would observe the boundaries that the Lord himself hath set betwixt a called Ministery and a Christian Laity that in your undertaking of this great charge you would be much and earnest in your addresses unto God and be faithfull in discoursing over experienced mercies from God If you meet with sinners that are hardened in their wayes obstinate wilfull and sermon-proof tell them so it was with you I doubt not it hath been some of your cases but when the Lord came in upon you by the thorow convictions of his Spirit he awakened your consciences to such a sight of sin and sence of wrath filled your soules with such terrours from the Law and softened your hearts with such a shower of Gospel grace that you were immediately humbled broken and brought in you threw down your weapons begg'd a parly and submitted to the Lord Jesus You found such a strange and secret work upon your hearts that you cryed out with Saul Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. ver 6. and Ephraim-like Though you had been as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke yet now the Lord hath turned you and you are turned Jer. 31. ver 18. and tell them thus it will be with them if ever they have a conviction unto Conversion God will break their stomachs soften their iron sinews subdue their Gospel-enmity and give them a spirit of holy compliance with his blessed wayes and will and that God can bring forth this work in their hearts though obstinate and obdurate as well as he hath brought it forth upon yours and then they will be of another mind however at present they stand it out with that boldness and daringness of spirit against Law and Gospel If you meet with sinners whom the arrows of the Lord have wounded his Spirit hath throughly awakened and his Word hath filled with such sad apprehensions of sin and wrath that they cry out with them Acts 2. vers 37. Men and brethren what shall we do or with the Jaylour Acts 16. v. 30. Sirs what must I do to be saved tell them this was your case tell what methods of mercy the Lord used to the healing up of your wounds and to the quieting of your consciences that so they may be encouraged to the use of Gospel-means and to an hope of the same grace and goodness of the Lord towards them If you meet with as you will with many proud presumptuous Formalists that fill their sails with vain hopes of Salvation without any saving change wrought upon them without any inward principles of life light planted in them or without any lively Acts of Faith Repentance Self-denial Mortification c. put forth by them tell them this was your case you had the same perswasions you were such foolish Virgins and that then you thought your penny as good silver for heaven as the best deriding the precise Puritan and scoffing at the power of Godliness but when the Lord opened your eyes and shined into your soules with a beam of saving light you soon discovered your Errour how you had built upon the sand that your Infant-baptisme was but sand your outward Priviledges were but sand your Formal Profession was but sand yea all you built upon was but sand so that had death and Judgment like windes and waves forcibly beat upon your house it would certainly have fallen and you had been ruined to all eternity but now you have digged deep and laid your foundation sure upon a rock you have built upon a new foundation for heaven now you finde a new creation wrought in you now you mourn over those sins which formerly you made your selves merry with now you contest against those lusts which formerly you cherished now you are broken off from those lewd Companions with whom you were formerly bound up in wayes of sin now you act faith upon Jesus Christ for the pardon of sins rejoyce in him and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3. ver 3. Now you are convinced that grace is the onely way to glory and that without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12. ver 14. you now owne Religion in all the duties of it love the Ordinances which formerly you loathed delight in the society of the Saints which formerly you derided maintain communion with God in the Spirit which formerly you mocked at and that now The God of hope hath filled you with peace and joy through believing Rom. 15. ver 13. and you find Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. ver 27. Pursue this method as the Lord puts opportunities into your hands and as you meet with new cases suit your experiences according to what you have been and now are and I doubt not you will finde encouraging success for though I honour the word I hope as much as any as having the greatest authority upon the consciences of men and as being the great instrument of new birth especially when it is faithfully dispensed by faithfull messengers Jesus Christ giving a clear proof of his speaking in them 2 Cor. 13. ver 3. yet certainly Christians as such though they do not invade the ministerial Office nor loosen one stone in that partition wall which Christ hath raised up with his own hands betwixt a called Ministery and converted Layity may be instrumental to much spiritual good among their carnal relations It was much that the Church did towards the gaining over the daughters of Jerusalem by her commendatory oration of Jesus Christ Cant. Chap. 5. For. Chap. 6. they put the question Whether is thy beloved gone Oh thou fairest among women whether is thy beloved turned that we may seek him with thee The woman of Samariah did much in ripening those fields which began to be white unto the harvest John 4. ver 28 29. compared with ver 39. Surely when the experiences of believers do run in a paralel line with the words and as counterpains do bear a full testimony to the truth of it men give a more willing entertainment unto it when they hear Christians affirm what Ministers assert men listen more after it Oh then break your pitchers that your candles may shine and give lights to the world Phil. 2 ver 15 16. holding forth the word of eternal life unto others in your several standings and capacities relative and religious And give me leave to lay down these considerations by way of inducement unto you Consider Con. 1. That the conversion of a sinner is a matter of great well-pleasingnesse unto God Isa 53. ver 10. it is termed the pleasure of the Lord ve-caphets Leigh Crit. Sacr. the will of the Lord that which he wills with greatest pleasure and delight it notes the highest content that may be to wit delight which is the intention and strength of affection hence Isa 62. ver 4. the Church is called Hephzibah that is my pleasure in her the parables of the lost sheep and lost son do fully evidence this
make such returnes to him and his people though your excellency be not upon the Throne yet you are near unto it you stand in a publick capacity both Civil and Military and are eminent in both and so have great opportunities of doing good I hope you lose none I am sure you have improved many God hath led you to the second Chariot much in Josephs way be still a Joseph to the house of your brethren let the Israel of God be dear unto you be a covering Cherub over them and an Advocate for them they are a considerable number in the Land yea the most considerable in the Census of Heaven It was Job's Honour Iob 29.25 compared with Verses 15 16. when he sate chief and dwelt as a King in the midst of the Army to comfort the mourners to be eyes to the blinde feet to the lame and a father to the poor and your Excellency knows it will be your advantage Isa 59.6 7 8. to loose the bands of wickedness to undoe the heavie burdens to let the oppressed go free to break every yoke c. for then shall your light break forth as the morning and your health shall spring up speedily And your righteousness shall go before you the glory of the Lord shall be your Rereward Freedome from Oppression is a choice mercie and owned to be such by the poor whose flesh hath been torn by that iron tooth but 't is more eminentlie such upon a spiritual account and so owned by the Lords people whose soules have mourned and whose Consciences have bled under former Impositions a light burthen weighs heavy when 't is laid on weak shoulders and a little yoke presseth hard upon tender necks Tenderness of spirit when drawn forth unto right Objects is a fruit of Electing Grace Col. 3.12 a precious Cement to strengthen Communion of Saints and past all peradventure of rare use and real necessity that Christians of known integrity and of different perswasions in lesser matters may not be imposed upon but protected The Gospel spirit is a healing spirit a spirit of love and tenderness Jesus Christ will own those persons in an honourable way who carries his lambs in their bosomes that they may not become a prey to the Foxes and gently lead those that are big with young according to the right method and not beyond the bounds of Gospel-tenderness but 't is not the minde of Christ that seducing Jesabel should be suffered and 't is gravel in the teeth yea as a sword in the bones of many gracious ones to hear men of undermining Principles as to truth and of debauched practises as to holiness make use of names honourable before God and precious with good men as a shelter to themselves and blasphemies Cities of Refuge for such offenders are not set apart by God in his Israel nor is his Temple to be a Sanctuary for such Delinquents Zech. 13.2 The Lord cause the false Prophet and the unclean Spirit to pass out of the Land and ship them away to the Land of Shinar superadde this to his many mercies that he may turn to us a pure Language that we may serve him with one consent Zeph. 3.9 and that we may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Lord make your excellency eminently instrumental to repair Zions breaches and bless you out of Zion with peace and joy in your own spirit Heb. 12.22 23. and when you shall have served out your own generation according to his will receive you up into heavenly Jerusalem amongst the spirits of just men made perfect I shall shut up this Address Dear and Honoured with this one Request that you will accept the humble tender of real Respects in this smal bundle of goats hair was it better I know no persons in the world that can lay a fuller Challenge unto it then you can nor to whom I should more readily offer it then unto your selves If in the perusal of this Treatise you shall finde one spark to encrease your warmth of spirit for heaven and holiness own the Lord in it and let me be but a poor sheard in which the coal is brought from the hearth If any passage in it takes your soules aside and gives them a review of your Dangers and Deliverances offering any hint to direct or incite you to those Duties which the Lord calls for from his ransomed ones I have my end my Exspectations terminate in Gods glory and your spiritual good and growth The Lord make you progressive in Greatness but more in Grace that Religion in the life and spirit and power may be cherished in your hearts and houses that your practises may be a Paraphrase upon Psalm 101. your families may be Ecclesia Aula Schola as was the family of George Prince of Anhalt or like Cyrus his Court where if a man chose blind-fold he could not miss of a good man or like the Family of your Noble Parents where many were Proselited to the Faith and some now alive do own that Providence as happy which planted them under their roof That your children may keep up sincere Profession in your name and race and that the Lord who hath often delivered you out of the mouth of the Lion would deliver you out of every evil work and would preserve you unto his heavenly kingdome that you may be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy is the hearty Prayer of Your Worships Honours and Excellencies humble and devoted Servant in the Lords work and for his honour NATH WHITING To the Ransomed ones of the Lord with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Dear Friends WHen with my own people I thankfully owned before the Lord an eminent Deliverance from an imminent Danger I then entred uppon this Discourse which was suited to that Providence And having often reflected upon that signall mercy duely considering the opportunities of doing and receiving good which I have had since that gracious reprieve from death I have since drawn up my Meditations which then were short suddain and confused into a more enlarged orderly and methodicall Treatise I do not covet the applause of men nor court your Acceptance with strains of wit an affected Eloquence new lights put into a dark Lanthorne or Seraphicall Notions high and sublimate but present you with a plain and practical Discourss desiring to speak from the heart to the heart The Treatise is Tripartite thereby resembling the heart which is Triangular and 't is my single designe to endeavour that upon the points or corners of your hearts may be engraven your Dangers Deliverances and Duties that so the mercies of God which are Records of greatest Import may be preserved with greatest care and you may be provoked to act with greatest Conscience for God We cannot look back upon Adam in his lapsed Estate
