3. The issue and close — ' Towards morning it shall be light ; ' where the issue is comfortable and the season strange. It shall end well, and that at such a time when nobody would look for it. All providences to God's church end in light, and this at the evening, when sun and day is gone, when seemingly all things tend to a new calamity, and are ready to introduce a sad night and extreme darkness. When miseries first seize upon us we are full of hopes ; and when things begin to clear up and look hopefully, we say, Now it will end, and. Then it will end, when it may be it is but the beginning of the day or morning of our troubles. But at evening, when our hopes are quite spent, and we give all for lost, then unexpected deliverance breaketh in, and we come to a period of all our troubles : Luke xviii. 8, ' I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.'
First, From description, observe, that the day of the church's con- flict is mixed, and yieldeth wonderful variety of providences. Some- times truth and righteousness, with its fautors and abettors, getteth the upper hand ; and sometimes the contrary party, that foment error and unrighteousness. Now, it is a doubtful day in a twofold regard — ^^1.) Because light and darkness are either intermixed or alternate; either because they shine together at the same time, or they do by turns succeed each other ; either because crosses and comforts, troubles or successes, are equally poised, and a man cannot say which is greater, the light or darkness ; (2.) Or else because our estate in respect of either is not durable and fixed, but liable to great uncertainties ; we do not know which will carry it at the last. Let me illustrate the point in either sense.
1. There is an intermixture of providences at the same time, and the church is in several respects both happy and miserable at once. Here things go well, and there ill ; as, for instance, it may be ill with many private men when it may be well with the public ; as Paul in prison rejoiced when the gospel was freely preached, Phil. i. 15 — Modo me moriente, floreat ecclesia. Or it may be well with us when it is ill with the church ; as Nehemiah was preferred when the city of God and the sepulchres of their fathers lay waste, Neh. i. It is a rare case when there is a perfect harmony between our private condition and public happiness, Ps. cxxviii. 6. But to come to instances more home and express to the present case. Jacob was at once frighted with hearing of Esau's four hundred men, and cheered with the sight
41 fi A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.
of an host of angels sent to guard him. The angel that wrestled with him blessed him but maimed him. Paul had his revelations and his thorn in the flesh at the same time. And to be yet more express in public cases, here success, there a loss ; here it is Goshen for light ; there Egypt for darkness ; here hopes, there feai-s : as Kev. x. 1, 'I saw a mighty angel, that was clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.' Christ appeared thus to his church and people. A cloud, that signified a storm, and a rainbow, Nuncius fccderis et serenitatis, that signifieth a calm, or fair weather ; this at the same time. These are strange prelusions of providence. God tempereth his dispensations ; good and evil are interwoven with one another in a strange variety. Some evil there is to show we are not past all danger ; some good, to show we are not shut out from all hope ; as a wise pilot taketh in so much burden as will ballast the ship, and not sink it.
2. Successively there is a vicissitude and interchange of condi- tions ; good and evil succeed each other Ijy turns ; as see the state of the Jewish church. Saul's time was bad, David and Solomon's good ; Eehoboam and Abijah's bad, Asa and Jehoshaphat good ; Joram and Joash bad, Uzziali and Jotham good ; Ahaz bad, Hezekiah good ; Manasseh and Amnion bad again. Josiah good, and his successors till the captivity all bad ; after the captivity good, a little reviving. Thus variously doth God exercise his people in the world. Or take a more particular case ; Hezekiah, after his coming to the crown, prospered for div^ers years ; but the tide soon turneth ; Sennacherib invadeth his coun- try, seizeth on all; but when he prayeth, God delivereth him by a miracle, smiting Sennacherib's host, 2 Kings xx. 1. Then he sickens, and is ready to die, yet he dieth not, but fifteen years are added to his life. After this, his heart was lifted up, 2 Chron. xxxii. 25 ; then wrath Cometh upon him, a sad message concerning the calamities of his posterity. What a strange succession is here ! up and down, day and night, light and dark. So Dan. xi. 32-34. The church is in danger of being ruined ; ' Then the understanding among them shall do exploits , ' and yet after that, ' they shall fall by the sword,' and by ' the flame,' and by ' spoil many days ; ' and then holpen by a little help, and so get up again after their hopeless condition. Human afi'airs, under God, depend much on the peo[)le's hearts, and how uncertain are they ! Those that cried Hosanna to-day, to-morrow Crucify. Peter makes a glorious confession, and a little after a gross denial Paul was received as an angel of God, and then looked upon as an enemy, Gal. iv. 14-16. The church complaineth, Ps. cii. 10, 'Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.' Now in prosperity ; then that being abused brings adversity. Compare 2 Sam. xix. 43, with 2 Sam. xxii. 1. In the first place we find them striving with the men of Judah, saying, ' We have ten parts in David ;' and chap. xx. 1, ' We have no part in David ; every one to his tents, 0 Israel.'