both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
yet it doth not denominate the Person which so doth a friend according to the sense of my Text and yet he is a friend in a large sense or rather in a little sense A friend is a Man of a noble Spirit that soares high and far to fetch the biggest and best prey to feed and supply want Hence it is that one compares friendship to marriage because friendly love is stronger than that which runs in any other Channel Now how wonderful for strength and how unexpressable for pleasure and pleasantness Is marriage love as we have some signature of it through Solomon's love-Song where the word Friend is used to express Marriage-love and the highest love which passeth between Man-kind His Mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O Daughter of Jerusalem Cant. 5.16 And proportionable to such a great love is all industry and expence to help and bless with the best and most precious things As Araunah brought friendships like a Prince to David and yet but a friend and a stranger a Gentile And the wise Men of the East what Presents they made to Joseph and Mary and their Child or else they had had nothing to flee with all into Aegypt to save their lives And our Saviour who was Lazarus's friend how he sighed and groaned to make a Resurrection of Him so that standers by beholding his carriage his sighing his weeping over Lazarus Grave said Behold how he loved him which is written that we might have a right pourtraiture of a friend So Christ called Lazarus Our friend Lazarus is dead And Martha which was Christ's friend What a deal of care and how taken up to provide all that possible could be for Christ and thought she could never provide what was good enough And so Pharaoh when he became a friend to Joseph he thought he could never do enough for him he set him up next to himself over all his own Nation and Relations And so the Persian Emperor advanced Daniel and Mordecai A friend is a favourite and a favourite is a signet set on the heart by the finger of God than which What is of more estcem At such a great and unexpressableness of love as the true form of a friend pointeth that Scripture Deut. 13.6 And observe well the words at what a height a friend is put even by the Lord himself in some sense it should seem above all relations If thy brother the Son of thy Mother or thy Son or thy Daughter or the Wife of thy bosome or thy Friend which is as thy own Soul entice thee The meaning of all these high expressions is that the love of a friend is very strong unexpressable no relation nor thing in this World dear enough nor full enough almost to express it A Brother a Son a Daughter a Wife yea ones own Soul a Friend is as neer as dear as any of these and being brought in in the close when he had named all neer Relations Or thy Friend which is as thine own Soul he would seem to give preheminence of love to a friend and set him as Pharaoh did Joseph next indeed to his own Soul and Life And if of due there go such a deep Channel of love to the Creature O! what an Ocean of love is due to Christ our good friend Fourthly A friend loveth thus as I have before-said and loveth thus not for a spurt and away Gâ—colampadiâ—s Capito Their friendship lasted as long as they lived but he loveth thus at all times A friend loveth at all times Cum dives eris plures numerabis amicos Whilst we need no friends we shall have more than a good many But the love of friendship is as the motion of the Sun all the year and in all weathers Winter and Summer Brutes love one another only whilst together and whilst they see one another but when parted they utterly forget one another and thus do most love which sheweth it to be short of the love of friendship A friend loveth at all times when sick and when well when poor as when rich when absent as when present when dead as when alive And Naomi said unto her daughter in Law blessed be he of the Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead Ruth 2.20 yea or any that are of him as David did Mephibosheth the Son of Jonathan He shall eat at my Table and be as mine own Children And Jonathan said to David go in peace for as much as we have sworn both of us in the Name of the Lord saying the Lord be between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed for ever 1 Sam. 20.42 The love of friendship hath a kind of Eternity in it a for ever The Lord be between my Seed and thy Seed for ever 'T is a love like the love of God a kindness like the kindness of God as David expresseth it that lasteth to the Third and Fourth Generation Is there any of the House of Saul that I may shew the kindness of God to him that is an everlasting love 2 Sam. 9.3 'T is noted by Historians of Queen Elizabeth that as she reformed corrupt Religion so corrupt Coin There is nothing so corrupt in these last days as love both towards God and towards Man as appears by the instability thereof towards both which involveth both Tables of the Law and so all Religion and this is above all powers to reform but God Fifthly and Finally A friend loveth at all times that is most tenderly and compassionately and especially in adversity which is the meaning of this significant and emphatical expression which followeth And a Brother is born for adversity The