so is the Ministry thereof In stead of maintaining it is denyed invaded reviled undermined despoyled and discountenanced They that are in superior place are very jealous of any that shall disown their power or take up Arms without their warrant they take such acts to be very dishonorable and treasonable against them but the power which our Lord hath given to the Stewards of his House a Luk. 12.46 is denyed the warfare which he hath ordered and committed to certain hands b 1 Tim. 1 18 2 Tim. 2.3 is usurped at every ones pleasure It is now noted for one step or qualification for him that would obtain favor or preferment that he get up into the Pulpit some other way then by the stairs and door that he have the presumption to preach of himself Whilest this is the way of rising the calling and work of the Ministry advanceth not but goeth down The Gospel preached is compared by our Saviour to a Treasure which he that findeth will sell all that he hath to buy but now there is many a one that had rather buy any thing then it that had rather sell then buy it that in stead of selling all for it would sell or take all from it But I have gone far enough with the first part of our charge in relation to the first sin the contempt of the Word of God viz. that it is Englands sin 2. The second thing is This contempt of Gods Word is Englands reigning sin and so of chiefest influence in the prevention of our prayers This may be evident by a brief application of the afore-given characters unto it 1. It is a general sin whether we respect the whole community or the company of them that give themselves to prayer The Gospel is generally in regard of places and persons preached and heard and in a manner as generally contemned and rejected All those among us to whom the reproach of it is a burden will confess that by the multitude it is and hath been from the first disrespected and disaccounted although they draw near unto it with their lips and ears in seeming to attend and in making profession of it yet all real and hearty esteem and entertainment they deny it If some in the several places where it is preached do cleave unto it as there did at Athens unto Paul the generality look contemptuously or strangely at it Act. 17.34 It is with us as once with Judah in the Prophet Isaiahs and Jeremiahs days Isai 28.9 Jer. 6.10.5.4 5 Whom shall he teach knowledg and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the brests To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot harken behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it Go to the poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God Go to the great men and speak unto them these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds That which the Prophet Isaiah is commanded to go and write in a Table and note in a Book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever concerning that peoples despising the Word of the Lord may be also set before us as a Diagram suiting us I desire therefore the Reader to peruse it Isai 30. vers 8. unto 13. These Scriptures do like a glass represent our faces and that as truly and fitly as they did theirs we are thus universally old and young rich and poor high and low wayward and averse from the Word of God 2. It is the common root and mother of other sins and therefore the predominant and reigning sin All the many and mighty sins that break out and overflow in this Land do own and father themselves upon this the contempt and rejection of the Word of God The trampling under foot of this is the opening of the floodgates to the inundation of all sorts of crimes A few instances may here serve This is the cause of that Atheism ungodliness and profaneness that prevails in many among us The contempt of God himself immediately and inseparably follows upon the contempt of his Word He that despiseth you despiseth me Luk 10.16 Psa 81.11 And My people would not harken to my voyce Israel would none of me This is the cause of that gross blindness and inadvertency that men are now involved in both in the matters of God and in those of Civil right and polity They have rejected the Word of the Lord 〈◊〉 8.9 and what wisdom is in them This is the cause head and spring of all those strange damnable and contagious Heresies and false doctrines that now so monstrously abound with the proneness of men to receive them and their height of confidence in them Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 11. for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve a lye This is the cause of that disorder discommunion and anti-disciplinary carriage and disposition appearing in the Church of God among us Men are come through pride and inordinate lusts to ravel and trample under foot that order and authority which the Apostles of Christ from him have delivered unto us in the Word as sometimes the Corinthians in some particulars did * 1 Cor. 11 17 c. 2 Cor. 10 8. Some ungodlily spurn at others overweeningly undertake to mould after their fashion or to transcend Scripture Rule and Institution This is the cause of the warrantless and bold usurpation of