good Company when they shew their goodness in Company so that they may do good to the Company and therefore though it may seem a Paradox yet it is too true that we cannot always say we have been in good Company when we have been in the company of Good Men. Let Good People keep fellowship and company let the evils and vanities of good People be discharged the Company let Good People do good in Company and so Good People shall be Good Company But as often as we miss good Company let it mind us that we are in the Wilderness And be it here added because I love not to multiply that it is no small part of the Saints Wilderness to be vexed and intested with evil Company The Scripture descrives a Wilderness to be the place of Owls Ostriches Wolves Lyons Serpents Satyres Devils Dragons and all evil Beasts and doleful Creatures And as it is said of Christ literally Mark 1 13. that in the Wilderness he was with the wild Beasts so Christians are mystically neighboured with the like in their Wilderness their righteous Souls are vexed with hearing and seeing daily their doleful and detestable practises besides their Persecutions whereof it follows to speak particularly 4. The Wilderness importeth a Wandering and unsetled Condition Psal. 107. 4. they wandered in the Wilderness in a solitary way they found no City to dwell in Heb. 11. 37 38. those of whom the World was not worthy wandered about in desarts and in mountains and in Dens and Caves of the earth We read in the History of Scripture how Israel wandered and how many seats they changed in the Wilderness of Egypt fourty years We read of the Patriarchs Psal. 105 13. how as strangers in the land of Promise they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdome to another People We read in the 1 Sam. of David's wandering from one Wilderness to another and amongst the rocks of the wilde Goats which he â—esents with Tears Psal. 56. 8. Thou tellest my wanderings sayes he put thou my Tears into thy bottle are they not in thy Book And this is even the wilderness-condition of the Saints and Servants of God this day in these Nations How many driven from Station and Relations and put to seek Lodging amongst Strangers What strange Unsettlings are there among us By Outing Confinement Banishment denouncing Fugitive and all these by Laws and Acts so contrived as if they meant only to grant the Lords Servants Ieremys deploring wish Ier. 9 2. O that I had in the Wilderness a lodging-place of waysaring men that I might leave my People and go from them And all these are beside all the particular wanderings of the Lords scattered flocks whose Condition we may see Ezek 34. 6. and throughout my sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill yea my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search nor seek after them 5. The Wilderness importeth a Condition of Tentations Matth. 4 1. Christ was led into the Wilderness to be tempted Psal. 95 8. 9. Israels time in the Wilderness is called the day of Tentation I know it is there meant Activly of these Tentations as is clear from the 9th verse Your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works â—ut when I look back upon Moses who himself â—as with the Church in the Wilderness and well â—ew their case I find him reckoning it a time â— Passive Tentations also such I mean wherewith â—â—ey were tryed and tempted Deut. 8. 2. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these fourty years in the Wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldst keep his Commandments or not It is â—ar 1. from Jam. 1 15. that God tempteth no â—n 2. It is a great question whether Satan â—â—th a hand by tentation in every sin of man â—t 3dly I judge that Satan hath not such a hand every sin as some are ready to say and think â—he Devil is not so ill we say as he is called nor â— ugly as he is painted many men father those â—s upon the Devil that have their own hearts â—th for Father and Mother and many sin withâ—â—t a Tentation ab extra or from without Yet the 4th place it is manifest from Iam. 1 14. 15. at a man is tempted at least by his own lust as often the sins And thus there is no sin without some â—nd of tentation either from another or from the â—ner himself and where there is much sin and â—ovocation as was amongst the Israelites in the â—ilderness there is much Tentation Let the â—ords People then expect to find their Wilderness place of Temptation And are not Tentations â—awed thick in the way of Gods People in these â—es Is there not a neâ—t spread upon mount Tabor may we not say with the Psalmist Pâ— 142. 3. in the way wherein I walked have they laâ—â— snare for me Is not the cass now you must either do thus or thus as men who because they have â—â— Conscience of their own therefore care not â— yours shall please to command or els do other waâ— upon your perill And when things might therways be better ordered and established aâ— not Laws and Acts contrived so as occasions 〈◊〉 be sought against those against whom like Daâ— Chap. 6 5. there can be found no occasion except the matters of their God Is not this the houâ— temptation Rev. 3. 