you have not the word you keep not the truth of God The righteous Nation that keep the truth let them come in shut the rest out of doors 2 Pet. 2. there are a people that are cleansed from their sins by the knowledge of Iesus Christ and yet after turn from the holy commandment Beloved there are common generall commandments as I may speak and holy precise commandmens Religion in every age hath something in it that is feasable to carnall men and in every age it hath some nicities and preciseness in it there is somewhat superfluous in the eye of the world in every age from the beginning Now it may be it is ordinary with thee to look to truths that the world acknowledgeth to deal honestly in thy shop for the most part to come to Church and repeat a little of the word or the like these things the world commends thou observest fast dayes or thanksgiving dayes or the like But there are other truths that are more precise and spirituall that worldly men do not apprehend and these thou leavest as nicities And that is the reason many times when thou apprehendest miseries coming upon thy family or thy self or the Kingdom thou art at thy wits end and knowest not where to go God shuts the gate against thee thou hast not the word thou art not a man or woman that hath kept all the truths of God Therefore will you now labour to be a righteous Nation to be upright It is a word that hath ran much in my minde saith God to Abraham I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright I did not think there had been so much crookedness in the world as now I see The world is like the word Isa 7. young Saplings as the wind goes this way they go this way and when the wind goeth the other way they go the the other way It grieveth my soul to see how unupright people are even professors what a deal of daubing calling darkness light and good evil that think one thing and speak another and go against their conscience it cuts my soul unexpressibly Therefore it is just with God to leave those daubing people they go with the stronger side and say as the world saith and do as the world doth though it be contrary to their understanding and conscience be sure they shall never be admitted to passe the Court of guard to come to this Garison And for their comfort those that come not to this Court or Garison in this world they shall never come to that in the world to come if they come not into this little Court of guard they shall never come to the great one It is a miserable thing for a man to be left without the works a carnall man is left without the works and sin and the devill and men may come and undo him Therefore labour to be upright It is a principle in Religion that Christians should observe and a principle that is a generall grand rule to call things as they are to call a Spade a Spade but men they call evill good and good evill and frame their discourses according to the world they speak according to the world though it be quite contrary to their understanding and in spight of conscience I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright What is that Do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If thou will be my servant thou must neither be driven with fear or drawn with favour a hairs breadth out of my Commandments This is uprightnesse lay all the preferments and honors in the world on the one side you shall neither draw them an ace from the truth of Christ and lay all the terrors on the other side you shall not drive them an ace Why so Because God is alsufficient there is the reason as the holy man Doctor Preston hath at large well shewed Why should I be upright Because God is an alsufficient God What is that Men naturally bargaine for gain it is a principle and God expects not that it should be otherwise if any man offer me any thing to turn aside the breadth of a haire out of Gods wayes honour or preferment or the like more then God will give I had reason to turn aside and God would not be angry but I am alsufficient keep in my wayes I will give thee more honour and wealth and riches and preferment then all the world can On the other side could any creature do us more hurt then God we had reason to fear that creature but God is the best friend and the worst foe he can destroy body and soul as Christ saith therefore walk before me and be perfect There is a sweet place in Eccles 3. 14. I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it and God doth it that men might fear before him I know that what God doth shall be for ever nothing can be added to it or taken from it that is if God have a design to make you happy all the world shall not take a dram of that happinesse from you and if God have a designe to make you miserable all the world shall not take one jot of that misery from you That men might feare before him That is before him onely for if the creature could do me any measure of good or hurt it were but reason that I should fear the creature and God too but whatsoever God doth is for ever nothing can be put to it or taken from it that men might feare before him All the world cannot do me a farthing worth of good or harme God onely can and he is alsufficient therefore let us be upright before him These are the two words I would have you remember Pray the Lord to stablish your hearts in his love in his Garison that you may be able to triumph over the world That you may be able to say Though all the Kingdoms in the world be shaken yet I am in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken And when you walk in the streets and see such factions of men and there is not a man of a thousand but he temporizeth and wil say this week as the world saith and the next week another way Do not do so walk wisely and speak what you should and as you should but call not good evil and evil good but walk uprightly before the Lord approve of that which is good in the eyes of the Lord Walk in the truthes of God and then God in distresse will bid open the gates there is a man was upright in all the changes of the world he called not good evil nor evil good Open the gates that the upright Nation may come in Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 27. 1 2 3 4 c. In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even
and he wondred that there was no intercessor That is God suffered all this truth to faile and Justice to fall back and every thing to go to wrack and ruine God would see if any man would intercede any man among our Magistrates or Ministers or Citizens if any man would plead for God and for his people and for his truth but he saw none and wondered Truly God wonders and men may wonder to see what abundance of people follow God and good lives in the time of prosperity and when adversity comes and wicked men and al the powers of hell conspire against godlinesse to see how few shew themselves for God God wonders at it Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing and was clad with Zeale as a cloak The Lord comes and Arms himself just as valiant souldiers in the wars when a party is gone forth they stand to see what they do how they come off but if there be none that will stick to it but run away they buckle on their armour So the Lord stands to see where is the man that will stick to it in these cases and if there be any God rejoyceth in it if there be none God himself comes in Therefore be sure of this when the Lord suffers his Son or any thing that belongs to him to come to these low conditions when truth failes in the street and equity is perverted it is not that God means to suffer the wicked to have their wills for God hath sworn that Christ shall reign but to trie us a little space whether we will couragiously stick to God and his cause or basely for fear of men comply with the world 3. For the compendious destrution of the it enemies There is a third reason God as it were keeps silence and holds his peace in the middst of the greatest troubles to this end that God may as it were gather the wicked into one fagot into one bundle that they may be destroyed together There is a great deal of ado to gather the Saints in this world and truly there is some ado togather the wicked So God withdraws himself from his people yet he hath a hook in their hearts he holds them up secretly by his Spirit that they shall not leave him yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left them and all their Ordinances and his Gospell and every thing and then the wicked come together and insult whereby God may come upon them at once and destroy them as we finde ten Nations in this Psalm And so in Genesis God stirs up the Nations against Abraham and his posterity and there are ten Nations that God promiseth to cut off before Abraham at once the Perrezites and the Iebusites and the Canaanites c. So God heaps them together and burns them like stubble Those that burn stubble have rakes and they gather it to heaps and then they fire it This is the way of Gods keeping silence among his people and sitting still in the midst of their miseries thus God gathers their enemies on heaps as stubble that he may burn them together Therefore from this that I have said I have three words to say to you and to my own soul Vse 1 The first of all is that if the Lord should take any such course in our dayes that you would learn hence to awake God to call upon his Name to be earnest with him Truly there are a generation of people now I leave them to the Lord to judge them as I shall alway for we have all one master but there is a people that throw away the ordinance of prayer and they professe to live immediately upon God without ordinances without prayer and without all the rest I do not know what their perfections may be therefore I cannot judge but this I know as far as ever I had experience that the chiefest way of communion with God is spirituall prayer Build up one another on your holy faith and Pray in the Holy Ghost saith Iude. And therefore though you be ancient Christians and grow spirituall and see a great deal of formality in your prayers as some pray so many times a day and that out of forme not that they should not pray so oft in a day that is well take heed that out of any pretence you be not remiss for truly it is the readiest way to heaven and to attaine happiness and the clearest conduite to bring grace to the soul and the love of God and the shining of his face that I have yet known I yet know no better therefore take heed of the temptations of Satan that you do not upon any pretence either throw away prayer or be remisse in it Vse 2 Secondly if the Lord should leave his Church and people as we know not what he will do it may be God is going to take a napp let me warne you from the Lord and his word for that is the excellencie of the word by it thy servant is forewarned take heed of distrust and unbelief and impatience towards God God doth take a napp sometimes it is for his glory and for your good but yet cleave to him say as it is here in the Psalm O Lord who is like unto thee Do not think that the Lord will leave his people for God hath you know made a Covenant with his Son that he shall inherit all nations he shall subdue all his enemies under his feet All the enemies hitherto that have risen against his Church God hath subdued them and either our Gospell is vaine and our preaching vaine and our faith vaine and all vaine or else God will exalt his Son and his people and Saints and ordinances maugre all enemies though ten Nations as it is in this Psalm fight against them nay though ten thousand if there were so many in the world God will awake and subdue them and if there be no man in the world that will plead their cause God will do it Therefore live by faith and not by sense take heed of living by sense there is nothing that more poysons and imbitters our hearts and spirits and lives then the beholding of things by sense that as one good man speaks I wish saith he sometimes that I were quite bereft of reason that I might exercise faith We are used to sense and such a man doth this and this and here is conspiring in this and that place and all to overthrow Christ and the power of the Gospell What of all this Look by faith what God hath said and Covenanted and promised and keep up your spirits by faith Vse 3 Then lastly I would admonish all in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take heed of betraying Gods cause or people or your own salvation by your fleshlinesse I
