give him a stone This is reason But much more can faith help it self by experience I am a man in authority and I say to one man go and he goeth and I say to another come and he cometh c. This is experience and faith is wonderful weak indeed when it cannot thus help up it self experiences are such sensible and such impressive things upon all powers within and without O ye of little faith do ye not remember the five loaves and how many Baskets ye took up Mat. 16. Christ takes it for granted that faith is very little and very weak indeed when it cannot help it self by experiences things which the Man hath had done for him in his wants He delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim The Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way he hath sent that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 9.17 Doubtless that experience which he had of such an escape going to Damascus advantaged his faith all his days to look thorow and to run thorow all the storms and perils which afterward he met withall Some great sickness the Apostle Paul had by the ill usage of Men who oppressed him and yet God preserved and how he raised faith by experience to look thorow all evils present and to come see 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We would not have you ignorant of the troubles which happen'd unto us in Asia how that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired ever of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead who deliver'd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Mordecai is called Pethakia because saith the Jews he opened and expounded all matters and understood 70 Languages Experience may be called Pethakiah it doth so interpret all Ridles and dark matters both of the word and works of God it explains and interprets 70 and 70 Languages if there be so many worth the interpreting it makes a Man with ease and triumph to look thorow and over all before it though never so dark and difficult as David over Goliah and Zerubabel over that great Mountain which was before him and Joshuah the High Priest over sin and Satans occasions Is not this a brand pluckt out of the Fire Fourthly By Prayer doth a believer come to this good eye-sight to look thorow all dark and difficult matters When I cry to thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Psal 56.9 David had cryed to God as one once did a little before an engagement and he knew he should have the day and that his enemies would turn their backs great clearing of fight is made by prayer and tears in dark days to see thorow matters A little wind overthrows not only Houses but States and Kingdoms saith Seneca A little of this wind I mean the pantings and prayings of God's People to Heaven overthrows Persons and Nations indeed and is a sure prognostick of good to whom a praying spirit is given and makes in the heart an assurance of good coming My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me then observe what he saw Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the Earth Psal 63.8 9. Whether that were Hell or the Grave or both 't was well the Church and David were rid of them Prayer is an Ordinance by which the Soul goeth to Heaven and then gets a new life and strength before it comes down again Christ found the blessing of this Ordinance oft and hath surely sanctified it to all his for the same end to lift up their heads and hearts above all troubles He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God the Rock of my Salvation and I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.26 The whole course of Nature began with the motion of the Heavens and continues still vigorous according to the continued motion of them Now as the motion of the Heavens is to the whole course of Nature so is Prayer to all the graces of the Soul and to the whole course and state of the new World it is this that sets all graces a going and going true and strong let weather be what it will Hence are those pertinent words of David Trust in the Lord at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 He maketh these subservient one to another faith to prayer and prayer to faith as indeed they are Would you trust in the Lord at all times then pour out your souls to God Would you pour out your souls to God and pray alway then trust in the Lord at all times Hence it is that the Apostle Paul when he had spoken at a great height of faith Who hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver c. You also helping together for us by Prayer 2 Cor. 1.11 Prayer mounts faith upon its high places and faith mounts prayer and makes one pray in his praying Unbelief is soul-fainting and prayer is a fetching fresh life from the Fountain of Life Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Psal 13. that is Soul and Body Vse 1 Learn from hence that if faith looketh through the most dark and difficult things then where faith is not troubled People and distressed People must needs be at a great loss especially in great distresses yea the truth is in every little distress every little tryal will sinck them in whom is no faith I cannot well give the reason of it some things contemptible are very vertual to cure great diseases of which none are able to give a reason Unless this that faith twines it self with God to do