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.
HABAKKVKS PRAYER Applyed to the Churches present occasions on Hab. 3. 2. AND CHRISTS COUNSEL To the Church of Philadelphia on Rev. 3. 11. Preached before the Provincial Assembly of London By that late Reverend and faithful Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. SAMUEL BALMFORD Pastor of Albons Woodstreet Jer. 30. 7. Alas for that day is great so that none is like it It is even the time of Jacobs trouble But he shall be saved out of it London Printed by E. M. for Adoniram Byfield at the three Bibles in Corn-hil neer Popeshead-Alley 1659. Judicious READER FOr such the works of this holy man of God Mr. Samuel Balmford now with the Lord require and deserve Here is represented to thee a Forlorn-hope or two Scouts being a small parcel of those many excellent pieces intended for the presse sent before ad vada tentanda not as if these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were of higher stature in worth then others their fellows and therefore fitter for it Among all Superlatives Comparisons are excluded Pharez and Zara strove with equal strength for precedency of birth but this piece to satisfie the importunity of friends hath broken forth first The Author was a person of eminent Orthodoxy of Word and Life by both which as a burning and shining light he was an exact and powerful Teacher the observant eye of impartial conversers with him finding the Transcript of his Sermons in his life his actions being living walking Sermons He was a man of a meek and modest spirit cloathed with humility lowly in heart but high and eminent for gifts and graces in the esteem when living and honoring remembrance now dead of those that are best able to judge of real worth An excellent husbander of time a painfull Student of great diligence and faithfulnesse in all Trusts and Relations of much Candor affability communicativeness and condescention in matters capable of it but immoveable where sence of duty obliged him Not forward to speak and therefore his words were more savoury by lying long in the falt of a deliberate minde and administring more grace to the hearers A man of a publick spirit pitying souls mourning for the sins of others and deeply laying to heart the afflictions of the people of God abroad and their dissentions at home as these ensuing Sermons do abundantly testifie For his labours in the Ministry he was one would not do the work of the Lord negligently nor offer unto God what cost him nothing or a corrupt thing when as indeed he if any had a male in the flock and was a workman that needed not be ashamed He thought the delivery of Embassies from God to man most needed and best deserved careful preparation and therefore chose rather to approve himself to his Master and the alwayes smaller number of judicious hearers by an industrious searching the Scriptures and digging to the bottome of that excellent Mine than to spare himself and please the most by taking up with the nearest uppermost and lesse precious parcels of Ore he hung not forth Alchimy lace that a little wearing by judicious meditation would have changed the colour of but of such true and pure metal as would wear brighter and brighter When some thorow injudiciousnesse and possibly prejudice the Lord give such repentance to life accounted his bodily presence as they Pauls weak and contemptible and felt not the evidence and demonstration of the spirit in his words others more judicious and candid hearers Christians and Ministers have had their souls hanging on his lips and heard him with joy and delight to their great profiting Though he well knew the distempered palate of these diseased times yet would not this fisher of men bait the ground to draw multitudes about him with curious enquiries and speculations unprofitable though pleasing notions quarum inventarum solus fructus est invenisse nor talking impertinencies without book or filling up vacuities by most insipid and nauseous tautologies He did not by strength and strain of lungs comick actions peculiar modes of carriage having more of affectation than affection in them make up defect of matter nor cloud wisdom with words without knowledge wrapping up mysterious non-sense in silken phrases nor dresse up sober truths in the meretricious garb of enticing words of mans wisdom nor yet did he prostitute the Word to the contempt of the worldly-wise or disadvantage it to better-minded more judicious hearers by flatnesse or rudenesse of stile but sought out acceptable words those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making words still servants to matter neither going before vainly nor yet following at too great a distance negligently He did not leap into his matter without trying and showing the ground he went upon but accurately weighed the Original carefully consulted with expositors solidly stated the subject of his discourse and then excellently divided the Word of Truth by exact natural Method and faithful application to the different conditions of soules therein not venting his passions nor concealing Gods truth He was every way such as not to have known him was an unhappinesse to have indeed known him and not honoured him an impossibility Of him the world was not worthy he therefore is taken away from the evil to come These things I freely testify from the full knowledge I had of him having by him been allowed the happinesse of a free converse and intimate acquaintance with him by which I must acknowledge my selfe to have been much and often profited Thomas Parson THe Reverend and Learned Author of these ensuing Sermons very seasonable and useful for these times was a Minister of Christ endued with very good abilities a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth full of piety modesty humility and integrity Sound in the Faith immovable in the Truth painful in his Ministerial imployment and one who hath left a precious name behind him among stall those who throughly knew him And therefore unto the testimony given of him by my Reverend Brother I do freely chearfully and most heartily subscribe Edm. Calamy Errata Page 1. in the Text for receive r. revive for people r. years p. 2. l. 21. for open r. opine p. 5. l. 15. dele and mercy page 6. line 9. for use r. verse page 13. line 10. for Psal r. Isai p. 15. l. 4. for favor r. wrath p. 34. l. 21. for know r. known p. 41. l. 2. dele experienced and appeared p. 53. l. 4. for of r. by p. 66. l. 26. for keep r. kept p. 72. l. 11. for Christ r. Christians p. 78. l. 8. for usual r. useful p. 84. l. 9. for apprehension r. approach Habakkuks Prayer applyed to the Churches present occasions Habakkuk 3. 2. O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid O Lord receive thy work in the midst of thy people in the midst of the year make known in wrath remember mercy THe Prophesie of this holy Prophet is termed a Burden especially in regard of the sad and
