prayer, wliicli no other men may.^ The i)romises of God are a Christian's Mofjna Charta, his cliief evidences that he hath to shew for his preservation, for his protection, for his salvation. Divine pro- mises are God's deed of gift; they are tlie only assurance which the saints have to shew for their right and title to Christ, to heaven, and to all the glory and hajjpiness of another world. Oh how highly do men prize their charters and privileges ! and how carefully do they keep and lay up the conveyances and assurances of their lands ! Oh how should saints then treasure up those precious promises, which are to them instead of all conveyances and assurances for their pre- servation, protection, maintenance, deliverance, comfort, and everlast- ing happiness ! The promises are a mine of rich treasures ; they are a garden full of the choicest and sweetest flowers of paradise ; in them are wrapped up all celestial contentments and enjoyments ; and therefore study them more than ever, and prize them more than ever, and improve them more than ever.
[2.] Secondly, If you consider their near and dear relations to God. They are his servants, his friends, his children, his members, his spouse, <fec. By all which it is evident that they stand upon the advantage- ground, for preservation and protection, above all others in the world.
[3.] Thirdly, If you consider that high vcdue and esteem and price tliat the Lord puts 2cpon them. He esteems them as the apple of his eye, Zech. ii. 8 ; he accounts them as his jewels, Mai. iii. 17 ; he prizes them as his portion, Deut. xxxii. 9 — yea, as his pleasant portion, Jer. xii. 10; he accounts them his crown, yea, his crown of glory, and his royal diadem : Isa. Ixii. 3, ' Thou' — speaking of his church — ' shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.' Yea, he prizes one saint above all the world, Heb. xi. 38. By all which it is most evident that they stand upon the advantage-ground, as to their preservation and protection, above all other people in the world ; for God accounts all the world besides to be but as dirt, as dust, as chaff, as thorns and briers, that are only fit to be cast into the fire to be consumed and destroyed. When pearls grew common at Rome, they began to be slighted ; but saints are such pearls of price, that God will never slight.
[4.] Fourthly, If you consider that they are the only people in the luorld that are in covenant luith God, Ps. Ixxxix. 30-34 ; Jer. xxxii. 38-40 ; Ezek. xx. 37 ; Deut. xxix. 12 ; Jer. xxxi. 31-34 ; Heb. viii. G-12. Some do derive the word berith, which signifies the cove- nant, from a root which signifies to ' purify,' to ' separate,' and to ' select ;' and verily, when the Lord makes a covenant with any, he doth separate them from others, he honours them above all others, and he looks on them and owns them for his peculiar people, and delights in them as the cliosen and choicest of all others : ' The whole world lies in wickedness,' 1 John v. 19. By this also it is evident that the people of God stand upon the advantage-ground, for their preservation and protection, above all others in the world.
^ Sirtorius, as Plutarch oliservcs, paid wliat he promised witii fair words, as courtiers use to do; but so doth not God. ilen often eat their words, but God will never eat his. ' Hath he spoken, and shall it not come to pass?' Josh, xxiii. 14 ; Ezek. xii. 25, and xxiv. 14.
A HEAVENLY CORDIAL. 417
[5.] Fifthly, If you consider the common carriage and deportment of God towards his people in former times of calamities and great judgments. Did he not provide an ark for rigliteous Noah, so that Noah was safer in his ark of three storeys high than Nimrod and his crew were in their tower of Babel, raised to the height of five thousand one hundred and forty-six paces, as is reported ? i And did he not provide a Zoar for righteous Lot? Hesiod speaks of thirty thousand demi-gods that were keepers of men. But what are so many thousand gods to that one God that neither slumbers nor sleeps, but day and night keeps his people as his jewels, as the apple of his eye; that keepeth them in his pavilion, as a prince keeps his favourite, Ps. cxxi. 3-5 ; Isa. xxvii. 3 ; Ps. xxxi. 20. Princes have their retiring rooms and withdrawing chambers, which are sacred places ; and so hath God his, and there he shelters the favourites of heaven. God's gracious providence is his golden cabinet, where his children are as safe as if they were in heaven. See Isa. xlix. 2, and xxvi. 20, 21 ; Jer. xxxvi. 26 ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 3 : ' They have consulted against thy hidden ones,' — hidden under the hollow of thy hand, and under the shadow of thy wing, and therefore safe from dangers in the midst of dangers, Jer. xxxix. 16-18. How wonderfully did he preserve the three children, or rather the three non-conformable champions, from burning in the midst of the flames ! Dan. iii. ; and Daniel from being devoured in the lion's den ! chap. vi. And so God's mourning ones were his marked ones, and his saved and preserved ones, when the destroying angel slew old and young, &c., Ezek. ix. 4, 6. And reverend Beza and his family was four several times visited with the plague, and yet as often preserved as they were visited ; and this good man was very much refreshed and comforted, under that and other sore afflictions that befell him, by that Psalm xci., which made him the more highly to prize it, and the more dearly to hug it all his days, as himself witnesseth in his writings on this psalm. There is a dialogue between a heathen and a Jew, after the Jews' return from captivity — all nations round about them being enemies to them. The heathen asked the Jew how he and his countrymen could hope for any safety, because, saith he, every one of you is a silly sheep, compassed about with fifty wolves. Ay, but, saith the Jew, we are kept by such a shepherd as can kill all those wolves when he pleaseth. Now by all this, also, it is evident that the people of God stand upon the advantage-ground, as to their preserva- tion and protection, above all other people in the world.
[6.] Sixthly, If you consider the life-guard of the saints., the minis- try of the blessed angels that ahvays attend them:^ Ps. xci. 11, 'For he shall give his angels charge over thee in all thy ways ; ' ver. 12, ' They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone : ' Ps. xxxiv. 7, ' The angels of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them:' Mat. xviii. 10, ' Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones : for I say unto you. That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which
' Heylin, Cosm., lib. iii.
- Gen. xxxii. 1, 2 ; Dan. vi. 21, 22 ; Acts xii. 11, l,5,and .Txvii. 23; 2 Kings vi. 14-17 • Acts V. 18.
418 A HEAVENLY CORDIAL.