and stupidity should tempt me to make a halt let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy Tabernacles And in another place his need makes him more impetuous in his acclamations O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee would you know how importunate how violent these passionate appetites are you must first be sick you must be with child when you are sick of love when Christ is formed in you then you wâ—ll understand the nature of that sacred thirst that spiritual longing for it is only to be felt not fully to be interpreted Psal 63.1 But what is the reason his extream needs the aridity the driness and desolation of his soul it was in a dry and thirsty land where no water was But where the Ark is there God is and with thee is the well of life this therefore is the object of all my thirst and longing to see thy power and glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Ibid. Vers 2. 2. A second motive was his love to the Ark Psal 26.8 Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth But more passionately Psal 84.1 2. Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernables O Lord of Hosts my soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God He hath in his soul the passions of a woman with child he longs and because be cannot have his longing presently there follows a Deliquium a defailance in his spirits his â—oul fainteth and as longers use to do many times he falls in travel and his pangs and throws are so great that his heart and flesh both cry out for the living God and nothing can keep him from miscarrying from losing the fruit of this travel of his soul but a sight of Gods Ark such a favour as this would allay and becalm and satisfie all these passions Vers 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee One day in thy Courts Vers 10. and door-keeper there is high preferment in the estimation of a pious Prince that hath a true devotion to the Ark of God 3. A third inducement was his interest in the Ark and this interest depending upon his interest in God Psal 43. Vers 3 4. they run as it were parallel hence Psal 43. O send out thy light c as before Then will I go unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy and the God of my strength * Vers 2. yea upon the Harp will I praise thee O God my God He will bear a part in the solemn service before Gods Ark and the interest he has in it makes his banishment the more intolerable when I remember these things I pour out my soul in me grief and sorrow having dissolved it for I had gone with the multitude I went with them to the house of God Psal 42.4 4. The fourth and last inducement was the advantage he had by the Ark and that was double 1. Protection Psal 27.4 5. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire into his Counsel for my safety For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavillion c. see Psal 31.20 2. Here he finds satisfaction here is a Julip will slack his thirst inebriabuntur they shall be inebriated abundantly satisfied with the pleasures of thy house c. upon this account such as do approach Gods Ark are blessed Psal 65.4 And now having given you these inducements of his devotion I have done with my Text. But I cannot enter upon my Application without a Preface and what Preface so suitable as a reflexion upon those signal impresses of Gods favour stamp'd upon us immediaâ—ely before the late fatal revolution whereby we may take a prospect of our own happiness in the prosperity and flourishing condition of our Church and Nation we were like that Vine of Israel which God sometimes brought out of Egypt we were planted in a Land flowing with milk and honey and were twined about the walls of Gods house for our support and shelter Those Clouds and Umbrages that did eclipse and darken the glory of the Gospel in other parts of the World were dispel'd and scattered amongst us The face of the Sky over our heads was serene and calm and the countenance of Heaven did smile upon us Our Candlestick was scoured bright and instead of nasty stinking snuffs or filthy meteors exhaled from the slime of the earth we had stars of the first magnitude for their Piety and Learning set upon them So that this people which had sate in darkness saw a great light God had not dealt so with other Nations Here was a comely as well as a convenient Tabernacle for the Ark of God and God was worshipped in the beauty of holiness And God was not at all behind hand with us in the reciprocation of kindnesses there was never so low an ebb in us by our making out sallies of devotion upon him but there came as high a tide upon us flowing back from him What we paid the Ark of God in reverence and duty was infalliby return'd in a compensation nay with a surplusage of blessings As long as our English earth continued to pâ—y a worthy homage unto heaven the Heavens were not only constant to involve and incircle us but they never sail'd to protect and shelter to feed and to cloath us with suitable applications of the most enriching influences Other Nations had Mines which they digged with much pain and peril in the earth but we had Mines in heaven treasures that never fail'd to supply not only our needs but our very pomp and curiosity It was our felicity that God had made out that experiment to us which he speaks of by the Prophet Malachi Mal. 3.10 Prove me now if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it We had pregnant evidence of this goodness of the Lord toward us which makes one that might have made a better use of it observe that God has dealt by way of prerogative with this English Nation But we perverted Gods gracious dispensations turning his blessings into aggravations of our crimes and making our felicity serve only for a reproach to our ingratitude For like Israel we waxed fat and kicked our Manna a spiritual food that came down from heaven prepared for us by the Ministry of those Angels that presided in the Church at the Reformation because it was common and our daily bread it became loathsome to us We grew wanton and having taken a surfeit of the bread of life we long'd for quails to be brought us out of forreign
