have contrihuted to the common heap guilt and therefore must justifie God if we partake with others in the common calamity 2. They are greatly concerned in such judgments upon a Religious and Christian account for it is usual for the floud of Gods judgments not only to sweep away our civil and natural but our spiritual and best enjoyments and comforts Thus the Ordinances of God ceased in Babylon and there the faithful bewailed their misery upon that account Ps. 137. per totum we wept when we remembred thee O Zion Not only Israel flies but the Ark is taken prisoner by the enemy 1 Sam. 4. 11. And you find the people of God more deeply concerned upon this account than for all their outward losses and other sufferings Zeph. 3. 18. I will gather them of thee that are sorrowful for the Solemn assemblies to whom the reproach of it was aburthen For by how much our souls are more excellent than our bodies and the concerns of Eternity over ballance those of time by so much more are we concerned in the loss of our spiritual more than of our temporal mercies and enjoyments Grace indeed cannot be lost but the means and instruments by which it is begotten may the golden candlestick is one of the moveables in Gods house Rev. 2. 5. Thus you see a twofold concernment that the people God have in the effects of National Judgments SECT II. THis being So how
in the Seas and all deep places You see Divine pleasure is the only rule according to which Divine Power exerts it self in the world we are not therefore to limit and restrain it in our narrow and shallow thoughts and to think in this or in that the Power of God may help or secure us but to believe that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think Thus those Worthies Dan. 3. 17. by Faith exalted the power of God above the order and common rule of second causes Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O King Their faith resting it self upon the Omnipotent power of God expected deliverance from it in an extraordinary way 't is true this is no standing rule for our faith ordinarily to work by nor have we ground to expect such miraculous Salvations but yet when extraordinary difficulties press us and the common ways and means of deliverance are shut up we ought by faith to exalt the Omnipotency of God by ascribing the glory thereof to him and leave our selves to his good pleasure without straitning or narrowing his Almighty power according to the mold of our poor low thoughts and apprehensions of it For so the Lord himself directeth our faith in difficult cases Isa. 55. 8 9. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts He speaks there of his pardoning mercy which he will not have his people to contract and limit according to the model and platform of their own desponding misgiving and unbelieving thoughts but to exalt and glorifie it according to its unbounded fulness as it is in the thoughts of God the fountain of that mercy so it ought to be with respect to his power about which his thoughts and ours do vastly differ the power of God as we cast it in the mould of our thoughts is as vastly different and disproportionate from what it is in the thoughts of God the fountain thereof as the earth is to the heavens which is but a small inconsiderable point compared with them 2. The power of God is a Supreme and Sovereign power from which all creature power is derived and by which it is over-ruled restrained and limited at his pleasure Nebuchadnezzar was a great Monarch he ruled over other Kings yet he held his Kingdom from God it was God that placed not only the Crown upon his head but his head upon his shoulders Dan. 2. 37. Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven â—ath given thee a Kingdom power and strength and glory Hence it follows that no creature can move tongue or hand against any of Gods people but by vertue of a Commission or permission from their God albeit they think not so Knowest thou not saith Pilate unto Christ that I have power to crucifie thee and power to release thee Proud worm what an ignorant and insolent boast was this of his own power and how doth Christ spoil and shame it in his answer Iohn 19. 10. Thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above Wicked men like wild horses would run over and trample under foot all the people of God in the world were it not that the bridle of Divine providence had a strong curb to restrain them Ezek. 22. 6. The Princes of Israel every one were in thee to their power to shed bloud And it was well for Gods Israel that their power was not as large as their wills were this world is a raging and boisterous Sea which sorely toffes the passengers for heaven that sail upon it but this is their comfort and security The Lord stilleth the noise of the sea the noise of the waves and the tumult of the people Ps. 65. 7. Moral as well as natural waves are checked and bounded by Divine power Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain Psal. 76. 10. As a man turns so much water into the channel as will drive the mill and turns away the rest in another sluce Yea not only the power of man but the power of Devils also is under the restraint and limitation of this power Rev. 3. 10. Satan shall cast some of you into prison and ye shall have tribulation ten days He would have cast them into their graves yea into hell if he could but it must be only into a Prison He would have kept them in prison till they had died and rotted there but it must be only for ten days Oh glorious Sovereign power which thus keeps the reins of Government in its own hand 3. The power of God is an everlasting power time doth not weaken or diminish it as it doth all creature powers Isa. 40. 