The application of redemption

The Lord shakes the heart of Isaiah in the sense of his own unworthiness, Woe is me (says he) I am undone, I am a man of polluted lips; before he would reveal¹ unto him those hid Prophesies concerning the Dispensation of his displeasure amongst the Nations, and those mysterious depths of the glad tidings of the Gospel, which were kept secret from the beginning of the world.² Paul is buffeted with fierce assaults by the splinter in the ⟨p. 337⟩flesh, that he might not be too much lifted up by Revelations, that he might know he was not yet in the third Heavens, but in the midst of a burry of distempers, and a Hell of Devils. These are but some exempt cases, and that in some persons for some special ends. But with gross and scandalous persons it's Gods usual way so to deal, not that he is tied, or hath tied himself to this manner of dealing upon necessity, but that he hath expressed it to be his good pleasure so to dispense himself to such notorious rebels, as that way which best suits the Counsel of his own will, and the attaining his own end, his glory, and their best good; and if ever he make an exemption for causes best known to his own blessed Majesty in bringing such unto himself that he deals tenderly with them at the first, it will hardly ever be found, but they taste most […] […] afterwards, when happily they least […] them, and yet are made better able to bear them. When the Delivery hath been speedy, the after-throws have been many and hazardful many times: If such men get somewhat an easy bargain at first, there be hard penny-worths, heavy after-claps they meet withal beyond their expectation, and it commonly never fails. The Rule is general the Prophet delivers touching Gods Dispensation, and I know not but it may hold here, Psal. 18. 27. With the froward thou wilt deal frowardly, the place is hard for the apprehension of it in the fair and full sense of it. The words that go before will give in some light; With the bountiful thou wilt show thy self bountiful; with the perfect thou wilt be perfect; with the pure, thou wilt show thy self pure; and with […] perverse or froward, thou […] show thy self froward; thou wilt make thy self deal frowardly. To speak to the pinch of the Point but in two words. I conceive […] to be the meaning […] the place, and the mind of God in it.