for Man and all other natural abilities bear up little because they lead not the sinner out of himself but to trust in some thing of the Creature and very little burdens will break the back of a meer Man though his reason and parts and outward helps may be many Saul was bid to stay till Samuel came to him and Samuel stayed but a little beyond his time consequently his tryal was but little and he falls upon things and ways unlawful to his ruine He that believes not will make hast because he cannot see through any strait The Philistines were neer and thou didst not come and therefore 't was in vain for me to wait so Saul reasoned within himself and so will every Man that is destitute of faith Achan having no faith could not forbear but would be providing for himself when as God was before them and
the Sun as seven days Isa 30.26 For the saith they shall be truly penitent and cast away their Idols i.e. their dearest lusts as a menstruous cloath saying Get ye hence vers 22. And the slaughters of all our Idols and the Mould wherein they are cast to wit our corrupt nature these are the great slaughters and high imaginations and proud affections boiling over yet subdued these are the high Towers and strong Holds falling It was Christ that said to Man and Woman Let them have dominion over-the Fish in the Sea and Fowls in the Heavens and over all the Works of God's hands So it is Christ that saith to fallen man let him have dominion over sin and Satan that leads it let it be by what cunning strong temptation soever let him rule over the Devil and all the works of his hands and let him put all under his Feet Secondly As to the body of this death i.e. as to the guilt of sin that whereby as a Transgressor of God's will Man stands bound over to the Judgment of the great Day to Eternal wrath and condemnation Christ is the proper remedy as to this also to cancil every bond and hand-writing of the Law and Conscience against us and to make us stand spotless before the Throne of the great and most Holy God See Zech. 13.1 In that Day there shall be a Fountain opened to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness By sin is meant guilt which Christ taketh away by his blood and uncleanness means the filth of our corrupt nature which Christ purgeth by his Spirit which is a Spirit of Judgment and Burning Of this I have spoken in the last head I was upon I have now only to shew you that Christ cureth the body of this death that is the guilt which we continually contract by our corrupt state and the obligation which this maketh to the wrath of God both in this World and in the World to come and setteth us in favour above That Christ doth this for fallen Man see Dan. 9.24 Seventy weekâ— are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the Vision and the Prophesie c. And to anoint the most Holy c By the Transgression here mentioned is meant the Jews killing of Christ and wishing his blood upon them and by sealing up the Vision and the Prophesie means the accomplishing of what God had shewed this Prophet and other Prophets concerning the Incarnation and death of Christ At such a time he shall come in Man's nature and at such a time he shall die and by his death make an end of wickedness that is as to the reigning power of it and as to the obliging power of it For as if this Prophet had said He shall by his death satisfie the Justice of God and dying as such a spotless Lamb and Sacrifice as one that hath fulfilled all God's wills as one indeed after his own heart he shall impute all this as theirs who shall believe on him and so procure their pardon the favour of God and an everlasting righteousness and well-pleasingness before God and so make an end of guilt utterly that if it be sought for it shall no where be found The Apostle Peter also confirmeth this that Christ cureth the body of this death i. e the guilt of fin For Christ suffered once for sin the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.12 That he might bring us to God that is That he might reconcile us to and bring us into favour with God Thirdly It is supposed by the complaint of this wretched state that the Apostle would have a better His complaint of sin and depravation and the loss of God's Image supposeth that he would have holiness and God's Image lost restored now as to this also Christ is the proper remedy as to destroy the old Man so to restore the new as it is he that binde the strong man and spoileth all his goods so it is he that creates the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 He it is that sanctifieth and we are they which are sanctified and all this is of one by the same Blood and Spirit by which as such an undertaker of our sin he sanctified himself by the merit and efficacy of the same he sanctifieth us who are not sinners meerly by imputation and deputation as he was but inherently Christ's Blood and Spirit is the Laver of regeneration and the Fullers Soap that maketh us white and changeth our black-more skin The Earth was without form and voâ—d tohu bohu and the Spirit of Christ fluttered upon it and brought it in a little time to such a glorious new thing than what it was in its first Creation So it is the same Spirit of Christ that fluttereth upon our Souls which by nature are anoâ—her Chaos and maketh them a new Creation To this