unto Cursing Hos 10.12 Lord It is Time for me to seek thee that thou wouldest Rain down Righteousness upon me Isa 44.3 Lord pour Floods of Celestial Water upon my Thirsty Soul pour and shower thy Spirit upon me Ezek. 22.24 Lord Let not our Land be a Land not Rained upon in the Day of Indignation Job 5.9 10 Lord Thou dost Marvellous Things without Number when thou givest Rain upon the Earth Isa 4.6 Lord give me in thy self a Place of Refuge and of Covert from Storm and from Rain Psal 84.6 7 Lord Tho' the Rain fill the Pools yet let me chearfully go thro' Wet and Dry to wait upon thee in the Assemblies of thy Zion Gen 7.2 Lord Rescue me and the World from the Sins that once provoked thee to make it Rain upon the Earth Forty Days and Forty Nights till a Desolating Flood came upon the World Ezr 10.9 Lord Let a great Rain cause me to Tremble at thy greater Judgments Prov 27.15 Lord Send not upon me an Affliction which may be as a continual Dropping in a very Rainy Day Prov 16.15 Lord Let thy Favour in the Favour of my Rulers be to me As a Cloud of the Latter Rain Hos 6.3 Lord Came unto me in a way of mercy As the Rain as the latter and the former Rain upon the Earth Jer. 5.24 Finally Let me now fear the Lord my God that giveth Rain Thus for the Rain But when the SNOW which is Frothed Rain lies about us our Wishes may be thus Formed Isa 55.10.11 Lord As the Snow comes down from Heaven returns not thither but waters the Earth makes it bring forth bud So let thy Word accomplish my being made fruitful before thee Prov. 25.13 Lord As the Cold of Snow or drink Snow-Cold in the time of Harvest is very acceptable so let my Fidelity render Me to all that are concerned in me Job 19.30 Lord help me to Consider that tho' I should wash my self with Snow-Water make my hands never so clean yet much Filthiness would cleave unto me whereby I deserve to be Abhorred Lam. 4.7 Lord let a Work of real Sanctification upon me render me like the Nazarites purer than Snow Numbers 12.10 Lord make me penitently sensible of the Leprosy upon my soul which is a Distemper worse than that Bodily one wherein persons have become Leprous White as the Snow Isa 1.18 Psal 51.7 Lord let my sins that have been like Scarlet become White like Snow by thy Free and Full pardon of them all O wash me in thy Blood of Sprinkling and I shall be whiter than Snow Dan. 7.9 Rev. 1.14 Lord prepare me for and hasten on the World the coming of that Ancient of Days whose Garments are white as the snow and whose Hairs are white as Wool as white as Snow Prov. 26.1 Lord let me not be like one of those Foâ—ls for whom Honour would be unseemly like the Snow in Summer Psal 147.16 18. Lord when thou hast given Snow like Wool thou sendest out thy word and meltest it and wilt not thou melt this heart of mine by thy word into the Resolutions of Repentance Jer 18.14 15 Will a man leave the Snow of Lebanon which comes from the Rock of the Fielâ—â— Would a Thirsty Traveller finding such a Supply of pure water slight it Neither let me Forget thee O my God This for the Snow But when the HAIL which is Frozen Rain Visits us it may Awaken these Wishes in us Hag. 2.17 Lord It was thy Complaint I Smote you with Hail yet ye turned not unto me Let not my Obstinacy in Sin give cause for that Complaint Rev. 16.21 Lord Hasten upon the Antichristian Babylon that Great Hail out of Heaven whereof every â—tone shall be about the weight of a Talent Isa 28.2 Lord Let not thy people be Invaded by any Enemy which as a Tempest of Hail and a Destroying Storm shall cast them down to the Earth Ezek. 13 13. Isa 28.17 Psal 18.12 Lord Let not my Refuges be such as there shall be an Overflowing Shower in thine Anger and Great Hail-stones in thy Fury to consume them Let them not be Refuges of Lies which the Hail shall sweep away Fit me for the Day when I shall see the Descending Jesus Alarum the World with Brightness Hailstones and Coals of Fire Isa 30.30 Lord Let me Tremble at thy Threatnings as they did in the Day when thou didst cause thy Glorious Voice to be heard and Show the Lighting down of thy Arm with Scattering and Tempest and Hailstones Josh 10.11 Blessed be God That He does not cast down such great Stones from Heaven upon us as to make us Dy with the Hailstones Exod. 9.20 The Epyptians being warned of a great