is forgotten when mens private Chests are full Personal comforts thrust our spiritual as the Sun Beams eat out the Kitchin fire 3. From the want of quickening Means in the want of Ordinances When the Prophets are dead naturally or civilly their Monitors to duty are taken away Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there 's no more any Prophet neither is there any among us that knoweth how long When men want an Haggai or Zechariah they lie still asleep for want of awakening Helps It 's Samuel that promotes this lamenting after the Lord. 4. From the withdrawings of God's grace Psal 80.18 Quicken us and we will call on thy Name As long as God turns his back on us we shall be so far from kindly lamenting after him that we shall turn go back from him My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63.8 How comes that to pass why Thy right hand upholdeth me It 's God that gives a repenting heart a lamenting Soul Oh what are we if God leave us to our selves Study these causes of senslesness and let our Souls be ashamed Tremble at these causes and their effects bewail sin settle not in worldly injoyments beg quickening helps and above all Divine grace for our assistance in lamenting after the Lord. This is the first 2. That God's Professing People may and must stir up themselves to lament after the Lord. All men have rational faculties Gracious Souls have spiritual Principles sloth kills both Self excitation is possible and a furtherance to this lamentation after God Men as men have Consciences and Conscience is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly by self-reflection discovering the want of God and goodness checking for evil putting on to what is good if you follow it not as far as it leads you you wrong it rebel against its Master and deprive your selves of further helps Contradict this Preacher in thy bosom at thy peril Means intervene betwixt a man's can and his cannot if thou canst not move a spiritual step thou must move a natural step after the Lord if thou canst not create a new heart yet thou canst and must endeavour to make thee a new heart and a new spirit If thou be not able to do God's work thou must be doing thy own work bemoan thy self tell him what an unruly Bullock thou art and desire him to turn thee and then thou shalt be turned Stir up thy self to take hold on God Stir up the Gift of God in thee Charge thy self as David My Soul wait thou only upon God Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Awake awake put on thy strength oh Zion put on thy beautiful Garments oh Jerusalem shake thy self from the dust loose thy self from the bands of thy neck oh Captive Daughter of Zion Isa 52.1 2. Now at last God expects you should labour to work your hearts to a discovery of your misery the necessity you have of God of his presence and Ordinances You may rouze your selves to this work you must and if you do God will help if not your destruction will be of your selves 3. This lamenting after the Lord and his Ark hath been the practice and is the true Character of God's Children Eli's heart trembled for the Ark of God Phinehas's Wife thought it not worth the while to live when the Ark was gone I will wait on the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and will look for him Isa 8.17 This was when it was said Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples v. 16. Yea if you would seek and find God seek not to familiar Spirits but to the Law and to the Testimony v. 19 20. For should not a People seek unto their God Sirs shew what you are and act as you seem If you be God's Children run weeping after your Father cry after him and say Be not a terrour to me Yea why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Lord art not thou in the midst of us We are called by thy Name leave us not Jer. 14.8 9. Be not thou far from me O Lord for trouble is near for there is none to help Oh! where is that antient serious Spirit of lamenting after the Lord Where are those genuine workings of Child-like bowels after such a Father What 's become of that sighing frame of heart that Spirit of Adoption that God's Children of old were indued with It 's well if new Notions do not drive out that old Spirit of lamentation Shew you are Saints by this as those few declared themselves Saul's faithful Souldiers whose hearts God had toucht following him trembling or trembling after him So Hos 11. v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roar like a Lion when he shall roar then the Children shall tremble from the West Observe it God's roaring in terrible threatnings or executions drives not God's Children from him but to him only they come trembling appealing from God to God from an avenging Justice offended to tender Mercies through the Merits of Jesus Learn this Mystery an Christian Property 4. This is no controverted Point but a granted duty on all hands I am persuading to Who dare contradict it Yea who dare dispute it What exceptions can any bring against this of lamenting after the Lord I challenge any Caviller to produce any shew of reason against either branch of it either as to the Ordinances of God or God in his Ordinances I think all Parties are agreed in the Theory Oh that all were also agreed in the practice of this duty whatever disputes men make about other Rules or Canons of practice methinks there should be none about this Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. Whence I discern 1. That it 's a vain praeposterous thing for persons to spend time in disputing about abstruse and dark Points while they neglect momentous and palpable duties 2. The only way to get Unity in less material Truths or Duties is conscientious practice of what is necessary and indubitable I may truly say that nothing is more likely to make us cordial Friends than the practice of the Duty in my Text when Judah Israel fall a weeping and seeking the Lord then they go together How amicable doth converting grace make those that were at deadly and desperate feud for Repentance turns the hearts of Parents and Children to each other Alas till our faces be set towards the Lord our backs will be on each other and we shall rush with fury one against another But if we agree in this best act and object