but we may see a deluge of wrath breaking in upon whole mankinde at the breach of the first Covenant we cannot read over our own Diaries but we may read our own Dangers drawn up in black Characters of our sins as provoking God unto displeasure against us nay the times that lately passed over us presented us with danger from the sword of men in the heat of warr and now are we in dayly hazards from the arrows of the Almighty in various and violent distempers Again we cannot seriously study the Gospel but our great Deliverance from wrath to come by the precious bloud of our Crucified Jesus presents it self unto our view nor can we considerately survey our own Soules but we may read the counterpane thereof transcribed by the Eternal Spirit nor own Experiences but we may meet with large Volumes of eminent Deliverances personall and Nationall wrought for us by the outstretched arme of an Almighty God Again if we turn over those holy leaves of the Scriptures of Truth if we consult the Experiences of Gods people in the Ages that are past or seriously advise with our own spirits when in a right frame we shall finde many Duties charged upon us as our returnes to God for our great Deliverances The great God will not be a loser by his mercies he exspecteth some incomes into the bank of his glory if he have it not from us he will have it out upon us If we do not give it he will take it Deliverances are a great Talent put into the hands of men to trade withal for God They that lap up this Talent in a napkin by forgetfulness or squander it away by unsuitable actings heap guilt upon their own soules and shall be sure at the reckoning day to finde this sin as the Israelites did an ounce of their golden calf in all the rebukes of God upon them The sad Consideration whereof hath been and is much upon my heart and hath been a principall inducement to thrust this Treatise into the world which is not Polemical in the main intention of it my Standard bearing this Motto Zech. 8.19 LOVE THE TRVTH AND PEACE nor is it provoking I hope to any Iames 3.17 being the product of that wisdome which is first pure then peaceable c. I have avoided all bitterness that I might not stirr up any prejudice my business is to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you and to provoke unto love and good works as the genuine improvement of grace and mercy received I have not exactly methodised this Treatise nor cast it into the mould of the Title Page but laid down all Sermon-wise handling the Saints Dangers and Deliverances in the Doctrinall and their Duties in the Applicatory part of it in which I have respect as well to Spiritual as to Temporal Dangers and Deliverances and with respect to all as they stand in a personall or Relative capacity I will not Cramben bis coctam dare by Epitomizing in the Epistle what is largely pressed in the body of the Discourse I shall therefore onely entreat you to bewail before the Lord that root which bringeth forth wormwood and gall amongst us that discontent and sullenness of spirit by means whereof God is not owned in nor honoured for those glorious vouchsafements of mercy which have been matter of envie and astonishment in all the Nations about us that land-flood of corrupt Principles and practises which like a swift and spreading Torrent hath laid a great part of the Nation under water that spirit of bitterness and enmity against Godliness in the power and Religion in the purity of it and those sad divisions about which sadly hinder the work of a thorough Gospel-Reformation c. all which are sowre grapes yea clusters of Gomorrah and not such a Vintage which the Lord might reasonably exspect from a people of such rich mercies such signal preservations and under the enjoyment of such encouraging advantages as ours have been O that your souls would mourn in secret places for these things O that you were so affected with them that you would refuse your pleasant bread O that you would so reprove a carnal and careless Generation of men by your lively acttings for God that many yea all who have experienced the goodness of the Lord in eminent preservations may glorifie the name of the Lord by an Evangelical conversation that so the presence of God may still give us rest that our English Zion may be made an Eternal Excellency a joy of many generations Isay 60.15 18. that our walls through the divine Custodiency may still be called Salvation and our gates praise But though this spiritual Lethargy be incurable in many yet be ye O ye Ransomed ones of the Lord awakened unto duty and let the sense of mercy in the eminent appearances of God to your help in the daies of your distress carry you like wind and tide full sail in your zeal for his Glory in order to which I shall humbly offer these hints unto you and I entreat the people of my own charge to take special notice of them as being mainly intended for them 1. Be frequent in your reveiws of those feared dangers and fretting distempers those painful sicknesses and perplexing sorrows from which the good Hand of God has fetcht you gather up your dangers and deliverances your pressures and preservations how the Lord has granted you life and favour life with the comforts of it to make it sweet and desireable Iob 10.12 and his visitation has preserved your spirit has secured your lives in the midst of many dangers which surely have been many from infancy to gray hairs that so you may visite him in duty who hath so often visited you in mercy there are frequent visites past betwixt friends God is your best friend account that day lost wherein you do not visit him and keep up sweet communion with him It was a gallant speech of a brave man Marquess of Vico. accursed be that man who values the wealth of the world worth one daies communion with God Psal 34.2 4. and act up unto David's pattern I will bless the Lord at all times c. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my feares which were many and lay hard upon him when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech and acted the part of a mad man which so sober a person as David would not have done had not his fears been strong and his faith weak 2. Get your Spirits tinctured with a deep sense of that darkness which was upon you when day first broke upon your souls what desperate courses you were engaged in and out of what company the Lord pluckt you with whom ye were folded as thornes before conversion own the conduct of that providence whereby you have been led from Beth-haven to Beth-El from profane places and societies into such families such fellowships and Congregations where
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 end which Absalon did his pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 The Lord I trust hath given me a name better then of sons and daughters Isa 56.5 Heb. 2.4 Zech. 1.4 but that like Abel's faith it may speak when I am dead The Prophets do they live for ever Alas we are earthen vessels soon dashed in pieces every Age hath born sad witness to this and none more then the present wherein many honourable vessels that were sanctified and made meet for the Masters use 1 Tim. 2.21 and prepared unto every good work are broken by the hand of heaven as earthen pitchers Lam. 4.2 the work of the hands of the Potter And therefore I have spared some hours from my ordinary pains and studies to prepare this Treatise That when the Lord shall silence me by death that my voice shall no more be heard from the Pulpit I may still speak to the people of God from the Press who are a people lying near my heart whose Stability in the Faith Union in Love Progress in holiness Growth in grace and further ripening for glory is the hearty desire of an unworthy Minister of the Gospel who is yours and the Churches servant in the Lords work N. Whitinge THE CONTENTS of this following TREATISE THE TEXT opened and analised Pages 1 2 3. Three Observations raised Observation 1. That the Saints of God pass through many dangers in this life page 4 1. This shews the folly of carnal men who boldly conclude from their present prosperous estate that they are in Gods favour 5 2. This meets with the mistake of those who think to sail up unto heaven upon a calme sea 6 3. This reproves those stony-ground Professours who cast off Christ when the Cross appears ib. Observation 2. That the people of God are sometimes cast upon such straits that all hopes of
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 the Lord God of Israel And why so angry with Solomon why the reason is added which had appeared unto him twice The Scripture affordeth many paralel places Oh! the sinnes of Saints are dyed in a deeper crimson Who had his name Jedidiah because he was beloved of the Lord Neh. 13.26 and carry a greater guilt and this layeth them in oyl and maketh them lasting when they are committed under and after discriminating mercies and preservations Oh that the saints would gather up all the signal providences of God toward them and improve them as arguments against sinne It was Luther's advice to answer all temptations with this Christianus sum I am a Christian So let us argue after the Lord hath given us such a deliverance as this should we again break his Commandements Ezra 9. vers 13 14. Oh if any nation under heaven may be lessoned holiness by astonishing mercies and a constant succession of admired preservations England may our Rulers may our Ministers may yea all the Saints may for how often hath the Lord defeated army after army broken confederacy after confederacy discovered plot after plot so that wherein soever the enemy hath dealt proudly God hath been above them Oh! that the heads of England would lay this to heart and that they and all the Saints would rise up with all their might against their lusts to destroy them unto Hormah viz. utter destruction Numb 21. vers 3. as the Lord hath pursued their enemies even unto Hormah that as they had said among the Nations concerning English Zion the Lord hath done great things for her Psal 126. vers 2. So it may be said by the Nations concerning her The Lord bless thee O inhabitation of justice and mountain of holiness Jer. 31. vers 23. Then would England be changed from glory to glory from the glory of being
die Pharaoh's death and be overwhelmed with the sea if timely help come not and having by Providence had an escape how doth he resolve never to travail that way without a guide whatever it cost him nor plunge himself again into the same fears for his whole estate Was not this your case ye thought your sickness to have been but washes ye could easily have passed through it but suddenly you slipped into a quicksand such a deadly heart-sinking fit that ye saw the grave opened and the wrath of God rolling upon you what were your thoughts then what your fears did ye not think your passing bell was ready to ring and the prison-doors were opening to receive you did ye not then resolve if your life was spared ye would tugge hard for Heaven ye would never be at the same stay again did ye not finde sickness an ill time and a sick bed an ill place to take your first rise for heaven from did ye not see your folly to lay the greatest burthen upon your horse when he was weak and tired to set out for heaven when your sunne was now setting when as it is an whole dayes journey thither and he that begins late usually fall's short of it to carry the seed basket into the field when your neighbours are crying harvest home Oh then since the Lord hath restored health unto you and brought you off from those heart-melting fears act up to the Aposties advice Phil. 2. vers 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem asque opus perducite bring salvation-business to a good issue that ye may never be surprised with those fears and tremblings when surprised with diseases I come now to the second part of the exhortation Second part of Exhortation applying this Doctrine of Gods appearances in mercy and the Saints deliverances from danger to the generality of men and women who fear and know the Lord and to believers as they meet in Christ the common-head and in the Church the common body and I shall improve the truth proposed 1. In a mixt sence referring both to temporall and spirituall preservations 2. In a pure spirituall sence referring to recovering and Redeeming grace As to the first sence I shall interweave something of a spiritual nature it being usual with the Holy Ghost to mingle Gospel treasures with the lading of the world in the same bottome and this I shall do in two particulars First I do humbly entreat the servants of the Lord to keep up the memorial of the Lords mercies to keep Diaries of their great deliverances to preserve Records of their signall preservations And secondly as occasion serves to communicate and impart them to others for I shall twist these two together Oh let not God lose the glory of any mercy let not time wear off the remembrance of eminent preservations God expects that his works should be registred by us as well as our words are registred by him Mal. 3. vers 16. This was commanded by the Lord Deut. 7. vers 18 19. David was much in the practice of this duty read Psal 66. ver 12 c. He gives a royal summons as by the sound of a trumpet to all the Lords people to give their attendance whilest he discovereth over the gracious Administrations of the Lord he is no niggard no close-fifted Miser that hoards up all and keeps all close to himself but keeps open house and invites all the Lords people to his banquet of wine He would fain lift up the great name of God in the world and display his bounty that they which have hard thoughts of God may be convinced of their errour and make a recantation and that all dejected Saints may by his example and experience be encouraged to roul themselves upon God under assurance of comfort and support in an evil day which will appear to be his designe for ver 5. he gives a generall invitation to all people to see and admire the wonders which were wrought by God t is like in Egypt he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men implying probably the dreadfull execution of his vengeance upon the Egyptians in