one that would pretend to be a head and vindicator to them of that nature and by means of that conceit and those distempers arising from it they never rested until they brought the Roman Emperor upon them unto their utter ruine †See Tho. Goodwins Serm. on Psa 105.14 and Dr Jackson in Serm. p. 32 It is a sad presage now to us to see both the like aestuations and stirs among us and withall the Roman Beast hovering over us to set up himself and his abomination that maketh desolate again in the midst of us And what sets all these Hurlyburlies on foot and creates this omen but the impetuous minding of an earthly felicity a worldly Christ What makes men so grosly and diversly misapply both Scripture and Providences The plain sence of Scripture is wrested and the clear Authority of it is obscured and it is from hence Mens consulting their worldly interest blinds the mind and corrupts the judgment and silenceth if not seareth the Conscience The world is a pearl in the eye it makes the eye evil double and dark Mat. 6.22 23 so that it seeth nothing though never so evident but what agreeth with it He that is set upon his gain and commodity he dissents from wholesom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim 6.3 5 He becomes of a corrupt mind and destitute of the Truth Divine Providences are misconceived also how comes it about Gain is become Godliness Gold is made a God and Prosperity is put in stead of Piety and men of this mind will upon all occurrencies construe Gods approving or disapproving Will to be as things temporal succeed well or prove improsperous An unhappy rule it is to go by What 's the cause of Persecution where or whensoever ye see it in the world Self-interest is the most ordinary cause Come say the Husbandmen in the Parable of the Vineyard this is the heir Luk. 20.14 come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours A Kingdom made Hazael an inhumane 2 Kin. 8.12 dogged Persecutor notwithstanding his former abhorrency of it This was the principal ground of the persecution of Christ and his Apostles and Church by the High Priests and Elders of the Jews Joh. 11.49 50. 19.12 13. Mat. 2.3 16. Act. 16.19 17 6 7 8. 12.25 24 5. by Herod by Pilate and others Men do nowadays condemn and oppose principles ways and persons hand over head in respect of any conscientious warrant that is not for that they find them sinful or stand to examine that but because they meet with them in an opposite party and posture to their earthly interest and concernment What 's the reason of that delusion above touched of a temporal felicity earthly promotion enrichment and power by Religion or Christianity Men are wont to dream of what their mind is most upon those therefore whose hearts are bent upon the world do easily dream of such a matter That phantastical conceit that State embroiling and subverting doctrine is the hatching of a sordid earthly spirit What 's the reason of the many scrued and conscience-relucting compliances that men make now adays Some men can say swear subscribe act oppose any thing as the times turn their private interest is the oyl that supples them the shooinghorn that draws on what would otherwise pinch We may observe some carnal and self-interested Christians in the primitive Church devised ways of accommodating their Religion with the strain of the times and people where they lived and this was for their beloved worldly concernments sake So did the Galatians Gal. 6.12 or some of them endeavor to comply with the Jews in point of Circumcision and Ceremonies to avoyd persecution for the Cross of Christ For that end did the Corinthians 1 Cor. 8.1 c. as it seemeth labour to temporize with the Gentiles in communion with them in Idolothytes In like manner did some of the Christian Souldiers under Julian the Apostate to receive their pay Mr Clarks Martyrol 1 p. 84. they cast incense into the fire of the Idolatrous Altars which Julian set for that purpose to be a train to draw them to a denyal of their Religion If men did not immoderately favour the world they would never do that which proves after a sting to their conscience a blur to their profession and a dishonor to their name Their tenderness and indulgence to their estate-concernments makes them harsh and violent to their inward principles and conscience Two things I fear when I consider the course of things and the shifts and turns of men in them and I will here express them 1. That those evasions and compliances will not serve they must be thundered frighted out of those their Zoars greater tryals must sift them out of those holes 2. That men will hardly stop at their present shifts but that those will dispose them to admit of greater wider compliances And what will they do in the end thereof It may come to that again whether you will carry a Taper and bear a fagot to the fire in renunciation of Protestantism Lastly To take in all at once the many enormous crimes the indirect courses the violent practises the irreligious unrighteous and perfidious contrivements and atchievements that have been acted in these times have sprung from hence men have absolutely and unmeasurably addicted themselves to the affection and service of their own earthly interest this they are peremptorily resolved on that they will maintain and enlarge all they can their fortune as they call it in the world be it by right or wrong They lay down to themselves for a principle that of the Satyrist Juvenal Satyr 14. Vnde habeas quaerit nemo sed oportet habere The Apostle Paul foretelling to Timothy that perillous times shall be or as the word may be rendered hurtful troublesom cruel times in these last days he reckoneth up nineteen several vices or sorts of depraved persons as the causes of those bad times and in the head of them all as the leaders or common parents of the rest he placeth the lovers of their own selves and the covetous Inde fere scelerum causa nec plura venena miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepiu◠ullum Humanae mentis vitium quam saeva cupido Indomiti census nam dives qui fieri vult cito vult fieri sed quae reverentia legum Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis avari Ad scelus atque nefas quodcunque est purpura ducit Juvenal Satyr 14. That which he then said shall be now we do see The whole band of those vicious persons are broken in upon us or risen up out of us and their chief or the king of them is this Apollyon the self-lover and next unto him as his second is the covetous 3. It is a sin which the Lord doth specially appear
