weeke the first of Sabbaths so the words 5. This Sabbath is called an everlasting Covenant by way of eminency as if nothing of Gods Covenant were kept if this were not Exod. 31. 16. Ye shall keepe the Sabbath for a perpetuall Covenant Yea 6. God puts a remembrance upon this day and not upon any other sabbath If a friend who would faine converse with you send to you three or four dayes or a wecke beforehand I pray think of that day I will come to you then and converse with you wee will enjoy communion together now if when he doth come he shall finde you emplyed in unnecessary businesses will he take it well God doth so with you saith God I desire to converse with your soules and I appoint you such a day think of it remember that day that you and I may be together and converse sweetly one with another if God finde you then occupied in unnecessary businesses he will not take it well This Sabbath the Jewes rejoyced much in and blessed God for it Nehem. 9. 14. as a great mercy And Philo Iudaeus speaking of the fourth Commandement saith It is a famous precept and profitable to excite all kinde of vertue and piety And the Hebrews say we must sanctifie the Sabbath at the comming in and going out and blesse God that hath given us this Sabbath Yea it is called by some of the Hebrews the very desire of dayes And Drusius telleth of a Jew who when the Sabbath dâ—y approached was wontto put on his best cloathes saying Come my Spouse c. as being glad of tharday as a Bride-groome of his Spouse It is not my worke to handle the point of the Sabbath-day or Lords-day now but to open it as we have it here in the Text to shew what kinde of Sabbath the Jews had onely observe this one thing about this Sabbath If you compare Numb 28. 9. with Ezek. 46. 4. you shall finde that the offerings in the time of the Gospel prophesied of were more then those were in the time of the Law In Numb you finde but two Lambes but in Ezekiel you finde six Lambs and a Ram for the Sabbath This by way of type shewes that in the setled times of the Gospell Gods worship upon the Christian Sabbath should be solemnized more fully then it was in the time of the Law The next is the Sabbath of yeeres and they were of two sorts There was one to be kept every seven yeeres and another every seven times seven every fiftieth yeere Every seventh yeer there was a rest of the land as every seventh day there was a rest of the labour of their bodies so every seventh yeere there was a rest of the land Exod. 23 10. Six yeeres thou shalt sow thy land and gather in the fruits thereof but in the seventh yeere thou shalt let it rest analye still rhey must not prune their Vines nor gather their vintage one yeere in seven The Sabbath of dayes signified that they themselves were the Lords therefore they ceast from their own labours But the Sabbath of yeeres the resting of the land signified that the land was the Lords at Gods dispose and that they were to depend upon the providence of God for their food in the land God would dispose of the land when they should plow and when they should sow and gather in the fruits thereof as he pleased We must acknowledge that is the morall of it to our selves that all lands are the Lords the fruit that we enjoy from the land it is at his disposing If any man should aske what should we eate that seventh yeere seeing they might not plow nor sow nor reape neither have vintage nor harvest The Lord answers them Levit. 25. 20. 21. I will command my blessing upon thee in the sixth yeere and it shall bring forth fruit for three yeeres God you see will not have any to be losers by his service Let us trust God then though perhaps you have now one yeer in which you have no trading People cry out Oh this twelve-month we have had no trading in the City we can get no rent out of the Country neither Do not murmure trust God It may be God hath beene beforehand with many of you you have had full trading formerly that may preserve you comfortably now If not before trust God for the next the Jews were faine to trust God every seventh yeer they had nothing comming in for one yeere in seven If once in all your life time God take away your trading upon extraordinary occasion do not murmure do not give lesse to the poore now I speak to those whom God hath blessed in former yeers so as that they are not only able to subsist but to give too See for this Deut 5. 9. Beware thou sayest not in thine heart the seventh yeere is at hand and thine eye be evill against thy poor brother and thou givest him â—ought and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be sinne unto thee If now because you have not such a full Income as you were wont to have in your trading if a company of poore distressed plundered people come among you and desire your helpe if you deny to relieve them if they cry unto God against you it will be sin unto you Now this rest of the land was to put them in minde that there was a time comming when God will free them from labour Now they were faine to eate their bread in the sweat of their browes but God would supply them once in seven yeeres without the sweat of their browes in â—illing the land shewing that there was a time where in God would bring his people to such a rest that they should have full supply of all things without labour But further besides this there was a second thing in this seventh yeere all debts that their brethren owed to them were to be released Deut. 7. 15. it is called there the Lords release the Lord is mercifull to those that are in debt God knowes what a grievous burthen it is for his people to bee in debt it is indeed an inconceivable burthen rich men who are full-handed do not understand what a burthen it is for men to hang upon every bush to be in debt to every man they deale with they cannot sleep quietly they can have but a little joy and comfort in their lives the burthen is so grievous Now God in mercy to his people that they might not all their dayes goe under such a burthen and so have little joy of their lives therefore he granted this favour to them that once in seven yeeres their debts were to be released But it was the debt of an Hebrew Deut. 15. 30. Forraigners debts they were not bound to release By that wee are to learne this instruction that there should be more pity and commiseration shewen to those that are our brethren in the flesh or our brethren in
in that place of Ezek. there be speaking of new Moons other Feasts yet it is to set out the condition and blessed estate of the times of the Gospel under those shadows types the Prophet speaking according to the Jewish language in that way This being granted let us compare the institution of the Feast of the new Moon In Num. 28. with what is laid in Ezek. 46. in Num. 28. they were to offer for a burnt offering two Bulloks one Ramme seven Lambs but in Ezek. 46. 6 In the daies of the new Moon there should be but one bullock six lambs God himself had said that in their new Moons they should offer two Bullocks seven Lambs yet when the Prophet would set out a more glorious condition of the church he saith they should not offer so much as they did before they should offer but one Bullock and six Lambs What are we taught from this We are taught by this two excellent lessons which are the reason of the difference First that there is such a blessed estate of the Gospel coming that shall not be subject to such changes as hath been heretofore but a more setled condition of peace and rest so that they shall not have such occasion to blesse God for his providence in the changes of times as before they had Their solemnity of the new Moon that is of doing that spirituall thing that was done in a ceremonious way that was to give God the glory for the change of times now in the times of the Gospel they shall not have so many Sacrifices to make it such a solemn business as it was then Why because the Church shall be in another condition of more rest safety and more constancy in their wayes not hurried up and down by mens humors and lusts and wills as before Secondly that the state of the Gospel shall not be so subject to danger neither as it was before there shall not be that occasion to blesse God for bringing of light presently after darkness for that is one end of the Feast of the new Moon that when they could not see the Moone a great while and it was darke as if that creature had been lost out of Heaven now they see it againe they were to blesse God for it But in the time of the Gospel that is comming there shall be no such darknesse this time is not yet come we yet had need to have our seven lambs and two bullocks for we have much darkness those places in Ezek aime at some speciall time more then other there is a glorious time of the state of the Church when there shall not be such occasion of blessing God for delivering us from darknesse as there hath beene The Ninth Lecture HOSEA 2. 11. I will cause all her mirth to cease her feast dayes her new moones and her sabbaths and all her solemne feasts OF the Jewish new moons the last day God threatens likewise to take away her Sabbaths Sabbaths Plutarch thought that the Sabbath of the Jews was from Sabbos a name of Bacchus that signifies to live jocundly and bravely and merrily Indeed the Sabbaths that many keep have such a derivation their Sabbaths are sabbaths of Bacchus to be merry and to eate and drinke and play is the end of all their Sabbaths But the word hath a better root God would have us upon the Sabbath rest from all other works that we may be free to converse with him therefore it is so much the more inexcusable if when we have nothing else to doe we shall deny to converse with God as he requireth of us If a friend should come to your house to converse with you and he should know you have no businesse to take you up yet you will scarce see him or spend a little time with him will hee not take it ill If indeed you could have such an excuse that your businesse is extraordinary though your time be lesse you spend with him it would not be so ill taken but when he knows you have nothing to do and yet you deny time to converse with him will not this be taken for a slighting him Thus you deale with God Had you indeed great occasions and businesses to doe upon that day though you did not so converse with God in holy duties it were another matter God might accept of mercy rather then sacrifice But when hee shall appoint you a day to rest wherein you have nothing to doe but to converse with him yet then to deny it this is a sleighting of the Majesty of God Now the Jews had diverse Sabbaths amongst others these were principall ones The Sabbaths of dayes and the Sabbaths of yeers The Sabbath of dayes every seventh day they had a Sabbath and it was kept unto the Lord. Now this Feast of theirs had so me what in it Memorative somewhat Significative and somewhat Figurative It was a Memorial a Signe and a Figure A Memoriall of two things 1. Of the works of Gods Creation After God had finished his works of Creation then he rested and sanctified the seventh day and Psalm 92. being appointed for the Sabbath the Argument of it is the celebrating the Memoriall of Gods great works 2. Of the deliverance out of Egypt in remembrance of the rest that God did give them from their bondage So you have it Deut 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arme Therefore he commanded thee to keepe the Sabbath day Secondly it was Significative a Signe Exod 31. 17. It is a signe betweene me and the children of Israel for ever And verse 13. It is a signe betweeue me you that I an the Lord that doe sanctifie you God made it a signe that as this day was by his command to be sanctified set apart from other dayes so God had set apart this nation of the Jewes from other nations Thirdly It was Figurative it did figure out or typific the rest that did remaine for the people of God Heb. 4. There remaineth a rest to the people of God both here in the time of the Gospel and in heaven eternally Now we are to know there was some speciality in this day of rest in this sabbath of the Jews more then in any other sabbath As First in the Antiquity of it It was the most ancient of all the dayes set apart for an holy use being from the time of the Creation Secondly it was written with Gods owne finger in the Tables Thirdly God rained no Manna upon this day and that even before the Law was given in Mount Sinai for the honour of this day 4. The whole weeke doth take denomination from the Sabbath Luke 18. 12. I fast twice in the weeke twice a Sabbath so the words are in the Greek So Marke 16. 2. The first day of the
but now the holy Ghost is come in a full measure as hee then came upon the Disciples so he comes now in the time of the Gospel in a fuller way then formerly there is a continuall Pentecost But the works of God do not of themselves sanctifie any time except we take that note with us we may run into a thousand absurdities if we argue thus because the Iews had such a time vve may have such a time or because there vvere such blessings at that time therefore vve may sanctifie that day No the vvorks of God do not sanctifie any time of themselves it must be the Word some institution or other either the VVord vvritten or some immediate dictate of the Spirit that must sanctifie any day Certainly the vvork of our redemption it self is not enough to change the Sabbath if vve had not sâ— me footing for a nevv institution VVee usually give this ground for a change of the day because of the greatnesse of the worke but though the works of God be great though never so great it is not for us to sanctifie a day it must be an institution of God or else wee sinne in sanctifying any set and stated time for any such work for Christs resurrection or sending of the Spirit except there come an institution though the work be as great as any thing God ever did for the Iewes it will be but will-worship in us and God will not be put off with this What is not this as great a worke as that the Iewes had and may not we celebrate the memory of it as they did but God will say Who required these things at your hands Thus far you may do that is blesse God for those works all the dayes of your lives but to sanctifie any particular day for them certainly that cannot be done without sin we have our warrant for the Lords day as well as the greatnesse of the work because of the practise of the Apostles who were inspired by the holy Ghost The next is the feast of Trumpets onely one particular about it at this time because providence makes it so seasonable In the seventh moneth which was the first moneth of their Annus Civilis there were three feasts Festum Tubarum Expiationis Tabernaculorum The first was the feast of Trumpets now there was a three-fold use of Trumpets among the Iewes 1. For the calling of the congregation together as we use to doe with bells 2. The calling of them to warre 3. For the solemnizing of their feasts This feast of trumpets you have Numb 17. There are four ends given by Divines of the feast of Trumpets some I confesse are very improbable but there are two very probable The one is this feast was to celebrate the New-yeer with them as upon every new moneth that was called the feast of the new Moon to celebrate the beginning of the moneth so in the beginning of the yeare they had a feast to celebrate the beginning of the year that was this feast for it was on the first day of their civill yeare so that it is very probable that feast was appointed to blesse God for the new yeere as well as they had one to celebrate the new moneth It was Gods instiâ—ution for that time to have the New-year consecrated by that feast yet this can be no ground for us now to consecrate the beginning of every new yeer unto God that was Iewish and it is ceast if we will have any consecration of a new yeer it must be by vertue of some institution or other let who can shew the institution we must not thinke because it hath a shew of wisdome and it seemes to bee reasonable to us therefore it may be this is not enough in matter of worship you must strictly tye your selves to an institution in matters of worship in consecrating of times As it is Iewish so it is Heathenish the Heathens consecrated their new yeer to the honour of their god Ianus and we read in Concilium Antisiodorense in France in the yeer 614. it was the judgement of that Councell that it is not lawfull to observe the festivities of the Gentiles to keep their worship and observation of their Calends that is the beginning of their months to adorn houses with lawrel bayes for all these practises saith the Councell savour of paganisme And likewise an ancient writer saith that the Kalends of Ianuary are rather to be taken heed of then to be accounted Kalends and so to be sanctified And further hee saith the Church hath appointed a solemn feast to be upon that very day because oâ— the notorious abuses there were wont to be upon that day And Polydore Virgil saith that these solemnities of Lawrell and Bayes and masques and mummings and such vanities they all come from the Heathens Bachanalia and Saturnalia that were wont to be at that time of the year However therefore we put them upon Christ and think we honour him and call it the Circumcision day of Christ yet by those customes we dishonour him for they are rather Heathenish then Christian To doe it I say because we think to consecrate â—ine though there may be some naturall reason of rejoycing yet no ground for consecration Let no man object and say these solemnities have beene a long time in the Church It is true these are ancient but from whence comes the antiquity It comes from hence because Christians being newly converted out of Paganisme they would keepe as much as possibly they might of the Pagan customes only they would give them a turn turn them to Christian solemnities but the rise was from their Pagan customes therefore all the argument of antiquity either for these or Ceremonies or Prelaticall government it comes from this ground because their pagan customes were so and they lived among pagans and having been lately pagans they savored and smelt of Heathenisme still So now many plead that such things were in the first Reformation no marvail they retained them for they were but newly come out of popery and they savoured and smelt of popery Indeed to plead the antiquity of these things which men must shew when they are put to it is one of the greatest arguments against them Thus was they Feast of All-Saints turned from the Feast Pantheon and so the Feast of the Virgin Mary which they call Candlemas the Heathens had the festivity of their goddesse Febru who was the Mother of Mars upon that day from whence the name of our moneth February cometh they did then celebrate that time with Candles and such things as papists doe now This antiquity have you for celebrating of Candlemas The like may be said for the argument of antiquity for the Prelates O say some such a kind of government hath been ever since Christian Religion hath been in England Grant that there hath been some kind of Bishops ever since but from whence came they We find in Histories that when
that Wherefore when they were freed from these three things they sung and they had cause so to doe Secondly they sung when they came out of the land of Egypt because they were not only in bondage in Egypt but in bondage under such a King as they were For consider who it was they were in bondage unto and then to be delivered from such a one you will see a great deale of cause of singing First They were bondslaves to a King of another Nation Sometimes Country and kindred sake moves compassion but being they are another people to whom I have no relation but only to serve my own turn of them it is no matter what becomes of them let become of them what will I will have my will satisfied Secondly They were bondslaves to a King that ruled by an arbitrary government there was but only his will for the Law he would impose what work and taskes he pleased how many bricks they should make and when he pleased take away their straw and yet tye them to the making of so many He governed them not by Law but by Will Thirdly They were in bondage under a cruell King for the King of Egypt in the Scripture is called a Dragon for his cruelty Ezek. 23. 3. I am against thee Pharaoh King of Egypt the great Dragon Fourthly They were in bondage to a King that was an unnaturall King unnaturall in this that whereas the predecessors of the Israelites had saved Egypt from perishing saved the King and his family from destruction yet now without any regard to what was done in former times by their predecessors having this power over them he oppresses them in such an unnaturall way so as not to care what becomes of them Fiftly they were in bondage under a King that extreamly hated them that is a sad thing The text saith Gen 43. 32. The Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is abomination to to the Egyptians Sixtly They were in bondage under a wilfull King under one who was extreamly set upon his will we scarce read of any one that ever was so set upon his will as this King was therefore they expresse this in their song which they sung when they came out of Egypt Exod. 15. 9. blessing God that they were delivered from such a wilfull Prince as he was In the 9. ver four times he saith I will I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoile I will draw my sword and the 5. time my lust shall be satisfied upon them but of this before to be slaves to such a one so wilfull was a very hard condition the like wilfulnesse hath beene already noted of the King of Babylon and none the like to these two the Text speakes from their deliverance in part from under the King of Babylon also as if he should say you did sing when you came up out of Egypt merrily and joyfully because you were delivered from such a cruell wilfull King you shall sing so again for you shall be delivered again from as cruell and wilfull a King as he was for though not all the ten Tribes came back yet it was in part fulfilled by many of them Lastly They were in bondage under a suspicious and jealous King lest they should grow to a head and so rise against him one that thought he could not confide in them It is a sad thing when there are such suspitions between King and people or people and King that they cannot tell how to confide and trust one in another VVell might they sing therefore in the dayes of their youth when they came up out of the land of Egypt Thirdly They sang when they came up out of the land of Egypt because they were freed from what hindered them in the exercise of Religion Hence Moses told Pharaoh that they must goe three dayes journey in the wildernesse to sacrifice unto the Lord their God they could not sacrifie in Egypt therefore when they got freedome to sacrifice to God this being a great mercy they sang praises Fourthly They sang because their deliverance out of Egypt was wrought with a mighty hand The Lord hath triumphed gloriously hath been gloriously glorious so the words are And ver 6. 7. marke what the Text saith Thy right hand O Lord is become glorious in power The hand of God is God strength but the hand of God in power is a greater expression Thirdly Gods right hand in power Fourthly the right hand of God is glorious in power this is a mighty expression surely great was the work of God in their deliverance Yea and further ver 16. it is said by the greatnesse of his arme not onely Gods hand but his arme and the greatres of his arme was in this work And ver 7. In the greatnesse of thine excellency Mulititudine celsitudinis excellentiae superbiae elationis in the greatness of thine excellency in the multitude of thy height of thy elation of the lifting up of thy self in a kind of pride for the word that is translated excellency there signifies pride too Now God did this in the multitude of his excellency that is he did such a work toward his people as had a multitude of glorious works in it which if you could analyse anatomize you should find a multitude of glorious excellencies in it Well might they sing when God did manifest himself thus All these will afford us excellent and sweet observations by and by Further they sang when they came up out of the land of Egypt because this mercy was the fulfilling of a promise made long before Therefore the Scripture telleth us That at the end of 430. years even the selfe same day the hoasts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt which hath reference to a promise and sheweth us that God kept his word to a very day Hence in vers 2. of that 15. of Exod. He is my God I will prepare him an habitation my fathers God and I will exalt him As if hee should have said O Lord thou didst make promises to our forefathers now thou hast fulfilled those promises thou art our God and our Fathers God This made them sing so merrily 6. It was a mercy that was got by much prayer for Exo. 3. 7. it is said they cryed unto God by reason of their afflictions there were many cries sent up to God before their deliverance and now being delivered this made them sing 7. It was a mercy that came after a sore and long bondage Lastly It was a mercy that they had in order to that great mercy of leading them into Canaan therefore this they mention as the especiall cause of the joy of their hearts in the 13. vers Thou hast guided thy people in thy strength to thy holy habitation and ver 17. thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountaine of thine inheritance The holy Ghost speaks here as if the thing were done already
AN EXPOSITION Of the Prophesie of HOSEA Begun IN DIVERS LECTVRES Vpon the first three Chapters At MICHAELS Cornhill LONDON By JER BURROUGHES The Second Edition Newly corrected Inter omnia dona donum verbi Dei est amplissimum Si hoc auferas soleme mundo sustulisti Quid erit mundus sublato verbo quaminfernus Luther LONDON Printed for R. Dalwman in the Year 1652. TO THE READER YOu have these Lectures as they were taken from me in preaching Iperused the notes but I could not bring the style to that succinctnesse that I desired except I should have wrote all over again which I had no time to doe my perusall was but cursory therefore many things have slipt me You have them as I preached them without any considerable alteration I had thought to have been far briefer that which caused me to goe somewhat beyond an expository way was the meeting with so many things almost in every Lecture so neerly concerning the present times in the remaining part of the Prophesie if God give life to goe through it I shall keep my selfe more close to an expository way what here you have take it as you finde it what good you meet with receive it in This will be the encouragement of Thy friend in Christ J. B. Aug. 10. 1643. Imprimatur Ioseph Caryll AN EXPOSITION OF The Prophesie of Hosea The First LECTVRE Chap. 1. Vers 1 2. c. 1. The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea the son of Beeri in the dayes of Vzziah Iotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Iudah and in the days of Ieroboam son of Ioash King of Israel 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea and the Lord said to Hosea c. The Preface To The Work THis day beginneth a Scripture Exposition Exercise which hath lost much of the honour of it by the disuse of it The best Apology for it is to set presently upon it It is ancient in the Church of God old enough to speak for itself Nehem 8. 8. we read that Ezra Ieshua Bani and the rest read in the book of the Law and gave the sense and caused the people to understand the reading You love brevity in this Exercise you shall have it in all that shall be delivered unto you I have pitched upon the Books of the small Prophets to open them unto you of whom Ierome hath this expression You cannot tell which to wonder at most either the brevtâ—y of speech or the greatness and abundance of sense And this Prophet Hosea in speciall is excellent this way of whom the same Author speaking calls him exceeding concise speaking by sentences Being the Propheticall books is the work that falls to me why I chose rather to begin with Hosea then Isaiah I shall afterward give you an account If God continue this Exerciseand life we may goe through them all both small and great In these Prophets we have most admirable divine Truths revealed to us and pity it is that the minde of God contained in them should be so little known even unto his children that such treasures of heavenly truths that are there should lie hid from so many so long a time as they have done We might preface this our work because this is the first dayes entrance into it vvith labouring to raise and sweeten your hearts with the consideration of the excellency of the Scriptures in generall Luther hath an high expression about them he calls them the highest genus that containes in it all good whatsoever Take away the Scripture and you even take away the Sun from the world What is the world without the Scriptures but hell it self We have had indeed the word of God to be as the Sun in the world but oh hovv many mists have been before this Sun We have seldome the Sun shine clearly to us It is pity seeing there is such a glorious Sun risen that there should be such a misty day Now this is the work we are called unto to dispell the mists and fogs from before this Sun that it may shine more brightly before your eyes and into your hearts Chrysost in his 29. Sermon upon Genesis exhorting his Auditors to get the Scriptures into their houses and to a diligent exercise of himselfe in them tells them that by them the soul is raised and elevated and brightned as with the beame of the Sun of righteousnesse and delivered from the snares of unclean thoughts The Scripture is that wherin the great God of heaven hath sent his mind to the children of men wherein he hath made known the counsel of his wil opened even his very heart unto Man-kind It is the Epistle that God hath sent into the world And did wee but heare of such a Book that were dictated imediatly by God himself to the end to shew the children of men what the eternall counsels of his will were for the ordering of them to their eternall estate and to open his thoughts and intentions concerning their everlasting condition what it shall be Did wee I say but heare that there were such a book in the farthest part of the Indies would we not rejoyce that the world was blest with such a mercie what strong and vehement desires should we have to enjoy but one sight of it before we dye Wee would be willing to venture upon any hazard to passe through any difficulty to be at any charges that we might have but a sight of such a booke as this My brethren you need not say Who shall goe to the farthest part of the Indies to setch this book Who shall descend into the depth or goe to the uttermost part of the earth to help us to a sight of this booke of Scripture For behold the word is nigh unto you it is in your houses and we hope in your hearts and in this exercise is to be in our mouths not only to tell you what it saith but open unto you the mind of God in it The exercising our selves in this book is sweet indeed Luther professes himselfe out of love with his own books and wished them burnt lest men spending time in them should be hindered from reading the Scriptures which saies he are the only fountain of all wisdome and I tremble saies he at the former age that was so much busied in reading of Aristotle and Averroes Wee read in that 8. of Nehem. vers 5 6. when Ezra opened the book of the Law to expound it to the people he blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen And now blessed be the Lord the great and gracious God for stirring your hearts up to such a work as this is and blessed be his name for those liberties we have thus freely to exercise our selves in this service O praised be the name of the great God for this dayes entrance into so good a work as this is Yea they did not