have not your Souls grown lean and ready to famish in other wayes Have you not in all this time discerned some difference betwixt the pure and wholsom waters of the Sanctuary and the impure puddle-water of mens Traditions Yea have you not to your cost discerned some difference by your dear-bought experience betwixt the powerful Ordinances and the very same or like thereto formally heartlesly lifelesly carryed on Tell me deal ingenuously and candidly in the case Have not your Souls been ready to pine for want of provision Yea have you not been tempted to loath some dishes handed to you by blind or Slovenly Cooks Have you not been in danger to be rockt asleep by such Truths as should have awakt you and would if faithfully mannaged Have you not been forced to eat that which some have trodden under their feet and to drink that which some men have fouled with their feet Alas Sirs Whatever others have have not you some reason to lament with holy David Oh God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Oh my Lord time hath been that my Soul hath been satisfyed as with marrow and fatness and my doubts resolved graces quickened lusts discovered weakened in thine Ordinances so that I could truely say in my own experience God was in them of a truth But alas for this long time matters have been otherwise I have attended as I judged in obedience to thy command and have sometimes met with aiery notions or sapless stuff or mixture of errours or such complementing with God in a dry formality that methinks my soul is dryed with this light food I have reason to lay the blame upon my self and charge my own unprofitable heart as the proper cause but Oh my Lord I long for an heart-Searching state-distinguishing sinrebuking word Oh when shall my Soul injoy heart-melting Ordinances Thou that adaptest means to the end and dost use to work conversion consolation confirmation by most proper probable instruments give suitable means of grace and grace by the means Oh Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy Let all thy Children say Amen 3. You that are young of the rising Generation that are coming up and coming on in the rooms of your Ancestors it becomes you to lament after the Lord and his Ark be it known to you that your Predecessors Piety will not be your Sanctuary or Security You may please your selves with being the Children of the Church but think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father for God is not bound to you you may be Children of the Devil and may be cast into Hell under that title No no you must have a Faith of your own a personal as well as a foederal relation to God It 's disputed at what Age Children are to stand on their own leggs for personal Faith at five or seven or ten or twelve to be sure at years of discretion when they can discern betwixt good and evil they are to chuse for themselves and are not to stand upon heir Parents bottom any longer however they may improve their Parents Covenant But oh you young persons begin betimes to cry after your Father God loves to be followed as with the Hosanna's once so with the small voice and to be held with the little hands of young Children Try what you can do with him say not you need him not you cannot set up without him you cannot live safely without him and I am sure you are undone if you die without relation to him and you may die young Oh then make sure of God you are cast upon him from the womb say to him Thou art my God from my Mothers belly so shall you be a seed to serve him and shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation What an advantage will it be when your Father and Mother forsake you by unkindness or death if you have a God to take you up If God hath been your trust from your youth he will not cast you off in old Age But if you run away from God all your younger daies with what confidence can you lament after him in old Age May he not say Go to the gods and lusts which you have served gratified you come but to me for a reserve with self-ends and because you can follow your sensual pleasures no longer I should never have had your company if you had been capable still to have made as good a bargain of the World as you are wont You followed your lusts with a young and swift foot but me you can but follow with a slow Snails-pace a little of this lamenting more early had been more acceptable It 's an hard venture if you now go laughing in the Devil's ways whether you 'l be cordial in lamenting after God in Old Age and so whether the Lord will entertain you And as you would enjoy God lament after the Ordinances of God Thy Testimonies saith David have I taken as an heritage for ever O blessed Heritage Oh precious Patrimony beg it plead it be not content without it Whatever other Inheritance you have say Lord mine Ears have heard our Fathers have told us what work thou didst in their daies in the times of Old What Providences were produced to settle Ordinances What excellent powerful heart-warming Preaching they had how God wrought wonders on Consciences by his Word and Spirit what pure Worship they had Communion of Saints wholsom Discipline and what sweet intercourse with thy self in all now Lord thou hast threatned in part executed this Spiritual Plague of the Famine of thy Word obstructing and obscuring Ordinances and thy hand is still upon us thy end is not attained Papists threaten to darken our Heaven and totally to put out our Lights and thy self seems to menace the removing of the Candlestick stop O Lord execute not thy whole displeasure Alas shall we be that cursed Generation that must again be involved in worse than Aegyptian darkness Alas who shall live when God doth this God forbid that we should out-live this bright Sun-shine of the Gospel that we should not be Heirs of our Fathers spiritual Priviledges as well as earthly Patrimonies Oh! when these are lost we must sadly sigh and say What have our Forefathers been doing that they have deprived us of the Means of our Souls good Must they and we meet in Hell they for non-improvement we for non-enjoyment Woe is us cursed Children of cursed Parents Lord if we have not peace or plenty let us have the Gospel of Peace and true Piety the Gospel of Grace and Grace by the Gospel and then we shall say The Lines are fallen to us
the Priest a kindness to find him work by new sinning to get pardons Yea some think strange at others that they are not as bad as themselves And is not this matter of lamenmentation to see the Earth thus for saken by a righteous God and possessed by so many Bears Lions Tygers and Goats that men are grown Wolves yea Devils to each other Is it not time to lament after that God that gives up men to such profligate and prodigious courses as hasten their own damnation and England's desolation Is it not time to seek God till he come and Rain Righteousness upon us Hos 10.12 2. Is not converting grace much withdrawn from the Ordinances of God And doth not this call sensible Souls to lament after the Lord Time hath been that our Lord hath mounted his white Horse and hath bent his Bow and shot his Arrows of Conviction and made them sharp in the hearts of the King's Enemies and caused people to fall under him going forth conquering hath had his Crown set upon his head by the Daughters of Jerusalem But alas now the Church hath a miscarrying Womb and dry Breasts Ministers cry out Who hath believed our Report I have laboured in vain God doth not go forth with his Word as formerly The Apostles were Fishers inclosed many at a draught present Ministers Hunters shout and run all day and catch but one or two and well too It 's worth a whole lifes pains Though it cannot be denied God's despised Servants have now and then seals of their Ministry to God's glory their incouragement and the stopping of the mouths of slanderers Jerusalem is built even in troublesom times The Gospel is not bound though Ministers be Men civilly dead may convey spiritual life God hath not left his Servants without some Testimonies in the Consciences and Conversations of their Hearers that God is in his Ordinances of a truth But alas how few gleanings hath our dear Lord compared with the full