sword shall pierce through thy own Soul also So that Mary might as much muse at this Blessing as she did at the Angels Salutation of which it is said She was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be Luk 1 29. Be it so yet the Holy Ghost calls it a Blessing and a Blessing it must be Yea we may observe and for that end here I bring it in It is not only their Blessing but a Pattern or Platform of the Blessing of all the Faithful wherewith the Lord endoweth them here on Earth Simeon's form of Benediction upon Joseph and Mary is a draught of the Lords constant method of bestowing and bringing about Blessings to his people Look how Simeon speaketh to them so the Lord proceedeth towards his namely by contradictions and conflicts by offences and scandals and by heart piercing sorrows to bring them to happy enjoyments comforts and mercies And that which is here designed to be the lot of Christs Person is also to be extended to his Office Word Truth Way Cause and Church they are with him and he in them set as a stone of stumbling and Rock of offence whereat many shall fall and thereby catch their ruine and as a But or Mark as the word is interpreted at which proud and malicious men shall dart their sharpest reproaches and into which they and their Rulers shall thrust their bloodiest swords and these their injuries and sufferings shall wound with bitterest griefs all their Alies that is all those that in affection and profession adhere unto them As Joseph the Patriarch came by his Blessing The Archers sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him but his Bow abode in strēgth c. by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob c. who shal bless thee with blessings of Heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the brests and of the womb c. they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren By the same way doth Joseph's Son here become a Blessing to those that belong to him But of this course of the Saints to the Consolations in Christ That their passage to the Land of Promise must be with Israel through the Red Sea and the waste howling Wilderness That they must fetch their honey with Samson out of the Roaring Lion That the sword that brought Christ to his death must pierce through Mary's heart and all theirs that travel in birth with Christ if sh◠and they will obtain the Blessing by him Or that as the Prophet Zechariah hath it that Sword which is awakned against Christ the Shepherd Zech. 13.7 8 9. must disperse them that are the flock and be turned also upon them until it hath cut off two parts of three and the remaining third part must pass through the fire and be refined as Silver and tryed as Gold and then they shall call upon the Name of the Lord and be heard This I say is to be further treated on in the ensuing Discourse SECT II. The Persecutions that befall the Faithful make many and notable Heart-discoveries BUt there is another thing which I aimed at in prefacing this of Simeon and that is the effect which he foretells the falling of many at Christ as a stumbling block the bent of mens tongues against him as the scope of their malice and the swords piercing through the Soul of Mary should have to wit that the thoughts of many hearts may be Revealed Afflictions especially those of the Saints and more especially those that come upon them by the persecuting Sword they cause great searchings of heart This Sword as it worketh impressions of fear and grief in the heart so it causeth expressions of Truth from it It is a Key to unlock open and bring forth the abundance of the heart which before was kept in It gives vent to and draws forth those deep waters of the counsels of mans heart It anatomizeth or rips up all the otherwise concealed intents drifts and dispositions thereof What great heart-discoveries doth it make on all hands It lays open both friend and foe it unfolds the heart both of Patients and Agents yea and of the Dependents and Allies of them both yea and of meer Spectators We need go no further for Instance then those Sufferings of Christ related to in this place especially when they came to a head at his Passion and Death Then did those his Enemies the high Priests the Elders the Scribes and Parisees Herod and Pilate with his Soldiers who before durst not do what they would and were sometimes fain to speak him fair shew themselves in their colours What inveterate Malice desperate Blood-thirstiness self-condemning Injustice devilish worldly-policy immune Cruelty insolent Blasphemy did then swell and burst forth of their hearts Then also did the rottenness of his false and feigned Friends appear Of Judas by selling and betraying him his Master Of the common people who erewhile had followed and admired him and but a few days before had entertained him with triumphant Acclamations and Hosanna's as their King they now display their hypocrisie by their preferring Barrabas before him by their crying out against him Away with him crucifie him and by their wilful taking upon them the guilt of his Blood Nay then did the passers by and by-standers take occasion to shew their spleen by railing and scoffing at him Yea one of his very fellow-sufferers must with his life breathe out his impotent rancor by reviling him Then did also his faithful Friends and Followers disclose what was in them and that both ways both the evil and the good On the one side they generally discovered their weakness of Understanding and slowness of Faith about the Necessity End and Fruit of Christs Death and Certainty of his Resurrection with extream despondency of mind and some of the chiefest of them bewrayed moreover strange inconstancy fear and falshood On the other side there brake forth somewhat of the truth and power of grace in them to wit in Mary and the other women that followed Christ in the Apostles in Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and in the good Thief upon the Cross in them were manifested honest resolutions and much tenderness of affection with some degree of faithfulness piety and courage Lastly in our blessed Saviour himself there was a discovery made In the midst of all those his inexplicable endurings and agonies his heart being with them melted like wax in the midst of his bowels did send forth the most precious oyntments Psa 22 14. and sweet smelling savours of the graces treasured in him above measure and among other admirable and surpassing Love Meekness Patience Fortitude Charity Obedience and Faith oriently shined forth in him So fully did this dissecting effect of the Sword in all sorts of persons then appear And there hath been of late no small
