as a shield for protection to them that trust in him Davids heart was glad and his glory rejoyced while his flesh did rest in hope Psal 16.9 The flower of comfort grows on the tree of hope Fourthly Vim confirmantem an establishing vertue That fixes the soul on God so as it does like a meteor hover in the air of uncertainties but wholly acquiesces in him as his entire and resolute dependant under all emergencies of providence Psal 112.7 8. His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord his heart is estal lished Believing establisheth the soul and keeps it as from sinful compliances so from unworthy despondencies and doubting fluctuations that it doth not reel to and fro like an house that wants a solid foundation but is like the City of Venice which though it stands on the very Sea nec fluctu nec flatu movetur neither wind nor wave doth move it neither is like the Willow shaken with every wind but like the Oak that abides its place in storms and tempests Hope in the Lord is the anchor that fastens the ship of the soul so as it remains unshaken and immoveable amidst all the shakings of Satanical temptations or worldly concussions I have set the Lord alwaies before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved The true Believer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a die cast him which way you will he falls upon a square The Earth may remove off its foundation and the Mountains be hurled from their place the Sea roar and its waters be troubled and yet the Church not be moved Though weak in themselves beliâ—vers are strong in the Lord and like the Boat though wavering of it self yet tied to the Ship it 's sure Or like the Vine Ivie and Apricock though some of the weakest of trees yet leaning on the wall and twining about the Oak they stand firm and immoveable A carnal man or hypocrite in time of distress is soon moved yea removed off his principles and profession like a door that goes on its hinges in a spiritual storm he becomes the sport of every wind and wave but a believer gets up on God that impregnable Rock and being homo quadratus having his foot set for all assaies bonds and afflictions do not unhinge or unsettle him nay like a Paul none of these things move him Act. 20.24 Faith upholds the soul holds the head up above water and keeps a man from sinking yea were he cast into a Sea of troubles by this bladder would he swim to shore being put under him by the everlasting Arm of Omnipotency The hoping soul staies himself upon the mighty God of Jacob in truth and righteousness and though never so weak a creature in himself and subject to fall being supported by the strong hand of invincible power he stands firm and stedfast Like the Spouse coming out of the wilderness and leaning upon the Arm of her Beloved he rests himself upon an Almighty Arm so as 't is infinitely easier to pluck the strongest fabrick off its basis and foundatiion than to remove him off his hold on God his only strength and support so that even the gates of Hell cannot prevail against him Indeed the strongest faith and firmest hope may be exercised with variety of fears doubts and temptations but shall never be finally overcome Perfect love shall in the end cast out fear and this aguish and shaking spirit of bondage of which a Christian hath yet alwaies two well daies for one ill at length give place to the more stable spirit of Adoption That 's the second Thirdly It 's a certain prognostick and infallible assurer of mercy and deliverance The soul that hopes well shall have well The only way to have a mercy is to believe it According to our faith so is it to us A wavering soul must expect nothing but a believing soul may expect any thing from the Lord. Never did any soul perish in a way of believing Hope though it may sometimes meet with a delav yet it never meets with a disappointment It 's the glory of hope not to make ashamed Rom. 5.5 They that wait on the Lord never wait on him for nothing but their expectations are crowned with answerable successes I dare challenge all the world to give but one instance of a soul that was failed by God while he trusted in him All that depart from him shall perish and that turn aside to crooked waies be led forth with the workers of iniquity but it 's good to hold fast to God The end of faith is salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Such as trust in God may be relict sometimes indeed but shall never be left desolate They may be sometime disappointed but never wholly destitute The Psalmist having acted his faith and hope in God confidently demands and challenges deliverance wilt not thou O God give us help from trouble Psal 108.12 Hope presages mercy a coming It laies a man under the Promise and confirms his right and title to it Now as a man though he hath little in ready cash yet if a great deal in hills and bonds is rich and wealthy So the Christian though he hath never so little in hand yet having all in hope and reversion is really blessed and happy The Promise runs He that believes shall not be ashamed And therefore it 's very observable that the Church in her petitions to God begs for mercy proportionable to her hope Psal 33.22 Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Hope prepares the soul for deliverance Whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity of the receiver Now hope enlargeth the heart biggens and swells the desires dilates and expatiates all the affections that the soul is no longer a narrow-neck'd vessel which cannot receive the full infusions of mercy but opens its mouth wide so as God fills it Whatsoever ye ask believing ye shall certainly receive They who travel with a big expectation commonly are delivered of a double blessing And finally hope laies hold on Gods strength and engages him to save and deliver even because the soul trusts in him So that the state of a Believer though never so sad and disconsolate yet is never desperate but while he lives he may hope yea he lives because he doth hope For we are saved by hope saith the Apostle The sinner indeed may have a seemingly hopeful beginning but he is sure to meet with an hopeless as well as to make a graceless end His hope is like the Spiders web when the besome of death comes to give him his fatal sweep down goes his hope and himself together to Hells bottom But the godly hath hope in his end Jer. 31.17 Though what he hopes for may be long a coming yet long-lookt for shall come at last and be doubly welcome The greater the travel and sorer the labour the fairer and stronger the birth And the longer the fruit of mercy hangs
he walks in darkness God follows him with breach upon breach all his waves compass him and his billows go over his soul while his arrows stick fast in his flesh and his hand presseth him very sore while he sows sackcloth on his skin and defiles his horn in the dust When all the songs of Sion are at an end and he hath none but the sad and mournful ditties left him of lamentation and woe the joy of his heart is ceased and he weeps sore in the night and hath none to comfort him all his mercies yea and his hopes are gone too and perished from the Lord and for peace he hath great bitterness yet then he mounts up as on Eagles wings by fiducial acts to Heaven and saith Lord though I know not what to do yet mine eyes are towards thee He still remembers the years of the right hand of the most High He may meet with distress but never fall into distraction perplexity but not passion or perturbations Though he be troubled on every side yet he is not distressed though perplexed yet not in despair though persecuted yet not forsaken though cast down yet not destroyed as the Apostle triumphs 2 Cor. 4.8 He may be at his wits end but never at his faiths end Though his faith wants wings to flie yet it hath a foot to go or at least a knee to creep He yet dwells in the secret of the most High though he hath no corner to lay his head in here below he casts his burden upon the Lord when he findes his own shoulders too weak to bear under it and commits his way to him to bring it for him to pass when so dark and intricate as he cannot finde the least path out of it He casts his care on him who taketh care for him That 's the first Secondly And as this gives us an account of the different temper so likewise of the different happiness of the Saints above all the world besides He not only hopes in the Lord but hath the God of Jacob for his help While we stand on the turret of this comfortable doctrine and take a Pisgah-view of the godly's felicity we may cry out of them as Baalam standing upon Mount Peor once did of Israel How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel O thrice happy and unspeakably blessed souls that have this interest in God Happy are they indeed who are in such a case There are four choice priviledges which flow from the souls interest in God each whereof is an Herauld to proclaim to all the world his felicity First holy peace and serenity tranquillity acquiescence and satisfaction I will lay me down in peace and sleep because thou O Lord only keepest me in safety There may be trouble and turmoil abroad but alwaies peace at home storms without but a calm within The peace of God is the Christians Life-guard In the world they may have tribulation but in him they have peace John 16. ult Secondly A grounded certainty as to enjoyments for God never disappoints them who trust in him The mercies he gives his People though slow in coming are sure mercies The sure mercies of David The Covenant he hath made is everlasting and sure The promise both of Spirituals and Temporals being of Faith is sure to the seed Rom. 4.16 It was part of Moses blessing Deut. 33.28 Israel shall dwell in safety alone the fountain of Jacob shall be on a Land of Corn and Wine also his Heavens shall drop down dew Thirdly An undoubted security As certainty of mercies so security from evils and mischiefs is their portion They are secure from Treachery at home for no fear of Apostacy to him who hath God as his Help He shall overcome and be made a Pillar in the House of his God Revel 3.12 And secure from Foreign Violence For if God be on his side who dare engage on the contrary He may sing with David in that heavenly Canticle of his The Lord is my light and salvation whom shall I fear I will not fear what man can do unto me No not of ten thousand which have round beset me God is a sure defence to his people Benjamin the beloved of the Lord shall dwell between his shoulders Deut. 33.12 The Enemy may thrust sore at him as a man against an House side but the Lord helps him Psal 118.13 Gods protection is a Pillar to shore him up under every blast of the adversary to overturn him A Saint being inchanted as I may so speak with the Name of the God of Jacob is shot-free secure from gun-shot out of the reach of all dangers enemies evils and afflictions whatever Fourthly Supply or sufficiency Prov. 28.5 He that trusteth in the Lord shall be made fat He that hath God hath all in him engaged for his good Son I am thine and all I have is thine saith God to his Children What power wisdom mercy or any other excellency is in God is active for his peoples good yea all Creatures in Heaven and Earth are at their command and service And we may well close this Use with that of Bernard Si Deus tam bonus quaerentilus quam lonus fruentibus If God be so good to them that â—ow seek him what is he to them that finde him It so sweet to Hope what to Fruition This consideration should make us cry out with Austin Fecisti nos Domine ad te non requietum est câ—râ—n strum donec requiescat in te Lord Thou hast made us for thy self and our hearts can never rest till we come to rest in the full enjoyment of thee Now because this Happiness of the Saints stands in conâ—radisâ—â—ction or rather in contradiction to the infelicity of sinners As the doctrin puts a cup of Consolation into the hand of the godly so of Trembling into the hands of the wicked bespeaks by way of terror and convinceth of the sad misery and grand unhappiness of all that want and are strangers to an Interest in God In a good day they have no ground of comfort and in an evil no assurance of help That 's the second practical Inference It they be happy who have this title to God and blessed certainly they must needs be cursed and miserable that are without it unless they had any thing equivalent with it which is impossible O sad and dreadful condition to be at once both hopeless and helpless This is the utmost aggravation of unhappiness the desperate condition of the Devils and damned in Hell Such as are without God are without hope yea without both hope and help And should a man speak a thousand words he could not more fully express the dismal complexion of any state than is done in this one To be hopeless The wicked have no Heaven hereafter no hope here An ungodly man may run and read his condition in the glass of this point who hath no God to go to he hath not the
