precisely my Duty to Consider and to speak of to All that have a humble and deep Consideration of the wayes of God in relation to his own Kingdom which oftentimes are in the dark and his footsteps in the great waters and He gives not Account of any of his matters If He take away even persons that we may think of great Service and use to his Kingdom yet who can hinder him or say unto him what doest thou If he Removes the Person of greatest Honour and Dignity of great and publick Good and of Support to the Protestant Religion yet none can call Him to Account but must lie at his Foot yet humbly interceding as the Prophet here does Oh Lord I hear thy speech and am afraid And so to set our selves to pray Oh Lord Revive thy work in the midst of of the years In the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy In Order therefore to the more close Discourse to this purpose I begin in the opening of the words according to the Context wherein they stand This Chapter therefore follows upon two great Visions Habakkuk had received from God in the two foregoing Chapters The first of the Visions was the Desolation of Judah and Jerusalem by that bitter and hasty Nation of the Chaldeans or Babylonians Chap 1. 5. Behold ye among the Heathen saith God regard and wonder marvellously for I raise up that bitter and hasty nation The second of the Visions is the Judgment of God upon Babylon set out in many sharp and reproachful Remarks of the Divine displeasure upon them cap. 2. Now upon the first of these Visions the Prophet had very sad and Afflicting Fore-sights And therefore he saith Oh Lord I heard thy Speech and was afraid ver 2. I heard and my belly trembled rottenness entred into my bones c. 3. 16. For undoubtedly the Spirit of God that fully understood its own Counsels Taught and Instructed him so to speak of that Babylonian Kingdom as the Head of Gold comprehending the whole Image Dan. 2. and so in a more eminent manner the Roman Monarchy which is therefore stiled Babylon And according to this the Apostle uses the very words of Habakkuk Acts 13. Beware least that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your dayes which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it you This is plainly taken out of this first Vision of Habakkuk Now How could that come upon them when the Babylonian Monarchy had ceased long before But because the Roman Empire was to fill up and compleat the Babylonian Image And that old literal Babylon was most peculiarly a Type of Mystical Babylon the whole Roman Potentacy especially the Antichristian As therefore literal Babylon of old destroyed the City and Temple of Jerusalem so the Romanes took away by a more lasting Destruction their City Temple and Nation And as literal Babylon has a Wo pronounced upon it for building a City with Bloud and giving an intoxicating Bottle so Spiritual Babylon is infamous for Bloud and its Cup of Fornication Compare Habak 2. and Rev. c. 17. c. 18. And Further as the Jewish so the Christian Gentile Church hath been and yet continues under the same Tyranny Twelve Hundred Sixty Dayes of Years almost now expired yet not fully ended But till they are ended the Church is in a Wilderness-Condition and the Witnesses in Sackcloth have lain slain and dead by reason of the Cruelty and Persecution of the Mystical Babylonian Antichristian Powers and the Time Times and Half-Time determined to them Now Habakkuk foreseeing in Spirit this long Calamity of the People of God both Jews and Gentiles under this Literal and Mystical Babylon he is deeply Affected with it as has been declared Upon the second Vision viz. the utter Destruction of the Babylonian Image and the both Literal and Mystical Babylon wherewith the Vision of the Kingdom of Christ is conjoyned and enterwoven Habakkuk Chap. 2. ver 1. c. stands on his watch Towre to wait for the Issue of his Intercession which in his first Vision he had made Chap. 1. against Babylon Now in Answer to that Intercession he is commanded to write a great Vision and to make it plain that he might run that readeth it and which every one should live by Faith upon till they should see it fulfill'd in Glory For though it tarried long it should speak to the Full at last and therefore to be waited for till the 1335 Days making Blessed according to Dan. 12. ult And what Vision is that which God gives in Answer to Habakkuk's earnest Prayer from Chap. 1. 12. to the End It is certainly what we find in the second Chapter consisting of these two Great Heads First Those several so Solemn Denunciations of Woes and Judgments on Babylon in its whole Image and State from Litteral Babylon down to its utter destruction in Mystical Babylon through the Chapter Secondly Those so Gracious and Illustrious Declarations and Assurances of the Kingdom of Christ Chap. 2. ver 14. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea And the Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him Ver. 20. So great a Remark of the Kingdom of Christ as the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the sea makes clear the main Scope of the Vision And as Great a Display of the Kingdom of Christ is that other Branch of the Vision The Lord is in his Holy Temple c. Which Expression hath a close Alliance with that Prophetick Vision of the Kingdom of Christ given to Ezekiel in the delineation of a Temple Throne and City in his last Chapters on Account of which there is such an often mention of the Temple opened and of God and the Lamb being the Temple of and having their Throne in the New Jerusalem in the Revelation c. 21. c. 22. Now that the Lord would revive or give Life to that his Great Work of carrying on the Kingdom of Christ whenever it seems especially to languish or hath been under any Embarrassment this was the Prayer of Habakkuk and ought to be of every Servant of Christ who loves the Kingdom of Christ And so the Prophet knowing that all those Great Works God hath done in the World are preparations to Pledges of and are to be Compleated and Fill'd up in the Kingdom of Christ recalls and recounts the Great Works of God from the beginning of the World that so he may lead to that Kingdom all along his third Chapter Now therefore because all the time of the Babylonish Captivity till the Restoration by Cyrus the Work of the Kingdom had lain as it were in a Swoon this earnest Prayer is Left on Record to the Servants of God in all Ages to powre out their Souls to God
Instruments He pleases as of our Illustrious Queen or of smaller and meaner yet He is not tied to any For his own Arm shall Rule for him his Reward is with him and his Work before him And though on so great a Dispose as this removal of so great a Personage from us we ought to hear his speech and to be afraid to cry out Lord revive thy work In wrath remember mercy Yet to have sure Confidence he will and is near about to take to himself his great Power and to Reign how Angry soever the Nations will be at it And if we are such as Love his Kingdom and Appearance However the Fig-tree do not blossom c. However dark and black things look yet we should glory in the Lord and rejoyce in the God of our Salvation and be Assured he will make our feet like Hindes feet and set us on the High Places of his Kingdom And though Nations labour in the very Fire and weary themselves for very vanity yet it is so ordered by the Loâ—d of Hosts because he is just about to Fill the Earth with the Knowledge of his Glory even as the Waters cover the Sea Oh let him come into his Holy Temple and let all the Earth be silent before him A SERMON Preached in MEMORIAL of the Awful Divine Dispose In the DEATH of the QUEEN OF SO Blessed Remembrance to the Whole Nation HABAC iij. 2. Oh Lord I have heard thy Speech and was afraid Oh Lord Revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy I Have thought it necessary in regard of that Great Sense of the Death of the Queen God hath been pleased to Imprint upon all the People of this Nation who have indeed any Sense of his Providences but to the Degree of Common Sobriety I have thought it I say necessary to Reflect upon that Late so Tremendous Providence and to set before you what I look upon to be most Seasonable and most necessary for the Servants of God in the present Circumstances of things to apply their thoughts unto And indeed I do not doubt but that Funeral Remembrances are very much warranted to us by that Example of David bewailing the Death of Saul and of Jonathan which we find 2 Sam. 1. 17. David lamented with this Lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his Son Also he bid them teach the Children of Israel the use of the Bow This some Interpreters understand only to teach the Use of Arms of which at that time the Bow was one of the Principal and became an Emblem of the whole Military Skill and Action But it seems rather according to the Judgement of other Interpreters to be the Title of the Lamentation David made over Saul and Jonathan as some of the Psalms have Titles very peculiar suited to the principal Matter Tunes or Instruments us'd in relation to them So this Lamentation had the Name or Title of the Bow And as a Higher Commendation of it it is said to be written in the Book of Jasher of the upright one or uprightness intimating some most Excellent Record or Records of Greatest Truth and Value Spoken of also Josh 11. 