those ten Plagues he sent amongst them and in bringing in the waters of the red Sea upon their whole Host as appears Vers 6. He turned the sea into dry land they went through the flood on foot to wit the children of Israel there did we rejoice as Exod. 15. doth fully shew when Moses and the people celebrated the praises of God and by that song not onely kept up a lively sence of that glorious preservation in their own hearts but transmitted the memorial of it unto posteritie that the children then unborn might read in that the glorious appearances of God for his people Oh how few such songs are penned in our dayes what little care is taken to commemorate deliverances though they have been so great and many Is it not the shame of this Nation that the next age shall finde no Records and if any such Compendiums of those wonderful deliverances which we have had that such miracles of mercy and mirrours of loving-kindeness should be lap'd up in the dust and printed onely on the sand Oh that some faithfull and able person might be encouraged to this work to write a Chronicle of late transactions that posterity may see what a God their Predecessours have had and through how many straights of warre and seas of blouds peace and the Gospel light and liberty have travailed down unto them This was done by King Ahasuerus his personal preservation from the Treason of his two Chamberlains was recorded in the book of the Chronicles Hest 6.2 What provision did Mordecai and the Jews make to keep up the memorial of that great mercy in their deliverance from Hamans wicked and bloody conspiracy Hest 9.27 28. The inhabitants of Geneva stamped new mony with this inscription post tenebras lux after darkness light in memory of the reformation begun among them The Helvetians caused the day and year when the Gospel begun to take place amongst them to be engraven in a pillar in letters of Gold for a perpetual memory to all posterity Have not our Ancestors taken care to perpetuate the memorial of eighty eight and the fifth of November and shall we raise no monument neither commit any thing to the press which may preserve the memory of our late mercies will it not be Englands sin before God and Englands shame before men 2. In the eighth verse he gives a general exhortation to the Redeemed of the Lord to mention with thanksgiving the great things wrought by a great God for them Oh! bless our God ye people concerned in these mercies let your hearts silently breath forth his praises let your meditations be much and often taken up with thoughts of Gods goodness which is more I fear then most of us do but stay not here do not make
this as the land-mark and boundary of your duty but make the voyce of his praise to be heard let it have an Eccho in the world by communicating and speaking over what and how deliverance came from the Lord unto you 3. He layes down the reason of this call to praise vers 9. because he holdeth our soul in life or puts our souls into life alas when a day of distress was upon us our hearts did even sinke within us life was gone joy was gone hope was gone and heart was gone too in some persons There is a strange recess and retirement of the soul under great and sudden calamities it lyes close like a poor debtor within doors the blood and spirits retire little of activity appears nay some in sudden surprizals have even dyed away into swooning through fear It was thus with Saul though a valiant Prince when he heard what evill was coming upon him 1 Sam. 28. vers 20. He fell streightway all along upon the earth and there was no strength in him And whence was this swouning fit why from fear he was fore afraid and why was he afraid because of the words of the Witches 2 Sam. 28.20 This was old Elies case when tidings were brought unto him that the Army of Israel was routed Hophni and Phinehas slain and the Ark of God taken 1 Sam. 4. vers 17 18. He fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck brake and he dyed I but here the Prophet saith God holdeth our souls in life or lives Be-chaiim and suffereth not our feet to be moved gives us a sure foot-hold and safe standing in our present peace and well-fare 4. He mentions the distress that were upon them in the nature and in the kind of them vers 10.11 Thou O God hast tryed us as silver is tryed How is that why in the fornace of affliction thou broughtest us into the net Thou layedst affliction upon our loins thou hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water How fully doth the carriages of former times paraphrase upon these verses How have the sufferings of many Saints ran parallel with these expressions but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place well-watered as the word implies a place of springs and rivers by which he means a prosperous estate in that full plenty and security which he with the Church then enjoyed And therefore vers 13 14. He speaks his sence of these mercies and the resolvedness of his spirit to act in thankfulness suitable to these engagements 5. I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings and will pay thee my vows which I promised with my lips and spake with my mouth when I was in trouble A good resolution of a gallant man Oh! that such a spirit in the power of it was upon us Did not I Did not others Did not Magistrates Did not Ministers protect promise covenant in the day of our distress Have we paid our vows Have we performed our promises The Lord help us to see and to humble our selves much before the Lord for our violations of promises and protestations both to God and man 6. He stands upon the mount of God and by way of proclamation calls in all the people of God that they may hear the stories of Gods mercies unto himself when he had mentioned the great things God had done for his Church he comes down to a particular narrative of what God had done for himself vers 16. Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul Le-myrheshi which word being of a doubtful signification and used for both soul and life in reference to things of a temporal and spiritual concernment we need not confine it to either 1. Ye have the holy summons Come a word of much use both in a good and in a bad sence there is in Scripture mentioned a religious come and a rebellious come the Saints have their come and the wicked have their come there 's too much of the last come in our days and too little of the first if there was more communion this come would be more used 2. The persons to whom the summon is directed exprest 1. By a particular Character they are such as fear God 2. By a note of universality they are all that fear God onely they that fear God and all they that fear God are summoned 3. Ye have the matter of the summons or the end wherefore the summons is sent forth and that is that he might in the audience of them all make a full and true report of what the great God hath done for his soul So that the words hold forth a double duty 1. To consider the mercies of God 2. To communicate the mercies of God You may see from hence That it is a duty by way of special incumbency upon the Lords people to commemmorate themselves and to communicate to others the vouchsafements of grace and mercy which they have had from the Lord as to fix the sense and remembrance of mercies received upon their own hearts so to give their hearts vent like full vessels in frequent mentioning their preservations unto others it is a commendable practice there is much of God in it It hath the seal of the best men it hath much in it that speaks men to be good and that makes good men much the better See the practice of the Lords people Psa 78.3 4. Which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children shewing to the generation to come or as some translation reads it But to the generation to come we will shew the praises of the Lord his power also and the wonderful works that he hath done parallel to this is that Isa 63.7 I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the promises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us and the great goodness to the house of Israel Memorare faciam Azkir I will improve my care and interest that the mercies of the Lord may be kept up in the minds and memories of his people so the Apostle 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. We would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above our strength insomuch that we dispaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raised the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us What a hystory of his personal dangers and deliverances doth he make 2 Cor. 11.23 to the end That to commemorate and communicate the mercies of God is our duty appears because it is of divine establishment it is the appointment of God himself he hath not left it Arbitrary nor is
thee it is able to trouble the whole world how many can speak much to this the extremities that many awakened sinners have been brought unto have been very sad they have been struck down with Paul yea laid for dead brought into a despairing condition they have said and sigh'd yea sob'd it out also can such a wretch as I am hope for mercy did the Lord Jesus shed his precious bloud for such a vile sinner as I am Is it possible that my abominations should be pardoned that there should be any accepting grace for me for me who have been so great a sinner yea the chief of sinners a sile-leader in the black regiment of sin Oh much of this nature farre beyond what I felt or can expresse hath fallen from the lips and lain upon the Spirits of some of the Saints at their first awakening being in their own apprehensions irrecoverably undone hath this been any of your cases as sure it hath been Oh then how should your hearts be drawn out into thankfulnesse to the Lord when ye call to remembrance your fears and tears and terrours at your first conversion and then consider how welcome Consid 3 and unexpected grace mercy comfort and the good news of a Saviour were unto you in these bitter agonies O how welcome was Moses and his message of freedome from the Lord to the children of Israel when they were weary of their lives by reason of their hard bondage how welcome is a calme after a violent storm to the affrighted Mariner how pleasant is a bright morning after a black night to the wearied traveller and how doth the heart leap up to meet a message of mercy when 't is broken and even spent with misery when David said my foot slips then it follows thy mercy O Lord held me up and who can estimate the worth of succouring and supporting mercy at such a pinch the mothers eye is upon her child and her hand also to stay it from falling or to snatch it up so soon as down the child shall not cry long upon the ground in the mothers hearing and yet a mother may forget the son of her womb but God will not forget his children Isa 49. ver 15. So soon as ever Israel had cried our our bones are dried up and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Ezek. 37. ver 12. The Lord replies Behold O my people I will open your graves and cause you to come forth of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel When the pangs of new birth are strong and violent even ad deliquium animae to the fainting of the soul then doth the comforter come in with his cordial spirits and stay 's up the sinking soul when the Jews laboured for life being stab'd to the very heart Peter presently applies the promise and brings forth the new birth in them Act. 2.38 when the Goaler was even sinking into hell Paul claps to him and stay 's him with this Gospel-assurance believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Act. 16. ver 31. And what follow 's did the plaister stick had the word any saving work upon this desparate wretch yea ver 34. he rejoyced believing in God with all his house here 's a strange and sudden change a blessed turn of things he that just now was upon the borders of hell is now brought within the suburbs of heaven in the joyful apprehensions of pardoning and accepting grace through Jesus Christ The out-goings of God in comforting his drooping Saints and his returns unto them after his withdrawings from them are not lesse or lesse refreshing How did the Spirit of the Church fail within her Cant. 5. ver 6. when she could not find her dear Redeemer in his wonted presence of joy and comfort yet at the end of the chapter she find's and feel's Christ in her soul and in a full sense of her interest in and her union with him breaks out into these joyful acclamations this is my beloved O ye daughters of Jerusalem and this is my friend memorable is the story of Mr. William Cooper a Scotch Divine who was early brought into Christ even when he was a School-boy and approved himself before God and good men to be a pious painful and profitable Pastour of the Lords flock his usual course being to preach sive times aweek but this could not secure him from Sachans buffettings being exercised with inward temptations and great variety of spiritual combats a short account whereof with the gracious returns of God in mercy to his soul I shall give you in his own words reported by Mr. Clark in vita patrum Once sayes he Mr. Clark in vita Patrum in great extremity of horrour and anguish of spirit when I had utterly given over and looking for nothing but confusion suddenly there did shine in the very twinkling of an eye the bright and lightsome countenance of God proclaiming peace and confirming it with invincible reasons Oh what a change was here in a moment the silly soul that was even now at the brink of the pit was instantly raised to heaven to have fellowship with God in Jesus Christ then was I touched with such a lively sense of a Divinity and power of a Godhead in mercy reconciled with man and with me in Christ as I trust my soul shall never forget Glory glory glory be to the joyful deliverer of my soul out of all her troubles forever How fully doth this president speak to the consideration proposed He that was under such an eclipse of light and comfort that his soul did almost dwell in silence now found such sweet and seasonable out-breakings of peace and joy from the presence of the Lord that were to him as life from the dead and gave him a blessed opportunity of praising God in the land of the living How many examples of the like nature may be gathered up and how many Saints now alive can bear witnesse to these things in their own experience how have the wounded in spirit found truth and healing in that passage Hos 16. ver 1 2 3. He hath torn and he will heal us he hath broken and he will bind us up after two dayes he will revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord that his going forth in relieving and refreshing mercy to his distressed ones is prepared Note nay decreed as the morning First suddenly second certainly third comfortably past all possibility of disappointment Sathan and his agents may as easily hinder the day from dawning and the Sun from rising when the appointed minute for each is come both which are fixed by the unrepealable ordinance of the great Creatour Jer. 33. ver 20. as prevent the dawnings of comfort or darken the irradiations of the Son of righteousnesse when he is pleased to shine into
