will put my trust in the Lord for a horse is a vaine thing vaine is the helpe of man He is onely strong that is strong in the Lord. LXI VVEE alwayes reade that God provides a refuge and hiding place for his people in times of trouble and danger An Arke for Noah flaggs for Moses a little Zoar for Lot a Midian for Moses a Haran for Jacob Caves and rocks in the Citie Keilab for David the Temple his own house for Joash a cave for Obadiahs hundred Prophets an Aegypt for Paul a Pella for the Christians leaving Hierusalem The Lord hides them because they are dear to him they are his jewels his treasure now in times of danger men hide their treasures and jewells have their Cabinets I am thine O Lord and therefore be thou my hiding place cover mee with thy feathers hide me in thy Pavilion keep me secretly in thy Tabernacle from the pride of men strife of tongues Thus as the lame and blind having got into the Tower of Sion derided David so having gotten thee to be my Tower I will laugh at calamities warres dangers LXII The wicked are as a troubled Sea Psa 42.7 Rev. 12.15 Isa 59.19 Psa 32.6 The troubles which they bring on the godly are metaphorically called waters flouds of waters Now water is one of the most mercilesse creatures if it be not contained it will of it selfe keepe no bounds but overflow all carry away all before it The helpe which the godly may expect herein is from the Lord who hath promised that in flouds of great waters they shall not come nigh thee If they doe come nigh their soules yet will the Lord be with them so that they shall not drowne them In such inundations god doth either provide for his an Arke to carry them above as he did for Noah or one to draw us out as he did for Moses or else will cause the floud to be swallowed up and the place made dry ground as he did for the Church Rev. 12. This distracted Kingdome is as a troubled Sea the waters thereof come nigh our soules Our hope is that he who setteth bounds to the Sea that it shall goe no further will limit the rage of these waters and either carry us above them by his power or be with us in them by his presence and make a way for us through them by his providence as he did for Israel that so we may attain to his heavenly Canaan LXIII MAny are the troubles of the righteous Psal 34.15 but the Lord delivereth them out of all Iob 5.19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evill touch thee Where some of the learned say the Spirit of God alludeth unto the dayes of the Lords worke of Creation in the six dayes and cessation on the seventh implying that his servants must labour all the dayes of their lives with griefe and sorrow and shall not be refreshed till that everlasting Sabbath Others conceive that by six and seven are understood many evills Pro. 24.16 an indefinite number for a definite However if all my days must be spent in sorrow I will comfort my selfe with the assured hope of a time of refreshing and rest at last As my troubles are many my deliverances shall be as many though my labour be long and tedious my rest shall be joyous and eternall That Sabbaticall yeare will recompence me for the years wherein I have suffered adversitie LXIV OVr light affliction which is but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.17 worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory saith the Apostle most sweetly Where wee see a very elegant Antithesis or opposition betwixt present afflictions and future glory Wee shall have for affliction glory for light affliction massie substantial glory a weight of glory for momentary affliction eternall glory Yea he addeth degrees of comparison beyond all degrees calling it excellent more excellent farre more excellent an exceeding excessive weight of glory A full and pithy speech sufficient to make one swallow downe the most bitter affliction Eternall glory will answer temporall afflictions A weight of glory will weigh downe light afflictions I will therefore not murmure at my afflictions seeing glory succeeds them I will willingly goe through momentary afflictions when my glory shall be eternall My affliction shall seeme light when I think of that weight of glory LXV PErfection and perpetuitie are the two satisfactory conditions which an enlightened soule requires in any defired object neither is any thing by it esteemed truly perfect unlesse it be accompanied with perpetuitie Now if wee look for perpetuitie in the creature wee may heare every thing say as concerning wisdom The Depth saith Iob 28.14 it is not in me the Sea saith it is not in me To this demand things doe thus subscribe Riches say Yours till a time of warre Honours say Yours till an enemy eclipse your Princes favour Friends say yours as you use him Wives say yours till death God onely says I will never leave thee nor forsake thee In him onely is perfection who is the most perfect perpetuitie onely in him who is the same for ever LXVI IT was a grievous affliction for David to be dispossessed of his Kingdome by his own Son Yet he saith in that condition 2 Sam. 15.20 I the Lord say I have no delight in him loe here am I let him doe unto mee as it seemeth good in his eyes The losse would not be of a small thing but of a Kingdome