the work of the Ministry in preaching The Word of God is become base and mean in the eyes of people therefore it is thought a light and easie work to dispense it any man is fit enough for it no matter who takes upon him to speak it Mens irreverence to it hath begotten arrogant and unskilful speaking of it As Jereboam when he and the people were perswaded the worship ordained of God was too much for them he then made two golden Calves to be their gods 1 King 12.28 31. and of the lowest of the people to be their Priests This is the cause of that base fear of men and obsequiousness to their commandments even where persons are convinced otherwise in their consciences Laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men Mark 7.8 9. Full well ye reject the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition If the Word of God were of more weight and force with men the precepts of men repugnant thereto would be of less or no value Lastly This is the cause that the irreligious heathenâ—sh practise of Divination Astrology and Prognostication is grown into so much request and use The great Prophet of the Church whom the Lord hath raised up and hath appointed
sword shall pierce through thy own Soul also So that Mary might as much muse at this Blessing as she did at the Angels Salutation of which it is said She was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be Luk 1 29. Be it so yet the Holy Ghost calls it a Blessing and a Blessing it must be Yea we may observe and for that end here I bring it in It is not only their Blessing but a Pattern or Platform of the Blessing of all the Faithful wherewith the Lord endoweth them here on Earth Simeon's form of Benediction upon Joseph and Mary is a draught of the Lords constant method of bestowing and bringing about Blessings to his people Look how Simeon speaketh to them so the Lord proceedeth towards his namely by contradictions and conflicts by offences and scandals and by heart piercing sorrows to bring them to happy enjoyments comforts and mercies And that which is here designed to be the lot of Christs Person is also to be extended to his Office Word Truth Way Cause and Church they are with him and he in them set as a stone of stumbling and Rock of offence whereat many shall fall and thereby catch their ruine and as a But or Mark as the word is interpreted at which proud and malicious men shall dart their sharpest reproaches and into which they and their Rulers shall thrust their bloodiest swords and these their injuries and sufferings shall wound with bitterest griefs all their Alies that is all those that in affection and profession adhere unto them As Joseph the Patriarch came by his Blessing The Archers sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him but his Bow abode in strēgth c. by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob c. who shal bless thee with blessings of Heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the brests and of the womb c. they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren By the same way doth Joseph's Son here become a Blessing to those that belong to him But of this course of the Saints to the Consolations in Christ That their passage to the Land of Promise must be with Israel through the Red Sea and the waste howling Wilderness That they must fetch their honey with Samson out of the Roaring Lion That the sword that brought Christ to his death must pierce through Mary's heart and all theirs that travel in birth with Christ if sh◠and they will obtain the Blessing by him Or that as the Prophet Zechariah hath it that Sword which is awakned against Christ the Shepherd Zech. 13.7 8 9. must disperse them that are the flock and be turned also upon them until it hath cut off two parts of three and the remaining third part must pass through the fire and be refined as Silver and tryed as Gold and then they shall call upon the Name of the Lord and be heard This I say is to be further treated on in the ensuing Discourse SECT II. The Persecutions that befall the Faithful make many and notable Heart-discoveries BUt there is another thing which I aimed at in prefacing this of Simeon and that is the effect which he foretells the falling of many at Christ as a stumbling block the bent of mens tongues against him as the scope of their malice and the swords piercing through the Soul of Mary should have to wit that the thoughts of many hearts may be Revealed Afflictions especially those of the Saints and more especially those that come upon them by the persecuting Sword they cause great searchings of heart This Sword as it worketh impressions of fear and grief in the heart so it causeth expressions of Truth from it It is a Key to unlock open and bring forth the abundance of the heart which before was kept in It gives vent to and draws forth those deep waters of the counsels of mans heart It anatomizeth or rips up all the otherwise concealed intents drifts and dispositions thereof What great heart-discoveries doth it make on all hands It lays open both friend and foe it unfolds the heart both of Patients and Agents yea and of the Dependents and Allies of them both yea and of meer Spectators We need go no further for Instance then those Sufferings of Christ related to in this place especially when they came to a head at his Passion and Death Then did those his Enemies the high Priests the Elders the Scribes and Parisees Herod and Pilate with his Soldiers who before durst not do what they would and were sometimes fain to speak him fair shew themselves in their colours What inveterate Malice desperate Blood-thirstiness self-condemning Injustice devilish worldly-policy immune Cruelty insolent Blasphemy did then swell and burst forth of their hearts Then also did the rottenness of his false and feigned Friends appear Of Judas by selling and betraying him his Master Of the common people who erewhile had followed and admired him and but a few days before had entertained him with triumphant Acclamations and Hosanna's as their King they now display their hypocrisie by their preferring Barrabas before him by their crying out against him Away with him crucifie him and by their wilful taking upon them the guilt of his Blood Nay then did the passers by and by-standers take occasion to shew their spleen by railing and scoffing at him Yea one of his very fellow-sufferers must with his life breathe out his impotent rancor by reviling him Then did also his faithful Friends and Followers disclose what was in them and that both ways both the evil and the good On the one side they generally discovered their weakness of Understanding and slowness of Faith about the Necessity End and Fruit of Christs Death and Certainty of his Resurrection with extream despondency of mind and some of the chiefest of them bewrayed moreover strange inconstancy fear and falshood On the other side there brake forth somewhat of the truth and power of grace in them to wit in Mary and the other women that followed Christ in the Apostles in Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and in the good Thief upon the Cross in them were manifested honest resolutions and much tenderness of affection with some degree of faithfulness piety and courage Lastly in our blessed Saviour himself there was a discovery made In the midst of all those his inexplicable endurings and agonies his heart being with them melted like wax in the midst of his bowels did send forth the most precious oyntments Psa 22 14. and sweet smelling savours of the graces treasured in him above measure and among other admirable and surpassing Love Meekness Patience Fortitude Charity Obedience and Faith oriently shined forth in him So fully did this dissecting effect of the Sword in all sorts of persons then appear And there hath been of late no small
confident of the goodness of their way Ephraim saith I am become rich I have found me out substance in all my labors they shall find none iniquity that were sin Hos 12.8 As some deceive themselves in thinking they pray wâ—ll or aright for matter therefore they shall speed so others delude themselves in arguing they speed well therefore they do pray well Cambden hath observed of the Wilde Irish as was once before said that when they go to rob they pour out their prayers to God Cambdens Britannia of Ireland page 144 that they may meet with a booty and they suppose a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift neither are they perswaded that either violence or rapine or man-slaughter displeaseth God for in no wise would he present unto them the opportunity if it were a sin nay a sin it were if they did not lay hold on the said opportunity 4. They take occasion thereby to go on the more securely and presumptuously in their sinful course The Jews in Egypt peremptorily determine to go on in their Idolatry in direct contradiction to the Prophets forewarning them from it in the Name of the Lord and they take their boldness from hence Because when they were at home and burned Incense there to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 44.16 17 they had plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil Job Job 12.6 observes also They that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly 2. As their success in prayer proves their temptation to sin so it becomes their precipice to cast them head-long upon their ruine Those wicked men in Jeremiah Jer. 12.1 2 3 who have God neer in their mouth but far from their reins and in that posture go on prosperously in their way their happiness is but their preparation or fat pasture to fit them for the day of slaughter Solomon saith The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 This was made memorably good in Israel who in the wilderness tempting God by asking meat for their lusts Numb 11 33 Psa 78.18 c. when God gave them their own desires by sending them quails and they did eat and were filled with them while the meat was yet in their mouths the wrath of God fell upon them in a very great plague 2. There are Reasons of it in relation to the people of God whose prayers are supposed thereby to be crossed 1. It may be for their sins It is not the vertue or value of those prayers but the vileness of