of condescension with them though they bee unfaithfull to him yet he will be faithfull to them Oh my brethren this point hath abundance of sweetnes in it take heed of abusing it Thy sins cannot overcome Gods goodnesse let Gods goodness overcome thy wickednesse And they shal know the Lord They shal know that I am the Lord so the Septuagint hath it so the old Latin thou shalt know because I am the Lord but we rather reade it as it is in your bookes They shall know the Lord. But how comes this in In faithfulnesse and they shall know the Lord. Thus upon these two reasons First because this shall be the means to keepe the Church the Spouse of Christ in faithfulnesse for ever they shall know Christ to be the Lord. As if Christ should say The reason of all your vile departings from me all this while what is it you doe not know me you doe not see into the bounty and glory into the excellency of my worship and what I am that is the reason you are gone from me and have been unfaithfull to me but when I betroth you my self again you shall know me you shall see so much beauty and excellency in me mine Ordinances that you shall never depart from me Low thoughts of God are the cause of superstitious vanities Had men high and honourable thoughts of God they would never thinke to put him off with such bauble-worship as they do Acts 9. 7. it is said the God of glory appeared to Abraham that is given as a ground why Abraham would forsake his Countrey his fathers house and his kindred if we once knew the Lord and that the God of glory had appeared to us we would be ready to forsake all for him and give up our selves unto him in an everlasting covenant Secondly And they shall know me This is as a fruit of my betrothing my self unto them as a fruite of the Covenant Jer. 31. 34. They shal teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity c. It is a fruit of the conjugall union betwixt Christ and the soul As it is betwixt man and wife when they are but only suitors well willers they do not communicate their secrets one to another but when they once come to be marryed together then they open all their hearts there is no secret but they will disclose one to another So saith God when I am once marryed to you I will open my whole heart to you the secret of the Lord is with them that feare him Those that have but natural knowledge understands something of the wayes of Religion of the minde of Christ As a man that is in the dark may know where he is by feeling he may know what length and thickness many things in the house are of but when the light of the day comes then hee knowes what the â—â—is in the roome after another manner then he did in the darke this is the difference betweene knowledge of God in a natural man and the knowledge of one espoused to Christ by his naturall knowledge he may understand the hystory of the Gospell he may have some generall notions of God and of Christ but when the Sun of righteousnesse ariseth then be sees the excellency and glory of God then he sees God shining in all his attributes he sees that in Christ which drawes his heart unto him in an everlasting Covenant As we reade Cant. 7. 5. Christ is held in the galleries that is Christ assoone as he is marryed to the foule takes it as it were by the hand and walkes into the Galleries and there openeth his heart unto her There is many a sweet turne that a gracious heart hath with Christ in his ordinances wherin Christ openeth even his whole soul unto it Joh. 15. 15. All things saith Christ that I have heard of my Father I have made knowne unto you An admirable Text surely you cannot but know the Lord then Here is the fruit of our union with Christ Oh that our hearts were inflamed with desire after further conjugall communion with him according to the capacity of the soul so Christ makes knowne to it what he hath heard of the Father Certainly Christ hath heard great things of the Father he is the wisdome of the Father he hath been with the Father from all eternity and the Father loves him he will tell him all the glorious things he hath in his heart and Christ will hide none of those things from his Saints This is the priviledg of a Saint who would not be godly by which he shall come to know the minde of the Father according to what Christ knowes of it Yea and Christ makes God known to the Saints in another way then others know him 2 Sam. 7. 27. Thou O Lord God of Hosts hast revealed unto thy servant so you reade it in your bookes but it is in the Hebrew Lord thou hast revealed this to the eare of thy servant I wonder how that word to the eare comes to be left out in your books in which indeed the emphasis lye I am sure it is so in the Text. When God makes known himselfe to his people he revealeth things to their Eare as we to a friend who is intimate with us we speake a thing to his eare There is many a secret which JESUS CHRIST speakes in the eart of his Saints which others never come to be made acquainted with 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darknes hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ It would aske time for the full opening the gradations of this Scripture here is knowledg the knowledg of the glory of God the light of the knowledg of the glory of God and shining and shining into our hearts and into our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ Surely then they shall know the Lord and they shall know him in a very spirituall way The light of the Saints is a light three story high First they have the light of nature which other men have the light of reason Secondly they have the light of common gifts which other men have too and that is a story higher then the other Thirdly they have the light of a sanctifying spirit that is a third loft and they shall come to a fourth story and that is the light of glory The light that other men have is but as the light you have in a lower room in ware-houses which in some you know is so little that you are faine to use a candle at noone day so some natural men have onely the light of reason which indeed is rather like your cellars that have but a little light