I think the Apostle pointeth 2 Cor. 4.6 From whom I borrow this Metaphor But God who causes the light to shine out of darkness c. It was to Christ that the Father spake Come let us make Man in our Image and it is he and the Father that work hitherto by the Holy Ghost that speak one to another Come let us quicken this dead Soul and make him stand up from the dead and bear our Name in his Forehead our similitude and likeness When the Prophet Ezekiel had said that David should be their Prince for ever meaning Christ he further saith in the Person of this David to wit Christ The Heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more Ezek. 37.25.28 compared It is this Zerubbabel's hand that laid the Foundation and it is his hand that finisheth it and therefore the charge is that none despise the little small beginings of it though never so small As Christ can remove guilt and filth in one day which is much rubbish indeed So he can make a new Creature as soon if he please He made the Thief a new man quickly and carried him to Heaven with Him that Day He made Him and finished Him and Housed Him and all in a Day He made but a Days work nay but a few Houres work to finish Grace and Glory These things of the new state doth Christ and so as not to be undone He shall not fail or be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Iles shall wait for his Law Isa 42 4. There be many discouraging things in the removal of natural corruption as in any work I know enough
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
all good to the great good Christ and to the embracing of him Some are well and yet still offering their hand to the Physician saith Seneca their hearts being like a Pond after a storm a long while trembling Some are not Soul well the Plague of a hard heart being on them and their sores and swellings daily to be seen without searching for and yet never offer their Pulse to any to feel them but judge themselves well and their state good which confidence is carnal and an evident token of an impenitent and insensible heart If ye say that ye have no calamity in your Families nor Death in your Houses yet Death is much in the dwellings of many others How do ye lay this to heart God doth whip some upon others backs and this is tender mercy and should be the more melting and abasing and drawing to Christ as Cords of great love Is it thus with you How the Prophet Jeremiah was affected with the calamity of others especially as he saw it did no good upon their Souls which was an evident token how well it wrought upon his Soul though others smarted yet he laid to heart and profited My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarum of War Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole Land is spoiled suddenly are my Tents spoiled and my Curtains in a moment How long shall I see the Standard and hear the sound of the Trumpet for my People is foolish they have not known me they are sottish Children they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Jer. 4.19 20. Let us apply these words to our selves do not we lie in such an ill frame of Spirit Are not our hearts though God's hand be so heavy still sottish and sensless of all that whereby we have provoked God to do all this against us Very wise and quick to see the Moat in others Eyes and to lay the blame at others doors You will say so did Jeremiah in this Scripture which you have quoted I answer That the Prophet did see provocations abroad it is true but that it was not without looking well to his own heart see Jer. 12.1 2 3. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy which deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art neer in their mouths and far from their Reins but thou O Lord knowest me and seen me and tryed my heart towards thee pull them out like Sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the Day of slaughter As if he had said thou knowest right well that I have frailties and infirmities many yet thou also knowest that I bewail them and in all things I endeavour to approve my self to thee by thy help and would do nothing to provoke thee in this Day Can we thus approve our selves to GOD now Vse 4 Let the last Use of this Doctrine be for Exhortation Be sensible and lay to heart this mortal time and this dying day the many thousands of all sorts good and bad which now are swept away Let it not be said that the Graves are wide open Hell is wide open but our hearts are still fast shut Righteous and merciful Men as well as profane drunken covetous Nabals are taken away but none lay to heart one or the other If the Prophets charge in my Text should be found a true charge against us alass for us we are all dead Men and Women and no escaping Wherefore stir up your selves weep not for the dead but weep for your selves saying alass alass what have I done How do I live that so many die where I dwell Do not I infect the Parish my Family this City And be close home in these Queries and in these Heart-smitings for surely if we did judge our selves as we should every one in truth we should not thus continually be judged of the Lord. The Bells tole and ring in your ears every Morning and Evening but is there nothing else sounds in your Ears No Achan no accursed thing that yet your hearts hide and cleave so fast to And will not yet