not be inquisitive for a reason of my sollicitude and complaint when all good is comprehended in this chiefest good whether real or imaginary Thus this people lamented laid to heart this great evil of God's departure the which no temporal good can compensate or countervail 5. They called cryed and shouted after the Lord by earnest prayer and supplication so the word imports sometimes sighing Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee Psal 79.11 Sometimes it 's rendred inclamarunt for lifting up the voice as Lam. 2.18 not only their hearts cryed unto the Lord but tears run down like a River day and night Yea v. 19. Arise cry out in the night pour out thine heart like water lift up thy hands towards him Yea Lam. 3.8 She did both cry and shout not that God is deaf or busie or pursuing enemies or sleepy and must be awaked as Elijah ironically twits Baal's Worshippers with their God but for our own sakes to evidence the honesty and zeal of our hearts and as a gracious disposition to which mercy is promised Hence it was that when the Children of Israel cryed and their cry came up unto God Exod. 2.2 3. Crying is the Accent of Prayer A crying Prayer sounds loud in God's Ear. The tender Mothers bowels make her look back on her crying Child God loves to be called back by a fervent affectionate Prayer 6. They betook themselves to the Lord Receperunt se ad Dominum i. e. by faith by repentance covenanting with God returning from sin having recourse to God by a sincere Reformation and without this all the former were insignificant but thus did the Children of Israel according to Samuels command and supposition in this Chap. v. 3. If ye do return with all your heart to the Lord then put away the strange Gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and they did so v. 4. This was their best way of lamenting after the Lord No coming after God with a lye in our right hand or our Idols in our hearts if we do God will spurn us back into confusion for nothing keeps persons at a distance from him but sin they that hold fast sin pretend to follow God do either run from him or follow him with a Sword in their hand to wound him but such as cast away their abominations follow the Lord aright and shall overtake him this is the method prescribed by God himself Jer. 4.1 2. If thou wilt return O Israel faith the Lord return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of thy sight then shalt thou not remove thou shalt swear the Lord liveth Then and never till then are Souls fit to joyn in covenant with God when they are divorced from all besides 7. They were acquiescing in and fully satisfyed with the Lord this is the proper notion of this word Chald. quieti fuerunt post cultum Domini their hearts were abundantly quieted in the manner of Gods worship and much more in the object of their worship and in the union of their hearts to God and communion with him no Satisfaction like this David saith Return unto thy rest Oh my Soul Psal 116.7 No such rest as God is who is the Souls only Center and Sabbath Jer. 31.25 I have satiated the weary Soul and I have replenished every sorrowful Soul As God rests in his Love to his Saints so they are well satisfied with their choyce of God and look not out other ways or beyond him for any contentments to their Spirits Thus then these good Souls these lamenting penitents might say Alas we have been like wandring sheep that have gone astray every one wandring in his own way or as a bird wandring from its nest or as Prodigals from our Fathers house but now now at length by Samuel's Prophecy we are throughly informed that God is the true God that this his prescribed Worship is of his Institution and the mean of communion with him At our first hearing this man of God we were touched and began to incline towards him at last came to fixed resolution to follow the Lord in this his way we were assembled together to this purpose bemoaned our state in the loss of so dear a friend cryed after him Put away our Idols and lusts returned to the Lord by faith and repentance and now we see it 's not in vain it 's good yea very good for us thus to draw near to God we find full content in him we find the injoyment of him a full recompence for all this pains in a mournful pursuit of him We have found him at last we have found him happiness in him he is come whom we sought we need not look for another we care not for any other We fear nothing since we we have found our God From hence we may discern the reason why the same word in Heb. signifies both to repent and to comfort to mourn and to cease mourning to lament and rejoyce for as true comfort belongs only to penitent Souls so sorrow is the porch and inlet to joy none are exalted but they that are first cast down none bring forth the blessed babe of joy but such as Travel in the pangs of sorrows Joh. 6.21 The Painter can with a touch of his Pencil turn a crying into a laughing face thus saith David Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psal 30.11 This is the second general head what is implied in this Lamenting after the Lord. 3. Another head in the prescribed method is the Reasons why it 's so fit that Gods Israel or professing People should thus lament after the Lord when Gods Ark is obscured or his Ordinances obstructed In confirmation of this Point I must demonstrate 1. That they must lament after the Ark of the Lord. 2. After the Lord of the Ark Briefly for both these 1. Gods Israel or professing People must lament after the Ark i. e. the Ordinances of the Lord when obscured or obstructed 1. Because the Ark or Ordinances of the Lord are a Peoples greatest glory their beauty strength honour Wherein is Israel better than other Nations then by having Ordinances of God among them Psal 147.19 20. He shewed his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation q.d. This this is that that exalts Israel above all other Kingdoms that they have the visible tokens of Gods presence which is a peoples only glory so faith the Apostle Rom. 9.4 To the Israelites pertain the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law the Service of God and the Promises This is Israel's Heritage Patrimony and a rich one it is hence when the Ark was taken Phinehas's Wife breathed her last with that heavisom Ditty The Glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken 1
Souls are without Christ being Aliens from the common wealth of Israel strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2.12 Ah poor sinners what will become of you if you live and dye without God You had better be without money trades credit ease house relations cloaths meat every thing all things in the world then without God what will your lives or any thing advantage you without God Alas have you lived thus long in the world without an interest in God! How know you but death is at the next door And what will you do in the day of visitation and in the desolation that shall come from far To whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory Isai 10.3 4. Without me saith God they shall bow down under the prisoners ' they shall fall under the slain Wo to you if death the King of terrours meet you and God the King of heaven be not on your side What a woful case was Saul in when the Philistins were upon him and God was departed from him Oh when sickness diseases death thy own conscience make war against thee and thou hast no God to flee to what a sad case wilt thou be in Alas friends estate honours or all that the world can do for thee will be insignificant If thou live and dye without God thou must be for ever banished from him And how canst thou in an ordinary way expect to have relation to God without the means of his appointment for obtaining that end The Ark of the convenant is the way of convenanting the preaching of the Gospel is the door of faith saving faith by which the Soul is intituled to God comes by hearing and if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Little reason have the mad-frantick world to rejoyce over the slain witnesses to make merry and send gifts one to another because these Prophets tormented them i. e. would not let them go quietly to Hell but would be jogging them out of their security and summoning them to repentance No no their departure may be like Ezekiel's book written within and without with lamentation and mourning and wo Ah poor Soul God seems to stop Ministers mouths and saith thou shalt not be to him a reprover my Spirit shall strive no more with them feed them no more that that dyeth let it dye and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off q. d. I will concern my self no further about them they regarded not my Counsels and slept away the day of grace and refused the calls of God now they shall be given up as a branch cut off from the Tree I 'le prune it no more but take it away and lay it under that Gospel-curse Never fruit grow on thee from henceforth for ever Or like the flourishing vineyard of the Jewish Church Take away the hedge thereof break down the stone wall lay it wast it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the Clouds that they rain no rain upon it And have men cause to rejoyce in this Is it not rather ground of the greatest lamentatation as a prologue and pledge of damnation and a token of rejection Will any but Mad men rejoyce at the approach of calamity upon themselves Or will any but frantick Bedlams triumph that those are gone that stopt them from running into a pit fire or that kept them from dashing out their own Brains We think those young men fools that are glad their parents are dead that restrained their vicious courses If carnal mens eyes were open to know the advantages of a powerful Ministry or pure Ordinances they would lay it to heart as the dreadfullest evil that ever befel them and lament after the Lord with bitter crys for the return of the Means of Grace And say O Lord is light gone and my Soul left still in darkness is life gone and I dead still Are means of Salvation departed and my Soul left under a necessity of perishing Many tears did Ministers shed for me Oh what prayers to God! what beseechings of me to be reconciled to God! But I regarded not Woe is me these embassadours of peace are called home or have their mouths stopt what can I now expect but a Proclamation of war Lord have mercy on me and send those men of God to knock again at my door and I hope I shall give them and their message better entertainment Thus carnal Persons should say But alas such as most need do often least regard these things God knows and after twenty years lying in the grave we may fear they will not still believe tho we should arise from the dead And if after all this there be little or no hopes of these laying this matter to heart I will turn me to another sort 2. Ye gracious Souls lament you after the Lord though Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend Though wicked men will not understand nor lay any thing to heart yet let Gods People his Children lay to their hearts the displeasure of God and with bitter cries lament after their departing father Oh that it could be said in this case as Gods own testimony is Hos 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies pretending to worship God when they intend nothing less And the house of Israel with deceit cheating men thinking to deceive God himself but Judah yet ruleth with God i. e. keeps up his interest at the throne of grace and prevails with me and is faithful with the Saints in point of communion and repute or with the most holy Marg. Oh blessed Judah but doth not Gods Judah need stirring up to lament after the Lord Alas how senseless and slack are the best hearts in this work Who would have once imagined that such a Spirit of worldliness security neutrality would have seized on Gods own Children Ah friends Can you let God depart either from your spirits or from the Assemblies of his People and not stir up your selves to take hold of him Who would have thought that God himself or the tokens of his presence should go from you without weeping eyes or mournful complaints Who must hold him if you will not Who must fetch him back if you will not follow him and call after him You that have interest in him You that have given up your selves to him You that have had sweet experience of his presence And now pretend more love to him than any else You that he hath drawn with cords of Love will not you lament after him Have not you some reason to say as she Hos 2.7 I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better with me then now Especially considering how he hath hedged your way with hewn thorns disappointed you in your overtaking your other lovers
