God hath promised great Supports so he hath provided as great Comforts for his people in their Suffering low estate See Mat. 5.10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness-sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven They are blessed in their Afflictions under all their Persecutions so that where ever you see such a man or woman how ever miserable their present Condition may seem in the eyes of others let them not seem so to you say you There is a blessed man or a blessed woman There is the Kingdom of Heaven It is not only sure to them notwithstanding their Troubles and Sufferings but they are the more assured of it by them God gives the greatest and clearest Evidences of their Interests in Heaven at such a time God opens the Heavens to them as he did to Stephen Acts 7.55 56. Then if ever God pours out of the abundance of his Spirit upon his people The Apostle therefore doth not lay down as a Promise or speak of it as a Futurity but asserts it as a thing present it is as sure to be so as if you felt it so in this instant of time The like Expression we have 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory resteth on you Mark it Christians You shall not only have the Spirit of God but it shall be a degree reaching to Glory it is above the measures of Grace and Comfort commonly attainable in this state of Imperfection He says not This shall come in or after troubles but he speaks of it as present if one comes so does the other If ye be reproached happy are ye c. If reproaches for Christ come then glory comes with them Nay it comes not to leave you suddenly it comes to abide with you if Reproaches and Disgrace stick fast upon you the Spirit of Glory will rest upon you also Fifthly God hath promised all the outward glory and prosperity of his Church to such a Condition It shall be given her in a Wilderness and from thence she shall ascend glorious Hos 2.14 15. I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her And I will give her her Vinyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of Hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth as in the day when she came up out of the Land of Egypt It is very plain from hence that God will take a course with his people in the fulfilling his Promises to them much like the way he took to bring them into Canaan He will first carry them into a Wilderness and from thence will God give them those great mercies which he hath reserved for them Cant. 3.6 7 8. There we find the Church coming up out of the Wilderness and presently we find her furnisht with able and expert Guides and adorned with all that may render it lovely Now considering all these things Predictions Experiences and Promises Have we not Meat to eat in the Wilderness and will it not be shameful and inexcusable to faint when God hath made such Provision to live upon Fifthly Consider Unbelief will be your Affliction as well as your Sin it will be a greif to your own spirits as well as to the Lords you will be your own Tormentors and contribute more to the making your selves miserable than all your enemies We have enemies enow to afflict us let us not afflict our selves Goebal and Amon c. let us not be against our selves and add affliction to affliction For it will make all possible evils probable those which are uncertain certain those which are far off to be near and those that are future present Avoid therefore Distrust as the greatest affliction that can befal thee Sixthly Consider Your unbelief will not only be your own affliction but it may be so to those who are not involved in the same guilt wâ—th you you may be the Instruments of hindring the good that may come upon the present Generation your unbelief may hinder many believing souls from the Mercy which they are fitted for they may wait a great while longer because you are not prepared for it as we see the unbelief of Israel kept Josuah and Caleb out of the Land of Canaan Forty years They were ready and prepared to enter into Canaan when they first spied out the Land but Israels unbelief hindred them from entring and they also must wait Forty years till another Generation is made ready Take heed therefore of that which will afflict thee and make thee an affliction to many others Seventhly Consider That Distrust doth of all sins deny thy Christianity What is a Christian but a Believer One that walks by Faith and not by Sight Thou art of a contrary frame How wilt thou prove thy self a Christian without following Christ And how wilt thou follow Christ without believing Thou mayst follow Providence by Sense but thou canst not be said to follow Christ but by Faith Therefore resolve either to lay by thy Christianity or cast out thy unbelief Eighthly Make provision against this sin yea all the Provision you can and you will find all little enough For Consider That you will surely meet with Temptations to this more than to any other Your way to Heaven lies thorow difficulties and streâ—ghts your way lies not among Drunkards Swearers or unclean Persons you may not meet with Noah's or Joseph's Temptations but your way lies thorow the VVilderness and you will surely meet with Israels Temptations to distrust God Thorow many Tribulations you