Israel's Lamentation After the Lord OR A DISCOURSE WHEREIN Every well-wisher to Zion is excited and directed how to lament after the Lord with Prayers and Tears To maintain the Ordinances of God or God's presence with his Ordinances amongst us BEING Some Meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2 Psalm 80.4 O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry Heb. smoke against the Prayer of thy People LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the three Crowns Bible at the lower end of Cheapside 1683. AN Humble Address TO THE Righteous GOD. RIghteous art thou O Lord in all thy ways and holy in all thy works must Dust and Ashes say when they speak to thee or plead with thee All Israel have transgressed thy Law and despised thy Gospel therefore hast thou brought upon us a great Evil such as hath scarce ever been done under the whole Heaven not three Shepherds cut off in a month but some thousands in one day and this not for a day or month or year but even twenty years already neither is there any among us that knoweth how long this sad Cloud may be upon us Thy will be done Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we rebelled against thee and shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Shall the needy alwaies be forgotten shall the expectation of the Poor perish for ever Be not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People though our iniquities testifie against us do thou this for thy Names sake for behold for thy sake we are killed all the day long The Lord God of Hosts the Lord God of gods he knoweth and Israel he shall know if it be rebellion or transgression against the Lord. Judg O Lord them that have walked in their integrity Recompence thy Servants according to the cleanness of their hands in thine Eye-sight that have not wickedly departed from their God or by the grace of God have acknowledged their offence returned to thee and who at last are following on to know the Lord and pleading and hoping for a reviving and raising up after these daies or years of death let thy dead men live thy slain Witnesses be called up and ascend to Heaven in a Cloud let there be a shaking that these dry Bones may come together Come O Wind and breath on them that they may live Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary for the Lord's sake In midst of Judgment remember mercy and at last revive thy work Give us the opening of the mouth Set thy Light on a Candlestick Hold the Stars in thy right hand Let thy Peoples Eyes see their Teachers Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Purifie the Sons of Levi that they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousness Thou art Jehovah and changest not therefore we the Sons of Jacob are not all consumed Thou art the Creator of the Ends of the Earth and therefore canst command deliverance for Jacob. There 's no searching of thine understanding therefore canst devise ways for the banished to be restored a faithful God and wilt perform thy Promises and confirm the Word of thy Servants But our God is a God of Judgment blessed are all they that wait for him He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus TO All the Mourners IN ZION That wait for The Consolation of Israel Grace Mercy and Peace THe sharp rebukes that Divine displeasure hath laid us under these many Years have caused many thoughts of heart whilst prophane men have shot their Arrows bitter words it becomes Gods Children to have many solemn searchings of hearts and serious Enquiries after the Reason of the Lords Controversie with the Daughter of Zion word and Rod call to us to consider our ways and Gods People have called on themselves and one another saying Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord Doubtless the occasion is given by us we turned away from God before he turned his back upon us Judgment is begun at the house of God and he expects repentance should begin there That pacification may be first begun there God saith You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for your iniquities And well he may for the provocation of his Sons and Daughters goes nearest his heart as being against greater light and love means mercies obligations and expectations then any others surely it 's high time for us to awake out of sleep The charge is drawn up the indictment is read Scourges have been laid on yea of such a nature as have come nearest the hearts of the Godly Loss of Gospel-priviledges is a greater affliction then loss of Gold Goods Houses Liberties Relations Yea of life it self Yea saith God Woe also unto them when I depart from them God doth not use to depart till he be slighted or thrust away This hath been a long dark and gloomy day a day of rebuke and Blasphemy a day of Scattering and treading in down the valley of Vision Ministers and their dear flocks rent asunder Solemn assemblies sorrowfully broken up Sad and silent Sabboths by some profaned Ignorance increasing conversion work stopped Sinners hardened Young beginners in Religion discouraged Atheism abounding Presecution revived and thousands of precious Souls wandring about as sheep that have no shepheard Many publick uplaces being ill supplyed and guilt broaght upon the nation pressing us down tow ords destruction yea such sins as leave a People remediless mocking the messengers of God despising his words misusing his prophets till the wrath of the Lord arise against us till there be no remedy or no healing this brought Israel into captivity out of their own Land Yea this hath brought the final scattering of that forlorn Nation to this day killing the Lord Jesus their own Prophets persecuting the Apostles forbidding them to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alwaies for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost surely this lies nearest the hearts of real Saints next to Gods glory and their own Souls that poor sinners damn themselves destroy the Nation It 's dreadful indeed to see debauchery in the land abounding and basest of men vent personal malice against Gods dearest Children for no other fault but worshipping God and praying for their persecutors Men write voluminous treatises of invectives against us charging us with Schisms Sedition Faction and Rebellion which God knows our Souls hate and we durst appeal to our worst
have not your Souls grown lean and ready to famish in other wayes Have you not in all this time discerned some difference betwixt the pure and wholsom waters of the Sanctuary and the impure puddle-water of mens Traditions Yea have you not to your cost discerned some difference by your dear-bought experience betwixt the powerful Ordinances and the very same or like thereto formally heartlesly lifelesly carryed on Tell me deal ingenuously and candidly in the case Have not your Souls been ready to pine for want of provision Yea have you not been tempted to loath some dishes handed to you by blind or Slovenly Cooks Have you not been in danger to be rockt asleep by such Truths as should have awakt you and would if faithfully mannaged Have you not been forced to eat that which some have trodden under their feet and to drink that which some men have fouled with their feet Alas Sirs Whatever others have have not you some reason to lament with holy David Oh God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Oh my Lord time hath been that my Soul hath been satisfyed as with marrow and fatness and my doubts resolved graces quickened lusts discovered weakened in thine Ordinances so that I could truely say in my own experience God was in them of a truth But alas for this long time matters have been otherwise I have attended as I judged in obedience to thy command and have sometimes met with aiery notions or sapless stuff or mixture of errours or such complementing with God in a dry formality that methinks my soul is dryed with this light food I have reason to lay the blame upon my self and charge my own unprofitable heart as the proper cause but Oh my Lord I long for an heart-Searching state-distinguishing sinrebuking word Oh when shall my Soul injoy heart-melting Ordinances Thou that adaptest means to the end and dost use to work conversion consolation confirmation by most proper probable instruments give suitable means of grace and grace by the means Oh Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy Let all thy Children say Amen 3. You that are young of the rising Generation that are coming up and coming on in the rooms of your Ancestors it becomes you to lament after the Lord and his Ark be it known to you that your Predecessors Piety will not be your Sanctuary or Security You may please your selves with being the Children of the Church but think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father for God is not bound to you you may be Children of the Devil and may be cast into Hell under that title No no you must have a Faith of your own a personal as well as a foederal relation to God It 's disputed at what Age Children are to stand on their own leggs for personal Faith at five or seven or ten or twelve to be sure at years of discretion when they can discern betwixt good and evil they are to chuse for themselves and are not to stand upon heir Parents bottom any longer however they may improve their Parents Covenant But oh you young persons begin betimes to cry after your Father God loves to be followed as with the Hosanna's once so with the small voice and to be held with the little hands of young Children Try what you can do with him say not you need him not you cannot set up without him you cannot live safely without him and I am sure you are undone if you die without relation to him and you may die young Oh then make sure of God you are cast upon him from the womb say to him Thou art my God from my Mothers belly so shall you be a seed to serve him and shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation What an advantage will it be when your Father and Mother forsake you by unkindness or death if you have a God to take you up If God hath been your trust from your youth he will not cast you off in old Age But if you run away from God all your younger daies with what confidence can you lament after him in old Age May he not say Go to the gods and lusts which you have served gratified you come but to me for a reserve with self-ends and because you can follow your sensual pleasures no longer I should never have had your company if you had been capable still to have made as good a bargain of the World as you are wont You followed your lusts with a young and swift foot but me you can but follow with a slow Snails-pace a little of this lamenting more early had been more acceptable It 's an hard venture if you now go laughing in the Devil's ways whether you 'l be cordial in lamenting after God in Old Age and so whether the Lord will entertain you And as you would enjoy God lament after the Ordinances of God Thy Testimonies saith David have I taken as an heritage for ever O blessed Heritage Oh precious Patrimony beg it plead it be not content without it Whatever other Inheritance you have say Lord mine Ears have heard our Fathers have told us what work thou didst in their daies in the times of Old What Providences were produced to settle Ordinances What excellent powerful heart-warming Preaching they had how God wrought wonders on Consciences by his Word and Spirit what pure Worship they had Communion of Saints wholsom Discipline and what sweet intercourse with thy self in all now Lord thou hast threatned in part executed this Spiritual Plague of the Famine of thy Word obstructing and obscuring Ordinances and thy hand is still upon us thy end is not attained Papists threaten to darken our Heaven and totally to put out our Lights and thy self seems to menace the removing of the Candlestick stop O Lord execute not thy whole displeasure Alas shall we be that cursed Generation that must again be involved in worse than Aegyptian darkness Alas who shall live when God doth this God forbid that we should out-live this bright Sun-shine of the Gospel that we should not be Heirs of our Fathers spiritual Priviledges as well as earthly Patrimonies Oh! when these are lost we must sadly sigh and say What have our Forefathers been doing that they have deprived us of the Means of our Souls good Must they and we meet in Hell they for non-improvement we for non-enjoyment Woe is us cursed Children of cursed Parents Lord if we have not peace or plenty let us have the Gospel of Peace and true Piety the Gospel of Grace and Grace by the Gospel and then we shall say The Lines are fallen to us
adversaries in their sober intervals that they cannot but know the contrary and after all these long-lasting and heavy-pressing evils come upon us one barvest is passed and many summers and winters ended and we are not saved As for us our eyes as yet failed for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a Nation that cannot save us We looked for peace but no good came for a time of health and behold trouble And we may discern Gods anger in the wrath of men And after all this shall we sit still and be sottish under this astonishing hand of God Surely our work is not to complain of much less oppose men but look into our own hearts and lives by self examination Humiliation Reformation for these vapours that darken the Heavens arise from our filthy hearts and lives these Arrows are winged with our own feathers it may be said to every individual thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness Because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart yea to thy Soul Salvian complained of old that by our sins the enemies were strong this is the Achan in the camp the Jonah in the ship the worm in the gourd if sin abide still in us we cannot be safe it 's in vain to expect deliverance till the cause of the provocation on our part be discarded and purged away It 's true God is the inflicting cause wicked men the instruments but our own selves are the deserving and procuring cause of all our woes The protestants in Queen Marys days lamented that their unprofitableness contempt of the Gospel under King Edward 6th brought on them those bloody days of Persecution and if we do not mourn and reform we may conclude these are but the beginnings of sorrow as drops before the shower of blood that after this prophesying in sackcloth witnesses shall be slain and the number of Martyrs accomplished and Antichrists sins filled up By setting up the abomination of desolation which God Almighty prevent These things considered and often rolled in my thoughts I cast about what was the fittest course to be taken for preventing God's further Removes and reduce him back to our Souls and Assemblies and I find that 1. God purposely removes to make us follow him as a wise Nurse doth by a weak Child 2. He stops and halts as in suspense what to do that he may both alarum us and afford us leisure to consider what course to take 3. He makes a gracious promise that if we do follow on to know the Lord his going forth shall be prepared as the morning And 4. He complaineth that there is none that calleth on his Name that stirreth up himself to take hold on God i. e. to keep him from departing or to fetch him back Considering the Premises I was desirous in my poor measure to promote God's work in the Souls of his People and ingage all that have any Interest in God to improve it at this day for the preventing of his total Removal and detaining of God with us not as the Inhabitants of Tyrus when Alexander besieged it and one of their Diviners told them that it was revealed to him in a Dream that Apollo their god was shortly to depart from them thereupon they take the Image of Apollo and bind it with a Chain of Gold to a Post thinking thereby to detain him No no we cannot force God against his will to tarry but we are in obedience to God's command and discharge of our duty and in performance of the Condition of his Promise to lament after the Lord with Prayers Tears Confessions Reformations pleading with God through the Intercession of his Son for his Return and Residence with us While wicked Gadarens are by words and works bidding blessed Jesus depart out of our Coasts it becomes us solemnly to invite him open the doors of our hearts to him and give him free welcom saying Lord abide with us thus he may be constrained to tarry with us And though in this horrid Tempest that the Ship of the Church is sorely tossed with so that it 's covered with Waves our Lord be asleep yet Faith and Prayer will awake him And though we cannot peremptorily say he will save our Persons Priviledges or his Church in England yet we may with some confidence say he will certainly save Zion and build his Church somewhere in the World he will save our own Souls and it may be we shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the Remnant of Joseph Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Even an Heathen King took this course and upon no other assurance than a Who can tell There is hope in Israel concerning this thing only it becomes us to wait God's leisure and patiently yea valiantly pass through the Fiery Tryal before us wherein Papists will far exceed Protestants in rage However Mr. Greenham said He that will suffer by Papists must learn to suffer by Protestants and he that hath well passed the Pikes in Camp-fight may hope to pass safe through the Fire-Ordeal Integrity and uprightness will preserve us seconded by a Divine manutenency in sharpest Tryals The God of all Grace who hath called you into his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you May it please the Lord to own these weak though seasonable Labours for quickening the Spirits of his People to lament after the Lord it may be he will return to the many thousands of his People in these Nations And after we have been digging Esek Strife and Sitnah hateful opposition God may cause us unanimously to digg Rehoboth Room that the Lord may make room for us and make us fruitful in the Land Oh for such a day There is a day wherein they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy Mountain wherein the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid c. Wherein his People shall see Eye to Eye and serve him with one consent or shoulder and that he will turn to his People a pure Language or Lip that they shall feed and lye down and none shall make them afraid It becomes God's People to make a Catalogue of these and such like Promises and spread them before the Lord for he is a faithful God and will perform his Promise which saith Jer. 30.17 For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an out-cast saying This is Zion whom no man seeketh after And let all that love her say Amen Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on
Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words That this may be the Issue of this Dispensation Intercession Lamentation is the hearty Prayer of Thy Soul-Friend O. H. Aug. 22. 