Israel's Lamentation After the Lord OR A DISCOURSE WHEREIN Every well-wisher to Zion is excited and directed how to lament after the Lord with Prayers and Tears To maintain the Ordinances of God or God's presence with his Ordinances amongst us BEING Some Meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2 Psalm 80.4 O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry Heb. smoke against the Prayer of thy People LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the three Crowns Bible at the lower end of Cheapside 1683. AN Humble Address TO THE Righteous GOD. RIghteous art thou O Lord in all thy ways and holy in all thy works must Dust and Ashes say when they speak to thee or plead with thee All Israel have transgressed thy Law and despised thy Gospel therefore hast thou brought upon us a great Evil such as hath scarce ever been done under the whole Heaven not three Shepherds cut off in a month but some thousands in one day and this not for a day or month or year but even twenty years already neither is there any among us that knoweth how long this sad Cloud may be upon us Thy will be done Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we rebelled against thee and shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Shall the needy alwaies be forgotten shall the expectation of the Poor perish for ever Be not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People though our iniquities testifie against us do thou this for thy Names sake for behold for thy sake we are killed all the day long The Lord God of Hosts the Lord God of gods he knoweth and Israel he shall know if it be rebellion or transgression against the Lord. Judg O Lord them that have walked in their integrity Recompence thy Servants according to the cleanness of their hands in thine Eye-sight that have not wickedly departed from their God or by the grace of God have acknowledged their offence returned to thee and who at last are following on to know the Lord and pleading and hoping for a reviving and raising up after these daies or years of death let thy dead men live thy slain Witnesses be called up and ascend to Heaven in a Cloud let there be a shaking that these dry Bones may come together Come O Wind and breath on them that they may live Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary for the Lord's sake In midst of Judgment remember mercy and at last revive thy work Give us the opening of the mouth Set thy Light on a Candlestick Hold the Stars in thy right hand Let thy Peoples Eyes see their Teachers Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Purifie the Sons of Levi that they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousness Thou art Jehovah and changest not therefore we the Sons of Jacob are not all consumed Thou art the Creator of the Ends of the Earth and therefore canst command deliverance for Jacob. There 's no searching of thine understanding therefore canst devise ways for the banished to be restored a faithful God and wilt perform thy Promises and confirm the Word of thy Servants But our God is a God of Judgment blessed are all they that wait for him He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus TO All the Mourners IN ZION That wait for The Consolation of Israel Grace Mercy and Peace THe sharp rebukes that Divine displeasure hath laid us under these many Years have caused many thoughts of heart whilst prophane men have shot their Arrows bitter words it becomes Gods Children to have many solemn searchings of hearts and serious Enquiries after the Reason of the Lords Controversie with the Daughter of Zion word and Rod call to us to consider our ways and Gods People have called on themselves and one another saying Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord Doubtless the occasion is given by us we turned away from God before he turned his back upon us Judgment is begun at the house of God and he expects repentance should begin there That pacification may be first begun there God saith You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for your iniquities And well he may for the provocation of his Sons and Daughters goes nearest his heart as being against greater light and love means mercies obligations and expectations then any others surely it 's high time for us to awake out of sleep The charge is drawn up the indictment is read Scourges have been laid on yea of such a nature as have come nearest the hearts of the Godly Loss of Gospel-priviledges is a greater affliction then loss of Gold Goods Houses Liberties Relations Yea of life it self Yea saith God Woe also unto them when I depart from them God doth not use to depart till he be slighted or thrust away This hath been a long dark and gloomy day a day of rebuke and Blasphemy a day of Scattering and treading in down the valley of Vision Ministers and their dear flocks rent asunder Solemn assemblies sorrowfully broken up Sad and silent Sabboths by some profaned Ignorance increasing conversion work stopped Sinners hardened Young beginners in Religion discouraged Atheism abounding Presecution revived and thousands of precious Souls wandring about as sheep that have no shepheard Many publick uplaces being ill supplyed and guilt broaght upon the nation pressing us down tow ords destruction yea such sins as leave a People remediless mocking the messengers of God despising his words misusing his prophets till the wrath of the Lord arise against us till there be no remedy or no healing this brought Israel into captivity out of their own Land Yea this hath brought the final scattering of that forlorn Nation to this day killing the Lord Jesus their own Prophets persecuting the Apostles forbidding them to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alwaies for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost surely this lies nearest the hearts of real Saints next to Gods glory and their own Souls that poor sinners damn themselves destroy the Nation It 's dreadful indeed to see debauchery in the land abounding and basest of men vent personal malice against Gods dearest Children for no other fault but worshipping God and praying for their persecutors Men write voluminous treatises of invectives against us charging us with Schisms Sedition Faction and Rebellion which God knows our Souls hate and we durst appeal to our worst
