3. The misery of these times doth seem to enforce the greater unity. I take this for the manner and course of heaven, to work one contrary out of another, by the greatest distractions to make way for unity and order. It is said, Ps. xviii. 11, ' He hath made darkness his secret place.' God's counsels are always carried under the covert of darkness ; usually, when he intendeth the greatest flourishing, he worketh the greatest desolation in the earth ; and when unity, he suffereth the greatest distraction (for what grounds I shall tell you by and by) ; hence is it that we do so often hear of the misery of the latter times, and yet again of the blessedness of the latter times ; hard times, and happy times, miserable in the beginning, happy in the end and issue. Hell is let loose in the latter times : ' they shall give heed to seducing spirits ;' and heaven is opened in the latter times: there shall be great light and rare love. When there is such a conflict and contestation between light and darkness, the light will be the clearer
388. MEAT OUT OF THE EATER. [ZeCH. XIV. 9.
afterwards, and the more doubtful the day is, the more glorious will the evening be ; for this, I say, is the law and the course of divine dispensations, after the greatest distractions to bring forth the greatest harmony, and the most blessed sweetness and accord ; therefore, there being in the latter days such eminent and visible distraction, hj the proportions of heaven there will be eminent and visible unity. Of this, more by and by.
To application.
Use 1, of consolation. For consolation to all them that wait or care for the consolation of Israel. Many are ready to faint and stagger at the distractions of the times : Judges v. 15, ' For the divisions or breaches of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart,' or, as the original will bear it, * great impressions/ These things, indeed, do sadly work with a gracious spirit ; the enemies warm themselves by these sparkles, and rejoice over the fire that devoureth the great deep ; others, whose hearts are bathed and steeped in pleasures, or cumbered with worldly cares, have not a due sense of the times, and are not enough affected with them ; but now, for the people of God, external miseries are not so bad to them, and do not so nearly reach a gospel spirit as differences in religion. Oh ! it is very sad to see the roses of the valleys become pricking thorns, and saints in pretence to be devils in practice to one another, the sheep of Christ's own fold to be like the bulls of Bashan, goring and wounding each other ; and would our hearts were more affected with it ! But here is comfort ; God foresaw how troublous and distracted the morning of the latter days would be, and therefore, that we might not be dismayed, hath given us many a comfortable promise to support our hearts under such providences. When God framed the world there was nothing but confusion ; you do not know what God can extract out of a chaos. Two things I shall urge upon you to set home this com- fort :—
1. Consider your hopes.
2. Know the reason of such providences.
1. Consider your hopes ; your times are not to be measured and valued by ap])earances ; it least of all becometh a Christian to observe the clouds : Rom. viii. 24, ' Hope that is seen is not hope ; ' that is, those that would hope are not to judge by the present face of things, but by the promises. Teach your faith to see things that cannot be seen, beauty in distractions, unity and order in violence and division : faith is exercised not when you get water out of the fountain, but out of the rock ; when you make the eater give you meat, devouring dif- ferences yield comfort and hope. It is better to look to a sure word than to an uncertain providence. See what a promise you have, Isa. xi. 6-8, ' The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw with the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den,' &c. I will not undertake to assign a sense to every particular expression ; only in the general note, God will effect it,
ZeCH. XIV, 9.] MEAT OUT OF THE EATER. 389
though there be no more hopes than to see lion and lamb, leopard and kid come together, and to persuade natures that are most fierce and contrary unto a peaceable and liiendly cohabitation.
2. Know the reason of such providences. Men are perplexed when they do not know the reason of things ; fear seizes upon us in the dark : Judges vi. 13, ' If the Lord be with us, why is all this evil befallen us ?' They did not know the reason of the matter, and therefore were troubled at it. If there be such promises of unity, why are there such sad things befallen us ? such great breaches and distractions, the ball of contention bandied from one to another, clouds gathering every day thicker and blacker ? You will think this is but an ill time to look for unity, sucli general consent and agreement. Alas ! you err, not knowing the reason of your providences ; God useth to bring in unity and order by confusions. There are divers reasons for it : I shall name three, which may encourage hope in the saddest times : —