13. He goes on The Beauty of Israel is fallen upon thy high places How are the mighty fallen Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the Streets of Askelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph That is If it were possible I earnestly desire That the Enemies of God and of his People might have no occasion to Rejoyce and Triumph in that sad stroke on Saul and Jonathan Especially as if the Interest of God and of his Kingdom suffer'd and sunk at all in it For were it not on this Account it might seem wonderful that God should be pleased to ordain that part of his Word should receive this Funeral Lamentation of Saul and Jonathan into it Especially Considering that Saul was a Prince Rejected of God and that God was very Angry with and very severe upon and that He was a Great Enemy to David whom God was pleased to place the Type of the Kingdom of Christ upon and to remove it from Saul Himself But this was undoubtedly the Reason of it Because Saul though in his own Person he was a Prince so rejected of God yet God had made him for a time a Type and the first Type of the Kingdom of Christ and though he rejected him yet he had Anointed him he had given him a Kingdom and set him over the people of Israel which Kingdom was so Eminently a Type of the Kingdom of Christ And therefore David the sweet Psalmist of Israel and the Established Type of the Kingdom of Christ was employed by God in an extraordinary way to make this Lamentation over him And of this he gives a very plain notice when He said The sheild of Saul was vilely cast away as though he had not been Anointed with Oyl His being Anointed with Oyl was a Type of the Great Messiab of the Great Anointing and on that Account David Lamented As this Lamentation may be therefore in General a Foundation for a Funeral Commemoration so especially and very particularly when the Person Lamented had any relation to the Kingdom of Christ Now with regard to the Providence of God upon the Nation in the Removal of the Queen so lately we may say that God hath been pleased as it were by an universal Consent of even the soberest of the Nation to Embalm the Memory of so Excellent a Princess and we may say of Her as Solomon in the Proverbs Many daughters have done vertuously But Thou excellest them all Prov. 31. 29. And as it is said of Tabitha or Dorcas in the Acts of the Apostles They brought forth the works she had wrought Which by the Context Appear to have been prepared as works of Charity So we may say Many have brought forth many Eminent and Excellent Works of this Great Princess They by the Gracious Providence of God towards her Memory have been more spoken of and more Commended and made known than before Although they were certainly and sufficiently known to many Witnesses of Greatest Credit in the time of her Life and to many who had themselves the Experiments of the Great Tenderness and Compassionateness of her Spirit and more especially toward Them who suffered upon the Testimony of the Gospel and on the Account of Conscience Yet the notice taken of them since her Death hath more shaken the House of Dagon than before in her Life But notwithstanding this and much more that might be said and hath been abundantly spoken by those who were most proper to speak of these things there is that particular Relation Her Station and Interest in Government and Her Extraordinary Introduction into it Providence gave Her had to the Kingdom of Christ And this is that which I look upon as more closely and
in on such Occasions We need not stand upon the Critical Middle of years although the very restoration by Cyrus after that Captivity in Babylon was a most remarkable Middle of Time between the first Creation and Eternity yet in any time wherein God hath seemed to forget his Great Work for his Kingdom or to do any thing in delay of it we may thus Cry out to him in General In the midst of the years revive thy work in the midst of the years make known And so proportionably in our private Case when we find any declining and going down of our Hope in the Salvation of God in our own Souls the Grace of Christ retiring from us and his Spirit withdrawing from us Or when in the Publick State of the Nation the Glory of the Gospel is under any Eclipse the good State of the Government of a Nation with relation to the Kingdom of Christ is sinking or loosing any of the Pillars of it or when any sad Providence is upon our selves in particular that looks sad upon us as depriving us of the Comfortable Aspects of the Kingdom of Christ we may Cry out to God for a revival a Remembering Mercy even in the midst of Wrath a making known in the midst of the years And thus our late sad Providence which shews the fitness of the Text to this Occasion Three things therefore I Propose in this Discourse to speak of First Of the Great and Earnest Intercession of the Prophet Habakkuk as it may be taken up and made use of by every Christian in secret in relation to his own Soul and the inward State of it or to his outward Condition and the Providences of God towards him in that or with respect to his Family and nearest Relations And all these with a look towards and subordination to the Kingdom of Christ And herein I shall consider all these more strictly when they are at any time in a plunge and sinking of Condition under any Eclipse or Cloud