Of EleUion. 375 I{rlirJh's Speech: And with the Children of 1[>-ael, when they went tho- ~ rough the w .uer of the Ued- Sea: And now that they were deJ 1vered and Chap. 15. were returned into their own Land,. they were, as it is expreffed, 6ror~bt iu .. ~ to a wealth)' place, out of thofe fire1ghts and preffures; that is, into a room- .thy, open, and enlarged condition, in outward refpects. And in the view and fenfc of all thefc various dealings of God with them, he bleiTeth God' that God had as yet kept them alive i (which was the Promife mad~ the Church, as in it [elfalone mercy fufficient in fuch a fonfe,) and refiored to them the Comforts of Life. . But the fecond mercy I mentioned is, of holding ihe Souls of his Saints in Spiritual Life : T llis as it was the mercy of mercies, fo l take it, is the mercy chiefly , and above all intended, for which he thus ble!Tcth God: And my Reafons are , r. The dangers they had run through, are not here fnnply confidercd as perils to the outward Man alone; but lurther as Tryals ,and J'robatio11s oftheir Faith : This the words tl1ew; For thou Lord hafl proved tU, and triedm as jilver i; tried, P{al. 66. 1 o. Now take them as trials from God, and fo they mufi be underfiood to relate to the inner Man, asTemptations, and Probati– ons thereof; even as when they are called Chaflni11gs of the Lord, they Iikew;fe do: Naw look what life it was, which thefe dangers, conftdered as trials , did refped and endanger; that Life, and the prefervation of it, was it which he chiefly aims at , to blrfs God for: And it is our fpirirual Life, the Life of our Souls , which Trials, and fuch Probations ( conlidered as fuch) do wholly refpcll: and the enduring of .,vhich it is , makes the mercy fo Great; to have that Life which God and the Saints do mofi refped, maintain· ed in the midfi of them: (for in themlelves they do endanger that Lite) The rzch Carnal Profeffor faJeth and withereth, when the S1111 i; up: Blej{ed (therefore )u the Ulfa1J th.zt ertd11reth Temptation, James 1, 12. And it is our faith which is the principte of fpiritual Life; which is fa id to be. the Sub– jeCt of fuch Tri•ls and Temptations , confidered os fuch: So Peter 1 Epifi. Chap. 1. 7. The Trial of yo11r Faith u much more preciom thmz of Gold, ( fays he there ; ) even as here, the trial of jitvtr: And again, in the Old Tefia– ment, the fpiritual profit t hat accrueth thereby in fpiritual refinings, is that which the Trial of the Soul as Silver, is compared unto, Zach. 13. "lt. Iwill bring the thirdpart throt(gh the fire; and I wzUrefine themM jilv<r urefined; and will try thrm M Gold i; tried: They jha/1 call 011 my Nt~me, mld I will hear them: I wiTJ Jay it is my people, mrd they jhafJ {ay the Lord i< my God: The lffue of their trial is made not a refinement only, in refped ofCor– ruptions purged out, (which Peter alfo (peaks of, Verf 21,) but a rifing up to an Affurance, (through experience in thofe trials) That God was their God; even as here he calls upon them as they were Saints, and tried Saints, Blef! Otlr God,fays he, ye people, Pj'al. 66. 8. The like you have in Malachi. 3, l· A11d he jhall fit as a reji11er mldpt~ri(ier of Silver: And he jha!t ptmjie the So11s of Levi , tmdpttrgt them M Gold and Silver, that thet m,,y offer 11n/o the Lord mz offering ill Rzthteou{iufs. So that this Scripture of 'he Pjalmifl is for fubfiance Parallel, l though under other Allufions, ) unto that you read the l'rofetlion of thofe Saints to be, in'their acknowledgments of God therein, in the like cafe; P/al. 44· 17, t8. All thu ucomtupofl liS, yet b,me Wet/Ot forgot– tm thee, neither havf we dealt fal(e!y itz th:y Covettmrt: Ot~r Heart h 11ot tumed back, 11either bave ourjlepr dec!itud from thr way: Which is in ef~ fed, and fubflance the fame, with the preferving of their Souls in Life, and of their feet kept from being moved, from out of the ways of God; as you find here in the Text. 2. The like here intended, is eminemly the life of the Soul; in his faying, 0 6/efl our God, th~t ho!deth o11r Soul ;., Life: Wh ich Peter alfo, 10 the fame Cbap. 1. wrf. 9· in like man~er expreffeth: And although I know the word Soul, is tal>en for the Perf>n Jomeumes, yet cdmpanng this w1tl1 the ufe of the word, Verj, 16. of this P(alm, (of which in the next following reafon,) and obfervwg the paralld, and correfpondency, thefe wordsof ble[– flllg God, have with the fpeci~l care of God, as tt IS fet out 111 kee.pmg our Souls ,
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