Religion has been owned family-duties carefully observed Sabbath-strictnes advanced the Word spiritually dispensed and holiness has been contended for whereby a saveving change has been brought forth in you or you have been more built up in faith and holiness Let the consideration of what you are compared with what you have been be much upon your spirits that you may with thankfulness adore the riches of that mercy by which you have been differenced as to present grace and hope of future glory from the profane world 3. Keep up your first love to Christ and your first hatred to sin Yonge converts have usually strong affections Those sinnes which have been Peccata in deliciis which have had most of the heart are most upon the conscience most in the confession most in the holy mournings and are most the abhorency of new Converts Again such is their sense of differencing mercy that they are all Love to God and all Zeal for his glory Apoc. 2.2 3. Mihi sane Auxentius nunquam aliud quam diabolus erit quia Arrianus Hilar. you may read this in the gallantrie of the Ephesians spirit I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil either passions in thy soul or persons in thy society c. a high strain of Love the stream must needs be strong that turns all these wheeles it argues a great force of affection to draw out the soul into all these noble actings for Christ but as a well-kindled fire abates in heat and light as the fuel wastes or as a passionate lover remits of that violent affection when the person beloved has been some time enjoyed So it fareth with these Ephesian Christians they left their first love the love of their Espousals and so became Aphesis Mr. Trap. n loc remiss and careless possest with a spirit of sloth and indevotion O let not this charg be drawn up against us that the candlestick may not be remooved from us What attempts have been made to un-church un-sabboth and un-gospel us and how signally the Lord has appeared for us you know O remember that strength of zeal that warmth of spirit that height of love to God his truth waies and people those sighings prayings fastings fightings c. that were amongst us when the yoak was loosned from our necks and when a doore was first opened unto us for Religion and Reformation in the long Parliament Labour therefore to keep up your fiest abhorency of sin and your first affection to Jesus Christ 4. Cherish an high esteem of Gospel-ordinances Remember how pretious the word was then unto you when visions were scarce how you blessed God for it and rejoyced in it when you ran to and fro to find it how your feet stood in the house of the Lord and you flew as Doves to their windows swiftly and in slocks when Pulpits began to be filled with zealous spiritual and conscientrous Preachers O let not this Manna lose any of it's sweetness upon your tastes now that you have it in so much peace and plenty Bread if wanting is called for though the table be heaped with dishes The word is bread to all creature-comforts 't is that which makes them noble and nourishing O then be often in the galleries with the King Cant. 7.5 drink deep of his spiced wine feed freely of those dainties which are prepared and served out by the Eternal Spirit When you here a Sermon-bell think you hear a voice from heaven calling you in the words of Divine Herbert Come hither all whose taste Is your waste Save your cost and mend your fare God is here prepar'd and drest And the feast God in whom all dainties are You know and lament the negligence of some and the wantonness of others thin Congregations and empty seats is not the complaint of a simple Minister 1 Pet. 2.2 Still desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby Do not wean your selves from the breast whilst you are in a growing estate and never think you are past growth Ephes 4 13. until you be come to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ which state of perfection Scripture and your own experience duly consulted with will tell you is not attainable on this side Heaven 5. Maintain an evangelical brotherly love amongst your selves Love is the greate Gospel Soder and Cement a characteristical note of Christ's Disciples without which the highest pretence to piety and profession is under censure by the Holy Ghost Iac. 3.14 15 16. O how did Christians cling together in times of trouble What friendly entertainment did Saints find in the hearts and houses each of other when they were forced from their dwellings by an enraged enemy how did the old Primitive and puritane love begin to spring up and flourish in England And now that we have no enemy to quarrel with will you needs quarrel one with another What an unsuitable return is this unto the God of Peace for his astonishing mercies and preservations Ah friends well 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
deliverance are cut off from them 7 1. This calls for much thankfulness from those Saints who have met with smiles and not frowns from an indulgent God 8 2. This stirrs up the bowels of rejoycing Christians to pitty their mourning brothren ibid. Observ 3. That the appearances of the Lord are eminent and immediate to the help of his people in the day of their distress 9 Gen. 21. vers 17 18. insisted upon in 5 particulars 10 11 12. The truth evinced in 5 Considerations Consideration 1. God sometimes leads his people into straits therefore he is engaged in point of honour to fetch them off 13 14 Consider 2. Sometimes the Saints meet with hard measure from men because they are faithfull in that business which is commanded them by God therefore there is much Equity in it that God should stand by them 15 Consid 3. It is the great designe of God to give real testimony of his hearty good-will unto his people therefore he engageth high for them in their greatest straits 16 17 Consid 4. God will lay great Obligations upon his people to love and trust him therefore he commands deliverance for them 18 Consid 5. The Lord will frustrate all the hopes of the wicked who look for the destruction of the righteous therefore he comes in fully and seasonably to their help when their enemies say God hath forsaken them 19 20. From these Considerations we may draw these Inferences by way of Information 1. That the Saints are a people of Gods special care 21 22. 2. That the Saints are a people of Gods special love 23 24 25 Eccl. 9.1 answered in 5 particulars 26 27 28 29 3. That the sinnes of Saints are circumstantiated with highest aggravations 30 31 32 4. That Infidelity and dispondency of spirit in an evil day is il-becoming the Lords people 33 34 35 36. 2. Some things are propounded by way of Caution 1. Take heed of rashly casting your selves into danger under the protection of this Doctrine 37 38 2. Beware of abusing this Doctrine by slighting lawfull means of preservation when offered 39 40 3. Take heed of laying too great a burden upon a creature-bottome 42 43 4. Beware of abusing providenciall preservations by a neglect of those duties we owe to God as our returnes for signall mercies ib. 44 45 46 47 The third use of Exhortation 48 1. To some particular persons in distinct capacity 49 1. To the Magistrates who are entreated 1. To consider the out-stretchings of Gods arm for them Ibid. 2. To consider what an honour God hath put upon them 50 3. How God hath been a shelter unto them when both their persons and their power were struck at and from hence excited 52 53 1. To bring forth Covenant-duties as a return for covenant-Covenant-mercies ibid. 2. To lay out themselves in the suppression of sin and wickedness 54 3. To countenance and protect the good people of the Land 55 2. To the Ministery who are desired to consider 1. Our share in National preservations 56 2. The present freedome we now enjoy 57 3. What yoaks hath been upon us ibid. 4. What oppositions we have met withall ibid. 5. What short Allowances some good Ministers have had for their great pains 58 6. How not onely Ministers but Ministery hath been shot at by men of bold and daring spirits 59 60 Which Considerations do bespeak us from the Lord 1. to pitty our poor Congregations especially the un-converted in them 62 2. To be painfull in all our callings ibid. 3. To carry it with tenderness one towards another in cases of smaller difference 63 4. To press after purity in Doctrine and worshipps 64 5. To breathe after unity in judgments and affections 65 3. To Military men 1. To consider their inexperience and unskilfulness in warlike matters when the Warr first broke out 66 2. To consider how low their spirits were at their first taking up armes ibid. 3. What Midianitish Armies for multitude they have encountred with 67 4. What personal preservations they have had in the heat of war ibid. 5. The great things which the Lord hath wrought for them and by them 68 Hence these duties are commended 1. Not to sacrifice to their own nets 69 2. To own the Lords people who have owned them 70 3. To be humbled for acts of violence and injustice permitted or practiced by them 71 4. To quicken up their first zeal for God his truth waies ministry and people 72 73 4. To Mariners and Sea-trading men 74 Psal 107.23 24. opened and enlarged upon 75 76 5. To the recovered ones of the Nation whom the Lord hath brought off from beds of sickness 77 78 1. That they would own with thankfulness the mercies of the Lord. 79 Considerations to quicken up to thankfulness 1. The disease was Epidemical ibid. 2. It seized upon men suddenly 80 3. It was violent ibid. 4. It was weakening ibid. 5. It was languishing 81 6. It was inevitable ibid. 7. It was mortall to many in many places 82 2. That they would make good their sick-bed thoughts and purposes ibid. Hezekiahs case stated and his example propounded 2 Chron. 32.25 83 84 85. 3. That they would commune with their own hearts to finde out those particular sinnes for which the Lord hath afflicted them 87 Severall sinnes pointed at as introducent of sickness ibid. 4. That they would consecrate their lives unto the Lord which they have received 1 Pet. 4.2 opened in some Particulars 88 1. That the time of mans abode in the flesh is fixed and determined by the Lord ibid. 2. That Whilest man lives to the lusts of men he lives not according to the lawes of his Creator 89 3. That he onely lives to the Lawes of his Creation who lives up to the will of God 90 Three Conclusions drawn from Acts 13.36 1. That the best and choicest Saints are not exempted from service 91. 2. That the great God commands his servants not onely to work but to do the work of their Generation ibid. Quaest How shall we know the proper works of our generation 93 Answ In some particulars 94 95 96 5. That they would get their hearts tinctured with an awfull fear of God 97 1. From the Consideration of his Power 98 2. From the Consideration of his Goodness 99 3. From the Consideration of his wrath uppon others ibid. Question Why should the Saints fear the wrath of God Answ 1. They see the provoking nature of sin ibid. 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath ibid. 3. They know that they are not exempted from common calamities 100 6. Labour to make sure of heaven 101 The second part of the exhortation 1. in a mix'd sence referring both to temporal and spiritual Preservations in some Particulars 102 1. To perswade the Lords people to keep up memorialls of the Lords mercies ibid. 2. To communicate and impart them unto others 103 104 105 106 Psalme 66. enlarged upon From whence is observed