28. The Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary Isa. 59. 1. The Lords hand is not shortened i. e. He hath as much power now as ever he had and can do for his people as much as ever he did time will decay the power of the strongest creature and make him faiâ—â— and feeble but the Creator of the ends of the eartâ— fainteth not Thou saith the Psalmist abidest for ever thy years flee not Psal. 102. 27. In Gods working there is no expence of his strength he is able to do as much as ever he did to act over again all the glorious deliverances that ever he wrought for his people from the beginning of the World to do as much for his Church now as he did at the Red sea and upon this ground the Church builds its Plea Isa. 51. 9 10. Awake awake put on strength O arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old art thou not it that hast cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon q. d. Lord why should not thy people at this day expect as glorious productions of thy power as any of them found in former ages SECT II. LEt us view the power of God in the vast extent of its operation and then you will find it working beyond the line 1. Of Creature power 2. Of Creature expectation 3. Of Humane probability 1. Beyond the line of all created power even upon the hearts thoughts and minds of men where no creature hath any jurisdiction So Gen. 31. 29. God bound up the Spirit of Laban and becalmed it towards Iacob So Psal. 106. 46. He made them also to be pitied of all them that carried them captives Thus the Lord promised Ieremy Ier. 15. 11. I will cause the enemies to entreat thee well in the time of evil This power of God softens the hearts of the most fierce and cruel enemies and sweetens the spirits of the most bitter and enraged foes of
should make Shipwrack both of our Temporal and Eternal mercies quickly were it not for the guidance of Divine Wisdom 2. To Extricate them when involved in difficulties So 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation They know not how but their God doth they are often at a loâ—â— but he is never So 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 3. To over-rule and order all their troubles to their good and real advantage So runs that most comprehensive promise Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God In the faith whereof Paul concludes Phil. 1. 19. Even this shall work for his Salvation Thus the people of God were sent into captivity for their good Ier. 24. 8. and Ioseph into Egypt Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive 2. Let us view the Wisdom of God in its Relation to his Providences for there it shines forth eminently Ezek. 1. 18. The wheels were full of eyes i. e. the motions and Providential revolutions in this lower world are very Judicious and advised motions Non caeco impetu volvuntur rotae It hath a fetch and design which no man understands till it open it self in the event The enemies of the Church are oft times men of the finest brains and deepest policies Herod a Fox for subtilty Luke 13. 32. Iulian and Ahithophel with many others who have digged as deep as Hell in their counsels and laid their designs so sure that they doubted not but to be masters of it yet their hands could not perform their enterprize The wisdom of Providence hath still befooled them and baffled the cunningest head-pieces that ever undertook any design against the Church as fast as ever they arose and here the Wisdom of Providence is remarkable in three things especially 1. In revealing and discovering the secret conspiracies and counsels of the Churches enemies and thereby frustrating their designs Gen. 27. 41 42. Providence as one calls it is the Bird of the air that carries tidings and whistles deeds of darkness Iob 12. 22. He discovereth deep things out of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadow of death And this God hath done both immediately and mediately 1. Immediately 2 Kings 6. 11. What counsel soever the King of Syria took in his Bed-chamber was still discovered by the Lord to the Prophet So true is that Iob 34. 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Thus the design of Herod is revealed to Ioseph in a dream But commonly he doth it by means as 1. By giving knowledge of it to some that are under obligations of duty or affection to reveal it to these that are concerned in the danger So Paul's Sisters Son Acts 23. 16. revealed the conspiracy against his life and so the Plot miscarried by revealing it before it was ripe for execution 2. By the failure of some circumstance the whole is brought to light there be many fine threds upon which the designs of Politicians hang if one break the whole design is unravelled Thus the Wisdom of God sometimes prevents his peoples ruine by taking away the speech of the trusty from him and making their own tongues to fall upon themselves 3. By their own confession So Psal. 64. 5 6 7 8. where you have the Plot laid ver 5. They encourage themselves in an evil matter they commune of laying snares privily they say who shall see them The deep contrivance of it ver 6. They search out iniquity they accomplish a diligent search both the inward thoughts of every one of them and the heart is deep Their Plot destroyed ver 7. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded The method or way of Providence in destroying it ver 8. