men build Castles in the Air and dream of more mercy than they finde true dream they eat and when they awake are an hungry The godly carry a low sail and commonly dream of less The world is commonly worse than its promises God ordinarily better than his word Sinners meet with less Saints more than they expected God with a breath blows the wicked into destruction and with a breath commands his peoples deliverance Their ruin is sudden how does desolation come upon them in a moment and they are consumed with Gods terrours When Babylon is so pleased with her self that she courts her self like a Lady God can make her a Widow As gliding waters melting snales untimely births so is their prosperity and as a sudden flame or unlookt for Hâ—rricane comes their misery Psal 58.9 And no less expected are Sions reparations It 's compared to a Creation Isa 65.18 which is suddenly effected a generation which is in instanti Nay before she travelled she brought forth Isa 66.7 8. She is delivered before her time and without pain and yet does not miscarry Yea and as her deliverance comes unexpectedly as to time so to means likewise Micah 4.10 Be in pain and labour to bring forth O Daughter of Sion like a woman in travel Thou shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou be delivered An enemy shall become her Midwife who sought to be her murderer It 's but the shine of Gods face and his people are saved Psal 80. ult But the turn of his hand and his people are delivered Zech. 13. He saies return his word can do it as well as his work Psa 90.3 Judgements come on foot but mercy on horseback on the wing skipping over the hills and leaping over the mountains No sooner do Gods people cry to him in prayer but he eccho's to them in mercy Isa 58.9 Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer Thou shalt cry and he shall say here am I. As Gods people answer to his voice commanding Speak Lord thy Servants hear so he answers to their voice petitioning Call upon me and I will answer thee Jer. 33.3 He cuts short his work in righteousness Rom. 9.28 Secondly Gradually though salvation comes suddenly yet not simul semel all at once is it compleated and perfected It 's compared to light which creeps upon the Air pedetentim by little and little The dawning of the day goes before the high noon God works for his people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after divers waies and manners by piece-meals and inches as it were Sion is not built in a day God could destroy his peoples lusts and their enemies together but he slaies them not lest they should forget He could at once perfect the building of grace in the soul and work of reformation in his Church but he chuseth to let it have its stages first laies the foundation then laies on the superstructures and so at last perfects the fabrick that so he may have the greater tribute and revenue of praises and acclamations coming into his Grace God is a God that waits to be gracious to his people but he is also a God of Judgement They shall get ground but yet must be fighting they shall have supply yet must be waiting The prudent Father will not give his child his whole portion into his hand at once nor the discreet friend trust all the stock he intends to his friend together but help them by degrees according to their necessities and occasions thereby to engage their continual dependance upon them Lesser motions are ordinarily quick but great motions slower God gives the wicked Prodigal all in hand whom he hath no further thoughts of good will and purposes of grace and love unto but in respect of his people he does all for eternity and therefore with the skilfull Artists draws not up his work in haste but takes time to make it the more beautiful and admirable God is the Saviour of his people and yet sometimes like the curious Limner hides his work till the whole draught be compleated Isa 45.15 Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour He carries on the work in a very hidden and mysterious way by so many aenigma's and riddles of providence as his footsteps cannot easily be traced nor his handy-work searcht out to perfection There are many hitherto's in his mercies and salvations many Ebenezers 1 Sam. 7.12 He called the name of it Ebenezer saying Hitherto hath the Lord helped us Thirdly He helps opportunely and seasonably in the very present emergency and strait in the hour the nick of trouble Opportunity is the Salt that seasons any mercy Now God times all his helps and succours to his people As he dealt with Christ so with them In an acceptable time he hears them and in the day of salvation he helps them He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God at a pinch In the Mount will he be seen when his own arm shall be the more conspicuous or when his people are in eminent and imminent dangers When the murdering-knife is putting to Isaac's throat he plucks back Abraham's hand When the Canon is discharging against the Jews then he muzzles the mouth of it Deut. 32.36 For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his Servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left When the siege can hold no longer and there 's none left in the fenced Cities more than in the open Plains then forthwith comes relief This is the day of Jacob's trouble alas for that day is great and there is none like it but he shall be saved out of it Jer. 30.7 Daies of great trouble are daies of glorious salvation When Israel was in a very great distress like to be swallowed up by the Ammonites and upon their applications to God he turns them off with a protestation that he would deliver them no more yet pleading the instancy of their oppression and begging relief in the present exigency Deliver us only we pray thee this day His soul was grieved for their misery and his pity became sollicitor to his power in order to their succour and redress Judg. 10.16 When the soul like Jonah in the Whales belly is even swallowed up of sorrow and out of the depths the belly of Hell cries to the Lord He will hear him God â—ath said He will bring his people back from the â—epths both of Earth and Sea Psal 68.22 Psal â—1 20 Prayer put up to Heaven by a soul ready â—o sink in the mire as being able to finde no standing is alwaies in an acceptable time That â—s mollâ—ssimum fandi tempus Psal 69.13 Gods help is limited to no time but there are usually two special seasons when the fruit of mercy is full ripe and God plucks it off the tree of providence and throws it into the laps of his people either when their enemies condition is high and
out against them and overcome them Art thou under crosses and losses and sore and vexatious trialls that way hast lost thy Estate and Possessions thy Relations thy former Friends thy present comforts thy hopes thy all yet thou hast not lost thy God who is better than all And as Zeno the Philosopher said once when he had lost all by Shipwrack Licet me tutius philosophari Thou hast now the better leisure to attend thy Soul and study Heaven Though a man loseth his Moneys and is rich in Bills and Bonds it 's no great matter When thou hast not a penny in thy Purse thou hast thousands in the Promise Gods providence or mens violence may take away thy Estate thy Children thy Livelihood and subsistence but never take away thy Christ When thou hast lost all things else yet thou canst never lose thy God and thy inheritance the hope laid up for thee in Heaven that heavenly and never-failing treasure is out of the reach both of Men and Devils Art thou under afflictions personal family Hath the hand of God toucht thee Hath his destroying Angel come with the Arrows of the Plague and shot into thy habitation so that thou art left alone and become wholly comfortless even swallowed up of sorrow Thy Relations are gone thy Friends fled from thee all thine acquaintance stand aloof off thy sore thou sighest and mournest by day weepest by night and hast none to comfort thee thou art become like a Pelican in the Wilderness an Owl in the Desart and sittest like a Sparrow on the house-top Death is entred in at thy windows and men have written Lord have Mercy on thy doors and thou hast neither Minister nor Phyfitian to come at thee yea wantest Bread it self to uphold thee Yet fear not Thy God is still with thee and then nightest when all Creatures run away to the greatest distance Christ comes in yet familiarly at thy doors God stands by thy beds side Though the Plague hath seized thy body he is not afraid to come neer thy soul and while thy Friends forsake thee he will be Friend Physitian and Comforter to thee He is the Lord that healeth thee And thou shalt at last say in faithfulness and mercy to thy Soul did he afflict thee yea that thou wert not sick because the Lord had forgiven thy iniquity Nay here is comfort for thee even in Death it self if thou hast God for thy help and he affords thee his gracious presence thou shalt not need fear to walk through that dark suburbs of Eternity As dying and yet shalt thou live Death is but to thee a Portall into Everlasting Life and what is a grimm Serjeant to arrest others and Pursevant to hale them to the place of Execution shall be a welcom Messenger to carry thee into thy Fathers House and usher thee into the Presence-Chamber of thy endeared Bridegroom And when thou art gathered to thy Fathers though thou goest to thy long yet thou shalt not go to thy last home Thy Exodus of Earth shall be thy Genesis of Heaven and when the great Landlord of Heaven and Earth by a Commission directed from his Royal Court summons thine immortal Soul out of this Clay-tenement of thy Body thou shalt enter upon thine upper House those ever-blessed Mansions prepared for thee and this Bird in thy breast when once let loose this present cage where now it is imprisoned and set upon the Tree of life in the midst of that heavenly Paradise shall warble out the most melodious tunes and sweet and harmonious musick to its Creator even to the daies of Eternity Let me conclude this consolation with that of Solomon Prov. 14.32 The righteous hath hope in his death And add only this challenge on this side the grave for him against the sinner Take a child of God cloathed with all possible disadvantages poverty sickness persecution even at the worst that can befall a man on this side Hell and his condition is infinitely far better than any wicked mans on Earth that hath sumptuous buildings furnisht tables pleasant children great riches and revenues So happy is he above all the world besides that hath God for his help the Lord for his God Fifthly and lastly Let this consideration be a strong perswasive both to the Saints and People of God to walk worthy his help and sinners to labour to make him their God and help against an evil day First To Christians to walk answerably to divine help and influx both in a good and in an evil day Take the summ of this exhortation in five or six branches Let the influence of Gods help be to you a ground of praise and thankfulness of satisfaction and acquiescence of access to him on all occasions of confidence in him in every condition of return to him according to your receivings from him and of engagement and firm adherence to him notwithstanding all temptations to Apostacy from him First Matter of thankfulness Rejoyce in the Lord at all times Let songs of benediction to him be ever in your mouths pay him the constant tribute of acknowledgement What an holy Panegyrick does David sing Psal 18.12 What a famous avouchment makes he Psal 144.1 2. Where he gives God all his titles My strength my goodness my fortress my shield my high Tower and deliverer And so does Jeremiah cap. 16.19 Even proclaim Gods Name to the Gentiles that they might trust in him In Gods Name set up all your banners Say with the Church All our fresh springs are in thee Nilus ab ignoto fonte but our salvation comes from Sion thence the Lord commands the blessing We finde our Psalmist frequent in these confessions The Lord is on my side Psal 118.6 I will sing of thy power yea I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of trouble Psal 59.16 17. And so again Psal 94.17 Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence when I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up And so the Church solemnly sings under the sense of her miraculous deliverance from variety of enemies If the Lord had not been on our side they had swallowed us up quick And see how sweetly she closeth all Psal 124. ult Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth So may the soul say I was under such a temptation and had not the Lord helpt me where had my soul been under such an affliction and had not he relieved me I had sunk and perisht in it for ever How oft have I sinned and he pardoned me prayed and he heard me waited and he was gracious to me I was weak but he strengthened me sad but he comforted me troubled but he spake peace to me And so may the Church of God say If the Lord had not been on my side when the Sons of Belial associated and bandied against me
to your Rulers and Governours as the woman did once to that King 1 King 6.27 Help O King who were all forced to return you that sorry answer If the Lord helps not whence should we help Ah what thousand pities had Heaven pleased to have prevented to see so many famous structures antient and venerable Monuments learned Libraries rich goods and treasures beautifull Halls and Exchanges usefull Churches and Chappels within so small a compass turned into a Chaos of confusion and heap of utter destruction Ah how lamentable a sight to see so many able Citizens impoverisht so many mean ones quite beggar'd how hideous an out-cry to hear men complaining We who had thousands in the morning had not a penny left to help us by the evening we who had full tables could afford plentiful entertainments rich purses and large banks enough for back and belly for necessity and delight for us and ours are now reduced many of us to a morsel of bread and glad to live on the alms of the charitable we went out full but came in empty Ah how sad to behold so many families ruined and undone so many dwellings and places that must never more know their owners and inmates but have for ever cast them out leaving them to the wide world and exposing them as so many Tenants at will and that without any warning to the mercy of the great and soveraign Land-Lord of Heaven and Earth What true Son of Sion upon view or tydings of so sad a catastrophe must not bear a part in the Churches Funeral Elegy over Jerusalem Lam. 1.1 How doth the City sit solitary that was full of people How is she become as a Widow she that was great among the Nations and Princess among the Provinces And so cap. 4.11 The Lord hath accomplisht his fury he hath poured out his fierce anger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof Oh that by the brightness of these flames we could see our sin that hath long appeared as at noon day but we would never yet behold by the Sun-light of the word And that this most formidable fire may become to us a flaming beacon to signifie our approaching danger and ruin unless Gods anger be timely quenched by the blood of Christ and tears of repentance And that amidst the cold formalities and freezing devotions in the winter quarter of these last and perilous times our cooler souls might be heated and our dying affections by an holy kind of Anteperistasis advanced into a diviner flame of holy zeal in seeking the Lord lest he makes us as Admah and sets us as Zeboim and kindles a fire in the Palaces of Joseph so as none shall quench it Oh that we could all learn from the highest to the lowest those lessons Gods intention is to teach us by so severe dispensations either for humiliation for what is past or reformation for time to come And if I mistake not the physiognomy of this providence whether it be looked on in the glass of a more immediate or more mediate agency Gods hand appeared most remarkably in it and concurring circumstances give us plain intimations of its commission and direction by a special superintendency from Heaven And though like a picture well drawn it looks wishly on every one in the room yet it seems to prefer a particular charge against those wickednesses of pride luxury wantonness security earthliness and uncharitableness which have so long burnt as fire among us Ah what haughtiness idleness and fulness of bread was to be found in our streets with what pleasure did we live upon earth what port and state did we begin to carry what wantons were we grown forgetting the God that made us not attributing to him our power to get wealth having our hearts lifted up or like foolish children with Jesurun standing on our heads kicking against Heaven and neglecting the God of our salvation sacrificing Gods corn wine oyl wooll and flax to our lusts and lovers instead of our Creatour Were we not grown like Sodom and the Old World a God-despising and a self-pleasing people that gave up our selves to eating and drinking buying and selling planting and building every man looking to his own way and gain and as for the ship of the Church the interest of God and Religion having caught the fish we laid aside the net and so we could but save our own petty Cabbins let Gods and Christs cause sink or swim we were become Gallio's not minding these things Oh how did we that pretended to God mind little or nothing but the world How went we one to his farm another to his merchandize our shop was become our closet and the Exchange our Church The Courtier the Merchant the Tradesman all busie as so many Ants on an Hill to scrape together so much refined dust and lade themselves with this thick clay Every one setting up his Heaven on Earth and singing a requiem to his soul in his stately houses full warehouses vast incomes if not unjust gains and oppressions looking so much to earth as those that had neither time or mind to look up to Heaven but if with the Lark soaring to Heaven in pretences of zeal and affection on the Sabbath with the Worm groveling on the worlds dung-hill all the week after Like him in the Poet that cried out O Coelum with his tongue when his hand toucht the earth committing even a sollicism with our hands and bidding an express practical contradiction to our professions Ah is it not just God should deny us the world as a creature which we could not have but must adore as our God Is it not righteous that should be taken out of our hands which instead of being trodden under our feet had got up so near our hearts Oh how much better Christians for to you alone I now speak as for the wicked who grow worse and worse and do more wickedly Hell fire shall shortly do that in consuming them which this could not do for refining had it been for you to have cast your bread on the waters than to have had it wasted by such a fire Ah had you but worn the world as a loose garment that you might have put off and on at pleasure it would not now have come from you as your skin from your flesh with pain and torture but ease and delight or as the blood out of your veins with reluctancy and opposition but as water from a fountain with freedom and liberty These pictures if hung up loosly would have been taken down with less rending tearing and noise than they are like to be if your hearts be fastened or glewed to them Oh Sirs had you minded God and Christ as you did this Mammon of the world and attended your heavenly trade as you did your East-India Turky French Spanish or the rest and conversed with God in your closets as you did with your customers in your shops and
