We should tremblingly glory and rejoice when we see God in the
world, though upon those that are the most terrible of his
dispensations. God the Creator will sometimes mount himself and ride
through the earth, in such majesty and glory that he will make all
to stand in the tent-doors to behold him. O how he rode in his
chariots of salvation, when he went to save his people out of the
land of Egypt. How he shook the nations. Then his glory covered the
heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was as
the light: he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the
hiding of his power.
These are glorious things, though shaking dispensations God is
worthy to be seen in his dispensations as well as in his word,
though the nations tremble at his presence. "O that thou wouldest
rend the heavens, that thou wouldest comedown," saith the prophet,
"that the mountains might flow down at thy presence."
"We know God, and he is our God, our own God; of whom or of what
should we be afraid? When God roars out of Zion, and utters his
voice from Jerusalem, when the heavens and the earth do shake, the
Lord shall be the hope of his people and the strength of the
children of Israel."
He that knows the sea, knows the waves will toss themselves; he that
knows a lion, will not much wonder to see his paw or to hear the
voice of his roaring. And shall we that know our God, be stricken
with a panic fear when he cometh out of his holy place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity? We should stand like
those that are next to angels, and tell the blind world who it is
that is thus mounted upon his steed, and that hath the clouds for
the dust of his feet, and that thus rideth upon the wings of the
wind: we should say unto them, "This God is our God for ever and
ever, and he shall be our guide even unto death."
There are providences of two sorts, seemingly good and seemingly
bad; and those do usually as Jacob did when he blessed the sons of
Joseph, cross hands and lay the blessing where we would not. There
are providences unto which we would have the blessings entailed; but
they are not. And these are providences that smile upon the flesh,
such as cast into the lap health, wealth, plenty, ease, friends, and
abundance of this world's good: because these, as Manasseh's name
doth signify, have in them an aptness to make us forget our toil,
our low estate, and from whence we were; but the great blessing is
not in them.
There are providences again, that take away from us whatever is
desirable to the flesh; such are sickness, losses, crosses,
persecution, and affliction; and usually in these, though they shock
us whenever they come upon us, blessing coucheth and is ready to
help us. For God, as the name of Ephraim signifies, makes us
fruitful in the land of affliction. He therefore, in blessing his
people, lays his hands across, guiding them wittingly and laying the
chiefest blessing on the head of Ephraim, or in that providence that
sanctifies affliction. Abel-what to the reason of Eve was he, in
comparison with Cain? Rachel called Benjamin the son of her sorrow;
but Jacob knew how to give him a better name. Jabez, also, though
his mother so called him because, as it seems, she brought him forth
with more than ordinary sorrow, was yet more honorable, more godly,
than his brethren.
He that has skill to judge of providences aright, has a great
ability in him "to comprehend with other saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height;" but he that has no skill as to
discerning them, is but a child in his judgment in those high and
mysterious things. And hence it is that some shall suck honey out of
that at which others tremble, for fear it should poison them. I have
often been made to say, "Sorrow is better than laughter, and the
house of mourning better than the house of mirth." And I have more
often seen that the afflicted are always the best sort of
Christians. There is a man never well, never prospering, never but
under afflictions, disappointments, and sorrows; why, this man, if
he be a Christian, is one of the best of men: "They that go down to
the sea, that do business in great waters, they see the works of the
Lord and his wonders in the deep."
I do not question but that there are some that are alive who have
been able to say the days of affliction have been the best unto
them, and who could, if it were lawful, pray that they might always
be in affliction, if God would but do to them as he did when his
hand was last upon them; for by them he caused his light to shine.
Oh how should we, and how would we were but our eyes awake, stand
and wonder at the preservations, the deliverances, the salvations,
and benefits with which we are surrounded daily, while so many
mighty evils seek daily to swallow us up as the grave!
How many deaths have some been delivered from and saved out of
before conversion. Some have fallen into rivers, some into wells,
some into the sea, some into the hands of men; yea, they have been
justly arraigned and condemned, as the thief upon the cross, but
must not die before they were converted. They were preserved in
Christ, and called.