1. By giving knowledge of it to some that are under obligations of duty or affection to reveal it to those that are concerned in the danger. So Paul's sister's son. Acts xxiii. 16. revealed the con- spiracy against his life, and so the plot miscai'ried by revealing it before it was ripe for execution.
2. By the failure of some circumstance, the whole is brought to light ; there be many fine threads upon which the designs of politicians hang ; if one break, the whole design is unravelled. Thus the wisdom of God sometimes prevents his people's ruin, by taking away the speech of the trusty from him, and making their own tongues to fall upon themselves.
3. By their own confession, so Psal. Ixiv. 5, 6, 7, 8. where you have the plot laid, ver. 5. " They encourage themselves in an evil [' matter, they commune of laying snares privily, they say, who
THK JllGIITKOUS MAN's REFUGE. 359
«' shall sec them r" The deep contrivance of it, ver. 6. " They " search out iniquity, they accomplish a dilifrent search, both the " inward thought of every one. of them, and the heart is deep.^' Their plot destroyed, ver. 7. " But God shall shoot at them with " an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded." The method or way of providence in destroying it, ver. 8. " So they shall make " their own tongue to fall upon themselves, all that see them shall " fly away.*" Thus hath the wisdom of our God wrought for us this day, beyond all the thoughts of our hearts ; and oh that it might make such impressions upon all our hearts, as follow in ver. 9, 10. " All men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God, " for they shall wisely consider his doing. The righteous shall be *' glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the upright in " heart shall glory."
2. The wisdom of God discovers itself in behalf of that people who are his own, in diverting the danger from them, and putting by the deadly thrusts their enemies make at them ; thus it spoils their game by an unforeseen rub in the green, and that especially three ways.
1. By making their counsels to jar among themselves, in which jars is the sweetest harmony of providence; thus the counsel of Ahithophel jars with the counsel of Hushai, 2 Sam. xvii. 5, 7. by which means David escaped : The Pharisees clashed with the Sad- ducees, Acts xxiii. 7. and by that means Paul escaped.
2. By cutting out other work, and starting some new design, which puts them, as a fresh scent does the dog, to a loss. Thus the people of God in Jerusalem were delivered by a diversion, 2 Kings xix. 7. " Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he " shall hear a rumour and shall return to his own land, and I will " cause him to fall by the sword in his own land : so Rabshakeh " returned." By this means also was David delivered from the hand of Saul, 1 Sam. xxiii. 27. And in this method of provi- dence, that scripture is often fulfilled, Prov. xxi. 18. " The wicked " shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the " upright."
3. By cutting off the capital enemies of his church, by whose seasonable destruction they are delivered. Thus fell Julian, that bitter enemy of the Christians, when he was preparing to put his last and most bloody design against them in execution. And thus fell Haman, Nero, and many more in the very height and heat of their designs against the church.
4. The wisdom of God gloriously displays itself in causing the designs of the wicked, like a surcharged gun, to recoil upf)n and destroy themselves: it often falls out with ihe undermining enemies of the church, as it sometimes doth with them that dig deep mines
360 THE RTGHTEOtJS MAn's HEFtTGl?:.
in the earth, who are destroyed and buried in their oivn works, Psal. ix. 15, 16. " The Heathen are sunk down in the pit that '* they made, in the net which they hid is their own feet taken. " The Lord is known by the judgments wliich he executeth, the *' wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgajon, " Selah." There is a double mercy in this providence, one in de- livering the saints from the danger, the other in causing it to fall upon the contrivers, and is therefore celebrated with a double note of attention : in these observable strokes, the righteousness of God shines forth in repaying his people^s enemies in their own coin *.
Thus Haman did eat the first-fruits of that tree which his own hands planted, and thus Jerusalem becomes a burdensome stone to all that burden themselves with it, Zech. xii. S.
4. Admire and adore the wisdom of your God in those great and unexpected advantages, which arise to you out of those very dan- gers and designs of your enemies that threatened your ruin ; the hands of your very enemies are sometimes made the instruments of your advancement and enlargement; your persecutions become your privileges, the motto of the palm-tree fitly becomes yours, Suppressa resurgo.
In three things the wisdom of God makes advantage out of your troubles.
1. In fortifying your souls and bodies with suitable strength, when any eminent trial is intended for you ; so it was with the apostles, S Cor. i. 5. " As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, " so our consolation by Christ." God lays in suitably to what men lay on mercilessly : Christ would not draw the poor timorous dis- ciples out of Jerusalem unto hard encounters, until first he had en- dued them with power from on high, Luke xxiv. 49.
9.. The wisdom of your God can, and often doth make your very troubles and sufferings, instead of so many ordinances, to strengthen your faith and fortify your patience. So the heads of Leviathan became meat to his people inhabiting the wilderness, Psal. Ixxiv. 14. And so the plots of Balak and Balaam were designed by God to be as a standing instructing ordinance for the encouragement of his people's faith in future difficulties, Mic. vi. 5. " O my people, " remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what " Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, " that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.'' q. d. You cannot but remember how those your enemies courted me %vith
-Nee lex estjustior ulla.
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. Ovid.
Kor is there any juster law, than that contrivers of mischief perish by their own art,
THE llIGHTEOUS man's REFUGE. S6l
iiuiltitutles of ofierings to deliver you up into their hands, and ho^^' faithfully I stood by you in all tliose dangers ; that plot discovered at once the policy of your enemies, and the righteousness of your God.
3. His wisdom is discovered to your advantage, in permitting your dangers to grow to an extremity, on purpose to magnify his goodness, and increase your comfort in your deliverance from it. Psal. cxxvi. 1. " When the Lord turned our captivity, we were as '' them that dreamed.'' Proportionable to the greatness of your dangers will your joys be.