Ah ! had not the saints many a time cast themselves into the breach betwixt God's wrath and you, you had been cut off from the land of the living, and had had your portion with those whose names are written in the dust.1 Many a nation, many a city, and many a family, is sur- rounded with blessings for the Josephs' sakes that live therein, and are preserved from many calamities and miseries for the Moseses', the Daniels', the Noahs', and the Jobs' sakes, that dwell amongst them. That is a sweet word, Prov. x. 25, ' As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more : but the righteous is an everlasting foundation, or is the foundation of the world.'2 The righteous is the foundation of the world, which but for their sakes would soon shatter and fall to ruin. So the psalmist : Ps. lxxv. 3, ' The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : I bear up the pillars of it. Selah/
The emperor Marcus Antoninus being in Almany3 with his army, was enclosed in a dry country by his enemies, who so stopped all the pas- sages that he and his ariny were like to perish for want of water. The emperor's lieutenant seeing him so distressed, told him that he had heard that the Christians could obtain any thing of their God by their prayers, whereupon the emperor, having a legion of Christians in his army, desired them to pray to their God for his and the army's delivery out of that danger, which they presently did, and presently a great thunder fell amongst the enemies, and abundance of water upon the Romans, whereby their thirst was quenched, and the enemies overthrown without any fight.4 5 I shall close up this last remedy with those sweet words of the psalmist : ' In Judah is God known ; his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah,' Ps. lxxvi. 1-3.
Secondly, Satan hath his devices to ensnare and destroy the learned and the wise, and that sometimes by working them to pride themselves in their parts and abilities ; and sometimes by drawing them to rest upon their parts and abilities; and sometimes by causing them to make light and slight of those that want their parts and abilities, though they excel them in grace and holiness; and sometimes by drawing them to engage their parts and abilities in those ways and things that make against the honour of Christ, the joy of the Spirit, the advancement of the gospel, and the liberty of the saints, <&c.6 7
Now the remedies against this device are these.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That you have nothing but what you have received, Christ
1 Hie homo pot u it apud Deum quod volnit, said one concerning Luther. He could have what he would of God. Prayer is Porta cozli, clavis paradisi, the gate of heaven, a key to let us into paradise. When the danger is over, the saint is forgotten, is a French pro- verb, and that which many saints in England have found by experience.
B Q^y TiD"1 Js°dh Gnolam from Jasedh. 3 Germany. — G.
4 The famous mythical ' Thundering Legion.'— G.
8 Mary, Queen of Scots, that was mother to King James, was wont to say, That she feared Mr Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men.
6 John v. 44 ; 1 Kings xxii. 22-25 : 1 Cor. i. 18-29.
7 The truth of this you may see in the learned Scribes and Pharisees.
12G PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
being as well lie fountain of common gifts as of saving grace. * What hast thou/ saith the apostle, ' that thou hast not received ? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it ?' 1 Cor. iv. 7.1 There are those that would hammer out their own happiness, like the spider climbing up by the thread of her own weaving. Of all the parts and abilities that be in you, you may well say as the young man did of his hatchet, ' Alas, master ! it was but borrowed,' 2 Kings vi. 5. Alas, Lord ! all I have is but borrowed from that fountain that fills all the vessels in heaven and on earth, and it overflows. My gifts are not so much mine as thine : ' Of thine own have we offered unto thee/ said that princely prophet, &c, 1 Chron. xxix. 14.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That men's leaning and trusting to their own wits, parts, and abilities, have been their utter overthrow and ruin ; as you may see in Ahithophel, and those presidents and princes that engaged against Daniel, and in the Scribes and Pharisees. God loves to confute men in their confidences.2 He that stands upon his parts and abilities, doth but stand upon a quicksand that will certainly fail him. There is nothing in the world that provokes God more to with- draw from the soul than this ; and how can the soul stand, when his strength is departed from him ? Everything that a man leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. Ah ! how many in these days have lost their estates, their friends, their lives, their souls, by leaning upon their admired parts and abilities ! The saints are described by their leaning upon their beloved, the Lord Jesus, Cant. viii. 5. He that leans only upon the bosom of Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life. Miseries always lie at that man's door that leans upon anything below the precious bosom of Christ ; such a man is most in danger, and this is none of his least plagues, that he thinks himself secure. It is the greatest wisdom in the world to take the wise man's counsel : ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understand- ing,' Prov. iii. 5.
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider, That you do not transcend others more in parts a ml abilities, than tliey do you in grace and holiness. There may be, and often is, great parts and abilities, where there is but little grace, yea, no grace ; and there may be, and often is, a great deal of grace, where there is but weak parts and abilities.3 You may be higher than others in gifts of knowledge, utterance, learning, &c. and those very souls may be higher than you in their communion with God, in their delighting in God, in their dependence upon God, in their affections to God, and in their humble, holy, and unblameable walking before God.4 Is it folly and madness in a man, to make light and slight of another, because he is
1 Qm'cqttid es dehes creanli ; quicquid poles debes redimenti, said Bernard. Whatso- ever thou art, thou owest to him that made thee ; and whatsoever thou hast, thou owest to him that redeemed thee.
- (Miieral councils were seldom successful, because men came with confidence, leaning to their own understanding, and seeking for victory rather than verity, saith one.
3 Judas and the Scribes and Pharisees had great parts, but no prace. The disciples had grace, but weak parts. * Luke xi. ] ; xxiv. 19-28.