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that see them shall flee away Thus hath the Wisdom of our God wrought for us this day beyond all the thoughts of our hearts and oh that it might make such impressions upon all our hearts as follow in the 9 and 10. verses All men shall fear and shall declare the work of God for they shall wisely consider his doing The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and shall trust in him and all the upright in heart shall glory 2. The Wisdom of God discovers it self in behalf of that people who are his own in diverting the danger from them and putting by the deadly thrusts their enemies make at them thus it spoils their game by an unforeseen rub in the green and that especially three ways 1. By making their counsels to jar among themselves in which jars is the sweetest harmony of providence thus the counsel of Ahithophel jars with the counsel of Hushai 2 Sam. 17. 5. 7. by which means David escaped the Pharisees clashed with the Sadducees Acts 23. 7. and by that means Paul escaped 2. By cutting out other work and starting some new design which like a fresh scent puts the dogs to a loss Thus the people of God in Ierusalem were delivered by a diversion 2 Kings 19. 7. Behold I will send a blast upon him and he shall hear a rumour and shall return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land so Rabshakeh returned By this means also was David delivered from the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 23. 27. And in this method of Providence that Scripture is often fulfilled Prov. 21. 18. The wicked shall be a ransom for the Righteous and the transgressour for the upright 3. By cutting off the capital enemies of his Church by whose seasonable destruction they are delivered Thus fell Iulian that bitter enemy of the Christians when he was preparing to put his last and most bloudy design against them in execution And thus fell Haman Nero and many more in the very height and heat of their designs against the Church 3. The Wisdom of God gloriously displays it self in causing the designs of the wicked like a surcharged gun to recoil upon and destroy themselves It often falls out with the undermining enemies of the Church as it sometimes doth with them that dig deep Mines in the Earth who are destroyed and buried in their own work Psal. 9. 15 16. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands Higgajon Selah There is a double â—ercy in this providence
Faith from thence is sweet and sure If I shall never be forsaken of my God let Hell and Earth do their worst I can never be miserable 2. The Unchangeable God hath promised to maintain their graces and thereby his interest in them for ever Ier. 32. 40. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Where the Lord undertakes for both parts in the Covenant his own and theirs I will not turn away from them O unexpressible mercy Yea but Lord may the poor Believer say that is not so much my fear as that my treacherous heart will turn away from thee No saith God I will take care for that also I will put my fear into thy heart and thou shalt never depart from me 3. The Unchangeable God hath promised to establish the Covenant with them for ever so that those who are 〈◊〉 taken into that gracious Covenant shall never be turned out of it again Isa. 54. 10. The mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee 4. The Unchangeable God hath secured his loving kindness to his people by Promise under all the trials and smarting rods of affliction with which he chastens them in this world he hath reserved to himself the liberty of afflicting them but bound himself by promise never to remove his favour from them Psal. 89. 33 34. I will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with siripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not take from them nor suffer my faithfulness to fail 5. The Promises of a joyful resurrection from the dead are grounded upon the Immutability of God Matth. 22. 32. I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but the God of the living Death hath made a great change upon them but none upon their God though they be not he is still the same therefore they are not lost in death but shall assuredly be found again in the resurrection 6. To conclude the promises of the Saints eternal happiness with God in Heaven are founded in his Immutability 1 Cor. 1. 8 9. Tit. 1. 2. By all which you see what a pleasant lodging is prepared for the Saints in the unchangeable promises of God amidst all the changes and alterations here below 2. Once more let us view the unchangeableness of God in his Providences towards his people whatever changes it makes upon us or whatever changes we seem to discern in it nothing is more certain than this that it holds one and the samâ— tenor pursues one and the same design in all that it doth upon us or about us Providences indeed are very variable but the designs and ends of God in them all are invariable and the same for ever It is noted in Ezek. 1. 