only blesse God but the Text saith They lifted up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Why because the book of the Law was read to them and expounded How comes it to passe that their hearts were so taken with it now to hear the book of the Law expounded to them Surely it was because they were newly returned out of their Captivity and now they came into their owne Land and heard the Law of God opened to them they blessed his great Name bowed their faces to the ground worshipping him This day my brethren witnesseth to us our great deliverance and returne from our bondage It was not long since that wee could have either Ordinances or Truths or Religious exercises but onely according to the humors of vile men But now through Gods mercy a great deliverance is granted to us as this day witnesseth that wee may come and have free liberty to exercise our selves in the Law of our God O doe you blesse the Lord and bow your faces to the ground worshipping of him In the 12. vers of that Chap. we read that after they had heard the Law read and expounded to them they went their way to eate and to drink and to send portions and to make great mirth Why Because saith the Text they had understood the words that were declared unto them I hope if God shall please to give in assistance unto this work many of you shall goe away hereafter from this Assembly rejoycing because you will come to know more of Gods mind revealed in his word then formerly And this will be the comfort of your meat and drink and of your trading and the very spirits of all the joyes of your lives As the sweetnesse of the fruit comes from the graft rather then from the stock so your comforts and the blessings of grace in you must come from the word ingrafted in your soules rather then from any thing you have in your selves In the first vers the Text saith that all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water-gate to desire Ezra to bring the book of the law and to read it and to open it unto them Behold it is thus this day in this place here are a great company met together perhaps some to know what the businesse will be some for novelty and some for other ends howsoever come unto us you are and we hope many for this end that you might have the booke of the Law read opened unto you Now we expect that from you which is said of them ver 3. And the ears of all the people were attentiâ—e unto the book of the law when it was read opened to them And truly that attention that you now begin withal doth promise unto us that we shall have an attentive auditory But that is not all let us have further a reverential demeanor and carriage in the hearing of the Law as it becomes those that have to deale with God in it The Text saith vers 5. that when Ezra opened the book of the Law all the people stood up We doe not expect the same gesture from you but by way of Analogie we expect a reverentiall demea nour in the carriage of he whole worke as knowing we are to sanctifie Gods Name in it And as those people after the first dayes exercise were so encouraged that they came again the second day for so the Text saith vers 13. On the second day were gathered together the cheife of the fathers of all the people the Priests and the Leviâ—es unto Ezra to understand the words of the Law so I hope God will so carry on this worke that you shall find encouragement too to come again and again that you may know more of the mind of God and that this work shall not be only profitable to the younger and weaker sort but to the Fathers to the Priests and Levites too Let it be with you as it was with them according as you have any truth made known unto you submit to it yeeld to it obey it presently and then you shall know more of Gods mind He that will doe my will shall know my doctrine to be of God Thus did they for vers 14. when they found it vvritten in the book of the Law that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh moneth This was one passage of the Law that was expounded how they should keep the feast of Tabernacles and what booths they should make the people went forth presently unto the mount and fetched Olive branches and Palm branches and branches of thick trees and made themselves booths every one upon the roofe of his house In this Prophesie of Hosea you shall find many sutable truths to the times wherein we live the Lord grant you obedient hearts to what shall be delivered I must not retard the work nor your expectations any longer with large prefacing to it only somewhat have been said about the rules for interpretation of Scripture I will say no more of that but this to interpretation of Scripture a Scripture frame of heart is necessary a heart holy heavenly sutable to the holinesse heavenlinesse that is in the word as it was said of Tullies eloquence that nothing but the eloquence of Tully could set out the excellency of it So it may be said of the Scriptures spiritualness nothing but a heart filled with Scripture spiritualness can set forth the excellencies of it and because the authority of Scripture is dreadfull wee desire the prayers of you all to God for us that his feare might fall upon our hearts that seeing we are menfull of errour and full of evill yet howsoever wee may not bring any Scripture to the maintenance of any erroneous conceit of our own heads nor any evill of our own hearts This wee know to be a dreadfull evill It was a fearfull evill for Lucifer to say I will goe and ascend up be like the Highest it is as great an evill for any to seek to make the Highest to become like Lucifer for so do they that make the Scripture come down to justifie any erroneous opinion or any way of evill they goe about to make the blessed God and the holy Ghost to be the fathers of lies It is counted a great evill in a Common-wealth to put the Kings stamp upon false coine and to put the stamp of the Spirit of God upon an error upon a conceit of a mans owne is certainly a great evill before the Lord and it was for this that God did make the Priests vile and contemptible before the people because they were paâ—tiall in the Law Mal. 2. 9. And for you my brethren our prayer shall be that the feare of God may fall upon you likewise that you may come to these Exercises with Scripture-frames of heart What frame of
heart is a Scripture-frame The holy Ghost tells you Isa 66. 1. God looks at him that trembleth at his word come with hearts trembling at the word of God come not to be Iudges of the Law but doers of it You may judge of your profiting in grace by the delight you finde in Scripture as Quintilian was wont to say of profiting in eloquence a man may know that saies hee by the delight hee findes in reading Cicero much more may this be said of the Scriptures it is a true signe of profiting in Religion to whom the Scriptures are sweeter then the honey and the honey-combe And now I shall onely tell you what the work is we have to doe and then we shall fall upon it and that is to open Scripture unto you not onely difficulties but to shew unto you what divine truths are contained in them what may come fresh and spring up from the fountain it selfe to present them unto you with adding some quickness This is our worke not to enlarge any thing with long Explication Probation or Application There are these five things to be enquired concerning this our Prophet whose Prophesie I have now pitched upon to open 1 Who he was 2 To whom he was sent 3 What his errant was 4 His Commission 5 The time of his prophesie All these you have either in the first verse where most of them are or you shall find them in the Chapter For the first then who this Prophet was I will tell you no more of him then what you have in the first verse Hosea the son of Beeri His name signifieth a Saviour one that brings salvation It is the same root that Ioshua had his name from and many saving and savory truths wee shall finde this Prophet bringing to us He was the sonne of Beeri This Beeri we doe not find who hee was in Scripture only in that he is here named as the father of the Prophet in the entrance into this Prophesie Surely it is honor is gratia to the Prophet and from it we may note thus much That so should parents live and walke as it may be an honour to their children to be called by their names that their children may neither be afraid nor ashamed to be named by them The Iews have a tradition that is generally received among them that whensoever a Prophets Father is named that Father was likewise a Prophet as well as the Son If that were so then surely it is no dishonor for any man to be the Son of a Prophet Let those that are the children of godly gracious Ministers be no dishonour to their Parents their Parents are an honour unto them But we find it by experience that many of their children are farr from being honours to their godly parents How many ancient godly Ministers who heretofore hated superstitious vanities whose sonns of late have been the greatest zealots for such things It puts me in mind of what the Scripture notes concerning Iehoiakim the sonne of Iosiah the difference betweene his father and him Iosiah when he heard the Law read his heart melted and he humbled himselfe before the Lord. But now Iehoiakim his sonne when hee came to heare the Law of God read he tooke a pen-knife and cut the roll in which it was written in peices and threw it into the fire that was on the hearth untill all the roll was consumed A great deale of difference there was between the Son and the Father and thus it is between the sons of many ancient godly Ministers and them their Fathers indeed might be an honour unto them but they are dishonour to their Fathers The sonne of Beeri This word Beeri hath its signification from a Wel that hath springing water in it freely and cleerly running So Ministers should be the children of Beeri That that they have should be springing water and not the mud and dirt and filth of their own conceits mingled with the word This only by way of allusion To whom was this Prophet Hosea sent He was sent especially to the Ten Tribes I suppose you all know the division that there was of the people of Israel in Rehoboams time tenn of the Tribes went from the house of David only Iudah and Benjamine remained with it Now these tenne Tribes renting themselves from the house of David did rent themselves likewise from the true worship of God there grew up horrible wickednesses and all manner of abominations amongst them To these ten Tribes God sent this Prophet He sent Isaiah Micah to Iudah Amos and Hosea he sent to Israel all these were contemporary If you would know what state Israel was in in Hoseas time read but 2 K. 15. 19. you shall find what their condition was Ieroboam did that which was eâ—ill but he fight of the Lord he departed not from all the sins of Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat which made Israel to sinne But notwithstanding Israel was thus notoriously wicked and given up to all Idolatry yet the Lord sendeth his Prophets Hosea and Amos to Prophesie to them even at this time O the goodnesse of the Lord to follow an apostatizing people an apostatizing soule It was mercy yet while God was speaking but woe to that people to that soul to whom the Lord shall give in charge to his Prophets prophesie no more to them But what was Hosea his errand to Israel His errand was to convince them clearly oâ— this their abominable Idolatry and those other abominable wickednesses that they lived in and severely to denounce threatnings yea most fearfull destruction This was not done before by the other Prophets as wee shall afterward make it appeare but it was Hosea his errand to threaten an utter desolation to Israel more than ever was before and yet withall to promise mercy to a remnant to draw them to repentance and to Prophesie of the great things that God intended to doe for his Church and children in the latter dayes What was his Commission The words tells us plainly The word of the Lord came to Hosea It was the word of Iehovah It is a great argument to obedience to know it is the word of the Lord that is spoken When men set reason against reason and judgment against judgment and opinion against opinion it prevails not but vvhen they see the authority of God in the Word then the heart and conscience yeeldeth Therefore hovvever you may look upon the instruments that bring it or open it to you as your equalls or inferiours yet knovv there is an authority in the Word that is above you al It is the word of the Lord. And this word of the Lord it came to Hosea Mark the phrase Hosea did not goe for the word of the Lord but the word of the Lord came to him he sought it not but it came to him factum fuit verbum so are the words the word of the Lord came or
which is said 2 King 14. 27. that before this time God had not so threatned Israel for the Text saith The Lord said not before this time that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven but hee saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the sonne of Joash Mark there is given the reason why the Lord saved them by the hand of Jeroboam because he had not yet said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven that is the Lord never before sent any of his Prophets thus plainly and fully to declare his intention to them for the utter blotting out th name of Israel upon their going on in their sins So that it is clear that Hosea was the first that was sent about this message And certainly it was so much the harder he being the first of all For they might have said why do you come with these new things and in so great severity who did ever so before you It was a hard task For we know if a Minister come with any thing that seems to be new if he presents any truth to you that hath but a shew of Novelty that you heard not before though it be never so good aud comfortable he shall find little encouragement Nay if hee doe but come in a new way as this very exercise because it is like to goe on in a way that yet hath been disused it will meet with many discouragements What then will the threatnings of hard things of judgments and destruction do when they come with novelty Surely Hosea had a hard taske of this and yet he went on faithfully with it Thus much for the time wherein Hosea prophesied Now to make a little entrance into the prophesie The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea Some from these words doe gather that Hosea was the first Prophet that ever was Though it is true we cannot gather it directly from hence yet it is apparent that notwithstanding Isaiah be set first yet Hosea was before him for if you look into the 1 Isa you shall find that his beginning was in the dayes of Vzziah Now Hosea was in the dayes of Jeroboam and Jeroboam was before Vzziah And this may be one reason why though I intend the whole propheticall books yet I rather pitch upon Hosea first because indeed he was the first Prophet it is cleare you see from the Scripture though we cannot gather it from these words in this second verse But yet thus much we may gather from these words The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea that this was the beginning of his prophesie And what was this beginning what did God set him about first Mark presently the next words he must take him a wife of whoredomes and children of whoredomos and so declare to the people of Israel that they had committed great whoredome departing from the Lord. The most grievous charge and most severe and terrible expression of Gods wrath against that people that you meet with in all the book of God This is the work Hosea must doe and Hosea was very young when first he went about it Now as I told you before God sometimes calls young ones to great services but to call a young man to this service to goe to this people with such a message now in the midst of all their pride and flourish to contest with them thus to tel them that they are children of whoredomes and no longer the people of God for what for a young man to do this Why they might have said if this came from the mouth of some old ancient Prophet reverent for his years and experience it had been somewhat but to come from a green head for an upstart to upbâ—aid us with such vile things Thus men grown old and sodden in their sins are ready to reason But let us know my brethren if God send any message unto us though by young ones he expects your entertainment of it When God would destroy Elies house he sends the message by young Samuel but Eli did not reason thus what this young boy come to speak thus malapartly to me No he stoops to it Good is the word of the Lord saith he Againe Hosea must tell them that they are children of whoredomes and not the people of God What for a Minister when he comes first among a people to begin so harshly and severely and ruggedly is it not better to comply with the people to come with gentle and â—aire means to seek to win them with love if you begin with harsh truths surely you will make them fly off presently Thus many do reason Now I beseech you take heed to your own hearts in reasoning thus Many have done so and have sought to comply with people so long till they have complyed away all their faithfulnesse and conscience and vigour that before they had When they come to great men rich men men in place and emmency they will comply with such but let them have any of Gods people in their Parish that are of a mean rank and poor they comply little enough with them but are harsh and bitter to them and regard not the tendernesse of their consciences at all It is true If Ministers have the testimony of their own consciences that they would take no other way but what shall be for the greatest profit of their people maintaining such a disposition as to be willing to undergoe any sufferings that God shall call them unto they may say first when they come to a house Peace be to this house especially when they come to a place that hath not had the means before But if it be to a people that goe directly against the light of their consciences a superstitious people that cannot but be convinced and have had many evidences that it is against the mind of God and yet only for their owne base ends will goe on and not amend in such a case as this wee may come with harshnesse at the very first So Paul gives a charge to Titus in dealing with the Cretians who were evill beasts and slow bellies that he should rebuke them sharpely so wee translate it the word in the Originall is cuttingly The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea The particle which is translated by signifyeth in as well as by it is not El but Beth and so it is read by some The word of the Lord came in Hosea This expression notes the inward and intimate converse that the Lord had with the spirit of Hosea in the work of the Ministry The Lord spake first in Hosea and then he speaks out unto the people Some such expression we have concerning Paul Gal. 1. 16. That Christ may be revealed in me not onely to me but in me The more inwardly God speaks and converseth with the hearts of his Ministers the more inwardly and efficaciously they are able to speak to the people This
your peace with God for them Though you were then young and did not fear the wrath of God to come upon you yet now you are old the wrath of God may come upon you for sinnes committed in your Apprentiship A sinner of a hundred years old shall be accursed Yet a little while In reference to the house of Israel Yet a little while and I will cease the Kingdome of the house of Israel This Nation had continued a pompous successfull Nation thoughidolatrous for about 260. years before the wrath of God came upon it that was here threatned God may come a long time after the flourishing of a Nation upon it in wayes of judgement Which may make us look back to the sins committed in Henry the 8 his time and in Queen Maries time Let us not plead for our fore-fathers for the maintenance of superstitious worship but let us look to the sins of our fore-fathers and bewaile them before the Lord for God may come upon a Nation for former sins after it hath flourished a long time But at length it will prove but a little while What was it but a little while from the beginning of this Prophesie till the ceasing of the Kingdome of the house of Israel Yes my brethren it was many yeares and it is very observable that from the beginning of this Prophesie which was in the end of the raign of Jeroboam to the rulfilling of what was here threatned to the ceasing of the Kingdome of the house of Israel it was 76. years For as I reckoned the last day to shew the time of Hoseas Prophesie from the end of Jeroboam here spoken of ver 1. unto the time of Hezekiah was 70. yeares and in the 6. yeare of Hezekiah Israel was destroyed by the King of Assyria and yet God saith here by Hosea which was in the time of Jeroboam for then was the beginning of Hoseas Prophesie as ver 1. Yet a little while Seventy six years is but a little while in Gods account Sinners thinke either in wayes of judgement or mercy a little while to be a great while If God do but defer mercy seven yeares it is a great while in our account We think our Parliament hath sate a long time How long almost two yeares A great while Wee think every day a great while for that wee would faint have but 76. years yea a hundred a thousand years are but as one day unto God So for judgement a sinner if hee hath committed a sinne seven years agoe he thinketh it is a great while and he hath not heard of it thereforre surely it is forgotten But what if it be seventy years agoe you that are sinners of seventy yeares old all is but a little while in regard of God Againe Yet a little while The apprehension of a judgement just at hand is that which will stir the heart and worke upon it most Yet a little while and God will cause the kingdome to cease therefore if ever you repent repent now for it is but a little while ere God will cause the kingdome to cease The apprehension of a sinner to be upon the brink of judgment when a poore soule shall see him selfe ready to lanch into the infinit ocean of eternall destruction to lie under the scalding drops of the wrath of the Almighty this works upon the heart indeed It is the way of the flesh and the divell to put far from us the evill day to make us believe the day of death is a great way off But it is the way of God to present things present and reall and in this consisteth the efficacy and power of faith to make things that are to come as if present Wee say in nature there must be a contiguity and neernesse between things that must work So wee must apprehend a neernesse between the evill that is to come upon us and our selves that so it may work upon our hearts An excellent place you have to this purpose in 1 King 14. 14. where the Lord threatneth to stir up a King over Israel who should cut off the house of Ieroboam that day but what saith he he presently calleth back his word even now you may think the day a great way off but it is even now and therefore now come in return and repent Oh sinners consider that your danger is now not only in that day of Christ but what even now it may be at hand Lastly Yet a little while Jeroboam had continued above forty yeeres in his sin but now Zachariah his son upon whom this threatning was fulfilled continued but six moneths perhaps he thought to escape as long as his father No God suffereth some sinners to continue long others he cutteth off presently though the father continue old in his sins if the son presume to follow his steps he may be cut off presently And I will cause to cease the Kingdome of Israel Kingdomes great Kingdomes and Monarchies are subject to change What is become of all the glorious Monarchies in the world how hath the Lord tossed them up and downe as a man would tosse a ball Idolatry is enough to destroy the greatest Monarchy the greatest Kingdome in the world But here is some instruction in the elegancy of the word It is in the Originall I will cause to cease It is a Metaphor according to some taken from instruments that a man makes use of for a while and when hee hath done with them either hangs them up against a wall and regards them no more or else bringeth them to the fire to be burned So saith God yet a little while and I will cause to cease c. As if he should say Indeed there was a time wherein I had some use of this way of the rent between Judah and Israel and of this Kingdome but I have done with that use there is an end of it now the use is over I intended now I will cause to cease the Kingdome I will take them away they shall be to mee as an instrument not to be used any more or for the Fire When the Lord hath any use of a people or of any particular men to do him service he will preserve them though they be wicked and when he hath done with them he either layes them aside or else brings them to the fire A Husband-man so long as he hath use of thornes to stop a gap with them he lets them alone but when there shall be no further use of them he then bring them to the fire so God here I will cause to cease the Kingdome of the house of Israel But how and where will God cause to cease the Kingdome of Israel Vers 5. I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel By breaking the bow is here meant the blasting and bringing to nothing all the strength of their warlike power all their Armes and Ammunition
to the right way of worshipping God kept to Ierusalem to the Temple so farre they kept the worship of God pure Hence we see God will favour a people exceeding much though there be many weaknesses yea many wickednesses among them if they keep the worship of God pure It is true there are many spirits that are most bitter against those that seek to worship God in the right way if they can but get them tripping in any small thing they follow it against them with all their might with all the bitternesse that they can possibly This is not like unto God God will favour those that worship him in a right way though for other respects hee may have many advantages against them But this you will say seemes to contradict what you said before for you said the nearer any are to God the more he hates their sinnes and the sins of those that make a shew of worshipping God in a pure manner are worse than the sins of others It is true But as their relation to God in the nearnesse of his worship is an aggravation of their sins so their relation to God is a foundation of their hope of mercy from God How is this It makes their sin indeed worse so as to provoke God to punish them sooner and perhaps bitterer yet their relation to God keepeth this ground of faith that God is their God still and will have mercy upon them at last But the wicked though God spare them longer than his own people yet when he cometh against them he rejecteth them utterly so he did Israel Iudah indeed was punished but yet Iudah had mercy at last but saith God I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel but will utterly take them away Fiftly Israel had prevailed a little before against Iudah for if you read in 2 King 14. 12. you shall finde that Iudah was put to the worst before Israel the Text saith They fled every man to their Tents and Iehoash the King of Israel took amaziah King of Iudah and came to Ierusalem and brake down the walls of Ierusalem from the gates of Ephraim to the corner gate four hundered cubits And he took al the gold and silver and all the vessels that were in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the Kings house and hostages and returned to Samariah And this was but a little before this time Israel had thus prevailed against Iudah and brought Iudah under yet now saith God I will have mercy upon Iudah but not upon Israel What should we note from hence God sometimes sheweth mercy to poor afflicted ones and yet rejecteth those that are greater enjoy more prosperity in the world Many that are poor people poor souls that are in a low afflicted condition God looks upno them and sheweth mercy unto them when brave ones that carry it out and thrive and live gallantly in the world are many times rejected of God Mark what God saith Zeph 3. 12. I will leave in the middest of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. God lookes not at the brave and gallant ones of the world but at the poor and afflicted ones and they shal trust in the name of the Lord. We must not then judge at the happiness of men according to their successe in the world For you may now be delivered and others kept under affliction yet afterwards you may be rejected and the others received unto mercy Further Hosea was the Prophet of Israel he was sent to the ten Tribes yet Hosea tells them whose Prophet especially he was and God would have no more mercy upon them And he speaks to Judah he was not sent to them and he tells them that God would have mercy upon them Here we may learn how impartial the Ministers of God ought to be in their work they must not goe according to their particular private engagements though they are engaged more to such a people in divers regards yet if they be wicked they must deale faithfully and plainly and denounce the judgements of God And if others though strangers to them be godly they are to give to them that comfort that belongs unto them My brethren partiality in those in publick places especially of the Ministery is a great evil It was for this that God said he had made the Priest and the Levite contemptible and base before all the people Why because they were partial in the Law Malac. 2. 9. 7. It is a great aggravation of the misery of some that God sheweth mercy to others For it is here set down as a part of the threatning against Israel I wil have no more mercy upon Israel but I wil shew mercy to Judah To aggravate the misery of Israel God manifesteth his mercy to Judah Mark how God in Esay 65. 13. makes it a part of his threatning against the wicked that he will shew mercy to his servants Behold my servants shall eate but you shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirstie Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but yee shal crie for sorrow of heart howle for vexation of spirit These Buts are cutting ones to the heart of the wicked And observe it here is the word Behold three times used in setting out the difference that God will make between his servants and the wicked and how God will aggravate the misery of the wicked by shewing mercy to people because it is a thing much to be considered A like place you have Mat. 8. 11. Many shal come from the East West and shal sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob but the children of the Kingdom shal be cast out into utter darkness there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth Mark they shall gnash their teeth when they shal see how they are rejected and others received gnash their teeth for envie and vexation of spirit for it is a great aggravation of mens misery And is it not fulfilled this day How do many bite their nailes and gnash their very teeth to see the mercy that God sheweth to his people in giving them liberty and encouragement in his service while he casteth shame contempt upon their faces bringeth them forth to answer for their wickedness and to suffer condigne punishment Wicked mens spirits vex at this it is that which they cannot possibly beare it is that which galleth and fretteth the very gaul of their heart to see the mercie of God to his people now in these dayes to see such an opportunity as this to meet together with this liberty to exercise our selves in the word when they are caged up This they gnash and grind their teeth at It is observeable that which you have in Acts 22. 21. Paul was speaking there a great while to the Jews they
Abraham and subject themselves to the God of Abraham they shall be the seed of Abraham and so they shall be the children of Israel as well as you and thus God will make good his word And so the Apostle Rom. 9. doth quote this Scripture about Gods casting off of the people of Israel threatned here by Hosea ver 25. As he saith also in Hosea I will call them my people that were not my people This is the very Text that the Apostle there quoteth though all the words are not quoted and it is a very good thing to acquaint your selves with the Scripture and to see how one Scripture lookes towards another and specially in the new Testament to see how the old Testament is quoted This I say the Apostle applyeth to the Gentiles and the holy Ghost who is the best interpreter of Scriptures there shewes that it is at least in part fulfilled in so many of the Gentiles comming in and being converted to the faith of the true Messia There are this and many other excellent Prophesies concerning the glory of Israel that were made good in part in the first times of the Gospel but that was but as the first fruites of the fulfilling of those promises Prophesies the accomplishment of them is yet certainly to come when the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in and the Jews be converted then not onely the spiritual seed but the very carnal seed of Abraham shall have this promise made good and shall be multiplyed and come into the faith too Rom. 11. 26. The Apostle speakes there of a general salvation of Israel that was yet to come after the fulnesse of the Gentiles So it appears plainly that those Prophesies concerning the glory of Israel though they were in part made good in the first times of the Gospel yet there was a further accomplishment of them after when there should be a fulnesse of the Gentiles come in and then Israel should be saved too I might spend a great deale of time in shewing how many promises concerning the excellency of the Church were made good in part in the first times of the Gospel and yet that but as the first fruites and to be fully made good afterwards And certainly this promise as we shall afterward come to know it is not yet throughly fulfilled though it was in part made good at the calling of the Gentiles there is a further degree of it to be accomplished another day of which hereafter From hence the words being thus opened to you take these observations as they do immediately spring from them First that all beleevers though of the Gentiles are of the seed of Abraham they are of Israel and therefore have the same priviledges with Israel the same in effect yea as we shall see afterward better They are all the heirs of Abraham who in Rom. 4. is said to be the heir of the world they have the dignity of Israel to be the peculiar people of the Lord to be the treasure to be Gods portion Whatsoever you reade of Israel of excellent titles and appellations about Israel they belong now to all beleevers though they be the children of the Gentiles A comfortable sweet point to us of the Gentiles Secondly God hath a time to bring in abundance of people to the profession of the faith to bring in multitudes even as the sand of the sea-shore He will do it and he hath wayes enough to accomplish it Though there is for the present this reproach upon the way and people of God that they are but a few a company of poore mean kinde of people a handful and what are they in comparison of the rest This reproach my brethren will be wiped away we may yet expect that before the world be come to an end that the greatest part shall come in imbrace the faith of Christ and come to be godly too ful vision in which he saw a man of Macedonia appearing to him and praying him to come over to Macedonia help them one would have thought that when Paul had gone to preach there all should have come flocking in and there should have beene a glorious worke done that hee should have brought in a great number to the faith But when he came to Macedonia he was faine to go into the fields by a rivers side to preach and onely a few women came there to heare him there was all the Auditory he had and amongst them there was but one poor woman wrought upon God opened the heart of Lydia Here was all the great do that was upon such a mighty call and yet we know how gloriously God went on with Paul This I note to confirm you in this that though the beginnings be very small yet we may expect a glorious increase afterward As it was with the Church at the beginning so it will be here That which Bildad said of Job Chap. 8. 7. may well be applyed to the Church Though the beginning of it be small yet the latter end of it shall greatly increase But thirdly As God hath a time to multiply his Church so it is a great blessing to the Church of God when it is multiplyed It is a fruite of Gods great grace and mercy to make the Church to be a numerous people As the multitude of Subjects is the glory of a Prince so it is the glory of Jesus Christ and therefore it was prophesied of him that the Church should come in as the dew of the morning Psal 110. 3. Thus it began in the Primitive times in the Apostles dayes and presently after multitudes came into the Church I remember Jerome Writing to Cromatius saith that there might be computed for every day in the yeere except in the first of January five thousand Martyrs therfore the Church was grown to a numerous multitude And Tertullian speakes in his time that they were become so numerous then that in his Apologetiques he tells the Heathen that they had filled their Cities and that if they would they had strength enough to make their party good against them but they were patient and submitted themselves to their Tyranny I know many make this of Tertullian an argument that men must lay down their necks and suffer their throats to be cut if those that are above them will it and if they cannot obey actively they must obey passively any thing that is acording to the will of such as are over them Why say they did not the Christians so in the Primitive times Yes the Christians did so they though they were under Idolaters and were commanded to deny Christ which was utterly unlawful yet though they could not obey actively they obeyed passively they did subject and submit themselves to all their rage and though they had strength yet they would not resist Why should not Christians do so now You are exceedingly gulled with this argument many times true we are bound to obey
