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 sons 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 be slighted in his mercies and to be evil-intreated for his good will Oh! such returns are grapes of gall and bitter clusters they are laid up in store with him and sealed up amongst his treasures God bears them in minde they stick with him So Jer. 2. vers 6. They said not Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness through a land of desarts and of pits through a land of drought and of the shadow of death through a land that no man passed through an where no man dwelt They did not own God in these various and choice providences when their own turnes were served and they were quietly possessed of a land flowing with milk and honey they did not at all ask after God nor make mention of him he was grown a meer stranger in Israel all these acts of kindness had no work upon their hearts to fix them in the good wayes of God but they went far from God they ran after this and that Idol and changed their glory into that which did not profit Oh England see thine own face in this glass How do we run from errour to errour how do we set up our opinions as so many Idols to worship yea how have we turned our glory truth and holiness and the good old Puritan-zeal and sincerity which was our glory into disputes and wranglings anger and animosities which do not profit But to go on how doth the Lord take this why vers 9. he tells them he will plead with them commence a suit and lay his action in his high Court of Justice against them yea with their childrens children will he plead Oh it is very sad let us apply it the children yet unborn may rue their fathers wantonness of spirit it may make our preservations but reservations beleeve it friends God will not take this at our hands no more than at Israels he is not so prodigal of his mercies as to spend them alwayes on such unworthy persons Minde that Josh 24. vers 20. If yee forsake the Lord and serve strange gods then will be turn and do you hurt after he hath done you good he will turn the very mouthes of his Cannons against you Oh that England would lay this to heatt and all the faithful of the land had that text as a constant Remembrancer before their eyes both upon a personal and national account Jude vers 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this how that the Lord having saved the people out of Egypt afterward destroyed them that beleeved not The reason why the Apostle layeth down the example of Gods Justice upon the Israelites after he had fetched them out of Egypt by a deliverance so full of wonders you finde mentioned vers 4. becausesome men under profession Gods ancient judgements were ordained to be our warnings and examples for answerable practises make us partakers of their guilt and therefore involve us in their punishment See Mr. Manton in Iude p. 241.242 had turned the grace of God into wantonness translating it from its proper end by arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Devils Logick when as the right method is to argue from mercy to duty Oh let this be a seasonable word to all the Lords people what greater deliverance than that of Israel out of Egypt yet being abused by them their carkasses fell in the wilderness Joshua and Caleb onely excepted and what greater deliverances have many ages brought forth then these of ours yet how have we abused them how sadly may we fear that as England hath paralleld Israel in murmuring unthankfulness impenitency lustings and wantonness of spirit which are strange abuses of such glorious mercies so it may fare with us the men of this generation as it did with Israel some few Joshua's and Calebs onely excepted who follow the Lord fully I know this is much and sadly upon the spirits of some gracious ones who being mourners for these things are the marked ones of the Lord. I shall shut up this Use with two Scriptures the one of a national and the other of a personal reference Ez. 9. vers 13.14 it is that holy mans acknowledgement before the Lord in prayer After thou O God hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commondements and joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations Mark that and apply it to the times that are lately past wouldest thou not be angry with us until thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping In all the judgements wherewith God threatens his own people he ever promiseth a remnant shall be reserved but here such a sense of the greatness and provoking nature of sin wa upon this good mans spirit committed and continued in and after such a signal deliverance that God would go beyond all presidences and comminations even in the utter extirpation of them so that there should be no escaping No not for a remnant A sad storm after so sereno a calm a dreadful doomesday after so elear
The Art of Divine Improvement OR The Christian Instructed How to make a right use of Duties Dangers Deliverances Both as they concern himself and others Opened and applied in several SERMONS By NATHANIEL WHITING M.A. and Minister of the Gospel at Aldwinckle A work very suitable for all sorts of Christians and very seasonable for these times 1 Tim. 4.8 Exercise thy self unto Godliness LONDON Printed for R. T. and are to be sold by Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms next to Grocers-Alley in the Poultry 1662. 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
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 a people owned by God to the glory of being a people like unto God which last is the greater yea greatest glory 4. This inference may be drawn also That infidelity and dispondency of spirit in an evil day is very unsuitable to the saints of God for them to flagge in their faith and to be crest-fallen in their courage when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storme against the walls this is unworthy the name and frame of a right Christian Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord ought to be the charge of a Saint to his own heart even when he is brought to the very banks of the red Sea It is that which the Prophets of the Lord receive in Commission Isa 35. ver 3 4. strengthen yea the weak hands and confirme the feeble knees and how must this be done why it followeth Say unto them that are of a fearfull heart be strong fear not Alas how should weak hands be strong and a timorous heart cease to fear what is the cure of these distempers why Behold your God will come with vengeance even God with a recompence he will come and save y u he is on the way alreadie he will be suddenly with you and when he cometh he will save you I but saith a fearfull Saint What security have I for this why thou hast a double security First the Promises of God and secondly the experiences of the saints Psal 31. verse 19. Oh! how great is thy goodness which thou hast layed up for them that fear thee The new Covenant is Gods great Store-house wherein he hath stored up all help and comfort for his people Joseph in the time of great plenty built many store-houses wherein he laid up what corne could be spared and therewith gave a full supply to all the Egyptians when he brought it forth in the yeares of famine Thus the onely wise God depositeth mercy and goodness and power and comfort in his promises and when a time of dearth cometh upon his people then he openeth those store-houses and giveth them a full supply Then Secondly the other part of this security is in these words which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sonnes of men If the saints shall say we know there is enough laid up in the Promises but God keepeth the key and how shall we come by it at a time of need why here the Psalmist sendeth such querelous and distrustfull ones to the experiences which Gods people have had God hath wrought deliverances and wrought out the salvation of his beleeving ones in the times of their greatest straights yea the sonnes of men the seed of Ishmael have seen the opening of these store-houses to the people of God have seen how God hath hid them in the secret of his presence from the pride of men and kept them secretly in his pavillion from the strife of tongues and therefore be strong fear not The strength of the saints lyeth in the arm of the Lord and faith is the souls leaning upon it in a wilderness condition Cant. 8. vers 5. Now as the word of promise is the foundation upon which faith resteth So experience is the butteress that stayeth up faith which is to faith as Aaron and Hur were to Moses upon the mount Exod. 17. verse 2. They kept his hands steady to the going down of the Sun How did holy David stay up his faith even to the destance of the Philistine Champion who had defied the whole army of Israel at the sight of whom all the army of Israel fled and were sore afraid 1 Sam. 17.24 hear at what a rate of holy confidence he speaketh Vers 32. Let no mans heart fail because of him what a hurry is here in the camp what distractions are here amongst the valiant ones of Israel what a strange fear seizeth upon you do not trouble your selves I will go and fight with this Philistin bravely spoken it argueth a bold magnanimous spirit I but saith the King of Israel to him Vers 33. Thou art not able to go against this Philistin to fight with him for thou art but a youth and he a man of war from his youth and therefore it will be impar congressus a very unequal match and Israels condition is like to be very sad seing their perpetual slaverie or liberty dependeth upon the issue of this duel if thy life be lost Israels freedome is lost also A consideration enough to have cow'd a puissant and most expert souldier and that which in probability made Jonathan and the worthies of Israel decline the combat yet see how little David standeth upon his tip-toes and by faith overlooketh this towring Giant Ver. 34 35 36. David said unto Saul thy servant kept his fathers sheep and there came a lyon and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock and I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth I it may be he was a tame Lyon that would not turn upon him yes he arose against me and I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew
among the Nations and their off-spring among the people so that all they that seem may acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Isa 61. vers 9. Suffer therefore an unworthy Son of Zion and Minister of the Gospel for the good of a part of that people over which the Lord hath set you to be a Remembrancer from the Lord unto you that mercies received may be improved by you and enkindle an holy zeal for God in you 1. To make good the Covenants and Oaths of your God which are upon you and into which by your authority and ensample at least many of you we entred that the sense of Covenant-mercies may provoke unto Covenant-duties for the advancement of the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus in unity peace purity and the power of godliness that Sabbath-strictness may be asserted by you Gospel-Ordinances may be vindicated a Professing-people may be countenanced a faithful Ministry may be still incourageed and protected such bounds may be set to that act for liberty that Heterodox opinions may not like a land-flood overflow the Nation but that horrid Impostors and notorious offenders may be punished that all Israel may hear and fear Deut. 13. vers 11. And that the anointing of God may give you safe rules of tenderness that guilt may not lye upon you from God nor just blame from good men for that softness of spirit you shew towards the Lords people who in these times of light and liberty do conscientiously act under different perswasions in indifferent things and therefore do much stand in need of Christian and prudent Moderators who may keep our fingers out of one anothers consciences may protect us from the violence of imposing spirits and principles and that uniformity may not be pressed with a Prelatical but with an Evangelical spirit in disciplinary points when the winde bloweth high and cross if the Pilot doth not wisely govern the helme the ship is in danger to be split at least much of the precious lading to be lost 2. That a sense of eminent preservations may stir you up to a careful suppression of sin and wickedness by a vigorous pursuit of such penal Laws as are now in force and by enacting more severe or adding to the former wherein they are defective that the Nation may not abound with oaths pride drunkenness thefts uncleanness oppression by depopulating inclosures and other abominations as it hath done and still doth nor mourn under a sad fear of that great controversie which the Lord may justly take up against it for them Hos 4. vers 1 2 3. That in order to this active and conscientious Magistrates may be placed in every County godly and stirring officers may be chosen and encouraged in every Town which affordeth persons meet for such a trust that the number of Ale-houses which have been the seminaries and seed-plots of vice and villanies may still be suppressed as they have lately been in great measure by the care of some worthy persons among us and that in order to both the Tables you may be a terrour to evill works not bearing the sword in vain Rom. 13. vers 3 4. having this inscription engraven upon all your Judiciary proceedings as was upon the sword of Charles the Great Decem preceptorum custos Carolus Charles is keeper of the ten Commandements and that upon account of your lenity and remisness to offenders that may not justly be said unto you by the Saints as was by the poor Smith to the Lantgrave of Thuring Duresce Duresce O infoelix Lantgrave 3. Improve your share in National mercies and personal yea Magistratical preservations to the comfort and countenance of the good people of the land though poor and inconsiderable upon any worldly account These all along have prayed for you and ventured all under you that you may speak those words Zech. 12. vers 5. The Governors of Judah shall say in their heart the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Surely the people of the Land who have a Covenant-interest in the Lord of Hosts have been much your strength under God both upon the Mount by praying and in the valley by fighting when your straights have been the greatest Oh then what Rabshekah spake in a bad sense give me leave to speak with some change of words in a good sense Isa 36. verf. 9. How then will ye turn away the face of one Captain of the least of my Masters servants So just how then will ye turn away your faces from the complaints of the least of my Masters servants the Saints and subjects of the King of Zion or how then will you dis-ingage the least of them that they should turn away their faces from praying for you much less turn their prayers against you Oh remember they have been your strength in the day of battel your sleighting of such in their addresments unto you and not pleading their cause in case of wrong and oppression when their Adversaries have been too mighty for them and relief could only be had from a Court of Equity and in a course of equity hath been much complained of upon earth and will hear very ill in heaven in the ears of the Lord of Hosts their God Oh then be Eliakims to the poor of the flock and make good that Prophesie That upon you may be hanged all vessels of smaell quantity from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flaggons Isa 22.24 Great vessels can stand upon their own bottoms And surely the fresh records of those glorious things which the Lord hath brought forth by you and for you will engage you to the things propounded yea to greater then these if set home by the Lord upon your hearts and that as returns for received mercies I shall apply this doctrine to my brethren of the Ministery suffer I beseech you a word of exhortation from one who is low in name and gifts in Israel yet your brother and fellow labourer in the Lords vineyard for the bringing in and building up of souls that I may give up my accounts with joy and through rich grace and free mercy in Jesus Christ may receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away when the great Shepherd shall appear 1 Pet. 5.4 whose glorious appearance we look for and long after and which according to Cronological computation and the opinion of some draweth near and indeed to believers ought to be ever at hand in the meditation and expectancy of it and mostly to the Ministers that we may be quickened up to duty and diligence That when our Lord cometh he may finde us doing his own works The elders therefore I exhort who also am an elder as the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 5.1 though unworthy of that honor and office that you would improve the appearances of God which have been eminent and immediate in the day of his peoples distress Ah brethren hath a day of
of conscience and woundings of spirit ye then were under what faintings of heart ye had when you found your evidences for heaven writ with so pale a hand that ye could not read them at least by that weak and wan light which then shined in your soules what a loss ye were at for the Lord Jesus weeping with Mary because they had taken away your Lord and ye knew not where they had laid him nor how to lay hold on him for peace and pardon nay perhaps your cases weremore desperate your sins were writ in so deep a crimson your Atheisme ignorance Gospel enmity your former scoffings at Religion your flouts and flings at godliness your contempt of Gospel-Ordinances and your rejection of Gospel-grace did so fly in your faces grate and gnaw so upon your spirits and filled you with such a sence of divine vengeance that conscience that bird in the bosome like the night-raven croaked many a sad and dismal note unto you and so presented you with the black side of the cloud that ye verily thought if ye should die at that lare ye should drop into Hell Remember what then your thoughts were how then ye resolved that if ye recovered health again ye would not leave heaven under such uncertainties hereafter ye would give diligence to make your calling and Election sure ye would not for all the world be harassed again with those dreadfull fears and terrours like unto an unwary Traveller who to save a little mony ventures upon the washes without a guide and suddainly lights upon a quick sand which threatens to swallow up him and his horse and whilest he is tugging and striving to get out he lifts up his eyes and sees the water appearing upon the levell and hears the tide roaring toward him Oh what are his thoughts now what his fears sure that he shall die Pharaoh's death and be overwhelmed with the sea if timely help come not and having by Providence had an escape how doth he resolve never to travail that way without a guide whatever it cost him nor plunge himself again into the same fears for his whole estate Was not this your case ye thought your sickness to have been but washes ye could easily have passed through it but suddenly you slipped into a quicksand such a deadly heart-sinking fit that ye saw the grave opened and the wrath of God rolling upon you what were your thoughts then what your fears did ye not think your passing bell was ready to ring and the prison-doors were opening to receive you did ye not then resolve if your life was spared ye would tugge hard for Heaven ye would never be at the same stay again did ye not finde sickness an ill time and a sick bed an ill place to take your first rise for heaven from did ye not see your folly to lay the greatest burthen upon your horse when he was weak and tired to set out for heaven when your sunne was now setting when as it is an whole dayes journey thither and he that begins late usually fall's short of it to carry the seed basket into the field when your neighbours are crying harvest home Oh then since the Lord hath restored health unto you and brought you off from those heart-melting fears act up to the Aposties advice Phil. 2. vers 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem asque opus perducite bring salvation-business to a good issue that ye may never be surprised with those fears and tremblings when surprised with diseases I come now to the second part of the exhortation Second part of Exhortation applying this Doctrine of Gods appearances in mercy and the Saints deliverances from danger to the generality of men and women who fear and know the Lord and to believers as they meet in Christ the common-head and in the Church the common body and I shall improve the truth proposed 1. In a mixt sence referring both to temporall and spirituall preservations 2. In a pure spirituall sence referring to recovering and Redeeming grace As to the first sence I shall interweave something of a spiritual nature it being usual with the Holy Ghost to mingle Gospel treasures with the lading of the world in the same bottome and this I shall do in two particulars First I do humbly entreat the servants of the Lord to keep up the memorial of the Lords mercies to keep Diaries of their great deliverances to preserve Records of their signall preservations And secondly as occasion serves to communicate and impart them to others for I shall twist these two together Oh let not God lose the glory of any mercy let not time wear off the remembrance of eminent preservations God expects that his works should be registred by us as well as our words are registred by him Mal. 3. vers 16. This was commanded by the Lord Deut. 7. vers 18 19. David was much in the practice of this duty read Psal 66. ver 12 c. He gives a royal summons as by the sound of a trumpet to all the Lords people to give their attendance whilest he discovereth over the gracious Administrations of the Lord he is no niggard no close-fifted Miser that hoards up all and keeps all close to himself but keeps open house and invites all the Lords people to his banquet of wine He would fain lift up the great name of God in the world and display his bounty that they which have hard thoughts of God may be convinced of their errour and make a recantation and that all dejected Saints may by his example and experience be encouraged to roul themselves upon God under assurance of comfort and support in an evil day which will appear to be his designe for ver 5. he gives a generall invitation to all people to see and admire the wonders which were wrought by God t is like in Egypt he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men implying probably the dreadfull execution of his vengeance upon the Egyptians in those ten Plagues he sent amongst them and in bringing in the waters of the red Sea upon their whole Host as appears Vers 6. He turned the sea into dry land they went through the flood on foot to wit the children of Israel there did we rejoice as Exod. 15. doth fully shew when Moses and the people celebrated the praises of God and by that song not onely kept up a lively sence of that glorious preservation in their own hearts but transmitted the memorial of it unto posteritie that the children then unborn might read in that the glorious appearances of God for his people Oh how few such songs are penned in our dayes what little care is taken to commemorate deliverances though they have been so great and many Is it not the shame of this Nation that the next age shall finde no Records and if any such Compendiums of those wonderful deliverances which we