1682. Israel's Lamentation after the Lord. 1 Sam. 7.2 And all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord. THe whole series of the History of the Times in which this Scripture was writ take in short thus After the Judges in the preceding Book so called God raised up Eli who was both a Judg and Priest who though he was a good man himself yet his Sons were prophane and oppressed the People by requiring both boyled-flesh and raw for roasting abusing the women that came to the door of the Tabernacle so that their sin was very great and of bad consequence for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. Eli being informed of his Sons profligate courses too much indulged them or too mildly rebukes them Why do you such things too soft words for such hard and hainous acts there wanted deeds he being a Magistrate ought to have punished or removved them if not put them to death well God sends a man of God to Eli Whether Elias or an Angel or Phinehas or Elkanah I dispute not to rebuke and threaten him and his house but he not reforming God inspires and commissions young Samuel to give him a Sound admonition and warn him as immediately from the Lord the good old man falls under the Admonition though by a Child but now the disease was grown past his curing his counsel did no good and he could not correct them no doubt he acknowledged his fault and since it will be no better he puts the matter over into Gods hands let him do what seemeth him good God can by his grace curb and cure them or by his power he can crush and confound them let him use his pleasure I give my children into his hands let my Lord get to himself a name of Glory by them or upon them I freely submit a speech becoming a man of God and religious Priest well God himself undertakes to deal with them in the 4th Chapter the Israelites and Philistins joyn battel four thousand Israelites are slain the Ark is sent for into the Camp the Tables of the Law within it are broken yet the Ark must be their Palladium They doted on the Ark but provoked the God of the Ark they repent not of their corrupt manners or defiling Gods Worship they neither used outward means by recruiting their Army which was a tempting of God nor do they use proper religious means to get reconciliation with God but fondly presume upon Gods lenity and indulgence to them because of the meer presence of the Ark the Ark comes Hophni and Phinehas carry it Israel shouts for joy the Philistines animate one another imagining if they now prevailed they conquered the God of Israel looking on the Ark to be Israels Idol or at least that Gods power was tyed to it after the conceit of Idolaters they fight prevail kill thirty thousand Hebrews Hophni Phinehas take the Ark prisoner the tidings whereof broke Elies heart then his neck brought pangs on Phinehas wife and though she was a mother yet full of grief which she bequeathed to the world in the name of her surviving child Ichabod Well the Philistins now lead Israels God in triumph as they judg they bring it to Dagon they God in Ashdod in reproach of the true God but the triumphing of the wicked is short though Israel be a loser yet Dagon and his Worshippers are no gainers by the Ark of Gods presence Dagon falls on his face prostrated in homage thereto beaten on his own dunghil being crected again his head hands were knockt off by another fall So that now he had neither wit nor strength to help himself the fair Venus or womanish part was gone the fishy part only is left but this was but a sport in comparison of what befell Dagons Worshippers for Gods hand was heavy on them all Ashdod or Azotus as the Spartan Boy carryed the Fox in his bosom till he stopt his vitals so these the Ark that was salutiferous to its observers was mortiferous to its contemners even as the Lords Supper is profitable to due partakers but unworthy receivers find it to turn to their judgment here and damnation hereafter Carnal hearts pretend a fond respect to ordinances but find the Lord a jealous God upon their perverting his institutions or unsuitable carriage Ashdod was soon weary of Gods Ark they hold a councel of their Lords they post it away to Gath which was their Metropolis thinking belike that to be a better air or under a more benign influence of the stars But here also Gods hand was upon them with a very great destruction they had painful and incurable Emerods in their secret parts being weary of the Ark they would shift it off to Ekron but the Ekronites were wise by others harms and a consultation was had to carry back the Ark into its place for all the five citys of the Philistins were sharply punished those seven months it was in their country And they were weary of it only consulted the Diviners how to send it back they advised to send it with a trespass offering i. e. five golden Emrods and five golden Mice give glory to the God of Israel upon a new cart drawn by two milch Kine and by their motion they might know whether it was Gods hand or a chance and peradventure they might be healed they did so the Kine went straight to Bethshemesh a city of the Levites they rejoyced to see it coming but though they offered a burnt-offering to the Lord yet looking into the Ark the Lord smote fifty thousand threescore ten men with death and they lamented it cryed out Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God But alas they lament not their Sacriledg injury to the Ark but the death of their People imitating the Philistine qui propter culpas non dolebant sed propter paenas ululabant they houled for the punishment not kindly mourning for their offences they reflect not on their own miscarriages but transfer the cause to Gods holiness And now they also would be glad to be rid of so chargeable a Guest and send messengers to Kiriath-jearim to fetch it to them who came and fetcht it Qu. Why did they not send it to Shilo where it was before Ans 1. That was far off this near they in hast to get delivered of that burden 2. Divine providence removes from Shilo for the impiety thereof Jer. 7.12 you see ordinances are not perpetually entailed on one place the Gospel is a flitting Gospel God sometimes breaks up
house and is gone to another coast Psal 78.58 61. Mat. 21.43 Qu. Why were not they of Kiriath jearim afraid of Bethshemesh's punishment Ans they knew that plague was not for the Arks sake but for their Irreverence and Curiosity now they resolve to reform that and take warning as David did 1 Chron. 15.13 it becomes persons that suffer in Ordinances not to find fault with God or them but Charge it on themselves and amend what is amiss mens own sins are the procuring Gods justice the imposing cause of troubles that 's a good Scholar that learns these two Lessons under Gods hand I shall not trouble you with enumerating the several places in which the Ark rested amongst the Isralites before it was brought by David into Obed Edoms house 2 Sam. 6.10 Nor what this Sanctifying Eleazar or ordaining him to the Sacred Ministry what this keeping the Ark is that nothing be taken away or no uncomly thing be done to it or about it nor why Eleazar the Son and not Abinadab the father was imployed about it whether Abinadab was old and decrepid or dead or busie about household affairs or Eleazar was more holy is not much material to inquire But it may be asked whether the Ark was only twenty years there Ans 1. The Ark was there all the days of Saul which was above forty years but this was jam annus vigesimus the twentieth till this time of Samuels Preaching his Sermon in the following verse or before Israel much inquired after it or were sensible of their loss of it So deeply were the roots of impiety and idolatry fastened in them The text contains 1. The Ark's recess 2. Israel's repentance 1. for the former in the Arks recess Observe 1. The place where in Kirjath-jearim more particularly Abinadabs house v. 1 2. 2. The time or duration 20 years a long time indeed Qu. 1. What 's meant by the Ark here Ans 'T is needless to explain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Chest or Coffin Gen 50.26 or to put money in 2 Kin. 12.10 but this Ark was appointed by God where the Tables of the Law were laid up therefore called the Ark of the Testimony there God communed with Israel hence called the Ark of his presence Exod. 25.22 here the People of Israel were to Worship and inquire Gods mind at it and it guided their journeyings Numb 10.35 36. And though the Ark have many significations yet good Expositors think that what the Ark of God was to the Israelites of old that the Gospel Ordinances are to us which are means of grace tokens of Gods presence and institutions of Worship Qu. 2. What 's meant by the Arks being in Aibnadab 's house in Kirjath-jearim Ans It imports its privacy Solitude i. e. comparatively few could few would frequent it as formerly at Shiloh 1. Because this city was near the Philistins upon the borders of the land and so the other tribes could not so commodiously resort to it for devotion or they durst not lest the Philistins should set upon them if any numbers come together for that end as indeed they did v. 7. Never is the Devil and his Imps more enraged against God's people than when they meet to worship God for the Philistins had interdicted Israel to meet together and now they suspect them of Sedition and Rebellion 2. Because the Ark being but in a private house few could meet there at once to worship God or hear the word some it 's possible cared not for it had other ways of their own hearts they followed others had a months mind to it but being aged or infirm could not get thither or continue comfortably before the Lord there but were subject to many inconveniences others were afraid of the scoffs and reproaches of their adversaries and few would be at the pains to go attend on God in his appointments Qu. 3. had the People no publick Ordinances or Instructions all this time A. 'T is likely they had ordinary Levites and Priests to offer Sacrifices and instruct the People though in the time of several Judges there was sad work both in civils spirituals sometimes there was no King or publick Magistrate in Israel and then every man did that which was right in his own eyes hence Micah gets a house of graven Images a Levite to be his Priest Judg. 17.5 18. certainly there was sad ignorance and woful degeneracy into impiety and Idolatry as is aparent by many instances Expositors observe but two Prophets in all the time of the Judges which was 450 years Act. 13.20 the one was Debora a Prophetess Judg. 4.4 and that Judg. 6.8 the Lord sent a prophet except that Angel that came up from Gilgal to Bochim ch 2.1 by a Prophet So that Peter begins to number the Prophets from Samuel Act. 3.24 and Paul mentions Samuel the Prophet as not an ordinary Person yea he broke forth like a certain glorious Sun out of the night of darkness both of sin and errour and till those days the word of the Lord was precious 1 Sam. 3.1 i. e. it was 1. rarus 2. charus either rare because there were few Prophets to declare Gods Word to the People rarely did the Lord reveal himself and therefore was it the more precious and highly esteemed by all but that text saith further there was no open vision that seems to be an interpretation of my Text no Vision diffused or sprinkled abroad common multiplyed but shut up in a fence pail or within walls so the word signifys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no broken vision a loaf that 's whole nourisheth not a book closed up instructs not a fountain shut up waters not the open preaching of the word distributes it abroad to all parts members of the mystical body this is the multiplication of seeds bread as in Christ's miracles distributed amongst thousands but alas there was none to break the bread of life to souls till Samuel arose and then the word of Samuel came to all Israel 1 Sam. 4.1 he now preached repentance to all and that they should make an expedition against the Philistins however for want of reformation it proved not successful but that evil was brought on them to promote their humiliation possibly Samuel foretold this fall to them as a punishment of their Sin And now Samuel renews his Exhortation providence producing this Argument to reinforce the duty of Repentance and though this lamenting after the Lord be mentioned before his Sermon yet it 's probable it was the consequent thereupon as their reformation also was ver 4. yea it may be this is the same with their drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord ver 6. which some understand of penitent tears Take some general observations from the context thus explained 1. God gives his People sensible tokens of his special presence visible Ark audible voice betoken spiritual invisible grace so the Ark