Vintage Satan gets among men We take these first fruits thankfully till the full Harvest come Let Ministers and People lament after the Lord that he would fill his House with glory hasten the day of his Power to make People chearful Volunteers in the Lord's Warfare Oh that more might knock at our doors with a What must I do to be saved Where is the Lord God of Elijah Lord cloath thine Ordinances with thy Power When shall Aaron's Rod bring forth ripe Almonds Lord let the Children of the Covenant own the God of their Fathers and be sprinkled with Covenant grace Lord break up that blessed Writ of Electing Love in converting grace Let Sermons be seconded with power Make thy Word the Arms of God unto Salvation 3. Doth not God much withdraw from the Societies of his Servants Is there to be sound that entireness singleness faithfulness amongst God's People to each other as in former daies Is there not much pride worldliness decay of love to God abating spiritual zeal for God such as was in the daies of old Alas we have reason to think the Spirit of Prayer is much withdrawn that close walking that distance from appearances of sin that entireness for God that endearedness and usefulness of Christians amongst themselves as is wont to be Yea hath not God seemed to take Peace from the Earth Is not Manasseâ— against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and they together against Judah Papists against Protestants and Protestants against Papists and they together against zealous Worshippers and exact walkers according to pure and Primitive Institutions Are not some Members of the same Church that desire to keep close to the Rule rendred black while the Sun hath looked upon them with some malignant aspects and reflections of displeasure Yea even the same Mothers Children are angry with them Yea their own Shepherds pity them not Nay some Watchmen are so rigid and censorious that they find them out wound them take away their vail from them expose the Members of the same Church as if they were factious traiterous or heretical and will hold no communion with them that have much charity for them and pursue them with intreaties to beg their consent to walk with them towards Heaven and joyn in God's work for winning of Souls and alas they brow-beat them and seem to deny them liberty to worship the same God own the same Bible or partake of the same common Saviour If this be not for a lamentation what is Methinks some deal with their Brethren as Saul's Courtiers with honest David 1 Sam. 26.19 They have driven me out this day from abiding in the Inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other gods Or as it is Ezek. 11.15 Son of Man thy Brethren even thy Brethren the men of thy kinred all the house of Israel wholly are they unto whom the Inhabitants of Jerusalem have said Get ye far from the Lord unto us is this Land given in possession Monopolies are dangerous in Spirituals What envy hath excluding others begot in these cases Lamentable is the Story here in England of the haughty carriage of Austin the Monk and petulant behaviour of the Brittish Bishops who neglected to joyn with the other upon private animosities to Preach the Gospel to the Idolatrous Saxons Austin predicted and menaced that if they would not have Peace with their Brethren they should have Wars with their Enemies Shortly after Ethelbert King of Northumberland being a Pagan went with a great Army against the City of Chester whether animated by Austin God knows overcame the Brittans slew eleven hundred Monks i.e. persons religiously devoted to God for praying for the Brittans only fifty escaped with Brockmail Mayor of Chester A Spirit of Aemulation in so good a work hath alwaies bad Effects and Pride hath dreadful consequences Church-Divisions are much to be lamented and very rarely issue without Civil Dissentions For the Divisions of Reuben there ought to be sad searchings and heavy thoughts of heart Lord when shall Conscience-racking Oaths be broken How long shall intangling Orders for decency rend the bowels of thy Church When shall Subscription to Christ's Laws suffice It 's sure a matter of lamentation that the Devil casts the Bone among Professing Christians and they snarl at each other about it How long shall the pride and wrath of men make and blow up that spark into a flame that Satan the great make-bait casts among them When will men see the hand of Joab is in all this and discern at last that among all these contending Clients none is gainer but that common Barreter Lord open mens Eyes heal our bleeding wounds and bring back that antient Christian Spirit of Love and Peace Charity Humility 4. Once more Is there no cause for Gods Children to lament after the Lord for his return to their Spirits Is not God much withdrawn from the hearts of his People If a Child of God say
through the corruption of mens hearts it stirs up opposition occasionally 2. But the chief blessings are spiritual as Conversion of the Soul to God Regeneration effectual Vocation so that it may oft be said as of Zion This and that man was born there Psal 87.5 So also increase of grace 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass this broader Glass of Ordinances and the secret Glass of private Duties the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory i. e. from grace to grace as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides Ordinances discover and help to cure those foul spots that are in the face of the Soul Jam. 1.23 24. Sanctuarydiscoveries resolve many intricate cases in the providences of God See Psal 73. v. 17. Here also the hearts of God's People may be abundantly satisfied Psal 36.8 for here 's goodness from God to do it Psal 65.4 Ordinances are Canales gratiae Channels through which Divine Grace and Influences flow to Souls Zech. 4.12 These display Christ open Gospel-priviledges Promises Terms of Salvation are as the gate of Heaven well then may and must the observant believing Soul lament after both the Ordinances of God and God in his Ordinances 4. Head is an Objection which may be framed against all I have said You 'l say What 's all this Canting for How doth it concern us Have we not publick Ordinances Doth not the Gospel flourish Is there not excellent Preaching in Publick Places The generality have no reason to complain since we have Christian Magistrates a glorious Church Learned Preachers nay others that pretend Tenderness of Conscience these do complain before they are hurt Have they not their Separate Meetings in a Publick way without disturbance Little reason have any to make this ado in lamenting What cause have you to lament I answer as Cleophas Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem in England and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days If you ask what things Do I need to inform you or rub up your memories by telling you that twenty years ago two thousand Ministers then found in peaceable possession of their publick places were dispossessed and ejected by the Act of Uniformity commencing Aug. 24. 