12. that The wheels went straight forward whither the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went As it is in Nature so in Providence you have one day fair halcyon and bright another dark and full of storm one season hâ—t another cold but all these serve to one and the same end and design to make the earth fruitful and the aim of all Providences is to make you holy and happy That is a sweet Promise Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God This is the compass by which all Proviâ—ences steer their course as a Ship at Sea doth by the Card but more particularly let us note the unchangeableness of God in his Providences of all kinds effective and permissive and see in them all his unchangeable righteousness and goodness 1. It must needs be so considering the unchangeableness of his decree 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure Providences serve but never frustrate execute but cannot make void the decree so that you may say of the most afflicting Providences as David doth of the stormy winds Psal. 148. 8. they all fulfil his word 2. The Wisdom of God proves it he will not suffer his works or permissions to clash with his designs and purposes Divine Wisdom shews it self in the steddy direction of all things to the ultimate end To open this in some particulars consider 1. Doth the Lord permit wicked men to rage and insult persecute and vex his people Yet all this while Providence is in its right way it walks in as direct a line to your good as when it is in a more pleasant path of Peace Ier. 24. 5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel like these good figs so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldâ—ans for their good Israel was sent to Babylon for their good This improves your faith and patience Rev. 13. 10. Here is the patience and fâ—ith of the Saints So Râ—m 5. 2 3. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulatiâ—n worketh patience By this you are weaned from and mortified to this world 2. Doth the Lord in his Providence order many and frequent close and smarting afflictions for you Why lo here is the same design managing as effectually as if all the peace and prosperity in the World were ordered for you The face of Providence indeed is not the same but the love of God is still the the same he loves you as much when he smites as when he smiles on you for what are his ends in afflicting you and what the sanctified fruits of your afflictions Is it not 1. To purge your iniquities Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin 2. To reduce your hearts to God Psal. 119. 67. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word 3. To quicken you to your duties let the best man be without afflictions and he will quickly grow dull in the way of his duty 3. Doth God let loose the chain of Satan to tempt and buffet you Yet is he still the same God to you as before for do but observe his ends in that permission and you will find that by these things the Lord is leading you towards that desired assurance of his love which your Souls long after Few Christians attain to any considerable settlement of Soul but by such shakings and combates the end of these permissions is to put you to your knees and blow up a greater flame and fervour of Spirit in Prayer 2 Cor. 12. 8. So that eventually
the unchangeableness of his loves trust in the name of the Lord stay thy self upon the God when thou walkest in darkness and hast no light Isa. 50. 10. Thus shut thy door 3. Improve the unchangeabless of God to thy best advantage in the worst times by drawing thence such comfortable conclusions as these 1. If God be an uchangeable God in his promises and in his love to his people what should hinder but the people of God may live happily and comfortably in the saddest times and greatest troubles upon earth As sorrowful yet always rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. Certainly nothing ought to quench a Christians mirth that is not able to separate him from the love of Christ Rom. 8. 35. 2. If God be an unchangeable God in his love to his people then it becomes all that have special interest in this God to be unchangeable and immoveable in the ways of their obedience towards him God will not cast you off see that you cast not off your duties no not when they are surrounded with difficulties he loves you though you often grieve him by sin see that you still love him though he often grieve and burden you by affliction he will own you for his people under the greatest contempts and reproaches of the World see that you own and honour his ways and truths when you are under most reproach from a vile World CHAP. X. Opening the Care of God for his people in times of trouble as the fifth Chamber of Rest to Believers SECT 1. CAre in the general Notion of it as it is applyed to the Creature imports the studiousness and solicitousness of our thoughts for the safety and welfare of our selves or those we love and highly value Now though there be no such thing properly in God at whose dispose and pleasure all events are and to whose counsels and appointments all difficulties must give way yet he is pleased to accommodate himself to our weakness and express his regard and love to his people by such things as one creature doth to another to which it is endeared by relation or affection To this purpose we find many significant Synonomous expressions in Scripture all importing the careof God over his people in a pleasant variety of notion and expression as Nah. 1. 7. The Lord is good a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him He knoweth them i. e. he hath a special tender and careful eye upon them to see their wants supplyed and to protect them in all their dangers for in the common and general sense he knoweth them that trust not in him as well as those that do and further to clear this sence of the place it is said Ps. 40. 