your friends and neighbours sometimes at the Tavern you had had something in such an hour to bear up and comfort your spirits withall which I am afraid many of you now want Oh that you would in this your day yet know the things of your peace And before God riseth up to Judgement a second time and the fire of his wrath now smothered breaks out with a seven times more even into a most violent and unquenchable flame Hear the voice of the Rod and him that hath appointed it And by all that God hath done or is doing with you this day learn those fundamental lessons of the vanity and contingency of the creature and the fulness and alsufficiency of the Creator so as to make an utter renunciation of all carnal confidence and engage your souls in a firm and resolute dependance on God alone O that this might indeed be a purgatory fire to refine our souls from all that rust of carnality and worldly affection that is so grown upon us Let us not make gain our godliness but count godliness our greatest and only gain Why should we set our hearts on vanity on a non entity who would love or value that which he cannot long keep but if a fire or plunder comes is upon the wing and takes its flight or give that the chair of state or upper room of preheminence in his heart which very shortly he must part with out of his hands Can you Christians carry your houses and lands your baggs and treasures with you to eternity will they not all shake hands with you at the grave O then make friends by employing for God and his honour to your selves of this Mammon of unrighteousness and use the world as if ye used it not remembring the fashion thereof passeth away And lay up your treasures not on earth but Heaven store up a good foundation against the time to come the top of whose building may reach eternity Mind not so much things seen and temporal as those believed and eternal Make sure of God as your portion and chuse him as your inheritance Now learn to trust to and lean by faith on the arm of an Alsufficient God while ye experience the broken staff of all created beings and comforts When the stream is dried up and all your vessels emptied have recourse to that inexhaustible fountain Learn the Art of living by faith upon an unchangeable and eternal Jehovah under all worldly changes and revolutions To rejoyce in the Lord and be glad in the God of your salvation not only when ye sit under the shadow of your own Vines and Fig-trees but even when they neither blossom nor bring forth fruit Though your goods be gone yet ye have not lost your God he is not gone whose alsufficiency is able to make up all your losses by plague or fire and recompence you an hundred-fold in whom alone possessing all things you may possess them while you have nothing Though your trade be at present broken ye have now a seasonable gale for Heavens more enduring substance Though ye may be dispersed and scattered as Vagabonds here and there having no certain dwelling-place God will be a little sanctuary to you and though your City hath forsaken ye your God is a Tower yet left which your souls may get upon and a City of Refuge for you to fly to and repose in with greatest security Though ye have nothing but tents to dwell in and with holy Jacob a stone for a pillow to lay your head on God is in this place and he that never slumbers nor sleeps watcheth for your safety while his Angels also are your life-guard and protection He is your arm every morning and your salvation in time of trouble Though all die and leave you relations possessions yet your God lives who is ten thousand times better and able to make it better to you than all the goods and estates in the world Trust in the Lord then for ever in the Lord Jehovah in whom is everlasting strength And then should you fall into the hand of mens violence out of that of Gods vengeance while the enemies of Jacob are your hunters you are sure of the God of Jacob for your help This consideration was that holy David bore up his reeling soul withall under all the reflections of the wickeds prosperity and enmity Whom have I in Heaven but thee my flesh and heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever And in all the weights of his own adversity he incouraged himself in the Lord his God And this was the infallible pillar and foundation with which the Church under all her ruins supported her drooping faith even the eternity of God Lam. 5.19 Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy Throne from generation to generation And Reader it 's the hearty option of my soul that thou and all that read these lines yea all concerned in these fatal strokes from the King on the throne to the beggar on the dung-hill had the same comfort under Londons burning that holy David had once on Ziglags even a God to incourage themselves in who is what and where he was the same God to his for ever and ever when all persons places and creatures shall not be what they once were or be no more This incouragement of all them who fear the Lord is the sole design of this ensuing discourse The Author intending it no other than an anchor to buoy up our finking spirits or crutch the better to inable to step our limping faith A word in season is as apples of gold in pictures of silver And he hopes if you have not already forgotten the hand of God upon you he might find some advantage in this present address our hearts under afflictions being alwaies more pliable and apt to receive divine signatures and impressions In this your helpless and almost hopeless state the providence of God seemed to call to him as once the men of Macedonia to Paul in another case come over and help us And though a stranger to most of your faces yet being a fellow-sufferer with you through the common spirit of Christianity his bowels could not but be inlarged with pity and his heart inflamed with zeal and piety towards you And seeing no other stept before him looked on himself as obliged to open to you some door of hope in this valley of discomfort and afford you what after-help his poor talent could to bear your present condition become to you a plank after shipwrack to bring your souls to a comfortable shore And if his mite may contribute ought to so blessed and happy an end to any of you or the people of God he hath his purpose who is Your Supplicant at the Throne of Grace and Servant in the work of the Gospel F. E. Novemb. 5. 1666. The TABLE or Contents of this Treatise THe general nature of Happiness Page 1 With the common desire of Mankinde towards
assurance of divine maintenance under all humane malevolence First he promises him inward heartning but if his spirits should fail then he will second him in the conflict and should he not come off conqueror yet he shall never be overthrown for at least he will uphold him Nay he will not only secure him from succumbency but confer upon him victory he shall not only escape breaking and crushing by the mountains but shall himself thresh them and of a crawling worm come off a victorious Prince vers 14 15. God will not only help his people against the impostures of their own hearts and Satans malignancy but also the worlds violence His promise runs That his arm shall strengthen him and his hand be established with him The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness affl 〈◊〉 him Psal 89.21 22. This David in his own person found blessed and frequent experience of while he professeth Psal 18.17 18 19. God to be his stay his deliverer and lifâ—er up of his head under great dangers and many enemies And hope hereof was the ground of Christs triumph even assurance of his Fathers assistance Isa 50.7 9. For the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me No matter what were his enemies while God was his friend or who his accusers while he was his Advocate God is a sure hiding-place an home an harbour a refuge a shield a protection a sanctuary an high Tower to his yea a strong hold in the time of trouble and when their City shall be taken they may betake themselves and fly to him as their impregnable Casile They are called expresly his hidden ones Psal 83.3 not only in point of worth and excellency but also for â—secresie and security He is to them a shadow from the heat and a refuge from the storm Isa 25.4 And what was said of Christ is made good to them Isa 49.2 In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me In the shaâ—e of his hand are they preserved against all the scorchings of the hottest burning Sun of divine wrath or humane malice and their souls skreened by their Saviours Righteousness against the one and his fatherly providence from the other Yea under the shadow of his divine or those Cherubims wings of special protection may they as the chickens do under the wings of the damm on the Kites approach hide themselves securely till the dint of every calamity be over-past As the sweet singer of Israel tunes melodiously Psal 57.1 God is to his people both a pillar of cloud and of fire one to refocillate and refresh them and the other to preserve and defend them in their journey to Heaven through the wilderness of this world as Travellers are by it against wild beasts Yea a wall of fire round about them a wall to keep in their persons and of fire to keep out their enemies And in case they be yet so desperate as to venture on them he yet beares them up on Eagles wings far above out of their reach or sight Exod. 19.2 His providence is to them an incompassing hedge so that if there be not that Intus that must destroy them as the voice told Phocas when close barred up in his Masters Palace they cannot but be safe The eyes of the Lord run to and fro the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him and what need they fear shipwrack as that Philosopher once said when under fears of drowning he lookt up to Heaven in a bright starry night and beheld those twinkling luminaries bespangling and imbroidering that heavenly Canopy over his head while they have so many eyes of Providence about them The Keeper of Israel is always waking though Enemies be great and mighty many and numerous yea neer at hand they may sleep sweetly and comfortably as Alexander once did when in great danger of an approaching adversary because Parmenio his chief and vigilant Captain watched or rather as David did when compassed about with an Army of ten thousands at least in imagination being then also hemmed in and inclosed by divine protection God is a defence to his Peoples glory against all that rise up against them Psal 32.7 What sweetness and safety doth holy David engage to his own heart in confidence of divine safeguard Psal 31.20 Thou shalt hide me in the secret of thy presence from the pride of Man Thou shalt keep them secretly in a Pavilion from the strife of tongues God is his Peoples Asylum from the heat both of hand and tongue-persecution by their adversaries Now God helps his People against their outward Enemies divers wayes Either First By preparing for them places of recess where the Enemy cannot finde them Thus God secured Elijah from Ahabs fury when he sent an Inquisition after him throughout the whole Land of Israel 1 King 18.10 He returns with a Non inventus and like one that seeks a Needle in a bottle of Hay bestowed his labour in vain Thus the Lord in a persecuting time hid an hundred of his Prophets by the hand of Obadiah Thus under Sauls violent rage against innocent David which made him pursue him as a Partridge on the Mountains God provided places of retirement for him sometimes in a Cave sometimes in a Rock or strong hold now in the Wilderness now at Naioth and anon in the Land of the Philistines erewhile in this cre-while in that place so as he was kept out of the reach of his rage and escaped the violence of his intended fury and malice against him He was as a man upon the top of an high Mountain out of the reach of gun-shot or any danger but what might come from Heaven or as one upon the top of an high Rock in the midst of the Sea able to sing to triumph to out-brave and bid defiance to all the raging surges and tempâ—stuous billows that beat against him to which himself also alludes Psalm 61.2 When my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock which is higher than I. Thus God protected Jeremiah the Prophet and Baruch the Scribe Jerem. 36.26 so as the Kings Serjeants dare not arrest him When Herod sought Christs life and would have become Murderer of him who came to be his Saviour an Angel of the Lord comes and gives his Parents private intelligence about the Tyrants bloody intentions and advertiseth them to go into Egypt which was made his Harbour and Receptacle till he was dead and gone and so he kept out of his Clutches and escaped his barbarous and bloody hands Math. 2.13 Thus the Woman a type of the Church had a priviledg'd place assign'd her and prepared of God for her in the Wilderness whether she was to flee and be fed there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Revelat. 12.6 Thus in the Ten Persecutions and the late Marian dayes many