adversaries in their sober intervals that they cannot but know the contrary and after all these long-lasting and heavy-pressing evils come upon us one barvest is passed and many summers and winters ended and we are not saved As for us our eyes as yet failed for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a Nation that cannot save us We looked for peace but no good came for a time of health and behold trouble And we may discern Gods anger in the wrath of men And after all this shall we sit still and be sottish under this astonishing hand of God Surely our work is not to complain of much less oppose men but look into our own hearts and lives by self examination Humiliation Reformation for these vapours that darken the Heavens arise from our filthy hearts and lives these Arrows are winged with our own feathers it may be said to every individual thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness Because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart yea to thy Soul Salvian complained of old that by our sins the enemies were strong this is the Achan in the camp the Jonah in the ship the worm in the gourd if sin abide still in us we cannot be safe it 's in vain to expect deliverance till the cause of the provocation on our part be discarded and purged away It 's true God is the inflicting cause wicked men the instruments but our own selves are the deserving and procuring cause of all our woes The protestants in Queen Marys days lamented that their unprofitableness contempt of the Gospel under King Edward 6th brought on them those bloody days of Persecution and if we do not mourn and reform we may conclude these are but the beginnings of sorrow as drops before the shower of blood that after this prophesying in sackcloth witnesses shall be slain and the number of Martyrs accomplished and Antichrists sins filled up By setting up the abomination of desolation which God Almighty prevent These things considered and often rolled in my thoughts I cast about what was the fittest course to be taken for preventing God's further Removes and reduce him back to our Souls and Assemblies and I find that 1. God purposely removes to make us follow him as a wise Nurse doth by a weak Child 2. He stops and halts as in suspense what to do that he may both alarum us and afford us leisure to consider what course to take 3. He makes a gracious promise that if we do follow on to know the Lord his going forth shall be prepared as the morning And 4. He complaineth that there is none that calleth on his Name that stirreth up himself to take hold on God i. e. to keep him from departing or to fetch him back Considering the Premises I was desirous in my poor measure to promote God's work in the Souls of his People and ingage all that have any Interest in God to improve it at this day for the preventing of his total Removal and detaining of God with us not as the Inhabitants of Tyrus when Alexander besieged it and one of their Diviners told them that it was revealed to him in a Dream that Apollo their god was shortly to depart from them thereupon they take the Image of Apollo and bind it with a Chain of Gold to a Post thinking thereby to detain him No no we cannot force God against his will to tarry but we are in obedience to God's command and discharge of our duty and in performance of the Condition of his Promise to lament after the Lord with Prayers Tears Confessions Reformations pleading with God through the Intercession of his Son for his Return and Residence with us While wicked Gadarens are by words and works bidding blessed Jesus depart out of our Coasts it becomes us solemnly to invite him open the doors of our hearts to him and give him free welcom saying Lord abide with us thus he may be constrained to tarry with us And though in this horrid Tempest that the Ship of the Church is sorely tossed with so that it 's covered with Waves our Lord be asleep yet Faith and Prayer will awake him And though we cannot peremptorily say he will save our Persons Priviledges or his Church in England yet we may with some confidence say he will certainly save Zion and build his Church somewhere in the World he will save our own Souls and it may be we shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the Remnant of Joseph Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Even an Heathen King took this course and upon no other assurance than a Who can tell There is hope in Israel concerning this thing only it becomes us to wait God's leisure and patiently yea valiantly pass through the Fiery Tryal before us wherein Papists will far exceed Protestants in rage However Mr. Greenham said He that will suffer by Papists must learn to suffer by Protestants and he that hath well passed the Pikes in Camp-fight may hope to pass safe through the Fire-Ordeal Integrity and uprightness will preserve us seconded by a Divine manutenency in sharpest Tryals The God of all Grace who hath called you into his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you May it please the Lord to own these weak though seasonable Labours for quickening the Spirits of his People to lament after the Lord it may be he will return to the many thousands of his People in these Nations And after we have been digging Esek Strife and Sitnah hateful opposition God may cause us unanimously to digg Rehoboth Room that the Lord may make room for us and make us fruitful in the Land Oh for such a day There is a day wherein they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy Mountain wherein the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid c. Wherein his People shall see Eye to Eye and serve him with one consent or shoulder and that he will turn to his People a pure Language or Lip that they shall feed and lye down and none shall make them afraid It becomes God's People to make a Catalogue of these and such like Promises and spread them before the Lord for he is a faithful God and will perform his Promise which saith Jer. 30.17 For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an out-cast saying This is Zion whom no man seeketh after And let all that love her say Amen Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on