have not your Souls grown lean and ready to famish in other wayes Have you not in all this time discerned some difference betwixt the pure and wholsom waters of the Sanctuary and the impure puddle-water of mens Traditions Yea have you not to your cost discerned some difference by your dear-bought experience betwixt the powerful Ordinances and the very same or like thereto formally heartlesly lifelesly carryed on Tell me deal ingenuously and candidly in the case Have not your Souls been ready to pine for want of provision Yea have you not been tempted to loath some dishes handed to you by blind or Slovenly Cooks Have you not been in danger to be rockt asleep by such Truths as should have awakt you and would if faithfully mannaged Have you not been forced to eat that which some have trodden under their feet and to drink that which some men have fouled with their feet Alas Sirs Whatever others have have not you some reason to lament with holy David Oh God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Oh my Lord time hath been that my Soul hath been satisfyed as with marrow and fatness and my doubts resolved graces quickened lusts discovered weakened in thine Ordinances so that I could truely say in my own experience God was in them of a truth But alas for this long time matters have been otherwise I have attended as I judged in obedience to thy command and have sometimes met with aiery notions or sapless stuff or mixture of errours or such complementing with God in a dry formality that methinks my soul is dryed with this light food I have reason to lay the blame upon my self and charge my own unprofitable heart as the proper cause but Oh my Lord I long for an heart-Searching state-distinguishing sinrebuking word Oh when shall my Soul injoy heart-melting Ordinances Thou that adaptest means to the end and dost use to work conversion consolation confirmation by most proper probable instruments give suitable means of grace and grace by the means Oh Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy Let all thy Children say Amen 3. You that are young of the rising Generation that are coming up and coming on in the rooms of your Ancestors it becomes you to lament after the Lord and his Ark be it known to you that your Predecessors Piety will not be your Sanctuary or Security You may please your selves with being the Children of the Church but think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father for God is not bound to you you may be Children of the Devil and may be cast into Hell under that title No no you must have a Faith of your own a personal as well as a foederal relation to God It 's disputed at what Age Children are to stand on their own leggs for personal Faith at five or seven or ten or twelve to be sure at years of discretion when they can discern betwixt good and evil they are to chuse for themselves and are not to stand upon heir Parents bottom any longer however they may improve their Parents Covenant But oh you young persons begin betimes to cry after your Father God loves to be followed as with the Hosanna's once so with the small voice and to be held with the little hands of young Children Try what you can do with him say not you need him not you cannot set up without him you cannot live safely without him and I am sure you are undone if you die without relation to him and you may die young Oh then make sure of God you are cast upon him from the womb say to him Thou art my God from my Mothers belly so shall you be a seed to serve him and shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation What an advantage will it be when your Father and Mother forsake you by unkindness or death if you have a God to take you up If God hath been your trust from your youth he will not cast you off in old Age But if you run away from God all your younger daies with what confidence can you lament after him in old Age May he not say Go to the gods and lusts which you have served gratified you come but to me for a reserve with self-ends and because you can follow your sensual pleasures no longer I should never have had your company if you had been capable still to have made as good a bargain of the World as you are wont You followed your lusts with a young and swift foot but me you can but follow with a slow Snails-pace a little of this lamenting more early had been more acceptable It 's an hard venture if you now go laughing in the Devil's ways whether you 'l be cordial in lamenting after God in Old Age and so whether the Lord will entertain you And as you would enjoy God lament after the Ordinances of God Thy Testimonies saith David have I taken as an heritage for ever O blessed Heritage Oh precious Patrimony beg it plead it be not content without it Whatever other Inheritance you have say Lord mine Ears have heard our Fathers have told us what work thou didst in their daies in the times of Old What Providences were produced to settle Ordinances What excellent powerful heart-warming Preaching they had how God wrought wonders on Consciences by his Word and Spirit what pure Worship they had Communion of Saints wholsom Discipline and what sweet intercourse with thy self in all now Lord thou hast threatned in part executed this Spiritual Plague of the Famine of thy Word obstructing and obscuring Ordinances and thy hand is still upon us thy end is not attained Papists threaten to darken our Heaven and totally to put out our Lights and thy self seems to menace the removing of the Candlestick stop O Lord execute not thy whole displeasure Alas shall we be that cursed Generation that must again be involved in worse than Aegyptian darkness Alas who shall live when God doth this God forbid that we should out-live this bright Sun-shine of the Gospel that we should not be Heirs of our Fathers spiritual Priviledges as well as earthly Patrimonies Oh! when these are lost we must sadly sigh and say What have our Forefathers been doing that they have deprived us of the Means of our Souls good Must they and we meet in Hell they for non-improvement we for non-enjoyment Woe is us cursed Children of cursed Parents Lord if we have not peace or plenty let us have the Gospel of Peace and true Piety the Gospel of Grace and Grace by the Gospel and then we shall say The Lines are fallen to us
