426 11n Expofztion upon Chap.ii. Doetrine. through them Gods bleflìng, who can lave by weak and few means, as well as by firong and many. God needs no means, it is man for whole weaknelíe fake means be provided. T t M. What profit to to be made of this Doctrine ? S t L. It flops the Papilla mouthes, whoaske where was our Church Come eighty or a hundred years agoe. Unto whom wefay,itwas hid amongil them- felves, as a little wheat is hid in a great heap of chaffe,and a little gold amongft a great deal of droffe : and howfoever men did not, or could not mark them, yet unto God they were all ;times Peen, and in due time flood up to reprove the great Whore, and to maintain the Go- fpel 1. `I' I M. What other inffruetion have we to mark? S i t. That not "wens merits, nor their own free will, but Gods only grace is thecaufewhy fome are found, when molt are corrupt. Therefore, it is not Paid they are referved, or they have referved themfelves : but (I have referved)to exclude all power of will and of merit,and to attribute all wholly unto the grace and free ele &ion of God, as verf 6. This confutes the Pa- pifls, which faywe bring one part, and God another: parting flakes between Nature and Grace; for what have we that we have not received? It is God . worketh in us both to will and to do, and both according to his good plea- fure, Phil 2.13. T t M. What Learn we hence, that [to himfelf] he referveth them S That Gods children mull live to his glory, and be additked to plcafe and honour him, who alone fàveth them. Secondly, that they have much and found comfort that cleave to God alone, in that he will ever defend them, as he hath referved them. As Matters defend their fervants,K,ings their fubjehs, and Fathers their children which be dear unto them;fò will G O D keep his own whom he to himfelf hath referved. T i u. What other Doctrine may be Collected from there words S i t. That howfoever in the invifi- bicChurch of the faithfull,there be mul- titudes perfthlly and plainly Peen un- to that God ( who knoweth who be his, and where his be) yet the visible Church ()flitch as are outwardly cal- led, is oftentimes obfcured and de- cayed, in filch fort as the publick exer- cite of Religion faileth ; the people of God by perfecution being driven into corners as Conies by vermine are cha- fed into their holes; andDoves by the Kite into the cleft of the rock. The Chriftian Church which is alwaies glo- rious within or inwardly, as a Qteen which ftteth in her chamber cloathed with gold : yet file is not ever glorious and illuf}rious without to,the eye of the world,but is fometime a defolate,folita - ry, and forfaken widow. For the Church once conffled in two perlons Adam and Eve, and afterwards in the family of Abraham, and of Lot : allo even in Juda the vifible Church was fometime driven into flrait and narrow places, as in the dales of Idolatrous Ahaz,z Kin. 16.17. alto in the reign of Ammon and Menafes, 2 King. 25. 4, 5. 22. when for the molt 'part they fell to Idolatry, and forlook the true God, and broke his covenant. Again, how was the; Church vifible at the time of Chrifls paflion, when the Virgin Mary only, and a few others did appear and profeffe him openly, the tell being fled away for fear of the jewes ? Ala) after - ward in the reign of the Beall, when Satan was let look, howfoever there might many be, and no doubt there were many which feared God, and fer- ved him in fecret, yet there was a time when to the appearance of men there teemed to be but one Luther in Germanie, one Huff, in Bohemia, one Calvizie in Sa- voy, one Zuinglius in Helvetia, and one Waldus in France, one Wickliffe in Eng- land, and one Patrick in Scotland : as herein our Text we find, that among all the ten tribes, Elias did dream or judge himfelf to be left alone. Thus as the fea fometimes flowes and fometimes ebbes, and the Moon is fometime in the
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