Hail such as Feared the Word of the Lord fled into Houses for their Safety Lord Let me so Fear the Hailstorm of thy Judgments as to seek for Safety in the Lord Jesus Christ But it were Endless to Enumerate the Ejaculations of a Devout Mind on these Occasions Thus When 't is FAIR Clear Bright WEATHER how Agreeable were it for us to wish Lord may the Light of thy Countenance be Uplifted on my Soul and May I walk in that Light all the Day Long So when 't is Cloudy Weather how Agreeable to wish Lord When shall the Son of Man come in the Clouds of Heaven and O let it not be with my Soul a Day of Clouds and of thick Darkness The shooting of such Arrows up to Heaven is an Incomparable Exercise for a Soul that Looks to Eternal Invisibles to Invisible Eternals on a Winter-Day and of the man that on a Winter Day so Employs himself I say Blessed is the man that has a Quiver full of such Arrows IV. The Merciful Words of God which provides for our NECESSITIES IN THE WINTER are very manifold and it becomes us to take a most Thankful Notice of those many Mercies When our God Seals up our â—imâ—â— in the Winter He Opens His own Hand in our Literal Supplies for the Winter and we should so Know those Works of God as to be Thankfully Affected with them The Winter it self That is not without much of Mercy in it It is our Winter particularly which for divers Months in the Year 〈◊〉 a better Defence unto us against Forreign Invasions than all the Sconces and Castles wherewith we could be Fortify'd Doubtless the Polanders thought their Cold was a kindness unto them when in an Army of seventy Thousand Turks Invading them Forty Thousand suddenly perished by the Severity of the Cold tho' it were but the Month of November with them Truly in the Month of November the Cold begins none of the least preservatives also for us New-Enâ—â—anders And who can say How many Epidemical Diseases have by our Winter been Extinguished Our Cold precipitates the Vapours which would else Thicken and Poison our Air and by Freezing the Surface of the Earth iâ— keeps in many malignant Steams that otherwise would thence
us to be very sensible of those Notable Works Almighty God new Seals up our Hands that we may Know His Work What Work Why that very Work of Scaling up our Hands and that Work of sending Snow and Rain and Winter upon the Earth Well then when the Winter comes we must Acknowledge that it is from God It is as we read Psal 147.17 Gods Câ—lâ— and for that cause we may not call it Cruel Câ—lâ— at least it must be a cruel Catechrosis by which we call it to nothing done by God should be Esteemed Cruel Even so 't is Gods Water the Almighty God is to be Reverenced as the Orderer of it all Iâ— the Winter now Rolled about Then Know That God iâ— the MAKER of the Winter 'T is Eâ—qâ—â—red in Job 38.28 29. Hath the Rain a Father Out of whose Womb came the Ice and the Hoary Frost of Heaven who hath Gendred it So when the Winter is upon us we may Enquire whence comes this Cold and Snow and Rain and all the rest But we see them all fall from Heaven unto the God of Heaven should we ascribe the making of all As the Winter is of Gods Promise Whether the Antediluvian World had any proper winter or no yet the Lord presently after the Flood engaged concerning our present World Summer Winter shall not cease Thus the Winter is of Gods Making too The Numberless Number of Saline Particles from whence at least some circumstances of the Winter do arise do all of them say T is the Lord that has made us and not we ourselves There seems to be a vast store of Corpuscles a little akin to Nitre exhaled from the Terrestrial Globe and roving about in sundry parts of the Atmosphere of the Figure which Philoponus tells us Democritus assign'd unto Frigorifiâ— Atoms and these may not a little contribute unto many things that we feel in our cold But still who made them all And thus not only those mighty Rands of Ice that Magnum Duramen Aquarum as Lucretius calleth it Encountred by such Navigators as Janus Munckius who saw these Icy-Islands floating Twenty Fathom above Water or as Baffin who found some above Water between two three Hundred foot High or those that sometimes occur in the River of Canada where Icy-Islands have been seen computed Fourscore Leagues in Length but every little Ice-Cycle