and the person by whom he might have been dethroned was not a stranger or an enemy nor a familiar friend but a sonne Yet in all this he submits his will to God It is a hard thing to bring the will low when the estate is low stubbornnes and pride may rest there where is no outward thing to foment it In some passion directs their wills in most reason but grace only makes it stoop to gods will Lord though I am driven out of all with David and if my estate be not framed to my will frame my will to my estate as the one is low let the other be low also If I must have Davids sufferings I desire Davids patience and then I will say with David Loe here am I let him doe with me what seemeth good in his eyes or with the son of David Not my will but thy will be done LXVII I Have been young Psa 37.25 says David and now an old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor then seed begging bread How different then seems the condition of Gods people now in these dayes over it did in Davids Are the righteous more in number now then they were then and so is not their heavenly Father able to provide for all Or else doth he take lesse care of them now then he did then No God forbid The truth is that David in his own observation in his
Interna habeo Eterna habebo Externa habui reposita 1. Tim 4.8 THE GAYNE of LOSSE OR TEMPORALL LOSSES SPIRITVALLY IMPROVED In a Centurye one Decad of Meditations Resolves By John Warner M. A. sometimes of Magd Hall in Oxo one of the Ministers of the London Brigade in the late Western Expedition 1644. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Paedag Isai 42.24 Who gave Jacob for a spoyle and Israel to the robbers Did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned London Printed by M. S for H. Blunden at the CasÌ„tle in Corn-hill 1645. The Approbation I Have perused this Treatise intituled Temporall Losses spiritually improved In which finding nothing but what is pious sound and profitable I allow to be printed Novemb. 27. 1644. Iohn Downam TO HIS HONOURED FRIEND that pious Gentleman Mr. John Ash a worthy Member of the honourable House of Commons in this present Parliament Worthy Sir HAnnibal being to encounter with Minutius in the vale Liv. hist Polyb. was not so much daunted with the present enemy as with Fabius Maximus who faced him on a mountain in the Reare and therefore said hee feared that cloud hovering aloft would ere long poure down upon him It was not our enemies neer at hand I feared being over-powered by our Forces as that Western cloud which like Elijahs of a handfull increased so as to overspread the face of our countrey and against the expectation of the wisest poured downe our next * Munk. â—on Ferdy in Wilts adjacent hill and as a confluence of many waters drove all resistance before it Hereby it came to passe that the place where I lived became like that place to which Paul his companie were driven Acts 27.4 where two seas met so that by the stronger waters the Bark of my estate was with some of my best neighbours in a moment swallowed up and carried away Yet in this danger notwithstanding the earnest enquirie of the enemy after me and as earnest pursuit God gave me my life as a prey to my selfe Now after my escape having got into a private Sanctuary my sad spirit unfit for publick exercises studied this Text which the enemies had given me and from my losses by them gained this Manuell of Meditations usefull for my selfe and others in these times of losing which were composed by me in as much danger as Archimedes was in drawing his lines when the city was befieged * Made by me at the siege of Glocester Admire you may at first my boldness why considering my small acquaintance with you I should dedicate this poor peece unto you but if you consider all you might otherwise admire my unthankfulness For Sir you may remember unless the multitude of your liberality to others make you forgetfull how that some years since I did largely partake of your bounty wherein I know not whether your gift or the manner of giving exceeded which was so farre from ostentation that I dare say your left hand knew not what your right hand did seeing you had no distinct knowledg of the receiver nor would you be known to be the giver till some moneths after an earnest desire of shewing my selfe thankfull prevailed with the messenger to discover such a hidden friend unto me But besides private respects your activenesse for the publick good as well in the City as Countrey and your patience under great private losses doe challenge all respect from your Countreymen As you have done much for Christ so have you suffered much not only by the Prelates heretofore but by their supporters now In these evill times few great men are good and therefore good great men should be great in the esteem of others Sad experience demonstrates how too many of the nobler richer sort endevour to make themselves by undoing others and strive to erect a Babell of their own estates by the ruine of many families It was an observation of the Historian speaking of the Civill warres of Caesar and Pompey Cluver Oros ii 6. c. 4. c. 4. that Nemo sanctus injuriam privatam patriae subversione vindicandam duceret Yet how