reading should be saith some And he is born a Brother in adversity that is through his exceeding tender compassion he become as the neerest natural relation and so is by his tender love and tryed love born and brought forth as it were a new neer Kinsman on purpose created of God to serve the poor Creature in this strait as a Creature new made and now made which what a great honour it is to him to whom God giveth a merciful heart he is as a Creature then extraordinarily and purposely born for such a great and acceptable service Abimelech the Priest loved David at all times but most especially when David was at a plunge when he and his followers were ready to starve for want of bread then he gave them the Shew-bread which was the Bread out of his own mouth beside the hazard he ran in it of his life and did not only give him hallowed bread on which the Priests lived but observe how he takes his life in his hand and speaks for David to Saul to blunt the edge of his fury against him And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David which is the Kings Son in Law and goeth at thy bidding and is
affections to his People Now God dispenseth riches anon poverty but both with the same spirit of love Now he dispenseth peace by his spirit to the soul and anon terror and upbrading and both by the same spirit of Fatherly affection So that storms arise from a discord in the matter of God's dispensations and not from a change in Gods love for God is immutable and changeth not and whom he loveth he loveth to the end Learn from hence that the way to Heaven is narrow such throngs of Miseries are on one side afflicting and such throngs of Devils on the other side tormenting and then within such throngs of lusts and corruptions on one side and such throngs of Gods frowns and rebukes on the other hand so that the way for the poor soul to go to Heaven between all these is very narrow The Sea is broad enough and yet the winds and storms may be such as to make the passage to such a Port narrow enough and hard to hit and make The wayes to Heaven are very spacious and in themselves very pleasant but there arise so many storms within and without these these make them narrow and hard to hit and make and walk in as we should I am counted with them that go down into the Pit I am as a Man that hath no strength free among the dead like the sâ—â—ne that lie in the Grave whom thou rememberest no more as they that are cut off from thine hand Psal 88.4 5. They had almost consumed me upon Earth but I forgat not thy Precepts Psal 119.87 The wayes of God are broad and large and good but there are so many slaying consuming evils on both sides these these make them narrow and hard to hit and to walk well in One mischief almost consumes us and then get ofâ— that a little and presently another evil worse takes hold of us and this quite breaks us Before we can swallow our spitle waves beat so thick that we know not which way to steer The superior bodies which are fixed are pure and clear and never change their complexion not course If it were thus with our graces then though storms and troubles did arise we should see and make our way well enough we should make the favour of God Christ and Heaven at Mid-night But our graces change when our conditions change and when our bodies are weak our faith is weak when our outward condition is low our graces are all low too and this maketh the way of Religion hard and difficult and narrow Learn from hence that little trials should not be made much of At every small thing that befalls us we do so take on when others have all the waves of God gone over them and we have skarce one We have a few trials and a many of mercies to support us and yet what out-cries and others have all miseries and skarce one mercy to support them and yet these it may be make less noise That which Physicians call inveterate head-ach is made by every light occasion and then continueth long and hardly stayed and the Person loves to fit in the dark is here applicable Some their miseries are inveterate and yet made and woven with every trivial thing and then there is no quieting as if they had more afflictions on them than all the Town besides and then sit in the dark mope here and there and unfit themselves and undress themselves to all business to go in a hole when twenty and twenty undergo more affliction in one Moneth than they in many Years yet quiet and complain little to Men. My soul is continually in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law Psal 119.109 Some there is continually but a step between them and some mortal malady and yet how patient how believing how heavenly able to comfort others and others are more afraid than hurt as we say and fancy their case for misery more than really it is and yet how disconsolate how unbelieving how froward how troubling wife husband all the house Some their cases are as sad as sad can be like those which have a sentence of Death at the Bar that sit like sentenced Men on the Lader waiting when the Execut oner will do his office and this I doubt is the case of many and some not only as to all their welfare in this World but as to all their welfare in the World to come And that we should make ado about this and that when the life and soul and eternal