our Savior in like manner O Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Matt. 23. 37. Altho thou wilt endure no Envoies from me no reconciliation but against all Laws of Nations which men do observe to all men murderest all those Ambassadors that come from me thy God to treat it with thee yet how oft would I my self have sav'd thee at the approch of imminent dangers God does beseech the liberty of doing it however obstinate they are against it All the day long saith he I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gain-saying people as St Paul expresseth it Rom. 10. 21. and himself saith I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people Isaiah 65. 2. spread them out in entreaties assistances to give them help and to beg of them they would receive it We know when Moses stretched forth his hands for Israel in Praier saith the Chaldee God still heard and Israel prevail'd against their Enimies and when his hands were heavy and he weary yet while others held them up stretch'd forth to God they still prevail'd he heard still But when God spreads out his hands to them all day long as beseeching them that they would accept of his deliverances they gain-say it and continue disobedient Yea altho they make him serve thus with their sins and weary him with their iniquities as he complains by the Prophet Isaiah c. 43. 24. yet by the same Prophet he assures them therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you c. 30. 18. and if all his waiting by their obstinate perverseness be made ineffectual then he seems inconsolable In Hosea 13. 14. he tells Ephraim I would have ransom'd thee from the power of the grave I would have redeem'd thee from death from those calamities and enimies that threaten ruin and extinction to the Nation O death I would have bin thy plague O grave I would have bin thy destruction would have brought to nothing every thing that did endanger or look fatal to thee but now consolatio abscondita est ab oculis meis comfort is hidden from mine eyes and since there is no further application remedy or help for thee there is no consolation for me As indeed comfort was hid from the eyes of Christ and they were capable onely of tears he could not see Jerusalem but he wept over it Luke 19. 41 42. when once the things that did belong to the peace of that City were hid from their eyes their day being ended as he there tells them for to that it may come since this accepted time and the day of salvation being God's own chosen time and the day of his grace it is also limited by him we may outstand it may suffer this day of Salvation to pass irrecoverably the second thing I am to speak to I shall not undertake to prove 't is limited because 't is here exprest but by a day a very narrow scantling yet our Savior so bespeaks Jerusalem as if it had but that its day when he spake to them O that thou hadst known in this thy day Luke 19. 42. and St Paul bids the Hebrews c. 3. 13. exhort one another while it is called to day Yea more as if that day were limited to one point of it here 't is worded so as that now is the time now is the day as if it were onely that point of time that stabs it self that present instant which expires the same first moment that it is and yet our Savior when he had told Jerusalem of that their day as if that their day were no longer than the Apostle's now which as it now is so now perisheth even while it is so did their day for even in that their day he tells them now they are hidden from thine eyes But passing these that it is so both as to Nations and particular persons Scripture will make evident And my first instance shall be made in all the Nations of the Earth at once God limited the time of his forbearance to the whole world beyond which he resolved to be so far from using his endeavors to reclaim them as that he would suffer them no longer Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years He was so wearied by their obstinacy that he positively does determine that he would not still continue to be earnest with them struggle to reduce them since they were so stupid wholly sensual mere flesh But before he would destroy them utterly he was content to try them yet so many years and then he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly Again he tells Abraham that his Posterity however it should be afflicted many years in a strange Land yet in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Four Ages therefore they had yet allow'd them to return in and prevent their ruin but if they neglect that and go on to add sin still to sin by then the measure will be heapt and the iniquity will be full Again the Jews God's own peculiar People and Jerusalem his holy and beloved City had yet but its term Dan. 9. 24. Seventy weeks are determin'd upon thy people and upon thy holy City to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins to compleat that which shall bring full ruin on thy nation and of those weeks it should seem as if the day on which Christ weeping over them wish'd O that thou hadst known in this thy day was the last of them for he says Now they are hidden from thine eyes Once more the City Niniveh was yet more straitned Yet fourty days and Niniveh shall be destroied Jonah 3. 4. 'T is true this sentence was not executed for the mere denouncing of it gave them such a true sense of their own condition made them so consider how they had deserv'd it that the Scripture says they believed God heartily acknowledg'd it would be just dealing with them that they could expect no other Whereupon they cried out mightily to God and put themselves into a state of such humiliation as whether for the severity or the universality of it 't is possible the world hath never seen an instance like it And if he that did command all this were King Sardanapalus as most of the Learned do conclude a man whose name alone was set to signify all sensuality beyond whatever other character was the expression of it to a Proverb if he became so sensible upon one Sermon to require and practise such Mortification and Repentance it is no wonder if God would not execute his sentence upon them that so severely executed it on their sins and on themselves And truly
