you that profess your selves to be Saints that you would make To repair to this refuge towards this refuge or this garison here in all your troubles I am ashamed and troubled and have been truly many yeers to see Saints and godly people when troubles come on them to spend their wits and beat their brains in finding refuge in outward things O if I were here or there in such a Town in such an Iland in such a Country in such a place I should have it Beloved our song should be Salvation God will appoint us for walls and bulwarks Our way is when all the Kingdoms of the world are shaken to seek to get into that Kingdom that shakes not That is let England and all the world shake I care not so I have the Spirit of Christ the comforter to bring peace to my soul that may set up a garison there that nothing may assault and trouble me Then let all the world let heaven and earth shake I am sure I am safe this is the way It is a common saying of many particular persons Let a man not seek himself any where without in the opinion of men So let not Saints seek refuge and shelter and salvation in outward helps but if they should see the Kingdom of England which God forbid involved in more miseries and troubles and desolations c. Lay this down alway by thee there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken England and Scotland and Ireland are shaken but there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Such a garison is besieged such a Town is in danger such a place is stormed but there is a garison that the Lord hath put into the hearts of his Saints that cannot be stormed or assaulted Therefore ply the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the New Testament by his holy comforter that he would garison thy soul and put peace there And then what shall be the issue I will tell thee that thou with a holy joy and complacency and delight of Spirit when thou seest the very pillars of heaven shaken as it were shalt sollace thy self in thy own garison and walk in the streets of it and be safe thou shalt triumph over all storms and troubles and all that is here Not because that a Saint is able to encounter those things that are here For a Saint is not able to answer if you ask what he conceives will be the end of these things he cannot answer these things but onely he retreats to the middle Region as a bird he flies above sublunary things he can say I cannot tell what shall become of England or Scotland or Ireland but I am sure I know a back door that leads into a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to go into the middle Region where no storms of the Air shall trouble me and there I can rest my spirit I alway for my part with submission to the wise apprehend it as a thing too carnal and too low for Saints to think to finde a resting place in this world any place is heaven in such an Iland in such a Plantation and such a place let it be what it will But a Saint that hath this garison in his heart and minde he is at peace This garison David had when his enemies compassed him and he had no walls when there were 10000 about him he lay and slept For thou Lord sustainedst me saith he The salvation of God was walls and bulwarks about him If this peace of God be above understanding how can it be otherwise then be above expression We can therefore give but a hint of it but such a thing there is The Saints walk in a green meadow by the rivers of waters Psal 23. in the spring all the day and all the night long in beholding the love of God and the Covenant of God made in Iesus Christ the full forgivenesse of all their sins the everlasting union between them and Christ and through Christ between them and God and beholding the Spirit in its working within them and beholding the glory that shall be revealed at the last day the Crown that Christ shall bring with him they walk safely and sweetly and securely though all the Kingdoms of the world and the pillars of heaven be shaken As the heathen said If the world break about his ears he would undergo it without trouble Not because he can answer these things but withdrawing himself to his place from them I cannot tell whether the Kingdom shall stand but I can go to the middle Region to Iesus Christ where there is no storme Learn that and lay aside your great projects like the men of the world of building Castles in the air for Garisons but labour to get into this Garison Salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in This is a speech just alluding to a Garison they use there to open the gates and to shut them and when any body comes they bid them stand and ask them who they are for What are they One saith he is a friend and then they bid open the gates and let him come in if not to shut the gates against him Open ye the gates saith the Lord But none must come in but a friend but who is this friend It is The righteous Nation which keep the truth they shall enter in The word in the Originall it is Truth not Truth not one or two or three or four truths but the righteous Who have a right to Gods protection Nation that keepeth the truths let them enter in That is the word if you will passe this Court of Guard he that shall come into this Garison is he that keepeth truth with a good conscience notwithstanding all the troubles that befall him in this world he shall enter into this Garison Therefore I beseech you look to your selves Truly it is unconceiveable and unutterable what the joy