4.37 And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he CHOSE their Seed after them and brought thee out in his sight with mighty power so Deut. 7.7 The Lord did not set his love upon you nor CHVSE you because you were more in number then any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you c. At first God did out of his meer accord chuse Abraham and his Seed and having in love chosen them he continues his kindness and goodness to them that he might keep his Covenant and his Mercy that he promised to Abraham Poor Soul this I would now say to thee Israel was found out by the Lords Grace and that Grace may also fix upon thee It was not any thing that was in Israel but meerly the good pleasure of God that chose them to be his People and the same Grace of God may chuse thee and plant thee among his People and give thee with them a pleasant portion 2. When God first chose Israel he found them in as wretched and sad a condition as thine can be thy case cannot be worse then the case of Israel was when the Love and Grace of God fixed upon them Ezek. 16.1 Thus saith the Lord to Jerusalem Thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother a Hittite Canaan were a People originally without the knowledge of God in their enmity against God This says God was Israel when first I found them without the knowledge of God and at as great a distance from God as persons could be Let the Devil say the worst against thee that he can he can but say thou art by nature at enmity with God filled with all the Principles of Sin and so was Israel as well as thou and that Grace that yet pitied Israel in this his low estate can also reach thy Soul 3. Israel when first God did him good was in as hopeless and helpless a condition as thine can be So he goes on Ezek. 16. And as for thy Nativity in the day thou wast born thy Navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all none Eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee to have compassion upon thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born What is more helpless and shiftless then an Infant just taken from the Womb not able to do its self the least service This was Israel's condition when the Lord first found them not in a capacity of moving one step out of that wretched sinful corrupt and rebellious state And truly to this day the Israel of God in themselves considered are altogether unable to act for God and his Glory but as they are assisted with power from on high Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I Righteousness and Strength even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Israel in their best state cannot glory in themselves nor in any strength of their own but must look upon themselves as weak Creatures onely as they are strengthened by the Lord unto any good Word and Work Soul this I would say Thou canst but be a shiftless helpless Creature unable to move a foot forward or to further thy own Everlasting Concernments in the least and this is to be in no worse state then God found his own People in and that Grace by which they were brought near to God can and may also work for the good of thy Soul 4. Consider further That the very same Promises of Mercy are made unto poor sinners to this day Promises of a part in those very good things which Israel is possessed of All the blessings of the Covenant are freely offered and tendred to Sinners to this hour Hence are all the gracious Promises made to the Gentiles up and down the Word of Truth of which you have more then a few The first of which as I suppose is in Gen. 9.27 God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his Servant This is the first Promise ever made to the Gentiles and some render the word Deus alliciet Japhethum God shall allure or perswade Japheth and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem Japheth is put for the Gentile-World for by him the Isles of the Gentiles were inhabited Gen. 10.2 and 5. compared You shall find if you look in Luk. 3.36 and downward Christ was of the Race of Shem and the import of the Promise is this When God says he will perswaded Japheth to dwell in the Tents of Shem he means he will overcome the hearts of the Sinners among the Gentiles to come to an amity and friendship with Jesus Christ as co-habitation denotes amity and it is a word full of Grace and Favour as it can hold But more plain and full is that word Gal. 3.13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree that the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ It was the design both of the Father and the Son that all the Blessings of the death of Christ should reach unto the Sinners among the Gentiles that what ever Blessing was promised first to Abraham unto his Seed the same Blessing also should be made over and given in to every poor sinner among the Gentiles that shall come and submit themselves unto the Lord Jesus Well then Is not this greatly for thy comfort If thou sayest I am not Israel yet here is room and way made for thee It is the intendment both of Father and Son to let in thy Soul into all the Blessings and Mercies promised unto the Israel of God 5. Consider this also poor Sinner if thou art yet in thy sin and estrangement from God That it is the real design and intendment of God both in the Judgement that thou hast seen and the Escape thou hast had in and under these Calamities to bring thee among the number of his own People What is the design of God in all his Controversies with the World It is to bring them to kiss the Son the great Controversie is That People will not take the Yoke of Christ upon them and therefore sometimes he drives sometimes he draws and all means he uses that he may overcome the hearts of poor Sinners See the goodness he shews the mercy he follows them with in sparing and preserving them it is to this great end That his goodness might lead them to repentance and to a real subjection to the Lord Jesus Therefore Soul though thou hast stood long in ways of Rebellion against Christ