creatures in its highest advancements and advantages yea from the multitude of mountains which Harim Metaphorically relate to the greatest persons and to thing of greatest height and excellency upon worldly accounts Mich. 6.2 Yea combined and associated they shall certainly fail in their hopes and meet with disappointments because Sheker it is in vain they lye or deal deceiptfully there 's falshood in their promises and feebleness in their power which is confidently asserted by that holy man Psal 62.9 Surely men of low degree are vanity Bem-Adam sons of Adam this being a common name to all mankind is used here for men low in the world in respect of estate or power which are as the valleys or hillocks of earth these are vanity little can be expected by way of help from them because of their emptiness who can expect water out of an empty vessel or safety from a mole-hill when a Cannon bullet flyeth at him But what shall we say to the great ones of the world Why men of high degree are a lye Beni-Ishi The sons of Ish men of highest advancements in the world are but a lye they will speak you fair no doubt David had many complements from Sauls Courtiers lift you up into great expectations by their plausible promises and pretensions but in a day of distress their words vanish into smoak and they appear to a needy petitioner as a dry lake to the thirsty traveller Oh! how sadly can thousands now alive with sad hearts bear witness to this truth And Oh that it were not a spot in Gods people What volumes may be writ upon this subject with the tears yea the blood of the oppressed The Lord humble us for this sin and so manage the spirit of our Rulers That they may loose the bands of wickedness under the heavy burdens let the oppressed go free and break every yoak then shall their light break forth as the morning and their health shall spring forth speedily their righteonsness shall go before them and the glory of the Lord shall be their Rere-ward Isa 58.6 8. Then shall the poor and oppressed say the Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice O England where Justice dwelleth See that Isa 9.10 The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones the Sicamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars They run from creature to creature and change creature for creature the weak for the strongest yea do what Art and Nature improved to the best advantage can do for safety but with what success truely very little For vers 12. The Syrians before and the Philistins behind shall devour Israel with open mouth So true is that Hos 5.13 applied to an expectancy of help from any creature disjunctively from God When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb or to the King that should plead their cause or their defender But how sped they Yet could he not heal you nor cure your wounds it is the way of carnal hearts to shift out to the creature for help in times of straights Mr. Burrogh in loc and a sad evidence of a carnal heart so to do But it is a truth handed down from father to son that creature-recumbency avileth not no healing no curing nay 't is not onely not encouraged with a blessing but thundered against with a curse Jer. 17.5 6. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord wherein doth this curse shew it self It followeth For he shall be like the Heath in the desart Heath-ground is usually barren but Heath-ground in a desart upon which nothing of cost or culture is spent addeth to the barrenness of it nay further And shall not see when good cometh the showers of mercy fall upon this place and the dews of good-will from the Lord distil upon this person in such or such comforts or enlargements I but creature-relyers shall not taste the least of all the noble mans punishment 2 King 7.2 shall be their portion They shall see it with their eyes but they shall not taste thereof no they shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited Oh apply this and let the consideration of this caution you from a creature-dependency use the means but do not trust in them there is nothing provoketh more to wrath nor rendereth the choisest means unserviceable more then this Oh! let us be humbled for this fault for sure it hath been much our fault and our folly which doubtless hath caused the Lord in displeasure to us to dash many excellent instruments in pieces like earthen pitchers and in all our creature-improvements let us wisely sail betwixt these two extreams in tempting of God and an overt rusting to means both which are very dangerous 4. Lastly Take heed of abusing providential appearances and preservations to wantonness by a neglect of those duties you owe to God for them besides the general there is a particular command and call to duty to holiness to repentance to faith to thankfulness c. in every mercy as in afflictions so in preservations the Lords voyce cryeth and the men of wisdome see his name they see and own God in this and that dispensation and hear the rod yea and hear the staffe too and take notice both who and wherefore he hath appointed it what the intendments of God are in such or such a providence otherwise the fruit yea and comforts of both are lost We must not behave our selves like children who when they perceive the hearts of their parents run out in a great deal of tenderness towards them take liberry from thence to play the wantons or Absolom like to act rebellion against them such a frame is very unsuitable to such dispensations and no wayes answering the intendments of the Father of mercies how ill the Lord resents this carriage is evident in many Scriptures See that Deut. 32. vers 10. He found him i.e. Israel in the wilderness he kept him as the apple of his eye I but vers 15. Jeshurum waxed fat and kicked as a wanton colt that is high fed and lusty turneth his heels upon his own damn so played Israel with the Lord his Maker God calleth him Jeshurum from Jashur rectitude or uprightness as expecting this from every true Israelite especially under such engaging providences but in what a cross way doth Israel walk how doth he turn the heels upon God both by murmuring Idolatry and manifold disobediences what then doth God take it well no vers 19. When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sins and daughters Oh! to be sons and daughters near and dear to the most high God under eminent discoveries of divine favour and yet kick this provokes unto great wrath read and inlarge this Scripture in your own thoughts God cannot indure to
enough as I believe too many be yet it will be more your honour to square a knottie peice of timber and polish a churlish stone when ye smooth a rugged spirit and make that plyable to the wayes of God it will more redound to your comfort And consider ye plough in hope and have a bottome from Jacob's success for hope to rest upon for he not onely commanded his houshold to wit children and moenial servants but also all that were with him some of whom probably came out of Mesopotamia with him and many of those Shechemites also that were lately taken captive by his sonnes were in company with him yet his command was given unto all and all submitted unto it for as well the strangers that were with him as his own houshold gave unto him all the strange Gods which were in their hands they freely yielded up all their Idols into the hand and power of Jacob their Governour never to see them more nor worship them more And the text sayes Jacob hid them t is like without their privity under an oak which was by Shechem now then take pattern from hence and act up in your families unto it How know you but the power of the mighty God may so awe the spirits of your servants that the most rugged and rebellious among them may stoop under your reproof How know ye but that they may deliver up their pride oaths drunkenness wilfull ignorance and Gospel enmitie into your hands if in the name of the eternal God as Christian Governours ye demand them And what a noble conquest would that be What a quieting consideration will this be to you at a dying hour 4. Observe further That great deliverances lay great obligations upon Governours to act high in personal and family Reformation If ye say here 's a great deal more urged then needs why did Jacob do this and why must we do this the enforcement is laid down by Jacob who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way that I went as if he had said I cannot discharge my self of that debt I owe unto God nor render my self a person in any measure worthy of his mercies if I should tolerate such principles and practises in my house which are dishonourable unto him and destructive to the very interest of Religion Oh! I will remember the day of distress which was upon me when my brother Esau threatned my life for the birth right and blessing which I obtained from him I well remember mine afflicted estate when I was in the day time consumed with drought and in the night by frost and my sleep departed from mine eyes whilest I served a churlish Laban and had my wages changed ten times by him Being an Hebrew Proverb taken from killing the bird upon the nest with her young ones Hos 10.14 I remember those fears yea great fears which seized upon me when Esau came against me with four hundred men at his heels at which time I wrastled with the Angel and spake before the Lord that I feared greatly least Esau would come and smite me and the mother with her children or ghnal-Bunim upon her children heaps upon heaps And now seing God was with me and answered me in all these dayes of my distress and hath brought me off in a wonderfull way of mercy with safetie to my life and security to my estate I dare not fail in this great duty of family-Reformation I cannot bear any longer the dishonours which are done to God in my Family nor quit my spirit any longer with my personall Religion and therefore I lay it upon you all by way of command as a Magistrace in my own family that ye put away the strange Gods which are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Beth-el Thus David 2 Sam. vers 1 2. When the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies The sence thereof was so lively upon his spirit that he suddenly and seriously resolved to build an house to the Lord and establish the worship of God in the Land to which he was encouraged by Nathan the Prophet at first but afterward received a flat prohibition that he should not build it yet see how the sence of mercies carried him out to prepare abundantly for that magnificent building charging and encouraging Solomon to the work and quickening up his Princes unto free-will offerings 1 Chron. 28. ver 20. and Chap. 29. vers 1 2. and so forward Oh then I make it my humble request to all that read this passage that ye would improve mercies received and deliverances received according to Jacob's pattern that it may quicken you up to family care to set up Religion in your Families and promote it in the Nation that the Lord may feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father Isa 58. ver ult Think often and seriously what your Dangers and what your Deliverances have been and surely if there be any heat and life in the soul for God this will bring it forth there would not be that heart-deadness neglect of Family-discipline and that Formality even amongst Professours and Christians of long standing they would not sit down in such a lazie Profession and tolerate that Ignorance that profaneness and those abuses in their Families and Towns if they were throughly awakened by a due collection and serious communication of experienced mercies how often and how signal their deliverances have been from the jaws of death Oh receive in love this word of exhortation from an unworthy hand and the Lord set it home upon your hearts 2. I come now to the pure spiritual part of the exhortation Are the appearances of the Lord eminent and immediate for the help of his people in their greatest straights have you experienced this can you set your seal to this truth hath the Lord engaged for your help and brought you off with safety and comfort when you were under the greatest hazards then make a good use of such mercies and take my advice in these following particulars 1. Make a serious and speedy enquiry whether you are brought of from sin and wrath by Jesus Christ and what have been the methods of God toward you in your spiritual deliverance 2. Quicken up your selves to duty in all your deadness and damps of spirit 3. Be much in the sence and meditation of grace received keep up the consideration thereof To the first Improve your temporal preservatious by way of inquiry after your spiritual safety whether the Lord who hath made bare his Arm in signal deliverances for the life of your bodies hath also stretched forth the right arm of grace for the life of your souls and how the Lord hath methodized the ways of his grace unto you make these two particulars the matter of your great enquest 1. Put this question unto your souls and be serious in it as a matter
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 alas all the arguments and oratory boastings and bravadoes of Arminius will be but as the staff of Elisha to the dead child or as the Jews tears shed over the grave of dead Lazarus or as the exorcismes of the sons of Sceva they will avail little either to light or life grace or growth without the concurrance of the spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christians do finde by daily and sad experience that the power of godliness would be but poorly advanced in them if they had no other power to act by then that of nature and the work of holiness would be carryed on but slowly in them if they had no better friend then free-will to promote it they would soon stick upon the shallows if the gales and tides of the spirit did not waft them off their hearts would soon be dead if the spirit of the Lord did not quicken them their affections would soon be chilled if the spirit of the Lord did not warm them their desires would soon be straightned if the spirit of the Lord did not enlarge them if the spirit of the Lord did not help our infirmities how listless should we be unto prayer and how lifeless in prayer Oh whatever proud men do vainly boast let not us sacrifice to our own nets nor burn incense to our own drags but say with the Psalmist not unto us not unto us O Lordâ— but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truths sake Psal 115.1 and in all our duties and devotions when we do most for God and act highest for his glory let us breath out those humble acknowledgements of that holy man 1 Chro. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we
