love of delight since he hath refined and beautified her by imparting to her of his own comliness Ezek. 16.14 Is it likely this affection should sink into carelesness And the fruit of so much love be dasht in peices Can such tenderness be so unconcerned as to let the apple of his eye be pluckt out To be a lazy spectator of the pillage of his Jewels by the powers of Hell to have the Center of his delight tost about at the pleasure of men and Devils Shall a Mother be careless of her sucking Child How then can that God whose tenderness to the Church cannot be equalled by the bowels of the most compassionate mother to her infants Surely God is concerned in honour to maintain against a feeble Devil and a decrepit world that which is the object of his almighty affection 8. In regard of the natural weakness of the Church No generous Prince but will think himself bound in honour to support the weaker subject no tender parent but will acknowledg himself obliged in affection to take a greater care of the weaker than the stronger Child The Gardiner adds props to the feeblest plants that are most exposed to the fury of the storms and have least strength to withstand them The powers of the world have always been the Churches enemies the wise have set their reason and the mighty their arms against her the Devil the God of this world is so far from being her friend that Sion hath been the only object of his spite He contrives only floods to drown her or mines to demolish her Her own friends are often so darkened or divided that they cannot some times for Ignorance and will not other times for peevishness hit upon and use the right means for her preservation 'T is an honourable thing then for that God who entitles himself the Father of the fatherless to shew his own power and grace in her establishment The fatherless condition of the Church is an argument she hath sometimes used to procure the assistance she wanted * Hos 14.3 With thee the fatherless finds mercy And the weakness of Jacob urged by the Prophet excited repentance in God and averted two Judgments which were threatned against that people Amos. 7.2 3 5 6. 'T is no mean motive to him to help the helpless this opportunity he delights to take when there was no man to help no intercessor to plead then his own arm brought Salvation When he saw no defenders but all ravagers no Physicians but all wounders then should the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard Isa 59.16.19 To conclude if Sion the Gospel Church were not of as long a duration as the standing of the world God would lose the honour of his creation after the Devil by sin had made the creatures unuseful for those ends to which God had appointed them by his first institution The wisdom of God had been blurred the serpent would have Triumphed the Kingdom of God had been dissolved the enemy would have enjoy'd a remediless tyranny had not God put his hand to the work and erected a new Kingdom to himself out of the ruins of the fall And since God was pleased to take this course rather than create a new world and hath laid the foundation of a new Kingdom by drawing some out of that common rebellion the humane nature was fallen into and that he might do it with honour to himself hath sent his Son upon that errand by his blood to bring back man to God and his spirit to make men fit for a Communion with him and hath backt his affection to the Church with so much cost and pains for her welfare If after all this God should-desert his Church the dishonour of Gods wisdom the loss of the fruit of all his cost and pains the weakness of his affection or of his power to perform his promise and the ruin of his glory intended by those methods would be the issue which would be attended with the triumph of his revolted creature and greatest enemy This would be if God should cease picking out some men for his praise and keeping up his name and royalty in the earth 2. 'T is for the exercise of the Offices of Christ that Sion should be establisht He is Prophet Priest and King which are all titles of relation Prophet implies some to be instructed a Priest some to offer for and a King some to be ruled put one relation and you must necessarily put the other If there were no Church preserv'd in the world he would be a nominal Prophet without any disciples a King without subjects and a Priest without suppliants to be atoned by him upon earth Now Christ is the wonderfull Counsellour the everlasting Father and the Government is laid upon his Shoulders to what end to order and establish the Kingdom of God Isa 9.6 7. All the strength and vigor he had as it was from God so it was intended for God * Thou madest the Son of man strong for thy self Psa 80.17 And the reason is because though God hath given up the administration of things to Christ yet he hath not devested himself of his right nor can For God is the chief Lord and the relation of creatures not ceasing the relation of Lord and Creator cannot cease And therefore since the right of God continues the grant of the uttermost ends of the earth to be the inheritance possession of Christ includes not only a gift but an Office to preserve protect establish and improve his possession for those ends for which he had the grant and to prevent all that may impair it As he had a right and strength by the order of God to rear it so he hath an Office and Power to establish it as well as to erect it and Christ is the same in all his offices yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 The same in credit with God in faithfulness to his Office the vertue of his blood the force of his arm and compassions to bleeding Sion 1. 'T is his part as a Prophet to establish it in Doctrine 'T is his part externally to raise his truth when it lyes gasping in the rubbish of errour and refine his worship when it is daub'd with Superstition and Idolatry Internally to clear the understanding to know his truth quicken the will to imbrace it rivet the word in the conscience and enflame the affections to love and delight in it Certainly the promise of the abiding of his Spirit implies the efficacy of his operation while he abides He is to provide against the subtilty and rapine of fox like Hereticks that they spoil not the tender vine Cant. 2.15 And to furnish the Church with gifts for the preserving and increasing her The perpetual exercise of this prophetical office he promised them when he gave the Apostles a Charter for his presence to the end of the world Mat. 28.20 Which was in relation to their ministry and
God shall establish her stability is not to be found out of her To depart from her is to leave a firm Rock to find security in a quick-sand To leap out of a stout Ship in a storm to expect a preservation in the waves To turn our backs upon Heaven to seek ease in the bowels of Hell The Altar at Damascus is cast down and Jeroboam's Altar is demolisht when that at Jerusalem stood To stay in Sion is to be exposed to the gun-shot of men and Devils to run from her is to seek to the Devil for protection and run into the mouth of all the Artillery of God that is set for the establishment of Sion If we are Christians no force nor violence should separate us from her 2. Let us love Sion There is nothing the Scripture uses more as an argument to separate our affections from the world than the uncertainty and fading nature of it The perpetuity then of the Church should be a motive to place our affections there where they shall never want an object and which we cannot love without loving her head and her establisher The Jews in Babylon would rather forget themselves than their City and Temple Psal 137.5 6. Our affections to Gospel Sion should be more tender since God hath poured out more of his Spirit upon her and she is more amiable in his eye That which the Jews so much affected is perished But the true Sion is eternal and shall flourish for ever The highest himself hath an establishing affection to her Let our affections to her equal the malice of the Enemies against her since we have greater incentives to love her than they can have to hate her While others cry Raze Raze it even to the ground let us at least testify our affections and if we have not her standing walls to love let us not estrange our tenderness from her very dust Psal 102.14 There is a pleasure to be taken in her stones because they shall be again set in their place a favour to be shewn to her dust because it shall be again compacted and enjoy a resurrection For the highest that hath promised to establish her will not desert her in her ruins v. 16. When the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in glory we have therefore more ground to favour her dust than to admire the proudest palaces 3. Let us desire the Establishment of Sion more than our own private Establishment 'T is the Sign of a gracious Spirit to look not only on his own things but the things of others Phil. 2.4 And what things of others should be regarded if the things of Christ and his Spouse be over-looked No private person hath any promise of establishment but as he is a Denison of Sion as one born in her In desiring therefore the welfare of Sion we wish and make way for the establishing of our selves our interests are common with hers Her prosperity therefore should be the first and last of our wishes When we wish the stability of Sion we wish the honour of God the continuance of his worship the glorifying his name which is deposited in that cabinet The glory of God cannot flourish if the Church perish How base then are those that if they can swim in a worldly prosperity care not if the Church be drowned in tears and bloud that cloth themselves and regard not her nakedness that provide an earthly Canaan for themselves and care not what desolate desert Sion sits weeping in 4. Let us endeavour the establishment of Sion 'T is a grateful thing to a Prince to favour his favorite Let us be as forward to enlarge her Territories as the Devil and his instruments are to increase the Suburbs of hell The Highest himself will establish her by himself we must therefore take those methods which are agreeable to the chief preserver A complyance with the Enemies of God was never the way to secure the interest of Sion A divine work in a divine way will meet with divine assistance To contribute to the establishment of Sion is a work honourable in it self since it is the work of God himself 'T is an imitation of the highest pattern In this we are associates and coworkers with God For the Highest himself shall establish Sion A DISCOURSE UPON THE Fifth of November Exod. 15.9 10. The Enemy said I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoil my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them Thou didst blow with thy wind the Sea covered them they sank as Lead in the mighty waters AN Anniversary Commemoration of a memorable Deliverance falling upon this Day hath caused a diversion of my thoughts to look back not only upon a mercy never to be forgotten but to look forward to that Deliverance which is to come parallel to this in the Text. Israel was a Type of the Church Pharaoh a type of the Churches Enemies in all Ages of the world both of the spiritual Enemy Satan and of the temporal his Instruments The Deliverance was a type of the Deliverance that Christ wrought upon the Cross by his Blood Also of that Christ works by his power upon his Throne the one from the Reign of Sin the other from the Empire of Antichrist This was the Exemplar of all the deliverances the Church was to have As the Assyrian should lift up a staff against Jerusalem after the manner of Aegypt so the Lord should lift his rod up for them upon the Sea after the manner of Aegypt when the Yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing Isa 10.26 27. when the power of the Enemies shall be destroyed by the strength of Christ The Lord himself makes it his pattern in those victories he is to gain for his people when he calls upon his arm to awake as in the ancient days when he cut Rahab and wounded the Dragon and made the depths of the Sea a way for the ransom'd to pass over Isa 51.9 10 11. then the redeemed of the Lord shall come with singing unto Sion the Song of Moses while they stand upon a Sea of Glass a brittle frail and stormy world Rev. 15.3 And our Redeemer makes this his pattern rule when he comes to tread the Wine-press in wrath and make them drunk with his fury that then he would remember the days of old Moses and his people when he divided the water before them to make himself an everlasting name Isa 63.1.2.11 that his power may be as glorious in the latter as it was in the former and all deliverances of the Church from the beginning to the end be knit together to be an everlasting matter of praise to his name This Historical narration is to have a more universal accomplishment the deliverance from Aegypt is promised to be fulfilled a second time and God would act the same part over again as also their deliverance from Ogg King of Bashan after the ascension
