your bodies should have become a prey to sea-Monsters especially when engaged in a dreadful Sea-fight But was the sea alwayes rough the windes always high the ship alwyes in danger to be split or sunk no Ver. 28. Then they cryed to the Lord in their trouble then if ever a storm at sea will make seamen pray though they seldome do it on dry land yea cry thus Jonah Chap. 1. Vers 5. Then to wit in a storme The Mariners were afraid and cryed every man to his God Qni nescit orare discat navigare Rarae fumant felicibus arae He that cannot pray let him go to sea if he fears God or danger he cannot but pray but what doth God hear their cry yea he bringeth them out of their distress ver 29. He maketh the storme a calm so that the waves thereof are still Thus it was in that great storme Matth. 8. vers 26. when the ship was covered with waves through the violence of windes which rolled and dashed them over it The Lord Jesus rebuked the windes and the sea and there was a great calme he did but once chide those creatures and they submitted but against how many chidings of the Lord do these rebellious hearts of ours stand out winde and sea will rise up in judgment against us at the great day and will condemn us every drop of water in that sea upon which you sail will be a witness of your monstrous rebellion and disobedience But to go on how do the Marriners improve this mercy why ver 30. then are they glad because they are quiet so he bringeth them to their desired haven Hath this been your case hath the Lord calmed a tempestuous sea and steered your course by a good hand of providence to your desired harbour Let me ask you not whether you were glad but how you exprest your gladness did ye not sing and drink and swear and roar when your fear was past hath the sence of deliverance wrought you into an humble holy praising and thankfull frame which hath been the first place ye have visited when come to land the Tavern or the Temple and which hath been your first work pouring forth your soules in praises to God or pouring in of ale or wine to intoxicate your brains have ye been drunk with wine wherein is excess or have ye been filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymnes and spiritual songs making melody in your hearts and singing to the Lord Eph. 5. ver 18 19. Oh sirs is this all the return that God expects Is this all the improvement ye should make of so great a mercy surely no ver 31. The holy Ghost directs to a better O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his works unto the children of men that they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in Societies so the word importeth O friends lif ye read this doctrine read also your own duty in it If deliverances ingage any unto duty sure yours do yours are as eminent as any as immediate as any Ther 's nothing but the hand of God seen in your preservations in land-deliverances something of the creature is seen and man steps in for a share either by his power or policy prudence or providence but who can rebuke the windes and the seas but onely their great Creatour Caesarem vehis will not calme a rough sea such charmes will not be obeyed by the wilde Ocean That King found this true when walking upon the shore he commanded the tide to stop his course but so little the sea regarded the commands of this proud king though within his own Dominions that he found his safety lay more in his heels then in his head He alone who hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetuall decree can stay the tide in its full carreer and still the windes in their loudest bluster Jer. 5. ver 22. How apparently did the windes and sea fight for us in Eighty eight so that the enraged Spaniard said Christ was turned Lutheran Oh then Octogessimus octavus mâ—rabilis annus Beza Silete ne Dii vos hâ—c navigare sentiant was the Speech of an Heathen to wicked persons that sailed in a storm with him own God in all your sea-deliverances be awakened to a sence of them improve them upon a spiritual account wipe off that imputation which is cast upon you by men of In-land Countries that there is little of Religion among you Look after and lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ least yea be thrown over-board in a state of impenitency and unbelief and sink down not onely like lead into the bottome of the sea but into the bottomless pit also Oh 't is sad going to Hell by land or water O get into Christ who will be a Noah's ark unto you in which ye shall not onely sail safely to an earthly haven but into heaven and when the Lord brings you off from a sea-voyage with broken masts torne sails and a wether-beaten ship let the sense of that great deliverance affect your hearts and if ye have not already done it Give diligence to make your calling and election sure T is the Apostles advice to all 2 Pet. 1.10 and mine to you shew your seriousness in a point of so great importance it was well said by a reverend Divine Thy bed is very soft Mr. Trap. in loc or thy heart very hard if thou canst sleep soundly in an uncertain condition Oh minde this as the main for this being obtained though you should suffer a wrack at sea yet verse 11. An entrance shall be administred unto you into the everlasting kingdome of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ The Metaphor is accommodated unto you ye shall not get into Heaven as a ship hardly puts into the haven with Anchors lost Cables rent sails torn and masts broken which is the case of many but shall sail in with masts up Cordage whole Tacklings sound Sails full Flags displayed top and top gallant trumpets sounding and so shall everlastingly rejoyce in the everlasting Kingome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 5. The naturall improvement of this Doctrine gives much by way of advice to the recovered ones of the land to those whom the Lord hath brought off from beds of languishment and fetched up even from the gates of death And truly the number of such is great scarce ever greater the Providences of God have been sad and humbling sundry times in the land and in particular places yet seldome hath avisitation been so generall both as to persons and places The pale horse and his Rider have passed through our several Towns and Countries like an army in their march and taken up short quarters but of late they have billetted amongst us taking up not onely their summer but winter quarters also so that we may take up the Churches complaint Jer. 8. vers 20. The harvest
private interests and animosities and fall upon these great works as your respective stations give you advantage and opportunity that ye may have this Motto engraven on your tombes Here lie such and such who David-like served their own generations by the will of God And let me adde these two Corrolaries 1. That God hath assigned you your particular times for working Stat sua cuique dies 2. That when ye have lived up that time your working tooles must then be laid aside When David had served out his generation he fell asleep And therefore I shall shut up with the Preachers advice Eccl. 9. ver 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest and though thou beest lately come from thence be not secure the winde may suddenly turn and waft thee back again Alas What is your life it is even a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. ver 14. How easily can the great God disperse that vapour and melt that cloud into dew there is a great Arbitrer of all things that can thunder the proud Emperour under his bed and write the great King in three or four words into trembling that can send a fly to fetch the triple crown before his Tribunal make an hair or the kernil of a raison as mortal as Goliah's spear that can unspeak the world into nothing and blow down a great bubble with an easie breath that by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undress your soules by unpinning one pin c. I have read of a Persian Noble-man who lost his life by the loss of an hair plucked out of his bosome Mr. Vines Essex's Hearse in sport by his Minion 5. Get your hearts into an awfull frame get your spirits tinctured with an holy fear of God Rev. 15. vers 4. Surely they that have felt must needs fear him they that have found the power of his anger let out in soul terrours yea in breaking afflictions upon the body Read M. Jackson's Notes upon this place must needs fear him though indeed none but the damned in Hell experience the power of his anger Moses in Psalme 90. ver 11. put 's the question Who knoweth the power of thine anger implying that none knoweth it as none can take the dimensions of his love which passeth all knowledge so neither of his anger the reason is added because even according to thy fear so is thy wrath that is let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if he fall into thy hands Paul knew this when he laid down this Position as a fence wall about Profession to keep men from starting out by Apostacy Heb. 10. vers 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God surely if the burnt childe dread's the fire much more men of age and discretion who have been cast into the furnace of affliction have had their moisture dried up their skin writhled their flesh rosted and their very bones burnt with the scorching flames thereof have cause to fear that fire which so farre resembles everlasting burning that though it be not unquenchable yet it is not quenchable but by the bloud of Christ and the melting bowels of God's tender mercie Oh then Dear friends take forth this lesson from your late afflictions to fear that glorious and fearfull name THE LORD THY GOD Deut. 28. vers 58. Fear to offend God fear to do any thing which may displease him in this sence Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. ver 14. The Hebrew Midwives lost nothing by it Exod. 1. vers 17.21 1. From the consideration of Gods power he is able not onely to call you to an account 1 Cor. 10. vers 22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger Are we stronger then he As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel Are we the Lord's match can we outstrengthen an Almighty God Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9. ver 4. Jer. 5. ver 22. 