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 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 acquaintance who had the same advantages of Education Ordinances and Gospel-Opportunities with me in ignorance and unbelief and hath he enlightened me called me wrought faith in me appointed me to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ and shall not I be active for Christ shall I sit still brooding over a patch of this base world or drive on the interest of mine own honour or advantage when the name of God is blasphemed the honour of Christ is empeached Gospel-truths are corrupted Gospel-Ordinances reviled and the way of God evil spoken of did Croesus his dumb son cry out for the life of his father and shall I that can speak now be dumb Do I thus requite the Lord is this my kindeness to my friend Jesus Saint Paul had another spirit like that of Calebs 1 Cor. 15. ver 8. last of all he was seen of me also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the emphasis lies in Me there 's an accent upon that word of Me vile Me wretched Me sinful me unworthy Me who was a blasphemer a persecutour and an injurious person but by the grace of God I am what I am by the Grace free grace and rich grace of God I am a chosen vessel a servant of the Lord a believer an Apostle of Jesus Christ and what followes doth he lap up this talent in a napkin doth he sing a requiem to his soul and bid her take her case no saies he his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly then they all minde here how the sense of grace received carries out his soul in activity for God to labour yea to abound in labour for from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum he fully preached the Gospel of Christ and wrote more Epistles then all the other Apostles did hence he exhorteth the Saints vers 58. alway to
abound in the works of the Lord Oh sure there would not be that selfishness and sloth among Christians if this course was duely practised a draught of t his wine taken next thy heart every morning would make the lips of them that are asleep to speak Cant. 7. vers 9. it would shew its strength and generosity in a wakening and enflaming the spirits of believers so that the most dull and slow of speech would there be made good and cloquent speakers in the cause of God and thus live best to God II. You will live best to your selves to your own spiritual advantage if you live much in the sence of grace received Gain is a great incitive unto action what will you give me was Judas his question and is too much the compass by which many sail Christians are generally prudent and providential in their family provision That advice of the Apostle Rom. 12.17 Provide things honest in the sight of all men is followed by most and may be without blame if the care be moderate and the provision be of things honest that is if Christians follow lawful callings and so play above-board that they be not afraid who see what they do nor ashamed to be accountable to man for every penny which they return when they fear neither sin nor shame though all men were eye witnesses to their way of trading these are things honest indeed and if Christians onely provided these the mouths of many would be stopt yet I will shew you a more excellent way surely those things which tend to the well-being of the soul to the enriching of that and filling your coffers with grace and comfort that 's the way these are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honest and good things which Christians should trade in and turn every stone to obtain now there is no way will sooner do it and with more safety then that which is mentioned that will bring in the quickest returns as will appear in these particulars if rightly improved 1. You will live best to your selves upon this account Because you will live most off from sin sence of pardoning and redeeming and renewing grace gives a notable check to lust and marveilously banks up corruption Rom. 6.1 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in sin we that are justified by faith so have peace with God through Jesus Christ shall we continue in sin we that have a surer standing in grace through Jesus Christ then Adam had when he had his standing in innocency shall we continue in sin we who when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son who shall be saved by his life and having now received the atonement do joy in God yee rejoyce in hope of the glory of God having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us shall we continue in sin Oh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein that were unreasonable and to an ingenuous renued nature impossible Oh! when a Saint seriously reads over the counsels of God ministred not with ink and paper but with the blood and spirit of his eternal Son and that in a way of free-grace and rich mercy his heart must needs rise against sin if it be in a right frame when he argues it out thus was I born a child of wrath within a hairs breadth of hell Did sin and death pass upon me and over me from Adam was I under judgement by one person and one sin to condemnation and have I received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life by one Jesus Christ And shall I sin against such a God against such grace Oh far be it did we often remember the dreadful terrors we lay under at our first awakening the doleful pangs of new birth the bitter wormwood wine which we drank in many and large draughts at our first repentance and sorrow for sin the sad fears of hell and wrath which overwhelmed us and then consider the riches of that grace which hath appeared tous in converting quickning quieting comforting and securing our souls against wrath to come we should find them singular yea sovereign antidotes against sin and may herewith put to silence the most audacious and importunate lusts See how the Apostle the weapons of whose warfar were mighty through God to pull down the strong holds of sin grapples with the national and common sin of Corinth 1 Cor. 6.13 14. ad finem and that was fornication and uncleanness a flesh-pleasing sin natures minion a sin for which Corinth was famous all over the world having store of Stews and Brothel-houses and a temple dedicated to Venus full-stockt with notable harlots yet the Apostle useth this way of Argumentation to bring them off I mean the Corinthian Professors from all unclean practices he lays before them First Their former estate how they were immersed in that sin of uncleaness and carried away with the torrent of those lusts some of you were fornicators adulterers effeminate Secondly The dangerous condition of those persons who lye and dye in those sinful practices they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven Thirdly The precious mercy of God unto them in recovering renewing pardoning and healing grace vers 9. Ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God Fourthly Their union with Christ and their engraffment into Christ vers 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid Fifthly The indwelling of the holy Spirit whereby their bodies are consecrated to be the temples of God Know ye not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom ye have of God Sixthly That these bodies of theirs should be raised up by the power of God at the last day vers 14. And now what is the answer of a gracious heart to these arguments It is true I have lived in uncleanness that sin unpardoned excludes from heaven but through free-grace I am redeemed by the Lord Jesus and incorporated into him as a member into the head my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and it shall be raised up at the last day fashioned like unto the glorious body of my dear Saviour And shall I soil my self again in the sink of my former uncleanness Shall I spot my robe again which hath been washed and made white in the blood of the Lambe Shall I prostitute a member of Christ and defile a temple of the holy and eternal Spirit of Grace Oh no! Loetae vonire venus tristis abire solet I will not I dare not Surely such arguings will bring forth such resolutions as to an hatred of sin and love to holiness if we rightly improve
weighing what ye have read and you will find when you sive most in a lively sense of grace received and in the improvement of it you live best to your selves as to a greater freedom from sin a closer walking with God and living a life of greatest comfort 3. A sober and savourly collection of grace received will make you live best to others No man is born to himself says the heathen and no man liveth to himself says the holy Ghost Rom. 14.5 he is a monster in nature that centers onely upon himself and is fitter to dwell like an Anchoret in a Cell or like a leper apart then in a community with men and Christians as there is a circulation of the blood in natural bodies that every part may receive warmth and spirits to supply its want and to render it serviceable to the whole So ought there to be a circulation of gifts and graces in the body mistical upon spiritual accounts therefore says the Apostle We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak either bear with them or bear up the infirm and weak Christians as pillars do the poise of the whole house or parents bear their babes in their armes and not to please our selves that is not to live onely in a way of self-pleasing as men acted by principles of self-love but vers 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himself The end of Christs coming into the world was not to seek great things for himself upon a carnal and self-pleasing score nay though the cup and cross were displeasing unto him as man and he prayed against them yet when he considered that the will of his father was to bring many sons unto glory and that by making the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings he presently submitted and said not my will but thine be done Here 's our pattern in the pursuance of others good our lives should be as so many Sermons on the life of Christ as one saith this is to walk as Christ walked and this will give boldness in the day of Judgment Now we shall best seek our neighbours good to edification when we keep up a sence of our own wants and weaknesses supplies and succours we shall thereby be like the good Scribe Matth. 13. ver 52. which is instrutied to the kingdome of heaven who hath things new and old in his treasury to bring forth upon every occasion The Rabbins Proverb is Lilmed le-lammed Learn that ye may teach and the Scribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrudit copiose alacriter freely and fully gives forth his store to the needy hearer Christians as well as Ministers must be like full paps Mr. Trap. in Mat. 13.52 which pain the nurse with their fulness and therefore draw them out to their babes that they may be drawn or like Aromatical trees which sweat out their soveraign gummes and oyls But alas how few such sweating trees grow upon English ground how many dry breasts have we every where and those that are full have sore nibbles that will not give suck because of the painfulness in drawing Truely when I observed this great evil amongst the Christians of our age and Nation I was pressed in spirit to provoke unto love and good works and to publish my thoughts by way of brotherly advice unto them that a wise and faithful improvement of our own cases and graces would excellently advantage the good of our neighbours I shall instance in some Particulars 1. Your own experiences faithfully communicated will marveilously encourage young Converts they will be as a staff in the hand of the weak whereon to stay New beginners have many fears and pull-backs at their first setting forth for heaven many adversaries that do way-lay them and many enemies that do pursue them Egypt at the red sea and Amaleck in the wilderness Satan levies all his temptation to render the seed of grace abortive in their soules so that it would bring forth fruit to perfection at a slow rate if the Lord Jesus who planted it did not also water and preserve it and that every moment Isa 27. vers 3. Bendes when the Lord gives a converted sinner a vision of himself lets him see his own vileness the heaps of sin and lust the springs and falls of corruption in his nature how he lies under the guilt of black and horrid sins open to the wrath of an Almighty and sin-revenging God and ready to drop into the grave and hell out of which there is no recovery Oh the fears that are upon his spirit the dismal thoughts that roul up and down his mind the dreadfull sound that is in his ears but now if you that are Christians of some standing in the grace of God would impart your experiences and tell him what your fears and terrours and troubles were and how the Lord gave you in comfort and establishment sure this would mightily encourage a young convert and have a special influx to his peace quietness and consolation This was the Apostle Paul's way 1 Tim. 1. ver 15. This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners That is the Doctrinal part which indeed flowes with much comfort into the heart of an humble believing sinner as Mr. Bilney Martyr found in a great conflict But now the Applicatory part gusheth out with streams of comfort and what 's that of whom I am chief howbeit I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting as if he had said One great reason next to the secret purpose of his own free grace why this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was so exceeding abundant towards me even to a pleonasme of mercy was that I might be held forth as a pattern of free grace as a monument of pardoning and sparing mercy to all sin-laden and sin-loathing persons who are the true Penitents Oh how would a wounded spirit yet healing a broken heart binding and a drooping soul reviving from such discoveries of misery and mercy of guilt and grace sin and salvation there would no be such sinking of spirit neither would the wounds of many be so long raw and bleeding if experienced Christians would be free in communicating their conditions and comforts unto them and would like the good Samaritan pour in the wine and oyl of their experienced mercy 2. This would be a mighty support to weak believers the experiences of stronger Christians rightly imparted and improoved will exceeding buttress up their faith alas when God first opens their eyes they see men walking afar off as trees they have but imperfect apprehensions of Gospel depths Godliness is so great a Mystery the work of Redemption in all its causalities concurrences and qualifications is so mysterious wrapt up