them one by one by degrees He hath brought us from repetition of the word and from singing of Psalms and many from baptizing of the infants of the godly and divers from the supper of the Lord and from hearing the word of God preached and now he comes and begins to bring people from praying or calling upon the name of the Lord therefore let us do as Rehoboam did when he had lost Ten Tribes he went and strengthened the two that remained Beloved there are but a few ordinances that remaine and they are almost gone too therefore let us do our best to keep those One is praying or calling upon God which our Lord Christ divers ways by precept and example and parables c. doth exhort his Disciples to to pray alway and not to faint So that this is it that you should do well to consider that Prayer or calling upon the name of God in Christ is an ordinance and a perpetuall ordinance of God And though it may be many of you do not doubt of it and therefore you think why should I speak of it Truly no more did not I doubt of it yet I have had many thoughts of it and though we doubt not of it yet the considering of it out of the word may stir us up to do it more then we do for I am afraid though many of you doubt not of it yet many of you are slack and though you believe not what the others say yet you hearken so much to them as to slacken of what the old Saints did and of what your selves did before you do not set your selves so earnestly and so frequently and follow God so hard in prayer as you have done this I greatly fear For I find many times that the devill plays a double game that when he comes to take away an ordinance from people to cheat them of it he knowes that some are so giddy that he can gull and cheat them clearly and he knows this that those that he cannot cheat yet he can cast them into a kinde of remisnesse As for instance he hath taken away from many singing of Psalms prasing God according to that manner that the Saints have had for divers ages whereas there is no particular manner in the scriptures for the outward thing now as he hath brought many that they will not sing at all so there are many that are indifferent and so for baptising the infants of the godly and so for hearing the Word and so for praying The devil hath a dilemma if you will do so so it is or else do this so I say while some giddy heads or hearts are throwing away the Ordinance of prayer I am afraid there is a general remisness or carelesness growing upon your hearts therefore I shall shew these two things concerning prayer First I shall shew you that it is an Ordinance of God Prayer an Ordinance of God Prayer a perpetual duty that it is a duty that it is the duty of a Saint Secondly I shall shew you that it is a lasting duty a duty to be performed in all ages untill the coming of Christ and that briefly and plainly For the first That it is a duty consider any duty in the world and whatsoever you would have to prove it a duty I dare say it is clear in the Word concerning this duty of Prayer that and much more you cannot name any duty in the Book of God any external duty that is underpropped that hath such foundations such clear ground-works for it as the duty of Prayer There are four main grounds of duty and one of Four main grounds of dutie them many times is a sufficient ground for any one as First that it is a thing that the law of Nature hath 1. The 〈◊〉 of Nature written in the heart of man to call upon God it was written in the Creation There are many duties among us that are not so under the Gospel especially Now that you see in all ages all kinde of people call upon the name of their God As in the ship where Jonah was the Heathens by the dictates of Nature they awake Ionah to call on his God and they were calling on their god it is a thing in the law of Nature And by the By that is the reason why we may pray with carnal men though we may not receive the Lords Supper because the Supper of the Lord is an Ordinance by institution the other is a natural Ordinance or duty Now when a man doth a Natural duty it is supposed that it is in the heart of a wicked man and he doth but what he ought when he doth it A carnal man when he prays he sins not in that he prays much less do I sin in doing the duty with him in doing what he ought But wherein doth he sin In the maner that he prays without faith it is his fault and not mine and so an hypocrite that prayeth without faith when I do the duty I look that the thing be good but for the maner of his heart and spirit that is for him to look to So a man may pray with carnal people though he may not receive the Supper of the Lord because that is an Ordinance by institution and is onely for the Saints That by the by Secondly There is this ground for it for prayer 2. Command of the Word we have more precepts then for any other dutie Christ Jesus saith here Pray always And the Apostle 1 Thes 5. he bids us pray evermore pray alway I need not stand to prove this Then you have also presidents for it almost in every 3. President and Example Saint in the Book of God you seldom hear of a Saint but he was a praying Saint And let me tell you this that Saints and Churches or Assemblies for so the Greek word is indifferently and people that call on God with a pure heart they are Synonomies Sometimes Paul saith Grace mercy and peace to the Saints sometimes to the Churches and sometimes to those that pray and call on the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 1. 1. It is a thing so proper to a Saint that it is usually taken for the description of a Saint Therefore in Zech. 12. where there is a Prophesie concerning the conversion of the Iews saith God I will poure on them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication What is that That is they shall be converted To have a spirit of Supplication a praying heart is the same as conversion to convert the Iews is to give them a spirit of Grace and Supplication As soon as Paul was converted Act. 9. when Ananias inquired of him he was praying therefore you have examples enow 4. Promises entailed on it Psalm 50. And then you have Precepts for it and Promises to it all along in the Book of God Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee So in the new Testament
in your souls I know God many times by these broken words may do your souls good but this is a thing that I confess my soul is so full of that I am not able to express it to vent and open my self The mischief and misery that befals people by soaring above the Scriptures above the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel ye hear that they do themselves and others and the safeties and security that will be to your souls in keeping to the plain simple way of the Gospel of Iesus Christ I had another short lesson but I am loath to thrust out one duty with another It is a rule by which I would alway walk I cannot now handle it but only mention it to you and if God lead us by his blessed Spirit we may learn a little of it I thought to shew you The Oneness that is betwixt us and Iesus Christ Methinks it is a more glorious Truth then we have judged it to be that poor Saints are one with Christ The Lord Iesus Christ is anointed and so are they we have the same unction with Christ we have the same name with Christ we have the same Offices with Christ we have the same love of God with Christ we have the same Spirit with Christ and the same Kingdom with Christ in Heaven The Church is the fulness of Iesus Christ Christ is not properly a Christ without his Members This is a glorious thing to consider how the poor Saints and Iesus Christ make up one compleat Body He is no Christ as it were were it not for his members The Church is the fulness of him that filleth all in all It is said of the oyl that was poured on Aaron It ran upon the skirts of his garments So Christ being anoynted that oyl runs on us As he is a Prophet so are we as he is a King so are we as he is a Priest so are we onely with this difference That in all things he might have the preeminence He is the highest King the best Prophet the most excellent Priest But otherwise whatsoever Christ is that are we whatsoever he hath that we have nay we have his name So also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. We head and members are called Christ And the least Saint of God is a Prophet as well as the greatest and a Priest as well as the greatest and a King as well as the greatest Nay he is as real a Prophet Priest and King as the Lord Iesus was onely in all things he must have the preeminence We have a share in all his actions we are one with him in his graces in his life and death and resurrection and ascention There is nothing in Christ there is nothing that Christ is or hath but we are one with him in it Therefore this use we should make of the Scriptures not to be as babies always to read a Chapter morning and evening but you that are experienced Christians when you have a truth hinted to you be alway at the Scriptures to beat it out As for instance go home now and study that Oneness that Vnion that is between Christ and us and beat it out to the utmost and what the excellency of the Spirit of God in the New Testament is and not to tie your selves to read so many Chapters a day but be alway studying the Scripture As David saith Blessed is the man that exerciseth himself day and night in the Law of God Thus the spiritual man doth not so much read Chapters as compare Scripture with Scripture and is bolting out spiritual truths till they be fully fixed and fastened upon his soul I shall it may be if God will explain that union to you further in the mean while search for it and so I shall leave it here and hear what the Lord hath further to say to us Expositions and Observations on IERE 6. 1 2 c. O ye children of Benjamin gather your selves to flie out of the middest of Jerusalem and blow the Trumpet in Tekoa and set up a signe of fire in Beth-haccerem for evil appeareth out of the North and great destruction I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman c. I Shall desire leave at this time a little more familiarly then usually to tell you what I conceive is the will of the Lord because I do not expect to speak to you any more I remember a little before the Lord had brought us together before the desolation of that * Bristol City which indeed was greater then any man can imagine unless he had been there present the Lord by his providence guided me to expound Matth. 24. concerning the desolation of Ierusalem little thinking or imagining that the desolation of that place had been so near And now that word that was then spoken by providence was as I perceived afterwards a very great stay and refreshing to the souls of the people in their trouble By providence also not by any way of prophesie I never was addicted that way but by providence reading this Chapter in my family and seriously considering of it me-thoughts the Lord represented to me in a way a little more then usual the state of this City wherein you now live and are to live and that by the state of Ierusalem which is here laid down throughout the Chapter For though we cannot tell you now of Cities and Kingdoms as the Prophets did by revelations and visions and the like yet what is written is written for our instruction And the Lord hath given us examples of his judgments that we may learn from them what to think and how to judg of other places and Cities and Kingdoms that are parallel that are like to those that the Lord hath visited or destroyed heretofore Therefore I shall briefly lay down the condition of Ierusalem as it is here in this Chapter Here are things spoken promiscuously because here in the Prophets there are but the heads as it were of their preaching therefore for method and your memories sake I will digest the condition of Ierusalem and what is here said of it and about it into these heads briefly But first of all before I speak of Ierusalem it-self ye are to observe the condition of the Prophet that the Lord had set among them which is laid down at Vers 27. I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people that thou mayest know and try their way The Lord compares the Prophet to a tower in the City that is a watch-tower A tower for strength as it is Iere. 1. 18. I have made thee an iron pillar and brazen walls That though he preached contrary to their corruptions yet they could not touch him And a tower for watchfulness because the Prophets did watch as out of a tower all the City and all in it and the enemies that were against it So the Prophets were called Seers in those days eying the sins of the