through those Meatus terra that they speake of Thus they are deluded in their conceits But yet more generally In that place Whereas the place of my people was confined into a little and narrow roome hereafter it shall be inlarged and even among the Gentiles that shal be made spiritual Israel where I was not known among the Heathen even there shall I come to be known and I shall have a people there and not only people but sons the sons of the living God and that so apparently that it shall be said unto them Yee are the sonnes of the living God Thus Saint Peter seems to interpret this place in the 1 Pet. 2. 10. speaking of the Gentiles whom God would have a people among them saith the Apostle Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God Generally Interpreters doe conclude that the Apostle had reference to this very place in Hosea And so we may build then upon this interpretation howsoever that it is the intention of the Spirit of God that God would call home the Gentiles to himself so they that were no people should become his people his sons It should be said in that place where before it was said that they knew him not that now they are his sons Yea the Heathen shal be brought in so as they shall be convinced of the vanity of their Idolatry We worshipped dead stocks our gods were dead stones stocks that we were vassals unto but now we see a people that is come in to the profession of this Christian Religion they worship the living God their God is the true God certainely here are the sons of the living God This is the scope of the holy Ghost For observation 1. It is a comfortable thing to consider that in those places where God hath not been known worshipped that afterward in those places God should be known worshipped That such nations such Countreys and Towns that have lived in darkness Idolatry should now have the knowledge of the true God that the true God should come to be worshipped amongst them this is a blessed thing England was once one of the most barbarons nations in the world and in that place where it was said you are not my people where there was nothing but a company of savage barbarous creatures that worshipped the Devill how in this place in England is it said even by the nations round about us surely they are the sonnes of the living God! And so many times in dark corners in the Countrey where they never had the knowledge of Jesus Christ but were nuzled up in Popery and in all kinde of supesticious vanity God is pleased to send some faithful Minister to carry the light of the knowledge of Christ unto them and efficaciously to work faith in their hearts and now oh what an alteration is there in that towne the like of a family It may be said of many a house and family in which nothing but blasphemy and atheisme and scorne of Religion and uncleannesse and all manner of wickednesse hath been now it is a family filled with the servants and sonnes of the living God As it is a grievous thing to think of a place wherein God hath been truely worshipped that afterward the Devil should come to be served there so it is a comfortable thing to think of other places wherein the Devil hath beene served that God is truly worshipped there Some stories report that the Turkes having possession of the Temple at Jerusalem there where was the Arke and the Cherubins and the Seraphims there now are Tygres and Beares and savage creatures But on the other side to consider that in places where there have been none but Tygres and Bears and savage creatures they should now be filled with Cherubins and Seraphims this is a comfortable thing Secondly It shall be said they are the sonnes of the living God It shall be said so God hath a time to convince the world of the excellency of his Saints They shall not onely be the sonnes of the living God but it shall come to passe that it shall be said they are the sonnes of the living God all about them shall see such a lustre of the glory of God shining upon them that they shall all say Verily whatsoever other people have said hertofore whatsoever the thoughts of men have beene these are not onely the servants but the sonnes of the living God We have an excellent prophefie of this in Zachar. 12. 5. The governours of Iudah shal say in their heart The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God Not onely the people shall be convinced of this but the Governours of Judah they shall say in their hearts our strength is in the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of Hosts their God Howsoever they were heretofore scandalized as seditious and factious and as enemies of the State yet now the Governours of Judah shall acknowledge that their strength is in them and in the Lord their God that this Lord of Hosts is their God That time will be a blessed time when the Governours of Judah shall come to be convinced of this when God shall so manifest the excellencies of his Saints as that both great and smal shall confesse them to be the sonnes of the living God It is promised to the Church of Philadelphia Revel 3. 9. that the Lord would make them that said they were Jews and were not said they were the Church and were not but were of the Synagogue of Satan to come and how before their feete and to know saith he that I have loved them There is a time that ungodly men shall be forced to know that God doth love his people And one thing amongst the rest that will much convince the men of the world of the excellency of the Saints will be the beauty of Gods ordinances that shall be set up amongst them that shall even dazel the eyes of the beholders For this you have an excellent promise Ezek. 37. 28. The heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel How shall they know it when my sanctuary shall be in the middest of them for evermore then they shall know that I the Lord do sanctifie Israel when the beauty of my ordinances shall appeare in them then they shall know it And if God be not onely satisfied in doing good to his people but hee will have the world know it and be convinced of it Let the people of God then not be satisfied onely in having their hearts upon God but let the world know that they love God too You must do that that may make it appeare to all the world that you are the children of the living God Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven It is one thing to do a thing that may
driven from their habitations if God should ever restore them to their habitations againe then their hearts would be enlarged in blessing God then they would be more sensible of the uncertainty of the comforts of the creature then ever before Thirdly The Feast of Tabernacles had an aime at Christ and the state of a Christian it was to typifie JESUS CHRIST to come into the world and to pitch his tents amongst us as John 1. 14. he dwelt amongst us he came and pitched his Tabernacle amongst us it is in the Greek and the state of a Christian likewise is an abiding Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5. 1. If our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved till we goe where JESUS CHRIST is gone before us to prepare mansions for us Iohn 14. our dwelling is in Tabernacles In the offerings that God appointed to offer in this their feast Numb 29. 12. there are some things very observable but hard to finde the meaning of the feast was to be kept seven dayes the first day was a great day and the last day a great day the first day there were 13. bullocks to be offered and 14. lambes the second day there was but 12. bullocks and the third day but 11. and the fourth day but 10. and so every day one decreased as you may see there and the last day there was but one offered Now divers Expositors have sought to finde out the meaning of this I doe not finde any such thing in all the Scripture as this is but onely in this place Calvin confesses when he speakes of this that for his part he doth not understand the meaning of it and rather then to make guesses of it uncertainties I will saith he be silent in it yet he ventures upon a conjecture a very unlikely one therefore I shall not name it That which is most likely seems to be in two things The first is they must offer every day lesse and lesse that is saith another interpreter to shew their increase in sanctification that they should grow to more and more perfection every day of their feast and so have lesse need of Sacrifices then they had before and so it will afford a good note to us that when we come to keepe dayes to God every day we should grow more and more in sanctification and have lesse and lesse sin to answer for then we had before Another interpretation that is given is that it was to shew the cessation of the sacrifices of the Jewes that they were to decrease day by day and this I take rather to be the meaning because the last day is but one bullocke that was offered and yet the Text saith that that was the great day of the Feast when there was fewest sacrifices to be offered Ioh. 3. 37. The last and the great day of the feast Jesus cryed if any man thirst let him come unto me there is somwhat to be noted about Christ there though it is true it was the feast of dedication which was their own Feast from whence many would prove the lawfulnesse of holy daies yet the truth is upon examination you shall finde there is scarce strength enough from that place to prove it though it be lawfull to take the advantage of such times but it will appeare there that it was the Feast of Tabernacles as in 2 Chro. 8. 9. Their Feast of the dedication of the Temple was at that time that the Feast of Tabernacles was one thing is to be observed from Christs being there at the Feast the last and the great day Jesus cryed if any man thirst let him come unto me Why did Christ upon the great day of the Feast cry out thus If any man thirst let him come unto me to drinke one reason may be because when men are most strongly possessed with the uncertainties of all outward things in the world then they are fit to entertaine the gospell then fit to heare of JESUS CHRIST when their hearts are taken off from the world and they looke upon all things here as unsetled the conclusion of that feast is a speciall preparation to the Gospell Esay 40. 6. 7 c. The preparation to the good tidings of the Gospel is the Proclamation that All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the field yea the withering of the grasse and the fading of the flower must be proclaimed again and againe And then seasonably and acceptably it followes ver 6. O Zion that bringest good tidings behold your God Tremelius thinkes that the reason of the expression of CHRIST at this time was from the custome of the Iews at this Feast at the feast of Tabernacles the Iews were wont with great joy to bring store of water out of the River of Shiloh to the Temple where being delivered to the Priest he powred it out upon the Altar together with wine and all the people sung that of Isaiah with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation though it were their own invention Christ takes a hint upon it they accustomed themselves to draw water and powre it out Christ saith what do you stand upon this ceremony of yours this your custome will die and perish in the use of it but come to me and there you shall have water I am the well of salvation a spring of grace shall be continually in the heart of that man that beleeveth in me One note more is observable in this Feast we have a prophesie that in the times of the gospel the feast of Tabernacles should be kept then that is in the truth of it not in the ceremony In Zach. 14. 16. there is a Prophesy that when Christ cometh the very truth of the feast of tabernacles then all people shall worship the true God and keep the feast of Tabernacles Why is it there Prophesied that all people shall come and keep that feast the reason may be this this feast is named because in the times of the gospel men shall acknowledge their outward comforts to be from God 〈◊〉 â—ertainty of all things here and that they are strangers and pilgrims 〈◊〉 in the times of the gospell this shall be made more evident to the hearts of people then ever before the more JESUS CHRIST shall be known in the world the more shall the hearts of men be taken up with the knowledge of God in every creature and of the uncertainty of every creature and have their hearts taken of from the comforts of the world and never account any setled condition here but account themselves pilgrims and strangers that is a signe that the Gospel hath prevailed with your spirits if you have your hearts taken off from the creature and you looke upon your selves as strangers in the world and looke for an abiding City then do you keep in an Evangelicall sense this feast of Tabernacles Or secondly if it be meant of the glorious setled condition God in