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! 〈…〉 abire sâ—let 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 them If Scipro an heathen rejected the offer of an harlot with vellem si non essem Imperator I would if I were not a General A Saint may much better with à nolo Christianus sum I will not I am a Christian this is the first benefit you will receive from your keeping up a lively sense of grace received and surely you do then live best to your selves when you live freest from sin For 1. You will then be freest from the rod a towardly child is not often laid over the knee nor a close-walking Christian often under the rod sin usually bringeth forth sufferings Psal 89.30 If his children forsake my law then vers 32. I will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquities with stripes 2. You will have quicker and safer returns of your prayers the dutiful child soonest speeds in his requests Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayers and the Apostle teacheth us that the way to draw nigh unto God with assurance and acceptance must be this To get our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water Heb. 10.22 3. You will keep up closest and sweetest communion with God the obedient child lyes most in his fathers bosom 1 Joh. 1.6 If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness we lye but verse 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another God and we our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 4. You will have clearest and fullest evidences of your heavenly inheritance when the eldest son pleaded Luk. 15.29 That he never transgressed at any time the commandment of his father presently the reply of the father is All that I have is thine and when David feasted the wayfaring man with Vriahs Ew-lambe the joy of his salvation was lost as to the sense and comfort of it Psal 51.12 5. You will live in the nearest resemblance of heaven which consisteth in a perfection of holiness glorified souls are termed Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 Hence he expressed himself thus Ansclme That if sin stood on the one hand and hell on the other he would choose hell rather if it might be without sin then heaven with sin 2. This serious reflection upon what the Lord hath done for you will be of excellent use to keep your souls close with God it will work your hearts into a steady frame and sure you will live best to your selves when your hearts are most fixed upon god and most fixed for God it is a singular mercy to be standing Christians in falling times this stability of spirit is much valued by God and receives much in way of spiritual incomes from God Apoc. 3.7 to the 13. the contrary is much disliked by the Lord Psal 78.8 the people of Israel are charged with this crime that they set not their heart aright and that their spirit was not stedfast with God and vers 9. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battail bewraying their false-heartednoss to and faint-heartedness in the Lords quarrel Ah how is the Scripture sadly made good in our days We have hearts bent to back-sliding revolting spirits from the truths ways and cause of the Lord Jesus though the Lord hath opened his Gospel-Magazine amongst us given forth his spiritual armor in all the pieces of it furnished us with a gallant train of Artillery formed us into compleat bodies put us under the conducts of skilful leaders given us the advantage of winde and hill and the ark of his presence hath marched in the middest of us yet what dishonorable retreat have many of us made how have we flung down our Arms and forsooke our standard in the day of battel nay The swarm is up and setled in so many parts that it will be very hard to bring them again into one Hive Mr. Vines how have we been like a routed Army scattered here and there into small parties and all endeavors as yet prevail not to rally us again what a full comment is England upon and how parallel unto that Eze. 34.5 6. They were scattered and became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered my sheep wandered upon every mountain and upon every high hill let us make a little stay and gather up some observations As 1. That the word of God is the walk of Christs sheep the Scriptures of truth set boundaries to their Pastures 2. Every departure from the word in judgement or practice is an aberration the sheep that seek pasture beyond the bound of Scripture are straglers 3. That the sheep of Christ especially the fat and lusty of them are apt to wander to go beyond their bounds and in somethings to depart from their flock and fold but I would not be mistaken as though I interpret the departure of conscientious Christians from the common road of carnal Gospeling or from the foot track of formal profession nor yet their declining communion with the whole rout of professors at
righteousness and will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Read and enlarge these and the following Verses in your own thoughts 3. Improve the consideration of temporal mercies by way of support under all your saddest and sorest temptations from the wicked one If the manchilde Christ Jesus in the spirit be formed in you and any actings of grace be brought forth by you the great red Dragon will wait to devour you He is your adversary an inveterate enemy he owes you an old grudg and will be revenged on the heel for the bruising of his head and that by your head It is his Interest to bestirre himself If Christ gaineth he looseth There 's a wedge loose with him when the word findes a welcome in a sinners heart There 's not a soul brought home to Christ but is fetch'd out of the Devils quarters not a convert gained but is wonne by Christ in a set battel Sathan sadly speaks those words of John the Baptist John 3. ver 30. he must increase but I must decrease The sea is in continual revolution when it is high water in one place its low water in some other so when it is high tide in such a nation country or town its low water with Sathan Christs gain is Sathans loss He knows how Christs and his own affairs go on in the world who gains and who looses and that his loss is Christs gain and therefore he tries all his tricks improves every method and turns every stone to keep his own ground to man his own forts maintain his own principality and withall to gain soules to himself to fetch them off from the embraces of Christ nay he is so bold and daring that though he sees the actings of godliness from the Saints and findes a work of grace in them which he doth find by those strong repulses the heart gives to his secret temptations which are his spies sent forth to search the land by whom he learns what frame the heart is in Though he sees his strong holds beat down and defaced by a conquering spirit though he observes the stream running in another channell and that the soul is now in armes against him believing repenting mourning praying watching hearing and all against him yet he will play an after game and not be wanting in skill or will to reduce the soul And he ploughs in hope and sowes in hope for he cannot read the Lambs book of life he knowes not the decrees of God they are Secret to him untill death brings forth a discovery and the soul is taken up to God and therefore though he fears such or such a Saint that is gone off from his quarters is under electing grace yet he hopes the contrary Yee see how busie he was with Joshua the High Priest Zech. 3. ver 1. and how hard he pressed upon him probably not without some hopes to have got him or the day against him until Christ rebuked him and told him he was a brand plucked out of the fire singled out by the purpose of the eternal Father to be a vessel of grace then he sleared away and left him Yet as our Saviour probably but for a time Luke 4.13 nay though he should read their names writ in heaven though he knowes the immutability of Christs love that whom he loves once he loves to the end John 13. ver 1. and of Gods counsel that his gifts and calling are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without repentance irreversible Rom. 11. ver 29. yet such is his malice and so great is his rage against the Saints that if he cannot keep them out of Canaan hee 'l sting them and scratch them in the wilderness before they get thither though he cannot put out their light hee 'l be a thief in their candle to swail away much of their comfort though he cannot reach them in heaven he will reckon with them on earth if they must to heaven he will send them cripples thither he will have a leg or an arm out of joint or broken or he will want of his will some way or other he will vex them buffet and disquiet them many long stories and sad ones too may be told of his exploits against the Saints my own experience can witness something of his trains and treacheries of his malice and the Lords mercy of his black designs and of the Lords gracious support and disappointments blessed be his holy name and adored for ever be his goodness O then in the name of the Lord lift up your banners buckle on your armour stand with your weapons in your hands ready to receive and charge your adversary and that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day gather up your experiences of God and meditate upon the great things God hath done for you in the day of your outward troubles what that power that wisdome that goodness of the Lord hath been which hath appeared unto you and engaged for you in the time of your greatest streights and what those streights and distresses how sharp and how pressing from which the Lord hath wrought your deliverance And then go to your spiritual Logick frame such an argument as this The Lord gives help to his distressed Saints in their outward troubles therefore also will he help them in their inward temptations now if Sathan shall argue that God doth not give in succours to the Saints in their outward troubles it 's true they and it may be ye had help and deliverance but it came not from God when ye were cast upon such and such sick-beds that ye despaired of life and your friends gave you up for dead then the Physician came and by his great skill administred such physick which wrought your recovery or when ye were in such streights the liberality of your friends relieved you or in such exigencies the wisdome and potency of your allies brought you off God was not seen in all your deliverances what will you do now why your business is to secure this fort by summoning your experiences and placing them upon the works saying that ye beheld the face of God in such deliverances that your help was onely from on high that men and means stood off and came not in no not for a reserve or though men and means were seen upon the wall yet God acted by the instrumentality of them though Christians were consulted with yet the blessing of God upon the means brought forth the cure be sure ye own God in every preservation how visible and potent soever creature-helps are or have been entrench your faith in this perswasion that whatsoever secondary causes contributed the chief agency was from God If Sathan beat you out of this trench he will soon take your standard and rout your whole army but if ye make good this ground if ye have the advantage of the hill ye are out of gunshot all his murthering pieces will not reach you ye may then quiet your