though thus affrighted part with A dreadful sound is in his ears Job 15.21 in prosperity the Destroyer shall come upon him said Eliphaz to Job he speaks to Job as to a worldly Man catcht in his worldly ways You have had worldly ways and tumblings all over the World you Citizens and now you are at leisure and quiet Do you not hear some dreadful sound in your ears of sin in this and in that you have complained for want of leisure now you have leisure pray lissen well now to your consciences what dreadful reports they are ready to make at the great Bat above against you O lay these to heart well for these have slain you and us now in all that is dear and will slay yet all the remnant unless we all repent The Prophet Elija by killing two Captains and their Fifties brought the third Captain upon his knees and to humble himself whether in truth I know not but he saved his life by it and the lives of his Fifty men O that Christ by killing so many Thousands so many Eight Thousands and so many Five Thousands might bring the rest upon their knees indeed to him he got his life and we should get our lives and our Souls and so would the Plague as a Plague not come nigh our dwelling Secondly Let me exhort you to lay to heart the import of these general strokes that one and all are so cut off wicked and righteous These kind of general strokes do import that we all have sinn'd and have much provoked God one as well as another Righteous Men and merciful Men have not been so holy and righteous and so merciful as we should Behold the Days come saith the Lord That I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised Aegypt and Juda and so puts them together and then Edom and Ammon and Moab and Israel with them which are in the uttermost parts of the Earth For all these Nations are uncircumcised in Flesh and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.25.26 Some Men are outwardly and openly stark naught and the best of us it seems are not so good at heart as we should be this let us lay to heart all of us Or else the import of this general mortality is that God means to harden the hearts of some much by slaying the good as well as the bad that they who have no mind to repent and change their courses may be confirmed and encouraged in them in as much as
which God inflicts sometimes upon the Sons of Men yea upon his own Children Secondly This Metaphor is to set forth the numbers and troops of trials wherewith God punisheth his sometimes and the number can as well be numbered as the nature be fathomed you can as well fathom the bottomless Ocean as number the Waves and Billowes which beat up and down in it Thirdly This Metaphor fetcht forth the continuedness of afflâ—ction Deep calleth upon deep or calleth for deep That is one Wave beateth up and beateth on another * Undam undaque pellit or unda sequax as Virgil saith through the Tempests which God raiseth Afflictions unfathomable innumerable and very durable fall sometimes upon the People of God The next thing this Text sheweth to us is the greatness and invincibleness of faith which is set forth unto us by the Person faith taketh hold on in distress and that is God Faith leans on no Creature high nor low for in great distress What can the greatest Man do but God Yet the Lord shall c. Secondly The potency and invincibleness of faith is shewed unto us by that attribute in God on which faith fastens and that is his Soveraignty which commands all other wheels to go The Lord will command his loving kindness c. Thirdly Faith in the potency and invincibleness of it is shewed us by its excellent issues and effect which it doth produce which are two Prayer and Praise and in every dark state And in the Night his Song shall be with me and my Prayer to the God of my life in which is involved peace and joy and all good Doct. The Doctrin which I observe from these words is this That God sometimes maketh all his Waves and Billowes to go over Men yea good Men. The Psalmist thus complaineth not once in my Text but in Psal 69.1 2. Save me O God for the Waters are come into my Soul I sink in deep Mire where there is no standing I am come into deep Waters where the Floods overflow me I am weary of my crying my throat is dried mine eyes fail whilst I wait for my God David was a Man after God's own heart and yet saith he The waters are come into my Soul and I am come into deep Waters which overflow me and I cry to God and he lets me cry till my throat be dryed and can obtain no answer Elsewhere he speaks of himself and others Thâ—u sellest thy People for naught and dost not increase thy wealth by their price alluding to Slaves thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about us my confusion is still before me and the shame of my face hath covered me Psal 44 12 13 14. There is a great distance between the Planets they cannot dart one to another saith Seneca But it is not so with afflictions these will dart and reach one to another when pain is on the body it will reach unto the Soul All afflictions for kind and qualities and all for degree and quantity doth God sometimes bring upon Man First All afflictions for kind and quality that is spiritual and temporal Spiritual afflictions GOD brings upon Men yea upon the best Men. The loss of Ordinances When I remember these things I pour out my Soul for