'l sooner dance after our wanton Pipes then mourn after our pious Elegies But God forbid the blame or blemish should proceed from us However for Zion's sake let us not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake let us not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth Isai 62.1 For God saith ver 6.7 I have set watch-men upon thy walls Oh Jerusalem which shall never hold their peace day nor night Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence and give him no rest till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth 6. Magistrates supreme and subordinate must lament after the Lord. It 's not a work below them though they may think it a work above us to mind them of it but mean persons have been Monitors to mighty Princes An inconsiderable Page rouzeth up Philip King of Macedon with this Alarum Remember Sir you are a man Daniel's Counsel was seasonable he wisheth it may be acceptable to the Babylonian Monarch to break off his sins by righteousness and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it might be a lengthening of his tranquillity Dan 4.27 God gives Jeremiah a Commission to say to the King and to the Queen Humble your selves sit down It 's not unbecoming the greatest Princes to adore at the Foot-stool of the King of Kings 'T is prophesied of the Gospel-Church that Kings shall be her Nursing Fathers and Queens her Nursing Mothers Isa 49.23 Yea saith the Lord They shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the Earth c. Which is to be understood not in a literal Popish sense of a civil subjection of their Power to the proud Usurpations of that Man of Rome but a voluntary resignation of all to the great Jehovah and our blessed Jesus an undervaluing their earthly Honours in comparison of spiritual Priviledges as Constantine the Great and Theodosius who professed he would rather be a Member of Christ than Head of the Empire It 's not below Majesty on Earth to lament after the God of Heaven David Asa Jehosaphat and Hezekiah followed the Lord with cares prayers fears and tears and how doth God approve and applaud that tender-hearted Josiah 2 Chron. 34.27 28. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy cloaths and weep before me mark the outward tokens of inward sorrow I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. And when Josiah's Grandfather Manasses was unruly God took a course to humble him and set him a following God by hearty prayer and great humiliations But when his Father Ammon and his Son Zedekiah did not walk in these mournful steps of penitent lamentings after the Lord God took another course with them and cut them off Yea God hath brought Heathen Kings upon their knees to lament after God in the best manner they could as the King of Nineveh Jonah 3.5 6. and God took it well v. 10. Yea this outward humiliation prevented Ahab's temporal destruction 1 King 21.27 29. And when God threatned Rehoboam by Shishak's Invasion and Shemaiah's Commination the Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves and said The Lord is righteous 2 Chron. 12.6 7. And God saith I will not destroy them but grant them some deliverance or for a little while Much more if Princes and Nobles be sincere in humiliations for sin and lamentations after the Lord and universal Reformations Oh what mercy doth the Lord reserve for such Thus in the daies of Ezra Nehemiah Esther The Instances are numerous and pregnant Oh that God would stir up the hearts of the Governours of his People to say Surely we and our People have provoked the Lord against us Yea 't is well if our hands have not been chief in the trespass Oh that as we have been exemplary in sinning we might be exemplary in our repentings as we have driven God from us and our People so we might be the first to fetch him back again God forbid that we should say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord or refuse to let the Servants of the Lord to go and serve him according to Scripture-Rules though they may differ from us in some modes of Worship Yes it 's fit the Governours of Judah should say in their hearts The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God These these are the Chariots and Horse-men of Israel as once a King said of a Prophet God forbid we should arm or animate some Protestants against their Brethren while Papists are putting us on and warming themselves by the fire of their own kindling and when they spy their opportunity will snatch up both the Cocks they have set a fighting and writhe off their Necks and feast on them Let 's rather improve our utmost Interest to make them Friends and bespeak their joynt-prayers for us And since we need the Lord and his Appointments as well as others as much as the meanest of our Subjects let us also follow the Lord with bitter crys and lamentations The Princes digged the Well the Nobles of the People digged it by the direction of the Law-giver with their Staves Why may not we also work hard in these Sacred Wells of Ordinances and then cry out Spring up O Well! And then also put on others saying Sing ye unto it May we also pass through this Valley of Bacah or weeping and make a Well The Rain also filleth the Pools Benedictionibus amicietur Doctor or Teachers shall be clothed with blessings And so this Valley of Bacah will be a Valley of Berachah our speaking comfortably to those laborious Levites that teach the good knowledge of the Lord will reach their hearts and so we shall bring upon our selves the blessing of them that were ready to perish Yea may call them up hither into publick Worship and send them to the People in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Peace We even we have need of Ordinances as well as others we have ignorant minds stubborn wills strong lusts violent temptations and of all sorts of persons Nobles are most unwilling to put their Necks to the work of the Lord. We have greater hinderances in the way to Heaven and therefore need better helps than others Oh! let it never be said of us that when the poor are but ignorant Souls foolish and know not the way of the Lord that we the Great men Noblemen and Gentlemen that know much indeed but do less for God nay more against him that we should altogether break the Yoak and burst the Bonds Our Interest is greater and Influence more upon others therefore our sin of neglect will be greater and Account heavier Lord let us have Means of Grace and Grace
