494 THE USE AND ADVANTAGE OF FAITH
while we are in this world, and are afraid of the besom of destruc- tion.
(2.) There are others who utterly despise these things, — take no notice of them ; who do not think any such distressing calamity shall come upon them: if it does, they shall deal well enough with it. Isa. xxviii. 14, 15, " They have made a covenant with death, and with hell are they at agreement ;" and say, " When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us." They have a thou- sand ways to disinterest themselves from any thing of the most dis- tressing calamity that is coming over the world. This swallows up the generality of mankind, and is that which the prophet doth so reflect upon, Isa. xxvi. 11, "When thy hand is lifted up, they will not see : but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people ; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them."
(3.) The other sort is mentioned in Judges v. 6, and may be called way-side men, idle, discoursive men. that have nothing else to do but to walk up and down and talk, and are not concerned with a reverence of God and his judgments; they talk of them as if there were no God in heaven to regard them, or as if they had no concern- ment with him. If we have the least true saving faith in exercise, it will cast this cursed frame out of our hearts, it will be daily work- ing it out of our souls, and will bring us to that which I told you is its proper work "God," saith the psalmist, Ps. ix. 16, "is known by the judgment which he executeth." And what of God is princi- pally known in the judgments which he executes in the world, is but little considered. That which God makes known of himself in a peculiar manner in these dreadful dispensations is, his majesty, his holiness, and his power.
God will appear to be awfully majestic and wonde'rfully glorious in such dispensations. He speaks of himself upon that occasion, Isa. ii. 20, 21, " In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." If we have the light of faith to let it in, we shall see a majesty and glory in God's actings, even in his public and distressing judgments, — such a greatness and a glory that the soul will be con- strained to bow down before him.
God doth in his judgments also manifest his holiness; of which we shall speak afterward. So Rev. xv. 4, " Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy." How doth this appear? " For thy judgments are made manifest." When God makes his judgments manifest, his holiness will appear. And so, when Habakkuk came to plead with God about that great judgment
IN A TIME OF PUBLIC CALAMITY. 49")
of the Chaldeans which gave occasion to my text, he cries out, " O Lord my God, my Holy One, thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity."
God in them also glorifies himself in his power. He sets up one, and pulleth down another, and doth whatsoever he pleases. Herein he manifestly shows his sovereign power.
Now, to live by faith, is to cast out all those cursed frames before mentioned, and to bring this frame into your hearts, as the founda- tion of all that follows, — namely, that you have a reverential fear of the majesty, the holiness, and the power of God, in all his judg- ments : and without this, we shall not please God in any thing we do. These are the true sayings of God. If there be another frame in us, this dispensation will pierce to the very soul before it be over : that is the first thing.
2. Where faith hath filled the soul with a reverential fear of God, its first work will be, to put the soul upon preparing and providing an ark for itself: so it was in the great example of our faith before mentioned. Noah, being moved by fear, " prepared an ark," wherein he saved himself and his family. Let men pretend what they will, unless they are under a strange, careless stupidity and security (which, I fear, is upon the generality of professors), they cannot, in such a season as this, but be preparing some reserve for themselves. " What shall we do when this comes upon us?" They have some predomi- nant reserve. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city," Pro v. xviii. 1 1 ; — he may lose a great deal, but he will save enough for himself : so the strong man trusts to his strength, the wise man to his wisdom : one thing or other men prepare for themselves, to be an ark against the storm comes ; and those who do not so, they fluctuate up and down at uncertainties, hoping that by one way and means or another, that they know not of, they shall be carried above all, have a good issue, — that it shall not be as this or that prophet or minister foretells, but that some way they shall escape. This is not to prepare an ark ; which is the work of faith to do. And here I shall inquire into two things: — (1.) What is this ark that is to be prepared; (2.) How we ought to enter into it, or how we are to make especial entrance into it, in reference to an approaching cala- mitous season. I say, —