souls and preserver of his creatures As the Malefactor fled to the City of Refuge crying all along as he went Refuge Refuge so should the soul fly to God either under the pourings out of personal wrath as the Prodigal to his Father or offender to the Judge for pardon or under the popular executions of his wrath on the world as a Wife flies to her Husband for protection When God is coming out against the world with sword fire famine or pestilence then 't is our wisdom to repair to him who is an harbour in every tempest a shelter in every storm a sanctuary wherein the soul may securely hide and repose under every stroke of divine vengeance Secondly Under the oppressions of Satan or oppositions of humane violence Go as beggars to the Throne of Grace to beg help in that time of need When the Kite comes get under the wings of Gods Providence and presence So Did David Psal 57.1 Psal 143.8 I fly to thee to hide me Thus Luther I will goe and tell my God Thirdly In the failure and disappointment of all Creatures when all second Causes fail then 't is time to go to the first and when the arm of flesh breaks then to lay hold on the Father of Spirits So David Psal 73.23 and 1 Sam. 30.6 when he had lost his wives yet he rejoyceth in God as his husband So the Church Hab. 3.17 As Gods solemn appearances for us engage us to trust in Him Exod. 14. ult Then they believed the Lord and his servant Moses So do the Creatures appearances against us and discouragements to us This was the foundation of Mordecai's conclusion of Faith Esth 4.14 Fourthly Upon Imposition or undertaking of extraordinary burdens whether of service or suffering Thus Moses goes to God for Eloquence when he was to go in to Pharaoh and become his accuser and Gods advocate spokesman for Israel So David going out against Goliah went out in the Name of the Lord and Jehosaphat when to combat with the Ammonites beggs help from Heaven Our Saviour falls earnestly to Prayer when about to suffer New services call for new Supplies and great sufferings proportionable strength and support to carry us through them Fifthly Under falls into deep and sore afflictions and distresses As under surprizals by fears and dangers what time we are afraid trusting in him so under the feeling of piercing afflictions In my distress saith David I cried to the Lord and out of the depths he heard me When the shipwrackt Soul cannot swim to shore yet let him cry for help The end God brings us into afflictions is that they might bring us to himself that we might not trust in our selves but in him the living God In times of personal distress or Visisitation wants weaknesses sicknesses scandals confinements banishments from our house and home and native soil yea under the most cruel persecutions by tongue or hand we may appeal with Job and David to Heaven and have right done us When the Soul is like Noahs Ark floating upon the top of these waters it may rest on God's holy Mountain Thus we finde the Church betaking her self to God in an ill time a time of general corruption sore oppression and extreme depopulation Mic. 7.7 though it was foul under feet she hopes to finde it fair above head and while she found nothing but a louring Earth presumes to spye a similing Heaven Our Saviour bids us not in glorious times but sad not hang down but lift up our heads Luk. 21.28 Sixthly Under dying apprehensions Thus David flyes to Gods Covenant and confirms by the fresh attestations of his Faith his Vision with and interest in his God when to take his leave and farewell of all worldly interests and the union between his body and soul was to receive its dissolution So holy Job when marching out of the world goes out to his Redeemer There is no such time as a dying hour to trust in the living God And so much shortly to that first Quâ—stion Secondly How must we make our addresses to God so as in an evil day to finde help from him Especially these five manner of wayes First By Soul-abasement and humiliation acknowledging our own unworthiness and insufficiency that we are less than the least of all Gods mercies unworthy any crumm that falls from his Providential Table Indeed as long as we can stand upon our own leggs we will not go to God The Childe as long as he can maintain himself will not come home to his Father but when we are fallen then we are glad of help This is that hath always obtained with God for particular mercy and publick salvation and hath been the constant carriage and behaviour of his people in their addresses to him though they come to him boldly as to a Father yet withall humbly as to their King Thus the Centurion I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof Thus the Prodigal Father I have sinned against thee and against Heaven So the Woman of Canaan Truth Lord the dogs c. So in publick suits Abraham comes not with dust and ashes on his head only but in his mouth also when a solicitor for Sodom Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel present themselves with great humiliation before God when praying for the people So the Princes of Israel when captivated by Shishak humble themselves and say the Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 12.6 7. and so the Church Isa 64.7 When she stirs up her self to take hold upon God she confesseth he had hid his face from her for her sins and consumed her for her iniquities The Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up them that be bowed down Psal 145.14 If we would finde acceptance with God we must go to him as that good King Lord we know not what to doe Lord I am under such a guilt under such a temptation under such a want or affliction and I know not what to doe but mine eyes are towards thee And that 's the second with renunciation of all Creature-helps and carnal confidences God never loves to give his people mercy till they know not where to have it else when they know not what to do then he will let them know what he can do Thus the Church goes to God Jer. 3.23 24. and cap. 14.22 and so Isa 26.13 When all our Cisterns are dried up then is a fit time for God to open the windows of Heaven If we would have Soul-help we must deny our selves and disclaim all creature-props and stayes ordinances duties graces priviledges and if outward help we must abandon all Creature-dependencies The hand must be first emptied that receives any gifts of grace and mercy from Heaven Thirdly By Prayer and Invocation It s Gods promise in leading his people to their resting place that with weeping and supplications he would lead them Jer. 31.9 Asa in his great strait goes to God by Prayer and beggs and implores help 2 Chron. 14.11 He cried unto
the Lord and said Help us O Lord our God So Hezekiah Lord undertake for me The Apostle directs us to the throne of grace for help which Paul attending found this answer My grace is sufficient Prayer is the bucket of Heaven It 's the Psalmists little River in the City of God Psal 46. At which come up all the souls goods I sought the Lord and he heard me Psal 34.4 Then shall ye pray unto me and I will give you an expecied end Jer. 29. For all these things I will be inquired of by the house of Israel Ezek. 36.37 Prayer is the condition of mercy We must call though we never so fully expect If we stop our mouths God will stop his hand and leave off asking God will leave off giving and granting Sometimes God is found of those who seek him not potest inveniri non perveniri as to the first grace but having once given his Spirit he will be sought of all that finde him Prayer is vehiculum divinae misericordiae the Chariot in which the King of Heaven comes down graciously into our souls Prayer indeed cannot hasten mercy as to Gods time but it may as to ours not as to the time he hath appointed but his Promise being conditional it may as to the time by us expected And the assurance of mercy should not prevent duty but enforce it the certainty of the end establisheth and confirms the use of the means If we would have mercy from God we must not be too proud or shameface't to beg it but take words with us and say Take away iniquity and receive us graciously When we are laid by affliction flat on our backs then have we a fit opportunity to look up to Heaven and say Behold us O Lord look upon us and our afflictions remember the troubles and sorrows of our hearts come and heal us and help us for thou alone art our stay and trust our succour and support our prop and pillar our only help and hope God hath made many large and excellent promises to prayer under personal and also publick calamities 2 Chron. 7.14 If my people pray And Jehosaphat urgeth this promise in prayer 2 Chron. 20.9 If when evil comes on us and we cry to thee in our affliction then hear and help God knows how to give out mercy but he will have this homage of us first to ask and then will not cannot deny Luk. 18.7 Quanto magis Fourthly By faith and believing He that speeds in his accesses must believe As prayer must be made so faith must be acted He gives grace and glory to them that trust in him Faith trades at Heaven and fetcheth in large incomes of mercy Prayer may knock and beg for mercy but saith receives it though not as manus laborantis yet mendicantis An unbeliever can receive nothing from the Lord. Faith is to prayer as fire to pouder the piece will not off without it nor make any report Without faith wings it prayer can never reach Heaven and therefore not bring down any thing thence Prayer is the ship but faith the wind whereby we must sail to the cape of good hope Faith without prayer is but a bold bravado or daring presumption Prayer without faith is but a beating the Air an uncertain sound or vain canting in the ears of Heaven Fifthly By returning resolutions He that would come to God so as to obtain mercy must resolve so to come as never to depart from him more by iniquity O Israel return to the Lord saith the Prophet from whom thou hast fallen Hos 14.1 So Jer. 18.11 Behold I frame evil and devise a device against you return you now every man from his evil way and make your waies and your doings good There is no coming to God to beg only further liberty of sinning against him I will hear saith David what God will speak for he will speak peace to his People and his Saints but let them not turn again to folly God will never bestow his salvation for us to make it only a fomentation to our corruption When Israel kept close to God then he helped them when in all their straits and calamities they called upon him but when they rebelled against him he gave them up into the hand of the Nations Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him and keep his Covenant a penitent humble obedient frame is requisite in all our approaches to Heaven a turning to God with fasting weeping and mourning a resolve to offer him the calves of our lips The Prophet hath it excellently Isa 21.12 We must enquire return and come Such approaches to God alwaies are welcome to him and successful to his People That 's the second Thirdly This is a ground of satisfaction and acquiescence to the People of God His help may be sufficient to give our souls contentment under all the fails or wants of the creature The Apostle in that holy paradox bids us be careful for nothing not anxiously but in every thing make our requests known to God with prayer and thanksgiving Phil. 4.6 Duty and service is our work care and providence Gods The child takes no care because he hath a Father to provide for him nor is the Wife sollicitous because she is provided for by her Husband we must not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distract our hearts with needless fears and cares about worldly reliefs or comforts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was our Saviours caution let not your hearts be roiled as waters with stirring or troubled as a ship with tossing Nec habeo careo aut curo may be the Christians Motto We should not envy wicked mens fulness when as we have an interest in Gods Alsufficiency nor necessitate him for lower blessings when he hath given us the better part Holy Jacob was brought to an excellent pitch of contentation upon his experience and observation of providence when he vowed to God that if God would be with him and keep him in the way he was to go and give him but bread to eat and rayment to put on then the Lord should be his God Gen. 28.20 If God gives us necessaries why should we stand on superfluities Let me ask thy soul Christian but this one question whether thou wouldest part with thy hope of an interest in thy God for all the world And if God hath given thee the best things why shouldest thou doubt or distrust his providence for the worst why doubt ye O ye of little faith does God provide for Ravens and will he not provide for his Sons and Daughters he that feeds the Sparrows and cloaths the Lillies will never see his children starve or perish It 's strange to see how carnal men can trust their Mammon of the world and yet Christians cannot trust the ever-living God Strange that we can trust God with our souls and yet hardly trust him with our bodies This speaks a living by sense more than by saith strange that we could trust
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
it 2 And the Worlds apprehensions concerning it ib. The Saints sense of it and its true measure and Standard consisting in the enjoyment of God in a good much more in an evil day 3 The scope and contents of the Psalm shewing the Creatures vanity and mutability 4 Gods alsufficiency and eternity 6 The parts of the Text. An indefinite Proposition and a more particular confirmation 7 In the first imply'd A significant description of God ibid. As to the reality of his Being and existence ib. His special relation to his people 8 An assertion of his peculiar Providence ibid. I. In its sufficiency and way of efficiency 11 God His peoples help proved 12 Opened First in what respects 13 1. In respect of supply and provision ib. In regard of Spirituals 14 And Temporals 15 16 17. 2. In respect of defence and protection 18 And so He is the help of Jacob his Church in general 19 Whom he helps sometimes immediately ibid. Sometimes mediately 21 Either by Angelical ministration ibid. Humane assistance 22 Sometimes by direct and proper means ibid. By improper wicked contrary destructive ib. Or his people in particular 25 1. Against their home-bred Enemies their lusts and corruptions ibid. 2. Satans assaults and onsets 26 3. The Worlds enmity and opposition 28 And that By preparing them private recesses 31 By abating the natural force and fury of Creatures 32 By disappointing wicked designs and frustrating them 34 By diverting violent executions 37 By reconciling enemies to his People 38 By turning intended mischiefs to good and advantage 41 By ruining and destroying their adversaries 44 4. The stroke of common Judgements and Calamities 47 Either By removing them out of their reach 48 On Earth ibid. To Heaven 49 By distinguishing them in the evil day 50 By bringing them up out of the affliction 54 3. In respect of succour and redress under burdens 56 Of Sin and guilt 57 Duty and Service 59 Trialls and Sufferings 60 And that more visibly and openly ibid. Either by Alienation of them ibid. Redemption from them 61 Or more secretly and indiscernably 62 By supplying them with necessary influences of grace ibid. Assisting them with seasonable supports of spiritual strength 63 Filling them with inward manifestations of joy and comfort 64 4. In respect of relief under Failures and Disappointments 65 By giving them satisfaction under the distresses 66 In the failing of Mercies 67 68 c. Feeling of Evils 72 Compassing their deliverance by unhopâ—d wayes and means 73 Secondly After what manner he helps them 74 Suddenly and unexpectedly 75 Gradually 76 Opportunely and seasonably 77 Under their Enemies rage and infolency 79 Their own dejection and despondency ibid. Powerfully and irresistibly 81 Proportionably 84 To their Wants and Necessities ibid. Desires and Prayers 85 Hopes and Expectances 86 Right improvements 88 Thirdly Reasons why God helps his People 90 1. The relation he hath to them and propriety in them 90 2. His manifold Promises and engagements made to them 94 3. The conditions of obtaining help found in them 95 Of humility and spiritual poverty ibid. Prayer and Invocation 96 Faith and dependance 98 Waiting and attendance 100 4. The encouragement in his Service and against their enemies he would give them 102 5. The worthy return he shall receive from them 103 II. In it's efficiency or way of conveyance and communication to his People 105 Expressed The Happiness in having God our help ibid. Laid down in Theft positively and absolutely by way of Antithesis and comparison 107 Positively wherein two things considerable ibid. A Benedictory Conclusion ibid. A peculiar appropriation ibid. From the Benediction affirmed Two Observations ibid. First The Saints Happiness lies only in the enjoyment of God ibid. Three things requisite to make up Happiness all found in God and only in him 108 Sufficiency and perfection Proportion and suitableness Perpetuity and duration ibid. Secondly The supreme and sole ground of comfort and confidence in an evil day is title to and influence from God 109 Evidenced from the consideration of Gods Nature ibid. Wherein considered The infiniteness of his Being The absoluteness and independency of his operations ibid. The immutability of his purpose promises 111 The tenderness of his Bowels ibid. The eternity of his existence 112 From the properties of his Help ibid. He helps ably ibid. willingly 113. readily ibid. faithfully 114. constantly 115 From the Appropriation or limitation 116 Observe First A Saint is priviledg'd with special propriety in God ibid. Secondly Fiducial repose in God in an evil time is only to be founded on our interest in him ib. Thirdly Propriety in God is the only ground of true felicity and comfort 117 Fourthly They alone are just Expectants of divine help in straits and afflictions which are firm recumbents and constant dependants on God 119 Comparatively Whence observe First Gods excellency and the Creatures vanity illustrate each other 121 Secondly There is an excellency in the fruitiou of God farr beyond that in the enjoyment of all Creatures 122 God the most Reall Good 123 God the most Pure and refined Good 124 God the most Satisfying Good 125 God the most Durable Good 126 Thirdly Gods help exceeds all humane help and succour whatsoever proved by way of comparison 126 In the second The Illustration of the Proposition 128 Wherein the connexion and order are observable the matter wherein ibid. First The Saints disposition and affection of hope in the Lord their God 129 Secondly Their reward and remuneration Happy are they ibid. In the first The Persons qualification 130 Their hopes foundation ibid. From first Observat Gods people are an hoping and expecting people ibid. Wherein The Proposition proved and the nature of hope in the Philosophical and Theological notion opened 131 In second The appellation The Lord God Whence Observat first Hope in God's mercy stands with reverence of his Majesty ibid. Second Gods power and greatness as well as his mercy and goodness is a great encouragement of his peoples hope ibid. Third God and God alone is the object of his servants hope in the day of affliction 133 Five things in God the ground of the Saints hope The glory of his Attributes ibid. The merits of his Son 134 The relations of his Covenant 137 The truth of his Promises 138 The experiments of his Providence 140 The Application The Lord our God Hope the Saints peculiar 142 In the second The reward or Compensation of their hoping Whence observation Dependants on God and Expectants from him are happy and blessed proved 144 Opened in three things 1. As this hope is a Preserver of the Soul from sin 145 Particularly against Despair and succumbency Discontent and impatience under affliction 146 Unlawfull and indirect means to get out of it ibid. 2. A reliever of the Soul under trouble 148 In order whereunto it hath a fourfold Energy Quieting 148. Sustaining 149. Comforting 150 Establishing ibid. 3. An assurer of mercy and