should see the thicker skin bubble he might thinke t is harder to be broke then the thinner skin but if a Cannon should be shot off nay if it be but a Fillip it makes no difference Now the afflictions of Gods people they are to this right hand of Gods power and the arme of his strength but as a bubble of water before a mighty Cannon Yea if there be not help at all to deliver Gods people in time of affliction yet God can create helpe He will create Jerusalem a rejoycing and their people a joy Yea suppose their condition be such as yet never was the like since the beginning of the world yet Isa 64. 4. Since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the care â—either hath the eye seene what God hath prepared for them that waite for him And as the greatnesse of the Churches deliverance is no hinderance of Gods power in delivering them so it should be no hinderance to the work of our faith Common prudence and reason will go a great way to uphold us under some affliction but when the affliction comes to be sore and grievous and long prudence reason then sinketh under the burthen but then should faith lift up it selfe and cast an eye upon this right hand of Gods power this arme of his strength that he hath sworne by and exercise it self in the glorious acts of it For certainly faith is appointed for such a time as this when the Church is under grievous extremities The ordinary afflictions of the Church do not call for such a work of faith but when they come to extraordinary that requires such a power of God for their deliverance then there is called for a worke of faith proportionable as Alexander when he was in great danger Now saith he there is a danger fit for the spirit of Alexander to incounter withall So when the Church comes to be in any great danger all the members of it should say here is a danger here is a trouble fit for the spirit of Christians fit for the spirits of those that are able to exercise the most noble and glorious acts of faith This glorious exercise of faith I may even say we are scarce yet for the present put to it for reason and sense sees much help they see that the cause of God at this day hath the better of the adversary reason I say and prudence may see far this way Let us not look upon every difficulty as a thing that calleth for such a mighty glorious worke of faith whereas men by reason and prudence and may carry themselves under such difficulties much better then most of us doe But we do not know but the Lord may call us unto such difficulties and dangers as requires such a faith as hath such a kinde of work as I have spoken of Let us therefore lay up this Instruction for the time to come Again for great shall be the day of Jezreel If the words be read thus as they are in your Bibles and yet have reference to the calamitous time and grievous extremities of the day of Jezreel then there will be these two excellent meditations from thence The first is That Gods bowels of compassion do work toward his Church because of the greatnesse of their affliction When their afflictions shall be very great and the greater they are the more do Gods bowels of compassion work toward them We know the misery of Gods people in Exo. 3. was a marvailous quickning argument to the compassion of God as I may so speake I have seene I have seene saith he the affliction of my people and their sorrowes and therefore am come down to deliver them If the greatness of the affliction of the Church move the bowels of Gods compassion then let not the greatnesse of affliction hinder our faith Let not the greatnesse of trouble reason down our faith but rather let it reason up our faith for so indeed it should and so the Saints of God heretofore have done by the greatness of the trouble we must reason up our faith as thus It is â—â—me for thee O Lord to work for men have almost destroyed thy law yea the high time is come for thee to have mercy upon Zion for thy people begin to favour the dust thereof What was this a good argument Have mercy upon me and pardon my sin for it is very great to move God withall Surely then this is a good argument Deliver us in our afflictions for they are very great for sin makes a great deale more distance betweene God and us then afflictions yet if the greatness of sin shall come to be put as an argument for Gods mercy and compassion to work much more the greatness of afflictions Yet this is the grace of God in the second Covenant that even the sins that before made the creature the object of hatred those sins come now to make it an object of compassion So afflictions that before were part of the curse they come now to be arguments for the moving of the bowels of Gods tender compassion toward his people Another note if you read it so for great is their affliction is this the promise is the only support of the soul and that which carrieth it thorow the greatest affliction Afflictions are as leade to the net the promise is as the corke the promise keepes above water when the lead pulls down But I leave these meditations though I finde many interpreters run this way And I rather take it as a further expression of Gods wonderfull mercy unto his Church For great shall be the day of Jezreel That is God hath a great day of mercy for Jezreel That is the meaning they shall appoint themselves one head they shall be gathered together and be made one they shall come up out of the land why for God hath yet to come a great day of mercy to his pepole A grâ—â—â— day of Jezreel And herein therefore God makes use of the name of Jezreel in a good sense They that carry it the other way would carry the signification of the name thus for great is the day of scattering of the scattered people so Iezreel signifieth as you heard in the beginning of the Chapter But Jezreel signifieth likewise the seed of God Before God made use of their name in the worse sense that he would scatter them according to their name now he makes use of their name in the best sense they are the seed of God and there is great mercy from God for them When God is reconciled unto a people he takes all in the best sense and makes the best acception of every thing as he doth here of the name Jezreel We have onely these two things to consider of in this expression 1. That the Saints of God and the Church they are Gods Jezreel That is they are the seed of God 2. That there is for this
seed of God a great day 1. They are the seed of God The seed of the blessed and there is a blessing in them They are the precious seed that God preserves in the world hath done ever since the beginning of the world They are that seed that preserveth the glory of God in the world Were it not for a few gracious holy people in the world where would the glory of God be What would become of it Those that are godly however contemptible in the world they are the precious seed that God reserves in the world for great and glorious ends They are the seed to preserve the continuation of the Doctrine of the Gospell and the blessed truths of God as Isa 6. 13. The holy seed shall be the substance thereof Though they shall be under great afflictions yet there shall be a holy seed that shall be the substance thereof and there shall be his blessing Psal 72. 17. His name shall endure from generation to generation the words are read by Montanus His name shall be childed that is so continued as families are continued one generation after another one begetteth another and so shall the name of Christ continue in the world and so it hath done And though seed be but a handfull in comparison of the harvest so the Saints of God then were and yet are but as a handfull in comparison of the glorious harvest that shall be yet they are very precious before God and God will make the world hereafter know that they are the precious ones of God Isa 61. 9. All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Seed you know a man will be carefull of that what ever becomes of his other corne In the time of dearth the husbandman wil rather pinch his own belly then have his seed-corne to be spent So in times of common calamity of common dearth yet Gods care is over his seed the Saints are as I may say Gods seed-corne to preserve his name in the world to other generations that are to come he will not therefore have them destroyed Seed is the most precious of the corne which is most winnowed and made cleane and so are the Saints the cleane ones and the most precious ones God perhaps doth winnow them and fanne them more than he doth others by the fannes and winnows of afflictions why because they are his seed Perhaps other corne that hath drosse in it the husband-man will give the fowles and the cattell that he bestoweth not much winnowing upon it but the corne that is for seed he winnows that he would not willingly have a dernell amongst it It may be thou complainest thou art more winnowed more fanned then other men perhaps thou art more precious in Gods eyes thou art to be reserved as seed as the seed of the blessed The wicked indeed they are seed too but a corrupt seed a seede of evill deers Esay 1. the grand-father was an enemy unto God yea the great grand-father and the father and the children after him continue enemies to God And God in mercy unto his Church doth many times cut downe the wicked before they do seed too much As you that have gardens if they have weeds in them and you see the weeds come up and grow to seed you think then that it is time to pull them up you will not suffer them to seed God lookes upon many families and sees wretched and sinfull men as a seed of evil doers and sees they are ready to seed and if they be not cut down suddenly there will be a wretched brood of wicked ones in such a family This is the reason of Gods suddain cutting down of many wicked families But to come to the point that is chiefly intended that is That this seed of the Lord shall have a great day Great shall be the day of Jezreel The men of the world they have their day in which they ruffle it out and they have all the doings Saint Paul seemes to speake of this in 1 Cor. 4. 3. he saith there that he did not passe for mans judgement the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mans day Now men have the day they have all the bravery in the world well saith Saint Paul I doe not passe formans day I expect another day besides mans day I know not how it commeth to passe to be otherwise translated you translate it judgement in your books but in the Originall it is day Man hath a day As men have a day so shall Gods Saints have a day too Wee use to say many times when we see the Malignant party jocund and merry surely they hope to have a day My brethren be joyfull in the Lord God hath a day for you and a great day too Great shall be the day of Jezreel The beginning of Gods mercy to his people is called a day of small things Zach. 4. 10. and that must not be despised Let no man despise the day of small things It was the beginning of the reformation and deliverance of the people of Judah from their captivity But God hath a day of great things and certainly that day shall be honorable A day first in which the glory of God shall exceedingly appear wherein God shal be as I may so speak with holy reverence as it were in his robes As we know Princes upon great dayes put on their robes so the King of glory shall have a day for his people wherein even he himself will put on his robes Ps 102. 16. When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory It seemeth while the Church is in affliction while the witnesses prophesie in sack-cloath God is as it were cloathed in sack-cloath In all their afflictions he is afflicted but because God hath a day a great day to his Churches he will reserve his robes till then and when that day commeth he will put on his robes for when he shall build up Zion saith the Text then the Lord shall appeare in his glory A great day it shall be for Jezreel for the seed of the Lord. Secondly It shall be a great day for this day shall be the riches of the world Marke that place in Rom. 11. 12 speaking of the Jews If their fall saith he be the riches of the world and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness It was a rich mercy to the Gentiles when they were brought out of darknesse and called into the knowledge of Jesus Christ here was riches to the world of the Gentiles But God hath a greater day then that for it is spoken here of a day that is to come that is their fall was the riches of the Gentiles much more their calling in again So then there is such a day of calling home the people of God as shall be the riches of the Gentiles the riches of all the world
of the Church Though they shall come to have a great deale of power a little before yet when that great day of Iezreel shall come they shal be certâ—inly all subdued brought under Rev. 19. 13. Christ when he shall come in this great day he shal have his garments dipt in blood in destroying the wicked and ungodly and Rev 15. the Saints when they see the wicked destroyed as the Egyptians were in the sea the Text saith that they sung the song of Moses What was this song of Moses but the praysing of God for the destruction of their adversaries in the Sea God hath another Sea to destroy the wicked and God hath a day for his Saints to sing over the song of Moses again and especially for the destruction of Popery My brethren be not troubled to see Papists make a concourse and flock together be not troubled at it for when this day shall come God will so order things that his adversaries shall come and flock together but it shall be that they may be destroyed for God hath a great feast and a great Sacrifice and he will sacrifice them especially And therefore Lactantius that I spoke of before and is one that lived 1300. yeares since saith he speaking then of this day I have a thing to say but I even tremble to speake it but I must speake it and what was it Romanum nomen saith he de terra tolletur those are his words the Roman name shall be taken off from the earth He in those primitive times prophâ—sied of the destruction of Rome Perhaps though he did not see it so clearly yet God might so order it as though hee understood it not God might intend it for these times God will destroy the enemies of his Churches then Yea. Ezek. 28. 24. there is a promise to the Saints that there shall beno more a pricking bryar nor any grieving thorne of any that are round about them that despise them in another place God saith that he will take away the Canaanite out of the Land Further the third thing that shall be done in this great day is the glorious presence of Christ among the Saints let it be personall or what it will wee determine not but thus far we may confidently affirme that there shall be a more glorious presence of Jesus Christ among his people then ever yet was since the beginning of the world Rev. 21. 22. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple of it and Chap. 22. 3. 4. The Throne of God and of the Lamb shal be in it and his servants shall serve him they shall see his face and Ezek. 48. the last words of the Chapter The name of that place shall be Jehovah-shammah that is the Lord is there Fourthly the glory that shall be put upon the Saints at that day shewes it to be a great day Glory shall be put upon them first in regard of their admirable gifts graces they shall be heightned and inlarged the weake shall be as David and they that are as David shall be as the Angel of God at that day The bowing down of their adversaries before them The high esteeme that they shall have even in the thoughts and judgments of many great ones of the world they shall be called up to heaven that is those that are in highest place and dignity shall call them up and honour them in that day yea the Text saith The Kings of the earth in that day shall came in and bring their glory to the Church Therefore it is apparent that place Rev. 21. 24. cannot be understood of heaven for it is said the Kings of the earth shal bring their glory they shall not bring their glory to the Church when the Church shall be in heaven And fiftly a great day it shall be in regard of the wonderfull change of all creatures glorious fruitfull times so I remember Lactantius speaks of that time that the rocks them selves should issue forth honey and precious things but that we cannot say yet that there shall bee a wonderfull change of all things and all creatures brought to a further happiness even the sensitive creatures as well as others then they had before the Scriptures are cleare euough in it And literally we are to understand many Scriptures that tend this way concerning the fruitfulnesse of the earth and the outward external glory that there shall be in the creatures As upon a great marriage feast or Coronation day all the servants of the Prince are in their best array so when Christ his Bridegroome shall come and meet with his wife with his Spouse all creatures shall be put into a new cresse shall have further glory And lastly that which we have here in the Text the multitudes of all nations and people that shall flock to the Church that they shall be as the sand of the sea But this I have spoken of before at large Now put all these things together and Great shall be the day of Jezreel Yea but shall these things be so shall they be so Though flesh and blood may reason against these things yet I may apply that place Zach. 2. 13. Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he is raised up out of his holy haâ—â—â—tion Flesh may say How can these things be But let all flesh be silent for God hath made known in his Word the great things that he intends to bring to passe And Zach. 8. 6. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts if it be marvaylous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvaylous in mine eyes saith the Lord of Hosts It may be applyed to this as well as the other These things may seeme marveilous to your eyes especially because we have been but little acquainted with them but they are not marveilons in the eyes of God Yea we find it out of the Word that these things were to be kept hidden till the appointed time should come till we draw neerer to that great day we are not to wonder why these things have not been opened unto us for God tells us Dan. 12 that they were to be sealed up even to the time appointed and Rev. 10. 11. God telleth Iohn that he must prophe sie again before the Kings of the earth that is before the time of the fulfilling of all things that booke of the Revelation shall be made out as cleere as if Iohn were come to prophesie again before men And we hope it is comming because God beginneth to let in light that way and the morning star seemeth to begin to arise In Zach. 14. 6. you have mention of a day that we may apply to the present day that we have now And it shall come to passe saith the Text there that the light shall not be cleere nor darke but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but
of the Church that shall be marke what the Text saith The Lord shall regard the prayer of the destitute and shall not despise their prayer speaking of those that shall live in those times a little before this day of Iezreel shall be The Lord shall regard the prayer of the destitute the word that is translated destitute it signifieth in the Hebrew a poor shrub in the wildernesse a poor shrub that the foot of every beast is ready to tread downe and that poore shrub that perhaps is despicable in the eyes of the world and despicable in his own eyes yet saith the Text the Lord shal regard the prayer of that poor shrub Is there ever a poor shrub though never so destitute so despicable in the eyes of the world or in thine owne eyes yet be thou a praying Christian a praying soul praying for those things and God will regard thy prayer he will not despise thy prayer Perhaps thou art ready to despise thy prayers thy self but God will not despise them let all our hearts be lifted up and let us all cry with the Church Come Lord Jesus Come quickly O let this day come for great shall be the day of Jezreel HOSEA CHAP. 2. The First Lecture CHAP. 2. VER 1. 2. Say 〈◊〉 your brethren Ammi and to your sisters Ruhamah Pled with your mother plead for she is not my Wife neither am I her husband c. SOme joyne the first verse of this Chapter to the end of the former and according to a sense that may be given of the words agreeable to the scope of the latter part of the former Chapter it may seem more fit to be made the end of that then the beginning of this In the latter end of the former God was in a way of promising mercy to his people that those that were not his people should be his people and those that had not received mercy should receive mercy Now he calleth upon all whose hearts were with God to speake to one another of this great favour of God to his people foâ— their mutuall encouragement and for the praise of his Name As if he should say Well you have been under dreadfull threats of God your sins have called for dreadfull things but my grace is free and it is rich powerfull therefore you that were not my people and have deserved to be for ever cast off from being my people you that had not obtained mercy shall obtaine mercy Say to your brethren Ammi and to your sisters Ruhamah that is O you that are godly speak one to another and telâ— one another for the quickning of one anothers hearts of this great favour of God of his free grace Oh say Ammi Ammi the people of God Ruhamah Gods mercy We were not his people but now Ammi again God hath promised to make us to be his people we were rejected from mercy but mercy is come again now Ruhamah O the mercy of God O that free grace of our God that wee that have beene so vile so provoked the eyes of his glory we that have so sinned against mercy it self yet mercy should thus follow us to make us his people and to save us from his wrath It is a good thing to speake of the loving kindnesse of our God Psal 92. 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to be telling of the goodnesse of God in the morning and his faithfulnesse every night That Psalme is appointed for the Sabbath It is a work of the Sabbath to be speaking one to another of the goodnesse of God Especially in this case when a people were afraid that they should have been for ever rejected that now God should call them againe Ammi my people and say now againe that he will have mercy upon them Psal 145. 4. 5. One generation shall praiss thy name to another and shall declare thy mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works Mark what the wayes of God are toward his Church when he commeth in the wayes of mercy they are wondrous works of God they are the mighty acts of God they are such wherein the honor of God appears yea they are the honour of his Maâ—esty yea they are the glorious honour of his Majestyâ— There is Majesty honour of Majesty glorious honour of Majesty mighty works of God wonderfull works of God When these appeare these are to be declared indeed And for them to be able to say to one another Ammi and Ruhamah it was to declare the wonderfull works of God and the glorious honour of his Majesty Yea it followeth further in that Psalme verse 6. Men shal speake of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declaâ—e thy greatnesse And verse 7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodnesse Eâ—uctaâ—uâ—t so Arias Mâ—ntanus renders it they shall not be able to keep it in but break â—orth in the memory of thy goodnesse Happy are those people that God gâ—ants such subjects of discourses unto that they may say one to another to their brethren and sisters Ammi and Ruhamah It was not long since that when we met with our brethren we could not have such a subject of discourse as this is but usually when Christians met together after their Salutations their first question was Oh! what shall we do what shall we doe what course shall we take All the Newes almost that was in the Kingdome and the subject of discourses specially among the Saints was this Such a Minister silenced in such a place such a one banished in another place such a one imprisoned in another place such a one High-Commissioned in another place such signes of the wrath of God upon us we are afraid that God is going if he be not quite gone already we are afraid that he will not onely reject us from being his people but reject us from being a people upon the facâ— of the earth But blessed be God he hath changed the subject of our dâ—scourses Now Gods wayes have begun to be towards us as if he intended to make us again to be his people Now we may when we meet together have plentifull subjects of discourses about Gods grace mercy to say Ammi Ruhamah O the Lord manifesteth goodnes to an unworthy Nation we have hope that yet he will owne us to be his people we have hope that yet he will shew mercy to us though never so unworthy Who would have thought ever to have seene and heard of such things as we have seene heard who would have thought ever to have seene the hearts of the adversaries so daunted their power so curbed their rage so quelled the wicked in their own workes so ensnared their hopes so disappointed who would ever have thought to have seene the Saints so rejoycing their liberties so inlarged their hearts and expectations so raised This is the free grace of God
Ammi Ruhamah we have obtained mercy God hath dealt with us in abundance of grace This we must not discourse of when we meere as matter of newes onely but we must speake of it to the praise of God for the sanctifying of our hearts Our brethren in Ireland have another subject of their discourses at this day When a brother or a sister meet this is the subject of their discourse Oh my Father my mother taken such a day by the Rebels and cruelly masacred such a kinsman such a kinswoman taken such a day and fearfully murthered such houses were fired such Cities and Towns were taken and with what gaftly visages doe you think they look one upon another when they are thus relating these sad things The word of God came out against England but it hath lighted upon Ireland O unworthy are we of these mercies we enjoy if when we meete together our discourses be frothy and light about vain and trivial things when God hath given us such a subject of discourse as he hath done by such gracious and wonderfull and glorious wayes of his mercy towards us in this latter age Say to your brethren Ammi and to your sisters Ruhamah The mercies of God are to be inculcated upon our spirits we should not onely tell them one to another but again and again inculcate them upon our hearts Indeed Gods mercies at first they seeme to take impression upon our spirits but the impression is soone vanished Say to your brethren This is according to some Let Judah to whom God shewed special mercy say to Israel to the ten Tribes that were more threatned then Judah for Judah was not so threatned as Israel was to be cast off from being the people of God Let Judah rejoyce in this that their brethren are received again to mercy A gracious heart should rejoyce in Gods mercies towards others Gods mercies are an infinite Ocean there needes no envying there no grieving for that which others have Indeed when one man is richer then another another is ready rather to envy him then to rejoyce A Courier is ready to envy the favour that another hath why because these are narrow things But when we come to Gods mercy there is roome enough there that soul that hath beene made partaker of mercy counts it a great happinesse that any way the mercy of God may be magnified Say to your brethren and sisters c. These whom God hath received unto mercy we should receive into brotherly affection Hath God shewed mercy to such and such well may wee account them our brethren and sisters then If God takes them to mercy we must be ready willingly to take them into brotherly society But now if we take these words as the beginning of the second Chapter then we shall see them carried in some different way And taking of them so as most doe I shall first shew you the scope of the Chapter in the parts of it and then shew in what sense the words may be carried as the beginning of this Chapter The scope of thiâ—â—â—ond Chapter is much according to that of the first viz. 〈◊〉 shew unto 〈◊〉 their sinne and their danger and secondly to promise Gods aboundant grace and mercy again The first is especially from the beginning to the 14. verse and the second from the 14. verse to the end of the Chapter Yet this is not an exact division neither can we give an exact division of this no more than we could give of the other Why Because things are so intermixed for they are the patheticall expressions of a loving and yet a provoked husband and therefore when he is comming to â—â—â—â—vince his spouse who hath dealt falsely with him and to shew her her sin and danger whilst he is manifesting of his displeasure the bowels of his compassion begin to yerne and he must have some expression of love in the middest of all then when he hath had some expressions of love he falls again to rebuke her and to shew her her sin again and then his bowels yerne again and he commeth to expressions of love again We have found it so in the former Chapter and shall find it so in this For though the beginning of this Chapter to the 14. verse is specially spent in convincing of sinne and threatning of Judgement yet in the sixth and seventh verses there is promise of mercy and favour and expressions of love and then in the eighth verse he goes to threatning againe and in the 14. ver begins to express mercy again As God doth in this case so should we When we rebuke others that are under us we should so rebuke them as yet to manifest love to them and when we manifest love to doe it so as yet to take notice what is amisse and to reprove them Many parents know not how to rebuke their children but they do it so as that there is nothing but bitternesse and they know not how to manifest their love but they do it so as that there is nothing but cockering and immoderate indulgency God mixeth both together Say to your brethren c. Take it for the beginning of the first part of this second Chapter for the shewing of them their sinne and rebuking them What then must be the sense and scope of the words Say to your brethren Ammâ— c. Then it is carried thus Some thing must be supplied for the making up of the full sense As if God should have said Oh Ammi you whom I have reserved to be my people you to whom I have shewed mercy there is yet remaining a handfull of you while you remaine to be may people and others cast off and you obtayning mercy and others rejected let it be your care to exhort perswade convince use all the meanes you can to bring your brethren and sisters on to that grace of God you have received Say to your brethren say it is not expressed what they should say but by that which followeth wee may understand what the meaning of God is when hee saith Plead with your mother c. that is you that have received mercy and are my people there is a remnant of you do not you think that so long as you scape and are well enough your selves no great matter what becomes of others oh no but let your hearts be much toward your brethren and sisters let your bowels yerne toward them oh seeke if it be possible to draw them unto God that they may receive mercy too labour to convince them say and speake to them that they may not yet stand out against God and be obstinate say to your brethren Ammi and to your sisters Ruhamah you that are Ammi and you that have received mercy do you speake to your brethren and sisters And this affordeth unto us many excellent Observations As First That in the most corrupt times of all God doth use to reserve a people to deliver some
whorish upon the breasts of the Church upon the Ordinances the Word and Sacraments Christ Jesus a bundle of myrrhe between their breasts hath been delightfull to them I finde another reading of the words in the Septuagint Translation Whereas we reade it Let her take away her whoredoms from her sight I finde that they reade it as a speech of God I will take away her whoredoms from my face And Ciryl reading the words according to the 70. hee hath an excellent note from thence God saith he threatneth that he will take away her whoredomes from his face as when a member of a body is so putrified that it cannot be cured by salves and medicynes it is cut off and so the disease commeth to be cured so God laboureth to cure the people of Israel by admonitions by exhortations by threatnings by promises of mercy and when all would not do then he threatneth to cure them by another way that is by cutting them off by the Assyrians I will send an enemy against them and he shall take them out of their owne land and carry them into a strange land then they shal be farre enough from their calves far enough from Dan and Bethel so I will take their whoredomes from before my face Thus many times doth God take away the sinnes of a people or of a particular person from before his face As for instance Thou drunkard thou unclean person thou hast had exhortations threatnings many mercifull expressions from God toward thee from thy sinnes to take away thy sinnes from thee that will not do God commeth with some noysome vile disease upon thy body that thou shalt not be able to act thy sinne any more and God takes away the act of thy sinne at least that way in such a violent manner by his judgements and so sometimes men and women that have estates and will be proud and vaine and make their estates the fuel of their lusts when the Word cannot take away their sinnes and the expression of their wickednesse God by some violent judgement takes away their estates that they shall not be able to commit those sinnes that they did before though they would never so faine This is a dreadfull taking away of sin Yea when God shall come so to take away the sinne of men and women as to take away their souls together with taking away their sinne for so it is threatned Job 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite when God taketh away his soul Thou that wouldest not suffer the word to take away thy sin thou must expect that God wil take it away another way even by taking away thy soule Ezek. 21. 29. It may be said of some sinners as there God threatneth The time is come saith the Text when their iniquity shal have an end God will suffer them to live no longer to sin against him he will take away their sinnes but so as to take away their soules they shall not sinne any more against God in this world Lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day wherein she was borne There is much in these words and because they are so exceeding sutable unto us God still bringing points to hand sutable to our times so long as this is you must give me liberty to insist a while upon them and not runne over them so fast as otherwise I would doe I must not slightly passe over those truths that are so cleerly presented and so neerly concerning us Lest I strip her naked c It seems by this that Israel had once been in a very low condition when she was borne a very pittifull estate But God had put many ornaments upon her and now he threatneth to bring her again into the same condition and to strip her naked In the day wherein she was borne This I finde Interpreters to referre to divers conditions of Israel but most refer it to the time of their deliverance out of Egypt that is called here by God the day wherein she was borne We must inquire first what was the condition of Israel in the day wherein she was borne Secondly what ornaments God had put upon her afterwards and then we shall come to see the strength of the threat that God would strip her naked and set her as in the day wherein she was borne For the first two we shall not need to goe farre we have them fully and most elegantly set out unto us in Ezek. 16. That Chapter may be a Comment upon this what Israel was in the day wherein she was borne and what ornaments God had put upon her In the third verse Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite ver 4. And as for thy nativity in the day thou wast borne thy â—avill was not cut c We must a little open the expression there or else wee cannot open this Text in Hosea Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite When thou wert borne thou wert in this condition What their father an Amorite and their mother an Hittite Abraham was their father and Sarah their mother why here an Amorite and an Hittite Secondly Because there were other nations besides Amorites Hittites theâ—â— were the Jebusites the Perizites why rather an Amorite Hittite then a Jebusite and Perizite These two questions must be answered First Abraham was their father yet because they were in such a disposition so like to the Amorites and Hittites so vile and so wicked now they deserve not to have the honour of Abrahams being their father but to be called the children of the Amorite and the Hittite As John Baptist calleth the Pharisees the viperous the serpentine brood so those that are like the devil are called the Children of the Devil Secondly Why the Amorite and Hittite rather then others For the first the Amorite because the Amorite was the chiefest of those nations in Canaan that were driven out All the five were called by the name of Amorite The sinnes of the Amorites are not yet full Secondly the Hittite because they seemed to be the vilest of the five and for that there is a Text of Scripture that seemeth to infer so much Gen. 27. 46. I am weary of my life saith Rebekah because of the daughters of Heth. She onely mentioneth the daughters of Heth and those that were now called Hittites were of the daughters of Heth And saith she What good will my life doe if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth Why there were other daughters besides them but those were the vilest therefore she onely mentioneth them Yea but what was Israel at this time when they were delivered out of Egypt for that is the time wherein shee was borne that is spoken of here were they in so ill a condition as that their father was an Amorite and their mother