of Providence Then in such a strait we may go to God crying out Oh Lord Revive thy work in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy Secondly I will take into Consideration the more Publick State of the Servants of God that keep his Commands of his Witnesses that hold the Testimony of Jesus when they are in Sackcloth and even lying dead in any of the Streets of the Great City or when the Church is in the Wilderness How earnest we should be with God to Revive his work in the midst of the years to make known and in Wrath to remember Mercy In the Third Place I shall Apply it Particularly to the late Providence of God upon the Nation in which he seems as it were to have Reversed a late Gracious Dispensation of that Providence to this Nation to have reversed it in such a Part in such a Principal Part of it by the Removal of the Queen And so I shall close with Application 1. The First thing that I would Propose is this There are many sad and dark Vales of Providence and as to the Presence of God in every Particular Christians Soul There are many times when we seem to Languish in the Ways of God when our Hearts grow very vain very Worldly when we are ready as it were to Die The things that are in order to the Kingdom of Christ they are ready to die As we find Rev. 3. Concerning the Church of Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Be watchful and slrengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works filled up before God O How often do we find that our Souls are Ready to lose their first love that they are going backward that they are going downward in the Wayes of God Certainly Every one of us has reason to fear and to suspect that such a Time has been upon us or that it may come upon us David was very sensible of such a State as this is and therefore in the 119 Psalm he is continually praying Quicken me O Lord according to thy word ver 25. This Prayer returns upon him ver 88. Quicken thou me after thy loving kindness So shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth There are many Times when God retires the Gracious Motions and Assistances of his Spirit What a dreadful complaint is that that the Servants of God make in Isaiah 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to Err from thy wayes and hardened our heart from thy fear Return for thy servants sake How often is it that our Souls have reason to Complain that in a just Judgement He so retires from us as to make us to erre from his ways and to harden our heart from his fear So Isaiah 64. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy wayes But immediately he cryes out Behold thou art wroth for we have sinned Yet saith he in thy wayes there is continuance and we shall be saved Here comes in in the midst of the years as it were a rejoycing in God When we are Free and Established in the wayes of God Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness But then on the other side Thou art wroth for we have sinned We give God occasion to retreat the Light of his Countenance the Motions of his Spirit the Comfort of his Presence And yet notwithstanding as Habakkuk here saith Revive thy work in the midst of the years There is continuance saith he in thy wayes and we shall be saved But then immediately he goes on again to Complain We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee c. When therefore we find the Graces of the Spirit of God looking in us as if they were Blasting like Flowers or Blossoms blasted with an East-Wind when we find our Souls dead in the Wayes of God and Holiness when we find our Iniquities and temptations to Evil have Prevalency upon us then what 's our Duty to do but to cast our selves down before God and say unto him O Lord Revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known When at any time we fall as David into Sin that God would restore the Joy of his Salvation and establish us with his free Spirit That he would not cast us away from his presence nor take his holy Spirit from us When we find our selves dead in the Use of Ordinances we have no way but earnestly thus to cry out to God When God plunges us under fears of Eternal Wrath and Displeasure to say unto him In wrath remember mercy And so in regard of outward Providences when God brings us into the dark and
