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A42766
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A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne fast Wednesday, March 27, 1644 by George Gillespie.
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Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.
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1644
(1644)
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Wing G757; ESTC R24966
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43,436
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52
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of the Beasts reign about the time of that Councel the end of it will fall in at this very time of curs But I dare not determine so high a point Gods work will ere it be long make a clearer Commentary upon his word Only let this bee remembred we must not think it strange if after the end of the 1260 yeares Antichrist be not immediately and utterly abolished for when that time is ended he makes warre against the Witnesses yea overcommeth and killeth them But that victory of his lasteth only three dayes and a halfe and then God makes as it were a resurrection from the dead and a tenth part of the great City fals before the whole fall See Revel. 11. 3. 7. 11. 13. Whether this killing of the Witnesses which seemeth to be the last act of Antichrists power be past or to come I can not say God knowes But assuredly the acceptable yeare of Israels Jubilee and the day of vengeance upon Antichrist is comming and is not farre off But now is there no other application to be made of this point Is all this said to satisfie curious wits or at the best to comfort the people of God Nay there is more then so it must be brought home to a practicall use As the assurance of salvation g doth not make the child of God the more presumptuous but the more humble neither doth it make him negligent h but deligent in the way of holinesse and in all the acts of his spirituall warfare so that i every man that hath this hope in him purisieth himselfe So answerably the assurance of the new Temple and of the sweet dayes to come serveth for a twofold practicall use even as David also applieth Gods promise of Solomons building the Temple 1 Chron. 22. 10. for thus hee speaketh to the Princes of Israel ver. 19. Now set your heart and your soule to seek the Lord your God arise therefore and build yee the sanctuary of the Lord God And this is beside the charge which he giveth to Solomon First then yee must set your heart and your soule to seek God forasmuch as you know it is not in vaine to seek him for this thing k When Daniel understood by books that the 70 yeares of Jerusalems desolation were at an end and that the time of building the Temple againe was at hand then he saith I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackloth and ashes O let us doe as he did O let us l Cry mightily unto God and let us with all our soule and all our might give our selves to fasting and prayer Now if ever m the effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Secondly and the more actively you must goe about the bunesse n Be yee stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as yee know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord What greater motive to action then to know that you shall prosper in it o Arise therefore and bee doing And so I am led upon the third and last part of the Text of which I shall speak but very little The Doctrine is this Reformation ends not in contemplation but in action The pattern of the house of God is set before us to the end it may be followed and the ordinances thereof to the end they may be obeyed p Give me understanding saith David and I shall keep thy law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart q If yee know these things saith Christ happy are yee if yee doe them The point is plaine and needeth no proofe but application Let me therefore Honourable Worthies leave in your bosomes this one point more Many of the Servants of God who have stood in this place and could do it better then I can have been calling upon you to go on in the work of Reformation O be s not slothfull in businesse and forget not to do as you have been taught Had you begun at this work and gone about the building of the House of God as your first and chiefe businesse I dare say you should have prospered better It was one cause among others why t the children of Israel though the greater number and having the better cause too did twice fall before Benjamin because while they made so great a businesse for the villany committed upon the Levites Concubine they had taken no course with u the graven Image of the children of Dan a thing which did more immediately touch God in his honour But I am confident errours of this kinde will be now amended and that you will by double diligence redeem the time I know your trouble is great and your cares many in managing the warre and looking to the safety of the kingdom yet mark what David did in such a case Behold in my trouble a sayth he I have prepared for the House of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of Gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver and of brasse and iron without weight David did manage b great wars with mighty enemies the Philistines Moabites Ammonites and Syrians beside the intestine warre made first by Abner and afterward by Absolon and after that by Sheba Notwithstanding of all this in his trouble and poverty the word signifieth both he made this great preparation for the House of God and if God had given him leave he had in his trouble built it too for you well know he was not hindered from building the Temple by the warres or any other businesse but only because God would not permit him Set before you also the example of the Iewes when the Prophets of God did stirre them up to the building of the Temple Ezra 5. 1. 2. they say not we must first build the walles of Ierusalem to hold out the enemy but the Text saith they began to build the house of God f They were not full foure years in building the Temple and finished it in the sixth yeare of Darius Now all the rest of his reigne did passe and all Xeâ—…xes reiâ—…re and much of Artaxerxes Loâ—…manus his reigne before the Walls of Ierusalem were built a for about that work was Nâ—…hemiah from the twentieth yeare of Artaâ—…s to the two and thiâ—…tieth yeare And if b great Chronologers bee not very farre mistaken the Temple was finished fourescore and three years before the Wals of Jerusalem were finished It is farre from my meaning to coole your affection to the Iawes Liberties Peace and safety of the Kingdome I desire onely to warm your hearts with the zeale of Reformation as that which all along you must carry on in the first place One thing I cannot but mention The Reverend Assembly of â—…ivines may lament as Augustine in another case Heu heu quam trade jestino Alas alas how slowly doe I