Help and â—nd so as the God of Jacob. First then observe Gods influence and communication to his he is their Help or their Salvation as the word imports He is indeed a common help an help to all he bears up the Pillars of the Earth and upholds the reeling World and its Inhabitants from â—inking and perishing Psal 75.3 The eyes of all things wait upon him who is the great Almoner the grand and bountifull Benefactor of Heaven and Earth all live upon the universal Ordinary of his infinite bounty and are fed at his Providential Table and none go tristes ab illo sad from his presence that come to him and call upon him He helps the wicked sometimes against the wicked yea the wicked against the godly when they rebell against him or run away from him But yet in a peculiar manner he is their help a Saint hath him by way of propriety his help He is their help and their shield Psal 115.9 10 11. O Israel trust thou in the Lord he is their help and their shield O house of Aaron trust in the Lord. Ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield Whether the Church of God in general considered or its particular members they stand obliged to trusâ— in him whether they be placed in higher sphears of excellency or in a lower Orb of activity for different degrees as to worldly conditions make no alteration in his paternal Indulgences and Fatherly dispensations He is styled the Rock of Israel 2 Sam. 23.1 and the strength of Israel 1 Sam. 15.29 David speaks singularly and by way of appropriation Psal 54.4 Behold God is my helper he becomes a suitor and supplicant to him upon the accompt of his choice of his wayes Psal 119.173 Let thine hand help me God is to his People a shade for delight and solace while they fit under the shadow of his wings and his Banner over them is Love and a Shield to them for defence to ward off all blows of affliction and stroaks of Calamity while under his Feathers their Souls do trust Which point being a necessary Preface and preliminary Introduction to that which follows as laying a just foundation for the Happiness asserted in the Text I shall not pass without consideration of but open what is material therein in a fivefold Postulatum Three of which Queries will satisfie the Explication thereof and the two latter fall in its practical improvement and Application First In what respects may God be styled an help his people Secondly After what way and manner doth he â—lp them Thirdly Vpon what accompt or for what reaâ—s doth he help them Fourthly At what special times and seasons doth most afford his help Fifthly Vpon what terms and conditions may vine help be expected First How or in what regard may God be acpunted an Help There are four things imply'd in the notion 〈◊〉 an Help all which agree to Gods influence 〈◊〉 his People wherein he appears so and where 〈◊〉 it will be demonstrated that he is properly â—eir help Supply of wants and indigencies â—ccour and relief under burthens and extremiâ—es Aid and assistance against enemies and adâ—ersaries Redress of failures and disappointâ—ents First God is their Help in respect of supply and â—ovision Thus the Rich helps the Poor by supâ—ying his wants out of his fulness and a man â—elps his Friend by taking care to provide for â—s necessities The Lord thus helps his people â—e is not a barren Wilderness nor a land of â—rought or darkness to them but he deals graâ—ously with them and they have enough The â—ord is the portion of their Inheritance he mainâ—ineth their lot The lines are fallen to them in pleaâ—nt places and they have a goodly heritage Upon â—his accompt he is said to be their Sun where â—e is said to be their Shield Psal 84.10 a Sun for consolation as well as a Shield for protection We finde the Apostle drawing up this Conclusion of Faith from the Promise Heb. 13.6 So that we may boldly say The Lord is my Helper He supplyes all their spiritual wants by influence of the Promises and all their temporal by the influences of his Providence Godliness hath the Promise both of this and the next life According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness the Apostle hath it 2 Pet. 1.3 He gives both Grace and Glory gives pardon of sin peace of Conscience sense of his love and assurance of his favour the Spirit of adoption a new heart and a right spirit holiness both habitual and actual in the root and blossom Grace peace comfort quickning strength establishment perfection are all his Legacies freely bestowed and gifts abundantly multiplyed on the heads and hearts of his people through Jesus Christ To the ignorant Soul he communicates saving knowledge to the unbelieving faith to the graceless true piety and godliness He sends light to them which are in darkness life to them which labour under deadness liberty to them which are captive and inslaved by sin and Satan He cloaths the naked soul with the honourable robe of justification and enriches the poor Conscience with the fine Gold of Sanctification The treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are his free grant as well as the garments of Salvation Every good and perfect gift is a ray and emanation from him the Father of lights and fountain of life and happiness He draws the beautifull features of Grace on Souls which naturally are no other than Monsters of deformity and imperfection and pours â—n the wine of spiritual consolations into the hearts of solitary and distressed Pilgrims in this â—alley of tears so as passing through the valley of Baca they dig up fountains still When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their â—ongue faileth for thirst he opens Rivers in high plaâ—es and Fountains in the midst of the Valleys Isa 41.17 18. And he feeds the hungry and perishing with that heavenly and delicious Manna which is able to nourish up their Souls to a blessed Eternity David most elegantly under the notion of a Pastor expresseth the sufficiency of divine reâ—ief Psal 23.2 He maketh me lie down in green Pastures he leadeth me besides the still waters As a Shepherd feeds guides comforts and defends his Flock so doth God his People allowing them a sufficient Viaticum untill thy come to the Supper of the Lamb Yea such is the exuberancy of his goodness as he supplys all their wants according to the riches of his glory in Christ Phil. 4.19 Neither doth he give them only the upper but as Caleb did his Daughter also the nether Springs As he gives them a double portion a Benjamins Mess in spiritual blessings so he is no Niggard to them in temporal conveniencies and accommodations but while he gives them himself for their portion he gives them these for their passage He hath entayled by way of
Covenant on them the Corn Wine and Oyl anoynts their steps with Butter and Honey feeds them with the finest of the Wheat and lets them drink the purest blood of the Grape yea satisfies them as with Honey out of the rock He spreads their Tables out of his fulness and overflows their Cups with his goodness and allows them not only for necessity but also for delight and satisfaction Thus Moses of old with purest strains of eloquence describes his depasture of Israel Deut. 32.13 14. His have from him all things plentifully to enjoy and alwayes ad sanitatem though not ad voluntatem a competency to sustain their natures though not a superfluity to maintain their lusts and pamper their more sensual affections The Lions of the World may suffer hunger but Gods Lambs shall want no good thing insomuch that David dare give it forth for an experience and undoubted Observation Psal 37.25 I never saw the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging bread The mercies of the Throne are theirs and no less those of the Footstool the benedictions of Gods heart and eke of his hand their portion And if God condescends so low as to feed the Ravens and cloath the Lillies of the Field how much more will this great Paterfamilias of Heaven and Earth take care of his own Family If he be the Saviour of all men much more of them that believe And having right in the promise of superadding all things to them while seekers of the Kingdom of Heaven how shall they be denyed possession yea having given them Christ and himself how shall he forbear to give them all things For all is theirs seeing they are his and they may cry out with holy Athanasius Deus meus omnia our God and our all Though having nothing they possess all things seeing they possess him who possesseth all things Such is Gods singular care and providence over them that he blesseth their modicum while he curseth the worldlings abundance and while extravagant man diminisheth and makes a little of much the omniprovident God multiplies and makes much of his peoples little as appears in Jacobs ingenuous acknowledgement Genes 33.11 of Gods raising him even from a staff and a Scrip a men low and beggerly conditiâ—n and enlarging him into two bands Yea if further supplies be cut off and recrâ—its fail he husbands for them the old stoâ—k so as it serves their journey through the Wilderness of this World as he did Israels in the Desart whose Cloaths waxed not old on their backs nor their Shooes on their feet Nay when reduced to greatest straits so as there seems no way of escape from perishing rather than want relief he will work a miracle of which kind of operation we have many remarkable instances upon Record both in sacred and civil story but these two may content us to evidence its certainty even the multiplication of the Widows Oyl to so strange a measure as to serve not only for the maintâ—nance of her Family but also the payment of her debts and satisfaction of all her Creditors 2 King 4.7 and the incredible and miraculous increase of an handfull of Meal and a little Oyl in a Cruse beyond their natural vertue so as to become a sufficient store under several years famine 1 King 17.14 In famine God redeems his people from death and when all other Provisions fail he can rain down upon their Tents Bread from Heaven as he did on Israel no less than forty years together That 's the first God helps his people by supplying their wants and necessities Secondly An help imports defence and protection against enemies and assailants Thus a man who becomes a second to another foiled and worsted by reason of his impotency and infirmity one that stands by another against his adversary to defend his right and cause an Advocate that maintains the suit of his Client a Prince that relieves his oppressed subjects auxiliary forces that recruit afresh a besieged City or beaten Army may be stiled helpers to them And such is God to his chosen He that is the great Atlas who bears up the Pillars of the Earth upholds them under all the crushings of humane violence he keepeth the feet of his Saints that they are not moved 1 Sam. 2.9 This Moses most lively expresseth in that rapsodical benediction of Israel Deut. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency a sword for assault a shield and buckler for defence Solomon takes it as an answer of his solemn prayer even while he is preferring it That God will maintain the cause of his people at all times as the matter shall require 1 King 8.59 Upon this account we finde David in this Book of Psalms oft solliciting God for help urging him to preserve save defend and deliver him Psalm 22.11 Psal 70.1 5. Psal 109.26 c. And as praying so praising him for his help Psal 118.13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me Saul and his Courtiers bore against him but God was a sure stud and pillar to his soul that shored him up and underpropt him against all their rage and malice Upon this account it is that we finde help and refuge in a conjunction Psal 46.1 God is our refuge and strength a present help in trouble And in this sense God is his peoples help upon a more publick and also a more private account First He is the help of his Church in the general and that two manner of waies He helps them first immediately without the intervention of second causes Deut. 33.26 There is none like unto the God of Jesurun who rideth upon the Heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky The eternal God is thy Refuge and underneath are the everlasting Arms and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say Destroy them God sometimes goes on foot in the use of instruments and way of means for the salvation of his people but here he comes riding as it were on horse-back in a more sudden and immediate manner leaping over the Hills and skipping over the Mountains Sometimes he works deliverance but sometimes only commands it Thou art our King O God saith the Psalmist command thou deliverances for Jacob Psal 44.4 He unbares his own Arm he puts on righteousness as a breast-plate and clothes himself with zeal as a cloak and when he sees that there is no man and wonders that there is no intercessor his Arm brings salvation and his righteousness sustains him Isa 63.5 and the appearances and outgoings of his providence are so signal and conspicuous as digitus Dei the finger of Heaven appears and every spectator must say This is the Lords doing Hos 1.7 I will have mercy on the house of Judah and save them by the Lord their God and will not
Though their bones be scattered as at the graves mouth yet will he overthrow their Judges in stony places Psal 141.6 If they drink of the Cup which comparatively are not worthy they shall not escape unpunisht but shall certainly drink the dreggs thereof Jer. 49.12 When he hath performed his whole work on Mount Sion he will then punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria Isa 10.12 Judgement begins indeed at his house and Sanctuary but Jerusalem does but hand the Cup to the Nations and when God hath used the wicked as Rods to lash his people having done with them he throws them into the fire Babylon is dealt with as she dealt with Israel Jer. 51.6 49. And so Amalek Deut. 25. ult God will be an enemy to the enemies of his people and set himself against them who are so mad in running upon their own ruine as to set themselves against his chosen None ever fought against Gods interest and prospered but was in the event worsted and forced to confess he kickt against the pricks The house of David in fine overcomes that of Saul and though their horns be lifted up never so high he who is the horn of his peoples salvation will cut off the horn of the wicked or by his Carpenters fray them away Zech. 1.21 And when once they come under the hammer of his Justice they must expect judgement without mercy who would shew no mercy The Psalmist does most elegantly express both the sudden alteration of providence to Gods people and to their enemies Psal 138.7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me as the Son of man did the children in the furnace thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me An allusion to Moses stretching his hand over the Sea whereby the waters came upon the Egyptians and drowned their Chariots and horse-men God hath an out-stretched Arm able to reach those who are â—ut of the reach of his people and they that â—ome not within the compass of humane-Justice â—et cannot escape divine Vengeance And so â—uch for the third particular Fourthly Here is an help against the stroke of â—ommon judgements and publick calamities so â— to fence then â— from their heads or at least â—â—e evil of them â—hus God helpt Noah to an â—rk to house him in time of the universal deâ—ge Lot to a Zoar to secure him in time of publick conflagration In time of war he keeps â—s servant David from the hurtful sword diâ—ne protection was as a coat of Male to him â— Armour of proof to him to keep him shotâ—ee and untoucht Psal 144.10 In the time of â—â—some Pestilence when his infections Arrows â—e shot forth like lightning they abide under â—s shadow and are covered with his feathers â—s truth is their shield and buckler himself their â—ck and habitation so that though thousands â—ll on the right hand and on the lest yet he â—ands upright no evil befalls him nor no Plague â—nters his dwellings Psal 91. Which promise â—ough it gives not absolute assurance of the event â—nd issue as to temporal preservation yet it offers â—ur incouragement and propounds sure and sole â—rection how to escape the lash of the destroyer one standing on so sure a soot and a fair ground â—f protection in such a