Lord Jesus will see or visit us again wherefore we say unto all of you keep your hands from off the precious bread which is appointed for the mourning and heavy hearted sons and daughters of Zion for only they share with Zion in her consolations when the Lords sees her again who so loved her and mourned for her in her low condition and without the Wedding garment of repentance for these evils and a forsakeing of them together with a heart and practical sympathy with Zion in this her distress you shall never tast of this choice part of the Marriage supper and Gospel feast wherewith the fainting and trembling discouraged hearts of the people of God shall be cheared up and revived when he sees us again but we desire not altogether to leave you here and therefore we say if ye will be so wise for yout selves as to joyn your selves to Zion and from a principle of heart honesty take a share of a suffering lot with her you shall be very welcome and upon these terms we heartily invite you to come and partake of these dainties otherwayes you cannot be admitted for none can rejoyce with the people of God but they who mourn with them none can land with them upon the shore of consolation with them save they who set their face to the stormy and tempestuous waves swimming thorough the deep flouds of persecution and affliction with them But upon the other hand we do in the blessed name and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ heartily invite you to this blessed Feast of joy who are the fainting and sad hearted people of God we are not speaking to you of the great consolation wherewith your souls shall be satisfied when our Lord sees us again draw near therefore O ye discouraged sons and daughters of Zion eat of this fat and drink of this sweet for only to you doth this blessed feast belong and unto you and you only is the word of this consolation sent O rejoyce in the hope of what dancing dayes you shall have when Christ sees us again which joy shall then wreath a necessity of gladness of heart upon you as a Chain about your neck draw near therefore with all humble boldness and chearful confidence unto this feast of joy Eat O friends drink abundantly O beloved feed largely eat and drink for the time to come and journey that is before you Now for further application may not all we have said make it appear that the people of God as to their state are a most blessed people and may not all we have said be sufficient for engaging the hearts of you that are as yet strangers to the first dancings of a glorious work upon your hearts to come and joyn your selves to Zion to take a life and death with the people of God seeing they have that which may bear them up in the dâ—â—â—est afflictions and most tempestuous flâ—â—â— wherein they may be tossed But that we may draw to a close we would now speak a word unto you the people of God as to your present duty from all we have said ye see we have cleared this good ground to hope that our Lord will see you again and that ye shall have very joyfull and dancing dayes when that shall be for your hearts shall rejoyce O therefore blessed hearts be comforted in him in the hope and sure expectation of this precious day let us in the hope hereof resolve chearfully to set about those duties suitable to us in order to his seeing us again let us resolve to be faithful unto him in his absence let us resolve in the strength of him to bide by his precious truths and interests let us keep our selves free from touching the unclean thing for this will hasten his seeing us again let us do all things that tend to the good of his cause that the cause of our Lord Jesus may win the day though we should fall in the field of suffering guard against all pollutions of his Ordinances keep close by the covenant whereof ye need not be ashamed for it binds you to nothing but holiness towards God and Loyalty towards your Prince and so is the most clear â—eâ—eanly and sure Oath of Allegiance under Heaven yea 〈◊〉 the Marriage contract between God and 〈◊〉 Land so ye need think no shame of any thing in it but may cast up your face before all the World owning and avowing it before Heaven and Earth Angels and Men in a word let us set our face as flint against the storm resolving upon the greatest of hazards in the Lords strength not to yield to any thing not agreeable to the word of God when matters are violently carried on against Jesus Christ his interests and people it is the duty of all the faithful seed to set their face as flint against the storm and not to yield in a foot to any thing prest upon them contrary to his word Now 1. here is your work be faithful unto him bide by the truths of him who endured the Cross for you defile not your selves with abominations prest upon you 2. The simpathy and fellow feeling of our great high Priest who is touched with the feelings of all our trials together with the precious promises is your expence and charges whereupon you are to spend on your way 3. Christs seeing you again together with the joyful and danceing dayes ye shall then have is your incouragement O therefore up with your fainting and discouraged hearts for nothing shall keep him away from you he will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce sometimes he has even returned to these places where they had formerly sought to slay him What said his Disciples wilt thou go up to Jerusalem knowest thou not that not long ago the Jewes sought to stone thee Joh. 11. 8. Yet he went and so will he return again to us he will give us a gracious visit and our hearts shall rejoyce but many others shall look very blank at that day when he sees us again but your heart shall revive at that day O therefore comfort your fainting hearts in the hope of it that ye may go chearfully through the present distress committing the keeping of your souls unto him in the way of duty and well doing as into the hands of a faithful Creator who will make a glorious accompt of all that is committed unto him Now we have told you that our Land is a married land and that therefore he will see us again and we call God to record upon our soules that he laid a necessity of speaking this unto you and that under no less hazard then of being rejected of him never to be countenanced in his work again but to be made a weathered spectacle of his displeasure for disobedience durst we forbear to say these things unto you and we are sure it is from the Lord unto you And receiving his tender hearted Christian friends trembling which he supposing might be for fear of his danger he speaks these words What ayleth you O faithful friends in the Lord Jesus Christ and why does your faces look pale are ye affraid of the approaching storm O may not this quiet your hearts that he will carry you well through will see you again and cause your hearts rejoyce Why then are ye disconsolate are ye affraid to lose a friend for Christ and his cause O may not this satisfie your hearts as to this that it is not lost which Christ getteth it falls in a friends hand Secondly We say unto you that there is protection and security in our God in the most tempestuous and stormy day Isai 26. 2. We have a strong City what is the City there it's Gods salvation salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks where ye may see that when the Lords people have no outward protection neither walls nor bulwarks then the Lords Salvation is walls and bulwarks for their protection and shelter so that he can shelter them as within strong holds even 〈◊〉 they are amongst the greatest of snares and so may not this quiet your hearts that the Lord can protect your friends though in the midst of trouble and you have this to make up all your losses our Lord Jesus will see you again we leave you with the same soul comforting promise in your bosome that howbeit now you have sorrow because your hour is come yet he shall certainly and without all doubt see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and shall add no more â— but unto him that is able to perswade your Hearts of this That he will see you again and who can manifest the same in your joyfull experience we desire to give Praise The end of the first Sermon FINIS
fear that our dear Lord Jesus is like to goe away and leave us And beside this there hath been many other dreadful abominations committed by night and day which would make Christian ears abhor to hear or tongues relate O but this is not all will you but hear a little farther and we will tell you of a greater abomination than this though little minded or laid to heart by many and that is the turning over of this holy Book into Stage-playes What is the holy Bible but the Eternal Gods Love-letter to his Church wherein his mind is written Yet is it turned over into Stage-playes For will you but walk down to the Nether-Bow and you shall there almost every night see some part thereof turn'd over into a Stage-play is not this a horrid blasphemy Yet this is not done in a corner they openly avow the same for while they stand at the Close-head calling in Passengers they proclame their wickedness saying Walk in Gentlemen walk in and you shall see a choice piece of Art and what is this choice piece of Art You shall see Adam and Eve Cain and Abel all walking in a lively manner to see how they were created naked and then deceived by the Serpent and how Cain slew Abel Oh Oh was it not this began all our miseries and woes did not this begin all our sorrow and lamentation and shall this be turned over into a Stage-play and sport to make people laugh and be merry O that some would cause plead for their Mother that that order might be taken with such abominations These things we could not but mention being so abominable in the sight of God And may not this say that he can have little heart to stay amongst us seeing we give so little esteem of his blessed Word that you see there is ground to fear his departure and going away from amongst us Evid 4. The fourth evidence of the Lords departure which we shall name is the corrupting of his Worship and overturning the comly order of his House in a violent way the setting up a few vain self-seeking men over the Inheritance of the Lord who have on the matter renounced their Ministers as not of God And if such men be fit for ruling the house of God let the Bible and unbiassed people of God be Judge of the matter This way was never blessed of God in our land formerly as to the conversion of souls and much less is it to be now expected that he will bless the