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 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 first 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 flocks when Pulpits began to be filled with zealous spiritual and conscientious 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
when death was coming and life going when the water was spent her patience spent and all spent when she had received the sentence of death within her self for her self at least for her son whom she had given up for a dead childe Then then God heard the voyce of the lad and calleth unto her and biddeth her lift up the lad yea her own faith and hope and spirit for there was an universal sinking in her and telleth her he will make him a great Nation as if he had said Fear not the life of the lad for there are many lives bound up in his life if I should let him perish I should lose a Nation yea a great Nation and that distrustful thoughts might not arise in her heart God openeth her eyes and she saw a Well of water and gave the lad drink Let us pitch down a little upon this Quotation for it is a place of pleasant springs and draw these Observations 1. That the goodness of God is a springing fountain unto the Saints even in a wilderness Psal 107.35 There is alwayes water in this fountain Psal 36. vers 9. With thee is the fountain of life There are springs of providence and springs of promises both which do send forth refreshing streams unto the Saints There are alwayes supplies in the Lords store-house fresh cordials in the Lords closet yea he can and will create deliverances for his Jacobs though Hagar was at a loss yet God was not though the ground was dry to her yet God can bring up springs of water through the secret veynes of the parched earth Oh! there is much support in this duely to improve the Omnipotency and All-sufficiency of God 2. That the Saints themselves sometimes have their eyes so shut up that they cannot see these springs of goodness Sometimes the heads of these springs lye so deep and low that they are not visible either in promises or in providences Nay when they are open and run yet in some cases the Saints eyes are closed that they cannot see them all seemeth to be dry ground to them Indeed these fountains are shut up to the unbeleeving world alwayes sealed to the wicked so great a stone is rolled by an Almighty arm upon the mouth of this Well that all the strength of nature cannot remove it to dip a bucket in it but to the faithful it is alwayes open they need no Jacob to roll it away See that Zach. 13. vers 1. A fountain opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness This great Gospel fountain the blood of Jesus is open to beleevers to them that dwell at Jerusalem in the Spirit not in the letter of profession Now if this great Fountain be open which feedeth all the lesser springs referring to the blood of the Lord Jesus then sure no lesser springs shall be shut up to them He is the fountain of Gardens the Well of living waters Cant. 4. vers 15. What a precious priviledge is this to have all Gospel-springs open unto us yet here is our misery and it is very great though the springs be open our eyes are sometimes shut now what is a spring of water to a thirsty traveller if he see it not But you will say How shall the Saints get their eyes opened 3 God alone openeth the eyes of his people that they may see these open Fountains that they may behold these streams from Lebanon Hagar saw not the fountain neither could she untill God opened her eyes He that opened the heart of Lydia Act. 16. vers 14. opened Hagars eyes Jesus Christ who hath the Key of David can onely open and shut eyes by his anointing Spirit Apoc. 3. vers 18. This is true in the first work of conversion Act. 26. vers 18. So also in the passage of after comforts 2 King 6.17 The Lord opened the eyes of the young man that he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha The providences and protections of God do circumvallate and encompass the faithful His Angels encamp round about them yet the Lord must open their eyes else they cannot behold them A truth falling in with our own experience how many amongst us saw not that wall of fire which hath been round about us nor those Chariots of fire which have been so eminent a protection unto us in times of greatest danger But 4. God will open the eyes of his people to behold these springs of mercy when they stand in most need of them What had it been to Hagar if her eyes had been opened to have seen many Wells of water when she was in Abrahams family or if she had been in a land of fountains but to be in a wilderness in a land of drought to have the water in the bottle spent and knew not where to fill it nor how to keep her lad alive without supplies of water and then in this streight to have her eyes opened to see not a little water in a pitcher to fill her bottle once with and no more but to see a Well a spring of water where she might have constant supplies Oh! this was a seasonable and therefore a welcome mercy to her this was life to her self her son and to her hopes of after safety Oh this is marvellous sweet and an excellent means to get up the heart in sinking times and conditions 6. Her eyes are opened shee seeth the Well What doth she now do why she obeyeth the voyce of the Lord in filling her bottle with water and giving the lad drink this teacheth us That it is the duty of Gods people to lay hold â—n offers of mercy from the Lord to close in with to own and improve the providential dispensations of God for good unto themselves What is she in a wilderness her bottle-store spent a fountain opened and her eyes opened and doth she sit still is she sullen or is she pettish because supplies came not her own way or at her own time will she not dip her bottle in the fountain because it ariseth in this and not in that plat of ground doth she stand upon such niceties no no but presently she snatcheth up her bottle and goeth to fill it A commendable practice Oh! what we see her do do we likewise in all our streights let us haste to the Throne of grace and when mercy is offered help seasonably tendered let us imbrace it and improve it when Christ opened that fountain of grace shewing the wounds in his hands and in his side to Thomas presently he runneth to the fountain and dippeth his bucket in the Well acting faith by a personal application My Lord and my God Joh. 20. vers 28. So when the Lord openeth his Mercy-fountains to us and our eyes to see them let us not onely sip a little but fill our buckets yea brim our bottles drawing with joy and thankfulness of heart water out of those Wells of salvation Isa
49. v. 16. Behold I have graven thee upon the palm of my hands thy walls are continually before me We read that the names of the twelve Tribes were engraven upon twelve stones on the breastplate of Aaron when he appeared before the Lord Exod. 28. vers 11. And the shew-bread was kneaded into twelve Loaves being therefore called panis propositionis because it represented the twelve Tribes and set upon the table before the Lord Lev. 24. vers 5. to enminde the Lord of his people We say and it too often proveth true out of sight out of minde but now the Saints cannot be out of Gods minde because ever in his sight Oh! the care of God toward his people how great And oh the comfort of his people from this care of God how sweet and precious is it and wherein appeareth this care of God Why in his eminent and immediate appearances for them in the day of their distress hear at what a rate God speaketh Isa 40. vers 27 28. Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God God cannot indure such a distrustful whining spirit in his people It hath an unhandsome reflection upon God as though he had remitted if not cast off the care of his people therefore the Lord comes on with his high intergatories Hast thou not known what an ignorant people Hast thou not heard what a deaf people What keep no intelligence with heaven That the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary his strength is Almighty therefore he cannot faile his care is everlasting therefore hee cannot be weary of helping afflicted ones how eminent and various was the Lords care in Jonah's preservation There is a storm at Sea Jonah is cast over-board but God prepareth a fish ready to receive him but how shall he do for light in that dark prison How shall life be preserved in those Chambers of death What food must he eat in his three days imprisonment How shall he be kept alive so long in the belly of a living fish and not become meat to the fish Who shall open the bars of the gates and let lose the prisoner And who shall waft him to the shore when set at liberty Why God is not weary he will carry him through all what a bundle of miracles are wrapt up together in the preservation of this one Saint well might the Apostle perswade the faithful to be careful for nothing Phil. 4. vers 6. which as the Seraphims in Isa 6. is answered by Saint Peter 1 Epist chap. 5 vers 9. Cast all your care upon God under this assurance that God careth for you were we not ignorant of Gods care over us or low in faith that we dare not believe his word of promise to us we might free our selves from much vexing solicitude and anxiety of minde wherewith we are tormented It was a noble speech of John Careless in a letter to Mr. Philpot I will now sing care away for now my soul is turned to his old rest again and hath taken a sweet nap in the lap of Christ I have cast my care upon the Lord who careth for me and will be careless according to my name It is our work to cast care it is Gods work to take care let us not then by soul-dividing thoughts take the Lords work out of his hand If the care of all the Churches came upon Paul 2 Cor. 11. vers 28. that it was his every days work with an holy solicitude to care for them Oh much more may we affirm that the Lord careth for all his people and suiteth his care to all their conditions to which his eminent appearances for them in a day of distress give signal testimony 2. A second truth