day of general calamity â—s Gods people In time of famine he redeems â—hem from death when he is riding on that â—ale horse he enters not their tents as in â—var from the power of the sword Job 5.20 â—n horrible burnings when others both persons and places Cities and Countries are made firebrands of his wrath they are pluckt as brands out of the fire Amos 4.11 In times of great concussion when the world seems quite off his Axletree and removed from its basis and foundation the earth moved from its centre and the hills carried into the midst of the Sea the waters roar and are troubled and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof mens hearts sail them for fear and the powers of Heaven are shaken and great desolations are made in the earth they remain intacti illaesi unshaken and immoved Psal 46. Luk. 21. Etiamsi fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Now God under the deluge of judgements is an help to his people three manner of waies First By removing them out of the reach of them securing them from their dint and stroke Sometimes he removes their souls to Heaven and lodgeth their bodies in the chambers of the grave He takes his out of a sinful and miserable world before the Judgement commenceth Isa 57.1 Thus he took Josiah up into the chambers of heavenly glory before the storm came on Israels head He baild off the arrest his life time but no sooner is he dead and gone but issues out her writ of remove out of his sight Thus God took away Austin a little before Hippo was sackt and Pareus a little before Heidelburgh was destroyed and Luther according to his own prayer that he might not live to see the Plagues of God coming on an ungodly world before the German troubles brake forth God removes his people by an habeas corpus out of this lower world and then comes down its execution And the greatest storm of outward Judgements hath no further effect on the godly than to drive them to their Fathers house or most boisterous wind of calamity than to blow them home to their desired Haven When God had informed Daniel of such a time of trouble coming on the world as never was since there was a Nation even under the persecution by Antiochus he dismisseth him with his quietus est Cap. 12 13. Go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot in the end of the daies When Gods peoples race be run their work done and finisht he gives them a dispensation for tarrying any longer in the world or managing their office and duty here below plucks them off the stage and sends them to Heaven to rest from their labours and receive their reward prepared for them and promised to them Sometimes God removes them out of the verge of trouble on earth Isa 26.20 Come my people enter into thy Chambers and shut thy doors round about thee and hide thy self as it were for a little moment till the indignation be overpast God hath chambers of distinguishing providence and of gracious presence whither he lovingly invites his people as one friend does another distant from his own home and overtaken with a storm to come in and shelter himself till it be blown over God hath hiding-places places of retirement and repose for his people under publick out-goings of his Majesty and his wrath and justice against the inhabitants of the earth When the world lies open and naked to the storm of divine vengeance as a man in rain without a covering or in a battel
proportion and perpetuity or duration and these are only found to centre in God himself who is God self and all-sufficient the portion of his peoples Souls and God from everlasting to everlasting the Alpha and Omega who hath neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but is the same yesterday to day to mornow and for ever But this is only imply'd Secondly and more particularly with reference to the chief scope and intendment of the Text as the notion of help speaks a relation to the circumstances of an evil time a time of disappointment and affliction observe That the supreme yea sole ground of comfort and confidence in an evil day a day wherein a soul needs â—elp is interest in God O thrice happy is that Soul that in any day especially in a day of trouble and affliction hath God for his Help This was all the Musick of Davids Joy when on the top of the waters of distress and outward disconsolation This was his sole encouragement that spake well to his Soul when all things seemed to look asquint on him and be against him 1 Sam. 30.6 This was the only surviving hope of the Prophet Jeremiah in the day of evil This was the alone remaining prop of the Churches Consolation in times of greatest persecution Mic. 7. and depopulation Hub. 3. This was the ground of her acclamations under all worldly disturbances and commotions The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our resuge Psal 46.7 Now the verity of this point will appear and be made good from a double consideration Both from the Nature of God and also the manner or the peculiar properties of that Help he affords his people First From the Nature of God who is his Peoples Helper Now amongst many other there are four or five things especially considerable in God which bespeak the Saints happiness interested in him in an evil day First The Infiniteness of his Being Isa 40.12 13 14 28 29. All his Attributes are equal because they are all infinite Who hath limited the holy one of Israel or can confine him that is Eternity Canst thou by searching finde out God Job 11.7 Though we may know him to salvation who can know him to perfection Creatures are all finite though never so excelsent but his understanding is infinite His Power Wisdom Justice Holiness Truth and Mercy all carry an infinity with them He is not measurable by the line of humane reason or fathomable by the plummet of any created understanding but still we must cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out Rom. 11.33 He can do every thing and no thought can be with-holden from him Job 42.2 Men can do something but God can do all things he is omniscient omnipotent and omnidisponent Now all the wants and straits of the creature are but finite and inter finitum infinitum nulla est proportio there is no proportion between finite afflictions and infinite compassions Secondly The Absoluteness and Independency of his actings He doth whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven or Earth or all deep places Psal 135.6 He sits on the circle of the Heavens and all the Inhabitants of the earth are but as so many Grashoppers before him All the Inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the Army of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou There is none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absolute and independent but God only so miraculous is his providence as he does great things past finding out yea and wonders without number Job 9.10 All second causes depend on him for their being motion and operations and in every strait and exigency that befalls must say as the King to the woman Except the Lord helps we cannot help But though Heaven acts on haec inferiora the first cause on the second it never goes to the second while that ever goes to the first The spring depends not on the stream though that depends on the fountain All created beings depend upon God though he depends on no created perfections but for through and to him are all things His own arm when that of the creaturesis quite withered can work salvation to him and his righteousness sustain him Thirdly The Immutability of his purpose and promises He works all things according to the counsel of 〈◊〉 â—wn will And his decrees issue forth as between mountains of brass Zach. 6.1 His counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure Isa 46.10 If he decrees who can disannul he cannot lie or repent but will perform all he hath spoken his whole word to his Servants Fourthly The Tenderness of his bowels He hath not only a fulness and riches of grace but exerciseth a freeness in his operations and while creatures act according to desert he doth all from free grace and hath abundance of compassionsâ— which are never failing to his People He i◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of pities and compassions and they are all the genuine off-spring oâ— uncreated goodness He hath the wisdom of a Father and the bowels of a Mother Isa 41.15 Mercy is his darling which pleaseth him Micaâ— 7.18 The Benjamin of his delight he will not alwaies chide nor be angry for ever As a tendeâ— Shepherd carries his Lambs so does he his People in his bosome his bounty may be seen in his bowels as in an Anatomy Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up O Ephraim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Fifthly The Eternity of his existence He is the eternity of Israel the rock of ages and God of all Generations Creatures are but of yesterday and must shortly say to corruption Thou art our Father and to the worms ye are our Brethren and Sisters but his years have no end and endure throughout all generations He that builds on him shall never be ashamed but have an everlasting foundation In the Lord Jehovah Isa 26.4 is everlasting strength So that put all these together and they must needs speak his People happy in the worst of times whose help is laid on such an infinite immutable independent compassionate and eternal God as their only refuge Secondly It 's demonstrable from the manner of his supply and help And so their happiness in this their interest appears First A facultate from his ability to help he is the Mighty God yea the Almighty Gen. 17 1. An able and self-sufficient yea an Alsufficient God to his people he hath pleonasms of grace and can do abundantly yea superabundantly for his above all they can ask or think Ephes 3.20 He hath not plenitudinem vasis but fontis a fulness of redundancy as well as of abundance Does the soul want pardon he can abundantly pardon grace he
gives gifts even to the rebellious comfort he is the Father of mercies and God of all consolations He knows our wants yea and our thoughts long before and when we know not what to ask yet he knows what to give He is able to help against sin its guilt its strength against temptations though Satan be mighty he is Almighty against afflictions from himself or oppositions from the world The shields of the earth are his and he can weild them as he pleaseth Psal 47.9 His very intueri is operari and one smile of his beatifical face is able to create more sollace than all the frowns of the world can sadness or discomfort This was the pillar of Abraham's faith Rom. 4.21 Knowing what he had promised he was able to perform Secondly A voluntate Men oft-times are willing to help but not able and many times able but not willing but God is as willing as able He is alwaies ready to succour and relieve his People he is a God that waits to be gracious yea he is already engaged Call upon me and I will answer thee Thirdly Ab instantia auxilii from the presentness and instancy of his help He is a present help in time of trouble Men oppressed oft miscarry through help at a distance but the Lord is alwaies near at hand to his people he is their arm every morning and in the evening the God of their life God is in the midst of her and she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early Psal 46.5 I am God and not man the holy one of Israel in the midst of thee Hos 11.9 He comes in the nick seasonably and opportunely and brings salvation if need be on the wing Isa 31.5 As birds flying so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem defending also he will deliver it and passing over he will preserve it Veni vidi vici is his motto he is slow to punishment but quick to deliverance Then thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am Isa 58.9 He is oft nearest when he seems furthest off As he cuts short his work in righteousness in respect of the wicked so he brings near his righteousness to his People Isa 46.13 It shall not be far off and his salvation shall not tarry Fourthly A fidelitate from his faithfulness in helping The reason of mens failure is either want of ability or want of fidelity but God is faithful who hath promised By promising he hath made himself a debtor and he will not stand alwaies engaged much less break his promise His faithfulness cannot fail The husband may be unfaithful to the wife the father to the son the Prince to the subject but God will never be unfaithful to his People Men may intend help but be unexpectedly disappointed or pretend it and yet really hinder there is oft a conjunction of forces where no union of hearts and affections God made the woman to be a meet help to the man and faithfulness is one of the principal duâ—â—es that flows from conjugal relations but yet â—â—t-times they prove unfaithful yea perfidious â—s Dalilah did to Sampson but God will never â—ail them that trust in him He keepeth truth for â—er vers 6. Fifthly A constantia from the perpetuity and â—nchangeableness of his help This the Psalmist â—ere adds by way of confirmation of his assertion â—f blessedness vers 10. The Lord shall reign for â—â—er God alwaies lives and reigns Men die â—one generation comes another goes and none â—ayes but God ever lives as the Patron and Proâ—ector of his People The King of Heaven never â—ies under all the changes and vicissitudes in this â—wer Region of the world he still abides a God who changeth not He is a standing help to which â—he soul may go and resort on all occasions Psal â—1 2 He will not forsake the work of his hands â—he is a never fading and failing refuge Nevertheless saith the Psalmist I am continually with thee â—hou hast holden me by my right hand Thou shalt â—uide me with thy counsel and afterward receive â—e to glory Psal 73.23 24. We may let go our â—old of God but he will never let go his hold of â—s by his grace we are kept from falling and â—y his mighty power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are guarded to salvation Let the Psalmists inference conclude this point Psal 48. ult For this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death And so much for the priviledge or the blessing pronounced Secondly Follows the propriety or benedidiction applied in this pronoun his his help whence observe First A Saint and he alone hath a special interest and propriety in God Others may have a common but they only a saving interest God may give the men of the world something from himself but he hath made himself only over to his People They may call all their own but God but these can call God theirs when they have nothing else Abraham gave the Sons of Keturah portions but reserved Isaac the Inheritance Jehosaphat gave his other Sons gifts but Jehoram the Kingdom The earth God hath given to the children of men but the Lord is the portion of his Peoples Inheritance Psal 16.5 Influence flows from interest and interest flows only from union O God saith David my God Thou art my God and I will praise thee He who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is in him their God and Father This new name none knows but he that receives it Secondly Observe Saints only can be just expectants of divine help and influence His help and salvation is to them that fear him Fiducial recumbency on God flows only from the consideration of our interest in him and is founded on this bottom that he is a God in covenant with us He is first the God of Jacob and then an help that is the order here My God and then my salvation Job 13.16 He is a peculiar help to his People The title he hath assumed to himself is the God of their salvation Indeed he is an help to others in a larger sense but by way of peculiarity or singular specialty the only help of his elect They alone are others are not under any distinguishing promise but rather a threatning Isa 65..13 Behold saith God my Servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my Servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty they shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed And they only coming within compass of the promise and so having a right to the mercy of it can only jâ—stly hope and confidently expect it The wicked hath no hope They alone can come with boldness to the Throne of Grace and beg it in the time of their need Wicked men have no God to go to and how can they ever hope to come to God in an evil who in a good day have run away from