but now London must there my wrath shall be poured out The Lord grant that it may not be so but I greatly fear it Secondly The Lord brings them to imprisonment the Lord took them prisoners Verse 11. The husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days And then comes their plunder Their houses shall be turned to others with their fields and wives together For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this Land saith the Lord. O if the Lord should say This is the City to be visited and make war against it and then take you prisoners take the aged men the Aldermen Common Councellers and all prisoners and then plunder all and say their fields and their wives shall be turned to others That were sore that you should not onely lose your goods but your fields that your houses and trades and shops should be taken away and your very wives Thus the Lord did with others I will not say that he will do so with you Now there were stumbling blocks in Ierusalem before it was destroyed so there are in this City it is filled with stumbling blocks every little difference in opinion is a stumbling block that some men become Atheists because every Saint doth not agree one with another And then there is the fear and horror that did fore-run this misery Verse 24. But in a word the course that the Lord would have them take and that therefore I shall speak of that you may beseech the Lord that this poor City may prevent those evils One thing is the Lord would have them seriously and sincerely humble themselves before him to acknowledg their sins and bewail them Verse 26. Saith the Lord O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an onely son Not a formal day of fasting and humiliation for that is almost become all form but really humble thy soul and call upon the Lord that the Lord would be pleased to turn away his wrath Then the second thing laid down is That we should hearken to instruction Be thou instructed O Jerusalem least my soul depart from thee be ready to hear the Word of the Lord be ready to hearken what Gods will is how he may be glorified and we preserved Then thirdly here is a word that I exceedingly desired to open but I must but name it Verse 16. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls saith the Lord. This is the way to save you Stand in the wayes ask for the old way What is the meaning of the old way That is Iesus Christ That was the old way of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Iesus Christ and the way of righteousness and holiness and truth He alludes as I take it to the Patriarchs for that is called the old world and the old way Saith he Ye are not like your fathers heretofore Abraham he was not covetous and full of oppression they were willing to hear that which was for their good and they were not the worse for their afflictions Look to the old way and labor to get such a Spirit as the Saints had heretofore that were in Iesus Christ What of all this notwithstanding this counsel that the Lord had given them what if they will not turn to him what if they will not amend Then there is a terrible word that we read of in Verse 8. Lest my soul depart from thee It is not sin onely that makes Gods soul depart from a people nor their hardness nor wickedness but when they refuse all means and helps then his soul departs from them Therefore Be instructed saith he lest my soul depart or lest my soul be disjoynted as it is in the Margin What is the meaning of that It is a terrible word we have that word expounded in Ierem. 15. 1 2. See what it is for to have Gods soul to go from a people I beleeve that Gods soul is not gone from us if we will hearken to him and do not give our selves up to wrath and rage against Gods people Then said the Lord to me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde or my soul could not be towards this people There is before the ferventest blessed prayer for this people that I know in the Book of God Ieremy prayes And now their destruction was coming saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel should come before me my heart could not be on them I have put them out of my heart my minde and soul is gone from them I will never be troubled more with them What follows Cast them out of my sight let them go forth And if they say Whether shall we forth Then thou shalt tell them such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword such as are for the famine to famine and such as are for captivity to captivity Let them go whether they will some of them will be hanged some killed some to the sword some starved they can come to no good because they are gone out of my sight My heart and soul is from them that is the last gasp that is hell above ground Therefore the sum of all is That we hearken to God for these things were not written for Ierusalem onely but for our instruction God hath laid down their sin and wickedness and their oppression and the blessed remedy that they should have taken and if we take it not but go on in our wickedness we see what we may expect That when that shall come on us which God if it be his will forbid you may remember that you were told before I have one thing in my sad and serious thoughts to comfort me that this shall not befal this City and that is this That the Lord delt with them according to the administration of the Old Testament and so went by Cities and Nations but now every man and every person that calls upon God is respected in every Nation and City whatsoever But this comes in and cools it wonderfully and puts me to a non-plus If we in this City did go according to the administration of the New Testament I am perswaded that the Lord would not send desolation upon the City but because we would go according to that old administration we have chosen it and said so and do so Now as they chose that administration to deal with God he chose that to deal with them for the Lord will deal frowardly with the froward the Lord will deal with men according to their own law Those that sin against the Law of Nature shall be punished so those that sin against the Law of Moses shall be punished so those that go according to the administration of grace shall be delt with accordingly Now we are going according to the old administration
and wealth that thou gettest when they poor brethren and sisters are ready to perish in this time of need Take heed it provokes God and draws out the hand of God anew and God knowes how far it will be drawn out Then also there is another thing that I fear for I 6. Breaches and divisions among the Saints speak of great things not of ordinary frailties that is the tuchiness and divisions among the Saints that daily multiply and increase and are no way closed and some talk but there are few that take a serious course to close them in any measure Now these divisions and wranglings among the Saints whereas the Saints should be at peace and by being so honour Christ by their union by these open divisions many turn seekers and many down right atheists The Lord will not bear this he will whip them together Wo to thee that art a professor that delightest in having any thing to dissent from thy brethren some people are never well but when they have crotchets wherein they dissent from their brethren with delight wo to thee thou hast a foul cursed heart and though it be a truth and thou must needs dissent from them yet it would be a sorrow to dissent if thou hadst a godly heart Seventhly such a deal of blasphemy such heresies for 7. Heresy blasphemy I may call them so if any thing such errours and grosse ones increase daily and hugely increase among those that seemed to be godly once and professors as denying the scriptures denying Christ Iesus denying the resurrection calling God every thing and every thing God confounding God and the creature together and abundance of such hideous blasphemous things and they grow on wofully especially in our City these things highly provoke God the Lord give us hearts to mourne for them Then there is another thing all along I fear that provoâ—s God that is the oppression of the poor Saints 8 Oppression both in soul and body that throughout this Kingdom as far as ever I could see or hear in all these wars in any Town or City if there be half a dozen poor Saints they pay as much as the Malignants to our men and the other side come and ruine them I never heard that they paid less but more beside loanes and contributions These things go high and though we take no notice of it there is one that takes notice of the cry of the oppressed and the widdow And then our self-love and hardnesse of heart against the poor Saints in their distress that every one thinks 9. Self-love and hard heartednesse they have help too little for themselves and their families Indeed we did help one another a little in the beginning of these troubles but now the miseries are so many and so many are in distress that we do not look after them but let them do as they can And this is too rife in this city that we have not a constant care of those poor people among us that are either strangers or inhabitants that are ready to perish with want in these times And it is the generall disposition of people in this City that if they can get the enemy three or fourscore miles off if they can keep the enemy at Newark or in Wales or in the West in Cornwall they care not they lay it not to heart but if he come to Hertford-shire or Cambridge shire then they will do any thing they will lend or give There is a great deal of self-love and of hardnesse to poore people Why should we not pity the poor Saints in the North as those in Hertfordshire There are many and many poor children We have not bowels of compassion and in my apprehension that little there is is shutting up more and more There is another thing and so let me draw to an 10. Prevarication in calling evill good and è contrario end and that is a thing that grows among us wofully it amazeth me and in my conscience it would amaze me if I were a carnall man if I were as once I was in the state of nature What is that you have learned a way to pervert to call evill good and good evil both for things and persons against light and conscience This is grown ordinary as it is said in Isaiah saith he therefore Gods hand is stretched out why so They call evill good and good evil We are as he said Rome was let a man stay in Rome that knowes how to turn black to white and white to black so many times people raile at things that in their conscience are the wayes and the will and the things of God And such a person because he is not favored in the world when they come in company and see every body raile at him they will do so too There are few people that in all places and companies speak as they think The truth and right is this grows wofully therefore the hand of the Lord must be stretchedout still There is one thing more that I will not nor 11. Apostasy cannot say positively it is so but if it should be so I am sure it provokes God highly that is a kind of a generall apostasy I fear in the City of London examine your selves The City of London a few yeers ago was famous over the world for their zeale and readiness What a deal a do there was to get Arms and to lend Plate and if there were a Malignant you had him to justice then the zeal of the City of London quickened up the Parliament but now the zeal of the Parliament may rather quicken the City of London that is my thoughts and my fear Therefore I wish that you would not make a mocking work of this when you talk of humiliation and fasting and keep people from their trading let us deal really with our selves and if it be thus let us desire the Lord to help us to our first works and our first love and zeale for God and his people Expositions and Observations on Isaiah 26. 