10. But when enemies hâ— given over and done their worst in come 〈◊〉 friends who as Peter to Christ Matth. 16. 23 〈◊〉 a temptation to us O say they look to your self and play not the Fool. And when all the prevail not yet in comes Carnal Worldly 〈◊〉 believing Grudging and disquieting thoughâ— from our own hearts and these as in a refer guard give the last and most dangerous assault â— specially if the force of our spirits be any wâ— daunted or disordered by the foresaid attempt and therefore James 1. 14. looking over tâ— former as it were tells us that then a man is temâ—ed when he is led away of his own lust and entiâ—e and then it is high time to look to our selves whâ— our enemies are those of our own house Maâ— have born the force of outward attempts who hâ— much ado to sustain the impetuous assaults of thâ— own disquieted and disquieting hearts Psal. 42 and 43 5. Why art thou cast down O my seâ—â— and why art thou disquieted in me And therefore Iames pronounces him the blessed man Chap. 1. 12. that endureth tentation The Tentations of an afflicted lot is the great Affliction of our lot and therefore in Scripture Afflictions are called Tentations and they that escape the Tentations of Affliction have got above all hazard of Affliction otherwise for Tentations being the snare of Affliction when that is once broken the strength of it is spent and it's force
in Intimate and more than ordinary fellowship with God as I cited of Moses before we would enter the Clouds and go up into the Mount to God and we shall be no homlier than welcome Cant 4 8 invites us to this We never find David higher upon it than in the Wilderness We owe that sweet 63 Psalme to the Wilderness of Iudah in the 8 verse where of it is said my soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me and in the 5 verse my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfal lips If a Soul make a visit to God from the Wilderness they may expect Joseph's Brethrens entertainment they may resolve to Dine with him at noon Our Lord Jesus learned this of his Father This is a desart place says he and we cannot send the People away fasting lest they faint by the way Yea and after they may have that sweet Musick my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips and Psal 57. 7 8. my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed O Lord says he I am now well at my heart I will sing and give praise Awake up my Glory awake Psaltery and harp I myself will awake early and that was also a Wilderness Psalme We owe the 4 Psalme to the Wilderness likwise and the 84 whereof more anone Take we then the direction that the times of our affliction be times of more than ordinary Communion with God 5. In the Wilderness we would be diligent to seek good occasions and means for the relief of our Afflictions and supply of our wants Need must make vertue with us Psal. 84. 5 6. Blessea is the man in whose heart is the ways of them who passing thorow the vally of Baca make it a well We must not like the unjust Steward refuse in this case both to dig and beg we must use all means lawful both spiritual and natural with God and men we must with Nehemiah both Pray to the Good God of Heaven and supplicat the King Nehemiah 2. 4 5. The day has been when the Nobles and Estates of Scotland and our Courtiers would have suted and courted the King for a Commission to build the City of the Lord and of their Fathers Sepulchers the Church owning that Faith wherein their Fathers Died who have left there to Posterity the Sepulchers and lasting Monuments of their Fidelity Zeal and Religious gallantry when a Great man would have pleaded for a liberty and protection to a faithful Minister Then Israel and the Lords People in their bounds in commendation of their Zeal and Diligence sang that song Numb 21. 17 18. Spring up O well sing ye unto it the Princes digged the well the Nobles of the People digged it by the direction of the Law-giver with their staves But now since our Princes and Nobles turned herdmen to the Philistines and servants to Prelates their work hath been to stop and take away and strive for Isaac's wells to deprive the People of God moe ways than one of those occasions of pure and plentiful Ordinances which they had digged and drunk of had with labour provided and with refreshment enjoyed See the case in ane Allegory Gen. 26. from the 17. verse to 23. I fear when this generation is gone and if carcasses fall not in the Wilderness if God make not a clean field if he do not root out and make a speedy riddance of this evil Generation from the face of the earth wiser men than I are much deceaved that Nigrum theta or black mark shall be found written upon the Sepulchres of most of our Nobles Nehemiah 3. 5. that the put not their necks to the work of their Lord. And when it is come to that then who knows but the sons and little ones of our Nobles may be Well-diggers And as it was in the case of the drought Ier. 14. 