God and while engaged in that aspect he resolutely and confidently opposeth his manutenence to all humane helps within view considered And if we take notice of it in that opposition or contradiction to those objects wherein wicked men usually place their happiness it will suggest to us these two Observations First The excellency of God is much illustrated by the consideration of the vanity of the creature These are Chrystal-glasses which set one against another reflect a mutual light one to the other The Word of God is a true prospective at the one end whereof if we look we shall see the world as a little mole-hill at the other God as a vast and great mountain Indeed the glass of created perfections represents God as the Moon doâ—â— the Sun when they stand in conjunction with and subordination to him his invisible glory and excellency is legible in the book of the Creatures but they do but darken his beauty when standing in opposition against him And so do'â— he theirs The greater light extinguishes the less Lord how soon did those joyes vanish when thou did iâ— once enter into my Soul who art clearer than the Sun and purer than the Light it self saith Austin The black-spots of Creature-deficiency set off the white colours of divine pâ—rfection with a most orient and beautifull lustre As the sight of our sin appears most full in the glass of his purity and Holiness so that of our Vanity in the glass of his Fulness and of our misery in that of his glory and happiness Gods fulness and our emptiness mutually illustrate one another Secondly If we observe the words as brought in by way of opposition or comparison so they speak an excellency in the enjoyment of God above all Creatures and a felicity in his Help above all humane help First Here is imply'd a comparison between God himself and the Creature even the best of them and so the Psalmist speaks him a God which hath a prelation and preheminence to all Creatures in their highest attainment and most glorious advances The Souls happiness in the enjoyment of God is superexcellent and transcendent to what is to be found and had in the Creature The Saints enjoying God are more happy blessed far above wicked men who only enjoy the World The one bears no proportion to the other We find David making out the comparison between the Portions of his hand and the Vision of his Face Psal 4.7 Psal 17.14 15. and how do's that cast the ballance without all contradiction Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance Thou hast put more gladness into my heart As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness The Kings favour is to be preferred beyond his gifts Chrysantas's Kiss exceeds Artabarus's golden Wedge Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth saith the Spouse his love is better than Wine Cant. 1.2 Cursed is he saith that noble Convert who preferrs not an hours communion with God before all the treasures of the World When as once Charles the fifth by his Herauld defied the King of France under his multiplied titles Emperour of Germany King of Castile Leon Arragon and Naples Arch-duke of Austria c. Francis the First returns his challenge only with the repetition of France as oft as might answer his petty Principalities intimating that one France was more valuable than them all And do's not David oppose his Interest in God to all the World when he had taken a full survey of all its glittering glory and bravery even to envy Whom have I in Heaven but thee God was beyond and infinitely better than Relations Estates Friends Pleasures Honours Life Earth yea Heaven it self than all in his refined and raised apprehensions Mallem in Gehenna esse cum te quam in Coelo sine te Luther saith And indeed God alone is a real solid and substantial good in respect of whom all other are but false counterfeit and deceitfull Imaginaria in saeculo nihil veri saith Tertullian The World it self is like some persons in it empty shallow-brain'd men of a flashy vapouring temper the less ye know of them the more ye value and esteem them acquaintance with them breeds slight and contempt of them But the more we search into God in whom there is a reall and infinite worth the more excellency our Souls find in him who is that Puteus inexhaustus never to be drawn dry by his Creatures and in the Conclusion we must say not the one half hath been found by us It 's with the World as with a Picture the greater distance we stand from it the better it looks but the nigher we draw to God as to a beautifull face and native Complexion the more delectable and desireable aspect There 's alwayes upon tryal less in the World but more in God than we could expect and look for God is a pure and refined good from all the dross and dreggs of imperfection and corruption which adheres to or inheres in all Creatures He is a full and satisfying good the ultimate perfection to which all Creatures tend and wherein all desires centre and find content and satisfaction Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Nimis avarus animus cui unicus non sufficit Deus Bernard The Sun refreshes without the Stars illumination Had a man all the World in hand his heart would not be at rest but like the Needle toucht with the Load-stone which is always moving towards the north point would be inclining to God the first good and utmost end The enjoyment of God fills up all the chinks of a reasonable Soul and satisfies him alone in all wants straits exigencies and extremities though he hath nothing of the Creature but notwithstanding the greatest confluence or influence of worldly comforts and Creature accommodations which God never made or intended for the Souls satisfaction in the midst of its sufficiency it is in straits and tantalizeth under its greatest fulness All its fruition is but a golden dream of a Feast by one rockt asleep on the bed of security and self-deceit which to him once awakened to right apprehensions soon vanisheth and determines in a reall hunger Many have been surfeited by the world but none sufficed had too much to do their Souls good but who almost ever said I have enough To conclude this and dwell no longer on this first branch of the Text God is in a word a durable and lasting yea an everlasting good an enduring substance a portion to his for ever Creature-comforts are colours meerly waterish which a little shower alters but divine consolations as colours laid in Oyl which the greatest storm will not wear off or fetch out Creatures are all standing Ponds or crackt Cisterns soon dryed up but God an ever-running and flowing Fountain in whom there is as the Father speaks serenitas sine nube satietas sine labe felicitas sine fine Clearness without cloud fulness without want felicity without
their hope is founded and whereby it is sustained and supported The Lord their God First The exercise of hope That 's the qualification of the persons And so we may observe Gods People are an hoping and expecting people especially in evil times is their hope fixed and engaged on God Thou art my hope is their usual language Hope is the discriminating character of a Christian This the Saints have alwaies made profession of and incouraged themselves unto in the worst of times Psal 71.5 Saith David Thou art my hope O Lord God So Psal 141.8 Mine eyes are to thee O God the Lord in thee is my trust So the Church Lam. 3.26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It 's the commendation of Abraham the Father of the faithful that in hope he believed against hope Rom. 4.18 Their souls depend wholly upon God and their expectation is only from him It 's their differencing character from the wicked who are men without hope Ephes 2.12 Now hope upon a moral account is nothing else but a passion of the irascible appetite about a future good hard and difficult to be obtained and yet possible because either promised or proper to us It 's called future to distinguish it from fruition and also joy For what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Rom. 8.24 It s object is also said to be difficult to distinguish it from desire and anhelation yet possible to oppose it to desperation Divine hope is no other than an assured looking for and undoubted expectation of all promised good things to come spiritual temporal and eternal on the account of Gods mercy and Christs merits and the out-going of the soul towards those apprehended goods Fear is conversant about evil but hope about good And as it bears a special respect to eternal blessedness life and salvation so a subordinate and inferiour to all outward deliverances mercies and comforts whatsoever Faith considers things as true hope as hard though possible chaâ—ity as good Faith looks at the word promising hope at the thing promised Faith and Patience properly respect afflictions the one the strength the other the length of them hope more strictly the delation of mercies and blessings The Saints often have little in hand but they have much in hope It 's the Periphrasis of the Saints such as hope in the Lord. They trust in him at all times an a good day a day of mercy when their steps are anointed with butter and hony while they â—eat the finest of the Wheat and drink the purest blood of the Grape and in the evil day either of publick or private calamity when God hedgeth up their waies with thorns and writes bitter things against them what time they are afraid they trust in him They have spem in imis and though tossed to and fro with the waves of sorrow and discomfort they can with the wise Marriner fasten the anchor of hope both in the dark and the deep in the God of their salvation They are alwaies cleaving to and depending on God addressing to him waiting on and expecting from him looking and longing towards him and though they want comfort and assurance yet they alwaies nourish a secret hope and though in a passion they may cry out Their hope is perished from the Lord yet as soon as the fit is over they recollect themselves and say Why are ye cast down our souls hope in God for we shall yet praise him Secondly The foundation of that hope is here expressed The Lord their God Where we must consider the appellation The Lord God and the relation The Lord their God First The appellation The Lord God Deus est nomen essentiae Dominus potestâ—tis the one is a name denoting substance the other power and authority Hence observe first Though a Saint be never sâ— happy in the influence of mercy yet he still keeps anâ— eye to and maintains a reverential aw of divine Majesty Heb. 12. ult Having received a Kingdom let us serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear So 1 Pet. 1.17 If we call him not Judge but Father let us pass the time of our sojourning in fear God hath so tempered the discoveries of his greatness with those of his goodness as there is matter for filial fear in the highest exercises of our faith and confidence Secondly Gods power and greatness is a great incouragement of his Peoples hope in him Not only his grace and mercy but his power and ability is a stable prop of their saith and confidence Outward greatness proves a disadvantage to the improvement of worldly interests and makes men stand at a distance but doth no way hinder or impeach but rather help forward divine interests and accesses Without an interest in God indeed the most comfortable Attributes are terrible but through that the most terrible Attributes become comfortable But to pass these thirdly Observe God and God alone is the object of his Peoples hope in a day of â—ffliction He is the confidence of the ends of the â—arth Psal 65.5 The Prophâ—t stâ—les him expresly â—nd by way of emphasis The hope of Israel Jer. â—4 8 He is called The God of hope Rom. 15.13 â—jctive as well as effectivè He is so in himself and is People make him so He is their hope exclusivè â—â—â—y Their â—elp stands only in his Name Tutius ad Deum meum quà nt ad ullum Sanctorum vel Augeâ—rum saith Austin I can go safelier to my God â—an either to Saint or Angel They know the â—anity and emptiness of the creature and the fulâ—ess and alsufficiency of the Creatour and thereâ—ore in his Name will they set up their banners â—nd he is their hope signantèr by way of emiâ—ency a sufficient help when there is no hope in â—he creature at the best there is hope in God at â—â—e worst A Saints case is never so desperate as â—â—earth but it 's hopeful as to Heaven Now if we would know or inquire what it is â—â— God that is the pillar of their hope or the â—ject of their confidence take we an account of 〈◊〉 especially in these five particulars First The glory of his Attributes This was â—hat he proclaimed before Mâ—ses for his incourageâ—ent of him in the conduct of the people upon â—s earnest request when his spirit began even to â—ul him Exod. 34.6 The Lord God merciful and â—acious This Name of the Lord is a strong â—ower The consideration of his immutability â—hat he is a God who changeth not amidst all the â—hanges confusions and revolutions of this lower world of his sufficiency all power belonging to him Psal 62.11 And above all his never failing goodness and mercy truth and faithfulness is aâ— invincible stay and support to the Christians hope See holy Jeremiah bearing up himself with thâ— meditation of his power Jer. 32.17 18. Aâ—â— Lord God behold thou hast made the Heaven anâ— the Earth
Providence So that we may boldly say The Lord is our belper And so he reasons against oppositions and persecutions 2 Tim. 4.17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work Former experiments like herbs distilled in Summer which comfort the heart in the dead of winter may serve to justifie yea to fortifie future expectances It 's good reckoning though not from false and deceitfull man yet from the true and everliving God what he hath been that he will be to his People He that hath delivered their souls from death will deliver their eyes from tears and their feet from falling he that hath delivered doth and will deliver as the Apostle concludes even when persecutions brake his back comforting himself with this they should not break his neck 2 Cor. 1.10 but God would make a way of escape And so much for the Appellation The Lord God Secondly Follows the appropriation or application of this to our selves The Lord his God Our God Interest in God is the only sure ground of hope in him 1 Sam. 30.6 David encouraged himself in the Lord his God Psal 60.4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee The Signs of Gods favour and presence the assurances of victory and triumph are the Saints peculiar God proclaims warr against the wicked No peace saith my God to the wicked God will not cast away a perfect man neither will he help the evil doers he will never take the wicked by the hand His people only are the objects of his care and help in an evil day as of his love and favour in a good When he roars out of Sion and utters his voice from Jerusalem and the Heavens and Earth shake he will then be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel Joel 3.16 a place of repair to and harbour for them in the worst of times as the word imports An Hypocrite hath no such hope The sinners of Sion are afraid fearfulness surprizeth the Hypocrites They cannot dwell with devouring fire or endure everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 As 't is the Saints duty so 't is their only Priviledge to hope God even our own God shall bless us Psal 67.6 Appropriation is the ground of Benediction Lo this is our God we have waited for him interest is the foundation of expectation It was the observation of Luther A Christians duty lies much in Adverbs his comfort much in Pronouns The Ship that is most richly laden with holiness alwayes may bear the fairest Sails of confidence Wicked men may be carnally confident and seem to trust in God but all is but a pretence they carry the fairest side outward and may have fair weather in their faces while a dreadfull storm in their Consciences They may presume but cannot believe may lie to God but cannot relie upon him They who obey not Precepts can never rightly hope in Promises for where Faith is in the centre Obedience will be in the circumference Sin dashes a mans hopes and guilt enfeebles his spirit That of Austin may be applyed here Nonbene creditur vbi non bene vivitur The flagg of Confidence that hangs outward in his countenance is but a bare empty sign without an approved licence of holiness and will not allow him a drop of the wine of true Consolation But so much for the first particular the exercise of the Saints Hope with its proper Object the Lord their God Now follows Lastly Praemium the reward and retribution of this their hope Happy are they For the predicate of Happiness referrs to both Clauses Happy is he to whom God affords help and happy he that makes him his Help by trusting to and hoping in him Whos 's hope is in the Lord his God This is the ordinary Language of Sacred Writt Psal 2.12 Blessed are all they that trust in him Psal 34.8 Blessed is the man that trusts in him Psal 84.12 c. And as David the Father so Solomon the Son that Master of the Sentences affirms it Prov. 16.20 Whoso trusteth in the Lord happy is he and so the Prophets assert this beatitude which hope in God introduceth Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him and Jer. 17.7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Now this blessedness of the Soul by reason of its hoping in God will appear not to name many things and be evident upon this threefold accompt As it is a preserver of the Soul from sin under trouble as it is an antidote against or relief to the soul under trouble and as it carries with it an assurance of deliverance and salvation out of trouble First Under trouble it secures the soul from sinning against God That is the great matter of the godly's fear in time of straits and afflictions lest they should sin against God Nil timeo said Chrysostom to the Emperess Eudoxia threatning of him nisi peccatum They fear to sin by farr more than to suffer Now as a Mudd-wall choaks all the Cannon-bullets and Granado's shot against it so do's this grace of Hope quench all the fiery darts of temptation It 's that preparation of the Gospel of Peace with which the Soul being well shodd may walk over thorns and briars and tread the Lion and Adder under his feet There are three evils especially to which a gracious Soul is liable under the burden and pressure of afflictions Dedolency and despair under them Discontent and impatience at them or use of indirect and unlawfull Means to get out of them and these necessarily follow one another Hope is a remedy against all First Against male-content under trouble It quiets contents and settles the Soul and keeps it from murmuring and repining This the Church found Lam. 3.29 She put her mouth in the dust if so be there might be hope They are desperate wretches who open their mouths wide and blaspheme God by reason of the Plagues Revel 16.21 Even the Devils blasphemy ariseth from their desperacy 'T was the Atheistical King that would wait on the Lord no longer 1 King 6. ult Hope waits untill the Lord is gracious is dumb and hath not a word to say against his doings A desperate Traitor curses his Prince but a penitent Malefactor who hath the least hope or pardon willingly submits to his sentence Indeed hope of mercy is a main ingredient in true repentance and raiseth it from Legal to Evangelical when a Soul sorrows towards God mourns looking on him pierced for as well as by him and puts the rope about his neck and sackcloth about his loyns in his approaches to the King of Heaven because he is a mercifull King Secondly It keeps from despondency and utter succumbency under affliction It hath vim sustentantem a sustaining power in it bears a man up against his Infirmities it keeps the Soul from fainting or sinking It 's like the Cork of the Net
