it is your Father's will to give you a Kingdom A Kingdom of more Glory than all the Kingdoms of the World and it is a Kingdom which shall never end This is the Reward which God will certainly bestow on his righteous Servants and Children of which Reward some make the raining Righteousness in the Text a Promise for they take Righteousness to be the Reward of it as in the following Verse Iniquity is taken for the Punishment thereof But whether that be the main intent of the Words certainly it may be comprehended in them for the Fruits and Effects of Righteousness are always given where it self is given Holiness and the glorious Reward of it cannot be disjoined so that he who has the one is sure of the other The Wicked cannot inherit Glory nor can the Righteous be excluded Instead therefore of perplexing our selves what shall come of us whether we shall go to Heaven let us chearfully do our Duty and heartily endeavour to be righteous in the sight of God for hereby we may be assured of eternal Life The one is the Earnest and Pledge of the other Hitherto I have handled and applied the Text with a respect to Mens private and personal state But as was said in the beginning the Prophet delivered this Advice with a regard to the publick state of his People both Civil and Ecclesiastick And so it proposes the true Way and Method of preventing and removing publick Calamities and Disasters from Church and State which is to put away Sin and Wickedness and to encourage and promote Piety and Godliness As the Prophet forewarns them of very sad and heavy Judgments so all along he plainly inculcates the cause thereof viz. Their Pride and Wantonness the neglect of God and of his Worship and a gross contempt of and disobedience to his Righteous Laws For this cause he told them they were to be so exemplarily punished and that nothing could save them from utter Ruin or procure the lengthning of their Tranquillity but the ceasing from Sin and the doing that which is right in the sight of God Both the Preservation and Ruin of Kingdoms and publick States is of God and he is moved to the one or the other according as they are righteous or wicked For as Solomon saith Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people which Maxim of the Wise Man is clearly exemplified in Sacred History and was wisely observed in relation to the Iews in the person of Achior the Captain of the Sons of Ammon for in the Speech which he is said to have made to Olofernes he told him That whilest they sinned not before their God they prospered because the God that hateth iniquity was with them but when they departed from the way which he appointed them they were destroyed in many sore Battels and were led Captives into a Land that was not theirs and the Temple of their God was cast to the Ground and their Cities were taken by the Enemies From which wise Observation he concluded as wisely his Advice to the same Olofernes Now therefore my Lord and Governour if there be any Errour in this People and they sin against their God let us consider that this shall be their ruin and let us go up and we shall overcome them But if there be no iniquity in their Nation let my Lord pass by lest their Lord defend them and their God be for them and we become a reproach before all the world Righteousness is the greatest Security of a People it is the strongest Bond of Union amongst themselves and will defend the Frontiers better than Garisons or Armies can do For it secureth the Protection of the Almighty who can defeat the strongest and most numerous Forces and who when a man's ways please the Lord maketh his enemies to be at peace with him If therefore we have any concernment for the Church and State whereof we are Members if we would have God to do good to our Zion and to build up the walls of our Ierusalem if we would have him to settle Peace within their Walls and Prosperity within their Palaces let every one of us return from the Evil of our ways let us seek God with all our heart retrieve true Piety and true Religion and by the works of real Righteousness study to please God If we do this then his Heart will be towards us and his Delight will be in us then we shall become his Pleasant Vineyard which he will fence and plant out of which he will gather the Stones and in which he will build a Tower for himself he will cherish our Church and State and do all that can be desired for their Beauty Order and Peace But if instead of the pleasant Grapes of Righteousness we yield the sowre Grapes of Iniquity if instead of Judgment God see Oppression if instead of Righteousness he hear a cry if instead of the sweet smelling savour of a Christian Conversation we send forth the noisom and stinking scent of Sin and Impiety Ungodliness and worldly Lusts then he will utterly abandon us I will tell you what he will then do to his Vineyard I will saith the Lord take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down And I will lay it waste It shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Isa. v. 5. Our Land will always be made to mourn so long as Sin and Iniquity abound in it Publick Peace and Prosperity cannot be expected till there be a return of Righteousness of true and solid Piety Till that appear we need not look for good Let us therefore seek the Lord and by fervent and effectual Prayers beseech him to give Repentance unto all People and to Rain down true Righteousness upon all Ranks and Orders of Men that it may be well with every one of us and with the Land we live in For then our case should be happy and then both Sion and Ierusalem would have reason to rejoice for the Lord then would strengthen the bars of their gates he would bless the people within them make peace in their borders and fill them with the finest of the wheat Now unto him that is able to do this for us unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen SERMON XIII Preach'd at St. Giles Church in EDINBURGH On October 16. 1687. HOSEA V. 13 14 15. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Iudah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Iareb yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound For I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion and as a young Lion to the house of Iudah I even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall
I say what Humility would it be in such a Person for the good of his Subjects to divest himself of Majesty to lay aside the Pretensions to Royalty and Sovereignty and to put himself in the State of a Subject in which he should be obliged to obey the Laws and Orders which he had Right to give and which were in force only by Virtue of his own Authority How would men stand amazed at this And yet such and greater Humility has Christ shewed for us men for while he was Heir of all things he made himself empty and poor for us When he had a sovereign Authority over all in Heaven and Earth he became subject and obedient both to the Laws of God and men And it was for this very end that he became man therefore it is said of him Psal. 40. mine ears hast thou opened or bored alluding to that Custom of boring the Ears of those who resolved to be Servants for ever Which St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. X. 5. to render the thing clearer hath expressed thus a body hast thou prepared for me And in both it is added Lo I come in the volume of thy Book it is written of me to do thy will O God I take delight And as Obedience was the end why he became Man so from his Birth he payed a ready sincere and punctual Obedience to the Laws of Nature the Decrees of God the Acts of his Providence and the Statutes of Men. In his Infancy he was subject to his Parents when he was grown up he was obedient both to the Roman Governours and Jewish Magistrates he observed all the Law of Moses and was both in Civil and Religious Matters the greatest Example of a chearful and universal Obedience which ever the World saw He did all things without murmuring without Reluctancy he never disputed the Reasonableness of the divine Commands or the Justice of his Providence But knowing That God has an absolute Authority over Men and that he can command nothing that is not just therefore having put himself in the Condition of other Men that is in a State of Subjection to God he obeyed his absolute Authority without Reserve Nay rather than give Scandal or Occasion to any to refuse Obedience he would render it when it was not due and where it could not be without Rigour exacted nay when he could easily have avoided it Thus he would be baptized of Iohn the Baptist for fulfilling of all righteousness though Iohn refused it and that there was no need of it for him Therefore also after he had convinced Peter that he ought not to have payed Tribute notwithstanding said he to him lest we offend go thou to the sea and cast an hook and take up the fish that first cometh up and when thou hast opened its mouth thou shalt find a piece of Money that take and give unto them for me and thee Matth. xvii 27. It was his meat and drink to do the will of God Nor did he take Pleasure therein only when it was easie and about pleasant Matters but also when the Commands were severe heavy troublesome such as Nature struggled with and was averse to When his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto Death upon the sad Apprehensions of his Sufferings he went and prayed O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt And again O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me unless I drink it thy will be done Sometimes free and independent Princes have subjected themselves to others but then it was for some noble Employment and general Command under them whereby they had a Prospect of getting to themselves Glory Praise and Renown in the Earth But behold Jesus submitted himself to the Condition of the meanest Servant to Misery Pain Shame Reproach Disgrace and all the evil vile and unjust Usage which the most barbarous and most wicked could invent and which an ingenuous and noble Soul would abhorr He yielded himself to be a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief to be smitten of God and afflicted by Men to be despised set at nought oppressed and killed And yet he never opened his Mouth he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth He was obedient to the death And that we may the more admire this Obedience of his the kind of Death to which he submitted is set before us even the death of the Cross. This was a Death well known in those times in which the Apostle lived and wrote this Epistle And it was known to be the very worst kind of Death that the Laws of Men could inflict on the greatest Malefactors It was a painful Death and the more painful because it was lingering It was so vile and shameful that by the Laws none could be put to it except Slaves not a free man or any of honest Birth whatever might be their Crime This was the Death to which Jesus surrendered himself and he yielded to this Death not only when there was no Mitigation of the usual Pain Shame and Bitterness but also when extraordinary Pain Shame Torment and Agony were superadded Let any take a View of our Lord his Death and Passion what went before and what accompanied his Cross what Treachery and Ingratitude he met with with what Malice and Cruelty he was pursued what base Calumnies he was loaded with what horrid Crimes of Blasphemy Sedition and Conspiracy against Church and State were falsly charged upon him how he was deserted by his Friends mocked by his Enemies and despitefully used by every Body it will be found that never any Sorrow was like unto his Sorrow nor any Cross so grievous as his He sustained the Wrath of God the Weight of Sin the Malice of Devils and the Spite of Men. His Death was both base and bitter sad and shameful beyond all Expression But withal it was voluntary Which leads me to the last thing proposed Which was to shew the End and Reason why Jesus who was the Son of God thus abased and humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross. In Prosecution of this it cannot be expected that either I can mention all or insist at large on any for the time allowed will not suffice for such a Task I shall propose briefly some few which may satisfie and leave the Prosecution of them to your private Meditations In general then all this was done for setting forth the Glory of God and for effectuating the Redemption of Mankind therefore it is called the Mystery of Redemption and the Gospel which declareth it is called the word of Salvation And for this cause that admirable Person of whom we have been speaking is called our Saviour and Redeemer Behold said the Angel to the Shepherds I bring to you tidings of great joy
of God to give us either Comfort or Instruction So this Constancy and generous Publick Concernment of the Women must not pass unobserved For as the Revealing of his Birth to the Wise Men in the East was a Comfort to the Gentile World and a sign that they were to be called to a share of that Salvation which he brought with him So God ordered the Behaviour of these Women for a Comfort to all their Sex God gave them this tender Love to his Son which prompted them to wait upon him even to the last minutes of his Life when he was deserted by all the rest of the World to bewail his Sufferings when Men were mocking and scoffing him and finally to seek him early the Third Day at his Grave that they might do him honour there They were made Compassionate Witnesses of his Death and the first Messengers of his Joyful Resurrection to assure the Faith of Women and to confirm their Hope of Salvation by Christ tho' it was by Woman that Sin entered amongst Men. The Devils who were the Authors of Sin are Reprobated and are never to find Mercy but Women have found Grace in the sight of God And tho' Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the transgression notwithstanding she shall be saved by him that was Born and died if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety 1 Tim. ii 14 15. Again This passage informs us of the wise Providence of God who never leaves himself without a Witness amongst Men but always even in the times of greatest Defection either from Truth or Holiness in the midst of the greatest corruption of Doctrine and greatest wickedness of Manners he preserves a Remnant pure from the publick Contagion and also moves some more or less to reprove such General Apostacy from the Principles or the Practice of Religion either directly by open and plain Rebukes or indirectly by their own manifest Stedfastness At this time the Rulers Priests and People were combined in a Conspiracy against the Lord and against his Anointed they were all of them persecuting him to Death as an Enemy to God Church and State and the common Interest of the Nation So bent was the Multitude upon this Wickedness that to shew their Inclinations and to press the Roman Governours to it they gathered themselves together tumultuously and not only officiously consented to his Death but sought it as a favour to themselves and the Nation Such was the Malice and Prejudice against Christ that like a torrent it carried all away with it some few only excepted and they were but very few who kept their Integrity and detested this Villany But the few who did so lurked in private and as they did not concur so neither did they oppose the Multitude nor their wicked Designs But behold while Courage and Integrity failed amongst Men some few Women appear abhorr the Villainy and by publick bewailing and lamenting testifie against it Fear might have detained them if they had considered their own weakness and the madness of the Multitude at this time they might have apprehended that their tears would have provoked the Multitude to trample them under foot but Love knows no Difficulties nor did these Women consider the Difficulties they run by paying their Just respects to their hated and persecuted but very Innocent Lord. And from the Example of those Good Women let us learn how to behave our selves in times of Danger and Difficulty let them teach and encourage us to a stedfastness in the Truth and to a constant adherence to that which is Just and Right tho' all the World about us take a contrary course and that Error and Iniquity have the common Vogue Politicians will tell you that Dum furor est in cursu cedendum est furori that it is Wisdom to yield to the Evils which are not in our power to remedy that it is safer to comply with Peoples inclinations when violent tho' Unjust and Unreasonable than to resist them for by opposing them we provoke their Fury and hazard our own Ruin whereas by complying we leave our selves in a capacity of rectifying things at another occasion And so by these and the like Maxims Men are taught to turn with every Tide to serve different and contrary Interests notwithstanding of particular ties and obligations and to give way to the greatest Injustice for pleasing Men and diverting the Wrath and Fury of a prevailing Party But these Maxims are calculated with a respect to Mens temporal Interest rather than for keeping a good Conscience for they who would do that and please God must resolve never to turn their Back upon that which is right or to consent to that which is Evil. Indeed every one has not a Call to resist a wicked Course or to punish the Authors and Promoters of it nor is it in the power of private or particular Persons to do it but it is in every Man's power to withdraw his consent and refuse his concurrence Tho' we cannot hinder others yet we ought to keep our own hands clean and as Prudence directs us according to the Nature and Importance of the thing we should own that which we are perswaded is right and good which if we cannot favour otherwise we should at least with the Women here bewail and lament the loss and miscarriage and the wickedness of Men which occasions it to be so though by this we incurr a popular Odium and run other Inconveniencies Plutarch tells of a certain Woman that being questioned how she could attempt a thing Prohibited by the Tyrant under whom she lived and which would highly incense him She answered resolutely It pleaseth the Gods with whom I intend to live longer than with the Tyrant If our Design be to live with God for ever if Eternal Life or his Favour be our Expectation we should search out his Good Perfect and Acceptable Will and cleave to that whatever the World think of it And if the fear of Men begin to prevail we should consider how much wiser it is to fear God I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them which kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke xii 4 c. But to return to the Women who are said to bewail and lament Christ as they followed him The words in the Original import the greatest measure of Grief and Sadness and are never used but when the very height of it is expressed the Consternation of Sinners at the Day of Judgment their sad Apprehensions of the Terror of that Day and the Melancholy Effects it worketh in them are set forth by the same words Matth. xxiv and Rev. i. 7. So that it seems the Sorrow of these was not small nor the Expressions of it mean
