So when God sends us deliverances in our distresses, he sets his Attributes at work; Go Power, go Mercy, go Love, go Faithfulness, go and act your respective parts in this deliverance; and must not this be then an excellent and curious Piece that Gods Attributes bring forth? 3. They are great deliverances,1 if we consider the great sins ⟨p. 120⟩and provocations they come over the heads of, the great unworthiness of the receiver, heightens much the mercy and favour received; the reason why persons do not greaten their deliverances, is because they do not greaten their sins, in the deep sense and aggravations of them. O such a Soul would say, as David, Is this the manner of men? O God, is not this a great deliverance, for such a great sinner to receive? 4. They are great deliverances, if we consider the time and season of their coming in; as this deliverance of the Ships Company where Paul was, it was when all hope of being saved was taken away; and so were many of the deliverances mentioned in this Treatise. So Peter's Sea-deliverance, when he began to sink, Christ stretcheth forth his hand immediately; he was now sinking and going, but see how ready Christ was to save;2 He stretched forth his hand and caught Peter. Our sinking time, is Jesus Christs saving time. In the Mount is the Lord seen; our extremity is Gods opportunity; and are not then these great deliverances never to be forgotten? 5. They are great deliverances, if we consider they are not only deliverances of Bodies, and Ships, and Estates sometimes, but Souls; and where ⟨p. 121⟩and where the Ship is lost, and the Estate is lost, yet for the life to be saved, and the Soul delivered, is a very great Deliverance; a Reprieve when a Prisoner is under the sentence of Death, is a great Mercy: O when God Reprieves a poor Prisoner, this is some Deliverance; we read of some Deliverance God gave to Israel in the days of Shishak; a Reprieve is some Deliverance, but if it end in suing out the Prisoners Pardon, then it is a great Deliverance. If it be such a Deliverance in a Storm at Sea, as Hezekiah had from a Sickness at Shore,3 Thou hast delivered me in love to my Soul, and cast all my sins behind thy back; This is a double Deliverance, and sure such Deliverances as these are worth Recording; These are to be written in Marble and not in Dust, with the Pen of Iron, (as the Prophet says) and not with the point of a Diamond.
So when God sends us deliverances in our distresses, he sets his Attributes at work; Go Power, go Mercy, go Love, go Faithfulness, go and act your respective parts in this deliverance; and must not this be then an excellent and curious Piece that Gods Attributes bring forth? 3. They are great deliverances,1 if we consider the great sins ⟨p. 120⟩and provocations they come over the heads of, the great unworthiness of the receiver, heightens much the mercy and favour received; the reason why persons do not greaten their deliverances, is because they do not greaten their sins, in the deep sense and aggravations of them. O sueh a Soul would say, as David, Is this the manner of men? O God, is not this a great deliverance, for such a great sinner to receive? 4. They are great deliverances, if we consider the time and season of their coming in; as this deliverance of the Ships Company where Paul was, it was when all hope of being saved was taken away; and so were many of the deliverances mentioned in this Treatise. So Peter's Sea-deliverance, when he began to sink, Christ stretcheth forth his hand immediately; he was now sinking and going, but see how ready Christ was to save;2 He stretched forth his hand and caught Peter. Our sinking time, is Jesus Christs saving time. In the Mount is the Lord seen; our extremity is Gods opportunity; and are not then these great deliverances never to be forgotten? 5. They are great deliverances, if we consider they are not only deliverances of Bodies, and Ships, and Estates sometimes, but Souls; and where ⟨p. 121⟩and where the Ship is lost, and the Estate is lost, yet for the life to be saved, and the Soul delivered, is a very great Deliverance; a Reprieve when a Prisoner is under the sentence of Death, is a great Mercy: O when God Reprieves a poor Prisoner, this is some Deliverance; we read of some Deliverance God gave to Israel in the days of Shishak; a Reprieve is some Deliverance, but if it end in suing out the Prisoners Pardon, then it is a great Deliverance. If it be such a Deliverance in a Storm at Sea, as Hezekiah had from a Sickness at Shoar,3 Thou hast delivered me in love to my Soul, and cast all my sins behind thy back; This is a double Deliverance, and sure such Deliverances as these are worth Recording; These are to be written in Marble and not in Dust, with the Pen of Iron, (as the Prophet says) and not with the point of a Diamond.
- 1Ezek. 10. 21.
- 2Matth. 14. 28, 29, 30.
- 3Is. 38.