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
poor sinner to be left thus without help and hope Oh that careless and prâ—sumptuous sinners that now forget God would a little turn aside and see this sad and ruefall spectacle Didst thou never see O man a poor condemnâ—d Malefactor when receiving his Sentence weâ—ping wailing and lamenting wringing his hands furrowing his cheeks with tears down on his bended knees for mercy didst thou never behold him haling to his place of Execution roaring and yelling with the hidâ—ous thoughts of death and damnation Sinner this is tâ—y case or will be shortly Thou must be sentenced before Gods most righteous Tribunall and there adjudged for Treason and Rebellion against the God of Heaven and what will the Hypocrite do in the day that God comes to take away his Soul Job 27.8 The expectation of the wicked shall then perish Thou lookedst for life but bâ—hold death a blessing but meetest with a curse for mercy but art sent away with a portion of remediless easeless and endless misery Now while life lasteth it may be because ye have no changes ye fear not God but when God comes by his Providence to ring the changes as to thy temporal life and plucks thee off the stage of the World O what a dismal hour what a sad Catastrophe will then attend thee The hope of the Hypocrite is as the giving up of the Ghost Job 11.20 It may hold as long as his life continues but at the utmost it shall expire with his breath Then this bubble will fall and the bladder of his vain hope though swell'd with windy conceits to never so great a proportion being pricked by the Lance of death shall evaporate into air winde and confusion The Hypocrites condition is now uncertain he stands on a Quag-mire every moment ready to drop into Hell When he rises in the morning he hath no security of being out of Hell till night or lies down at evening is at no certainty of immunity from divine wrath and vengeance while morning But though he goes quietly to the grave when he dies not only his priviledges prayers comforts means friends but even all his hopes too vanish and die with him Prov. 11.7 The hope of the hypocrite shall perish In that great day of Gods anger he will be as a man in a rain without a shelter as a Souldier in a battell without Armour as a Ship at Sea in a furious storm without Anchor he shall not be able to stand Wretched Sinner Thou mayst run and read the sadness of thy condition in thy Predecessors Saul Esau and Judas and other Reprobates and see what dismal Tragedies they acted under their terrors of Conscience and desperations of Spirit In a word to turn from this dolefull knell none knows what 't is to want an interest in God but an â—wakened conscience on Earth or a damned wight in Hell All the hope a carnal wretch hath in this world is only that he is on this side Hell Thirdly This presents us with the excellency of God above all creatures men and Angels He is that blessed object alone who can make the soul happy and therefore the Psalmist here gives him the prelation and preheminence above whatsoever is mortal and mutable and should we take a strict examination of all creatures in Heaven or Earth without God this summum bonum they could not by their united force and utmost influence bespeak or make the soul happy The depth would say it is not in me and the Sea it is not in me All creatures would be found miserable comforters Physitians of no value I have seen an end saith David of all perfection The total of all creatures in their natures improved and advanced and their quintessence extracted and refined amounts but to this Vanity of vanities But in God there is enough to make the soul unspeakably and eternally blessed There is in him a sufficiency to supply all the wants and answer â—ll the demands and cravings of the soul of man In his presence is fulness of joy He can support their hearts when weakest and supply them when â—mptiest he can remove whatsoever threatneth the souls destruction and confer whatever tends â—o its perfection It was Davids conclusion of faith when the Lord was his Shepherd that he should never want God is a comprehensive good containing all that vertue and influence eminently in himself which is in the creatures formally He can fill the soul and yet never cloy it give it a fulness and yet no burden The world delights nothing but in change and variety The most choice meats if common prove nauseous and delightful musicks if constant tedious and burthensome But in unico Deo is all the heart can desire or wish and the constant enjoyment of him is Heaven to the soul without any the least glut or disrelish There is a suitability in him to the souls of his People He is the centre of all their desires And the degree of their satisfaction ariseth as from the degree of their union with him so the degree of his proportion to them He is an adequate and commensurate good to the desires and hopes of a gracious soul There is an exact agreement between his sweetness and the souls taste which creates a most savoury relish of him in the souls palate God alone being the highest object of faith is the greatest ground of joy and satisfaction And such a suitableness is in him to the soul that it desires nothing like nothing but himself Heaven it self would be but Hell without him The Kings presence is that makes the Court. A Saint is more pleased with the enjoyment of God than of Heaven glory salvation it self He is his Peoples salvation As no sacrifices content God which his People offer him without the oblation of themselves so nothing of all his donations delights his People without he bestows himself as a Legacy upon them And then his Eternity in his being and fidelity in his Promises is a great aggravation of his Peoples happiness as well as his own excellency It 's the main scope of the Psalmist in these verses to recommend God to us and represent him as a fit object of our faith and assured ground of our blessedness from his truth and faithfulness Creatures as they are all unsatisfying like drink in a dropsie that is so far from quenching our thirst that it rather enflames it so likewise deceitful like Absoloms Mule running from under us when we have most need of their stay and Halcyonbirds that abide with us in Summer but when Winter once comes are upon the wing and gone But God is the faithful and living God whose truth never fails mind never changes good will never abates towards his People He may change his outward dispensations but not his inward disposition Non deserit etiamsi deserere videatur We may lose our vision of and influence from him but never our union and communion with him He may for a time desert us
when we extravagate from him but will never utterly disinherit us and cast us out of his favour and protection but though for a moment he forsakes with everlasting kindness he remembers us Fourthly This teacheth us the folly and danger of all oppositions against and oppressions of the People of God If God be their help who shall be their destroyer or dare be their opposer And yet such is the madness and phrensie of the world as they will venture to set themselves against those God hath set himself for The wicked have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge They know what to do well enough with him for all that they are resolved to persecute him let him save and deliver him Many there be saith David which say of my soul there is no help for him in his God Psal 3.2 3. These in their triumphant bravado's and flourishing vapours are their vain and cursed conclusions I will pursue I will overtake that 's their desperate resolution The world is resolved to hate those God loves and persecute them God hath undertaken to protect They will kick against the pricks and though they cannot reach the person Christ whose Image the Saints do but represent yet Panther-like in their rage they will tear the picture Either by secret fraud they are consulting against Gods hidden ones to undermine them or by open violence endeavouring to overthrow them But such is the Saints stability in God that the very gates of Hell shall never prevail against them They are as Mount Sion that cannot be moved They do but throw stones against the wind go about to pluck the Sun out of Heaven as those Barbarous Nations who when scorched by the heat of it endeavour with their arrows to shoot at it There is no enchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel saith Baalam himself a Wizzard Numb 23. And God hath set a noli me tangere about his People Psal 106.15 Yea promised that no weapon formed against them shall prosper God will turn those weapons against themselves and cause all their arrows to return on their own heads God will be an enemy to his Peoples enemies and bring ruin on all the Churches oppressors It 's Solomon's counsel not to oppress the poor because his Redeemer is mighty The Most High regards it and will reward it too and relieve them under it For the oppression of his poor and needy he will also arise and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Psa 12.5 God is his Peoples second and stands at their back he will uphold Jacob though a Worm he hath undertaken their defence and will vindicate their cause They therefore have no cause to fear or their enemies to triumph God stands Sentinel over them never slumbers or sleeps and they may sleep securely while he awakes as that great Commander did when his Captain was watching the enemies motion David will never flie or run for 't as long as he hath God for his shield Psal 11.1 In the Lord saith he put I my trust how say ye to my soul fly as a Bird to your Mountain And neither have their enemies any ground of confidence Would not you think that man worse than mad whom you bend setting his shoulders against a strong and well-built house thinking to overturn it of its foundation or against an impregnable Rock endeavouring to remove it from its place Such and infinitely far worse is their vanity who set themselves against the Lord and his Anointed None ever yet set himself against the Almighty or shall ever do but will be sure to have the worst of it God saies Zach. 12.3 He will make Jerusalem a burthensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces Heerom tells us that at the entrance of the gate of Jerusalem there lay very great stones by the lifting whereof men used to try their strength He that could heave them came off without any harm but they which attempted and could not lift them were sorely bruised and battered if not utterly spoiled by them Such will be the issue and success of all wicked mens designs and enterprizes against Gods People who have him as the stone of their help all their powers policies attempts and under-ground devices shall come to nought and confusion their mischief come down on their own head and their violent dealing on their own pate yea all their confâ—deracies and combinations as well as conspiracies and secret machinations shall be broken in pieces Isa 8.9 10. And as God told the Israelites once when leaning on the Egyptians both he that helpeth and he that is holpen shall both fall together Isa 31.3 O that the world would at length learn the wisdom not to oppose God and so run on the pikes of their own inevitable ruin but rather kiss the Son lest they perish in his wrath when kindled but a little And which is a consequence of this or rather a just inference upon it let all that pretend to bear good will to Sion beware openly or covertly of taking in against Gods interest and cause whatsoever be their disguises or pretences lest it comes home by them in the end If Meroz was cursed for not helping the Lord against the mighty what will be their doom who dare help the mighty against the Lord If good Jehosaphat had so sharp a reproof for helping with the ungodly and those who did not fear the Lord 2 Chron. 19.2 They must needs not only be blamed but also cursed who will venture to aid abet or assist the wicked against those who fear the Lord and are the objects of his help and protection And so much by way of deduction and inference Secondly This provokes to examination If they be thus happy who are interested in God and have him as their help and hope it 's worth our enquiry whether this God be our God and consequently our help and hope in the day of evil Now if we would know this our interest let us take first some general signs of an interest in him Secondly some more particular evidences or discoveries of our making him our hope and help The first mark or sign of an interest in God is union with him in and through Christ All creatures through the fall are out of favour at Heaven and there is no coming to God but through his Son He is the way the truth and the life The way in which the truth by which the life unto which the soul moves and comes No man comes to the Father but by him nor knows the Father but 't is of his revealing We are far off from God by nature but draw nigh through Christs blood that new and living way If we know him we know also the Father Are our souls united then to Christ by faith have we received him as our Lord and Saviour Prince and Priest to save and sanctifie redeem and rule us are
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