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
on to prayer such a fear as may be the beginning of wisdom in this respect that it makes us fly unto the Name of our God as unto a strong Tower either to keep us from or to defend us in the midst of Dangers and bring us with safety and comfort out of them And so make fear not an obstacle or impediment to duty but a preparative unto duty As t is said Noah being warned of God moved with fear pepared an Ark c. Heb. 11. 7. so let godly fear in us set us a preparing somewhat that may tend to the securing of the remnant of Gods people at least in way of Prayer as doth the Prophet in our Text. To whose Prayer of Faith I now passe over O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years c. Here are divers terms to be opened before we can well pitch upon matter of Instruction As 1. What is the work of God 2. What Gods reviving of his work 3. What the midst of the years in which he is prayed to revive it 4. What is making known in the midst of years I know there is another reading of part of these words by the Greek Septuagint For that clause in the midst of years make known they read to this sense in the midst of two living Creatures thou shalt be known and much descant there is among Expositors Ancient and Modern upon that passage so rendred generally they understand Christ for the party to be known but who the two living Creatures should be in the midst of whom he was to be known they vary much in opinion Tertullian hath his apprehension and Origen his and later Writers theirs but because that is a reading not approved by judicious either Protestant or Pontifician Expositors I will not spend time in any particular recital of different opinions There is another reading of the first clause of this Prayer in the Old English Translation varying from our New which it may be some of you finde in the Books you use it runs thus Revive thy work in the midst of the people but why they should render the same Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so differently in the two clauses especially since it signifies years and not people for ought I have found I cannot finde any satisfactory reason Taking therefore our last Translation to be most consonant to the Original I keep to it and so come to the opening of the words Wherein my chief regard shall be unto that litteral sense which the consideration of the Context leads us unto First then what work of God may here be meant I propound it to you in a double notion but hardly separable take we it partly for the people of God themselves For his Covenanted people are his special work or a special piece of his workmanship and he hath ever accounted his Church his peculiar above the generality of mankind in and upon whom he hath given proofs and evidences of his most excellent vertues and Attributes Ask of me saith he things concerning my sonnes and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Isa 45. 11. See also Isa 60. 21. and 61. 3. There sonnes and the work of Gods hands are made Synonyma The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me forsake not the work of thine own hands saith David Psal 138. 8. Accounting himself in special manner the work of Gods hands Consonant to this the Apostle speaking of the Church of Believers under the New Testament saith We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works c. Eph. 2. 10. But again take we this work partly for the work of Gods gracious Providence in behalf of his people Status populi vel Ecclesiae as Calvin speaketh And signally here in our Text is the deliverance and freedom of his people from under the power and captivity of the Chaldeans and Babylonians looked at As is manifested by the Context Secondly What may this reviving of the work of God be It may be reduced unto two heads also One is The preserving alive of the work of God for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel as it is here used signifies simpl Vivum conservare as Psal 22. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul And thus it refers to Gods work in the first sense not in respect of the life of individual persons of the Church so much as in respect of the generality or community of the Church q. d. preserve thy Church alive conserve a body of people to thy self alive let not that whole workmanship of thine perish nor the work of grace in thy people that may be also understood for people do not live as Gods people or as his Church unlesse the life of grace and holinesse be preserved alive in them But another thing is The restoring of the state of the people of God for so the Hebrew word also signifies as in 1 Chro. 11. 8. Nehem. 4. 2. and thus it refers unto the work of God in the second acception q. d. Restore thy people againe to their former state of livelihood or a livelinesse wherein they were before They shall be but as in state of civil death while they lie in thraldom and servitude under the Chaldeans and thou hast intimated by the Vision of grace which I have seen that thy people shall not die but shall live by faith and that their enemies and opposers lie under thy woes and curses and so shall come to ruine and destruction and therefore be pleased to put life and vigour into that work of thine in behalf of thy people or as some others gloss it Effice suscita adimple effectuate it rear it up accomplish it Opus enim dum non impletur quasi mortuum censetur oblivione sepultum Sanctius And it is usual with the Hebrews as we all may perceive by the tenour of Scripture to attribute life Metaphorically unto things properly without life and to call their restitution and reflourishing again from a weak decayed broken estate a reviving c. But now for the time Thirdly What may the midst of years be that he thus iterates Beloved there is such variety of Expositions given of this circumstance among the Learned that I should ill husband my time to enumerate them unless it would be to better purpose This only I shall doe first touch briefly upon some that I cannot close with and why and then lay before you that only which I take to be intended chiefly by the Prophet First I take not this Phrase barely to signifie Intra annos praefinitos destinatos à Deo within the compass of the years appointed by God as some note medium to be taken Physice vulgariter as in Gen. 2 9. and Exod. 3. 2. for I conceive that though this be a truth that God did
