8. used or was used for them in respect of their Land Isa 63. 17 18. The people of thy holinesse have enjoyed it but a while and in a small scantling c. But to draw to a conclusion 3. Would we have God revive this work for his people Then we must pray also that God would revive his work in his people and with it his people themselves and each of us is to look that it be revived in himself What work is this First The life of Faith in the main Remember The just shall live by Faith Chap. 2. 4. that is Faith shall be a principle of life exercising many lively acts in them and they shall attain to the life of Restauration and Comfort by believing Gods promises And therefore we are not to lie down in any dejections or despondences of mind through distrust of Gods power or promises in any case that may conduce most to his glory in his peoples good Secondly The Spirit of prayer for the reparation of Zion the spiritual restorement of the Church for when the Lord shall stir up his servants more generally and heartily to pray with melting compassionate affections toward the spiritual dilapidations deformities of his Churches it will be a good sign that the set time to favor his Zion is come See Psal 102 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof 3ly Resolutions for best endeavours in behalf of the work of Reformation This concerns you all beloved in your several places and therefore to be far from being obstructors of it through worldly and carnal ends instead of being its promoters and advancers and they that have pretended to build with Gods people when they have intended to hinder as they in Ezra 4. 2 3. God will discover them But more especially this concerns you my reverend and much respected Brethren of the Provincial Assembly to look that you put forth revived spirits toward this work If that were true sano sensu Jupiter quos servare vult suscitat then 't is as true eos per quos servare vult c. If God quicken up those whom he will save then those by whom he will save others instrumentally O let us therefore through grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the gifts and graces of God in us let us quicken up our selves to use all counsels and endeavours for the furtherance of Gods Church-work and joyntly attend upon and prosecute all those good means according to our trust undertaken whereby it may be carried on forward waiting on God for the issues of all our prayers and all our endeavours which shall seem best to his heavenly wisdom However events shall fall out to us in our time resolve as our Prophet doth infer ver 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation FINIS Christs counsel to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown THese are a parcel of the words of Christ immediately directed unto the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia but mediately to that whole Church and every Member of it yea intended for the good of other Churches also and therefore of ours For he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches It is the common Epiphonema which our Lord subjoyns to all his Epistles unto those Asian Churches written according to the dictate of his spirit by the pen of his Apostle John in the second and third Chapters of this Book He would have every one that hath an hearing ear to lend his attention to that which is spoken by his spirit to what Church soever in that such is the general nature of all Churches and Church-Members as either they do or may stand in need of all such divine admonitions as are addressed occasionally to any of them Now whether those seven particular Churches written unto by our Lord in this Context were Types of several Churches of several constitutions and temperaments and conditions to follow in after-times by divine providence I will forbear to assert positively though I cannot but say what I think that the invention of one of our own Worthies was very bright and clear in finding out those suitable correspondencies between these seven and others succeeding down to this present age respectively Now for that Church in Philadelphia to which my Text is part of that which was written this is remarkable concerning it that it that of Smyrna were the only Churches of all the seven which our Lord Christ openly reproved not at all wheras he found something reproveable in all the rest as on the other side it is remarkable concerning that of the Laodiceans that it was the only Church of the seven which Christ commended not at all whereas he took notice of something commendable in all the rest and why this not because there was nothing faulty or imperfect in those of Smyrna and Philadelphia but to shew how much the Lord favoureth humble modesty nor because there was nothing good in that of Leodicea but to shew how much the Lord disliketh proud vain-glory But I wave such general Observations I draw nigh to the words read unto Sect. you And not to take up any of our time with an exact Analysis of Christ his Epistle to Philadelphia because I shall go near to draw all the lines from the utmost circūstance of it into the center of my Text know only that after he had given testimony to the present good that was in her ver 8. and assurance of after goodness he would shew to her ver 9 10. both in subduing disguised Adversaries and in preserving her under temptations he comes in the words I have hinted upon to exhort her unto duty upon a double motive The duty is To to hold fast that which she had Brevis est hortatio sed Emphatica valde Pareus The first motive which is placed in the front is taken from the speedinesse of Christ his coming behold I come quickly The second which follows in the rear is from the possibility of danger upon neglect of that duty that no man take thy Crown First of the duty Touching which take up this Observation that It concerns the best of Gods Obser Churches and people to hold fast that which they have I purpose to handle this Point which is the principal in the Use so as ye shall perceive it reacheth not only Church-Officers but also Church-members and those of what condition soever this duty being of universal concernment to