continually saith David Psal 71.14 Though his enemies be lively yet his hope is not dead and while they threaten more he yet hopes more and more All the waters of humane opposition cannot quench this fire but it 's like the fire of the Sanctuary which never goes out True hope grows by discouragement and the wind of worldly affliction serves but to increase this holy flame When as the spies gave a discouraging account of the Land Caleb and Joshua were not dismay'd at their own sight or their report but conclude Their defence is departed and they are bread for us They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and their hope too and under the lowest providences they have yet a spero meliora in their mouths which keeps them from fainting and sinking And that leads to the third and last qualification of the Saints hope It 's stedfast and permanent A Believer hath hope in his end and he hopes to the end Heb. 6.11 The full assurance of hope to the end And so cap. 3.6 Whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end God perfects this grace wheresoever he begins it An Hypocrites is a dying hope a Saints a living hope there is a vigour and vivacity and also a constancy and perpetuity in it We are not of them who draw back to perdition An Hypocrites hope is an empty and vain and so a vanishing hope it hath no solidity in it but appears a meer husk when Satan comes to thresh it by his temptations it will not stand or endure a trial When he comes to go out of the world his hope perisheth for ever and breaths forth it self into a puff of wind though swoln to never so huge a bulk and great a proportion It hath no stalk and when the Sun of divine indignation or humane persecution ariseth it wholly withereth But a Saint though for a while he may lose the exercise never wholly loseth the habit of his hope his hope is a fixed stable setled hope Col. 1.23 A carnal wretch can hope in good daies while providence looks on him with a favourable and pleasing aspect but let the Lord come to frown on him and lay affliction on his loyns his heart 〈◊〉 like Nabals dies within him he sinks like a stone he carries with him a sad heart and looks with a lowring and dejected countenance but a child of God as no outward comâ—ort does much incourage him so no outward cross doâ—s much dishearten him Mercy does not much 〈◊〉 him up nor misery cast him down his conclusion is I will yet hope in God and never cast away my confidence which hath great recompence of reward Quo malis presentiâ—us durius deprimor eo de futuris gaudiis certius praesumo saith holy Ignatius by how much the more I am oppressed with present miseries so much the more confident I am of eternal joys 2 Cor. 4.17 Thirdly This speaks sharp reproof even to the People of God themselves who are so apt to depend on and run to means and second causes in times of trouble and affliction and not lay their hope and help on this God of Jacob and his truth and faithfulness only Israel was very prone to this corruption to seek to and rely on forein aids and helps neglecting and refusing to rest upon God This is sinners wickedness and Saints weakness and infirmity This was the fault of good Asa zealous Hezekiah holy David who thought nothing better for them than one to go to the Physitians before the Lord another to curry favour with the King of Babylon and a third to flie into the Land of the Philistines 1 Sam. 27.1 Vitium ostendit saith a Commentator on the Text dum ostendit remedium This is natural to the lost but yet proud Sons and Daughters of Adam The first man had a spice of pride in him and all his posterity have gotten a tang of it The stout souldier will never accept quarter as long as he can stand out against the enemy or defend the besieged City against his power and violence Proud stout-hearted man would neither be beholden to God or Christ for his help could he but be his own Protector and Saviour We are all by nature run-aways from God and having a backsliding heart within us are apt to revolt more and more leaning on any broken Reed before him the eternal Rock But this our way is our folly This is our great sin and runs us also into an inextricable labyrinth of calamity and woe It 's no less than crimen laesae Majestatis when we have the covering of the Almighty's protection and the wing of the great and everlasting Jehovah to come under yet to shroud our selves under the alien shadow of any creature and when we may delighfully sollace our selves under the Vines sweetness and Olives fatness yet to shelter our selves under the vain shew of the Bramble It 's too convincing an Argument both of the weakness of grace that our strength is small and also of the power and predominancy of corruption It 's a plain and demonstrative Argument of a carnal heart to satisfie our selves with any outward enjoyment in the day of mercy or support in the hour of misery How sadly does God complain of this in his Israel of old Psal 78.22 They believed not in the Lord nor trusted in his salvation So Deut. 9.23 Ye rebelled against the Commandment of the Lord your God to go up against the Nations and ye believed him not God taxeth it of high disingenuity and disloyalty Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity So Jer. 18.13 14. The Virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing Will a man leave the Snow of Lebanon which cometh from the Rock of the field or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken It 's a tincture of Apostacy from God Indeed a plain contradiction to our conversion In that we turn from the Creature to the Creator in this from the Creator to the Creature It 's a more spiritual and refined Idolatry and therefore it 's observable these two are Couzen-Germans neighbour-sins and but one remove one from the other Yea the â—dolatry charged by the Apostle upon the Gentiles hath this inscription on its forehead They worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator God blessed for ever Rom. 1.25 And indeed whatsoever a man sets up above or equal with God it 's his God or at least his Idol And as it is a great iniquity so it is commonly rewarded with exemplary punishment This trust is both wicked and vain it makes us neglect God the eternal Refuge and while it deceives us and makes us miss of a better ground of trust it also weakens and debilitates both our hearts and hands our hands in duty and our hearts in confidence
that so he may have wherewithall to set all his Attributes on work at once his power wisdom goodness and mercy When Israel had committed a great sin yet Ezra comforts them with this There is yet hope in Israel Art thou troubled with the guilt of sin defilement and power of corruption art thou disturbed with fears doubts temptations dost thou want the evidence of Gods favour and blessed assurances of his love art thou pressed down with the weight of thy afflictions do thy feet stick in the mire and thy soul is born down and sinks through the load that is upon thy shoulders yet look up by faith to Heaven God can open a door of hope in this valley of Achor Lo he is behind the curtain though thou seest him not and will step in and help thee if he sees the swoon or faint He is praesto ready at hand to save thee though he seems to sleep he and his arm can awake Isa 51.9 as a mighty man out of sleep for his enemies confusion and eke his Peoples consolation He will arise Psal 44. ult He can turn thy captivity as the streams of the South and a word of his mouth shall do it as well as an act of his hand Be not discouraged or despondent but wait his approach Though thy heart fail be of good courage and he will strengthen thine heart Thou hast an omnipotent arm to lean upon therefore give not in nor give over Still be found in the way of thy duty pray still believe wait still and for ever hope in the Lord and his mercy God oft suggests his Creatorship in Scripture to encourage his People in great extremities As to Jacob Isa 40.27 28. So Psal 124. ult Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth And thus in this present Psalm in the words following the Text Which made Heaven and Earth to teach us that God can do any thing who made all things What is it God cannot do as well as he did create the world out of nothing What should we doubt in his way of providence whose power we have such demonstrative proof of in the work of creation And the Apostle Peter seems to make that relation speak mercy too as well as power and goodness as greatness 1 Pet. 4.19 Where he exhorts Saints in a suffering condition to commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as into the hand of a faithful Creator This title alone speaks comfort and assurance to Gods People and abundant incouragement to wait and hope in him not crying out in their passions I shall one day fall by the hand of this evil but staying themselves on him in the worst of humane miseries and calamities Let me leave it with this Memento That thy condition is not such neither can ever any such state befall thee that either God hath not holpen in or cannot help in No temptations betide thee but what are common to the Saints and should there God can do that he never did as well as thou need that none ever had and being thy God and Creator thou mayest be sure his help shall alway be sufficient to thy needs for he will not forsake the work of his hands He can work and none shall let him He that said Let there be light and there was so in the world can say Let there be grace peace comfort and there shall be so in the heart Let there be truth and peace and there shall be so in the Church If God be your help then make him your hope in all conditions and cases publick or private Hath God broken your estates your families or man ruined them God can repair them Hath he broken his Church and People broken down her hedge so that the Boar of the Wood doth waste her and all the wild beasts of the Forrest devour her he can yet look down upon her and raise her up when lowest and throw down her enemies when highest Let the house of Aaron and Levi yea and all that fear the Lord trust in the Lord and ye that have no helper make him your hope and help Say This God is our God and shall be our guide to death I shall dismiss this branch of Application with an answer to these two Questions First What are the conditions upon which we may challenge help from God in an evil day Secondly What are the times and seasons when we may most confidently expect it All evils are reduceable to two general heads They are either Gods immediate visitations or humane afflictions and pâ—rsecutions The former of these I shall answer with special reference to the first the latter to the second First On what terms may Gods People expect help when he is going out in the way of his Judgements as Sword Pestilence c I shall but name these five conditions the discourse being swoln far beyond what it was intended First A religious severity which consists in an accurate walking before God in a day of prosperity and mercy a setting strait steps to his Kingdom a cleaving to him a dwelling in him as our habitation a maintaining strict and close communion with him Isa 32.17 The effect of righteousness shall be peace quietness and assurance for ever Communion with God in a good day layes a sure foundation for confidence in him in an evil He that remembers God in his high estate God will remember him in his low that makes God his song in Sun-shine daies shall finde him his strength in tempestuous times who give God a room in their hearts and houses in times of felicity shall have room in his Ark in the day of adversity Gen. 6.8 9. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord he was a just man and perfect in his generations and walked with God Whereas they who forsake God in the time of mercy he will forsake them in the time of extremity those who now turn the back on him he will then turn the face from Jer. 18.17 As they gave a deaf ear to the voice of his mercy shutting the door of their hearts to him he will give a deaf ear to the voice of their cry and shut the door of his grace on them Prov. 1.24 This also consists in an immunity from the sins of the times not only a sympathy of their sufferings but a freedom from their sins and defilements When a Christian saves himself from a perverse generation is unspotted with the times keeps his garments fair though he lives in a contagious Air yet preserves himself free from its infection and like the fish keeps the freshness of his grace though swimming in the salt-waters of sin and wickedness When out of an holy and reverential fear he dares not comply with but withstands opposes protests witnesses against and mourns for the abominations of the times This was Noabs carriage being warned of God and moved with an holy fear of his threatned Judgements he makes
Propugnaculum Pietatis THE SAINTS EBENEZER AND Pillar of HOPE in GOD when they have none left in the Creature OR THE Godly Mans Crutch or Staffe in Times Of Sadning Disappointments Sinking Discouragements Shaking Desolations Wherein is largely shewed The Transcendent Excellency of GOD His Peoples HELP and HOPE WITH The Unparallel'd Happiness of the SAINTS in their Confidence in Him overballancing the Worldlings Carnal Dependance both as to Sweetness and Safety Pourtray'd in a Discourse on Psal 146.5 By F. English The Righteous shall never be removed Prov. 10.30 But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Quis ei metus est cui Deus Tutor est Non labefactat mentem humanÌ„a molestatio quam corroborat divina protectio Cypr. LONDON Printed 1667. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THE vanity and emptiness of the Creature and the excellency and sufficiency of God the great and eternal Creatour are like two Chrystal Glasses which set one against the other give mutual light and illustration And our knowledge of God being more by negation than comprehension in this life the worlds blackness cannot but become a foil to set off his beauty with the more shining splendour and orient lustre These two first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ God ordinarily instills in our first conversion and convinceth us of with such light and evidence as they carry a remarkable accent with them and should leave upon us a more powerful and permanent tincture and impression Yet notwithstanding such is our dulness and stupidity in conning these our primary and principal lessons as we almost forget them as soon as we have learnt them For though at our first acquaintance and communion with God before our heads and hands come to be engaged in the world we are carried out with a vigorous prosecution of the one and led into an holy contempt and undervaluing of the base spoils of the other yet when once we and it come to grow familiars the interest of Heaven and Religion must vail and bow the knee to this our beloved darling and favourite How many set out forward and zealous Professors in the waies of godliness as if they had fully meant to have taken the Kingdom of Heaven by violence whose zeal and blessedness is now not to be found but of ring-leaders are proved renâ—gado's and of first become last They began to run well until stooping to take up the golden Apples in their way they stopt in their Christian race and acted their parts on the stage of prosession like Princes till the Nuts of worldly pleasure and gain being thrown by hand-fulls before them they discovered themselves no better than Apes By venturing to nibble at Satans pleasurable bait we are often catched with his deadly and destroying hook and by overmuch incumbring our selves with the world we become the best of us like Anselms bird which had a stone tied to her leg and pulled her down to earth as fast as she attempted an ascent to Heaven This heavy weight so besets us as we cannot run with patience the race set before us So that besides our initiation and first indoctrinating in the things that are excellent God is forced ever and anon to become our Monitor and catechize us anew at the school of the Cross in his wilderness speaking to our heart and by his word and works rubbing up our memories afresh with the meditations of what we first imbibed though now have lost the scent and savour of And it 's no other than free grace and infinite mercy in our heavenly Father to recall his extravagant Prodigals who will change their Fathers bread for the worlds husks and thus go out of Gods blessing into the warm Sun Would we indeed make use of the spectacles of the word we might plainly read the inscription of vanity yea vanity of vanities written on the forehead of all creatures and though never so short-sighted see an end of all created perfection But alas commonly we look at the wrong end of the prospective or look on the world in a multiplying-glass which represents it to our fancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great matter and on the great God in an extenuating which makes him appear little in our vain imaginations and so we entertain debasing thoughts of that eternal verity while we have high conceptions of these low and sublunary vanities And seeing these ear-remembrances suffice not for our conviction it 's but necessary and requisite God should finde out some other way of instruction for us wherein both our ear and eye should receive an impression And that they who would not learn by the teachings of the Word should have the voice of the Rod cry to them which though less articulate may yet become more significative And hath not God been a long time teaching us by his Providence as Abimelech did once the men of Succoth by briars and thorns and reading us a large lecture of the uncertainty of all created beings and comforts Hath he not with fire and sword been pleading with all flesh by the sore and dreadful calamity of the pestilence been ushering us into discipline Hath he not in his greatest severity overthrown some of us as he did Sodom and Gomâ—rrah by a most deplorable and lamentable fire in whose ashes is buried all our glory and hope and the blisters whereof will rise in our faces when it's flames are both extinguisht and forgotten The very mention whereof can be no other than a fire in our bones and whoever hath the spirit of a Christian cannot but by sympathy suffer and be offended at such a burning What English mans heart so stony as not to bleed within him or can his eyes contain from tears either to have heard or seen the metropolis of our Nation the royal and magnificent City of the Kingdom once the wonder of the world and even mirrour of all Christendom so beautiful for scituation numerous in people famous for riches strength beauty and honour levelled with the dust so as one stone 's not left on another and become a burning pile an heap of rubbish a place of desolation even in a moment Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis What ear was ever auditor of so awk and direful a knell as then alarum'd its Inhabitants What eye ever spectator of so dreadful and doleful a tragedy as was then acted on that noble theatre Who ever saw so devouring a fire or heard of such a dismal flame so sudden violent universal irresistible and to be feared irrepairable Surely what terrour and affrightment what amuse and amazement what horrour and even consternation of spirit this rueful spectacle seized the spirits of its beholders withall is impossible to divine and imagine Poor souls me-thinks I saw at a distance your pale faces trembling joynts weakned hands dedolent hearts who were in this so fatal a blow most nearly concerned methinks I hear you crying out to your friends and neighbours
deliverance 152 Application Inference Wherein The different character of the Godly from the Worldling and Hypocrite 155 His different priviledge 160 Wherein His advantage above them As to Peace and serenity ibid. Certainty and security 161 Supply and sufficiency ibid. The infelicity or cursed because desperate estate of the wicked 162 Both in the day of 1. Prosperity ibid. 2. Affliction 163 As to self and also creature-confidence 164 3. Death 165 The transcendent excellency of God above all created perfections in making the soul happy 169 The folly and danger of all oppositions against Gods People 171. and compliance with their enemies and oppressors 172 Examination Wherein Signs more general of our interest in God 174 Union with him in and through Christ 175 Covenant-obligation to him ibid. Acquaintance and communion 176 Sympathy and fellow-feeling 177 Suitable affections to him 178 Of high esteem ibid. Ardent Love 179 Earnest desire 180 Sweet delight 181 Firm resolution 182 Vehement endeavour and pursuit after him 183 Signs more special 184 1. Of making him our help ibid. Two Rejection of all creature-confidence ib. Exercise of sole and constant dependance ibid. 2. Of having him our Hope Wherein the Godly mans hope 185 Contradistinguisht from the Hypocrites as being 1. Grounded 186 2. Effectual 187 Wherein a sixfold discriminating vertue ibid. Purifying from sin ibid. Quickning to duty 188 Staying under temptations 189 Pacifying under delays 190 Raising above worldly expectations 191 Fortifying and confirming against all opposition 192 3. Stedfast and permanent 193 Reproof to Gods people who as if there were not a God in Israel go to Baalzebub the God of Ekron 194 Wherein shewed The greatness of the sin 195 Danger of the punishment ibid. â—isappointment of our hopes 196 â—mpair of our mercies 197 â—o feiture of divine protection 198 Comfort The godly man the only blessed man 200 Blessed In all his relations wherein concerned ibid. In all conditions whereinto cast 201 Of spiritual trouble under Desertions 202 Temptations ib. Corruptions ib. Outward under Wants and Exigencies 203 Fears and dangers 205 Losses crosses and disappointments ibid. Unkindnesses or oppositions ibid. Afflictions death it self 206 Excitation 1. To Christians to walk worthy divine help and influx 207 In the duties of 1. Thankfulness 208 2. Access to him 210 Wherein 1. The special seasons of address in A calm 216 A storm 217 Particularly under Pursuits of divine wrath ibid. Oppressions of Satans or humane violence ibid. Creature-disappointments 218 Unusual and extraordinary services ibid. Falls into sore distress ibid. Dying apprehensions 219 2. The manner how to make our addresses 220 By Soul-abasement and humiliation ibid. Renunciation of humane help 221 Prayer and supplication ibid. Faith and believing 223 Resolutions of return