is the Workmanship of God Again Know That God is the SENDER of the Winter 'T is affirmed in Job 37.9 10. Cold comes out of the North by the Breath of God Frost is given and the Breadth of the Waters is straitned When a Northern Winter is nipping of us 't is from an Edict of God giving order for such a Season It is God that sends Rain and the Rest upon the Earth The Winterish Winds blow our Winter about our Ears yea but it is the Breath of God that is the First Mover of all There is much Dispute what is the Primum Frigidum whether Air or Water or Earth or Nitre or what And some will Dispute whether there be any such Thing at all or no. For if the Coldness of any thing signifie no more than it s not having its Insensible Parts agitated so much as those of our Sensories by which we judge of Tactile Quatities then to make a thing become cold there needs no more than that the Sun or Fire or some other Agent that more vehemently Agitated its parts before do now cease to do it But â—e Cold a positive Quality which I encline to think or a privative still 't is the Death of God that gives Rise unto it What the Centurion said about the Servants under His Command I say to one Come and he comes thus the Winter 't is our Great Soveraign who says to it Come and so the Winter comes Once more Know That God is the RULER of the Winter This is intimated in Psal 74.17 Thou hast set all the Borders of the Earth thou hast made Summer and Winter So It is God who â—ets Borders to the Winter upon the Earth It is God who says to the Winter Keep off till such a Month. It is God who says to the Winter Go off at such a Month. The Unlimitable Holy One of Israel is He that Limits our Winter for us The winds that Rise in the winter are in His Fist and as to the waves that are so often Crusted in the winter so to the winter it self He saith Hitherto shalt thou go and no further Let me add The Obedience of the winter unto our God should be considered by us to shame our Disobedience If God say to the Snow and the Rain and the Like Be thou upon the Earth straightway they are so What Wretches then are we that when this God shall say to us Be thou upon thy Knees or Let thy Heart be in Heaven we slight what He saith We read in Psal 147.15 He sendeth fâ—â—th his Commandment upon Earth His Word Runneth very swiftly and then comes the Snow the Frost the Ice and the Cold. VVell but it follows He shewed His Word unto Jacob. And now does Jacob yield as much Obedience unto the VVord of God as the winter does Alas How Disobedient are we In the winter the VVork of God is done by the winter it self but the VVord of God then prescribes a further work unto us and can it be said We run very swiftly about that work No truly our will to our work seems Congeled as it were by an Eternal winter Said the Psalmist in Psal 119.91 All are thy Servants What a sad world is this Every thing Obeys the Great God without any Contradiction but only MAN and the DEVIL methinks we should be ashamed of our Company in our Disobedience But that our Obedience unto God may be furthered by the very Constitution of the winter we should do well upon the several Things therein occurring to make our Occasional Reflections We may Spiritualize the winter and we may have such Thoughts thereby Raised in our Minds and such Lessons and such VVishes as may bring unto us the Life and Peace which the Spiritually minded have in their being so We will Exemplifie a few of those innumerable Devout Thoughts wherein the winter sometimes hath provoked a serious Man to address the God that made the winter and I will confine my self to the Scripture in them all The first among all the Meteors of the winter that uses to be considered is that of The WIND which Plato defines as well as any since to be The motion of the Air about the Earth Asper ab Axe ruit Boreas furit Eurus ab ortu Auster amat medium solem Zephyrusque cadentem But Whatever Point of the Compass the VVind blows upon Let it blow some Good Thoughts into our Minds and it will be no Ill VVind unto us Now let these be the Withes of your Souls Let this now be the still voice of your Souls and the Lord will be in