Baals Priests in Elijahs contest with them 1 King 18 26 but sometimes it was a doubtful and aenigmatical or a downright false and lying answer Hab 2.18 The molten Image is a teacher of lyes the Idols have spoken vanity and the Diviners have seen a lye and have told false dreams Zech. 10.2 5 The answer is further described That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart that is the consequence of their enquiry shall be their catching and ensnaring they shall be possessed with the error and misprision of their own brains in stead of a true revelation from God and by it they shall be held and led on with confidence as in a net or snare to their own ruine This sentence is the same both in effect and in cause with that of the Apostle For this cause God shall send them strong delusion 2 Thes 2.10 11 12 that they should believe a lye and wherefore is it because they received not the love of the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness and the special means by which they should thus fall into the trap is in the subsequent words And if the Prophet be deceived Verse 9 when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that Prophet It should be by the deceiving and deceivedness of false Prophets whose falshood and delusion whether subjective or effective whether in themselves or in the people though it be their own sin as the peoples delusion also is their own sin in that they seek to and credit such Prophets yet it is also penal and so from God not by active infusion but by giving them up to Satan his instruments and engines to themselves and their own stumbling blocks 2. The other part of the sentence is Vers 8. I the Lord will answer him by my self and I will set my face against that man and will make him a sign and proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people Here is still more weight added to the punishment of the presumptuous sinner that dares enquire of God with his heart upon his sin he shall not only be denyed a favorable and resolving answer from God nor only besides that be given up by God to others and his own deceits but he shall have thereto an immediate positive return from God and it is an heavy one it containeth much it is a most dreadful thing for a man to have the face of God set against him it is one of the terriblest expressions in the whole Scripture and he that will seek to God but will not sincerely set himself towards him to seek his face but will keep up the stumbling block of his iniquity before his own face he must look for this return Therefore it behoves every one not only in relation to the well-speeding of his enquiry in this or any other matter but in reference to all other his concernments to that dearest concernment of his own Soul that there be an unfeigned parting betwixt him and his iniquity To close up then this Rule let that admonition of God himself annexed to the rebuke and sentence I have been insisting on in this place be embraced and followed Vers 6 which is this Therefore say unto the House of Israel thus saith the Lord God Repent and turn your selves from your Idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations and let us together with this remember that in Psal 111. when the Psalmist had discoursed of the great honorable glorious and wonderful works of God and of the duty of searching them out he concludeth with this sentence as containing the way thereto and with it I will conclude this particular The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they which do his Commandments Other two Rules there are which I shall dispatch shortly 4. Come to the enquiry with an humble heart 1. With an heart-humbled under this condition of Gods hiding himself from us in relation to prayer according to the nature of it and as it deserves We have great reason to take it very heavily The Lords hiding from his servants or from his Church hath ever been the matter of their deepest hearts-piercing bitterest sorrow and dolefullest lamentation So it was to Job to David Job 30.28 to Heman Job saith I went mourning without the Sun Psa 30.7 88.15 I stood up and I cryed in the Congregation David saith Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Heman complains I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted And so it hath been to the Church of God When the Lord told Israel in the Wilderness upon their sin and notwithstanding Moses intercession for them that he would not go up in the midst of them for that they were a stiff-necked people it 's said When the people heard these evil tydings Exod. 33.3 4 they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments The Church in that allegory of Solomons Song when she arose up and opened to her beloved and found that he had withdrawn himself Cant. 5.5 6 8 and was gone her Soul failed or melted and when she sought him and could not find him when she called him but he gave her no answer she charges the daughters of Jerusalem if they could find him to tell him she was sick of love 2. With an heart humbled under the sense of our ignorance and inability to see into this matter of our selves There must be an ingenuous and lowly acknowledgment of our blindness and unskilfulness to discern what we should see herein and of our proneness to be puzled non-plussed and offended at all those ways of God wherein he walks behind a cloud in any sort towards us If we would be enwised in this particular 1 Cor. 3.18 we must become fools in our own sense that we may be wise He that intently looketh over the History of Job may find this failing both in Job and his friends which might be one cause of their mistaking touching the ways of God towards his afflicted servants that they arrogated too much to themselves and insisted too much upon comparisons with each other in point of wisdom and understanding Agur going to utter his Prophecy or Doctrine of Christ under the Titles of Ithiel and Vchal the former rendered God with me the latter God Almighty thus vilifies yea nullifies himself Prov. 30.2 3 Vide Jun. Trap Cleaver in loc Surely I am more brutish c. or as some interpret Surely I have been brutish since I was a man neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledg of the holy And if we will understand the reason why he who is Ithiel or Emmanuel God with us doth sometimes withhold or conceal his presence from us we must take Agurs course and abase our selves