the sins of Gods people which makes way for or lifts up those prayers to Heaven They are the same sins on the part of Gods people which stop their prayers and promote the prayers of their opposites Their Transgressions do at the same time bring them down very low Deut. 28.43 44 and lift up the stranger that is among them very high above them they make them the tail and these the head They move God to cast off and abhor and be wroth with them Psa 89.38 42 and to set up the right hand of their adversaries 2. It may be to accomplâ—sh those ends which the Lord aimeth at also in his hiding from their prayers Their not speeding in their own and their beholding the success of the contrary prayers may work together for the ripening of the same ends Emulation at their corrivals may be a notable spur together with their own disappointment to forward them in the attainment of those ayms 3. One end it may be more especially for in relation to them to wit for their probation or tryal The Prophet saith looking upon the wicked mans happiness in his hypocritical devotion Thou Jer. 12.3 O Lord hast tryed mine heart towards thee Possibly he might mean that very spectacle was his tryal What Moses forewarneth the people of God of in reference to false Prophecy may be methinks fitly applyed to false Devotion If a Prophet or a Dreamer give thee a sign or a wonder when he saith Let us go after other gods c. and the sign or the wonder come to pass Thou shalt not harken to that Prophet or Dreamer Deut. 13.1 c. for the Lord your God proveth you to know whâ—ther you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul In like manner in our case If any do for a pretence or the promotion of a bad purpose call upon God and the prayer come to pass we must take it to be a tryal from God whether our love and loyalty be sound or no And indeed it is a notable and strong tryal when the cloke of Piety and the course of Divine Providence in prospering the Tabernacles of Robbers do Job 12 6 like the hot Sun upon Jonahs head cast their bright beams upon our faces The servants of God who are cordially godly are apt to be taken with a form of godliness in others and being given both to prayer and to the eying of Providence they are much afflicted with the cross or happy success of the one and proceeding of the other Where therefore they observe a course of Prayer and an instance or sâ—ries of Providence going together and the cause or way on which they attend to be contradictory in their view both to the rule of Scripture and their own prayers grounded thereon there they are very hard put to to keep stedfast whilest on the one hand they are bottomed upon the sure Word of holy Writ on the other they are encountred with the goodly rays of the most just and wise disposal of God and the serious devotions of men But this is no greater a tryal then is that in the case of Prophecy above cited and therefore as Moses saith upon it Thou shalt not harken to the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of Dreams Verse 2 so must we resolve in this and the ground we must stand upon and stick unto is that which Moses there delivers them by way of Antidote against that temptation Ye shal walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his CoÌ„mandments Verse 4 and obey his voyce Where the voyce of God in his Word and Commandments is given as the rule to guide and the weight to preponderate or sway the judgment in a question wherein the Providence of God in the coming to pass of a sign or wonder in favor of a way cross to that of Gods commandment is produced I know this is a tryal which may move the servants of God but it must not remove them It doth happily shake them when as they have not only the doubts and despondencies of their own delay or disappointment in prayer to conflict with but the upbraidings and insultings of their successful opposites and their own vexations and murmurings thereby stirred up to wrestle with and vanquish but though it shake it must not cast them down They
we have it These are our scarlet crimson sins which we have to be removed as the causes of the putting back or suspense of our prayers and which are therefore to be throughly repented of and purged away that our prayers may take effect And let me perswade to and prevail in it in the words of Jotham Hearken unto me Judg. 9.7 that God may hearken unto you 2. The second thing to be applied by way of remedy is Let the people of God diligently follow on to the attaining of those ends for the effecting whereof in them the Lord for present hideth himself from them in this kind those ends have been laid down before the hastning on of them is the way to speed the issue of our prayers To instance in and press to some of them in a few words 1. Be constant in prayer hold out in it unto the end yea do not only hold on but mend and quicken your pace therein Add more fuel to increase the flame of your devotions pray more ardently Let your progress in prayer be like the natural motion of a body to its center or proper place the longer still the more swift and vigorous Doth God hide himselfe