Do not envy them Be not troubled at their prosperity 2. Do not imitate them Be not provoked by their Glow-worm happiness to practice the same wickedness to arrive to the same prosperity 3. Be not sinfully impatient and quarrel not with God because he hath not by his providence allowed thee the same measures of prosperity in the world Accuse him not of injustice and cruelty because he afflicts the good and is indulgent to the wicked Leave him to dispense his blessings according to his own mind 4. Condemn not the way of Piety and Religion wherein thou art Think not the worse of thy Profession because it is attended with Affliction The reason of this Exhortation is rendred v. 2. For they shall soon be cut down as the grass and wither as the green herb amplified by a similitude or resemblance of their prosperity to grass Their happiness hath no stability it hath like grass more of colour and show than strength and substance Grass nods this and that way with every wind The mouth of a Beast may pull it up or the foot of a Beast may tread it down the scorching Sun in Summer or the fainting Sun in Winter will deface its complexion The Psalmist then proceeds to positive duties v. 3. 1. Faith Trust in the Lord. This is a grace most fit to quell such impatiencies The stronger the faith the weaker the passion Impatient motions are signs of a flagging faith Many times Men are ready to cast off their help in Jehovah and address to the God of Ekron multitudes of friends or riches But trust thou in the Lord in the promises of God in the providence of God 2. Obedience Do good Trust in God's promises and observance of his precepts must be linkt together 'T is but a pretended trust in God where there is a real walking in the paths of wickedness Let not the glister of the world render thee faint and languid in a course of Piety 3. The keeping our station Do good Because wicked men flourish hide not thy self therefore in a corner but keep thy sphere run thy Race And verily thou shalt be fed have every thing needful for thee And now because men delight in that wherein they trust the Psalmist diverts us from all other objects of delight to God as the true object Delight thy self in the Lord place all thy pleasure and joy in him And because the motive expresseth the answer of prayer the duty enjoyned seems to respect the act of prayer as well as the object of prayer Prayer coming from a delight in God and a delight in seeking him Trust is both the spring of joy and the spring of Supplication When we trust him for sustenance and preservation we shall receive them so when we delight in seeking him we shall be answered by him 1. The Duty In the act Delight In the object the Lord. 2. The motive He shall give thee the desires of thy heart the most substantial desires those desires which he approves of The desire of thy heart as gracious though not the desire of thy heart as carnal The desire of thy heart as a Christian though not the desire of thy heart as a creature He shall give God is the object of our joy and the author of our comfort Doctrine Delight in God in seeking him only procures gracious answers or without chearful prayers we cannot have gracious answers There are two parts 1. Chearfulness on our parts 2. Grants on Gods part 1 Chearfulness and delight on our parts Joy is the tuning the Soul The command to rejoyce precedes the command to pray 1 Thes 5.16 17. Rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing Delight makes the melody prayer else will be but a harsh sound God accepts the heart only when it is a gift given not forc'd Delight is the marrow of Religion 1. Dulness is not suitable to the great things we are chiefly to beg for Gospel-discoveries are a feast Isa 25.6 Dulness becomes not such a solemnity Manna must not be sought for with a dumpish heart With joy we are to draw water out of the Wells of Salvation Isa 12.3 Faith is the bucket but joy and love are the hands that move it They are the Hur and Aaron that hold up the hands of this Moses God doth not value that mans service who accounts not his service a priviledge and a pleasure 2. Dulness is not suitable to the Duty Gospel-duties are to be performed with a Gospel-temper God's People ought to be a willing people Psa 110.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of willingness As though in prayer no other faculty of the Soul had its exercise but the will This must breathe fully in every word as the spirit in Ezekiel's wheels Delight like the Angel * Judg. 13.20 must ascend in the smoke and flame of the Soul Though there be a kind of union by contemplation yet the real union is by affection A man cannot be said to be a spiritual King if he doth not present his performances with a Royal and Prince-like spirit 'T is for vigorous wrestling that Jacob is called a Prince Gen. 32.28 This Temper is essential to grace Natural men are described to be of a heavy and weary temper in the offering of Sacrifices Mal. 1.13 It was but a sickly lame Lamb they brought for an offering and yet weary of it that which was not fit for their table they thought fit for the Altar In the handling this Doctrine I shall shew 1. What this delight is 2. Whence it springs 3. The reasons of the doctrine 4. The use 1. What this delight is Delight properly is an affection of the mind that Springs from the possession of a good which hath been ardently desired This is the top stone the highest step delight is but an Embryo till it come to fruition and that certain and immutable Otherwise if there be probability or possibility of losing that which we have present possession of the fear of it is as a drop of gall that infects the sweetness of this passion delight properly is a silencing of desire and the banquet of the Soul on the presence of its desired object But there is a delight of a lower stamp 1. In desires There is a delight in desire as well as in fruition A chearfulness in labour as well as in attainment The desire of Canaan made the good Israelites chearful in the wilderness There is an inchoate delight in motion but a consummate delight in rest and fruition 2. In hopes Desired happiness affects the Soul much more expected happiness Rom. 5.2 We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Joy is the natural issue of a well grounded hope A tottering expectation will engender but a tottering delight Such a delight will Mad-men have which is rather to be pitied than desired But if an imaginary hope can affect the heart with some real joy much more a hope setled upon a sure bottom and raised upon a good
such an end As Balaam and Balak offered their Sacrifice chearfully hoping to ingratiate themselves with God and to have liberty to curse his people 3. A delight in the precepts and promises of God which are the ground and rules of Prayer First David delights in Gods testimonies and then calls upon him with his whole heart A gracious heart must first delight in precepts and promises before it can turn them into prayers For prayer is nothing else but a presenting God with his own promise desiring to work that in us and for us which he hath promised to us None was more chearful in prayer than David because none was more rejoycing in the statutes of God Gods statutes were his Songs Psa 119.54 And the divine Word was sweeter to him than the hony and hony-comb If our hearts leap not at divine promises we are like to have but drowsy Souls in desiring them If our eye be not upon the dainties God sets before us our desires cannot be strong for him If we have no delight in the great charters of heaven the rich legacies of God how can we sue for them If we delight not in the covenant of grace we shall not delight in prayers for grace It was the hopes of reward made Moses so valiant in suffering and the joy set before Christ in a promise made him so chearful in enduring the shame Heb. 12.1.2 4. A delight in prayer itself A Christians heart is in secret ravisht into heaven There is a delight in coming near God and warming the soul by the fire of his love The Angels are chearful in the act of praise their work is their glory A holy Soul doth so delight in this duty that if there were no command to engage him no promise to encourage him he would be stepping into Gods Courts He thinks it not a good day that passeth without some intercourse with God David would have taken up his lodgings in the Courts of God and regards it as the only blessedness Psalm 65.4 And so great a delight he had in being in Gods presence that he envies the birds the happiness of building their nests near his Tabernacle A delight there is in the holiness of Prayer a natural man under some troubles may delight in Gods comforting and easing presence but not in his sanctifying presence He may delight to pray to God as a storehouse to supply his wants but not as a refiners fire to purge away his dross Prayer as Praise is a melody to God in the heart Eph. 5.19 And the Soul loves to be fingering the instrument and touching the strings 5. A delight in the things askt This heavenly chearfulness is most in heavenly things What delight others have in asking worldly goods that a gracious heart hath in begging the light of Gods countenance That soul cannot be dull in prayer that seriously considers he prays for no less than heaven and happiness no less than the glory of the great God A gracious man is never weary of spiritual things as men are never weary of the Sun but though it is enjoyed every day yet long for the rising of it again From this delight in the matter of prayer it is that the Saints have redoubled and repeated their Petitions and often double the Amen at the end of Prayer to manifest the great affections to those things they have askt The Soul loves to think of those things the heart is set upon and frequent thoughts express a delight 6. A delight in those graces and affections which are Exercised in Prayer A gracious heart is most delighted with that prayer wherein grace hath been more stirring and gracious affections have been boyling over The Soul desires not only to speak to God but to make melody to God the heart is the instrument but graces are the strings and prayer the touching them and therefore he is more displeased with the flagging of his graces than with missing an answer There may be a delight in gifts in a mans own gifts in the gifts of another in the pomp and varnish of devotion But a delight in exercising spiritual graces is an ingredient in this true delight The Pharisees are markt by Christ to make long prayers vaunting in an outward bravery of words as if they were playing the Courtiers with God and complementing him But the Publican had a short prayer but more grace Lord be merciful to me a sinner There is relyance and humility A gracious heart labours to bring flaming affections and if he cannot bring flaming grace he will bring smoaking grace he desires the preparation of his heart as well as the answer of his prayer Psalm 10.17 2. Whence this delight springs 1. From the Spirit of God Not a spark of fire upon our own hearth that is able to kindle this Spiritual delight 'T is the holy Ghost that breaths such an heavenly heat into our affections The Spirit is the fire that kindles the Soul the spring that moves the watch the wind that drives the ship The swiftest ship with spread sails will be but sluggish in its motion unless the wind fills its sails without this Spirit we are but in a weak and sickly condition our breath but short a heavy and troublesome Asthma is upon us Psal 138.3 When I cryed unto thee thou didst strengthen me with strength in my Soul As prayer is the work of the Spirit in the heart so doth delight in prayer owe itself to the same author God will make them joyful in his house of prayer Isa 56.7 2. From grace The Spirit kindles but gives us the Oyl of grace to make the lamp burn clear There must not only be wind to drive but sails to catch it a prayer without grace is a a prayer without wings There must be grace to begin it A dead man cannot rejoice in his Land Money or Food he cannot act and therefore cannot be chearful in action Chearfulness supposeth life dead men cannot perform a duty Psal 115.17 the dead praise not the Lord nor dead souls a chearful duty There must not only be grace infused but grace actuated No man in a sleep or swoon can rejoice There must not only be a living principle but a lively operation If the sap lurk only in the root the branches can bring forth no fruit our best prayers without the sap of grace diffusing itself will be but as withered branches Grace actuated puts heat into performances without which they are but benum'd and frozen * Reynolds Rusty grace as a rusty Key will not unlock will not enlarge the heart There must be grace to maintain it There is not only need of fire to kindle the lamp but of Oyl to preserve the flame natural men may have their affections kindled in a way of common working but they will presently faint and dye as the flame of cotton will dimm and vanish if there be no Oyl to nourish it There is a temporary joy in hearing the word