Indeed there is not One Day in the Year whereon we should not be In the fear of the Lord all the Day long but there are diverse Months in the Year wherein the Fear of God is to single out some special ways of Exercise That there are Special Duties of Christianity belonging to the winter iâ— intimated in the words now Read unto us and it is also intimated what those Christian Duties are T is Piety that the winter should advance any further upon us before we have had some discourse of these Duties To be minding one another of these things would be more Significant and more Profitable than our impertinent expence of time in telling one another That it is very Cold. T is possible that your Devotions here in this winter-season put you upon some Trial of your Patience But I have an occasion here to tell you You have heard of the Patience of JOB He was a Person of Quality who dwelt in Arabia the Desâ—rt and yet that Arabia could not but be the Happy while it enjoyed the Presence of such a Ruler But what a manifold Unhappiness overtook this Excellent person and Unhappiness wherein he fell at once from great Wealth and Health into Miseries that have made a Proverb all Ages have since heard with wonderment In these his Miseries he was visited by some of his Comfortable Neighbours who yet proved but Miserable Comforters Among these Visitants there were Three more Aged Men of God which Venerable Saints all took their Turns in dealing with him about his Condition before the Lord but at length it came to the Turn of a Fourth who tho' he were a Younger Person yet stood something longer than the rest in the Disputation This Elihis for That was his Name is in our Context proving That as there is a most Inscrutable and Unblemished Wisdom in all the Works of God so in the Afflictions which the Lord had now sent upon Job there was nothing to be at all complained of Whatever is done by our Great God either in the Great World or to the Little World we have cause to say He hath done ALL Things WELL and there is no Work of God whereof all Circumstances considered we have not cause to own His Wâ—rk is perfect Nothing in the World could be more Arrogant than the Speech uttered by the King of Arrageâ— That he could have contrived a better shaped World nor more worthy to be Rebâ—ked with such Burning Thunderbolts as the Spanish Annals tell us brought that haughty Monarch unto Repentance But among those Excellent Works of the God who is Excellent is working such Works as are every Winter to be seen have a Remark most particularly here set upon them In our Text First We have some Accidents of the Winter He saith to the Snow Be thou on the Earth 〈…〉 to the Small Rain and is the Great Rain of His Strength In the Winter we have plenty of Snow and Rain and those Notable Productions of the Mâ—â—e râ—us Kingdom as the come from the Word so they shew forth the Strength of our God Not only such Snows as those that fall upon Caucasus whereof such is the Quantity that Strabo tells us whole Regiments of Men have perished therein overwhelmed but the ordinary Snows of every Winter Not only such Rains as thâ—se that fall near Mexico whereof Johnston reports that sometimes the Drops are so â—ig and fierce as to kill the very people with their fury but the ordinary Rains of every Winter these have much of God appealing in them And one thing therein done by our God is this He seals up the Hand of every man That is By hâ—d Weather he binds up their Hands from doing any Work abroad But indeed there are more than those who work chiefly with their Hands that feel these Obstructions of the 〈◊〉 Wherefore the French Version so carrys it 〈…〉 fait que chacun se Renferme that is Then he makes every man shut himself up and it is very Expressive There is an Impious Interpretation that some have made of these words as if being In mâ—nu Omnium Hominum signa posuit they countenanced Chiromancy a foolish and absurd Science which pretends from the Lines in our Hands to read the Fates of our Lives As for that curious Vanity I shall say but thus much of it The Lines in our Hands are mostly formed by the Accidental Uses and Motions of our Hands and may accordingly by the like means be altered Opinions about our future Circumstances and Contingencies cannot be drawn to any purpose from these Lines unless they be done meeâ—ly by Impulse and the Impulse which has often darted many true Predictions into the Minds of Ungodly Fortune