These, and the like observations, flowing from the typical relation of the blessing intimated, shall not farther be insisted on ; — one only I shall take from the historical truth.
XXI. Observation. God sometimes bringeth plentiful deliverances and mercies for his people from beyond the ken of sense and reason; yea, from above the ordinary reach of much precious faith.
I mean not Avhat it ought to reach, which is all the omnipotency of God ; but what ordinarily it doth, as in this very business it Avas with Moses. I say, plentiful deliverances, mercies like the waters that gushed out in abundant streams, until the earth was cloven with rivers, — that the people should not only have a taste and away, but drink abundantly, and leave for the beasts of the field, — from be- yond the ken of sense and reason, by events which a rationally wise man is no more able to look into, than an eye of flesh is able to see water in a flint; or a man probably suppose that divers millions of creatures should be refreshed with waters out of a rock where there was never any spring from the foundation of the world.
Now, concerning this, obsei-ve, — -
1. That God hath done it.
2. Tliat he hath p>romised he will yet do it.
3. Why he will so do.
1. He hath done it. I might here tire you with precedents. I could lead you from that mother deliverance, the womb of all others, the redemption that is in the blood of Jesus, down through many dis-
122 A MEMORIAL OF THE DELIVERANCE
pensations of old and of late, holding out this proposition to the fulL One shall suffice me ; and if some of you cannot help j^ourselves vnth. another, you are very senseless.
Look upon Peter's deliverance, Acts xii. The night before he was to be slain, he was kept safe in a prison, — a prison he had neither will nor power to break. He was bound with two chains, beyond his skill to unloose or force asunder. Kept he was by sixteen soldiers, doubt- less men of blood and vigilancy, having this to keep them waking, that if Peter escaped with his head, they were to lose theirs. Now, that his deliverance was above sense and reason himself intimates, verse 11, " He hath delivered me from the expectation of the Jews.'^ The wise, subtle Jews, concluded the matter so secure, that, without any doubts or fears, they were in expectation of his execution the next day. That it was also beyond the ready reach of much precious faith, you have an example in those believers who were gathered together in the house of Mary, verse 12, calling her mad who first affiimed it, verse 15, and being astonished when their eyes beheld it, verse 16; — the whole seeming so impossible to caraal Herod, after its accom- plishment, that he slays the keepers as false in their hellish trust; — a just recompense for trusty villains.
The time would fail me to speak of Isaac,^ and Joseph, Gideon, Noah, Daniel, and Job, — all precedents worthy your consideration. View them at your leisure; and you will have leisure, if you intend to live by faith.
2. He hath said it. It is a truth abounding in promises and per- formances. I shall hold out one or two ; it will be worth your while to search for others yourselves. He that digs for a mine finds many a piece of gold by the way.
Isa. xli. 14-16, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye few men of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp thrashing instrument having teeth : thou shalt thrash the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them,'' &c. To make a worm a thrashing instrument with teeth, to cause that instru- ment to beat mountains and hills into chaff, that chaff to be blown away with the wind, that that worm may rejoice in God ; — to advance a small handful of despised ones to the ruin of mountainous empires and kingdoms, until they be broken and scattered to nothing, — is a mercy that comes from beyond the ken of an oi^dinaiy eye. Ezek. xxxvil 3, the prophet professeth that the deliverance promised was beyond his apprehension : " Son of man, can these bones live ? And I answered, 0 Lord GoD, thou knowest." The Lord intimates in the following verses that he will provide a means for his church's recovery when it seemeth as remote therefrom as di'y bones scattered upon the
' Gen. xxli. 14, xxxix., &.c.
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 1-3
face of the earth are from a mighty Hving army. This he calls opening their gTaves, verses 12, 13.
3. The reasons of this are, —
(1.) Because he would have his people wholly wrapt up in his all- sufficiency, not to straiten themselves with what their faith can ken in a promise, much less to what their reason can perceive in appear- ance. In the application of promises to particular trials and extre- mities, faith oftentimes is exceedingly disturbed, either in respect of persons, or things, or seasons ; but when it will wholly swallow up it- self in all-sufficiency, the fountain of all promises, there is no place for fear or disputing. Have your souls in spiritual trials never been driven from all your out-works unto this main fort? Hath not all hold of promises in time of trial given place to temptations, until you have fallen down in all-sufficiency, and there found peace? God ac- counts a flight to the strong tower of hLs name to be the most excellent valour. This is faith's first, proper, and most immediate object. To particular promises it is drawn out on particular occasions; here is, or .should be, its constant abode, Gen. xvii. 1. And, indeed, the soul will never be prepared to all the mil of God, until its whole complacency be taken up in this sufficiency of the Almighty. Here God delights to have the soul give up itself to a contented losing of all its reason- ings, even in the infinite unsearchableness of his goodness and power. Therefore will he sometimes send forth such streams of blessings as can flow from no other fountain, that his may know where to lie down in peace. Here he would have us secure our shallow bottoms in this quiet sea, this infinite ocean, whither neither wind nor stonn do once approach. Those blustering temptations which rage at the shore, when we were half at land and half at sea, — half upon the bottom of our owTL reason and half upon the ocean of providence, — reach not at all unto this deep. Oh, if we could in all trials lay ourselves doAvn m these arms of the Almighty, his all-sufficiency in powen and good- ness ! Oh, hoAV much of the haven should we have in our voyage, how much of home in our pilgrimage, — how much of heaven in this wretched earth ! Friends, throw away your staves, break the arm of flesh, lie down here quietly in every dispensation, and you shall see the salvation of God. I could lose myself in setting out of this, wherein I could desire you would lose yourselves in every time of trouble. " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the ever- lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that have no might he in- creaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon the LoKD shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ;