1. Scripture emblems; and among many, I will, upon this oc- casion, single out two or three principal ones. In Ezek. v. 1, 2, 3. " And thou son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a bar- " ber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy " beard, then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair ; " thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, " when the days of the siege are fulfilled ; and thou shalt take a " third part, and smite about it with a knife ; and a third part
THE IIICHTE0U3 MAN S REFUGE.
*^ thou shalt scatter in the wind, and I will draw out a sword after ** them ; thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind " them in thy skirts." You find this truth shadowed out in this excellent emblem ; Jerusalem, the capital city, is the head ; the nu- merous inhabitants are the hair; the King of Babylon the ra- zor ; the weighing it in balances is the exactness of God's proce- dure in judgment with them; the fire, knife, and wirid, are the va- rious judgments to which the people were appointed ; the hiding of a few in the prophet's skirt, is the care of God for the preserva- tion of his own remnant in the common calamity. This is one emblem clearing this point. And then Ezek. ix. 3, 4. the same truth is ' presented to us in another emblem, as lively and significant as the former. " And behold, six men came from *' the way of the higher gate, which lieth towards the north, and " every man a slaughter- weapon in his hand, and one among them " was clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side, and '' they went in, and stood before the brazen altar ; and the glory " of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon *' he was, to the threshold of the house, and he called to the man " clothed in linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side ; " and the Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, ♦' through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the fore- " heads of the men that sigh, and cry for all the abominations that " be done in the midst thereof." The men that had the charge of the city are the angels appointed for that service ; some with slaughter-weapons, whose work it was to destroy ; but one among them had a writer's inkhorn by his side, and he was employed to take the names and mark the persons of God's faithful ones among them, whom the Lord intended to preserve and hide in that com- mon overthrow and desolation of the city, and these were to be all marked, man by man, before the destroying angel was to begin his bloody work. Oh ! see the tender care of God over his up- right mourning sen^ants ! Once more, the same truth is represented in a third emblem, Mai. iii. 17. " And they shall be mine, saith " the Lord, in the day that I make up my jewels, and I will spare " them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him :" where the world is compared to an house on fire; God to the master and father of the family, the wicked to the useless lumber therein ; the saints to the children and jewels in the house; about these his first and principal care of preservation is exercised, these he will be sure to save, whatever become of the rest. Thus you have the chosen emblems that illustrate this comfortable truth.
2. As these scripture-emblems illustrate it, so there are many ex- cellent scripture-promises to confirm it, Isa. xxxii. 2. " A man shall " be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the
3S6 THE kIGIITEOUS man's TiEFUGE.
tempest : as rivers of water in a dry place."" This man is tlie man Christ Jesus ; the tempests spoken of, are the miseries and calami- ties of war, which make the land on which it falls, an hot, dry and weary land ; in the midst and rage whereof, Christ shall be to his faithful ones a covert for protection, a river of w^ater for supply, and a shadow^ for refreshment ; that is to say, whatsoever shall be ne- cessary either for their safety or comfort. Christ is not only a sha- dow to his people from the w rath of God, but also from the rage of men. Again, Zech. ii. 5. " I will be a wall of fire round about :'' alluding to travellers in the desert, who, to prevent danger from wild beasts in the night, use to make a circular fire round about the place where they lie down to rest, and this fire was as a wall to se- cure them. You have the like gracious promise also made to the poor captivated church, in Ezek. xi. 16. " Although I have cast " them far off, among the Heathen, and scattered them among *' the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the *' countries where they shall come."
A little sanctuary. The * word is variously rendered and ex- pounded ; some adverbially, and render it paulisper^ a sanctuary for a little while, viz. during their danger, at the shortness of which this adverb points : so Junius. Others adjectively, as we translate it, templum pauco?'Ujn, as Vatablus. There was but an handful of them, and God would be as a sanctuary to secure and protect that remnant.
3. And all these promises have in all ages been faitlifuUy fulfilled to the saints. You have an excellent scripture for this, 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6. when the flood was brought upon the old world, there was one Noah a righteous man in it, and for him God provided an ark. When Sodom was overthrown, there was one Lot in it, a just man, and God secured him out of danger ; upon which that com- fortable conclusion is built, ver. 9. " The Lord knows how to de- " liver the godly." When Jerusalem was destroyed, a Pella was provided as a refuge for the godly there. Remarkable is that place to this purpose, Isa. xxv. 4. " Thou hast been a strength to " the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from " the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible " ones is as a storm against the wall." And this hath God been not only once or twice, but in all ages, Psal. xc. 1. " Lord, thou hast " been our dwelhng-place in all generations ;" or as the Hebrew, "in " generations and generations." What he hath been in former generations to his distressed people, that he is, and wall be without alteration in all generations.
Section II. Yet we must remember, that all who are preserved in
THE RIGHTEOUS MAN*S llEFCGE. 387
common calamities, are not the people of God ; nor are all that are indeed his people preserved ; he hath people enough to divide into two ranks, as the husbandman his corn, some for the mill, and some to reserve for seed. There be stars enough in the heaven to shine in both hemispheres, and there are saints enough in the world, some to shine in heaven, and some to preserve the church on earth.