rescue him I will go and return unto my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face In their affliction they will seek me early EPHRAIM is put here for the whole Ten Tribes who revolted from the House of David and embodied themselves into a distinct Kingdom Under Iudah is here comprehended also the Tribe of Benjamin which two Tribes as they kept close in Allegiance and Expressions of Loyalty to their lawful King so they made Profession of Serving the One true God in that way and after that manner prescribed by his Word By the Sickness of Ephraim and the Wounds of Iudah is meant those Afflictions and Calamities which God sent upon the several States because of their Sins and Transgressions And by considering this Prophesie and the History of these several Nations we find the Judgments they were visited with and which are here especially pointed at to have been a withdrawing the Necessaries and Comforts of Life Factions and Divisions within and Oppressions from Neighbours without By Ephraim going to the Assyrian and Iudah sending to King Iareb The same thing is understood by all Interpreters for they make Iareb either the proper Name of the King of Assyria then reigning or an Appellative title given to all the Kings of that Nation as Pharaoh was the title of the Kings of Egypt and Coesar or Augustus of the Roman Emperours or it is thought to be the Name of a City in Assyria where the Kings resided and that he is called King Iareb because he lived there or finally considering the Etymology of the word some will have the King of Assyria so called because the Iews and Israelites expected he should have vindicated and defended them wherefore the Translators of the Bible have put into the Margin Or to the King that should Plead But which soever of these ways be taken all conclude that Assyria is meant and that respect is had to what we read 2 Kings xv 19. xvi 17. 2 Chron. xxviii 16. Where we see how both Iudah and Israel entered into a League with Assyria and studied by Money and Presents both to procure his own Peace and also Assistance to curb and restrain others who infested them And when it is said he could not heal you nor cure you thereby it is represented how ineffectual this Method was for their relief for they were not put in a better state by his means so far from that that even he from whom they expected Ease became an Instrument of more Mischief and Trouble unto them as the Sacred History plainly shews The reason hereof is given in the 14th Verse to wit because God was angry with them and resolved to punish them he was determined to be as a Lion to Ephraim and as a young Lion to Iudah to tear them and take them away That is as these Beasts are strong to catch their prey and when they have set upon it do devour it and it is in vain to think to get it safe out of their clutches so God being incensed he will shew himself able and strong to punish those who had done it And it was a most foolish thing to think by Men or any other Means to prevent the Mischief he certainly determined It was like the offering to take back a prey from the Jaws of a hungry and raging Lion Who can rescue out of his Hands When he declares War who can make Peace Men may fight with Men but it is in vain to strive against God or to think that any Means or Projects will prosper where he is the Enemy And as these Savage Beasts when they have catch'd their prey and eaten it up use to retire to their Dens and Coverts and lurk there so in allusion to this God saith in the last Verse he will return to his place that is as it were shut himself up in Heaven that the Earth should no more feel his gracious Presence or the comfortable Effects thereof He would so leave them and forsake them by withdrawing the favourable Expressions of his Providence as that they should be tempted to think he had confined himself to Heaven and would no more visit the Earth nor the Children of Men. But all this God did not so much out of Wrath and for Destruction as out of Love that he might at last save them and make them Partakers of his great goodness They were so perverse as to resist his gentle Methods so stubborn as not to be wrought upon by his former Acts of Kindness that he was provoked and if it were proper to speak so of the Almighty constrained to take up the Rod and to deal with them thus roughly and severely But still his intent was not to cut them off utterly from him but rather to bring them into a stricter Union with him afterwards He let his anger out now upon them that they might afterwards be made capable of his Love to wit when they became sensible of their Sin and Folly in forsaking the Commands of God and resolved to seek him seriously in all time coming This saith he I will do till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face And as God had this end before him in their Punishment so there is here a gracious intimation that the Punishments laid upon them should be effectual for this purpose In their afflictions they will seek me early which words are not so much a Prediction of what probably they would do as a Promise what he would then by his Grace make them do Afflictions have indeed some natural tendency to soften Men to render them tractable and obedient but then only this is truly effectuated when God sanctifieth Afflictions and giveth his Grace with them And when Afflictions produce this when People are so happy as to be converted by them then God layeth aside all Quarrels he putteth off his anger and putteth on Bowels of Love and Compassion he hideth his Face while Men continue in their Sins and Transgressions All the time they are going astray from God he retires within his Place as is here said But when they begin to acknowledge their Offences and in all sincerity seek his Face then he comes forth of his Place and lifts the light of his Countenance upon them and speaks comfortably unto them his going forth is prepared as the Morning and then he cometh unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the Earth which both refresheth it and maketh it fruitful Thus I have explained the words and given you the genuine Scope and Purport of them In the next place I intend to propose plainly such Instructions as they afford and as I judge them both useful and seasonable so I pray God they may be candidly heard meekly received seriously considered and carefully observed First then We may read and discern here the Cause and Occasion of all the Evils and Mischief which come either upon private Persons or on publick States viz. SIN This