and preaching 2. God thinks good sometimes to abscond and hide these tokens of his presence from a professing people 3. This with drawing may be continued a long time 2 Chron. 13.3 so in Babylon Zoch 1.13 in latter days Hos 3.4 4. God takes particular notice of the duration of his Churches affliction in Egypt 400. years so Rev. 11.11 5. Peoples Priviledges may be long removed before they be kindly sensible of their loss long before they recover themselves 6. When Gods Ordinances are but privately dispensed it 's a great loss to the body of a People such as need them most have then least of them 7. Continuance in sin prolongs deliverance and absence of the Ark or Ordinances is an occasion of continuing in sin Men do withdraw their hearts from God that 's sinful God withdraws helps from them that 's poenal men repent not ordinarily without helps God denies helps and is just therein 8. Attendance on Ordinances raiseth the envy of wicked men this hath been the quarrel from the daies of Cain and Abel successively to this day Gen. 4.5 Exod. 9.1 Ezra 4.12 13. Gal. 4.29 Esther 3.8 Dan. 3.12 6.13 9. One stirring active Instrument for God may by God's blessing promote Repentance and Reformation amongst a people Oh what hurt may one sinner do So what good may one useful man do when God stirs up their hearts Samuel sets things a working so Ezra 5.1 2. Hag. 5.12 10. When God designs a Reformation and Restitution of his Ordinances he orders an harmonious concurrence of providences for that end The accomplishment of God's threats affright awaken Samuel comes in the nick of time speaks words upon the wheel God moves things go on apace 2 Chron. 29.36 31.21 These I pass briefly and pass on to the main Point from the last clause of the verse And all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord. They did not lament so much under their pressing burdens grievous oppressions by the Philistins but after the Lord i. e. for the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of the Ark for the recovery of God's gracious presence and the visible tokens thereof lachrymis deplorarunt summam miseriam Religionis Reipublicae they bitterly lamented the calamities of Church and State Religion and Polity This say Interpreters is an admirable place by reason of the general Conversion and Repentance of the whole People we have scarce the like in all the Scripture except Acts 2. From the words then results this Doctrine That when God's Ark is long obscured or Ordinances obstructed it becomes God's Israel or professing People to lament after the Lord. Serious lamenting after God is well becoming those whom God afflicts in the loss of Priviledges The Text presents to us 1. The Persons lamenting God's peculiar People these only love and mind God's presence when the Lords and Cities of the Philistins are weary of him and send him away yea and the Bethshemites though a city of the Levites belonging to the Church of God through their ill management of matters send to get a release yet Gods Israel will look after their God 2. Here 's the object they lament after not peace plenty victory over enemies but after the Lord Jehovah is the object of their affections 't is him they love and long for communion with Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary 3. Here 's the Universality of these all Israel the whole house of Israel come they that had wofully degenerated and were gone after their Idols what a wonderful act of Gods power and soveraignty was this upon their spirits by this he manifests that he is the true God and that Samuel was his Servant the like see in Elijahs prayer preaching Sacrifice and success of all 1. Kin. 18.21 37 39. 4. Here 's the manner and nature of the Peoples repentance they lamented after the Lord which is a very comprehensive word and I shall open it anon In prosecuting this point I shall proceed in this method 1. Shew how ordinances are obstructed obscured 2. What 's implyed in lamenting after the Lord. 3. How and why Gods Israel thus lament 4. Answer an objection So make application 1. What is it for ordinances to be either 1. Obstructed or 2. obscured both which may be a great affliction to Gods People and oft occasion a lamentation 1. For Ordinances to be obstructed is a prevention of the liberty of dispensation of them and suppression of its dispensers by imprisonment banishment inhibition or suspension as in Ahab's daies Jezabel cut off the prophets of the Lord the rest werehid by fifty in a Cave and fed with bread and water 1 Kin. 18.4 yea such scarcity was there at that day that Elijah thought he was left alone 1 Kin. 19.10 Such as were left were latent and had indeed their lives not liberties to proclaim the Word or to celebrate God's Ordinances openly It 's true Truth seeks not corners yet publishers of Truth may be driven into corners God's Candles may be put under a Bushel the Church's pleasant things may be taken away Sabbaths and solemn Assemblies may be forgotten in Zion and the waies of Zion mourn Lam. 1.4 7. The Church complains Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet The Church may flee into a wilderness of obscurity and persecution her witnesses may be slain by a natural or civil death some time or other these prophecies have an accomplishment Jeremah and Ezekiel may both have their mouths stopped by their brethren and God himself may be a little Sanctuary to such as want the open Sanctuary-priviledges Ezek. 11.15 16. Gospel-course may be stopped obstructed so that Paul is putting believers on to pray for him that the word of the Lord may have free course 2 Thes 3.1 intimating that it had met with a stop by what by mens rage or the Devils subtilty or both 1 Thes 2.16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles and v. 18. Satan hindred us Some times the Devil stirs up men to obstruct the course of the Gospel The histories of the Church in all ages will offer their Service to bear witness to this truth that liberty of Ordinances is sometimes infringed and so the Ark is retired into private for where God hath a people they must and will worship God and attend his Institutions if they cannot do it openly they act more privately as Christs Disciples frequently met in houses in the night the doors being shut and that for fear of the Jews Joh. 20.19 And it may be that word in Isa 8.16 refers to such a day Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples 2. The Ark Ordinances may somtimes be obscured as well as obstructed this refers to the Purity as the former to the liberty of God's Appointments The light may
be dimned as well as diminished Painted Glass obscures the Light So Humane Inventions corrupt God's pure Worship Jeroboam's Golden Calves hindered the purity of Ordinances so that Religious People and Priests fled to God's sincere Worship at Jerusalem 2 Chron. 11.13 16. This defilement of Ordinances makes God's poor Children cry out Death is in the Pot. Our Saviour saith of the Scribes and Pharisees Thus have you made the Commandments of God of none effect by your Traditions and therefore in vain did they worship God Mat. 15.6 9. God's Institutions are ours but men may mar and spoil them with their fond Additions or Alterations Ezek. 7.20 As for the beauty of his Ornament he set it in Majesty but they made the Images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein though they call and account them delectable things therefore have I set it far from them Men may be guilty of crimen laesae Majestatis treasonable practices by adulterating the King's Coin or setting their own stamp thereon or by Clipping it There 's a sad woe both in the beginning middle and end of the Bible against those that add to or diminish from God's Word or Institutions It 's a dangerous thing to think to mend what God hath thought good to enjoyn Antichrist hath so corrupted God's Worship as well as Truths that they that love their Souls or Safety are called upon to come out of her Rev. 18.4 God is a jealous God and will not hold such guiltless i. e. will deal with them as guilty malefactors as take his Name in vain Nay God bids men rather go serve their Idols than pollute his holy Name Ezek. 20.39 Yea some Shepherds also are said to tread down with their feet the residue of the Pastures and soul the Waters with their feet so that God's Flock is in danger of pining Ezek. 34.18 God's Children know how to avoid a sinful Separation on one hand and a Communion that necessitates them to sin on the other hand there 's danger of both extreams Poor scrupulous tender Consciences are too apt to run into the former and adventurous Spirits are too apt to run into the latter for by and base ends Sometimes the latter falls out as well as the former that godly Ministers and Christians must either sin or suffer and to a conscientious Soul the case is soon determined and hence it comes to pass that their Persons and Ordinances with them have been forced into retirements The Witnesses will rather chuse to prophesie in Sackcloth with purity according to God's Will than live in the greatest pomp and splendour in betraying the Truths and Appointments of God by Superstition or Idolatry to gratifie the flesh or comply with the humours of men They judge it safer to be banished from the Altar than bring strange fire to it they think