servant of the Lord if the Lord did not love me he would not have called me off from such vain and vicious courses he would not have made known the counsels of his grace by his spirit unto me he would not have accepted my poor services nor given such returns to my broken prayers nor hasted relief unto me in such or such an afflicted estate Oh! this is much the case of weak believers they are often at the turning of the scales one while hope up and fear down another while fear up and hope down and sometime the ballance hangeth in an even poise It is oftentimes thus in a spiritual sence and truly 't is many times such upon temporal accounts they are much at a loss in their own spirits But now when the Lord turneth again the captivity of his people when he cometh in signally and seasonably to their help in the time of their greatest streights when they could not tell what to do and thought all lost Oh then the bright side of the cloud is toward them the vail is taken away and they behold with open face the glorious love of God unto them It is said Gen. 45. vers 27. When Jacob saw the wagons which Joseph sent to carry him into Egypt his spirit revived it put a new life into his dead heart and dead hopes the old man gathered up his spirits which were sunk with grief for the death of Joseph and fear of Benjamin's miscariage Oh! saith he Joseph is yet alive So when the saints of God see the hand of God visibly appearing yea mightily out-stretched to fetch them off from a calamitous condition their dead hopes and dead hearts revive now their spirits which hang the head and were down under the sence of Gods displeasure get up gain are fresh and flourishing Joseph my son is yet alive The Lord hath given real testimony of love and good will unto us The arrows of the Lords deliverance like Jonathans warning arrows are arrows of love feathered and headed with choicest affections Object 1. But this Fort-royal of the Saints seemeth to be assaulted by the Preacher Eccles 9. vers 1. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him therefore the reliefs God giveth in to his people when distressed though signal and eminent are no demonstrative Arguments of Gods love he may help and yet hate a people Answ I shall receive the charge and endeavour to secure the truth within some sconces and therefore do answer 1. It is confessed that the onely wise God doth dispence outward mercies with an equal hand to the good and to the bad to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an oath and this according to the ordinary course of providence prosperity doth not alwayes spring up upon the root of piety God doth not difference the precious and the vile by sun and rain yea many times the worst men live under the warmest Sun-shine David saith Psal 17. vers 14. God filleth their bellies with hid treasures they have full meals of the worlds delicates riches and honour by the belly as our phrase is and who are these who like Pharaoh's kine are so fat and well-favoured why they are the wicked who like dogs when their bellies are full are turned out of doors they have their portion in this life their Chelech their part and share the word is used 1. in a military sense for the souldiers pay or his part in the spoyles of a conquered enemy thus Abraham calleth it the portion of the men that went with him Gen. 14. vers 24.2 'T is used in a civil sense for the share or portion which children have in their parents Estate Rachel and Leah said Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our fathers house Gen. 31. vers 14. So that the wise man in this Verse confuteth the vain yet general opinion of worldlings who fondly and as falsly measure Gods love and their lot in the same Omer And in this he ballasteth the Saints who are apt to topple over in their own stormes and the wicked's calmes as Psal 73.2 2. The dispensations of God according to his ordinary rate of providence do not decisively conclude love or hatred a just man may have all his moisture drunk up with the arrows of the Almighty when the unjust may have his bones full of marrow the Saint may be poor with Job even to a Proverb and the sinner may abound with wealth even to the parable Good Josiah may dy the same death with wicked Ahab both slain by the hands of their enemies God will not write his love in such legible characters that every pur-blind worldling may read this secret indeed Jerusalem had the honour to be baptised Jehovah-shammah the Lord is there Ezek. 48.35 but this engraving was not found upon Dives his palace It is the heart not the house which beareth this Inscription and that not in letters of Gold but of grace 3. No man can give a certain and infallible judgement of love or hatred towards another person by all that is before him indeed men may speak hopefully in the judgment of charity and draw up a hopeful conclusion of another man's standing in grace from what is visibly good when the exercise of faith is vigorous and the actings of the spirit of holiness are visible and uniform as 1 Thes 1. vers 3 4. The Apostle mentioneth their labour of love their work of faith and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ from which he deduceth this conclusion knowing Brethren beloved of God your election though the white stone with the new name written in it is known to no man certainly but to him that hath received it yet holy men D. Preston in some degree are known one to another to make the communion of saints the sweeter yet cannot such a conclusion be drawn from external acts of providence infallibly to determine love or hatred by his outward administrations how sadly would the men of that generation have miscaried if they had asserted Esau to have been a person dear to God and peculiarly in his favour because he prospered so farre and fast in worldly greatness and glory who had four hundred men at his heels and the father of so many Dukes and if they had concluded Jacob to have been a person of Gods hatred because he was a poor shepherd and met with such hard measure from his uncle Laban seing the Lord determined otherwise Rom. 9. vers 13. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated It was much the sinne of Job's three friends in asserting Job's afflictions to be the fruits and evidences of Gods displeasure against a person hated by him when God himself giveth testimony to Job so fully at the beginning and end of this book 4. I do not assert that God's outward dispensations although in an extraordinary manifestation of his power and goodness do fully and alwayes speak forth his peculiar
your hearts this will answer all carnall cavills it will silence all the objections of your distrustfull hearts and bring up your spirits bravely to Jobs resolution Job 13. ver 15. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him he shall not be so rid of me I will hang on him still and if I must dy I will dy at his feet I and remember the wayes of God unto me his wayes of grace and mercy and free redemption when my estate was sad and bad and therefore under all those showers of arrows which fly from the Almighty against me and drink up my moisture I will roul my self upon him trust in him I and he also shall be my salvation see further ver 16 17 18 19. Oh if any man lives to God the just man doth who lives by his faith and fetcheth life and strength for his faith from his own experiences All the world could not shake the holy confidencies of Saint Paul when he had argued out the experiences of the grace and good will of God in Jesus Christ unto himself and believers Rom. 5. ver 16 17 18. then chap. 8. he begins conclusively there is therefore now no condemnation not one condemnation and carries it on at that high rate of affiance that ver 33 34. he doth arietem mittere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take the field and give a generall challenge to all his adversaries to plead and preferre what indictments they can against him who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect who shall condemne who shall separate us from the love of Christ As if he had said O thou malicious devil that dost let fly at me with thy darts Mr. Banter Spirits witness to the truth page 124. Oh ye deluded Hereticks and infidels that fill my ears with your foolish Sophismes and trouble me with your disputes against the Lord my Redeemer go to them that make a Religion of their opinion and whose belief was never any deeper then their fancies go to them that never knew what it was to love Christ to desire after him to delight in his salvation nor to hope through believing for his promised blessednesse hereafter these you may possibly draw away from Christ and make Infidels of them that were never true Believers but do you think to do so by me what weapons what arguments do you think to prevail by shall tribulation be the means why I have that promise in the hand of my faith and that glory in the eye of my hope that will bring me through tribulation shall distresse do it why I will rather stick so much the closer to him that will relieve me in distresse and bring me unto his rest And so this reverend Author proceeds and you may further prosecute in your own thoughts Oh! that soul that hath the advantage of experiences and wisely improves the sense of grace received is bravely fortified against temptations to infidelity and will act faith upon the sure mercies of David the oath and covenant of God in the saddest conflicts 2. You will live best to God Because you will live most in the love of God when you consider much and with much seriousness what God hath done for you in order to eternity you will be drawn out in your affections