* Cicero, ante. — G.
THE saint's safety IN EVIL TIMES. 305
•woman? They are like the grass on the house-top, which perks above the corn in the field, but yet no man prays for a blessing upon it. When men come by a goodly corn-field, every one is ready to say, God bless this field, &c. Beloved, it is a heavier thing than atheistical spirits think of, to be under the curse of the church; for as God blesseth out of Sion, so usually the heaviest curses come out of Sion. Woe be to the Herods and Julians of the world, when the church, either directly or indirectly, prays against them.
Use 3. This is a ground of staying the souls of God's people in seeming confusion of things. There is an harmony in all this discord. God is fitting his people for a better condition even when they are at the worst, and is hardening and preparing the wicked for confusion, even when they are at the best. ' The wicked practise against the righteous, but God laugheth them to scorn,' Ps. ii. 4; for he seeth all their plottings, and his day is a-coming. Whilst they are digging pits for others, there is a pit a-digging and a gi'ave a-making for themselves. They have a measure to make up, and a treasure to fill, which at length will be broken open, which, methinks, should take ofi" them which are set upon mischief from pleasing themselves in their plots. Alas ! they are but plotting their own ruin, and building a Babel which will fall upon their own heads. If there were any commendation in plotting, then that great plotter of plotters, that great engineer, Satan, would go beyond us all, and take all the credit fi-om us. But let us not envy Satan and his in their glory. They had need of something to com- fort them. Let them please themselves with their trade. The day is coming wherein the daughter of Sion shall laugh them to scorn. There will be a time wherein it shall be said, * Arise, Sion, and thrash,' Micah iv. 13. And usually the delivery of God's children is joined with the destruc- tion of his enemies ; Saul's death, and i>'a\dd's deliverance ; the Israelites' deliverance, and Egyptians' drowning. The church and her opposites are Hke the scales of a balance; when one goes up, the other goes down.
Haman's wife had learned this, that if her husband began once to fall before the Jews, he should surely fall. Wicked men have an hour, and they will be sure to take it ; and God hath his hour too, and will be as sure to take that. The judgments of the wicked are mercies to the chm-ch. So saith David, ' He slew mighty kings, Og king of Bashan, for his mercy endm'eth for ever,' &c., Ps. cxxxvi. 20.
God hath but two things in the world that he much regardeth ; his truth, and his church, begotten by his truth ;* and shall we think that he will sufler long, wretched men who turn that wit and power which they have from him against his truth and church ? No, assuredly ; but he will give them up by that veiy wit of theirs, to work their own destruction ; they shall serve their turn most whom they hate most. God sits in heaven, and laughs them to scorn. Shall God laugh, and we cry? They take counsel to- gether on earth, but God hath a counsel in heaven that will overthi'ow all their counsels here. Mark the bitter expressions in Scriptm-e, * Why do the heathen rage,' Ps. ii. 1, without fear or wit? * Go to now, saith God, gather a council,' &c., Isa. viii. 9. Beloved, it goes to the heart of proud persons to be scorned, especially in the miscarriage of that which they count their masterpiece ; they had rather be counted de\'ils than fools. Let us work ivisehj, saith Pharaoh, when he was never more fool, Exod. ii. 10. They usurp upon God, and promise themselves great
* ' God hath but two tilings,' &c. This sentiment, which is repeated in the ' Foun- tain Sealed,' is quoted by Bishop Patrick in his ' Friendly Debate,' against Bridge. See Taylor's edition of Patrick, vol. v. pp. 509-10. — G.
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806 THE saint's safety in evil tuxes.
matters for the time to come, whereas that is only God's prerogative, and they neither know what the womh of their counsels, nor what the womb of to-morrow, may bring forth. That which they are big of may prove an abortive, or a viper to consume the womb that bred it. ' Go to now,' saith the prophet, ' all ye that kindle a fire: walk in the light of your fire, but take this of me, you shall lie down in sorrow,' &c., Isa. li. 11. The Scripture is full of such expostulations and upbraidings. * Man is become like one of us, saith God,' Gen. iii. 22. When men will have a way of their own, and think themselves wiser than God, then it stands upon God's honour to outwit them. * Yet God is wise,' saith the prophet, Isa. xxxi. 2. You think to go beyond God. Deceive not yourselves. God is wise, and you shall find him to be so. He hath a way to go beyond you. Do not many men spin a fine thread, and weave a fair web, when by their turnings and devices they turn themselves into hell ? ' Woe be to them that dig deep,' saith the prophet, ' and think to hide their counsels from the Lord,' Hosea ix. 2, 3. God hath an eye to see into the most secret and dark conveyances of business. God hath a key to open the closet of their hearts, let them be never so close locked up. Oh, that men would more fear this all-seeing eye of God, and be wise for themselves, and not against themselves. It is a miserable wisdom^ when men are wise to work their own ruin. Beloved, when men have had all their plots, God hath a plot still beyond them. He takes them failing in something or other. Their devices are like a curious clock; if the least thing be out of frame, all is marred. God sufiers them to spin a fine thread a great while, and at length cuts the web, and there is an end. And they may thank themselves for all this, for they carry a justification of God in their own breasts. They perish because they will perish ; and this will be the toiment of all torments to graceless persons, that they pulled destruction upon themselves. Malice blinds the under- standing in Satan and his instruments ; for, if their malice were not above their wit, would they, to gratify their ill afiections, knowingly rush into the displeasure of God, and into such courses as will unavoidably bring their ruin? Malice drinks up the greatest part of its own poison. 'His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself,' saith Solomon, ' and he shall be holden with the cords of his own sin,' Prov. v. 22.