it safer to venture on mens displeasure though the Furnace be heated seven times hotter than cast themselves into the dreadful vengeance of the great God by sinning against him and provoking the Eyes of his glory They resolve to stick to the Ark though in Abinadab's house and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth rather than be dragg'd down to sin and Hell with the Dragon's Tail Though Persecution attend the former as in the Marian daies and Preferment wait on the latter 2. General Head to be explained in the Text and Doctrine is what is this lamenting after the Lord The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quiescere the same word with Noach which signifies rest They rested after the Lord it 's in Niph which encreaseth its signification and notes these seven things 1. They inclined after the Lord they had wandred away from the Lord and never thought after him they had turned aside after vain things but now they begun to hearken after Samuel's preaching and begun to look about them consider what they were doing had a months mind as we say after God and his ways and worship and a heart to inquire after the Lord is a good step as it 's said of the men of Shechem their hearts inclined after Abimelech or to follow him Judg. 9.3 It 's well so for when people stand still pose themselves what have we been doing have we done well or ill what course is best to be taken and begin to have some inclinations after God more than formerly this is the first step 2. They were setled established after the Lord they staggered formerly were but in suspence wavering like the Apostle James's double-minded man not knowing which way to take like those in 1 King 18.21 Why halt ye between two Opinions one while leaning to Baal another while to God reeling like drunkards halting like lame men whose Leggs are not equal fluctuating to and fro with divers thoughts But now this people is firm well resolved with purpose of heart determined to cleave to the Lord Acts 11.23 The trembling Needle fixeth towards its center the Tree is rooted the Will is bowed the Affections setled the Conscience resolved nothing shall obstruct their course they have set down the Staff and say as Ruth to her Mother-in-law Ruth 1.16 17. Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whither thou goest I will go c. So these though they had been haesitating and doubtful what to do yet jam in Dei obsequio gradum figunt stabilem certum they get a sure footing in their motion God-wards 3. They were congregated and assembled after the Lord so some read it they now begin to flock like Doves to their windows they troop after him collecti sunt post Dominum Jer. 3.17 All Nations shall be gathered to it to the Name of the Lord God yea Judah shall go with Israel v. 18. See also Jer. 50.45 They had been broken now they are united Some went after some mens commands and examples some after others but now the great God makes an Act of Uniformity and Unanimity Zech. 14.9 In that day there shall be one Lord and his Name one One Soveraign Commander one Way one Worship That great God doth not only injoyn one thing but doth joyn them in one bond and mind Oh happy day when the Grace of God heals the breaches that are in mens spirits and divisions in the Church 4. They groaned complained bemoaned themselves in their following the Lord as a Child followeth his departing Father and as Phaltiel followed his Wife Michal weeping behind her to Bahurim 2 Sam. 3.15 16. or as Micah followed the Danites that took away his Idols crying after them they said What aileth thee he said Ye have taken away my Gods and what have I more and what is this that ye say unto me What aileth thee Judg. 18.23 24. q. d. You could not have done me a worse turn lay your hands on your hearts ask your selves whether any loss can parallel this of losing ones God! You need
not be inquisitive for a reason of my sollicitude and complaint when all good is comprehended in this chiefest good whether real or imaginary Thus this people lamented laid to heart this great evil of God's departure the which no temporal good can compensate or countervail 5. They called cryed and shouted after the Lord by earnest prayer and supplication so the word imports sometimes sighing Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee Psal 79.11 Sometimes it 's rendred inclamarunt for lifting up the voice as Lam. 2.18 not only their hearts cryed unto the Lord but tears run down like a River day and night Yea v. 19. Arise cry out in the night pour out thine heart like water lift up thy hands towards him Yea Lam. 3.8 She did both cry and shout not that God is deaf or busie or pursuing enemies or sleepy and must be awaked as Elijah ironically twits Baal's Worshippers with their God but for our own sakes to evidence the honesty and zeal of our hearts and as a gracious disposition to which mercy is promised Hence it was that when the Children of Israel cryed and their cry came up unto God Exod. 2.2 3. Crying is the Accent of Prayer A crying Prayer sounds loud in God's Ear. The tender Mothers bowels make her look back on her crying Child God loves to be called back by a fervent affectionate Prayer 6. They betook themselves to the Lord Receperunt se ad Dominum i. e. by faith by repentance covenanting with God returning from sin having recourse to God by a sincere Reformation and without this all the former were insignificant but thus did the Children of Israel according to Samuels command and supposition in this Chap. v. 3. If ye do return with all your heart to the Lord then put away the strange Gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and they did so v. 4. This was their best way of lamenting after the Lord No coming after God with a lye in our right hand or our Idols in our hearts if we do God will spurn us back into confusion for nothing keeps persons at a distance from him but sin they that hold fast sin pretend to follow God do either run from him or follow him with a Sword in their hand to wound him but such as cast away their abominations follow the Lord aright and shall overtake him this is the method prescribed by God himself Jer. 4.1 2. If thou wilt return O Israel faith the Lord return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of thy sight then shalt thou not remove thou shalt swear the Lord liveth Then and never till then are Souls fit to joyn in covenant with God when they are divorced from all besides 7. They were acquiescing in and fully satisfyed with the Lord this is the proper notion of this word Chald. quieti fuerunt post cultum Domini their hearts were abundantly quieted in the manner of Gods worship and much more in the object of their worship and in the union of their hearts to God and communion with him no Satisfaction like this David saith Return unto thy rest Oh my Soul Psal 116.7 No such rest as God is who is the Souls only Center and Sabbath Jer. 31.25 I have satiated the weary Soul and I have replenished every sorrowful Soul As God rests in his Love to his Saints so they are well satisfied with their choyce of God and look not out other ways or beyond him for any contentments to their Spirits Thus then these good Souls these lamenting penitents might say Alas we have been like wandring sheep that have gone astray every one wandring in his own way or as a bird wandring from its nest or as Prodigals from our Fathers house but now now at length by Samuel's Prophecy we are throughly informed that God is the true God that this his prescribed Worship is of his Institution and the mean of communion with him At our first hearing this man of God we were touched and began to incline towards him at last came to fixed resolution to follow the Lord in this his way we were assembled together to this purpose bemoaned our state in the loss of so dear a friend cryed after him Put away our Idols and lusts returned to the Lord by faith and repentance and now we see it 's not in vain it 's good yea very good for us thus to draw near to God we find full content in him we find the injoyment of him a full recompence for all this pains in a mournful pursuit of him We have found him at last we have found him happiness in him he is come whom we sought we need not look for another we care not for any other We fear nothing since we we have found our God From hence we may discern the reason why the same word in Heb. signifies both to repent and to comfort to mourn and to cease mourning to lament and rejoyce for as true comfort belongs only to penitent Souls so sorrow is the porch and inlet to joy none are exalted but they that are first cast down none bring forth the blessed babe of joy but such as Travel in the pangs of sorrows Joh. 6.21 The Painter can with a touch of his Pencil turn a crying into a laughing face thus saith David Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psal 30.11 This is the second general head what is implied in this Lamenting after the Lord. 3. Another head in the prescribed method is the Reasons why it 's so fit that Gods Israel or professing People should thus lament after the Lord when Gods Ark is obscured or his Ordinances obstructed In confirmation of this Point I must demonstrate 1. That they must lament after the Ark of the Lord. 2. After the Lord of the Ark Briefly for both these 1. Gods Israel or professing People must lament after the Ark i. e. the Ordinances of the Lord when obscured or obstructed 1. Because the Ark or Ordinances of the Lord are a Peoples greatest glory their beauty strength honour Wherein is Israel better than other Nations then by having Ordinances of God among them Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation q.d. This this is that that exalts Israel above all other Kingdoms that they have the visible tokens of Gods presence which is a peoples only glory so faith the Apostle Rom. 9.4 To the Israelites pertain the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law the Service of God and the Promises This is Israel's Heritage Patrimony and a rich one it is hence when the Ark was taken Phinehas's Wife breathed her last with that heavisom Ditty The Glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken 1