ibid. 3. Satisfaction and acquiescence in him 224 4. Return towards him 226 By improving help received In endeavours to advance Gods glory ibid. In communications to our Brethren 227 In their Soul necessities ibid. Bodily necessities 229 5. Confidence under tryals 230 Wherein 1. Objections answered arising 1. From our own unworthiness of divine help and influence 232 2. From our long disappointment ibid. God helps not alwaies Perfectly 233 Visibly 234 Presently 235 3. From the sadness of our state 238 2. Two Questions answered 241 On what terms divine help may be expected under the immediate visitations of Gods own hand ibid. On five conditions 1. A religious severity consisting In an immunity from the sins of the times ibid. An accurate walking before God ibid. 2. A fiducial and firm recumbency 243 3. A praying importunity 244 4. An exact integrity ibid. 5. A resolved singularity 245 At what special times may help be lookt for under the violences and persecutions of humane wrath 247 When Gods Cause and the whole interest of Religion hes at stake ibid. When a cloud of reproach is cast upon his peoples innocency 248 When all humane help disappears and fails ibid. When the enemies blaspheme Gods Name and insult over his people 249 When their spirits begin to sink and fail 250 Especially when truly humbled by their afflictions they seek him by faith and prayer ibid. 6. Adherence and cleaving to God alwaies with full purpose of heart 251 2. To sinners Direction Where to look for help out of their lapsed state 253 Exhortation To get an interest in God ibid. Motives Means An humble sense of their hopeless and helpless condition by nature 255 Flying to Gods mercy in Christ ibid. Engaging into and keeping covenant with him for ever 256 ERRATA PAge 1. line 11. for greedy read ravisht page 44. line 25. read ruining page 132. line 25. for no read not In the Title over the head of the Pages for Godly read Godlies THE GODLY PILLAR OF HELP PSALM 146.5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God HAppiness is a blessed word bigg-bellied with comfort and full fraught with satisfaction as full of sweetness as the Breast of Milk the Cane of Sugar or Comb of Honey as grateful and refreshing to the reasonable soul of man and much more the awakened and enlightened conscience of a Christian as the fountain is with its water to the thirsty Traveller or the Sun with its light to the greedy beholder Felicity is the grand attractive of every appetite and the common loadstone of all the desires of the Sons of men Its generale votum universalis supplicatio the unanimous vote and universal request of all mankind Who will shew us any good is language naturally spoken and almost worn thread-bare by the mouths of all men Psal 4.6 Whatsoever other difference runs in the current of humane opinions their affections herein are all tuned unisons and their musick is in consort As conformity to God in holiness is the most perfect intendment so in happiness is the most desirable attainment of men and Angels Who is it that would not be happy or though they affect no good in them desire not good to them Though few but disdain holiness in the way all design happiness in the end Even the Heathens themselves affected as well as conceived a Fools Paradise a Phanatick Elysium of bliss and happiness as well as Christians a real They entertained multiplied opinions about happiness some placing it in gifts of nature others of fortune by them so called a third sort of mind Some in pleasure some in profits and honours others in learning and natural or acquired endowments all in some external good and outward satisfaction They brake the shell and we gat the kernel they ran away with the notion and bare speculation we are blessed with its actual fruition For having otherwise learned Christ we know and believe This to be eternal life only to know God in Jesus Christ and that true happiness is bound up in God alone the first cause and last and utmost end the highest and chiefest good so tunes that heavenly Chorister Psal 73.25 after
deliverances for Jacob. Yea this is a firm coâ—clusion of her faith Isa 33.22 The Lord is oâ— Judge our Law-giver our King he will save 〈◊〉 They are stiled his portion and heritage Isa 54 1â— Deut. 32.9 As he is their so they his portioâ— and he will not suffer that to be wasted and eâ—bezelled His Jewels in comparison of whom aâ— the world besides are but as so much lumbeâ— Mal. 3.17 He will not admit their spoil oâ— plunder His Turtle Psal 74.19 which hath aâ—waies a sympathy with its mates affliction Hiâ— beloved favourites for whom he hath a choicâ— respect and endeared affection in whom hâ— takes singular delight and complacency Psaâ— 18.19 and 60.5 Their heart is set on God and his heart on them and because he loveth them he compasseth them with favour as with a shield Psal 5.12 The apple of his eye Zach. 2.8 Now as the eye is the tenderest part of the body so is the apple of the eye They are his hidden ones for privacy and value worth and excellency more excellent than their neighbours the least meanest of them more worth than all the world a people of whom the world is not worthy Heb. 11.38 His precious ones Isa 43.4 In comparison of whom all other are but vile in his account His holy ones Psal 86.2 which he will not suffer the world to prophane His chosen ones or the people of his choice The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar Treasure Psal 135.4 His redeemed ones or the people of his purchase Isa 43.3 which he will in no wise lose either by fraud or violence his Garden or Paradise wherein he delights Isa 58.18 His Vineyard which he both â—â—ters and watches every moment Isa 27.3 〈◊〉 a word his Jacob and Israel against whom â—â—ere is no inchantment or divination Numb 13. â—nd the work of his hands which he will in â—o case forsake Psal 138. ult And concerning â—hich he will not only be intreated but also comâ—anded Isa 45.11 There is a mutual interest â—â—d propriety between God and his People God â—â—th made over himself to them in the Covenant 〈◊〉 Grace and they have reobliged themselves to 〈◊〉 They are said to have surrendred or given â—o themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 He shall â—â—â—se our inheritance for us saith the Psalmist â—sal 47.4 They have a stock of prayers going â—â—th God and he hath a stock of mercy and â—ory going with them Their interests are so â—â—ited and twisted together as they cannot be â—â—vered His cause is concern'd in his People â—â—d his own honour highly ingaged upon their â—ccount yea the vindication of all his Attriâ—utes his Power Wisdom Holiness Mercy and Goodness Truth and Faithfulness is obliged in â—heir sublevation which else would be wholly â—â—â—t and utterly impaired in the world They â—re so linked in an holy league and sacred conâ—â—deracy with him That it 's observable in â—heir addresses to him in prayer against their â—nemies they level them as against Gods interest and not their own and all they need request is only that God may be glorified So Daâ—id Psal 83.2 Lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have lift up the head He doubts not to call his Gods enemies And so Asa in his solemn supplications put up to God oâ— the approach of that innumerable host against him 2 Chron. 14.11 O Lord saith he thou art 〈◊〉 God let not man prevail against thee Not us buâ— thee As Gods glory is bound up in the samâ— bundle with his Peoples eternal so is it also witâ— their temporal salvation Secondly In respect of the manifold Promise and Engagements he hath made to them Goâ— hath ingaged for their security and bounâ—â— himself for their protection as well as thâ— provision so far as is necessary They are stiled The People of his Covenant Psal 111.12 And thâ— stipulation is mutual They are in covenanâ— with God obliged to his service and devoted tâ— his fear O Lord truly I am thy Servant I aâ— thy Servant saith David Psal 116.16 They are engaged to walk in his waies and to be founâ— faithful And God is a God in covenant witâ— them and as they never leave him so will he never leave them in their enemies hand Psal 37.33 As they defend his glory so will he their intereâ—â— and cause If God be a God keeping Covenant even with them while in lesser things they some times break with him Psal 89 34. Much more will he keep Covenant with them while aâ— they fear him Though salvation be far from thâ— wicked his salvation is with them that fear him And as they are included in a general Covenant so have they entailed upon them many graciouâ— promises of special protection He hath said He will never leave nor forsake them Heb. 13.5 The same promise he made to all Israel Deut. 31.8 and made good to Joshua in person he also accomplisheth to all Believers He will not forâ—â—ke his People or cast off his Inheritance He will have compassion on his dwelling-place he will comfort Sion and chuse Jerusalem They have Gods promise for help and deliverance in the day of trouble Psal 50.15 which is good security They are under a reserved promise under the Judgements of Sword Famine or Pestilence Amos 9.8 Isa 33. Psal 91.10 Which kind of promises though not absolute engagements yet are seasonable directions and comfortable incouragements 〈◊〉 times of calamity and affliction They are alwaies prisoners of hope for by the blood of the Covenant God will send them out of the pit wherein there is no water Zach. 9.11 Covenants of old were confirmed by Sacrifices Psal 50.5 Jer. 34. Et caesa jungebant faedera porca Virgil The Lord Jesus Christ by the blood of his Covenant hath bought outward and common as well as saving and eternal mercies for his People Thirdly In regard of those conditions of obtaining Divine Help which are ever found in them They are under a fitness and aptitude of disposition to receive it There are four conditions or qualifications especially which make them meet for this divine influence which are to be found in them The first is of Humility or spiritual Poverty Psal 34.8 The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth them that be of a contrite spirit He beholds the proud afar off as scorning his tuition but he graciously beholds the humble Isa 66.2 In him the fatherless finde mercy A Father of the fatherless and Judge of the Widow is he out of his holy habitation Psal 68.5 6. The Lord helpeth those that are cast down The Lion puts as it were into his bosome those that bow before him or he down at his feet but tears in pieces them that run away from him or bid resistance to him so generous and noble is his nature and disposition satis est prostrasse And so doâ—s the Lion of the Tribe of Judah he