Luke 15. you cannot do a work that will find greater acceptation with God then acts of mercy Hos 6. ver 6. I desired mercy and not sacrifice the word in the Original is the same with that in Isaiah forementioned implying to will and desire a thing with a greatdelight and complacency Mr Eurroughs in Hos ver 6. pag. 599. so that a reverend Expositour upon the place brings in God speaking thus mercy is a thing so pleasing to me that I desire it at my heart nothing in the world is so pleasing to me as mercy shews that God had rather have it then all instituted ordinances and worships which by sacrifice are synechdochically meant and then instancing in cases of mercy His fourth case is the case of souls and that is in Christs case Mat. 9.13 Pag. 605. Go and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance we are ready to think that all things must give way to instituted worship but certainly immortall souls are of more worth then ordinances O surely the greatest act of mercy which we receive from God is our reconcilement to him whereby we are translated from darknesse into the kingdome of his dear son that being justified by his grace we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternall life Tit. 3. ver 7. and so the highest piece of mercy which we can shew to sinners for God is to be instrumentall in the saving of them bowels of mercy in us evidence Gods electing grace unto us Col. 3. ver 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy and sure we cannot shew more bowells in any act of mercy to man then in endeavouring his salvation Consider Consid 2. There is a great honour to the Lord Jesus Christ when sinners are savingly brought in unto him it is a jewell added to the glorious diadem of King Jesus Psal 45.3 David speaking in the spirit unto ' King Jesus bids him gird his sword upon his thigh which was the Ensign of his prowesse and regal power and adds with thy glory and thy Majesty implying that when people fall under him i. e. are converted and submit unto him it tends to advance his glorious Majesty Prov. 14. ver 28. In the multitude of people is the kings honour Zion and Babylon are the two great Empires of the world that under Christ this under Belial now one great part of Christs honour as he is King of Zion consists in the multitude of converts who being brought over from the devils quarters become his subjects it is said 1 Sam. 31. ver 12. That all the valiant men of Jabesh-Gilead went all night and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his sons from the walls of Bethshan and came and brought them to Jabesh let me allude this how is the glory of Christ advanced when all the valiant men Ministers and Christians go forth in the strength of the spirit of Christ to fetch off not the bodies onely but the souls also of men and women from Bethshan and bring them to Jabesh from sin to sanctity from Beth-aven to Bethel Converted ones are as Trophees after victory living monuments of honour to a conquering Christ Phil. 1.20 2 Thes 1.11 12. in the places where they live how then should the sence of that honour which is gained for Christ in gaining sinners from Sathan unto Christ act and spirit the Saints in this great undertaking Consid 3. Consider that the providences of God which have gone over and through these Nations in the years last past do speak the Saints duty and their hope of successe in what is now proposed how many storms of warre have been upon the land how fierce and full of rage hath the enemy been how many plots and engines of policy have been contrived how have men of popish and prophane principles and spirits struck at the very root of profession how have they designed the extirpation of the godly Being confident and insolent they bear their noses high in the air uttering loud and lofty languages as Rabshekah did 2 King 18. to which times this Psalme is referred by some Mr. Trap. in loc They that hate thee have lift up their heads I do not say nor think that all they which lifted up their heads in the late warres under the royall banner were haters of God nor of his people as such though they were lifted up very high in their mistaken zeal for Kingly interest and in conscience of the oath of God which they judged lay'd such obligations upon them yet certainly without any breach of charity we may boldly affirm that there were a company of men not inconsiderable for number who took crafty councel against the Lord's people and consulted against his hidden ones ver 3. and spake out doubtlesse their very hearts and desires come let us cut them off from being a nation or from having any place of residency in the nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance was not this attempted at least against the godly party as Schismaticks and rebells so I limit their attempt for we had many pittifull Parliamentarians who might have gone in the throng of the most ungodly Cayaliers and in likelyhood would have found favour both for life and estate if the issue of the warre had gone for the King and hath not the Lord broken them and their plots in pieces hath he not fastened his people as a nail in a sure place Isa 22. ver 23. what think you then are not these mercies obligations upon you from the Lord to pursue his honour are they not opportunities put into your hands to advise exhort and perswade your families friends and neighbours and help them to heaven O what a pattern of Gospel-charity is good Cornelius Act. 10. ver 24. He had called together his kinsfolks and near friends to partake with him in that word of salvation which Peter from the Lord was to bring unto him how desirous was he to take them all into the Gospel-wherry that they might all be wafted over to the Lord Jesus therefore ver 33. he tell 's Peter We are all here present before the Lord to hear all things that are commanded thee of God O that such a gaining spirit such a winning carriage was in all the Saints Indeed when Religion was under the hatches in the nation and the old Puritans were underlins in every town they might have feared Lot's return from the wicked Sodomites and that dogs would have snarled at them if they had given holy things unto them but now that godlinesse is advanced to the throne that the people of the God of Abraham are as Princes among the people Psal 47. ver 9. and that the Kingdome and the Dominion in a considerable measure is given to the people of the Saints of the most high Dan. 7. ver 27. they
in spiritualls Who is he that shall deliver out of my hands I le make you know that ye are wrastling not with flesh and bloud men that are your matches but with principalities and powers who are much above your match there is impar congressus a great disparity in strength and wisdome and all things between me and you What are all the powers of the world to the God of this world what are all the dark plots of men to the projects of the Prince of darkness What are all the whiffling waters to the great Apollion who is the destroyer why answer greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 thy power Sathan is but a limitted power Christ our Redeemer hath thy chain in his hand thou canst not break one link of it nor pass one hairs breadth beyond thy boundaries besides Thou canst have no power against me except it be given the from above If thy Commission hath not pass'd the Signet-Office in heaven it is but a blank piece of parchment Nay farther thy head and thy heart and thy hand too have been all at work in those mischiefs that were plotted and acted against us and yet thou seest we have a sure footing in peace and safety when we were under water we had never come up again but had been quackned in the deep if the strength of thine arm could have kept our heads down when we were shut up in prison we had never came forth if thy bolts and locks could have made fast the doors when we were under the power of our enemies we had never come of with life if thy malice could have turned the points of their weapons against us But God made us to be pitied of all those that carried us away captive Psal 106. ver 46. Our sicknesses had been mortal if thou couldest have spilt the potion or stirred up the humours to have encreased the malignancy of the distempers but in all things wherein thou didst deal proudly God was above thee and he that rebuked thee in thine instruments will rebuke thee also in thine agency He that defeated thee as worldly Governors will defeat thee as spirituall wickedness also That wisdome goodness and power which secured our temporalls against thee will much more secure their spiritualls If thou couldest not spill our blood much less shalt thou be able to split our souls If thou couldest not take away our credit we are sure thou shalt not take away our crown If our goods were out of thy reach much more shall our graces and our glory be He that delivered us out of the mouth of the Lion will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us to his heavenly kingdome But further if Sathan shall argue Who doubts the power of God or who disputes against his omnipotency but wherefore should God put forth his Almightiness to secure you against me what claim can ye make to that mercy and goodness ye speak of let your reply be Gal. 1. ver 4. That Christ gave himself for your sinnes that he might deliver you from this present evil world according to the will of God even your father And that sin and Sathan are they that make this present world evill all evills flow from them If therefore God our father willed the death of his Son to deliver us from this present evil world he willed his death to deliver us from thee and that bastard brat of thine sin also And more John 14. ver 30. The Lord Jesus said of thee the Prince of this world hath nothing in me nor any power over me and if not in Christ then neither in us at least not over us so that thou shalt be able to undoe us and destroy us We are one with Christ he is the head and we the members and we can lay a Gospel claim which is a good title to all Christ and to all of Christ which is communicable to the creature The Apostle gives us good warrant 1 Cor. 3. ver 21. All things are yours and why ye are Christs yea so Christs as that Christ is yours a relative propertie as is between husband and wife Hence 1 Cor. 1. ver 30. He is made unto us of God wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption as if the Apostle had said the wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption which are in and wrought by Jesus Christ are by deed of gift through grace made over unto us So then against thy wiles and stratagems and cunning methods O Sathan We have the wisdome of Christ which is ours for direction to secure us Against thy accusations enditements and charges for sin we have the righteousness of Christ which is ours for justification to acquit us against those heart-defilements corruptions and concupiscences wherewith thou wouldst soil us and foil us we have the holiness of Christ which is ours for Sanctification in some measure to defend us and against thy might and malice treachery and tyranny we have the kingly office of Christ his authority his omnipotency which are ours as to Redemption to protect us Oh this this name of the Lord thus displayed and believed upon is a strong tower in the hour of temptation All the batteries of Hell cannot make a breach in it Now then get into this hold shut the doors upon you and let your temporal preservations be as locks and barrs to forbid Sathans entrance Lift up your shield of Faith embossed with your own experiences and wherever that Lion shall roar upon you give him battel fight him upon his own ground be steadfast in the faith keep true to your own experiences and believe without wavering the unchangeableness of Gods nature and Attributes and the Yea and Amen of all his Promises Improve the sense of eminent mercies and deliverances by way of comfortable assurance to your selves in all your castings down and fears of your eternal welfare But I shall speak little and warily on this head having touched upon it already in a foregoing use and least presumption should get up and carnal Professours should kindle a fire fetching fuel from this passage and compass themselves about with sparks walking in the light of this fire and in the sparks which they have kindled which notwithstanding all these confidencies their doom is pronounced by the Lord himself that they shallly down in sorrow Isa 50. ver 11. Indeed this humour is very ranck Ministers cannot with all their pains preach and pray and print it down And therefore I direct this discourse to the children of the new birth who have the witness within themselves of the work and truth of grace such may fetch much comfort from the appearances of God unto them in a day of distress they may argue Is not the life more worth them meat and the body then raiment Is not the soul more precious then name credit limbs and life Have the mercies of God been so signally remarkeable upon a temporal