Sam. 4.21 2. Because the obscuring and obstructing of Ordinances is an heavy Judgment worse than all other Plagues both absolutely considered in it self and comparatively if it be compared with other Judgments God threatens to do by Jerusalem as he did by Shilo Jer. 7.14 How that was this context shews And Ezek. 24.21 I will prophane my Sanctuary the excellency of your strength Many other threats speak God's hot displeasure in this case and the evil is greater because it reacheth to the Soul which is the best part of man Hence Amos 8.11 12. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will send for a Famin in the Land which surely is a dreadful Judgment worse than the Sword Lam. 4.9 But what a Famin Not a Famin of Bread or a Thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord This this is the forest Judgment this Judgment on the Soul is the Soul of Judgments when poor sinners are in danger inevitably to die and be damned in Hell without means or remedy Where no Vision is the people perish Prov. 29.18 Hos 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge 3. Because there 's much advantage in the injoyment of Ordinances Herein consists the Kingdom of Heaven so is the Preaching of the Gospel frequently called and this Word is the Word of the Kingdom and Gospel of the Kingdom because it is an introduction or means to enter Persons into the Kingdom of Grace and so of Glory and that 's a dreadful Threatning Matth. 21.43 Therefore shall the Kingdom of God be taken from you and be given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof If any ask me as Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage hath the Jew so the professing Christian under the Gospel-dispensation or what profit is there of Circumcision or of Spiritual Priviledges I answer much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God and so Salvation is of the Jews as our Lord faith even so those that have Gospel-Ordinances have great helps for the conversion edification and salvation of their Souls for Christ hath set up his Ensign among them for Souls to flock unto These are Wells of Salvation a Feast of fat things breasts of consolation where Souls may milk out and be abundantly delighted here are the Keys of the Kingdom by which Heaven-gates stand open continually the door of Faith the ministration of the Spirit the day of Salvation c. And is not all this worth lamenting after the Lord to enjoy then what is 4. Because this is the character and property of a Child of God to lament after the Ark and Ordinances of God I have saith David loved the habitation of thy house Psal 26.8 Therefore makes this his unum magnum one Thing which he desires of the Lord to dwell in the house of the Lord Psal 27.4 Two things put on a Christian Spirit to lament after God for the Ark 1. His Principles 2. His Experiences 1. He hath a gracious Principle an enlightened Eye to see what others cannot discern the Christian calls such places and waies Beer-la-hai-roi as Hagar Gen. 16.14 The Well of him that liveth and seeth me So the Christian sees God's way in the Sanctuary there he beholds the beauty of the Lord. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary Yea the devout Soul hath a stomach and tast suitable to what he meets with in the Ordinances of God Faith Love Desire Joy as new-born Children have a natural instinct to their Mothers Milk for conservation of life so 1 Pet. 2.2 The Saints as new-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that they may grow thereby The Law of God ingraven in his heart bears proportion to the Word he hears opened by Ministers Christ within him by his Spirit and Graces as the hope of Glory prompts him to a love and longing to Christ in the holy Supper and all other his Institutions 2. Add to this the frequent Experiences the believing Soul hath had of the sweetness of Divine Grace in Ordinances which cannot but set him a longing for the like Experiments again Psal 63.1 2. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary So Song 2.3 4. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my tast yea he brought me into his banquetting house and his banner over me was Love No wonder if she was so sick when she wanted him This leads me to the next Head 2. That Christians must lament after the God of Ordinances or God in Ordinances so saith the Text The House of Israel lamented after the Lord. Why 1. Because God is infinitely more worth than all Ordinances his presence is prizable for it self The Ark is but to be esteemed for his gracious presence In his favour is life Psal 30.5 His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 This is the marrow of Heaven the want of this is Hell Woe also be to them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 And this the Child of God knows 2. God purposely withdraws that men may lament after him as a Mother steps out of the Child's sight that it may see she 's gone and cry after her Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early 3. Because due lamenting after the Lord may fetch him back he purposely hovers waits and expects that his people should call him back by their prayers intreaties moanings not as though God were moved or changed by mens pitiful complaints and out-crys but that such an earnest lamenting qualifies the subject capacitates for mercy and puts Souls into the condition of the promise Jer. 29.12 13. Then shall ye call upon me and shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart 4. God blesseth his People usually in and by Ordinances with his best blessings Psal 133.3 There the Lord commanded the blessing Even life for evermore Eph. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heavenly places things means in Christ It would be needless to reckon up all the blessings that our dear Lord conveys to his People by Ordinances and that it becomes us to lament after the Lord for in his Appointments for now I joyn them together 1. Sometimes God gives outward blessings with his Ark. So the Lord had blessed the House of Obed-edom and all that pertained to him because of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6.12 The Gospel of Peace oft brings outward Peace and Plenty though
in pleasant places we have a goodly Heritage 4. Aged persons and housholders you that are Parents have reason to lament after the Lord of the Ark and the Ark of the Lord that the Waters of the Sanctuary may run both with a clear and strong stream to your Families and Posterity Alas we that have Children have been Instruments to propagate filth and guilt and wrath to our Off-spring and what can we do to heal and help them But if the Lord would be our God he hath promised to be the God of our Seed God forbid we should intail a Curse on our Posterity and give them occasion to curse us to all eternity What unworthy Parents are those that have fair Estates left them and by their Prodigality leave their Children Beggars or Bankrupts But oh how sad would this be to deprive our Posterity of this Gospel-Legacy it will be both their loss and our own Lord suffer us not to go off the Stage in a snuff and leave such a stink behind us Better we had never been born than to fry and blaze in Hell flames we and our poor Children bundled up in Faggots together God thinks good to bind up Parents and their Seed in the Bond of the Covenant Oh Lord we are resolved to follow after thee for the sure mercies of David Be thou our God and we shall have better hopes for our Seed O remember that word Isa 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever This word is full and satisfying 1. Thy Spirit shall be upon me and mine in Sanctification 2. Thy words in my mouth and Childrens mouths in profession solemn Worship 3. They shall not depart from my Seeds Seed to many Generations 4. No not for ever 5. God even Jehovah undertakes this 6. It 's through Christ the Redeemer that 's come to Sion 7. It 's a new Covenant-mercy 8. It doth concern all Converts and such as turn from transgression in Jacob and am not I one of these My dear Lord make thou this word good to me and mine thou that livest for ever and ever I shall live in my Posterity when I shall be here no more let the Gospel-message survive me and the Gospel-grace live in them when I am gone Oh! cut not off thy kindness from my Seed let not them that follow me be deprived of that which I have found so much sweetness in O that Ishmaels may live in thy sight What will become of such as are born in sin if they want means of Conviction and Conversion There 's much ado to awake the sleepy Consciences of our dead Posterity under quickening Ordinances Oh! what then will become of these when such helps are gone How can I endure to see or foresee the destruction of my own bowels Oh! it cuts me to the heart to think of the damning of any much more my own flesh Lord prevent I will pray in hope live in hope die in hopes of the continuance of Gospel-Priviledges 5. Ministers must make it their work to lament after the Lord You you are the Persons mainly concerned You must sound an alarum to awake others you are appointed by the Lord as Instruments to carry on this work and if ever God do return he will excite his Servants to quicken themselves and others to this work as Samuel here Gird your selves and lament ye Priests howl ye Ministers of the Altar come lye all night in sackcloth ye Ministers of my God Yea let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the People Where is their God Alas my brethren have you been so long cast out of Gods publick Work and Worship even twenty long years and have you not yet leavned to lament shall our Master cashie us his service and not judg us worthy to blow our triumpets of Rams horns break a pitcher or hold the lamps for him Surely he is very sore provoked shall I say three Shepherds he cut off in one month nay near three thousand in one day And hath drawn out his wrath a great length and is there no fault in us Yes certainly our Father would not have spit in our face or poured contempt upon us upon us peculiarly but he hath found great fault in us he hath doubtless seen much amiss in us He doth not use to single out a sort of men to shoot his arrows at without fault we cannot excuse instruments but certainly we have deserved all this at God's hands is not God punishing Eli's house for the iniquity he knoweth of Let us