not only as being more light and fit for motion but also to shew his devotion in his religious Service Here was decency and a signification of devotion in the use of this garment I pray observe and carry that home with you and hereupon the Votaries of the Lamb of God are represented to St John See Dr. Ham. Notes upon Rev. 19.8 as celebrating the solemn Service of God in the Christian Church in this habit Revel 19. 3. It was a delightful Solemnity For There was shouting and the sound of the Cornet and Trumpets and Cymbals making a noise with Psalteries and Harps 1 Chron. 15.28 God requires that his people should serve him with joy and gladness * Deut. 28.47 and as well to blow up and inflame that sacred fire as to entertain and discover it he allows the use of these bellows Musical Instruments as well as Voices When our melody is spiritual and does not degenerate into carnality and looseness when the Holy Ghost is the Master of the Musick it is so great an advantage to our devotions that we are exhorted even under the New Testament John 4. where all the Worship of God is to be performed in Spirit and in Truth even here under the dispensation of the Gospel we are exhorted to use it to raise up our devotions to the edification of our selves and others Eph. 5.18 19. Col. 3.16 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves and admonishing others in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with your voice and making melâ—dy with musical instruments with grace in your hearts unto the Lord. And accordingly 4. This was a cordial Solemnity There are a sort of men in the world so rash so uncharitable so censorious that they condemn all the Service that is performed to Almighty God with pomp and ceremony or any shew of solemnity as meerly formal and hypocritical Let the practice of David upon this occâ—sion confute their vain and false imaginations It is a contradiction to say the more there is of delight the less there is of the soul in any service David perform'd this duty not only with joy and gladness * 1 Chron. 15.25 2 Sam. 6.12 but with all his might and the holy extasies of his soul caused a religious transportation and rapture in his body in these exercises for he danced before the Lord with all his might †2 Sam. 6.14 When his heart danced so for joy his body could not chuse but sympaâ—hize in the passion and dance in grave and comely measures with it My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Psal 84.2 When I went with the multitude into the house of God I poured out my soul in me saith he Psal 42.4 i. e. I emptied my self of all earthly and carnal delights Bellar. ad haec verba Psalmi that I might be filled with the pleasures of Gods house I expatiated and enlarged my desires and faculties that I might be capable to receive the influences of so great a blessing His body was in the dance with the decency of an Ephod but his very heart and soul were in the joy of this holy procession so cordial and so delightful so decent and so pious was this Solemnity And thus we have done with the first general part of the Text the Transportation or Conduct of the Ark So they brought the Ark of God We come now to the second 2. The scituation of it And they set it in the Tent that David had pitched for it This was in the City of David 2 Sam. 6.12 a part of Jerusalem where the Court was kept David knew there was need of a sovereign Amulet against those temptations that do usually â—aunt and follow greatness The splendour of a Court might possibly dazzle his eyes and make him forget his duty 't is good therefore to have the light thereof eclipsed by the greater splendour of a divine Majesty The bands of Religion may be drawn so close and tyed so fast about his soul upon the frequent sight of such a sacred Shrine as the Ark was that nothing could easily puff it up or make his spirits flye out into dissolution The sight of this was apt to strike the heart with awe and reverence 2. But besides David was certainly inform'd that the presence of the Ark had brought signal blessings evidences of Gods favour upon the Family of Obed-Edom and why should not he endeavour to share in the benefit who had at least as good a Title as Obed-Edom to the Ark it self 1 Cor. 12.31 To covet the best gifts and that earnestly is a very commendable part of our duty To hunger and thirst after righteousness after spiritual blessings is a holy thirst and hunger To be ambitious to be had in favour and in honour * 1 Chron. 17.18 with the Divine Majesty is a good ambition 3. If the Ark were leated here in the City of David whither the Tribes ascended for civil Justice they might very commodiously receive the mysteries of Religion administred together with it and the blessings that should be derived from the salutary presence of the Ark upon the Royal Family would be of a more general concernment like a fruitful inundation which having its source from the top of some high mountain waters all the vallies round about 2. David had here prepared for the Ark and therefore it is said 2 Sam. 6.17 imposuerunt eam in loco suo they set it in his own place For when a man passeth a surrender of any Thing or Place to the use of Almighty God and appropriates it to his Worship by the act of a solemn dedication God accepts of it ownes it calls it his and makes it holy holy always in relation by his gracious acceptation of it and holy sometimes by a gracious manifestation of his presence in it and then it is to be reverenced not to be alienated or converted unto any profane or common use To this purpose we have these expressions in Holy Scripture Go to my place which was in Shilo where I put my name at the first Jer. 7.12 My house shall be called the house of prayer Mat. 21.13 Keep my Sabbathes and reverence my Sanctuary Levit. 19.30 Put off thy shooes from off thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground Exod. 3.5 to which alludes Keep thy foot when thou comest into the house of God Eccles 5.1 Because the Ark had been placed in this City of David and so had hallowed it Solomon thinks it not fit thinks it would be a prophanation to convert it into a Court for Pharaoh's Daughter though his royal consort 2 Chron 8.11 And our Saviours zeal was so strict in this point he would not suffer any of them to carry their common Vessels thorow any part of the Temple Mark 11.16 Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in saith