welfare of such and such hangs thus in doubt before them Learn that they have much cause to bless God who find any calmes and lueida intervalla considering what continual stormes and calamities attend our condition here 'T is incredible that a storm should mount as high as Mid-Heaven and whirl it self among the Spheres which move so peaceably and regularly and yet it is most incredible if every one of us do not find storms assault us in our highest graces and enjoyments What Clouds gather still after the Rain in this Climate What fenny boggy places our spirits are yielding matter of storms continually and therefore what cause have we to bâ—ess God if we have any tranquility or health or liberty or soul-peace in this World We value the favours of God as we do a Companion in the way no longer than he rideth our way we value the favours of God as â—e do the paring of our naâ—ls they have served our use and so we throw them away Linnen doth not receive a skarlet die there is not a deep and fit foundation for such a noble colour So it is with many Souls they are as thin Linnen not deep and substantial enough to receive a right impression of Gods favours For pains in the Head you must use great frictions and rubbings of the inferior parts of the Body to draw down And truly discontent and unthankfulness is an evil in the head and heart too a slightness and misunderstanding of the great mercies of God and to cure it things must be rubbed much upon the conscience that lower Court of judging and condemning things amiss for we are less than the least of all Gods favours Learn that we have much cause to be very Heavenly Floods so much overflow all here and all things are so oft sloted in this World that it is necessary our Souls be much upon the Wing and much aloft in that upper World Procul negotiis should be the Saints Motto Far from sin nay far from the troublesome business and matters of this World and much else where to wit in Heaven where we say our Treasure is How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them when I awake I am still with thee Psal â—9 18 When all Gods waves over flowed the old wicked World the Dove flees to the Ark so should the great and continued troubles of this world make us retreat much to Christ and to that good and
all good to the great good Christ and to the embracing of him Some are well and yet still offering their hand to the Physician saith Seneca their hearts being like a Pond after a storm a long while trembling Some are not Soul well the Plague of a hard heart being on them and their sores and swellings daily to be seen without searching for and yet never offer their Pulse to any to feel them but judge themselves well and their state good which confidence is carnal and an evident token of an impenitent and insensible heart If ye say that ye have no calamity in your Families nor Death in your Houses yet Death is much in the dwellings of many others How do ye lay this to heart God doth whip some upon others backs and this is tender mercy and should be the more melting and abasing and drawing to Christ as Cords of great love Is it thus with you How the Prophet Jeremiah was affected with the calamity of others especially as he saw it did no good upon their Souls which was an evident token how well it wrought upon his Soul though others smarted yet he laid to heart and profited My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarum of War Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole Land is spoiled suddenly are my Tents spoiled and my Curtains in a moment How long shall I see the Standard and hear the sound of the Trumpet for my People is foolish they have not known me they are sottish Children they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Jer. 4.19 20. Let us apply these words to our selves do not we lie in such an ill frame of Spirit Are not our hearts though God's hand be so heavy still sottish and sensless of all that whereby we have provoked God to do all this against us Very wise and quick to see the Moat in others Eyes and to lay the blame at others doors You will say so did Jeremiah in this Scripture which you have quoted I answer That the Prophet did see provocations abroad it is true but that it was not without looking well to his own heart see Jer. 12.1 2 3. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy which deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art neer in their mouths and far from their Reins but thou O Lord knowest me and seen me and tryed my heart towards thee pull them out like Sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the Day of slaughter As if he had said thou knowest right well that I have frailties and infirmities many yet thou also knowest that I bewail them and in all things I endeavour to approve my self to thee by thy help and would do nothing to provoke thee in this Day Can we thus approve our selves to GOD now Vse 4 Let the last Use of this Doctrine be for Exhortation Be sensible and lay to heart this mortal time and this dying day the many thousands of all sorts good and bad which now are swept away Let it not be said that the Graves are wide open Hell is wide open but our hearts are still fast shut Righteous and merciful Men as well as profane drunken covetous