unto God God will have more of your hearts then he hath of many others who make as big and bulke a profession as you do and how can it be otherwise when you fasten this meditation upon your hearts we might have been in hell in an undone condition past all hope or possibility of help from Angels or men had not God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins quickened us together with Christ Eph. 2.4 5. when you look upon the whole business of your salvation as transacted and carryed on by God and that in a way of free-grace rich mercy and meer good will and love this will marveilously draw out your love to God for amor amoris magnes love is the loadstone of love there is a magnetick vertue in it to draw out the very heart of a beloved person Cant 4.9 Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast behearted me taken away my heart as he that hath his head taken away is said to be beheaded Oh! Christ knew the affections of his Spouse unto him and therefore makes a full return of love unto her again So the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constrains me I am wholly under the power of love made willing to do or suffer any thing or to be led any whither by this cord of love that is cast upon me by the Lord Jesus Christ indeed the Lord is first in affection 1 Joh. 4.19 He first loved us The air receives its light from the Sun the Sun must first shine and send forth his beams before the air can be radiant So the Lord must let in some sence of good will into the soul before she stirs out in affections unto him but now when she comprehends with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and knows the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.18 19. and lives in the sense of Gods peculiar and discriminating love unto her Oh! this fills her with holy affections unto the Lord the Church is then sick of love David cryes out O how I love the Lord my heart is ready to break it is so full of love to God I cannot make a narrative of my love it is so vast so boundless unto God This fixeth the creatures love upon God the stability of the Saints love doth very much arise from this Satan will have a hard pluck of it to pull a truely-loving-believer from the arms of his beloved Jesus when he remembers that love of his first espousals how Christ took upon him and washed him from his blood and spake peace to his wounded self-condemned soul when he remembers the straights that his Jesus brought him out of and the miseries which he rescued him from when he thinks thus with himself Oh what sohould I have done if I had not had a Christ what should I have done in my fears and griefs what should I have said to an accusing conscience how should I have escaped the jaws of the devourer Oh! these reviews do mightily renew his love these thoughts and remembrances do kindle such a strong and sacred fire of love in his heart that many waters cannot quench it and all temptations to break with Christ are made invalid It is the heart and not the head that holds Christ fast I held him and would not let him go says the Church Cant. 3.4 Love will hold Christ when reason alone will let him go Rom. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ Paul puts the question in this verse but draws up a peremptory conclusion and that with a
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
love to a person or people when their testimony is single and something else be not superadded to render it more authentick for wicked Cham had the same preservation in the ark from the deluge of waters as godly Sem had and Samariah's siege was raised in a way of miracle under wicked Jehoram as well as Jerusalem's was under good Hezekiah Compare 2 Kings 7. verse 6. with Chap. 19. vers 35. It was false Divinity that those Barbarians preached when the Viper fastened on Paul's hand No doubt this man is a murtherer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live Acts 28. vers 4. which our Saviour fully consulteth in the case of the Galileans and the eighteen persons on whom the tower fell in Siloe Luke 13. vers 1 2 3 4. 5. But the glorious and remarkable outgoings of God when falling in with the witness of grace and the spirit when they are the returns of the Saints prayers the fruits of their holy wrastlings and the issue of their hope conceived in the womb of Gods gracious promises are comfortable conclusions of divine favour and do very much seal to the peculiarity of God's love thus the Saints in their own cases can distinguish love from hatred by the things which are before them they know the voice of Christ and read the love of their father in the streight lines of his providencial favours toward them Psalm 87. vers 2. God loveth the gates of Zion how doth this appear Trap. in loc All my thoughts are upon thee with greatest delight All my bowels are in thee making them to be the words of God promising plenty of grace and comfort to them as from overflowing overslowing fountain though other expositours think them to be the Psalmists word see Mr. Jackson in loc why vers 7. God saith All my springs are in thee his wisdome goodness mercy power c. are not in Zion as water in the cisterne pump'd in and soon run out but like water in the fountain streams of mercy flouds of favour and flowings forth of loving kindness Oh! it is clear God loveth Zion if all his springs be in her especially when drought is upon the earth and other parts of Judah are like Gideon's fleece Isa 38. ver 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption good Hezekiah read love in the dispensations of God toward him and putteth that Interpretation upon his miraculous restitution to health Surely he doth much offend against the generation of God's people and wrongeth the mercies of God also who concludeth that God loveth us not because he hath prospered our warfare and underwriteth hatred to all those glorious victories which the Lord of hosts hath given to his people in these Nations and then when a day of distress was sadly upon the godly and the contest was very much betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent Yet I desire we may all look after other evidences of divine love amongst us these are good superstructures where the foundation is well laid and are Zion's security against the gates of hell provided everlasting doors be set open that the King of glory may come in and keep court amongst us 3. This Inference may be drawn from the point That the siunes of saints are circumstanciated with highest aggravations the care of God over them and his love unto them in their distressed estate against both which they offend in sinning do give a sad tincture to their sinnes Sin is sin in any person but circumstances do render it much more sinfull It was high water as to the guilt of sinne for Zimri a Prince of a chief house of the Simeonites to bring a Midianitish woman into his tent and commit whoredome with her when the Lord had so eminently appeared for Israel in turning Balaam's curses into blessings and saving them from the sword of Midian Numb 25. vers 6. Yea when the whole congregation was weeping before the Lord for the business of Baal-Peor where the wrath of God brake forth upon them so that there fell in one day three and twenty thousand 1 Cor. 10. vers 8. The Apostle instead of the cloak of the heat of youth Trap. in loc putteth upon fornication a bloody cloak bathed in the blood of 23000 as one observeth How doth the Lord by his Prophet aggravate David's sin 2 Sam. 12. v. 7 8 9. I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Israel and Judah c. What an enumeration of mercies is here How doth the Lord expostulate with him And what doth the Lord inferre from hence why surely that David was acted by a spirit of great dis-ingenuity to sin against such goodness such bounty to break such cords of love which the Lord had cast upon him Wherefore hast thou despised the commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight what David commit Adultery what David put the bottle to his neighbour to make him drunk thinking to cover sin with sin what David slay Vriah with the sword of the children of Ammon what David slay an innocent person in cold blood what David murther an husband that he might have his wife what David take the Adulteress into his bed and bosome what David do all this Does David give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme Had another person committed adultery or murther nay all this who had been under less obligations unto me who had onely shared in common providences and for whom I had done nothing extraordinary I should have taken it better at his hands and should not have reckoned it such an high dishonour but for David David to do this whom I honoured in the sight of all Israel when he was but a stripling in the slaughter of great Goliah of Gath the Philistines Champion David whom I singled out from amongst his brethren to pour the anointing oyl upon his head David whom I eminently preserved in six troubles yea in seaven when he was hunted as a Partridge upon the mountains David whom I carried as upon eagles wings to the throne through such amazing dangers that himself cried out I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul yea David whom I owned and gave this glorious testimony of I have found David a man after mine own heart who shall fulfill all my wills Oh! for David for this David to do all these abominable things which I hate Oh! Alluding to his gross hypocrisie in seeking to palliate and cover his sin and shame from man what aggravations are wrapped up together to render the sinne of David exceeding sinfull hence himself phraseth it the iniquity of his sinne Psal 32. ver 5. Observe that 1 Kings 11. vers 9. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from