1 2 3. In that day shall this song be sung in the Land of Judah We have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks c. IN the Chapter before you shall read The coherence of the words That the Prophet did pronounce sore judgments against the enemies of God and his people to wit against Moab And the judgment should be so sore that the Lord saith He will come forth against them just as a man spreds his arms abroad to swim So God would open his arms as it were to smite them and he would tread them down like straw for the Dung-hill And in this Chapter the Prophet comforts the Saints the believers he gives them some comfort to support their Spirits when the Lord should come in judgment against the wicked In that day shall this song be sung in the Land of Judah we have a strong City
for your sakes or else I have one and none can alter it but foryour sakes I came down and made a Covenant like men and There are three that bear witness and that is enough among men therefore think my love will be constant to the end So when a Christian is at a dead lift this relieves him not that God can save him if he will but that God must he is bound to save him It is a pitifull thing when a man is in the hands of a thousand enemies and then can only say peradventure God will save me and rescue me but when the soul sees that God must rescue it and there is a Covenant made and sealed with the blood of Christ and it is not possible to be broken Gods Covenant is to save me and preserve me to his everlasting Kingdom Thus I have briefly shewed you that fondnesse that is between a Saint and God and the book of Canticles is as I told you nothing but a book of fondnesse as I may say between Christ and the Saints Therefore you should aime at the good of your souls and seeing there is such a condition that there are Saints that are so desire the Lord to make you such Expositions and Observations on DEUTER 4. Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the statutes and judgements which I teach you for to do them that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor for all the men that followed Baal-peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day c. I Shall not go about to expound this whole Chapter unto you you see it is very long and therefore I will not abridge my self or you of time for that which is to follow but onely briefly take notice of a few things in this Chapter which I shall touch upon for they are sweet and very serious words that Moses speaks to the people of Israel One thing is in the fourth verse saith Moses Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor for all the men that followed Baal-peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you to this day You shall read in Num. 25. 4. and in Num. 30. 15. that by the counsell of Balaam the people of Israel were brought to commit Idolatry at Baal-peor Israel joyned himself to Baal-peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel They were brought first to whordom and then to Idolatry as we may see in that Chapter for which God cut off men and women about some twenty four thousand And yet in this great temptation some of them did cleave to the Lord and those the Lord kept alive and destroyed them not ye that did cleave to the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day So that It is a blessed and happy thing when people shall Observation cleave to the Lord. The word is taken sometimes to stick my belly cleaves or sticks to the dust And so truly the word should stick a little upon our thoughts Cleaving it implies or signifies two things It signifies first to glew to unite two things together into one and so you shall have it Gen. 2. 24. They Cleaving to implies two things 1. A neer conjunction two shall be joyned and made one flesh they shall be glewed as it were together So you have it in Ephes 5. And there is in that word as that reverend Doctor Preston I remember observes it signifies a greater union thâ—â— any other in the world Indeed there is a great union between two boards glewed together for I have heard Joyners say it is sometimes stronger then the board it self as a broken bone is stronger when it is knit then before ever it was broken It is an union more then marriage more then between man and wife yet that is the greatest in the whole creation Beloved such a union should be between our souls and Iesus Christ we should not hang loose upon Iesus Christ we should be united to him as a man to his wife yea something more then that And therefore saith David when he found a loosnes in his heart O knit my heart to thee that I may fear thy name Knit my heart as Ionathans heart was knit to David Will you learn this now For our work is as Moses said in another kind I have laid before you this day life and death and saith he at another time I have laid before you judgements and statutes so our work is to lay before you the will of the Lord now this is one part of it that there should be such a union between our souls and Iesus Christ And therefore learn this when thou goest home if thou finde a loosnesse between thee and Christ remember this word thou shouldest learn to cleave to the Lord and pray the Lord to knit thy heart to him When there is a loosnesse that is when many times other things run between thy heart and God sometimes thy husband sometimes thy wife sometimes thy money thy wealth thy cash hath thy heart O pray the Lord to knit thy heart more and more to him But cleaving also is taken more usually for sitting 2. A relative permanency with or abiding in the Lord when others do leave him It is a relative kinde of word it is not simply â—â—iting to God or knitting to him but when other things are in competition with God when it may be others follow other things and when both are laid before mine eyes that I may follow the one or the other then when I abide with God this is called cleaving to the Lord. As I could give you diverse instances Gen. 2. 24. A woman is to forsake her father and mother and to cleave to her husband that is a woman when she is married she hath two sweet objects before her eyes her fathers house her father and mother and sisters and brothers on the one side and her husband on the other side and his friends and relations now when a woman leaves the one and sticks to the other this is properly called cleaving You shall read also in 2 Sam. 20. 2. the people of Israel every man of Israel went up from after David The people of Israel there in a peevish humor left David their King and followed Sheba the son of Bichri but the men of Iudah did cleave to their King from Iordan to Ierusalem There the people were divided Israel followed Sheba but Iudah clave to David In stead of
speaking went all away from Christ If they had been called to fire from Christ it had been something but he saith no more but you must eat my flesh and drink my blood and they all went away Yet the Disciples there was twelve then saith Christ Will ye go away also Lord whether shall we go saith Peter thou hast the words of eternall life so they abode with him and clave to him Saith Barnabas with full purpose of heart that is you must not cleave as Iudas for Iudas did then cleave to Christ when all but the Apostles left him that we read of but with full purpose of heart the Greek word signifies with full decree of heart such as the Medes and Persians had when they decreed to cast Daniel into prison though the King were otherwise minded and had seen his errour yet they told him a decree of the Medes and Persians cannot be broken it must be kept the Apostle alludes to that there must be such a decree in the soul of sticking to Christ and cleaving to God notwithstanding all tribulations and persecutions and shame and reproach and trouble whatsoever that befalls that you may as soon break the lawes of the Medes and Persians as bring the soul from that decree As one said of old they might as soon stop the Sun in the firmament as hinder that godly man in his course of holinesse So let me intreat and exhort you in the exhortation of Barnabas that you would cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart There are two great times in generall when people 2. Speciall times of cleaving to God 1. In a generall deluge of sin leave God and then you must be sure to cleave to him that is First when a generall time of sin comes up among you as this of Baal peor there were twenty four thousand slaine for their sin at Baal-peor sin when it comes up once is like a streame truly the course of the world is but the streame of sin in the world and worldly men Therefore you shall see that sins in Nations though they begin from little see how men are carried away with them when once they are grown strong when once people begin to be proud and high and set themselves up every one shall be so I shall be laughed at if I do not spend my money in vaine things to maintaine my servants my coate my garb and Coach and the like This pride is grown to a streame in the world and so for swearing and so for drunkennesse and every other sin Now I say when sin doth in this manner break out and thou seest others carried with it more and more then take heed then be sure thou cleave to God Nay there are more spirituall sins then these as it is said Barnabas was carried away with the dissimulation When thou seest generall dissimulation in a Kingdom to call darknesse light and light darknesse and good evil and evil good to call good men treacherous and treacherous men good to call blinde base superstitious men Orthodox and Orthodox men superstitious take heed then that thou cleave to the Lord. Then secondly when persecutions and sufferings 2. In times of persecution come few men make account of it we cannot make people sensible of it what they must suffer they have false hopes they think that though people suffered in Queen Maryes time and others may after yet they shall go in peace We must suffer talk of Reformation and what you will all honest hearts inevitably shall have tribulation Therefore let this word abide with you that it be your study and earnest prayer to the Lord when you see others run into sin and are carried away for fear of this trouble and that crosse and the other shame that then you abide with the Lord as Iudah Though Israel play the harlot yet let Iudah be faithfull with his God Though such a man dissemble yet why should I do so though such a one go against his own light and conscience yet why should not I cleave to Christ That is one exhortation that you would cleave to the Lord. Expositions and Observations on PSALM 83. 