: 1 1 3. This shall not abide for ever: it is but a little cloud, and will blow over. It is but for a moment, and that moment's darkness ushers in everlafting light, Ifa. liv. 7. Yea, lastly, the light of God's countenance shall not only be restored certainly, but it shall be restored feasonably; when the darkness is greatest, thy troubles at the highest, and thy hopes lowest. He is a God of judgment, and knows how to time his own mercies, Pfal. cxxxviii. 3. Obj. 3. But I am a weak woman, or a young person, how shall I be able to confess Christ before rulers, and look great ones in the face? Sol. Chrift delights to make his power known in fuch, 2 Cor. xii. 9. for he affects not focial glory. 2. "Thou shalt be holden up, for God is able to make thee stand," Rom. xiv. 4. Thou that art sensible of thine owh infirmity, mayest run to that promife 3. Such poor weak creatures shall endure when stronger (if felfe confident) fall, Ifa. xl. 30, 31. "Even the youths shall faint, and " be weary, and the young men utterly fall. But they that wait up" on the Lord, shall renew their strength: they shall mount up " with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint." Youths, and young men, are bold, daring, and confident persons, that trust to their own strength; to whom fuch as wait upon the Lord stand here opposed; they shall faint, but these shall renew their strength. Art thou one that waitest and dependest upon an all-fufficient God, in the sense of thine own weakness? This promise then is for thee. 4. You may furnish yourselves at pleasure, with examples of the mighty power of God refting upon fuch as you are, out of our own inartyrology. Thomas Drowry the poor blind boy, Fox, vol. 3. p. 703. What a prefence of spirit was with him, when examined by the Chancellort Eulalia, a virgin of about 12 years of age, sce how she was acted above those years, yea, above the power of nature. Fox, vol. 1. p. 120. Tender women, yea, children, act above themfelves, when affifted by a strong God. And thus you have fome help offered you by a weak hand, in your present and most important work. The Lord carry home all with power upon your hearts, that if God call you to fuffer for him, you may say as Paul did, "I am now ready "to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have "tought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the " faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteoufness, " which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not " to me only, but to them also which love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. And as you expect fo to finish you. course with joy; be dir ligent in the use of all means, to prepare and make yourselves ready to follow the call of God, whether it be to bonds, or to death, for the name of the Lord Jefus. THE Balm of the Covenant APPLIED TO THE BLEEDING WOUNDS OF AFFLICTED SAINTS. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A SERMON preached for the Funeral of that excellent and religious Gentleman, JOHN UPTON, of LUPTON, ESQ. To the Virtuous and Much Honoured Madam, URSULA UPTON, of LUPTON in DEVON. MADAM, I F I find it an hard task to write on such a doleful subject, it cannot be imagined but your part must be abundantly harder, who feel over and over what is here written, Could I tell how to adminifter counsels and comforts to you, without exasperating your forrows, I would certainly take that way; but feeing the one (in this cafe) cannot be done without the other, it is our duty to submit to the me☐ thod Providence hath prescribed to us. The design of the enfuing discourse, is to evince the truth of what feems a very great paradox to most men, namely, that the afflictions of the faints can do them no hurt, and that the wisdom of men and angels cannot lay one circumstance of their condition (how uneasy soever it seems to be) better, or more to their advantage than God hath laid it. I attempt not by a flourish of rhetoric to perfuade you against the demonstrations you can fetch from fenfe and feeling to the contrary, but to overthrow the false reasonings of flesh and sense, by the allowed rules of Scripture, and fure principles of religion. And methinks you, and every Christian, should gladly entertain that comfortable conclufion, when you shall find the foundation of it as strong, as the influences thereof are sweet and comfortable. Certainly, Madam, the intent of the Redeemer's undertaking was not to purchase for his people riches, ease, and pleasures on earth; but to mortify their lufts, heal their natures, and spiritualize their affections; and thereby to fit them for the eternal fruition of God. Upon this supposition the truth of this conclufion (how strange soever it feems) is firmly built. It was not without Divine direction, that the subject of the ensuing discourse was as pertinently, as seasonably, recommended to me by your dear husband, in the day of your forrows for your only fon. He took, I hope, his portion of comfort out of it before he died, and Kit is now left as a spring of comfort to you, who then mourned with / him, and now for him. Heavy pressures call for strong support, and fainting seasons for rich cordials. Your burden is indeed heavy: yet I must say it is much our own fault our burdens are so heavy as we feel them to be; for according to the measure of our delight in, and expectation from the creature, is our forrow and disappointment when we part from it. The highest tides are always followed with the lowest ebbs. We find temperance and patience knit together in the same precept, and intemperance and impatience as infeparably connected in our own experience. It may be we did not suspect ourselves of any finful excess in the time of their enjoyment; but it now appears the creature was gotten deeper into our hearts than we imagined by the pain we feel at parting: Did we not lean too hard upon it, there would not be such thakings as we feel when it is flipt from us. But, Madam, it is high time to recal your thoughts, and bound your forrows, which the following