in their addresses to him Yea indeed the regard of the publique Interest should swallow up the regard of private Interest in all those that would finde good acceptance with God as it did in Moses when God threatned See Exod. 32. 9. c. And the Lord said unto Moses I have seen this people and behold it is a stiffe-necked people Deut. 9. 18 19. c. And I fell down before the Lord as at the first forty daies and forty nights I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all your sins which ye sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also And in David 2 Sam. 24. 17. And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the Angel that smote the people and said Loe I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done Let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my Fathers house For affection toward Gods people may be supposed as wrapping under it some respect also to the Name and Honour of God lest it should suffer in their ruine and destruction Note for this some of Moses his expressions c. 3. It must be a Fear that is troubled as well at the sins which are the causes of Gods threatnings as at the threatnings themselves and so it must be a holy Fear as was this Prophets witness the beginning of his Prophesie For as the sting of death is sin so the sting of every punishment and affliction is sin to such as have a right feeling 4. It must be a Fear that doth not drive away from God but carry the party possessed with it to God Not a fear fil'd with diffidence and despair but with hope of Divine mercy And so not a fear according to the stamp of the first Adam who when he had sinned hearing the voice of the Lord in the Garden was afraid and hid himself Gen. 3. 19. but a fear well beseeming the followers of the second Adam Principled in Faith and so inclining to seek to God by Prayer as knowing there is no way to flee from God but to God from his wrath but to his mercy And this operation we find here this fear had in the Prophet Applic. All the use of this Point that I commend unto you Beloved shall be by way of Exhortation First To consider if we have not at this day such a voice or speech of God in our ears as may make us afraid True we have no such Prophets among us as Habakkuk for ought I know to see burdens in way of extraordinary Vision and to declare them But know we that God threatens really as well as verbally and menaces may be gathered from his Providences as well as from his Prophesies And those sad threatnings which are denounced primarily and directly but to one Nation or People are appliable in some proportion to other Nations or People of like condition for guiltiness Briefly then take we a review whether ought of the Prophets speech before to God or of Gods speech by him be applicable to the people we relate unto that we may perceive whether we have cause to be afraid 1. Look we into the first complaint of the Prophet touching the sins of the people He complaines that spoiling and violence are before him and there are that raise up strife and contention Chap. 1. 3. that the Law is slacked and judgement goeth not forth but wrong judgement proceedeth verse 4. And is there nothing of like complaint that may be made among us 2. Look next unto the threatned sad condition of the Jews under the prevailing power of the Chaldeans beginning at ver 5. consider whether I will not say any such things have been brought in upon us but whether we may not justly for our sins have such brought in upon us May we not justly fear to hear of such a work wrought in our dayes as to move all to regard and wonder marvellously as scarcely to be believed though it be told us May we not justly fear to hear of some bitter and hasty Nation marching through the breadth of the Land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs And may we not fear to hear of such as are described Chap. 1. ver 8. 9 10 11. Their horses also are swifter than the Leopards and are more fierce than the evening wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from far they shall fly as the Eagle that hasteth to eat They shall come all for violence their faces shall sup up as the East winde and they shall gather the captivity as the sand And they shall scoffe at the Kings and the Princes shall be a scorn unto them they shall deride every strong hold for they shall heap dust and take it Then shall his mind change and he shall passe over and offend imputing this his power unto his God 3. Look again into the second complaint of the Prophet beginning at verse 12. of the first Chapter where the Prophet expostulates with God why the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than himself c. and may we not justly fear to finde men made as the fishes of the Sea and as the creeping things that have no Ruler over them to finde men catching others with the Angle and with the Drag and then sacrificing to their Nets and burning incense to their Drag c. 4. Look lastly upon the judgments denounced upon the enemies of Gods people and consider for what causes and withall whether we have not cause to fear being among some that commit such sins A woe is denounced against the Chaldean because he enlarged his desire as Hell and could not be satisfied but increased that which was not his and how long It is threatned that they should rise up suddenly that should bite him and awake that should vex him c that the remnant of the people should spoile him because he had spoiled many c. Chap. 2. 6 7 8. A woe is denounced against him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to his house that he may set his nest on high and be delivered from the power of evill Ibid. ver 9. Woes also are denounced against bloody builders and against ranting drunkards as well as superstitious foolish Idolaters afterward in that Chap and may we not fear sitting among such persons as are under such woes Have not we cause to fear the voice of the rod Micah 6. 9. as well as of the Word I suppose ye grant it 2. Therefore in the next place I exhort you to examine whether ye fear as ye should and to take on such a fear and trembling at the words and working of the great God as is meet Even such a fear as may draw towards God and drive