2. Fear to offend him from the consideration of his goodness not onely that goodness which the Lord extends unto you in common with other men nor that speciall goodness which is the peculiar portion of his Elect in Christ but also that particular goodness which the Lord hath vouchsafed you in restoring health unto you when ye lay at the brinks of the grave and many other tumbled in Hos 3. vers 5. Oh Fear the Lord for his goodness 3. Fear an offended God though not provoked by you A tender spirited childe feares and trembles when his father is angry with others though himself hath done no fault God likes this tenderness of spirit in his children Psal 119. vers 120. David saith my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Samar horripilatio my hair stands upright as it doth sometimes in suddain and great frights Job 3. vers 15. The hair of my flesh stood up Amos 3. vers 8. The Lion hath roared Who will not fear Oh observe this Hab. 3. ver 16. When I heard my belly trembled c. Objection But why should the Saints fear the wrath of God who is in Covenant with them and hath promised to be a covering Cherub unto them Solution 1. They see the provoking nature of sinne they consider that sinne is a thing of greatest abhorrency with God and therefore when they observe the growth of sinne in a place or nation they are afraid that God will ere long break out in wrath against them Hence that Numb 17.12 13. read Ezek. 7. from vers 1. to the 16. and apply it upon a national account 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath they know the English of that Isa 27. vers 4. Who would set the briars and thornes in battail against me I would go thorow them I would burn them together They know what briars and thornes are and what their end shall be They see that themselves are not exempted persons they are not sure to have their door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the Pascal lamb Exod. 12. that the marking Angel Exod. 9. shall give them a signature of safety in their foreheads How was the Church affected Acts 5. ver 11 Ezek. 14. ver 14. Oh then labour to preserve an holy fear of God upon your spirits think often of what Christ speaks Luke 12. ver 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have nothing they can do But fear him who after he hath killed hath power to throw into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Lastly Labour to make sure of heaven lay out for an Interest in the Lord Jesus let this be the teaching ye have received from the late sickness Call to minde your sick-bed fears and tears what pangs of conscience and woundings of spirit ye then were under what faintings of heart ye had when you found your evidences for heaven writ
blessedness be discovered upon and heaven in all its glory be revealed according to frail man's utmost capacity to apprehend it Oh it will be matter of heart-rejoycing to us when our soules can go up to God with that triumphant Eulogy 1 Pet. 1. ver 3 4 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to this inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation in every truth the sence of grace received will give in comfort to a believer Oh try this and you will find a sweetness in the word however dispensed This also will render your approaches to the Lord's Table more acceptable to the Lord and more comfortable to your own soules for having tried the truth and coming in the sence of grace received you may lift up your hearts with chearfulness and humbly expect that the cup is the new Testament in the bloud of Jesus for the remission of your sins Matth. 26. v. 28. that all the benefits of the new Covenant even the whole purchase of Christ's passion are sealed up unto you if to this worthiness of person you add the worthiness of preparation also You shall then find his flesh to be meat indeed and his bloud to be drink indeed as living men and of sound constitutions find savour and nourishment from their food they take when the dead find none and distempered persons but little so shall you finde food and growth in that ordinance when 't is mors in olla the favour of death unto death to the dead Formalist and gives forth little sweetness or savour to the sensless and sleepy Christian Oh then as Deborah bespake her self Judg. 5. ver 12. Awake Awake Deborah so say I Awake awake up your glory in thankfulness to the Lord stirre up your selves and graces lean by faith upon the blessed bosome of your Jesus cleave to his Cross and ye shall suck honey out of this rock yea oyl out of this flintie rock Deut. 32. ver 13. and thus commemorating the death of Christ by those lively resemblances of his death you may lift up your hearts with comfort to look for and love his appearing 4. This serious revisal of formal incomes and experiences from the God of all grace in wayes of grace to your souls will up-heap your hearts with lively and lasting consolations in every estate it is like the Woolf which will draw a threed of comfort through the whole warp of a Christians life as might be cleared in many instances to name a few 1. Are you under breaking afflictions from the Lord in your persons or families doth deep call unto deep and are the banks of custodient providence so broken down that all his waves and billows do flow over you why what comfort and reviving will the sense of grace received bring into your souls when you minde that witness within you that you are the children of God you may look upon all your afflictions as the rod of a Father and his end in all to be the taking away of sin Isa 27.9 not by satisfaction for that 's the peculiar fruit of your Redeemers blood but by sanctification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 club it down 1 Cor. 9.27 wisely governing his corrections To beat down the body and bring it into subjection to the government of the Lord Jesus grace received will light a candle unto you whereby you may read the minde of God and the methods of his paternal discipline Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth that son in whom he is well-pleased says Mercer in Prov. 3.12 the lower the ebbe the higher the tyde the lower you descend in humiliation 1 Chron. 4.9 10. The Holy Ghost says Jabez was more honourable then his brethren and his mother called his name Jabez because I bore him with sorrow Jabez signifies sorrow and wherein did his honor appear why in that God granted him his requests viz. blessed him enlarged his coast strengthened him by his hand and kept him from evil thus in a spiritual sense an afflicted Saint is a Jabez not onely as a man of sorrow but as an honourable person the rod is a pledge of love and badge of honour hae sunt gemmae pretiosa ornamenta Dei says one pointing to his sores and ulcers These are the gems and jewels wherewith God decketh his best friends The Lord hath prepared me a neck-lace of pearl was the saying of a gracious woman when a sickness took hold upon her the Lily is sown in her own tears And Gods vines says one bear the better for bleeding there may be a plethory of blood as well as superfluous branches which may hinder fruitfulness these are the preludes of your everlasting triumphs and as your constancy in them doth witness your love to God so your support under them doth witness Gods love to you Omnis Christianus cruclanus Luther which begins with the cross here but shall end with the crown hereafter Jam. 1.12 Blessed is the man which endureth temptation from the Lord in ways of afflictions for when he is tryed he shall receive the crown of glory which the Lord hath promised to them that love him 2. Are you under the bufferings of Satan do his fiery darts fly about you and doth he fire his granado's upon you Mr. Gurnals exposition in Eph. 6.12 p. 306. 307. nay do principalities and powers worldly Governors and spiritual wickednesses draw up against you and that in heavenly places namely to take away your crown from you to plunder you of your joy and peace here and to block up your way to heaven hereafter Why follow the streams to the head of the fountain endeavor to work up your hearts to a serious apprehension of grace received in the life and sence thereof and you will receive much contribution from it as to your peace and safety though Satan may beat you from your out-works and seize upon some of your Artilery and thereby discourage yea much discompose you in your addresses to God yet the consideration of pardoning purging adopting and accepting grace will be as a Fort-Royal an impregnable Cittadel wherein you may secure the choicest of your heavenlies and from whence you may have reserves in the hottest onsets the experiences of the goodness and good pleasure of the grace of God in Jesus Christ unto you will be as chariots of fire and horses of fire round about you 2 King 6.17 to circumvallate and safe-guard your souls The Apostle 1 Pet. 5.10 tells you That Satan roareth after souls as an hungry lyon after his prey and gives in this by way of advice unto you vers 9. Whom resist stedfast in the faith that is keep your ground
Spirits witness to Son-ship and salvation which cases the Saints of God do usually meet withal whilest they are at home in the body and in the Apostles sense absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. ver 6. 1. You that are experienced Christians may much underprop a timorous and faint-hearted Professour in dayes of Persecution when his fears are great his dangers many and his courage low Have you not heard a servant of the Lord sadly speaking this Language I expect every hour an Apparitour or Pursevaunt to fetch me to the Court or Counsel But I fear I shall wrong the cause and Gospel of Jesus Christ in that I shall not be able to give an answer to them that ask me a reason of the hope that is in me 1 Pet. 3. ver 15. nor repel the subtil arguments which will be drawn up against the Truth and thereby shall bring shame upon my self reproach upon Religion and dishonour to the Lord Jesus Now if an experienced Christian shall reply Is this thy fear do such thoughts as these sadden thy spirit come cheer up man this is a path that I have troden I have been called out to bear witness to the truth before as learned subtil Inquisitours as these be and was under much trouble what to say and how to answer being then low in knowledg and weak in judgment but I found that promise made good unto me Luke 21. ver 15. I will give you a mouth and wisdome which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist I was supplyed from on high both with Invention and Elocution that I might say with Luther Nescio unde veniunt istae meditationes I know not whence those Arguments Answers and Objections came but sure it was the Spirit of my Father which spake in me and the Promise is universal to all the Saints when brought to a day of trial How bravely did Anne Ascue Alice Driver and other poor women answer the Doctours and put them to a nonplus Fear not then For it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak Matth. 