him in all their guiltiness! Surely they will tremble and fear then, and that their fear will end in scattering.

Beloved, we may see what an easy thing it is for God to scatter the enemies of the church, though the afflictions of the church be never so great, and the condition of the saints be never so mean. Is it not an easy thing for a strong man to rise when he is free and healthy; is it not an easy thing for fire to dissolve the wax; is it not an easy thing for a lion to tear the caul of a man's heart? What is more strong than a lion; what more thin than the caul of a man's heart? and God hath said it: "I will rend the caul of their heart; and there will I devour them like a lion," Hos. xiii. 8. Was it not an easy thing for Samson in all his strength to break those cords and withs wherewith he was tied? Judges xvi. 9. Jesus Christ is our spiritual Samson, and though his body, the church, be bound with the withs and cords of the Philistines, yet he can easily arise, crack and break them in pieces, though they be never so strong. Is it not an easy thing for a man to open his hand? God openeth his hand and we are satisfied. Is it not an easy thing for a man to set his face against another? God only setteth his face against his enemies and they are scattered. Oh, with what infinite facility can God help the church! his servants had no credit with him, or if he could not help them but with much difficulty, there were room for our discouragements; but it is not so, he speaketh the word only, hisseth, stampeth, riseth, and we are helped.

If

Hence see what a necessity there is that we should ponder and observe the works of God and the judgments of the Lord. In these great volumes we may read much of God. When God ariseth, then God is to be seen, and seen especially; when God's enemies are scattered, then he ariseth. Now there are three sorts of people that are to blame here, as concerning the observation of the Lord's works and his great judgments: the first are those that the prophet complains of: "When the hand of the Lord is lifted up on high they will not behold his majesty," Isa. xxvi. 11. Another are those that the psalmist strikes at in Psalm ii. 10, 12: "Be wise, therefore, O ye kings,: kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way :" who seeing and observing God fetching his stroke at a land or people, will not stand out of God's way and reach. The third sort are those that degrade

the works of God, and nickname them, saying they are none of God's works, but works of Satan: like the Jews and pharisees, who, when Lazarus was raised from the grave by a miracle, would have killed Lazarus out of spite to Christ; so these men, when God hath wrought gloriously for the conversion of a poor sinner, or the destruction of his vile enemies, do what they can to put God's work to death, calling that hypocrisy which is God's grace, that obstinacy which is good conscience, and that chance which is God's glory. But let all these consider that one place in Psalm xxviii. 5, “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up." There is more in it than we are aware of: who doth not study to be built up? Wherefore do many men of knowledge and learning study and take so much pains, wearing out their flesh, but that they may be built up in name and credit. Wherefore do you trade up and down the world, but that you may be built up in your estate; and what is that which men fear more than destruction? Destruction is final ruin. Now, my brethren, if the great works of the Lord be done before you, and you do not observe them, you cannot be built up; and if you will not attend the operation of the Lord's hands, you shall be destroyed. God's judgments will take hold on those that will not give heed to his judgments; a man may be destroyed for not observing another's destruction. It is a fearful judgment to have no judgment, and he hath no judgment that doth not mind the Lord's judgment. It is made the character of the saints in the latter times of the world, that they are able to sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are ways, thou King of saints: who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest," Rev. xv. 3, 4.

But suppose evil befal other men, it may be that it falleth out by common providence; how shall I say that God is risen, and to be seen, and seen specially in a judgment, and when may a judgment be said to come in the way of a judgment?

When wicked men are snared in the works of their own

him in all their guiltiness! Surely they will tremble and fear then, and that their fear will end in scattering.

Beloved, we may see what an easy thing it is for God to scatter the enemies of the church, though the afflictions of the church be never so great, and the condition of the saints be never so mean. Is it not an easy thing for a strong man to rise when he is free and healthy; is it not an easy thing for fire to dissolve the wax; is it not an easy thing for a lion to tear the caul of a man's heart? What is more strong than a lion; what more thin than the caul of a man's heart? and God hath said it: "I will rend the caul of their heart; and there will I devour them like a lion," Hos. xiii. 8. Was it not an easy thing for Samson in all his strength to break those cords and withs wherewith he was tied? Judges xvi.9. Jesus Christ is our spiritual Samson, and though his body, the church, be bound with the withs and cords of the Philistines, yet he can easily arise, crack and break them in pieces, though they be never so strong. Is it not an easy thing for a man to open his hand? God openeth his hand and we are satisfied. Is it not an easy thing for a man to set his face against another? God only setteth his face against his enemies and they are scattered. Oh, with what infinite facility can God help the church! his servants had no credit with him, or if he could not help them but with much difficulty, there were room for our discouragements; but it is not so, he speaketh the word only, hisseth, stampeth, riseth, and we are helped.