a supposition and hope to preserve their worldly interest they set themselves against Christ himself Joh. 11.48 If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation This their design proved abortive that which they intended for the promoting of their carnal ends let in the Enemy upon them like a flood to the utterruine of them and their City Never yet did any sell a Gospel to gain a Trade but ran an eminent hazard of selling themselves into ruine and misery 7. Incorrigibleness Jerusalems scum went not out of her as the Prophet complains A fire was kindled under her she was in distress but yet sin was not purged out She received not correction as it is expressed Zeph. 3.1 Judgments are Gods last Remedy if they do no good the Patient must die without a miracle of mercy Thirdly Sins have been the ruine of Cities by their turning God to be against them So long as a People or Place can say The LORD is with us they stand firm God is the Rock of Persons Cities and Nations if they sell or forfeit their Rock he will also sell them or give them into the hands of spoilers A People and Places that God has wrought for must not suppose the presence and care of God so entaild upon them that he will stand by them be it right or wrong If they turn their backs upon God cast off the thing that is good serve their lusts seek themselves scoff at Holiness tread his People in the dirt pervert all Equity and Right call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness God will also turn himself against such and fight against them as an Enemy Wo to them that have God against them Wo unto them when I depart from them saith God Hos 9.12 Jerusalem's doom was Saith the Lord God behold I even I am against thee and will execute Judgements in the midst of thee It is a great vanity in some who when they have provoked God to his face and done evil even to the uttermost they can do imagine the breach may be repair'd with a little feigned Humiliation upon whom that Text looks very sadly Jer. 14.12 When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer Burnt Offering and an Oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them c. Sometimes God is so turned against Cities that he will not accept of the mediation of his People for them and this was the case in the Text but now cited v. 11. God saith to Jeremiah Pray not thou for this People God when turned against Jerusalem saith to Ezekiel Son of man wilt thou judge wilt thou judge the bloody City some render it An causam ageres an causam ageres Civitatis istius Wilt thou plead for that City No saith God thou shalt not set upon such lost labour Noah Daniel and Job can sometimes onely deliver their own Souls God Almighty keep his Noahs Daniels Jobs whatever may be the lot of others Fourthly There is no fence against Divine Displeasure nothing can be a security to that place against which God is turned Jerusalem was once supposed to be impregnable hence when David went to take it they set the blind and lame to keep it as a Guard conceived sufficient to defend it from all Assaults yet was it trodden down when God armed an Enemy against it Tyrus was wasted in the day of Gods displeasure although rich and strong in Shiping and what else might be accounted the strength of a place Fifthly God wants not ways to lay Cities low if his Mind be engaged against them He may possibly not do it all at once but he can do it gradatim by degrees He saith of Tyrus Bring it out piece by piece Ezek. 24.6 The remains after one Judgement he can take off by another What survives the Pestilence may fall by the Sword and Famine And great is the Equity of God in dealing thus with Cities and places of eminency They are the Heads from whence other places receive influence If sin abound in Cities it is from them proppagated thorow all places that have commerce with them or depend upon them It is said of Babylon Rev. 17.1 The Kings of the Earth and Inhabitants of the Earth have been made to drink of the wine of her fornication Should you now put the question to me that the People once did to Ezekiel Wilt thou tell us what these things are to us My Answer is Be you faithful to your selves and compare your selves with what I have laid before you and so may you come to inform your selves how far these things concern you What your sins are you know or may know You have been and yet are under the Rod. Under your Glory a burning is kindled I wish it may be extinct ere it consume both Root and Branch Three things there are that speak for you I wish they may out-cry your Provocations 1. There are many among you in whom the Lord takes pleasure however they are by some lightly esteemed 2. You