his cause which truth hath been more then once attested by suffering saints so much of the spirit and wisdome of God hath been discovered in their answers that their adversaries and accusers have been non-pluss'd by illiterate men nay filled with astonishment Thus the Apostle Rom. 8. vers 36. For thy names sake we are led as sheep to the slaughter and what followeth why Vers 37. in all these things wee are more then Conquerours through him that loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we do over-overcome super-superamus if the cause be Gods we may trust our selves and it in Gods hand and possess our souls in patience when we have this assurance that not an hair of our head shall perish Luke 21. vers 18 19. Reas 3. Therefore God steppeth in to the help of his people in their greatest streights that he may give real testimony of his hearty good will unto them that they may know and their enemies also that they have a friend who will stick to them in the day of their distress affliction is the trial of affection Prov. 17. vers 17. A friend loveth at all times * Hebrew in all times that is in every opportune time in the fittest season now the timings of love the timings of acts of friendship addeth both worth and weight unto it Prov. 15. vers 23. A word spoken in season in his time saith the Hebrew how good is it how good is a word of comfort spoken to a drooping soul in a day of mourning How good is a word of peace spoken by the Lord to a wounded spirit and then when its wounds are fresh and bleeding can any heart but the heart of Experiences conceive what healings those words of Christ brought to the poor woman Luke 7. v. 48. thy sinnes are forgiven thee being spake at that season when her heart was poured out under a deep sence of sinne Who can calculate what revivings of spirit the saint-thief felt from that seasonable Promise To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. ver 43. being so rightly timed even in ipso articulo mortis in the very moment before his death and when his conscience was both awakened and wounded with sinne Oh! surely the timeing of love doth marvellously add to the beauty of it and when is it so seasonable as in a day of distress A cup of cold water with one morsel of bread given to a weary and thirsty Traveller is more then a full meal at another time How pleasantly did Iael's milk relish upon Siserah's pallate when he was thirsty Judg. 4 vers 19. A small piece of silver given to a poor man when he wanteth to buy bread for his family is more then a great sum given at a time when his cupboard is full of bread Abrother is born for adversity and sure kindness shewed to a brother in a day of adversity speaketh up love with the loudest accents Now God reserveth his paternal love to such a time and then he unbosometh himself unto his people and at such a time his people read the love of God in the most legible Characters some drops of love taste sweeter then and are owned more then full draughts of love at another time Good Asaph experienced and acknowledged this Psal 73. vers 25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee None in heaven none on earth No God is above all in this good mans esteem How cometh it to pass that God hath such a glorious high throne in Asaphs heart Oh saith he there is good reason for it and you will say so too when you know what love and good will God hath shewed unto me Oh! I was in such a sinking and dispairing condition That my flesh and my heart failed me heart and hope and help and all were gone I but then The Lord was the strength of my heart my heart stayed upon God as upon a firm rock the Lord was unto me as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land and he is my portion for ever he hath put in security for my everlasting safety Oh behold what manner of love is this and therefore he draweth up this conclusion It is good for me to draw nigh to God to rowle upon God in all my streights These appearances of God do make his love so visible and glorious that Angels and men may read it and say Behold how he loveth them 4. Again God doth hereby more engage his people unto him Reason 4 he maketh them more his own getteth into their very hearts and setteth up his royal standard there There is nothing layeth stronger engagements upon an ingenious person then friendship in a day of adversity Jonathans interposures for David when Saul hunted for his life were so powerful upon Davids spirit that he wanted ways and words to express his sense of them his heart like a vessel of new wine sought for vent even when Jonathan was dead 2 Sam. 9.1 He putteth the question or rather maketh general proclamation Is their yet any left of the house of Saul What Is David afraid of a Corrival in the Kingdom Would he cut of the whole family of Saul to secure the crown upon his own head No this is not the ground of his enquiring but That I may shew him kindness not a word of revenge notwithstanding the hatred and hostility of Saul their father But why kindness Why he explaineth himself For Jonathan sake and again he reneweth his enquiry vers 3. To which Ziba replieth Jonathan hath yet a son who is lame of his feet A son of Jonathan that 's well but he is lame yea lame of his feet and so serviceable neither in Court nor Campe fit neither to stand before a Prince nor to march in the head of an Army No matter I will shew the kindness of God unto him and vers 7. when the lame son of Jonathan is brought David said unto him Fear not it seemeth the remembrance of Sauls cruelty caused a trembling upon his Grand-sons spirit therefore David meets him with a cordial at the very door Fear not for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy fathers sake Oh! Jonathan was my friend a dear friend he hazarded his own life to save mine and therefore I am obliged to shew kindness to him even in his posterity in like manner the hearts of Gods people are drawn out unto him under the sence of great deliverances See how Moses and Israel were up in their spirits unto the Lord when they were now brought off from Egypt and beheld their cruel Taskmasters quackened in the red Sea Exod. 15. ver 2. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song c. The Lord is my strength and my song and he is become my salvation What then Oh! He is my God and I will prepare him an habitation God shall keep house in my heart there shall be
49. v. 16. Behold I have graven thee upon the palm of my hands thy walls are continually before me We read that the names of the twelve Tribes were engraven upon twelve stones on the breastplate of Aaron when he appeared before the Lord Exod. 28. vers 11. And the shew-bread was kneaded into twelve Loaves being therefore called panis propositionis because it represented the twelve Tribes and set upon the table before the Lord Lev. 24. vers 5. to enminde the Lord of his people We say and it too often proveth true out of sight out of minde but now the Saints cannot be out of Gods minde because ever in his sight Oh! the care of God toward his people how great And oh the comfort of his people from this care of God how sweet and precious is it and wherein appeareth this care of God Why in his eminent and immediate appearances for them in the day of their distress hear at what a rate God speaketh Isa 40. vers 27 28. Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God God cannot indure such a distrustful whining spirit in his people It hath an unhandsome reflection upon God as though he had remitted if not cast off the care of his people therefore the Lord comes on with his high intergatories Hast thou not known what an ignorant people Hast thou not heard what a deaf people What keep no intelligence with heaven That the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary his strength is Almighty therefore he cannot faile his care is everlasting therefore hee cannot be weary of helping afflicted ones how eminent and various was the Lords care in Jonah's preservation There is a storm at Sea Jonah is cast over-board but God prepareth a fish ready to receive him but how shall he do for light in that dark prison How shall life be preserved in those Chambers of death What food must he eat in his three days imprisonment How shall he be kept alive so long in the belly of a living fish and not become meat to the fish Who shall open the bars of the gates and let lose the prisoner And who shall waft him to the shore when set at liberty Why God is not weary he will carry him through all what a bundle of miracles are wrapt up together in the preservation of this one Saint well might the Apostle perswade the faithful to be careful for nothing Phil. 4. vers 6. which as the Seraphims in Isa 6. is answered by Saint Peter 1 Epist chap. 5 vers 9. Cast all your care upon God under this assurance that God careth for you were we not ignorant of Gods care over us or low in faith that we dare not believe his word of promise to us we might free our selves from much vexing solicitude and anxiety of minde wherewith we are tormented It was a noble speech of John Careless in a letter to Mr. Philpot I will now sing care away for now my soul is turned to his old rest again and hath taken a sweet nap in the lap of Christ I have cast my care upon the Lord who careth for me and will be careless according to my name It is our work to cast care it is Gods work to take care let us not then by soul-dividing thoughts take the Lords work out of his hand If the care of all the Churches came upon Paul 2 Cor. 11. vers 28. that it