and cheerfully accept this punishment of their iniquity this return of their demerits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and since it is on their account namely thro their demerit that she is so low since they are sensible themselves did make her fall into the dust they cannot chuse but be more tender love and pity her the more and be more willing to do what they can to raise her up pulverem ejus evehere cupiunt In the words there is an holy confidence that God will grant the thing they long for mercy to Sion thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion 2dly A Reason of that Confidence for the time of shewing favor the appointed time for it is come 3 dy A ground for that because thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to see her in the dust In handling which I shall consider 1. The Stones of Sion and those in the dust or at least in great danger of impendent ruin 2. That tho God is not alwais minded to succor his own Sion yet he hath set appointed times for that 3. That when the Sons of Sion are affected towards her as the Text expresses then is usually Gods season for deliverance his time of mercy and of shewing favor then the appointed time for it is come and then we may take holy confidence and in full assurance of faith say Thou shalt arise First of the Stones of Sion and those in the dust Sion was we know either the City of the King where there was the seat of Judgment the thrones of the house of David Psalm 122. 5. or else it was the mountain of the Lords house and so the stones of Sion are either the stones of the seat of Judgment of the Throne in the dust or the stones of the Lords house the Sanctuary there Both these therefore might be treated of and I shall speak to both but more particularly to the later And those stones may be either taken naturally as they are the stones of a material Sanctuary or else mystically in that sense they often have in Scripture which sais we as lively stones are all built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. 1. The stones of Sion the material Sanctuary in the dust the Psalmist thought an object for so much pity that some Psalms are but the Liturgies of his pious resentments upon that occasion Psalm 74. is full herein Think upon Mount Sion where thou hast dwelt lift up thy feet that thou maist utterly destroy every Enimy which hath don evil in thy Sanctuary Thine Adversaries roar in the midst of thy Congregations and set up their banners for tokens they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers they have set fire upon thy holy Places and have defil'd the dwelling place of thy name even unto the ground yea they said in their hearts let us make havock of them all together It is not many years since this was our complaint concerning both the house of God and of the King the Church and Monarchy as if the life of one were bound up in the others life We saw Gods honor at least the place where his honor dwelt laid in the dust nor was it suffer'd to stay there the stones of Sion not allow'd to find a place for burial in that dust which is the common grave the Church it self had not a Monument nor the tombs a sepulcher but the very ruins were disquieted the rubbish troubled and the stones and dust suffer'd a deportation us'd as if men thought with them to build a Sanctuary for those Sins that demolisht them and make a Refuge for their Sacrilege 'T is true to many this seem'd no sad spectacle nor would it now to such as think any occasional room of the lowest name and usage might do as well for the uses of Gods service Strange when there was never a Religion in the world that did acknowledg any sort of God but would allot some place peculiar to his worship with them whose deities were Sicknesses the Feaver had its Temple Yea and stranger in a world that does devote set rooms to every use of nature of convenience and of pleasure the recreations have a place made for them and the meanest instruments of sport have so meals have one and feasts have another luxury hath its offices State hath many chambers antichambers and withdrawing places merely because there may be so many rooms of which there is no use for that is Pomp if God should not have one too for all uses that relate to him to meet us in with all his train of Angels and to bless us and to entertain us with the food of heaven with himself But whether men desire it so again yet so it lately was and when his table was remov'd his entertainment too was laid aside and the Sacrament become as desolate as the Altar Gods houses his mysteries too in the dust God did arise I cannot chuse but see that we have no such object of resentment now but how much farther off it is from being thus at this time and how much less apposite to our condition at this present the discourse is so much greater demonstration of what my Text affirms that when Gods honor is affronted thus and his house vilified and ruin'd then the time for favor the appointed time is come and when the stones of Sion are thrown down into the dust his Servants humbled too into the dust with sorrow and resentments then God shall arise for so he did It was so also if we look upon the Stones of Sion in their mystical and figurative sense Now altho every sincere Christian every one in whom on the foundation of a true sound faith an holy life is superstructed be not onely in St Peters words a lively stone but in St Pauls a Temple yet more properly the whole community of Christians is in Scripture represented to us as the body of a building St Peter tells them ye are built up a Spiritual house 1 Pet. 2. 5. and St Paul saith built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly fram'd together groweth up a holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built up together for an habitation of God thro the Spirit Eph. 2. 20 21 22. The ends for which 't is call'd so seem indeed more lively represented in the parallel resemblance of a natural body Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 12. and that body the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. or that of which he is the head Col. 1. 18. from which all Christians do receive their life and motion their increase and strength no otherwise then as they are united and tied by joints and nerves to one another and that head Eph. 4. 16. and have all one Spirit also 1 Cor. 12. 13. Of all which expressions as one end is to enforce such unity in the profession
