Eben-ezer, or, Profitable truths after pestilential times being some meditations upon Isaiah 4, 2, shewing the mercy and the duty of those that have escap'd the slaughtering pestilence : as also, that all slaughter shall end in the exhaltation of Christ and the setting up of his kingdom : together with an epistolary preface to the citizens of London & Westminster / by Thomas Blake.

ƲSE VI.

THe last Use would be for a Word of Counsel. You that are escaped this

day, and are the Israel of God, what mer∣cy is this that you share in? how amazing and distinguishing are the dispensations of God to you-ward! How should the sence of it over-come your Souls! To be preser∣ved, and preserved in mercy, to great and glorious ends, what can you desire more had you been put to make your own terms with God? Believe it, if you are the Lords People in truth, you are much in the heart of God, and your Good in the very next place to his own and his Sons Glory is de∣signed, however he deals with you: If he lets loose men upon you, it is not with a de∣sign to hurt you; Psal. 66.12. Thou hast cau∣sed men to ride over our heads, we went through fire and water; but thou hast brought us out in∣to a wealthy place. If he comes to thunder down Judgements upon the World, it is with a design to do you good; it is for your safe∣ty. Isa. 43.14. Thus saith the Lord your Re∣deemer, the holy One of Israel, For your sakes I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their Nobles; and the Caldeans, whose cry is in the Ships. Christ in all his Administra∣tions, and in all the Dispensations of his Kingly Power from first to last, aims at the good of his People, and it is for their bene∣fit that he acts, however we are apt through blindness and ignorance to interpret it. If

he cuts down his People, it is to do them good; if he spares them it is because he de∣lights in them, and will make them partake of sparing-mercy. How admirable is the kindness of the Lord, and what effect should it have? But

1. To teach you to see the hand of Christ in all, and to sing forth the praises of the Lord; your preservation is through Christ. When the Passeover was instituted of old, God bid the Israelites to sprinkle the Blood of the Lamb upon the door posts, and when the An∣gel passed by to slay the first-born of Egypt, he would pass by their doors that were sprinkled: If the destroying Angel hath passed by your Doors, and hath not come in, it is because your post was sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus, the Blood of the Lamb: It is to Christ that you own it, and O that the praises of the Lord might be sounded forth by you: in Psal. 22.3. God is said to inhabit the Praises of Israel; it is a remarkable expression, O Thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel, our Fathers trusted in thee, and were delivered. Israel should be a praising People, and God delights in their Praises: He loves to be where his Praises are spoken forth. O that your habitations might be the habitations where the Praises of God might dwell, and where the goodness of God may be sounded forth.

2. Sure your escaping should make 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be Holiness unto the Lord: Hath the Lord written you unto Life, as the expression is in this 4^th of Isaiah? Are you by his appoint∣ment and counsel in the Land of the living? O then see that you be a People walking with him. He says in this 4^th of Isaiah, to them that do escape, that they shall be a holy Peo∣ple, vers. 3. It shall come to pass that he that is left in Sion, and he that remaineth in Jerusa∣lem, shall be called Holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. O that every one written among the living this day, might also be called Holy, that is, might be so, for God calls things as they are. There be great engagements lie upon our Souls that we live up to this expectation of God.

3. Surely your work is to help forward the glory of Christ and your own good, by all ways you can: Faith and Prayer are the great means by which you may be service∣able to this great end. We are apt to be faithless and unbelieving, when things suc∣ceed not according to our desire and expe∣ctation; but the work of the Soul is, to wait for the salvation of God, and to believe for the accomplishment of all that the Lord hath spoken; to beg earnestly that God would remember his Promise, that he would

do according to the Faith of his People: Whatsoever God has engaged himself to his People, that he will do for them, he expects that they should enquire of him for it.

4. How much ought it to be your care to be found in a spirit fit to meet Christ in his glory? There is great talk in the World of what expectations are upon the hearts of the Saints; O that we could see suitable prepa∣rations in every Soul, putting off the works of darkness, and pressing after a Spirit of Humility and Holiness, that we might be crucified to the World, and raised up to a spiritual frame: the day of Christs glory will be exceedingly filled up with spiritual things, and a carnal earthly spirit will be loathed and abominable. O then shake off the filth of sin, and the filth of this World, and put on your beautiful Garments, that so you may be prepared to meet the Lord in his glory.

5. Do you much pity Sinners: When Christ shall come in his glory, with what shame and confusion will poor sinners stand? every heart will tremble, and the proudest spirit will then stoop. O pity them now, for then you will have no pity for them: the Righteous shall rejoyce when he sees the vengeance, they will then onely triumph in the righteous Dispensations of God. O pity

them now, and mourn over them, and pray for them, and pray them into Christ, if pos∣sible; and walk so before them that thou maist make them in love with the ways of God: This is your work, the Salvation of Sinners should be much upon your hearts, if you know the worth of your own Souls: And the more there are brought into Christ, the greater will the solemnity be, and the glory of this glorious appearance.

To close all therefore:

It is a sad day for the present, even with the Saints of God; and though we are pre∣served, yet we and all our mercies lie open to we know not how much misery; we and our best Priviledges, how they may be dealt with we cannot tell: however, of this be confident, That all this time the Lord is at work graciously for his People: As he says in this fourth of Isaiah, when he had said in the Text, The Branch of the Lord should be glorious for them that are escaped; he addes, vers. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughter of Zion. In the ••ean time before this glory, the Lord is wa∣••••ing away the filth of his People, and pur∣ging out their dross that yet is among them, that when his glorious appearing shall be, you and all your Mercies will at once be de∣livered:

and as he says in the fifth verse, The Lord will create upon every dwelling place in Mount Zion, and upon her Assemblies, a Cloud and Smoak by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the Glory shall be a defence. Now we have our Oppor∣tunities with hazard, and little Communi∣on with God in them; but at that day there shall be upon the Assemblies of Mount Zion a Cloud. The Cloud in the Temple was the to∣ken of Gods presence, God will be among his People: And upon their Glory shall be a defence: They shall be safe from the fear of evil, and God will bless his People with peace; He will bless them out of Zion.

Laus Deo Opt. Max.