which this Doctrine commendeth unto us is this That the Saints are a people of Gods special love they lye in the very bosome of God his Banner over them is love and as holiness to the Lord was engraven upon the bells of the horses and upon every pot in Jerusalem Zech. 14. vers 20. So love to the Saints is engraven upon every-dispensation of God to his people even when he rebuketh them he loveth them because his affection is much toward them therefore he afflicteth them Hear ye the rod saith the Lord Mich. 6. verse 9. Oh it speaketh love many of the Saints have read much of the Lords love writ in letters of their own blood How doth the love of God shine forth in its fullest lustre when he appeareth as an healing God in a bleeding hour Who can express the sweetness of this spiced wine What a relish of love do the Saints taste in that comfort and hearts-ease which the Lord giveth them at the shutting up of a storm The outgoings of God were remarkable even to astonishment in fetching Israel from the Iron Furnace there were miracles of mercy heaps upon heaps the wisdom and power of God were writ in such capital letters that they that runned might read not digitum onely but dexteram Dei not the finger but the right hand of God and what were the motives to all these mercies the Lord draweth up all these lines into the center of love Deut. 6. vers 3. Because the Lord loved thy fathers therefore he brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt So chap. 7. vers 8. Because the Lord loved you hath he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharach King of Egypt Love was the bottome which bore all these great burthens the spring which set all the wheels in going because the Lord loved you indeed sometimes the dark side of the cloud is toward the Saints his love is like the Sun muffled up in a thick mist or rather as a candle shut up in a dark Lanthorn that they see no out-shining of Gods favour as in cases of desertion or great affliction Isa 8.17 sometimes light and love break forth in some small beams through the thick cloud of apprehended displeasure that it is with the Saints as with a traveller in the duskish evening or star-light night when the moon sitteth That the light is neither clear nor dark Zech. 14. vers 6. the ship neither rideth upon high waters nor yet sticketh upon the shallows they neither feed high at a feast of fat things full of marrow nor yet are kept to the bread of mourners nor wine of astonishment their condition is a mixt and middle estate hope and fear sorrow and solace are interwoven as chastened yet not killed as sorrowful yet in some measure rejoycing as dying and yet alive though the air be duskish yet they can discover some lines of love drawn here and there in such a mercie such a favour such an act of goodness such a gracious providence Oh! saith a
distress been upon us and hath the Lord stood by and strengthened us in all attempts which have been made against us Have we been stars and still are we in the hands Jesus Christ hath the Lord made us a fenced brazen wall unto the people of this nation when we have taken forth the precious from the vile in obedience to Gods command and Gospel-Order have they fought against us and not prevailed and whence was it that attempts against us succeeded not Why Because the Lord hath been with us to save us and deliver us Jer. 15.19 20. Oh brethren what have our returns been what sence have we of these mercies upon our spirits what apprehensions of our present standing 1. Oh Let us consider How deep a share we have had in all the National mercies and preservations if the ship had been wrackt we should hardly have escaped to land on broken boards if the enemy had prevailed that party had been conquered that interest dasht in pieces which we owned and adhered unto what quarter think ye should we have had however men of other capacities might have sped it would have been ill enough with us we should not onely have suffered in a common capacity as those who abetted the Parliamentary interest against the Royal Cause and Party but as Incendiaries as men in the sence of our adversaries who had blown the trumpet of rebellion and preach't up a spirit of Sedition amongst our people nay men of our own coat and many of our own charge would have helped forward our calamity But now through the appearances of a good God those storms of blood and war are scattered peace is restored and we enjoy as large a share as any in the safety and tranquility of the Nation 2. Consider what restraints were upon us as to the exercise of our gifts and callings few though persons eminent in grace and learning that would not pronounce the Shiboleth of the times had any opportunity to preach with any encouraging maintenance in preaching and those that had how were they confined as to doctrines and matter of preaching bound up as to days and limited as to times to wit a Sermon hour which they must not under penalty exceed But now that Monopoly is taken off those boundaries broken down and a great door and effectual is open to us we have Pulpets of our own and the liberty not onely of our own but of others also we have the freedom of Sabbaths and also may without the check of authority do the work of a Sabbath on every week day every day may be a Lords day a day of the son of man to us who amongst us have received a check from the Rulers for preaching too often and too much if the matter delivered was not offensive upon a Civil account which doubtless would have been owned as a singular mercy by those worthies of the Lord who have gone before us 3. Consider what yoaks have been put upon our necks what impositions upon our conscierces what innovations and offensive ceremonies have been obtruded upon us How many godly Ministers have been courted silenced suspended ejected exiled not because their principles were vitious their lives scandalous or their doctrines erroneous not because they could not preach as being ignorant or because they would not preach as being negligent but because they would not kiss the Calves and submit to that which was then called Uniformity and that in every punctilio and ceremony How many choice Divines have had great reasonings within their own spirits and much arguing one with another whether they should yield to all imposed ceremonies to gain an opportunity to honour God in the course of their Ministery or else quit their places and people yea the nation also rather then dishonour God My reverend Grandfather Mr. Whiting late Minister of Etton in Northamptow shire being one and burden their own consciences with them How many did choose rather to be put out of their livings then to put on their Surpliss and how did some choose rather a voluntary exile even into America rather then conform to innovated superstitions but now the Church is swept and all that trash is carried out of the doors and nothing now in sacris imposed which is not agreeable to Scripture truth and pattern So that if our spirits be wounded they are from the sence of our own sins or from differences among our equals not from the smart of imposed Ceremonies from Superiors 4. Consider what opposition we met withal in the years that are past by men of carnal spirits and principles even in our own places when we have reproved their wickedness and contested against their adored vanities How have many godly Ministers beenslighted by the prophane Rabble rebuking their Sabbath-breaking when they could plead the book of liberty and the Royal Sanction Nay how many have been secretly traduced and openly reproached by men of our own profession how have they poisoned the mindes of our hearers and have laboured to pull down what we have built up or build their own hay and stubble as superstructures on that foundation which we have laid How have they branded us with names of infamy that so they might losen the affections of our people from our persons and their regards from our Ministry How sad have the complaints of some been for want of a good neighbor-hood Good Ministers were thin in most places for one faithful honest painful and conscientions Minister ten yea twenty bad enough might be found in every County But now though some of our people are the same in spirits and principles yet are they far more tame and quiet under reproof though they run away like wild horses with the Bit in their mouthes yet they do not cast their Riders and where the stream is stopt in its wonted course yet it silently recurs without swelling over or breaking down the banks Bryars and thorns may now be touched without an iron Gauntlet and we dwell safely though among Scorpions Ezek. 2.6 Wickedness hath no establishment now by a law but meets with the check and frowns of Authority in all the kinds of it And now for one bad one we have five yea ten good neighbors yea many Counties being now planted yea filled with godly Ministers so that was it not for our private differences and those unhappy Animosities which they kindle amongst us what sweet communion might we maintain How might we improve our Lecture-meetings to peace and union And how free might we be in asking and advising one another The Lord heal those Paroxismes of pride and passion which cause Paul and Barnabas to break company even for a John Mark Act. 15.39 5. Consider what small allowance some of us have had when we served as stipoudiaries under Prelatical Ministers out of two or three hundred pound per annum searce twenty would be allowed us by some as wages for all the work haud ignota refero The Hebrews have a
