no hand in such Every one in his own Place and Station should oppose and withstand all Corruptions and sinful Innovations and all things that tend any ways to the Ruin or to disturb the Peace and Weal of the Church and Kingdom And especially are we all to oppose and withstand the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome what we can and to give no way for the introducing of them and the Popish Religion For that Religion I apprehend now to be coming upon us and we Protestants shall be notoriously sinful if we help to bring it in and do not in a mild way oppose it For the Faith and Truth of the Gospel and for the Constitutions and Liturgy of our own Church and for our Laws and Government so far as they are good and agreeable to the blessed Word of God by which we are all to be guided are we to strive and contend and willingly to give way to nothing that shall tend ro the overthrowing of them This the Apostle sheweth that we are to strive for the Faith of the Gospel and the pure Word of God Phil. 1.27 That ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries By no Terror of our Adversaries are we to be moved to depart from the Faith of the Gospel and the blessed Word of God And saith St. Jude ver 3 Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you That ye should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once dâ—livered to the Saints For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the Grace of God into lasciviousness And such there are now like to be whose errors and corruptions are to be opposed and withstood by all good and pious Men. And we may see that the Church of Pergamos is commended for standing for the truth of the Gospel and not giving way to be seduced to Apostacy though it were in a time of great danger Rev. 2.13 I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denyed my faith even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful Martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth For the pure Word of God and the Truth of the Gospel are we at all times to strive and contend what we can and to stand against all errors and corruptions that are contrary thereto though it should be with great hazard of our Lives And for the good Constitutions and Orders of our own Church and for our own Laws and Government which are agreeable to the blessed Word of God are we to shew some care and zeal and not willingly to give way to have them subverted and overthrown but mildly to oppose all alterations therein that may be destructive to them and to our Peace and Happiness therein The Rechabites are commended for obeying the commandments of Jonadab their Fore-father who had set them certain Laws and Commands and because they would not depart from them Jer. 35.6 And much more then ought we to be zealous for the good Orders and Constitutions of our own Church and the Laws and Government of our own Nation and in a good Christian way to stand up for them and to oppose all attempts that are made to overthrow them And that we may be the more serviceable to our Church and Kingdom and endeavour to prevent all the evil that may befal them we are to oppose the great sins and iniquity of the times what we can that hereby we may endeavour to prevent the Judgments of God from coming upon them For Iniquity when it is grown ripe will be sure to bring some Judgment or other We are to stop the current of all wickedness what we can and to endeavour to reclaim and draw all sinners from their evil ways This we are to do both out of Christian compassion to their own Souls that we might help to save them if it may be and also to prevent such evil and misery as they will help to bring upon a place by their wickedness By all good and lawful ways are we to endeavour to prevent and keep off all evil and misery that may now or at any time befal our Church and Nation Thirdly We are to be grieved and to mourn for all the miseries and calamities that befal our Jerusalem our Church and Kingdom The true Protestant Church among us are we now to esteem as our Jerusalem and to account it as dear to us as our very Lives and for all the evils that befal it are we to be much troubled and perplexed This should be matter of great mourning and lamentation and weeping to us to see our Church brought low and under a cloud and in a desolate and forsaken condition To see the blessed Peace thereof to be removed and taken away and her Enemies triumphing over her this should be sorrow and grief of heart to all her faithful children And now is the time come that all good Protestants are to fall to bitter mourning and weeping For now is the time at hand that the Gentiles are to tread under foot rhe holy City forty and two months Rev. 11.2 Now is the time drawing near that the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit will make war against the witnesses of God and overcome them Rev. 11.7 Now I apprehend the time to be at hand that Popery shall prevail over the Protestant Church for three years and an half and this should call us all to great mourning and lamentation Nor is it with dry eyes that I have drawn up these lines And we are to know that our sins are the cause of this misery that is coming upon us and therefere we have the greater reason to mourn We may see that the Jews wept in their Captivity when they thought of the desolate condition of their Jerusalem Psal 137.1 By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Zion And the Prophets did much bewail the miseries that befel the Church and People of God Is 22.4 saith the Prophet Therefore said I look away from me I will weep bitterly labor not to comfort me because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people For it is a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity by the Lord God of Hosts in the valley of vision breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains And saith the Prophet Jeremiah 4.7 8 The lyon is come up from his thicket and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way he is gone forth from his place to make the land desolate and the cities shall be laid wast without an inhabitant For this gird you with sackcloth lament and howl For the fierce anger of the Lord