have been a Refuge to the Needy in their distress What day you cease so to be you will augment my fears and perhaps your dangers also 3. Some among you have lately with chearfulness received the Gospel Certain it is your Rowers have brought you into Great Waters as the Prophet speaks Ezek. 27.26 God Almighty work you to a repenting broken frame that the Lord may repent him of the Evil. Nineveh had perished had they not put on their Sackcloth The Lord humble you for Crying Sins and give you New Spirits that you may not go on in ways of Provocation A part of what is your present Duty the following Treatise may possibly give you a little light into I have used freedom and plainness with you let it not be to me according to that Old Saying Obsequium Amicos veritas odium parit I am satisfied in what I have written having a witness in my self I desire not the woful day but am among the number of Your hearty Well-wishers Thomas Blake To the READER READER APologies for appearing in publick are so common and sometimes so full of vanity that they create suspitions of Pride and Vain-glory in the spirits of men rather then remove such stones of stumbling I shall therefore leave my integrity in this Vndertaking to Him whose prerogative it is to try the spirits Onely know Having upon some ground published something at the beginning of this Calamity I thought it not amiss to follow it with some suitable Word now we are as is hoped drawing towards a period of this sore slaughter Be assured I shall not any more for ever trouble the World with any thing in this way unless upon some special occasion and more then ordinary Call My design in the whole is to speak something that Saints may know their Duty being escaped and to bear up
for a time they shall be dealt withall according to the violence done to the Saints of God The violence done to me and to my Flesh be upon Babylon shall the Inhabitants of Zion say Isa 51.22 23. I have taken the cup of trembling out of thy hand that is out of Zions hand even the dregs of the cup of my fury thou shalt no more drink it again but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee which have said to thy Soul Bow down that we may go over and thou hast laid thy Body as the ground and as the street to them that went over They shall suffer too according to the contempt of the Gospel and the dishonour done to Christ that way for he shall come to deal with all them that do not know him and obey not the Gospel and also according to the sin of despising the forbearance of Christ Indeed this day you are escaped and the patience of Christ is exercised towards you but let me tell you if you stand and abide in your sinful state you shall find that the abusing of the patience of Christ is but treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath 5. Those that have escaped and not Israel they shall be compassed about with eternal Sorrows and shall never rise out of them Says the Church Though I fall I shall arise again and though I sit in darkness yet the Lord shall be a light to me Then shall she be confounded that is the Enemies of the Church shame shall cover her That will be the portion of every sinner though he may escape for a season shame shall cover him misery and distress shall abide him for ever VSE III. HAving dispatch'd the Second I come now to a Third Use which the former Uses necessarily lead unto It is a little to encourage the hearts of poor Sinners that possibly may be full of thoughts and desires that they might yet be brought into the number of Israel Methinks I do even hear some poor heart say If it be so well with them that are Gods Israel and so ill with them that are not Gods Israel What is there no hope for me though I am yet none of that number Must I for ever stay in that state of misery in which I am Must an eternal doom of Misery be entaild upon me I acknowledge my state is exceeding desperate and sad but is there no hope in Israel concerning this matter To that I answer If there be any poor sinner sensible of the misery of his condition that would gladly make an escape out of it Soul be not discouraged thy condition is not hopeless but be encouraged for there is a possibility that as thou hast escaped the dread and misery of this present day so thou mayst be delivered from that Christless state wherein thou art There are two Scriptures I would commend to you for this purpose the first is in Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the Name of Israel The words are both a Prophecy and a Promise and they do respect the Gentile-World that were at that time and long after in their sins in their state of estrangement from God here it is prophesied that yet there should be a flocking into Israel the number of Gods Israel should be greatly augmented and encreased It is promised that God would so prevail upon the hearts of some poor Sinners that they shall come and say I am the Lords and shall come and subscribe their hands to the Lord and shall sirname themselves by the Name of Israel that God would conquer them so far that they should see the need they had to be of that number that they shall resign and give up themselves to be of the Israel of God This is an encouraging word to the Sinner there is a possibility for them that were strangers to come and to name themselves by the Name of Jacob and subscribing to the Lord to take up that Name and so partake of the Priviledges of the Israel of God Take another Scripture Isa 19.24 25. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a Blessing in the midst of the Land whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the Work of my hands and Israel my Inheritance The import of the words is this Egypt and Assyria were some of the Enemies of God and his People at a very great distance from him but here is a Promise that they should come to be conquered and brought into subjection to the Lord and to be baptized into the Spirit of Israel to be blessed with the Blessing of Israel they shall speak the Language of Canaan they shall be of one Heart and one Lip with the Lords People Souls were you as Egypt and were you as the Assyrians Enemies to God and his People were you at the greatest distance from God that could be supposed Egypt had neither Ordinances nor Priviledges nor ought else that good was more then the creatures of the Earth and such-like things yet the Lord intimates here to us that they shall come to share in and divide a Blessing with Israel If thy estate were as one of them yet mayest thou as and according to the promise made to them be brought into the number that shall share in the Blessing of the Israel of God Therefore Soul though now thou art not of Israel yet it may be said to thee They have obtained Mercy which had not obtained This is the kindness of God that he is pleased to make blessed overtures of Mercy unto poor vile and unworthy Sinners But more then this for the encouragement of any Soul that may yet be in his Sins I would speak four or five things Thy condition is not desperate but thou mayst be brought into the number of the Israel of God and so partake of the same Mercy with them in thy escaping this day if thou dost consider 1. That Gods Israel came to be the People of God by choice and through the Grace and Goodness of God Israel were not born the People of God He chose Abraham and his Seed from the rest of the World to be a peculiar People to himself Hence it is that Israel often-times are called in Scripture Israel my CHOSEN so Psal 105.4 The Lord hath CHOSEN Jacob for himself and Israel to be his peculiar Treasure and in Isa 44.1 Israel is called there the Chosen of the Lord Yet now hear O Jacob my Servant and Israel whom I have CHOSEN They were chosen meerly from the good pleasure of God Choice it is a free Act in which there is no necessity and constraint so it was in God a free Act to pitch upon Israel to make them his People This account the Lord gives of it Deut.
slaughter to have Christ become glorious and excellent unto them And 2. That the issue of all those dreadful destroying Judgements that shall break forth in the world shall be the putting of glory upon the head of Christ and that glory upon Christ shall be to the good and benefit of those of Israel that shall escape the slaughter I shall begin with the first namely That it is a good issue of Slaughtering-Judgements upon them that out-live such calamities that Christ is become glorious and excellent in their accounts The Words do certainly relate to a Time of great slaughter such a slaughter that Jerusalem which was once a very populous City and the places of the greatest concourse in it which were the Gates for in the Gates Justice was executed and thither was a confluence of persons from all parts but such should be the slaughter that her Gates should lament and mourn and become desolate at this time there were some should escape God useth to have a remaining Remnant when his displeasure is at highest and what should this sad Judgement work upon them that should remain The Branch of the Lord should become glorious among them You read in the 78 Psalm vers 34 35. When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God and they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer When he slew them that is when he came forth with slaughtering Judgements as he did sometimes against Israel and particularly God smote them with Plagues more then once now what did they that remained and were left alive do they began to have more high and awful thoughts of the Lord then before the esteem of him was a little raised in their hearts they remembred he was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer thus far they went well onely that which followeth spoiled all in vers 36 37. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant if really the esteem of the Lord had been raised in their hearts they had been an excellent People and the Lords Judgements had wrought kindly You shall find the Lord complains for the want of such a spirit in Hos 11.7 God called there to the People and how He called by mercy I drew them with the cords of a man with the bands of love vers 4. that is I treated them kindly he called them by Judgements as you see in vers 6. The Sword shall abide on his Cities and shall consume his Branches and devour them what did God expect should be the answer unto his Call and the fruit of all his Dispensations it was that they should have exalted him honoured him and admired him at a greater rate then before but because they did not God took it ill and reckoned that his Providences had not a kindly reception among them Psal 2.6 Yet says he have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion which words are not onely a Prophecy concerning that Kingdom Christ shall have but declarative of that Kingdom he hath viz. his Providential Kingdom by which he manages and governs affairs in the World now in the management of it what doth he do sometimes as in vers 9. he rules them with a Rod of Iron and dashes in pieces like a Potters Vessel but what should they do that should out-live such Providences you shall see the Fruit that should grow upon this Root Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way Christ expects when he is abroad with his Iron Rod and dashing Earthen Vessels to pieces as he hath this day they that stand on their feet not dashed to pieces as others of the same mould he expects higher thoughts of himself and to be more esteemed by them and if he fail of his expectation let them remember that they are but Clay and therefore in the way not out of danger Jer. 51.50 Ye that have escaped the Sword go away stand not still remember the Lord afar off and let Jerusalem come into your mind God was abroad with the Sword it may be the material Sword and it may be with such a Sword of the Angel as he hath lately been cutting withall what should the Escaped do Remember the Lord Remember him you will say what is that Give me leave to open it unto you a little because I shall use the term again anon To remember the Lord implies two things among others 1. To have the heart wrought up into the fear of the Lord to sanctifie his Name Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy that is sanctifie the Sabbath so remember the Lord that is fear him let his Name be great his honour be dear unto thee Remember thy Creator what is that it is Give up thy self unto the Lord remember who he is and what he is and what he calls for from thee when a People sin against the Lord they are said to forget him many times so suitably to remember him is to fear him to honour him and lift up his Name 2. To remember the Lord is to love and delight in him to have a great esteem of him as the Lord saith Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him Gods remembring Ephraim was his love to and delight in Ephraim so our remembring the Lord is our loving of and delighting in him and this is the frame that should be found upon the hearts of them that escape sore Calamities To fear and magnifie to love and delight in him This indeed is a right Spirit and it is called for elsewhere Ezek. 6.9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the Nations whither they shall be carried Captives Time was when Israel had few and slight thoughts of God their Redeemer but when GOD had been at work among them by severe strokes those that did escape of them their Spirits should be much amended much altered for the better they should come and love him and fear him so as they did not before So Isa 10.20 And it shall come to pass in that day what day was that a day of great slaughter for vers 19. The rest of the Trees of his Forrest shall be few that a Child may write them a Child that is but a bad Arithmetician should be able to number them that should remain the smallness of them should be such It shall come to pass that the Remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again stay upon him that smote them but shall stay upon the Lord the holy One of Israel in truth staying upon the Lord is an Act of Faith and Acts of Faith do greatly glorifie Christ and speak the Heart much delighted in him if thou be'st not taken with him thou
make the fall of his Servants of greater use then their standing on Earth could have been be confident God resolveth to make the most of every one of his People they are precious unto him and shall not lightly fall to the Earth but if they do fall it shall be because he knows how to make their fall promote his glory as in Martyrdom the death of a Saint furthers the interest of Christ more then his living could do and so it is here God by this means vindicates his own Holiness when he lets a Saint fall in a Calamity he doth abundantly evidence his own Holiness to the World and let men see that if sin be found in his own he will punish it and that sharply even to a temporal death which is a high testimony of Gods purity and contrariety unto all sin A notable word you have Exod. 23.20 21. Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my Name is in him Observe the Angel here is the Lord Jesus who hath the command of Life and Death he sometimes cuts off some of his own People because sin is found upon them he will not pardon but he will cut off and why The Name of the Lord is upon him he must vindicate Gods Honour his Holiness and for this end lets some of his People fall And truly this is use enough that God makes of his People if he pleaseth thus to deal with them This in answer to my first Objection Obj. 2. But how is the fall of Gods People in a common Calamity consistent with his Promise of special Preservation One such Promise you have in that famous place Psal 91.9 10. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my Refuge even the most High thy habitation there shall no evil befall thee nor shall any Plague come nigh thy dwelling and another such-like Promise you have Deut. 7.15 And the Lord will take away from thee all Sickness and will put none of the evil Diseases of Egypt which thou knowest upon thee but will lay them upon all them that hate thee How doth the Lords cutting off some of his People consist with these Promises Answ To that I answer These Promises are conditional as is evident and if we keep not the condition annexed to those Promises God is not bound to fulfil them in the Letter for that word in the 91st Psalm No Plague shall come nigh their dwelling I have hinted already that it may be taken otherwise then just according to the letter and where he saith No Plague it may be taken thus The Plague of the Plague shall not come nigh thy dwelling the Cause of it and wrath it shall not come into thy dwelling but take it as a Promise of special particular preservation and it is a Promise with a Condition the Condition is in the 9th vers Because thou hast made the Lord which is my Refuge even the most High thy habitation The Condition is abundance of Faith living in and living upon God and a little Unbelief one step awry in a way of Unbelief may forfeit thy interest in and good by this Promise and that is soon done It is a rare thing for a man to live in and upon the Lord to make him our Habitation at all times The Soul that doth not live up to the Condition may forfeit the Mercy promised As for that word Deut. 7. it is a Promise on Condition also the Condition of the Promise you find vers 12. Wherefore it shall come to pass if you hearken unto these Judgements and keep and do them that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the Covenant and the Mercy which he sware unto thy Fathers but now if any of the Lords People be found turning aside to crooked paths the Lord may lead them forth with the Workers of Iniquity to fall by the same stroke with them Obj. 3. If it be objected But these Dealings are not suitable unto the ancient Dealings of God with his own People for God hath sometimes been wont to cut down Sinners but spare his Saints Abraham hints so much in his pleading with God Gen. 18.23 24 25. Wilt thou also destroy the Righteous with the Wicked peradventure there be fifty Righteous within the City wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty Righteous that are therein that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the Righteous with the Wicked and that the Righteous should be as the Wicked that be far from thee should not the Judge of all the Earth do right and also that Exod. 12.29 30. where God cuts off the first-born of Egypt from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his Throne unto the first-born of the Captive that was in the Dungeon but not a hair of the head fell from any in Israel and he cuts them off by the Plague Answ For answer to this plainly thus Let the Scriptures and Cases be rightly considered and you shall find the answer easie In that case Gen. 18. where Abraham pleads for Mercy for Sodom because of the Righteous he doth suppose though Sodom was a wicked place there might be many found in Sodom that did not fall in with the abominations of that place for which God was coming to destroy them and by Righteous Ones he may mean those that were free in agreat measure from the crying Abominations for which God was coming to punish Now if the People of God do stand clear from all those Abominations for which he contends with a People then truly God will hardly cut them off but if he find them committing the sins for which he punisheth he may then suffer them to fall among them that fall This was the case in Egypt God comes forth to execute Judgements upon the Oppressors of his People the guilt was not in them they were onely the Sufferers therefore being free from the Sin God exempts them from any part in the suffering Which may be enough for answer to that Objection Obj. 4. If it be said But Israels Fall hath disappointed the Faith of many of the Lords People have not many of the Saints verily believed that the Lords People should not have been touched but God would distinguish between them and others Answ To that I answer That the confidence and expectation of some may be made void but God will not fail the Faith of any God fails no mans Faith if his Faith do not fail There is a vast difference between Confidence Expectation and Faith Faith is a rare thing a choice Plant and I believe it doth not spring forth into act even in the Garden of the Saints themselves as we are apt to imagine we many times think a groundless Confidence real Faith You shall find the expectation of a
yet the Blessings of Israel stand open for thee and the Door of Grace is wide open be confident if thou dost enter in close with and accept of Grace it will be as well with thee as with any of the Israel of God Consider thy hearty closing with Christ will not onely let thee into Mercy and Blessing of the present Day but it will let thee into Blessings of all kinds it will bring a Blessing upon thee in every Work and Way it will let thee into a part and share in the highest Priviledges that the Children of Men are capable of it will let thee into Sonship and Friendship with the great and holy God it will make thee blessed for Time and for Eternity Therefore fight not against thy own Mercies mind really and heartily what freeness and heartiness there is in the great God in setting before sinners all the Grace of the Covenant and what gladness it doth produce when poor Souls are willing to kiss the