the comfort the worth of that Garison is where it is set up in the soul yet there are no hypocrites no partiall obeyers of Iesus Christ and his laws that shall enter into it Therefore if I speak Hebrew or Greek as it were to you that you understand not what I mean by this Garison look to your selves it may be you have not the word and therefore you cannot get in It may be you walk not uprightly you are not of the upright Nation and people you keep not the truths It may be you pick one truth here and another there that pleaseth you that suits with your reason or your lusts and corruptions or with the stream of the world you honor and respect that and for the rest of the truth let you neighbours take it if they will you will none of it if it bring shame and persecution and reproch That is the reason when troubles come you are at your wits end you know not where to go because
you have not the word you keep not the truth of God The righteous Nation that keep the truth let them come in shut the rest out of doors 2 Pet. 2. there are a people that are cleansed from their sins by the knowledge of Iesus Christ and yet after turn from the holy commandment Beloved there are common generall commandments as I may speak and holy precise commandmens Religion in every age hath something in it that is feasable to carnall men and in every age it hath some nicities and preciseness in it there is somewhat superfluous in the eye of the world in every age from the beginning Now it may be it is ordinary with thee to look to truths that the world acknowledgeth to deal honestly in thy shop for the most part to come to Church and repeat a little of the word or the like these things the world commends thou observest fast dayes or thanksgiving dayes or the like But there are other truths that are more precise and spirituall that worldly men do not apprehend and these thou leavest as nicities And that is the reason many times when thou apprehendest miseries coming upon thy family or thy self or the Kingdom thou art at thy wits end and knowest not where to go God shuts the gate against thee thou hast not the word thou art not a man or woman that hath kept all the truths of God Therefore will you now labour to be a righteous Nation to be upright It is a word that hath ran much in my minde saith God to Abraham I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright I did not think there had been so much crookedness in the world as now I see The world is like the word Isa 7. young Saplings as the wind goes this way they go this way and when the wind goeth the other way they go the the other way It grieveth my soul to see how unupright people are even professors what a deal of daubing calling darkness light and good evil that think one thing and speak another and go against their conscience it cuts my soul unexpressibly Therefore it is just with God to leave those daubing people they go with the stronger side and say as the world saith and do as the world doth though it be contrary to their understanding and conscience be sure they shall never be admitted to passe the Court of guard to come to this Garison And for their comfort those that come not to this Court or Garison in this world they shall never come to that in the world to come if they come not into this little Court of guard they shall never come to the great one It is a miserable thing for a man to be left without the works a carnall man is left without the works and sin and the devill and men may come and undo him Therefore labour to be upright It is a principle in Religion that Christians should observe and a principle that is a generall grand rule to call things as they are to call a Spade a Spade but men they call evill good and good evill and frame their discourses according to the world they speak according to the world though it be quite contrary to their understanding and in spight of conscience I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright What is that Do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If thou will be my servant thou must neither be driven with fear or drawn with favour a hairs breadth out of my Commandments This is uprightnesse lay all the preferments and honors in the world on the one side you shall neither draw them an ace from the truth of Christ and lay all the terrors on the other side you shall not drive them an ace Why so Because God is alsufficient there is the reason as the holy man Doctor Preston hath at large well shewed Why should I be upright Because God is an alsufficient God What is that Men naturally bargaine for gain it is a principle and God expects not that it should be otherwise if any man offer me any thing to turn aside the breadth of a haire out of Gods wayes honour or preferment or the like more then God will give I had reason to turn aside and God would not be angry but I am alsufficient keep in my wayes I will give thee more honour and wealth and riches and preferment then all the world can On the other side could any creature do us more hurt then God we had reason to fear that creature but God is the best friend and the worst foe he can destroy body and soul as Christ saith therefore walk before me and be perfect There is a sweet place in Eccles 3. 