as they were abusively called are more upright in heart unto this present reformation then any of those who had assumed to themselves high degrees in the Church The hardest point of all is so to embrace and follow reformation as to be ashamed of former prevarications and pollutions But in this also the holy Ghost hath set examples before the Ministers of the Gospel I read 2 Chron. 30. 15. The Priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought in the burnt-offerings into the House of the Lord They thought it not enough to be sanctified but they were ashamed that they had been before defiled A great Prophet is not content to have his Judgement rectified which had been in an errour but he is ashamed of the errour he had been in g So foolish was I saith hee and ignorant I was as a beast before thee A great Apostle must glorifie God and humbly acknowledge his owne shame h For I am the least of the Apostles saith he that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God And shall I add the example of a great father i Aug confesseth honestly that for the space of nine yeers he both was deceived and did deceive others Nature will whisper to a man to looke to his credit But the Text here calleth for another thing to look to the honour of God and to thy own shame and yet in so doing thou shalâ—… be more highly esteemed both by God and by his children Now without this let a man seem to turn and reform never so well all is unsure worke and built upon a sandie foundation And whosoever will not acknowledg their iniquity and be ashamed for it God shall make them bear their shame according to that which is pronounced in the next Chapter verse 10 11 12 13 14 15. against the Levites who had gone astray when Israel went astray after their Idolls and according to that Malach. 2 8 9. Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people The fourth and last application of this doctrine is for every Christian The Text teacheth us a difference betwixt a presumptuous and a truly humbled sinner The one is ashamed of his sinnes the other not By this mark let every one of us trie himself this day It is a saving grace to be truly and really ashamed of sinne It is one of the promises of the Covenant of grace k Then shall ye remember your owne evill wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your owne sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Trie then if thou hast but thus much of the work of grace in thy soul and if thou hast be assured of thy interest in Christ and in the New Covenant A reprobate may have somewhat which is very like this grace but I shall lay open the difference betwixt the one and the other in these particulars 1. To be truly ashamed of sinne is to be ashamed of it as an act of filthinesse and uncleannesse The childe of God when he comes to the throne of grace is ashamed of an unclean heart though the world cannot see it A naturall man at his best looketh upon sinne as it damneth and destroyeth the soule but hee cannot look upon it as it defiles the soul Shame ariseth properly from a filthy act though no other evill be to follow upon it 2. As wee are ashamed of acts of filthinesse so of acts of folly A naturall man may iudge himself a fool in regard of the circumstances or consequents of this sinne but he is not convinced that sinne in it self is an act of madnesse and folly When the childe of God is humbled l hee becomes a foole in his own eyes hee perceives he hath done like a mad foole Therefore hee is said then to m come to himself 3. The childe of God is ashamed of sinne n as an act of unkindnesse and unthankfulnesse to a sweet mercifull Lord though there were no other evill in sinne the conscience of so much mercy and love so farre abused and so unkindly recompensed is that which confoundeth a penitent sinner As the wife of a kinde husband if she play the whore though the world know it not and if her husband when he might divorce her shall still love her and receive her into his bosome such a one if she have at all any sense or any bowels of sorrow must needs bee swallowed up of shame and confusion for her undutifulnesse and treachery to such a husband But now the Hypocrite is not at all troubled or afflicted in spirit for sinne as it is an act of unkindnesse to God 4. Shame o as Philosophers have defined it is the feare of a just reproofe not simply the feare of a reproofe but the feare of a just reproofe that is servile this filiall The childe of God is ashamed of the very guiltinesse and of that which may bee justly laid to his charge the Hypocrite not so p Saul was not ashamed of his sinne but he was ashamed that Samuel should reprove him before the Elders of the people Christs adversaries were ashamed Luke 13. 17. not of their errour but because their mouthes were stopped before the people and they could not answer him A hypocrite is ashamed q as a thiefe is ashamed when he is found mark that when he is found a thiefe is not ashamed of his sinne but because he is found in it and so brought to a shamefull end 5. When the cause of God is in hand a true penitent is so ashamed of himselfe that he feares the people of God shall be put to shame for his sake and that it shall goe the worse with them because of his vilenesse and guiltinesse This made r David pray O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my sinnes are not hid from thee let not them that wait on thee O Lord God of hosts be ashamed for my sake let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake O God of Israel The sorrow and shame of a hypocrite as all his other seeming graces are rooted in self-love not in the love of God he hath not this in all his thoughts that he is a Spot or Blemish in the body or Church of Christ and therefore to be humbled lest for his sake God be displeased with his people lest such a vile and abhominable sinner as he is bring wrath and confusion upon others and make Israel turne their back before the enemy O happy soule that hath such thoughts as these I have now done with the first part of the Text wherein I have beene the larger because it most fitteth the work of the day The second followes Shew them the forme of the house c. Before I come to the Doctrines which doe