on to prayer such a fear as may be the beginning of wisdom in this respect that it makes us fly unto the Name of our God as unto a strong Tower either to keep us from or to defend us in the midst of Dangers and bring us with safety and comfort out of them And so make fear not an obstacle or impediment to duty but a preparative unto duty As t is said Noah being warned of God moved with fear pepared an Ark c. Heb. 11. 7. so let godly fear in us set us a preparing somewhat that may tend to the securing of the remnant of Gods people at least in way of Prayer as doth the Prophet in our Text. To whose Prayer of Faith I now passe over O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years c. Here are divers terms to be opened before we can well pitch upon matter of Instruction As 1. What is the work of God 2. What Gods reviving of his work 3. What the midst of the years in which he is prayed to revive it 4. What is making known in the midst of years I know there is another reading of part of these words by the Greek Septuagint For that clause in the midst of years make known they read to this sense in the midst of two living Creatures thou shalt be known and much descant there is among Expositors Ancient and Modern upon that passage so rendred generally they understand Christ for the party to be known but who the two living Creatures should be in the midst of whom he was to be known they vary much in opinion Tertullian hath his apprehension and Origen his and later Writers theirs but because that is a reading not approved by judicious either Protestant or Pontifician Expositors I will not spend time in any particular recital of different opinions There is another reading of the first clause of this Prayer in the Old English Translation varying from our New which it may be some of you finde in the Books you use it runs thus Revive thy work in the midst of the people but why they should render the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so differently in the two clauses especially since it signifies years and not people for ought I have found I cannot finde any satisfactory reason Taking therefore our last Translation to be most consonant to the Original I keep to it and so come to the opening of the words Wherein my chief regard shall be unto that litteral sense which the consideration of the Context leads us unto First then what work of God may here be meant I propound it to you in a double notion but hardly separable take we it partly for the people of God themselves For his Covenanted people are his special work or a special piece of his workmanship and he hath ever accounted his Church his peculiar above the generality of mankind in and upon whom he hath given proofs and evidences of his most excellent vertues and Attributes Ask of me saith he things concerning my sonnes and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45. 11. See also Isa 60. 21. and 61. 3. There sonnes and the work of Gods hands are made Synonyma The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me forsake not the work of thine own hands saith David Psal 138. 8. Accounting himself in special manner the work of Gods hands Consonant to this the Apostle speaking of the Church of Believers under the New Testament saith We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works c. Eph. 2. 10. But again take we this work partly for the work of Gods gracious Providence in behalf of his people Status populi vel Ecclesiae as Calvin speaketh And signally here in our Text is the deliverance and freedom of his people from under the power and captivity of the Chaldeans and Babylonians looked at As is manifested by the Context Secondly What may this reviving of the work of God be It may be reduced unto two heads also One is The preserving alive of the work of God for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel as it is here used signifies simpl Vivum conservare as Psal 22. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul And thus it refers to Gods work in the first sense not in respect of the life of individual persons of the Church so much as in respect of the generality or community of the Church q. d. preserve thy Church alive conserve a body of people to thy self alive let not that whole workmanship of thine perish nor the work of grace in thy people that may be also understood for people do not live as Gods people or as his Church unlesse the life of grace and holinesse be preserved alive in them But another thing is The restoring of the state of the people of God for so the Hebrew word also signifies as in 1 Chro. 11. 8. Nehem. 4. 2. and thus it refers unto the work of God in the second acception q. d. Restore thy people againe to their former state of livelihood or a livelinesse wherein they were before They shall be but as in state of civil death while they lie in thraldom and servitude under the Chaldeans and thou hast intimated by the Vision of grace which I have seen that thy people shall not die but shall live by faith and that their enemies and opposers lie under thy woes and curses and so shall come to ruine and destruction and therefore be pleased to put life and vigour into that work of thine in behalf of thy people or as some others gloss it Effice suscita adimple effectuate it rear it up accomplish it Opus enim dum non impletur quasi mortuum censetur oblivione sepultum Sanctius And it is usual with the Hebrews as we all may perceive by the tenour of Scripture to attribute life Metaphorically unto things properly without life and to call their restitution and reflourishing again from a weak decayed broken estate a reviving c. But now for the time Thirdly What may the midst of years be that he thus iterates Beloved there is such variety of Expositions given of this circumstance among the Learned that I should ill husband my time to enumerate them unless it would be to better purpose This only I shall doe first touch briefly upon some that I cannot close with and why and then lay before you that only which I take to be intended chiefly by the Prophet First I take not this Phrase barely to signifie Intra annos praefinitos destinatos à Deo within the compass of the years appointed by God as some note medium to be taken Physice vulgariter as in Gen. 2 9. and Exod. 3. 2. for I conceive that though this be a truth that God did
