Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…

SECT. I.

Consect. 1. From the whole of this Discourse, we may be informed, What a miserable, and shiftless People all those will be, in times of trouble, who have no special interest in God or the Promises. Sad and lamentable was the case of Saul, as it is by himself expressed, 1 Sam. 28. 15. I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more. It is a wonderful, and unaccountable thing, how carnal men and women subsist, and bear up, when their earthly props, and hopes, sink under, and fail them; so long as any creature-comfort is left, thither they ⟨p. 265⟩will retreat, for relief, and succour; but if all fail, as quickly they may, Whither will they turn for comfort, having not a God, nor a Promise to flee to? which the people of God can do, when all things else fail them, Heb. 3. 17. Their different conditions in the day of trouble, is clearly expressed in Zeph. 2. 3, 4. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger. There is Gods may be, which is better security than mans shall be, for their temporal deliverance; But what shall become of others, that have no refuge, but in the creature? Why, the misery and shiftlessness of their condition, follows in the next words; Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation, they shall drive out Ashdod at noon-day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. i. e. All their earthly securities shall fail them; their strong hold shall not secure them, they shall find no shelter in the scorching heat of the day of trouble. Moab, Ashdod, and Ekron, have no more benefit, by the Promises made to Zion, than the Inhabitants of Rome, can claim by the Charter of London. If a wicked or hypocritical person cry to God in his distress, he will not hear him,