heavy threatnings and curses which are denounced against several sorts of persons in it When it was that he saw this burden that is when he received it from the Lord in a Prophetick-Vision or when he held it forth to be seen of the people of God by a Prophetick publication is not precisely certain No doubt it was not long before the captivity of the Jews by the Chaldeans and so either in or after the raign of Manasseh but more probably a good while after it than under it yea to me it seems not improbable that it was about the beginning of Zedekiahs reign after the So Danaeus Jews had tasted somewhat of the bitterness and hastiness of the Chaldeans in carrying away Jehoiakim toward Babylon though they had not yet gone through the breadths of the Land nor compleated the captivity of the Jews as they did not many years after But let this be left indifferent to the Learned to open at pleasure The Contents of this Book are held forth mainly in three parcels according to the division of it into three Chapters In the first we finde the sad condition of the Jews their perverse disobediences and present impunity seeming burdenous to the Prophet himself the people of God at that time though much degenerated laid down partly by way of complaint made to God partly by way of menacing from God that he would in a strange manner bring them under the power of the Chaldeans And then upon the Prophets Deprecation that God would not utterly destroy his people but chastise them in measure especially since he took those whom God was about to make as the rod in his hand and the instrument of scourging to be worse then they who were to be scourged In the second Chapter after the Prophets professed standing upon his watch to hear what the Lord will answer him we finde he had an answer by way of vision tending to the comfort of Gods people but such as they were to wait for till the appointed time that the vision was to speak that is till it should be manifested effectually For all that are just and upright before God are to live by faith and that faith to shew it self in a waiting tarrying patience And that excellent Principle The just shall live by faith we may finde three times alledged in the New Testament viz. Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3. 11. Heb. 10. 38. Now the Contents of that comfortable Vision concerned the downfall and ruine of the Chaldeans the wicked enemies of Gods people and that for their unsatiable pride and ambition and covetousness and cruelty and drunkenness and Idolatry But beloved God looks to be sought unto for the fulfilling of all his praedictions in behalf of his Church and people Therefore In this third Chapter we finde the holy Prophet framing a Prayer in the behalf of the Church and for the use of the Church doubtless in after-times And accordingly Luther notes it as a Prayer or Song for it is metrical in the Hebrew and set for Musical Instruments which hath been in quotidiano usu per omnia passim templa in daily use almost in all Churches though saith he most commonly as Nunns read the Psalter without understanding Now the Contents of this Prayer lies summarily in Petitions concerning the Church of God and in grounds of those Petitions taken chiefly from former demonstrations of Gods power and mercy and mercy toward his Church and in professed confidences and rejoycings upon those assuring grounds Therefore I shall not spend time in a punctual Analysis of it nor speak any thing of the Inscription of it in the first verse only this we may note that as it was set or composed according to variable tunes in the Hebrew called Shigionoth as our Learned Translators gloss it so may it be made use of on various occasions by Gods people And as this Prophet sealed up the Doctrine of the life of Faith in this Prayer by the exercise and demonstration of it so should we do in making any accommodation of it unto the Churches present occasions Sect. This second Use which I have taken for my present subject matter to treat of holds forth the grand request of the Prophet and which he most intended in this Prayer and that indeed which all that follows in it referrs unto either in the nature of argument that it should be granted or of consequent upon the supposed grant of it The whole verse contains 1. A preparative of â—ear in the way of address to God O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid 2. A Prayer of Faith and this Prayer brancheth it self into two or three Petitions 1. O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years 2. In the midst of the years make known 3. In wrath remember mercy Petitions that are of near affinity one to the other and full of Emphasis in the