1 Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God 2 For lo thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee have list up the head c. THis Psalm containes in it a grievous complaint of the prophet to God against the enemies of his Son and of his people Some do conceive that it was not the prophet David but Isaiah or some of the prophets in the time of Hezekiah when Zenecharib and other Nations that were confederate with him were coming up against Israel But however a confederacie there was of the wicked against the godly and the prophet whosoever he was here complaines to God and doth as it were First awaken God to hearken to his complaint The parts of the Psalm Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still Secondly he layes down the matter of the complaint which was the crafty counsell and the conspiracie of divers wicked people yea of Nations some ten Nations against the people of God the Israelites and he lays down in particular who they were Then thirdly he doth pray or prophesie for most of the prayers of the prophets were prophesies also he not onely prayed that it might be so but prophesied that it should be so that they should be as a wheel that they should be as fire in the wood or as a flame of fire upon the mountains Lastly he lays down the end why he so prayed or prephesied to wit that his enemies might be filled with shame that they might seek the name of the Lord that they might be brought home to God Or if they will go on and perish that others may know the name of the Lord that they may know that thou whose name is Iehovah art most high over all the earth And though their faces being filled with shame they will not fear the Lord yet doubtlesse others will and when God shall bring confusion on his enemies others will acknewledge the name of the Lord Iehovah and that there is no other in the whole earth This is the sum and substance of the Psalm I shall endeavour to open the meaning of it a little in particular First concerning the prophets complaint the prophets waking of God as it were in those his complaints Keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still Or as the Septuagint renders it O Lord say they who is like to thee keep not silence O God hold not thy peace be not still And you must take notice and it is worth observing that when the prophet saith here O God he means Iesus Christ That whereas ordinarily in the old Testament especially in the book of Psalms when you hear the prophet mention God or Iehovah or the Lord you think of God naturally out of
mean take heed you that have thought well of God and his people and have spoken well of him that when you see God sleep a little while and seems not to owne them take heed that you help not the children of Lot go not with the Moabites and the Tabernacles of Edom and with wicked men to conspire against the godly if you do know that if there be a God in heaven and if there be truth in this book you are under Gods wrath to be gathered on heaps for the fire There appears no fire yet but be sure you shall feel it hereafter therefore take heed The Lord will come saith the prophet as a bear bereaved of her whelps If a man take away the whelps of a Bear when she is asleep and go away when the Bear awakens you know what case that man will be in when the Bear sees him and her whelps in his arms So God takes upon him to sleep and if he see his little ones oppressed and abused when he awakes he will be as a Bear robbed of her whelps So much concerning that Now the prophet having spoken to God and desire him to awake he begins to tell him how the case stood For loe thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee lift up their heads they have taken crafty counsell c. The complaint was this in generall that they began to make a tumult Why a tumlt The whole world is but like an Army a Brigade of men as it were under a Generall and God is the Lord of Hoasts that is the Lord of his Armies now when there is a tumult in an Army they complaine to the officers to the Generall especially and he must come and suppresse them Therefore saith he thou Lord of Hoasts that art Generall of the world lo there is a tumult in the world a mutinie what is it They that hate thee have lifted up their heads That is they are waxen proud and high And take crafty counsell together against thy people and consult against thy hidden ones You see here the property of wicked people when God doth not restraine them to consult and conspire against the godly for by the hidden ones are meant the godly So the Septuagint reads it thy Saints or holy ones They are called hidden ones or secret ones as some read it because they are precious as in Exodus God The Saints Gods hidden ones calls them his treasure my peculiar people my treasure And you know our treasure and riches we hide it and keep it secret And they are called hidden ones likewise because the Lord useth to hide his people in the time of trouble hide me in the hollow of thy hand saith David and hide me under the shadow of thy wings in another place They are called hidden ones I think principally because the world knowes them not because the Devill alway hath some vail upon the eyes of the wicked that they are not able to know the Saints as Saints 1 Ioh. 3. Now we are the sons of God and the world knowes us not It is the clearest note of a man truly carnall that hath nothing of God in him he will tell you that he knows not who are Gods children and Saints and who are not the Devill hath so many wayes and nick-names as to call them Lollards and Schismaticks and Puritans and now there are more nick-names then ever So God hath his Saints and people they are his treasure and peculiar ones but he hides them from the world for it is not in the apprehension of wicked men to persecute the Saints as Saints but they persecute them as Schismaticks or hereticks one way or other yet it may be they may be Gods hidden ones Therefore what you do against Gods hidden ones you do against him I beseech you take heed how you consult and conspire against people that make any profession of Religion though you think they be hereticall or Schismaticks and it may be they are so and it may be they are Gods hidden ones it may be because of my fleshliness I think him to be an heretick or a Schismatick and it may be he is a Saint and childe of God and one of his hidden ones In the next verse he layes down the conspiracie what it was that they craftily consulted of Ver. 4. Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance The desires of the wicked are not to suppress one or two or a few of the Saints though indeed they light upon a few and God never suffers them to touch all The maine design of persecutors but the maine design is wholly to root out godlines and the people of God that they may not be a Nation For if you consider the ground of persecution it is not any one particular thing in a person but the designe of Satan whose part they act who is the old serpent is to overthrow the whole Kingdome of God to destroy the seed of the woman therefore whosoever sets himself against one his aime is if he observe his own heart if he could to destroy all And in the times before when men durst speak the language of their hearts Bonner would say I wish that all the hereticks were in a sack in the midst of the Sea And many Bishops among us have gloried that they had not one Puritan left in their Diocess And some of late have bragged that they hoped their would not be roome for one puritan in England before those scurvie names that are rife among us now came up It may be if we observe we shall hear some of the same phrases still though the words be altered the designe is the same Come let us cut them off from being a Nation You see that Satan is not willing to have one Saint on earth not one ordinance or one Gospell-sermon It is too low a designe for Satan to aime at a particular person Just as it was with Haman in the book of Hester he might have punished Mordecai if he would but it was too low a thing he would cut of the whole seed of the Iews that there should not be one left That is the reason that Pareus a learned man gives why the Saints are said to be a people that are not 1 Cor. 1. because the people of the world wish that they were not the world desires that they were not nor any thing that belongs to them Therefore I beseech you take this caveat from the Lord that you would take heed how you carry your selves against the Saints though they be but some few particular persons though it may be there may be some weakness in them that may provoke your corruptions for if you once begin to fall on persecuting to oppose Christ Iesus or his people though you begin with a few first one and then another you will unawares fall into the tide into the streame to
and plagued and punished them and sent the Pestilence into their Cities and families they will not learn but there are other people that will worship Iehovah that will fear the Lord by seeing his judgements on others As David saith When the wicked are taken away as drosse my flesh trembleth for fear of thee I am afraid of thy judgements When he saw the wicked took away as drosse with the fire of Gods judgements he feared Therefore learn not to desire their death onely to pray for them and to believe that all their plottings against the Saints will be as stubble and as chaff they will come to nothing And if the wicked will not learn by seeing God to crosse them as he hath crossed all their designes in our age blessed be his name yet do thou take notice how God went against such people and such a Nation that rose against God God crost and blasted them and be sure that God will do so to the end to all that rise against him and his people Only take notice of Gods ways in the world to fear him and trust in him and to wait for him to come and do what thy soul desireth Expositions and Observations on PSALM 116. I love the Lord because he hath heard my prayer and my supplications Because he hath enclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live The sorrows of death compassed me c. I Promised if the Lord would give me strength to speak a word unto you this afternoone concerning the mercies of God unto us in the victories of Scotland but especially of Bristoll because we have more knowledg of it and more relation to it the most of us And therefore I would briefly from this Psalm take occasion or ground of what I have to speak to you Two things briefly I see here laid down in this Psalm The first is the Psalmist doth expresse the great mercie of God to him in some speciall deliverance And that he doth illustrate by the misery he was in for he was in a very low condition full of tears and prayers and sorrows and his feet were ready to fall so the Lord heard his prayer and delivered him out of his troubles whatsoever they were That is one thing he takes notice of the great mercie of God to him The second is he doth consider what he should do to God now God having delivered him what is his duty For it is a known lesson among us that the mercies of God require somewhat from us though all be by his grace And those are here laid down in the Psalm they are various I will love the Lord I will call upon him while I live I will walk before him in the land of the living and diverse such duties he lays upon himself in consideration