Containing the first use of the point in several irifbrming consec- taries and deductions of truth from it.
Consect. I. jl ROM the whole of this discourse we may be in- formed what a miserable and shiftless people all those will be in times of trouble who have no special interest in God, or the promises. Sad and lamentable was the case of Saul, as it is by himself expressed, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. " I am sore distressed, " for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed " from me, and answereth me no more." It is a wonderful and unaccountable thing, how carnal men and women subsist and bear up, when their earthly props and hopes sink under and fail them ; so long as any creature-comfort is left, thither they will re- treat for relief and succour : but if all fail, as quickly they may, whither will they turn for comfort, having not a God nor a pro-
THE RIGHTEOUS MAN's KEFUGE. 401
imse to flee to ? whicli the people of God can do when all things else fail them, Heb. iii. 17. Their difierent conditions in the day of trouble is clearly expressed in Zeph. ii. 3, 4. " Seek ye the Lord *' all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment, seek *' righteousness, seek meekness, it may be ye shall be hid in the " day of the Lord's anger/"* There is God's may-he, which is bet- ter security than man's shall-he^ for their temporal deliverance : But what shall become of others that have no refuge but in the crea- ture ? Why, the misery and shiftlessness of their condition follows in the next words: " Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a de- *' solation ; they shall drive out Ashdod at noon-day, and Ekron " shall be rooted up ;" i. e. All their earthly securities shall fail them ; their strong-holds shall not secure them ; they shall find no shelter in the scorching heat of the day of trouble. Moab, Ashdod, and Ekron have no more benefit by the promises made to Zion, than the inhabitants of Rome can claim by the charter of London. If a wicked or hypocritical person cry to God in his distress, he will not hear him, Prov. i. JiJo, 26. Job xxvii. 9. but will bid him go to his earthly refuges which he hath chosen. If he go to the pro- mises, knock at those doors of hope, they cannot relieve him, being all made in Christ to believers ; if to the name and attributes of God all the doors are shut against them, Psal. xxxiv. 16. There are seven dreadful aggravations of a wicked man's trou- bles.
(1.) When troubles come upon him, the curse of God follows him into his carnal refuges; Jer. xvii. 5. " Cursed be the man " that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart " departeth from the Lord." Trouble is the arrow, and this curse the venom^of the arrow, which makes the wound incurable.
(2.) When troubles fall upon him from without, a guilty con- science will terrify him from within ; so that the mind can give no rehef to the body, but both sink under their own weights. It is not so with the people of God, they have inward relief under out- ward pressures, 2 Cor. iv. 16.
(3.) The gusts and storms of wicked men's troubles may blow them into hell, and hurry them into eternal destruction : if death march towards them upon the pale horse, hell always follows him, Rev. vi. 8.
(4.) If troubles and distresses overwhelm their hearts, they can give them no vent or ease by prayer, faith, and resignation to God, as his people use to do, 1 Sam. i.* 18.
(5.) When their troubles and distresses come, then come the hour and power of their temptations ; and, to shun sorrow, they will fall into sin, having no promise to be kept in the hour of temp- tation, as the saints have, Rev. iii. 10.
402 THE RIGHTEOUS MAN's JIEFUGE.
(6.) When their troubles come, tliey will be left alone in the midst of them: these are their burdens, and they alone must bear them. God's gracious, comfortable, supporting presence is only with his own people.
(7.) If trouble or death come upon them as a storm, they have no anchor of hope to drop in the storm ; the wicked is driven away in his wickedness ; hut the righteous hath hope in his deaths Prov. xiv. 32. By all which it appears, that a christless person is a most helpless and shiftless creature in the day of trouble.
Consect. 2. Secondly, Hence it follows. That Christians ought not to drop like other men in the day of trouble. A wicked man's boldness, and a Christian's cowardliness, in times of affliction, are alike ungrounded and uncomely. Why should thy heart. Christian, despond and sink at this rate, upon the prospect of approaching troubles ? Are there not safe and comfortable chambers tak#n up, and provided for thee against that day ? Is not the name of the Lord a strong tower, into which thou mayest run and be safe ? The heart of a good man, saith Chrysostom, should at all times be like the higher heavens, serene, tranquil, and clear, whatever thunders and lightnings, storms and tempests trouble and terrify the lower world. If a man have a good roof over his head, where he can sit dry and warm, what need he trouble himself to hear the winds roar, see the lightnings flash, and the rains pour down without doors ? Why this is thy privilege. Christian ; " A man '* (to wit the man Christ Jesus) shall be as an hiding-place from " the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in " a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,"^ Isa. xxxii. 2. Art thou in Christ, and in the covenant ? give me then one good reason for thy dejections in a day of trouble ; or if thou hast none to give, hearken to these reasons against it.
1. If thou be in Christ, thy sins are forgiven thee ; and why should not a pardoned soul be a cheerful soul in adversity ? Af- flictions may buz and hum about thee, like bees that have lost their sting, but they can never hurt thee.
2. If thou be in Christ, thy God is with thee in all thy troubles ; and how can thy heart sink or faint in such a presence ? Let them that are alone in troubles fail under them : but do not thou do so, who art surrounded with Almighty power, grace, and love, Isa. xliii. 1, 2.
3. If thou be in Christ, thy greatest afflictions shall prove thy best friends and benefactors, Rom. viii. 28. Sure then thou art more afraid than hurt ; thou mistakest thy best friends for thy worst enemies ; thou and thy afflictions shall part more comfortably tlian you met.
4. If thou be in Christ, thy treasure is safe, thy eternal liap.