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
waste and ye run every man to his own house Self-seeking here is self-undoing Men ruine themselves by neglecting God's Interest If men will not lament the Ark's Captivity God will make Judah go into Captivity If men lay not to heart the mourning waies of Zion God hath a way to make them go without strength before the pursuer Men can well dispense with the loss of the pleasant things of the Sanctuary it shall be tryed how they will resent the loss of their temporal pleasant Enjoyments If men lament not the Gates of Zion the Gates of the City shall lament mourn and being desolate shall sit upon the ground If professing People lay not to heart sad and silent Sabbaths God may make the Land to keep her Sabbaths Great and fair Houses must be desolate without Inhabitant because God's House is desolate and none regardeth God can tell how to meet with the selfish heedless persons If they regard not God's Interest God will care as little for theirs He can tell how to come near you in matters of sense that can make nothing of what concerns your Souls And Ordinances of God will then be good when sickness pain poverty death arrest you Or these spiritual things will be good when out of your reach and you shut up in the Prison of Hell where there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Psal 141.6 When their Judges are overthrown in stony places they shall hear my words for they are sweet When that sad Plague of Sweating Sickness was here in England how much were proud Nobles in seeming love with faithful Ministers how glad were they of advice from them then Ordinances were of more worth than purses full of gold God can make his Ministers to be prized by the prophanest Scorners yea he knows how to make a wounding Sword to make way through their bleeding sides for instructions to enter the most flinty hearts as Bernard told his ranting Brother 9. How long must the Lord wait for your sensible lamentings we are soon weary of the yoak and think it long to wander in the wilderness Sometimes we are for returning back into Aegypt and then all in post-hast for Canaan as Israel in the Desert The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed that he should not die in the Pit but then we would break Prison and are loth to take God's way or stay God's time this retards us rather than quickens our deliverance God puts us to our how longs because we put him to his how longs How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee How long will it be ere you attain to innocency Oh Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be We were in post-hast for a Restitution many years ago as Moses for Miriam Heal her now O God I beseech thee God saith If her Father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven daies But our heavenly Father hath spit in our face in the open sight of the world we have been shut out of his house well near three times seven years yet alas it 's to be fear'd we are not Evangelically ashamed Absalom was three years at Geshur and two years at Jerusalem and saw not the King's face and pretended dissatisfaction therewith Oh! but where 's our real longing to enjoy the Lord in his Ordinances Alas it's not length of time that will put our hearts into frame When at last will God raise up some awakening Samuel that shall sound the Alarum in the Ears of all Israel Oh! when shall we awake out of our long sleep when shall we see our need of God in his Ordinances when shall our Souls lament after God to purpose Surely it 's time to bestir our selves once at last 10. Can we lament to any else that will or can hear or help us May not Kings or great ones say as that King once to that crying Woman that said Help my Lord O King he said If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Alas we may say Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the Hills and from the multitude of Mountains Truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel Jer. 3.23 The greatest Princes are not to be trusted in God thinks fit to frustrate our expectations from men to confute our carnal confidence in man Surely men of low degree are vanity if they have a mind to help they cannot and men of high degree are a lye if they can help yea if they promise to help they will not our best course then is to pour out our hearts before him and say God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 9. For all Power is God's v. 11. We may say as David I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my Soul I cryed unto thee O Lord Psal 142.4 5. The Comforter that should relieve our Souls is far away There 's none to guide poor Zion of all the Sons whom she hath brought forth neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the Sons that she hath brought up Isa 51.18 As for us our Eyes as yet failed for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a Nation that could not save us We are as Napthali and have been struggling as sore for a Masculine Parliament as the Antient Primitive Church long travelled for a Man-child a Christian Emperour we had one they also struggled for uniting the Protestant Subjects and alleviating our grievances they were broken off by breaking up We had a second which set themselves to help us but the Children were come to the birth and there was no strength to bring forth all Attempts prov'd abortive since our Moses and Aaron by Votes or Disputes have represented our case sought favour and used means of help our Bricks are doubled Spirits are more inraged and our savour is abhorred and a keener Sword is put into some mens hands to execute the Law with more severity and is it not time to have recourse to God We are not permitted so much as to petition to men and make a true representation of our case that way is barred and all other doors are lockt up what else can we do but lament after the Lord he is able to help he is willing and hath promised Oh! let 's go to our God There and there only we may ease our hearts and find help let us lift up our Eyes above the Hills from whence cometh our help Our help cometh from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth Psal 121.2 2. Head is Who are the Persons People that are to lament after the Lord I answer 1. Graceless persons these have the greatest reason to lament after the Ordinances of God and the God of Ordinances For alas these poor