voluptuousness fancy the pleasures in the ways of wisdom here and at God's right hand hereafter This is to deal with our hearts as Paul with his hearers The heads of the Catechism might be taken in order which would both encrease and actuate our knowledge Psal 40.5 to catch them with guile Stake your soul down to some serious and profitable mystery of Religion as the Majesty of God some particular Attribute his condescension in Christ the love of our Redeemer the value of his sufferings the vertue of his blood the end of his ascension the work of the Spirit the excellency of the soul beauty of holiness certainty of death terror of judgment torments of Hell and joys of Heaven Why may not that which was the subject of God's innumerable thoughts be the subject of ours God's thoughts and counsels were concerning Christ the end of his coming his death his precepts of holiness and promises of life and that not only speculatively but with an infinite pleasure in his own glory the creatures good to be accomplished by him Would it not be work enough for our thoughts all the day to travel over the length breadth height and depth of the love of Christ Would the greatness of the journey give us leisure to make any starts out of the way Having settled the Theme for all the day we shall find occasional assistances even from worldly businesses as Scholars who have some Exercise to make find helps in their own course of reading though the Book hath no design'd respect to their proper Theme Thus by imploying our minds about one thing chiefly we shall not only hinder them from vain excursions but make even common objects to be oyl to our good thoughts which otherwise would have been fuel for our bad Such generous liquor would scent our minds and conversations all the day that whatsoever motion came into our hearts would be tinctured with this spirit and savour of our morning thoughts as vessels having been filled with a rich wine communicate a relish of it to the liquors afterward put into them We might also more steadily go about our worldly business if we carry God in our minds as oâ—e foot of the Compass will more regularly move about the Circumference when the other remains firm in the Center 2. Look to the manner of it 1. Let it be intent Transitory thoughts are like the glances of the eye soon on and soon off they make no clear discovery and consequently raise no spritely affections Let it be one principal subject and without flitting from it for if our thoughts be unsteady we shall find but little warmth a burning glass often shifted fires nothing We must look at the things that are not seen as wistly as men do at a mark they shoot at 2 Cor. 4.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.18 Such an intent meditation would change us into the image and cast us into the mould of those truths we think of it would make our minds more busie about them all the day as a glaring upon the Sun fills our eyes for some time after with the image of it To this purpose look upon your selves as deeply concern'd in the things you think of Our minds dwell upon that whereof we apprehend an absolute necessity A condemned person would scarce think of any thing but procuring a reprieve and his earnestness for this would bar the door against other intruders 2. Let it be affectionate and practical Meditation should excite a spiritual delight in God as it did in the Psalmist †Psa 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. and a divine delight would keep up good thoughts and keep out impertinencies A bare speculation will tire the Soul and without application and pressing upon the will and affections will rather chill than warm devotion 'T is only by this means that we shall have the efficacy of truth in our wills and the sweetness in our affections as well as the notion of it in our understandings The more operative any truth is in this manner upon us the less power will other thoughts have to interrupt and the more disdainfully will the heart look upon them if they dare be impudent Never therefore leave thinking of a spiritual subject till your heart be affected with it If you think of the evil of sin leave not till your heart loath it if of God cease not till it mount up in admirations of him If you think of his Mercy melt for abusing it if of his Soveraignty awe your heart into obedient resolutions if of his Presence double your watch over your self If you meditate on Christ make no end till your hearts love him if of his Death plead the value of it for the justification of your persons and apply the vertue of it for the sanctification of your natures Without this practical stamp upon our affections we shall have light spirits while we have opportunity to converse with the most serious objects We often hear foolish thoughts breathing out themselves in a house of mourning in the midst of Coffins and trophies of death as if men were confident they should never die whereas none are so ridiculous as to assert they shall live for ever By this instance in a Truth so certainly assented to we may judg of the necessity of this direction in truths more doubtfully believed 7. Draw spiritual Inferences from occasional Objects David did but wistly consider the Heavens Psal 8.3 4. and he breaks out in self-abasement and humble admirations of God Glean matter of instruction to your selves and praise to your Maker from every thing you see It will be a degree of restoration to a state of innocency since this was Adam's task in Paradise Dwell not upon any created object only as a Virtuoso to gratifie your rational curiosity but as a Christian call Religion to the feast and make a spiritual improvement No creature can meet our eyes but affords us lessons worthy our thoughts besides the general notices of the power and wisdom of the Creator Thus may the Sheep read us a Lecture of patience the Dove of innocence the Ant and Bee raise blushes in us for our sluggishness and the stupid Oxe Isa 1.3 and dull Ass correct and shame our ungrateful ignorance And since our Saviour did set forth his own excellency in a sensible dress the consideration of those Metaphors by an acute fancy would garnish out divine truths more deliciously and conduct us into a more inward knowledge of the Mysteries of the Gospel He whose eyes are open cannot want an instructer unless he wants a heart Thus may a Tradesman spiritualize the matter he works upon and make his commodities serve in wholsom meditations to his mind and at once enrich both his Soul and his Coffers yea and in part restore the creatures to the happiness of answering a great end of their Creation which Man depriv'd
them of when he subjected them to vanity Such a view of spiritual truths in sensible pictures would clear our knowledge purifie our fancies animate our affections encourage our graces disgrace our vices and both argue and shame us into duty and thus take away all the causes of our wild wandring thoughts at once And a frequent exercise of this method would beget and support a habit of thinking well and weaken if not expel a habit of thinking ill 2. The second sort of directions are for the preventing bad thoughts And to this purpose 1. Exercise frequent humiliations Pride exposeth us to impatient and disquieting thoughts Prov. 30.32 whereas humility clears up a calm and serenity in the Soul 'T is Agur's advice to be humbled particularly for evil thoughts Frequent humiliations will deaden the fire within and make the sparks the fewer The deeper the Plough sinks the more the weeds are killed and the ground fitted for good grain Men do not easily fall into those sins for which they have been deeply humbled Vain conceits love to reside most in jolly hearts but by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better Eccles 7.3 4. There is more of wisdom or wise consideration in a composed and graciously mournful spirit whereas carnal mirth and sports cause the heart to evaporate into lightness and folly The more we are humbled for them the more our hatred of them will be fomented and consequently the more prepared shall we be to give them a repulse upon any bold intrusion 2. Avoid entangling your selves with the world This clay will clog our minds and a dirty happiness will engender but dirty thoughts Lutea faelicitas Aug. de Civ Dei l. 10. Who were so foolish to have inward thoughts that their houses should continue for ever but those that trusted in their riches †Psal 49.6 11. 1 Tim. 6.9 If the world possess our Souls it will breed carking thoughts much business meets with crosses and then it breeds murmuring thoughts and sometimes it is crown'd with success and then it starts proud and self-applauding thoughts Those that will be rich fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts such lusts that make men fools and one part of folly is to have wild and sensless fancies Mists and fogs are in the lower Region near the Earth but reach not that next the Heavens Were we free from earthly affections these gross vapours could not so easily disturb our minds but if the World once settle in our hearts we shall never want the fumes of it to fill our heads And as covetous desires will stuff us with foolish imaginations so they will smother any good thought cast into us as the thorns of worldly cares choak'd the good seed and made it unfruitful Matth. 