V er. 3 I . the 8th Chapter to the R. 0 M ANS. 31-- 4. In a tone of farrow.and difcouragementr: When af$ic"tions breaketh -us, And lieth heavy upon us day and night : Suppofe continual poverty, or ficknefs ; or elfe when we are wearied with avexatious and:malicious Worlds Then should we revive our hopes and comforts ; expoffulate with our felves about our drooping difcouragements, Pfàl. 4a. S. Why art thon difquieted, 0 my Jul? o and. Why art thou cast down within me? flip hope in God. We mull cite our Affe &ions before the "Tribunal of fandified Rea. fon. This is the drift of this queftion in the Text ; What shall we fay to tbei s . things? This were enough to comfort the molt diftreffed and afhuiled. Who will be fo much grieved for what he knoweth is for his good ? Yea, fo great a good as eternal falvation ? g. Whenever any message of God is.fent to you, go hone and praaife Upon it fpeedily whether any duties are preffed upon you in the,name of Chril, or fins reproved ; What (hall we fay to theft things ? Is it not a duty ? or that a (ia ?'. A weighty duty, or an hei: nous fin ? Do I perform this duty, or avoid this fin ? or what do I mean to do for the future ? If upon the firft oppportunity, as loon as the meffage ie brought to us, we did fall a working of the Truth upon our hearts, more good would be done ; our Chri- Itianity would be more explicate and tèrious: Whereas the imprefiron that is left upon us in hearing, is loon defaced, and all for want of fuck ferions refl_ilions and felf- communings, James t. 22, 23, 24. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deg ceiving your own fouls : For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he it like a man that beholdeth his natural face in a glafr : For he beholdeth himfelf, and goeth his way, anditraightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. They forget how much they were concerned in the Truths delivered. Second die fiion by way of Explication : If God be for us, who ¡ball be againfl us ? There Dbferve Two Things: t. The ground fuppofed; If God be for us. 2. The comfort built upon it 3 Who ¡hall be againfi us ? From both, obferve, . That if God be for us, we need not be troubled at the oppofhtion of thofe that are againht its. t. I (hall explain the words of the Text, both concerning the ground laid, and did comfort thence inferred. 2. Shew you the R.eafons of it. t. To explain the words; and there the ground fuppofed; If God. 'Tie not dubitantis but ratiicinant,o ; not the [ if ] of doubting, but of reasoning. The meaning is, this being taken for granted, the other mull needs follow. In the fuppoliitiòn, Two thing/ are taken for granted: t. That there is a.God. 2. That he is with, and for hit Children. . t: For the Fir ft : 'Tic (me comfort to the opprOd, that there is à God, who is the Pa tron of humane focieties, and the Refuge of the oppteffed ; who will take notice 'of their forrows, and right their wrongs, Eccles. g. 8. If thou feefit the oppre[on of the poor, and the violent "perverting of judgment in á province; marvel not at the matter t For led that k higher than the highefl, regardeth, and there be higher than they. So Ecdef. 3. 16. Moreover I saw under the Sun the place of judgment, that wickedness war there; and the place of righteoufnefi, and that iniquity was there: I Paid in my heart, God (hall joedg tR. righteous and the wicked. Man that Ihould be as a God tq his Neighbour, proveth of- tentimes as a Devil, or wild Seal to him; making little use of his power, bot to do mifchief. And many times God's ordination of Magilrates, is ofed as a pretence to their violence; and, Tribunals and Courts of Julice, which should be as Sanduáries and places of Refuge for wronged innocence , .are- as Slaughter-houfes and Shops of Cruelty. Now this is a grievous Temptation ; but his a comfort that the Lord will in due time review all again, and judg over the Cause, that he (bay right his people againl their oppreflors. There is an higlier Court to which we may appeal: All things are governed by an holy and wife God, who.willright his people; and vindicate their innocency. 9 R
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=