with this word repeated vers 7 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah And if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Who would not follow after such a God with prayers tears groans and hearty lamentations that he would return to us continue with us Oh! who would not have an hand in bringing back the King such a King as by his presence can make us truly and eternally happy See what it is to have God with us Isa 42.13 14 15 16. Yea it becomes every one to study the usefulness of God's Ordinances that their hearts may be ingaged to and inlarged in lamenting after the Ordinances of God Both these are larger Subjects than I can prosecure to explain the advantages coming to a People by the presence of the Ordinances of God or the God of Ordinances You must look on the Ordinances as fruits and tokens of God's special favour for all have not the Ordinances of God Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them That this Sun-shine of Gospel-Light is on one place and not on another proceeds from discriminating Providence who sent Embassadours for the Gospel to be brought to them Surely that 's preventing kindness But when it hath left some impression on hearts some Myrth upon the handles of the Lock such should yea will lament after him when he 's gone as the Church did For such have tasted how good the Lord is and look on the Ordinances as their Heritage and highest Priviledge Oh that you knew what helps Ordinances are to promote God's work in our hearts in begetting and increasing Faith Repentance Love new Obedience this is that clear Chrystal-glass through which we may see the face of God and be transformed into his Image that Glass in which we may see the face of our Souls and be humbled and ashamed Here you may have your doubts resolved fears dispersed hearts satisfied graces quickened fellowship with God promoted our Souls prepared for Heaven Oh that your eyes were opened to see the necessity excellency utility of God's Ordinances I am very confident that if your Souls be as new born Babes you will desire after the sincere Milk of the Word if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As for others that want spiritual life and light to discover and feel the marrow of Ordinances no wonder if they slight or despise both the Appointments themselves and such as long for them and lament the want of them and therefore I urge this that you learn by your own experience the sweetness and advantage of enjoying the presence of God in the Ordinances of God 6. Get and maintain publick Spirits Oh take heed of private Spirits to look only after your own concerns and worldly Interests This hath been the Ruine of the Church and also of particular persons at last Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled Houses and this House lye waste therefore ye have sown much and bring in little q.d. You think to secure your personal and domestical comforts with neglect of my concernments but I will cross you in that which concerns you because you are heedless in what concerns me On the contrary David concern'd himself about God's House and God built his House 3 Sam. 7.2 11. So true is that of our Saviour that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Self-seeking is the way to self-undoing self-denying is the only way to self-advancing Scripture and Experience prove this Well then my advice is that you chiefly mind the Interest of our Lord in the World and put as great an accent on this in your prayers as if it were your own case and indeed it is your own Your little Boat hangs on the great Ship but all judge not so therefore there are few lamenters after the Lord But if you would look on Zion's case as your own and so carry it as having yours really involved in that bottom it would be both an help and spur in your lamentings The more gracious persons have been the more have they forgot themselves to think on the Church Upon me saith St. Paul cometh daily the care of all the Churches Upon Moses lay the burden of all the People Uriah will sympathize and suit himself to the Ark and Israel and Judah in the Camp and not suit himself to the delights of the City Nehemiah inquires after and condoles with his suffering Brethren Look through the Bible and you 'l find this gracious publick Spirit breathing in all the Servants of God Psal 137.5 6. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Marg. the head of my joy q.d. I profess my self to be a Member of that Mystical Body the Church and how can a Member rejoyce when the whole Body mourns If the touching of one String of an Instrument make the rest move how can I forbear a sad Eccho to the Church's mournful Elegy Shall not her dewy Eyes cause mine Eyes to water How can it go well with me when it goes ill with the Church Oh that I could set self aside We have need saith one to be redeemed from our selves rather than from the Devil or World I should make a sweet bartering and give old for new if I could shuffle out self and substitute Christ my Lord in place of my self Oh wretched Idol when shall I see thee wholly decourted and Christ wholly put in thy room Oh that I had but gone as far yet as the Heathens Primar we are not born for our selves surely then I should not be so much taken up with my own matters but think on the Church Alas what 's my danger to Zion's damage if it go well with Zion it shall comfort my heart whatever my personal troubles be But I must hang my Harp on the Willows while the Church is in Captivity Lord do good in thy good pleasure to Zion build thou the Walls of Jerusalem though my broken bones be not set or though my heart still keep bleeding 7. Learn the right Art of praying and pleading with the Lord this lamentation is in the way of supplication that a gracious promise Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem Princes and People the Spirit of grace and of Supplications And then follows a great mourning both in families and in closets Oh that this work were set forward Surely if all the People of England yea professing People could set forwards in this so needful
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