14. I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it and God doth it that men might fear before him I know that what God doth shall be for ever nothing can be added to it or taken from it that is if God have a design to make you happy all the world shall not take a dram of that happinesse from you and if God have a designe to make you miserable all the world shall not take one jot of that misery from you That men might feare before him That is before him onely for if the creature could do me any measure of good or hurt it were but reason that I should fear the creature and God too but whatsoever God doth is for ever nothing can be put to it or taken from it that men might feare before him All the world cannot do me a farthing worth of good or harme God onely can and he is alsufficient therefore let us be upright before him These are the two words I would have you remember Pray the Lord to stablish your hearts in his love in his Garison that you may be able to triumph over the world That you may be able to say Though all the Kingdoms in the world be shaken yet I am in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken And when you walk in the streets and see such factions of men and there is not a man of a thousand but he temporizeth and wil say this week as the world saith and the next week another way Do not do so walk wisely and speak what you should and as you should but call not good evil and evil good but walk uprightly before the Lord approve of that which is good in the eyes of the Lord Walk in the truthes of God and then God in distresse will bid open the gates there is a man was upright in all the changes of the world he called not good evil nor evil good Open the gates that the upright Nation may come in Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 27. 1 2 3 4 c. In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even
many I will give you but one more that is in the book of Ruth you shall have there a good woman that had two daughters in law her sons were both dead and so she was going to return to her country she was in a strange country with them and she takes her leave of her two daughters Chap. 2. 8. Naomi said to her two daughters in law Go return each to her mothers house the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me that is they had been kind to her sons and to her for they lived in a strange country now Farwell The Lord grant that you may finde rest each of you in the house of her husband Then she kissed them c. And they said surely we will return with thee to thy people we will go along we will not leave thee No daughters saith she do not so for I cannot bear other children for you to marry as the law was then If I should lie to night with an husband and have children you would not stay so long therefore I pray abide and go not And it is said Orpah kissed her mother in law and lift up her voice and wept and left her but Ruth clave unto her Orpah was perswaded and wept and took her leave but Ruth clave to her and said Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whether thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God Where thou dyest will I die and there will I be buried the Lord do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me So I say you see here that when there was a competition a kind of parting then Ruth abiding with Naomi that is called cleaving It is a glorious thing that when the seeming servants The honour of cleaving to Christ of Iesus Christ shall depart from him when there is a division among professors then to be able to cleave to Iesus Christ That you may understand it conceive that in the wayes of Iesus Christ many times there are such times that abundance of hypocrites as well as Saints abide with him they are sometimes still like the waters of Shilo there is no persecution or trouble in them it may be there is a great deal of honour and wealth and riches with them and many times a great party of the world sticks to him but there is a little tripp and step in the ways of godlines when there is a parting when hypocrites like Orpah shall weep and repent and so shall go with Christ no longer if they do one shall loose his friends another his trade another his wife and shall lift up their voices and weep and take their leaves then is the beautie of Christianity and the blessednesse of a Christian to be able to cleave to the Lord in such a time as this is This was the exhortation of the good man Barnabas that he gave to the people as you shall read Acts 11. 22 23. When he was come and had seen the grace of God he was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. I have oft marvailed with my self why Barnabas that is said to be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost coming as a stranger to a congregation of good people where he saw the grace of God among them why he should choose this and no more but onely pitch upon this exhortation that seeing they were godly and had received the grace of God he should say I have no more to say but this one word understand it well that is that with full purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord. Indeed the reason was as I conceive if you compare it with Chap. 14. 