3. may come to the waters and to the pitts may be such as shall seek out and labour for the means of their Souls refreshment The Lord may bring the little Ones of those transgressors whose carcasses fall in a Wilderness into a land flowing with milk and hony Numb 14. 31 32. Mean time let us be digging in the Wilderness let us seek occasions for our Souls and where we do not find them let us make them 6. In the Wilderness we would thankfully receave and improve thriftily all offers of accidentall occasions that providence layes to our hand Psal 84. 6. the rain also filleth the Pools that is the Lord will now and then be giving his out-wearyed People some unexpected means of present relief and refreshment which they must acknowledge and use till they get better and more lasting occasions Rain water in a Pool is neither so good nor so enduring as a spring or fountain of living Water and yet the former is good where the latter cannot be had for to the hungry Soul every bitter thing is sweet and little will do a poor man good If God give us an occasion of a good Sermon or a Communion or make any other good means to drop upon our heads as unexpectedly as the rain falls from the Heaven or if we have the benefit of the neighbour-hood of a faithful Minister for the time these things howbeit for their nature and vertue they be fountain water yet herein the best of them is but like a Pool that they are of an uncertain endurance For such is the condition of these Wilderness-times that where one day you have a fountain the next day you have nothing or an empty cistern nor is there throughout all the land so much as one Rehoboth Gen. 26. 22. one well that the Philistines do not strive for Therefore we must drink for the drought that is to come we must hear for the time that is to come Isai. 42. 23. we must make the best we can of every occasion that remaines or accidentally offers for the time and we must feed upon the little Oyl in the crâ—ise and the handful of Meal in the barrel till there be plenty in the Land 7. In the Wilderness we would make use of good Company yea we would make much of it where ever we can have it Psal. 84 7. they go from sirength to strength as our Translation reads it but the Original hath it They go from company to company or from troop to troop Indeed solitude and want of good Company is not the least of the evils of the Wilderness as I shewed above in the description of the wilderness and I believe the People of God in these times will bear me witness in this But we would seek good Company and make use of it Mal. 316 the fearers of God that were then in the Wilderness spake often one to another But wandering and unsettlment another great mischief of the Wilderness will not let the Saints lodge
first thing in the Text the Note of Observation Behold I will bring her into the Wilderness THE second thing in the Words is the intimation of the Churches Condition I will bring her into the Wilderness And hence the Doctrine is That these to whom the Lord minds good may expect to come to the possession of intended blessedness by the way of a Wilderness Behold says the Lord I will allure her and speak comfortably unto her there is my design upon her and these are my thoughts of Good concerning her but first I will bring her into the Wilderness In the prosecution of this Doctrine three things are to be considered 1. What is this Wilderness 2. Wherefore doth the Lord bring his People into the Wilderness 3. What use we are to make of this intimation of such a Condition 1 First then what is the Wilderness I Answer 1. in general it is a Figurative expression of an afflicted Condition I will bring her into the Wilderness that is I will erercise her with such Afflictions as men are wont to meet with in a Wilderness And therefore 2dly I find a Wilderness Condition importing these things particularly 1. It imperteth a Condition of Want and scarcety both of Temporal and Spiritual things Heb. 1. 37. those of whom the World was not worthy were destitute of all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. The Apostles that made many Rich were themselves as poor and they that possessed all things were as having nothing Psal. 107 4 5. They that wander in a Wilderness are hungry and thristy and their Soul fainteth in them David Psal. 63. 1. says my Soul thristeth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thusty land where no water is he had no doubt his own temporal Wants and those great enough but his greatest Want was of the waters of the Sanctuary as is clear from the 2d verse To see thy power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary and the same was his Condition in the 42. and 43. Psalmes And this is the supposed Condition of all the People of God Isai. 41. 17. they are poor and needy seeking water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thrist The want of Water which is a most common thing denoteth the extremity of scarcety and want And this is the first thing in a Wilderness-Condition The many hungry Bellys and no fewer hungry Souls in these times which are crying my Leanness my Leanness do plainly say that we are entred more nor a days journey into the Wilderness The 2d thing imported in a Wilderness-Condition is Desolation and Barrenness Psal. 63. 