which keeps it up when the Lead of Fear would pull it down or the wing of the Bird that mounts it to Heaven while the stone tied to the legg forces it down to earth But for Hope the heart would break Now though mercy deferred may make the heart sick yet the desire coming is a tree of life Prov. 13.12 Good hope and consolation are like Castor and Pollux commonly in conjunction The Palm-trees motto is Hopes Depressa Resurgo Believing is a choice and singugular Cordial to preserve the Soul from fainting Thirdly From any unlawfull course to get out of affliction He that believes makes not haste Isa 28.16 He will not leap over hedge and ditch or finde any back-doors of escape but wait till God opens a way of deliverance The Souldier though besieged never so close will not deliver up the City if he hath any hope of relief The men of Jabesh were glad when Sauls messengers came and told them To morrow by that time the Sun was hot they should have help 1 Sam. 11.9 Be the case never so sad the Soul will wait for Gods help so long as it apprehends it self not desperate Hope is not too hasty for or greedy of mercy nor will not pluck the fruit thereof too soon before it be full ripe The patient though brought never so low if in the hands of a wise Physician still hopes to recover and is content as knowing the more desperate and tedious his sickness the more will the joy be of his cure The Captain though beaten by the Enemy will by no means yield and take quarter so long as he sees any probability of fighting him he is pleased with these thoughts the sharper the enâ—ounter once overcome the greater glory of the Victory The Christian knows Gods time is the â—est and therefore is willing to attend it and will not himself make his way out of trouble â—ut find it made by Gods hand for him he will â—ot pluck a prick out of his foot to put it into â—is heart but had rather carry about him a wounâ—ed skin or torn estate than a wounded Consciâ—nce rather choose to endure trouble which ends to ease than get a little ease at present which leads to and will end in trouble He dare â—ot shackle his Spirit to discharge his Body but â—ad rather be a Prisoner and for this hope bound with a chain than a Free-man without it David although heir apparent of the Kingdom by Gods Promise and in great danger of missing it by Sauls violence yet dare not make more haste than good speed by making his death a stirrup to ascend the Throne by nay though he had opportunity dare not take off his head for destruction though for his conviction he cut off the lap of his garment and that was animo renitente too but rather waited Gods time of his advance to it and settlement in it The Primitive Christians did not only not seek or offer themselves to a composition no but would not accept of deliverance on unworthy terms Heb. 11.35 That 's the first Hope secures against sin Secondly It doth admirably remedy affliction by sanctifying and sweetning of it To name no more it hath a four-fold energy in time of affliction each of which hath a wonderful tendency towards the souls blessedness First Vim quiescentem a calming and quieting vertue it stills and sedates the soul and does motos componere flucius The soul is still when it once knows it is God and his hand and is no more disquieted Psal 43. ult It 's filled with his peace which passeth all understanding tranquillo Deo tranquillant omnia ipsum quietum aspicere est quiescere It gives not God an ill word but holds its peace nay gives good words blesseth his name and saith Good is the Word of the Lord as David 2 Sam. 15.25 If I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both the Ark and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him It 's reported of a precious stone called Bufonites that cast it into the Sea and although it be never so tempestuous it will procure a calm This precious grace is hope which calms and settles the soul under its greatest tumults and commotions and staies it under its most restless inquietations The Rabbins tell us that all the letters in the name Jehovah are literae quiescentes Faith and hope can perfectly spell this his reverend name and out of every letter thereof gather a quickening lecture influential on the Christian to compose him into a serene temper under the greatest ruffles and discomposures he meets with in the world This lower Region is subject to storms and tempests but the upper Region is serene and clear no storms above the Moon and Historians report that they which are at the top of the Alps can behold great showres fall underâ—â—eath them but not a drop above or upon them Hope mounts the soul up to God advanceth it to Heaven and then 't is out of the dint of every storm and reach of every tempest whatsoever Secondly It hath vim sublevantem a supporting and sustaining vertue Faith and hope are like Jachim and Boaz the Pillars of Solomons the support of the souls Temple They are not only kept in perfect peace but securely too whose minds are stayed on him Isa 26.3 4. The fear of man brings a snare but whoso trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 He that confides in God dwells in his holy mountain Isa 57.13 Is as Mount Sion which cannot be removed Mole-hills may be scattered but Mountains are immoveable God is a buckler saith the Psalmist to all that trust in him Psal 18.30 The soul can never be cast down that hath hope to lift it up No sooner Davids spirit and countenance under a dejection but hope gives it anâ— erection and elevation A secret hope will bear up the soul under the sorest trials and temptations even though pressed down above measure so as to despair of life yet this Pillar will shore it up from tottering and falling as it did Paul 2 Cor. 1.7 8 9. Thirdly Vim consolantem a comforting power It will not only quiet the soul make it stand still and see the Lords salvation and cause it to glorifie God in the fires but rejoyce it also give it musick upon the waters alwaies most ravishing Rom. 15.13 The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing So 1 Pet. 1.8 Yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The Prophet having pronounced the blessedness of hoping in God Jer. 17.8 illustrates it by the metaphor of Palms or Lawrels Myrtles and Olive-trees which retain their greenness and endure under the scorching heats of the Sun and are alwaies flourishing and prosperous God is a Sun for consolation as well
we joyned to him by the same spirit does he dwell in our hearts by faith is he in us and we in him and abides in us as the hope of our glory our interest in him is a sure and infallible evidence of our interest in the Father He is the only Jacobs ladder whereby we can climb up to communion with the God of Jacob. His foot is on Earth but his top in Heaven The second is our covenant obligation to him I entred into a covenant with thee saith God and thou becamest mine Ezek. 16.8 Isa 55.3 There is a mutual covenant between God and his People as he hath engaged for their salvation so have they for his service O Lord I am thy Servant quoth David and so the Church Micah 4.5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever She gives up her self to God not only in a way of single considence but resolute obedience The relations are mutual between God and his People he becomes theirs and they his They are betrothed in the marriage-covenant to him in judgement righteousness tender mercies and faithfulness and they know the Lord. Art thou then O soul brought into covenant with God hast thou broken off that accursed league with sin and Satan by righteousness and engaged thy soul solemnly to become a faithful servant to him as thy only Liege-Lord and no other Art thou resolved to fear love and serve him in holiness and righteousness all the daies of thy life and to glorifie him in thy soul body and spirit which are his Thy engagement for his glory is an hopeful sign of his engagement for thy good Thirdly Intimate acquaintance and indeared communion with him Abraham had great interest in God and as great acquaintance with him We may see in Sodoms case how boldly he goes to him Friendship with God breeds an holy familiarity So Moses had a large share in Gods favour and God spake to him face to face and he talked with him again as a man with his familiar friend There are sweet communications of counsel between God and a gracious soul Our fellowship is with the Father 1 Joh. 1.3 David was a man after Gods own heart and had intimate acquaintance with God went to him by faith and prayer on all occasions It 's good for me saith he to draw near to God and one daies communion with him is worth a thousand It was said of Charls the great he conversed more with God than men As all communion is founded in union so true union discovers it self by flowing forth in acts of communion Now Christian what communion maintains thy soul with God in prayer private secret in meditation in publick Ordinances Is it thy meat and drink thy joy and rejoycing to work righteousness and meet him in his waies Thou canst have no interest in God if thou livest without him in the world nor canst call him Father truly if thou hast not or dost not know him Fourthly Sympathy and fellowship with him Gods interest and the souls are not two but one they are like two Turtles if one dies the other never lives comfortably after but sorrowing for the loss of her Mate God is sensible of and well-pleased with all the good done to his People his language is Inasmuch as ye have done it to these ye have done it to me And his people are affected with and rejoyce in all the glory is brought to him and had rather lose their comfort than their God should lose his honour They desire he alone should be magnified and are willing to be made stirrups for him to rise by though it be by their utter downfall And as they are satisfied in each others good so sensible of each others evil God sympathizeth with his Peoples sufferings In all their afflictions he is afflicted And they with his affronts and injuries The interest of God lies nearer their hearts than any thing else in the world They count not their own lives dear so they may but save his honour and so he be magnified though they be reproached impoverished imprisoned bamshed pâ—rsecuted they think themselves well apaid What sympathy hast thou with Gods cause and interest dost thou account the glory brought to him as good done to thee and take the injuries he suffers as offered to thy self Canst thou wish thy self a shield to sence off those dishonours which are cast on the face of thy Lord and Master Art thou meek as a Lamb in thy own cause but fierce as a Lion in Gods zealous for the Lord God of Israel how art thou affected when thou hearest his holy Name torn by the black mouths of the wicked and their tongues set on fire from Hell when thou seest his Creatures abused his Ordinances prophaned his People trampled under foot his Truth despised his Attributes blasphemed his Sabbaths unhallowed his Worship polluted If thou beest in the relation of a Son thou wilt not endure to see one spit on thy Fathers face or an ingenuous Servant wilt not bear thy Masters wrong behind his back Fifthly Suitable affections Where there is interest in God all the affections of the soul have their out-goings after him Thou hast First An high esteem and valuation of him Whom have I in Heaven but thee Interest raiseth estimation The Father esteems his Child and the Husband his Wife and so vice versà above all other though they be deformed and others beautiful they weak and others healthful they rich and others poor they ignorant and others learned and knowing because of their propriety in them A Saint values God above all the world above all things visible or invisible counts all loss dross and dung in comparison of him He alone is to him the Pearl of true price Gods People are precious to him above all others and so is he to them likewise They will part with all for him preferring him before all and venture all rather than lose their hold of him or sacrifice their interest in him omnia levia preterquam quod tui carendum How stands their esteem poised Secondly Thou hast an ardent and affectionate love towards him I will love the Lord my strength saith holy David Psal 18.1 Self-interest makes a man love his own Whom believing we love The applications of faith are alwaies seconded with the imbraces of love He that hath God for his God hath had experience of his love in Christ some tastes of his love shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost and he cannot but love him by whom he was first loved This love constrains him Amor meus Pondus meum Does mercy love misery and shall not misery love mercy beauty affect deformity and shall not deformity re-affect beauty glory shine on dust and they not reflect on glory Nimis durus animus qui etsi amorem non vult impendere tamen non vult rependere Bernard