Nabals are taken away but none lay to heart one or the other If the Prophets charge in my Text should be found a true charge against us alass for us we are all dead Men and Women and no escaping Wherefore stir up your selves weep not for the dead but weep for your selves saying alass alass what have I done How do I live that so many die where I dwell Do not I infect the Parish my Family this City And be close home in these Queries and in these Heart-smitings for surely if we did judge our selves as we should every one in truth we should not thus continually be judged of the Lord. The Bells tole and ring in your ears every Morning and Evening but is there nothing else sounds in your Ears No Achan no accursed thing that yet your hearts hide and cleave so fast to And will not yet though thus affrighted part with A dreadful sound is in his ears Job 15.21 in prosperity the Destroyer shall come upon him said Eliphaz to Job he speaks to Job as to a worldly Man catcht in his worldly ways You have had worldly ways and tumblings all over the World you Citizens and now you are at leisure and quiet Do you not hear some dreadful sound in your ears of sin in this and in that you have complained for want of leisure now you have leisure pray lissen well now to your consciences what dreadful reports they are ready to make at the great Bat above against you O lay these to heart well for these have slain you and us now in all that is dear and will slay yet all the remnant unless we all repent The Prophet Elija by killing two Captains and their Fifties brought the third Captain upon his knees and to humble himself whether in truth I know not but he saved his life by it and the lives of his Fifty men O that Christ by killing so many Thousands so many Eight Thousands and so many Five Thousands might bring the rest upon their knees indeed to him he got his life and we should get our lives and our Souls and so would the Plague as a Plague not come nigh our dwelling Secondly Let me exhort you to lay to heart the import of these general strokes that one and all are so cut off wicked and righteous These kind of general strokes do import that we all have sinn'd and have much provoked God one as well as another Righteous Men and merciful Men have not been so holy and righteous and so merciful as we should Behold the Days come saith the Lord That I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised Aegypt and Juda and so puts them together and then Edom and Ammon and Moab and Israel with them which are in the uttermost parts of the Earth For all these Nations are uncircumcised in Flesh and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.25.26 Some Men are outwardly and openly stark naught and the best of us it seems are not so good at heart as we should be this let us lay to heart all of us Or else the import of this general mortality is that God means to harden the hearts of some much by slaying the good as well as the bad that they who have no mind to repent and change their courses may be confirmed and encouraged in them in as much as
nature make a kind of Kindred and so consequently love much more friendship makes a kind of Kindred yea neer Kindred a brother A friend is as my Text saith a brother as a very neer Kinsman or as a neerest Kinsman And you may as well say a brother is a brother without love as say a friend is a friend without love A friend loveth c. that is purely Pure love is that which springeth from pure Principles which are two love to GOD and love to Man as some way or other bearing his Image either by Creation or Regeneration and so not upon any self-account Thus David loved Saul and was much pleased with the Men of Jabesh Gilead that buried Saul and much offended with the Amalechite that killed him although he was his great and implacable Enemy And thus Jonathan loved David although David dethroned him Jonathan was grieved that his Father had done David shame so Jonathan arose from the Table in fierce anger and did eat no meat the second day of the Moneth for he was grieved for David because his Father had done him shame I Sam. 20.34 A friend loveth a friend upon his honour as he would be found answering the will of God and the Creatures true good and for no bribe of applause or profit The Men of Israel were angry with the Men of Judah for stealing David home from his exile without them And the Men of Juda made this ingenuous reply The King is neer of Kin to us Wherefore then be ye angry for this matter Have we eaten at all of the King's cost Or hath he given us any gift 2 Sam. 19.42 Have we as if they had said any self-end in our kindness to David but shewing pure love as such a neer Relation requires The love of sympathy is pure love The Iron moveth to the Load-stone not from knowledge consequently not from design but from some hidden similitude in property between them which is as love in rational Creatures and from the hand of the first mover which inclines this Creature to that as pleaseth him and no more else can be said of the matters of friendship no gifts nor this nor that make it We love not yours but you saith the Apostle Secondly A friend loveth c. that is really not in word only but in deed as the Apostle saith And David said to Abiathar I knew how it would be