they were as a childe cast out such a one as the countenance and feature promised no good Thou wert cast out in the open field because they never hoped to have any good of thee and indeed as if God should say if I had regarded what I saw in you I might have past this judgement upon you too there was little hope of good from you But what though the child be cast out in the field yet there may come some by accidentally as Pharaohs daughter did that may pitty the child and have compassion on it No saith God thou wast not onely cast out but worse then so thou wast cast out and so cast out as no eye pityed thee You have sometimes bastards poor childred laid at your doors and left there some in baskets otherways yet when you open them see a child and a childe weeping there is some pity in you and you will take care some way or other that it may be fed brought up But saith God to Israel You were cast out in the open field no eye pityed you that is all the heathen were against you and others in the land rose up against you the Egyptians they came out to destroy you you had the sea before you and them behind you none had pitty upon you This was the condition wherein you were borne Now see what ornaments God had put upon them They were in a sorry condition you see when they were borne But marke that fore-named place of Ezek. ver 8. I took the saith God and entred into covenant with thee and then becamest mine That is the way of a peoples becomming Gods his entring into covenant with them The Lord hath begun to enter into Covenant with us and we with him in former Protestations and if any farther Covenant binding us more strictly to God be tendred to us know that God in this deals with us as he did with his own people We are as children cast out in the open field and no eye pityeth us but many plot against us and seeke our ruine If God will be pleased now to enter into Covenant with us and give all the people of the Land hearts to come close to the Covenant to renew their Covenant with him and that to more purpose then in former Covenants the Lord yet will own us The Covenant of God was the foundation of all the mercy the people of Israel had from God and we are to look upon it as the foundation of our mercy and therefore as in the presence of God willingly and cheerfully to renew it with him After Gods taking this people to himselfe as his own it followes ver 11 12. I decked thee also with ornaments I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chaine on thy necke And I put a jewell on thy fore-head and ear-rings in thine ears a beautiful crown upon thine head Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver and thy rayment of fine linnen and silk broidred worke and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty Thus God did with the people of Israel he had added to what they had when they were born Miserable they were when they were borne but the mercies of God toward them are thus set out And nowhee cometh to threaten that he will strip them naked and set them as in the day wherein they were born Yet further for the opening of this we must know that it was the custome among the Jews when any married what they brought to their husbands and their dowry was written down in a table and if afterward he should divorce his wife except there could be proved some grosse and vile thing against the woman though she should go away yet she was to go away with her Table with her dowry and what she brought she must not goe away naked But if there could be proved some notorious villany that shee had committed then she was sent away Sine Tabulis naked without those tables wherein her dowry and other things were written and destitute of all things as being unworthy of them because she had played the harlot Thus God threatneth this people She is not my wife but unlesse she put away her whore doms from before her face and her adultery from between her breasts I will strip her naked as in the day wherein she was borne She shal be seâ—â—â—ay without any tables naked and wholly destitute And thus you have thâ—â—â—pening of the words The Observations follow The first is The beginnings of great excellencies are sometimes very low and meane This plainly riseth up from the opposition of her condition when she was borne and what she had gotten from God afterward I will strip thee naked and set thee as in the day wherein thou wert borne Therefore it is cleare she was born in a very mean condition gotten up to a very excel lent condition though now they be high glorious yet once they were very low mean God many times raises up golden pillars upon leaden Bases the most glorious works of God have had the lowest beginnings This beautifull frame of heaven earth was raised out of a Chaos of confusion darkness This is true personally or nationally and that in regard of outward conditions or spirituall How poor and low and meane have many of your beginnings beene even in the world who could ever have thought that such low beginnings could have beene raised unto such high things as some of you have beene raised unto in the world It was not long since when you came hither to this City which may be said to be the day wherein you were borne for your civill estate though not your naturall you were low enough meane enough you had but little to begin withall you came hither with your staffe and now behold two bands It is sometimes so likewise in regard of the spirituall estate You may remember not long since Oh what darkness and confusion was there in your mindes and hearts what poore low meane thoughts had you of God and the things of his Kingdome what unsavory spirits when at first God was pleased to worke upon you Oh what a poor condition were you in then though you had some light put into you yet you were as a childe new borne wrapped up in filth and blood many noysome distempers and boisterous lusts there were in your hearts as it is usuall with new converts like a fire newly kindled where there is a great deale of smother and smoke that afterwards weareth away But now behold the shining of Gods face upon your soules Oh the abilities that God hath given you to know his minde and doe his will Oh the blessed communion that you have with God the sparkling of that divine nature the glory and beauty of the divine nature is put upon you So for Nations we will not goe further then our owne How low and meane were we at first
Bolton who died not long since It is repoâ—ted that upon his death-bed he had his children come to him he speaks thus unto them I doe believe saith he there is never a one of you will dare to meet me at the tribunall of Christ in an unregenerate condition So let me say to you that are evill children of Godly parents let me in their names speak to you How dare you with what face doe you think you shall dare to meet with your godly father and gracious mother before the judgement seat of Jesus Christ at that day if your godly father stand at the right hand of Christ how dare you appeare before that face in the guilt of those horrible wickednesses that you now live in Certainly the thought of this hath power to daunt your hearts She hath done shamefully The word in the Hebrew it is in Hyphil and so it may be translated transitively signifieth She hath made ashamed as well as done shamefully and so I find it according to some thus rendered Shee hath made ashamed her husband she hath made ashamed her children shee hath made ashamed her self and all these three may be meant Yea I conceive the intent of the holy Ghost is to expresse them all Her husband first the Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ Christ is the husband of the Church and you know the Scripture saith that the woman is the glory of the man I remember I gave the meaning of that heretofore So the Church being the Spouse of Christ should be the glory of Christ the woman should be the glory of the man but yet being wicked and filthy she makes her husband many times ashamed The evil of the wife is a shame to the husband so the evill of the Church is a shame to Iesus Christ The Church in Scripture is called the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23. If our brethren be enquired after they are the messengers of the Churches and the glory of Christ Isa 4. 5. Vpon all the glory shall be a defence It should be so but when it commeth to be defiled it shameth Christ their wickednesse reflects upon Christ Christ is said to walke in the middest of the golden Candlesticks Rev. 2. 1. Every Church is a Candle-stick and it should be a golden Candle-sticke but if it come to be a filthy rustie Candle-stick it is a dishonour unto Christ who walketh amongst them Wicked men doe not shame Christ but godly doe My brethren let us take heed of that It is an evill thing to bring shame to our selves and one to another but to bring shame upon JESUS CHRIST is the greatest evil Many of you perhaps are ashamed of Christ take heed you be not a shame to Christ They are ashamed of Christ that are ashamed to appeare in the cause of Christ but as for you that are so Christ hath more cause to be ashamed of you for you are a shame to him It is true I cannot deny it but many Churches of God and that of late have brought some shame to Jesus Christ by their dissentions and fractions and they must take shame to themselves and they have taken shame to themselves they have acknowledged it to the glory of Christ and in that regard in some measure have washed off that shame that they have brought to Christ Againe further a shame they are to their children Wicked Parents are a shame to their children when a child appeareth forward towardly and hopefull and it be said Would you not wonder to see him so forward the father of him is a beastly drâ—nkard a filthy whore-monger of a vile and malignant spirit now the child is ashamed to heare of the evil of his father and of the evil of his mother As foolish children are a shame to their Parents so wicked Parents are a shame to their children You that have gracious children take heed you be not a shame to them and so a shame to your selves And then a shame to her selfe she hath plaid the harlot she hath done shamefully Wherein had she done shamefully I will onely mention one particular Certainly that shame of hers was especially in subjecting Religion to carnall policie For what did she doe what was the great sinne of the ten Tribes It was this because they were afraid that if they did go up to Jerusalem to worship the people would then depart from the house of Jeroboam to the house of David therefore out of politicall regards they would have the worship set up at Dan and Bethel there they would have Calves they must not goe up to Jerusalem the place which God had appointed to worship in but at Dan and Bethel This was a meere politique fetch for they could not but acknowledg that God did require that they should worship at Jerusalem where the Temple was and there was no other reason why they would worship at Dan and Bethel but meerely out of State policie that they might prevent the people from going backe to the house of David and indeed they did professe so much themselves Here then they did shamfully The Observation then from hence is that for governours or any to subject Religion to policie is a shamefull thing It is shamefull to make Religion an underling and to make policie the head Perhaps they call this wisedome a prudentiall way wee must be carefull and wise to foresee inconveniences that may follow But what if God give it another name God may give it a name of base temporizing a name of folly and wickednesse to subject Religion to policie it is shamefull because it abaseth that which is the great honour of any Country it makes it an underling what is the excellency of man but Religion what is the excellency of a Country but Religion and what hath England been glorious for more then for Religion Now to put the excellency of a thing under any inferiour this is shamefull to put the Crown that is for the head under ones foot is a dishonour to it although a thing hath in it self but little excellencie if it be brought beneath it selfe under other things that have not so great an excellency in them it makes it vile And shamefull also it is because it holdeth forth this that we dare not trust God for our civill estate and for our peace therefore Religion must come under Shamefull it is again because it is grosse folly for there is no such way to breede disturbance in a politicke state no such way to undoe a State as to make Religion an underling to policie Was it not so here That very way that they tooke to uphold their policie was the way to destroy their State did destroy it at last even their corrupting of Gods worship What cause had they then to be ashamed of this that God should take that which they thought to helpe themselves by and make that the very thing that should cause their ruine And certainly it
will be so they that are of the deepest and politikest ferches and reaches if they thinke to secure themselves and preserve their peace out of that principle so as Religion must come under and must be serviceable it will appeare at last they doe shamefully God will make them ashamed of it one way or other it will be the onely way to undoe themselves and us I confesse in matters of Religion there are some commands that are affirmitive precepts These though they doe ligare semper yet not ad semper there is not a necessity that at every time and instant they should be urged so that it may be that a people may be in such a frame that men cannot but by degrees bring in a reformation to the height of it and then it is not carnall policie to bring in such wayes of God gradually as are commanded by affirmitive precepts but negative precepts binde semper and adsemper and the State must looke to that that they do nothing against Christ out of policie that they doe not hinder by any positive Law the way of Christ for though Christ may be willing to forbeare some Ordinances for a time and he doth it out of mercy to a people he saith he will have mercy and not sacrifice but Christ will never beare that there should be any thing done against him in that time If they should out of any State policie to preserve peace or to gratifie an evill party sacrifice any part of Religion or any godly person this will prove a shamefull thing Christ accounts it so and whosoever doth so will be ashamed of it at the last Now my brethren why should not God be trusted let us looke at Religion in the first place and so pray wee that those who are our reformers who have power in their hands may never prove to be guilty of this shamefull way of putting Religion under policie I will give you a notable example in Scripture about it It is Josh 5. When Joshua had brought the people of Israel over Jordan that you know was the very beginning of their entrance into Canaan now as soone as they were brought unto the borders of the Land they were to encounter with all their enemies and you may imagine that when Joshua had passed the river the people might thinke that all the Country would be about their eares one would thinke then that policy would have taught them to lay aside all thoughts of Religion and to look to their enemies that were at hand if ever they were outragious they would be then and therefore now let us minde nothing but arming our selves against them But mark now God goeth another way to worke as soone as they were gone over Jordan and were upon the borders of the Land of Canaan they must goe and circumcise themselves and you know when they were circumcised they were sore that they could not fight Simeon and Levi destroyed a whole City when they were circumcised they were not then in a posture of fighting or defending themselves but lay at the mercie of their enemies But this was Gods wisedome Nay further they must go and keepe the passeover too they must mind and tend Religion And mark you shall finde in the latter end of the Chapter that after they had been circumcised kept the Passeover then appeareth one to Ioshua with a drawn sword and saith he I am the Captain of the Lords Hosts Then the Captain of the Lords Host appeareth to fight for them when they had once obeyed whereas had they neglected Circumcision and the Passeover thought of fighting onely they might have missed of the Captaine of the Lords Hosts to have fought for them and what would have become of them then So you see God would have us minde Religion in the most dangerous times and though we thinke we must mind our peace and safety and lay our hands upon our swords â—or our defence yet let us be carefull of our Religion and then we shall have a Captain of the Lords host come and fight for us Marke 8. 15. we are charged to take heed of two sorts of leaven The leaven of the Scribes and Pharises and the leaven of Herod The leaven of the Scribes and Pharises is corruption in Church affairs the leaven of Herod is corruption in Religion too but in order of the Common-wealth in bringing under things of God to the affairs of the State for in this Herod was like Jeroboam he was affraid of his kingdome as Ieroboam was hee had many wayes and plots to keepe himselfe in that kingdom as Ieroboam had and many did cleave to Herod in his plots as Israel clave to Ieroboam in his therefore saith Christ take heed not onely of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharises but of the leaven of Herod And it may be the Lord saw us to prone of sinfull compliances even ready to have sacrificed much of his worship and many of his Saints for the obtaining peace in the State and so to have fallen off from that reformation that both God and his people expected hence hee hath taken the worke into his owne hands hee will bring about his owne worke though it may cost us deare who knowes how much blood The Fourth Lecture HOSEA 2. 5. Shee that conceived them hath done shamefully for she said I will goe after my lovers that give me my bread and my water my wooll and my flaxe mine oyle and my drinke GOds threats against Israel to make her as a wilderness and as a dry land to slay her with thirst in the 3. verse to shew no mercy to her children in the 4. ver The reason because her mother had played the harlot in the beginning of this 5. ver we finished the last day Onely in a word to give you one note from that title of Mother here that wee observed not before The Community of the Church and civill State is called Mother in way of distinction from private people and private people are as the children of that Mother so we opened it in the second ver The Observation is The Community of a State and Church should be to particular persons as a Mother They should have the affection of children to it they should take much to heart those things that concerne it the sufferings of State or Church should be the sufferings of all particulars There are children of Belial that are risen up among us that are even taring the bowels of our Mother a viperous generation that seeke to eate out the bowels of her Mother let our hearts breake for this as Psal 35. 14. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his Mother Let not us lift up our heads and be jolly now but for the present bow down heavily as those that are called though in some respects to rejoyce yet in many others to mourne this day for our Mother Yea let our hearts rise against these vile monsters that
got this is basenesse in them But to subject Religion to such base ends as these this is the villany of all basenesse A generous spirit is far from this It is observed of the generous spirit of Luther that when a Papist was vexed at him for his preaching and writing faith a Bishop there is such a stir with this Luther why do you not stop his mouth with preferment As it hath been the speech of a Bishop here in this land that hearing that a Kinsman of his was a zealous Preacher well falth he let me alone I will silence him and indeed hee did How He gave him two livings and that silenced him presently So here why do you not stop this Luthers mouth with preferment He presently answered That Germane beast cares not for money he is above money He called him beast in his anger whereas he might have called him an Angel because his spirit was above these things his mouth would not be stopped with them Some mens lust of malice goes beyond their lust of covetousnesse like those Cockatrices Jer. 8. 17. that will not be charmed it is a shamefull thing then that our zeale for God should not goe beyond our lust for gaine to subject your Religion to flaxe and wool and oyle it commeth from a base diffidence in God as if he would not provide for us such outward things therefore Luther hath this expression in his Comment upon Hosea They followed their idols for bread and wool and flaxe and oyle as if God would not give bread to his Church or as if it were more safe to goe to the Devill for it as if we could not have wool enough and flaxe enough and oyle enough from God Oh let us trust God for all for our cloaths for our meate and drink for our estates for our children God certainely will feede his Church And yet those men that have hearts so base themselves they thinke it impossible for any man but to be taken with such arguments They may talke of Religion and conscience say they but I will warrant you they may be taken off with money and preferment places of profit and honour They think it impossible for men to stand against these arguments It putteth me in mind of that speech that Balaak used to Balaam Did not I earnestly send unto thee to call thee wherefore camest thou not unto me Am I not able to promote thee to honour As if he should have said Thou art a strange man indeed did not I send thee word that I would promote thee to great honour and give thee silver and gold or whatsoever thou wouldst have What will not preferment and money tempt you I thought this would have tempted any man in the world Thus many think that whatsoever mens Spirits are they may be taken off with promotion and money But let all such know that there are a generation of men in the world of true generous Spirits that are above all these things and take as much delight and have as much sweetnesse in denying these places of honour and preferment and gaine as those that offer them have in the enjoying of them It was a notable speech Plynie had concerning Cato It is in his Epistle Dedicatory to his naturall History speaking of what a notable spirit he was Cato saith he tooke as much glory in those dignities and honours that he denyed as he did in those he did enjoy Certainly it is so with the Saints the true generous spirit of Christians take as much content in those places of preferment they deny for Christ as in any gaine they enjoy There is no tempting of such men Let us pray therefore for those that are intrusted by us not onely for civill things but for matters of Religion that temptations for bread corne and wool and flaxe and wine and oilemay never tempt them that the preferment and gaine may never byasse their spirits may never sway them These meanes have been assayed certain it is totempt some of them with such wayes have not been left untryed by some and have prevailed but thorough Gods mercy he hath preserved others and he hath made the world to know that Christ hath a people to whom Religion and the publicke good is more deare then all the flaxe and wooll and wine and oyle in the world then all the estates and high places and great preferments that can be offered them And now the Lord our God keepe this in their and in our hearts for ever The Fifth Lecture HOSEA 2. 6. 7. Therefore behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not finde her paths And she shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtake them and shall seeke them but shall not finde them them shall she say I will goe and returne to my first husband for then was it better with me then now THe last day you may remember wee spake of that reason that God giveth in the former verse why he would shew Israel no mercy because that she hath done shamefully and said she would go after her lovers that gave her her bread and her water her wool and her flaxe her oyle and her drinke There are yet one or two observations that time would not give us leave to speak of the last day in those words I will onely give you a hint of them and passe suddenly to these two verses The first is this Prosperity and successe in an evil way is a great hardning of the hearts of men in their evil I will follow after my lovers for they give me bread and water and wooll and flax and the like I remember Eusebius reports that Maximilian the Emperour in an Edict of his against the Christian crying out of Christian Religion as an excrable vanity seeking to confirme the Heathens in the worshipping of their idol gods Behold saith he how the earth bringeth forth fruit for the husbandman in abundance how our medows are adorned with flowes and hâ—rbs and moistned with the dews of heaven what health we have and what quiet and peaceable lives and thus he goeth on in seeking to conforme the hearts of Idolaters in their wicked wayes Prosperity in a wicked way is exceeding hardning That story of Dyonisius is famously known having committed sacrâ—ledge against their Idol-gods robbing their Temples yet his voyage being prospetous after he had ended his journey hee boasted himselfe that though he did not worship the gods as others did yet he prospered as much as they In that yeere when those Innovasions in Gods worship were principaly brought in amongst us especially in that Diocese of Norwich is proved to be a very fruitfull yeere and one Commissary among the rest in his Court after the harvest was taken in speakes to the Countrey-men in this way Doe you not see how God prospereth us What a plentifull harvest have we had this yeere This is since you
began to worship God with more decency then you weâ—â— wont to doe Thus attributing all the goodnesse of God to that way Let it be all our prayers that God will never prosper us in asinfull way Further It is very observable how often this word My is iterated Give me My bread and My water and My flax and My oyle and My wooll nothing but My. We noted the last day what hurt those little words those particles I and Will doe Now we are to consider what evil there is in this particle MY Hence the observation is That carnall heatts looke upon what they enjoy as their owne and thinke they may use it as their owne and especially such as are Idolaters Though they will acknowledge that that they have commeth from the Idols as here they did for they said their Lovers gave it them yet when they had these things they thought they might do with them what they would then they were theirs Mine and mine and all is mine Thus it is usual for carnall spirits to acknowledge in the general that that they have commeth from God but when they have it then it is their owne they think they little thinke that God reserveth the propriety of what they have after he hath given it them You mistake if you think that that is all the acknowledgement you owe to God for what you enjoy that you had it from God but you must acknowledg like wise that God reserveth his propriety after he hath given it you God doth never give any thing in that way that one friend giveth to another a friend may give you a gift yet when you have it it is your owne and you may use it as you please your friend parteth with his own propriety God never giveth any thing so as to part with his own propriety though he hath given it you yet you cannot say it is Mine in respect of God it is still his There is no such bond upon conscience as to use all the comforts we have for God as this see that all comes from him in the way of a covenant of grace I say this it is that will lay a bond upon conscience to make use of your estates and of all you enjoy for God and not thinke to employ them for your own ends It is not the slight acknowledgement that Idolaters have that all comes from God will doe it Carnal men looke upon that they have comming from God through second causes and no further but a Christian lookes upon that which he hath as coming from God in a covenant of grace and this engageth the heart strongly to use all for God from whom all is received in such a way Verse 6. Therefore behold I will hedge up thy way with thornes and make a wall that she shall not finde her paths c. These two verses are the workings of Gods bowels of mercy towards his Elect amongst Israel in the midst of the most dreadfull threatnings against her They are as it were a Parenthesis of grace in the Chapter to the Elect though mingled with some severity They are indeed the Epitome of the whole Chapter for I told you in the division of the Chapter at the beginning that those were the two parts declaring Israels sinne with threatning judgement and yet promising mercy unto the Elect unto some amongst them The first part is from the beginning to the 14. verse the second from the 14. verse to the end Only this 6. and 7. ver commeth in the midst as it were a parenthesis and containeth the sum of all the other for hee was in a threatning way altogether in the 4. and 5. verses and you shall finde him in the 8. vers and so on going in a threatning way again Onely in this 6. and 7 verses is abuâ—dance of grace though mixed with some severity as you shall see in the opening of them For the explication of the words Therefore This must have reference to some-what before and answereth to a Wherefore Therefore Wherefore Because I have dealt with you by the way of my Prophets in convincing in admonishing in threatning and all this will not doe therefore I will deale with you in another way Therefore behold That way of mine that I now speak of it is a singular way you shall find much of the grace of God in this way a wonderfull way that I will deale with you in now Behold I will hedge up thy way There is a two-fold hedge that God makes about his people There is the hedge of protection to keep evill from them and there is the hedge of affliction to keep them from evill First the hedge of protection that you have in Isa 5. 5. where God threatneth that he will take away the hedge from his vineyard he will take away his protection and so it is said of Job that God had hedged him about but that is not the hedg heer meant it is the hedg of affliction I will hedge up thy way that is I will bring fore and heavy afflictions upon you but yet in a way of mercy these afflictions shall be but as a hedge to keepe you from evill they shall not do evill to you or bring evill upon you I will hedge â—p thy way with thornes That is I see you will be going on in these wayes of Idolatry and false worship I will make them difficult to you you shall goe through thornes if you will goe to your Idols you shall not get to your Idols but you shall be pricked It is a Metaphor taken from a husband-man who when the cattle will break over pastures makes thick hedges that they shall not get over they shall be pricked it shal be with much trouble if they do goe over So I will deal with you saith God Or when a husband-man seeth passengers make a path in his ground too broad and so spoile the grasse or the corn hee layeth thornes in the way that they cannot goe into his corne or if they doe they shall goe with some trouble so saith God I will hedge up your way with thorns And make a wall Maceriabo Maceriam I will wall a wall so the words are It may be they will get through the thorns but though they do get through I have another way to deale with them I will come with stronger afflictions and they shall be of more power to keepe them from their same they shal be as a wall and though they get through the thorns they shal not get over the wall That she shall not find her paths Mark the change of the person that is observable I will â—â—dge up thy way first and then I will make a wall and she shall not find her paths the person is changed and so wee have it often in Scripture that is to signifie some kind of perturbation of spirit that manner of speech is usuall amongst men when their spirits are troubled they speak sometimes in one