Providences gracious and mercifull Benedictions he hath a right to all spiritual blessings pardon of sin peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost grace and glory and all temporal mercies too the fatness of the Earth as well as the dews of Heaven the Nether as well as the Upper Springs All is his by right and inheritance and shall be by possession if good for him As a stranger from God is universaily cursed so is one united to him universally blessed He may say God hath dealt graciously with me and I have enough Gen. 33.11 Secondly He is also happy in all Estates and Conditions Nothing amiss can befall and betide a Christian Though never so evil in it self Gods Power and Providence can work it for good Art thou under desertions yet thou art happy His lest hand is under thee and his right hand embraceth thee Thou art graven upon the palms of his hands so as to be no more defaced or obliterated and thy walls are continually before him Hast thou lost thy hold of God he hath still his hold on thee canst thou not cast thy self and roll thy Soul on Christ in the Promise yet when thou comest out of the Wilderness thou mayst lean on the arm of thy beloved Though thy Soul be never so much in the dark thou hast the staffe of Jacob to lean on and needest never fear stumbling especially falling for the Lord also upholds thee by his hand Psal 33.24 Art under Temptations still thou mayst be happy Thy Redeemers Intercession is a shore of thy Faith and pillar of thy Perseverance Luk. 22.32 Though weak in thy self with the Conies thou mayst fly to the Rocks When pursued by that mighty Nimrod and hunter of Souls and furiously chased by the avenging Executioner of Divine wrath haste into the arms and bosom of thy Saviour which stand extended on the Cross and are now wide open to receive thee When these proud waters overwhelm thee swim to that impregnable Rock of his Merits which is higher than thou and then thou mayst like a man gotten on the top of a rock in the midst of the Sea outbraving with an invincible courage and undaunted resolution all the waves and billows about him dare Satan to do his worst against thee Though the Beast makes warre against thee being a follower of the Lamb God is on thy side and stands by thee in the combat this Dragon shall not swallow thee up the Lord will rebuke him yea tread him under thy feet shortly Though thy own heart be a Traitor thy God is thy Keeper Art thou engaged with strong and violent corruptions do these Masters of misrule bid controll to Gods grace in thee and is the battell so sharp as sometimes the flesh seems to overcome the Spirit thy pride passion unbelief earthly-mindedness are too hard for thee be not discouraged Though thou beest foiled thou shalt not be overcome sin shall not have dominion over thee though it may tyrannize against thee but those thine enemies that will not bow before the Scepter of Christs Soveraignty shall be slain before his face and very shortly those Egyptians thou seest to day thou shalt see no more for ever Art thou exposed to wants and exigencies The Lord is thy Shepherd and he will supply thee as to thy spiritual and also thy temporal condition Dost thou want the presence of Divine Ordinances are all these Conduits stopt and windows shut God will himself be a Tabernacle to thee he will prepare a Table for thee in the Wilderness spread with all the delicious sweet-meats of grace and comfort and the Sun of Righteousness shall arise on thee with healing in his wings Dost thou want Creature-comforts The Earth is the Lords Granary and the fullness thereof and the Sea thy Fathers Fish-pond and therefore thou shalt have what either can afford thee Art thou sequestred of all that is dear and precious in thine eyes Thou hast yet a Deus providebit to live on a Promise to bear thee up that God will never forsake thee all things shall be added to thee Qui majora curat non minora negliget The Accessory follows the Principal There is no Promise indeed of adding Spirituals upon our seeking Temporals but there is of adding the things of Earth if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven Thou shalt have food and raiment in the way wherein thou art to goe enough though not too much according to Gods will though it may be not thine own bread for thy body though not for thy lusts to satisfie thee though not surfeit content though not cloy thee God will give thee the World as a blessing though not lade thee with this thick clay as a burden As thou hast the sure Mercies of David whereof none can deprive thee so thou shalt have all external accommodations or at least a proportion between thy Heart and Condition wherein the only comfort of life consisteth Art thou compassed about with fears and dangers of enemies or evils imminent or impendent Let not thine heart be troubled for Mercy compasses thee about on every side As Elisha told his servant 2 King 6.16 There are more with thee than are against thee Thou hast a guard of Angels round about thee yea Christ himself for thy Protector And Fortior est Christus caput Ecclesiae ad protegendum quam Diabolus hostis Ecclesiae ad oppugnandum Cyprian This may be a bottom of confidence and sufficient ground and encouragement to the People of God in the darkest and gloomiest day the most evil and discouraging time and serve to allay and antidote all their fears and misgivings of heart that they have an infinite and everlasting God for their help and have everlasting strength wisdom faithfulness mercy and compassion engaged for them Men count it an happiness to have a Cottage of their own to hide their heads in God is his Peoples shelter Sanctuary and hiding-place under all their scatterings and dispersions oppressions and oppositions they meet with in the World The Lord knows how to deliver the Godly out of all their temptations The Apostle brings it down to an experience He delivered Lot and he knows how to deliver us It 's all one to have no storm or to have an hiding-place Under all private injuries and oppressions we may trust in God who is a present help and go to him with the Prophet Jeremiah's words in our mouths when the men of Anathoth sought his life Jer. 11.20 To thee O Lord do I reveal my cause and be confident as he was cap. 20.11 of deliverance or as Hezekiah when Rabshaketh opened his mouth so wide against Heaven he went and spread the Letter before the Lord. Though a man meets with nothing but incivilities unkindnesses discouragements disappointments reproaches persecutions and violences from men yet there is enough in one God to counter-ballance all God will work all mischiefs about for good and as for Enemies in the Name of the Lord we may go
to bring light out of darkness and Heaven out of Hell Gods ways are often in the Deep and his paths hidden and unknown Thou hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour The Devil first comes with the sweetest and at last with the sharpest God on the contrary makes a sad beginning but a blessed and comfortable end ye have seen the end of the Lord. God indeed usually comes to the wicked first with a blessing and last with a judgement but to his people first with a judgement and last with a blessing The wicked have the top of the Cup of mercy but the dregs of that of wrath The Saints sip of the Cup of wrath but have the bottom of that of mercy Now the further off the approaches of mercy are the more invisible The Prophet speaks of the Interstitium between the Law and the Gospel that it should be a day half dark and half light Zech. 14.8 And 't is alwayes darkest and coldest a little before break of day We are no competent Judges of divine operations God was in that place and Jacob knew it not we often fear a Devil of fury when there 's nothing but an Angel of mercy and look not on that side of the Picture which hath the face of a beautifull Virgin but the other that hath the affrighting look of an ugly and deformed Monster Manoah when God came to visit him thought he came to murder him when God comes to comfort us then we are well-pleased but let him come to humble refine and purge better and reform us then we cry out Undone We are sensible when he gives us fuller assurance but not when he works in us more holiness So let Christ appear in his glory in his Church let him give her a Year of Jubilee then her Children lift up their heads but let him appear in the prefiguring signs and shake all Nations come with Fire and Sword then mens hearts tremble for fear and scarce is faith to be found in the Earth But the infinitely wise God hath private Channels and Conveyances of grace which are not a whit less sure because more hidden and secret And thirdly not presently As God works not according to our modell so he takes his own time That leads to the second He alwayes observes not nay seldom or never our time Christ would do nothing before his hour came It is not for us to know the times and seasons which God hath reserved in his own Power All things shall not do at present work together for good take the whole piece when finisht and it will appear excellent God hath an appointed time which once come mercy shall stay no longer Exod. 12. ult The very same day Israel went out of Egypt by their armies In that instant Daniel was praying the seventy weeks being determined comes a Dove with a Letter in its wing an Angel flying to him with intelligence of the return of their Capâ—iviâ—y There is a set time when he will have mercy on Sion God sent his Son in the fulness of time When the Ammorites sins be full he will judge them though it be four hundred years first he had not forgotten them one day with him is as a thousand and a thousand years but as yesterday as a Watch in the night And when Gods peoples graces be at the full he will then come and save them He gathers his fruit when once ripe God does not alwayes ride post or mercy come on the wing but though it be long first it shall surely come at last and the longer in coming the better and more welcom mercies soon ripe are soon rotten soon gotten soon lost but those which cost us dear and are the fruit of many prayers tears and sorrows and results of much faith and hope waiting and patience are sweetest and surest our Benjamins and most beloved darlings God hath bound himself by promise to his people for the thing but not for the time and he does not therefore observe the soonest but the seasonablest time nor so confider our need as not also to respect our fitness and so his own glory He can work when he pleaseth Nullum tempus occurrit Regi and if he does not when we desire it 's but a just requital for as his time was not ours in coming to him so 't is but equal our time should not be his in coming to us But yet his delaies are no denials and mercy may be nearest when it seems furthest off Faith knows Gods time is the best and is willing to stay for its portion till he pleaseth to pay it alwaies saying Not mine but thy will be done If God comes not ad horam he will ad salutem the longer the Physick remains in the body of the Patient the more effectual will be its operation And the longer the vessel of prayer be gone the greater lading it brings with it when it once comes home Hasty births commonly miscarry and how sad a case will it be to lose a mercy or have it spoiled and have half a mercy instead of it for want of a little longer waiting The Souldier will be vexed to purpose if he delivers the Castle when as if he had staid but a few daies longer relief had come certainly What gat Saul by posting the Sacrifice before Samuel came It might have cut him to the heart if it did not to think that had he waited but a few daies longer he had saved both his life and his Kingdom Impatience hath lost or impaired many a mercy God will grant our patient sober submissive requests but never in mercy our restless and too importunate desires These make him often give us royal favours in anger and let his wrath enter our souls while yet our meat is in our mouths The Church had learnt better manners than to be so hasty so quick and snatching Isa 26.9 In the way of thy Judgements have we waited for thee It 's too great a boldness to make our watch a rule for Gods Sun our seeming distructions often usher in our deliverance and our too great haste for deliverance oft proves our destruction But thirdly We may say our case is sad our misery great we are under sore trials and temptations have met with many disappointments so as we have no hope our case is desperate our disease is grown incurable To which I answer the sadder our condition the more hope The greater mans misery the more Gods pity and deeper our affliction the higher his affection It 's the more honour to God to work when others have thrown it up and the greater glory to this heavenly Physitian to do the cure when 't is grown opprobrium medicorum the scorn to all others God delights to come in at a strait to know his People in a day of adversity To stay till all our power be gone our hope perished and we have given over praying seeking waiting hoping and expecting and given up all for lost