1. and Psal. 107. 33. a Wilderness is a dry land a thristy land where no water is Jer. 9 12. It is burnt up like a Wilderness and likwise a Wilderness is a desolate place there no foot of man doth come there the Cities are made heaps there nettles grow upon the ruines of Glorious Temples This Desolation and Barrenness is the cause of scarcety and want in a Wilderness And this likwise we have felt in our Wilderness we Want but we know not where to get it the Wells are stopped good Occasions for our Souls are removed our Teachers are removed into Corners the Songs of our Temples are become howlings We may sing the 8 verse of the 46. Psalme with a sad note Come behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the earth and where Desolations end there beginneth Barrenness and dry breasts As in one place we have the Wells of water and the Streams from Lebanon stopped in the next place we come to we find Clouds without rain and Pits without water Trees whose fruit is withered and without fruit Epistle of Iude 12 verse men who either never had any thing or elss have lost what once they promised As if Christ O sad had come by and said henceforth never fruit grow upon you if we were thristy beside the water or hungry beside Food or sick beside the Physician or sorrowful beside a comforter or in darkness beside light we might the better bear it But that it is other ways shews we are indeed in the Wilderness 3dly The Wilderness importeth a Solitary Condition of Separation from comfortable sweet and useful Society David felt this in the Wilderness Psal. 42. 4. When he remembred that he had gone to the house of God with the multitude with the voice of joy and praise with the multitude that kept Holy day and for that his Soul was poured out in him Heman felt this in his Wilderness Psal. 88. 18. lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness The afflicted overwhelmed Composer of the 102 Psalm felt this likwise in his Wilderness 6 and 7 verses I am like a Pelican in the Wilderness and like on Owl of the desart I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top Isai 35 1. The Wilderness is a solitary place Good company and sweet comfortable useful Society hath this to prove it a choice mercy that as the rest of that nature it is never well known nor prized by us till we are denyed it and deprived of it And now with Pharoahs Butler Gen. 41. 9. I remember my faults this day and I fear I have too many fellows in the fault who either neglect disdainfully or els abuse good Company to the increase of vanity Now begin I to understand more of that Text Eccl. 4. 9 10 11 12. And what a woe is it to him that is alone and yet I doubt not but the kindness of the Lord is shewn to many even in separating and scattering them one from another And to confirm me in this judgment I remember the Opinion of some who have been in account for skill in things of that nature And thus they have thought that when a Family or Bairn-time incline to a Consumption which being a disease hereditary runs much in a blood in that case it is good that they part Company and live at a distance one from another for that the disease is strengthned by their social conversation I apply that the evil and hazard of the Company of those that are tenderly beloved Children of God may move him even in kindness to send them apart but they will find it a kindness not so comfortable as needful As I could like to be hungry beside good meat or weary beside good lodging so I would choose to be solitary beside good Company that is so to enjoy my self by my self as that I might likwise enjoy the help of Christian Company at will with conveniency And as I am sure that God was never the instituter of the Monks order so sure I am none can choose to shun good Company but such as would choose their own affliction and forsake their own mercy Only I must here mind that good People are not always good Company but a good Man or Woman are only then
together and for that the word of the Psalme says they go from Company to Company when they are driven from one Company they must draw in to another Many men never grow good till they are going to die and indeed in this World he that mindes to be good may make him for another World and blessed be God we know of another even so the Saints oft times scarce begin to know the usefulness and sweetness of one anothers Company nor to use it accordingly till they must want it Nor do they any thing worthy of their Society till they be going to separat I said in my heart that this also is vanity and a sore evil Learn we then more timely to make use of good Company 8. In all our motions and removes in the Wilderness we would follow and be Ruled by the Cloud of Gods presence thus Israel was guided through the Wilderness See Numbers 9. from the â—5 verse to the end The Cloud was a visible token and Sacrament of Gods presence with them We would so live and so move in the Wilderness as that we keep always in the presence of God I mean his propitious comforting presence whither the presence of God directs us thither let us go be it East West North or South be it fore ward backward to the Right hand or left hand And where we cannot abide with Gods presence if the Cloud of the Lords presence be liftted up to us off a place be it otherways never so commodious and sweet let us not take it evil to leave that place If God say to us as to Abraham Gen. 12. 