22. Barnabas was a man to whom God had discovered much of the doctrine of Tribulation and persecution that belonged to the Gospell For take notice of it by the bye I look on the people of God liâ—e the servants of God that did go to build the Temple some were appointed to hew stone some to digge them up and some to carry them home some to build them up some to cast accounts and to keep reckoning So the Lord Iesus in his Kingdom no man knows the reason why he cuts out distinct parcells of work to his people and thereupon supplies them with his spirit and reveales truthes to his people some to manage such a thing no man knows the reason God fastens the doctrine of justification upon some that they cannot rest night nor day and one that may be unwilling to die for another point but not for that Another about Church-government Another upon sanctification none knowes why but God fits them for their work by his Spirit according to his blessed will Therefore we should not censure or sleight godly men because our master doth not imploy them about such a work as he doth us It may be my thoughts are upon sanctification anothers upon justification So God cuts out the work as it pleaseth him Now this Barnabas it seemes did not speak much as we read of but he had a mighty apprehension of persecutions and tribulations that the Saints should suffer in this world Therefore in Acts 14. 22. he and Paul confirm the souls of the Disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God In every Sermon as we may say Barnabas had something to strengthen the souls of the people to go thorow tribulation and affliction It may be another Apostle had his Spirit upon another work It may be in reference to this he gave them this exhortation desiring them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord As if he had said Now you are in prosperity for so they were and are all ready to hear the Gospell and receive it O saith he but there is a time a coming to trie you and you must not think to run to heaven between two feather-beds but as all the Saints before had their share so every one that will live in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution As there is a Statute in heaven for all men once to die so if you be Saints you must live in tribulation and persecution and that is the way as Christ was made perfect by sufferings so you must come to salvation Therefore when those things come I have not much to say to you but O then remember to cleave to the Lord for then you shall see hypocrites in droves going away from Iesus Christ and leaving him one stumbling at this another at that one is offended at the Crosse that it takes away his credit another for his profit another his liberty another his trading but brethren I beseech you with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. See how a company in Iohn 6. with one word
Christ whereas he usually means Iesus Christ as I could fully cleare it if I had time Let me give you one instance In the last verse of the former Psalm Arise O God judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations That is clearly meant of Christ for we know that God inherits all Nations he made the world and he had the command and possession of it but to God in Iesus Christ there is a time when God hath promised that he shall inherit the nations from the uttermost ends of the earth And therefore here by God is meant Iesus Christ For indeed ordinarily and naturally you shall not finde a people conspiring against God properly you shall see no wicked man but in some sort or other he will speak honourably of God but God in Christ God in the mediator God in the Gospell God in his Saints God in Gospell ordinances and the like hence are all the tumults in the world and all the conspiracies against God and his Saints Therefore if you compare this place Thine enemies make a tumult against thee with Psal 2. Why do the heathen rage Or why do they make a tumult as some read it and why do the people imagine a vaine thing the Kings of the earth take counsell against the Lord and against his anointed That is meerly meant of Iesus Christ So take notice of that that carnall men ordinarily do not speak or think evil of God absolutely considered but the worst of men speak well of him when he gives them wealth they thank him when he gives them faire weather they blesse him when he gives them peace and preserves them in their journeys and wayes every one speaks well of God but God in Iesus Christ God manifest in the flesh God in the mediator God in his Saints God in his ordinances God in his commands and the like then the men of the world use to make tumults then they take crafty counsell together and conspire against the Lord and against his apointed Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace be not still You see the prophet looks upon God as one that in the midst of these conspiracies did keep silence and hold his peace and sit still Not that God doth use to speak or to stir properly as we men do but the meaning is this that many times when his son Iesus Christ and his laws and his ordinances are most conspired against God as it were doth keep silence I meane Iesus Christ God in Christ when his people and ordinances are conspired against he keeps silence and sits still as though he would let his enemies do what they would and what they list as though God did not see or heed which end did go forward The Lord oft doth this Keep not silent O God I remember that place in Isaiah 40. 