to the bottom of our own real imbecility The Psalmist also hath set us a very full and pertinent pattern for this Psa 73.16 c. he seeking to know the mystery of the wickeds flourishing and the godlies suffering and for that end going into the Sanctuary of God withall makes an humble confession of his own foolishness ignorance and brutishness before God This must be our way and remember we that the promise of resolution is made to such a posture Psa 25.9 The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way 5. Lastly Be diligent and laborious apply seriously and industriously to know what is to be discovered in this case be not careless slothful and slight in a matter of this importance it doth much offend God if in the times of his afflicting providences men do walk at all adventures with him or carelesly before him if it be a hard question to dive into search and study it the more if it be possible give it not over without gaining some competent insight into it Many special duties both towards God and man may for their discovery practice and quickening to them depend upon the disclosing of the subject of this enquiry There can be no very skilful or hopeful application of proper remedies for the salving of this case until the causes of it be descryed We cannot look that things should be mended or brought to a better pass either betwixt God and us or among our selves before our condition be better understood Job 17.4 Job saith Thou shalt hide their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou exalt them intimating to us that those whom God will raise up he will first enwise David in this case tells us He communed with his own heart Psa 77.6 and his spirit made diligent search SECT III. A Consideration of the means of receiving Resolution in this Question WE have seen some Rules concerning the manner of addressing our selves to the Query propounded let me now add something by way of consideration touching the way or means by which satisfaction is to be fought and received Concerning which take these particulars 1. The resolution of this question belongeth unto God it can only be had from him his place and prerogative it is to unty this knot to return answer to this Query As Joseph said to the two Officers of Pharaoh concerning Dreams Gen. 40.8 Do not Interpretations belong to God So may I in this case 'T is true all things whatsoever both the Being and the knowledg of them cometh from God but the understanding of this matter proceedeth from him in a more peculiar manner it lies not within the reach of natural principles the perspicacity or industry of humane wit cannot make this discovery Elihu going to speak unto that dispute which was betwixt Job and his three friends one branch whereof was this case of prayer now in hand with us he prefaceth this as a maxim Surely there is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almighty maketh them to understand q. d. Though man have a reasonable Soul and a discursive faculty in him yet he cannot attain to the true knowledg and determination of this difference without the illumination of Gods Spirit A reason of his own action and of such an action as is not reducible to the course of Nature or his general Providence but is of the number of his special Dispensations God alone can give he only by the ways and helps himself hath assigned is to be enquired of for it Sometimes I acknowledg the case may be so plain as even the light of Nature may see some reason for this effect The Scripture saith the causes of the plagues and desolations upon Israel should be so evident when God should have executed them that all the passers by and the Heathen Nations adjoyning should be able to see and render a reason of them a Deut. 29 25 1 Kin. 9.9 Jer. 22.9 and this is spoken in particular of the Lords hiding his face from the house of Israel b Ezek. 39 23 But every case of this nature is not so apparent as that of Israel might be and if it were yet however this infringeth not what I have said of the appropriatedness unto God of the resolution of this question For 1. Though some gross sins which may provoke God to this hiding of himself may be discovered by a natural Conscience as the cause thereof yet all the causes which there may be I speak not of secret causes which we may not pry into but of those that are enquirable cannot be that way descryed 2. What ever in this kind may be humanely discernable it is God alone that can make known the whole truth in this matter unto conviction and so as men concerned it shall actually acknowledg and subscribe unto it Elihu telleth Jobs friends after all their discourses with him were done There is none of you that convinced Job Job 32.12 13 or that answered his words lest you should say We have found out wisdom God thrusteth him down not man These last words Iunius renders the strong God shall drive him down not man that is as if he had said It is not the work of any man so to argue with Job as to evince him or to drive or beat him out of his opinion but there needs a divine power to do it It is solely appertaining to God so to make known a thing as to make men know and confess it Job 36.22 and sit down satisfied in it Who teacheth like him as Elihu saith after Whose instruction hath that power and evidence to convince as his hath Again saith the same person He openeth the ears of men Verse 16. and sealeth their instruction He openeth or uncovereth the ears so that men do receive and regard what he saith and he sealeth their instruction so that it takes impression upon them 2. The salving of this Query being to come from God we are to look about for the means by which he imparteth and men receive it from him The means which the Scripture mentioneth are of two sorts extraordinary ordinary 1. The people of God have sometimes been afforded extraordinary means When the Lord hath any way withdrawn or hid himself from his people and the question hath been wherefore it was he hath revealed to them the reason extraordinarily as sometimes by Utim a Josh 7.10 2 Sam. 21.1 sometimes by Lot b 1 Sam. 14 37 40. sometimes by a Prophet c Judg. 6 7 8. Jer. 16.10 Amos 3.7 But these ways we are now destitute of we now have no warrant that I know to expect or make use of any such means 2. But though such ways of Gods discovery of his mind in this matter be ceased to us yet God hath not given over speaking to his people but he still makes known unto them by the means he thinks fittest the Rule