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
is good ye know well the Apostles Precept 1 Thes 5. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good we have found the things in kind that single Christians and conjoyn'd Christians in Church-fellowship are to hold fast respectively viz. matter of Doctrine and of Religious and Moral practice and of Church-administration Now all these are to be proved and then so farre as found good stedfastly retained Here divers things might be spoken touching the businesse of proving and trying Touching the course taken for proving what would the Apostle have Christians wander up and down into every Conventicle or every corner to hear the broachers of all sorts of Opinions or would he have Christians adventure to travell into all Countries and to intermingle in all sorts of companies to get information what all men hold and all men practice O no Beloved wofull experience in our times shews that a number of light-headed curious gadders and travellers having no ballast of weighty judgement in them are so tossed up and down with the various kindes of Opinions and waves of mens practices clashing and breaking one upon another that they scarce ever come to side at Anchor at Sea much lesse put in at any safe Harbor but still fluctuate as Scepticks in Opion and Antinomists in practice and half Atheists at least in both We need not wander up and down for variety to bring under trial for we may finde too much brought home to us to our own places to exercise our judgements if we have any and if not to distract and disquiet us A great part of Solomons curious scarch experimentally was so unnecessary and unseemly as we may suppose it cost him a great deale of repentance afterward I say no more of this But then again for what is necessarily brought under our eye for proving remember that our onely true test or touchstone or rule for proving is the written Word of God And yet here we need begg of God sound wisdom how to make a right use of this proving touchstone for surely it is most grosly abused and wrested and perverted among our people at this day what through want of Learning what through want of humility because they would be dogmatizing And I fear there be crept in among them a number of Popish and profane witts who though secret scoffers at the Scriptures are leaders into manifold Errors by counterfeiting very greatly a reverence to Scripture Authority and urging the letter of it and express commands and examples from it while in the mean time they aime at both the disparagement of Scriptures and the confusion of their silly self-conceited followers The Lord direct us all to a right esteem and use of holy Writ for 't is possible there may be such found like those of old who melted and moulded their golden earings of precious Doctrines if right used into Idolatrous Images And such as can turn a brasen Serpent from a divine institution to become a superstitious Idol Thus having considered well what course we take in the way of Trial let us as was said hold fast only that which is good Onely pure and holy Doctrine onely approvable gracious practice suitable to such Doctrine and in Church-respects whether as Pastors and Teachers or other Ecclesiastick Officers onely such administrations and wayes of Government as may be found agreeable to the minde and word of our Lord Jesus It is observable that duty of this nature in our Text viz. to hold what was had already is either expresly or implicitely charged upon every one of those Asian Churches written to by Christ except that of Laodicea for all the rest had somewhat commended in them but she nothing as if she had nothing worthy to hold fast But why this Had she not much precious Doctrine retained by her Grant it yet it seems while she held her luke-warm temper in point of Government and Discipline all her Doctrine was as if it were not O Beloved that we had not yet amongst us a number of old Laodiceans obstructing what they can all proceeding in way of a right wise and sober Reformation and zealous onely to damp the zeale of people that way and stifly to hold fast humane superstitious inventions and their proud vain-glorious conceits of them The Lord soften and bend their spirits Use 2 Use 2. A second Use of this Point let be by way of Exhortation or Incitation to the act O that we would all stirre up our selves to all care and diligence to hold fast what good we have and let us all be stirred up thereunto at present Surely there are very strong Motives hereunto which may easily be perceived if we look about us I shall only press a little those two which lie on either hand the duty in our Text or what is equivalent thereunto The first is in the beginning of the verse Behold I come quickly saith the Lord Jesus A Motive taken from his quick apprehension unto them Now that speedy coming of his needs not to be understood meerly of a personal visible coming but of his coming in such ways of providence as wherein he was to be understood as vertually and effectually present for the mannaging of them and so we must needs understand the phrase Chap. 2. 5 16. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth Where his quick coming was doubtlesse in a way of punishment or chastisement c. But how are we here to understand Christ his quick coming First In a way of Trial. He had intimated immediately before that there was an hour of tentation coming upon all the world to try them that dwelt upon the earth and he is to be thought to be in that trial professing himself to be the searcher of the reins and heart Chap. 2. 23. and here as referring unto it he saith Behold take notice I come quickly viz. to try you among other in that hour of temptation what hour was that Immediately it signified as some Expositors think with good consent that persecution which soon after followed upon the Churches under the reign of Trajanus the Emperour and in which persecution Philadelphia was tried as well as other Strabo the Geographer writes that Philadelphia was terrae motibus crebrò concussa often shaken with Earthquakes Well whatever natural or proper Earthquakes she as a City with the region thereabout was subject unto certainly as she was a Church both she and others in those Primitive times were often shaken with Political Earthquakes shaking violences and assaults by Adversaries threatning their ruine and destruction And lest this consideration should not seem to reach us at this day take notice that in the judgement of many godly learned there is now an hour