unto the Lord. By this and other places in Deut it is plain that God would chuse a place for his sacred Name and that they were to resort thither to perform their more solemn Worship and Service to him there And here at this place were all their Males to appear three times in the year Deut. 16.16 Three times in a year shall all thy Males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tabernacles And the Lord did signify to David that he had chosen Jerusalem for this place where he would put his holy Name And so he saith Psal 132.13 For the Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it And Zion was a part of Jerusalem and seems to be put for the whole And unto Jerusalem had David brought the Ark of God and put it in the Tent which he had there made for it until the Temple was builded 2 Chr. 1.4 And here had he prepared a place for the Temple of the Lord and did intend to build it but God would have Solomon his Son to build it and he builded it in the place that David had prepared 2 Chr. 3.1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah where the Lord appeared unto David his Father in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite And not only the City and the place but the very draught of this house of God was shewed to David and God himself seems to order the fashion of it as he did of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and David delivered the pattern thereof to his son Solomon 1 Chr. 28.11 And according to these divine Instructions did Solomon build this extraordinary Temple of the Lord and as soon as it was finished the glory of the Lord appeared in it 1 Kings 8.10 And here was he to be more solemnly worshiped than any where else a great part of his Worship and Service being appropriated to this peculiar Temple of his In Zion it was that praise waited for him and in Jerusalem was the vow to be performed to him Psal 65.1 and 116.18 19. And saith the Psalmist Psal 48.2 Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole Earth is mount Zion on the sides of the north the City of the great King The Temple here was God's peculiar house and to be an house of Prayer to all people Is 56.7 And upon this account of Religion and of God's Worship and Service it is that Jerusalem is called the holy City the City of God the City of the great King and God said to love it above all others Matt. 4.5 and 5.35 And Psal 87.2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God Upon this account especially it is that the Royal Psalmist requires them to pray for Jerusalem because it was the capital City of Religion the City of the Lord of hosts that he had espoused to himself above all others and his great Temple of Worship was to be here for upon this house of God had the devout Psalmist set his heart and affections though it was not then built as he sheweth 1 Chr. 29.3 Moreover because I have set my affection to the house of my God saith he I have of mine own proper good And upon this account it is that he is so much concerned for Jerusalem And this he declareth himself in this psalm 122.9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good This is the great reason why he would seek the good of Jerusalem and doth exhort others to pray for it because God's House and solemn Worship was to be here and his heart was set upon them In praying then for Jerusalem he doth exhort and require them to pray for the good and welfare of the Church of God that it might enjoy all Peace and Quiet and that his Worship and Service might here at Jerusalem be performed in a due and publick manner to his great Honour and Glory and to the real benefit and comfort of his Worshippers and Servants That his Sanctuary and holy Place there might not be polluted and profaned by Heathens and unhallowed Persons and his Worship and Service corrupted or quite neglected and cast off and Religion driven to hide her head but that Jerusalem might be as a City upon an hill taken notice of and admired by all the World for the solemn Worship of Almighty God that should there be performed That they might unanimously Serve and Worship God there and that all Nations might flock thither to his Solemnities and to join in his Worship and Service That many Nations might come and say as it is Mic. 4.2 Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths That God's Ordinances and Worship should there be duely celebrated and kept where they ought and with that purity and devotion and splendor that they ought too That true Religion might be advanced and in esteem among them and that God's Honour and Service might be set up and exalted above all and that it might be joy and gladness of heart to them to see it so In praying for the Peace of Jerusalem he seems to do no less than require and enjoin them to pray for the good and welfare of their whole Nation which depended hereupon and especially that they should pray for the Good and Prosperity of the Church that it might flourish and enjoy all manner of Peace among them and that God might be duely served at his Temple the place that he himself had chosen And now from this Text we may see that it is our duty to be much concerned and to pray for our Jerusalem in this manner That we should bear hearty good-will to our own Land and Nation and the Israel of God among us and especially to our own Church and that pure Religion among us That we should be very zealous in our Prayers for them and endeavour to preserve them and to do them all the good we can in a lawful way This we are taught by this Text For the Psalmist spake by the Spirit of God and what he hath said here is to be an Instruction to us as well as it was to the Jews Rom. 15.4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime saith the Apostle were written for our learning And we may see that under the names of Jerusalem and Zion the Christian Church seems often to be meant or at the least to be included therein Jer. 33.15 In those days and at that time will I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto
of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of our God That as a young man marrieth a Virgin so her Sons might marry her and as a Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so her God might rejoyce over her That God would create our Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy Is 65.18 That he would rejoyce in our Jerusalem and joy in his People that the voice of weeping may no more be heard in her nor the voice of crying That ver 25. the Wolf and the Lamb may feed together and the Lion eat straw like the Bullock and dust may be the Serpent's meat that they may not hurt nor destroy in all this holy Mountain That such universal Peace and Love may every where prevail that men of the most perverse spirits may be overcome by them and lay aside all their malignity That the Lord of Hosts Zac. 1.14 would be jealous for our Jerusalem and for our Zion with a great jealousie That God would be gracious to our Land and cause the Gospel to flourish amongst us and to take deep rooting in our hearts That God would cloath the Priests of our Zion with Salvation Psal 132.16 and make her Saints to shout aloud for joy That the mountain of the Lords house Is 2.2 might be established in the top of the mountains and be exalted above the hills and that all nations may flow unto it That there may be such an universal willingness and readiness in all to know and practise their duty that they shall say Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths That our Ministers and Pastors may be orthodox and sound in the Faith true and faithful in the discharge of their offices and of an upright life and conversation and so adorn the Gospel of the blessed Jesus and that holy Religion which we profess That God would abundantly bless the provision of our Zion Psal 132.15 and would satisfy her poor wâ—â—h bread and give us all kind of plenty and store in our Land That there may enter in by the gates of our City Kings sitting upon the throne of their Ancestors Jer. 17.25 and riding in Chariots and on Horses and Ruling in justice righteousness and mercy That he would fill our hearts with food and gladness and grant us health and prosperity in our Land That God would make our Zion an eternal excellency Is 60.15 a joy of many generations That our People also ver 21. might be all righteous and inherit the Land for ever and that in all Peace and Quiet That there may be heard in our Land Jer. 33.11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride the voice of them that shall say praise the Lord of Hosts for the Lord is good for his mercy endureth for ever and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord That our Land may be blessed with all manner of blessings and that we may not be unmindful to return Almighty God his due Laud and Praise for the same Such promises have been made to and such petitions have been put up for Jerusalem and by such may we be instructed how we are at all times to address our selves to Almighty God in prayer for our Jerusalem for the Church of Christ in general and more particularly for our own Church and Kingdom But at this time we have great reason to make our earnest prayers to Almighty God for the Protestant Church especially that part of it with us and for our own Nation that they may be preserved from such judgments and miseries as now threaten them and us and we have justly deserved for our great wickedness and abuse of mercies Sixthly We are to rejoyce and to take great pleasure in the Peace and Prosperity of our Jerusalem when there is just cause for it and to praise and magnify Almighty God for the mercies and benefits that he hath granted to her The good and welfare of the whole Church and especially of our own Church and Kingdom should be matter of great joy and gladness of heart to us and stir us up to return God his due Laud and Praise for the same And this is the Prophets exhortation Is 66.10 Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourned for her That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory And with our Jerusalem the true Protestant Church should we rejoyce when she hath cause to do so which when the days of darkness are over I hope she will have And saith the Psalmist Psal 106.4 Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation That I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy nation that I may glory with thine inheritance Like fellow-feeling members are we both to suffer and to rejoyce with the Church and all the true and faithful Members thereof And saith the Psalmist Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion were like them tâ—at dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing And Psal 137.6 saith the Psalmist there If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy And at every thing that tended toward the good of Jerusalem and the pure worship and service of Almighty God did the Royal Psalmist King David greatly rejoyce as he sheweth here Psal 122.1 I was glad when they sa d unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. Every advancement of God's Church and Worship did much delight and please him and so it should do us And for all the Mercies and Blessings that Almighty God shall at any time vouchsafe to our Church and Nation are we to be truely thankful and to make our hearty return of praise to him for the same This the Psalmist doth most passionately wish and sheweth that men are too negligent herein Psal 107.8 O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness saith he and for his wonderful works to the children of men And this the Psalmist exhorteth Jerusalem to do to make a due return of praise for the Blessings that she had received Psal 147.12 Praise the Lord O Jerusalem saith he praise thy God O Zion For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates he hath blessed thy children within thee He maketh Peace in thy borders and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat And this St. John sheweth in that vision of the Elders that we are to praise and magnify Almighty God for all the