tellers when they have been poâ—ing on the Hands of others is ordinarily from some of the Demons who are at Hand always to Encourage such Impieties and of the Predictions which the Demons have thus perhaps Litt upon but as probable Conjectures they immediately Employ all their Interest which in This world is very great for the Accomplishment Of the â—iâ—ine Vengeance leaving such wretched Fortune tellers unto the more than ordinary power of the Devil we have in our own I and lately seen most horrid Instances Away then with all such Diabolical Communions Let us with a Christian Resignation wait upon God in a willing and a wiâ—ohome Ignorance of The Secret Things which being unto the Lord. But then Secondly we have some Employments for the VVinter Men are Seal'd from their work when the Winter comes But what Have they no work then to mind Yes All men are then to know his work To Know that work is according to thâ—â— imâ—ort and Fulness of the Hebrew Phrase to â—â—aâ—n the work to Love the work to Do the Work Why The work is Gods work the Work that God would have to he known and therefore most worthy to be known Well There is an Important CASE wherewith I would hence take occasion to give you some WINTER ENTERTAINMENTS It is The CASE What Special Works for the Glory of God may and should be 〈◊〉 by the Children of Men when by the hard we â—her of the Winter He shuts them up or Hinders them from their Ordinary Businesses They are not only Commoda or Profitable Things but also Accommoda or Seasonable Things which are to be Preached among you Our Winter is our Liesure and as it will be a Profitable so 't is but a Seasonable Undertaking to Lay before you How the Liesure of the Winter may be most Improved for the Glory of God Now without any further Preface First that we may speak more Negatively it is to be asserted That the Liesure of the Winter must not be Abâ—sed as if it were a Liesure to work Abominations or 〈◊〉 is were a Liesure for any Superstitious or Prohibited Sensualities 'T is not in the Slothful and Frothy Diversions of Bad Company nor in things which will wrong our Souls that our
Fire His Greatness and His Bounty may be seen Sparkling in it Be Thankful and at the same time Let us Entreat of our God That we may be Baptised with the Fire of His Holy Spirit which will make us Fervent in Spirit Serving the Lord. Let us be thankful for Our HOUSES too We are not left now to lodge abroad in the Cold with none but the Ground for our Bed the Snow for our Coverlid and the Sky for our Canopy nor are we obliged unto such Wretched Wigwams as were the best Habitations of the Barbarous Natives that were here before us How well are we lodged in the Winter and neither by Burnings nor by Earthquakes forced out of Doors Be thankful and at the same time let us entreat of our God that we have a Mansion in our Heavenly Fathers house forever The Keenest Winters in the world have been made very tolerable by peoples making some Rooms of their Houses under the Earth and keeping themselves in such subterraneous Rooms But let the Winters which call us to give thanks for our warm Houses on the Earth cause us to be Concerned for An house Eternal in the Heavens And let us be Thankful for our TABLES How many Warm Dishes have we to cherish us whereby we are strengthened against the Cold of the winter And how many Refreshing Draughts to Refocillate our Enfeebled Spirits Be thankful entreat of God that we may be admitted unto His Feast of Fat things full of Marrow and of Wines on the Lees well-Refined the least whereat There will be no taking away We have a Glorious Benefactor in the Heavens by whose Benignity upon Earth we live well all the Winter long and all the Expressions of that Benignity are to be Received with a most hearty Thankfulness I pray let us not be condemned by the very Jewes themselves with whom it has been customary still to make use of their Daily comforts with a Baruk Adonai or Blessed be the Lord. When Job was looking back upon the Good days which he had seen he said in Jâ—â— 29 2.4 O that I were as in membeâ— pasâ— as in the Days when God preserved me as I was in the dayes of my Youth Some render it 〈◊〉 A 〈◊〉 was in the days of my Winter Quarters 〈◊〉 when the Great Commander of the Universe does Command us into our VVinter