27. Why sayest thou O Iacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God The meaning of it is this that when the enemies of God as we see Chap. 39. did oppresse this people they did pray to him and looked for assistance from him but he was silent as it were or asleep therefore they begin to say in their heart My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God that is Surely it is impossible that God should eye and see my wayes and how men deal with me while I am believing and waiting and praying and humbling my soul no my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God that is my God hath forgotten to give ear to me Beloved there is a time when the Lord as it were gives cause to his people so to think that he is as it were asleep and lets their enemies go on and none contradict them I was thinking out of scripture that there are three Reasons 3. Reasons of Gods silence in the danger of the Saints 1. To try their faith why the Lord keeps silence when his people are in danger and sits still when there is most need to give help and assistance One is the Lord doth it to trie their faith as we see clearly Matthew 8. 23. where it is said that our Lord Christ was asleep There arose a great tempest insomuch as the ship was covered with waves but he was asleep and his disciples came and awaked him saying Lord save us we perish We read more fully in Mark 4. Luk. 8. he left them when the ship was covered with waves and they were rowing for their lives their Lord was asleep the while and he said to them Why are ye fearfull O ye of little faith Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm Truly the Lord will not suffer his people to be overwhelmed that is certain but he will suffer them to come very near that the waves cover them and fear and horrour shall cover their souls and all to try their faith For faith is the evidence of things not seen take it in all senses take faith for the soul or faith for the body and we live not here by sense but by faith and as the Apostle saith of hope so we may say of faith If we see why do we yet hope If we did see God present striking of wicked men when they consult against his children this were sense men would see that it were better to stick to God then otherwise and there would be a world of hypocrites as Doct. Preston saith for every man would be a professor But God seems to sleep sometimes and keeps silence and leaves his people as he did this poor fishing boat here to see if when they see nothing they will keep faith to him I do find another reason in Isaiah 59 and that is the 2. To try their uprightness Lord doth keep silence in the midst of the troubles of his people as to trie mens faith so to trie mens uprightnesse who will stick to God as to see who will stick to God by faith so who will stick to his cause or his people out of uprightnesse of heart For if God should alwayes appear for his cause God and his cause should have many favourites and friends but sometimes God leaves his cause and leaves his people and leaves his Gospell and his ordinances to the wide world to see who will plead for it and stick to it As you see in that place of Isaiah Transgressions are multiplied saith the prophet in transgressing and lying against the Lord departing from our God and uttering words of falshood judgement is turned back and justice standeth afar off truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey And the Lord saw it God was as it were asleep but he looked through the lattice the Lord beheld it and he saw that there was no man
and he wondred that there was no intercessor That is God suffered all this truth to faile and Justice to fall back and every thing to go to wrack and ruine God would see if any man would intercede any man among our Magistrates or Ministers or Citizens if any man would plead for God and for his people and for his truth but he saw none and wondered Truly God wonders and men may wonder to see what abundance of people follow God and good lives in the time of prosperity and when adversity comes and wicked men and al the powers of hell conspire against godlinesse to see how few shew themselves for God God wonders at it Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousnesse it sustained him he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing and was clad with Zeale as a cloak The Lord comes and Arms himself just as valiant souldiers in the wars when a party is gone forth they stand to see what they do how they come off but if there be none that will stick to it but run away they buckle on their armour So the Lord stands to see where is the man that will stick to it in these cases and if there be any God rejoyceth in it if there be none God himself comes in Therefore be sure of this when the Lord suffers his Son or any thing that belongs to him to come to these low conditions when truth failes in the street and equity is perverted it is not that God means to suffer the wicked to have their wills for God hath sworn that Christ shall reign but to trie us a little space whether we will couragiously stick to God and his cause or basely for fear of men comply with the world 3. For the compendious destrution of the it enemies There is a third reason God as it were keeps silence and holds his peace in the middst of the greatest troubles to this end that God may as it were gather the wicked into one fagot into one bundle that they may be destroyed together There is a great deal of ado to gather the Saints in this world and truly there is some ado togather the wicked So God withdraws himself from his people yet he hath a hook in their hearts he holds them up secretly by his Spirit that they shall not leave him yet the world shall not see but that God hath quite left them and all their Ordinances and