enter without the ruffling and pulling oflf her feathers. Let the proud enemies of the church look to themselves, for this bramble bush will vex, prick, wound, tear, and put them to the worst, when they have done their worst. In all the ages of the world this bramble bush, the church, hath been a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, and a burdensome stone ; so that all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it, Zech. xii. 2, 3. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Consider the cruelties of the church's enemies is signi- fied and represented hy a fire. The bush burns with fire. In this resemblance is shadowed out the oppressed, afflicted, and persecuted estate of the Israelites in the Egyptian furnace ; and by fire here is meant the most painful, terrifying, and tormenting afflictions and miseries that should attend them. Great afflictions and persecutions are in Scripture commonly set out by fire, as the fiery trial, the fire of affliction, 1 Pet. iv. 12 ; Lam. ii. 3, 4; Hab. ii,13. Fire is very painful and tormenting, in which respects hell torments are compared to fire ; so are great afflictions, miseries, and sufierings ; they are very painful and tormenting ; they put persons into sore pain and travail. Next to the pangs of conscience, and the pains of hell, there are none to these pains and pangs that are bred and fed by sore afflictions, by terrible trials. It has been the lot and portion of God's dearest children, to be exercised with very great and grievous afflictions, and that in order to the discovery of sin, to the embittering of sin, to the preventing of sin, and to the purging away of sin, and in order to the trial of grace, the discovery of grace, the exercise of grace, and the increase of grace ; and in order to the weaning of them from tliis world, and to the com- pleting their conformity to Christ, the captain of their salvation, ' who was made perfect through sufi'erings,' Heb. ii. 10 ; and to ripen them for heaven, and to work in them more bowels of pity and compassion to those that are in misery, and that sigh and groan under their Egyptian taskmasters.
[4.] Fourthly, Consider the eminence of their preservation, though in the fire, yet unconsumed. The church of God was hot, yea, all in flames, and yet not consumed.^ Let the fire be never so hot, so fierce, so furious, so spreading, the church shall have a being, and live and bear up in the midst of the flames. If the church like the sea lose in one place, it gets ground in another. When the worst of men, and devils, and informers have done their worst, the Lord will have a name among his people on earth. The church, with the lamp in the story, laughs at all those winds, that would blow it out. Well may we stand amazed and wonder, that so flaming and terrible a fire, falling upon so contemptible a bush, and so dry and despicable a shrub, should not presently turn it into ashes ; for why, is the fire too weak ? Oh no ! Is the bush so strong, as to defend and secure itself against devouring flames ? Oh no ! Or is the bush not apt to burn and con- sume by so fierce a fire ? Oh no. It is not from the impotency of the fire, nor from the strength or constitution of the bush; for a dry
1 This fire was a supernatural fire, (1.) It continued without fuel to feed upon. (2.) It kept below and ascended not. (3.) It burned and consumed not. All which shews it to be a supernatural work.
^^^ THE SIGNAL PKESEXCE OF GOD
bramble bush, m the matter of it is as combustible as any chaff anrl as easily destroyed as any stubble; but because the natural force thereof was restramed by the glorious power of God: for if God con cur not with the nature of things, they cannot work nor shew th Jr /o°. m T ""^ are two inseparable qualites of fire: (1.) To give li^ht fn ■ f?"" ^""^ '• ^^d yet divine power divides and separates these two ' for this fire giveth hght, bu burneth not. Oh, what a mighty what an astonishing preservation is here ! The afflictions and sufferings of the church are not a consuming fire, but a trying fire, as the fire in a furnace consumes the dross but tries the gold, and puts a new lustre beauty, and glory upon it. Hesiod speaks of thirty thousand demigods' that were keepers of men ; but what are so many thousand ffods to that one God that neither slumbers nor sleeps, but day and St ke^^^^ his people as his jewels,_ as the apple of his eye, that kLl them m his pavilion as a prince his favourite.?! There is a diaS
ft rv'^^.l! f ^'° ^^^^ f'^' ^^''' ^^' ^'^' ^^t"rned from cS- wt ift.T' ^^"°\^b«f them being enemies unto them-t£^
anvtwvlf *^' "^'^^r ^' "°^ ^' countrymen could hope for any safety, because, saith he, every one of you is as a silly sheen com- passed about with fifty wolves. Ay, but, saith the Jew, we aTe ke^t by such a shepherd, as can kill aU these wolves when he pleases, and by that means preserve his sheep. But,
[5.] Fifthly, Consider how this eminent preservation of his people from dangers in the midst of dangers is effected ami brought^abou! and that ^s hy the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great a^elof the covenant; for Moses saith expressly of this vision, that ' The Lord appeared unto Moses and God calleth unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said Moses Moses,' &c., ver. 4. This calling of Moses by his name, and the doubling of his name, in such a familiar and oving manner was a sign of God's singular favour to Moses. ChoTce avourites God frequently called by name, as you may see in those mstances of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, &o., and so our Lord Jesus Christ called Peter by his name, and Nathanael by his name and Mary by her name, &c.^ The same presence of the Son of Gbd that preserved the three children, or rather champions, in that f uriou^ fu?- . nace of Nebuchadnezzar from burning or singeing, preserved the bush though not from burning, yet from consumin| by restraining the natural force of the fire, and strengthening the bush against it. The
P^r dA- ri" '\t' ?'"' '^"^^ ^^^^^ «^ *h^ hottelt furnace that ever was kindled not blacker nor worser, but brighter and better, and more glorious than the sun m his strength; aSd all this from the presence of the angel of the covenant that dwelt in the bush Divine presence can preserve a flaming bush from being consumed ' Witness our preservation to this day, though we have been as a burning bush God IS in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, God shill help her, and that right ear y,' Ps.^M. 5. Reb., ' Wh^n the mordn^ appeareth. that is in the mck of time, when help shall be most seasonable and best welcome. The presence of the Lord in the midst
1 1^: ^.'^^j: ^ ; I«^ Y^"- 3 ; Mai. iii. 17; Zech. ii. 8 ; Ps. mi. 20 bcipio by way of favour called the citizens by their names and so Cvn,^ nnr>n ih» same ground called his soldiers by their names. ^ ^ ""*
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 481