as they wish their own well to search freely their ways and to labour to find out that accursed thing which they are guilty of and which provokes God's Anger against them And when they have found their guilt let me also beseech them not to hide the same by excusing and extenuating it but to make an humble and ingenuous Confession unto God and to testifie an unfeigned Repentance by a sincere care to bring forth the fruits meet for Repentance Let them rectifie what they have done amiss and make an amends for their past Negligence by an exact Diligence hereafter to keep all the Commandments of God Which if they do I may assure them that God will no longer hide his Face and Favour from them he will no more frown but smile and give them comfortable words that they may be made to rejoice for the days wherein they have seen Affliction In the next place I would make Application to the publick State of this Nation and Kingdom whereof we are Members and in whose welfare Religion and Interest oblige us to be concerned I think it needs surprize none if I say That God is angry with us and that his judgments are hanging over these Lands for who is so blind as not to see it The present bad Harvest is one instance the Evil threatned in the Tenth Verse we may say is literally like to be inflicted upon us He is pouring down his wrath upon us by water which threatens to wash away the Food both of Man and Beast What other Calamities are impending either on Church or State I leave to the Consideration of wise Persons But without danger or the imputation of indiscretion I may bid you read the Sins of the Land and by that foresee what is to be feared It would be no great stretch tho' I should offer to draw a Parallel betwixt the Sins that abound amongst us and those of Iudah and Israel complained of in this Prophecy and would one charge the several Ranks and Orders amongst us with the same Faults our Prophet lays upon the Priests the Rulers and Princes and People of his time no great Injury would be done to Truth But such an unusual freedom perhaps would not be well taken especially from a Stranger But certainly it is a Kindness to give warning of a common Danger and it 's the Duty of all to provide for our common Safety Tho' we would flatter our selves it would not go better with us Was Iudah and Israel punished because they would not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord and do we think to Escape If we imitate their Sins is there not reason to fear a being made to share in the like Judgments Is God arisen to Judgment Is he going through the World with the Rod of his Wrath in his hand visiting Nations for their Iniquities and do we think that we shall not have our turn That he will pass by us when we are as guilty as any other No so long as Sin thus continues and increases amongst us it will never be well with us our state shall still move from evil to worse If then we would either prevent the Evils which are yet a coming or heal the Wounds already received let us join our Endeavours to stop the Current of Sin and Iniquity and to cleanse the Land of the Abominations that are amongst us It avails little to apply external Plaisters while the Arrow's Head sticks in the Wound In this and the former Ages the People of these Lands have been ever crying out of Grievances but they have had little of the Spirit of Discerning to find out the great Cause and Ground of them viz. Their Sins and Transgressions against God For which if they had heartily grieved they had never had so much matter of making other Complaints In our Fathers days all the Fault was laid upon the Government and Governours in Church and State which through the instigation of Factious and Seditious Men made People restless until they had overturned the Government and thrust the chief Ruler and perhaps the best of Men not only from his Throne but out of the World in a most barbarous manner But as this increased their Guilt so it did not heal their Sores nor ease their Pain they rather felt more smart and grief which disposed them to seek again unto David their King And if together with that the People had seriously sought the Lord also all had been well But alas that is yet to do whatever Change and Revolution we have suffered there has never been cordial Endeavours to introduce that best and most desirable Change from Vice to Vertue from Sin to Holiness and Godliness Blessed be God there has been a Reformation in our Doctrine and our Worship has been rectified and purged from the Superstition and Idolatry which had crept into it through the Ignorance and unwariness of Men But to our shame it must be said that our Practice and Conversation is not Reformed but continues much the same and perhaps in some things worse than what was before that other happy Reformation of Doctrine and Worship came in There was certainly reason to descry and run down the Hypocrisie and forms of Godliness fashionable in the late times but it had been more commendable to have endeavoured with greater Vigour to set up the Life and Power thereof And would to God we were at last sensible of our Errour and Omission and convinced that hitherto we have very unskilfully set about the curing our Maladies O that all who profess the same Truth would be perswaded to lay aside all other Contests and to contend together for maintaining the Purity of the Faith and joyning therewith the Purity of Life and Practice If we would thus by true Piety and sincere Obedience return unto the Lord he would return unto us and put us in a happy and glorious state as he hath torn so he would heal us as he hath smitten so he will bind us up that we might live joyfully in his sight But if this be neglected or delayed and if instead of this we take Methods and Devices of our own for saving our selves I dare not say what is to be feared Judgments of all sorts we may expect to be visited in our worldly Concerns and those two sadder Calamities which are mentioned Amos viii 11. 2 Thess. ii 11 12. may be looked for which God avert Plead with your mother plead saith God by this Prophet for she is not my wife neither am I her husband let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day she was born and make her as a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Amen SERMON XIV Preach'd at St. Giles Church in EDINBURGH April 13.