dispositions as these you must have and act in the duty of Prayer and then you shall prevail for your selves and others This is the Third general Head 4. The last I shall briefly hint at is some Cordials which may support and bear up our hearts till our Souls overtake our dear Lord or he turn again to us in our lamentings after him 1. Lamenting Souls after the Lord are most likely to be the remnant escaping in approaching Calamities These have the Mourners mark on them and ordinarily are left Ezek. 9.4 6. and Ezek. 7.16 But they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the Mountains like Doves of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for their iniquity If Land-destroying Calamities come you are likeliest to survive and be a holy Seed for storing the Church in future times 2. You may be the Instruments to prevail with the Lord for keeping in the midst of us Yet there 's a possibility Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Joel 2. v. 14. There 's yet a may-be in it Amos 5.15 Hate the evil and love the good and establish Judgment in the Gate it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph God hath condescended to his Peoples supplications why not yours The poor wise man hath delivered the City the Innocent may deliver the Island Lot sped for Zoar Abraham for Lot yea very far for the Cities of the Plain Make a tryal and what comfort will it be to you if your lamenting Prayers turn the Scales for God's stay with us 3. However you may stay him with your own Souls Is that nothing God is as willing to be friends with us as we can be to desire it and much more Isa 27.5 Or Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me And is this nothing Oh what is God's presence worth How have David Job Heman and all the Saints prized it Do you not want it Follow on to know and own and acknowledge the Lord and you shall find his going forth is prepared as the morning and he will come to you as the Rain Hos 6.3 Your Fleece shall be wet when others are dry If you cannot obtain mercy for others yet as Noah Daniel and Job you may deliver your own Souls by your righteousness 4. Yet the Lord hath not forsaken us he is yet in the midst of us by his gracious Providences and Influences he hath been hitherto prevailed with though he threatned us to leave us and we had cause to fear Execution his Candlesticks are fixed and Candles are shining though not all in their proper Sockets but under a Bushel This is an incouraging mercy our God hath not forsaken us Yea now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a Nail in his holy Place that our God may lighten our Eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage Ezra 9.8 9. It was not our deservings that hath kept him with us no no Israel bath not been forsaken nor Judah of his God though their Land was filled with sin against the holy One of Israel Jer. 51.5 What 's the reason then that God is not quite gone See 1 Sam. 12.22 For the Lord will not forsake his People for his great Names sake because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his People The Argument holds for us and it 's still in force blessed be God he hath not cast us off as yet and the Covenant with Ancestors still holds good as in 2 King 13.23 5. God seems to be in suspense whether he should leave us or no to draw us on in our lamentings after him just as he expresseth himself in Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zebbim strange Language spoken by the infinitely wife and immutable God As though he were puzzled and knew not what to do Surely this is spoken after the manner of men speaks God loth to punish for indeed it is his strange work q. d. the severity of my threats call on truth to make execution sed quomodo hoc à me impetrabo But how shall I prevail with my self to do it The glory of my Name free-grace and constant love to my Covenanted people get hold on my wrathful hand when ready to strike the fatal stroke the righteousness of a Judg saith strike The bowels of a Father say hold And when God thus deliberates it is to stay and see if his People will get hold of him by faith and prayer Is not this his carriage towards us in his providence certainly the Lord comes and goes as if he were loth to punish us and is not this a very great incouragement to us to lament after him Since he looks back as a Mother to her Child with a wishly eye as if he had not the power to go as if he should say call me back and you shall have me my heart is towards you though I am forced to turn my back on you you shall have me if you will lament Evangelically after me 6. You have good company in your lamenting after the Lord though there be too too many vile Atheists and debauched wretches that say to God depart from us cause the holy one to cease from the midst of us yet there are mourners in Zion that are very importunatly crying and lamenting after the Lord with all their might seeking to fetch back the Ark Though they be few comparatively and though despised and possibly hid in corners and as little taken notice of as those seven thousand in Elijah's days that had not bowed their knee to Baal but God searcheth out such clandestine worshippers that pray and complain to their Father in secret and he will reward answer them openly with what concerns more then themselves Oh! it 's good to be of the number of these hidden ones How blessed a thing is it to twist interests with this lovely Society There is a communion of Saints in prayer though unknown to each other And I can say it for your incouragement Oh ye praying mourning Souls that you are not alone God hath thousands in these Nations that have been hard at it many years and present circumstances do quicken their crys Our danger increaseth our pangs and those advance our crys be not discouraged you have many assistants A threefold cord is not easily broken God hath some Children to cry after him from all parts of the Kingdom and though many of the old stock of weeping Souls are worn out yet some wrestling young ones are planted in their room some begotten in the bonds of the Gospel for the word of God is not bound though