was his every days work with an holy solicitude to care for them Oh much more may we affirm that the Lord careth for all his people and suiteth his care to all their conditions to which his eminent appearances for them in a day of distress give signal testimony 2. A second truth which this Doctrine commendeth unto us is this That the Saints are a people of Gods special love they lye in the very bosome of God his Banner over them is love and as holiness to the Lord was engraven upon the bells of the horses and upon every pot in Jerusalem Zech. 14. vers 20. So love to the Saints is engraven upon every-dispensation of God to his people even when he rebuketh them he loveth them because his affection is much toward them therefore he afflicteth them Hear ye the rod saith the Lord Mich. 6. verse 9. Oh it speaketh love many of the Saints have read much of the Lords love writ in letters of their own blood How doth the love of God shine forth in its fullest lustre when he appeareth as an healing God in a bleeding hour Who can express the sweetness of this spiced wine What a relish of love do the Saints taste in that comfort and hearts-ease which the Lord giveth them at the shutting up of a storm The outgoings of God were remarkable even to astonishment in fetching Israel from the Iron Furnace there were miracles of mercy heaps upon heaps the wisdom and power of God were writ in such capital letters that they that runned might read not digitum onely but dexteram Dei not the finger but the right hand of God and what were the motives to all these mercies the Lord draweth up all these lines into the center of love Deut. 6. vers 3. Because the Lord loved thy fathers therefore he brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt So chap. 7. vers 8. Because the Lord loved you hath he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharach King of Egypt Love was the bottome which bore all these great burthens the spring which set all the wheels in going because the Lord loved you indeed sometimes the dark side of the cloud is toward the Saints his love is like the Sun muffled up in a thick mist or rather as a candle shut up in a dark Lanthorn that they see no out-shining of Gods favour as in cases of desertion or great affliction Isa 8.17 sometimes light and love break forth in some small beams through the thick cloud of apprehended displeasure that it is with the Saints as with a traveller in the duskish evening or star-light night when the moon sitteth That the light is neither clear nor dark Zech. 14. vers 6. the ship neither rideth upon high waters nor yet sticketh upon the shallows they neither feed high at a feast of fat things full of marrow nor yet are kept to the bread of mourners nor wine of astonishment their condition is a mixt and middle estate hope and fear sorrow and solace are interwoven as chastened yet not killed as sorrowful yet in some measure rejoycing as dying and yet alive though the air be duskish yet they can discover some lines of love drawn here and there in such a mercie such a favour such an act of goodness such a gracious providence Oh! saith a
earthly neither as being neither of the Flesh nor of the Faith of Abraham with whom God entred Covenant 4. Without any hope from the Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having the hope of the Promise or not having hope of peace and reconcilement with God as being ignorant of the promised seed in the first or any following Promise 5. Nay without Christ without any saving Interest in Christ or knowledge of Christ untill the Gospel came amongst you for what could your great Goddess Diana make known unto you of God manifested in the flesh yea 6. and Lastly Remember ye were without God in the world ye were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye lived like and were Atheists in the world as 't is said of the poor brasileans at this day that they are sine fide sine Rege sine lege without common Faith or honesty without a King without a Law either to punish or protect them So was it with heathen Ephesus and thus also with our Pagan Predecessors Let me then be thy faithfull Remembrancer O England to put thee in minde what thy primitive and first estate was See thy face in this Ephesian glass what Ephesus was England was in each of these particulars but now how hath the Lord exalted thy horn and brought thy people near unto himself Psal 148. ver 14. nay may I not apply that of Israel to thee Deut. 4. ver 7. What Nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Oh that England would remember how it was and how it is how it was in Pagan in Popish and Prelatical times and how it is now as to Liberty as to Purity as to Protection and as to Countenance in all the good wayes of God Sure there would be better bloud better spirits better dispositions and better carriages in those that are true and genuine English towards God his wayes and people then now there are if former times were oftener thought upon and O that all the Saints would much and often reflect upon what they were compared with what they are in a spiritual and Gospel account that you would remember often what you were and how nigh unto the pit and place of silence when recovering grace first took hold upon you Consider that misery in which we were all involved through the first Transgression under which we might truly speak the words of my Text Vnless the Lord had been our help our soules had everlastingly dwelt in silence And that I may the more provoke mine own heart and others to a due and to a thankfull acknowledgment of that rich and singular grace I shall enforce it with these three Considerations 1 Consider The danger we were all exposed unto by the breach of the first Covenant 2. Consider What sad distractions the sence of this danger brought forth in our soules at our first awakening 3. Consider How unexspected and how welcome grace and mercy were then unto us under all our sad fears and horrours Consideration 1. For the First Work home upon your hearts a right sence of the danger we all were exposed unto by the breach of the first Covenant Note which I shall exemplifie in these words That man by nature is borne within an hairs breadth of Hell upon the very brink of the pit so that except Divine Grace had contributed saving help unto him by Jesus Christ he would have tumbled from the womb into hell Nothing but grace free grace mere grace and rich Grace hath preserved man from sliding into the bottomless pit From nature to grace and from grace unto glory is lost man's journey home again The journey is long and man's leggs are weak and not able to go it Mr. Lokier in Coll. 1.13 p. 18. and therefore God doth bear him from the one to the other and transferre him all along Observe the road You will finde none going that way but in Christs armes It is with man in an estate of nature as with an Infant in swathing bands laid upon the sharp ridge of an high building or upon the edge of a steep precipice who without some hand to stay it would soon roul down and dash it self in peices The Holy Ghost takes this resemblance of an Infant Ezek. 16. to set forth the helplesness of man in his lapsed estate That he was cast forth in the day he was born no eye pitying of him that when he lay in his bloud c. the love of the Lord was manifested who out of pure love and mere good will spread the skirt of his garment over him and said unto him Live The Apostle Paul doth excellently comment upon this Text in Rom. Chap. 5. Ver. 6. where he sayes when we were yet without strength Christ died for us How fitly doth this comport with a new born Infant who hath neither strength to work nor power to secure its own life from eminent and approaching danger The word signifying weak or strengthless and wherefore did Christ die for strengthless sinners what moved the Lord Jesus to receive that dreadfull charge of wrath from God and man The just to suffer for the unjust why when they lay in their bloud their time was a time of love from the Eternal Father Vers 8. God commendeth his love unto us in that whilest we were sinners Christ died for us Jesus Christ came upon the Errand of his Fathers love that cup which his Father put into his hand to drink was brimmed up with his love to sinners Bernard Oh! Ama amorem illius Love that love of his and never leave meditating thereon donec totus fixus in corde qui totus fixus in cruce Until whole Christ be fixed in your hearts who was fastened on the Cross But if you ask as some proud Justiciaries have done What needed all this affection in the Father and all this affliction on the Son I answer The necessity of sinfull man required all this to keep him out of Hell I. Reasons Reason Because man in his naturall capacity is under the first Covenant as he hath his standing in the first Adam Now Rom. 3. ver 20. The Apostle speaketh plainly that by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God not they who were Jews by nature no more then they who are sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. ver 15 16. and Gal. 3. vers 10 He concludes positively as many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse confirming this Thesis with a double Reason 1. Because Every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them is cursed for which Assertion he quoteth Deut. 27.26 Here 's an Obligation of Individualls to Individualls every person is obliged to every precept yea to continue in the doing of them the word signifying to stand firme like a foursquared stone in a building