confiderations would greatly affist you in. 1. What is the very ground and reason of our excessive forrows for the lass of earthly comforts? Is it not this, That they are perishing and tranfitory? That is, that you find them to be as God made them. And can we expect that God should altar the laws of nature to please and humour us? It is as natural to our relations to die, as it is for flowers to wither, or the moon to wane. 2. That there is no such necessary connexion betwixt these things and our comfort, that whenever God removes the one, he must needs remove the other with it. Christ and comfort are indeed so united, but nothing beside him is or can be fo. I hope you will shortly experience the truth of this conclufion, by the comfort God will give you in the absence of those comforts you have loft. Can you not now have as free access to God as before? Yea, do not these very afflictions send you oftener into his prefence? And if God meet you in those duties, (as in days of distress he uses to meet his people,) then it will be evident to you that your joy and comfort lives, though your husband and children be laid in their graves. 3. That the removing of your earthly comforts hinders not but that you may still pursue the great end and business of your life, and carry on all your designs for heaven as fuccessfully as ever. Indeed, Madam, had we been fent into this world to raise estates, contract relations, and then fit down in the midst of them as our portion, then our design had been utterly dashed and disappointed; but you know this is not your main end, or great business upon earth, but to honour God by an holy fruitful life here, and make ready for the full enjoyment of him hereafter. And what hinders but you may as profperoufly manage and carry on this your design as ever? You do not think the traveller is disabled for his journey, because he hath fewer clogs and hinderances than before. I think few Christians find much furtherance heavenward by their multiplicity of engagements or enjoyments in this world. Your cares and fears about these things, will now lie in a narrower compass than they did before, and thereby you may have your thoughts more about you, to attend the great concerns of God's glory, and your own falvation. 4. But above all, you will certainly find your relief and confolation to lie in the everlasting covenant of God. Thence it was, that David fetched his support under a much heavier burden and smarter rod than yours: For your relations were such as gave you comfort in their lives, and left you many grounds of hope in their deaths; but his were taken away in their fins. But though the grounds of his forrow (blessed be God) are not yours, yet I hope the grounds of his comfort in the text are fully yours. I confefs, I have prepared these things in too much haste and diftraction of thoughts, which in this juncture was unavoidable; nor have I bestowed much of art or language upon them: And if I had, they would have been never the more effectual to your relief for that. But fuch as they are, I humbly present them to you, with my hearty payers, that God would make them a fovereign balm, by the bleffing of his Spirit on them, to your wounded spirit, and to all other godly families groaning under the like strokes of God with you, and remain, MADAM, Your most Faithful, Sympathizing Friend and Servant, JOHN FLAVEL. 2 SAM. xxiii. 5. Although my house be not fo with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure: for this is all my falvation, and all my defire, although he make it not to grow. THESE HESE are part of David's last words. The last words of dying faints, but especially of dying prophets, are ponderous, memorable, and extraordinarily remarkable; and such are these acknowledged to be, by all expofitors. It is a golden sentence, a divine oracle, fit to be the last words of every dying saint, as well as of David. They are called his last words, not fimply and absolutely, as though he breathed them forth with his last breath; (for he spake many things afterwards) but either they are the last he spoke as a prophet, by Divine inspiration, or because he had them often in his mouth, to his last and dying day. They were his epicedium, his sweet swan-like song, in which his foul found fingular refreshment, and strong support, amidst the manifold afflictions of his life, and against the fears of his approaching death. The whole chapter is designed for a coronis or honourable close of the life of David, and gives us an account both of the worthy expreffions that dropped from him, and of the renowned worthies that were employed by him. But all the heroic atchievements recorded to the honour of their memories, in the following part of the chapter, are trivial and inglorious things, compared with this one divine sentence recorded in my text; in which we have two things to confider, viz. 1. The preface, which is exceeding folemn. 2. The speech itself, which is exceeding weighty. 1. In the preface, we have both the instrumental and principal efficient cause of this divine sentence distinctly set down, ver. 1. and the efficient, or author of it, ver. 2. The instrument or organ of its conveyance to us, was David; described by his descent or lineage, the son of Jeffe; by his eminent station, the man that was raised up on high; even to the top and culminating point of civil and spiritual dignity and honour, both as a king, and as a prophet; by his divine unction, the anointed of the God of Jacob; and lastly, by the flowing sweetness of his spirit and stile, in the divine pfalms that were penned by him, whence he here gets the title of the sweet psalmist of Ifrael; the pleasant one, in the psalms of Ifrael, as fome read it. The principal efficient cause of this excellent passage, is here likewife noted, and all to commend it the more to our special observation and acceptance: "The Spirit of God spake by me, and his word was " in my tongue." This stamps my text expressly with divine authority. The Spirit of God spake by David, he was not the author, |