1662. and shortly after 1665. were prohibited meeting together above four for Religious Worship and another Act prohibited them from coming or being within 5 miles of any such place where they had preached or a Corporation and were severely menaced and punished by a Second Act against Conventicles with Sharper penalties and though the Kings Majesty set them at liberty for a season yet that was quickly retracted and many could have little benefit by it and whether the silencing of Ministers be not an obstructing of the Gospel and of Ordinances judge you and if you say you are not concerned in this case I shall not speak to you but turn my discourse to others Only I shall briefly propound some Questions 1. About the Ordinances of God 2. The God of Ordinances and leave it to you to judge whether there be not some cause to lament after the Lord. 1. Are all congregations supplyed with able faithful Ministers God forbid I should condemn all or censure any blessed be God there are some gracious men in publick station whose main design is to win Souls to God but Oh how small is their Number I would rather you read an account of this in Ichabod or five groans of the Church writ by a conformable Minister A. Dom. 1663. lamenting 3000 raw young heads that teach before they have learned 1500 debauched Ministers many factious men some illiterate trades-men Simonists Pluralists and Non-Residents particularly described God knows whether these things be true but it 's well if many have not cause to complain as our Lord Matth. 9.36 Who when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no Shepherd you know what follows If all publick places were well supplyed there would be less need of us If there were no need we should be glad of a Supersedeas 2. Yet is there not work enough for all the Ministers in England if all were faithful conscientious and set themselves seriouslly to the work of God Oh how many thousand ignorant Souls to be instructed Obstinate to be admonished careless to be quickened weak to be strengthned wandring to be reduced surely they that know any thing of the worth of Souls of the work of the Ministry and of the importance of eternity cannot but bitterly lament that so little is done for saving of sinners and that there are so few to lay out themselves or that do actually or effectually the work of faithful Pastors for the conviction and edification of sinners Souls If every Minister in England were gracious and had an hundred persons under his cure and charge he would find it as difficult to manage as a Physician dealing with so many patients under several diseases hic labor hoc opus 3. Is not the liberty that some take in their dispensing Ordinances under many disadvantages Are they not subject to fines confiscations imprisonments banishments censures and all have not equal opportunity of feeding Christs flock where there is as much necessity What liberty is taken it 's but stoln and upon courtesie still they are exposed to the rage of malevolent spirits and under the lash of the Law and censures of being undiscreet Zealots that adventure further than their more prudent Brethren yet still the Candle is under a bushel and they that need it the most have least share in it and are glad they are out of the sound of it and are furnished with stones enow even from present constitutions to cast at such as would disturb them in their career of sin and posting to Hell and they whose Eyes are opened to see the blind running into a Pit cannot but lament that their hands are so bound that they cannot stop them 4. Are there not sad symptoms upon us of a departing Gospel It would not now be seasonable to enumerate the Prognosticks of God's taking away his Ark and Ordinances Mr. Jurnal speaking of the unkind welcom the Gospel hath found among us addeth Oh what will God do with this degenerate Age we live in O England England I fear some sad Judgment or other bodes thee If such glad Tidings as the Gospel brings be rejected sad news cannot be far off I cannot think of less than a departing Gospel God never made such a settlement of his Gospel amongst any People but he could remove it from them He comes but upon liking and will he stay where he is not welcom who will that hath elsewhere to go Read the rest Two words on this observe 1. Have there not been great Attempts made to quench the Light amongst us
Oh what a Combination is there at home and abroad of Papists and Atheists to rout out the Name of Israel and to banish the God of Israel and cause him to cease from amongst us Oh what crafty Councels and potent Confederates animated with devilish hatred may we espy in this our Native Country Antichrist makes many furious Assaults with a Design to kill the poor Witnesses after they have been Prophesying in Sackcloth Rev. 11.3 7. Yea among our selves Is there not some that are indifferent whether the Ark or Mass Gospel-preaching or dumb Idols take place Yea some say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of his waies Men are scorched with the glorious Rayes of the Gospel-Sun and blaspheme God rather than kindly melted by its warm and benign Influences How many Ahabs hate Micaiah's or Felix's at best that adjourn the Court of Conscience and Plain-Preaching Or Gadarens that prefer their Swine-Sty to God's Sanctuary and desire blessed Jesus to depart out of our Coasts God's Ark is a troublesom Guest to graceless Philistins Some that received not the Truth in love are in danger to be given up to Popish Delusions and the mixt multitude that fell a lusting or longing for the Onions of Aegypt If the Gospel may be sinned away surely it is in hazard now to depart If prodigious lusts daring Heaven unfruitfulness decay of Zeal loss of first Love carnal confidence of Priviledges and contempt of the Power of Godliness neutrality empty Formality have robbed People of this Pearl surely without a prerogative add of mercy we cannot keep it long 2. Where are the Souls that stir up themselves to take hold of a withdrawing God Some I hope there are that stand in the gap but oh how few and how faintly Where is there a Moses to hold up his hands a Joshua to fall at God's feet a Phinehas to execute Justice God sees that there is no man and may wonder that there is no Intercessor Strange That there should be none to guide her among all the Sons she hath brought forth What! none to take her by the hand of all the Sons that she hath brought up What! Is there no Rod strong enough for bearing such a weight Well this is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But may not the Innocent deliver the Island May not the poor wise man deliver the City Are not Saints Prayers effectual Ans Yes But where are they The old Stock is worn out and few new ones come in for a supply Strong Torrents are carried by the dead Sea into the Ocean of Eternity and new Springs are yet rare and faint Where shall we find Elijah's Spirit doubled on succeeding Elisha Though a Kingdom may have much Treasure in it yet if Trade cease no Bullion or Merchandise be imported it will decay because it spends upon the old Stock This is our case old Saints are worn away few Converts fit to plead with God come in their room And this is the Devils design to wear out the Saints of the most High and extirpate the genuine Seed of Jacob. But alas By whom shall Jacob arise for he is small His face waxeth