expressions For the first is the chief and primary The second may be taken to be but an enforcement of the first by a Rhetorical Anadiplosis or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking up again these terms In the midst of the years and adding only make known somewhat abruptly yet so as by an easie reference we may gather his meaning to be Make known thy reviving or revived work And the third implies the same thing only involves an Argument from the nature of God to urge the forementioned as we may hear in the Sequel Sect. Begin we with the Preparative of Fear O Lord I have head thy speech and was afraid What speech means he Not the speech or fame or report that is of thee though the Original word Sual so signifies but the speech that hath been spoken by thee And that as partly concerning the Calamities thou hast threatned to bring upon the Jews and partly concerning the destruction thou hast threatned to the Chaldeans And hearing this I was afraid What you may say afraid of the judgements of God denounced against the Chaldeans the enemies of the people of God It s even of them Ne Judaeos etiam in Babylone captivos involvat clades Chaldaeorum omnino deleat saith A Lapide Lest the Iews also should be wrapped in the same bundle of destruction with the Chaldeans being found resident among them and so be utterly ruined together with them Now touching his Fear after what manner he was affected we may gather by what was said after at verse 16. where he makes recognition of his temper before he had prayed and gathered strength and confidence upon the remembrance of Gods wonderful workings Therefore when I heard lo my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entred into my bones The passions he was struck into were very great and the trouble of his Spirit and the Symptomes of it upon him were very terrible though all tending to good c. Well Obs We have here to observe that The best of Gods servants are and ought to be affected with
put on incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the Congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people And he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed Psal 30. 5. For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning and 138. 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me And therefore in the midst of the years of the afflictive sense of Gods anger there may be expectation of a mercifull reviving therefore in the midst of the cords and bonds of servitude there may be expectation of a merciful breaking of them Et ubi funis tenacissimus fuerit rumpitur Where the cord is stiffest and strongest there it is broken suddenly saith Luther when God is pleased to shew mercy Use 1 Use 1. This Point serves first to stir us upto a comfortable exercise of Faith that God would be pleased to revive his work in the midst of these years c. Why what years are they I cannot say they are years of Gods peoples servitude or captivity under the Chaldeans or Egyptians blessed be God for those freedoms and liberties which are yet left unto us But we are in the midst of years of dissentions even among brethren of divisions and distractions of hearts and wayes of wars and bloody hostilities between the professed Members of the Church of Christ of various concussions and shakings of Foundations of confusions of tongues tenents and practices of eruptions and overflowings of errors and blasphemies of contempts cast upon Gods Ministers and Ordinances and dissentions or shatterings in pieces of Church Assemblies in manifold places In a word we are in the midst of these years wherein it seems to me God hath dealt or is dealing with our Nation as he threatned to deale with Jerusalem in 2 Kin. 21. 13. when withall he threatned to make that people a prey and spoile to their enemies I will wipe Jerusalem said he as a man wipeth a dish wiping it and turning it upside down God hath been wiping us and wiping us and in an overly way of cleansing and purging us but is he not so doing it as he is turning us upside down Surely then beloved we are in the midst of those years wherein we need to pray that God would revive his work and make it known and in wrath remember mercy True it is we know not what periods God hath determined to such years as we are in we see not our signs we have not any foretelling Prophets as the Psalmist complained Psal 74. â— Wee see not our signs there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long It is not therefore with us as with the Jews Jer. 25. 12. And it shall come to passe when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that Nation saith the Lord for their iniquity and the Land of the Chaldeans and will make it perpetuall desolations And 29. 10. For thus saith the Lord That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place Nor have we like grounds of duty as Daniel had Dan. 9. 2 3. In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years wherof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes Yet this we may and ought to do 1. Hold to the general grounds and principles of faith 1. Believe that God hath revived his people in the midst of far sadder years than we have yet seen according to foregoing instances and others that might be given And 2. Believe and therefore the rather that God can revive his work in the most seeming difficult cases And 3. Believe that God will not forsake his own work to leave it to ruine or under imperfection and a languishing condition continually And 4. Believe that God is of such infinite mercy that in wrath he will remember it c. But I commend that of Bernard to consideration as an approved truth Deus olcum misericordiae ponit in vase fiduciae But then 2. We must not faile to do what we in this Congregation are solemnly in doing this day viz. we must ply God by prayers For we know that whatever God determines to his people though they know he hath determined it yet he requires and expects his people should seek unto him concerning it See Ezek. 36. 