10. vers 19. A Second Complaint of a poor Christian is this I have wife and children to take care for my heart goes out exceeding much unto them it goes very near me to bring them into an estate of want and povertie and therefore I much fear that I shall grudge exceedingly to suffer a confiscation of mine Estate for conscience sake I shall be loath to draw up mine own will in mine own bloud and give away all mine Estate from my dear relations that strangers shall inherit my labours and the children of mine own body shall be turned out of doors a sad tryal enough to dash those generous spirits of the Gospel in that heart where flesh and bloud are consulted with But now if an experienced believer shall take him to task and tell him in the word of faithfulness O friend this was my case I had a fair inheritance descended upon me had much improved it by my care and industry God gave me a fruitfull vine with many Olive branches round about my Table which made my heart full loath to forsake all and to follow Christ it cut me to the heart to think that for Religion and conscience sake I should be cruel to mine own flesh and make void their title to any who by the Law of nature and nations have a right unto all but through the good hand of my God when I was called to it I was crucified to the world and the world was crucified to me the Lord had so taken the world out of my heart and fill'd it so much with heaven and drawn up my relations to that height of self-denial that they spake to me the words of Origen to his Father Leonides who suffered in the fifth Persecution Cave tibi Mr. Fox Act. Mon. vol. 1. pag. 70. ne quid propter nos aliud quam martyrii constanter faciendi prospositum cogites Beware lest for our sakes and out of principles of love to us you take up any other resolution then what becomes a faithfull martyr and confessour of the Lord Jesus so that I was able to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods knowing that in heaven I had a better and more enduring substance Heb. 10. ver 34. and to trust my self and family in the hands of that Jesus Christ who hath given this assurance to every one Iulian the Apostate put Valentinian out of the Tribuneship for his Religion who afterwardhad the Empire cast upon him that hath forsaken houses or lands for his name sake that he shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit eternal life Matth. 19. ver 29. and to take his word who hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. vers 5. and blessed be his name I have found much of this made good by my own experience I have not lost by that which I lost for Christ Queen Elizabeth would not have wished her self a Milk-maid when imprisoned for the Gospel sake if she had foreknown what a happy Raign of four and fourty years the Lord had reserved her unto 3. But a third Complaint which as the great deep swallowes up the two first of a poor Christian is this though I should not have much to lose or the Lord should give me a heart willingly to lose it for the Gospel sake yet I am afraid I shall never burn for Christ but when I come to the stake I shall prove a wretched Apostate and shall be farre from the courage of that brave Martyr Bishop Hooper who being brought to the stake Mr. Clark in vita patrum at Glocester a box with a pardon in it was set before him which when he knew he cryed out If you love my soul away with it if you love my soul away with it Oh! great have been the fears of many in times of persecution But now when an experimental Christian shall say unto the fearfull Be strong Let not the sight of fire and faggot daunt thee Just thus it was with me I verily feared that the sight of a stake made ready with fire and faggot for me would have made me run out of my wits and Religion too and yielded to a base compliance to have saved this carkass But I bless the Lord when I was haled to the prison dragg'd to the dungeon and threatened with a tormenting death unless I would receive the mark of the beast and worship the whore I then found the incomes of the spirit so plentifully received such an Heroick faith in so high a measure and was so fraught with Christian magnanimity that I am humbly bold to perswade my self had I then been call'd to it I should have suffered Martyrdome with much cheerfulness and comfort I had that set upon my heart which was upon Mr. Bilney's who being told that fire was very hot replyed I know it having often tryed it by
believed upon is a strong tower in the hour of temptation All the batteries of Hell cannot make a breach in it Now then get into this hold shut the doors upon you and let your temporal preservations be as locks and barrs to forbid Sathans entrance Lift up your shield of Faith embossed with your own experiences and wherever that Lion shall roar upon you give him battel fight him upon his own ground be steadfast in the faith keep true to your own experiences and believe without wavering the unchangeableness of Gods nature and Attributes and the Yea and Amen of all his Promises Improve the sense of eminent mercies and deliverances by way of comfortable assurance to your selves in all your castings down and fears of your eternal welfare But I shall speak little and warily on this head having touched upon it already in a foregoing use and least presumption should get up and carnal Professours should kindle a fire fetching fuel from this passage and compass themselves about with sparks walking in the light of this fire and in the sparks which they have kindled which notwithstanding all these confidencies their doom is pronounced by the Lord himself that they shallly down in sorrow Isa 50. ver 11. Indeed this humour is very ranck Ministers cannot with all their pains preach and pray and print it down And therefore I direct this discourse to the children of the new birth who have the witness within themselves of the work and truth of grace such may fetch much comfort from the appearances of God unto them in a day of distress they may argue Is not the life more worth them meat and the body then raiment Is not the soul more precious then name credit limbs and life Have the mercies of God been so signally remarkeable upon a temporal and shall they not be much more upon a saving account was the red sea dried up a pathway made through the wilderness Jordan made fordable and the Cananites slain even with hailstones from heaven and all this to give Israel possession of an earthly Canaan and shall not the outgoings of grace and outstretching of power be much more glorious to bring us to heavenly Canaan to that City which hath foundations and walls whose builder and maker is God Oh! reason up faith and hope to an exspectancy of after blessedness by considering the blessed presence and good will of him that dwelt in the bush in present comforts present succours and present deliverances I shall onely propose the presidency of Saint Paul under a remarkeable preservation even from the Tyrant Nero 2 Tim. 4. ver 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord will deliver me out of every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdome You may find much of this in David arguing from temporalls to eternals observe that Psal 23. ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever which sometimes is taken for heaven Domus majestatis that upper house that house of State in which Christ sayes John 14. ver 2. There are many mansions Saint Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. ver 1. an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so Psal 17. ver ult Oh in all your sinkings of spirit let the sense of mercy received be as a cordial unto you and assure your selves that if in famine sword peril nakedness c. ye have been more then conquerours through Christ that loved you get up your hearts to this perswasion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord Rom. 8. ver 37.38 39. or hinder you of heavens happiness which is the fruit of Gods Electing love and the purchase of the Redeeming love of Jesus Christ your Lord O then comfort one another with these words I am come now to the fifth and last Use Is it so that the best of Saints are often brought into suffering conditions that their afflictions are sharp and violent that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to their help in the day of their distress Is this a truth attested by the experience of Saints in all ages and cannot their enemies deny this why then here is a rod for the backs of fools a sharp reproof for the profane and carnal world in 3 Particulars 1. It reproves them for their uncharitable censuring of the suffering Saints what more usual then for wicked men to entertain hard thoughts and let fly in harsh speeches against the people of God in distress measuring their sinnes by their sufferings and if their calamities exceed others their iniquities exceed them also laying down this false position that the greatest sufferers are sinners and that when the rod is most the wrath of God is most also not considering that of the Apostle Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth laying down an exemption from the rod as a note of Bastardie or that Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten This was practised by Shimei in that great day of Davids distress when he fled from his rebellious son 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Come out come out thou bloudy man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the bloud of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the kingdome into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken to thy mischief or taken into thy wickedness because thou art a murtherer as some Translations read it and as agrees with the Hebrew This was the Interpretation that Eliphaz put upon Job's sufferings Job 4.7 8. Rememember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same thereby wounding him in his holiness and heart-sincerity yea upon the matter charging him to be a son of Belial and that because God was now writing such bitter things in the bloud of his cattel servants and children yea in black characters of sore displeasure upon his own body It was not much to be heeded that the Barbarians fastened the guilt of murther upon Paul because the viper fastened upon his hand Acts 28. ver 4. But that the viper should fasten upon the hearts of men and women under the same common Profession with us that the venom of the old Serpent should swell to such a degree of censuring and uncharitableness is much to be lamented and doubtless some will smart for these hard speeches when Jesus Christ shall come with ten thousands of his saints Jude ver 14 15. Then shall they know the English of that Text 1 Pet. 1.6 and the ends of God in afflicting his precious ones 2.