of Gods great mercy to him Now I have not time and strength to go over all which are many in the Psalm and therefore I will onely tell you a few thoughts that I have concerning Gods mercie in bestowing Bristoll upon us again and that according to Davids method here which is the most naturall and the most usuall by the Saints First to take notice of Gods goodness in that mercy And secondly to consider what is our duty Concerning the first there are abundance of mercies and kindnesses couched and wrapped up together in that It was not only the taking of a Garrison but there are abundance of mercies in it and mingled with it you Gods mercy in the taking in of Bristoll considered in five respects 1. In regard of the potent opposition especially that are concerned in it and are godly you know but in my eye these are the chiefe that I see and am affected with The first is I look upon the greatnesse of the mercie I see that all were great things in and about it there was no meane inconsiderable thing in it I know it is a great City the second in the Kingdom and I know also there were great works to keep it I know there were great and strong and numerous souldiers in it There were great resolutions in those souldiers And I am sure too there was great miserie in the City among the poor people and round about the City hath been these two yeers the plague scarsity of provision and other things And no man doubts but it is of great consequence if the Lord make it a blessing to us if the Lord sanctifie it it will be of great consequence not only to those parts being the chiefe City in that part of the Kingdom but to this City and to the whole State and Kingdom I see nothing in it but great things And therefore me thinks that he that should do this for us surely he must needs be a great God that pulled down the great pride of that City and the garison in it that must throw down those Bulwarks as it were And therefore let us exalt God let us conceive of God according to his greatnesse for surely he that did that work there no man will doubt or deny that it was God and that God that did it any man that will seriously consider of the work will say he is a great God therefore let us glorifie him in his greatnesse Another thing very observable that we should take 2. In regard of the hazard in storming notice of is that the Lord hath there preserved our friends preserved our Army in such a wonderfull manner in storming that City I have no skill in war but I think there are no people that go about storming but they resolve to lose many a man therefore they will do any thing rather then storme if it may be gotten otherwise and to storme such a City such Forts such strength such a Castle double lined in some parts and to do it by no very great Army neither and that the Lord should please to preserve them that so few should be slaine or wounded it is a wonderfull mercy For truly beloved when there were but a few in the City when the other side sought it they had it not so cheap it cost them the lives of many hundreds of them but this was the Lords goodnesse to his poor people and truly we may say as David doth here he hath inclined his ear to us and heard our prayer Then a third blessing that I take notice of in it is 3. In preserving it from the Pestilence that God should preserve our friends from the pestilence We alway conceived that if they had that City they knew not what to do with it because of the pestilence that might ruine and destroy the Army after they had took it and as we hear though they be in the same houses and quarter where the sicknesse was and have lain in the beds where men have been sick yet we hear little or nothing of the infection coming among them Surely this can be no other but the finger
of God considering how hot and violent it was Then I look upon it further as to consider what 4. In that this succeeded a series of mercies mercies there had gone in a streight line before and how this comes after mercy upon mercy God adding alway greater to the lesse This hath not been Gods way with us hitherto but if God heard us in one mercy he gave us a correction presently if we did get one garrison we lost another if we have one victory we lose another Now that God that is a Zealous God should go on and not see iniquity in his people and passe by their infirmities and should go from on Fort to another and from one garrison to another and bring in this great City to the rest I speak of it because the chief thing in this City is to desire to see the glory of God as Moses did to desire above all things to see God perfect God We know God is perfect and useth not to work by halves but God hath hidden that attribute in a great measure among us He gave us many overtures of mercie but he called for them back again and so presently turned our joy into sorrow It hath been familiar in all his dispensations to us for these two or three yeers Now that the Lord should go on from one thing to another without interruption and cast nothing in by the way to imbitter our mercies and to go from lesse to greater in this manner me thinks the Lord hath shewed himself a perfect God as he did to our fathers before and that is a glorious attribute Besides it is not a little mercie that the Lord hath 5. In respect of a confiding Governour inclined the Parliament to bestow a governour upon that City that they may confide in that is a greater mercy then we can now speak of And truly if you will give me leave to tell you what I think for we may haply judge of Gods mercie in this because of our concernment further then some of you it is a great mercie in our apprehension that the Lord hath cleared his people that came thence For when they came up I remember well of all people that came from any part of the Kingdom as I apprehend pardon me if I misapprehend the Bristoll people and those parts though they received much kindnesse from this City which they are bound with thankfulnesse ever to acknowledg yet they lay under a blurr because they were looked on as faulty and defective and negligent that they lost the City and endangered the Kingdom That truly besides their losses and sufferings that you cannot imagine unlesse you had suffered with them this was not a small affliction to see so many frown on them and to add affliction to affliction as though if they had been more valiant and couragious they might have kept the City and have saved it c. I meddle not with the commanders and governours but I speak of you that are here and the good people of Bristoll that use to be here I say the Lord hath restored the poor people to their home at least though that be naked enough for them and hath taken away their reproach for though we said before that we did what we could to save the City and stood out yet it was generally thought that we might have done more but now it appears to the world that now there were many more then we had at least three for one and there were two yeers works forts and lines built more then there was then and we kept them out three dayes in storming and I hear not that they did one As soon as we lost the City we capitulated so did they as soon as they lost it I say not but that we had weaknesses and it may be from the greatest to the least wanted skill in mannaging it but I know and I should know as much as oneâ— that the people of Bristoll were valiant from the least to the greatest The Lord hath taken away the reproach for whereas all others in the Kingdome were pitied many frowned upon Bristoll men after all their sufferings There are many other things that are not now expedient to insist upon I leave it to your serious consideration And what the goodnesse of God is to us in the victory in Scotland no man though we know it but in generall can be ignorant how that Kingdom being subdued the enemy would have been over us and all the three Kingdoms would have been gone in the eye of reason but God hath sent them seasonable reliefe beyond all expectation A great mercie Now from all this I will tell you my thoughts what you and I should learn First for ever hereafter we should learn patiently to wait upon the Lord when we have made our prayers to him and he hath made his promises to us We had many promises in our eye and we made our prayers but when the Lord gave the City into their hands we thought the promises and our prayers were lost neither did we see or could understand how any thing should become of them but onely shame and reproach For we boasted of God in the Pulpits and in the streets and at our work that the Lord was our God and would help us and yet the Lord turned it against us and there were few of us that had so much grace as to wait patiently on him and to know that though nothing appeared the vision would speak and would not lie But now we are convinced of our folly and we see that God hath fully answered those prayers of Bristoll For those prayers I believe did speak loudest of all the prayers in England in getting that City And I value one of those prayers more then an hundred now for they are old prayers in store stale prayers are good And they were prayers from broken afflicted spirits and believing hearts And now you see how the Lord hath graciously provided food and raiment for his people and done the souls of many of them much good and in due season restored their dwellings and habitations to them Therefore there is a word in Rom. 10. that I did think to open The Apostle there comparing the righteousnesse together he saith ver 5. that the righteousnesse of the law is thus described by Moses The man that doth these things shall live in them That is the language of the law he that doth these things he that keeps the law shall be saved But the righteousnesse of faith the way of faith as the Apostle calls it Gal. 3. or the way of the Gospell speaketh on this wise it hath another kinde of language say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the deep But what saith it The word is nigh thee the word of faith which we Preach That is this is the language of faith that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled all righteousnesse for us And how do we