13.22 As we are to rejoyce in the World as though we rejoyced not so by the same reason we should think of the World as though we thought not Rom. 12.2 A conformity with the World in affection is inconsistent with a change of the frame of the mind 3. Avoid Idleness Serious Callings do naturally compose mens spirits but too much Recreation makes them blaze out in vanity Idle souls as well as idle persons will be ranging As Idleness in a State is both the Mother and Nurse of Faction and in the natural body gives birth and encrease to many diseases by enfeebling the natural heat so it both kindles and foments many light and unprofitable imaginations in the soul which would be sufficiently diverted if the active mind were kept intent upon some stated work So truly may that which was said of the servant Mat. 25 26. Tâ—ou wicked and slothful servant Mat. 13.25 be applied to our nobler part that it will be wicked if once it degenerates into slothfulness in its proper charge As empty minds are the fittest subjects for extravagant fooleries so vacant times are the fittest seasons While we sleep the importunate enemy within as well as the envious adversary without us will have a successful opportunity to sow the tares whereas a constant imployment frustrates the attempt and discourageth the Devil because he sees we are not at leisure Therefore when any sinful motion steps in double thy vigour about thy present business and the foolish impertinent will sneak out of thy heart at this discountenance So true is that in this case which Pharaoh falsly imagined in another that the more we labour the less we shall regard vain words †Exod. 5.9 As Satan is prevented by diligence in our Callings so sometimes the Spirit visits us and fills us with holy affections at such seasons as Christ appeared to Peter and other Disciples when they were a fishing †Joh. 21.3 4. and usually manifested his grace to men when they were engaged in their useful businesses or religious services But these motions as we may observe by the way which come from the Spirit are not to put us out of our way but to assist us in our walking in it and further us both in our attendance on and success in our duties To this end look upon the work of your Callings as the work of God which ought to be done in obedience to Him as He hath set you to be useful in the community Thus a holy exercise of our Callings would sanctifie our minds and by prepossessing them with solid business we should leave little room for any Spider to weave its Cobwebs 4. Awe your hearts with the thoughts of God's Omniscience especially the discovery of it at the last Judgment We are very much Atheists in the concern of this Attribute for though it be notionally believed yet for the most part it is practically deny'd God understands all our thoughts afar off †Psa 139.2 as He knew every creature which lay hid in the Chaos and undigested lump of matter God is in us all * Eph. 4.6 as much in us all as He is above us all yea in every creek and chink and point of our hearts Not an Atom in the spirits of all men in the world but is obvious to that All-seeing Eye which knows every one of those things that come into our minds †Ezek. 11.5 God knows both the order and confusion of them and can better tell their natures one by one than Adam named the creatures Fancy then that you hear the sound of the last Trumpet that you see God's Tribunal set and His Omniscience calling out singly all the secrets of your heart Would not the consideration of this allay the heat of all other imaginations If a foolish thought break in consider What if God who knows this should presently call me to Judgment for this sinful glance Say with the Church Shall not God search this out Is it fit either for God's glory or our interest Psal 44.21 that when he comes to make inquisition in us He should find such a nasty dunghil and swarms of Aegyptian
Lice and Frogs creeping up and down our Chambers Were our heads and hearts possest by this substantial truth we should be ashamed to think what we shall be ashamed to own at the last day 5. Keep a constant watch over your hearts Psal 141.3 David desires God to set a watch before the door of his lips much more should we desire that God would keep the door of our hearts We should have grace stand Sentinel there especially for words have an outward bridle they may disgrace a man and impair his interest and credit but thoughts are unknown if undiscovered by words If a man knew what time the Thief would come to rob him he would watch We know we have Thieves within us to steal away our hearts therefore when they are so near us we should watch against a surprize and the more carefully because they are so extraordinary sudden in their rise and quick in their motion Our minds are like idle School-Boys that will be frisking from one place to another if the Master's back be turned and playing instead of learning Let a strict hand be kept over our affections those wild beasts within us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato because they many times force the understanding to pass a judgment according to their pleasure not its own sentiment Young men should be most intent upon their guard because their fancies gather vigor from their youthful heat which fires a world of squibs in a day which mad-men and those which have hot diseases are subject to because of the excessive inflammation of their brains and partly because they are not sprung up to a maturity of knowledge which would breed and foster better thoughts and discover the plausible pretences of vain affections There are particular seasons wherein we must double our guard as when Incentives are present that may set some inward corruption on a flame Timothy's Office was to exhort younger as well as elder women 1 Tim. 5.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Apostle wisheth him to do it with all purity or chastity that a temptation lying in ambush for him might not take his thoughts and affections unguarded Engage thy diligence more at solitary times and in the night wherein freedom from business gives an opportunity to an unsanctified imagination to conjure up a thousand evil spirits whence perhaps it is that the Psalmist tells us God had tryed him in the night and found him holy Psal 17.3 Gen. 19.30 Cellulam mearum cogitationum pertimescebam Hieron The solitary Cave tainted Lot with Incest who had preserved himself fresh in the midst of the salt lusts of Sodom In ill company wherein we may be occasionally cast there is need of an exacter observation of our hearts lest corrupt steams which rise from them as vapours from Lakes and Minerals being breath'd in by us may tincture our spirits or as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Physicians tell us exhaling from consumptive persons do by inspiration steal into our blood and convey a contagion to us And though above all keepings and watchings we are to keep and watch our hearts because out of them are the issues of life Prov. 4.23 yet we must walk the rounds about our senses and members of the body as the wise man there adviseth v. 24. the mouth which utters wickedness the eyes v. 25. which are Brokers to make bargains for the heart and v. 26. the feet which are Agents to run on the errands of sin And the rather must we watch over our senses because we are naturally more ready to follow the motions of them as having had a longer acquaintance and familiarity with them before we grew up to the use of reason Plotinus describes thoughts thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ennead 1. lib. Cor oculi sunt proxenetae peccati Besides most of our thoughts creep in first at the windows of sense The Eye and the Ear robb'd Eve of original righteousness and the Eye rifled David both of his Justice and Chastity If the Eyes behold strange women the heart will utter perverse things Prov. 23.33 Perverse thoughts will sparkle from a rolling Eye Revel-rout is usual where there is a negligent Government He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a City that is broken down and without walls †Prov. 25.28 where any Thieves may go in and out at pleasure 3. The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts when they do intrude and 1. Examine them Look often into your heart to see what it is doing and what thoughts you find dabling in it call to an account enquire what business they have what their errand and design is Psal 42.11 Why art thou disquieted O my soul whence they come and whither they tend David askt his soul the reason of its troubled thoughts so ask thy heart the reason why it entertains such ill company and by what authority they come there and leave not chiding till thou hast put it to the blush Bring every thought to the test of the Word Asaph had envious thoughts at the prosperity of the wicked Psal 73.2 3. which had almost tript him up and laid him on his back And these had blown up Atheistical thoughts that God did not much regard whether his commands were kept or no as though God had untied the link between duty and reward and the breach of his laws were the readiest means to a favourable recompence v. 13. I have cleansed my hands in vain But when he weighed things in the ballance of the sanctuary by the holy rules of God's patience and Justice v. 17. He sees the brutishness of his former conceits v 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and v. 25. he makes an improvement of them to excite his desire for God and delight in Him Let us compare our thoughts with Scripture-rules Comparing spiritual things with spiritual is the way to understand them comparing spiritual sins with spiritual commands is the way to know them and comparing spiritual vices with spiritual graces is the way to loath them Take not then any thing upon trust from a crazy fancy nor without a scrutiny believe that faculty whereby dogs dream and animals perform their natural exploits 2. Check them at the first appearance If they bear upon them a palpable mark of sin bestow not upon them the honour of an examination If the leprosie appear in their foreheads thrust them as the Priests did Vzziah out of the Temple or as David answered his wicked sollicitors Psal 119.115 Depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the commandments of my God Though we cannot hinder them from haunting us yet we may from lodging in us The very sparkling of an abominable motion in our hearts is as little to be look'd upon as the colour of wine in a glass by a man inclined to drunkenness Quench them instantly as
are peculiarly breath'd in by the spirit There are ordinary bubblings of grace in a renewed mind as there are of sins in an unregenerate heart for grace is as active a principle as any because 't is a participation of the divine nature But there are other thoughts darted in beyond the ordinary strain of thinking which like the beams of the Sun evidence both themselves and their original And as concerning these motions joyn'd together take these Directions in short 1. Welcom and entertain them As 't is our happiness as well as our duty to stifle evil motions so 't is our misery as well as our sin to extinguish heavenly Strange fire should be presently quench'd but that which descends from heaven upon the Altar of a holy soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polycarp Epist ad Phil. terms holy persons must be kept alive by quickning meditation When a holy thought lights suddenly upon you which hath no connexion with any antecedent business in your mind provided it be not unseasonable nor hinder you from any absolutely necessary duty either of religion or your calling receive it as a messenger from heaven and the rather because 't is a stranger You know not but you may entertain an Angel yea something greater than an Angel even the Holy Ghost Open all the powers of your souls like so many Organ-pipes to receive the breath of this Spirit when he blows upon you 'T is a sign of an agreeableness between the heart and heaven when we close with and preserve spiritual motions We need not stand long to examine them they are evident by their holiness sweetness and spirituality We may as easily discern them as we can exotick plants from those that grow naturally in our own soil or as a palate at the first tast can distinguish between a rich and generous wine and a rough water The thoughts instill'd by the Spirit of adoption are not violent tumultuous full of perturbation but like himself gentle and dove-like solicitings Gal. 5.22 warm and holy impulses and when cherished leave the soul in a more humble heavenly pure and believing temper than they found it 'T is a high aggravation of sin to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Yet we may quench his motions by neglect as well as by opposition and by that means lose both the profit and pleasure which would have attended the entertainment Salvation came both to Zacheus his house and heart upon embracing the first motion our Saviour was pleased to make him Had he slighted that 't is uncertain whether another should have been bestowed upon him The more such sprouts are planted and nourished in us the less room will stinking weeds have to root themselves and disperse their influence And for thy own good thoughts feed them and keep them alive that they may not be like a blaze of straw which takes birth and expires the same minute Brood upon them and kill them not as some birds do their young ones by too often flying from their nests David kept up a staple of sound and good thoughts he would scarce else have desired God to try and know them Psal 139.23 Tâ—y me and know my thoughts had