put on incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the Congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people And he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed Psal 30. 5. For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning and 138. 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me And therefore in the midst of the years of the afflictive sense of Gods anger there may be expectation of a mercifull reviving therefore in the midst of the cords and bonds of servitude there may be expectation of a merciful breaking of them Et ubi funis tenacissimus fuerit rumpitur Where the cord is stiffest and strongest there it is broken suddenly saith Luther when God is pleased to shew mercy Use 1 Use 1. This Point serves first to stir us upto a comfortable exercise of Faith that God would be pleased to revive his work in the midst of these years c. Why what years are they I cannot say they are years of Gods peoples servitude or captivity under the Chaldeans or Egyptians blessed be God for those freedoms and liberties which are yet left unto us But we are in the midst of years of dissentions even among brethren of divisions and distractions of hearts and wayes of wars and bloody hostilities between the professed Members of the Church of Christ of various concussions and shakings of Foundations of confusions of tongues tenents and practices of eruptions and overflowings of errors and blasphemies of contempts cast upon Gods Ministers and Ordinances and dissentions or shatterings in pieces of Church Assemblies in manifold places In a word we are in the midst of these years wherein it seems to me God hath dealt or is dealing with our Nation as he threatned to deale with Jerusalem in 2 Kin. 21. 13. when withall he threatned to make that people a prey and spoile to their enemies I will wipe Jerusalem said he as a man wipeth a dish wiping it and turning it upside down God hath been wiping us and wiping us and in an overly way of cleansing and purging us but is he not so doing it as he is turning us upside down Surely then beloved we are in the midst of those years wherein we need to pray that God would revive his work and make it known and in wrath remember mercy True it is we know not what periods God hath determined to such years as we are in we see not our signs we have not any foretelling Prophets as the Psalmist complained Psal 74. â— Wee see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long It is not therefore with us as with the Jews Jer. 25. 12. And it shall come to passe when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that Nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the Land of the Chaldeans and will make it perpetuall desolations And 29. 10. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place Nor have we like grounds of duty as Daniel had Dan. 9. 2 3. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years wherof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes Yet this we may and ought to do 1. Hold to the general grounds and principles of faith 1. Believe that God hath revived his people in the midst of far sadder years than we have yet seen according to foregoing instances and others that might be given And 2. Believe and therefore the rather that God can revive his work in the most seeming difficult cases And 3. Believe that God will not forsake his own work to leave it to ruine or under imperfection and a languishing condition continually And 4. Believe that God is of such infinite mercy that in wrath he will remember it c. But I commend that of Bernard to consideration as an approved truth Deus olcum misericordiae ponit in vase fiduciae But then 2. We must not faile to do what we in this Congregation are solemnly in doing this day viz. we must ply God by prayers For we know that whatever God determines to his people though they know he hath determined it yet he requires and expects his people should seek unto him concerning it See Ezek. 36. 37. therefore did Daniel so pray c. Much more ought we in cases wherein we have no circumstantial grounds of assurance c. that we may obtain at length assurance and establishment 2. This may serve more specially to stir up to seek God for a reviving of his work of Reformation in the Church in the midst of these years of disturbance and hinderance of it For my part I take that to have been the work of God which was set afoot some years since in this Nation for a Reformation in our Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline But how hath it now and that for a good while lien still almost and how hath it been cast back How have close counter-workers undermined it and open enemies opposed it how miserably is it defaced How do some Deformations out-face it And how do scoffers mock at it like those Samaritans Nehem. 4. 2. will these few Jews revive the stones out of the the heaps of the rubbish c And we could point at the causes of all this Mainly The not countenancing and furthering of the work of Civil Authority But beloved if it be Gods work begun for his people as many of us here I presume doubt not but it is we may believe it shall be revived and perfected sooner or later against all unlikelihoods And accordingly we may pray that in the midst of the years of unlikelihood it may be revived that instead of having our Land darkned over us in the clear day and our Sun set at noon a curse denounced Amos 8. 9. light may arise unto the Church in the midst of obscurity c. Isa 58. 10. and so strength be raised in the midst of weaknesse and livelinesse spring up in the midst of dying languishings We may use that argument in respect of this work which the people of God And the work hath had but a little reviving as Ezra 9.
