Downame - BV209_D69_G6_1640_v1

In what refpetl God heareth the wicked. Lord giving them over as incorrigible : Ifa. r .5. Jer. 2.30. and when they are delivered they feek not to glorifie God, nor repent of their finnes, but re- turn to their vomit, making Phew of repentance no longer then the hand of God is upon them : And fo both their affli6tion and deliverance ( through their own default) turneth to their ruine. Notwithftand- ing deliverance out of affli6lion when men cry un- to God is a common benefit, the Lord hearing and delivering men of all forts as a mercifull Creatour and Preferver, as is teftified Pfal. 107. where it is often repeated,that divers forts ofinen when they cry canto the Lordin their trouble, he Both deliver them out of their di flreffé. But becaufe many are unthankful!, the holy Ghofl: doth as oft repeat this exclamation, o that men would therefore praife the Lord for his good- ne é,and declare the wonders which he doth for the f ones of men. For though the Lord doth hate the wic- ked in refpeá of their finnes, and therefore many times doth refufe to heare and to deliver them ; yet he loveth them as his creatures,and therefore fome- times as a mercifull Creatour he doth deliver them: And thus he promifeth to heare the cry of the poore, the fatherleffe, and the widow, becaufe he is mercifull; Exod.2 2.2 3327. Pfal.2 2.24. And how - foever the cry of men in diflrefhe cannot many times befaid to be aprayer,but onely that voice which the extremity of their griefexpreffeth from them, yet it is vox creature clamantis ad Creatorem, the voice of the creature crying to the Creatour ; and the Lord as a mercifull Creatour heareth the fame. So he is faid to have heard the cry of the child Ifhmael, E Gen. 41s