informed him concerning the counsel of God delivering to him that revelation of the seventy weeks And it deserves to be well taken notice of Isai 54.8 9 11 Jer. 33.34 Heb 8.11 12 that in the New Covenant the benefit of being taught of God and of the abounding of the knowledg of God is joyned with the removal of Gods wrath and the forgiveness of sins and iniquities Let it be our first care then to seek and obtain reconciliation with God and expiation of sins 2. Let us go unto God by Prayer and make this a special petition unto him that he would disclose his mind and give us wisdom in this particular Doth the Lord hide himself from our prayers set we our selves to prayer so much the more closely It is recorded of our blessed Saviour Luk. 22.41 44. that when he was in the garden and at prayer being in an agony he prayed more earnestly And let us for this in particular seek unto God to know the reason of his hiding of himself that reason I mean which it behoveth us to know and he would have us seek after David in his exile and want of God Psal 42.9 saith I will say unto God My Rock why hast thou forgotten me why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy Thus Elihu adviseth Job Job 34.31 32 Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me And this Job himself had done when he said unto God Chap. 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me And again where he faith How many are mine iniquities and sins Chap. 13.23 24 Make me to know my transgression and sin Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Let that be our course in this doubt which was the course of Daniel and the three children for the finding out of Nebuchadnezzars dream namely Dan. 2.18 19 to desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret This way succeeded with them for then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision And we may hope the like success though not by the same means may be unto us Solomon tells us Prov. 28 5 Evil men understand not judgment but they that seek the Lord understand all things This is the way directed unto by the Apostle James and unto it he gives us a promise Jam. 1 5. If any of you lack wisdâ—â— let him ask of God and it shall be given him The Prophet Daniel confesseth the neglect of this as both the sin and the prejudice of his people then in captivity in this regard All this evil is come upon us Dan. 9 13. yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy Truth To understand Gods Truth here I conceive intendeth the practical and particular understanding of the congruity of Gods dealings then in Judgment with them with his Word in the threatenings pronounced by Moses and the Prophets and the applicative knowledg or acknowledgment of the verification of those denunciations upon them together with an attributing of their desolations to these evil ways of theirs against which the Prophets had before declared them And the reason why they had not understood this truth of God was they had not made their prayer unto God that they might turn from their iniquities and understand this truth Where by the way you may note the necessity of that which I insisted on before in the Rules given to wit turning from our iniquities to the end we may know Gods truth manifested in his dealings with us The people of the Jews had made their prayer after their manner both before and during the seventy years captivity but they had not made their prayer with a returning from their iniquities and therefore they had not attained to understand the aforesaid truth in this behalf But to conclude this particular if God do hide himself from our prayers we are to pray to him that the reason of it may not be hidden from us and that if it seemeth good unto him for a time to make a stop of our other prayers yet he would not deny us in this but herein discover his intention to us that so we may both the more contentedly stay and make the better use of his delaying or denying of us in the other 3. Attend diligently to the written Word We have before shewed the Scripture to be now the only ordinary means of understanding the reason of these ways of God towards us and that the common or main difficulty that is obvious to us on the part of this means is whereas God revealeth to men in his Word variety of Reasons for this according to the variety of Cases how to know or pitch upon that which in special concerns us and our condition and that in order to the clearing our selves of this difficulty we are to get into terms of peace and reconciliation with God we are particularly to pray for special information herein of God Now unto these we must thirdly add a close and cordial inspection into the Word Conscience must here awaken come in and diligently do its office and that is not only to open and acquaint us with the whole rule or dictate of Scripture but to make use application or deduction from it to our selves and this consists mainly if not only in taking a distinct and right view of our case or in bringing in a true and full account evidence or judgment of the matter of fact This matter of fact hath two parts 1. Gods dealing with us 2. Our own ways towards him 1. A strict and narrow insight into a serious consideration of Gods dealing with us must be had Come behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 what desolations he hath made in the Earth Every Providence of God especially his more notable acts hath a reason written upon it Eze. 14.23 could mans eye read it And the due eying of the ways of God is a great means to bring to light that reason The contemplation of Gods proceedings is hereunto apt in two respects 1. By vertue of that similitude or proportion which often there is especially in crosses betwixt Gods dealings with men and their dealings afore with him And this is particularly to be found in Gods walking towards us in relation to prayer As Solomon hath it in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple 1 Kings 8.39 Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest Take one instance of this proportion of Gods ways to mens as to the matter of prayer O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble Why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the Land Jer. 14 8 9 10 and as a wayfaring man that turneth