few such men or such behaviours are to be found among us our countries in the West doe lametably shew which by the continued * Cres cente per rapinas stud to voluprate rapiendi Cluveri Hist mund p 230. rapine and cruelty of those sons of Belial of a Garden of Eden are made like a desolate wildernesse The Lord of Hosts did lately raise an Army for the help of those parts but he denied his blessing on the designe not onely because the instruments were unworthy to deliver but because the country was unfit for deliverance especially that Heathenish country of Cornwal where God did break our arm of flesh who are a people that ever since the light of the Gospel did first break out among us under the reigne of * Camb den Britan. Lucius our first Christian King have hated to be reformed and therefore have openly opposed * They did ever give voyce for the Papall continuance Speed Histor p. 1090. col 2. line ult all publick Reformation of the Church as not long since that in Edward the sixth his dayes so this now as if that malignant spirit against the Gospel and their blind zeale for their Diana were traduced to them from their progenitors Our hope and comfort is that when the Ephah of the enemies sins is full the harvest ripe that then the Lord will put in his sickle and avenge himselfe of his adversaries that though an Eastern wind could not cleare the countrey of those Locusts yet a Northeast under God shall twice did Israel flie before Benjamin but the third time they prevailed Goe on therefore worthy Sir and doe worthily in Ephraim and be more famous in Bethlehem with draw not your shoulder from upholding the tottering frame of this Kingdome and you may assure your selfe of what that good Patriot Nehemiah desired viz. that the Lord would remember him for all the good be did to that people Encouragements hereto you have enough if you consider how God hath blessed you with blessings of heaven above with blessings of the earth beneath with blessings of the breast and womb Perhaps the Lord may borrow some of these blessings of you but doubt not of his repayment the promise whereof is a hundred fold with tribulation here and hereafter eternall life This I beleeve you will account as performed when the Lord shall turn our captivitie drive out those Canaanites and bring us to our countrey again till which time and for which mercy incessantly supplicates Your obliged servant in the Lord John Warner TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS Especially the Plundred exiles of the West Countries BEing now in a strange place Heb. 13.14 and having no certain dwelling Cirie or Countrey but seeking and expecting one it should be the care of every beleeving soule to get this time of pilgrimage sanctified to
word Martha's care was to entertain Christ delicately Mary's was to heare him diligently Such a guest as hee was was worthy to be entertained exquisitely and such an Orator as he was that spake as never man spake was worthy to be heard attentively Yet we see that our Saviour had rather bee entertained in us by his Word then by us through our service yet how many are there as farre behinde Martha in the duty of serving as she was behind Mary in the duty of hearing Make me O Lord to know the one thing which is needfull so shall I not be troubled about many things Thus shall Ibe a brother to Mary and a stranger to Martha XX. AMong the evils which Solomon saw under the Sun this was one Eccles 5.19 A man to whom God hath given riches wealth honour so that be wanteth nothing yet God giveth him not a heart and power to eate thereof but a stranger eateth it A disease it is indeed and almost Epidemicall For how many see we whose Barns are full Fat 's overflow yet fare coursly themselves have costly wardrobes yet not power to put it on have silver and gold in abundance yet die to save charges Thus the Lord makes them treasurers for other men hee gives them the creature but reserves the comfort and use of it for others So that such in a manner have no more benefit or comfort by their Corn and Wine then the Barnes and Cellars that hold it nor of their money then the Chests that contain it Thus though they have their goods yet in Jobs words Their good is not in their bands i. e. the use and comfort is not in their power When ever I begge for a temporall blessing I will adde this to my prayer that this blessing may goe along with it even a heart to use it Thus a stranger shall not intermeddle with my joy XXI BUt there is another evill which is this that as many have much but not hearts to use it so many have much yet have hearts to use more As evill a disease it is to have a mind exceeding ones means as means exceeding ones minde The power which many have to abuse the creature is as common as the want of power to use it The Moralists say that prodigalitie comes neerer the mean then covetousnesse how ever it cannot come to the nature of a vertue He then that hath this heart to carry him to a profuse spending of what he hath is as much to be pitied as hee that wants this heart to make use of what hee hath And if either of these drawneere the mean God must give the one a heart and renew it in the other It shall be my endevour so to use