that you may seek his face then seek the Lord and his strength 〈◊〉 â—05 4 seek his face evermore and so seek that you may find him Certainly prayer is the Key of Heaven if then through unexpertness in the use of it you cannot get the door open presently cast not therefore the key out of your hand but turn and try it again and again until it be open Undoubtedly prayer is the way to find the face of God though it be hid leave not then slack not in the way because it is long lose not the end for lack of holding out It was the sin of Saul upon which immediately followed his ruine that when in his sore distress by the Philistins war he enquired of the Lord and got not an answer from him presently he left off enquiring of God and sought to a woman that had a familiar Spirit 1 Chro. 10 13 14 for this the Text saith the Lord slew him and turned the Kingdom unto David yea in this regard it saith he enquireth not of the Lord His once enquiring was void and stood for nothing and was no more then if he never had done it because he continued not enquiring until he hâ—d answer but through a distrustful and impatient fear ran from God to the Witch 2. Labour for an humbled heart a mourning Spirit both for sins and for prayers succeslesness The want of this hath been our great defect under our late sufferings and seekings to God It was noted of those Jews who remained after the destruction or the Temple City and Land by Nebuchadnezzar that they were not humbled even unto that day Jer. 44.10 they enquired of God by the Prophet Jeremiah Cap. 42.3 to shew them the way wherein they might walk and the thing that they might do but they were still unhumbled they had seen and felt a great deal of the wrath of God upon them for their sins but yet they were not humbled to that day And this is our very state we have sought unto God for his conduct in our Affairs his hand hath been out against and upon us many wayes for our sins but for all that we remain unhumbled But it will not so be most surely now we have had so much to do with God and he with us humbled we must be never did any person or people come off or part with him stoutly Levit. 10.3 he will be sanctified in them that come nigh him God will have us down and lay us low either in Spirit or in worldly state either inwardly or outwardly either to repentance or to ruine and if that will not be without this we shall be humbled both wayes if ever and ere ever God do raise us up Remember what the Lord saith to his people in the Prophet when he had hid his face from them Isai 54.6 The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused If we be as forsaken and refused of God it behoves us to be of a grieved Spirit and so we must be ere the Lord call us or look again upon us He reviveth the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones Isai 57.15.49.13 Mat. 5.4 He will have mercy upon his afflicted He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such at be of a contrite spirit They that mourn shall be comforted They that sow in tears shall reap in joy 3. Be sure to bide out the present tryal and exercise of the grace of God in you that is of your faith patience love and obedience Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Christ under the tryal Mat. 11.6.24 13. He that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved It was a desperate course in Saul and the forerunning passage of his ruine that whereas he had before-time rooted out those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the Land 1 Sam. 28.3 7. being in his extremity he sought to one of them It would be a dangerous practise for any now to fly or turn to that sinful way for help in their strait which in a freer and calmer condition they justly abandoned and opposed 4. Look we after not only the end of our prayers but our fitting and preparation for that end Chap. 4. Sect. 6. The parts of this preparation have been opened already out of Zech. 12. 13. and Zeph. 3. Three of them you may remember were sanctity brotherly-unity and simplicity or truth in our dealings with God and man For sanctity The pure in heart are they that shall see God Mat. 5.8 When the Lord will work such a Salvation for his people as that all the ends of the Earth shall see it he will have his people to depart Isai 52.10 11 and go out thence from Babylon and touch no unclean thing and be themselves clean For brothâ—rly union and pâ—ace When the Earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea God will make a compliance and harmony betwixt the Wolf and the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid Isai 11 6 c. the Calf and the young Lion Vers 13. the Cow and the Bear the Lion and the Ox the sucking Child and the Asp and Cockatrice their antipethies shall cease that is as it is quickly after explained the envy of Ephraim shall depart Ephraim shall not envy Iudah and Iudah shall not vex Ephraim Of Iob Job 42.10 it is said The Lord turned the captivity of Iob when he prayed for his friends It was not while he disputed with but when he prayed for them The first thing as I take it wherein the Lord appeared