I had gone with the Multitude to the House of God Psal 42.4 As the loss of Ordinances So 2. The loss of God in Ordinances Why are thou cast down O my Soul c. O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee from the Land of Jordan So Job complaineth of the loss of God The Arrows of the Lord are within me and the poison of them drink up my Spirit Job 6. And what a Man was he for integrity I acknowledge my sin and yet mine iniquity is ever before me Psal 51.3 Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a heavy buâ—den too heavy for me to bear my wounds stink and are corrupt through my own foolishness Psal 38.4 5. A storm cannot raise it self above the Moon much less as far as the Stars saith the Philosopher and yet spiritual storms raise themselves in the Soul above all Sun Moon and Stars above all the graces gifts and endowments the Soul hath and eclipse and darken all My heart is sore pained within me and the terrors of death are fallen upon me fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horrour hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.4 So Haman whilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And then God is gone indeed and Sun Moon and Stars overwhelmed Secondly Temporal afflictions doth God bring upon Men yea upon the best of Men. How our Saviour was afflicted in Spirit we read his Soul was heavy to death how he cried out and roared because of God hideing himself and as to all outward miseries and injuries what was not inflicted on him that Man or Devil yea or the Justice of God could inflict His visage was marred more than any Man's He had no House nor home He was in the Wilderness worried by Devils and wild Beasts He had no Bread no Bed no Friends forsaken of all even of all his Disciples So Haman how he complaineth of Bodily afflictions I am afflicted and ready to die from my Youth Psal 88.14 He had not a well day in all his life as we say and yet lived in an ill time to be sick namely when our Fathers were in their conflicts in Egypt under Pharaoh And yet mark what he saith then Thou hast laid me in the lowest Pit in darkness in the deep thy wrath lieth hard upon me Ps 88.7 and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves Sela. As if he had said that it should be done thus to and poor Creatures such a season as this when under the tiranny of a Foreign Enemy let it be wonder'd at by all the Creation Angels and Men. So Hezekiah how afflicted outwardly with a great Army of merciless Men insulting and besieging him and no sooner that over but sick unto death of the Plague and other infirmities as you may read by his complaints Mine Age is departed like a Shepheards Tent it is removed I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sickness which is many thousand deaths from Day even to Night he will make an end of me I reckoned that as a Lion so he will break all my bones Isa 38.12 Comets appear in the calmest Ayr and yet are very prodigious things So corporal calamities break out upon Men when in the greatest calm of ease and content When David said his Mountain was strong and that he should never be removed by and by you hear him cry out I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the Day long for my loins are filâ—d with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I
affections to his People Now God dispenseth riches anon poverty but both with the same spirit of love Now he dispenseth peace by his spirit to the soul and anon terror and upbrading and both by the same spirit of Fatherly affection So that storms arise from a discord in the matter of God's dispensations and not from a change in Gods love for God is immutable and changeth not and whom he loveth he loveth to the end Learn from hence that the way to Heaven is narrow such throngs of Miseries are on one side afflicting and such throngs of Devils on the other side tormenting and then within such throngs of lusts and corruptions on one side and such throngs of Gods frowns and rebukes on the other hand so that the way for the poor soul to go to Heaven between all these is very narrow The Sea is broad enough and yet the winds and storms may be such as to make the passage to such a Port narrow enough and hard to hit and make The wayes to Heaven are very spacious and in themselves very pleasant but there arise so many storms within and without these these make them narrow and hard to hit and make and walk in as we should I am counted with them that go down into the Pit I am as a Man that hath no strength free among the dead like the sâ—â—ne that lie in the Grave whom thou rememberest no more as they that are cut off from thine hand Psal 88.4 5. They had almost consumed me upon Earth but I forgat not thy Precepts Psal 119.87 The wayes of God are broad and large and good but there are so many slaying consuming evils on both sides these these make them narrow and hard to hit and to walk well in One mischief almost consumes us and then get ofâ— that a little and presently another evil worse takes hold of us and this quite breaks us Before we can swallow our spitle waves beat so thick that we know not which way to steer The superior bodies which are fixed are pure and clear and never change their complexion not course If it were thus with our graces then though storms and troubles did arise