and now I am become two bands That Gold wherewith they are made rich above the wealth of Croesus yea of both the Indies they have not out of old Adams coffers That white raiment fine and clean which covers the shame of their nakedness and renders them more glorious then Solomon in all his glory comes not out of old Adams wardrobe and that eye-salve the anointing wherewith gives light and sight far above the enlightening of Jonathan when he had tasted that honey-dew with the tip of his rod is not taken out of old Adams gallipots no Apoc. 3. vers 18. Christ call's them to his mart and S. Paul asserts That by grace we are saved not of works not of our selves Ephes 2. vers 8 9. the reason is added vers 10. Saints as Saints Believers as Believers are the workmanship of God in a Creation way by Jesus Christ O then what cause of thankfulness have the Saints since all their enjoyments are the products of free-mercy and their whole way to glory is paved with free-grace This also fully evinceth this truth That eternal life is the free gift of God by Jesus Christ and shews the Saints whom to own as the fountain of life and light in them and to them to wit the God of all Grace by whose discriminating grace in Jesus Christ They are appointed not unto wrath but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5.9 who of God is made unto us wisdome righteousness sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. vers 30. Away then with that rotten opinion that some have that are unacquainted with Divine truth Dr. Sibs the alsufficiency of Christ and the mercies of God in Christ that consider not the vileness of our nature and the infinite majesty of God They will have the Gentiles saved by the light of nature and the Jews saved by the Law of Moses and Christians by the Gospel of Christ as if there were some other means to come to heaven and to the favour of God then by Christ whereas now all that we have must be by Promises and all the Promises we have are in Christ they are all yea in him without him there is no intercourse between the Majesty of God and us Therefore Acts 4. vers 12. There is no name under heaven whereby we can be saved but by the name of Jesus which not onely confutes the devilish opinion and conceit that some have but also the charitable errour of others that think the Heathens that never heard of Christ shall be saved I leave them to their Judge we must go to the Scriptures all the promises are in Christ in him they are yea in him they are made in him they are Amen in him they are performed out of him we have nothing out of the Promises in him we have nothing sayes Reverend Doctour Sibs in 2 Cor. 1. v. 20. Page 412. Nor can we who are Christians say that if nature had not helped us if free will had not step'd in to the rescue of us our souls had dwelt in silence we had perished to all Eternity but if God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us had not quickened us together with Christ when we were dead we should have continued dead and had he not saved us by grace when we were in our sinnes we had lain under the guilt of them for evermore yea as a confutation of the pride of man in crying up the power of nature they must say Of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for evermore Rom. 11.36 that grace preventing subduing renewing effectual c. are all from God who was pleased that all fulness should dwell in Jesus Christ the second Adam That of his fullness we all might receive grace for grace John 1.16 A latitude answerable to all commands Dr. Treston a perfection answerable to Christs own perfection in the matter though not in the measure for in Christ there is plenitudo fontis the fullness of a fountain in the best of Saints but plenitudo vasis the fullness of a vessel or grace upon grace a daily encrease of grace Pasor gratium nova gratia cumulatam All from God through Jesus Christ which excellently appears by ten Arguments in the words of an ancient father Mr. Resbury in his lightless Star p. 62 63 64 65 c. by a godly and Judicious Divine I shall onely name the heads and refer you to the book for the fuller enlargement The main scope of the Author is to assert the free and sole agency of God in the production and work of grace against such as would advance free-will and the power of nature as also that the Lord is the Alpha and Omega of mans salvation And this is made good from these considerations Consid 1. From Gods promise to Abraham touching the faith of the Gentiles the whole of which faith is from God and godliness from faith purifying the heart 2. From differencing grace God alone maketh one to differ from another 3. From Election what Israel sought he obtained not but the election hath obtained and the rest were hardned 4. From the efficacy and peculiarity of grace depending upon election as many as were ordained to eternal life believed 5. From the salvation of infants taken into the bosom of Gods electing love before they had done either good or evil 6. From the person of the Mediator who himself is likewise a clear light of predestination and grace who is the chief corner-stone elect precious c. 7. From the corruption of nature express'd in hardness of heart the election hath obtained the rest were blinded or hardened 8. From the increase of sin by the law in the natural man sin taking occasion by the commandment works in him all manner of concupiscense 9. From the subjection of the natural man to the devil the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience 10. From the thanksgiving and prayers of Saints upon the account of grace received which considerations do fully assert the doctrine of free-grace and lay obligations upon the Saints to own and admire with thankfullnesse the grace and good will of God in Jesus Christ 3. Is man by nature born within a hairs breadth of hell is the work of grace and the reward of grace in glory onely from free-grace and meer-grace Away then with that opinion which advanceth corrupt nature into the throne and makes it at least copartner with the grace and Son of God in the great work of salvation what do they but in a great measure proclaim that Christ dyed in vain what else do such sayings as these import mihi soli debo I ow all to my self ego me ipsum discerno I make my self to differ from others and that they can repent that they can believe it is from God but that they do repent that they do believe is from the liberty of their own free-will yet
full assurance verse 38 39. I am perswaded 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 us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Calvin Beza c. P scator Ambrose August Erasmus Dodate Great Annotations of the Assembly Mr. Baxtes Spirits witness to Christianity page 121. Expositors do much differ about the sence of these words some understand them as speaking of Christs love to us some of the sense and feeling of Christs love unto us others of our love to Christ or in a conjunct sense both of Christs love to us and our love unto Christ But surely the Apostle speaks at this rate what can unclasp those mutual embracements between Christ and his people or what can separate us from Christ by withdrawing or destroying our love to him and consequently turning his love from us we have many assaults but all in vain for when a Believer reflects upon what Christ hath done for him considers the death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ with the precious fruits of all unto his soul and that out of pure love who deserved to be an object of eternal hatred this makes the pulse beat quick and high in holy affections to the Lord Jesus And the want of this due reflection upon what by nature we were and what now by grace we are dasheth the rising flames of an holy affection in us to the Lord Jesus 3. You will live best unto God because You will live most in thankfulness unto God when you live in the sence of what God hath done for you it is the consideration of divine grace and mercie which drawes out the soul in praises unto God the thoughtfull Christian is the thankfull Christian he that pondereth most upon mercies prayeth God most for mercies Oh! when you take a serious review of that change which is upon your hearts of the drawings of your soules heaven-ward and holiness-ward and compare time with time state with state what you were with what you are how once you affected sinne but now abhor it how once you loathed Ordinances but now you love them how once the wayes and people of God were distastefull unto you but are now delightfull how little you had once to shew for heaven and how much you have now through grace to shew against Hell Oh! this will give the heart a notable vent and fill the cup of praise up to the brim Psal 103. ver 1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my soul sayes holy David but doth he stay here no and all that is within me bless his holy name every instrument must be put into tune every musical key must be touched every fret must be stopt and every string must be struck to sound forth the praises of God nay again Bless the Lord O my soul and why so what 's the reason of this thankfulness O soul thou hast great cause to be thankfull For 1. He forgiveth all thine iniquities thou hadest the the guilt of many and great sinnes upon thee which would have sunk thee down into Hell and Jehovah hath given thee pardon of them all nay farther 2. He healeth all thy diseases thou wast full of noisome and unclean distempers many running sores of filthy lusts and Jehovah hath vouchsafed healing grace unto thee Thou art now a justified and a sanctified person 3. Thou art now redeemed from Hell and destruction and wearest the loving-kindnesses and tender mercies of God as a royal Diadem upon thy head and therefore Oh my soul bless bless bless Jehovah