Gods love in Christ in the free Covenant which Covenant consists in such promises which promises speak to me by such ordinances as this and the Lords Supper c. This is a third way Fourthly and lastly the Saints live by faith that is in all afflictions they do bear up their spirits and are supported 4. It is their support in afflictions by the power of faith upon the word though there be nothing seen and appear A naturall man cannot hold up but sink further then there is some sensible visible thing to hold him up but the just those that are Saints they have an art a mysticall art whereby when they see nothing but have a word wherein God hath promised to do this or that for them they can bear up themselves and so go on as chearfully as if they did enjoy or as if they did see their deliverance Thus Habakkuk we read this proverb verse 1 2 3. The vision is for an appointed time in the end it will speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tary Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith There was a vision that did promise good to this people but this vision must tarry a little it must not be performed presently but they might say how shall we do in the mean while The just shall live by his faith Though there be nothing seen yet notwithstanding they shall bear themselves and carry themselves chearfully and comfortably and contentedly by beholding the truth of the busines and the sweet expectation they have of it as if it were come already You have the proverb repeated by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews in this sense yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry You have need of patience saith the Apostle They were in great afflictions there was a promise that God would help them but what shall we do in the meane while while the grasse grows In the meane while the just shall live by his faith he shall drive on and carry on the work and bear up himself and his spirit and his comfort and all on the word of the Lord and he shall do all this by his faith So that this being the lesson shortly though I be not able yet to clear this fully to you for truly this is a lesson wherein we still shall want light we are not able to see it perfectly it is from faith to faith saith the Apostle That is we come from one degree of faith to another to live by faith there are many kinds many degrees of living by faith Now this is it that I would commend to you and exhort you to that you would seek the Lord and study the Scriptures that you might come to this that you may live by faith First of all in the grosser part of it concerning sanctification that is an easie thing to be understood that you would not regard or weigh any thing in all your profession but what doth come from Iesus Christ by faith Truly much of our Religion is a naturall kinde of Religion and much of that which is like good in us doth not spring from Iesus Christ and whatsoever is not from him will never be accepted by him We have many morall vertues from old Adam that we gild over and account them graces but God loaths them We have many duties that we have taken up in the imitation of others by good education or the power of the letter Preached to us and yet this is not the life of faith it is not holinesse by faith And therefore let us not like many professors study the muchnesse of Religion or the plausiblenesse of it without as that I am able to preach as other preachers do and you are able to pray in a day of humiliation as other professors do this is nothing but let us labour that that little holinesse that is in us may clearly proceed from the Lord Iesus Christ One had better have a Garden of a few true and pleasant Flowers though there be but a few then to have a Garden with some Flowers and a world of trash like Flowers there is no pleasure in it Now I fear that much of thy best duties spring from old Adam much of thy best prayers and much it may be of that Religion whereby thou art accounted a professor much of it I fear is nothing but old Adam and his ruines screwed up and varnished or gilded and not from the Lord Iesus Christ And therefore remember this that as drunkennesse and whoredom and those grosse and scandalous works of darknesse are called dead works so every graine every stamp of good in thee if it be not from the new Adam it is but a dead work I could shew you how you shall know the one from the other but that the time is short and I must not hinder other occasions Therefore I leave that upon your thoughts that you may pray to the Lord Lord I do not care how men conceive of me I care not though I be among the least of all Saints as Paul saith if I be reckoned the least of all Saints so that that little Saint-ship and holinesse that is in me flow from Christ that it be a grace from his grace and light from his light But the other truth is wondrous hard to expresse that we should in respect of justification and assurance learn the Art of living by faith that when the Lord shall take away all comfortable objects of sight and sense that we can see nothing we cannot pray at all we see corruption upon corruption and waves of temptations one upon another and no working within to relieve us that I am able then to live by faith that is to see a righteousnesse in Iesus Christ and to build upon his word and Covenant to hold my self and my assurance still I am a son still everlasting life belongs to me still though I feele and see nothing but hell and something worse if it may be yet notwithstanding I am a Saint and I am righteous and just and the Lord is my father and hath reserved everlasting life for me Beloved the life that Christians ordinarily do live it is a life mingled with faith and sense for if God give me free grace why should not I rejoyce in it If I clearly see the first fruits of the Kingdom of heaven why should I exclude my reason not to conclude that there is more grace behind But there are other Saints that have a mixture of faith and sense that take away sense and their faith is gone their faith is grounded upon sense And I have oft times looked in to my soul and thought why the Lord suffered me to be carryed away with corruptions and to be overwhelmed with temptations whereas he hates these things and I hate them and I weary
Iohn 14. And in the Epistles of Iohn If we call upon God he will hear our prayers and grant our petitions and if you ask any thing in the name of Christ you shall have it You know these things onely I minde you as Peter and the rest of the Apostles often minded them of what they knew already least they should be carried away with the error of the wicked That is one thing it is an Ordinance you see four great pillars under it it hath the Law of Nature there are Precepts and Examples and Promises to perform what we pray for And there are threatnings to those that do it not Curse the Families that call not on thy Name Secondly I said it was an everlasting Ordinance or duty and you may see that three ways First If you look upon the old Testament you shall see there all the people of God they practised it I need not instance in any one place And secondly you will easily grant that if you look upon the times of the new Testament the dawning of it in Christs time for that was the dawning of the new Testament there you see Christ prayed whole nights and before day he was on the mountain seeking God and there are many Parables one in Luke 11. and another here wherein he exhorts his disciples to be earnest with God and though God as it were seem as if he had no minde otherwise to do it yet by the very importunity of prayer for that is the drift of that Parable in Luke 11. and of this the Lord will be intreated Then come after to the times that the new Testament was fully set up you see when Christ was gone to the Holy of Holies there they prayed and called on God continually all those Churches did call upon God there is nothing more clear Nay thirdly for there is the main hint of it in the last times in these times and in later times then these though these be called the last times the glorious times that shall be just at the end of the world the people of God will be a praying people in those days I will give you but one place Zach. 12. that is clear concerning the conversion of the Iews in the last times that they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn every family apart Now the Iews are not yet come in neither are those glorious times yet come to the Iews and Gentiles that shall follow upon their coming yet it is said when they shall come in praying shall be in such request in those days that even the conversation of the Iews is called a pouring on them the spirit of grace and supplication Therefore say not now the last times are come and these are glorious times and we can live immediatly upon God without Ordinances c. No those times are not come and yet when that time is come they shall have a spirit of grace and supplication to call upon God And therefore I beseech you let not the devil steal away any of your Ordinances for I tell you again and again he drives on a wonderful design among you in that respect And of all Ordinances labour to keep Prayer for cast off Prayer and cast off Saintship for to be a Saint and to call on the name of the Lord with a true heart are the same I will call thee no longer a Saint then thou callest on God Therefore notwithstanding all pretences look to that Some object God knows our wants and what need we pray Saith our Saviour Mat. 5. Your heavenly Father knows what you have need of and yet Christ taught them to pray We must manifest our obedience notwithstanding that God will do one thing when we pray for another that is a foolish objection because we know not what is good for us neither how to pray according to the minde of God but if it be according to his minde and for our good God will not deny it to us But the maine Engin that the devil hath to cheat us of this Ordinance is that there were times when there was neede of Ordinances and these beggerly rudiments this is the language of some these carnall Ordinances it is true they were good in the times of the Apostles and those former times but now glorious times are come for Saints to live immediately on God and therefore there is no need of them I told you that when the Iews shall be called there will be need of these Ordinances and though as we grow more perfect in glory so we have less need of them therefore as we are more glorious and have more of the Spirit of Glory in the new Testament then they had in the old so we have fewer Ordinances then they and when we shall come to heaven when she shall be full of glory we shall have no Ordinances for ought I know but yet we have infirmities and the Lord knows what is best for us and we have a great deal of flesh and carnalness and we shall have in a great measure till we be in heaven therefore God in mercy affords us these Ordinances and helps to deal with him and to keep our Communion with him and to live in and from him Therefore I pray you without partiality and prejudice weigh the Word of God whether this be not the Will of God and then take heed how the Devil cheat you of this blessed Ordinance for truly I may say as Christ said Now is the Ax laid to the root to the root of Prayer and if the Devil take away that thou art no more a Saint my life for thine if thou once throw away calling on God Therefore learn that word and endeavor to keep up the Ordinances of God and you that do not but are grown into remisness by the Opinions that are abroad concerning this duty I beseech you renew your care and diligence every one of you in publick and private to seek the Lord. And consider with your selves whether there be not a greater remisness on your spirits then before did you not set your selves oftner and more earnestly apart to seek God before then you do now If it be so in the name of God say as David O how sweet is thy Word by it thy servant is warned Now this is the goodness of God the sweetness of his Word that hath warned thee when thou wert going to undo thy self and to throw thy self away Therefore set thy self to it and let not the sin of others in throwing away of Ordinances make you remiss in using them either throw them away quite or use them as the Ordinances of God for the careless use of Ordinances is abominable to God Expositions and Observations on ROM 6. 14. For ye are not under the law but under Grace FOr ye are not under the Law There are three things in which a Christian is subject to be under the law and so to be scourged by it and if he
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