Israel's Lamentation After the Lord OR A DISCOURSE WHEREIN Every well-wisher to Zion is excited and directed how to lament after the Lord with Prayers and Tears To maintain the Ordinances of God or God's presence with his Ordinances amongst us BEING Some Meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2 Psalm 80.4 O Lord God of Hosts how long wilt thou be angry Heb. smoke against the Prayer of thy People LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the three Crowns Bible at the lower end of Cheapside 1683. AN Humble Address TO THE Righteous GOD. RIghteous art thou O Lord in all thy ways and holy in all thy works must Dust and Ashes say when they speak to thee or plead with thee All Israel have transgressed thy Law and despised thy Gospel therefore hast thou brought upon us a great Evil such as hath scarce ever been done under the whole Heaven not three Shepherds cut off in a month but some thousands in one day and this not for a day or month or year but even twenty years already neither is there any among us that knoweth how long this sad Cloud may be upon us Thy will be done Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve but to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we rebelled against thee and shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Shall the needy alwaies be forgotten shall the expectation of the Poor perish for ever Be not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People though our iniquities testifie against us do thou this for thy Names sake for behold for thy sake we are killed all the day long The Lord God of Hosts the Lord God of gods he knoweth and Israel he shall know if it be rebellion or transgression against the Lord. Judg O Lord them that have walked in their integrity Recompence thy Servants according to the cleanness of their hands in thine Eye-sight that have not wickedly departed from their God or by the grace of God have acknowledged their offence returned to thee and who at last are following on to know the Lord and pleading and hoping for a reviving and raising up after these daies or years of death let thy dead men live thy slain Witnesses be called up and ascend to Heaven in a Cloud let there be a shaking that these dry Bones may come together Come O Wind and breath on them that they may live Cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary for the Lord's sake In midst of Judgment remember mercy and at last revive thy work Give us the opening of the mouth Set thy Light on a Candlestick Hold the Stars in thy right hand Let thy Peoples Eyes see their Teachers Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man Purifie the Sons of Levi that they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousness Thou art Jehovah and changest not therefore we the Sons of Jacob are not all consumed Thou art the Creator of the Ends of the Earth and therefore canst command deliverance for Jacob. There 's no searching of thine understanding therefore canst devise ways for the banished to be restored a faithful God and wilt perform thy Promises and confirm the Word of thy Servants But our God is a God of Judgment blessed are all they that wait for him He which testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen even so come Lord Jesus TO All the Mourners IN ZION That wait for The Consolation of Israel Grace Mercy and Peace THe sharp rebukes that Divine displeasure hath laid us under these many Years have caused many thoughts of heart whilst prophane men have shot their Arrows bitter words it becomes Gods Children to have many solemn searchings of hearts and serious Enquiries after the Reason of the Lords Controversie with the Daughter of Zion word and Rod call to us to consider our ways and Gods People have called on themselves and one another saying Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord Doubtless the occasion is given by us we turned away from God before he turned his back upon us Judgment is begun at the house of God and he expects repentance should begin there That pacification may be first begun there God saith You only have I known of all the Families of the earth therefore I will punish you for your iniquities And well he may for the provocation of his Sons and Daughters goes nearest his heart as being against greater light and love means mercies obligations and expectations then any others surely it 's high time for us to awake out of sleep The charge is drawn up the indictment is read Scourges have been laid on yea of such a nature as have come nearest the hearts of the Godly Loss of Gospel-priviledges is a greater affliction then loss of Gold Goods Houses Liberties Relations Yea of life it self Yea saith God Woe also unto them when I depart from them God doth not use to depart till he be slighted or thrust away This hath been a long dark and gloomy day a day of rebuke and Blasphemy a day of Scattering and treading in down the valley of Vision Ministers and their dear flocks rent asunder Solemn assemblies sorrowfully broken up Sad and silent Sabboths by some profaned Ignorance increasing conversion work stopped Sinners hardened Young beginners in Religion discouraged Atheism abounding Presecution revived and thousands of precious Souls wandring about as sheep that have no shepheard Many publick uplaces being ill supplyed and guilt broaght upon the nation pressing us down tow ords destruction yea such sins as leave a People remediless mocking the messengers of God despising his words misusing his prophets till the wrath of the Lord arise against us till there be no remedy or no healing this brought Israel into captivity out of their own Land Yea this hath brought the final scattering of that forlorn Nation to this day killing the Lord Jesus their own Prophets persecuting the Apostles forbidding them to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alwaies for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost surely this lies nearest the hearts of real Saints next to Gods glory and their own Souls that poor sinners damn themselves destroy the Nation It 's dreadful indeed to see debauchery in the land abounding and basest of men vent personal malice against Gods dearest Children for no other fault but worshipping God and praying for their persecutors Men write voluminous treatises of invectives against us charging us with Schisms Sedition Faction and Rebellion which God knows our Souls hate and we durst appeal to our worst