of them with all the saving satisfying and gladding fruâ—ts of his presence as v. 14. to the end of the Chapter But wherefore or what is the matter that they must wait and tarry for this happiness why there are certain dispositions and alterations to be wrought in them to whom that command is given and those blessings are promised and those changes must be first produced in them ere they can enter into the harvest of those comforts they must wait therefore until they be accomplished with them The qualifications are those that lie in that Text betwixt vers 8 and 14. Let us take the particulars out because they are very material They or the principal of them are these four 1. Purity in them that call upon the Name of the Lord I will turn to the people a pure language vers 9. where language is not put as the sole and entire subject of purity but figuratively as for the whole conversation in as much as real sanctity in the tongue is one main yea and ordinarily the highest and last attained point in purity Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man 2. A general union in Religion That they may all call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one consent vers 9. There must be neither neutral Atheism nor unbrotherly separation or diversity in divine service 3. Sole confidence in God and as a means thereof stripping off all their former outward glory prosperity and wealth I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain I will also leave in thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord vers 11 12. 4. Fidelity and truth in deed and word The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lyes neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth vers 13. These gracious dispositions the Lord will have introduced or renewed in his people calling upon his Name as suitable to fore-run and usher in the benefits promised in the residue of that Chapter Let these four things in Zephaniah and the other four noted out of Zechariah be well considered as the pre-requisites which the Lord designeth to find or frame in his praying people and which he annexeth to the promise of audience especially in things of grand importance as necessary antecedents to the execution thereof I might amplifie and parallel these by other places of Scripture but the clear and close delivery of them in these two places shall suffice Let our mediation upon them be this Until we be thus disposed and fashioned in some convenient measure we are not fit to have the great and excellent things which we prosecute by prayer and all the delay of our prayers which we sorrowfully lie under is but needful as the space of time which is allotted for the acquiring of those dispositions and how long soever the delays seem to be it is our slow coming on in these graces which extends the length thereof unto what it is 3. Another end may be the exercise and tryal of the people of God that pray As the Lord by deferring their prayers for some time may intend the producing or bettering those graces which are deficient in them and thereby the fitting of them for the receipt of their answer so he may aym at the exercise and probation of such graces as are already seated in them for the which exercise and probation the withholding of their prayers may be a fit opportunity and means There are some virtues or fruits of the Spirit the chief use and experiment whereof appears in desertions and over-cloudings As the principal service of Tapers is to give us light when the place we are in is covered with darkness or as the worth and soveraign vertue of some precious cordials is shewn in a swoon or trance so is the truth and excellency of some graces best attested by the absence for a time of those enjoyments and comforts which are sought and waited for Such a case discovers what mettal the vertues we profess are made of and what indeed they can do By this means is faith patience love and sincerity set a work and proved in us to the purpose Here is the faith and patience of the Saints Rev. 13.10 14.12 And again Here is the patience of the Saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus that is here they come to action proof and manifestation in their faith patience and sincerity of obedience namely where and while Gods witnesses prophecy in sackcloth his Saints are captived and killed under the tyranny of the cruel beast The Apostle Pauls faith and courage were then evidenced when in the tempest at Sea neither Sun nor Star in many days appeared Act. 27.10 and all hope of being saved was taken away Jonahs confidence in God was then put to it and tryed when being shut up in a double grave viz. the belly of the Whale and the bowels of the Sea he nevertheless said unto God I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again towards thy holy Temple Jonah 2.4 Jobs trust in God was then raised to the height of action and manifestation when in his deserted state he resolved Though he slay me yet will I trust in him Hab. 2.3 4 The just then lives by his faith indeed when the vision of the fulfilling of his prayers and the divine promises tarryeth The patience of the Prophet Isaiah and of the faithful personated by him appeareth where he saith I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob Isa 8.17 and I will look for him It was a full proof of Jobs sincerity when Satan could not move him from his integrity neither by all the miseries which he brought upon him from without nor by all the mists and temptations which he cast upon his spirit So were the people of God tryed Psa 44 17 c. when the Lord had sore broken them in the place of Dragons and covered them with the shadow of death When the Lord as to their sense was asleep cast them off and hid his face forgetting their affliction and their oppression and yet then they did not forget him neither deal falsly in his Covenant their heart did not turn barck neither did their steps decline from his way The love and compassion of the servants of God is seen when Sion sitteth watching solitary and desolate Psa 102.14 c. 137.1 c. and they then take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof and when they sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep at the remembrance of Sion and protest not to forget Jerusalem but to remember her before their chief joy Such graces as these the Saints of God have given them not