they been only some few weak flashes at uncertain times 2. Improve them for those ends to which they naturally tend 'T is not enough to give them a bare reception and forbear the smothering of them but we must consider what affections are proper to be rais'd by them either in the search of some truth or performance of some duty Those gleams with shoot into us on the sudden have some lesson seal'd up in them to be opened and learned by us When Peter upon the crowing of the cock call'd to mind his Master's admonition he thought thereon and wept †Mar. 14 72. he did not only receive the spark but kindled a suitable affection A choice graff though kept very carefully by us yet if not presently set will wither and disappoint our expectation of the desired fruit No man is without some secret whispers to disswade him from some alluring and busie sin †Job 33.14 17. God speaks once yea twice that he may withdraw man from his purpose as Cain had by an audible voice Gen. 4.7 which had he observed to the damping the revengeful motion against his brother he had prevented his brother's death his own despair and eternal ruin Have you any motion to seek God's face as David had Let your hearts reply Thy face Lord will I seek * Psal 27.8 The address will be most acceptable at such a time when your heart is tuned by One that searcheth the deep things of God †1 Cor. 2.10 and knows his mind and what airs are most delightful to Him Let our motion be quick in any duty which the Spirit doth suggest and while he heaves our hearts and oyls our wheels we shall do more in any religious service and that more pleasantly and successfully than at another time with all our own art and industry for his injections are like water poured into a pump to raise up more and as Satan's motions are not without a main body to second them so neither do the Spirit 's go unattended without a sufficient strength to assist the entertainers of them Well then lye not at anchor when a fresh gale would fill thy sails but lay hold of the present opportunity These seasons are often like those influences from certain conjunctions of the Planets which if not according to the Astrologer's opinion presently applied pass away and return not again in many ages So the Spirit 's breathings are often determined that if they be not entertained with suitable affections the time will be unregainable and the same gracious opportunities of a sweet entercourse may be for ever lost for God will not have his holy Spirit dishonoured in always striving with wilful man Gen. 6.3 When Judas neglected our Saviour's advertisement John 13.21 the Devil quickly enters and hurries him to the execution of his traiterous project v. 27. and he never meets with any motion afterwards but from his new Master and that eternally fatal both to his body and soul 3. Refer them if possible to assist your Morning Meditation that like little Brooks arising from several Springs they may meet in one channel and compose a more useful Stream What straggling good thoughts arise though they may owe their birth to several occasions and tend divers ways yet list them in the service of that truth to which you have committed the government of your mind that day As Constables in a time of necessary business for the King take up men that are going about their honest and lawful occasions and force them to joyn in one employ for the publick Service Many accidental glances as was observed before will serve both to fix and illustrate your Morning Proposition But if it be an extraordinary injection and cannot be referred to your
her v. 5. v. 1. His Foundation The Foundation of God i. e. That which God hath founded that Jerusalem which is of God's building is seated in the holy Mountain the City was built before Joshuah conquered Canaan But God is said to be the Founder of it in regard of that peculiar glory to which it was designed to be the rest of his Ark the place of his Worship the Throne of the Types of the Messiah the Seat whence the Evangelick Law was to be publisht to all Nations and the Messiah revealed as the Redeemer and Ruler of the World In the holy Mountains Jerusalem was seated upon high Mountains The Palace of the Kings was built upon Sion and the Temple the House of the Most High was built upon Moriah and encompast with Mountains round about Psal 125.2 an emblem of the strength and stability of the Church * Daillé Melange part 2. page 354. Holy Mountains not that there was any inherent holiness in them more than in the other Mountains of the Earth or that they were naturally more beautiful and stately than other Mountains but because they were separated for the Worship and Service of God and had been ennobled by the performance of a Worship there before the building of the Temple It was upon Moriah that Isaac was designed for a Sacrifice and the most signal act of obedience performed to God by the Father of the Faithful It was there also that David appeased the wrath of God by Sacrifice after it had issued out upon the People in a Plague for the numbring of them And the very name Moriah hath something sacred in it it signifying either God teaching or God manifested which name might be given it by God with respect to the manifestation of Christ who was to come during the standing of the second Temple v. 2. The Lord loves the Gates of Sion By Gates in Scripture is meant the strength or wisdom or justice of a place Gates were the Magazines of Arms and the places of Judicature He had manifested his love to her in chusing that City before all the Cities of Israel and Judah wherein to place his Name and have his Worship celebrated and that place in Jerusalem particularly where his Law should be given by the Spirit to the Apostles upon the day of Pentecost and to apply it to the Gospel-Church it signifies the special respect God bears to her above all the Rites Observancies and Ceremonies of the Judaick Institution It was in this Gospel-Church the true Sion that he desired to dwell and will remain for ever Psal 68.17 Which is a Prophetick Psalm of the Gospel-times and the Ascension of Christ 1. The Stability of the Church is here asserted * Geierus in loc The Church is not built upon the Sand which may fall with a Storm nor upon the Waters that may float with the waves nor spread out as a Tent in the Desert that may be taken up and carried away to another place but upon a Mountain not to be removed * Psal 125.1 Mount Sion cannot be removed 't is built upon a Rock the Rock of Ages upon a Mountain which is not shatter'd by waves or shaken by storms upon Christ who hath the strength of many Mountains in himself 2. The necessity of holiness in a Church What though the Church be a Mountain for strength and eminency have the honour and priviledg of Sacraments and be the Ark of the Oracles of God 't is not established unless it be a holy Mountain Holiness is the only becoming thing in the House of God as it is consecrated to the glory of God so it must be exercis'd in things pertaining to the glory of God As the Foundation is holy so ought the Superstructure to be There was no filth in the framing it there must be no filth in the continuance of it v. 3. He speaks with some kind of astonishment of the glorious things spoken of her or promised to her and concludes it with a note of attention or a mark of eminency Selah * v. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God No place enjoy'd an equal happiness with Jerusalem while it remained faithful to its Founder It maintain'd its standing in the midst of its enemies no weapon formed against it was able to prosper Heaven planted it and the dews of Heaven watered it it had a continual succession of Prophets the best Kings that ever were in the world swayed the Scepter in it it was blessed with more miraculous deliverances than any part of the Universe the Nations that loved it not yet feared its power and feared the displeasure of its Guardian It was here the Son of God delivered the Messages of Heaven by the order of his father It was here the spirit first filled the heads and hearts of the Apostles in order to the conversion of a world from Idolatry to the Scepter of God but more glorious things are spoken of the Spiritual Sion than of the material Jerusalem that had Christ in the flesh and the Gospel-Church hath Christ in the spirit he went from thence to heaven but he comes from heaven to visit them with his comforts he hath left the walls of Jerusalem in its ruins but he hath not he will not leave his Spiritual Sion fatherless and comfortless Joh. 14.18 his spirit abides for ever with his Church Glorious things are spoken of it when he pronounced it impregnable and that the gates of Hell the power and policy of all the Apostate Angels and their instruments should not prevail against her when he assured her he would be present with her not to the end of an age or two but till the period of time the consummation of the world priviledges that material Jerusalem could never boast of whatsoever countries have been applauded for secular excellencies or been famous for wisdom none can claym such elogies as Gospel Sion where God hath declared his will publisht himself a God of salvation placed the laws of heaven and poured out that wisdom which comes from above These are glorious things above humane expectations above humane desires The Glorious things mentioned of the Gospel-Church are in v. 4. where he speaks of the enlargement of her bounds the increase of her inhabitants and the numerous muster-rolls of those that shall list themselves in her service * I will make mention of Rahaâ— and Babylon to them that know me Behold Philistia and Tyre with Aethiopâ—â— this man was born there The time shall come when those nations that are most alienated from the profession of truth shall come under her wing and pay allegiance to her empire Strangers shall be brought into her bosom not only Philistia and Tyre nations upon her confines but Aegypt and Aethiopia nations more remote nations born and bred at a distance shall be registred as born from her womb and nurst in her lap distance of place shall not hinder the relation
thereof The Kingdom of God is not destroyed when it is removed but transplanted into a more fruitful Soil While Christ hath a body in the world he will find a Joseph of Arimathea to embalm it and preserve it for a resurrection When the glory of the Lord goes off from one Cherub it will find other Cherubims whereon to settle Ezek. 10.4.18 That glory which had dwelt is the material ark of the Sanctuary departs from thence to find a Throne in that Chariot which had been described Ezek. 1. Nay the departure of God from one Church renders his name more glorious in another * Rivet in Hos 1.10 p. 518. The rejection of the carnal Israel was the Preamble to the appearance of the spiritual Israel the Kingdom of the Messiah was rendred more large and illustrious by the dissolving of that Church that had confidence in the flesh trusted in their external rites and patcht the beauty and purity of divine Worship with their whorish additions just as the mortification of the flesh gives liveliness to the spirit and the pulling up noysom weeds from a garden makes room for the setting and flourishing growth of good plants 2. Though God unstakes the Church in one place yet he will not only have a Church but a professing Church in another It shall be said of Sion This and that man was born there It shall be said of Sion by God It shall be said of Sion by men If Christ confesseth none before his Father but such as confess him before men Luk. 12.8 shall he ever want imployment shall the world ever be at that pass as to bear none that profess him and so none to be owned by him at the right hand of his Father Shall he by whom all things subsist have none to acknowledg their subsistance by him The world may be the Inheritance of Christ but scarce counted his possession if there were not in some parts of it a body of subjects to justifie their Allegiance to him in the face of a persecuting generation Indeed when the Church was confined to the narrow limits of the carnal Israel the profession of the truth was contracted to a few though the faith of it might be alive in others only Caleb and Joshua among the whole body of the