17. The Lord thinketh on them Importing not only simple cogitation but the immoration or abiding of his thoughts upon them as our thoughts are wont to do upon that which we highly esteem especially when any danger is near it And yet farther to clear this sense it is said Iob 36. 7. He withdraweth not his Eye from the righteous As when Moses was exposed in the Ark of Bulrushes where his Life was in eminent hazards by the waters of Nilus upon one side and the Egypan Cut-Throats on the other his Sister Miriam kept watch at a distance to see what would be done to him Her eye was never off that Ark wherein her dear Brother lay fear and care engaged her eye to keep a true watch for him Thus the Lord withdraweth not his eye from the righteous To the same purpose is that expression Deut. 33. 3. Yoa he loved the People all his Saints are in thy hand That which we dearly love and prize above ordinary we keep in our own hands for its security as not thinking it safe enough in any other hand or place And once more Isa. 49. 16. God is said to engrave them upon the Palms of his Hands alluding to what is customary among men who when they would charge their memories with something of special concernment use to change a Ring or bind a Thred about the Finger to put them in mind of it Thus is the care of our God expressed to us in Scripture notions The amount of all which is given us in that one proper and full expression of the Apostle 1 Pet. 5. 7. He careth for you To open this Chamber of Divine care as a place of sweetest rest to our anxious and perplexed minds in times of difficulty and hazard it will be necessary that you seriously ponder Of the care of God 1. The Grounds and Reasons 2. The Extent and Compass 3. The Lovely Properties 1. The grounds and reasons of Gods care for his people which are 1. The strict and dear Relations in which he is pleased to own them Believers are his children and you know how naturally children engage and draw forth the Fathers care for them This is the argument Christ uses Matth. 6. 31 32. Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat Or what shall we drink Or wherewithal shall we be cloathed For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things Children especially when young disquiet not themselves about provions for back or belly but leave that to the care of their Parents from whom by the tye and Bonds of Nature and Love they expect provision for all those wants Every one takes care for his own much more doth God for his own Children and indeed he expects his children should live upon his care as our children in their minority do upon ours 2. Gods precious estimation and value of them engages his constant care for them Believers are his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. his peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 6. his special portion or treasure in this world Deut. 32. 9. and as such he prizes and esteems them above all the people of the earth and accordingly exerciseth his special care in all the dangers they are here exposed to Special love engageth peculiar care 3. The dangers and fears of the people of God in this world are many and great and were it not for the Lords assiduous and tender care over them they must necessarily be ruined both in soul and body by them The Church is God's Vineyard its Enemies as so many wild Boars to root it up Upon this account he saith Isa. 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day And indeed it is well for Israel that he that keepeth it never slumbereth nor sleepeth Psal. 121. 4. that our houses are in peace that we and our dear relations fall not as a prey into cruel and bloody hands skilful to destroy that we find any rest or comfort in so evil and dangerous a world it is wholly and only to be ascribed to the care of God over us and ours 4. Jesus Christ hath solemnly recommended
all the people of God to his particular care It was one of the last expressions of Christ love to them at the parting hour Ioâ— 17. 11. And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me q. d. While I have been personally present with them I took the same care of them as a Shepheard doth of his Flock or a tender Father of his Children But now I must leave them in the world and in the midst of a world of dangers fears and troubles against which they can make no provision or defence themselves Father remember them look after them when I shall be removed from them they are thine as well as mine and I recommend them with my last breath to thy care and protection This is a special ground also of Gods care for them 5. Believers dayly cast themselves upon the care of God and resign themselves unto it in their dayly Prayers And by their often renewed acts of Faith than which no act is found more engaging from the creature upon its God though there be nothing of merit yet there is much of engaging efficacy in it Isa. 26. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee We find it so among our selves the more firmly and entirely any one trusteth to us and dependeth upon us the more he engageth us to protect or relieve him Now this is the dayly work of Christians to trust God over all and put all their concernments into his hand which very trust and dependance draws forth the care of God for them 6. In a word the many promises God hath made to his people to preserve support and supply them in all the times of need engageth the câ—re of God for them as often as such wants or dangers befal them for indeed herein he at once takes care for their necessity and for his own honour and glory They trust to his word and rely upon his promises which therefore he will be careful to make good This was the argument which the Church pleaded in the time of eminent danger to engage the care of God for them Psal. 74. 