37. therefore did Daniel so pray c. Much more ought we in cases wherein we have no circumstantial grounds of assurance c. that we may obtain at length assurance and establishment 2. This may serve more specially to stir up to seek God for a reviving of his work of Reformation in the Church in the midst of these years of disturbance and hinderance of it For my part I take that to have been the work of God which was set afoot some years since in this Nation for a Reformation in our Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline But how hath it now and that for a good while lien still almost and how hath it been cast back How have close counter-workers undermined it and open enemies opposed it how miserably is it defaced How do some Deformations out-face it And how do scoffers mock at it like those Samaritans Nehem. 4. 2. will these few Jews revive the stones out of the the heaps of the rubbish c And we could point at the causes of all this Mainly The not countenancing and furthering of the work of Civil Authority But beloved if it be Gods work begun for his people as many of us here I presume doubt not but it is we may believe it shall be revived and perfected sooner or later against all unlikelihoods And accordingly we may pray that in the midst of the years of unlikelihood it may be revived that instead of having our Land darkned over us in the clear day and our Sun set at noon a curse denounced Amos 8. 9. light may arise unto the Church in the midst of obscurity c. Isa 58. 10. and so strength be raised in the midst of weaknesse and livelinesse spring up in the midst of dying languishings We may use that argument in respect of this work which the people of God And the work hath had but a little reviving as Ezra 9.
fear and trembling at the denunciation of Gods judgements and especially at the Prognosticks and signals of dangers and miseries hanging over the Church and people of God My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements so David Psal 119. 120. Good King Jehoshaphat having certain intelligence of grear Forces of combined Enemies preparing against him and Gods people he feared 2 Chr. 20. 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah And such a feare well tempered ought to be found in them upon such occasion and that most rationally For consider with me I beseech you 1. The speech and voice of God when it is but preceptive onely and in the way of commanding is enough to strike his people with fear as it may be presented to them in a Majestick manner So it did at Mount Sinai when God delivered his Law to his people though then they stood upon good terms with him For there is a dreadfulness ever in the Soveraign Majestique Presence of God See Psal 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Much rather then when he utters himself in the way of threatnings of judgments which are most fit to beget fears in the soul 2. We know that the very goodnesse of God and his pardoning mercy should work the soul about by the way of love unto a Reverential and Cautionary Fear of offending him Psal 130. 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared How much more properly then may the severity of God and his menaced judgements cause a trembling fear in them whom they concern 3. We finde God offended at men and those of his own people not only for formal sinfull matters of provocation but even for not fearing as they should and not trembling before him in the way of his judgements So with Judah I saw saith he when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not c. Jer. 3. 8. So with the remnant of Judah during the Captivity in Babylon who went down into Egypt For God threatned them for having forgotten the wickedness of their Fathers and for not being humbled at that day nor having feared c. Jer. 44. 9 10. 4. And on the contrary we finde God in a just expectal of this fearfull trembling disposition at the voice of his threatnings and judgements and well pleased with it The Lion hath roared who will not fear Amos 3. 8. Shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be afraid Jude ver 6. To this man will I look saith God even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Isa 66. 2. Quest But what manner of fear and trembling at Gods threatnings may this be which is required Doth not the Scripture say that The righteous man shall not be afraid of evill tidings because his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112. 7. And doth not the Scripture divers times forbid and reprove the people of God for their fear of enemies and oppressors and a sad and calamitous condition under them Who art thou saith God that art afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man that shall be made as grass c and that hast feared continually because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy c. Psal 51. 