not into the light as that Expression is in the Lamentations when he seems to shut out our prayer And though we shout and make a noise in Prayer yet that still he will not hear Then we should insist O Lord Revive thy mercy to us in the midst of judgement In wrath remember mercy Work a Salvation even in our outward Condition so far as is necessary to our Eternal Peace and Salvation And in all these things there ought to be a peculiar Eye to the Kingdom of Christ For the Kingdom of Christ and our Salvation are united and the Glory thereof shines out together even as now they are Reserved together in Heaven till they are so Revealed and there they are alwayes in a Readiness to be Revealed as the Apostle Peter Witnesses 1 Pet. 1. 5. c. And even so all outward Salvation and Deliverance are upon the Title of the Kingdom of Christ Pledges of and in Order to it even as the Restoration of the State of Judah and Jerusalem by Cyrus and the Kings of Persia that was more immediately in the Eye of the Prophet Habakkuk when he prayed for the Revival of the work of God in the midst of the years and was a very Great Type of the Kingdom of Christ according to the State of that time 2. In the Second Place Thus in regard of the Publick State of the Nation If there be an Appearance of things that God is taking away from us the Enjoyment of the Gospel at any time the Enjoyment of his Ordinances that he is taking away the Peace or the Freedom of the Nation that we seem to be in danger of a return of Evil upon us For so indeed is the State of things Till the Kingdom of Christ we are between Light and Darkness There are continual returns of Evil as I have often Observed Look over all the Histories of Scripture and the Histories of Times since the Scripture if there have been better Times at any time Darkness and Worser have come and followed upon them If you look upon this Nation Indeed It is very Remarkable since the time of the Dawns of the Reformation upon it You know First we had the Excellent Appearances of Government in that young Prince Edward the Sixth God took him off suddenly in the very rising of his Youth And the dark and dolesome time of the Marian-Dayes of the Burning so many of the Servants of God came on and Antichristianism returned and came back Now at such a time undoubtedly the Servants of God were earnest with God that he would Revive his work in the midst of the years And so it came forward again in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth And we have had somo Appearances of Hope of the glory of a greater glory of the Gospel and of Christianity at some times and then they have been vailed and clouded and darkned again I would not enter into Particulars But what shall we do at such a time as this How should we cry out O Lord thou hast appointed a Kingdom to thy self to thy Son thou hast resolved that the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord shall cover the Earth as the waters do the sea Some things have seemed to move towards it and they have gone back again and down again O therefore Revive thy work O Lord in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy This ought to be a Pattern to the Servants of God in all times when any thing that God hath done for them hath seemed to go backward that God would revive his work in the midst of the years Blessed be that God that can do it He can revive it He can give Life after we seem to be in a Swoon and under Faintings yet God is able to do it And therefore our Souls should upon this very Account be continually powred out upon all occasions before him But then 3. The Third thing that I proposed And that is To mako a particular reveiw and remark upon this late Providence And that Briefly because I would give occasion to greater enlargedness and seriousness upon these things in the thoughts of Christians that as I have said we may not lose the use of so sad a Providence by letting it evaporate in onely an outward Formality and Commemoration and Commendation of the Honour of so great a Person God hath Removed VVe should not let it go off so but let it come to serious and deep Consideration I would therefore Propose these two things 1. First That which we may look upon as Dark and Sad in this Dispensation and Providence 2. In the Second Place How we may reap Benefit and Comfort and Encouragement to beg of God that He would revive his work in the midst of the years that he would yet carry on his work And though this was a stroke of VVrath and Displeasure yet that he would return in Mercy 1. The first thing that I would lay before you as a Sad and serious Consideration is That when God sees a People unreformed when he sees a Spirit of Profaneness of Atheism of VVretchedness Senselesness of things and of Ungodliness He takes away those Persons that are as the Chariots and Horsemen of a Nation as it was said of Elijah He removes those that are in themselves blessings to a Nation And so we should Consider this late Providence as a stroke upon the Irreligion upon the Atheism and upon the Prophaneness of the Nation God takes away those whom he makes Defences whom he makes as it were Buttresses and Props of the Nation Thus of that excellent Prince Josiah we read because it was a very wicked State of the People at that time It was a very senseless State And when God gave them such an Excellent Prince of so very great Hopes and of so great Zeal for Reformation In the 34th Chapter of the 2d Book of Chronicles you may read all along And in the 35th Chapter what an Excellent Person he was Yet God took him away in great VVrath and Displeasure upon the Nation Chap. 35. 