adversaries in their sober intervals that they cannot but know the contrary and after all these long-lasting and heavy-pressing evils come upon us one barvest is passed and many summers and winters ended and we are not saved As for us our eyes as yet failed for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a Nation that cannot save us We looked for peace but no good came for a time of health and behold trouble And we may discern Gods anger in the wrath of men And after all this shall we sit still and be sottish under this astonishing hand of God Surely our work is not to complain of much less oppose men but look into our own hearts and lives by self examination Humiliation Reformation for these vapours that darken the Heavens arise from our filthy hearts and lives these Arrows are winged with our own feathers it may be said to every individual thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness Because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart yea to thy Soul Salvian complained of old that by our sins the enemies were strong this is the Achan in the camp the Jonah in the ship the worm in the gourd if sin abide still in us we cannot be safe it 's in vain to expect deliverance till the cause of the provocation on our part be discarded and purged away It 's true God is the inflicting cause wicked men the instruments but our own selves are the deserving and procuring cause of all our woes The protestants in Queen Marys days lamented that their unprofitableness contempt of the Gospel under King Edward 6th brought on them those bloody days of Persecution and if we do not mourn and reform we may conclude these are but the beginnings of sorrow as drops before the shower of blood that after this prophesying in sackcloth witnesses shall be slain and the number of Martyrs accomplished and Antichrists sins filled up By setting up the abomination of desolation which God Almighty prevent These things considered and often rolled in my thoughts I cast about what was the fittest course to be taken for preventing God's further Removes and reduce him back to our Souls and Assemblies and I find that 1. God purposely removes to make us follow him as a wise Nurse doth by a weak Child 2. He stops and halts as in suspense what to do that he may both alarum us and afford us leisure to consider what course to take 3. He makes a gracious promise that if we do follow on to know the Lord his going forth shall be prepared as the morning And 4. He complaineth that there is none that calleth on his Name that stirreth up himself to take hold on God i. e. to keep him from departing or to fetch him back Considering the Premises I was desirous in my poor measure to promote God's work in the Souls of his People and ingage all that have any Interest in God to improve it at this day for the preventing of his total Removal and detaining of God with us not as the Inhabitants of Tyrus when Alexander besieged it and one of their Diviners told them that it was revealed to him in a Dream that Apollo their god was shortly to depart from them thereupon they take the Image of Apollo and bind it with a Chain of Gold to a Post thinking thereby to detain him No no we cannot force God against his will to tarry but we are in obedience to God's command and discharge of our duty and in performance of the Condition of his Promise to lament after the Lord with Prayers Tears Confessions Reformations pleading with God through the Intercession of his Son for his Return and Residence with us While wicked Gadarens are by words and works bidding blessed Jesus depart out of our Coasts it becomes us solemnly to invite him open the doors of our hearts to him and give him free welcom saying Lord abide with us thus he may be constrained to tarry with us And though in this horrid Tempest that the Ship of the Church is sorely tossed with so that it 's covered with Waves our Lord be asleep yet Faith and Prayer will awake him And though we cannot peremptorily say he will save our Persons Priviledges or his Church in England yet we may with some confidence say he will certainly save Zion and build his Church somewhere in the World he will save our own Souls and it may be we shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger it may be that the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious unto the Remnant of Joseph Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him Even an Heathen King took this course and upon no other assurance than a Who can tell There is hope in Israel concerning this thing only it becomes us to wait God's leisure and patiently yea valiantly pass through the Fiery Tryal before us wherein Papists will far exceed Protestants in rage However Mr. Greenham said He that will suffer by Papists must learn to suffer by Protestants and he that hath well passed the Pikes in Camp-fight may hope to pass safe through the Fire-Ordeal Integrity and uprightness will preserve us seconded by a Divine manutenency in sharpest Tryals The God of all Grace who hath called you into his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you May it please the Lord to own these weak though seasonable Labours for quickening the Spirits of his People to lament after the Lord it may be he will return to the many thousands of his People in these Nations And after we have been digging Esek Strife and Sitnah hateful opposition God may cause us unanimously to digg Rehoboth Room that the Lord may make room for us and make us fruitful in the Land Oh for such a day There is a day wherein they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy Mountain wherein the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid c. Wherein his People shall see Eye to Eye and serve him with one consent or shoulder and that he will turn to his People a pure Language or Lip that they shall feed and lye down and none shall make them afraid It becomes God's People to make a Catalogue of these and such like Promises and spread them before the Lord for he is a faithful God and will perform his Promise which saith Jer. 30.17 For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an out-cast saying This is Zion whom no man seeketh after And let all that love her say Amen Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on
