Part 57 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 58 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[1.] God sometimes preserves his people from being ruined and destroyed, by laying a law of restraint upon the spirits of their persecutors, as he did upon Laban's and Esau's, that they could not hurt him; yes, instead of kicking and killing, behold kissing and embracing. God tied up those cursed dogs, and laid such a restraint upon their wrath, rage, and malice—that they could not so much as touch a hair of Jacob's head. God stopped their mouths and bound their hands, that they were not able to act anything to the hurt of Jacob. That God who laid a restraint upon the fierce wild creatures in Noah's ark, that they might not prey upon the tamer animals, and who chained up the lions from preying upon Daniel—that God chained up these two lions, that they could not make a prey of innocent Jacob. But,
[2.] God does this sometimes by setting persecutors one against another. When the Moabites were confederated with the Ammonites and those of mount Seir against Judah, God made them turn their swords against one another, and so they mutually became their own executioners, and by this means poor Judah escaped. God sometimes saves his lambs by setting the wolf and the dog against each other. When that wolf Saul was even ready to devour David the lamb, God lets loose those dogs the Philistines upon Saul, and so by this means David was preserved and secured (1Sa 23:27). And so Paul, by setting the persecuting Pharisees against the persecuting scribes, he escaped persecution (Acts 23:6-8). But
[3.] God does sometimes saves his people from persecutions by passing a sentence of death upon their persecutors: and thus by his sudden and fearful judgment upon Herod he gave rest, liberty, and quiet to his people (Acts 12:23, 24). And so by his vengeance on persecuting emperors he gave rest to his people. And by giving Ahithophel rope enough, he preserved David from perishing. But,
[4.] God does this sometimes by altering and changing the very hearts and natures of their persecutors. And thus by changing Paul's nature, by turning that wolf into a lamb, that devil into a saint, he gave the churches rest throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria (Acts 9:31); and this is one of the most desirable things in the world, that God would save his people from outward ruin by ruining their persecutors' sins, and by changing their hearts and saving their souls. But,
[5.] God does this sometimes by taking persecutors' feet in the same snares that they have laid for others: Psalm 9:16, "The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah." Higgaion selah signifies matter of great admiration, and of deep meditation; that the wicked should be snared in the work of his own hands is matter of perpetual admiration, and of most serious meditation. Who will not admire that Goliath should be slain with his own sword, and that proud Haman should hold Mordecai's stirrup, and be the herald of his honor: Psalm 7:15,16, "He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head."
It is usual with God to take persecutors in the snares and pits that they have laid for his people, as many thousands in this nation have experienced; and though Rome and her confederates are this day a-laying of snares and traps, and a-digging of pits for the righteous, who will rather burn than bow to their Baal—yet do but wait and weep, and weep and wait a little, and you shall see that the Lord will take them in the very snares and pits that they have laid and dug for his people. But,
[6.] God sometimes preserves his people from persecuting hands, by providing cities of refuge to shelter them, and by providing hiding-places to hide them in: Matthew 10:23, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another." God has always found one city of refuge or another to shelter his persecuted people in. And so when bloody persecuting Jezebel had cut off many of the Lord's prophets, God provided an Obadiah to hide a hundred of them in a cave (1Ki 18:4, 13). God never lacks a chamber of presence, a chamber of providence, a chamber of protection, a chamber of salvation to hide his people in (Isa 26:20). I have read of one that, in the time of the massacre at Paris, crept into a hole to hide himself, and as soon as he was in there came a spider and weaved a web before the hole; the next morning the murderers came to search for him, Search in that hole, said one, and see if he is not there! O no, said another, he can't be there, for there is a cobweb at the hole's mouth; upon which they did not suspect his being there, by which means he was preserved from the rage and fury of those men of blood. But,
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Part 58 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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