12 13. Answ It must be granted there is a great deale of fear that the poor people of God are subject unto in this life which is and may most justly be interdicted and forbidden to them and checked in them by the Spirit of God as being inordinate and sinfull in sundry respects and yet it must be held that there is a fear of threatned judgements from God which is not onely indulged to them but falls under duty There is a great deale of base slavish fear in the ground of it of excessive fear in the degree of it and of either preposterous or otherwise unseasonable fear in the time of it as it then works unseasonably when God after a time of long publick triall and affliction discovers himself by sundry tokens and evidences ready to comfort his people And so in that place mentioned in Isa 51 12 13. See the Context thereabout But while God speaks terrible things unto his his people they ought to fear Provided that their feare be thus qualified 1. It must be a Fear that hath the great God properly for its Object and not the Creature I take it to be generally observable in the holy Scripture that God finds not fault with his people or any other for fearing him no not meerly in regard of his power and wrath as King of Nations See Jer. 10. 7. Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee And Psal 90. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy favour Isa 19. 16. In that day shall Egypt be like unto women and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of Hosts which he shaketh over it But for fearing the Creature suppose the instrument he useth of his wrath or punishing displeasure is that werein the base degeneration of humane fear lieth that men look not at or consider not the chief Efficient and Meritorious causes of judgment threatned but the matter of it the Instruments of it only And so not at the hand of God in it and his displeasure stirred up by sin but at the hand of man or other Creatures executing it and the matter of loss or smart in it Their fear is not before the Name of God Mal. 2. 5. but before the names and faces of men Now this is base and quite contrary to the temper that God requireth who in case of judgements or dangers would not have sensual but spiritual considerations taken on for they that know Gods Name aright should learn by an holy Chimistry as it were to abstract a spirituall fear of the Creator from the carnall feare of Creatures and preserve that fear by them 2. It must be a Fear that riseth not onely out of Self-love as apprehensive only of personal dangers But a fear that ariseth from true brotherly charity born towards the community of Gods People and apprehensive of Divine anger kindled against them and of dangers toward them This Prophet feared in the behalf of the people and prayed in behalf of the people of God and not of himself either only or chiefly Publique respects should outweigh private in all that would be accepted of God
to take knowledge of it as an instance for proof of a reviving work of God and surely the most eminent of all other to spiritual consideration For certainly look how much their deliverance out of Babylon surpassed that out of Egypt so much and more doth this spiritual deliverance by Christ surpasse that out of Babylon Jer. 16. 14 15. and 23. 6 7 8. Therefore behold the dayes come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said The Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt But The Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel from the Land of the North and from all the Lands whither he had driven them and I will bring them again into their Land that I gave unto their Fathers In his dayes Judah shull be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his Name whereby he shall be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNES Therefore behold the dayes come saith the Lord that they shall no more say The Lord liveth which brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt But The Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the North Countrey and from all Countreys whither I had driven them and they shall dwell in their own Land And this is intimated to be so strange and wonderfull that the former should not be remembred in comparison Isa 43. 18 19. Remember not the former things neither consider the things of old Behold I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert And this is the Grandmother and ground-work of such special deliverances of the people of God in sundry quarters since experienced as appeared and of which it might be said as of the threatned punishment of his people before Chap. 1. 5. Behold ye and regard and wonder marvellously for God worketh such a work in your dayes which ye will not believe though it be told you c. Reasons Sect. But from Instances come we to Reasons and there are so many insinuated in our Text as we need not at present look further for more 1. God may be relied on for reviving grace in a dead condition because he is the Lord Jehovah Almighty to give a being unto what he pleaseth as the being of beings and therefore able as to give a being unto his threatnings to actuate them as the just ground of fear before so to give a being unto his promises and speeches of grace as the ground of hope We say sometimes of men that they are good to help at a dead lift yet finde them often failing our greatest expectations but that can be said of none in comparison of God And therefore we may believe because this makes for the glory of his power This was Abrahams ground of believing he should have a childe by Sarah He being fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able to perform therefore he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadnesse of Sarah's womb nor staggered at Gods promise but was strong in faith giving glory to God Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. 