If

Hence see what a necessity there is that we should ponder and observe the works of God and the judgments of the Lord. In these great volumes we may read much of God. When God ariseth, then God is to be seen, and seen especially; when God's enemies are scattered, then he ariseth. Now there are three sorts of people that are to blame here, as concerning the observation of the Lord's works and his great judgments: the first are those that the prophet complains of: "When the hand of the Lord is lifted up on high they will not behold his majesty," Isa. xxvi. 11. Another are those that the psalmist strikes at in Psalm ii. 10, 12: “Be wise, therefore, O ye kings,: kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way:" who seeing and observing God fetching his stroke at a land or people, will not stand out of God's way and reach. The third sort are those that degrade

the works of God, and nickname them, saying they are none of God's works, but works of Satan: like the Jews and pharisees, who, when Lazarus was raised from the grave by a miracle, would have killed Lazarus out of spite to Christ; so these men, when God hath wrought gloriously for the conversion of a poor sinner, or the destruction of his vile enemies, do what they can to put God's work to death, calling that hypocrisy which is God's grace, that obstinacy which is good conscience, and that chance which is God's glory. But let all these consider that one place in Psalm xxviii. 5, “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up." There is more in it than we are aware of: who doth not study to be built up? Wherefore do many men of knowledge and learning study and take so much pains, wearing out their flesh, but that they may be built up in name and credit. Wherefore do you trade up and down the world, but that you may be built up in your estate; and what is that which men

fear more than destruction? Destruction is final ruin. Now, my brethren, if the great works of the Lord be done before you, and you do not observe them, you cannot be built up; and if you will not attend the operation of the Lord's hands, you shall be destroyed. God's judgments will take hold on those that will not give heed to his judgments; a man may be destroyed for not observing another's destruction. It is a fearful judgment to have no judgment, and he hath no judgment that doth not mind the Lord's judgment. It is made the character of the saints in the latter times of the world, that they are able to sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are ways, thou King of saints: who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest," Rev. xv. 3, 4.

But suppose evil befal other men, it may be that it falleth out by common providence; how shall I say that God is risen, and to be seen, and seen specially in a judgment, and when may a judgment be said to come in the way of a judgment?

When wicked men are snared in the works of their own

hands, then God is seen and seen apparently: "The Lord is known by the judgment that he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah," Psalm ix. 16. There is not such a clause again in all the whole scripture that I remember. You have Selah in many places, but you have not those two words, Higgaion, Selah, in any other place. The word Higgaion, cometh from the Hebrew word, Hagar, that signifieth, to meditate; and Higgaion is meditandum aliquid, a thing worth our meditation; or, as much as if he should say, This is a matter of special meditation, that God is to be known by the judgment that he executeth, when the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. When, therefore, wicked men begin a work against the people of God, and it wheeleth about upon their own heads, insomuch as they are taken and snared in their own practices, then God is seen specially, and known by the judgment that he executeth. Higgaion. Selah.

God is specially to be seen when the judgment lieth beyond the reach of second causes, and is greater than the stock of the second cause can bear. Samson's strength was a judgment to the Philistines. How was God to be seen in that? Yes, for Samson was the strongest man that ever was, yet his mother, when she was breeding him, was "to drink no wine or strong drink, nor to eat any unclean thing," Judges xiii. 5, which also did include strong meat. God would not have Samson's strength imputed to the strength of second causes; out of the weak came strong; the second cause was not able to bear so strong effect. This strength was their judgment, their vexation, their scourge; and this their judgment lay beyond the reach of the second cause, therefore was God seen herein apparently; where there is any thing of God's creating power, there is God plainly to be seen; now where the effect lieth beyond the bounds of the second cause, God's creating power is seen for to raise that, and therefore if in any evils which befal the children of men, the strength of the second cause cannot reach them, there you may say, Oh, my soul, here is God's judgment, God's plague, God's hand; here is God seen, and seen specially: here God is risen.

When God's judgments for men's sins do so find them out as they are their own blabs, their own accusers, their own condemners, and sometimes their own executioners, then