of temptation drawing on upon the present reformed Churches of Christ which sweetly answer to Philadelphia to say no more wherein they are likely to be extreamly shaken and so tryed to the purpose Nay be there not some symptomes that such an hour is already entred upon some of them Is there not an horrible tempest already risen among the poor reformed Churches in Piedmont which hath already shaken divers of them in pieces and scattered them among the Mountains and some other neighbouring places where they may hope for no shelter Now how soon and how farre the like Earthquakes may shake other Churches and places the Lord onely knows but the probability of a time of shaking triall to passe over all may be sufficient ground of warning to hold fast what good we have Never are men more in danger to let go what they have than when they are terribly shaken never were the Disciples in more danger of taking scandal at Christ and letting go their hold of him than when Satan desired to sift and winnow them as wheat Luke 22. 31. Therefore in apprehension of such a time that the reformed Churches abroad and we together with them may hold fast that we have They that seem to be as pillars in the house of God Gal. 2. 9. though they be not used as that prophetical Simeon did those Material Pillars before an Earthquake yet need such a warning as he gave them Stand fast for we shall be shaken 2ly understand here Christ his coming quickly in a way of mercy to moderate the trial to deliver from the power of temptation q. d. I come quickly to restore thee Thy troubles and trials shall not last long The trials of the Church of Smyrna were measured by dayes and were called tribulations of ten dayes suppose years to be understood by dayes as usually in this book that was no long time But here the Churches time of temptation is measured I cannot say by hours but onely by an hour it is foretold onely to be an hour that is a very short time of temptation And truely Beloved such short trials 't is conceived and hoped will be the remaining trials of the reformed Churches how sharp soever they may be for the while But whatever their duration may be ye know what the Apostle said that our the Churches afflictions are but for a moment 2 Cor. 4. 17. Now therefore as Christ said to his Disciples what Could ye not watch with me one hour So I say shall we not hold fast what we have one houre not one moment after which all hard trials shall be over O let this perswade us Especially since we are to understand Christ his coming quickly Thirdly In a way of judicature to call men to an account and to distribute rewards according to their works To shew himself gracious and bountifull to such as do hold fast the good they have till he come and severe toward others See Chap. 22. 12. And behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be Heb. 10. 37. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry James 5. 8. Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh But the meditation of this will carry me into the second Motive following the duty in the latter part of this verse passe we therefore over unto it That no man take thy Crown 2. Motive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that no man take away thy Crown or that thy Crown be not taken away from thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic idem est quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 5. 40. Brightman And doubtlesse want of good hold fast hath lost many a Crown It is an argument taken from the danger of losing her Crown if she did not hold fast But withall insinuating a Crown assured unto her keeping fast her hold Well Our first enquiry here may be what means he by her Crown It is taken two wayes First for that Crown she had in some sort already viz. That honour which this Church had partly gotten and was further to get by that holy Spiritual grave manner of administration and observation of Gods Ordinances which carried that lustre of excellency and Authority in it as convinced the mindes and affected the spirits even of Adversaries so that they which were formerly of the Synagogue of Satan which said they were Jews i. e. true worshippers of God and of the onely Church of God but were not should come and worship before the face of that Church and acknowledge her beloved of God and honourable ver 9. And in some such respect as this did the Apostle Paul call the Philippians and Thessalonians his Joy and his Crown Phil. 4. 1. 1 Thes 2. 19. For how came he to esteem them so In that God was pleased by his Ministery to translate them out of darknesse into the kingdom of Christ Jesus and to make his Ministery instrumentally powerfull to bring them under the yoke of Christ and to lay down their former pride and professedly to subject themselves to the Gospel of Christ 2 Cor. 9. 13. yea when persons convinced shall be ready to fall down upon their face and worship God and confesse that God is in his servants and Ordinances of a truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. Secondly For that superexcellent Crown or highest honour and dignity in Heaven which God hath promised out of his free grace to bestow upon those who persevere in Faith and obedience to the end that which is called the Crown of life Chap. 2. 10. the Crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. a Crown of glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. Now Beloved for the Argument In respect of the former Crown it stands thus If thou dost not hold fast what thou hast thou art like to lose the glory of Gospel-Ministery and the due reverence and authority which it hath had hitherto more or lesse in the hearts of men and may yet further have if thou be not wanting unto thy self and negligent to retaine and keepe those Ordinances and Priviledges which make for thy spiritual honour And it is possible for a particular Church in time to lose its Ecclesiastick Crown here below as it fared long since with that Church of Philadelphia Again In respect of the other Crown of life and glory never fading the Argument standeth thus Thou hadst need use all thy prudence and diligence and fortitude to hold fast what thou hast and to persevere unto the end lest being at a loss of grace thou be also at a loss of glory Thou standest by Faith be not high-minded but fear said the Apostle Rom 11. 20. And look we to our selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward saith the Apostle John 2 Joh. 8. Quest. But doth not the implyed danger and caveat upon