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men and the singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and made it an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations Certainly many Expressions in that book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah have great respect to this very Josiah Of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen Lam. 4. 20. The Crown is fallen from our head Wo unto us that we have sinned Chap. 5. 20. And why was it because God would not turn as it is said from the fierceness of his anger for all the Sins that Israel had joyned with Manasseh in So we find it expresly taken notice of that God would not turn from the fierceness of his Anger notwithstanding all the Reformation Josiah had made And therefore he took away Josiah That 's the First Sad Consideration that
out and Destroy and yet notwithstanding this did not prove an end of Gods work But as you find in Hosea 2. 15. a most comfortable place when at any time God is pleased to make a stroke upon his People he thus speaks I will give her her Vineyards from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope Which was the place where the Children of Israel were Discomfitted and where God seemed to make a Breach upon them I 'll give it her for a door of hope God turned that very Valley of Achor into a door of hope So when God seems to make an End of his Work of Grace he may make it a Door of Hope So God made a Breach upon Vzza David could not tell what to make of it whether he would Establish him and give him the Happiness of his House David was afraid of it But yet notwithstanding in a little time after this the Ark was brought down to the City of David So I say that was not an Argument that God would put an End to his Intentions of Grace toward David and his Family though he made so Dreadful a Breach to strike Vzzah immediately in that he mistook and was in an Error concerning the Ark. So we have the Case in the 2 Sam. 1. when God took away Saul and Jonathan his Son Sauls Kingdom was undoubtedly a Type of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ though it did not continue in Saul's Person and Family But immediately you see the House of David David's Kingdom and Solomon's Kingdom rose up So I say it is not an Argument when God hath an Intention of Grace that he will not carry it on or that he does intend to put an end to it because he makes some breach yet we should pour out our hearts before God in all such Cases and say unto him O Lord in wrath remember mercy O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years 2. The Second Consideration by way of Consolation is this That God hath yet and doth yet and as the Apostle saith we should trust and earnestly pray that he will yet continue the King and make him a great Instrument for the Advancement of his Glory and the good of the Nation The Lord yet hath left us a Nail in his Sanctuary as the Expression is a nail in his House God gives us yet our hopes by such a Nail in his House as he preserves among us And though we know No other Nail except Christ alone is fastened in so sure a Place but that it may be remov'd yet we may have Hopes that God that hath been pleas'd so immediately to make the King his Instrument in reviving his Work in these Nations when it seem'd declining so Fast amidst the years of K. James will sustain and support him till the very Time of the Right of that Greatest King for entring into the Succession of his Kingdom when the Time Times and Half Time given by his Oath to Antichrist shall be at an End and such Time be no more for ever as is also sworn by Christ which I have made out as I doubt not to affirm on such Grounds as will not Fail to be at the so near 97. from the Compare of the two Oaths the first giving Times and half Dan. 12. the latter defining those Times and half to be at an End and never to be renewed Rev. 10. It should cause us yet in relation to this to cry out O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in wrath remember mercy in the Preservation of the Government to us as there is an Establishment of the Reformation from Antichristianism and as there is an Enjoyment of the Ordinances of the Gospek in so much Freedom And then 3. The Third thing I would mention to you by way of Consolation and so I shall immediately conclude in Application is this That surely we cannot I am humbly bold in the Word of God to say to you we cannot be far off We cannot upon any Account whatever be far off from a far greater Revolution and Change that God will make by the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ The very Labour in the Fire and Wearisomnesses for very Vanity that we behold in All States amidst all Persons and on the account of so great Persons as we now Memorialize removed from us suddenly is a certain Assurance it is near even at the very Doors For I dare Appeal to All the World whether though the World hath been alway full of Wars and of Rumors of Wars yet whether ever there were Wars of so little Fruit Success or Archeivement Whether even there was such Labour of Nations and of People in the very Fire all consum'd without Fruit and for very Vanity nothing come of it as hath been of late years And is not this God hath spoken and Challeng'd the whole World upon Hab. 2. 