2. Because the work here supposed to be revived is Gods own work as we heard Now it stands upon the glory of his wisdome to preserve and sustaine his own special work and not to let it fall and die under his hand and not to leave it in the midst unfitted unfurnished Therefore was that Prayer of the Psalmist Psal 138. 8. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me thy mercy O Lord endureth for ever forsake not the works of thine own hands And therefore is that application made to God by the Prophet Jer. 14. 8 9. Oh the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble wherefore shouldest thou be a stranger in the Land Why as a man astonied Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy Name thy work leave us not Apply that other also in Isa 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou hast wrought all our works in us c. 3. Because it concerns the glory of Gods goodnesse and mercy And it is his most excellent nature in the the midst of wrath to remember mercy as we finde in the last clause of our Text. By the way enquire we Is there any wrath or furious indignation in God properly No He is not subject to such passions as man is Fury is not in him Isa 27. 4. The just and severe execution of punishments is called his wrath c. Then why is his wrath said to be somewhat stirred up against his people We answer Gods wrath relates rather to the sins than to the persons of his people The opposition rising in him is not properly against his own work or people but against Sathans work in them or their own evil works And secondly the stirring of his wrath or anger argues rather their apprehension and sense who feele smart and affliction than his affection stirred up against them who doth but as a Chirurgian or a Father handle roughly and correct his own for their good Now hence we may the better conceive how 't is said in way of Petition Lord in wrath remember mercy And this we are to conceive as an eminent excellency in God above the Creature that in wrath he can and will remember mercy towards his own workmanship his Church his people How remember By a merciful change of his work of Providence and so giving real arguments of a mercifull remembrance Now this the poore impotent creature cannot do when it is in passion Man is subject to forget himself and forget mercy in his wrath and fury nor can he stop and cease suddenly in his hot executions and turn his course because he hath not his passions at such a check or command but God can never forget himself and he can easily hold up his severest executions See Exod. 32. 11. to 14. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said Lord Why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou hast brought forth out of the Land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people Remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants to whom thou swarest by thine own self and said'st unto them I will multiply your seed as the stars of Heaven and all this Land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it for ever Numb 16. 46 47 48. And Moses said unto Aaron Take a censer and put fire therein from off the Altar and
8. used or was used for them in respect of their Land Isa 63. 17 18. The people of thy holinesse have enjoyed it but a while and in a small scantling c. But to draw to a conclusion 3. Would we have God revive this work for his people Then we must pray also that God would revive his work in his people and with it his people themselves and each of us is to look that it be revived in himself What work is this First The life of Faith in the main Remember The just shall live by Faith Chap. 2. 4. that is Faith shall be a principle of life exercising many lively acts in them and they shall attain to the life of Restauration and Comfort by believing Gods promises And therefore we are not to lie down in any dejections or despondences of mind through distrust of Gods power or promises in any case that may conduce most to his glory in his peoples good Secondly The Spirit of prayer for the reparation of Zion the spiritual restorement of the Church for when the Lord shall stir up his servants more generally and heartily to pray with melting compassionate affections toward the spiritual dilapidations deformities of his Churches it will be a good sign that the set time to favor his Zion is come See Psal 102 13 14. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof 3ly Resolutions for best endeavours in behalf of the work of Reformation This concerns you all beloved in your several places and therefore to be far from being obstructors of it through worldly and carnal ends instead of being its promoters and advancers and they that have pretended to build with Gods people when they have intended to hinder as they in Ezra 4. 