1. get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy Fathers house unto a land that I will shew thee Let us with Abraham obey and be gone let our desire be only with Jacob. Gen 28. 20. that God may be with us in the way and then let him take us through fire through water through a Wilderness or what he will If the Cloud remove from Him a wealthy and pleasant place where are twelve wells of water and threescore and ten Palm-trees so that we may there encamp by the waters Exod 15. 27. to the Wilderness of Sin an impleasant and a scant place where we may be threatned to be even slain with hunger Exod. 16. 3. we must march with the Cloud In a word we must so carry our selves in our whole course as that we may have the Lords presence and propitious countenance whatever we do wherever we be In this case let us sing the â—4 Psalme The earth is the Lords and the fuâ—â—ness thereof the world and they that dwell therein And Psal. 4. v. 6 7 8. must be our song Let men project and pursue for themselves places of pleasure preferment and profit as most shamfully they do let them carve and cut out Fortunes and Portions for themselves and let them with noise divide the spoil of a Church that is fallen into the hands of her enemies who are the wicked of the earth and of many faithful Ministers who like the man in the Parable Luk 10 30. have fallen among thieves But stay till mischief and evil go a hunting and then their ill come Places shall not know them Psal. 140 11. evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him but in the mean time what comes of the poor outcasts and wanderers Why they shall not want a place to go to in the 13. verse of that 40 Psal. the upright shall dwell in thy presence They may travel through places enough but be their harbour what will that is there home And as it is a hidden place to Worldlings so it is a hiding place to them Psal. 31. 20. thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence untill the Lord return to build up Jerusalem and then he will gather the out-casts of Israel Psal. 147. 2. for he that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger then he Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord Ier. 31. 0 11 12. and foreward to the 15 verse Take we therefore the conduct of Gods presence in the Wilderness and let us be thereof so observant that by the least wink of his eye we be directed Psal. 32. 8. â— will guide thee with mine eye to sit still or let out to turn to the Right hand or to the left at his pleasure and be our turnings in the Wilderness what they will be sure we are not out of the way so long as we enjoy Gods presence and the comfort of the light of his Countenance And that will make us with Mose Heb. 11. 27. endure all that we meet with who endured as seeing him that is invisible 9. In the Wilderness we would live by faith and learn to take God for all things Psal. 84. 4 blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be seeing and enjoying many things that will make them praise thee But what if they be put to travel through the valley of Baca then in the 5 verse Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee He is the fountain Psal. 36. 9. and he it is that makes all the streams of his Peoples consolations to flow in their seasons Psal. 87. 7. all my springs are in thee O but it is well lost that is found i God and all that is happily wanted which is supplyed in him O for more of the fountain O for a larger faith to draw at this deep Well! O Noble Well! a Well that in all our journeys will follow us 1. Cor 10. 4. we read that the Israelites drank of a spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. We may still encamp and ly about these waters be our marches what they will in the Wilderness This is the only Rehoboth the well of Room the Philistines cannot trouble this Well It is of â— higher spring than that enemies can get up to stop it if the Lora make his paths to drop fatness if they drop upon the Pastures of the Wilderness see who can hinder it for the rain waits not for man nor stayeth it for the son of man therefore blessed is the man Ier. 17. 7 8. that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green and she shall not be carful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yeelding fruit O let us entertain those large thoughts of God that I have now so often recommended and then without boasting we may say with him that was as oft in the Wilderness as another Psal. 34 2 my soul shall make her boast in the Lord. If