14. Is it not saith he of the Lord of Hosts so ordered and contrived it should be thus Because the Knowledge of the Glory of the Lord that is in the First Appearances and Encreasing Glory of his Kingdom rising like Ezekiels Waters first to the Ancles then to the Knees and Loynes and then like the Great Sea covering All. This therefore that we are so Apt to Complain of so much Charge and Labour and no Effect is a Comfortable Prognostick the Kingdom of Christ draws near and will by the bitterness of the Former State be thus welcom'd into the World We should therefore take Comfort in this very third of Habakkuk as the Prophet goes on in his setting out the glorious Works of God of old And he does it to that very purpose to Comfort Ver. 3. God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran Selah His glory covered the Heaven and the Earth was full of his praise He stood and Measured the Earth Ver. 6. he beheld and drove asunder the Nations and the everlasting Mountains were scattered the perpetual Hills did bow And so he goes on setting out the Works of God And he Concludes let Appearances be never so Dark V. 17. Although the Figtree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines though things be never so Dark saith he yet I 'll rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation The Lord is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon mine high places He Alludes to such Expressions as set out the Glory of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ And he hath left it as a Song to all Ages To the chief Singer on my Stringed Instruments That is Let all the Servants of God in every Age prepare to Sing upon these Grounds that I have laid to Sing to the Praise and Glory of God and to the glory of his Kingdom even till Jesus Christ our great Beloved shall make haste and be as a Roe and as a young Hart upon the
Mountains of Spices upon the glory of his own Kingdom as the Anointed Certainly I say This cannot be far off let us compute Time how we can there is such Evidence that we must needs believe it And happy will it be for any One of us whom God continues in the present State in this World to see but the Dawns and the beginning of that Kingdom O how Comfortable would it be to Live or to Dye as God is pleased to Call us to it if we could but once see those Dawns If we could but hear those Loud Voices from Heaven resounding upon Earth The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ I shall now shut up what I have spoken in very brief Application APPLICATION The First Application offer'd to us is VSE I. A Wise and a Holy and a Prudent Christian Commemoration of the Graces and Vertues and Excellencies that God hath given to any Persons of our Times And so Particularly to this Eminent Personage that God hath lately removed from us It doth become the Serious and Holy Servants of God and of Christ to make a VVise and a Prudent Commemoration This is warranted to us by what I say we have in the 2 Sam. 1. David speaks thus The Beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places How are the mighty fallen Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the Streets of Askelon They were Cities of the Philistines the Enemies of the People of God the Enemies of Israel O let there not be an occasion for them to Triumph and Rejoyce in it Let God do somthing Graciously for the Nation We should earnestly Pray that God would do some Gracious thing for the Nation That though they will be Triumphing and Rejoycing and making great Mirth upon it yet notwithstanding that God may Laugh at them with a far greater Scorn and have them in Derision that are Enemies of his Gospel and of his Kingdom And If any Person whom they thought and did look upon as a Friend and Servant to the Kingdom of Christ and an Enemy to their Interest that are of another kind of another Region of a Region below that God would snatch their Triumph and their Singing out of their Mouth which we should earnestly Beg and Desire and we should beg it of God that he would Interpose against it And therefore we may make a Wise and I say a Prudent Record of any Person of Eminency and Service And so we ought to do upon this occasion by this Example of David upon Saul and Jonathan Therefore according to all Freedoms of Apprehension and Expression we may do it As David sayes in 2 Sam. 1. 