pale having of late lost so much good blood And doth not our Lord sometimes withdraw the Spirit of Prayer which is an interpretative saying Pray not for this People Doth not stupidity and sleepiness seize on the Disciples even when Jesus is in his Agony Doth not this bode evil Is there not in them even in them sins enow to weaken and evacuate their own Prayers Alas What Divisions what Decaies Deadness Unprositableness The Old Puritan-Spirit is gone we are wofully degenerated Professors are grown like the world How unlike are we to Primitive Saints Abraham is ignorant of us Israel would not acknowledge us for their genuine Seed But may we not think our disease is grown so stubborn and inveterate that no Doses will conquer the Disease though ultimi conatus these hard struglings of Nature may maintain Life for a season Judgments have been prorogued upon the Vine-dressers interposing importunity three years longer but beware the forth God's Patience hath bounds his Spirit will not alwaies strive We look like a people ripe for ruine However Noah Dantel and Job may deliver their own Souls though none besides by their righteousness God can make those few Names in Sardis to walk in white though he come against her as a Thief and leave her in Aegyptian darkness He can find harbour for his Children though he pull down the house upon the heads of formal Hypocrites And if there be not cause of lamenting after the Ark when its removal is feared to be sure men will see cause to lament when this evil is felt The Anger of the Lord shall not return until he hath executed and till he hath performed the thoughts of his heart In the latter daies ye shall consider it perfectly Jer. 23. v. 20. 2. Is not the God of Ordinances much removed from amongst us And is not he worth lamenting after God makes gradual removes It 's true sometimes the Sun sets at noon-day yet ordinarily the Sun leaves the Horizon by sensible declinings The glory of the Lord goes up from the Cherub to the Threshold of the house thence to the middle of the City thence to the Mountain I shall briefly mention four Removes which our Lord hath taken from us By way of Query 1. Is not restraining grace much gone from amongst us Some persons in former times were wont to be civil orderly and in many things conformable to the letter of the Word but now God hath cast the Reins in their necks and they get the Bit of Conscience betwixt the teeth of sensual affections and obstinate sinning and there 's no hoe with them they run mad in their own waies petty Oaths of Mass or Troth are commence to Dam me and full mouth'd blasphemies tippling to down-drive Drunkenness and open reeling wanton dalliances to defended Adulteries squibbing Strictness to open persecution of all that looks like seriousness from questioning Divine Providence men advance to avowed Atheism and open defiance of Heaven Some men are given up to such sins as are not fit to be named and which themselves formerly would have blusht at the mention of and if any had predicted their committing them would have said as Hazael Is thy Servant a Dog Sinners that used to walk under a Vail or Mask now go bare-fac'd and men glory in their shame Many abhor Sobriety Justice Temperance We overpass the deeds of the wicked the Moral Heathens would be ashamed of us Men work all uncleanness with greediness Yea if they court God in a few formal Prayers they think they are delivered to do all these abominations as though they had got a Popish Indulgence and Dispensation to sin As Breerwood in his Enquiries tells us The common people think they do
as Sampson I will go out as at other times before and shake my self But he wisteth not that the Lord is departed from him When he reflects on himself and finds it so will he not see sad cause to lament And have not some Godly Souls cause to say as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us And where be all his miracles which our Fathers told us of But now the Lord hath forsaken us 1. In point of quickening exciting and actuating their graces May not that sad complaint be taken up Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee For thou hast hid thy face from us hast consumed Heb. melted us because of our iniquities Where is that flaming love that working faith Gospel-repentance that lively hope that filial fear that spirit of adoption that found mind tender conscience and working affections as in former days It 's much to be feared there 's a general decay of grace or damp in point of exercise on the Spirits of living Christians it 's well if the Bridgroom find not even the wise Virgins asleep 2. As to strength and assistance against the assaults of temptation and out-breakings of corruption many Thorns in the flesh Messengers of Satan do too prevalently push forwards Gods Children to sin and they find not his grace sufficient for them as sometimes but stumble and fall and are broken snared and taken Yea sometimes to the breaking of their bones dishonouring of God scandal of their profession and endangering of their precious Souls Oh let not such things be told in Gath or published in Askelon lest the uncircumcised Philistins triumph over Gods People and be hardened in their sinful ways Alas where shall Gods tender Spirited Children hide their faces when their brethren prophane Gods holy Name and men shall say These are the People of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36.20 These are your Praecisians and scrupulous Zealots that will not do as others now they shew that they are a pack of Hypocrites This cuts deep and wounds to the heart 3. As to communion with God Gods People of old could assert it with a truely however carnal men scorn it now 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not only in that secret essential fundamental communion whereby grace is maintained in its being and life but that sweet sensible Soul-refreshing fellowship that gives grace its activity maintains intercourse betwixt God and the Soul in duty But alas have not Gods Children cause to complain as the Church that God withdraws himself She seeks him but finds him not in publick Ordinances in secret Duties in communion of Saints Gods Children complain with Job chap. 23.8 9. Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him c. He looks East West North South but in vain This is strange that God who is every where should be found no where but though the Child of God be aware of Gods general Omnipresence and feel his common Providence yet is not satisfied without his special presence and gracious influence And missing this he hath reason to lament after the Lord when he hides himself 4. As to assurance settlement and comfort sometimes Gods Children are left to a sad unsatisfyed and doubting frame full of fears troubles jealousies are much in the dark in point of state this is a very general complaint at this day Many have blurred their evidences by sins or carelesness and cannot give any distinct account how their principles are stated what condition their Souls are in are damped and daunted as to their interest in Christ title to the promises hopes of Heaven Have not these great cause to lament after the Lord And surely these must say as David Psal 51.8 12. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit O my God! My Soul is cast down within me one while I argue with my own heart communing expostulating challenging charging my Spirit and alas I can do no good with it other whiles turning me to God but still I am restless cannot be quiet but am tossed with tempests and not comforted Well I am determined to look towards Gods holy temple and cast my self at Gods feet in the vertue of that promise Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth Thus much for the Doctrinal part and the clearing of an objection All the Application I shall make of this point shall only be of Exhortation to put us all upon this so seasonable and needful a duty of lamenting after the Lord the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of the Ark. In prosecuting this I shall do these four things 1. Propound some Motives and Arguments to press this duty upon our Spirits 2. Discover what sort of Persons are concerned thus to lament after the Lord. 3. Lay before you some Helps to carry on this work of serious lamenting 4. Propound some Cordials to incourage our hearts till we overtake the Lord. 1. For Motives to persuade prevail with our hearts to practice this duty once at last and indeed it 's a very sad consideration that this People of Israel were twenty years before they began to feel their feet or come to themselves This shall be the First Argument That a professing People may lye long under dreadful Spiritual judgments without a sensible Spirit It was so with them here it 's well if it be not so with us And this sensless frame is greater evil than any other judgments Qu. But how comes it to pass that men may be so long senseless and not lament after the Lord all this while Ans 1. From the nature of sin sin is of an hardening stupifying brutifying nature when men fall into sin their hearts are hardened by it Heb. 3.13 Sin is of a cold congealing nature it freezeth the Soul rocketh conscience asleep and like the Fish Torpedo that diffuseth its benumming poison through the hand arm and creeping at last to his heart kills him so doth sin It 's not to tell how David's sin rockt him asleep and led him on to other sins till it indangered his Soul's sleeping the sleep of death 2. From the worldly enjoyments men have in room of Ordinances as the Captives in Babylon being well settled in their conveniences forget God's Appointments and Jerusalem comes not into their mind while their enjoyments afford contentment Yea though some returned they can sleep quietly in their Cieled houses while the House of God lies waste Hag. 1.4 God's Ark
we shall agree amongst our selves Lamenting together would clear up our eye-sight and beget an harmony of hearts 5. Other persons in all other cases do lament after the Objects that their hearts are set upon David followed his dead Friend Abner with sorrow and bitterly lamented his dead Son Absalom The Companions of Jephthah's Daughter yearly lamented her Yea David much lamented Saul though his Enemy while living and his sworn Brother Jonathan Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day Yea they made them an Ordinance in Israel 2 Chron. 35.25 And which of you are so hard-hearted but you would lament a dead Friend or Brother Sister Wife Child Parent And canst thou not find in thy heart to spend some sad thoughts on thy departing Lord or follow the sad Hearse of deceased Ordinances Ah carnal hearts Ah hard hearts Wo be to stupid wretches Shall a poor Idolatrous Micah cry out after his Teraphim And shall we let the only true God go with silence and dry eyes Is not our God worth lamenting after Will even careless women lament at last for the teats for the pleasant fields for the fruitful vine And shall not Gods Children lament for those full breasts of Gospel ordinances Shall not Children cry and long for the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby If you were sensible you would cry out my Father a little bread to an hungry Soul my Mother let me suck those breasts of consolation I am pining languishing famishing to death let me be nourished to eternal life 6. If we lament not after the Lord and his Ark he will go yet further from us if not totally leave us There was never such symptoms of Gods taking away the Candlestick and leaving us to the Idolatry and Cruelties of Popery in this Kingdom since the Reformation as there is at this day horrible Abominations and Atheism preparing for it our ingratitude for prevention thus long the general Antipathy to a Sound Ministry a Spirit of giddiness to entertain the most senseless fopperies a mincing some grosser Popish doctrines by pretended Protestants humane Inventions coyned in darkest times of Popery retained Courts Fees Officers Ceremonies Popish names places Customs defended Want of Sympathy with our suffering brethren abroad in that kind attempts for Reformation not succeeding opposed Instruments reserved prepared for Scourges denying plots as clear as the Sun Preferring Popish Tyranny before Christs Government most debauchery in some that should be best Popish Emissaries swarming Popish Families increasing Honest Ministers much laying aside Weapons Antidotes fearlesness in many unpreparedness of all for such a dispensation impressions on many of Changes Freedom of Ordinances to lay in for a storm unprincipled professors must pass an Ordeal-Tryal judgment beginning at God's house Choyce stakes taken out of the hedg transplanted to Heaven Witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth must be slain the Whore must sit as a Queen and see no loss of Children Antichrist must render himself more cruel and odious to stir up Kings hearts against the Church indifferency of great potentates in the cause of Religion Policy for outward security the compass that most stear by Christ's interest is low in Protestant Countries God's laying them under severe rebuke by his immediate hand Little notice taken of providences no publick fastings and humiliations former guilt of blood unwiped off Such things as these speak black showrs of Popish darkness and barbarous showrs of blood God almighty prevent But certainly these things call for bitter lamenting after the Lord either to prevent them or prepare our hearts for them or both I shall add 7. There is no way to bring our Lord or his Ark back to us but this course of lamenting after him God hath withdrawn himself purposely to make us follow him mourning And he seems to stand still and hearken what we do in this case Jer. 8.6 I hearkened and heard saith God but they spake not aright What was that certainly repenting of their sins lamenting inquiries after God And Jer. 31.18 19. If God can but hear persons bemoan themselves follow God desire the Lord to turn them and turn to them see what kind language he gives them ver 20. Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. God doth carry in this case as a loving Father being provoked to Whip or leave his offending Child looks back on his sobbing broken-hearted lamenting Child saying Alas my Child what ails thee What 's the matter with thee What wantest thou Dost thou want an heart to repent friendship with me Dost thou lament so sadly after reconciliation with me and return to thee I am glad of it that was all I aimed at I have attained mine end come come thou art welcome to me come my dear my lovely Child let me wipe thy blubbered cheeks and kiss thee again I am glad my rod and anger work so kindly I will return to thee with love and sweetest embraces Thus doth our Lord return with loving kindness and mercies and they shall be as if he had not cast them off There 's no way probable or possible to bring God or his Ark back but this and shall we not take this course It 's true its a doubtfull and dangerous case we are not certain he will return but yet there 's a May-be a who can tell in it We are sure running from him and sinning against him with an hard-heart will undoubtedly rob us of him and ruine us but we have lost more labour to less purpose therefore let us turn to the Lord with all our heart with fasting with weeping with mourning c. Joel 2.12 13. and then say as Gods directs them v. 14. Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord our God Oh how well doth God take such a carriage How willing is he to return back to us Only he expects we should be sensible of his withdrawing and bitterly lament after him 8. If we do not lay to heart the loss of God's Presence and Ordinances God will make us to lament upon other accounts If he design us good he will pinch us till we feel and cry out if not we shall be left to lament hopeless and helpless in Hell torments If we will not lay to heart spiritual Judgments God threatens to send a Curse upon us and to curse our blessings Mal. 2.2 How why if men prize not their Temple Priviledges God can blast the fruits of the Earth Hag. 1.9 We looked for much and loe it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it or blow it away why saith the Lord of Hosts because of mine house that is
Gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Hos 14.3 These are the Duties implied in the Text spread before you required of us all in this World work of lamenting after the Lord. But to help our hearts to and in the due performance of these required Duties I shall propound some qualifications as so many Directions to carry on this work successfully 1. See to your State and Principles except you be related to God you 'l not lament after him nor be much concern'd about him or his Ark whether going or coming Relation is the foundation of Affection A Child will cry after his own Father Now God is not our Father since the Fall till Regeneration make a real and Adoption a relative change of our State and when we have received the Spirit of Adoption then never till then shall we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 They only will cry after God that love him fear him honour him as a Father with a filial Affection and they only shall be entertained by him as for others he owns their out-crys no more than the howlings of a Dog Oh therefore examine your State God-wards Hath Converting Grace under Ordinances changed your hearts Hath the Spirit awakened your Consciences convinced you of your undone State by Nature transformed you by the renewing of your Minds translated you out of darkness into light deal faithfully with your Souls in this case you come into the World with your backs turned upon God and you will never lament after him without a turn Yea naturally there 's an enmity and antipathy in our hearts to God and his waies Hath God crushed and conquered that and planted right Principles in you to incline you to him if yet you find not a Divine Nature a new Nature begot in you flatter not your selves you will rather run farther from him than lament after him Let your Souls be chiefly concerned for this first then for the rest Union precedes Communion A real Title is antecedent to laying Claim A Principle of Grace is before an actual exercise of it There must be life before there can be any desire of or nutrition by food I have no hopes of prevailing with graceless Souls to lament after God till they have life and breath voice and lungs except formally for company or for carnal ends which is insignificant Oh for grace truth of grace a reality of interest in Christ and all the Priviledges he hath purchased 2. Inform your selves throughly of the terms we stand in with God Consider how the Lord carries towards us as to our particular Souls and the Nation in general We shall never lament after him till we see him withdrawn Ignorance of the State of things with us keeps Persons in senslesness What the Eye of body or mind sees not is never laid to heart Make some collections and constructions of things at this day Yea make comparisons betwixt former and present Times What think you Hath not God manifested himself more in his Providences for us than of late Have we not reason to take up the Church's complaint in Psal 44.1 9. or to expostulate as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us and where be all his Miracles which our Fathers told us of I have told you how much restraining grace is withdrawn from many how rare Conversion is by Ordinances how much God hath withdrawn both from the Societies and Spirits of his Servants I shall not trouble you with repetitions look over these things compare them with what you see and observe and if you find the Lord as formerly be thankful if otherwise be humbled and lament after him It 's to be feared that if you be observant discerning Christians you 'l yet find out more than hitherto hath been mentioned both demonstrations of God's remove and Prognosticks of future removes The most excellent and eminent Servants of God pluckt away by death from amongst us and God saith They are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 The Spirit of Giddiness Atheism and Idolatry spreading at a strange rate beyond all parallel Other things I might mention but I leave them to your inquiry Only there 's one Text methinks is astonishing Zech. 11.8 Three Shepherds also I cut off in one month and my Soul loathed them and their Soul also abhorred me It 's one of the saddest words in all the Bible Whether they were good or bad Shepherds that were cut off it 's dreadful that it hath no better effect than mutual abhorrency Oh that this were not our case We lie under woful fruits of God's loathing us and it 's well if men do not loath him A Spirit of opposition to Godliness is the sad fruit of Divine dereliction which produceth greater Spiritual and Temporal Plagues Hence he adds v. 9. Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another They shall have no Gospel-Pastors to feed their Souls that 's a Spiritual Plague which fell on the Jews for rejecting Christ They shall devour one another with cursed rage and malice as in seditions conspiracies or in their necessity of food by the terrible Famine Thus the Jews were destroyed in Jerusalem's miserable Ruin The like Prognosticks are upon us Lord prevent the fame effects and awake our hearts to use God's appointed Means for prevention 3. Make diligent inquiry into the Reason of our present and approaching calamities Is there not a cause Surely affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Sin is the Mother and Nurse of sorrow Is not God bringing our iniquities upon us Doth not our own wickedness correct us and our backsliding reprove us Doth not this Rod say Thy ways and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart or Soul Jer. 4.18 Let Ministers and People lay their hand on their heart and search our Consciences Conversations Is it not I that shut out Ministers as the good Woman said I broke my Ministers Leg My pride unteachableness unprofitablebleness formality neglect of duty censurings and uncharitableness sensuality worldliness hypocrisy and lukewarmness vain glory and mindlesness of Gods glory and my Souls eternal good these these made all the excluding banishing fining imprisoning Laws that ever came out against God's Servants These chiefly have broken all assemblies scatterred meetings armed all the Officers retarded our deliverance By our sins are our enemies strong and the hands of our friends weak Alas It 's my own iniquity that hath brought us low set back a good work banisht God lift up the right hand of our enemies Nor is it the Sins of profane but professors Of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful and forgotten God that
dispositions as these you must have and act in the duty of Prayer and then you shall prevail for your selves and others This is the Third general Head 4. The last I shall briefly hint at is some Cordials which may support and bear up our hearts till our Souls overtake our dear Lord or he turn again to us in our lamentings after him 1. Lamenting Souls after the Lord are most likely to be the remnant escaping in approaching Calamities These have the Mourners mark on them and ordinarily are left Ezek. 9.4 6. and Ezek. 7.16 But they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the Mountains like Doves of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for their iniquity If Land-destroying Calamities come you are likeliest to survive and be a holy Seed for storing the Church in future times 2. You may be the Instruments to prevail with the Lord for keeping in the midst of us Yet there 's a possibility Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Joel 2. v. 14. There 's yet a may-be in it Amos 5.15 Hate the evil and love the good and establish Judgment in the Gate it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph God hath condescended to his Peoples supplications why not yours The poor wise man hath delivered the City the Innocent may deliver the Island Lot sped for Zoar Abraham for Lot yea very far for the Cities of the Plain Make a tryal and what comfort will it be to you if your lamenting Prayers turn the Scales for God's stay with us 3. However you may stay him with your own Souls Is that nothing God is as willing to be friends with us as we can be to desire it and much more Isa 27.5 Or Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me And is this nothing Oh what is God's presence worth How have David Job Heman and all the Saints prized it Do you not want it Follow on to know and own and acknowledge the Lord and you shall find his going forth is prepared as the morning and he will come to you as the Rain Hos 6.3 Your Fleece shall be wet when others are dry If you cannot obtain mercy for others yet as Noah Daniel and Job you may deliver your own Souls by your righteousness 4. Yet the Lord hath not forsaken us he is yet in the midst of us by his gracious Providences and Influences he hath been hitherto prevailed with though he threatned us to leave us and we had cause to fear Execution his Candlesticks are fixed and Candles are shining though not all in their proper Sockets but under a Bushel This is an incouraging mercy our God hath not forsaken us Yea now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a Nail in his holy Place that our God may lighten our Eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage Ezra 9.8 9. It was not our deservings that hath kept him with us no no Israel bath not been forsaken nor Judah of his God though their Land was filled with sin against the holy One of Israel Jer. 51.5 What 's the reason then that God is not quite gone See 1 Sam. 12.22 For the Lord will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People The Argument holds for us and it 's still in force blessed be God he hath not cast us off as yet and the Covenant with Ancestors still holds good as in 2 King 13.23 5. God seems to be in suspense whether he should leave us or no to draw us on in our lamentings after him just as he expresseth himself in Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zebbim strange Language spoken by the infinitely wife and immutable God As though he were puzzled and knew not what to do Surely this is spoken after the manner of men speaks God loth to punish for indeed it is his strange work q. d. the severity of my threats call on truth to make execution sed quomodo hoc à me impetrabo But how shall I prevail with my self to do it The glory of my Name free-grace and constant love to my Covenanted people get hold on my wrathful hand when ready to strike the fatal stroke the righteousness of a Judg saith strike The bowels of a Father say hold And when God thus deliberates it is to stay and see if his People will get hold of him by faith and prayer Is not this his carriage towards us in his providence certainly the Lord comes and goes as if he were loth to punish us and is not this a very great incouragement to us to lament after him Since he looks back as a Mother to her Child with a wishly eye as if he had not the power to go as if he should say call me back and you shall have me my heart is towards you though I am forced to turn my back on you you shall have me if you will lament Evangelically after me 6. You have good company in your lamenting after the Lord though there be too too many vile Atheists and debauched wretches that say to God depart from us cause the holy one to cease from the midst of us yet there are mourners in Zion that are very importunatly crying and lamenting after the Lord with all their might seeking to fetch back the Ark Though they be few comparatively and though despised and possibly hid in corners and as little taken notice of as those seven thousand in Elijah's days that had not bowed their knee to Baal but God searcheth out such clandestine worshippers that pray and complain to their Father in secret and he will reward answer them openly with what concerns more then themselves Oh! it 's good to be of the number of these hidden ones How blessed a thing is it to twist interests with this lovely Society There is a communion of Saints in prayer though unknown to each other And I can say it for your incouragement Oh ye praying mourning Souls that you are not alone God hath thousands in these Nations that have been hard at it many years and present circumstances do quicken their crys Our danger increaseth our pangs and those advance our crys be not discouraged you have many assistants A threefold cord is not easily broken God hath some Children to cry after him from all parts of the Kingdom and though many of the old stock of weeping Souls are worn out yet some wrestling young ones are planted in their room some begotten in the bonds of the Gospel for the word of God is not bound though