when Doeg the Edomite was there I have occasioned the death of all these Persons of thy Fathers house abide thou with me fear not for he that seeketh thy life seeketh my life but with me thou shalt be in safety I Sam. 22.23 I will take care of thy life and livelihood as of my own as of he had said A friend is alter ego another self Hushai is called David's friend and he made David's case and condition his own and adventured himself far as far as his life and laid down his life for his friend Beasts love one another and will fight for one another to the death whose friendship is but a love of sympathy There are in England 9725 Parishes how many thousand Souls may be in these Parishes If I should be asked by Men in Place what is true friendship to all these Souls I would answer To love them really What is that I answer To love them in words and in deeds to do as he we read of in the Acts of the Apostles He loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue to provide able and faithful Preachers for every Parish through these Kingdomes that is to love their Souls and to feed them and so to love their Bodies who are in want and to feed them and to cloath them my meaning is to set good Ministers and good Magistrates over them this were to love really and so to be a true friend to the Nation and to all in it To give titles of honour and complements this is not that which filleth up the definition of friendship Cannot a City and all Places study plaucibility of carriage and must this by and by be called friendship But as Absalom said to Hushai that stuck not to him in his distress Is this thy kindness to thy friend to talk and to give goodly complements Why wentest thou not-with thy friend 2 Sam. 16.7 A poor Widdow a Ministers poor Widdow of which there be many now complained to the Prophet Elisha and he became a friend to her what was that Answ He loved her really And Elisha said to the Widdow of the Prophet What shall I do for thee 2 Kings 4.2 and did do for her to purpose as much as her condition needed Set her out of debt and gave her and hers wherewith to live upon Pliny tells us of a Sea that doth Accipere amnem in rotam sed non recipit That is takes in such a River but doth not connaturalise it self with it doth not incorporate it as with other waters but as it goeth in so it goes out And just so do we open our Doors and Gates of our Houses and Towns and accipere take in poor Ministers and poor People but do not recipere receive them i. e. welcome in with What shall I do for you and for yours and make their wants as our own and mingle tears and sighs and cares and travels and spirits and purses with them Thirdly A friend loveth c. that is strongly or unexpressibly I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of Women 2 Sam. 1.26 Niphla from Pala it signifies saith the Critick high and hidden such as Man's power cannot reach nor perform nor reason attain unto Used Exod. 33.16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy People have found favour in thy sight Is it not in that thou goest with us So shall we be separated I and thy People from all the People that are upon the Face of the Earth Separated this is the word that is so shall we be a People above all expression admired and beloved and honoured c. So did Jonathan honour and esteem David beyond all expression And such is the love of a friend it should seem as set forth to us by the Word There is a Hauke which they call accipiter humipeta because it lies hovering over Mice and little Vermin on the Earth and petty small Birds as they peep in Hedges and Furrowes and useth not to soar and seek any noble and great Game as some other kind of stately Hawkes do So there is a love of Man to Man attended with some small realities of action giving some small Mony as one goeth the Streets and broken meat from the Table and such like little low things of kindnesses and love which may well be spared and no prejudice but this kind of love though it hath a reality in it and doth good and would there were more of this in these times
only to roar and cry out when we are beaten and over-burden'd he teacheth us to believe and to expect Songs to be given in the darkest Night Job 35.9 The true state and life of man is not to be shaken with tumults and distresses nor be lifted up with prosperity and ease said the Heathen and what can poise and even the Soul thus in all conditions but faith by which we know how to abound and how to want how to be high when low and how to be low when high if faith have its perfect work so will patience and then the Soul is entire and wanteth nothing no though all the things of this World he wanting Likewise we may learn from hence that we are never gone and quite undone till faith be gone For loe they lie in wait for my Soul the mighty are gathered against me they return at Evening they make a noise like a Dog and go round about the City behold they belch out with their mouth Swords are in their Lips for who saith he doth hear But thou O Lord shalt laugh at them thou shalt have all the Heathen in derision because of his strength will I wait upon thee for God is my defence Psal 59.9 The God of my mercy shall prevent me he shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies Things were very