his Gospell and every thing and then the wicked come together and insult whereby God may come upon them at once and destroy them as we finde ten Nations in this Psalm And so in Genesis God stirs up the Nations against Abraham and his posterity and there are ten Nations that God promiseth to cut off before Abraham at once the Perrezites and the Iebusites and the Canaanites c. So God heaps them together and burns them like stubble Those that burn stubble have rakes and they gather it to heaps and then they fire it This is the way of Gods keeping silence among his people and sitting still in the midst of their miseries thus God gathers their enemies on heaps as stubble that he may burn them together Therefore from this that I have said I have three words to say to you and to my own soul Vse 1 The first of all is that if the Lord should take any such course in our dayes that you would learn hence to awake God to call upon his Name to be earnest with him Truly there are a generation of people now I leave them to the Lord to judge them as I shall alway for we have all one master but there is a people that throw away the ordinance of prayer and they professe to live immediately upon God without ordinances without prayer and without all the rest I do not know what their perfections may be therefore I cannot judge but this I know as far as ever I had experience that the chiefest way of communion with God is spirituall prayer Build up one another on your holy faith and Pray in the Holy Ghost saith Iude. And therefore though you be ancient Christians and grow spirituall and see a great deal of formality in your prayers as some pray so many times a day and that out of forme not that they should not pray so oft in a day that is well take heed that out of any pretence you be not remiss for truly it is the readiest way to heaven and to attaine happiness and the clearest conduite to bring grace to the soul and the love of God and the shining of his face that I have yet known I yet know no better therefore take heed of the temptations of Satan that you do not upon any pretence either throw away prayer or be remisse in it Vse 2 Secondly if the Lord should leave his Church and people as we know not what he will do it may be God is going to take a napp let me warne you from the Lord and his word for that is the excellencie of the word by it thy servant is forewarned take heed of distrust and unbelief and impatience towards God God doth take a napp sometimes it is for his glory and for your good but yet cleave to him say as it is here in the Psalm O Lord who is like unto thee Do not think that the Lord will leave his people for God hath you know made a Covenant with his Son that he shall inherit all nations he shall subdue all his enemies under his feet All the enemies hitherto that have risen against his Church God hath subdued them and either our Gospell is vaine and our preaching vaine and our faith vaine and all vaine or else God will exalt his Son and his people and Saints and ordinances maugre all enemies though ten Nations as it is in this Psalm fight against them nay though ten thousand if there were so many in the world God will awake and subdue them and if there be no man in the world that will plead their cause God will do it Therefore live by faith and not by sense take heed of living by sense there is nothing that more poysons and imbitters our hearts and spirits and lives then the beholding of things by sense that as one good man speaks I wish saith he sometimes that I were quite bereft of reason that I might exercise faith We are used to sense and such a man doth this and this and here is conspiring in this and that place and all to overthrow Christ and the power of the Gospell What of all this Look by faith what God hath said and Covenanted and promised and keep up your spirits by faith Vse 3 Then lastly I would admonish all in the bowels of Iesus Christ to take heed of betraying Gods cause or people or your own salvation by your fleshlinesse I
of the Lord hath spoken it Then they shall be quiet there shall not be such persecuting in the world For all people will walk every 〈◊〉 in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for evermore That is the reason why I think it is meant of wars about Religion because it is said all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of our God also That is people shall not be forced to worship this or that God or this way or that way with sword and spear but they shall all sit under their own vines that shall be the fruit of that abundance of teaching that there will be every Nation will walk in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever Not beloved but that the Lord Iesus hath left and doth still continue to the end of the world a way of spirituall censure and punishments for people that sin against him It is not meant that people in the last times shall go where they will and do what they list no we have ordinances in the Church given by Christ for the correction of those that walk inordinately we are to deliver our selves from them and to deliver them up to Satan But in respect of the main course that the world hath been in and is to this day they shall not then be under censures for those nifles and trifles as hitherto the way hath been by fire and fagot and sword but saith the Holy Ghost it shall not be so then every one shall walk in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for