same O how unbeseeming a title would Paul have thought it for him if any had come to him and called him your Lordship or your Lordships grace and how would he have abhorred himself if he had seen Prelats Mytre upon his own head and their syd robe upon him and some bearing up his taile no ground in the Bible for this yet it is done let this neither he looked upon as matter of Laughter to strangers nor of affrightment to friends being necessity constrains us to speak of these things unto you Now may not all this give sad ground of fear that the Lord will go away and leave us seeing such abominations are set up amongst us Vse 2. Now we would in the next place desire you that are the people of God to encourage your selves in him ye see as we have cleared That the assurance of Christs return is the choice only sufficient cordial against the heart faintings of the sorrowful soules of his people at his departure O therefore make use of this Cordial against the present distress and faintings of your heart in this hour of affliction because of Christs departure this is your present condition your hearts are sorrowful because your dear Lord is now shortly to be taken from you but let this hold up your hearts He will see us again therefore we say make use of this Cordial for you that are his people have no less to hold up your fainting discoveraged hearts then his Disciples got and that is the assurance of his return he will visit our land and so see us again Object But some of the Lords affrighted trembling-hearted people will here object alas that is the great thing in question and ye have spoken so much of his going away that we can hardly think he will return to us again and besides all he hath not tyed himself to any particular Church and therefore no particular Church can apply this promise to themselves and so what ground hath Scotland to apply this promise as a present cordial Vse 2. Though we have spoken much of his going yet we have not said that he will not come again and we spoke to somethings the last day for making it appear that he will come again As first our faithful Reformers Mr. Welsh Mr. Wishart Mr. Knox Mr. Hamilton c. others asserted that how be it Christ shall be crucified in Scotland yet glorious shall his Resurrection be and may we not make use of this as a cordial against our present heart-faintings 2. There are very many precious young men Students of Divinity whom the Lord hath fitted as polished shafts for the work of the Gospel and of whom he hath never as yet made use therein and shall we think that he will now lay them by and not imploy them in his service haveing been at great pains to fit them for the same 3. A faithful service of our Lord Jesus Christ who had this testimony that he feared God did lately amongst us before many thousand witnesses at his death openly declare his confidence as to this That how be it our cloud may be long and dark yet the Lord shall shine once more with the glorious light of his Gospel upon these Lands and shall we think that the Lord would have suffered his faithful servant to have brought himself under the imputation of a deceived Prophet at his death being in so great a strait for him if he had not had a mind to fulfill his servants word in seeing us again And we say now unto you that the Lord had never more precious people in Scotland then he hath now though there be many hypocrites neither hath ever had so many faithful Ministers in a suffering time for serving in the work of the Gospel as now he hath though there be also many that are unfaithful and we must think he will not lay them altogether byas useless but rather that he hath work for them and therefore we may take this as a ground of incouragement to confirme our hope of his seeing us again Object 2 But the Lord did cast of the seven Churches of Asia when in a very flourishing condition and did never visit them again with the Gospel and why then may he not also go away from us and never return nor see us again Ans There were never such a formal marriage contract passed betwixt God and the seven Churches of Asia in their most flourishing condition as heath passed
wife which is indeed the thing they aim at for though they say it is with something in the contract they are dissatisfied as not drawn up according to their mind yet indeed it is with the marriage that they are displeased for their butt holiness whereunto the marriage contract obligeth and so the renting off their double of the contract whereunto formerly they gave their consent will not make him give up with our Land and scatter his family again Likewise it will be clear from the second Psalm That the Lord will not give up with Scotland for there you will find the present case of our Land clearly set down for there is plotting against the Lord and his anointed and it is not with the Heathens only that the Lord is expostulating but also he is reproving a people who have formerly professed service to him and that have been under bonds and tyes unto him for they say Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords away from us now if they had been Heathens then had they been under no bonds to him as they were yea the phrase is very emphatick and very significant for they say their bands