Motive 2. The knowledge and assurance of the love of God is a mercy attainable by a gracious soul, notwithstanding the imper- fections of grace. Peter had his falls and failings as well as other Christians, yet when Christ puts the question home to him, John xxi. 15. " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these ?'*' he was able to return a clear positive answer, " Yea, Lord, thou " knowest that I love thee." Study thy heart, Christian, and study the scriptures ; if thou canst find the sincere love of God in thy heart, that scripture will clear the love of God to thy soul, John iv. 19- " We love him, because he first loved us." If thou lay thine hand upon a stone-wall, and feel it warm, thou mayest conclude the sun-beams have shone upon it ; for warmth is not na- turally in dead stones. Our love to God is but a reflex beam of his love to us ; and we know there can be no reflex without a di- rect beam. Thousands of Christians do, at this day, actually possess the ravishing sense of Divine love, whose fears and complaints have been the same that thine now are ; that God who indulged this fa- vour to them, can do as much for thee.
Motive 3. Think how well thdu wilt be provided for the worst and difficultest times, when the love of God shall be well secured to thy soul ; when the love of God, i. e. the sense of his love, is once shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which for that
S96 THE RIGHTEOUS MAN's REFUGE.
end, among others, is given unto us ; we shall then be able to glory- in tribulation, Rom. v. 3, 5. We may then bid defiance to all the adverse powers of hell and earth, and say, now do your worst ; we are out of your reach, and above all your terrors and affrights. Be advised then to sit close to this work ; clear but this point once, and the worst is past. Oh he at the feet of God night and day, give him no rest, take no denial from him, fill thy mouth with pleas and arguments : Tell him. Lord, it is neither for corn, nor wine, that T seek thee, but only for thy love ; bestow any other gifts upon whom thou wilt, only seal up thy love to my soul.
And, Lastly, I advise thee, reader, to be exceeding careful, when God admits thee into the sense of his love, to shut the door behind thee, lest tliy soul be soon expelled thence by the subtilty of Satan, who envies nothing more, than such an happiness as this: That envious spirit totally despairs of the least drop of such a mercy, and therefore swells with envy at thy enjoyment of it. But if ever thou fasten thy hand of faith upon this mercy, loose not thy hold by every objection with which he will rap thy fingers.
1. If he object the many sharp afflictions, and manifold rods of God upon thee, call not the love of God in question for that ; but remember what he saith, Heb. xii. 6. " Whom the Lord loveth he " chasteneth, and scoufgeth ever^- son whom he receiveth. Fatherly corrections are so far from being inconsistent with the love of God, that his love is rather questionable without them, than for them ; they are love tokens, not marks of hatred.
2. Yield not up thy claim and title to the love of God, because he sometimes hides his face from thee ; thou knowest the sun is up, and going on in its regular course, in the darkest and closest day. My God, my God, saith Christ himself, Why hast thou forsaken me ? Believe he is still thy God, and his love is immutable, when the sense and manifestations thereof do fail.
3. Call not the love of Gc^ in question, because of thy great vileness and unworthiness. Say not, when thou most loathest thy- self, God must needs loath thee too ; he can love where thou loathest. " Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look *' upon thee : What will ye see in the Shulamite ? as it were the " company of two armies*'' The spouse was exceeding beautiful in the eyes of others, when most base and vile in her own : What would you see in the Shulamite? Alas, there is nothing in me, at the best, but conflicts and wars betwixt grace and corruption, as it were betwixt two armies, Cant. vi. 13.
3. Quit not thy claim to the love of God, because he seems to shut out thy prayers, and delays to answer thy long continued de- sires and impoitunities of thy soul in some cases. David would
THE RIGHTEOUS MAN's REFUGE. 39T
neither censure his God, no, nor call in question his interest in him, because of such a delay and silence, Psal. xxii. 1, 2. My God^ my God, The claim is doubled, ver. 1. and yet in the next breath he saith, " I cry in the day time but thou hearest not ; and in the *' night-season, and am not silent.''
Thus I have offered you some advice and assistance, how to se- cure yourselves in these Divine attributes, viz. the power, wis- dom, faithfulness, unchangeableness, care, and love of God, as in so many sanctuaries, and comfortable refuges in the days of common calamity. It is noted, even of the Egyptians, when the storm of hail was coming upon the land, Exod. ix. 20. " He that " feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, " made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses." Let not an Egyptian take more care of his beasts than Christians of their souls. Stormy days are coming, God hath provided you a refuge, and given you seasonable premonitions, and calls from heaven, to hasten into them before the times of desolations co^jie. The Lord help us to hear his calls and comply with them, which will be as much our privilege, as it is our duty. And so much for the fifth proposition, viz. That God's attributes, promises, and providences are prepared for the security of his people in the greatest distresses that befal them in the world.
That none hut God's own people are taken into these chambers of security, or can expect his special protection in evil times.
Sect. I. A HIS proposition describes and clears the qualified subject of this privilege. God's own people, and none but such, can warrantably claim special protection in evil times, and this is consonant to the current account of scripture, Isa. iii. 10, 11. " Say ye unto the righteous, it shall be well with him. Wo to " the wicked, it shall be ill with him." He speaks concerning the day of Jerusalem's ruin, and Judah's fall, as appears ver. 8. So great a difference will God make, even in this world, betwixt the righteous and the wicked. In Nah. i. you have also a terrible day described, wherein Bashan, Carrael, and Lebanon, the most pleasant and fruitful places of the land shall languish, ver. 4. The mountains shall quake, the hills melt, the earth, and those that dwell therein, burnt up, ver. 5. The indignation and fury of God poured out like fire, ver. 6. The privileged people in this
39^ THE RTGHTEOTJS MAN*S REFU(iE,