1690. MICAH VII 8 9. Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness THE Prophet speaks here in the Name of the Church and with respect to her present Circumstances and what was shortly to befall her Her present Condition was very sad and lamentable if you consider her inward State there was no Health nor Soundness in her but much Disorder Confusion and Corruption as is complained of throughout the whole Book but which is expresly declared and set forth in this Chapter from the First to the Sixth Verse This Sickness and inward Distemper could not be without grievous Pangs and Convulsive Fits But besides they were lying under sad pressures from without the Assyrians oppressed them and by frequent inroads wasted their Wealth and made great Devastations of their Country The Ten Tribes were already carried Captive and the Captivity of the other Two together with the destruction of the glorious Temple of Solomon were approaching The Prophet being sensible of what had already happened and foreseeing by the Spirit what was to come he doth here in the Name of the Church obviate those Misconstructions Men would be ready to put on this her deplorable Condition and also instruct us how it was to be received and entertained The Idumeans Chaldeans and Babylonians and other Enemies without who envied the former Prosperity of Israel were glad at these Disasters and Calamities which befell them they rejoiced at their Misery they took occasion to mock them saying Where is now the God in whom they trusted who had saved them heretofore and done so many great things for them in Egypt Thus in stead of fearing God and trembling at his Iudgments he had inflicted on his own People for their Sins they made them matter of prophane Mirth and Laughter and not understanding the Wisdom and Justice of his Dispensations they even accused God himself and darted up Blasphemous Speeches towards Heaven But the Prophet bids them here be sober and adviseth them to moderate their mirth and to lay aside their prophane and insulting humour for things would not always be at this pass God would not always deal so roughly and harshly with them Experience taught them not to despair but to hope for the recovery of a better state Rejoice not against me O mine enemy as if he had said Make not our Calamities and Disasters the subject of your Mirth and Laughter which should rather strike you with Dread and Fear for if we the peculiar People of God whom he had chosen for himself have suffered such things because we sinned against him what may ye expect who were never in Covenant with him and who have always provoked him Neither insult over us as if we were utterly and eternally ruined and that it were impossible for us ever to recover so as to deserve any regard from you Common Humanity should teach People to pity one another and to have Compassion on the Miserable And if ye consult Experience it will shew that all Persons and all things under the Sun are liable to changes that there is none so exalted but he may be abased nor any so low but he may be exalted Nemo confidat nimium secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus None can secure his State and therefore the most Happy and prosperous ought not to brag nor should the most abject and miserable despond and give over hope None stands so secure but he may catch a fall nor is any fallen so low but God by his Providence is able to raise him up again And as for me to go on with the Prophets words when I fall I shall rise or as it may be rendred though I fall I shall arise As if he had said Think not my case desperate or that I have so fallen that I cannot recover I am not destitute of Hope for as low and miserable as I am at present my God abideth still who is Almighty to save whose Hand is strong and always ready to relieve the distressed 'T is true he is at present angry with me but his anger will not last always he doth not cast off for ever His Mercy is everlasting and I know his Promise cannot fail which is If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail I have had often experience of this kind dealing of his I have fallen and I have risen again 'T is so in the Original and though there be nothing more ordinary than the promiscuous using the Preterite and Future Tenses so that our Translators might very well render it here in the Future yet some render it I have fallen I have risen as if the Iewish Church or the Prophet in her Name had gathered Hope from Experience and said to her insulting Enemy Conclude not me utterly lost and irrecoverable because God hath brought me low look back to the times past and consider that God never left me to perish that as he visited me with his Rod so he always shewed me his Salvation I trust he will do so now and in the mean time when or while I sit in Darkness the Lord will be a Light unto me Darkness in Scripture language signifies Trouble and Affliction and Light is put for Joy and Comfort And so the Prophet by this Expression declares his assurance that God would afford his people seasonable tokens of his favour even in the midst of their Tribulations for the comfort of their Hearts and the support of their Minds until the time of their Deliverance come Now the Prophet having thus answered the prophane Scoffs and Mockings of the Heathens about them In the next place he draweth his Peoples thoughts more home and requireth them to look into themselves and to consider their own hearts and ways instead of these mis-constructions of the Divine Judgments by Men unacquainted with the ways of God And whatever their Enemies said he himself resolves and teacheth the rest of his People to take all these Calamities and Afflictions from God as the Effects of his Displeasure and the Punishment of their Sins to which they should submit and which they ought to bear patiently I will saith he bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him And as their Calamities were thus to be received and entertained so he encourageth to it by a Promise that they should be but for a time and that thereafter God would plead their cause and execute judgment for them that is Defend and vindicate them right their wrongs repay their injuries