we should see and make our way well enough we should make the favour of God Christ and Heaven at Mid-night But our graces change when our conditions change and when our bodies are weak our faith is weak when our outward condition is low our graces are all low too and this maketh the way of Religion hard and difficult and narrow Learn from hence that little trials should not be made much of At every small thing that befalls us we do so take on when others have all the waves of God gone over them and we have skarce one We have a few trials and a many of mercies to support us and yet what out-cries and others have all miseries and skarce one mercy to support them and yet these it may be make less noise That which Physicians call inveterate head-ach is made by every light occasion and then continueth long and hardly stayed and the Person loves to fit in the dark is here applicable Some their miseries are inveterate and yet made and woven with every trivial thing and then there is no quieting as if they had more afflictions on them than all the Town besides and then sit in the dark mope here and there and unfit themselves and undress themselves to all business to go in a hole when twenty and twenty undergo more affliction in one Moneth than they in many Years yet quiet and complain little to Men. My soul is continually in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law Psal 119.109 Some there is continually but a step between them and some mortal malady and yet how patient how believing how heavenly able to comfort others and others are more afraid than hurt as we say and fancy their case for misery more than really it is and yet how disconsolate how unbelieving how froward how troubling wife husband all the house Some their cases are as sad as sad can be like those which have a sentence of Death at the Bar that sit like sentenced Men on the Lader waiting when the Execut oner will do his office and this I doubt is the case of many and some not only as to all their welfare in this World but as to all their welfare in the World to come And that we should make ado about this and that when the life and soul and eternal welfare of such and such hangs thus in doubt before them Learn that they have much cause to bless God who find any calmes and lueida intervalla considering what continual stormes and calamities attend our condition here 'T is incredible that a storm should mount as high as Mid-Heaven and whirl it self among the Spheres which move so peaceably and regularly and yet it is most incredible if every one of us do not find storms assault us in our highest graces and enjoyments What Clouds gather still after the Rain in this Climate What fenny boggy places our spirits are yielding matter of storms continually and therefore what cause have we to bâ—ess God if we have any tranquility or health or liberty or soul-peace in this World We value the favours of God as we do a Companion in the way no longer than he rideth our way we value the favours of God as â—e do the paring of our naâ—ls they have served our use and so we throw them away Linnen doth not receive a skarlet die there is not a deep and fit foundation for such a noble colour So it is with many Souls they are as thin Linnen not deep and substantial enough to receive a right impression of Gods favours For pains in the Head you must use great frictions and rubbings of the inferior parts of the Body to draw down And truly discontent and unthankfulness is an evil in the head and heart too a slightness and misunderstanding of the great mercies of God and to cure it things must be rubbed much upon the conscience that lower Court of judging and condemning things amiss for we are less than the least of all Gods favours Learn that we have much cause to be very Heavenly Floods so much overflow all here and all things are so oft sloted in this World that it is necessary our Souls be much upon the Wing and much aloft in that upper World Procul negotiis should be the Saints Motto Far from sin nay far from the troublesome business and matters of this World and much else where to wit in Heaven where we say our Treasure is How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them when I awake I am still with thee Psal â—9 18 When all Gods waves over flowed the old wicked World the Dove flees to the Ark so should the great and continued troubles of this world make us retreat much to Christ and to that good and
to quench the Spirit of Christ quite but it seemeth that he is under such a Law and such an assistance from the Father that he must know no discouragement but must on with the work against all opposition and set and establish judgment that is the state of the new Creature or the work of grace he must make the new Creature and he must establish it i. e. so make it that it may never be marred again as the Image of God in the first Adam was Christ threw out filth so that the Devil cannot easily fetch it in again And Christ build so upon himself the Chief corner Stone and firm Rock that no stormes can overturn Job is a great instance The Apostle saith That Charity never faileth If our love never fail it is because that God's love to us in Christ never faileth The love of Christ is unchangeable and so he maketh ours that much water cannot quench it Christ ordains us to bring