23. Saul and Jonathan they were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided Jonathan undoubtedly was an excellent Person every way And Saul in regard of his Government and bearing a representation of the Kingdom of Christ he is thus spoken of by David Though otherwise Scripture hath set very black Characters upon him So we may say The King and the Quâ—en were Lovely and Pleasant in their Lives And it is the great Goodness of God that they have been Divided in their Death And that God hath been pleased to Reserve and Preserve the King and that he would still Preserve him our Earnest Prayer should be upon it and any thing of Mercy that God doth to the Nation by those that he hath set in so Eminent Place and Station and Soveraignty over it we should Adore Him in And you see here there may be a Covering of Imperfections You see that David covered the great Evils that were in Saul And the Spirit of God speaks of it and hath Enrolled it in the Book of Jasher That I say there may be a wise and a Prudent and a Holy Commemoration And much more when there was such an Eminency as in our Case for we may say So great a Person so Exemplarily Fearing God ought according to the Word of God to be praised Her Memory to be Blessed She ought to be had in Perpetual Remembrance We may say of Her Many Daughters have done Vertuously but thou excellest them all as was said before And so we find God oftentimes in his Word speaks of his Servants Moses my Servant is Dead saith God That was a kind of Solemn Memorial of Moses And so we find of Josiah Jeremiah spoke of him in his Lamentations to this Day to After Times Now therefore That God hath been pleased to take away one of the Pillars though as it were the Left-Hand-Pillar onely preserving the Life of the King We have Reason to speak of it with Apprehensions of His Goodness and also of His Stroke the Stroke that looked like a stroke of Displeasure In that Regard we ought to Consider as in a Day of Adversity VSE II. In the Second Place it teaches us to make a Holy and a Wise and Spiritual Use of this Providence in relation to our selves 1. To Consider the great Weakness and uncertainty of our Condition here 2. To take out any of the Exemplars God gives us the Exemplarit of good and gracious Persons and of the good we find in any of Eminency And in that Eminent Person that God hath Taken and Removed from the Nation We ought to Consider wherever there is any thing of Worth and Loveliness and Excellency in any of the Servants of God and any that have been Instruments of Publick Good and Advantage VSE III. In the Third Place it Teaches us to be Apprehensive lest God should have still in Reserve a Scourge and secret Stroke as it were upon the Nation You see we don't know what a Day and much less what a Week Moneth or Year may bring forth how God may Change the Publick State of Things within such a Time And therefore it should teach us to lye Low before God to Humble our selves and earnestly to seek him And then VSE IV. In the last Place It should teach us to hope in the Salvation of God both in Relation to Publick and Private and in relation to the Glory and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ earnestly to pour out our Hearts in Prayer and Supplication to Him that he would be pleased to manifest himself in great Power and Glory for the Glory of his Kingdom especially and for the Glory of the Gospel for the Glory of the particular Nation and Community that we are of And also for great Grace and Infinite Mercy every one particularly to our Selves to Cry out O Lord Revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy For we have heard thy speech and are afraid O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years c. And therefore by way of Supplication and lifting up our Hearts Let us set before us that 64 of Isaiah O that thou wouldest rent the heavens that thou wouldest come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence That there might be such great works of God As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the waters to boyl to make thy Name known to thine Adversaries that the Nations might tremble at thy presence To make known the wrath of God to his Enemies and by terrible things that we looked not for that he would be pleased to shew himself to us in Salvation A HYMN 1. O Lord in sunder Heavens part Them open Lord to thee That coming Down in Grace to us Thy Glory We may see 2. O let the World thy Power Know The Nations All perceive How great a God our Lord is when His Kingdom He 'll Receive 3. Let Mountains all Distill and Melt At thy Great Presence near But let our Hearts much more thy Grace Feel them Aright to Steer 4. Such Efficacies Let us feel In Answer when we Pray So far surmounting all our Thoughts In their most free Display 5. That in a Holy Wonder We May Fear and Praise and Joy In thy Great Righteousness and Live When Our Sins thou l't Destroy FINIS