may the Lord take this ill from his people after such notable deliverances as ours have been it was a good wish of an Heathen Vtinam inimicitiae mortales Livye amicitiae immortales essent and I wish the same that your friendships were immortal your enmites mortal that your dissentions like to Jonas his Gourd might die at the root in one night and that Brotherly love might continue as a Teyle-tree and as an Oake whose substance is in them 1 Ioh. 3.14 vers 18. O then preserve this evidence for heaven un-blurred in your souls that you may know you are passed from death unto life because you love the Brethren let love be without dissimulation love not in word and in tongue onely but in deed and in truth it is easy to make them two who were never truly one to make them foes who were never truly friends to keep them oft from being one bread who were never one body And in case of difference leave your gift at the Altar not leave the Altar that 's not the mind of Christ and goe and reconcile your selves There is a memorable story of Aristippus an Heathen who went of his own accord to Aeschines his enemy saying shall we not be reconciled until we become a Table-talk to all the Country To whom Aeschines replied that he would gladly be at peace with him remember therefore said Aristippus that although I am the elder and the better man yet I sought first unto thee thou art indeed said Aeschines a far better man than I for I began the quarrel and thou the reconciliation O stand not upon punctilios but goe thou and do likewise you know the sad fruits of contention where a scar-fire is the bels ring backward So where this fire breaks forth in fellowship and fraternity Religion is Retrograde all things go backward and run into disorder Communion is broken Prayer is hindred mutual edification neglected Brotherly admonition will not be borne the weak are offended and the mouths of the wicked are opened wide in reproaches and calumnies 6. Preserve oneness in Judgment beware of dividing opinions and dividing in opinion Labour for stability in judgement for rooting in the faith It 's a great honour to be standing Christians in falling times be much and serious in searching the Scriptures much and serious in examining your grounds of profession Look often to your foundation be true to your own experiences Cant. 1.8 and recede not from your approved principles follow the foot-steps of the flock keep close to the Sheapheard tents conforme to the purest times the most primitive and Evangelical practises do not hastily leave the good old way meddle not with those that are given to changes in fundamentals Doctrinal or Practical Errour as one saies is a whirl-pool first turns men round and then sucks them in He has no sure standing who leaves the top of the hill Islebius Agricola the first Antinomian at last turned Papist How gradual has errour been amongst us unto what a monstrous bulk is Heresy now grown both as to persons and opinions which but a few years since was hardly visible now low did some begin who now are mounted upon the highest Pinacles O then stop the first leak least the Ship be immersed quench the first sparks least the maister-timber become a flame not onely keep but contend earnestly for the faith Iude 3. which was once delivered unto the Saints we are the trustees of Jesus Christ the treasure that is committed to our trust is very pretious above the vaule of heaven and earth in the account of the great Truster and that 's an obligation to faithfulness we are not to look onely to our selves but to posterity to that Doctrine which is transmitted to them one generation teacheth another and as we leave them Laws and other National priviledges so it would be sad if we should not be as carefull to leave them the Gospel O then as the Church is terrible as an army with banners so is she beautifull when she marcheth orderly under the Standard-Royal of truth and surely if we remember how we have rejoyced in the salvation of our God and in his name have set up our banners when formidable Armies were drawn up in great fury against us we cannot but charge blame upon our selves if we should forsake his Colours and fly to the painted Pageants of the Prince of darkness 7. Let not evil root in your hearts by the love of money Lay not up your treasures upon earth lest they keep your hearts too much out of heaven seek not great things for your selves with the neglect of greater Let not friendship with the world put you into a state of enmity with God Remember what a friend God was unto you in the midst of your late straits and dangers How little a value you set upon your stocks and lands your shops and trades in the heat of the late dreadfull Warrs how they that rejoyced were as though they rejoiced not they that bought as though they possessed not and will you now doat upon the world and put any trust in deceitfull riches What a sad presage is this of another War what a blemish upon Professours what a Reproach upon Religion There is no sin so contrary to a true Saint as earthly-mindedness whose Conversation ought to be in heaven his inheritance lying there O then roul away this reproach from you be content with food and raiment though none of the finest time was when you would have valued peace and the Gospel as choice mercies though with course dress and Diet make shift a while ere long you shall be cloathed with long white Robes clean and fine and shall drink of that wine which shall be ever new in the kingdome of your Father 8. Lastly Be most intent upon the quatuor nosissima the four last things Let your thoughts be much spent upon death these dying times by way of preparation that it may come without a sting and terrour to you of Judgment by way of preoccupation judging your selves here that you may not be judged hereafter of Hell by way of prevention waiting for and making sure your Interest in Jesus who will deliver you from wrath to come And of heaven by way of prelibation tasting the peace joy and comfort of that blessed Estate living upon the foretastes of heaven living up to the holiness of it and giving all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure that as the Lord hath given you an earnest of his mercy in temporal Preservation so the Lord may give you the full Treasures of his grace in everlasting Salvation To shut up all And indeed 't is time for according to the Rules of Architecture the two porches of it are much too big for the building my witness is in heaven that I covet not the applause of men I am not carried on by a popular spirit to make this publick nor do I designe it to that
with so pale a hand that ye could not read them at least by that weak and wan light which then shined in your soules what a loss ye were at for the Lord Jesus weeping with Mary because they had taken away your Lord and ye knew not where they had laid him nor how to lay hold on him for peace and pardon nay perhaps your cases weremore desperate your sins were writ in so deep a crimson your Atheisme ignorance Gospel enmity your former scoffings at Religion your flouts and flings at godliness your contempt of Gospel-Ordinances and your rejection of Gospel-grace did so fly in your faces grate and gnaw so upon your spirits and filled you with such a sence of divine vengeance that conscience that bird in the bosome like the night-raven croaked many a sad and dismal note unto you and so presented you with the black side of the cloud that ye verily thought if ye should die at that lare ye should drop into Hell Remember what then your thoughts were how then ye resolved that if ye recovered health again ye would not leave heaven under such uncertainties hereafter ye would give diligence to make your calling and Election sure ye would not for all the world be harassed again with those dreadfull fears and terrours like unto an unwary Traveller who to save a little mony ventures upon the washes without a guide and suddainly lights upon a quick sand which threatens to swallow up him and his horse and whilest he is tugging and striving to get out he lifts up his eyes and sees the water appearing upon the levell and hears the tide roaring toward him Oh what are his thoughts now what his fears sure that he shall die Pharaoh's death and be overwhelmed with the sea if timely help come not and having by Providence had an escape how doth he resolve never to travail that way without a guide whatever it cost him nor plunge himself again into the same fears for his whole estate Was not this your case ye thought your sickness to have been but washes ye could easily have passed through it but suddenly you slipped into a quicksand such a deadly heart-sinking fit that ye saw the grave opened and the wrath of God rolling upon you what were your thoughts then what your fears did ye not think your passing bell was ready to ring and the prison-doors were opening to receive you did ye not then resolve if your life was spared ye would tugge hard for Heaven ye would never be at the same stay again did ye not finde sickness an ill time and a sick bed an ill place to take your first rise for heaven from did ye not see your folly to lay the greatest burthen upon your horse when he was weak and tired to set out for heaven when your sunne was now setting when as it is an whole dayes journey thither and he that begins late usually fall's short of it to carry the seed basket into the field when your neighbours are crying harvest home Oh then since the Lord hath restored health unto you and brought you off from those heart-melting fears act up to the Aposties advice Phil. 2. vers 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem asque opus perducite bring salvation-business to a good issue that ye may never be surprised with those fears and tremblings when surprised with diseases I come now to the second part of the exhortation Second part of Exhortation applying this Doctrine of Gods appearances in mercy and the Saints deliverances from danger to the generality of men and women who fear and know the Lord and to believers as they meet in Christ the common-head and in the Church the common body and I shall improve the truth proposed 1. In a mixt sence referring both to temporall and spirituall preservations 2. In a pure spirituall sence referring to recovering and Redeeming grace As to the first sence I shall interweave something