bad indeed when the wicked were at this height that they could belch out any thing and run every where as Dogs and tear God and Man and yet David was not quite ruined Because of thy strength I will wait upon thee A believer is strong enough as long as God is strong and wise enough as long as God is wise and rich enough as long as God is rich and lively enough as long as God lives Hanibal offered himself to make War with the Romans without an Army saith Seneca And truly a believer will himself make War with all enemies in the World and without any Army only by the strength of God and is never at a loss for an Army nor Counsel nor Provisions but saith as that Father of believers God will provide God will fight for you and ye shall hold your peace said Moses in a great strait Cain was not utterly lost when he had committed murder for so had David done But when he rejected the offer of grace and desired death as a despairing Creature He had a most glorious offer of grace Gen. 4.7 And if thou dâ—st well shalt thou not be accepted or certainly accepted and though thou dost not well yet a sin-offering lieth at the door so it should be read saith a great Scholar in the Languages of the Scripture Dr. Lightfoot And this great offer of grace he despised and so forsook his own Mercy and desired Death through a proud dogged spirit having lost the honour which was given to Abel Now therefore let it be that any one that fudeth me may kill me So should these words be read saith the same Author And now and not till now was Cain quite undone Use 2 This Doctrine in the next place may be for reproof and it may be for reproof of unbelief upon any account whatsoever seeing faith looks through all matters whatever As for the Jebusite the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Children of Israel could not drive them out but they dwell there to this day Judg. 15.63 David along while after drove them out And why could not these lame and blind be driven out It was their unbelief The enemy had gotten a strong Fort and the advantage of that City Jerusalem and yet had they had faith they might have lookt thorow these Forts and Rocks of Jerusalem and have conquer'd it as they did Jerico and other places as strong by faith Their sin was the same with Rubens Dan and Asher Sisaâ—'s Host was great and therefore they could not see through them and over them For the divisions of Ruben there were great thoughts of heart Gilead abode beyond Jordan and why did Dan abide in Ships Ashar continued on the Sea shore and abode in his breaches Judg. 5.16 17. Distresses are of several magnitudes but yet how great soever they be faith should be such as to master them and look thorow them but when it is not so then men betake them to their self ish shifts and every one is but for one Why did Ashar abide in his breacher 'T is a grand evil of this time every Man seeks his own and stands with all he hath to make up his own breaches but as to the publick and the common calamity of others Who hath a Heart or a Purse or a Hand which speaks plainly our unbelief and that we do not see through the dark Clouds which are come upon us but say in our hearts as David I shall one time or other surely perish by this and that great tryal and these Sons of Anack are walled up to Heaven and no dealing with them Necessity saith one of the Heathen maketh us more violent than valorous There are amongst us through many necessities many violencies both inward and outward spiritual and corporal unto great hurt every way but little true valour that which flows from faith which is that that doth business as we have seen Secondly This Scripture reproveth giving way to unbelief We flatter our selves in our unbelief as Jona in his passion and in many cases very desperately we think we do well to be unbelievers whereas the greater the difficulties be the more our duty is to believe Curse ye Meros curse ye bitterly that they came not out in a plunge to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 If thou think some great tryal shall encounter thee â—aith Seneca do not flinch but comfort thy self with this that surely thy death and suffering is of some great importance Great distress is no warrant for us to make great consult with flesh and blood but great consults with the promises and with our own experiâ—nces and to call much upon a cowardly and deceitful heart Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope in God for I shall yet see better things than these If unbelief were as profitable as it is self-pleasing and that it would further escapes out of distresses one might through self-self-love give way to it as Men do to many gainful sins but it doth not this but rather obstrucâ—e caâ—â—s as our Fathers unbelief in the Wilderness upon every occasion it caused God to swear against them that they should dye in the Wilderness It is not the giving way to unbelief but the exciting faith what ever the difficulty be that is the likely way to make escape As Caleb and Joshua said We be well able to deal with them for God is departed from them and they are bread for us and this is called following of God fully which God took well and honoured them with escapes from all dangers and they enjoyed the good Land To this agrees that Psal 37.40 And