Oh if ever we come to such a sence of pardoning healing redeeming crowning satisfying and renewing grace from the Lord as David we shall then take up David's harp and awake our glory to the praises of a good God could we but fasten this upon our spirits that distinguishing grace hath severed us from those heaps of rubbish that we were mingled with and cull'd us out from the rabble of the world that we were herded with our spirits would be turned to this evangelical duty and ditty and if so how like heaven it self would the Church look how would the militant resemble the triumphant Jerusalem and how would every nook of the Gospel-world ring with the praises of God Mr. Baxter Part 4 Saints Rest page 134. The liveliest embleme of heaven that I know upon earth is when the people of God in the deep sence of the excellency and bounty of God from hearts abounding with love and joy do joyn together both in hearts and voices in the cheerfull and melodious singing of his praises 4. You will live best unto God because You will live most to the glory of God sence of grace received will enflame you with a greater zeal for God and will put every wheel into motion We are naturally slow to action upon the best account the best drive on but heavily few drive at Jehu's rate very few there be whose soules make them as the chariots of Aminadab that make haste in Gods work like the roe or young hart upon the mountains of spices If ever Christians drove heavily the Christians of this age do if ever the elementary constitution of the Church was earth and water now it is little of fire appears unless in unhappy contentions and animosities or else in love to the world and thus most are red hot their affections all on a flame the Lord quench them But Oh! where is their zeal for God where is the courage activity and resolvedness for God where 's the minding of the things of God and holy contendings for God which the Puritans of old that were Puritans of the good old way have discovered there is too much of the Laodicean spirit too many Gallio's amongst us men are high indeed to enthrone their own opinions and perswasions whilest Religion in the main duties of it is neglected they are exact in rything mint and commin and annise whilest judgement mercy and faith the weightier matters of the Law are neglected Math. 23. vers 23. The great Zealots of the times are for the most part men of corrupt and Heterodox Judgments who are violent enough to impose their Errours and false conceptions the Lord take them off from their speed least they out run the Constable as they have done the Covenant He 's a stranger in Israel that knows not these things and he 's no true son of Zion that doth not bewail them but now would we have the water run in the right channel would we have our spirits up in a right zeal for God let our meditations be often and serious upon what God hath done for our soules Oh when a Saint fetcheth oyl from experienced loving kindnesses it makes the wheels run glib when he argues Hath God done thus and thus for me hath he left others of my kindred of my contemporaries of my
putting my singer into the flame of a candle yet I am perswaded by Gods holy word and the experience of some spoken of in it that in the flame they felt no heat and in the fire no consumption and I believe that though the stubble of my body be consumed yet my soul shall be purged thereby and after short pain will be in joy unspeakable I believed that Promise Isa 44. v. 2. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon the doubtless if this course was duely observed the people of the Lord would be better prepared for a day of suffering How did the Primitive Martyrs and our Marian Sufferers comfort and encourage one another against the day of slaughter And certainly the Christians of our time would best live to their weak Brethren if by communicating their experiences unto them they would endeavour to prepare them for a suffering time not knowing but the Lord may call some of us unto it You that are experienced Christians may shew much kindness by way of comfort unto tempted ones if you would impart unto them the goodness of the Lord and the succours from an high which you have found in an hour of temptation if you would give your hearts a vent and pour forth your experiences into their bosomes Oh nothing more usual then to have Christians tempted nor then to hear them under temptations crying out Never was any poor creature tempted as I am never had any such buffetings as I have never were such black lines drawn in any Christians soul as are in mine and indeed Sathan loves to hear them cry out was ever grief like mine did ever any feel such terrours and tempests in their soules as I do in mine Surely the day of the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon me Lam. 1.12 It is the Devils masterpeice of pollicy to perswade tempted Saints that their sorrow is great that their sorrow is from the Lord that their great sorrow is from the Lord in a way of fierce anger and that it is a none-such calamity for hereby he perswades the Saints to hard thoughts of God and that God hath hard thoughts of them this he attempted upon Job by making his wife not a miserable comforter onely Reverend and learned Mr. Caryl in his Lectures upon this Scripture gives us the several judgment of expositors pag. 275 276 277 278. but a miserable counseller also when she sayes Job 2. ver 9. Dost thou still retain thine integrity Dost thou fear God still love God still have honourable thoughts of God still canst thou imagine that God should send or suffer all these evils upon thee and yet love thee yet bear the good-will of a Father unto thee surely no thou puttest a wrong Interpretation upon these sad providences and therefore answer hatred with hatred wrath with wrath revenge with revenge curse God let fly in the very face of God let the world know him to be such a God as thou findest him to be a harsh God an unmercifull God a cruel Master to his best servants and an implacable adversary to his best friends This seems to be the sence of those words curse God for Bereck as it signifies bowing the knee or speaking ill as 1 Kings 21. vers 10. The false witnesses laid it to Naboths charge That he did blaspheme God and the King yet the word is Berekath from Bereck Thus Job 1. v. 5. and Ver. 11. the same is used so that we need not study Arguments to acquit our Translatours of blame for rendring the word Curse God This reason is given by a learned Expositour Dr Richardson in locum That the crime of blaspemy was so odious yea execrable in those dayes that though the Hebrews had a proper word to express it by yet they chose rather to express it by a word which signifies to bless or praise God and there is much probabilities that this is the sence of the words Unless this Story of Iob was before the Law was given is the judgment of some Mr. Iackson in the 1 Ch. of Iob. Mr. Caryl and others Yet then had they the Law and light of nature by which they punished blasphemy with death Mr. Caryl in loc p. 28. because the Law against blasphemy was capital and punished the offender with death Levit. 24. ver 15 16. Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin and he that blaspemeth the name of the Lord he shall surely be put to death and all the Congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger as the dweller in the land when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall he be put to death Now then the advice of Job's wife is this Curse God and die that is if thou cursest God the law of blasphemy will reach thee thou wilt be stoned to death and so have a speedy cure of all thy sores and sorrows Thus Mr. Caryl gives the sence page 281. and better it is to dy painfully then live miserably if she had intended a word of counsel unto him that notwithstanding all the sad Providences upon him yet he should bless and praise God under them why should she add and die this would not have made him culpable before man much less more provoked God against him and certainly Job's reply clears it up vers 10. Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh Nabal implies as well a wicked person as a fool as Psal 14.1 Nabal hath said in his heart there is no God and sure this person is a fool upon a Religious and moral as well as a natural account 2. Satan by this means would best reach the end he proposed and prove the truth of what he had asserted chap. 1.11 Put forth thy hand now and touch all his substance and he will curse thee to thy face So chap. 2.5 Oh the experience of tempted Saints is the best Expositor of this place they will tell you what sharp and sad assaults have been made upon them and what hard thoughts of God have been injected into them Oh that this might more caution us not to entertain any unworthy thought of God which in its kind is blasphemy as heart-adultery is adultery Oh bewail and beware of the Ranters spirit t is probable he began with an undervaluing thought of God which was the Serpents head and then that finding wellcome as the seed and spawn of an opinion and sect he wrigled in his whole body and tail also by bold and blasphemous oaths curses and Atheistical conclusions Ah friends it s our wisdom obstare principiis to stop the first leak that is sprung to scatter the first puff of this smoak which riseth from the bottomless pit least it gather into such thick clouds about our souls that it dims our eyes damps our comforts and deads our hearts also and in all our temptations it would be much our wisdom to consult the experiences of the Lords