of a spiritual nature it being usual with the Holy Ghost to mingle Gospel treasures with the lading of the world in the same bottome and this I shall do in two particulars First I do humbly entreat the servants of the Lord to keep up the memorial of the Lords mercies to keep Diaries of their great deliverances to preserve Records of their signall preservations And secondly as occasion serves to communicate and impart them to others for I shall twist these two together Oh let not God lose the glory of any mercy let not time wear off the remembrance of eminent preservations God expects that his works should be registred by us as well as our words are registred by him Mal. 3. vers 16. This was commanded by the Lord Deut. 7. vers 18 19. David was much in the practice of this duty read Psal 66. ver 12 c. He gives a royal summons as by the sound of a trumpet to all the Lords people to give their attendance whilest he discovereth over the gracious Administrations of the Lord he is no niggard no close-fifted Miser that hoards up all and keeps all close to himself but keeps open house and invites all the Lords people to his banquet of wine He would fain lift up the great name of God in the world and display his bounty that they which have hard thoughts of God may be convinced of their errour and make a recantation and that all dejected Saints may by his example and experience be encouraged to roul themselves upon God under assurance of comfort and support in an evil day which will appear to be his designe for ver 5. he gives a generall invitation to all people to see and admire the wonders which were wrought by God t is like in Egypt he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men implying probably the dreadfull execution of his vengeance upon the Egyptians in those ten Plagues he sent amongst them and in bringing in the waters of the red Sea upon their whole Host as appears Vers 6. He turned the sea into dry land they went through the flood on foot to wit the children of Israel there did we rejoice as Exod. 15. doth fully shew when Moses and the people celebrated the praises of God and by that song not onely kept up a lively sence of that glorious preservation in their own hearts but transmitted the memorial of it unto posteritie that the children then unborn might read in that the glorious appearances of God for his people Oh how few such songs are penned in our dayes what little care is taken to commemorate deliverances though they have been so great and many Is it not the shame of this Nation that the next age shall finde no Records and if any such Compendiums of those wonderful deliverances which we
concluded though he stood alone I and my house will serve the Lord Joshua 24. vers 15. Oh that they were men of religion like unto Cornelius who feared God and all his house Act. 10. ver 2. I never hope to see religion flourish in the life and power of it and spread it self over Towns and Provinces untill great men be good and their families grow better Oh how sadly can some villages witness that popery and profanenesse have come down the hill from Lordship-houses and spread like a contagious disease almost over all the families the Lord reform this 2. It hath a great tendency to the promoting of religion when master and family walk together to the house of the Lord when publick worships are frequented by the heads of families and a due regard to Gospel-ordinances be kept up by them in the hearts of their whole retinue Oh 't is a sight that heaven and earth rejoice at to see great persons march in good aray to Bethel in the very front of their families It sadned David's spirit when an exiled person to remember how he had gone with his train to the house of God Psal 42. ver 4. as the meeter gives it and 't is pressed by way of patheticall exhortation by the Apostle Heb. 10. ver 25. upon believers not to forsake the assembling themselves together as ever they look for comfort at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the time whereof draweth nigh and to be gathered together unto him at his appearing and in his kingdome Ah how little is that prophecy made good in our dayes Isa 60. ver 8. That people flee as a cloud and as the doves to their windows where can ye find a town of which it may be affirmed paralell to that pattern 2 Chro. 20. ver 13. All Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children I can sadly attest against this and so can many others Indeed when this late reformation first began Assemblies were numerous Churches were thronged Lectures much frequented but now how do the wayes of Zion mourn because few come to the solemn feasts Lam. 1. ver 4. How thin are Sabbath congregations and much thinner lecture-Assemblies How hath Saul slain his thousands and David his ten thousands How hath Popery and profanenesse weeded out many and heresie more in our dayes A third part almost in some places are carried off to by-meetings well may the river be low when so many by-brooks carry away so much of the water no marvell that so few answer to the muster-roul when so many have listed themselves under other Captains Oh that God would bring back the people of this Nation who have so much departed from the gates of wisdome Oh that the Lord would magnifie his Gospel and make it honourable amongst us in all its ordinances And Oh that heads of families would be the Sermon bell in their own houses and ring all their domesticks to Church with this peal arise and let us go up to Bethel Heaven and God's wayes are up the hill children and servants had need be handed up by their superiours or else they will ly still at the foot of the hill or else straggle into the vail of Sodom how can we think the child should grow and battle when it refuseth to take the breast How can we expect that knowledge should encrease at least savingly when so many run to and fro and few to the ordinances may not the Governours of Judah find out some expedient with safety of their own and without any violence done to the consciences of other persons whereby the ancient repute might be restored to the ordinances and our assemblies might be filled God grant they may for hinc illae lachrimae both to me and others 3. Observe it administers great hope of much good when inferiours obey their superiours commands in their calls to religion and family-reformation there is a blessing power goes along with the pious endeavours of prudent Governours God very often if not alwayes appears and adds authority to their commands when their endeavours are serious and sincere to advance religion in their families Ye see here is a vote passed for God in a full house Nemine contradicente a motion entertained by all Jacob's people he did but propound a reformation and they readily consented to it the Text sayes Gen. 35. vers 4. They gave unto Jacob all the strange Gods which were in their hands to wit in their possession and all their earings which were in their ears Objection But ye will say They were Hebrews trained up in the fear and knowledge of the true God and possibly extraordinarily principled and moved at that time by an immediate impulse of the spirit of God it is not so with our Families Solution I Answer It is sadly to be lamented that any of this Nation grown up to years of maturity and in a rational way capable of teaching should be so ignorant and ill-principled as to oppose their Governours call and not submit to their commands when they command for God and call to those wayes which being walked in This Island hath the glory to be graced with the first Christian King hat ever raigned in the world which was Lucius Speed in his 6 Books Chap 9. Sub Lucio Britania omnium Provinciarum prima publicitus Christi nomen recepit Anton. Sab. lib. 5. Enned 7. lead to eternal blessedness and that considering what advantages this Nation hath yea of ancient times hath had in the light and Liberty of the Gospel this Nation being the first in all the world that embraced the Gospell by the authority of the supream Magistrate even by King Lucius about 170 years after Christ Indeed the Gospel was preached to other Nations before and many Churches were gathered out of many Pagan Cities and Nations when the Governours were Idolaters and onely tolerated the Gospel in their Dominions but here the chief Authority of the Nation was for the Gospel established the Profession of it by a civil Sanction yea made a Law that the Gospel should be owned and professed all the Nation over and now that the Gospel should have been in the Nation for almost 1500 yeares for certainly it was never quite extinct in the darkest times there was some glimmerings of light in the most gloomiest day and yet that ignorance and Atheisme should so generally prevail is very sad yet sadly true But where lies the blame of this much at the doors of parents and Masters of Families want of Education and of early seasoning of children both at home and at School is much the cause of that gross ignorance and generall profaneness which overspreadeth the Nation And truly Ministers remitting their care and pains in catechising is not the least cause of these forenamed evils Oh that the sence and experience of these things would awaken parents to a more carefull education of their children and that the Magistrates care