No soul so unworthy as not to return love for love Thirdly Thou hast an earnest desire and longing after him How does the young heir having interest in his minority long for the time when he shall be actually invested in his estate and inheritance O how does the gracious soul pant and breathe and hunger and thirst look and long for God! Never did the hungry man more desire bread the hydroptical drink the barren wilderness rain the thirsty traveller water the pursued Hart the water-brooks the longing woman the hour of her delivery than it doth the presence and enjoyment of God All my desire Lord is before thee saith our David Psal 38.9 10. My heart panteth my strength faileth My soul hath fainted for thy salvation and it breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgements at all times Psal 119. It is athirst for God for the living God not siti miserae indigentiae but copiosioris fruitionis Parthian-like the more the soul hath imbib'd of this Helicon fountain the more it thirsts Oh the secret breathings earnest longings importunate cravings vehement ejaculations restless inquietations of a gracious soul after its God! By these wings of desire the soul like Davids Dove would flie up to Heaven Others may desire gold and silver friends and relations pleasures and preferments comforts and conveniencies in the world but the desire of the Churches soul is only to his Name and to the remembrance of him Isa 26.9 Could we be privy to the private devotions of the Saints how many affectionate oh's and options should we hear breath'd forth how many even unutterable sighs and groans sent up for this to Heaven Fourthly Thy delight is wholly placed in God and thou findest sole satisfaction in him The soul is wrapt up into an holy joy and rejoycing drawn up to an exceeding complacency in him God alone is the feast of the Saints delight and with the one dish of the light of his countenance he is infinitely more satisfied than the worldling is with his most largely spread and fully furnisht table His Attributes are the souls chear and his Promises his choice delicacies He is abundantly satiated with the goodness of his house and drinks of his pleasures as a River his communions are meat and musick too Because thou hast been my help saith David therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 7. The enjoyment of God is to the carnal wretch but a dry husk but to the Saint a feast of fat things and as Wines well refined on the Lees. Though a thousand Torches of creature-comforts be light its night dark with his soul till this Sun of Righteousness shines but one smile of his face and beam of his countenance puts more gladness than could all Corn Wine and Oyl or does to those who daily suck out their vertues and sweetnesses God is his Peoples portion and the only Paradise of their pleasures and while carnal men sit chirping on the dunghill of outward felicities he with the winged Lark sings never so merrily as when mounting up to Heaven His heart greatly rejoyceth in him and his Song doth praise him Psal 28.7 The Joy of the Lord is his strength and it is so lively and vigorous as even in Winter time it buds and blossoms forth from the God of his salvation A Fifth might be added of Faith and Confidence it 's his Periphrasis in the Text whose hope is in the Lord his God in his Name doth he lift up his Banners As propriety is the ground of delight so of dependance Though he kills me I will trust in him though he damns me I will love him The just shall live by Faith But not to prevent what follows A Fifth and last character or impression of due affection flowing from an Interest in God is resolution to cleave to him with full purpose of heart to live and die with him and whatsoever befalls him not to forget him or deal falsiy in his Covenant his heart starts not back neither doth he decline a step from his Law Whatsoever opposition he meets withall in the way of his duty he leaps over it all being resolved though Princes speak against him to meditate in his statures and seeing him that is invisible he fears not with Moses to venture on the wrath of Man rather than forfeit the love and favour of God but with holy Daniel will continue in his Supplications and abide in the way of his duty though it costs him his life And as good old Jacob when to part with his Benjamin If I be bereaved I am bereaved and Queen Esther If I perish I perish A Fifth character of one interested in God is a renouncing and abandoning all other interests for him of sin Satan or the World The Soul that hath once steept and bathed it self in this Ocean of delights yea tasted once of divine sweetness will never relish those waters of bitterness again that hath been fed with the bread and dainties in his Fathers House will never return with the Swine of the World to feed on husks That hath eaten of that heavenly and delicious Manna will never fall to the Leeks and Onyons of this worldly Egypt again Ad majora nata es O ansina mea Regular apprehensions of God raise and advance the Soul above the World None in Heaven but thee The Servant who engages with his new Master takes a Release from his old a discharge from his former service Lord other Lords saith the Church have ruled over us but now we will make mention only of thy Name Isa 26. None of us saith the Apostle live to our selves but to the Lord Rom. 14.8 They are men of another Spirit Hebr. 11.24 Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season A Sixth mark or evidence is earnest Endeavour and vehement pursuit after God The Soul makes it his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to follow after him My soul presseth hard after thee saith David even as the Hunter after his prey Psal 63.8 He follows God fully Numb 14.24 full chase he drives after God more knowledge and experience of him more communion and acquaintance with him He sets himself to seek the Lord. His heart does not hang down but he is lift up in the way of the Lord and to his Commandments which he hath loved He sings in the ways of the Lord. He walks in them and is not weary runs in them and is not faint he exerciseth himself to Godliness makes Religion his trade and business He walks with God and worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing and 't is his meat and drink to do the will of his Father in Heaven He thinks nothing too much all too little for God spares no labour cost or pains to acquaint himself more with him He prays he hears he reads he meditates he
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
him before we knew him in a way of gracious acquaintance with him and now doubt him when we have had such plentiful experience of him They who know his Name should trust in him Fourthly This laies a just ground for return unto God for all receipts of help and influence from him Grace should ascend where it does descend priviledge asks service What shall I render saith David Psal 116.12 It was charged on Hezekiah that he returned not to the Lord according to the benefit done to him the help afforded him against the King of Assyria 2 Chron. 32.25 But who can give to the Lord or what can man be profitable to his Maker Indeed we have nothing worthy his acceptance all our duties have no further value in them than what grace puts upon them as gilded and enamel'd with his gracious acceptation in Christ so they become only beautiful and precious in his sight But though God expects no full compensation he doth a right and just improvement And there is but a twofold way of improvement By studying the advance of Gods honour and glory and communicating to the wants and necessities of our Brethren First For Gods glory Does the Lord help us it's but reasonable we should help him Let us help him against the mighty but God stands in no need of our help he will maintain his own cause we may let God alone to govern the world yet we finde God himself once asking the question Psal 94.16 Who shall rise up for me against the evil deers who shall stand up for me against the workers of iniquity Who is on my side who The cause and interest of God sometimes is leaning seems falling and though God does not need our help yet he sometime requires it not chusing to act in a more immediate way but like the Master stands and looks on while his men do his work And we may be assured God will take it very heinously if we see it carted for want of putting to our shoulders O let us then be zealous for God and appear for his cause truth and glory appear in our places against sin and for holiness As we would ever have God appear for us at the last day when he comes out against the world so let us appear for God in our day when the world are going out against him With what face or confidence dare we look God in the face at judgement and desire him to stand then by us when our consciences shall accuse us Time was when we would not stand by him or venture any thing for him and tell us withall that he that denies Christ before men he will deny before his Father in Heaven Secondly For our Brethrens supply As we have received so let us communicate Communicate to other poor souls that need our help When converted our selves we ought to strengthen our Brethren The world is for use not for enjoyment grace for both We are not owners only Stewards of those talents God hath concredited and he will expect an account of us according to our receipts ought to be our disbursements and never did any soul lose by his layings out for God but he sufficiently reimbursed him The liquor of mercy is on purpose put by God into broken Vessels that it might run out to others We should do what in us lies to hand Christ and Grace those gifts of God to our Brethren our Lamps should be filled with Oyl that others might borrow of us at least light from us It was Jobs commendation that he was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame he fed them with his morsels cloathed them with his raiment harboured them in his house Job 31. It 's much more our duty to endeavour the illumination of blind minds and recovery of lame souls and help them by the crutches of our prayers tears and counsels who cannot as yet step without them If our neighbours beast be in the ditch we ought to help him out and much more his soul when about plunging into Hell When one neighbours house is on fire all the neighbour-hood will contribute their best ability to quench it and shall we not lend our helping-hand to extinguish the flames of divine wrath which our Brothers soul hath already kindled upon him and wherein he is like to burn else to all eternity And as graceless sinners stand in need of our help so oftentimes do comfortless Saints they are weary and heavy laden and would be glad of a lift at their burden To a man afflicted pity should be shown of his friend No truer sign of grace than a compassionate sense of the wounds of a troubled conscience and no surer sign of a desperate mind devoted to destruction than a want of sympathy with them The end God comforts us is that we may comfort others 2. Cor. 1.4 And he expects being our selves converted we should strengthen our Brethren we should not be cisterns to keep all in but conduits to let run out our gifts graces and experiences to others It 's the rarest Art in the world to comfort afflicted consciences every Christian should endeavour to be well skill'd in it By distributions of grace and comfort to others we shall become gainers and lose no more than the Sun does of light or the Fountain of water by affording us their beams and streams Virtus eundo crescit Natural motions may spend but this spiritual increaseth It 's pity the talents of grace should ever lie dead by us and such holy usury and improvement alwaies brings in the greatest increase and largest revenue And indeed a Christian hath no more grace than he well improves for Gods glory and his own and others good And as we must communicate to others souls so to their outward conditions too that need our help Feed the hungry cloath the naked As we have opportunity do good to all men with such sacrifices God is well pleased Charge them saith the Apostle that are rich that they be ready to distribute And he that hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother need and hath no compassion on him how dwelleth the love of God in him The merciful is blessed and he shall finde mercy but let him never expect mercy from God that hath no mercy for man God will one day shut his heart as close as ever he did his purse and straiten his bowels to him as he did his bounty to his Brethren The bill at the last day runs in negatives and God will cause both the gallant and worldly muck-worm shortly to know that he gave them estates not to lay out on their backs and bellies and monies not barely to trade with and treasure up for their followers but to do good with in their generations by acts of piety and charity as occasion was offered them Christ will go on the other side from their Souls another day who now passed on the other side with a bare naked view of their Brethrens bleeding
condition It was good Nehemiahs glory That he did not oppress the poor but relieve them It will be a fearfull cry against rich hoarders at the last day which all the cravings and starvings of the poor amongst them will send out against them The Apostle gives us a report of it Jam. 5.4 5. Pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widow and to keep a mans self unspotted in the World It 's reported of the Deer that they in swimming over a River help each other by leaning on one anothers backs and when the formost be weary he comes hindmost And the story of the Belly in the Fable is not unknown So should we help each other in our passage to Heaven Fifthly Let this be a ground of confidence in God under all trialls and troubles let us not cast away our confidence for it hath a sure foundation and therefore shall have great recompense of reward Let us not despond but depend on God for help in all our straits lift up our eyes to the heavens whence cometh our help as the Psalmist hath it Psal 121.1 2. Not that we should not make use of all lawfull means under trouble and do like him who being plunged into a ditch would not stirre but stay till God helpt him out This is to tempt God and not to trust him Qui vitat molam vitat farinam Reliance on the first Cause destroyes not the use of the second There is a great deal of difference between using of means and resting on them As it 's evil to use means and not rest on God this is carnal confidence so it 's vain to depend on God out of the use of Means that 's daring presumption Though God hath determin'd all states conditions and changes notwithstanding his decrees a man may staive for want of food and die for want of Physick too God hath decreed necessary means in order to such and such ends and he that would obtain the mercy God hath promised must use the means he hath appointed But notwithstanding this Caution we must not so look down on the Valley as not withall yea chiefly and principally to look up to the Hills nor so view Earth as not in the mean time with that Cardinal to have leisure to look up to Heaven O 't is a sweet thing to see our mercies and supplies coming from Gods right hand and dropping to us from Heaven Happy it is in all conditions to have a God to fly to and to incourage our selves in When we are reduced to great straits and all the World seems to be in an uproar and blended in a Chaos of confusion and we are amuzed and amazed then to have a God to repose and confide in is an infinite mercy O learn we to trust and hope in this our God at all times Who would not trust this God who is so able and so ready to help Trust him for your selves with your Bodies your Estates your Souls your all Trust him for the Church trust him in time of mens fiercest persecution trust him in time of his own immediate visitations But it may be you will object and say we are unworthy of any such help or influence and therefore cannot put forth such confidence But remember God do's all for his people gratis all graciously from first to last for his Names sake He blots out iniquities heals backslidings repairs his peoples breaches and all for his Names sake Take one place for all Isa 48.9 For my Names sake will I deferre mine anger This is the grand argument Gods people insist on in all their applications for mercy Jer. 14. Dan. 9. And the flagg of defiance he hung out and the standing challenge he made to Israel in all his Benefactions to them Not for your sakes Consideration of our unworthiness if sensible of it and rightly affected with it is so far from being a discouragement that it should be to us rather an encouragement to come to God on all occasions whether for our spiritual or our temporal estates and conditions God is worthy to give and will not say as Alexander once when one asked him a groat that that was too little for a King to give and a talent too much for a Beggar to receive but will give like a King like a God though we be never so unworthy to receive Free grace delights to triumph in sinners unworthiness But it may be unbelief will object and say It 's in vain we have waited a long time upon the Lord for help and none comes for strength under such a temptation for comfort under such an affliction for deliverance out of such and such straits and trialls for salvation for his Church and people but yet no sign of his coming the Chariot-wheels of mercy draw heavily God hath forsaken us there is no hope why should we wait on the Lord any longer Notwithstanding all this my Soul It 's good to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. In answer to this cavil consider but First That God do's not always work according to our platform We would chalk out the way of Providence limit the holy one of Israel prescribe to Omnipotency and Eternity for the time and manner of our deliverance but this is to go beyond our last over-sawcy boldness and malepert presumption Who art thou O man that wouldst sit at God's Councel-table or become his Director Shall the Clay prescribe to the Potter his way of workmanship God do's all things in infinite wisdom and holiness and works all things according to the Counsel of his own will God indeed is a sure help to his People yet he do's not always help them perfectly visibly or presently First Not perfectly mercy is at first an Embryo and Infant before it comes to any stature and proportion The motions of Providence are great God is doing many things at once and one design is lodged in the bosom of another and therefore slow though sure Providence is forced to ride circuit go farre about before it can effect and accomplish Gods intended purposes and oft the furthest way about proves the neerest home We must not as Luther was wont to say judge of God's Comical Tragedies before the last act The Picture though a rude draught at first before the Limner hath done with it becomes a polished piece God do's as that famous Painter answered when he was taxed for his tediousness in drawing Venus's Picture aeternitati pingere carries on a design for Eternity by all the present revolutions of Providence which though the blinde World cannot now behold the beauty of yet at the last day will appear glorious to the view of men and Angels Secondly Not visibly Gods Providence oft when it works for a man seems to work against him Jacob thought all things were against him when all went well on his side It was a good observation of Luther that God useth to work by contraries for his Church