who will ever set upon that of which he hath no hopes of accomplishment and who ever will go to God that can go any where else It 's a following lying vanities and forsaking our own mercies a running from the fountain of everlasting waters and hewing out broken cisterns It laies us under a curse and that a dreadful one Jer. 17.5 13. Cursed is he that makes flesh his arm All that forsake thee shall be ashamed and that depart from thee their names written in the Earth than which nothing more sad and dismal A cursed change it is to leave God and go to the Creature such confidence commonly ends in shame and confusion Dependance on the Creature forfeits divine protection it clips the wings of mercy It 's a going out of Gods blessing into the warm Sun Nay the Hypocrites bow which never aims right on at the mark is not only erring and deceitful but often recoils and proves to him deadly and destructive They who repose in humane help do not only miss of the prosperity and safety which by these means they made account to attain to but bring evils on themselves which they both sought and thought to escape and lose the lives they went about so industriously to save And indeed God takes himself highly wronged by this abuse at the hands of his People and will sooner or later say to them as to Israel Judg. 10. Go to the gods ye have chosen and see if they can deliver you See how God threatens them Isa 30.12 15. In returning and rest I would have saved you and ye would not but ye said no we will flee upon horses therefore shall ye flee They who will not rest on God shall be forced to run for all the creature May I not say to you as once Saul to the people revolting to David Can the Son of Jesse give you Vineyards and Olive-yards Can the creature give you souls satisfaction in its fullest enjoyment and can it afford you relief in the day of distress Can these gods of your own making arise and save you Can they chear your hearts when God is frowning succour you when Satan is tempting comfort you when the world is failing Can they give you any peace in an hour of trouble ease under horrours of pain life under pains of death settlement and composure in a day of distraction and confusion have you not sufficiently experienced and so may be effectually convinced of the vanity of the whole arm of flesh That all flesh is as grass that fadeth and the flower thereof that withereth That men of low degree are vanity and of high degree a lye That there is no salvation in Hills or Mountains no help in Princes Senates Armies Navies if God does but blow upon them Have you not by sad and wofull experience known the failure of friends contingency of estates the uncertainty of worldly advancements the moth the worm the dying perishing nature that is in all created comforts and contentments and will ye yet lean upon these weak bulrushes and make his your refuge May not God say to you as once to his People Numb 14.11 How long will it be ere ye believe me Nay may not God justly leave you when ye have first left him and then what will become of you To which of all the Saints will ye turn what will ye do in the day that he comes out to visit Suppose God coming out with the glittering sword in the one hand nay he is come out already and the destroying Plague in the other and fire and famine become his followers whither will ye fly where will ye hide how shall you escape or endure his fierce wrath and burning indignation what will you do in the day of your calamity or where will you leave your glory Well to close this point for I would hope better things of all you that fear God though I thus speak know assuredly that by going from God your Centre unto the Creature you will either run into the mouth of danger like a bird far from her nest never under such danger of the snare you cannot be established but may be as they were Jude 5. for their unbelief destroyed or however you will cut short the arm of mercy and deliverance As impatient snatching at mercy makes it not half so sweet fruits pluckt too soon or raw eaten commonly gripe Jacob had not only a blow but a piece of a curse a deal of turmoil and trouble with his blessing because he would be his own Carver and not stay to receive it at his heavenly Fathers hand and discontented murmurs and repinings against God under affliction cut short of mercy and salvation a sad instance whereof we have in those two prime Leaders of Israel Moses and Aaron Numb 20.12 Because they believed not the Lord to sanctifie him before the eyes of Israel they were not priviledged to lead the Congregation into the good Land So confident reposes in the Creature without God or conjunction of it in our dependance with him will certainly breed in the issue disappointment and destruction and the soul that with Babylon sits Lady-like in its Chair of State and Ease will become a Widow and desolate in one day And which is the great aggravation of the misâ—ry of all such confidence the more we lean and greater stress we lay on any creature-comfort when God comes once to blast it and take it away as 't were by a stroke it will become so much the greater cross and so much affliction we may expect from it as we have had affection to it and placed dependance upon it Put not your trust therefore in man or place your confidence in bare Creatures for whose shoulders an immortal Soul carries too great a burden but Trust in the Lord from henceforth and for ever Let me conclude this with the Prophets advice Jer. 9.23 Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his might nor the rich man in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in the Lord And with that of the Psalmist Psal 62.8 10. Trust not in Oppression if riches increase set not your heart upon them But trust in him at all times and finally with that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.17 Trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God Fourthly Solamen ministrat This Doctrine comes full fraught with comfort and speaks abundant and matchless consolation to all the People of God who have this Interest in him and exercise dependance upon him as their hope and help The godly man is the only blessed man The World may count and call her darlings happy but no such blessedness to be found as in the fruition of God and derivations from him Blessed he is First In all his Relations and concernments as to his spiritual state and as to his temporal He having an interest in God hath an interest in all that is Gods all his Attributes Relations Promises
veho in his mouth if I perish I perish and can confidently look danger bonds death in the face being willing with Paul for the hope of Israel to be bound with this chain Act. 28.20 As holy fear so this invincible faith and undaunted courage is an evident token of salvation and that from God Phil. 1.28 Whom in the world should God help if not them that help with him or stand close to if not those who stand fast to him distinguishing duty shall certainly be rewarded with distinguishing mercy Secondly At what special times may Gods People look for help in time of mens violence and oppression Let me resolve that one question in case the cause of the People of God should be brought to an extremity and leave it with them as a fortification of their hopes and spirits Now though as it 's impossible for us infallibly to determine the periods of Gods grace to sinners when abused so the times and seasons of his giving out mercy and salvation to his People when wanted times being in his hand yet so far as we have the Scripture for our guide we may assign some particular and extraordinary cases wherein help is promised and so may be justly expected As First When Gods Cause lies a bleeding and the general concern and interest of Religion is at stake God is jealous for his great Name Thus Joshua pleads when Israel fell before their enemies in battel cap. 7.9 And Jeremiah cap. 14.9 We are called by thy Name leave us not and vers 21. Do not abhor us for thy Names sake do not disgrace the Throne of thy glory When the enemy houted Gods People pointing with the finger at them These are the People of the Lord he had pity for his holy Name Ezek. 36.21 When the whole interest of Religion and Gods people must go off at a blow God will step between the Axe and them We have such a memorable example of this in Gods deliverance of the whole body of the Jews from Haman's conspiracy as the defeatment thereof may be a standing encouragement to his people in all ages Secondly When a cloud of reproach and scandal is cast upon his Peoples innocency and integrity and thereupon ariseth an unjust oppression of them This was Job's case all along his Friends falsly accused him but his God did compurgate him and so Davids as appears almost in every Psalm where he now appeals to God and makes protests of his innocency as Psal 7.3 then prays for relief Psal 38. ult and 71.11 12. and 109.26 professeth his hope in God notwithstanding Psal 35.15 promiseth himself redress Psal 37.6 So Jeremiah cap. 20.11 and the Church Mic. 7.8 10. who promise themselves salvation and prophesie their enemies destruction upon their slanders and scandals cast upon them God will take part with his people what is done to them he takes as done to himself whether in way of kindness or abuse As they vindicate his Name and glory in the World so will he theirs from all reproach put upon it Thirdly When there is a failure and disappointment of all humane help This is the Psalmists argument Psal 44. ult and the ground of his plea Psal 79.8 Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low When Pharaoh said The Israelites were intangled the Wilderness had shut them in God comes and cuts a passage for them Exod. 14.3 God commonly helps his People at the lowest the taking the weakest part is to him no disadvantage When vain is the help of man and the cause is concluded desperate for want of an Advocate then God is called in by our Prophet Psal 12.1 Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth Cum nemini obtrudi potest Psal 116.6 I was brought low and he helped me When Sion is called an Outcast and no man seeks after her then God chooseth to have mercy on her Jer. 30.17 Fourthly When the Enemies of Gods Truth and Cause blaspheme his Name and insult and triumph over his people Whom hast thou reproached saith God to Rabshaketh Isa 37.23 There 's the ground of his appearance against him The King of Heaven may pardon his Peoples rebellions but revilings are too saucy for subjects to give or the infinite and eternal God to bear from a vile worm a sinfull and mortal creature It 's time for God to arise