Son it will not onely produce Joy in thy own Soul it will not onely make glad the hearts of many of thy Relations and of thy Friends for possibly thou hast Relations and Friends that long to see Christ formed in thee that in every petition at the Throne of Grace their hearts are working for thy Soul and begging that thou mayst be a plant of Righteousness of the Lords own planting and nothing would glad them more then to see thee a Son and Heir of the Kingdom of God but also there will be Joy in Heaven Father Son and Spirit are gladded to see the designs of the death of Christ graciously accomplished upon the hearts of poor sinners Remember therefore I do this day in the Name of Christ invite thee to partake of all the Mercies which be the Mercies of Gods Israel And truly the Mercies of Israel are many there is Pardon there is Purging there is Adoption Sonship there is the Spirit to comfort you to lead you in every work and way there be the Promises made over to them there is mercy now and for ever A Kingdom the Lord has prepared for them that love him I invite thee to take a part in these things this day and forget it not that thou hast had a Call from the Lord at this time Soul I tell thee if thou dost stand it out against this Call of God truly though thou art escaped and thy life is given thee for a prey yet thou maist possibly be sealed up unto destruction thou maist be left to dye in thy sins and to fall for ever under the weight of divine displeasure for thy neglect and contempt of Gospel-Grace Be confident as Jesus Christ is now waiting upon poor Souls and offering Mercy to poor Sinners so when he comes to the glory that is reserved for him he will be found of power sufficient to recompence all that have trodden under foot the Blood of the Son of God and made light of those overtures of Mercy that have been tendred to them The Light is now with thee and the Lord is calling of thee therefore make peace while thou art in the way lest the Lord come forth against thee in his hot displeasure VSE IV. SOme methinks there are that are of trembling hearts and they cry It is true I am escaped but I fear I am none of the Israel of God My Use therefore would be to such as are of trembling spirits When they consider how good God has been to them they may possibly tremble lest at last they should lose the Mercy of this Mercy because they are not found among the Israel of God Many a Soul there is possibly cries out Israels Priviledges are too great for me to hope to have a part in them and Israels Spirit is a Spirit more excellent then ever I have been found in and therefore though I am escaped this day yet I want that which is the best piece of the Mercy of an Escape I would answer Know this O Soul that among the Israel of God there are many that are of fearful Spirits although they are really among the number of the Lords precious Ones they have not an Eye to see it nor Faith to believe it and so may possibly go mourning many days But what are thy Objections What makes thee fear Do not fear thou know'st not what nor why As we are to give a reason of our Hope so I would not have you fear without a reason Objection 1. Methinks the Soul says Gods Israel are a chosen People and the Election of God lies deep it is a secret lock'd up in his Bosom and I fear I have no part in the Election of God I fear the eternal thoughts of God did not concern themselves about such a weak and worthless Worm as I am Answer It is true the Election of God is a secret in the heart of God and secret things belong unto God things written and revealed belong to us It is not for me or thee to climb Heaven to search Records and at first dash to turn over the leaves of the Book of Life and to see whether we may find our Names therein written It is a great mistake upon which many run that would think to prove the truth of their being called by finding out whether they are elected or no it is an endless it is an impossible work This therefore know is thy work and mine to consult what effects of Electing Love we can finde upon our Souls if any thing of that be in thy heart thence thou mayst safely conclude thou wast in the heart of God from Eternity There is a Scripture that answers fully I think whatever the Soul can say in this matter 1 Thes 1.4 5. Knowing Brethren beloved your Election of God for our Gospel came not unto you in word but also in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake Consider whether the Gospel hath had its work upon thy heart whether it hath come with power upon thy Soul and if so others may know and thou mayst know from thence thine Election Election is an act of God that he passeth from Eternity but Calling is a work and Fruit of Election upon the Soul of a poor Sinner by which it may come to discover that it was in the thoughts of God before the foundation of the World was laid If therefore thou canst trace the footsteps of Gods going upon thy Soul and of his working in a Gospel-way upon thy heart thy Soul is safe and the thoughts of God thou mayst conclude were towards thee before thou hadst a being But Objection 2. The Soul objects I fear God hath not been at work upon me I could conclude Gods election of me if I could find a work of the Gospel passed upon my Soul I know the work of the Gospel is to cleanse and purifie the heart but sin and filthiness