Quarters He do's then preserve â—s and by his Light we walk thro' the Darkness of the winter And I would now say O that we were so thankful as we should be for such merciful months V. The Works which God his FORMERLY DONE TOWARDS OURSELVES ought always to be Remembred with us and the VVinter is a very proper Season for that Remembrance Here is the werk of God which we are to know when by the winter He sâ—â—ls up our Hand even the whole VVork of God in the whole course of our Life There have been SMITING VVorks of God which ought seriously to be Remembred with us As it is said in 〈◊〉 3.19.20 Remembring my Affliction and my 〈◊〉 the wormwood and the Gall my soul hath them still in Remembrance and is humbled in me Behold a fit work for the winter Have we not sometimâ—â— been in a winter of adversity wherein this and that Sâ—â—â—m of Affliction and misery has been hard upon us Now in the winter let it be part of our work to recount every such work of God Now bring to Remembrance all that VVormwood and Gall but what for Truly to see whether you have been such Gainers by all those Chastisements as you should have been and whether the weeds of the Corruptions in your Hearts and of the Disorders in your Lives have been duely Nipt by the Frest of such a Winter But there have also been SMILING Works of God which ought carefully to be Remembred with us It was the Language of a David in Psal 103.2 Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits To 〈◊〉 God is not the least of the Duties which the Ever blessed God requires of man and all true Davids or men Belov'd by God evermore Love to be Blessing of God If this is to be done At all times as the Psalmist elswhere speaks I am sure it may eminently be done in Winter-times But God is not Really Bless'd or Serv'd if not Heartily and in our Blessing of God the thing is Done to Halves if the whole Soul or all the Powers of the Soul be not engaged in it Indeed such is our Backwardness to the Blessing of God that we had need earnestly to stir and spur and rouse ourselves unto the Doing of it Let us then stir up ourselves till we have got ourselves into an heat at this work in our Winter and know that a Commemoration of Gods Benefits to us is to be one Main Ingredient of Our Thanksgivings to Him Well then Let this be one considerable Stroke of our Winter-work even To run over the Stories of our LIVES by reckoning up the Benefits of God and reflecting on that Goodness and Merry wherewith we have been followed all our Lives What if you should now and then spend whole DAYS OF THANKSGIVING not only when the Authority does usually once in a Winter call the whole Province to observe such a Day but â—lâ—o in secret places before God by yourselves 〈…〉 Children of God have doubtless Enjoyed 〈…〉 upon Earth by Devoting themselves 〈…〉 an Heavenly and Glorious Exercise and a 〈◊〉 to Devoted has 〈…〉 with some observable Mercy of God However 〈…〉 every Winter Set apart our Time to 〈…〉 the many Benefits of God unto 〈…〉 and utter our Just Hallelujah upon 〈◊〉 â—â—ticâ—e in that Commemoration Particularly The FIRST Article in our Commemoration may be The Benefits of God relating to the Protection which attended our FIRST PRODUCTION Our Formation in the Womb and Reception from the Womb. About our being Shaped in our Mothers we may say Lord I wiâ—â— praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully Made And about our being Taken from our Mothers we may say Lord Thou art He who took me cut of the Womb. As for our Bodies 't is impossible for any thing to be better contrived than they are in the whole Make of them What a sid thing would it have been if these had been monstrously Deformed or Defective in any One of all their Members Truly There are Thousands of Mercies and Wonders in one perfect Child And then as for our Spirits They are certainly the most Noble Things that inhabit this Lower World How doleful had been our plight if these had Lost any of their Faculties were we Fools or Mad But indeed we have Souls capable of a very vast Improvement in the Honouring Enjoying of our God! What shall I say That we are Arriv'd Alive among the Living on the Earth is a Thing full of Marvels if not of Miracles What if we had Expired Embryo's whereby all our Opportunities to Glorify God had been Lost