and his offering which he hath commanded in his habitation or at least fly higher then the Church-assemblies Worship and Sacraments and the Scriptures too he is scarce one of the godly or well-affected Again look into the disposition of hearers when they are come May it not be said of divers yea of the most and in some places of all Their ear is uncircumcised they cannot harken behold Jer. 6.10 the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it The Word of God was unto David more desireable then gold and sweeter then honey now it is generally nauseous and wearisom How hard dead careless disdainful quarrelling are mens hearts unto it Some can hardly stay it out others can scarce refrain their tongues from breaking out against it many come and sit it out but their hearts are gone from it Plain and pure doctrine pleaseth but a few Now the common temper of them that lend their ear to hear the Word is nicety and novellizing So great is the affectation of novelty and disrelish of ancient and wholesom truth that no doctrine will go down with many but what is quaint and new either for the matter or the dress Men are never swift to hear but when they smell something that is uncouth The beaten rode of plain and familiar doctrine though in the Apostles sentence it be safe for the hearer * Phil. 3.1 yet it is no way satisfying but tiresome Again Look into mens houses and closets What constancy care delight is there used of men in the Reading of Gods Word Are not the Bibles of many that have them and can read cast into a corner the week through never taken up unless to carry to and from the Church scarce ever looked upon but when their ear should rather be employed in hearing then their eye in reading At home they are seldom or never opened What was once spoken as a heavy Judgment is now become a wilful practice Isai 29.11 The vision of all is become as the words of a Book that is sealed In what account was the Word of God in England when it was first translated by Mr Tindal and then under what peril did many procure and keep it in their houses and with what diligence eagerness and pleasure did they read or hear it Some that could not read it hired others with their money to read it to them Now the Book of God is reputed as strange and antiquated whilest Diurnals and Prognostications those worse then legendary lyars the one for time past the other for the future those constant publique scandals of our Religion and Nation are in all the request upon which it may be doubted the continual users of them do bestow more time and cost and it s well if they give not more heed and credit to them then they do upon or to the Word of God Rome and some other Cities are infamous for the permission of Stews Is it not as disgraceful to our Commonwealth to suffer such Marts of falshood cozenage and slander as are practised by those weekly and yearly Pamphlets Their officious lyes and flatteries will not be found advantageous at all to the State if the dishonor and guilt that they lay upon it be well weighed But I had almost in pursuit of these shameful abuses digressed but sure I am not transgressed 2. In point of believing we manifest our contempt of the Word in this respect That exclamation of the Prophet Isaiah applyed by the Evangelist John and by the Apostle Paul unto the Jews of whom they wrote may be justly taken up of us Isai 53.1 Joh 12.36 Ro. 10.16 Lord who hath believed our report The preaching of Christ and Faith in him is very plentiful and general but the Faith which is in Christ is very rare if we may judg by the Apostle James his demonstration of Faith * Jam. 2.18 Christ Jesus is layd forth unto us now as once he was layd in Sion 1 Pet. 2.6 Isai 28.16 as a most precious tryed stone a chief corner stone a sure foundation but with multitudes he is a stone disallowed set at nought and rejected If Christ were our sure foundation there would not be so many rents and divisions If he were our tryed stone or touchstone * See on Isai 28.16 Div. Annot 2 Edit there would not be taken up so many apparantly false doctrines and unlawful courses If he were a stone precious and in honor with us there would not be so much stumbling and falling at him If he were really believed on among us there would not be such making haste Isai 28.16 so much impatience and and fear of man such shrinking in and deserting of the way of Truth and Righteousness upon the least imagination of trouble 3. In point of obedience The Word of God consisting in a great part in Commands and containing the Will of God which we are to do and being spoken to us for that end that we may become conform to the Will of God the most immediate direct and real contempt of it after we come to know it is disobedience to it Now our contempt of it in this respect breaks forth most notoriously and in all kinds of contumacious and rebellious carriages how unsubjugate we generally are thereto would be endless to discover Look into our Congregations once again after the power success and fruit of the Word of God herein who almost is there that gives up himself to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 Rom. 6.17 who that obeys from the heart that form of doctrine unto which he is delivered May not the Lord say of us as of Israel sometimes Isa 65.2 3 I have spred out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way not good after their own thoughts a people that provoke me to anger continually to my face There is a sort of men among us who dispute and deny the binding power of the Moral Law of God unto Christians but we are generally practical Antinomians When the Commandments of God are delivered unto us though we do not flatly say unto him as the first son in the Parable unto his father Mat. 11.28 We will not go yet we do as the second son did who answered his father I go Sir and went not The Land is full of nothing so much as of disobedience and contemptuous violations of the Commandments of God and of Jesus Christ We cast off and abrogate the Precepts of both Testaments We reject both Law and Gospel we not only break in sunder the bands of the Lord but we cast away the cords of his anointed the easie and light yoke of Christ is refused The general vote among us even against Christ himself is We will not have this man to reign over us Witness both the impetuous resistance that hath been made against his regiment in his house and the searedness of mens Consciences