my Brethren deal faithfully and impartially with our selves before God and the world cast the first stone at our selves at last justify the Lord by taking shame to our selves Hath God set us in this office only to tell others of their faults Have we not reason to call to remembrance our own faults this day I hope such as are truly gracious have made this reflection many times Nor is this my present work to rake in this dirty Channel only it becomes us to enquire why God hath made us contemptible and base before all the People Mal. 2.1 9. My present work is to quicken our lamenting after the Lord that if it be possible we may fetch him again I may say as Mal. 1.9 And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us This hath been by your means O it 's well if our People have not reason to say so of their Ministers how beit sincere Repentance will not make men throw it off themselves by laying it on others but we may sadly eccho Yes yes it hath been by our means we have put out our Candles by the Thief we have lodged therein We having obscured our glory by sinning We have robbed our People of the Ark and exposed them to Seduction and destruction by the abominations that have been found amongst us Let us fall close to our work of Preaching reforming praying calling God again who knows but if we mourn to our People but they may lament Our watery eyes may affect Peoples hard hearts If the Fishers mourn and such as cast angles into brooks lament our People will be moved God will hear our universal cry and awake for us Some will needs have our wearing black to import our mourning If so let us not be Hypocrites but lament indeed not in shew Some observe that People are much formed after the preaching examples dispositions of their Teachers But it 's to be feared they
'l sooner dance after our wanton Pipes then mourn after our pious Elegies But God forbid the blame or blemish should proceed from us However for Zion's sake let us not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake let us not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth Isai 62.1 For God saith ver 6.7 I have set watch-men upon thy walls Oh Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth 6. Magistrates supreme and subordinate must lament after the Lord. It 's not a work below them though they may think it a work above us to mind them of it but mean persons have been Monitors to mighty Princes An inconsiderable Page rouzeth up Philip King of Macedon with this Alarum Remember Sir you are a man Daniel's Counsel was seasonable he wisheth it may be acceptable to the Babylonian Monarch to break off his sins by righteousness and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it might be a lengthening of his tranquillity Dan 4.27 God gives Jeremiah a Commission to say to the King and to the Queen Humble your selves sit down It 's not unbecoming the greatest Princes to adore at the Foot-stool of the King of Kings 'T is prophesied of the Gospel-Church that Kings shall be her Nursing Fathers and Queens her Nursing Mothers Isa 49.23 Yea saith the Lord They shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the Earth c. Which is to be understood not in a literal Popish sense of a civil subjection of their Power to the proud Usurpations of that Man of Rome but a voluntary resignation of all to the great Jehovah and our blessed Jesus an undervaluing their earthly Honours in comparison of spiritual Priviledges as Constantine the Great and Theodosius who professed he would rather be a Member of Christ than Head of the Empire It 's not below Majesty on Earth to lament after the God of Heaven David Asa Jehosaphat and Hezekiah followed the Lord with cares prayers fears and tears and how doth God approve and applaud that tender-hearted Josiah 2 Chron. 34.27 28. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy cloaths and weep before me mark the outward tokens of inward sorrow I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. And when Josiah's Grandfather Manasses was unruly God took a course to humble him and set him a following God by hearty prayer and great humiliations But when his Father Ammon and his Son Zedekiah did not walk in these mournful steps of penitent lamentings after the Lord God took another course with them and cut them off Yea God hath brought Heathen Kings upon their knees to lament after God in the best manner they could as the King of Nineveh Jonah 3.5 6. and God took it well v. 10. Yea this outward humiliation prevented Ahab's temporal destruction 1 King 21.27 29. And when God threatned Rehoboam by Shishak's Invasion and Shemaiah's Commination the Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves and said The Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 12.6 7. And God saith I will not destroy them but grant them some deliverance or for a little while Much more if Princes and Nobles be sincere in humiliations for sin and lamentations after the Lord and universal Reformations Oh what mercy doth the Lord reserve for such Thus in the daies of Ezra Nehemiah Esther The Instances are numerous and pregnant Oh that God would stir up the hearts of the Governours of his People to say Surely we and our People have provoked the Lord against us Yea 't is well if our hands have not been chief in the trespass Oh that as we have been exemplary in sinning we might be exemplary in our repentings as we have driven God from us and our People so we might be the first to fetch him back again God forbid that we should say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord or refuse to let the Servants of the Lord to go and serve him according to Scripture-Rules though they may differ from us in some modes of Worship Yes it 's fit the Governours of Judah should say in their hearts The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God These these are the Chariots and Horse-men of Israel as once a King said of a Prophet God forbid we should arm or animate some Protestants against their Brethren while Papists are putting us on and warming themselves by the fire of their own kindling and when they spy their opportunity will snatch up both the Cocks they have set a fighting and writhe off their Necks and feast on them Let 's rather improve our utmost Interest to make them Friends and bespeak their joynt-prayers for us And since we need the Lord and his Appointments as well as others as much as the meanest of our Subjects let us also follow the Lord with bitter crys and lamentations The Princes digged the Well the Nobles of the People digged it by the direction of the Law-giver with their Staves Why may not we also work hard in these Sacred Wells of Ordinances and then cry out Spring up O Well! And then also put on others saying Sing ye unto it May we also pass through this Valley of Bacah or weeping and make a Well The Rain also filleth the Pools Benedictionibus amicietur Doctor or Teachers shall be clothed with blessings And so this Valley of Bacah will be a Valley of Berachah our speaking comfortably to those laborious Levites that teach the good knowledge of the Lord will reach their hearts and so we shall bring upon our selves the blessing of them that were ready to perish Yea may call them up hither into publick Worship and send them to the People in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Peace We even we have need of Ordinances as well as others we have ignorant minds stubborn wills strong lusts violent temptations and of all sorts of persons Nobles are most unwilling to put their Necks to the work of the Lord. We have greater hinderances in the way to Heaven and therefore need better helps than others Oh! let it never be said of us that when the poor are but ignorant Souls foolish and know not the way of the Lord that we the Great men Noblemen and Gentlemen that know much indeed but do less for God nay more against him that we should altogether break the Yoak and burst the Bonds Our Interest is greater and Influence more upon others therefore our sin of neglect will be greater and Account heavier Lord let us have Means of Grace and Grace
converted they will draw others to God in his Worship and give a lively example of it in practice Obj. But this practice is uncouth this path is untrodden few it use in the place where we live we shall be laughed to scorn for our labour It 's Answered ver 22. Yea many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before him God will greatly multiply Converts and so take off the scandal of paucity of Worshipers it 's not a few giddy headed factious Spirits but it's Nations many and strong Nations rich and potent Gentile Converts flock like Doves to the windows not by compact and frand but by peculiar operations of the Spirit in the Ministry of the Word People of Divers languages at great distance The same Spirit acts in all Gospel-worshippers to flock to God in Ordinances Yea warlike Nations and Islands afar off unapproachable or invincible by men shall be conquered by the Gospel as 't is said of Britain Romanis inacessa Christo vero Subdita though the Romans could scarce come to it yet our Lord Subdued it You need not fear want of Good company Yea your zeal may provoke others One forward Christian in a place shall have companions in Gods work in due time And how dost thou know but thou wilt find some spark of goodness in some of thy neighbours that thy invitation may blow up and draw forth Try them by a gentle call thou mayst find more of God in them than ever thou wast aware of possibly bashfulness sense of weakness want of acquaintance with Christians Want of a call and opportunity have kept Some lights under a Bushel which if called out of their retirements and alittle snuffed might shine bright in the Church Obj. But alas I am a person of weak gifts cannot lament after the Lord in any societies can be of no use but a burden Ans Thou needest help so much the more Hence the Text saith ver 23. That ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew Like little Children that are not able to go of themselves afraid to fall will get hold of the hem of their Fathers garment to hold them up from falling and strengthen them to walk more securely or to direct him in a way that he hath not known Sincere proselites will look after