murmuring Israelites in the wilderness asserted the honour of God and maintained the truth of his promise though the belief of it might sparkle in the hearts of others under the ashes of their fears that hindered their discovery of it to others It was another time reduced to one and Elijah only had the boldness to make a declaration of the name of God though there were 7000 who had retain'd their purity while they had lost their courage to publish it 1 Kings 19.18 But in the Christian Church since the number of elect are more the profession will be greater in the midst of an universal Apostacy of pretenders Rev. 13.8 All that dwell upon the earth shall Worship him i. e. the Beast whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. If their election be a preservative against an adoration of the Beast it is also a security against the denial of any such worship and an encouragement to profess the name of Christ when they shall be brought upon the stage This profession may lye much in the dark and not be so visible as before As a field of corn overtopt by weeds looks at a distance as if there were nothing else but the blew and red cockle and darnel but when we come near we see the good grain shews its head as well as the weeds but a professing people there will be one where or other 'T is a standing law of Christianity that a belief in the heart should be attended by confession with the mouth Rom. 10.9 And the Church is a congregation of people sounding the voice of Christ as he was preached and confest by the Apostles while there are believers there will be professors in Society together some Ordinances setled in being during the continuance of the world as the Supper 1 Cor. 11.6 implies a Society as the seat of the administration Baptism is a Ceremony of admission into a Society the Supper a feasting of several upon spiritual Viands Officers appointed imply a body professing some rules Math. 28.20 To what purpose are all these setled during the continuance of the world if they were not somewhere to be practised till that period of time how can they be practised without a Confederation and Society Without such a body all the Ordinances and Rules of Christ would be in vain and imply as little wisdom in enacting them as a want of power in not keeping up a Society in some part of the world to observe them according to his own prescriptions There will therefore be in some part or other of the world a Church openly professing the doctrine of truth 3. This Church or Sion shall have a numerous progeny The Spiritual Israel shall be as the Sand of the Sea which cannot be measured or numbred Hos 1.10 which was the promise made to Abraham Gen. 22.17 and renewed in the same terms to Jacob Gen. 32.12 The Church is a little flock in comparison of the carnal world yet it is numerous in it self though not in every place for sometimes there may not be above three found to withstand the worship of a Golden Image yet in some one or other place of the world and successively it shall be numerous he will not lose the honour of the feast he hath prepared though those that are invited prefer their Farms and Oxen before it but will find Guests in the high-ways he will spread his wings from East to West and in every place Incense shall be offered to his Name Mal. 1.11 The Church is compared to the morning Cant. 6.10 which from small beginnings in a short time fills the whole Hemisphere with light and the promises concerning it run all that way The Hills were to be covered with the shadow of it her boughs are to be sent out to the Sea and her branches to the River Psal 80.10 11. It was to spread it self like a goodly Cedar and be a dwelling-place to the Fowl of every wing Ezek. 17.23 Yea a numberless multitude from all Nations Kindreds People and Tongues are to stand before the Throne and before the Lamb Clothed with white Robes and Palms in their hands Rev. 7.9 adorned with innocency and crowned with victory No Monarchy ever did ever can so far stretch her bounds nor hath the Sun seen any place where it hath not seen some sprinkling of a Church Every Kingdom hath met with unpassable bounds but the Ensigns of Christ have not been limited The Church was once crowded up in a narrow compass of Judaea but since that her Territories are enlarged her Ensigns have flourished over many Countries Rahab Tyre Ethiopia the vast circuit of Asia and the deserts of
a people to acknowledge him Hence perhaps the forming of such a people is called by the term of a new creation not only as it is an act of creative power but as it was the chief design of the exerting his power in the creation of the world And shall the chief of his counsel be the conquest triumph of Satan Shall he at the closing up of the world be defeated of his main contrivance Surely if there were a greater opposition to Sion than ever there was he would exert a greater strength than ever he did not to be crost in his principal aim 2. As he hath been the Author and Builder of Sion * His fâ—â—ndatiâ—â— is in the 〈◊〉 Moâ—â—tain Psal 85.1 Great Kings have a particular care of the Cities they have founded for the honour and preservation of their Name and a testimony of their Magnificence with what choice Priviledges do they use to endow them with what strong Garrisons do they use to secure them in time of danger And shall not the Great God perpetuate that which he hath form'd for his glory to which he hath given a peculiar denomination of the City of God * Called by thaâ— this four times in â—â—e 48 Pâ—a 1 2 8 14. whence the Psalmâ—st concludes the establishment of her Nebuchadnezzar cannot be more industrious to enrich Babylon which he had built by the might of his Power than God will be to perpetuate Sion which he hath built for the honour of his Majesty God was the Architect of this City and gave the Model Christ was the Builder of this City and rais'd the Structure * Heb. 3.3 4. He i. e. Christ built the house and he that built all things is God God laid the Platform of all things much more of that which is dearer to him than all things He laid the Foundation of it by his Son whereas the Jewish Synagogue was form'd by the Ministry of Moses he hath poured upon her greater Treasures of knowledg a fuller measure of the Spirit than he did before that the knowledg of precedent Ages was nothing in comparison of that which he lighted in the Gospel Sion in the fulness of time The Spirit hath form'd the Church in the womb of the world as he form'd Christ in the womb of the Virgin The natural and the mystical Body of the Son of God have the same Author and Original not a stone fitted to be a part in composing this Temple but was culled out and polisht by God 1 Pet. 3.5 He that laid the corner stone fixeth the lively stones to become a spiritual house Are built not built themselves 't is his house because he built it as well as his house because he dwells in it and rules it as the Master of the Family Though the whole Fabrick of Nature is God's work yet the Church is peculiarly and by way of distinction called his work * Hab. 3.2 Revive thy work and every stone in it is called his Jewel * Mal. 3.17 My Jewels made so by his Power in working a real change for by nature they were as unfit as the common Pebbles of the Earth He is therefore peculiarly called the Creator of Israel Isa 43.15 As he hath maintained a Creation revolted from him notwithstanding all the provoking sins of men so he will maintain a Creation dear to him notwithstanding all the bloody contrivances of men Sion's Inheritance is secured because 't is a branch of God's planting Isa 60.21 Things are preserv'd by the same means whereby they are first setled Is it not then for the honour of God to be the Establisher of that by the Power of his might whereof he hath been the Founder by the strength of his Arm He made not use of the Riches Power and Wisdom of the World to lay the Foundation of Sion but as the Jews he wrought as it were with a Trowel in one hand and a Sword in the other and erected her Walls against the force and policy of Hell and Earth and as he founded it without worldly advantages and against the stream of corrupt Nature he knows how to preserve it when the wit and strength of the World are contrary to it It would be too low a conceit of the Wisdom and Power of God to imagine that he should undertake so great a work to be baffled in the end he designed to himself His Wisdom is as much concerned in honour to work wonders for the preservation of Sion as his Power was imployed at first miraculously to lay the first corner stone of her 3. As he hath been the preserver and inlarger of her to this day Men think themselves concerned in honour to perfect those which they call their creatures and often regard one act of kindness as an engagement upon them to successive acts of the like nature 'T is not for the honour of any man to stand by a friend a long time and to enjoy the glory of assisting him and desert him at the last pinch God set up the Church after the fall in Adam's Family rather than create a new world to create a new Church he raised up Seth to propagate it when Abel was taken off by the bloody hands of his Brother he preserv'd it in Noah's Family in the midst of a corrupted and degenerate world and settled it upon the Foundation of the Gospel in both Upon the first promise in the Family of Adam Gen. 3.15 Upon the sweet-smelling Sacrifice offered by Noah Gen. 8.20 21 2â— Not upon the Symbol or Type the blood of the beasts but upon the thing signified by it and the preservation of the world promised after that Sacrifice was chiefly in order to the preservation of a Church in it as the Creation of the world was in order to the erecting it and therefore the Rain-bow settled then as a sign of the Covenant for the worlds preservation from a Flood of Waters is made the sign of the Everlasting Covenant of Peace both in Ezekiel * Ezek. 1.28 and in the Revelation * Rev. 4.3 as a sign he would preserve his Church from the multitude of Waters from the Rage of the People signified by Waters in the Prophetick part of Scripture and from the Floods that the Devil should cast out against her And thence it is that this Covenant of her Establishment is compared with that Covenant God swore to Noah and the Faith of the Church strengthened by reflection upon that Isa 54.9 After this settling it in Noah he fixed it in Abraham and cleared up the Promise of the Messiah with a greater evidence than to the Ages before He multiplied it in the fleshly Israel and enlarged the bounds of it to a whole Nation After that he takes away the partition wall and spreads her Confines to the possession of the Gentiles that the Sons of Japhet might dwell in the Tents of Shem according to his Promise Gen. 9.27 out of the