20. Havs respect unto the Covenant for the dark places of the Earth are full of the habitations of cruelty q. d. O Lord thy people are in the midst of cruel enemies take care for their protection and though there be no worth in them to which thou shouldest have respect yet have respect unto thine own Covenant let the glory of thy Name draw forth thy care to thy People SECT II. WE have seen the grounds and reasons of Gods care over his people let us next view the extent and compass of this Divine care and here methinks the Lord saith to his people as he said to Abraham Gen. 13. 14 15. Lift up now thine eyes from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever So here poor timorous dejected Believer lift up thine eyes from the place where thou art and take a view of all the promises in the Scriptures of truth promises of supports under all burthens supplies of all wants deliverances out of all dangers assistances in all distresses to thee have I given them all as a portion for ever This care of God walks the round and encompasseth the Souls and Bodies of them that fear him day and night There is no interest or concern of either found without the line of his all-surrounding Care and every one of his children are enfolded in his Fatherly arms Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thy hand All and every one of their wants and streights are observed by this Care in order to their supply Phil. 4. 19. My God shall supply all your wants 1. Great is the Care of God over the Bodies of his people and all the dangers and necessities of them as they daily grow your meat and drink are daily provided for you by your Fathers Care Psal. 111. 5. He hath given meat unto them that fear him he will ever be mindful of his Covenant It is from this Care of thy Heavenly Father that necessary provisions have been made for thee of which it may be thou hast had no foresight This is the God that hath fed thee all thy life long Gen. 48. 15. It is from the same care thy body hath been cloathed Matth. 6. 28. How much more shall he cloath you O ye of little faith It is through this Care you sleep in peace and your rest is made sweet unto you Prov. 3. 24. When thou lyest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet In a word thou owest all thy recoveries from dangerous diseases and narrow escapes from the grave to this Care of thy God over thee He is the Lord that healâ—th thee Exod. 15. 26. That the incensed humours of thy body had not overflowed their banks like an inundation of the Sea when they raged in thy dangerous diseases is only because thy God took the care of thee and set them their bounds 2. Divine Care extends it self to the Souls of all that fear God and to all the concernments of their Souls and manifestly discovers it self in all the gracious provisions it hath made for them More particularly it is from this tender Fatherly care that 1. A Saviour was provided to redeem them when they were ruined and lost by sin Ioh. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 32. 2. That Spiritual cordials are provided to refresh them in all their sinking sorrows and inward distresses Psal. 94. 19. 3. That a door of deliverance is opened to them when they are sorely pressed upon by temptations and ready to be overwhelmed 1 Cor. 10. 13. 4. That a strength above their own comes in seasonably to support them when they are almost overweighed with inward troubles when great weights are upon them the everlasting arms are underneath them Psal. 138. 3. Isa. 57. 16. 5. That their ruine is prevented when they are upon the dangerous and flippery brink of temptations and their feet almost gone Psal. 73. 12. Hos. 2. 6. 2 Cor. 12. 7. 6. That they are recovered again after dangerous falls by sin and not left as a prey and Trophy to their enemy Hos. 144. 7. That they are guided and directed in the right way when they are at a loss and know not what course to take Psal. 16. 11. Psal. 73. 24. 8. That they are established and confirmed in Christ in the most shaking and overturning times of trouble and persecution so that neither their heart tâ—â—neth back nor their steps decline from his ways Ier. 32. 40. Ioh. 4. 14. 9. That they are upheld under Spiritual desertions and recovered again out of that dismal darkness into the
make but such observations upon the care of thy God as follow and then tell me whether the world with all its pleasures and delights can give thee such an other entertainment 1. Reflect upon the constant sweet and suitable provisions that from time to time have been prepared for thee and thine by this care of thy God From whence soever thy wants did come I am sure from hence came thy supplies it hath enabled thee to return the same answer the disciples did to that question Luke 22. 35. Lacked ye any thing and they said nothing 2. Reflect with admiration upon the various difficulties of your lives wherein your thoughts have been entangled and out of which you have been extricated and delivered by the care of God over you How oft have your thoughts been like a ravelled skeyn of silk so entangled and perplexed with the difficulties and fears before you that you could find no end but the longer you thought the more you were puzled till you have left thinking and fell to praying and there you have found the right end to wind up all your thoughts upon the bottom of peace and sweet contentment according to that direction Psal. 37. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass 3. Observe with a melting heart how the care of thy God hath disposed and directed thy way to unforeseen advantages had he not ordered thy steps when and as he did thou hadst not been in possession of those Temporal and Spiritual mercies that sweeten thy life at this day Surely the steps of good men are ordered by the Lord and as for thee Christian what reason hast thou with an heart overflowing with love and thankfulness to look up and say My father thou art the guide of my youth It is sweet to live by faith upon Divine care Oh what a Serene life might we live careful for nothing but making known our request unto God in every thing Phil. 4. 6. casting all our care on him that careth for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. perplexing our thoughts about nothing but rolling every burthen upon godly Faith Thus lived holy Musculus when reduced to extreme poverty and danger at the same time then it was that he solaced his Soul with that comfortable Distich a good lesson for others Est Deus in coelis qui providus omnia curat Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest The Provident care of his heavenly father made his heart as quiet as the child at the breast Christian thou knowest not what distressful days are coming upon the earth nor what personal trials shall befal thee in this world but I advise thee as thou valuest the tranquility and comfort of thy life Shut up thy self by Faith in this Chamber of Divine Care it is thy best security in this world Reflect frequently and thankfully upon the manifold supports supplies and salvations thou hast already had from this fountain of mercies and be not discouraged at new difficulties When an eminent Christian was told of some that way-laid him to destroy him his answer was Si Deus mei curam non habet quid vivo In like manner thou mayest say if God had not taken care for thee how couldst thou have lived till now How couldest thou have overlived so many troubles fears and dangers as thou hast done CHAP. XI Opening the sixth and last Chamber viz. The Love of God as a resting place to believing Souls in evil times SECT I. THough all the Attributes in the name or Chambers of this house of God are glorious and excellent yet this of love is transcendently glorious Of this room it may be said as it was of Solomon's royal Chariot Cant. 3. 10. The midst thereof is paved with love In this Attribute the glory of God is signally and eminently manifested 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. And upon this foundation the hopes and comforts of all Believers are built and founded Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress 〈◊〉 persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword He defies and despises them all because neither of them alone nor all together by their united strength can unclasp the arms of Divine Love in which Believers are â—afely enfolded In this Attribute Gods people by Faith entrench themselves and of it a Believer saith Hic murus aâ—enus esto this shall be my strong hold and fortress in the day of trouble and well may we so esteem and reckon it if we consider 1. That wherever the special love of God goes there the special presence of God goes also Iohn 14. 23. He shall be loved of my father and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And O how secure and safe must those be however times govern with whom God himself maketh his abode For as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 91. 1. He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty And he that is overshadowed by an Almighty power needs not fear how many mighty enemies combine against him 2. Wherever the special love of God is placed that person becomes precious and highly valuable in the eyes of God he appretiates and estimates such a man as his peculiar treasure which naturally and necessarily draws and spreads the wing of Divine care over him for his protection Deuteron 33. 12. The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover him all the day long Things of greatest value are always kept in safest custody 3. Upon whosoever the special love of God is seâ— there all events and issues of troubles are sure to be over ruled to the eternal advantage of that Soul Rom. 8. 28. Which consideration alone is sufficient to unsting all the troubles in the world and make the beloved of the Lord shout and triumph in the midst of tribulations But let us enter yet further into this glorious Chamber of Divine love and more particularly view the admirable properties thereof though when all is done it will be found a love passing knowledge our thoughts may admire but can never measure it 1. And first you will find it an ancient love whose spring is in eternity it self Believer God is thine ancient friend who foresaw and loved thee before thou yea before this world was in being the fruits and effects thereof thou gatherest in time but the root that produces them was before all times Prov. 8. 22 23. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was Thus was the love of God contriving and providing the best of mercies in Christ for us while as yet there were no such creatures in the world nor a world prepared to receive us 2 The love of God to his people is a free and altogether undeserved love it must needs be