communion of Saints The Apostle mentions fellowship in the Gospel from the first day Phil. 1.5 And there 's great advantage by it for Solomon saith Two are better then one Eccl. 4.9 10 11. Which he Illustrates there in several cases which I must not inlarge upon But 't is certain you may find great help in communion of Saints But how shall I know they are Saints or fit to joyn with I may be deceived and misled into by-ways of errour Ans We have heard that God is with you with his Apostles by strange signs gifts miracles holiness in conversation What appearances of God for you by you in you You may safely joyn in with such as God thinks fit to own and communicate himself to I am convinced from the bright beams of Gospel-light and from the powerful influences and convictions of the Spirit that this is indeed the way of God I am therefore resolved to inquire after God in it and joyn with them that travel in it heavenwards Thus much for the second head who are the Persons concerned in this work 3. Another Head is the helps and furtherances in this lamenting after the Lord. What course shall we take both to perform this duty aright and to obtain what we lament after viz. either the God of Ordinances or the Ordinances of God Here I might repeat what was mentioned in the Explication by way of Instruction As 1. They were inclined after the Lord. It were well if poor Sinners would but stop their vain career stand still pause upon it bethink themselves have a tendency God-wards this is the first step to Repentance See Jer. 8.6 2. Settled after the Lord. Oh that men were well resolved upon good grounds that their hearts were well fixed inflamed designed for God! as our Saviour that stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem or as Paul Acts 21.13 3. Congregated gathered united together to go hand in hand after the Lord Zeph. 2.1 Gather your selves together yea gather together O Nation not desired Gather your selves by mutual accommodation and sincere repentance to get under the wing of God as Chickens under the Hen or as the allusion in that Text is that ye be not as Chaff that is dissipated by the wind v. 2. for there 's an affinity in the words sincere Repentance unites to God and his People 4. Groaned complained bemoaned themselves after the Lord as Israel Jer. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself Oh that I should by my sin forfeit God's presence and for sin lose it how miserable am I in this so sad and astonishing loss 5. They cryed called after the Lord by earnest supplication expostulation and it becomes a Child to follow his Mother with bitter out-crys to fetch her back Jer. 31.9 They shall come with weeping and with supplications will I lead them Marg. with favours so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misertus gratificatus doluit That 's the best Prayer that flows from love and follows God with grief and tears from an earnest good will to God without outward constraint and slavish fear 6. They betook themselves to the Lord by Faith Repentance Reformation Oh what efficacy is in this course Judg. 10.13 God saith I will deliver you no more but bids them cry unto the gods whom they had chosen v. 14. For they had cryed to the Lord v. 10. and confessed sin yet God seems peremptory in denying aid then they reinforce their confession and supplication and withal added Reformation v. 6. They put away the strange gods from among them and served the Lord and see the blessed effect his Soul was grieved for the misery of Israel and he delivers them No way like this 7. They acquiesced in the Lord were fully contented and satisfied with the Lord both as to the object of worship and manner of worshipping And oh for such a frame as that Isa 26.13 O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name i. e. by thy Precepts according to thy Institution will we worship thee our fear towards thee shall be no more taught by the Precepts of men we will worship thee only in thy own way and by thee i. e. in thy strength by the assistance of thy grace thou alone shalt be the Author and object of our love desire pleasure and delight Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our
with this word repeated vers 7 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah And if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Who would not follow after such a God with prayers tears groans and hearty lamentations that he would return to us continue with us Oh! who would not have an hand in bringing back the King such a King as by his presence can make us truly and eternally happy See what it is to have God with us Isa 42.13 14 15 16. Yea it becomes every one to study the usefulness of God's Ordinances that their hearts may be ingaged to and inlarged in lamenting after the Ordinances of God Both these are larger Subjects than I can prosecure to explain the advantages coming to a People by the presence of the Ordinances of God or the God of Ordinances You must look on the Ordinances as fruits and tokens of God's special favour for all have not the Ordinances of God Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them That this Sun-shine of Gospel-Light is on one place and not on another proceeds from discriminating Providence who sent Embassadours for the Gospel to be brought to them Surely that 's preventing kindness But when it hath left some impression on hearts some Myrth upon the handles of the Lock such should yea will lament after him when he 's gone as the Church did For such have tasted how good the Lord is and look on the Ordinances as their Heritage and highest Priviledge Oh that you knew what helps Ordinances are to promote God's work in our hearts in begetting and increasing Faith Repentance Love new Obedience this is that clear Chrystal-glass through which we may see the face of God and be transformed into his Image that Glass in which we may see the face of our Souls and be humbled and ashamed Here you may have your doubts resolved fears dispersed hearts satisfied graces quickened fellowship with God promoted our Souls prepared for Heaven Oh that your eyes were opened to see the necessity excellency utility of God's Ordinances I am very confident that if your Souls be as new born Babes you will desire after the sincere Milk of the Word if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As for others that want spiritual life and light to discover and feel the marrow of Ordinances no wonder if they slight or despise both the Appointments themselves and such as long for them and lament the want of them and therefore I urge this that you learn by your own experience the sweetness and advantage of enjoying the presence of God in the Ordinances of God 6. Get and maintain publick Spirits Oh take heed of private Spirits to look only after your own concerns and worldly Interests This hath been the Ruine of the Church and also of particular persons at last Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled Houses and this House lye waste therefore ye have sown much and bring in little q.d. You think to secure your personal and domestical comforts with neglect of my concernments but I will cross you in that which concerns you because you are heedless in what concerns me On the contrary David concern'd himself about God's House and God built his House 3 Sam. 7.2 11. So true is that of our Saviour that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Self-seeking is the way to self-undoing self-denying is the only way to self-advancing Scripture and Experience prove this Well then my advice is that you chiefly mind the Interest of our Lord in the World and put as great an accent on this in your prayers as if it were your own case and indeed it is your own Your little Boat hangs on the great Ship but all judge not so therefore there are few lamenters after the Lord But if you would look on Zion's case as your own and so carry it as having yours really involved in that bottom it would be both an help and spur in your lamentings The more gracious persons have been the more have they forgot themselves to think on the Church Upon me saith St. Paul cometh daily the care of all the Churches Upon Moses lay the burden of all the People Uriah will sympathize and suit himself to the Ark and Israel and Judah in the Camp and not suit himself to the delights of the City Nehemiah inquires after and condoles with his suffering Brethren Look through the Bible and you 'l find this gracious publick Spirit breathing in all the Servants of God Psal 137.5 6. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Marg. the head of my joy q.d. I profess my self to be a Member of that Mystical Body the Church and how can a Member rejoyce when the whole Body mourns If the touching of one String of an Instrument make the rest move how can I forbear a sad Eccho to the Church's mournful Elegy Shall not her dewy Eyes cause mine Eyes to water How can it go well with me when it goes ill with the Church Oh that I could set self aside We have need saith one to be redeemed from our selves rather than from the Devil or World I should make a sweet bartering and give old for new if I could shuffle out self and substitute Christ my Lord in place of my self Oh wretched Idol when shall I see thee wholly decourted and Christ wholly put in thy room Oh that I had but gone as far yet as the Heathens Primar we are not born for our selves surely then I should not be so much taken up with my own matters but think on the Church Alas what 's my danger to Zion's damage if it go well with Zion it shall comfort my heart whatever my personal troubles be But I must hang my Harp on the Willows while the Church is in Captivity Lord do good in thy good pleasure to Zion build thou the Walls of Jerusalem though my broken bones be not set or though my heart still keep bleeding 7. Learn the right Art of praying and pleading with the Lord this lamentation is in the way of supplication that a gracious promise Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem Princes and People the Spirit of grace and of Supplications And then follows a great mourning both in families and in closets Oh that this work were set forward Surely if all the People of England yea professing People could set forwards in this so needful