14. acknowledgeth though in going forward backward to the right hand and to the left he could not meet with God yet he knoweth the way that I take for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me and many such things are with him In the time when God standeth afar off and hideth himself the wicked man saith in his heart God hath forgotten he hide-eth his face he will never see it he will not require it But the servants of God are not of that opinion in the next words they say Psal 10.1 11 13 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand c. In the heaviest oppressions of the poor and he violentest perverting of judgment in a Province Eccles 5.8 Solomon minds us He that is higher then the highest regardeth Beware therefore lest in dark times when the Lord will come to search Jerusalem with candles we be not found setled on our lees and saying The Lord will not do good Zeph. 1.12 neither will he do evil Beware lest with those profane Jews we weary the Lord with our words in saying Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of Judgment Mal. 2.17 4. In point of truth and fidelity The people of God in Babylon and under an overclouding of their prayers there call to mind and raise up themselves with this Lam. 3.23 Great is thy Faithfulness David complaining in Psal 119. now his Soul fainted for Gods Salvation his eyes failed for his Word doth nevertheless keep close to this I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Psa 119.75 Thus are the people of God in a state of dereliction to maintain in themselves clear thoughts of God his Justice Goodness Providential Care and Fidelity Though there did not appear any reason for the Lords dealing so with their prayers which yet we have before seen there doth abundantly yet we are to rest satisfiâ—d upon those principles that God is invariably holy gracious all observing and true Many of his ways are deep and unsearchable but not one of them hath the least taint of the contrary to any of those Attributes Though we should be left in doubt how the Lord takes what he will do upon our prayers though we should see the Lord shining upon the counsels of the wicked and an horror of great darkness Gen. 15.12 like that of Abrahams falling upon us yet we must take notice of the burning lamp Verse 17. as well as of the smoking furnace as in that appearance of God to Abraham we must acknowledg the brightness and lightsomness of Gods ways in the midst of our darksom furnace of affliction 2. Take heed of making this case an occasion of slighting or disaccounting prayer although it fare thus with the people of God when they have prayed yet think never the worse of prayer for it let us not hence fall into a mean esteem or disregard of prayer The Psalmist after he had taken a survey of the present flourishing of the ungodly and suffering of the children of God doth in the conclusion of the Psalm Psa 73.28 notwithstanding resolve But it is good for me to draw near to God those cross Providences in relation to those two sorts of persons could not shake his good opinion of prayer Job Job 9.22 having asserted against hâ—s three friends that God dealeth in some Providences after a like manner with good and bad Eliphaz will needs argue from thence that he restrained prayer before God that he discouraged men from praying unto God Though we assent to Jobs Job 15.4 assertion or should experience it yet we must not admit of Eliphaz his inference from it far be it that we should say So it is therefore let us no longer make any reckoning of prayer either to practise it or hope for good by it This is a carnal and wretched deduction If there be a medicinal receipt that is known to be of a soveraign vertue a man will not contemn or cast it away because it may miss a cure once in a thousand times usage or because it healeth not in the first application Mâ—n do not therefore neglect or lay aside sowing or Sea-voyages because there is ordinarily a long delay and sometimes there is a disappointment in the harvest or return of Merchandise expected thereby for though husbandmen wait for their crop or adventure yet at last they usually receive them and if a seeding or voyage miscarry that 's not one of many So neither should prayer be neglected or disused for the like events upon it And yet prayer cannot justly be equalled with those affairs in point of swerving The Seedsman using the best skill and industry imaginable his labour and hopes may miscarry The Adventurer employing the greatest providence and art in his voyage all may be lost But a servant of God putting up his prayer according to the Will of God that is conformably to the revealed Rule his prayer doth certainly speed some way or other at the last Again Honest men do not in their thoughts condemn or in their practise give over the use of the Law or Trading because Knaves sometimes by those means obtain as much or more by unrighteousness therein then the justest persons So neither ought we to take it either as a disparagement of or a discouragement from prayer that men or ways that are wicked succeed sometimes well in a course of prayer Two sorts of persons are in the Book of Iob noted to vilifie prayer the rich and wealthy worldling Iob 21.15 22.17 and the false hypocrite Iob 27.9 10. And wherefore do they so The former doth it because he hath happily attained his desires without he therefore now thinketh he needeth not to it The latter doth it because he hath taken it up for a time but he findeth not present help by it in his need Both these are as irrational in their reasoning as they are profane in their conclusion and practise Let it be far from us to be swayed by either of their principles Let neither the prosperous issue of evil desires make prayer seem frivolous to us nor the present frustration of our expectation by it cause us to conclude it bootless 3. Conâ—lude not of the justâ—fiableness or sinfulness of the divine approval or disapproval of a way or cause by the good or bad success of it or of the prayers that attend it Say not the course of these men is pleasing to God because the event thereof is pleasing to the men thâ—mselues Say not their cause God disalloweth because he disappeareth to it It is great folly to condemn a way for its swerving in success which if it had stood would have gone for good with us and while it went on it stood clear in our censures It is a