peoples distress 1. Consider how rare and skilful you were in all martial affairs at your first entrance upon the war how little of a Soldier as to the slights and stratagems of war Never hardly did an army go forth with lessconfidence on their own side or more contempt of their enemys did more bravely deceive both for in these following successes they proved such as would too much pose antiquity among all the Campes of the famed Heroes Heroes to finde a parallel of this Army T. M. in the hystory of the Civil war p. 114. were found in you at least most of you when you first took the field and yet what a teaching spirit from the Lord came upon you how suddainly even to admiration did the Lord of Hosts teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight Psal 144.1 So that a short time did make you expect in all the councels and carriages of a well-ordered Battail that ye were able to countermine all your enemies and prevent and pursue advantages with much warlike prudence Oh let this be owned in peace as a signal mercy from the Lord and as that which tended much to yours and our preservation and to the gaining of all those freedoms which we now enjoy T is a special owning providence when the Lord qualifieth persons for imployments 2. Consider how low your spirits were at your first taking up of Armes what fears and troubles and terrors were upon your spirits when ye first heard the sound of the trumpet and the Alarum for war how terrible the sight of an Army with banners displayed was and how dreadfully the clashing of Armor sounded in your ears were not many of you like the men of Israel who followed Gideon Judg. 7.3 Who when proclamation was made in the Army Whosoever is fearful and afraid let him return early from mount Gilead there returned of the people twenty and two thousand would not such a lieence for a retreat have found acceptation with many of you did not you wish your selves in your shops again at your employments again did you not blame your selves for your rash and forward undertaking so dangerous a service and yet how did the Lord heighten your spirits how did he cloath you with valour and undaunted courage how did the spirit of the Lord come upon you as upon Savl 1 Sam. 11.6 What kindlings of anger and warlike indignation were in you as in Saul when he saw the designe of the Ammonites to thrust out the right eyes of your brethren and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel and how did the progress of the war declare both your skill and valour your enemies themselves being Judges Valiant men of the valiant of Israel expert in war marching and watching with your swords upon your things because of the fear in the night Can. 3.7 8. 3. Consider what Midiantish Armies for multitude ye have encountred with what numerous bodies have drawn up against you how the Nations round about have been called in against you How many Armies of men of different languages interests and Religions have been formed against you And yet the sword of the Lord and of Gideon hath broken them in pieces the Lord by you hath done unto them A unto the Midianites as to Sisera as to Jabin at the brook of Kison which perished at Endor and became as dung for the earth their nobles have been made like Oreb and like Zeeb and all their Princes like Zeba and as Zalmunnah who said let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession Psal 83.9 10 11 12. Nay how have ye with the sharp threshing instrument of the power and justice of the most high God thrashed the mountains and beat them small and made the hills as chaff How have ye fanned many of them how hath the winde carried them away and the whirlewinde scattered them Isa 41.15 16. How hath this been made good at home abroad by Land and by Sea that ye and we may rejoyce together and glory in the Holy one of Israel 4. Consider what personal perservations ye have had how the Lord hath covered your head in the day of Battail How many bullets have been guided by the hand of God to miss your bodies when they have flown like storms of hail about you how they have glided off your Armor and not torn your garments or rent your garments not rippled your skin or rased your skin not reach't your flesh or though your flesh hath been lashed yet your lives have been secured Oh consder the distinguishing providences that have been toward you sometimes a right hand man dropping down sometimes a left hand man sometimes a pistol hath been fired at your breasts and would not go off sometimes a sword hath been lift up to cleave your heads and the Lord hath stayed the hand as once he did Abrahams sometimes your horses have been slain under you and ye have been mounted again or made an escape on foot O let your personal deliverances be gathered up and recorded by you 5. Consider all those great things which the Lord hath wrought for you and by you in this and other Nations What fieges have been raised by you when the distresses of your brethren have been very sad as Glocester and other places What strong Towns and Cities have been carried by you as Colchester and other Forts and Cittadels What eminent battails have been fought and won by you what slangther hath been made in the Camps of your enemies with what unequal numbers have ye taken the field sometimes and at all times almost come off with far different loss How again and again Armies have been raised and those Armies have been routed forces levied and those forces have been levelled even with the ground the proudest and stoutest of them Moab-like have been trodden as straw for the dunghill How various how voluminous have the mercies of the Lord been to you that in all encounters ye have come off with the conquest at least the issue of the war proclaims you Conquerors so that the Lord hath made good that promise to you Josh 1.5 There shall not be any man able to stand before thee all the days of thy life Nay Chap. 2.10 The hearts of all your enemies have melted neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you for the experience of many years and many wars hath proved the truth of that great promise Isa 54.15 Behold they shall surely gather together but not by me that all the gatherings together and musters of the enemy have been without the Lord for whosoever hath gathered together against you hath faln before you No weapon that hath been formed against you hath hitherto prospered this hath hitherto been your heritage and that it may be continued in mercy unto you and ye may be continued as a mercy to the land and to the Saints let me commend some few things unto you 1. Do not
private interests and animosities and fall upon these great works as your respective stations give you advantage and opportunity that ye may have this Motto engraven on your tombes Here lie such and such who David-like served their own generations by the will of God And let me adde these two Corrolaries 1. That God hath assigned you your particular times for working Stat sua cuique dies 2. That when ye have lived up that time your working tooles must then be laid aside When David had served out his generation he fell asleep And therefore I shall shut up with the Preachers advice Eccl. 9. ver 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdome in the grave whether thou goest and though thou beest lately come from thence be not secure the winde may suddenly turn and waft thee back again Alas What is your life it is even a vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 4. ver 14. How easily can the great God disperse that vapour and melt that cloud into dew there is a great Arbitrer of all things that can thunder the proud Emperour under his bed and write the great King in three or four words into trembling that can send a fly to fetch the triple crown before his Tribunal make an hair or the kernil of a raison as mortal as Goliah's spear that can unspeak the world into nothing and blow down a great bubble with an easie breath that by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undress your soules by unpinning one pin c. I have read of a Persian Noble-man who lost his life by the loss of an hair plucked out of his bosome Mr. Vines Essex's Hearse in sport by his Minion 5. Get your hearts into an awfull frame get your spirits tinctured with an holy fear of God Rev. 15. vers 4. Surely they that have felt must needs fear him they that have found the power of his anger let out in soul terrours yea in breaking afflictions upon the body Read M. Jackson's Notes upon this place must needs fear him though indeed none but the damned in Hell experience the power of his anger Moses in Psalme 90. ver 11. put 's the question Who knoweth the power of thine anger implying that none knoweth it as none can take the dimensions of his love which passeth all knowledge so neither of his anger the reason is added because even according to thy fear so is thy wrath that is let a man fear thee never so much he is sure to feel thee much more if he fall into thy hands Paul knew this when he laid down this Position as a fence wall about Profession to keep men from starting out by Apostacy Heb. 10. vers 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God surely if the burnt childe dread's the fire much more men of age and discretion who have been cast into the furnace of affliction have had their moisture dried up their skin writhled their flesh rosted and their very bones burnt with the scorching flames thereof have cause to fear that fire which so farre resembles everlasting burning that though it be not unquenchable yet it is not quenchable but by the bloud of Christ and the melting bowels of God's tender mercie Oh then Dear friends take forth this lesson from your late afflictions to fear that glorious and fearfull name THE LORD THY GOD Deut. 28. vers 58. Fear to offend God fear to do any thing which may displease him in this sence Blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Prov. 28. ver 14. The Hebrew Midwives lost nothing by it Exod. 1. vers 17.21 1. From the consideration of Gods power he is able not onely to call you to an account 1 Cor. 10. vers 22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger Are we stronger then he As Caligula that dared his Jove to a duel Are we the Lord's match can we outstrengthen an Almighty God Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9. ver 4. Jer. 5. ver 22. 2. Fear to offend him from the consideration of his goodness not onely that goodness which the Lord extends unto you in common with other men nor that speciall goodness which is the peculiar portion of his Elect in Christ but also that particular goodness which the Lord hath vouchsafed you in restoring health unto you when ye lay at the brinks of the grave and many other tumbled in Hos 3. vers 5. Oh Fear the Lord for his goodness 3. Fear an offended God though not provoked by you A tender spirited childe feares and trembles when his father is angry with others though himself hath done no fault God likes this tenderness of spirit in his children Psal 119. vers 120. David saith my flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Samar horripilatio my hair stands upright as it doth sometimes in suddain and great frights Job 3. vers 15. The hair of my flesh stood up Amos 3. vers 8. The Lion hath roared Who will not fear Oh observe this Hab. 3. ver 16. When I heard my belly trembled c. Objection But why should the Saints fear the wrath of God who is in Covenant with them and hath promised to be a covering Cherub unto them Solution 1. They see the provoking nature of sinne they consider that sinne is a thing of greatest abhorrency with God and therefore when they observe the growth of sinne in a place or nation they are afraid that God will ere long break out in wrath against them Hence that Numb 17.12 13. read Ezek. 7. from vers 1. to the 16. and apply it upon a national account 2. They see the dreadfulness of Gods wrath they know the English of that Isa 27. vers 4. Who would set the briars and thornes in battail against me I would go thorow them I would burn them together They know what briars and thornes are and what their end shall be They see that themselves are not exempted persons they are not sure to have their door-posts sprinkled with the blood of the Pascal lamb Exod. 12. that the marking Angel Exod. 9. shall give them a signature of safety in their foreheads How was the Church affected Acts 5. ver 11 Ezek. 14. ver 14. Oh then labour to preserve an holy fear of God upon your spirits think often of what Christ speaks Luke 12. ver 4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have nothing they can do But fear him who after he hath killed hath power to throw into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Lastly Labour to make sure of heaven lay out for an Interest in the Lord Jesus let this be the teaching ye have received from the late sickness Call to minde your sick-bed fears and tears what pangs