implying that they would esteem Gods bands to be nothing else but the bands and cords of men that hurt them therefore they say their bands whereas they should say his bands And then the Lord begins to plead Christs right and shews that it is not by way of set tack for so many years that Christ should have these lands but in possession are they given unto him for he saith Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Now it is concluded by all that Scotland is the uttermost part and corner of the world and therefore it was given to Christ and that not for a set time of lett but as a sure and everlasting possession so our Land being given to Christ and that as an inheritance and possession whereof the second Psalm and 8. verse is his standing Charter in the Bible we must not think that he will quit his possession but will keep his right and inheritance and therefore we declare our Land a married Land unto the Lord and a sure and on given unto Christ and therefore there being a standing evidence and charter for his inheritance and possession and a standing marriage contract and the marriage relation continuing betwixt him and our Land he will not put away his married Church no storm shall take his possession from him nor be able to keep him away from his married Church but in spite of all impediments he shall see us again Smile O Heavens at this and be Ioyful O Earth let all things break forth into singing before him rejoyce greatly in the Lord O our souls and let all that is within us bless his holy name let the redeemed of the Lord be joyful in their King who hath married our Land unto himself and given unto us thereby sufficient ground for assurance of this that he will certainly and without all doubt See us again So we come unto another Doctrine from the words which is from the time when he did thus comfort his Disciples viz. before they entred into the heat of the fernace Whence observe Obs 2. That before the Lord enters his people into a hot furnace of affliction he useth to send them a comfortable word for incouraging their hearts in order to thoron-bearing and a blessed out-gate We see it clear in the words ere they meet with the heat of the furnace he tellls he will see them again and their hearts shall rejoyce this is clear also from divers other Scriptures before the Church go into captivity he tells them that at the end of 70 years they should teturn again and before his honest Prophet met with persecution from enemies he told him that he had made him an iron pillar and brasen walls against them Jer. 2. 18. therefore though they would fight against him yet they should not prevaile against him It was also the practice of the Apostles to comfort the people of God 1 Pet. 4. 2. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is only to try not to destroy you Jam. chap. 1. 2. My brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers tentations viz. in suffering for they would get no hurt thereby and fear none of these things shall come upon thee saith the Lord to his people Rev. 2. for though the Devil cast some of you into prison yet afterwards it shall be well with thee be faithful therefore to the death and I shall give thee a crown of life there is a sad trial coming Isa 3. 10. but he sends a comforting word to his people Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him Daniel 12. a sad storm c. a time of trouble such as they never saw since a nation and yet tells them at that none such ill time deliverance shall come and blessed shall they be that shall see the compleat delivery So you see the point clear viz. That the Lord useth to comfort his people e're he enter them into a hot furnace of affliction or persecution for his name Many reasons might be given why the Lord does thus comfort his people e're they enter into a hot furnace for his sake but we shall not touch them here but shall bring them in with some of the uses for the saving of time Vse 1. This lets us see what the blessed and tender disposition of Christs heart is who before he enter his people in the heat of a furnace will give them something to refresh and bear up their hearts while in it Vse 2. Secondly it lets us see that it is the duty of Ministers of the Gospel even of all that bear his name before his people to comfort them when they are like to meet with a stormy trial for his sake they should imitate their Lord and his Apostles who comforted the Church in a day of trial in the hope of a gracious out-gate Therefore let us exhort so many of you as are here whom the Lord calls to speak from his word unto his people not only Ministers who have this great work lying on them but also young men who must be faithful in the little if so we may call it labour to imitate your blessed Master in this see you a dark cloud coming upon the Church and people of God O then comfort them against the present distress tell them that they shall get a blessed out-gate and that there shall be a blessed light after the present darkness And I shall give you a few reasons by way of motive for incouraging you to comfort the people of God to whom he sends you to speak in his name 1. Motive First comfort the people of God for it is your duty upon any hazard whatsoever Isa 3. 1â— Say ye to the