the infinite mercy of God ever to regard such a wretch as I. If they do thus take shame to themselves and acknowledg their folly this were something We read in the Primitive times of one Ecebolius who when he had revolted from the Truth he cometh to the congregation and falling down upon the threshold cryeth out Calcate Calcate insipidum salem tread upon me unsavory salt I confesse I have made my selfe unsavory salt by departing from the Truth let all tread upon me This was a signe of true returning when this went before we have done foolishly it was better with us then now Againe I will goe and returne for it was better with mee then it is now Hence Though acknowledgement must goe before yet returning must follow that It is not enough to see and acknowledg but there must be a returning For as reformation without humiliation is not enough so humiliation without reformation suffices not And I speak this the rather because these are times wherein there is a great deale of seeming humiliation and wee hope true humiliation but you shall have many in their fasting days will acknowledge how finfull how vile how passionate they have been in their families how worldly what base selfe-ends they have had and they will make such catalogues of their sins in those dayes of their humiliation as causes admiration the thing itselfe is good but I speak to this end to shew the horrible wickednesse of mens hearts that after they have ripped up all their sinnes with all aggravations acknowledged all their folly of their evill ways against God yet no returning after all this as passionate in their famâ—lies as froward as peevish as perverse as ever as earthly as ever as light and vaine in their carriage as ever They will acknowledge what they have done but they will not returne Remember humiliation must goe before reformation but Reformation must follow after Humiliation But the chiefe point of all is behind that is The sight of this how much better it was when the heart did cleave to Christ over it is now since departure from Christ it is an effectuall meanes to cause the heart to returne to him This is the way that Christ himselfe prescribed Rev. 2. 5. Remember whence thou art falne and repent Thou wert in a better condition once then now thou art oh come in and return and that thou maist returne remember whence thou art falne I will give but a little glimpse of what might be said in this point more largely The reasonings of the heart in the sight of this may briefely bee hinted thus Heretofore I was able through Gods mercy to look upon the face of God with joy When my heart did cleave to him when I did walke close with God then the glory of God shined upon mee and caused my heart to spring within me every time I thought of him But now now God knows though the world takes little notice of it the very thoughts of God are a terrour to mee the most terrible object in the world is to behold the face of God Oh it was better with me then it is now Before this my apostasie I had free accesse to the Throne of Gods grace I could come with humble and holy boldnesse unto God and poure out my soule before him such a chamber such a closet can witnesse it But now I have no heart to pray yea I must be haled to it meerely conscience pulleth me to it yea every time I goe by that very closet where I was wont to have that accesse to the throne of grace it strikes a terrour to my heart I can never come into Gods presence but it is out of slavish feare Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before Oh the sweet communion my soule enjoyed with Jesus Christ one dayes communion with him how much better was it then the enjoyment of all the world But now Jesus Christ is a stranger to mee and I a stranger to him Before oh those sweet enlargements that my soule had in the ordinances of God! when I came to the word my soule was refreshed was warmed my heart was inlightned when I came to the Sacrament oh the sweetness that was there and to prayer with the people of God it was even a heaven upon earth unto me but it is otherwise now the Ordinances of God are dead and empty things to me Oh it was better with mee then then it is now Before oh the gracious visitations of Gods Spirit that I was wont to have Yea when I awaked in the night season oh the glimpses of Gods face that were upon my soule what quicknings and refreshings and inlivenings did I finde in them I would give a world for one nights comfort I sometimes have had by the visitations of Gods Spirit but now they are gone Oh it was better then then it is now Before oh what peace of conscience had I within whatsoever the world said though they rayled and accused yet my conscience spake peace to me and was a thousand witnesses for me but now I have a grating conscience within me oh the black bosome that is in me it flieth in my face every day after I come from such and such company I could come before from the society of the Saints and my conscience smiled upon me Now I go to wicked company and when I come home and in the night Oh the gnawings of that worm it was better with me then then it is now Before the graces of Gods Spirit how were they sparkling in me active and lively I could exercise faith humility patience and the like Now I am as one bereft of all unfit for any thing even as a dead logg Before God made use of me and imployed me in honorable services now I am unfit for any service at all Oh it was better with me then then it is now Before I could take hold upon promises I could claim them as mine own I could looke up to all those blessed sweet promises that God had made in his word and look upon them as mine inheritance But now alas the promises are very little to me before I could look upon the face of all troubles and the face of death I could look upon them with joy but now the thought of affliction and of death God knows how terrible they are to me It was better with me then then it is now Before in all creatures I could enjoy God I tasted the sweetnesse and love of God even in my meat and drinke I could sit with my wife and children and see God in them and looke upon the mercies of God through them as a fruit of the Covenant of grace Oh how sweet was it with mee then But now the creature is an empty thing unto mee whether it come in love or hatred I do not know It was better with me before then now Before I was under the protection of
hand all their strength is but as tow and flaxe before the flame of fire If God be in a way of mercy none can take out of his hands Isa 43. 13. There is none can deliver out of my hand I will worke and who shall let it Wherefore it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hand of God when he is in a way of wrath and it is a blessed thing to be in his hand when he is in a way of mercy for none can deliver out of either Christ holds the stars not only Ministers but all his Elect in his hand and none can take them out I will give you a notable example in Gods preservation in times of danger In the time of the Massacre at Paris there was a poor man who for his deliverance crept into a hole and when he was there there comes a Spider and weaves a cobweb before the hole when the murtherers came to search for him saith one Certainly he is got into that hole No saith another he cannot be there for there is a cobweb over the place and by this meanes the poore man was preserved The hope of the wicked Job saith is as the Spiders Web yet if God please he can make a cobweb to deliver his people The least things shall deliver when he will and the greatest meanes of deliverance shall not deliver when he pleases The Eighth Lecture HOSEA 2. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast dayes her New Moones and her Sabbaths and all her solemne feasts THe Lord proceeds still in his threats against Israel in this verse we have as sore a threat as any for it is in part spirituall Her mirth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Seventy reade it the word signifieth the right temper the right posture of the minde when the minde is in a right frame then it may be merry Whosoever is merry saith S. James let him sing there the word though not the same yet signifying the same thing who ever hath his minde in a right frame let him sing No man can be truly merry except his minde be in a right frame I will cause all her mirth God many times takes away from his Saints much of the matter of their mirth but never takes away all This is a dreadfull threat to cause all their mirth to cease I will cause it to cease I will turne it away so the Seventy I can soone have all their mirth down they shall never be able to rejoyce more if I please it is gone all with the turn of a hand It appeares that Israel though an apostatizing people though a people of Gods wrath designed to dreadfull judgements yet was a merry jocund people they went on still in their mirth and joviallity That which is here implyed is more fully exprest in Amos Chap. 6. 4. who was contemporary with Hosea and hee was the Prophet of the ten Tribes as Hosea was now see there how Amos setteth forth the mirth of this people They lye upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eate the Lambes out of the flock and the Calves out of the middst of the stall they chaunt to the sound of the Violl and invent to themselves instruments of musick like David they drinke wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chiefe oyntment This was their condition when they were under such fearfull guilt and in such dreadfull danger Sensuall men while they prosper they looke upon themselves as above the word and blesse themselves in the satisfying of their own carnal desires as if it were but a poore low and meane thing for them to be under the power of the word to feare sin and threatnings it is too low for such brave spirits as they have But come let us sing away all care let us live merrily let us take our pleasure for the present and crowne our selves with rose-buds This is the disposition of carnall hearts under all their guilt and danger They swim delightfully in that River of Jordan and suddenly fall into the Dead Sea they spend their dayes in pleasure and in a moment go down into hell This is all the portion of their cup they receive from the Lord They have a little joy here this is all they are like to have and therefore they will take their fill of what they have But this will not hold I will cause this mirth to cease Sinne and mirth can never hold long together there must be a separation between them The union that there is betweene sinne and mirth at any time it is a forced union God never joynes them together and if you will joyne those things God never joyned your joyning cannot hold Sinne is of such a canker-fretting nature as it will soone fret out all the varnish of mirth and joy that is upon it If you will not take away sinne from your mirth God will take away mirth from your sin It is indeed the happinesse of the Saints that they shall have everlasting joy the pleasures at Gods right hand are for evermore but the pleasures of sin must cease Thirdly when afflictions come upon the wicked they are all Amort their joy their mirth is gone We say of fire it congregates things of the same kinde and separates things that are of diverse kinds So it is with the fire of affliction it congregateth things of the same nature as thus sinne and horror trouble anguish sorrow vexation accusation of conscience condemnation these are of the same kinde sin and these are Homogenall now when affliction commeth it congregateth all these Here is sinne yea but sorrow and anguish and horror of conscience seemeth now not to be together with your sinne but when the fire of affliction comes it joynes all these together On the other side sin and joy and prosperity and peace these are Heterogeneall things of another kinde now when the fire of affliction comes it separates these Heterogeneall things then the hearts of the wicked sinke as lead they lye down in sorrow the candle of the wicked is blown out all their mirth and joy it is but the light of a candle affliction makes all to be but as a stinking snuffe And indeed ungodly men when affliction comes are men of the poorest spirits of any men they quickly dye they succumb they fall downe under the least weight of affliction They seeme to have brave spirits to out-brave the word of God but they have poore meane and low spirits when they come to beare Gods hand upon them Affliction takes away all their good that they conceive and understand good There is nothing within them to support them there is nothing but darknesse and blacknesse within nothing but guilt and gnawings of the worme And they looke upon every suffering they indure but as the beginning of eternall suffering And there is the venome and curse of God goes together with their affliction
this verse to be opened to you is what these feasts of the Jews were In the opening of all these we shal be put upon the opening of much Scripture and therefore I shall not make hast out of this verse The words here are Feasts and solmne Feasts they are Feasts both in your English but the words in the Hebr. differ much the first comes from a word that signifies to rejoyce and leape the second from a word that signifies a stated a setled time Our English word Feast comes of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a goddes as the heathen so called that which the Latines call Vesta the goddess both of earth and of fire The Jewes had their Civill feasts and their Holy feasts Amongst their Holy feasts some were of Gods appointment and some of their own Of Gods appointment some were more solemn some lesse Their Civill feasts were times wherein they tooke a more liberall use of the creature in rejoycing one with another upon some specially occasion this they called a Good day not a Holy day so you have it Esth 8. 17. The Jewes had joy and gladnesse a feast and a good day so they were wont to expresse the day of feasting facere Bonum diem to make a Good day to their brethren it will appeare by examining that Text of Esther that that day thought it was set to be kept every yeer yet it was but as a good day to them and could not be said to be a holy-day we do not read of any religious solemne exercise that they had for the day Such a day I take to bee our fifth of November a Good day not a Holy-day wherein wee have a more liberall use of the creature then at other times and remember the mercies of God with thanksgiving But wee know the day is not set apart for this end so as it is unlawfull to be exercised in any other thing and we shall shew afterward how that dayes cannot be set apart Annually or be made holy by men Their Religious feasts which they presumed themselves to make holy were their feasts rather then Gods and for that you have the example of Jeroboam he appointed a feast even of his own head it is in 1 King 12. 32 33. And Jeroboam saith the Text ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like unto the feast which is in Iudah so hee offered upon the Altar which hee had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month even in the month which hee had devised of his owne heart and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel Marke here Ieroboam is rebuked for appointing a feast of his owne heart like the feast God had appointed this is no excuse that he would be an imitator of God This reason many think will justifie their superstitious way they do but imitate what God did as thus God had an Ephod for the Priests therefore they will have a holy garment God had a Temple consecrated they will have one so too God had his feast days and holy-dayes they will have theirs too in imitation of God This very thing that Ieroboam did hee is rebuked for that he would set up a thing like unto Gods Where God hath set his stamp upon any thing wee must take heed wee presume not to set our own stamp Suppose any one should take a piece of silver should set just the same stamp as neer as he can that the King doth upon his coine be it but a two-pence the silver is his owne well but if he come to be examined Why do you thus What hurt saith he is there in it I have done no more then the King I have done but as he did Why may we not follow his example will this answer think you serve his turne It is as much as his life is worth Just such a plea is this they will doe such and such things in Gods worship why God hath done so before and they doe but imitate God There is as much strength in the one as in the other Therefore that word here devised of his owne heart in the Hebrew comes from a word that signifies to lye Ieroboam did lye Isa 44. 25. He frustrateth the tokens of the lyars it is the same word Jeroboam indeed in setting this day apart he did it under a pretence to honour and worship God but though it might seeme to make Gods honour and worship better then before yet the Scripture puts the lie upon it so the word is I thinke this was the reason he set it apart in the eighth month the Feast of Tabernacles was the fifteenth day of the seventh month now he would not alter the day but have it the same day that Gods was but in the eighth month for the Feast of Tabernacles was appointed for this end to praise God for the in-gathering of the fruits of the earth and it was as upon our September Now because upon the fifteenth of September perhaps all the creatures were not gathered in there might be some remaining abroad therefore Ieroboam might have this device he would stay till every thing be gathered in till they had it in their barnes and in their vessels when they had it all fully in and it was fit to eate and drinke then saith Ieroboam now it is the time to praise God you praised God before when you were taking in of the fruits but you have not taken them all in you cannot come to use them but now having them all in and now being able to make use of them now is the time to praise God This was Jeroboams wisdome and he thought to make a Feast to take the people rather then Gods Feast There are no superstitious men but will have some argument and plea for their wayes to take the hearts of people to embrace those wayes rather then Gods simple plaine and pure Ordinances Well but though Jeroboam did it under this pretence yet hee lies still so those men that will take upon them to sanctifie dayes or places or garments or any gesture that God never did though they say they doe it for Gods honour to make Gods worship more glorious and decent yet it is a lie Just as those who will make Images brave golden Images of God O say they it is for the honour of God but marke what the Text faith Hab. 2. 18. What profiteth the graven Image that the maker thereof hath graven it the mâ—lten Image and a teacher of lyes If Images be lay mens bookes they are books that have abundance of errâ—aes in them they are full of lies Here now ariseth the Question about mans appointing Feasts whether there may he holy Feasts taken so in a proper sence by mans appointment Ieroboam is accused for it plainly and Gal. 4. 10. there is a charge upon the Galatians and that very severely You observe dayes and months times and yeers
thanksgiving Besides yet there is another thing considerable that is in the stating of the time Though men may thus depute and appoint dayes to worship God yet they cannot state any such dayes but onely as Gods providence calls them to it according to the present occasion Therefore it were certainly a sin if a state should appoint once every yeer to be a fasting day in a religious way God did so but men have no power to do so the reason is this because they doe not know but God may call them to rejoycing upon that day they have not the liberty of the time All that we can doe is this when God calleth us to fasting wee must appoint dayes of fasting when God calls us to rejoycing we must appoint dayes of rejoycing Therefore to appoint the time of Lent as a religious fast is sinfull and the Statute it selfe threatneth a mulct upon that man that shall call it a religious fast for civill ends it may be but stated fasts which are not limited by providence are certainly evil and so for these monthly fasts that are now injoyned if we should say we will have a fast once a moneth upon this day these twelve moneths or these two yeers I perswade my selfe the State should sin but to have it as long as Gods hand is upon us as long as the occasion lasteth and Gods providence calls us to it that is justifiable Our Brethren in Scotland wholly deny both stated Fasts and all other dayes Nay they will scarce agree to this monthly fasting we have because they are so loth to yeeld to any stat a jeiunia And I remember I have heard of a speech King James once made in Scotland blessing God that hee was borne at such a time and was a member of such a Church and the reason he giveth is this For saith he the Church of Scotland exceeds in this all other Churches England though it hath pure doctrine hath not pure discipline other Reformed Churches have pure doctrine and discipline but they retaine the observation of many holy dayes but the Church of Scotland hath pure doctrine and discipline and keeps no holy dayes and therefore saith he it is a purer Church then any in the world Thus I have endeavoured to shew you how far things may be set apart how far not when it commeth to be a sinne for any one to sanctifie a day By this we may see what a mercy it is to be delivered from those men who have robbed the Kingdome of so many dayes as they have and put so many superstitious respects upon them and so have involved us in much guilt blesse God for delivering us from them and for those dayes that God giveth us liberty to exercise our selves in his worship let us know our liberty in them Thus much for those Feasts that are called their Feasts that were of their owne appointment Her new moons The ordinance of God in the new moons is in Numb 28. 11. In the beginning of your new moons you shall doc thus and thus c. It was Gods ordinance that the Jews at the beginning of every month should have a holy day when they had a new moon they should keep that day holy to God That which the Latines call Calends were their new moones The holy solemnity of these dayes was in three things First the offerings that were there appointed by God particularly for that time were many chargeable two young bullocks one ram seven lambs of the first yeer without spot besides their flower oyl for their drink offerings and one kid of the goats for a sin-offering Secondly At these times they were wont to repaire to the Prophets for instruction to know the mind of God That you have 2 King 4. 23. where the husband of the Shunamire said to his wife wherefore wilt thou goe to him to day it is neither new moone nor sabbath Indeed if it were new moon or sabbath you may goe but while it is neither why will you goe That implyeth that this was a thing in use among the Jewes to repaire to the Prophets for instruction and to heare Gods word from them upon those dayes Thirdly yea it was unlawfull to buy and sell upon those dayes Amos. 8. 5. When will the new moone be gone that we may sell corn they were weary of it it seems because they might not buy and sell in it These three things we finde in Scripture upon their new moones Now Euxtorphius who relates to us the Jewish way hee tells us of three other things they were wont to doe in their new moones First Those that were most devout among them used to set apart a day for fasting and prayer to intreat God to blesse the new moon to them 2. As soone as there was an appearance of the new moone one steppeth up and cryeth O thou Creator of the moone be ever blessed and so he goes on in the benediction of God for this creature 3. They used to leap and to reach toward the moon so soone as they saw it speaking after this manner We reaching to the moon we cannot reach it so all our enemies that reach at us are as unable to reach us to our hurt as we that But why did God appoint this feast of the new moone It was appointed for these 4. ends 1. Because God would be acknowledged to have the government of all inferiour things in the world and especially of all the changes of times As the Sabbath was for putting us in minde of Gods creating the world so the new moones were appointed for them to blesse God for the government of the world for many nations have attributed much of the government of the things of the world to the moone the tydes you know ebbe and flow according to the moone the great worke of God in the seas seeme to bee governed by God in the use of that creature yea things seeme to be governed more sensibly by this creature then by others to the end therefore that they might not sticke in the creature but give God the glory therefore hee appointed the feasts of the new moone if they had any changes of times and seasons God caused it rather then this creature and as the heathens so they called the Moone the Queene of Heaven and they would not be taken off from offering cakes to the Queene of heaven they attributed all their prosperity to her as we reade in the Prophet Now from this God would take them off therefore he appointed this solemn feast of the new moone 2. God would hereby teach that the bringing of any light unto us after darknesse is meerly from himself and he must be acknowledged in it The Moone is a glorious creature and causeth much light but soone after there is darknesse and after this darknesse light springeth up againe Here is the work of God we are taught a morall lesson from this Feast that
we were mourning before him There was amongst our brethren in other parts a kind of trumpet of Iubile blown the Lord was then working for us what great deliverance did God grant that very day at Chichester God shews that the mourning of his people doth make way for joy Yea further then indeed is the sound of the trumpet of Iubile sweetest when we are most afflicted for our sins When we are most apprehensive and sensible of the evill of sin then the joy of God the comforts of the Gospel are sweetest to the soul When the trumpet of Iubile is blown in congregations if it meets not with hearts afflicted sensible of sinne they are not delighted with the sweet sound of this trumpet it is not melody in their ears it rejoy ceth not their hearts But let a poore soul be brought down and made sensible of the evill of sinne and Gods wrath then let but one promise of the Gospel be sounded forth how sweet how joyfull is it Again pardon of sin is the only foundation of all Jubiles For this tenth day of the seventh month wherein the trumpet of Jubile was to be sounded was a day of Atonement What is that A day of covering for so the word is of pardon of sin to the people of God Many men keep a continuall Jubile live merrily and bravely doe nothing but eate and drink and play and dance and laugh and cannot endure these fadde melancholy people What is the foundation of this thy Jubile Art thou sure there is an Atonement made between God and thy soule Art thou sure thy sin is pardoned Is this the foundation of thy rejoycing Know it will not last it is not Gods but the Devils Jubile except there be an atonement made between God and thee as the foundation of it Yet further in that the sound of the Jubile was at that time when the day of Atonement was Note this When God hath pardoned us then our hearts are in a fit frame to pardon others Now comes the Jubile and now you must release your lands your debts and forgive those that owe you any thing This is the day wherein God testifieth his mercy in pardoning your sinnes and they might well say Now Lord command us what thou wilt in shewing mercy to our brethren we are ready to pardon to release them to extend the bowels of our compassion towards them for thou hast pardoned our sins The reason of the rigidnesse of the cruelty the hardness of the hearts of men and straitnesse of their spirits to their brethren is this because God hath not witnessed to their souls the pardon of their own sinns an atonement between God and them Their solemn feasts Among their feasts they had three that were especially very solemn feasts more then others And they were The Feast of The Passeover Pentecost Tabernacles These three were very solemn especially in this one regard wherein they are all three united in one thing that is upon these three Feasts all the Males were to ascend up to Jerusalem to worship to the place which God did choose and so you have it Deut. 16. 16. Three times in a yeere shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shal choose in the feast of unleavened bread that was the Passeover and in the feast weeks that was Pentecost and in the feast of Tabernacles But how could the ten Tribes then keep these Feasts for they went not to the Temple You may as well say how had they an Ephod of which Chap. 3. Jeroboam was wise enough to keep the feasts though not in that way God appointed he could tell them the going to the Temple was but circumstance of place From this connection of these three together in this solemnity upon which these three were especially called their solemn feasts there are divers things to be noted First we may see a reason why there were sometimes so many beleevers at Ierusalem An argument is brought by some from that place Acts 21. 20. to prove that there may be in one Church more then can possibly assemble together in one Congregation for the Text saith there Thou seest how many thousands of Iews there are which beleeve how many millions it is in the Originall now say they there could not be so many millions to joyn in one Congregation The answer to this is cleare that the time of which this place speaketh was when the people of the Jews were all assembled together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost for Chap. 20. vers 16. the Text saith that the Apostle hastned if it were possible for him to be at Ierusalem the day of Pentecost now reading the story on it plainely appears that in that journey in which he did so hasten he did get to Ierusalem at the day of Pentecost and being there at that time no marvail that they said Dost thou not see how many thousands of Iews there are that beleeve For all the males of the people of the Iewes were got together at Ierusalem according to the institution so that they were there by reason of that Law that as yet they submitted to they were not in a Church state at Ierusalem therefore there is no strength in that objection against congregationall Churches Secondly where there is a nationall Church there must be an uniting of them in some way of Nationall worship There is this Nationall worship that the Iews by institution from God were united in three times in a yeare to go up to the Temple to worship And except there shonld be some such kind of individuall worship not in the same species that is as others are praying so are we and as others are hearing so are we for so all the Churches in the world may be joyned but to joyne in one act of worship together as that was of going up to the Temple there must be such a thing And that made the Iews a Nationall Church because we have no such institution now no Nation in the world can in a proper sense be said to be a Nationall Church as theirs was in some figurative sense we may so call it but not in that proper sense as it was among the Iews Thirdly there are some Ordinances that cannot be enjoyed but in the way of Church-fellowship The Iews could not enjoy these feasts as they ought indeed it may be Israel the ten Tribes would make a kind of patched up feast but they could not feast so as they ought unlesse they went to Ierusalem in that way God appointed As among the Iews there were some Ordinances they might enjoy in their Synagogues and private houses but some which they could not enjoy but in the Temple so there are some Ordinances we may enjoy in our families but others wee cannot enjoy but in Church-communion which Ierusalem is a type of A fourth thing observable is these three times wherein they were to go up to Ierusalem
