Obs. 4 In the sadest condition, faith makes present and real Gods reviving mercies. When their help is gone, in the mount of mans extremity will God be seen. We should reason thus, because Gods people are in great extremity, then 'tis a sign that God will arise and help them, and not despair and give over our hopes;1 as before the morning light is the thickest darkness, so let us never be discouraged at the increase of afflictions, for they show the time then hastens for deliverance; and thi• faith makes present to the soul, it shows the soul life in death, favour in frowns, love in strokes, faith seeth a great difference between the strokes of God upon the Saints and upon the wicked: that place is famous for this, Isa. 26.14. compared with the 19. They are dead, they shall not live, they are diseased, they shall not rise. When God strikes wicked men their wounds forerun death here, and eternal death hereafter, when he smites them in their cause, in their names, or estates, 'tis ⟨p. 543⟩to undo them: But now mark in the 19. verse, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Some think that these words note the glorious condition of the Church in regard of their safety, that though men and means fail, yet faith can see deliverance in the womb of an infinite wisdom,2 power and faithfulness, Faith revives other graces when seeming dead and puts life into them, much more doth it into our dead conditions; 'tis reported of the* Crystal, that it hath such a virtue in it, that the very touching of it quickens other stones, and puts a lustre and beauty upon them. This is true of faith, it makes evil things present, far off, and good things far off, present, and herein consists the exercise of faith in a great measure, Psal. 91.7. A thousand shall fall on thy left band, and ten thousand on thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee: this is a very strange speech, that a man may be in a place where a thousand shall fall by him, and ten thousand on the side of him, and yet he not touched by the disease. By faith the soul enjoys this security. Psal. 60.6. God hath spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem and met out the valley of Succoth: the thing was not yet done, yet they rejoiced in it as present;
Obs. 4 In the sadest condition, faith makes present and real Gods reviving mercies. When their help is gone, in the mount of mans extremity will God be seen. We should reason thus, because Gods people are in great extremity, then 'tis a sign that God will arise and help them, and not despair and give over our hopes;1 as before the morning light is the thickest darkness, so let us never be discouraged at the encrease of afflictions, for they shew the time then hastens for deliverance; and thi• faith makes present to the soul, it shews the soul life in death, favor in frowns, love in strokes, faith seeth a great difference between the strokes of God upon the Saints and upon the wicked: that place is famous for this, Isa. 26.14. compared with the 19. They are dead, they shall not live, they are diseased, they shall not rise. When God strikes wicked men their wounds forerun death here, and eternal death hereafter, when he smites them in their cause, in their names, or estates, 'tis ⟨p. 543⟩to undo them: But now mark in the 19. verse, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Some think that these words note the glorious condition of the Church in regard of their safety, that though men and means fail, yet faith can see deliverance in the womb of an infinite wisdom,2 power and faithfulness, Faith revives other graces when seeming dead and puts life into them, much more doth it into our dead conditions; 'tis reported of the* Cristal, that it hath such a vertue in it, that the very touching of it quickens other stones, and puts a lustre and beauty upon them. This is true of faith, it makes evil things present, far off, and good things far off, present, and herein consists the exercise of faith in a great measure, Psal. 91.7. A thousand shall fall on thy left band, and ten thousand on thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee: this is a very strange speech, that a man may be in a place where a thousand shall fall by him, and ten thousand on the side of him, and yet he not touched by the disease. By faith the soul enjoyes this security. Psal. 60.6. God hath spoken in his holiness. I will rejoyce, I will devide Sechem and met out the vally of Succoth: the thing was not yet done, yet they rejoyced in it as present;
- 1simile.
- 2Faith revives other graces
- *Ut vives alijs lapidibus pretiosis extinctis, solo attactu luscitoret. Guliel. Paris.Vt vives alijs lapidibus pretiosis extinctis, solo attactu luscitoret. Guliel. Paris.