God made use of me and employed me in honorable services now I am unfit for any service at all Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before I could take hold upon Promises I could claim them as mine own I could look up to all those blessed sweet Promises that God had made in his word and look upon them as mine inheritance But now alas the Promises of God are little to me before I could look on the face of all troubles and upon the face of death I could look upon them with joy But now the thoughts of affliction and of death God knowes how terrible they are to mee Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before in all creatures I could enjoy God I tasted the sweetness and love of God even in my meat and drink I could sit with my wife and children and see God in them and look upon the mercies of God through them as a fruit of the Covenant of Grace Oh how sweet was it with me then But now the creature is as an empty thing unto me whether it come in love or hatred I do not know It was better with me before then now Before I was under the protection of God wherever I went but now I do not know what dangers and miseries I am subject to dayly what may befall me before night God onely knowes Before the Saints rejoyced in my company and communion now every one is shie of me Before I was going on in the wayes of life now these wayes I am going in God knows and my conscience tells me are the wayes of death Oh it was better with me then then it is now I have been large in transcribing these excellent and precious passages because the times we are cast upon do much abound with backsliders and who knows whether God may not in a way of recovering mercy bring this Treatise and this particular passage under the serious view of some Apostate and bless it with a healing virtue to his soul who happily never read it nor should have opportunity of reading it in the large Volume of Reverend Mr. Burroughs And who knows what gracious effect this may have upon some unstable spirits to settle and fix them sure upon God that the evil heart of unbelief may never cause their departure from God However there is a suteableness in it to the head we are improving And sure the people of God will finde a serious reflection upon the goodness and good Providences of God as an excellent means to heal heart-distempers and damps of spirit as also to quicken up and enflame their zeal and affections more unto God that they will say with that holy man Psal 73. ver 28. It is good for us to draw nigh to God they will find that it is best with them when they are nearest to God and therefore will bring back their hearts upon any recess from God by a lively sense of the goodness of the Lord unto them 3. Be much in the sence and meditation of grace received keep up the consideration thereof vigorous and lively in your hearts pray much preach much hear much and act much in the sence of what you were compared with what through discriminating and renewing grace ye now are How that except the Lord had been your help your soules had not almost but altogether and for ever dwelt in silence Oh 't is of excellent use they that have tried have found the usefulness of it The Apostle Paul you know was much in this as many passages in his Epistles do fully speak to I shall onely instance in that 1 Tim. 1. vers 12 13 14 15 16. I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me worthy putting me into the Ministery There 's a great Emphasis in me that Jesus Christ should do this for me why Who was Paul or what was he that it should be owned by him as such a singular act of Grace to be put into the Ministery The next Verse tells you yea he himself tells you who was a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and Injurious bad enough and these words carry weight enough with them but I obtained mercy but how did he purchase mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus not onely Grace but exceeding grace not onely exceeding but exceeding abundant grace it is a pleonasme yea a superpleonasme and all little enough I had need of all I was a Blasphemer and so sinned against the first Table I was a persecuter and so sinned against the second Table and I was Injurious and so came near the sinne against the Holy Ghost and all these together do sadly speak me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gerson August at least in my own sence the chief of sinners primus quo nullus prior a file-leader one that marched in the Van and Front of the battel imo quo nullus pejor worse then the worst He strikes sail takes down all his Flags which he displayed Phil. 3. ver 4 5 6. sit's down in the dust and view's himself in his lowest abasement that so he might the more admire the riches of free grace and might bring his heart more under command for God the vouchsafements of whose goodwill had been so free and so full unto him neither doth he monopolize this and drive on a close trade betwixt God and his own soul as though he would engross all to himself and cared not how empty other mens coffers were so that his own were full like the Merchants of this world but he commends and by an Apostolick power command's this course unto others as Eph. 2. ver 11 12 13 14. When he had carried the Ephesian Saints up into the Paradise of God and displayed the mysteries and priviledges of grace even to the ravishment of their souls in the first Chapter and in the ten first Verses of this then he comes on with a Memento Remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh that at that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Ye were in as bad a condition as men could be in ye dwelt as nigh the borders of Abaddon as people could dwell no people were in worse trading for heaven then ye were in ye had nothing that brought you within the outward Court of the Temple or gave you the least advance toward happiness ye were like dogs without Apoc. 22. vers 15. and how could it be otherwise seeing your wants and withouts were so many 1. Without the Mark of an Israelite in your flesh as being uncircumcised 2. Without the Camp and Common-wealth of Israel as being neither Hebrews nor Proselites 3. Without the Covenants having no covenant right to any spirituall good thing no nor
hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth See Mr. Baxter in loc crucified among you This onely would I learn of you received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith c Oh did ye much and often read over the passages of divine love unto you and would be true to your own experiences it would antidote you against many errors of the times and keep your hearts close with God 3. This serious recognition and review of the Lords mercies brings most comfort unto the soul and sure he lives best to himself who lives most to his own comfort a life of comfort is the sweetness the desireableness and life of life What is life to the bitter in soul which long for death and dig for it more then for bid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they finde the grave Job 3.21 22 23. And what comfort have men in living upon a natural account when those dayes are come wherein they say we have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12. ver 1. and is it not so in a spirituall sense a wounded spirit who can bear but a good conscience is a continual feast and the Kingdome of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. vers 17. Then do we come nearest heaven and live in the suburbs of it when we are filled with peace and joy in our soules when we experience a sedateness and serenity of spirit rejoycing in hope of the glory of God now sence of grace received doth marvellously comfort the soul 1. In our addressments unto God by prayer when we have any request to make at the throne of grace this will work a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and holy boldness of spirit in us we may encourage our selves to hope that we shall speed in our desires and have acceptation in heaven when we consider that God hath manifested the love of a father and given the portion of a childe unto us how he sought us up when we were gone astray met us with a welcome home at our returne and clasped us in the embraces of his paternall affections when we have the robe and ring to shew the spirit of Adoption which cryeth Abba Father and therefore if parents that are evil know how to give good things to their children See Mr. Teat in Matth. 7. vers 11. much more will our heavenly father give the holy Ghost to us that ask him Luke 11. vers 13. even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good things yea all good things for the Holy Ghost is a comprehensive and superlative terme all good things and that which is more then all besides sure we should not have that listlesness and loathness unto prayer that heart-deadness in prayer and those dead hopes as to expectancy of comfort from prayer if we were much and often in the meditation of Gods love Oh t is an excellent heart preparatory unto prayer and the readiest way to find the returnes of our prayers Care his Plus cum Deo quam hominibus loquitur while prayer standeth still the trade of Godliness stands still also and soul-wants are great and many all good comes into the soul by this door and all true treasures by this Merchants ship And sure they who have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water that have the sence of justifying and sanctifying grace have boldness and heart-willingness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus and may draw near to God with full assurance of faith Heb. 10. vers 19 22. in which the life of comfort doth much consist and by which it is much preserved in the soul 2. This heart-commanding will give you comfort in your attendance at the posts of wisdome O when you sit at the feet of Jesus in his teaching ordinances and your hearts are heated and heightened with a serious meditation upon the truth and work of grace you 'l taste comfort in every word and draw sweetness out of every dug if sin be roundly dealt withall and the arrowes of the Lord be keen to strike through the very heart of a lust you will rejoyce in it because 't is done against an enemy sin and you are now implacably fallen out and therefore you dare speak in the words of the Psalmist Psal 139. ver 21 22. Do not I hate them which hate thee and am not I grieved with them which rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Indeed in a sense we are to love our enemies but those that would draw off our hearts from the Lord and loosen our affections from holiness as sin would Oh they are enemies indeed and we shall bless God when the word wounds them deepest that they bleed and breath out their last Time was when we had secret heart-risings against the word when a reproof came too close and Ahab-like we have hated the Micaiah and have gone home to our houses heavy and displeased because of the word which hath been spoken unto us 1 Kings 21. vers 4. I but now we take pleasure in a sin-wounding Sermon a lust-laming discourse when the word gets a leg or an arm from the body of death so when impenitency is reproved and sentenced we shall be comforted when we find that God hath given us soft hearts and granted repentance unto life Acts 11. verse 18. If Gospel unbelief be threatened and the wrath of an eternal God denounced our hearts will be comforted by a reflection upon our faith of which Jesus Christ hath been the Author and will be the finisher Heb. 12. ver 2. nay if the bottomless pit be opened and a vision of that brimstone-lake belching forth smoke and sulphur be presented the sight whereof makes the sinners of Zion afraid and surpriseth the hippocrites with sinking fears crying out in the greatness of their distress who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33. ver 14. our hearts will feed upon this sad truth with comfort when we know that with Noah we are in the ark and with Lot we are in Zoar waiting for our Jesus from heaven who hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thes 1. vers ult The Devil is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a roaring lion roaring after the prey but our comfort is that the Lord Jesus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lion of the Tribe of Judah which rescueth us from the paws of this Lion Nay farther if Gospel priviledges be displayed Gospel-promises be applyed Gospel-treasures be opened and the name of Christ like oyntment be powred forth we may by an Act of believing grasp at all and say all is ours we are Christs 1 Cor. 3. ver ult yea Christ is ours Cant. 5. ver ult In a word if the state of after