people of Israel If ye do wickedly ye shall be destroyed both you and your King There are other sins besides Rebellion and Treason that murder Kings and Governments Those that support their Ills by their dependencies and use great shadows for a shelter to rapacity oppression or licences or any crying wickedness those prove Traitors to Majesty and themselves strike at the root of that under which they took covert fell that and crush themselves National vices have all Treason in them and every combination in such sins is a Conspiracy If universal practice palliate them we do not see their stain in may be think them slight but their complexion is purple Common blood is not deep enough to colour them they die themselves in that that 's sacred Nay these do seem to spread contagion to God as if they would not let the Lord be holy nor suffer that to be which he swore by his holyness should be For the Psalmist cries out Where are thy old loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David But sure some of God's Oaths will stand if not those of his kindness those will by which he swears the ruine of such sinners and God that is holy will be sanctified in judgment upon them Yea upon more then the offenders for the guilty themselves are not a sacrifice equal to such piacular ofences Innocent Majesty must bleed for them too If you do wickedly you shall be destroy'd both you and your King Thus when God would remove Judah out of his sight good Josiah must fall and the same makes them be to seek David their King But how David their King when 't was Zorobabel For with Theodoret and others I conclude he must be meant the first literal importance of the words It was the custom of most Nations from some great eminent prince to name all the Succession so at once to suggest his Excellencies to his followers and to make his glory live Now without doubt David was Heroe enough for this and his valour alone sufficient to ground the like practice upon And though we do not find that done yet we do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by which that of his Successors is meted Of one 't is said he walked in the ways of David his Father of another he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like unto David his Father And because David went aside and was upright with an Exceptation once therefore it is said The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his Father David But besides this his very name is given to two Zorobabel and the Messiah both which were to be the restorers of their people The one from Sin and Hell to re-establish the Kingdom of heaven it self the other to deliver his people from Babel and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple And for this work God bids them seek David their King The ways from Babel to Jerusalem from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty and where the throne of the house of David is must be the first ways of David In those he walk'd to Sion and did invest his people in God's promises the whole land of Canaan In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above to the celestial Jerusalem does build an universal Church and Heaven it self And all that have the like to do must walk in those first ways fulfil that part of David and must Copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be These are the ways to settle Thrones the only ways in which we may find the goodness of the Lord which to fear is the third direction and my last part They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 3. That Israel who came but now out of the furnace should fear the Lord whose wrath did kindle it whose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice and the whole Nation a burnt-offering is reasonable to expect But when his goodness had repair'd all this to require them to fear that does seem hard That that goodness which when it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties and being tasted melts the heart and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency that this should be received with dread and trembling is most strange Indeed the Psalmist says There is mercy with God that he may be feared for where there not we should grow desperate But how to fear those mercies is not easie 'T is true when God made his goodness pass fore Moses shewed him the glory of it as he says in those moâ—â— comfortable Attributes the sight of which is beatifick Vision Exod. 34. 6 c. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin if that which follows there be part of it and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third or fourth Generation if this be one ray of the glory of goodness if it dart out such beams alas 't is as devouring as the lake of fire his very goodness stabs whole successions at once and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity But if those words do mean as we translate those very words Jer. 46. 28. I will not leave thee altogether unpunish'd yet will not utterly cut off not make a full end of the guilty when I visit Iniquities upon the Children but will leave them a remnant still then there is nothing dreadful in it but those very visitations have kindness in them and his rod comforts and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it to entertain it with a pious astonishment acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it especially not daring to provoke it by surfeiting or by presuming on it or by abusing it to serve ill ends or any other than God sent it for those of piety and obedience Not to comply with which is to defeat God's kindness and the designs of it If when they sought the Lord he was found of them and came to his dwelling place only to be forc'd thence again by their abominations if when his goodness had restor'd all to them they had David their King but to conspire against an Altar onely to pollute and a Temple to separate from as Manasses the Priest Sanballat's son in-law with his accomplices did do this were both to affront and to renounce that goodness which above all things they must dread the doing For if this be offended too ruine is irreversible there is no other