evermore Then here is another mercie In that day saith the Lord will I assemble her that halteth and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted and I will make her that halted a remnant and her that was cast afar off a strong Nation and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even for ever That is we may know the worth of mercies by the presence of miseries we see now some halting some runing into errours and blasphemies and we know not what to do but then the Lord will make them that halt a remnant the Lord will gather the people that halt and go aside and he will settle and confirm them in the truth These are the thoughts of the Lord and the counsells of God concerning the last dayes Therefore we are the while to wait patiently for the Lord and to pray earnestly that God would make good his promise to us and not to loose our selves as we are apt to see the disorders and confusions of Churches and Common-wealths in these days But as people that are in a storm we should look when the cloud will be over that the Lord will give fairer weather and remove all these things when the last and blessed and best dayes shall come And this is the chief thing that the prophet here aimes at Expositions and Observations on HABAKKUK 2. 4. But the just shall live by his faith I Will not stand now to shew you what a just man is Only in a word take notice that the just man here meant is not a man that is just in his own sight or in his own personall righteousnesse or just in the esteeme of the world though men be so called and not improperly he is a just man that deales justly but the just man in the Gospell language is a man that though he be not greatly esteemed in the world and though he hath many things that make him seem less just then many morall men that seem just yet according to the law of God he is just we are to declare him so the Gospell declares him just because God hath received a righteousness whereby he calls him just he calls him just because Iesus Christ is The just man lives by faith four wayes 1. In respect of justification made righteousness to him Now the just man lives by his faith four wayes He lives by faith first in respect of justification there is a light that the Saints have that whereas as sinners they were dead before in trespasses and sins they now see themselves acquitted of all their debts they see Gods justice satisfied and his law fulfilled and they see themselves just men whereas they were dead in law before now in law or in Gospell as it were they are alive again For so it is that every man and woman among us though he be never so honest or civill or faithfull in holy duties c. yet if he be not justified by the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ he is a dead man in the language of God and according to the law of God Just as a man at the barr that is condemned to die he is a dead man in law though the sentence as Solomon saith be sometimes delayed and put off and not executed he may be reprived a little from one yeer to another but he is a dead man that is he is an unjustified man so if God hath not given thee the righteousnesse of Christ and a heart to lay hold of that be what thou wilt in thy self and do what thou canst of thy self yet thou art a dead man and those that lay hold of that righteousnesse are living men This life is much spoken of Rom. 5. how we are dead by the first Adam and alive by the second Adam that life is our justification vers 17. By one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ There is secondly a life of sanctification Ephes 4. they were strangers from the life of God that is the life 2. In respect of sanctification of holinesse and their hearts were heardned and carried away with lasciviousnesse c. Thus a man comes to live by faith for all that thou dost though thou account it holinesse and the world may account thee a holy man yet if every graine of thy grace and holinesse do not come from Christ by the power of faith thou art but a dead man and all thy works are but dead works Then thirdly the Saints live by faith that is the life 3. Faith is their assurance of assurance as I may so call it the Saints they hold their assurance of the former by the power of faith not by sense for a while at least they know they are Saints how do they know it by faith they know they are justified how do they know it By Faith True it is when God gives them the knowledge of sense they must not shut their eyes one day that they have it but our eyes are so dim that we are ready to mistake so that the maine course of a mans life is by faith from
but now London must there my wrath shall be poured out The Lord grant that it may not be so but I greatly fear it Secondly The Lord brings them to imprisonment the Lord took them prisoners Verse 11. The husband with the wife shall be taken the aged with him that is full of days And then comes their plunder Their houses shall be turned to others with their fields and wives together For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this Land saith the Lord. O if the Lord should say This is the City to be visited and make war against it and then take you prisoners take the aged men the Aldermen Common Councellers and all prisoners and then plunder all and say their fields and their wives shall be turned to others That were sore that you should not onely lose your goods but your fields that your houses and trades and