to say dubius morior quo vadam nescio I dye doubtfully not knowing in which of the two places Heaven or Hell I shall spend eternity Oh this will be sad this sting of death will wound very sorely but more sad and dreadful will it be unto thee if thy fears be great and nothing from within to check them that thou art reserved to the day of judgement to be punished or kept in store unto the day of perdition of ungodly men Oh this will like a bunch of wormwood in wine embitter all thy preservations Be much and serious in this great business and if upon due tryal thou findest the witness within and hearest the bird in thy bosome sing sweetly Be much in admiring the riches of free-grace not onely that thy name is not blotted out upon earth but that it is writ in heaven not onely that thou hast been preserved from the uppermost hell but that thou art preserved to the heavenly Kingdome if the scales hang even or thy fear outweighs thy faith give diligence to make thy calling election sure and the rather because thou hast tasted so much of the mercy and goodness of God in bringing the to safe harbor from many stormes This will make thy entrance more abundantly glorious into the everlasting Kingdom of thy dear redeemer when thou canst sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb together this will make melody in thy heart indeed But if thou beest in a state of Atheism and open prophaneness or notwithstanding thy carnal Gospelling or formal profession thy heart smites thee thy conscience condemns thee and thy daily practice bears witness against thee and all together tell thee to thy face that thou art not in a state of grace thou art not interested in the blood of Jesus and that Christ is not in thee the hope of glory Oh let these thoughts be often upon thy heart I have been sometimes in a way of mercy saved from drowning in the water Ah but what will this avail me If my foolish and hurtful lusts do after drown me in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 I have been by a hand of mercy pluckt out of Sodoms burnings but ah what comfort will this administer if I be cast into everlasting burnings I have been fetcht by a signal mercy from a deep and dark dungeon but ah what will this advantage me If I be thrown into the bottomless pit I have been antidoted from the raging pestilence but ah How can I rejoyce in that If the plagve of my heart be not cured and so the second death have power over me what contentment can I take in all my former deliverances If I be delivered up to eternal wrath Let such thoughts prevail with thee and improve thy present deliverances as warnings and awakenings from the Lord to provide for thy eternal safety The Lord Jesus preached very often upon this subject to those that he cured Behold thou art made whole sin no more least a worse thing happen unto thee Oh the worm that never dyeth and the fire that never goeth out will be far worse then all the miseries that thou hast suffered here this is much the fin of many they do not heed the outgoings of God nor consider the hand of the Lord that hath been upon them or for them in a day of distress the sence of great deliverances soon wear off and so the fruit of all is lost but if men would often say had not the Lord helped us the sea had swallowed us up and if we go on in these courses it will not be long before hell swallow us up had not the Lord procured my enlargement I had rotted in a noisom prison and if I walk on in these ways of sin I shall be certainly thrown into that prison out of which I shall not come untill I have paid the utmost farthing certainly if such considerations were more upon our spirits there would not be that Atheism dissolutness and profaneness amongst the worst nor that luke-warmness formality and deadness of spirit amongst the best as there is Sabbaths would be more duly observed ordinances more carefully attended on the season of grace more prized the messengers of grace more honoured the ways of grace more walked in and men would minde the great business of salvation in more good earnest then the most men do Oh then try this course and improve this councel least after all thy temporal deliverances eternal wrath may be thy portion 2. If upon due tryal thou findest a work of grace wrought in thy soul Christ formed in thy heart put it to the question how and when was this good work begun in my soul in temporal dangers and deliverances men are apt to speak what hazards of life they have been in what days of distress have been upon them and aggravate all by relating the circumstances of time place company c. and then how and by what means the Lord brought them off above and beyond expectation when they least looked for it and had least ground to hope after it Oh what stories will some men tell of this nature how will they delight in it and account it their honor to do it O follow then this pattern in a spiritual way discourse over and often the passages of Gods mercy and thine own misery what thou wast how vain how ignorant what an enemy to God what a hater of good men what a despiser of the means of grace and how regardless of thine own eternal peace and welfare so that if the twine thread of thy life had been cut when thou wast in that estate thou hadst certainly dropt into hell and perished without all hope of recovery and that then when no eye pittied thee nor thou thy self when thou didst not look after Christ but braved it out against God and all Gospel tenders then even then the Lord came in graciously and seasonably unto thee And according to his mercy saved thee by the washing of regeneration and renewings of the holy Ghost which he shed on thee abundantly by Jesus Christ thy Saviour Saint Paul was much in the review of what he had been and done and in owning and admiring free grace He is not ashamed to tell the world what he was before conversion when and how the Lord came upon him and wrought that blessed change in him And indeed some ancient Christians tread in the Apostles steps and still retain this practice sure 't was well if it was more done provided it was well done not out of pride and vain glory but in humility and lowliness of minde that God alone may be acknowledged and adored for his rich grace and others may reap fruit by it to their comfort establishment and support but I do not lay this down as the general duty of all under profession I know there be some who play the hypocrites in Religion and these out of meer pride and ostenration that
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 given thee So vers 6. O Lord our God all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy Name cometh of thine hand and is all thine own This will be a means to keep our hearts in an humble and dependent frame upon God and make us acknowledge with the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 By the grace of God we are what we are and this grace which we humbly confess to be bestowed upon us will not be in vain but will make us labour more abundantly for God then they all that proudly assert the power of nature and yet in all our actings for God we shall cast down our crowns at the feet of the Lambe and self-denyingly say Not we but the grace of God which was with us not we but thy talents have gained other five 3. This makes a sad report of the dangerous estate that all men are in whilst they are under the power of corrupt nature they ly upon the brink of the pit they walk within one inch of Hell they hang by the twine thread of a frail and brittle life over that deep and dark dungeon of the great abysse ready each moment to drop in Oh! did they but hear the doleful woes which are denounced against them it would be a dreadful sound in their ears Oh their hearts are very hard and their beds very soft who can quietly sleep out one night under the apprehension of that sad estate yet such a lethargy and spirit of deep sleep hath seized upon most men that they nor onely take a little nap but fetch many a sound sleep in that dead and undone condition Oh! if a blind man should wander without a guide until he came within one step of a great lake of brimstone and fire and then his eyes should be suddenly open to see the danger he was near unto what a work would this have upon his spirit How full of rejoycing and amazement would he be filled with that he had escaped so great a danger Or suppose a man should be taken out of a ship when fast asleep and should be laid upon the top of a rock in the middest of a deep and broad Sea what sears would surprize him what expectations of certain and inevitable death would he be possessed with when he awakes and seeth neither ship nor land nor man near him but is left alone in the wide and wild Ocean Nay farther what would be the thoughts and afrightments of that man who should be chained to a brazen pillar and a thousand Cannons charged and mounted and ready to be fired upon him Sure he would be afraid each moment to be dasht in pieces But alas these and all other resemblances which the heart of man can possibly finde out fall far short of that deplorable estate natural men are in they are left upon a rock ready every munite to be engulph't and swallowed up by the deluge of Divine wrath all the curses and threatnings of the law are each moment ready to be discharged upon them nay whilest they are securely jogging on in the ways of sin and vanity the next step they take may tumble them headlong into hell and yet they are asleep and know not blind and see not the dangers they are dropping into and so are they shackled with the ferters of their own corruptions that they cannot step aside to avoid the danger Oh were their eyes opened as once Balaams were and they awakened as once Sampson was we might wonder that any natural man kept his wits that the whole world who lys in wickedness was not baptized with Pashurs new name Magor-Missabib viz. fear on every side Jer. 20.3 even round about them and to see that dreadful passage made good in every Nation and town Rev. 6.15 16. That the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free-man should hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains and should say unto the mountains and recks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who way abide his coming Ah surely the sense of their dreadful misery would suddenly bring them into Nabals condition their hearts would die within them and they would be as stones O how should the sense of this provoke the Saints to own with thankfulnesse recovering and renewing grace and especially if we consider Consid 2 what sad distractions the sense of this danger brought forth in us at our first awakening Many of the Saints under their first convictions have seen their misery past all hope of remedy They have had sad visions of wo and wrath at their first enlightening Many have been the terrours and great hath been the consternation of spirit which many have lain under at their first conversion Such a sense of sin wrath and judgement to come hath seized upon them that Felix-like they have trembled nay they have cried out with the Prophet Isa 6. ver 5. Wo
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.