and lift up the shield of faith to receive and quench his fiery darts by considering 1. That the same afflictions that is temptations are accomplished in your brethren that dwell in the world you are not single in this temptation though that is much the thoughts of tempted ones Satan doth not fight you with a new weapon that lately past the forge 2. That you stand related to and are in covenant with that God who is the God of all grace who hath all weapons ready for war in his Armory and can supply a tempted Saint with those graces suddainly and fully which he stands in need of 3. That your relation to the God of all grace is founded upon Jesus Christ and evidenced by your effectual calling for you are called into his eternal glory by Jesus Christ not unto implying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that grace gives the soul an entrance into glory effectual vocation is a call from heaven into heaven the soul is taken up into heaven from the time of its new birth as to the certainty of it and safe keeping unto it 4. That your suffering condition will not be long it is the Lord not Satan who times your temptations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you shall suffer but a while sharpe they are and therefore termed sufferings yet but short therefore phrased awhile hence Rev. 2.10 You shall have tribulation ten dayes that is your imprisonment shall be short 5. That your temptations shall be in order to your establishment the God of all grace will make you perfect establish strengthen settle you your sufferings shall be in order to your setling your temptation in order to your consolation parallel to that 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory O then do but in the hour of temptation draw up the main body of your experiences and evidences of Gods love in Christ unto you and Satan cannot hurt you though his main battail be against you though he may pluck of some rath grapes he shall never destroy your Vintage though he may pick up some scattered ears he shall never carry away your harvest and though he may trouble you in your passage to heaven he shall never keep you out of heaven what a day of comfort is this unto the foul 3. Are you summoned by the King of terrors do his batteries play upon you are there breaches made in your mud-walls is there a mine sprung and your life in all likelihood to be blown up Why the lively sense and evidence of grace received will like a cordial water warm your hearts and stay up your spirits at such an hour as this is that light of life within you if heeded will clear up the counsels of God unto you as to your after and eternal well-being it will convince you of Gods soveraignty conquer your renitency and make you bow head and heart with much submission to the father of spirits this will ballance and ballast your souls too and poise them evenly between hope and fear that neither shall be inordinate and that in two particulars 1. Where grace sits at the helm of Government in the soul it brings the unruly passions into subjection to the divine pleasure and preserves the Saints from over-much hoping of life seeing their dayes are determined and their bounds set and antidotes them against overmuch fearing of death seeing the number of their mouths are with God Job 14.5 6. the indefinite is equivalent to an universal so that it was not Jobs single case but the common lot of all mankind and therefore you may safely argue that all the rare feasts which Paracelsus professed to do for the lengthening of mens lives the use of all remedies cannot make you out-live nor the missing of them cause you to fall short of those bounds which God in his secret and irreversible decrees hath set you This consideration will much quiet your hearts in God when you have the sentence of death within your selves it will excellently prevent that distemper which is an evil that I have seen even amongst the Saints of God viz. an over-eager desire of life and a greedy catching at any hopes thereof even to some neglect of that preparation and those precedaneous duties which the seriousness of death and eternity do call for at their hands not that I condemne a modest and humble desire of life or a sober use of means and medicines in order thereunto onely propound this as a cure of that heart-distemper mentioned and to perswade my self and others to say with David Here I am let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto him 2 Sam. 15.26 2. Your gathering up your experiences of converting renewing adopting and accepting grace in Jesus Christ will fill your souls with ravishing comforts upon an everlasting account even then when your nearest friends fill your heads with weepings sighings and sad lamentings as seeing your dying breath draw faint and short and other symptomes of death report your change to be very near you will then gather up your spirits as old Jacob did his feet and not be afraid to speak with your enemy in the gate the gate of eternity Oh grace improved will shew you your names written in the Lambs book of life will give you some foretasts of those joys which are in the presence of God will lead you in a vision of the Spirit into your fathers house that you may see those mansion places of glory which are prepared for you and will open your eyes that you may see the Angels of God those blessed ministering spirits waiting at your pillows to waft your souls into the everlasting embraces of your dear Redeemer that you may say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.1 to still the sobbings of your sad relations We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building with God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Dr. Kendall in his answer to Mr. John Goodwin p. 53. That with Moses you may dye upon the mount of vision and with David full of riches and honor in a spiritual sense Oh this consideration will make death-tokens love-tokens and represent death as a messenger from your dear Jesus who brings the glad tidings of everlasting life if you fall by an arrow yet is that arrow shot by the hand of God in more love then Jonathans was to David if by a stroke of the pestilence yet that pestilence is no Plague but somewhat a harsher plaster of all miscries whatever be the fury of the disease it is but a chariot of fire to carry you to heaven None of the blessed Fathers ever complained of the untowardness of the way so happy are they in being seized of their inheritance among the Saints in light though they were hurried thither through the darkest valley of the shaddow of death Thus that learned Author
highest rank were by the Roman Law nailed to the Crosse hence Isa 53. ver 9. the Prophet tells us he made his grave with the wicked that is suffered the death of the wicked the word imports ungodly lewd and turbulent irreligious towards God debauch't in manners and turbulent in the Common-wealth which sort of men David by the word of the Lord doomes to destruction Psal 9. ver 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell And now though the man Christ Jesus who is God blessed for evermore the Lord of glory feared death and was put to that shamefull and tormenting death the death of Hell-birds yet he endured it and despised the shame of it having his eye upon the joy set before him and what was that joy Sure much of that joy consisted in his compleating the work of his Redemption in bringing home the Elect unto God as Isa 53. ver 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied Hebr. shall sit down with acquiescence of spirit shall dwell there he shall receive joy and satisfaction from the saving of sinners as a man doth that dwelleth in his own house scituated with the best advantage of profit and delightfulness It was the saturity and satisfaction of his soul and the reason thereof may be gathered from John 12. ver 32. where he sayes and I if I be lifted up will draw all men after me he knew there would be such a magnetick vertue in his death which would attract all men to wit multitudes of men and women to believe in him The Spirit being to be sent forth and the Gospel being to be universally preached after his death O then ye believing ones look unto this Jesus and look unto this joy which in some measure will be given in unto you by the attractiveness of your deaths to draw soules to Christ and settle this upon your hearts that though your bloud may be spilt as water upon the ground yet by the wise appointment of a gracious God it may be as seed instrumentally not meri-toriously for in this sense onely the bloud of Jesus is of life and grace to poor sinners and be not so streiten-ed in your bowels to the Lord Jesus or to your poor brethren as to deny an handfull of seed if called unto it to encrease the greatharvest I shall subjoin but one Consideration more namely 5. That t is an honorable advancement to be called out by Christ to suffer for him a vouchsafement of grace Magna est huâ—us verbi Emphasis ex quo intellimus omnia deberi gratuitae Dei Electioni and that in a way of speciall favour to die a Martyr a right Martyr The Apostles Acts 5. ver 41. rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a way of grace they had this honour put upon them that they were reputed as persons worthy to wear an honourable scar in their flesh for Christ though they were onely scourged this made Paul and Silas so meray at midnight that they sung Psalmes probably of praise to God that they were counted worthy to be shut up in the inner prison and to have their feet made fast in the stocks for the testimony of Jesus Acts 16. v. 25. Hence he tells the Philippians Phil. 1. ver 29. to you it is given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is a grant of grace of rich grace in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him though that be an high honour but also to suffer for his sake as if he had said the Lord hath granted you this honour that ye shall believe on him when as he leaves thousands of your acquaintance country-men yea Betters upon a worldly score in unbelief This is worth your acceptation our admiration this calls for full returnes of praise and thankfulness but this is not all that this grant of grace conferres by way of honour upon you for ye ye that are believers shall also be sufferers be Martyrs for Christ and sure the crown of Martyrdome is a glorius crown and every soul won over to God by a dying Martyr will be as an Orient pearl and precious Diamond in his crown of far more value then that Adamant found about Charles Duke of Burgundy slain by the Switzers at the battel of Nantz sold for twenty thousand Duckets and placed as it is said in the Popes tripple crown Oh what foretastes of glory what ravishments of soul have many of the blessed Martyrs had in their suffering for Christ Hold Lord stay thine hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot bear too great a light and oh what thankfulness and joy of heart have many express'd Act. and Mon. Fol. 1553. It is the greatest promotion God gives in this world to suffer saies Father Latimer I thank God most heartily for this hour Mr. Glover wept for joy of his imprisonment God forgive me my unthankfulness for this great exceedingmercy that among so many thousands he chuseth me to be one in whom he will suffer Martyr â—tiam in catenâ— gaudet August Act. Mon. Fol. 1361.1744 saies Mr. Bradford Martyr I am the unmeetest man for this high office that ever was appointed to it saies Mr. Sanders Such an honour is it saies John Carlisle Martyr as the greatest Angel in heaven is not permitted to have God forgive me my unthankfulness Oh then what the Apostle saies Heb. 12. ver 1. as the close and Epilogue of that Martyrology so say I Wherefore seing you are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets you and run with patience the race which is set before you Ye know not what times ye may be called unto what quaimes of fears may be upon your spirits and what temptations to self pitty from Sathan and the flesh may then seize upon you Therefore store up Provision afore hand lay up Promises lay up Presidences lay up Arguments and lay up these considerations by an unworthy hand offered unto you keep a fresh sense of former deliverances and improve them by way of comfort and support in persecuting times Argue with David Psal 9. ver 13. Have mercy on me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me and probably in the cause of Religion thou that liftest me up from the gates of death ex praesentissimo en certissimo interitu from present and certain dangers which shewed me the grave gaping for me and therefore raise up your spirits and believingly say as vers 6 7 8 9. O thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end the date of thy commission against us is expired and shall never be renewed and thy destruction from the Lord is irrevocable and eternal but the Lord shall endure for ever vivit regnatque Christus Christ lives and raigns and shall judg the world in
spirits in any assault when ye can say in your greatest distresses as Paul 2 Tim. 4. ver 16 17. No man stood with me but all men forsook me notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me Here 's a clear appearance of God Or with Daniel My God hath sent his Angel and stopped the mouthes of the Lions that they have not hurt me or with David in my distress I cried unto the Lord and he heard me Psal 120. ver 1. And surely some of the Saints deliverances have been such I can instance in mine own which were singly and signally wrought by God But now in other cases where instruments have been used as many such cases there have been be sure you give them even all created helps the name of instruments and own God as the principal Agent that his arm moved everey wheel and his hand guided and wrought with every tool do this and ye are well enough Psal 77. ver 20. Thou leddesi thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron to wit through the the red sea Moses struck the waters with his rod I but God divided the sea thou leddest is onely applicable to God and by Moses onely intimates an instrument so Psal 88. ver 65 66. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep or like as a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine and he smote the enemies in the hinder parts he putteth them to a perpetuall shame However the army is marshalled the stroak is from God the horse is prepared against the day of battel but safetie is of the Lord Prov. 21. ver 31. But suppose Sathan should deny the consequence of the Major for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a subtle opponent and argue though God did deliver in temporals yet he will not in spiritualls Who is he that shall deliver out of my hands I le make you know that ye are wrastling not with flesh and bloud men that are your matches but with principalities and powers who are much above your match there is impar congressus a great disparity in strength and wisdome and all things between me and you What are all the powers of the world to the God of this world what are all the dark plots of men to the projects of the Prince of darkness What are all the whiffling waters to the great Apollion who is the destroyer why answer greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 thy power Sathan is but a limitted power Christ our Redeemer hath thy chain in his hand thou canst not break one link of it nor pass one hairs breadth beyond thy boundaries besides Thou canst have no power against me except it be given the from above If thy Commission hath not pass'd the Signet-Office in heaven it is but a blank piece of parchment Nay farther thy head and thy heart and thy hand too have been all at work in those mischiefs that were plotted and acted against us and yet thou seest we have a sure footing in peace and safety when we were under water we had never come up again but had been quackned in the deep if the strength of thine arm could have kept our heads down when we were shut up in prison we had never came forth if thy bolts and locks could have made fast the doors when we were under the power of our enemies we had never come of with life if thy malice could have turned the points of their weapons against us But God made us to be pitied of all those that carried us away captive Psal 106. ver 46. Our sicknesses had been mortal if thou couldest have spilt the potion or stirred up the humours to have encreased the malignancy of the distempers but in all things wherein thou didst deal proudly God was above thee and he that rebuked thee in thine instruments will rebuke thee also in thine agency He that defeated thee as worldly Governors will defeat thee as spirituall wickedness also That wisdome goodness and power which secured our temporalls against thee will much more secure their spiritualls If thou couldest not spill our blood much less shalt thou be able to split our souls If thou couldest not take away our credit we are sure thou shalt not take away our crown If our goods were out of thy reach much more shall our graces and our glory be He that delivered us out of the mouth of the Lion will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdome But further if Sathan shall argue Who doubts the power of God or who disputes against his omnipotency but wherefore should God put forth his Almightiness to secure you against me what claim can ye make to that mercy and goodness ye speak of let your reply be Gal. 1. ver 4. That Christ gave himself for your sinnes that he might deliver you from this present evil world according to the will of God even your father And that sin and Sathan are they that make this present world evill all evills flow from them If therefore God our father willed the death of his Son to deliver us from this present evil world he willed his death to deliver us from thee and that bastard brat of thine sin also And more John 14. ver 30. The Lord Jesus said of thee the Prince of this world hath nothing in me nor any power over me and if not in Christ then neither in us at least not over us so that thou shalt be able to undoe us and destroy us We are one with Christ he is the head and we the members and we can lay a Gospel claim which is a good title to all Christ and to all of Christ which is communicable to the creature The Apostle gives us good warrant 1 Cor. 3. ver 21. All things are yours and why ye are Christs yea so Christs as that Christ is yours a relative propertie as is between husband and wife Hence 1 Cor. 1. ver 30. He is made unto us of God wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption as if the Apostle had said the wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption which are in and wrought by Jesus Christ are by deed of gift through grace made over unto us So then against thy wiles and stratagems and cunning methods O Sathan We have the wisdome of Christ which is ours for direction to secure us Against thy accusations enditements and charges for sin we have the righteousness of Christ which is ours for justification to acquit us against those heart-defilements corruptions and concupiscences wherewith thou wouldst soil us and foil us we have the holiness of Christ which is ours for Sanctification in some measure to defend us and against thy might and malice treachery and tyranny we have the kingly office of Christ his authority his omnipotency which are ours as to Redemption to protect us Oh this this name of the Lord thus displayed and