when wicked men thus make void his Law and so far usurp upon his Supremacy and Prerogative as to offer a competition with him who he or they shall be Lord Controller in the World When the Assyrians talked blasphemously that God was the God of the hills and not of the valleys therefore did he deliver them into Israel's hand 1 King 20.28 God dare wrastle or engage with them though on disadvantagious ground This argument the Church useth for deliverance Psal 74.10 and strongly urgeth Psal 79.10 11 12. and the cruelty and blasphemy of the enemy may prevail with God sometimes when cannot the Prayers of his Saints and People Isa 47.6 7 8. God will save the afflicted People and bring down the high and proud looks Psal 18.27 It 's observable when God assigns to his people the reason of the expulsion of the Nations and the introduction of Israel in their room he gives it thus Not for your righteousness but their wickedness Deut. 9.5 when Saints holiness cannot avail for mercy sinners iniquity may call for justice Fifthly When the spirits of the Saints begin to despond and fail and yet are carried out with serious humiliation for their sin and recovering these fits and qualms with out-goings of Faith and Prayer to Heaven When Christ comes there will scarce be Faith in the Earth when the hearts of Gods people begin to swoon he will contend no longer lest their spirits should fail before him When the wicked are flesht and pufft up with vain hopes God breaks their bones asunder and their horn in pieces when Gods people are as dry bones he lifes and fleshes them Ezek. 37. When the Question is asked By whom shall Jacob arise for he is small the answer is The Lord repented for this Amos 7.2 3. God will not always suffer the rod of the wicked to rest on the lot of the righteous lest he puts forth his hand to iniquity Psal 125.3 God passes by his People when as tall Cedars and beholds them when low and weak Shrubs he delights in them when in an abject low condition and shews them mercy When the Locusts do most over-run the Cassians then the Seleucidian Birds come and are their devourers and destroyers God is willing his people sometimes should be brought to that pass that they know not whither to turn that so they may know what their God can and will bring about for them When Gods people are laid upon their backs then is a fit time for him to take them up into his arms and put them into his bosom Especially when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled by their
afflictions though oft-times not so sincerely at least not throughly God will come in for their help as Judg. 10. 2 Chron. 12. Especially where there is a spirit of true humiliation Faith and Prayer that conjunction is a sure Prognostick of mercy and sign of deliverance Zach. 12.10 compared with cap. 13.1 No sooner Daniel begins his Prayer but the Captivity makes its end Hos 5. ult I will goe to my place till they acknowledge When they come to seeking God soon comes to saving God never puts his people hard on begging or inclines them to asking but he stands ready handed with and fully bent and disposed to mercy When the Sea gets into the Ship and Peter cryes out Christ reacheth out his arm to save him Sixthly Let this be a ground of adherence and firm conjunction and cleaving to God at all times always cleave to this God who is such an help with full purpose of heart As Ruth to Naomi going where he goes and living where he lives Let nothing separate you from your God Like the Spaniel couch close to your Master It 's good for you to draw near to God lose all rather than lose him part with all the World before him Better God your Friend to stand by you than all the World without him God is faithfull to you be you so to him and though all else do do not you forsake him Forget your Kindred and Fathers house love not father or mother wise or children house or land but hate them if coming in competition with him Throw off your Father as holy Jerom said though he hangs about your neck and trample on your mother though she lay in the way to go out unto him Give not up the cause of God to Satan or the common Enemy because ye meet with a little trouble Though the Captain hath not present relief he will not deliver up the City if in any hope or expectation of it but hold out if possible he knows not how nigh he is relief Sacrifice not God's interest help may come before you expect it Christians on your first coming in you gave your selves up to the Lord and indeed as that Noble person said In undertaking Religion you might be deceived if you thought to save any thing but your Souls Oh take heed of making a breach of promise Take heed of using any sinister course any unlawfull and indirect means to evade the sufferings of the Gospel never accept a deliverance which is worse than bondage better have help Gods way than your own as finding it than as making it Infinitely farr better that trouble which ends in peace than that peace which ends in trouble Fight therefore the good fight of Faith so as at last ye may lay hold on the Crown of eternal life So run as ye may obtair Go on securely and couragiously in the way of your duty whatsoever occurres fear the Lord only and keep his way Esther though under strict interdiction yet ventures to approach the King having fasted and prayed with her Maydens in hope of divine benediction The Apostles though under a prohibition if not a suspension to preach chuse to obey God before man Act. 5.29 Be neither drawn or courted by the fawning allurements of the world nor yet frighted by it's terrours to give up or in in your profession Take our Saviours advice Luk. 12.4 Fear not him that can only kill the body but rather him that can destroy both body and soul in Hell Lastly A word to sinners and strangers from God and his hope and help concludes all This offers first a word of direction to poor sinners whether they must go for help They are all lapsed fallen creatures plunged into a state of guilt and corruption brought under the supremacy and dominion of Satan and have no power or sufficiency of themselves to recover but God alone is their help Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help to be found Man fell by his own free will but cannot recover without Gods free grace Homo libertatem quam accepit nisi Christo liberante non recipit as Saints therefore must bless him so sinners go to him as their only help go to him for light life by Prayer in the use of Ordinances which are media cultus and gratiae too and though God will not hear you as sinners he may as creatures Secondly Labour all to get an interest in God that he may be your help Time may nay will come when you will stand in need of an help You may have many storms in your journey to eternity It 's good in a Sun-shine to provide for a storm A day of affliction may come of death and dissolution must come A sword a plague a fire a famine a captivity may come and what will ye do in the evil day All worldly helps will then be in vain ye may kindle a fire of your own sparks but the end will be to lye down in sorrow You may with him that took up an hand-full of Gloworms in a dark night hope to warm your fingers with them but it will be a false fire and afford no heat with its light These Gloworms may shine till you come to the light of Sun or Candle These fair-fac'd nothings may please till you come to be convinced of a better beauty but then will vanish What will it profit to have a little comfort from them for a moment and at last be cast into the hellish dungeon Though ye have all creatures for you and God against you your case is as sad and miserable as had you God for you and all the world against you it were comfortable Time may come too that you may have all the world against you and the Devil too yea your own consciences and what will ye do if ye have not a God a Christ to stand for you Created-comforts cannot help you if God hath once forsaken you though he can supply their absence who is the Sun of Righteousness and make day though there be not the star of any creature visible yet they cannot his If the Sun be gone down it 's night for all the stars They have no Oyl for themselves much less can afford to others There is no trust in riches friends men Angels they are all a vain hope The Parent may leave his Child the Husband his Wife the friend his friend when time of trial comes God hath stood on Mount Ebal and blasted all carnal confidence as well as on Mount Gerizim and blessed confidence in himself Yea he may justly give us up to our own trust and those things we have confided in if we repose in any thing short of himself so he did them Jer. 2.28 And will the creatures Mantle be a sufficient covering to us Will the great Tree of outward mercies profession priviledges protect us under the soaking and lasting storm of Gods wrath The whole 49 Psalm is a conviction of the vanity of all the Pageantry of this world They are as birds or a string that at one time or other will deceive us And is not God in the mean time a necessary free universal sole sufficient help Who ever trusted in the world and was not deceived and who ever trusted in God and was disappointed The ends of the earth look to him and are saved O cease then from these lying vanities and endeavour to make God your God that so he may become your help And if you would do so labour first to get an humble sense of your own helpless and hopeless condition by nature Bethink your selves and see the plague of your own hearts As long as the soul hath any crutch to lean on it will never go alone while it knows whither to run it will never go to its God O labour to be weary and heavy laden in your selves and disclaim all creature-dependance as Paul did Phil. 3.7 8. Renounce all for Christ and Gods free grace and mercy in him And when in this wilderness lean on the arm of your Beloved Secondly Fly to Gods Name and Covenant by faith in Christ If ever God be yours it must be through Christ For there is no other Name God hath laid help on his almighty arm you must lay your hope there All Gods help runs through Christ he hath determined never to pardon one guilt or give out one dram of grace but through his blood He is the only daismen the true Sampson by whose strength the heavy weights of sin and wrath may be removed your souls All the souls fresh springs are in him He is the well head of salvation Without union no interest or influence No flying or abiding Gods presence escapeing or enduring his wrath unless your souls get under the skirt of his love He that would have interest in God by any other proxy must expect salvation by a deputy only O come to him then by faith venture on him as the Lepers did on the Camp 2 King 7 s. Do not only take Ropes about your necks and put Sackcloth about your loyns but come before this King of Heaven he is a merciful King And thirdly and lastly Strike Covenant with God enter into a confederacy with him Kings keep those confederate and in league with them The wickeds is a vain a strumpets confidence that challenge God as their Father and Husband and yet wantonize from him and care not for his company and communion Jer. 3.4 A good conscience only is the ground of a good hope and conndence 1 Pet. 3.16 God may help and save by the wicked but never will he be the Saviour of them Break off from sin then by righteousness and engage in yea keep covenant with God There 's a league both offensive and defensive between God and his People and the Promise made to Abraham observing the conditions stands good to all his faithful children Gen. 15.1 If we walk before God and be perfect he will be our shield and our exceeding great reward To conclude all with the Apostles options Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost And 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work FINIS