XI. 42. *' And I know that thou hearest me always.''

It cannot miss to be so, because he is the Father's well beloved Son ; his intercession has a plea of justice for the ground of it, 1 John ii. 1 . ^* We have ** an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the ''righteous." Moreover, he has all power in hea- ven and earth lodged in him, 1 John v. 22. And, fi- nally, he and his Father are one, and their will one. So, for the present time, both Christ and his Fa- ther do will the lifting up of the humble ones, but yet only in due time.
Secondlif^ I proceed to a more par tictdar virw of the point. And,
l.s^. We will consider the lifting up as brought about in ^?m^, which is the partial lifting up. And,
(1.) Some considerations for clearing the nature thereof. .•*
1. This lifting up does not take place in everif case of a. child of God. One may be humbled in humbling circumstances, from which he is to gej a lifting up in time. We would from the promise presently conclude, that we being humbled under our humbling circumstances, «hall certainly be ta- ken out of them, and freed from them ere we get to the end of our journey. For it is certain, there are some, such as our imperfections, and sinfulness, and mortality, we can by no means be rid of while in this world. And there are particular humbling circumstances the Lord may hang about one, and keep about them, till they go down to the grave, while, in the mean time, he may lift up another from the same Heman was pressed down all a- long from his 5/o?/M. Psal. Ixxxviii. 15. others all their /ife tini^, Heb; ii. Ip.
The Crook in the Lot. 143
Object. 'If that be the case, what comes of the 'promise of lifting up? Where is the lifting up, if * one may get to the grave under the weight r'
Answ. Were there no life after this, there would be weight in that objection ; but since there is ano- ther life, there is nnne in it at all. In the other life the promise will be accomplishing to the hum- bled as it was, Luke xvi. 22. Consider that th& great term for accomplishing the promises, is the other life, not this. " These all died in the faith, "not having received the promises, but having "seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, *'and embraced them," Heb xl. 13. And that whatever accomplishment of the promise is here, it is not the nature of the stock, but of a sample or a pledge.
^lest* * But then, may we not give over pray- ' ing for the lifting up, in that case r'
Ansru, We do not kno\^ when that Is our case ; for a case may be past all hope in our eyes, and the eyes of others, in which God designs a lifting up in time, as in Job's, chap. vi. 11. " my strength that I should hope ^ And what: i^ " mine end that I should prolong my lifer" But, be it as it will, we should never give over praying for the lifting up, sii;ce it will certa'mly come to all that pray in faith for it ; if not here, yet here- after. The promise is sure, and that is the com- mandment; so such praying cannot miss of a happy issue at length, Psalm 1, 15. " And call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deli- " ver thee, and thoushalt glorify me.^' The whole life of a Christian is such a praying-waiting life to encourage whereunto all temporal deliverances are given as pledges, Rom. viii. 23. "And not '•'■ only they, but ourselves also, which have the •' 'Ir^st fmits of the spirit; even we ourselves groan
144 Thi Creak in the lot*
" within oiwaelves, waiting for the adoption, i^;.. *' the redemption ot our body." And whoso ob- serves that lull lifting up at death to be at hand, nkust certainly rise, if he has given over his case as hopeless-
2. However, there are some cases wherein this lifiiBg up does take place. God gives his people some notable liftings up, even in time raising them out ol remarkable humbhng circumstances. The storm is changed into a calm, and they re- member it as waters that fail, Psalm xl. 1 — 4. Two things may be observed on this.
(1.) One may be in humbling circumstances ve- ry long, and sore, and hopeless, and yet a liftin- up may be abiding them, of a much longer conti- nuance. This is sometimes the case ol the chil- dren of God, who are set to bear the yoke in their youth, as it v/as with Joseph ar.d David ; and of them that get it laid on them in their middle age, as it was with Job, who could not be less than forty at his trouble's coming, but after it lived one hun drcd and forty, Job xlii. 16. God by Buch mc thods prepares men for peculiar usefulness.