the Church set out by the Jewish way of Feasts though there be mention of the Passeover and new moones and Sabbaths and of the Feast of Tabernacles yet there is no mention of the Feast of Pentecost no mention of keeping a Feast for blessing God for these things Not but that they should doe so but that their hearts should be so carryed up with abundance of spirituall mercies that then all for Christ and for heaven and for eternity their hearts should be wholly set upon spirituall things 7. It was a great ingagement to them to use the creatures when in the first beginning they had dedicated them unto God and in the conclusion of harvest they had solemnized his mercy in giving them the creatures For God did thereby teach them that they might be further engaged to use all creatures for his service As it is a mighty engagement to any man if God give him a heart to dedicate the beginning of a mercy unto God and when he hath got the mercy fulfilled then in a solemne manner he blesseth God for it to make use of this mercy for Gods honour Certainly the reason why many are so loose in their conversations and doe not employ the creatures of God to his glory is because they do not in a solemn manner blesse God for that they enjoy As in your trading suppose you have some comfortable Incomes perhaps you take these comforts and thanke God in a slight manner for them how doe you use them afterwards onely for your selves and for the flesh But when you heare of Incomes of riches flowing in upon you if you can then presently take the first Fruits and give some part to Gods service as a testimony of thankfulnesse and in your families and closets in a solemne manner give God the glory for the good successe you have had in your estate this will be a mighty ingagement to you to use your estates for his service 8. Mark at the first in their preparation they were to bring but a sheafe but afterward Levit. 23. 17. they were to bring two loaves in the first they were to offer one he-lambe without blemish but afterward seven lambes a young bullocke and two Rams c. both burnt-offerings and sinne-offerings and peace-offerings when they had received the full harvest Thence learne though you be forward to give God glory when you are young the first fruit of your years yet when you come to be old you should flourish in the Courts of Gods house First they offered but a little unto God afterward abundance Doe you so I appeale to all old men that are here this day if God did give you any heart to give up your young years to him blesse God for it but now when you are old are you as forward as ever you were You ought to be not onely so but much more abundant in the work of the Lord. Nay cannot others witnesse against you that there was such a time wherein you were more forward and that now you begin rather to temporize The LORD forbid this should be spoke of any old men God expects more afterward then at the first fruits and though nature may decay yet their is a promise that in their old age they shall flourish in the Courts of Gods house and shall manifest the graces of his Spirit much more VVe are ready at the first Fruits to offer unto God some what when his mercy commeth first but when mercy comes afterward more fully we should be more in our offerings You will say what is the meaning of this that there is a burnt offering a sin-offering and a peace-offering in the Feast of Pentecost what is the difference of these three offerings The difference is this The burnt offering was in testimony of their high respect to God they wholly had respect to God in the burnt offering that is they tendred up something to God as a testimony of the high honoraable esteem they had of his Majesty it was wholly to be given up to him Now in the other they had respect to themselves the sin-offering was not to offer a sacrifice meerly to testifie respect to God but to be a typicall signification of Christs sacrifice for sins they were to looke through their sacrifice to Christ and their sin-offering was to be an atonement for their sin The Peace-offering was in thanksgiving for a mercy or when they would petition to God for a further mercy All this must be done in the day of Pentecost But besides this end of Pentecost to solemnize the mercies of God in their harvest there is an other that is constantly affirmed by the Jewes and I finde many Divines making no question of it but I finde it not so clearly laid down in the word They say God in this feast did solemnize the giving of the law and this is their ground because fifty dais after their coming out of Egypt was the time of Gods giving the Law and so they say Pentecost was appointed to blesse God for giving the law The Iews say that God dealt with them as a King should deale with a poor man in prison first hee releaseth him of his bondage and withall tells him that after such a time he will marry him to his daughter now say they will not this man count every day long untill this time come So when God did deliver us out of AEgypt he told us that after such a time he would give us his law and marry us to his daughter which is the law and this is the reason why wee count so disigently the very weeks nay the days as longing for that time when we are to be marryed to the law when the Lord shall grant to us such a mercy From whence we may note that we are not only to keep Gods law but to rejoyce in Gods law not only to look at what is commanded as a duty but as a high priviledg and so blesse God for the law It is a higher thing to love Gods law and rejoyce in it then to obey it Great peace shall they have that love thy law David profest that he loved the law of God more then silver and gold that it was sweeter to him then the honey and the honey combe The Iews at this day do much reioyce when the law of God is read and in their Synagogues when the law of God is brought out they lift up their bodies in a kind of exlatation reioycing that God gave this law unto them Further the time of their Pentecost was the time of the descending of the holy Ghost upon the Apostles as God at that time gave the law by Moses so the Spirit at that time came by Christ to shew that we are in the Gospel to receive the Spirit of God to inable us to fulfill the law They had the letter of the law but in comparison of what we have they had not the Spirit
the Pagans were here in England they had their Flamins and their Archflamins London was one and Yorke was another and when they were converted to the Christian Religion yet still keeping some of their Heathenish customes instead of their Arch-flamins they made Arch-bishops and of their Flamins Bishops and that in their very places as London and Yorke and some say Chester they kept their Bishopricks still This is the very â—â—und of the antiquity of them therefore my brethren let not us be put off with such arguments as these men delude you they baffle you by these arguments The Tenth Lecture HOSEA 2. 11. And all her solemne Feasts c. WEE began the last day to speake something of the Feast of Trumpets you shall finde the institution of it in Leviticus 23. 24. You shall have a Sabbath a memorial of blowing of Trumpets Now there were divers ends of Gods institution of this Feast I have spoken of one the second reason of that Feast the Hebrews thinke was a remembrance of Isaacs deliverance when he should have been sacrificed and the Ram caught by the hornes to be sacrificed in his stead they drew it from this argument because that Feast is called A memoriall say they to remember the deliverance of Isaac and it must be by the Trumpets of Rams hornes to call this to remembrance the deliverance of Isaac and a Ram sacrificed in his stead this is the Iews opinion of it but it seemes to be farre from the meaning of the holy Ghost A third reason of the Feast of Trumpets some say Cajetan amongst others was instituted for a memoriall of Gods giving the lay by sound of the trumpet that is not likely neither because this Feast was not kept at the time of Gods giving the law if there were any time for the celebration of giving the law it must be at the Feast of Pentecost A fourth it was for a celebration of a memoriall of Gods goodness to them in the time of war for all the mercies of God unto them in their wars which was declared by the blowing of the trumpets But I rather take another reason to be a maine and principall reason of Gods institution of this Feast to be a preparation to the Feast of atonement and expiation and therefore saith Calvin it is called a memoriall Levit. 23 for this reason to put them in minde to humble themselves before God to afflict their hearts in the day of atonement and secondly a memoriall before God that God may remember them for mercy so the Iews observe from the seventh day of the first moneth unto the tenth day there was more then ordinary exercises in giving of almes in praying in going to their synagogues they were very devout for those ten dayes in way of preparation for the day of Atonement of Expiation From whence note It is of this use to us to prepare for the day of Fasting Ministers should blow their trumpets to the people to prepare them for that day God hath accepted of those poore kinde of fasts that we have kept abundance of mercies we have received on them there is scarce any one Fast day that is kept but we presently hear good news after it if we had kept Fast dayes as we ought if we had been prepared as we should O what might we have obtained of God by this time if God accepts such poor things as we do as God knowes they are poore and meane if we had every time a trumpet blown before us to prepare us for the day of atonement what atonements might England have made with God before this time to reade understandingly those things you reade about the Feast of Trumpets The next Feast was the feast of Expiation in the tenth day I thought not to have spoken of that because the Feast of Expiation is a Fast rather then a Feast but that is meant here as well as any of the other for this reason though it were a Fast yet the Hebrew word here that is translated solemne Feasts signifies onely a setled stated solemn time And Secondly It was a great mercy to them to have such a day of Fast though the day of atonement be a day of afflicting themselves yet it is the cause of rejoycing to a nation that God grants them such a day of atonement it is the speciall meanes to make way to the joy of a nation and therefore this is included amongst the other now the history of that you have in these two famous Scriptures Levit. 16. and Levit. 23. In this day of atonement the tenth day of the seventh month there are divers things very observeable and usefull for these times The first is The solemn charge that God gave for the afflicting mens souls upon that day you shall finde in a few verses three severall times a solemn charge to afflict their soules to humble their souls Levit. 23. 27. 29. 32. God appointed one day in the year for all the Jews to afflict their souls to make an atonement between God and them in a day of Fast and they were charged to be sure to afflict their souls then and that soul that did not God threatened to cut it off The second thing observeable is that the Priest was to goe into the Holy of Holies where he was to go but once a year Levit. 16. the beginning and the latter end compared together you shall finde it This may teach us thus much If ever we are to looke upon JESUS CHRIST in the presence of God to go into the Holy of Holies making intercession for us it is in the day of atonement in the day of publick Fast of the Kingdome then are we to exercise our Faith upon Christ as entring before God into the Holy of Holies for us after we have charged upon our souls our sins and afflicted our souls we must likewise cast up an eye of Faith beholding Jesus Christ our high Priest at that day before the Father making intercession for us The third thing observeable is at that day the Priest was to make an atonement for all the holy things in Lev. 16. 20. When he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place the Tabernacle and the altar c. the Priest was not only to seeke to make reconciliation between God and the people but to reconcile the holy places even the Holy of Holies had a kind of pollution in it and must be reconciled then and the Tabernacle and the Altar all of them had a kind of pollution upon them so infectious is the sin of man and all these were to be 〈…〉 a day of atonement 〈◊〉 teacheth us That in a day of Atonement of Fâ—sting we are then 〈…〉 speciall care to scâ—â—â— mercy from God to be â—â—conciled to us in regard of all our holy things our holy duties and offerings we are to seek then to get the best services that ever we performed in all our lives to be
the latter dayes shall bring his Saints unto yet then they shall remember with thankfulnesse what their poor unsetled condition once was Thus you have had a view of the chiefe of the Jewish Feasts which God threatens here shall cease There are onely these three Observations to be drawn from altogether First Even those things that are appointed by God himselfe if once they be abused God will not own them but then they are accounted ours rather then Gods her sabbaths why not my sabbaths why not Gods sabbaths God did appoint them but because they had abused them God would not own them her sabbaths and her solemn Feasts The Ordinances of God though never so good in themselves if you pollute them God rejects them they are your ordinances then and not Gods looke then that all ordinances be as God would have them Secondly It is a grievous and lamentable affliction upon any people for God to deprive them of his sabbaths and ordinances his ordinances are included in their solemne Feasts nay saith God you will goe on in your wickednesse and would put me off with your sabbaths and solemne meetings and with those things that were once my ordinances you will satisfie me with them though you continue in your wickedness no you shall be deprived of them you shall have no more sabbaths no more solemne Feast dayes it is a sad affliction for a people to have no more sabbaths How many of you neglect solemne meetings of Gods people time may come when God will rend these priviledges from you and then your conscience will grate upon you O the sabbaths that once we had O the solemn meetings that once we enjoyed but our hearts were vaine and slight we did not make use of them and now they are gone now perhaps thou art cast into a goale or into a dungeon and there thou keepest thy sabbaths thinkest upon thy solemne meetings O how unworthy is this land of sabbaths how did we set our selves to persecute those that kept sabbaths there was never any such a thing in any Christian nation other places though they are somewhat loose upon their sabbaths yet they never persecute them that will keep sabbath how justly might God have taken away our sabbaths let us acknowledge Gods free grace what reproach hath it been in England to assemble to heare Sermons how justly might God have taken away these solemne Assembles from us long before this let us pray that what ever judgement God sends upon us he will not take away our Sabbaths nor our solemne assemblies but that we may still enjoy those we have and enjoy them to better purpose then ever we have done 3. God hath no need of our services If God call upon us to worship him it is for our good not for any need he hath of what we doe What do I care saith God whether I have any Sabbaths kept or no I can provide for my glory what ever becomes of your duties I need them not I can be glorious without you But these threats are but to take away things that are spirituall carnall hearts thinke if they may live and prosper in the world what care they for Sabbaths and for solemn meetings Tell them of taking away Ordinances tell them of truth of Gods worship what is that to them Let us have our peace our trading and our outward blessings and truth will follow O no a gracious heart will rather reason thus O Lord let us have thy Ordinances let us have thy Gospel and then for our Vines and Fig-trees our tradings and our outward blessings we will leave them to thy dispose if thou will give us thy Sabbaths and thy Ordinances we will trust thee for our Vines and for our Fig-trees But if the Lord be so angry to deny us his Ordinances how can we ever thinke that he will be so mercifull to us to continue our peace or our civill liberties No sure if Truth be gone Vines and Fig-trees will not stay long The next words therefore are I will destroy her Vines and her Fig-trees The Lord may suffer those places that never had Sabbaths and Ordinances to prosper in their Civill â—eace a long time but where these have and the wrath of God be so incensed as to take away these it cannot be expected that outward peace and plenty can hold long there First seeke the kingdom of heaven saith Christ and all these things shall be added unto you No say they let us first seeke the kingdome of earth and the things of heaven will be added to us which shewes the sleightnesse of their account of heavenly things As the paper and the thred in a shop is given in to the commodity it is added if a man bargaine for the paper and thred and think the commodity will be given in what a folly were it Many men have their thoughts altogether upon the things of this life and they think the Gospel will be given into the bargaine as if they have peace they shall no question have truth as if the Gospel were the paper and thred and the things of the world were the commodities It is your wisdome if you would enjoy outward peace let your hearts be for Ordinances cry to God for Ordinances and then God will take care you shall sit under your Vines and under your Fig-trees peace The Eleventh Lecture HOSEA 2. 12. 13. And I will destroy her Vines and her Fig-trees whereof shee hath said These are my rewards that my lovers have given me and I will make them a forrest and the beasts of the field shall eate them And I will visit upon her the dayes of Baalim wherein she burnt incense to them and she decked her selfe with her eare-rings and her jewels and she went after her lovers and forgat me saith the Lord. GODS threatning Israel in taking away spirituall mercies their Sabbaths and Ordinances their solemne Feasts you have in the former verse but because they might not be much sensible of such a judgement to be deprived of Sabbaths and solemnities of worship would not be so grievous to many but the destroying of the fruit of the ground the spoiling of their land the losse of those things wherein their riches and outward comforts lay would be more grievous therefore God joynes this threat with the former And I will destroy her Vines and Fig-trees In these two Vines and Fig-trees there is a Synecdoche by these are meant all her outward prosperity I will not lop their Vines I will not cut downe some branches of their Fig-trees only but destroy them If God stayes long before a judgement comes hee comes fearfully indeed he comes with destroying judgments then he strikes at the very rooâ—e of all a peoples prosperity and leaves them hopelesse of ever recoveriug themselves It concerns us to humble our selves under Gods hand when he doth but cut off some branches of our vines and fig-trees of our outward
iniquity but I will make them to be as a witnesse against them Certainly there is a truth in this Those things that you rejoyce in as got by sin the Lord will make them to rise up and witnesse against you be sure now you cast them out they will be witnesses against you another day else A man that is guilty would be glad when he knows one that would witnesse against him were dead or out of the way have you got any thing by a sinfull way have you got any thing by a sinfull course put it out of the way for otherwise it will bee a witnesse against you either upon your sick-bed or at the great day of Judgement but how can thesee-two readings be reconciled I will make them as a witnesse against you and I will make her as a forrest It is true the words in the English seem to be very wide one from another but there is an easie mistake that might cause the Seventy to read those words so as to render them thus I will put them as a witnesse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a forrest in the Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to witnesse so it is used Zach. 3. 6. Montanus reads those words Contestabatur Angelus now those that are skilful in the Hebrew know that there being no more difference in the words then in those letters which are so like one another one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there might easily be a mistake in that regard but we take it as it is here I will make her as a forrest The Church is Gods garden hedged in with Gods protection but God here threatens to take away the hedge and let in the wild beasts Concerning the hedg of God about his Church we have spoken before The wilde Beasts are one of Gods sore judgements often threatned Those who will not be subject to the blessed holy God they shall be subject to the ravening and rage of Beasts And it is like the Seventy understood it even literally of that judgment of noysome beasts to be let in upon them for I find that they add to these words the beasts shall eate them the fowles of the Heaven and the creeping things of the earth shall devoure but though I find that in the translation of the Seventy yet I do not find it in the Hebrew Text and therefore we must let it passe and only speak of what we have here of the beasts eating Now therefore by that according to most Interpreters I incline to think and am perswaded that it is the intention of the holy Ghost to express a judgment beyond the judgment of letting in of noysome beasts namely the Assyrians the adversaries of Israel who should come upon them as ravening beasts to devour them from whence the words being so opened you have these three notes of great use concerning us The first is sin makes men like Beasts the beasts of the earth he meanes the Assyrians great ones and yet he calls them the beasts of the earth to be like a beast is worse then to be a beast for to be a beast is but to be as God made the creature it is no dishonour to it but to be like a Beast that is the corruption of a creature and the deformity of it the worst deformity that possibly can be Chrysostome shews it thus Beasts saith he have but some particular evill take the worst of all as the Swine sensuality the Tyger and the Bear cruelty the Fox subtlety c. But wicked men have all evills that all beasts in the world have in them One wicked man hath the sensuality of a Swine and cruelty of a Tyger of a Bear the subtilty of a Fox and whatsoever is set out Emblematically by any Beast a wicked man hath it all in his heart yea and farther wicked men are worse then beasts in this that they doe corrupt themselves in those things that they have common together with beasts more then beasts do As the Drunkard corrupts himself in his drink which a beast will not do a glutton corrupts himselfe in his meaâ—â—ore then ordinarily a beast will do and that I think is the 〈◊〉 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 Iude ver 〈…〉 of that they know not and what they know naturally as bruit beasts in those things they corrupt themselves As for their intellectuall parts they will be speaking evill of what they know not they will take upon them as if they knew much but the truth is they understand little and yet they will speak evill of that they know not It is a dreadfull Text against such as will be crying out against men and their ways when as in truth they know not what they are but further in that they know naturally as bruit beasts in that they corrupt themselves that is in things they do know meerly by sense as bruite beasts do they know by tasting and by smelling as bruit beasts do in those very things they corrupt themselves more then bruit beasts that is by excess in meats and drinks Would not any account it to be one of the greatest judgments that could befall him if God should turne him into the fashion of a Beast while he lives here in this world though he should still retain the mind of a man in him Suppose God should inflict this judgment upon a Drunkard he should still have his intellectuall parts as now he hath but yet his body should be turned into the form of a Swine or a rayler into the form of a dog as they say Hecuba Priamus his wife was for her rayling would not this be a fearfull judgment It is an expression of a heathen Lactantius hath it from Cicero saith he If it would be such a judgment as a man would be willing to indure any misery in the world rather then to have his body turned into the fashion of a Beast is it not as great a misery to keep the fashion of the body and to have the mind to become like a beast to keep a humane shape with the soul of a beast surely it is worse then to have the shape of a beast with the soul of man Secondly God looks upon wicked men who do great things in the world with a contemptible eye the Beasts shall devour that is the great King of Assyria and all his Courtiers about him and Cavalliers with him they shall come to devour them they are but the beasts God speaks in a contemptible manner as he doth against Senacherib that King of Assyria in Isa 37. 29. God threatens to put a hooke in his nostrils and a bridle in his lips because of his rage and of his tumult that is he would use him as a beast to hook his nose to put a bridle into his jaws Mark likewise how contemptible God speaks of the King of Babylon and his whole army Ioel 2. 20. His stinke
was but to believe in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came to pardon sinners c. when he came upon his sick bed he was in great torment of conscience and grievous vexation and cryed out bitterly of his Apostacy there came some of his acquaintance to him and spake words of comfort and tells him that Christ came to save sinners and he must trust in Gods mercy c. At length he begins to close with this and to apply this to himself and to have a little ease upon which his companions began to be hardned in their ways because they saw after so ill a life it was so easie a matter to have comfort but not long before he dyed he brake out roaring in a most miserable anguish O! saith hee I have prepared a plaister but it will not sticke it will not sticke wee shall find though the grace of God be rich and the salve be a soveraign unlesse God be pleased to make it stick by speaking to our hearts nothing can be done From hence further learn this note As when God speaks comfortably to his people he speaks to their hearts so Gods Ministers when they come to speak in Gods name should labour to speak so as to do what they can to speak to hearts It is true indeed it is impossible that any man of himselfe can speake to the heart of another but yet he may endeavour and aime that way there is a kind of speaking that God doth assist so as to bring it to the heart of his people What speaking is that you will say That that cometh from the heart will most likely go to the heart though I know God can take that which comes but from the lips and carry it to the heart when he pleases yet ordinarily that that comes from the heart goes to the heart therefore Ministers when they come to speak the great things of the Gospel they should not seeke so much for brave words and enticing ways of mans wisdome but let them get their own hearts warmed with that grace of the Gospel and then they are most like to speak to the hearts of their Auditors It is a good note that I have met with from Ribera let Ministers remit saith he of their care of fine curious words of brave neate phrases and cadencies of their sentences but let them bend their studies to manifest humility and mortification and to shew love to the soules of people otherwise though they speake with the tongues of men and Angels they shall become but like the sounding brasse and the tinckling cymball this is an expression even of a Jesuite it were then a great shame that Gods Ministers should not labour to speak so as that they may speak to the hearts of people you must be desirous of such kind of preaching as you find speaks to your hearts not that that comes meerly to your eares how many men love to have the word jingle in their ears and in the mean time their hearts go away and not one word spoke to them but when you finde a Ministry speake to your hearts close with it bless God for it and count it a sadd day when you goe from a Sermon and there is not one word spoke to your hearts in that Sermon From the connection of these two I will bring them into the wildernesse speak unto their hearts if we should take the wildernesse for bringing into affliction because there are so many interpreters that are very godly men learned men go that way I dare not wholy reject it but that there may be some intention that way Hence the first note is Afflictions make way for Gods word to the hearts of sinners there are many obstructions at the hearts of men while they are in prosperity but when afflictions come God by them opens those obstructions and so gets his word to their hearts afflictions cannot convert the heart but they can take away some obstructions that did hinder the word from coming to the heart Many of you have heard thousands of Sermons and scarce know of any one that hath come to your hearts but when God casts you upon your sicke beds and you apprehend death then you feele the same truthes that you were not sensible of before they lie upon your hearts the threatning word of God that went but to the ear before now it is got to the heart now it terrifies now you cry out of your sins and rellish the sweet promises of the Gospel that afflictions make way for I remember an expression that I have read of Bernard he had once to a brother of his who was a Souldier but riotous and prophane Bernard gives him many good instructions wholsome admonitions and counsels his brother seemed to slight them he made nothing of them Bernard comes to him and puts his hand to his side one day saith he God will make way to this heart of yours by some speare or launce he meant God would wound him in the Wars and so hee would open a way to his heart and then his admonitions should get to his heart and as he said so it fell out for going into the Wars he was wounded and then he remembers his brothers admonitions they got to and lay upon his heart to purpose It God should let the enemy in upon us their swords or bullets may make way to our hearts that so Gods word may come to have entrance there the Lord rather pierce our hearts by his spirit then that way to our hearts should be made thus Secondly when we are brought to great affliction that is the time for Gods mercies This should make us not to be so afraid of afflictions how afraid are we how do we hang back when we see afflictions coming why art thou so loth O thou Christian to come to affliction the time of affliction is the time for God to speake to the heart of a sinner many sinners may say that their condition hath been like Jacobs he never had a more sweete vision of God then when he lay abroad in the fields with no other pillow under his head then a stone it may be God will take away all your outward comforts and when they are all gone then may be Gods time to speake comfortably to your heart Thirdly the words of mercy O how sweet are they when they come to the heart after an affliction Psam 141. 6. Thy Judges shall be overthrown in strong places they shall he are my words for they are sweet If the words be taken for bringing into the wildernesse that is for Gods wonderfull workings for the good of his people then the note is When God works great and wonderfull things amongst a people then God speaks to the heart of that people then surely God hath spoken to our hearts for he hath done great and wonderfull things amongst us he did not more wonderfull things amongst his people in the wildernesse
worship hath beene amongst us more then in any reformed Church we have beene a proud people we have thought our selves rich wanting nothing whereas we knew not that we were indeed wretched miserable poore blinde and naked and those who would be Angels of this Church how hath God spuâ—d them out of his mouth they are cast out as filthy they have laine upon the stomack of God and his Saints a long time they with all that belonged to their Courts have made themselves a most â—oathsome generation of men and now God is at our doore knocks cals to us to let him in that he may come and rule us that he may bring peace salvation unto us But howsoever whether Christ be admitted by the State yea or no yet let the Saints who are willing that Christ should rule over them hold on to the end the promise is even to those in Laodicea to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 11. â—et us encourage what we are able all our faithfull doore-keepers those who are the publicke instruments of God for our good upon whom so much of the great affayres of the kingdom under God depends And for the quickning of our hearts that we may doe all we can that this our doore of hope be not shut against us Consider further First This doore was opened to us when we began to think yea almost to conclude that all doores of hope had beene shut against England when we were ready to give up all for lost Secondly It was opened to us after much knocking by prayer If ever there were a Parliament of prayer since the world began this was and is How dreadfull then would it be to have this doore shut against us Thirdly It was opened by a mighty hand of God Josephus tells us of a doore of the Temple that used to have thirty men to open it and yet as a prognostication of some great thing to fallout it opened of its own accord This our door was more hard to be opened thousands of men could not have opened this it was the mighty work of God to doe it Fourthly It is a door that opens to the greatest mercies that ever England had how happy would England be in the happy success of this Parliament 5. It is a door that our adversaries have laboured all they can to shut by policy and by force and thorow Gods mercy yet they cannot 6. How sweet have the manifestations of God been to us in the beginnings of his goodnesse and our endeavours Canâ— 5 4. 5. My beloved put his hand at the door my bowels were moved my hands dropped myrrhe and my fingers sweet smelling myrrhe upon the handles of the locke the beginning of reformation but the hand upon the door is sweet what would the work compleated be 7. If this doore should be wholly shut against us what a miserable people should we be if these men have their wills then never expect Parliaments more or never good from Parliaments They will be the most contemptible and servile things that can be if any they will be doores to let in all misery to frame mischiefe by a law then what are we and our posterity but slaves the Popish party must yea will be gratified their designe will be effected what contempt of the Saints of Religion what hatred what persecution will then follow what horrid blasphemies how will they be hardned in all manner of wickednesse our estates our liberties our Religion are then gone yea it is like our lives and if not so so miserable would our lives be as we had better have the grave open her mouth upon us and we be shut in it then to live to see hear and feele such things as we and our friends are like to heare see and feele It would be the most horrid judgment that ever was against a nation it may be told to all the nations of the world God gave England a fair opportunity to help it self to be a most happy nation but they had no hearts they were blinded their hearts were taken from them those worthies they chose who ventured themselves for them they basely deserted and betrayed they have also vilely betrayed themselves their liberties their Religion their posterity and now are become the most miserable nation the most fearful spectacle of Gods wrath upon the face of the earth Wherefore beloved in the Lord let us make sure of Christ who is our hope and who says of himselfe that he is the door as indeed hee is to let in all mercies of God into us that whatever disappointment we have of our hopes here yet we may not be disappointed of our last hopes though it should prove that here looking for light behold darknes yet we looking for the light of Gods face eternally we may not be driven out to everlasting darknes But shall I end thus nay the close of all shal rather be the close of the 31 Psal Be of good courage and he shal strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the Lord hope yet that God will make the valley of Achor adoor of hope unto us The next words in this Scripture are words of joy She shall sing as in the dayes of her youth Was there ever a time wherein shee had cause to sing praise to God there are times coming that shall be as joyfull as ever yet times have been God hath mercy for his people he hath singing times for them The Foureteenth Lecture HOSEA 2. 15. And she shall sing there as in the dayes of her youth as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt YOu have heard formerly of the valley of Achor that God gave to his people to be a doore of hope This day you shall heare of Gods people standing singing at this door of hope Though it be but a door of hope yet at that day they shall there sing as in the days of her youth when they came up out of the land of Egypt There are six things needfull to be opened for the meaning of Gods mind here in this their singing at the door of hope First the reading of the words are to be cleared 2. The scope is to be shewed 3. What the dayes of youth that are here spoken of are is to be opened 4. What was the song that they did then sing in the dayes of their youth is to be declared 5. What cause they had to sing in this the day of their youth is to be enquired after Lastly how this is applyable to repenting Israel and what time this prophesie aâ—meth at likewise is to be manifested For the first the reading of the words you have it in your bookes they shall sing as in the dayes of their youth There are only two words that have need of opening First the word translated singing