hid from us till the event declare them and then we are forced to approve and applaud what before we were ready to condemn As Fines Imprisonments and other Punishments are necessary to a Common-Wealth so Calamities Troubles and Afflictions are now necessary to the World By them God keeps up his Authority defends his Laws curbs Sin prevents some from going astray and reclaims others who have already erred from the ways of his Commandments Hereby he exercises his Peoples Virtue Integrity Faith Patience and other Graces and makes them to acquire the Growth Stature Vigour and Understanding of perfect Men which they would not do if softness and ease and plenty were always indulged them As Winds serve to purifie the Air and Frost and Snow and Rain to moisten and fatten the Earth that it may be fruitful so God sendeth Calamities and Afflictions that they who are barren may be made to bear fruit and that others may bring forth more fruit If an ignorant and unskilful Person saw a Gardiner pruning his Trees and lopping off the Branches with Axes and Knives he would perhaps suspect him of madness or think he intended the destruction of the Garden Whereas he thereby prevents their overgrowing and undoing one another and renders his Garden both more comely and more profitable So God by Afflictions prunes his People he keeps down those Corruptions and Disorders which otherwise would break out amongst them and disposeth them to bear proper fruit in their season It is good for me that I was afflicted said David The Psalmist was once tempted to think that God was unkind to his Church and People because he afflicted them But on second thoughts he checks himself and concludes that truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart That is such dealing with his People do not prove that he has no kindness for them For he is still good to them and their Afflictions testifie it and such as are of a clean heart shall certainly find it so Now seeing these things are so let us not complain of the present Providence of God let us not murmur against nor bear impatiently those Evils which are upon us For we have truly sinned against God and he doth justly punish us whatever may be said of many of the Instruments of our Trouble and Calamity I must not flatter you certainly our Princes our Nobles and Great Ones the Pastors and People and all Ranks amongst us have corrupted themselves and done wickedly and therefore God hath justly brought Evil upon our Land And they who have smarted by this Revolution have suffered justly at the hands of God Let us therefore humble our selves before him acknowledge our Offence and the Justice and Righteousness of his Judgments and then he will be ready to plead our Cause I beseech you in the words of Hosea O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast faln by thine iniquity take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our Lips and then we shall hear him saying I will heal your backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him And as he saith in another place Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up And as this is the only proper Advice for our selves so I would advise those to whom the present times seem a little more favourable I mean our Brethren of the Presbyterian Party whom I call Brethren though their usage and treatment of us have shewed them Enemies seeing they have overthrown the Church and treated her Bishops and Priests with Contumely and Reproach I say I would advise them not to be over vain and confident for they know not what a day may bring forth To rejoice at our Affliction and to insult over our Misery doth not favour much of Religion to which they make so high pretences And unless they could chain their present State by irreversible Decrees there is as little Prudence as Religion in despising us thus and trampling so much upon us For it may come to pass that they may yet be forced to seek shelter under the Shadow of our Vine They know it is not long since another Party I mean those of the Roman Communion boasted and bragged and aimed too at more than was fit or meet or what Discretion would have required which brought on their Ruine and which has occasioned their Loss of that Peace which otherwise they might and would have enjoyed Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall I believe that thou shalt arise O Lord and have mercy upon Zion when the time to favour her when the set time is come Though our Case were more desperate in the Eyes of the World yet I would not despair tho' we were at a lower pass and had fewer Friends I yet would not let go my Hope for God is able to do for us above what we can ask or think It is true we have provoked the Lord and tho' he leave us we cannot complain But we know also that our God is merciful and with him is plenteous Redemption He will not cast off for ever Therefore they who are his people should still hope in him And we are his People as much for any thing I know as any other Christians in the World can pretend to be for the Church of Scotland is a sound Member of the Holy Catholick Church professing the same Faith that the Churches in the most ancient and purest Ages did and hath the same Ministry and Government even that very Ministry and Government which in those times were thought necessary to the being of a Church and in and under that Ministry we also have the holy Sacraments purely administred by which we are bound to God by a Covenant which is more solemn and sacred than any of Man's inventing can be If therefore we return to the Lord and acknowledge our Offences he will have Mercy upon us and surely visit us with his Salvation For we are his Zion a part of his Catholick Church or peculiar People and he will not always be angry with us We may take up this Hope both by our own Experience and the Experience of others Have we not fallen heretofore And have we not risen again Have we not seen the Church invaded her Essential Order and Subordination demolished her Pastors exiled her Temples profaned her Beauty defac'd And have we not seen all these repair'd and restor'd again Is there any thing impossible unto God Can he not suddenly alter the securest State and put a stop to the most violent Career ANNO 58 and 59 neither King nor Royal Family durst be owned and then it was a capital Crime to pray for them And yet you all know that within a Year or