Sion fall out of his hands into the power of her old Oppressor Men are more desirous to preserve the Estate they have gotten by sweat than that which is left them by Inheritance and are most careful in settling that which hath cost them more Treasure and more Labour Jacob sets a value upon the Portion he got with his Sword and Bow Gen. 48.22 No less will God upon that Sion he hath wrested out of the world by the Might of his Arm. 5. In regard of Faithfulness His Veracity is ingaged 1. In regard of Faithfulness to Christ the Head The Spirit was promised to Christ Act. 2.33 Having received the promise of the Holy Ghost i. e. the Holy Ghost promised to him by the Father He received that which was promised his receiving it from God implyed the Spirit 's being promised to him by God To what end was this Spirit given him and sent by him To convince the world of righteousness John 16.10 an effect necessary to the building Sion For this end he received it for this end therefore it was promised to him The promise would be vain the performance of the promise in the mission of the Holy Ghost would be to no purpos◠if the end for which he was promised and for which he was sent were not perform'd if there should not be a perpetual number convinced of and imbracing that righteousness of Christ which hath been manifested by his going to the Father God also promised him a great posterity after his making his soul an offering for sin Isa 53.10.11 A seed that he should see therefore stable and perpetual ‖ A posterity was to follow his Sacrifice his Cross was to give them being and his Blood was to give them life because always visible to him God pawn'd his word upon the condition of his death the condition was performed to the full satisfaction of God his Truth therefore hath no evasion no plea to deny the performance of the promise in raising up a multitude of believers in the world and such a multitude as shall always be seen with pleasure by him as good and sound children and the travel of the mothers womb are by the parents The truth of God is oblig'd by Christ's exact performance of the condition as well as by the particular respect he hath to the glory of it it was for the Church Christ gave himself Eph. 5.25 'T is necessary therefore that God should preserve and establish a Church for him to the end of the world that Christ might not by any default of his Father lose the end and design of his death there shall be a generation of believers a little seed lying in the midst of all the chaff so God promised * Psal 72.17 His name shall be continued as long as the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His name shall be propagated in a perpetual birth of Children it shall be sound while the Sun in the Heaven keeps its station 2. In regard of faithfulness to the Church it self How doth the word sparkle with promises to Sion in all her concerns He hath promised an indissolvable marriage the fixing a knot that shall never be untied * Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me for ever and that in judgment righteousness loving kindness mercy faithfulness A marriage that shall never end in widdow-hood so that Judgment righteousness loving kindness mercy faithfulness must first fail before the Church meet with an entire dissolution i. e. God and the glorious perfections of his nature shall fail before the Church be forsaken and left to her enemies She is no less assur'd of continual supplies and nourishment and that by no meaner a hand than that of God himself Isa 27.3 I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment I will keep it night and day Nor a meaner dew than himself Hos 14.5 Also without the failing her a minute he would water her with doctrine to preserve her verdure and increase her growth He would be her Guardian night and day in the darkness of adversity in the sunshine of prosperity so that Satan should not outwit nor the craft and subtilty of hereticks waste her for it refers to v. 1. wherein God promiseth her to punish the piercing Serpent the crooked Serpent that by various windings and turnings insinuates himself to the destruction of men And he adds v. 4. Fury is not in me he lays by his anger against her as considered in apostate nature the fury of Hell shall not prevail where the anger of God is pacified but her enemies shall be as bryars and thorns before him He hath a consuming fury for her enemies though he hath none for his vineyard Protection is in no less measure promised and that not a temporary one nor a bare defence but with the ruin of her enemies and treading them down as straw is trodden down for the Dunghil Isa 25.10 In this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest By hand is meant his power and by rest is meant the perpetual motion of it for her and that against the most furious malicious powerful of her Enemies Mat. 16.18 against the gates of hell against the wisdom of Hell gates being the seat of councel against the censures and sentences of Hell gates being the place of judicature against the arms of Hell gates being the place of strength guards When Christ secures against Hell he secures against all that receive their commission from Hell neither Hell it self nor the instruments edg'd and envenomed by Hell shall prevail against her she is secur'd for her assemblies in one part or other when they gather together to hear the Law and to sacrifice And I that am the Lord thy God from the Land of Aegypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of Solemn feasts Hos 12.9 't is a promise to the Church it was never yet nor appears like to be performed to the ten tribes as a Nation but to their Posterity as swallowed up in embodied with the Gentiles The conquest of her enemies is secur'd to her Ps 110.1 The promise is made to Christ of making his enemies his footstool But made to him as Davids Lord and consequently as the Lord of his people as King in Sion and therefore made to the whole body of his loyal subjects And all those things are of little comfort without duration and stability which is also secur'd to her Hos 6.3 His going forth i. e. the going forth of God in the Church is prepared as the morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stable His appearance for her and in her is as certain as the dawning of the morning light at the appointed hour All the clouds which threaten a perpetual night cannot hinder it all the workers of darkness cannot prevent it the morning will dawn whether they will or no. Her duration is compared to the most durable things to that of the Cedar the
erected his stately head to seise upon the prey then God wounded him put an end to Aegypts pride and the Israelites fear He loves to beat down the pride of the one and raise up the lowliness of the other When Herod will assume the title of a God given him by the acclamations of the People an Angel shall immediately make him a Banquet for Worms Acts 11.22 23. When Sennacherib had prospered in his Conquest of Judea had taken many strong Towns closely be leaguered Jerusalem thundred out blasphemies against God and threatnings against his People then comes an Angel makes an horrible slaughter in a night sends him back to his own Country where after the loss of his Army he lost his life by the hands of his own children A greater pride cannot be exprest than what the Apostle predicts of the Man of Sin and that hath been extant for some time in the world * 2 Thes 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God in additions to the word clipping the Institutions of God and adding new and canonizing new Mediators of Intercession who sits in the Temple of God in a profession of Christianity shewing himself that he is God assuming the name of God and the title of God in being called most holy And perhaps it will yet amount to a higher step than it hath yet done before he be consumed by the brightness of the Lord 's coming since all that yet lets and hinders is not taken out of the way The higher the pride the nearer the fall When Goliah shall defie the God of Israel a stone from a sling thrown by the hand of David our great David the Antitype shall lay him vomiting out his soul and blasphemies on the Earth We are many times more beholding to the Enemies insolence than our own innocence Deut. 32.17 Were it not that God feared the wrath of the Enemy i. e in their pride lest their Adversaries should behave themselves strangely and say Our hand is high a sinful Israel should not have so many preservations * Trap on Exod. p. 9. When they will ascend into Heaven and exalt their Throne above the Stars of God when they will ascend above the heights of the Clouds and be like the most High then shall they be brought down to Hell to the sides of the Pit Isa 7.13 14 15. The highest Towers are the fairest marks for Thunder and the readiest Tinder for the lightning of Heaven When Tyrus had set her heart as the heart of God then would God defile her brightness and make her die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the Sea Ezek. 28.6 7 8. 3. Eager malice Nothing would Satisfie the Aegyptians here but the bloud of the Israelites My hand shall destroy them they were under a cruel bondage attended with anguish of Spirit before God began their rescue The serpents seed have the same principles of craft and malice sown in their nature that are resident in his ever since the beginning he endeavoured to shape men into the same form and temper with himself Their rage would raze out the very foundation of Israel and not suffer the name to be had any more in remembrance Psa 83.4 They love to be drunk with the blood of the saints and are no more satisfied with blood than the grave with carcases they repair their arrows and watch for an opportunity to discharge them and never want poison but opportunity this is Gods time to deliver When Pharaoh would pollute the land with the blood of the Hebrew males and ordain them to be drag'd from the womb to the slaughter then God raises up himself to attempt the rescue of Israel yet he bears with his insolence punisheth him but not destroys him But when he would be still stiff against a sense of the multitude of plagues and a greater mercy of patience in them when he would arm for the field against that God the smart of whose force he had felt and resolves to destroy or bring back the Israelites upon the point of his Sword God would then bear no longer but make the water his sepulchre When Haman designs the ruine of the Jews procures the Kings commission sends dispatches to all the governours of the Provinces sets up a gibbet for Mordecai and wants nothing but an opportunity to request the Execution he tumbles down to exchange his princes favours for an exaltation on the Gallows Est 6.4 Est 7.10 When the Serpent encreased his malitious cruelty and cast out a flood against the Church God makes the earth the carnal world to give her assistance and repel the force that Satan used against her * Rev. 12.15 16. The earâ—h helped the woman When multitudes shall gather together in the valley of decision then shall the Lord roar out of Sion and be the hope of his People and the strength of the Children of Israel Joel 3.14.16 And when Spiritual Aegypt shall make a war against Christ who sits upon the white horse and combine all their force for the destruction of his people then shall the Beast and the false Prophet be taken and brought to their final ruine and their force be broken in a lake of fire as that of Aegypt was in a Sea of water Rev. 19.19 20. The time of their greatest fierceness shall be the time of Christs fury he will strike them sorest when he finds them cruellest their rage shall rouze up his revenge when the men of Sodom to which the Antichristian state is likened shall be resolutely bent to wickedness they shall be struck with blindness and that blindness suceeded by destruction then will God set bounds to the outragious waves and snatch the prey out of the teeth of the Lyons 4. Confident security I will divide the Spoil my lust shall be satisfied upon them God lets the enemy come in like a floud and torrent with a confidence to carry all before him before he lifts up a standard against him Isa 59.19 Then shall the Spirit of the Lord stir up himself gloriously in the principles and actions of his people and the redeemer shall come to Sion God will set his force against their confidence break their impetuousness by his own power When the Enemies of the Church think they have intangled it in such a snare reduc'd it to so low a condition as to be secure of her ruine with a blast and puff then God will arise and set her in safety from them that puff at her Psa 12.5 This will be the case of Babylon when she shall say I sit as a Queen and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow then shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine for then God will stir up his strength to Judge her Rev. 18.7 'T is in the time of the Antichristian Polity and mutual congratulations with the highest security for their happy success triumphing over the dead bodies of the