and shall they not be much more upon a saving account was the red sea dried up a pathway made through the wilderness Jordan made fordable and the Cananites slain even with hailstones from heaven and all this to give Israel possession of an earthly Canaan and shall not the outgoings of grace and outstretching of power be much more glorious to bring us to heavenly Canaan to that City which hath foundations and walls whose builder and maker is God Oh! reason up faith and hope to an exspectancy of after blessedness by considering the blessed presence and good will of him that dwelt in the bush in present comforts present succours and present deliverances I shall onely propose the presidency of Saint Paul under a remarkeable preservation even from the Tyrant Nero 2 Tim. 4. ver 17 18. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord will deliver me out of every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdome You may find much of this in David arguing from temporalls to eternals observe that Psal 23. ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever which sometimes is taken for heaven Domus majestatis that upper house that house of State in which Christ sayes John 14. ver 2. There are many mansions Saint Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. ver 1. an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so Psal 17. ver ult Oh in all your sinkings of spirit let the sense of mercy received be as a cordial unto you and assure your selves that if in famine sword peril nakedness c. ye have been more then conquerours through Christ that loved you get up your hearts to this perswasion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord Rom. 8. ver 37.38 39. or hinder you of heavens happiness which is the fruit of Gods Electing love and the purchase of the Redeeming love of Jesus Christ your Lord O then comfort one another with these words I am come now to the fifth and last Use Is it so that the best of Saints are often brought into suffering conditions that their afflictions are sharp and violent that the appearances of God are eminent and immediate to their help in the day of their distress Is this a truth attested by the experience of Saints in all ages and cannot their enemies deny this why then here is a rod for the backs of fools a sharp reproof for the profane and carnal world in 3 Particulars 1. It reproves them for their uncharitable censuring of the suffering Saints what more usual then for wicked men to entertain hard thoughts and let fly in harsh speeches against the people of God in distress measuring their sinnes by their sufferings and if their calamities exceed others their iniquities exceed them also laying down this false position that the greatest sufferers are sinners and that when the rod is most the wrath of God is most also not considering that of the Apostle Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth laying down an exemption from the rod as a note of Bastardie or that Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten This was practised by Shimei in that great day of Davids distress when he fled from his rebellious son 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Come out come out thou bloudy man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the bloud of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned and the Lord hath delivered the kingdome into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou art taken to thy mischief or taken into thy wickedness because thou art a murtherer as some Translations read it and as agrees with the Hebrew This was the Interpretation that Eliphaz put upon Job's sufferings Job 4.7 8. Rememember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same thereby wounding him in his holiness and heart-sincerity yea upon the matter charging him to be a son of Belial and that because God was now writing such bitter things in the bloud of his cattel servants and children yea in black characters of sore displeasure upon his own body It was not much to be heeded that the Barbarians fastened the guilt of murther upon Paul because the viper fastened upon his hand Acts 28. ver 4. But that the viper should fasten upon the hearts of men and women under the same common Profession with us that the venom of the old Serpent should swell to such a degree of censuring and uncharitableness is much to be lamented and doubtless some will smart for these hard speeches when Jesus Christ shall come with ten thousands of his saints Jude ver 14 15. Then shall they know the English of that Text 1 Pet. 1.6 and the ends of God in afflicting his precious ones 2. For their unjust charge of Hypocrisie upon them who so envious as evil men who are so much the objects of their envy as the godly are and why is their malice so much against them surely it is upon the account of Religion of differencing Grace and holiness This was the seed of the first quarrel betwixt man and man this was that which made Cain a fratricide and wherefore slew he his brother because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous 1 John 3.12 and now though the laws of men and the power of God restrain wicked men from murdering the godly yet they shed the bloud of their soules and slay their sincerity by charging Hypocrisie upon them which is the highest degree of murther and that which the seed of Cain shall one day pay dearly for But what makes them so bold to call the Saints Hypocrites what colour have they for such a charge or what ground have they thus to traduce the sincere servants of the Lord why the false gloss they put upon the humbling Providences of God they expound unsoundness of body in them to an infallible Evidence of an unsound spirit rottenness in their bones to be the proper fruit of a rotten heart and that the voyce of the Lord in their present sufferings doth fully speak all their professing praying watching waiting humility and holiness to be but mere dissembling what do the arguings and deportments of Job's three friends import and in special that passage of Bildad Job 8.6 7. to the end of the Chapter If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make thy righteousness prosperous What doth this Hypothesis this uncharitable Supposition import but a secret charge of Hypocrisie may it not be sensed thus ah Job thou wantest that heart-purity and
I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within the dayes appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together to Michmash therefore said I the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I forced my self therefore and offered a burnt offering O then take heed of impatiency wait upon the Lord in your distresses wait his time and wait for help in his wayes Do not limit the Holy One of Israel Do not preoccupate the Lord lest you forstall your own markets and forsake your own mercies This is recorded as a provoking sin in Israel Psal 78.41 That they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel designarunt they prescribed to him and set him bounds which he must not pass and this was done First By questioning his power vers 20. Can God help in such a straight can God deliver from such a distress will the Lord make windows in Heaven and rain down bread to supply in so great a famine as the unbelieving Noble-man suggested 2 Kings 7.1 2. God is limited when his will is circumscribed as if he was bound to serve mens lusts If Manna come to be loathed as light meat Quailes must be sent though they die with the meat in their mouthes ver 30 31. 3. When men appoint God what means he shall use to accomplish and perfect their deliverance by thus Israel will acquaint God and herein limit him that the onely means of their safety lay in having a King to fight their battels for them 1 Sam. 8.20 4. In limiting God his time he must come in with succours as in their wayes so in their time and if Jehovah miss but a minute if he out-stay the time designed by them then they swell look big and grow impatient and with Jehoram They will wait for the Lord no longer 2 Kings 6.33 I but see how Israel sped for their limiting and setting down bounds to the Lord why Psalm 78.59 60. When God heard this their carnal arguings sinfull murmurings and froward resolutions because God would not serve their turns in every point he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel Oh! 't is a sad thing to be a Person or People of Gods abhorrencie therefore wait and be silent 't is the Prophets counsel and very seasonable in the case propounded Zech. 2.13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy habitation 4. This grand Consideration That God doth seasonably and fully appear to the help of his people in the day of their distress drawes up a high charge against those who have experienced this truth and do not keep up Records of their deliverances and preservations who retain not a sense and remembrance of the great mercies of God towards them neither give him the glory of them It is a common saying and grown proverbial that Injuries are ingraven in brass but curtesies are written upon the sands wish there was not a truth in this It seems it was true amongst the Israelites God had done them many a good turne the Prophet gives a large Catalogue of them in Psal 106.13 They soon forgat his works they made hast to forget them they were wash'd off with the next tide they had the Lientery which is a kind of Flux in the stomach not retaining nor concocting the meat which is received but for want of due heat and a retentive quality in the stomack the meat passeth suddenly away raw and undigested and the parts of the body receive little or no nourishment from the choisest food Truely most men have this spiritual Lientery their memories are so fluid and slippery that the choicest mercies and deliverances make but a little stay upon them neither is there a due proportion of that noble and sacred heat whereby they may be concocted and turned into spiritual Chyle and nourishment How wan and weak how crazy and consumptive are many mens soules notwithstanding all those-choice dainties of Providences and Ordinances God hath spread their tables with and whence is this leanness and listlesness whence comes it that the mercies of God bred no more noble and generous spirits in many persons sure it proceeds from that unhappy flux that most are subject unto If we could retain a right sence of eminent mercies upon our hearts there would be a better concoction we should be more lively and more spirituall in our returnes unto God and in our actings for God The Lord layes this much to heart and it kindles great displeasure in him Hos 13.5 6. The Lord rub's up Ephraim's memory and tells him I did know thee in the wilderness in the land of great drought God knew them First In respect of their sinnes to visit for them Secondly In regard of their wants to provide for them The History of Gods Justice and his Providence whilest Israel was in the wilderness speaks fully to both these A very large account may be given of the eminent and glorious acts of the Lords bounty and goodness to them when they were in a low condition Read Mr. Burroughs Notes upon the place where he enumerates many But now when God had brought them through Jordan and possessed them of Canaan that they were filled and filled it is repeated in that fresh and fat pasture their heart was exalted and they forgot God But how doth the Lord take this why see Therefore will I be unto them as a Lion as a Leopard in the way will I observe them I will meet them as a Bear robbed of her whelps sure there must needs be great displeasure when the Father of mercies puts on the nature of such fell and fierce beasts and I will rent the caul of their heart and there will I devour them like a Lion Note the wilde beast shall tear them Put all the dreadfulness of all the creatures in the world together and all that is in the wrath of God O dreadfull consideration who knoweth the power of thy wrath Some think these wilde beasts do point to the 4 Monarchies Mr. Burroughs in locum by which God determined in after times to punish this people as Dan. 7.3 The Babilonish Empire was set forth by a Lion the Persian by a Bear the Grecian by a Leopard and the Roman by the Wilde beast so that Israels case must needs be sad when they are given as a prey to these beasts and this is engraven as an Epitaph upon their Grave-stones O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self O lay this to heart and forget not the mercies of the Lord unto you 5. Those are reprooved who though they remember the mercies of God tell large stories of their eminent preservations and seem to be much affected in reporting of them which signifies little in Gods account yet they do not live up unto them they do not receive any teaching from them more to engage their hearts to God but live as loosly