of the Church somewhat depended As in the natural Body all the Members should be had a care of but those especially should be regarded and tendered which are most useful and important and which might hazard the whole if ought ailed them Even so every Member of Church and State should share of our love but those whom God has raised up and by his special Gifts and Graces has singularly fitted for preserving recovering or advancing the good of Church and State I say they should be much esteemed and their particular welfare should be carefully sought after by all who regard either Religion or the Civil Peace for when it is not well with these the other are in hazard In an Army the lives of private Soldiers should be secured as much as is possible But Heroes and valiant Generals and Captains much more because if they should be cut off the other would be soon scattered and if they be preserved they can by their Valour and Conduct recover a loss sustained amongst the common Soldiery It is true Man can do nothing without God but God ordinarily worketh in and by the means of Men. Such Men therefore should be much respected and cared for whom God has marked out to be fit Instruments of conveying his Blessings to whom he has given Wisdom and Zeal and Courage and other proper Endowments for propagating Truth stopping Error the curbing of Vice and the right ordering the House of God which bringeth a general Blessing upon the Land and tendeth to the Temporal and Eternal welfare of every individual I come now to consider the Precept in it self in which you may take notice of what St. Paul adviseth Timothy and then the reason he gives of that advice What he adviseth him is To drink no longer water but a little wine The reason he gives is for his Stomach's sake and his often Infirmities I begin with the First Drink no longer water This is no positive Prohibition of the use of Water but it has a particular reference to Timothy's Practice which must be considered for the better understanding of the Apostle's meaning It would seem that Timothy had heretofore made use of no other sort of Drink but Water not certainly that he was not able to procure Wine to himself nor yet from any scruple about the lawfulness of using that Liquor For so great a person as Timothy was to whom St. Paul gave so high Elogies every where throughout his Epistles and whom he thought worthy of the Trust of the Church of Ephesus could not be so Ignorant as not to know that every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving No doubt St. Paul taught him early that the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost And being so taught he would be far from placing Religion in such kind of Abstinences But his continued use of Water was either because he was so brought up by his Parents or out of his great Temperance and Sobriety and that by this means in imitation of his great Master St. Paul he might keep his Body under and bring it into subjection lest when he preached to others he himself should be a cast-away as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. ix 27. But whether upon this or any other Motive it was that Timothy did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually drink Water St. Paul observed that it did prove prejudicial to his Health and either occasioned or increased those bodily Distempers he was so much subject to and therefore he adviseth him here to forbear the so much and so frequent use of Water This Practice of Timothy which moved St. Paul to insert this Direction here affords us a fair occasion of reproving the Epicurism and Luxury of the present Age and of recommending Temperance and subduing of the Body by Fasting Abstinence and other Acts of Mortification The Primitive Christians kept their Bodies under a severe Discipline which is now adays worn altogether out of fashion We are not so far behind them in time as we fall short of their strictness and severity which is the reason that we come so short of their Devotion and Piety and those other Christian Vertues which rendered them Illustrious An account of their Severities and Mortifications would be thought fabulous Men accustomed to such softness and looseness as we of this Age would hardly be induced to believe it and if any of them were returning back to this World they would have as great difficulty of believing us to be Christians seeing we work so much the will of the Gentiles and walk in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquettings and do run easily and forwardly as they do to the same excess of riot And indeed if our ease voluptuousness and loose manner of living be suitable enough to the Joys of Heaven and consistent enough with the Graces which are necessary to fit one for it then Paul and Timothy and all the Primitive Christians were Fools and Mad-men as an Italian Monk said once wittily Preaching before two Cardinals But the imputation of folly falls certainly on us and not on these great Lights of the World Our Apostle thought Chambering and Wantonness Gluttony and Drunkenness only agreeable with the Night of Heathenish Ignorance but we practise them in the broad Day of the Gospel we make these Works of Darkness face the clearest Sun-shine So little are the Men of this Age acquainted with Abstinence and Mortification that I fear they would brand a Man with Heresie that would recommend them There is no restraint put upon the Appetite but occasions are industriously sought out to gratifie and regale them insomuch that it is counted miserable not to be able to entertain them with the best things to Satiety and Repletion Back and Belly take up the thoughts of Poor and Rich and most Mens Contrivances the very end of their Life is that they may lie softly and fare deliciously every day This is the fashion of this Age after this manner do Men now frame their Lives But this is not the way to imitate the Primitive Christians nor yet to walk by the Rules of the Gospel If Man was only Flesh if he could taste no higher Pleasures than what come to him by the Sense of the Body this were not so unreasonable though it be reported even of Epicurus that he established Sobriety and Temperance by his Principles If a Mahometan Paradise were all our Expectation hereafter I would not either think it unlawful or improper to give way to our Appetites and to cherish voluptuous Desires whereby we may be disposed for those Sensualities which are promised there But seeing our Heaven is of another sort and that we are assur'd that God will destroy both the Belly and Meat and are told of pure Spiritual Joys to be tasted even in this Life excess surfeiting and a full feeding daily are