Leviathan that crooked Serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea In that day sing ye unto her A vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment least any hurt it I will keep it night and day Fury is not in me who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me c. I Shal endevor briefly to pick a lesson or two out of this Chapter In the Chapter before we have many blessed promises that God hath made to his people and that in the times of trouble And many threatnings of the wicked How God will come out against them as he saith Chap. 25. And spred his hands in the midst of them as he that spredeth his hands to swim That is God will extend his wrath and power to destroy the wicked and in the latter end of Chapter 26. The Lord cometh out of his place c. Now the beginning of this Chapter is but an enlargement and illustration of that The Lord will come with his sore and great and strong Sword to punish Leviathan the crooked Serpent and to stay the Dragon in the Sea This Leviathan whatsoever it is which is scarce known onely we read in Job of Leviathan one of the terriblest creatures that God hath made It is conceived to be the Whale but it is uncertain whatsoever it is it is a terrible creature The wicked that persecute the Saints are called Leviathan the piercing crooked Serpent That is those Gods vengeance against the wicked great enemies of Gods people those venemous cruel enemies those crooked deceitful enemies of Gods people he will come with his great and sore and strong sword to destroy them So we see be the enemies of God never so great never so cruel or never so cunning the Lord will destroy them He hath a great strong sore sword He hath a great sword in opposition to their greatness he hath a strong sword in opposition to their strength and he hath a sore sword in opposition to their cruelty Therefore O that God would teach you this lesson A ground of our confidence Let your confidence get above the greatest enemies in this world What though men be wise and crooked as Solomon saith there were three things that he knew not one was The way of a Serpent upon a Rock Though men be so cunning to betray the Church that they cannot be traced no more then a ship in the Sea or a crooked Serpent on a Rock yet let your faith get on the top of them Say not they are great but there is a greater then they God will bring them down and bring them to confusion That is one thing In that day sing to her A vineyard of Red Wine I the Lord will keep it I will water it every moment I will keep it night and day This vineyard is the Church and people of God I will not stand upon it why it is called a vineyard He calls it so principally because the people of God are a fruitful people One sinner destroyeth much good and one Saint doth much good Were it not for a few Saints you may let all your Armies and Courts and every thing go There is no good in the world besides there are a few Saints and they are fruitful And also because God preserves them and keeps them because of the Lords care I the Lord keep it I water it every moment least any should hurt it I keep it night and day See how God expresseth his tenderness and care of his blessed art thou and I if we be of them The Lord keeps and preserves them and he will do it with all care The Lord keeps not his Vineyard as we keep his Commandments and Ordinances and the things that belong to him The Lord expresseth his care of his Vineyard by the greatest expressions of care that any creature hath therefore he saith he keeps them as the apple of his eye That made David boldly ask Lord keep me as the apple of thine eye And the Prophet Isai h saith He keeps them as a little bird that sits over her young A Bird is a fearful creature and yet if you come to take away her young ones she will flie in your face Beloved though we think the Lord mindes us not yet he hath a wonderful tender unspeakable care in preserving us And I will water them every moment Vineyards are hot and must be watered or else they will be scorched by the Sun So our souls unless they were watered continually they would be scorched up What is this water The Holy Spirit I will pour water upon the dry ground That is I will pour my Spirit upon your souls We are so apt to wast our graces every day unless God give us a new stock And the earth in Spain and Italy and those hot Countries is not apter to drink water then our hearts are to devour and make havock of all the grace of God And were it not for the blessed constant supply that God gives of his Spirit the best Saint in twenty four hours would be as bad as a carnal man It may be thou hast a little quickening of God in thy soul but yet God must water them every moment Fury is not in me who would set the bryars and the thorns against me in battel I would goe through them c. God expresseth his goodness to his people One would think it was a wonder God did not destroy them No saith God Anger is not in me For who would set bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them This is the reason that God doth not destroy thee and me not because we are not sinful but because we are so wretched if he should contend with us he would destroy us presently Saith God All the imaginations of mans heart are evil therefore I will destroy the earth no more It is the nobleness of Gods nature that nobleness that is in us is but a poor thing it is but a resemblance of that at the best it is the nobleness of Gods nature he will not destroy a creature that is too weak and too small for him Therefore of Niniveh God saith There were so many that knew not their right hand from their left therefore he would not destroy them So our littleness moves the Lord to spare us when our wickedness would make him to destroy us The Lord is a consuming fire Put a little stubble or thorns and bryars before the fire and it will consume them O blessed God! that takes any argument to save his creature And O wretched Creatures we that will take no argument to serve and obey him If there be any good in us he makes that an argument if that be not there yet
people and eying the judgments of the Lord and eying what comfort on the otherside God gave to any among them The Prophets I say were towers and should be still They are called trumpets here I will send a trumpet and cause it to blow but the people will not hearken They are watchmen to give warning to the people so they should be I leave it to you to judg for you know the state of this place better then I whether we be so or no. The next thing in this Chapter is The state of Ierusalem what kinde of place it was I mean in respect of the building of it and the scituation of it for I mean to gather up the whole Chapter in a little method take it as it is described Verse 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman His meaning is not for any spiritual beauty in her as appears in the whole Chapter but in an outward sense in respect of scituation and gallant building it was a magnificent place and no man was able to count the towers about it It was a stately gallant place and therefore was like a delicate woman A stately place full of case and pleasure and trading and good creatures and altogether exact as a delicate Gentlewoman nothing was wanting so Ierusalem was and yet for all that you afterwards see how the Lord did deal with her So by the way let me tell you this for I speak in the sight of God That the greatness of your City the fairness of it the riches of which you were wont to boast how you did rule all Kingdoms besides you could make Kings and Parliaments and do any thing you have such Ships and Towers and Armies and Armed men you see what God saith of Ierusalem when he was going to destroy her I have likened her to a fair delicate woman and yet all could not excuse her If the Lord come against you all your riches and power and trading and gallantry cannot excuse you Thirdly Here is all the good in Ierusalem the Religion and godliness the Lord acknowledgeth that too and the Lord will not forget any good thing among them that you shall see in Verse 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far country your burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet unto me Ierusalem did not forget the service of God they had their worship and sacrifice and they had sweet Cane from Sheba The Lord complains in Isaiah 42. that the people did bring him no sweet Cane it was their maner in their sacrifice I acknowledg saith God you have a great deal of Religion and you talk of Reformation among you and Government and Discipline and I know not what yet notwithstanding this shall not hinder but for all your villanies and wickedness this is the City to be visited for all this It is not a little grain of Wheat that can cover a Mountain of Chaff It is not a little formal fained hypocritical service of God and a quarter and talking and a clutter about Reformation that can hinder the proceedings of God against a people that are really sinful and that have really and grievously revolted The fourth thing here laid down though promiscuously that I shall endevor to gather up for you orderly it is the sins of Ierusalem I shall speak of no more then is laid down here and they are in this place four Here are four great sins that God mentioneth The first is the oppression observe that word in Verse 6. For thus hath the Lord of Hosts said This is the City to be visited she is wholly oppression in the midst of her He saith not There is oppression in the middest of her or in her but she is wholly oppression As if he had said She is built with oppression her very fabrick is oppression She is oppression it self oppressing the poor and the Saints and the upright in heart there is nothing but railing against and slandering of them as we see after Now the Lord opens that She was oppression that you may know the meaning of it he tells you after As a fountain casteth out her waters so she casteth out her wickedness violence and spoyl is heard in her before me continually is grief and wounds saith the Lord. She is oppression as a fountain casteth forth water What is a fountain It is a hole in the Earth that casts out water so saith the Lord I see nothing in Ierusalem from one day to another from one yeer to another and from one end of the City to another but oppression I see one oppress another I see it full of wounds and griefs and bruises especially to my poor Saints there is nothing but oppression And I leave you to judg this day whether this City at this time be not so She is wholly oppression from the least to the greatest there is almost nothing else to be seen Then the second sin the Lord layes down is in Verse 13. That every one is given to covetousness Mark that word and let every one of your own consciences apply it For from the least even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness O this covetousness there can be no Reformation either in Church or Common-wealth as things are because of covetous people If there be any good course taken by Magistrates to reform any business in Courts or Offices because of the covetousness of people the business is marred you all know it And so far outward Reformation of Churches and the like because of covetousness you all know that the business of Reformation is marred Ministers have lost themselves There are many godly men that had room in the hearts of Gods people some in this City and in the Assembly that had room in the hearts of Gods people before these times and before they had all things in their own hands and became reformers of the Church now because of covetousness all is marred that no business can be looked upon Now the Lord look upon us and indeed though we see not him he sees us and looks on us Then the third sin is laid down in Verse 13 14. that is The false dealing of the Prophets the Ministers From the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth falsly How is that They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace The Prophets deal falsly they are become hypocrites they tell the people they are in a gallant way of Reformation when the Lord knoweth both according to Scripture and sound Reason they are in the way to destruction they tell them now the Church and Reformation is going up when the poor Kingdom was never in such a sad condition They deal falsly that is hypocritically What a stir is there here about Schismaticks and Hereticks and about Reformation and what consulting and working in the City