must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Expect Temptations sutable to your Condition and a thousand to one if you find not your heart very ready to close with Temptations of this Nature for there is nothing more natural to us than to walk by Sense and to listen to the Dictates of Carnal Reason Expectation of evil puts us upon making sutable provision for it And that you may the better stand against such Temptations when they come Mind these few things First Possess thy self fully of God's Providence If he take care for the Ravens how much more for his people Secondly Believe firmly that there is not a Providence to thee but comes thorow the Covenant of Grace Thirdly All the Providences of God do serve his Promises and tend to the Accomplishing of them though they seem otherwise Fourthly View often the Experiences that thou hast had of Gods Mercy and Goodness and labour to fortifie thy confidence in God from thence As David Psal 23.6 And Paul 2 Cor. 1.10 It is a good Argument He that hath delivered will deliver if we depend upon him and plead former Mercies with him Fifthly Reason with thy heart when thou findest is beginning to sink say Why art thou cast down oh my soul Resolve never to suffer thy heart to be unreasonably disquieted and thou shalt never find a Reason for a Distrustful
this is such a sin that God will not pass it by in his people without special notice taken of it and expressing just indignation against it So that we have a very plain and easie path to this Truth Doct. God is highly provoked when his people distrust his Providence though they be in a VVilderness For the proof of this I need not say much the referring you to what God said and did upon Israels distrust is enough to confirm it thougâ— they had as much ground and colour of reason for what they said and did as it is possible for any after them to have I have given you already an account of what God said upon this and you see his language is like that of one greatly incensed and if that be not proof sufficient see what he did he slew all that Generation in the Wilderness nay he would not let Moses and Aaron go into Canaan because they had not been careful to sanctifie his Name before them in bearing witness against this their Distrust of God at the first appearance of it To make this Doctrine look more towards us let us consider that it refers not so much to a Place as to a Condition Wheresoever a people are if their Condition resemble Israels in their passage from Egypt they may be said to be in a Wilderness God sets out the afflictions and troubles of his people in the latter dayes by this Allusion Hos 2.14 I will bring her into the Wilderness which imploys two things First A condition which shall be very barren of all ouâ—ward Comfâ—â—â—s This is noted Hos 2.12 13. I will destroy her Vinyards and Figtrees and make them a Forest c. God would make her Land like a Wilderness a Land that was not sown Jer. 2.2 Secondly It was a place thorow which was no beaten path So that as there was no comfortable Being in it so there was no ready way out of it Psal 107.40 He causeth them to wander in the Wilderness where there was no way He bringeth even Princes and the great ones of the Earth into such streights that they are at a loss and can find no way out The meaning of this Doctrine is this That if God should bring his people into such a condition through trouble and affliction that they should see no way of Supply in it nor any probable way out of it yet it is a Provocation for them to distrust God No streights can excuse much less justifie the distrust of Gods people What ever plea Unbelief may seem to have it will be found a great Provocation And the Reasons of this are evident Reason the first Distrust of God though in streights is a denying him to be God it is a bringing of him and all his Actions to the proportion and standard of the Creature It is in effect to say he is like one of us And as God could not bear this language when it impeacht his Holiness Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy self So he will not digest it when it denies his Almightiness When we limit the Holy One and shuâ— him up in the bounds of former Experiences or present Probabilities we do plainly deny him to be God If we will own him to be God we must expect from him things sutable to his Almighty Power and Goodness I mean where we have the Concurrence of his promise We should say to any Difficulty that lies in the way of any promised mercy as Zechariah says Zech. 4.7 What art thou O great Mountain When carnal Reason would come in and proportion our hopes and expectations to the probabilities on the one side or difficulties on the other we should answer it with those words of the Lord Isa 55.9 As the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my wayes saith God higher than yours Indeed were not his wayes above ours wherein would he appear to be God If we could expect nothing from him but upon the terms we expect them from others how should we keep an awe and dread of him in our hearts Remember this Unbelief hath a mixture of Atheism in it and must needs provoke Reason the second It is a secret questioning sometimes an open Reproaching the Attributes of God It sets up Carnal Reason and Mans wisdom in the Judgment Seat and brings all the Attributes of the Blessed God to the Bar where they are censured and sentenced at the pleasure of these blind and bold Inquisitors Sometimes they fall fowl with his Power Psal 78.19 20. Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness At another time they reproach his Wisdom as if he knew not How to save either to prevent misery or bring deliverance Psal 73.11 How doth God know is there Knowledg in the most High And his Truth and Faithfulness seldom escapes them David himself stumbled upon these 1 Sam. 27.1 And David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul And this Distrust is commonly accompanied either with a denyal of former Experiences of Gods providential Actings or else with a loading â—hem with false and unworthy Imputations Either we say that all the good which God hath done his people was by chance the Finger of God was not in it and so that Grave which buries our present hopes and expectations swallows up all our past experiences and we become in a moment as if we had never known any thing of Gods Providence Or if we come not to a denyal of the Providence it self we arrive at something worse to put the basest Constructions upon the best Dispensations as Israel in their Provocation did who said of that glorious Deliverance out of Egypt that they were brought into the Wilderness to be slain there Exod. 14.11 12. and Exod. 17.3 Now such Reflections as these which are frequently the attendants upon distrust must needs be greatly provoking Reason the third It casts a visible Dishonour upon God before men Distrust and Diffidence are seldome carried so secretly but they find some vent and are often in their workings exposed to the observation of others yea and they the enemies of God and Religion and before these God is dishonoured two wayes First The very name of God suffers For when his enemies see those who have followed God and professed to know him to fall in their hopes and to sink in their spirits they believe God himself is fallen in these men affections and esteem they begin to think that there is no profit in serving God and that these men do now repent their choice But when men can walk chearfully and keep up their hopes and comforts at a high rate in times of trouble and affliction it glorifies God before men and testifies to all that God is worthy to be chosen and loved for himself and that it is good drawing nigh to him When men see us walking as the Prophet did Hab. 3.17 18 19. rejoycing in God when all outward comforts fall it
to have nothing we do really possess all things He injoys God in Christ who is all in all and in Patience he possesseth his own soul and he is content with those things which he hath and so hath as much comfort as if he had the actual injoyment of all the world A Believer's injoyments under wants are more real than an Unbeliever's are in the midst of all his plenty and fulness for an unbeliever's comforts and injoyments are but seeming he is as if he had al things but his wants are real he possesseth nothing Therefore walk by Faith and you will have more comfort in your streights than other men have in their greatest abundance And as you must study Faith so be sure to let Patience have her perfect work Jam 1.4 for if any thing will perfect you this wil do it Patience nourishes and cherishes every grace in the soul and raises them to the greatest degrees of perfection attainable here God often times does that by streights and troubles which would not be effected by all our Liberty and Prosperity and all other means Seventhly Draw no Conclusion from any Providence till thou hast lookt over former times and compared it with things which are past whether it be Publick or Private whether it respects the Church of God or thine own Person or Family Suppose thou shouldest see the Church of God in great affliction yet look back and see how it was when Moses was born Hadst thou lived in those days would not thy heart have sunk with fear much more There was a design to root out Israel Look to the present Generation they were Slaves to the Egyptians they were wearied with making Bricks and in the next Generation their Names were like to be blotted out The Male-Children must be all kill'd and because the Midwives would not do it the common people must be Commissioned for that purpose Exod. 1.22 Whaâ— fears and cares must they needs have whose Children lay at the mercy oâ— every Villain who might at their pleasure snatch them from their Mothers Breasts and dash their Brains out against the stones Here was nothing but Death to be expected for their little ones and miserable slavery for themselves Here was no hope of Freedom from hence a Banishment though it had been into a howling Wilderness would have been counted a Mercy These were troubles indeed yet God delivered his people from these though the Bush did burn yet it was not consumed Hadst thou lived in Jezabels days What wouldst thou have said concerning the Lord's Prophet when she hunted after Elijah's life Surely they will be all cut off When the Prophets were to be found in Caves only 1 Kings 18.13 hid to secure their lives yet God preserved them and fed them with Bread