coming in at a grate others have somewhat more light they have common gifts which is like the light in the next story somewhat more clear but the light of the Saints is higher then all these they know God as their God great is the excellency of his knowledge the soul hath blessed satisfaction in it let us see the Father and it sufficeth us the fulnesse of glory that is let out into the soul the sanctification of the heart by the presence of the beams of the glory of God being transformed into the same Image it is the very beginning of eternall life Take onely this note about our knowledge of God by Christ what a different way have we to know God by from that which Heathens had If you reade the Hystories of the Romanes you shal find the poor mean ways of those wise men had to know God as thus they would look into the intrails of beasts thereby to finde out the mind of their gods they would observe how the beasts came to the slaughter whether willingly or not willingly whether haled or not haled they guessed somewhat at the minde of their Gods by that then they would looke into the colour of the bowels of the beasts then observe whether the entrals were sound or not then they would observe the fire of their sacrifices whether the flame ascended right or not thus they came to know the mind of their Gods What poor wayes are these we have JESUS CHRIST God blessed for ever the eternal Son of the Father who is come from the bosome of the Father to make all known to us the mind of God his and our Father We know the truth as it is in Jesus not onely as it is in the works of nature some know much of God in the works of creation and providence wee may know much of God in those great things the Lord hath of late done amongst us but to know the truth as it is in Jesus to know God in Christ this is another manner of knowledge then to know God in the way of his works here we see the truth really indeed when wee see it in CHRIST JESUS Certainly then none united unto Christ in a conjugall union can be an ignorant sot for Christ ingageth himselfe in his faithfulnesse upon this marryage of a soul with himselfe to reveale himselfe and the Father unto it Joh 8. 54. Of whom ye say he is your God but mark the next words yet ye have not knowne him A likely matter that he should be your God and you not know him a likely matter that Christ should be your Saviour and you not know him seeing he hath ingaged himselfe in his faithfulnesse that if you bee married to him you shall know him and his Father Ver. 21. And it shall come to passe in that day I will heare saith the Lord I will heare the heavens c. Now come in temporall promises after the assurance of mercy in the Covenant then come promises for corn and wine and oyle God would teach us this lesson by it that all our outward things at the least the sweetness and comfort of them depend upon the covenant in Christ I will heare The word is Respondebo I will answer so it may be rendred as well God will so hear as that he will answer Many times a poor man cryes to the rich he hears him but he will not answer but saith God I will hear so as I wil answer This is a most elegant expression I wil hear the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall hear the corne and the wine and the oyle and they shal heare Iezreel Miraorationis sublimit as a wonderfull sublimity of speech saith one Expositor of it hyperbolica metaphora a hyperbolica metaphor saith another pulcherrima prosopopoeia a most beautifull and delightful prosopopoeia saith another these creatures being put as it were in the person of a man as if they understood what they did As if the Lord should say thus My people you indeed through your sinnes have been brought into great straits you have wanted corne and wine and oyle you have been scattered in your banishment but when I shall betroth my self unto you and enter into a covenant with you then when you shall cry O that we might have these outward comforts presently the corne and the wine and the oyle as if they heard your complaints shall say Oh Lord we would help Jezreel and satisfie these thy servants the corne shall cry to the earth O earth let me come into your bowels I will rot there that so I may bring forth fruit for this people the vines and the olive shall desire the earth to receive them to give juice and nourishment to them that they may refresh these reconciled ones to God the earth shall say O that I could entertaine the corne and wine and oyle that I may be fruitfull in my kinde but O heavens I can doe nothing except I have your influences and the shine of the sun to warme mee to make mee fructifie therefore O heavens come in and assist me that I may fructifie for Jezreel and the heavens they shall cry Lord we would faine help the earth that the earth may helpe the corne and wine and oyle that they may supply Jezreel but we can doe nothing without thine hand therefore doe thou heare us do thou give us leave to raine upon the earth that it may be fruitfull Thus the creatures are brought in crying to help Jezreel Take these Observations First See our condition in this world though reconciled to God yet while we are here we must be beholden to the corne and wine to the earth and heavens we know not how to doe without them Secondly VVhen we are reconciled to God then the creatures will be serviceable to us yea they will be greedy to do us good they will cry for it Let us take heed of provoking God the creatures then will be against us I have read of Cordius a martyr giving this answer to those who would have had him deny the truth if deny it saith he the Sun Moon starres will deny me light If we serve God the creatures will account it their happines to serve us Thirdly God useth to work good for his people by second causes He doth not send these things immediately from heaven but the heavens heare the earth and the earth hears the corne and the wine We must looke to second causes but take heed of resting upon second causes It hath been Gods work amongst us of late in finding out treacheries giving successes to manifest himself very strangly when the means have been very poor Nay indeed God hath made as much use of mens weaknesse as of their strength but let not us therefore be slack in the use of means let us do the best we can though God sometimes work beyond means and contrary to means