what I have as not to abuse it and so to apply to my selfe the comforts of my substance as not to deprive my selfe of the substance it selfe Otherwise I shall at last repent of having both a heart and riches for when all is thus spent the comfort vanisheth the guilt abideth XXII RIches have wings Pro. 23. now what is winged will keep no constant abode unlesse it bee straitned or its wings imped and in shortning the wings of riches wee set them flying neither can they so be caged up but at some time or other they will leave us or be taken from us Some birds being let loose may bee lured back again yet not all birds nor at all times If then my riches will once fly from mein possession my safest way is to flie above them in affection Thus shall I light upon a better object if they light upon another subject XXIII THis earthly globe is that dug and breast which the children of this world lie sucking at and which they will not leave so long as there is any sweetnesse in it God therefore to wean them from it doth with his Marah imbitter this dugge that so the present bitternesse may make them forget all former sweetnesse Lord though since I came into this world nothing could content me but this breast nourish me but its milk quiet me but its sweetnesse yet seeing now I see it imbittered by thee make me to behave my selfe as a weaned child cause me to suck at the breasts of consolation let those breasts satisfie me XXIV COmmonly one affliction to Gods people is the forerunner of another Job and no sooner heard of the losse of his Oxen and Asses but before that sound was out of his eares hee heares of the losse of his sheep and after that of his servants and sonnes The smaller losse doth usually usher in the greater Thus many are the troubles of the righteous many blowes must bee given before we are squared and made fit stones for the spirituall Temple In this troubled Sea wave will follow after wave one depth call for another till we are come to our haven I will then after one affliction look for another prepare for another thus shall I be not onely forewarned but forearmed if God reserve another tryall for me he will renew my strength to overcome or my patience to beare it My comfort is that as my tribulations doe abound my glory shall abound After all these sad messages God will send me some good Ahimaaz that will bring me good tidings of great joy XXV THe Prophet reproveth them that trusted in broken Cisterns Ier. 2.13 that would not hold water and forsooke the fountaine of living water All the comforts of this life are waters yea cistern waters and therefore not so fresh as others being standing neither so continuing as others being in broken cisterns Whatsoever I enjoy then shall be in God the fountaine and in his promises the streames so shall my comfort be ever savoury everlasting when that which others enjoy in cisterns shall be both unsavoury and unconstant Iob. 13 For a Summer will come when such waters shal make them ashamed When their bottles faile with Hagar they shall wish for death and then will the Lord discover unto me a fountaine of living water XXVI WEE see in Cities where space of ground is precious that the buildings are more high and lofty making more bold with the ayre and things above when they are scanted of earth and things beneath This may teach something and edifie us in our spirituall building When our lot falls out in a small portion of land here to seek for a larger inheritance above in heaven where is roome enough for us all and whither wee may boldly goe Lord seeing my portion is slender my estate narrow build me up some stories higher in grace and goodnesse that so the lesse I have in earth the more I may have in heaven thus shall I be brought the neerer to thee and receive more from thee Had I more scope here below I should not tend upwards or mind heavenly things XXVII THe onely Sanctuary in mans extremitie is Gods all-sufficiency Psal 84.11 The Lord is a Sunne and a Sbield
right to earthly things Iusad rem non in re Aquin though not in them but they have a right to and in heavenly things All things then are theirs as well what they want as what they enjoy Yet seeing in this life a Christian is in his nonage hee hath not actuall possession of all that he hath title unto However he shall not want what is required to maintain him hee shall have comforts yea and afflictions and wants so as to further him in the way For sanctified afflictions are not the least tokens of Gods love or of a godly mans possession here XLVIII THe summe of all promises is comprised in this Heb. 13. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Parents friends lands goods may leave and forsake us or we may leave and forsake them but God neither will nor can leave us How can I give thee up O Israel sayes God Now God is all in all Am not I better to thee then ten sonnes said Elkanah to Hannah So may God say Am not I better to thee then many goods many friends They may leave thee I will not God may for a while seeme to leave us but 't is onely as a parent doth the child to try it how 't will goe or stand by it self nay when his hand is off them hee guides them with his eye Gods children stand him in as much cost him as deare as any mothers child and yet a mother may forget her sucking child yet he Lord cannot forget his Therefore let the world and all in the world leave me forsake me yet I will not be cast down if God say but this to me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee XLIX GEt thee out of thy Countrey Gen. 12.1 and from thy fathers house unto a land that I shall shew thee sayes God to Abraham A strange command fit onely for him who was the father of the faithfull Against this command first naturall affection might plead not to relinquish his kindred and fathers house then common reason might plead for his right which he had in his native countrey and to part with a certainty for an uncertainty yet this and all that could bee said by Abraham was silenced by Abrahams faith hee makes no put-offs he reasons not with flesh and blood he craves not time he needs not an Angell to hasten him as Lot did out of Sodome but away he goes yet 't is a question what Abraham would have done if he had not had a promise given him as large as his command For the most part the obedience of the best is mercenary we have an eye to the recompence of reward What God did command and promise Abraham the same doth Christ command and promise to all that follow him viz. that they forsake all and then his promise is that whosoever forsaketh father mother sister brother lands goods for my Name sake bee shall receive an handred fold not eight or ten in the hundred but an hundred for one Lord how grievous soever thy command be to me how contrary to flesh and blood I will not dispute but obey and obey because thou commandest I will bleeve because thou promisest Thus if I have Abrahams faith I must have Abrahams obedience and shall have Abrahams reward thou wilt be unto me as thou wast unto Abraham an exceeding great reward L. AFfliction is Gods furnance whereby he doth as t were with fire purifie his people called therefore the fiery triall Now as the drosse and corruption is so doth God heat his furnace The Lord is willing to doe away these spots by more gentle means by water but they are so grounded in us that they cannot bee done out but by fire In the younger dayes of the world sin did abound and then the Lord took it away be water but as the world growes older it growes worser and is more abundant in sinne and therefore 't will want fire to doe it away Now though for the present this triall be grievous yet the issue is the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse Though we are put into the fire by the sonnes of men yet the Sonne of God abides with us in it as hee did with the three children God will either abate or suspend the power of the fire or else encrease our patience so shall wee come out with more glory and lesse corruption this being all the fruit to take away all the drosse Lord thou hast kindled a fire among us which among others hath consumed my estate my comfort is that though by reason thereof I am left the poorer yet I shall be found the purer LI. THe Apostle would not have us to think strange of the fiery triall 1 Pet. 4.12 i.e. as if it were a strange thing and unusuall seldome seen or heard of However the thoughts of most are otherwise of it when they murmure and say Never were the times so bad never such a time of losing Thus they who are afflicted of God become so many spectacles to others as if they were so many monsters But grant we all this that these trials are strange yet the Lord is just who therefore sends them because he findes in us as strange corruptions as strange fashions strange swearing haunting after the strange woman I will think it strange then if no strange judgment follow when sinne is more then ordinary LII IT is usuall with men to complain of the times badnesse whereas the times might as justly complain of their badnesse For as many are made worse by the times so the times are made worse by many If ever therefore we looke to see better times we must looke to be better persons God must first mend us and then the times will mend themselves LIII FEare not Isai 41.14 O worm Jacob sayes God though thou walkest through the fire it shall not burne thee and through the water it shall not overwhelme thee for I am with thee Gods presence sanctifies and sweetens any estate What makes heaven but the presence of God And what makes hell but the absence of God Let God be present in any condition and it shall be full of comfort though it bee full of trouble and usually God is more present with his in adversity then in prosperity It is not affliction but sinne that separates God from us It should be our care then to seek for his presence in troubles comfort our selves in it in troubles behave our selves so as he may not withdraw it for as David having Gods presence feared nothing though walking in the valley of the shadow of death yet when the Lord hid his face hee was troubled LIV. VVHen we see some escape scotfree from the overflowing scourge and suffer no losses through neutrality or malignancy some there be that envie their happinesse Hos 4.14 but when we read that the Lord chastiseth every sonne be receiveth and loveth and sayes being angry I will not punish your daughters they should