2 3. God will discover them But more especially this concerns you my reverend and much respected Brethren of the Provincial Assembly to look that you put forth revived spirits toward this work If that were true sano sensu Jupiter quos servare vult suscitat then 't is as true eos per quos servare vult c. If God quicken up those whom he will save then those by whom he will save others instrumentally O let us therefore through grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the gifts and graces of God in us let us quicken up our selves to use all counsels and endeavours for the furtherance of Gods Church-work and joyntly attend upon and prosecute all those good means according to our trust undertaken whereby it may be carried on forward waiting on God for the issues of all our prayers and all our endeavours which shall seem best to his heavenly wisdom However events shall fall out to us in our time resolve as our Prophet doth infer ver 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation FINIS Christs counsel to the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 11. Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown THese are a parcel of the words of Christ immediately directed unto the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia but mediately to that whole Church and every Member of it yea intended for the good of other Churches also and therefore of ours For he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches It is the common Epiphonema which our Lord subjoyns to all his Epistles unto those Asian Churches written according to the dictate of his spirit by the pen of his Apostle John in the second and third Chapters of this Book He would have every one that hath an hearing ear to lend his attention to that which is spoken by his spirit to what Church soever in that such is the general nature of all Churches and Church-Members as either they do or may stand in need of all such divine admonitions as are addressed occasionally to any of them Now whether those seven particular Churches written unto by our Lord in this Context were Types of several Churches of several constitutions and temperaments and conditions to follow in after-times by divine providence I will forbear to assert positively though I cannot but say what I think that the invention of one of our own Worthies was very bright and clear in finding out those suitable correspondencies between these seven and others succeeding down to this present age respectively Now for that Church in Philadelphia to which my Text is part of that which was written this is remarkable concerning it that it that of Smyrna were the only Churches of all the seven which our Lord Christ openly reproved not at all wheras he found something reproveable in all the rest as on the other side it is remarkable concerning that of the Laodiceans that it was the only Church of the seven which Christ commended not at all whereas he took notice of something commendable in all the rest and why this not because there was nothing faulty or imperfect in those of Smyrna and Philadelphia but to shew how much the Lord favoureth humble modesty nor because there was nothing good in that of Leodicea but to shew how much the Lord disliketh proud vain-glory But I wave such general Observations I draw nigh to the words read unto Sect. you And not to take up any of our time with an exact Analysis of Christ his Epistle to Philadelphia because I shall go near to draw all the lines from the utmost circūstance of it into the center of my Text know only that after he had given testimony to the present good that was in her ver 8. and assurance of after goodness he would shew to her ver 9 10. both in subduing disguised Adversaries and in preserving her under temptations he comes in the words I have hinted upon to exhort her unto duty upon a double motive The duty is To to hold fast that which she had Brevis est hortatio sed Emphatica valde Pareus The first motive which is placed in the front is taken from the speedinesse of Christ his coming behold I come quickly The second which follows in the rear is from the possibility of danger upon neglect of that duty that no man take thy Crown First of the duty Touching which take up this Observation that It concerns the best of Gods Obser Churches and people to hold fast that which they have I purpose to handle this Point which is the principal in the Use so as ye shall perceive it reacheth not only Church-Officers but also Church-members and those of what condition soever this duty being of universal concernment to
calls upon us to hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering without declining or tottering any way therefore in a fixed and firmly setled manner Heb. 10. 23. 2. Vigorous putting forth of strength in the way of contestation with others for the maintenance and defence of Truth and Purity of Doctrine and Worship and holy Government and practice so farre as is warrantable in a regular way We are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free that we be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage Gal. 5. 