let us say Priests they say superintendents but let us keep the word Bishop it is a Scripture word indeed but not in that sense they call it for in the Scripture sense every Presbyter is a Bishop they say Sacrament let us keep the word Sacrifice and Host they say Congregation let us keep the word Church they morning evening prayer let us keep the words Mattens even-song and so Oblation Lent and Palmsunday and Christmas day c. This was the policy of Papists and it hath been the policy of many of us to bring in popery by Let us take heed of this for the Devill is subtile in this for though these words have some kind of good sense in the Originall yet there is danger in the use of them Augustine in his preface to his narration upon the Psalms hath this expression It is a better thing in the mouths of Christians to speak according to the manner of the Church so we may well say it had been better that in the mouths of Protestants there had been the ordinary language of Protestants not the language of Papists Certainly if God had not been very mercifull unto us the very language of Papists that began to be amongst us would have done abundance of mischief take heed as long as you live of the language of Papists whatsoever pretence they may have for their words In that place of the Rhemists Testament quoted they say Let us take heed of the words of hereticks they there confess that heretiques as they call us use many words that have no great hurt in them but because they are the words of heretiques let us not say they use them They are wise enough they will not use our words though they confesse the words themselves have no harme in them yet because they are our proper language as they make them distinct from themselves therefore no Catholiques should use them why should not we be as wise as they The second Observation Idolatry is a most loathsome and abominable thing Why Surely that is most loath some that we may not so much as mention that we may not so much as remember We must seek to abolish the very name the very remembrance of Idolatry as much as possibly we can First one that we hate we do not love his presence we do like his company Secondly if we hate him very much we doe not love so much as to see him and if perhaps we doe see him afar off out hearts rise that is a second degree But thirdly if our hatred be so great thee wee cannot endurâ—â—â— name him that is a greater degree of hatred But fourthly if wee cannot endure to remember him that is more then to name him Yet thus should it be in our manifestation of our hatred to Idolatry we should not admit it into our company much lesse then to joyn in the Ordinances of God We should not admit no not the very sight of it no not the name of it no not the memory of it without a great deale of indignation Jer. 44. 4. Oh doe not this abominable thing saith the Lord there The Lord cryes out with a shriek as it were Oh! doe not this abominable thing as if any of you should see one ready to murther your child or to cut the throat of your father you would shrick out Oh! what mean you to doe do not such a horrible villany as this so God cries out as it were with a shriek do not this abominable thing It is observable in the second commandement that God saith hee will visite the sinn upon the third generation of them that hate him none seem to love God more then wil-worshippers they will not only worship God as he hath appointed but will devise ways of their owne and yet God charges the breakers of no commandement with hatred of him but onely these As if God should say you pretend love to me in that you will finde out new wayes to worship me by you pretend decency and reverence but I account it hating me you can provoke me in nothing more Tertullian in his book De Idololatria hath this expression Idolatry is the principall hey nous crime of mankind it is the chief guilt of the world and the onely cause of judgment in the world It were good therefore seeing God hates it and loaths it so much that we should hate and loath it and therefore even cast out the name and the memory of it it were a happy thing if this could be obtained that now the names as of Popish so of heathenish Idols could be got out from the Church But I know not how it comes to passe that we Christians do still retaine the use of their names the very dayes of the week amâ—â—g us are called by the names of Planets or Heathen Gods Not that I think it a sin when it is the ordinary language of the world so to speak as may be understood for the Apostle as I said afore mentioneth the name of Castor and Pollux but if there could be an alteration by a generall consent it were a thing desireable as our brethren in New-England doe and it were very desireable likewise that our children might not be educated in the use of heathen Poems where the names of heathen Idols are kept up fresh amongst us The Papists themselves acknowledge so much in their notes upon the Rhemists Testament Rev. 1. 10. where they say the name Sunday is Heathenish as all other of the week dayes some imposed after the name of Planets by the Romans some by the name of certaine Idols that the Saxons worshipped to which they dedicated their days before they were Christians which names the Church used not but hath appointed to call the first day Dominike the Lords the other by the name of Feries untill the last day of the week which she calleth by 〈…〉 name Sabbath because that was of God and 〈…〉 imposition of 〈◊〉 â—eathen And in their Annotations upon Luke 24. 1. The first day of the Sabbath that is first after the Sabbath which is our Lords day And the Apostle 1 Cor. 16. 2. commanded a collection to be made on the first of the Sabbath whereby wee learn say they both the keeping that day the Churches count of days 2 3 4. of the Sabbath that is the second day the third day of the week and so on to be Apostolicall which S. Sylvister afterward named 2. 3. 4. Feriam Thus you have the Papists acknowledging the Lords day to be Apostolicall and the calling the days of the week the 2. the 3. the 4. c. to bee likewise Apostolicall The Heathenish Roman names of the days were from the seven Planets 1. Sol from thence Dies solis Sunday dedicated to the Sun 2. Luna Monday dedicated to the Moon 3. Mars Tuesday dedicated to Mars Our English Tuesday is a Saxon name from Tuisco who they say was chiefe leader and
Apostle in that place and upon that ground it is made a sin You cannot saith he partake of the Table of the Lord aud the table of devils if you eat of their meat you communicate with them so it is sinne to you Thirdly To make use of any thing abused by Idolaters when it cometh to be a scandoll to our brethren a snare to those that are weake then it is a sin against God 1 Cor. 10. 28. eating meat offered to Idols is forbidden in the former place upon a ground of communicating but in this 28. ver it is forbidden upon the ground of scandoll that is enough Calvin in his Epistle to the Lord Protector in King Edwards dayes hath these words What other things were those ceremonies maintayned by in England but so many pleasing allurements that ensnare poore miserable soules bring them into evil certainly these that we have retayned have brought abundance of evil this way they have been the ensnaring of many souls In these three things the rules that concerne the Jews have a morality concerning us But yet these rules must be observed with some cautions or else we may goe away and not understand the ruels aright They must be understood first in things that are not Ordinances continued by God for certainly if it be an Ordinance that God hath appointed though Idolaters abuse it never so much we must goe on in it It is true the brazen serpent was an Ordinance of God but it was an Ordinance but for a time it was not a continued Ordinance and therefore being abused to Idolatry it was to be destroyed but when a thing is an Ordinance appointed by God to be continued in the Church we must go on in the use of it though it be abused As in Baptisme the ordinance is water though they abuse water we must continue the use of it in the ordinance in the Lords supper is the use of bread and wine though they abuse those elements we must continue them why because no abuse is an argument to refuse that which is a duty the subject of scandall is a thing indifferent but if it be an ordinance we must continue our obedience whether men be offended or not offended Secondly Neither can any of these rules hold in any thing that is of necessary use for the worship of God so as we cannot enjoy the worship of God without them As for places supose Idolaters have abused a place of meeting for Gods worship when we have no other place to meet in this is for the present at least of necessary use to Gods worship there is a naturall necessity of a place and if no other for the present may be had we are bound to worship in that place the abuse of men must not hinder Gods worship God hath never put his worship under the power of wicked men so as they should keep his people off from it when they please Thirdly If it be any ceremony that of its own nature not by vertue of any institution from man hath that decency in it as that the want of it would be an undecency then though it be never so much abused we are to goe on in it for it is the duty of Gods people to worship God in a decent way It is the rule of the Apostle Let all things be done decently but there is a mistake in that use that many make of that Scripture this rule is that which the light of nature teaches though we had never found it in Scripture it is not meant of such a decency as the institution of man puts upon a thing but such a decency as God in the nature of the thing puts upon it so that if it were wanting the worke would bee undecently performed But if the things be meerly mans inventions and institutions having their supposed decency not from what is indeed in the things themselves but from that which mans institution puts upon them then they come not under that rule of the Apostle but the abuse of them is argument enough for their rejection But it may be objected If we can instruct people what the abuse is and what right use they may make of such things will not that serve for the retaining them No certainly it had not been enough for the Jews to use the name Baali though their Prophets had taught them what the abuse of it was This is as if a man should keep a company of rags that have lien a great while upon plague sores and say it is enough I will wash them cleane and lay them out to ayre them will any wise man keep such rags in his house upon this precence Those things that have had poyson in them none will be so unwise to keep them by them upon pretence of washing them clean if they be broken vessels of which there is no use they are cast upon the dunghill with lesse trouble and more safety All things that are of mans invention yea those things that have beene Gods Ordinances but now are out of date are not for the present Gods Ordinances the Scripture calls them beggerly rudiments you cannot compare mens inventions to cloaths or any thing worth the ayring or keeping but the truth is all such things that have been abused to Idolatry are no other but as such dirty rags and plaisters laid upon plague-sores But further you will say If that use we receive them for be not the same use they were in if we retain them for another use that is good why may we not doe it The text answers that though the Jews should call God Baali in a right sense it was not enough they must wholly reject the very mentioning of the name But further suppose a harlot should be brought out of a most notorious stews in Rome or Paris and brought to Dover into an honest mans chamber is shee not a harlot still and is there not a provocation in her to uncleannesse though she become now to lye not in the stewes but in the chamber of an honest man So in all those things that have been abused to Idolatry though you should think you make use of them in a better way it is no other then to bring a harlot out of the stews into a place not so vile and to company with the harlot there Besides if a mans wife whom her husband had not without just cause suspected for uncleannesse with another man should get something from that man and keep it in her bosome or lay it next her heart and should tell her husband true she keeps such a thing but she intends no hurt in it it is a good thing onely she had it from him will this think you satisfie any jealous husband The Church is the wife of Christ he is jealous and he hath cause to be jealous for he knows while we are in the flesh we are prone to spirituall filthinesse and if we take any
wayes as may prove fearfull unto us and make our hearts to ake and our eares to tingle VVee have a notable passage for this Ezekiel 6. 6. In all your dwelling places saith God your Cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be desolate marke that your Altars may be laid waste and made desolate and your Idols may be broken and cease and your Images may be cut down and your works may be abolished Observe the Text In all your dwelling places your Cities shall be laid waste to what end That your Altars may be laid waste So that God will lay waste their Cities for this very end that hee may lay waste their Altars if they will not lay waste their Altars if they will not abolish their superstitions that are amongst them God will abolish their Cities lay waste their Cities that he may lay waste their Altars God hath begun to put it into the heart of our governors the Parliament to abolish many superstitious pictures and crosses in divers places there is yet one great one remaining and we hope God upon the same grounds may put into their hearts the abolishing of that It would be a dreadfull thing unto you if God now calling upon us to cast out the remainders of all Idolatry superstition to lay waste all Idolatrous Pictures Images and Crosses if we should not come off but that God should lay waste your Cities to lay waste your Altars Crosses and reliques of Idolatry You see God threatneth this here as if God did not intend so much to lay waste their Cities hee would preserve them but because he could not that we may speake according to the manner of men abolish their Altars but by laying waste their Cities saith God rather then your Altars shall stand your Cities shall downe God hath wayes and most terrible wayes too to take away the memory of superstitious vanities Oh that vve had hearts to joyne with God before he cometh in such a dreadfull manner to abolish the memory of such things Were our Prelates in their power such a speech as this could not be borne when Master Vdal a godly Preacher in Queene Elizabeths dayes was charged with such an expression If it come in that is the true government of Christ as he meaneth by that means that will make all your hearts to ake blame your selves for these words especially was he then condemned to be hanged such was the rage and potency of the Prelates in those dayes What I have said may be against the spirits of such as cleave to superstitious vanities wee have no cause to feare the exasperating of these for surely they cannot be more exasperated then they are for the present and it were a foolish thing to exasperate and provoke God for feare of further exasperation in those who are for the present exasperated even to the utmost against us And if they were not but the exasperation would arise new what is the exasperation of vile men to the abiding of the wrath of God upon us VERSE 18. And in that day I will make a Covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowles of Heaven and with the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bow and the sword the batteli out of the earth and I will make them to lye downe safely In this verse God promiseth peace and security peace in regard of their deliverance from the beasts of the field and fowles of the heaven creeping things of the ground Peace from the hostility of their adversaries he will break the bow the sword the battell out of the earth And security they shall lye down safely I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field c. Some allegorize upon these words the beasts of the field they say are meant cruell wicked men the fowles of the ayre ambitious wicked men that are lofty in their thoughts counsels the creeping things of the ground subtill adversaries God here promises they say to deliver them from all these But I desire not to fall upon Allegories but when there is a necessity therefore take the words literally The beasts of the field fowles of the ayre and creeping things of the earth But how may God be said to make a covenant for his people with the beasts of the field and the fowles of heaven and the creeping things of the earth For to speake properly no creature is capable of a Covenant with God but onely the rationall The meaning is there shall be such an establishment of Gods worke upon the beasts and fowles and creeping things for the good of his Church as if God had bound them to doe them good by way of Covenant that way of God is called making of a Covenant with them I will shew it you in another Scripture Ier. 33. 20. If you can break my covenant of the day my covenant of the night that there should not be day and night in their season c. How doth God make a Covenant with the day and a Covenant with the night Thus there is an establishment of Gods decree upon the day and upon the night that it should be in such and such a way from the Creation unto the end of the world and that establishment is called Gods Covenant so Oceolampadius upon my Text I will order inviolably and unalterably there shall be an establishing decree upon these creatures that they shall doe you no hurt but good From hence the notes are these First Sin hath caused enmity between man and the creatures that is implyed here I will saith God make a Covenant upon your reconciliation with me and your reformation with the creatures now they shall be at peace with you I will doe it noting that by our sin there is grown enmity betweene us and Gods creatures VVe have lost by sin a great part of our dominion that God gave us over his creatures that was the result from that Image of God that man was created in Therefore when you see any creature to rebell against you bee put in minde your rebellion against God It is true God hath kept a little of mans dominion over the creature still to the end that the world and humane society may be preserved Sometimes you may see a little child driving before him a hundred Oxen or kine this way or that way as he pleaseth it sheweth that God hath preserved somewhat of mans dominion over the creatures But a great part is lost by our sin If we that are the servants of God rebell against him it is just with God that the creatures that were made to be our servants should rebell against us And you who are Superiors when any of your inferiours are stubborne against you your servants your children rebellious raise your hearts up to this meditation My servant is rebellious against me how have I been rebellious against
he should sinne against them this aggravateth the sinne exceedingly To wrong love is a very great sin Delicata res est amor love is a most delicate thing and it must not be wronged it is tender a precious thing A man who is of an ingenuous spirit had rather a great deale be wronged in his estate then in his love he cannot beare the injury that is done unto his love when his love is abused that goes to his very heart So it goes to the heart of God for his people to sin against his love therefore it is said of the Saints when they sinne that they grieve the Spirit of God he never saith so of wicked men they anger God but the Saints grieve him because they sinne so much against Gods love Charge this aggravation of your sinne upon your hearts and be humbled collect together all the expressions of Gods love to you and let them lye glowing at your hearts and melt them But in that God bids him take an Adulteresse beloved of her friend and calls not this friend Husband I thinke those who goe another way expresse the minde of the Holy Ghost in this more fully thus This friend is not meant of one who is fully married but rather one in a way of marriage Amongst the Jewes it was usuall for all women to be under the protection of some men or other Esay 4. 1. Seven women came and tooke hold of one man and said Let us be named by your name we will eate our own bread and weare our own cloathes onely let us be named by your name let us be under your protection Even whores were wont though they had many lovers yet to have some one speciall man under whose protection and care they would be who was to see them not to have wrong and to make provision for them and such a one they were wont to call their friend And many times these friends would so provide for them that if they would be reclaymed forsaking all their other lovers they would give them good hopes of marrying with them at length Arias Montanus refers us to one Propertius in his first Book and second Elegie to reade about the charge and care of such a friend The Grecians had that custome likewise they called him under whose protection they put themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whore was called from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is said of Plato that he had a whore one Archenassa who was called Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Lord would have the Prophet take an Adulteresse beloved of her friend that is one that was a common Adulteresse and yet under the protection of some speciall friend so as if he might come in place of that friend and gain the love and affection of this Adulteresse to himself and in time getting her to be reclaimed he might marry her unto himselfe This is according to the love of God to his people that is as if God should say This people is a going a whoring but I will be content to take them unto my selfe I will be as their friend and so love them as a friend to protect them to have care over them untill such a time that there may be some experience of their being reclaimed and then I will marry this Adulteresse fully unto my selfe for God is not now fully marryed unto the Jews neither will that marryage be untill that glorious time of their calling comes but yet God is as a friend to them to this day that is God takes this people yet under his protection though they seeme to be in a rejected condition and so as he gives hope yea makes many promises that upon their return unto him he will marry them unto himselfe yea there shal be a more glorious marriage between the Jews the Lord Christ then ever yet there was between him and any people upon the face of the earth This I thinke to be the very scope and meaning of the words Beloved of her friend Somewhat sutable is that we have Deut. 21. 12. 13. when one of the Jews took a captive woman he might not marry her presently to himself but if he had a love to her she was to continue a certaine time and to be so and so purified and then he was to take her The Jewes are for the present as that captive woman they are in bondage yet God hath a love to them unto this day but so as they must abide a while untill God be maryed to them they are beloved of God but yet with the love of a friend The Seventy reade these words Beloved of her friend One that loveth evill things upon the mistake of the Hebrew word for indead a friend and evill are the same letters only differing in the points so there might easily be a mistake Who looke to other gods Their eyes are upon other gods Where the heart is there the eyes is Timor figit oculum so Amor Feare fastens the eyes and so doth Love The workings of the soule appeares as much in the eye as in any member the workings of love of trust and confidence appeare much in the eye They looke to other gods that is they have confidence in other gods Looking up to a thing in Scripture phrase is to have some confidence in it Psal 121. 1. I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence commeth my help That is I look for help I have confidence and expect help But how here to the hills then What doth Davids help come from the hills Some thinke this to be the place where afterward the Temple was built and was then the place of the Sanctuary but for that it is said that usually in Scripture is but in the singular number the hill of God not the hils therefore I finde Calvin Mollerus and others thinke that David here speakes of confidence in the creature because he presently retracts him selfe in the second verse My helpe is in Jehovah As if he should say I lift up mine eyes unto the creature for help this is the frailty of my nature and of the nature of man to look for auxiliary Forces from Jerusalem which was a hilly place I looke for Forces to come from Jerusalem but they doe not come well I will not rest any longer upon them Jehovah is my help so they carry it But now I would rather if it may be free the Prophet from vaine confidence in the creature and so the words being rightly understood may free him if you reade them thus doe I lift up mine eyes unto the hils doe I expect help from the creature God forbid I should doe it for my help is in God Further sometimes the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it would bee translated above the hils other men look to the hils I look above the hils But rather thus I lift up mine eyes to the hils
frame it is laborious and industrious to know the mind of God Whereas the heart of a sinner heretofore lay dead dull never stirred after God now it is in a stirting in an inquiring in a seeking way this is a signe of much good though thou hast not what thou seekest for yet be comforted in this that thou art in a seeking way Their hearts shal reâ—oyce that seeke the Lord. If thou beest seeking God in his ways though thou complainest I have beene seeking a long time but I know not the minde of God I cannot apprehend the love of God the pardon of my sins yea but the hearts of those shall rejoyce that seek the Lord if thou beest in a seeking way thou art in a saving way there is cause thou shouldst rejoyce in this that God hath brought thee into such a way They shall seeke the Lord and that not saintly but to purpose auxiously Jer. 50. 4. 5. They the children of Israel and the children of Judah when they shall be both together shall goe weeping and seeke the Lord their God and they shall aske the way to Zion with their faces thitherward Many of you come to aske questions but your hearts are not right your faces the strength of your spirits are not set to yeeld to the will of God when it is revealed to you And mark how it appeares that their faces are thitherward Come say they let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten This is to seeke God it is not meerly to goe to a Minister and aske him a question but it is to goe with our faces with the strength of our spirits set to know the minde of God above any thing in the world and so to resolve to obey what shall be revealed to be Gods mind as to be willing to enter into a perpetual Covenant to binde our selves to yeeld to whatsoever God shal reveale When you come to a Sermon you must not come to get a little notional knowledge but come with your faces towards Christ and his truth before you come you should get alone if you be a true seeker and enter into Covenant with God that whatsoever God revealeth to be his minde you will yeeld to it obey it though you have heretofore gone against many truths revealed to be the minde of God but Lord no more now here I am ready and willing to enter into an everlasting covenant to be under the command of every truth Here is the right seeking of God They shall seeke the Lord their God their God this hath two references either to what is past or to what is to come To what is past their God that is the God who was once the God of the Jews the God of their forefathers the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. And secondly their God that is that God that is yet ready and willing to be reconciled to them not withstanding all their sinnes Thus they shal seek the Lord their God These two references afford two excellent Observations First This prevailes much with the heart of an Apostate when he can but think what God was once unto him before he did Apostatize and what he was unto his godly parents and predecessors There was a time that I enjoyed God sweetly when I went to prayer I had blessed communion with him it is otherwise with me now I have apostatized Let this consideration catch hâ—ld upon thy heart and turn it this day Oh turne turn thou apostate soul God who was once thy God in a gracious manner is that God that thou hast vilely forsaken yea thy fathers God also Thou hast a godly father a godly grand-father remember what a blessed God he was unto them and return Secondly Their God that God that yet they may have hope to enjoy notvvithstanding all their departings from him Hence the note is this The apprehension oâ— a possibilty to obtaine mercie from the Lord is a strong means to draw the heart to returne to him when they look upon God as a God in covenant with them yet and there is nothing to the contrary but he may be their God Let this be an argument to catch hold upon the spirits of all sinners who are departed from God thou hast departed from God in a soule and vile manner but Men and Angels know nothing to the contrary but that he may be thy God for all this Let me speake to the vilest sinner that is in this place before the Lord this day thou hast indeed most desperately and wickedly sinned against God the Jews have done so Hast thou crucified Christ they have done so hast thou denied the truth and followed false waies they have done so Notwithstanding all thy wicked and evil waies seeing thou art yet alive I doe this day yet once more pronounce thee in the name of the great God that there is nothing to the contrary that either Angels or Men can possibly know but that God may be thy God and that this day God may enter into covenant with thee thou with him this night he may come in and sup with thee and thou with him there may be a blessed reconciliation between God and thee return return thou sinful soul The Third Lecture HOSEA 3. 5. And David their King and shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes THat the Jews shall returne and believe in Christ is most ordinary and famous both in the words and hearts of those that are faithfull saies Augustine In this their returne and seeking God they shall seek David their King For the opening this there are these five things to be inquired into 1. Who this David was 2. Why David is rather named then any other 3. Why he is mentioned in this place 4. Why joyned with seeking Jehovah 5. Why this Epithet is added to David here David their King For the first David clearly is meant JESUS CHRIST Nothing is more manifest then that Christ is meant by the name of David sayes Augustine The Scripture is cleare in this it is usuall in the Gospel to call Christ by the name of David Compare Esay 55. 3. with Acts 13. 34. Esay 55. I will give you the sure mercies of David what are those Act. 13. that place in Isaiah is quoted and there the word is Sancta Davidis the holy things of David the holy Ghost there going according to the Translation of the Septuagint as it is usuall in the New Testament And that Psalm 16. 9. 10. where David seemes to speake in his owne person Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption this is interpreted of Christ Act. 13. 36. 37. Act. 15. 16. In the Assembly the Church of Jerusalem together with messengers of the Church of Antioch James makes a speech to the Assembly tels them of a prophesie that God would raise the