forth much fruit and our fruit to remain Joh. 15.16 When Polycarp was set on an Ass and carried to his doom he heard a voice from Heaven saying be of good chear O Polycarp and play the Man the Speaker no Man saw but the voice was heard by many of us saith the History And if any one did play the Man in his suffering he did Have respect to thine age tender thy life swear by the fortune of Caesar repent of what is past and say remove the wicked But he looking about with a stedfast countenance upon the wicked Multitude said Remove O Lord these wicked Fourscore and six years have I served Christ and he never offended me in any thing And how then can I revile my King that hath thus kept me The pro-consul still urged him but he still as stoutly resisted him and replyed I am a Christian and there was no turning of him with all that they could say or do The first Work of grace in our first Parents was lost but the grace we now have by Christ eating of that Tree of Life is preserved for ever and none can pluck out of his hand Secondly Christ doth this excellent work of the new Creature alone But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 What sacrifices soever have been used they did not mean that any could remove Man's guilt or filth but all pointed at Christ the sacrificing of himself and that this and this alone is the remedy of fallen and sinful Man He trod the Wine press of the wrath of God alone and of the People none with him Isa 63.3 David duell'd it with Goliah and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a Sling and a Stone And so Christ duell'd it with all the Enemies of Man's salvation and had nothing but a contemptible weapon a body subject to infirmities Christ would not put any of this work out of his own hands to be done Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness by whose stripes we are healed 1 Pet. 2.24 Christ had none to help him to bear the Cross which God laid on him though he had one to help bear the Cross which Men laid on him The weight of our sins as punished with infinite wrath and torment Alass who could bear this Cross or be compelled to it and yet all the damned are compelled to bear this Cross and so will all reprobates As in one part of our restoration Christ was alone so in all the parts of it foundation and top-stone he layeth both alone and none of the People with him None offered to him first not last Look to Abraham your Father and to Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and increased him and blessed him Isa 51.2 I think the scope of this Scripture was to strengthen faith that though they were but few yet that God was able to deliver them from all their Enemies as he did Abraham in a very lonely state in Canaan from the Kings that fought with him But take the place more spiritually and strictly for Gods calling of him out of the state of Heathenisme and so the bringing him to a state of grace the bringing him to a new Country and Religion and State all this God did for Abraham alone and subdued all his inward enemies alone and made him an Heir of Eternal Salvation alone God would trust Abraham's best estate with none but himself I desire but this saith Mr. Rutherford that Christ would take me in hand to cure me and undertake for a sick man I know I should not die under his hand sorrow which hath no eyes hath put a Vail upon my Soul that I cannot see him If Christ undertake a sick sinners cure let his disease be what it will never so desperate never so long standing he cureth him without any more Physicians and none die under his hand Thirdly Christ doth this great service for Man of making a better state freely for Jew and Gentile for great sinners and little sinners if there be any such Christ doth all freely He cured Naman that his skin came as if it had been the skin of a young Child and did it for nothing though a very rich Man and would have given much for his Cure Our Fathers had Manna from Heaven and Physick the brazen Serpent which cured them and supported them for nothing and all that was Christ The Manna that fed them was Christ the Serpent that healed them was Christ Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3.11 In all sorts Jews and Gentiles Christ works for the Cure of natural corruption and doth many Cures of this kind but takes nothing no mony nor monys worth he cursed Gehazi that would be medling this way The Samaritan poured in Oil and Wine and healed the wounded Man of all his wounds and all freely And so brought the Prophet's Widdow out of debt freely such Samaritans are now much wanting for Prophets Widdows in debt and he frankly forgave a Debtor many Talents GOD lookt upon every of the Five Days Work and said it was good But on the Sixth Days Work when he had made Man he beheld and said it was very good to shew what special delight God had to make his own Image and to draw his own likeness in Man so doth Christ still not only do this work of restoring fallen Man and do it for nothing but delights to conform us to his Image and when this Days work is done for any wretched Man he saith it is very good and all the Angels rejoyce with him Vse 1 Learn from hence that our Soul-ruines and miseries by our Fall are very great in that none but Christ God-man is able to remedy them 'T is a strong Prison that which none can open but