and Water Or hadst thou lived in the days of wicked Haman when the Decree was gone forth against all the people of God and the time to destroy and to kill them was appointed and fixt by an unalterable Decree and these poor people had great and potent Enemies who waited for the Execution of it who thirsted for the blood of these poor Jews Wouldst thou not now have given up all for lost Yet then God steps in and by wonderful Providences delivers them and brings their Enemies in their room Or for thy own particular wer 't thou ever brought lower than Joseph was in Egypt That from a Slave was made a Prisoner and had beside hâ—s Irons the weight of a great mans Displeasure laid upon him and this in a strange Country where he had none to pitty or to help him Yet see what Issue God gave to his troubles Or was it ever so bad with thee as with David who was banisht his own Country and in a strange Land is at once stript of all he hath his wives Children Goods at once taken away and that which added to his Affliction none of the people pitty him but loaded him with their Curses and Threatnings they talked of stoning him 1 Sam. 30.6 But David incouraged himself in the Lord his God What ever thy Condition be upon inquiry thou wilt see it is no other than what the people of God have passed thorow heretofore and the consideration that others have past thorow it before is matter of hope to thee He that hath delivered can still deliver his Arm is not shortened Nay shouldest thou find any thing that should make thy Condition more sad and dismal than any that thou canst think upon yet it will not justifie thy Distrusts for doubtless Israel had no Precedents of any people delivered from such a Bondage as Egypt or provided for in such a Wilderness as they were to pass thorow yet their Distrust was a Provocation But if thy Condition could be singular from all that ever were in the world before thee then to depend upon God were an honour to your Faith whereas Dependance in this cause where we have Precedents are but the nobler Exercises of Reaâ—on Believe once for thy Justification and â—hou mayst reason out thy Comfort and Proâ—ection for this follows undeniably Rom. â— 32 If God hath given thee Christ how shall he not with him freely give thee all things When thou hast closed with Christ and interested thy self in God by Faith it is the work of Reason to shake off all doubts and fears Thus did David Psal 42.5.11 reason with his heart against Dâ—jâ—ction Ask but a Reason of thy heart for being troubled and thy trouble will vanish for thou hast no more reason for thy fears and disquiets than a wicked man hath for his hopes and joys they both arise from want of consideration Psal 116.11 I said in my haste all men are lyars A Christians fears arise through haste and a due and right exercise of Reason will quell them all because there is no Reason for them they cannot indure a strict Examination And how much better is it to have fears that are groundless and hopes that are reasonable as the Godly have than groundless hopes and reasonable well grounded fears as every wicked man hath Eighthly Do not onely labour against Unbelief and Distrust but strive for the highest acts of Faith endeavour not only to hope but to rejoyce not only to be patient but thankful think it not enough that thou dost escape those Rocks upon which the people of God have been ready to stumble in thy Condition but strive to imitatâ— those that have excelled and done worthily in the like case the 11th to the Hebrews will afford you many glorious Examples Remember that God expects more from you then he did from Israel in the Wilderness he calls you to higher and more noble duties because he hath revealed more Grace and given greater helps to you Two things especially God expects from you more than he did from them First All patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Col. 1.11 Secondly To give thanks in every thing 1 Thes 5.18 These are difficult yet these are your duties especially who live under the Gospel It was well if Israel could bear some of Gods Providences for them to hold up under them without murmuring was much but God requires of you not only to submit but to be thankful not only to bear Affliction patiently but joyfully Look not therefore on your Afflictions and Troubles as a way to Heaven but look for Heaven in them let your expectations of Glory increase with your increase of Troubles in the world look for labour for and express a Spirit of Glory resting upon your spirits To Conclude Stand still and consider and considering admire the goodness of God who hath so provided for thee in this world that thou mayst be Afflicted and Persecuted but thou canst not be miserable there is no Condition in which thou hast not cause of rejoycing If thou art without Comfort it is thine own fault God hath made provision that thy joy may be full Thou canst not fall so low but thou mayst hold fast on the Lord who is able to raise thee up and whatever thy Condition be it is not only no Presumption but it is thy Duty to hope in him he hath not only allowed but Commanded thee to hope in him And believe Christian a commanded confidence cannot miscarry such a hope will not make thee ashamed FINIS