and make us look up to free grace not take us off from the practise of any but from relying upon any onely to rely upon free grace in Christ As this is the supernaturall seeking God so it is the most powerfull way of seeking him It is not enough to seeke God by vertue of a promise except vve seek him by vertue of Christ who is the foundation of all the promises VVe seek him because he is mercifull that is one way yea we seek him because he hath promised mercy this is a higher degree but we must go higher yet we must look to his Son in whom all the promises are Yea Amen otherwise though we seek him never so earnestly though we chalenge his promises and cry to him to remember his promises yet if we do not act our faith upon his Son wee may misse in all And herein we sanctifie that great name of God in that which is the great work of his his master-piece as we may say or the great designe hee hath to honour himself in the world here and everlastingly hereafter Certainely though God hath made the creature for his own glory expects we should honour him in beholding him in the creature yet the great design God hath to honour himselfe in and by is in that glory of his that is manifested in his Son to have the children of men behold this his glory and reflect it upon his own face except you give God his glory in this he cares not much for what soever glory you can give him otherwise You must not therfore expect when you seek God that you must have good things from him meerly because he is mercifull you must not thinke that the mercy of God serveth to eike out our righteousnesse Perhaps some will say it is true we are poor sinfull creatures and what can wee expect from God being fin full but we hope that God will pardon our sin and so will accept of the poor services that we perform This is the way that most goe they do as it were imploy Gods mercy in such a worke that God never intended it for that is they would make the mercy of God to eike out their owne righteousnesse and so both put together they think they will serve to be a means of atonement No you mistake Gods mercy the worke of Gods mercy is not this but it is to shew us our unrighteousnesse our misery our unclearnesse to shew us Jesus Christ to draw our hearts to him to emptie us of our selves that wee may wholly rely upon that righteousnesse that is by faith in him and tender up that to the Father for sanctification and attonement that is the work of Gods mercy when it hath this work then it hath the true genuine work indeed The fifth is why here added King True wee must seeke the Lord and Christ but why Christ the King The reason is because Christ in the latter dayes shall be fully honoured in his Kingly power they shall looke upon him not only as Prophet and Priest but as King Hitherto Christ hath bin much honoured in his Propheticall and Priestly office but not so much in his Kingly but in the latter dayes when God shall call home his people the Jewes then Christ shall be fully honoured in his Kingly office The Tabernacle of Christ was raised in the Primitive times according to that speech of St. James we had before Acts 15. 16. God shall raise the tabernacle of David hee puts it as fulfilled then but there is a time when God shall not only raife the tabernacle of David but the throne of David Christ the King shall appeare in glory Ezek. 37 24 25. And David my servant shall be King over them It was spoken upon the union that there should be between Judah and Israel then David my servant shall be King over them David was dead a great while before there is a time that David must again be King that is Christ upon the union of all the Tribes together And againe David shall be Prince for ever when they are brought againe into their owne land David shall be Prince over them for ever saith the Text surely this prophesie is yet to be fulfilled And Luke 1. 32. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end I know we usually think that this is meant only of his spirituall reign but there is a mistake in it certainly there is to be a fulfilling of this prophesie in a reign that shall outwardly appeare before the children of men which will appea more in comparing this with other Scriptures Revel 11. 15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord his Christ and so he shall reign for ever and ever VVhy in a spirituall sense the kingdoms of this world are always the kingdomes of the Lord and of Christ but there is spoken of some famous notable time when the kingdomes of this world shall appeare to be the Lord and his Christs and then he shall reigne for ever and ever after another manner then now he doth Revel 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Mark this Text as one of the most notable of any wee have That kingly rule that Christ hath for the present is upon his Fathers throne he is not yet upon his own in comparison of what he shall be the kingdome that Christ hath now is the joynt reigne of him with the Father but there is a time for Christ to have a Throne himselfe Now that Throne of Christ it may be you will thinke it is in heaven at the day of judgement but we finde 1 Cor. 15. 24. that at that day he comes to refigne the kingdome the words do not seeme to import as if hee came to take it but that then hee doth give up the kingdome unto God the Father therefore there is a time for Christ himself to have a Throne with whom the Saints shall reign Matth. 21. 9. The children cryed out Hosanna to the sonne of David because they looked upon the sonne of David as one who was to reign In these latter dayes CHRIST shall breake the Kings of the earth who stand against him as indeed many yea most of the Kings of the earth have ever stood out to hinder this kingdome of his There will be a mighty shaking of the kingdoms of the earth when this shall be Heb. 12. 26. Whose voyce then shook the earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the earth onely but also the heaven quoted out of Hag. 2. 6. 7. God in giving the law shooke the earth but he will shake the earth and the heavenâ— which some Interpreters expounds thus not only the meaner power of
Religion no God forbid yea she so promised that the story saith no man would or could misdoubt of the performance But afterward when she came to get the power in her hand the Suffolk men came to make supplication to her that she would be pleased to performe the promise she made them she answered them thus Forasmuch as you being but members desire to rule your head you shall one day well perceive that members must obey their head and not looke to beare rule over the same And not only so but to cause the more terrour a Gentleman one Master Dobs that lived about Windsor who did but in an humble request advertise her of her promise made to the Suffolke men he was three times set on the Pillory and others for the same cause were sent to prison We may see what hold hath been heretofore in the promises of those who had power to breake them you know what temptations they have to withdraw their hearts from what they have ingaged themselves unto But when this our Prince comes David our King we shall finde the sure mercies of David we shall finde nothing but faithfulnesse in all his dealings And they shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes They shall feare the Lord. The words are they shall feare to the Lord pavebunt ad dominum The feare of God is much upon the heart of a sinner in his returne to God Such a sinner hath high and honourable thoughts of God They shall returne and feare the Lord. The slightnesse the vanity of his spirit the boldnesse of his heart it is taken off and the feare of God ruleth in it The Majesty the power the authority of the great God is strong upon him when he comes to worship him the feare of God makes him to worship God as a God and in all his conversation he walkes in the feare of God even all the day long you may see written upon his life the feare of the great God And this not a servile slavish feare but a holy reverenticall filâ—â—â— feare Jsaac had such a feare of God that God hath his dominion from Isaacâ— feare He is called the feare of Isaac This is a most precious feare others feare poverty feare imprisonment feare disgrace feare men but saith a true repenting heart I feare the Lord this feare is the well-spring of life to him it is the very treasure of his soul Esay 33. 6. I shall speake of the feare of God here onely as it concerns this place the intent of bringing it in here that is to shew that in the time when this glorious Church shall be when God shall call home his own people the Jewes and bring in the fulnesse of the Gentiles then shall the feare of God mightily prevayle upon the hearts of people more then ever and the greater Gods goodnesse shall be the more shall the feare of God be upon their hearts this we shall finde almost in all the Prophesies of the glorious condition of the Church which is very remarkable there is ever speaking of the feare of God that should be upon the hearts of people One would rather thinke there should be speaking of the joy that they should have that there should be nothing but mirth and triumph in those times but the Scripture speakes exceeding much of feare that shall be then and more then then at any other time Thus Revel 11. 18. a most famous Prophesie of Christs comming and taking the kingdomes of the earth and bringing his reward with him he shall come and give a reward to those that feare him And Revel 14. 7. I saw an Angel flee in the middest of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth saying with a loud voyee feare God and give glory to him Marke an Angel when he comes to preach the verlasting Gospel how doth he preach it what now cast away fear and rejoyce in this everlasting Gospel No preaching this everlasting Gospel saith with a loud voyce feare God and give glory to him So Rev. 15. 3. 4. There is the song of the Saints when they are delivered from the power of Antichrist what is it be jocund and joviall No Great and marvailous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest And again Rev 19. 5. And a voyce came out of the Throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and yee that feare him both small and great But feare the Lord now in these times why so Upon these foure grounds First Feare the Lord now because of the glory of Christ their King they shall behold their King in that glory that shal cause fear Rev 19. 12. Christ is described with his eyes as flames of fire and on his head many Crownes cloathed with a vesture dipt in blood at wo-edged sword out of his month and on his vesture and on his thigh written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Thus they shall behold Christ and therefore they shall feare Secondly in those times the feare of God will much prevaile in the hearts of people because of the great workes of God that shal be then the heavens shall depart like a scrole and the elements melt with fervent heate This is meant of the time when there shal be new heavens a new earth which referreth to the Prophesie of Esay and it is apparantly and so generally Interpreters carry it meant of the estate of the Church then the heavens shall depart like a scrole Heb. 13. 26. quoted out of Hag. 2. 6. The Lord did shake the earth once but he hath promised saying Yet once more I shaâ— not the earth onely but also heaven There shall be wonderfull workes of God in the earth when those dayes come therefore there shall be much of the feare of God Thirdly Much of the feare of God then because of the holiness of the worship of God and of his Ordinances the purity of them shall cause fear Did we see the Ordinances in the true and native purity and holinesse of them it would strike much feare in us Some have but seene the execution of that one Ordinance of Excommunication in a solemn gracious way and it hath daunted their hearts it hath struke feare in a most proud profane stubborn wicked heart the beholding then of all the Ordinances and all duties of worship in their true native purity holiness and glory cannot but cause much feare Psal 68. 35. O God thou art terrible out of thy holy places God will be terrible out of his holy places and out of all his holy Ordinances Fourthly Much feare there will be at that day because of the holiness of the Saints there shall be so much holiness that shall
appeare bright in the very faces and conversations of the Saints that shal strike great feare Holy reverent is thy nâ—me you know it is said of God and so it shall be said of the Saints in that day their graces shall be much raised they shall sparkle with abundance of the graces of Gods Spirit in them their wisdome holiness shall make their faces shine holy and reverent shall be their names Psal 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints those Saints of his who walke close with him have a daunting power in their appearance I appeale to guilty consciences to apostates to professors who have secret haunts of wickedness sometime when you come but into the presence of one who is a truly gracious godly man or woman whom your conscience tels you walkes close with God doth not even the very sight of such a one terrifie you the very lustre of that holiness you see in such a one strikes upon your conscience then you thinke such an one walkes close with God indeed but I have basely forsaken the Lord and have had such a haunt of wickednesse I have brought dreadfull guilt upon my soul since I saw him last Ecclesiasticall stories tell us of Basil when the officers came to apprehend him he being then exercised in holy duties that there was such a majesty lustre came from his countenance that the officers fell down backward as they did who came to apprehend Christ they were not able to lay hold of him Surely when the Saints shall be raised in their holiness when every one of them shall have their hearts filled with holinesse it will cause abundance of fear even in all the hearts of those that converse with them But wicked ones shall feare too as well as the Saints Luke 21. 26. Mens hearts shall faile them for feare it shal be true in these dayes as it was in the destruction of Jerusalem The Saints shall feare the Lord and his goodness the words in the original are they shall feare ad Dominum to the Lord ad bonum to his good It is all one in effect that good that God shall manifest shall cause this feare to be in their hearts You will say what goodnesse what shall that goodness of God be that shall move the hearts of this people with so much feare I will tell you briefly I need not spend much time in it for I have spent a whole Sermon about it when I spake of the last words of the first Chapter of this Prophesiâ— great shall be the day of Jezreel I shal now adde to what I had then This shall be the goodness of God in that day that they shall feare First The goodnesse of God that ever he should regard such a wretched people as we are and pardon all our sins What Israel the ten Tribes who had most wretchedly forsaken God who had crucified Jesus Christ crucified David their King yet that blood they have shed is applyed to them for the pardon of their sin Oh the goodness of God! they shall feare this goodness in being mercifull to such a hard-hearted such a stubborne such a stiffe-necked people as they have been this goodnes of God will break their hearts Secondly then God shal make the difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not Then shall God take away all the reproach of his Saints What bitter reproach hath been upon the Saints since the beginning of the world especially since the times of the Gospelâ— Reproach first because they are meane people of the lower sort 2. Reproach because they suffer much and God lets his adversaries prevaile over them 3 Reproach because they waite upon God and God seems not to come the adversaries say where is your God No marvaile you pray and Fast what is become of all Here will be the goodness of God at that day to wipe off all this reproach They shall have so much mercy so much honour from God that it shall appeare before all the world that it was good to waite upon him so much as shall countervaile abundantly all their sufferings they shall blesse God that ever it was put into their hearts to suffer for him to waite upon him And because God foreseeth this what goodness he hath laid up for his people that they shall enjoy ere long and we know a thousand years with him are as one day that is the reason why he suffereth his people to be so under for the present he knows he hath that goodness for them hereafter yea in this world that all the world shal say that God hath dealt well with them that he was not a hard Master to them to make them waite so long and to let them suffer so much as they do I will give you for this one excellent Scripture perhaps you have not considered of the emphasis of the argument that is in it It is Heb 11. 16. They desired a better Countrey that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City The poor persecuted Saints wandred up down they were content to leave their own Country their estates here and sought another Country an heavenly but they had it not their enemies prevailed over them as if God had forsaken them but God is not ashamed to be called their God what is the argument For he hath prepared for them a City Marke the force of the argument for he hath prepared for them 〈◊〉 City This City is this text I am now speaking of sometimes it is described as a Tabernacle The Tabernacle of God shall come downe from Heaven sometime a City sometime a Countrey sometime a Kingdome sometime an Inheritance Here God hath prepared for them a City that is there is a glorious time for Gods people when they shall have the new Jerusalem come down from heaven unto them Now then saith God though my people be in a suffering condition I am not ashamed to be called their God I am not ashamed to own this people for I have glory enough for them as if God should be ashamed that he should ever professe such an interest in his people and this people professe such an interest in him if there were nothing to come for them if there were not a time to recompence all their suffering As if a Master should own a servant or a Prince a subject if this servant or subject suffer extreamely and hath no help but still when he expects help there comes none and when he thinketh surely now it will come still it fayls him yet if you know that at such a day you shall recompence all this you shall advance him and bring him to such honour that he will blesse God that ever he was in your service you will not be ashamed to owne this servant But if this servant shall suffer in your cause and you
other fear makes the heart to have hard thoughts of God take heed for ever of that feare of God that makes you to have hard thoughts of him In times of danger many begin to feare then presently they wish they had never ingaged themselves so much in these wayes that have such ill successe they now cry out of others you would needs do thus you see what is become of it But feare of God and his goodnesse is joyned with blessing God that ever you knew his waâ—es and were ingaged in them This shall be in the latter dayes God is content to stay for his glory untill the latter dayes that which is indeed his chiefe glory for though in these former dayes God hath had glory yet hee hath had but very little God is content to stay for that which is his chief glory untill the latter dayes Let this be an argument for our patience though we have sufferings now let us wait as God waiteth But the latter dayes when are these The times of the Gospell are generally called the latter dayes but this though it referreth indeed to the whole time of the Gospel yet especially unto the latter times of those latter dayes If you would know what these latter dayes are though I will not take upon me to give you the day or 〈…〉 I will shew you that it is like these latter dayes are at hand For giving light unto this that is a good help to us that we have in Daniel concerning the four Kingdoms there we have a propheticall Chronologie from the Captivity of the Jews unto the time when the counsell of God shall be fulfilled You have a description there of four severall Monarchies the Babylonian Assyrian Grecian and Roman Now in the last of these Daniel saith Chap. 2. 44. The God of heaven shall set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed but it shall breake in pieces and consume all the other Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever In this latter namely the Roman hath the Kingdom of Christ begun to appear already but God telleth Daniel chap. 12. 13. Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the dayes Now observe the chiefe Prophesies wee have about the time of these latter dayes when they shall be set out in that expression of time and times and halfe a time 1260. dayes or 42. months all comes to the same three years and a halfe reckoning every day in those yeares for a yeare compare these prophesies Dan. 7. 25. And they shall be given into his hand untill a time and times and dividing of time Rev. 11. 2. The holy City shall they tread under foote forty and two moneths Vers 3. The witnesses shall prophesie 1260. dayes Now 1260. days are the days of three years and a halfe so the dayes of 42. moneths Then the woman in the wildernesse Rev. 12. 6. She shall be fed there 1260. dayes still the same number the witnesses shall prophesie 1260. dayes the holy Citie that shall be trodden under foote 42. months and the woman in the wildernesse shall be there 1260. dayes And againe Dan. 12. 11. From the time of the abomination that making desolate there shall be 1290. days there are a few days more not many but about this time you see the Scripture prophesieth of some great things to be done at the end of this time are these latter dayes But all the difficulty is to know the beginning when the three years and a halfe or 42. moneths or 1260. dayes begun then we may know when these latter dayes shall be Brightman makes the beginning of the 1290. days from Julians time when he would have set up the abomination that is set up the Jewish worship again by re-edifying the Temple that is sayes he the abomination of desolation reckoning 1290. dayes for 1290. years hiâ— time by computation will come out about the year 1650. The other wee have in the Revelation and that in Daniel likewise refers to the same notes the time that the Churches shall be under the persecution of Antichrist for a thousand two hundred and sixty years so long the Beast shall prevail and the witnesses shall so long prophesie in sackcloath and the woman shall be in the wildernesse for so long a time But when did Antichrist begin to reign For that take this rule It must be at that time when the Roman Emperour was broken and when the Dragon giveth up his power to the Beast when the power of the Dragon that persecuted the Christians under the Roman Empire is given to Antichrist so that now they come to be persecuted under him here is the beginning of the 1260. dayes That the Roman Empire must be given up first appeareth 2 Thes 2. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already worke only he who now letteth will let untill he be taken out of the way that is as generally Expositors carry it the power of the Roman Empire when that is taken out of the way then shall that wicked one be revealed theâ—e were many Antichrists before but then that wicked one that shall exalt himselfe above all that is called God shall have power to persecure the Church Hence it is observable that the custome of the Church was to pray for the continuing the Roman Empire upon this ground because they knew when that was broken Antichrist would come Now the breaking of the Roman Empire was at the raising up of those ten severall sorts of governmens called in the Revel tenn Kings and the raising up of those Kings was 400. yeares and something more after Christ as Chronologers tell us between the 400. and 500. years It is hard to reckon to a year there is so much difference in Chronologers computations after that time there must be 1260. days that is 1260. years Make this computation and compare all these Scriptures one with another it cannot be long but in this century that is now currant these latter dayes are here meant when the people of God and the Jews shal return to Jehovah and Davidâ— heir King and fear the Lord his goodnesse The nearer the time comes the more will these things be cleared Dan. 12. 9. Goe thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Take but one note and we have done why the Scripture sets â—â—is out rather by many dayes then by so many yeares The reason is because God would have his people think that time untill his goodnes should be revealed but a short time if he had said they should be 1260. years under Antichrists persecution this founds harder No saith he it shall be but so many dayes though flesh and blood may think this time long yet look upon it as dayes it is but a short time to me it will be but a short time to you within 1260. days you shall be delivered from his tyranny
regard of Religion and godlinesse in regard of their debts then others It is true there is a complaint of many that are godly that they have little care and conscience in paying their debts the justnesse of that complaint I know not but there may be a slothfulnesse in many if not unfaithfulnesse and if there be carelesnesse unfaithfulnesse in some it is enough to cast an aspersion upon all that are godly but though those that are godly should be more carefull of paying their debts then others but if they cannot you are bound to be more mercifull unto them then to others because they are godly and not to seeke to take advantage the rather upon them because they are godly this is a vile and a wicked heart to take advantage so much the rather if thou seest them godly laborious in their calling and it be meerely a providence of God and not any negligence of theirs thou art bound to shew much commiseration unto them In that forenamed place Deut. 15. 9. Beware there be not an evill heart in thee to be lesse merciful to thy poore brother because of the seventh yeeres rest of the ground or because the debt was to be released that seventh yeere but verse 10. thou shalt surely give it him and thy heart shall not be grieved because for this thing the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in all thy workes and in all that thou put test thy hand unto Notwithstanding there must be a cessation of plowing and sowing and vintage in the seventh yeer yea and notwithstanding thou wert bound to release thy debt in the seventh yeer yet you must doe this and not do it grudgingly you must not murmure and say what doth God require of us that we must neither plow uor sow and that we must release our debts and give too nay and give and not have our hearts grieved too that we must not complaine of this Oh my brethren God loveth exceedingly cheerfull givers and hearts inlarged with bowels of compassion he doth no love hearts grumbling and objecting against giving Many men have no quicknesse of understanding in any thing else but against workes of mercy how quick are they in their objections and can finde such subtle wayes to save their purses that a man would wonder at it against this there is a solemne charge Deut. 15. 11. Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother to the poore and needy in the land The third thing to be done once in seven yeers was the release of servants too they must goe free and they must not be sent away empty neither as ver 18. of that Deut. 15. It shall not seeme hard to thee when thou sendest him away free from thee you must give them liberty as ver 14. It is true we are not bound to the letter of this every seven yeers to doe thus but there is a morall equity in it when servants have done you faithfull service you must not think that it is enough that you give them meate and drink and cloth but you must be carefull of your servants how they should live after they are gone from you This was the first sabbath of yeers But the second was most famous and that was the rest that was every seven times seven yeers the fiftieth yeer which was called the yeere of jubile from that trumpet that they were wont to proclaime that yeer by which as the Jewes tell us was a Rams-horne In this yeere there were divers of the same things done that was in the seventh yeer as the release of debts the release of servants But there are some things observable that were done at this time beyond what was done every seventh yeer As for servants the release of them was not onely of such servants as had then served seven yeers yea if they had served any time they were then to be released but besides there was order taken by God for release of some servants that would not be released in the seventh yeere for when the seventh yeer came though all servants might then be released yet there were some that would not be released and there was an order taken by God for that Exod. 21. 6. if there were a servant that loved his master and would not goe free then his Master should bring him to the post of the door and with a nayle bore his eare and then the Text saith he should serve him for ever Now that for ever is by Interpreters interpreted but for a time of Jubile and then he should have rest Here it is to be understood of the 50. yeer the yeer of Jubile There are some kind of spirits that are so slavish that when they may have liberty they will not they deserve to have their eares bored to be slaves to the fiftieth year if not for ever Many amongst us this day have such spirits God offereth us a release from bondage how many of us love servitude still It is just with God that we should have our eares bored and that we should be slaves even for ever but we hope there will be a Iubile come at length for our deliverance God would have a Iubile even to deliver those that were of the most servile spirits and might justly be left to serve for ever It is true when God began with us in the beginning of our Parliament like the seventh year God offered to us a release and we refused it then and since we deserve that our ears should be bored but God is infinitely mercifull though we be of servile spirits and know not how to pitty our selves we hope the Lord will pity us and grant us out of free and rich grace a Iubile even to deliver those who have a mind to be bond-slaves I am sure God doth so spiritually If God should not deliver those that are minded to be slaves he should deliver none It was a great mercy so to provide for servants that they might be delivered The greater because servants then were not as they are now there was a great deal of hardship that servants indured then more then now they were bought and sold not only other nations but the Hebrews were bought for servants also so you shall find it Exod. 21. 2. Besides servants were in such bondage then as if the Masters did beat them with a rod untill they killed them yet they must only be punished they must not have blood go for their blood yea though he died under his hand yet he was but to be punished and if the servant lived but 2. or 3. days after the Master was not to be punished at all so you have it Exod. 21. 20 21. If a man smite his servant with a rod and he dye under his hand he shall be surely punished notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he shall not be punished for he is his money Oh that servants would consider of this and bless God for the
liberty they have now more then servants had in former times It was so likewise with the Romans the word servant cometh à Servando because the Romans used to have such for servants as were preserved in time of war that should otherwise have bin put to death whether they were those or others yet the condition of all was very servile both amongst Iews and Romans which may justly rebuke the pride of servants now if they be but crost in their minds in the least thing they make such a complaint as if they were exceedingly wronged Let servants rather bless God for their condition then murmur at a little hardship they indure for the hardship of servants in former times was another manner of hardship then any you can indure who have the hardest masters Hence it is that in the day of Iubile the servants did so rejoyce Iewish antiquities tell us that nine days before their release the servants feasted and made merry and wore garlands because of their freedom approaching The second thing extraordinary in the day of Jubile was that not onely debts but lands were released Lev. 25. 22. The land shall not be sold for ever And there were divers reasons for this why the land must not be sold for ever but must return to the first possessors in the year of Jubile One reason is in the Text Lev. 25. 23. For the land is mine saith God for yee were strangers and sojourners with me God would hereby teach them that they must not account themselves absolute lords of the land the land is mine and you that are the greatest land-lords of all are but as strangers and sojourners with God the land is still Gods And vers 28. If a man bee not able to redeeme his land nor his kinsman for him it shall remain unto the yeer of Iubile and in the Iubile it shall goe out and hee shall return unto his possession If he could redeem his land himself or a kinsman for him he was to redeeme it before but if a man should be so poor as he could not give any thing to redeem it yet in the year of Iubile it should return unto him God would not have his people too greedy to bring the possession of the Countrey in to themselves to have a perpetuall inheritance to themselves and their posterity This is the greediness of many covetous and ambitious men oh that we could lay land to land and house to house to get a perpetuall inheritance for our selves and posterity God would not have his people be of so greedy dispositions for a few of them to get the whole Countrey into their own possession therefore he would have no man that ever had any possession but once in fifty years that possession must return to that familie again The land was to return to the first owner that the distinction of Tribes might be continued which was known much by the continuance of their possessions that belonged to every tribe family God had great care before Christs time to keep the distinction of tribes that so it might be cleare out of which tribe Christ came But further this year of Iubile aymed at a higher thing it was a type of Christ to set out the blessed redemption that we have by Christ The trumpet of the Gospel which the Ministers blow is a trumpet of Iubile That place Isa 61. 1 2. seems to have reference to a Iubile there the Text saith that Christ was appointed to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable yeer of the Lord now that acceptable year was the year of Iubile there was the opening of the prison and the releasing of them that were bound Psal 89. 15. saith the text Blessed are the people that heare the joyfull sound that hear the Jubile Oh blessed are our ears who live to such a time as we do to heare the trumpet of Iubile blowing in one congregation or other almost every day now we have a release of our debts bondage this is the joyfull sound We are all by nature in debt sins you know are called debts in the Lords prayer every soul is bound over to Gods eternall justice to answer to the law for not obeying the law now cometh this Iubile and releaseth all debts And we are all bond-slaves in bondage to sin to the law and to the devil now cometh the Gospel this Iubile and releaseth our bondage sets us at liberty 3. We have forfeited our right to the crea ure yea to heaven it self now the Gospel comes and restores all we have right now to the comforts of this world and to heaven Canaan was a type of heaven and the loss of their inheritance there was a type of the loss of heaven and the bringing them again to the possession of it a type of the restoring of right to heaven Oh happy are they then who hear this joyfull sound not only with the eares of the body but who have it sounding in their hearts and that by the work of the spirit of God in them In this year of Iubile there is one thing further very remarkable and that is the time when this trumpet that was to proclaim this yeer was to blow Lev. 25. 9. the trumpet was to blow upon the tenth day of the seventh moneth What remarkable thing is there in this that the trumpet must be blown the tenth day of the seventh month yes there is this remarkable in it the tenth day of the seventh month was their day of expiation the day of their atonement their publique fast This day appointed every year for all Israel to afflict their souls before God to humble themselves for their sins and to seek for mercy from God as we shal shew you more largely when we come to open the solemnity of that day I only mention it now to shew that the trumpet of Iubile was to be sounded upon that day It is a strange thing that upon that day wherein they were to afflict their soules before God and to mourn for their sins the trumpet of Iubile was to sound that was to proclaim joy and mirth things of a contrary nature to humbling and mourning Yea but this affords us divers excellent instructions As First God would have his people so to mourn as to know their joy is coming In the darkest day they had wherein they were bound to afflict their souls most yet they were so to mourn as to know there was a Iubile at hand We are not to mourn as those without hope in our most grievous sorest mournings we must have our hearts sink in desperation wee must so mourne as to expect a Iubile Yea further the Saints mourning is a preparation to a Iubile o◠joy Ioy then is neer at hand when the Saints must mourn in a godly manner Did not the Lord deal graciously with us the last fast day when