(2.) Or»e may be in humbling circumsta^cer long and lore, and quite hopeless, in the ordinary cour«e of providence, yet^they may get a clear and warm blink of «a lifting up, ere they come to their journey's end. I he life of some of God's children is like a cloudy and rainy day, wherein, in the evening, the sun breaks out from under the clouds, shines fair and clear a little and then sets. '* And it shall come to pass in that day, that the " light shall not be clear, nor dark. But it shall " come to pass, that at evening-time it &hall be ** light." Zech. xiv. 6, 7. Such was the case of Jacob in his old age, brought in honour and com- fort into Kgypt unto hi» son, and then died.
rht Crook in the Lot. 145
(3.) Yet whatever liftings up they get in this life, they will never want some weights hanging about them for their humbling. They may have their singing times, but their songs while in this world will be mixed with groanings, 2 Cor. v. 4. " For we that are in this tabernacle do gro^n, be- *• ing burdened." The unmixt dispensation is re- served for the other world j but this will be a wil- derness unto the end, Vv'here there ',\'ill be bowlings with the moiit joyful notes.
Lastly^ All the liftings up the hum.bled meet with now are pledges, and but pledges, samples, and arle-pennies, {^Larnest\oi the great lifting up, abiding them on the other side ; and they should look on them so.
(1.) They are really so. Has. ii. 15. " And I " will give her her vineyards from thence, and the " valley of Achcr for a door of hope ; and she *' shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and ^' as in the day when she came out of the land of '^ Egypt." Our Lord Jesus i^ leading his people now tla-Qugh the ■\\ ilderness, and the manna and water of the rock are earnests for the time of the milk and honey flowing in the promised land. — They are not yet come home to their Father's houte, but they are travelling on the road, and Christ their elder Brother with them. Song iv. 8. vv'ho bears their expeuces, takes them Into ihus by the wa}', as it were, and rtfreshes them \t"ith par- tial liftings up ; after v/hlch, thev must get to the road again. But that enteitainment by the way is a pledge of the full entertainment he will a'.lbrJ tiiem \/hen come home.
Object. ' But people may get a lifting up in time,
* that yet is no pledge of a lifting up on the oiher
* side : Kovr shall i know it then to b^ a pled^r -^
146 The Crook in the Lot.
Ans. That lifting up, which comes by the pro- mises, is certainly a pledge of the full lifting up in the other world ; for, as the other life is the pro- per time of the accomplishing of the promises, so we may be sure, that when God once begins to clear his bond, he will certainly hold on till it is fully cleared. " The Lord will perfect that which '"' concemeth me,'' Psalm cxxxviii. 8. So we may say as Naomi to Ruth, upon her receiving the six measures of barley from Boaz, Ruth lii. 18. *' He *' will not be in rest until he have finished the thing *' this day." There are liftings up that come by common providence, and these indeed are single, and not pledges of more j but the promise chains mercies together, so that one got is a pledge of a- nother to come, yea, of th^ whole chain to the end, 2 Sam. v. 12.
^lest, ' But how shall I know the lifting up to * come by the way of the promise?' ,
Ajis, That which comes by the way of the pro- mise, does at once come the low way of humilia- tion, the high way of faith, or believing the pro- mise, and the long way of waiting hope, and pa- tient continuance. James v. 7. " Be patient thelt:- *' fore, brethren, unto the coming of the^ Lord. •"^ Behold the husbandman wj^teth for the precious ^' fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it *' until l\e receive the early and latter rain.*' Hu- mility qi^lifies for the acconKplishment of th© pro- mise, faith sucks the breasts of it, ai->d patient* waiting hangs by the breast till the milk come a- bundantly.
(2.) But no lifting up of God's children here are aiiy more than pledges of lifting up. God gives worldly men their stock here, but his children get jiotliing but a sample of theirs here, Psalm xvii.
The Crook hi the Lot. 14f
14. Even as the servant at the term gets his fee ia a round sum, while the young heir gets nothing but a few pence for spending money. The truth is, the same spending money is more vakiable than the world's stock, Psalm iv. 7—" Thou hast put '* gladness in my heart, more than in the time that ** their com and their wine increased." But tho'' it is better than that, and their ser\*ices too, and more worth than all their on-waiting, yet it is be- low the honour of their God to put them off with it, Heb. xi. 16. " But now they desire a better ** country, that is, an heavenly ; wherefore God " is not ashamed to be called their God j for he " hath prepared for them a cit}'."