a lamentation and name that Ichabod for the glory is departed from Israel and we the true Sons of the Church of England in the condition that Israel was in when they sate by the waters of Babylon and wept they hung up their Harps which were now grown uselesse because their sorrows for the desolations of Zion had silenced all their melody And yet we are call'd upon to believe that all these violences were design'd but to shake the dust out of the Badgers skins and to brush the Curtains and to Reform the Tabernacle that the pure gold of the Ark might shine the brighter in the simplicity of its own lustre That is just as the Souldiers came with Swords and Staves from the High Priests to apprehend and secure the Lamb of God and brought him before Pilate out of kindness that he might have the honour to clear and acquit himself But what became of the Ark of God in the midst of these disorders Why we heard of the same at Ephrata we found it in the wood Psal 132.6 some harmless Country people would tell us some tydings of it but it was in the wood like one bewildered strip'd of its due Attendants and Solemnities And yet as forlorn as it was its Captivity was a punishment not only to the Jews but also to the Philistims to them that triumph'd over it as well as to them that had lost the possession and forfeited the blessings of it The adversaries could not destroy it nor could they court it into their assistance The Dagon which they set up for themselves to worship fell before it with the loss of hands and head deprived not of strength only but of counsel too They provided a new Cart for it such was the new Discipline hewn out and rudely put together by Mr. Calvin and others in this last Century and the Classes were the Wheels of it and this the Faction drove on furiously for a while and stop'd not no not at the Red Sea they drove it into a Sea of blood but the Cattle that were yoked together to hurry it away were so unreasonable and head-strong they could not agree where or how to set it up and that they might not hurry it into utter ruine God was pleased to look thorow a frightful Cloud upon them Exod. 14.24 25. and took off their Chariot-wheels to trouble and discomfit them At last David the King being preserved and returnâ—n by as great a miracle of providence as the Ark it self in order to his own settlement he gives order to prepare the Tabernacle for the settlement of the Ark and summoneth all the heads of the Priests and Levites with the Nobles and Elders of the people So they brought the Ark of God c. We are no less happy then they in the decent situation of our Ark I pray God we may be no less dutiful in our gratulation for it To which purpose me â—hinks every devout soul should be a breathing out that Quaere of the Psalmist Psal 116. Quid Retribuam what shall I render unto the Lord for this great this signal benefit done unto us you can do no better than resolve with him I will come into thy house with burnt offerings I will pay thee my vows which I promised with my lips Psal 66.13 14. and spâ—ke with my mouth when I was in trouble for the Ark of God And because God takes no pleasure in the flesh of beasts neither will he drink the blood of Bulls or Goats but requires of us a spiritual a living and a reasonable Sacrifice Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Having nothing else that can be acceptable to him who gave himself for us we should have the same devotion the same mind that was in the holy Martyrs we should have our hearts and wills prepared if duly call'd to it to be made a sacrifice by others in the mean time we should make an Oblation of our selves have our whole spirits souls and bodies devoted to Gods service and the service of his Church Such a devotion was in the great Apostle Phil. 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I be offered up as a libamen a liquid oblation upon the Sacrifice and Liturgy of your faith I joy and rejoyce with you all But Here is a twofold oblation recommended to us by the example before us in the Text. 1. A burnt sacrifice And 2. A peace-offering and such we must offer in a spiritual sense and we must offer 1. A burnt sacrifice and that upon a double account as such sacrifices use to be offered up upon 1. To acknowledge Gods Power and Dominion and Revere his signal Goodness herein demonstrated David hath furnished us with a Psalm to this purpose Psal 124. wherein the Church blesseth God for a miraculous deliverance of her self and the Ark of God setled in her possession If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the water had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul Then the proud waters had gone over our soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Non nobis Domine non nobis therefore not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy name be the praise Thou art worthy to receive glory and honour and praise but to us there belongeth nothing but shame and confusion of face for we contributed only to the reproach and captivity of Gods Ark and solemn worship its happy restitution and settlement we ow to thy signal power and goodness great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name Rev. 15.3 4. 2. A second design of our spiritual burnt sacrifice must be to make an atonement for those miscarriages which forfeited our interest in the Ark and betrayed it into captivity It was good advice of the Priests and Diviners to the Philistims when they consulted them about returning the Ark of God 1 Sam. 6.3 Oh! send it not away empty said they but in any wise return God a trespass-offering with it that you may be healed The captivity of that Ark wrought a strange conviction in the Philistims as well as in the Jews The Philistims saw clearly they had no reason to triumph in this defeat they had given Israel for though they had won the field they had got no