1. Quest But what need is there of such strong actings to hold fast Truth and Holinesse Answ There is need of some strength in a double respect 1. To hold up against inward faintings and languishings We know that every thing is ready to fall and drop out of our hands when our natural spirits faile within us and we are faine to take Cordials sometimes to strengthen our stomacks to retain what is taken down which otherwise either through nauseousness or other weaknesse would be quickly cast up again So it is too often in the case of the failing of gracious spirits in Christians through spiritual faintings they are too ready to let fall divers truths of God and to stick in the profession of them and to let fall practical exercise of holiness and 〈◊〉 let dissolve away the regular assemblings of themselves together And all this either through a nauseating wearinesse of such things by the great gathering of ill humours or through some causelesse fearfull pusillanimous apprehensions And therefore said Christ to the Church at Sardis ver 2. strengthen the things that remain which are ready to dye The remaining good things in a Church of Christ are sometimes through the weaknesse of inward Principles ready to languish and dye away and therefore need be strengthened Again there is need of strength 2ly To retain against external violences or forcible attempts of others to wring from Christ what they hold of good or to make them fling it away or shake it off from them Robore hic opus esse judicat quia plurima sunt quae fidelibus haec dona excutere possunt nisi tenere omnibus modis contendant saith Pareus in locum We might be encouraged by many examples of Martyrs yea some Heathen may be alluded to as that of Attilius the Roman who fighting for a Ship at Sea held fast on her with one hand after another till both were cut off Valer. Max. another whose hands were off held fast with his teeth so christians should mordicus tenere But I shall have occasion to speak more of this point by and by under one of the Motives in the Context Quest But it may be asked again What need the people of God be charged with care of duty of this nature since there be such precious promises made unto them that the Lord will keep them and preserve them and his graces in them so that they shall never depart or fall away from him nor ever be plucked out of his hand but be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation See Jer. 32. 40. Joh. 10. 28 29. 1 Pet. 1. 5. They that belong to the Lord shall retaine that which shall bring them or suffice to accompany them to everlasting glory and happiness and why then need they be solicitous about holding fast that which they have Answ We have to answer divers things First For particular persons even such as are elect and called and perswaded too of their interest in such precious promises they notwithstanding these promises are obliged by command from God to look to their own self-spiritual preservation and that in a subserviency to Gods providence for the accomplishment of his promises It was not said ungroundedly by that Ancient so it be rightly understood Qui creavit te sine te non servabit te sine te c. God hath ordered most wisely and justly that the first spark of grace which he giveth to his beloved ones should be employed and improved instrumentally under his own supreme agency for both their preservation and advance of their happy condition Therefore mark it the fear which he puts into their hearts that is that holy circumspect fear not secure presumption is made a preservative for their not departing away from him in that Jer. 32. 40. And though he keep them by his own power yet it it is through the continued acting and exercising of their faith that he keeps them unto salvation In that 1 Pet. 1. 5. Secondly For particular Churches gathered in visible communion and frame of Government there be no promises made unto any of them for ought I have heard and remember nor ever were that they should be perpetually preserved either without decay or without dissolution and therefore there is no cause why Church-members should be remisse and negligent in holding fast those Church-Ordinances Liberties and Priviledges which they enjoy at present if they regard the good of that collective body whereof they are because they have no ground of promise to pretend for security against a suddain change and alteration Yea thirdly suppose a promise made to a particular Church for its preservation for a time yet the Lord will not have that Church slacken her care and endeavour of preserving her self no not during that season My proof by way of instance is near at hand Christ made a promise to this Church at Philadelphia in the verse before my Text that he would keep her from the hour of temptation that should come upon all the world to try them that do dwell upon the earth and yet presently he forewarns her to hold that fast which she had This is very observable She might not expostulate Lord since thou wilt keep me what need I take any care of keeping my self No Churches as Churches must learn to serve under Gods promises and providences for their own good as well as particular Christians And Gods known purposed indulgences should not occasion his servants negligences How much more cause then have those Churches to take this warning which have no such special promises made unto them as none of the particular Churches of Christ for ought I know have at this day These things being in some sort cleared I shall pesent you with what I have further to say in the way of usual improvement of the Doctrine delivered Use 1. First I beseech you to make use of this Point by â—â—y of Caution in reference to the Object We have heard what it is which the servants and Churches of Christ respectively are to hold fast Now because there is a tenacity a disposition to hold fast something or other in every one and yet every thing which one hath is not worth holding fast therefore let us try what it is only that we have be sure to hold fast that which