blessedness Therefore fear not ye servants of the Lord Who walk in darkness and as yet see no light light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.11 the seed time is past and the harvest is drawing on you shall have your sheavs of joy also the vision that hath spoke to us will speak to you also Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace will comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work 2 Thess 2.16 17. O how may the Saints of God in all these cases mutually contribute to the comforting councelling supporting and edifying each other in their most holy faith if they would be free in communicating their experiences to one another and more frequent in holding up communion one with another The wise man tells us As Iron sharpeneth Iron so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend the point of most Christian zeal is very blunt they are sharp enough in censures and contentions to draw blood of the credit yea the consciences of their brethren But what edge would be set upon their zeal in the best sense and for the best things if they would often meet together in love and sharpen each other by holy conferrences may not the neglect of Christian communion rightly managed be much a cause of our divisions and animosities and would it not be a healing means as to love and union amongst the Saints would it not procure a right understanding to prevent Schisms and parties would it not meeken the spirits of dissenting brethren would it not dash those hot vapors which fly up into the heads of many and distemper their brains with notions and niceties and may it not through the blessing of God have an hopefull tendency to the quickening comforting confirming and spiritualizing the Saints the whole Nation over Mal. 3.16 Then in a time bad enough and it may be much worse then ours whatsoever some men say they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was writ before the Lord for those that feared him and thought upon his name c. What an encouraging practice of the Saints and promise of the Lord is here to quicken us up to a suitable carriage we have had much talk of Classical Assemblies of teaching and ruling Elders to advance the discipline of Christ O that we might have bear the word and blame not the wish Classical communions of Ministers and Christians to advance the doctrine and life and holiness of the Lord Jesus and that now the Lord hath given all his Churches rest throughout his Nation we may walk in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the holy Ghost with one lip and one shoulder consulting our mutual edification and the enlargement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus taking that Primitive practice Act. 9.31 for our pattern and this gives me a leading hint to offer a fourth consideration unto you how you may live best unto those that are yet without 4. You will more advance Religion in your several Towns and maintain good neighborhood upon the best account if you lend a word of seasonable advice to those that are posting to hell and jogging on with more hast then good speed to the chambers of death and thus you will best do if you speak over unto them how it hath been with you how ignorant how carnal how earthly-minded how obstinate how foolish and vain you have been and how you were in the broad way to destruction yet altogether senceless and stupid as to any right apprehension of your danger or right use of means for your recovery untill the Lord convinced you by his spirit of sin of righteousness and of judgement Joh. 16.8 granted you repentance unto life Acts 11.18 and now being justified by his grace you are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3.6 Now by grace you are acquitted from the guilt of sins and have a clear title unto heaven And friends who knows whether the same mercy be not laid up in store for you whether the same blessed change may not be wrought in you whether the same kindness a d love of God our Saviour may not manifest it self to you Surely discourses of this nature which you may enlarge upon occasion according to the teachings of the good spirit of God may work in them a sense of danger and hope of delivery upon a saving account T is much that the Saints do for the profane world much for their unregenerate neighbors as is their duty commanded 1. In communicating unto them in their outward wants in drawing out their bowells towards distressed persons they have a word of command Ecc. 11.1 To cast their bread upon the waters giving a portion to seven and also to eight So Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased and Gal. 6.10 to do good to all men supposed in distress as objects of mercy though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the especially in the text directs them to a larger and more liberal charity towards the houshold of faith and I doubt not much water runs out at these two spouts of Mercy and Charity that this testimony may be given of many of the Saints 2 Cor. 8.3 That to their power yea and beyond their power they are willing to supply the wants of their fellow-Christians yea fellow-creatures also and indeed it would be much their shame and more their sin if men of carnal principles and worldly expectancies outstrip them in obedience to this great Gospel command Prov. 19.17 He that hath pitty upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Though God be much out of credit with the world yet the Saints dare take his word and do lend much unto the poor upon his single security 2. They have a great hand in procuring the blessing of God upon their carnal neighbors though God is good to all making his Sun to rise on the evil and sending rain on the unjust Mat. 5.45 bearing witness to his goodness and God-head in all nations by giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling the hearts of men with food and gladness Act. 14.17 yet even the mercies of the footstool the neither springs run much for the sake of the godly which are in the world and are much as a return of their prayers Laban the Syrian learned this by experience that the Lord blessed him as to his outward estate for Jacobs sake Gen. 30.27 Potiphar saw this also chap. 39.5 It came to pass from the time that Potiphar had made Joseph overseer in his house that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Josephs sake and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that be had in the
in his attributes and appearances for his people He is I am in his love to them he loves with an everlasting love even unto the end I am in his Covenant which is everlasting that he will be the God of his people unto death And he is I am in mine own experience I have found him to be so to me and therefore I do comfortably argue my heart into an expectancy of help from this God and may easily say He hath delivered he doth deliver and he will deliver me The same argument may the Saints take up by way of comfort and hope to themselves in times of persecution when they consider their former deliverances and Gods unchangeableness And now give me leave to make some digression in commending my thoughts by way of comfort to you and to my self in case we should be called forth to a suffering condition much hath been spoken and much to purpose on this subject yet all is little enough and many of the Saints have found it so in an hour of temptation 1. Lay this upon your spirits that your sufferings are upon you for God for his names sake it is ye are killed all the day long and led forth as sheep unto the slaughter ye suffer not as evil doers or busiebodies in other mens matters but for Religion sake the Gospel sake and for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers as the Apostle affirmes of himself Acts 26. ver 6. and therefore ye have good cause to gather up your spirits and humbly expect that God will stand by you and strengthen you in the day of your tryal This made good Mordecai speak at that rate of assurance Hest 4. ver 14. Enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews though Hester the most visible and likely person to advocate their cause lying in the bosome of Ahasuerus as his beloved Queen should hold her peace and this made the three worthies gird up the loyns of their mind and quit themselves like men yea like brave men in that great day of their tryal when in the cause of God they were threatened with a fiery fornace Dan. 3. ver 17. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery fornace Able who question 's the omnipotency of God But how know you that he will deliver why as the eye of their faith was upon that promise Isa 45. ver 2. so it was also upon t heir former preservations they convider'd how eminently God had delivered them from the Chaldeans sword bathed yea made drunk with the bloud of many thousands in that sad day of Jerusalem how they had been kept alive in Babylon what power even to a Miracle God had put forth in preserving health and strength and beauty to them with pulse and water and had given them an honourable standing in that strange Land and therefore now they were brought forth to bear witness against the Idolatry of that Nation and to maintain the worship of the true and living God they concluded their preservation that God would own them and the cause they suffered in which made them speak with that gallantry of spirit He will deliver us out of thy hands O King This account also Daniel gave of his preservation Dan. 6. v. 22. My God hath sent his Angel and hath shut the mouth of the Lions that they have done me no hurt forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me That is he suffered as a righteous man in a righteous cause O sure it ought to be the care and wisdome of the Saints not to provoke and exasperate wicked men nor pull trouble on themselves by a contempt of or by any seditious practises against the persons of worldly Governours that when they come to a day of suffering they may speak Daniels words That innocency is found in them before the Lord and that before the Magistrate they have done no hurt by transgressing any Law of man which is consistent with the Lawes and honour of God This will quiet the spirit and bring in reserves of comforting hope and support in the saddest day How sweetly doth the Apostle argue 1 Pet. 4. ver 12 13. unto the end to the comforting and staying up believers in the fiery trial Oh! would you but sip often of this cordial wine and spice it with your own experiences of God unto you in former deliverances how would it antidote against Apostacy in an evil day and excellently prevent those sinkings of spirit which the fear of suffering times produceth in you 2. As there is hope of deliverance when ye suffer upon the single Interest of Religion and that with single hearts so also there wants not ground of hope because the spirits of all the faithfull will be up in prayer All the Saints will then hasten to the mount and put in for your safetie as being of a common concernment They consider that their lives are bound up in the lives of their brethren The Apostle argues thus Heb. 13. ver 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversity especially for the Gospel as being your selves also in the bodie This Chapter is called by a Divine The Chapter of Remembrances This is a good Memento a seasonable Item to particular believers Societies and Churches to remember before the Lord their Brethren that are in bonds as being bound with them in regard of sympathy and fellow-feeling being members together of the same bodie as also in regard that the chain which is upon their brethren may suddenlie be fastened to their bodies when a scare-fire is begun in a Town every man will be readie with his bucket to quench it because he fears the fireing of his own house It was well said Tunc tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet and will be well applyed by Believers when they foresee their own sufferings in their suffering brethren and labour to put a stop to that scare-fire as hearing these words falling from the lips of their dying brethren hodie mihi cras tibi that which is my portion to day will be thine to morrow if the Lord do not stay the rage of bloudie men a scare-fire seldome ends in the first house the Pestilence doth not often stay at the first family nor persecution end in the death of one Saint if the Lord chain not up those mad dogs they will break into the fold and make havock of the flock therefore the Saints that are in the bodie and so are lyable to the same persecutions will up and tugg hard with God for a suffering Believer and that upon the account of their own safetie Thus Acts 12.5 When Peter was kept in prison prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him the whole Church prayed and that without any intervals until they had gotten Peter loose And why so hard at work Oh it was of common concernment It stood them in
righteousness and will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Read and enlarge these and the following Verses in your own thoughts 3. Improve the consideration of temporal mercies by way of support under all your saddest and sorest temptations from the wicked one If the manchilde Christ Jesus in the spirit be formed in you and any actings of grace be brought forth by you the great red Dragon will wait to devour you He is your adversary an inveterate enemy he owes you an old grudg and will be revenged on the heel for the bruising of his head and that by your head It is his Interest to bestirre himself If Christ gaineth he looseth There 's a wedge loose with him when the word findes a welcome in a sinners heart There 's not a soul brought home to Christ but is fetch'd out of the Devils quarters not a convert gained but is wonne by Christ in a set battel Sathan sadly speaks those words of John the Baptist John 3. ver 30. he must increase but I must decrease The sea is in continual revolution when it is high water in one place its low water in some other so when it is high tide in such a nation country or town its low water with Sathan Christs gain is Sathans loss He knows how Christs and his own affairs go on in the world who gains and who looses and that his loss is Christs gain and therefore he tries all his tricks improves every method and turns every stone to keep his own ground to man his own forts maintain his own principality and withall to gain soules to himself to fetch them off from the embraces of Christ nay he is so bold and daring that though he sees the actings of godliness from the Saints and findes a work of grace in them which he doth find by those strong repulses the heart gives to his secret temptations which are his spies sent forth to search the land by whom he learns what frame the heart is in Though he sees his strong holds beat down and defaced by a conquering spirit though he observes the stream running in another channell and that the soul is now in armes against him believing repenting mourning praying watching hearing and all against him yet he will play an after game and not be wanting in skill or will to reduce the soul And he ploughs in hope and sowes in hope for he cannot read the Lambs book of life he knowes not the decrees of God they are Secret to him untill death brings forth a discovery and the soul is taken up to God and therefore though he fears such or such a Saint that is gone off from his quarters is under electing grace yet he hopes the contrary Yee see how busie he was with Joshua the High Priest Zech. 3. ver 1. and how hard he pressed upon him probably not without some hopes to have got him or the day against him until Christ rebuked him and told him he was a brand plucked out of the fire singled out by the purpose of the eternal Father to be a vessel of grace then he sleared away and left him Yet as our Saviour probably but for a time Luke 4.13 nay though he should read their names writ in heaven though he knowes the immutability of Christs love that whom he loves once he loves to the end John 13. ver 1. and of Gods counsel that his gifts and calling are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without repentance irreversible Rom. 11. ver 29. yet such is his malice and so great is his rage against the Saints that if he cannot keep them out of Canaan hee 'l sting them and scratch them in the wilderness before they get thither though he cannot put out their light hee 'l be a thief in their candle to swail away much of their comfort though he cannot reach them in heaven he will reckon with them on earth if they must to heaven he will send them cripples thither he will have a leg or an arm out of joint or broken or he will want of his will some way or other he will vex them buffet and disquiet them many long stories and sad ones too may be told of his exploits against the Saints my own experience can witness something of his trains and treacheries of his malice and the Lords mercy of his black designs and of the Lords gracious support and disappointments blessed be his holy name and adored for ever be his goodness O then in the name of the Lord lift up your banners buckle on your armour stand with your weapons in your hands ready to receive and charge your adversary and that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day gather up your experiences of God and meditate upon the great things God hath done for you in the day of your outward troubles what that power that wisdome that goodness of the Lord hath been which hath appeared unto you and engaged for you in the time of your greatest streights and what those streights and distresses how sharp and how pressing from which the Lord hath wrought your deliverance And then go to your spiritual Logick frame such an argument as this The Lord gives help to his distressed Saints in their outward troubles therefore also will he help them in their inward temptations now if Sathan shall argue that God doth not give in succours to the Saints in their outward troubles it 's true they and it may be ye had help and deliverance but it came not from God when ye were cast upon such and such sick-beds that ye despaired of life and your friends gave you up for dead then the Physician came and by his great skill administred such physick which wrought your recovery or when ye were in such streights the liberality of your friends relieved you or in such exigencies the wisdome and potency of your allies brought you off God was not seen in all your deliverances what will you do now why your business is to secure this fort by summoning your experiences and placing them upon the works saying that ye beheld the face of God in such deliverances that your help was onely from on high that men and means stood off and came not in no not for a reserve or though men and means were seen upon the wall yet God acted by the instrumentality of them though Christians were consulted with yet the blessing of God upon the means brought forth the cure be sure ye own God in every preservation how visible and potent soever creature-helps are or have been entrench your faith in this perswasion that whatsoever secondary causes contributed the chief agency was from God If Sathan beat you out of this trench he will soon take your standard and rout your whole army but if ye make good this ground if ye have the advantage of the hill ye are out of gunshot all his murthering pieces will not reach you ye may then quiet your