shops should be taken away and your very wives Thus the Lord did with others I will not say that he will do so with you Now there were stumbling blocks in Ierusalem before it was destroyed so there are in this City it is filled with stumbling blocks every little difference in opinion is a stumbling block that some men become Atheists because every Saint doth not agree one with another And then there is the fear and horror that did fore-run this misery Verse 24. But in a word the course that the Lord would have them take and that therefore I shall speak of that you may beseech the Lord that this poor City may prevent those evils One thing is the Lord would have them seriously and sincerely humble themselves before him to acknowledg their sins and bewail them Verse 26. Saith the Lord O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an onely son Not a formal day of fasting and humiliation for that is almost become all form but really humble thy soul and call upon the Lord that the Lord would be pleased to turn away his wrath Then the second thing laid down is That we should hearken to instruction Be thou instructed O Jerusalem least my soul depart from thee be ready to hear the Word of the Lord be ready to hearken what Gods will is how he may be glorified and we preserved Then thirdly here is a word that I exceedingly desired to open but I must but name it Verse 16. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls saith the Lord. This is the way to save you Stand in the wayes ask for the old way What is the meaning of the old way That is Iesus Christ That was the old way of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Iesus Christ and the way of righteousness and holiness and truth He alludes as I take it to the Patriarchs for that is called the old world and the old way Saith he Ye are not like your fathers heretofore Abraham he was not covetous and full of oppression they were willing to hear that which was for their good and they were not the worse for their afflictions Look to the old way and labor to get such a Spirit as the Saints had heretofore that were in Iesus Christ What of all this notwithstanding this counsel that the Lord had given them what if they will not turn to him what if they will not amend Then there is a terrible word that we read of in Verse 8. Lest my soul depart from thee It is not sin onely that makes Gods soul depart from a people nor their hardness nor wickedness but when they refuse all means and helps then his soul departs from them Therefore Be instructed saith he lest my soul depart or lest my soul be disjoynted as it is in the Margin What is the meaning of that It is a terrible word we have that word expounded in Ierem. 15. 1 2. See what it is for to have Gods soul to go from a people I beleeve that Gods soul is not gone from us if we will hearken to him and do not give our selves up to wrath and rage against Gods people Then said the Lord to me Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my minde or my soul could not be towards this people There is before the ferventest blessed prayer for this people that I know in the Book of God Ieremy prayes And now their destruction was coming saith the Lord Though Moses and Samuel should come before me my heart could not be on them I have put them out of my heart my minde and soul is gone from them I will never be troubled more with them What follows Cast them out of my sight let them go forth And if they say Whether shall we forth Then thou shalt tell them such as are for death to death such as are for the sword to the sword such as are for the famine to famine and such as are for captivity to captivity Let them go whether they will some of them will be hanged some killed some to the sword some starved they can come to no good because they are gone out of my sight My heart and soul is from them that is the last gasp that is hell above ground Therefore the sum of all is That we hearken to God for these things were not written for Ierusalem onely but for our instruction God hath laid down their sin and wickedness and their oppression and the blessed remedy that they should have taken and if we take it not but go on in our wickedness we see what we may expect That when that shall come on us which God if it be his will forbid you may remember that you were told before I have one thing in my sad and serious thoughts to comfort me that this shall not befal this City and that is this That the Lord delt with them according to the administration of the Old Testament and so went by Cities and Nations but now every man and every person that calls upon God is respected in every Nation and City whatsoever But this comes in and cools it wonderfully and puts me to a non-plus If we in this City did go according to the administration of the New Testament I am perswaded that the Lord would not send desolation upon the City but because we would go according to that old administration we have chosen it and said so and do so Now as they chose that administration to deal with God he chose that to deal with them for the Lord will deal frowardly with the froward the Lord will deal with men according to their own law Those that sin against the Law of Nature shall be punished so those that sin against the Law of Moses shall be punished so those that go according to the administration of grace shall be delt with accordingly Now we are going according to the old administration