Sanctuary Or do we delight in it not when our Tongues are most quick but our hearts most warm not because we have the best words but the most spiritualiz'd affections We may have Angels gifts in prayer without an Angels spirit 2. Is there a delight in all parts of a duty Not only in asking temporal blessings or some spiritual as pardoning mercy but in begging for refining grace Are we earnest only when we have bosom quarrels and conscience-convulsions but flag when we come to pray for sanctifying mercy The rise of this is a displicency with the trouble and danger not with the sin and cause 3. Doth our delight in prayer and spiritual things out do our delight in outward things The Psalmists joy in God was more than his delight in the Harvest or Vintage Psal 7.4 Are we like Ravens that delight to hover in the Air sometimes but our greatest delight is to feed upon Carrion Though we have and may have a sensible delight in worldly things yet is it as solid and rational as that we have in duty 4. Is our delight in Prayer an humble delight Is it a rejoycing with humbling Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with gladness and rejoyce before him with trembling If our service be right it will be chearful and if truly chearful it will be humble 5. Is our delight in Prayer accompanied with a delight in waiting Do we like Merchants not only delight in the first lanching of a Ship or the setting it out of the Haven with a full fraught but also in expectations of a rich return of spiritual mercies Do we delight to pray though God for the present doth not delight to give and wait like David with an owning God's Wisdom in delaying Psal 130.6 Or do we shoot them only as Arrows at random and never look after them where they light or where to find them 6. Is our delight in praising God when mercy comes answerable to the delight in praying when a wanted mercy was begged The ten Lepers desired mercy with an equal chearfulness in hopes of having their Leprosie cured but his delight that returned only was genuine As he prayed with a loud voice so he praised with a loud voice Luke 17.13 15. And Christ tells him his faith had made him whole As he had an answer in a way of grace so he had before a gracious delight in his asking the others had a natural delight and so a return in a way of common providence 3 Use Of Exhortation Let us delight in Prayer God loves a chearful giver in Alms and a chearful petitioner in Prayer God would have his children free with him He takes special notice of a spiritual frame Jer. 30.21 Who hath engaged his heart The more delight we have in God the more delight he will have in us He takes no pleasure in a lumpish Service 'T is an uncomely sight to see a joyful Sinner and a dumpish Petitioner Why should we not exercise as much joy in holy duties as formerly we did in sinful practices How delightfully will men sit at their games and spend their days in gluttony and luxury And shall not a Christian find much more delight in applying himself to God We should delight that we can and have hearts to ask such gifts that thousands in the world never dream of begging To be dull is a discontentedness with our own Petitions Delight in prayer is the way to gain assurance To seek God and treat him as our chiefest good endears the Soul to him Delighting in Accesses to him will enflame our love And there is no greater sign of an interest in him than a prevalent estimation of him God casts off none that affectionately clasp about his Throne To this purpose 1. Pray for quickening grace How often do we find David upon his knees for it God only gives this grace and God only stirs this grace 2. Meditate on the Promises you intend to plead Unbelief is the great root of all dumpishness It was by the belief of the Word we had life at first and by an exercise of that belief we gain liveliness What maintains our love will maintain our delight the amiableness of God and the excellency of the Promises are the incentives and fuel both of the one and of the other Think that they are eternal things you are to pray for and that you have as much invitation to beg them and as good a promise to attain them as David Paul or any other ever had How would this awaken our drowzy Souls and elevate our heavy hearts and open the lazy eye-lids to look up And whatever meditation we find begin to kindle our Souls let us follow it on that the spark may not go out 3. Chuse the time when your hearts are most revived Observe when God sends an invitation and hoist up the sails when the wind begins to blow There is no Christian but hath one time or another a greater activeness of spirit Chuse none of those seasons which may quench the heat and dull the spriteliness of your affections Resolve before hand this To delight your selves in the Lord and thereby you shall gain the desire of your hearts A DISCOURSE OF Mourning for other Mens Sins Ezekiel 9.4 And the Lord said unto him Go thorow the midst of the City thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations that be done in the midst thereof WHen God in the former Chapter had charged the Jews with their Idolatry and the multiplicity of abominations committed in his Temple And v. 18. had past a resolve that he would not spare them but deal in fury with them though they should solicit him with the strongest and most importunate supplications In this Chapter he calls and commissions the Executioners of his just Decree Ver. 1. He cryed also in mine ears with a loud voice saying Cause them that have charge over the City to draw near even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand And declares whom and in what manner he would punish and whom he would pardon The Executioners of God's vengeance are the Chaldeans described by the situation of them from Judea and the direct Road from that Country to Jerusalem v. 2. Six men came from the way of the higher gate which lies towards the North. Babylon lay North-East from Jerusalem and this gate was the way of entrance for Travellers from those parts it led also into the Court of the Priests which shews from whence the Judgment should come and upon whom it should light Six men A certain number Whether the Holy Ghost alludes to a particular number of Nations which the Chaldean Army might be composed of under their Prince who reign'd over several Countries or respects the other chief Captains or Marshals of his Army which are nam'd Jer. 39.3 or speaks with reference to the other places wherein the City was assaulted by
of Senacherib's Invasion Isa 6.13 The holy seed shall be the substance thereof Growth in sin ripens judgments turns Blossoms and Buds into Fruit Rods into Scorpions Grief for it turns scorpions into Rods lessens a judgment if not wholly prevents it The Water of repentance is the best way to quench the flames of sin and sparks of wrath If good Men fall under a common judgment it may be often for a defect in this temper This was Austins opinion * Aâ—gust de Civit. Dei ib. 1. Cap. 9. That many good men are taken away with the wicked in Common Judgments because though they do not Commit the same sins yet they connive at their iniquities and so are lasht with their rods temporally chastned but not eternally punished 3. It will sweeten Judgments Such may say of Judgment as Paul of death Oh Judgment where is thy sting 'T is a double burden to lye under the weight of common Judgments and the weight of common sins grief for them is a means to remove the guilt and thereby to ease thee of a Judgment If we are concerned in mourning for sin we shall be more fit to honour God if he makes us fall under his stroak A holy sorrow will bring us into a submissive frame Aaron had been without question humbled for his timorous compliance with the people in the making of the golden Calf and when God came to strike him near in his own Children he held his peace Levit. 10.3 No doubt but his former humiliation fitted him for his present patience 4. Our repentance for our own sins was never right unless we are of this temper Repentance is a justice towards God and therefore is conversant about other mens sins in a hatred of them 'T is for sin as sin and sin is sin in whatsoever subject it be and worthy of hatred according to right reason and therefore that grace whereby a Man hates it in his own person will engage him to hate it wheresoever it is and we alwaies grieve for the encrease of that which is the object of our hatred A truly just man hates the injury committed against another as well as that against himself That filthiness which displeaseth a penitent in his own act displeaseth him in anothers act there being the same adequate reason and sin being of the same nature against God in another as in himself 'T is All abominations in the text this is an argument of sincerity to mourn for one may be from self interest to mourn for all must be from a pure affection 5. 'T is an argument of a true affection to God To mourn for sin when it is rare though gross is not so much a sign of sincerity as to mourn for it when it is Epidemical when the Foundations of godliness are out of course and the graces contrary to those sins are generally discountenanced as it is a greater sign of sincerity to love the word when it is generally slighted than to love it when all admire it What a noble affection had that Lady in Samuel 1 Sam. 4.19 c. that grieved not so much for the loss of her Father Husband Friends but bewailed the departure of the glory of Israel and implicitely at least the sin that occasioned it How did her affection to God drown all carnal affections Her sorrow for the ark stifled the sorrow of her travel and the joy at the birth of her Son She regarded it not This is an evident token of affection when we mourn most for the sins which most dishonour God and the sins of those persons that seem to be nearer to God and cast most reproaches upon his name 6. Shall we be outstript by Idolaters The mourning for others sins was a custom kept up in Israel after their revolt from God unto Jeroboam When Naboth was put to death for a pretended crime of blasphemy a fast was proclaimed to lament his sin 1 Kings 21.12 and though with a wicked intention to palliate a murther with the cloak of religion yet it evidenceth this mourning for the gross sins of others to be a common sentiment among them and practised upon the like occasions 7. We have just fears of judgments We know not whence they will come from the North or from the South God sets up his warnings in the Heavens we behold him frowning and preparing his arrows and are we careless in what posture we shall meet him He hath Spit in our faces made us a by-word and reproach should we not be humbled Numb 12.14 If her Father had spit in her face should she not be ashamed God seems to be departing He hath as it were kept open market a long time he seems now to be putting up his wares removing his Candlestick withdrawing the power of his Ordinances recalling his Messengers the light is almost in the socket The voice of God is received with a deaf ear the reproofs and admonitions of God have not a kindly operation the signs of judgment amaze us and the amazement quite vanishes We start like a man in a dream and fall back upon our pillow and snort out our sleep Can we expect God to stay He seems to be upon the threshold of the Temple come down already from the Cherubims and is it not high time to bewail our own sins and the Common abominations that have so polluted the place of his habitation that we may say we cannot see how God can stay with honour to himself If we bewail the sins that provoke him to it God may stay if he will not let us at least shew this affection to him at parting This is not a thing unbecoming the highest Christian Doth not the Spirit grieve for the sins of others which play the wantons with the grace of God Eph. 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God The holy Spirit hath no sins of his own to grieve for Shall we be above that which the Spirit of God thinks himself not above Shall we refuse mourning for that which goes to the heart of the Holy Ghost Let us therefore examine what are our own sins what are the abominations of the times and places wherein we live make inquisition for the one that we may drag them out before the Lord And in our places endeavour to stop and reform the other As the true fire of Love to God will melt us into tears so it will heat us into zeal He is no friend that will complain of a toads being in another's bosom but not strive to kill it It will shew either Cowardice or falseness That zeal is wild-fire that is not accompanied with an holy sorrow and that sorrow is crude which is not accompanied with a godly Zeal A DISCOURSE FOR The Comfort of Child-bearing Women 1 Tim. 2.15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in Child-bearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety I Shall not take my rise any higher than v. 12. where the Apostle