he fights with his own arme God hath now forsaken him but how know you that he is in a deserted estate O 't is clear and legible in those sore distresses that are upon him hee 's a man mark'd out to ruine God will not deliver him and thus deridingly did the wicked scoff at David Psal 22.7 8. Contemptus pâ—puli ludibriâ—s opprobriis declaratur applied by the Evangelist to the Lord Jesus Matth. 27.39 when he was nailed to the cross all they that see me in this afflicted and calamitous condition laugh me to scorn they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seing he delighted in him a gauling Sarcasm reproachfull language Good God! how great is thy patience to pardon at least to pass over for the present such blasphemous scoffs against thy self and against thy son and if it was done thus to the green tree what shall be done to the drie Post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit Let not the Saints be overmuch troubled at the taunts of the wicked when the Son of God himself suffered the same measure from them but stay speak no more so proudly O ye ungodly ones do you think the tender Mother has cast off all care all bowels all love because she lets her helpless Infant lie crying in the cradle a while no no she 'l come and take it up kiss it lay it in her bosome and draw forth her breast unto it Thus doth the Father of mercies do though he may suffer his children to be brought into great and pressing calamities and to lie crying for some time upon the ground yet do not conclude that God hath cast away his people and cast off all care over them no hear at what a rate of love he speaks how he useth affection with a tender Mother and outvieth her Isa 49.14 Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me but what is the reply can a woman forget her sucking childe that she could not have compassion on the son of her womb Mothers usually have more tenderness and their affections put forth greater strength to their Babes then Fathers do Therefore the question is not can a man forget but can a woman again it is not can this or that woman but indefinitely can any woman yea the tenderest of that sex again it is not can a woman forget her Childe that she may a little when nursed at anothers womans breast but her Childe that drawes life and love from her own breasts and then too when it lies at her breasts and she feeds it with her own bloud again it is not can a woman forget a sucking childe another womans childe to whom she is onely nurse though this engageth much and much love runs through the milky veins even to the childe of a stranger yet shee may forget it but it is a sucking childe which is the son of her own womb nay further it is not can a woman forbear to kiss or can she at any time refuse to dandle her childe in her armes no but can she forget or can she withhold maternal compassion from it can she expose it can she shut up her bowels so that she ceaseth all expressions of care and compassion towards it which in women in Mothers in wives in chaste and loyal wives is very rare if possible yet be it so should a mother one of a thousand be found so hard hearted and unnatural to forget her sucking childe the son of her womb yet will not I forget thee no Jer. 31.20 Ephraim is my dear son all Gods sons are dear to him he is a pleasant child All Gods children are children of his delights so the Heb. reads it since I speak against him or chide him for all afflictions are the rebukings and chidings of God I do earnestly remember him still I have not forgot him nor the affections of a father unto him though I have dealt a little roughly with him and left him a little in a distressed condition My bowels are troubled for him like a tender Mother that bears her Childe company with her own tears whilest she is correcting of him she whipps him and weeps over him and drawes more tears with the rod from her own eyes then she does bloud from the flesh of her crying childe so 't is with God his bowels sound louder then his blows and whilest he punisheth as a Judge he pittieth as a father and as it is with a mother when she hath whipp'd her childe she speaks it fair sets it upon her knees and dries its cheeks and eyes again with her own lips so the Lord when he hath lash'd his Ephraim takes him into his armes and sayes peace my dear son be quiet my pleasant Childe for I will surely have mercy upon thee miserendo miserebor an Elegant Hebraisme implying the certainty of mercy from the Lord to his Ephraims but when will the Lord have mercy upon them will he hasten his help will he speed his supplies yes have you never seen a tender mother what hast she makes when the shrill outcries of her fallen childe sound sadly in her ears so Isa 31.5 As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem the Lords mercies are a as bird upon the wing they mount high farre above all opposition and they fly swiftly not to be overtaken by the malice of man nor succours prevented by the pollicie and power of Hell O! how doth this sweeten that bitter cup which is in the hand of an afflicted Saint how doth this support and stay up a sinking spirit how doth this charge folly and falsshood upon wicked men who cry out against the Saints in the day of their distress God hath forsaken them the Lord hath cast them off and how doth this comport with that great truth spoke unto in this Treatise viz. That the appearances of God are eminent and immediate certain sudden to the help of his people in their distressed estate For ever then let all black mouthes be stopped from belching forth reproaches against the Saints charging them to be the greatest sinners hypocrites and forsaken of God because they meet with many and sore afflictions in this valley of tears 2. This reproves those who strengthen themselves with the arm of flesh and lean upon the creature when afflictions overtakes them that forsake the fountain of living waters and hew out unto themselves cisterns even broken cisterns that will hold no water the choicest creature-enjoyment is leaking sin hath perforated the creature and fill'd it full of chinks so that all that comforting healing helping satisfying and relieving good wherewith God fill'd the creature at its first creation leak's out untill sin be pardoned and the leaks be stopped by Gods own hand This then speakes the great folly of men to lay any expectancy of help from the creature yet what more usuall Many
the dwelling place of the Lord even of that God who is become my salvation and thus Psal 116. vers 1. I love the Lord my heart flameth out with hot affection to the Lord and why for vers 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling There 's nothing hears and heightens like unto a lively sense of the mercies of God in a day of distress The Saints are much wanting to themselves and more unto God in the neglect of this did we do this more God would have more of our hearts and hands too then he hath the love of Christ would constrain if we did often read over the story of it writ in his own blood Lastly Reason 5 The Lord cometh in seasonably and fully to his peoples relief in the day of their distress That he might blast the hope of their enemies and give their expectation the lye when they look for the down fall of Zion when adversity knocketh at the Saints door yea breaketh in forceably upon them then is the time come that the wicked looked for the day that they have longed after for surely the Serpents seed are true to their own principles they do really desire that the name of Israel was blotted out Cooperite cooperite diruite eximis sabvertite fundamentis Buchan and that their remembrance might perish from off the earth This was the language of Edom in the day of Jerusalem rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Psal 137. vers 7. Thus did the Egyptians gape and gaspe after prey Exod. 15. vers 9. I but God cometh in and dasheth their expectations in pieces yea beateth out the brains of that Leviathan and this maketh the hearts of their enemies melt and run like wax before the fire and thus God reacheth his great end which is to make void the hopes of the wicked Job 36.24 25. that all the world may see and say There is none like unto the God of Jeshurum who rideth upon the heavens for the help of Israel and in his excellency upon the skies The eternal God is their refuge and underneath are everlasting arms and he shall thrust out the enemy before-them and shall say destroy them Deut. 33. ver 26 27. When the wicked thinks to fall upon them and cut them off in the open field then the Lord will be a retreating place unto them the eternal God is their Refuge when they lay load upon them and think to sinke them down with pressing calamities then underneath are everlasting arms to bear them up when they strengthen their leagure and think to cut off all supplies then the God of Jeshurum rideth upon the heavens for their help when they think to starve them out and bring in famine among them then The fountain of Jacob is upon a land of corn and wine when they think to stop up their wells of water and to slay them with thirst Then his heaven drops down dew upon them the Lord filleth their vessels with rain from the clouds so that their water shall not fail thus in all their contrivements The enemies are found lyars and their blossoming hopes are blasted by the Lord so that the Angels in their heavenly Chore may sing this song of triumph in behalf of the Saints Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency Thus have we seen the truth cleared that the appearances of the Lord are eminent and immediate in the time of his peoples greatest distress and the reasons of the point asserted we shall now gather the Vintage and press the full clusters of it to make a cordial wine for fainting Saints in an evill day The Doctrine thus cleared and asserted doth offer us many truths writ with a beam of the Sun known and read of all men As 1. Doct. That the Saints are a people of Gods special care They are much in the thoughts of God and lye near his heart It is a truth God eareth for man and beast he exerciseth a general and a providential care towards all his creatures The care of a Creator like the light of the Sun goeth through the whole world his going forth is from the end of heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Psal 19. vers 6. All men yea the worst of men on this side hell are debtors to God and owe all their safety to his care whose is their breath and in whose hands are all their wayes But he hath a peculiar and paternal care over the Saints That Distich of Musculus cometh in fitly Est Deus in coelis qui providus omnia curat Credentes nunquam deservisse potest A God there is whose providence doth take Care for his Saints whom he will not forsake Saint Paul that he might commend Timothy fully to the Philippians useth these expressions Phil. 2. vers 20. I have no man like-minded he could not finde so choice a spirit not a man of his minde he was a None-such and wherein did this singularity shew it self Why in this who will naturally care for your state as principles of nature carry out the Father carefully to provide for the safety of his children Childless persons drive on a single and selfish interest but parents do wrap up their childrens good in all their actings spending many a careful thought on them how to render their lives safe and comfortable So vers 20. When all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ good Timothy naturally tendered the Churches welfare laying out his thoughts and care how to promote her spiritual advantage A singular patern to which the carriages of few men run parallel in these selfish dayes of ours when the publick is too much drowned and swallowed up in private interests A sad deportment and that which ought to be lamented with tears of blood Oh! should the Lord write after this copy what a woe case were we all in but here is our comfort God careth for the righteous and this speaks his care with the shrillest Eccho that he naturally careth for them even with the tenderest bowels of an indulgent father See that 2 Chron. chap. 16. vers 9. The eyes of the Lord run too and fro through the whole earth to shew himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him his eyes run implying the celerity and swiftness of God in hastening relief to his people Isa 31. vers 5. As birds flying so will the Lord defend Jerusalem his eyes run through the whole earth implying the universality of help not a Saint in a dark corner of the world under any streights but the Lord seeth him nay run to and fro the providence of God moveth in circuitu if it be low water now it will be high water anon there are tydes of mercy So Isa
of laying too great a burden upon a creature bottome Isa 31.3 The Egyptians are men not God and their borses flesh and not spirit This Antithests speaketh fully to the creatures feebleness there is nothing of Omnipotency in the creature A man may be brought to that streight wherein creature-helpers do stoop in vain and wherein all created power may speak to the expectancy of man as the King of Israel to the women I the Lord do not help how should I help and the reason is clear in the text they are not God not spirit that is their power is limited beyond which they cannot work When the Lord shall stretch forth his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall down and they all shall fall together As if a man should underprop a ruinous house and the props being too weak to bear the burden do break and so the house and they fall down together How free is the Church in the acknowledgement of this truth when she had bought it by dear experience Jer. 3.23 Truely in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the movntains there is a great deal of significancy in the two first words Acken Truely of a truth as if they had said There is truth and faithfulness in the word of Gods promise we may venture safely upon this bottom he cannot deny himself for he is a faithful God nor doth he promise beyond the reach of his power for he is an Almighty God and therefore the Church affirmeth Truely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Israel never failed of salvation when they waited for it from the Lord their God who is a God of truth But on the other side if Israel the best of people do lay their expectancy of help from the hills the 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