Sam. 4.21 2. Because the obscuring and obstructing of Ordinances is an heavy Judgment worse than all other Plagues both absolutely considered in it self and comparatively if it be compared with other Judgments God threatens to do by Jerusalem as he did by Shilo Jer. 7.14 How that was this context shews And Ezek. 24.21 I will prophane my Sanctuary the excellency of your strength Many other threats speak God's hot displeasure in this case and the evil is greater because it reacheth to the Soul which is the best part of man Hence Amos 8.11 12. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will send for a Famin in the Land which surely is a dreadful Judgment worse than the Sword Lam. 4.9 But what a Famin Not a Famin of Bread or a Thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord This this is the forest Judgment this Judgment on the Soul is the Soul of Judgments when poor sinners are in danger inevitably to die and be damned in Hell without means or remedy Where no Vision is the people perish Prov. 29.18 Hos 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge 3. Because there 's much advantage in the injoyment of Ordinances Herein consists the Kingdom of Heaven so is the Preaching of the Gospel frequently called and this Word is the Word of the Kingdom and Gospel of the Kingdom because it is an introduction or means to enter Persons into the Kingdom of Grace and so of Glory and that 's a dreadful Threatning Matth. 21.43 Therefore shall the Kingdom of God be taken from you and be given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof If any ask me as Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage hath the Jew so the professing Christian under the Gospel-dispensation or what profit is there of Circumcision or of Spiritual Priviledges I answer much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God and so Salvation is of the Jews as our Lord faith even so those that have Gospel-Ordinances have great helps for the conversion edification and salvation of their Souls for Christ hath set up his Ensign among them for Souls to flock unto These are Wells of Salvation a Feast of fat things breasts of consolation where Souls may milk out and be abundantly delighted here are the Keys of the Kingdom by which Heaven-gates stand open continually the door of Faith the ministration of the Spirit the day of Salvation c. And is not all this worth lamenting after the Lord to enjoy then what is 4. Because this is the character and property of a Child of God to lament after the Ark and Ordinances of God I have saith David loved the habitation of thy house Psal 26.8 Therefore makes this his unum magnum one Thing which he desires of the Lord to dwell in the house of the Lord Psal 27.4 Two things put on a Christian Spirit to lament after God for the Ark 1. His Principles 2. His Experiences 1. He hath a gracious Principle an enlightened Eye to see what others cannot discern the Christian calls such places and waies Beer-la-hai-roi as Hagar Gen. 16.14 The Well of him that liveth and seeth me So the Christian sees God's way in the Sanctuary there he beholds the beauty of the Lord. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary Yea the devout Soul hath a stomach and tast suitable to what he meets with in the Ordinances of God Faith Love Desire Joy as new-born Children have a natural instinct to their Mothers Milk for conservation of life so 1 Pet. 2.2 The Saints as new-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that they may grow thereby The Law of God ingraven in his heart bears proportion to the Word he hears opened by Ministers Christ within him by his Spirit and Graces as the hope of Glory prompts him to a love and longing to Christ in the holy Supper and all other his Institutions 2. Add to this the frequent Experiences the believing Soul hath had of the sweetness of Divine Grace in Ordinances which cannot but set him a longing for the like Experiments again Psal 63.1 2. My Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary So Song 2.3 4. I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my tast yea he brought me into his banquetting house and his banner over me was Love No wonder if she was so sick when she wanted him This leads me to the next Head 2. That Christians must lament after the God of Ordinances or God in Ordinances so saith the Text The House of Israel lamented after the Lord. Why 1. Because God is infinitely more worth than all Ordinances his presence is prizable for it self The Ark is but to be esteemed for his gracious presence In his favour is life Psal 30.5 His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 63.3 This is the marrow of Heaven the want of this is Hell Woe also be to them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 And this the Child of God knows 2. God purposely withdraws that men may lament after him as a Mother steps out of the Child's sight that it may see she 's gone and cry after her Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early 3. Because due lamenting after the Lord may fetch him back he purposely hovers waits and expects that his people should call him back by their prayers intreaties moanings not as though God were moved or changed by mens pitiful complaints and out-crys but that such an earnest lamenting qualifies the subject capacitates for mercy and puts Souls into the condition of the promise Jer. 29.12 13. Then shall ye call upon me and shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart 4. God blesseth his People usually in and by Ordinances with his best blessings Psal 133.3 There the Lord commanded the blessing Even life for evermore Eph. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heavenly places things means in Christ It would be needless to reckon up all the blessings that our dear Lord conveys to his People by Ordinances and that it becomes us to lament after the Lord for in his Appointments for now I joyn them together 1. Sometimes God gives outward blessings with his Ark. So the Lord had blessed the House of Obed-edom and all that pertained to him because of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6.12 The Gospel of Peace oft brings outward Peace and Plenty though
through the corruption of mens hearts it stirs up opposition occasionally 2. But the chief blessings are spiritual as Conversion of the Soul to God Regeneration effectual Vocation so that it may oft be said as of Zion This and that man was born there Psal 87.5 So also increase of grace 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass this broader Glass of Ordinances and the secret Glass of private Duties the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory i. e. from grace to grace as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides Ordinances discover and help to cure those foul spots that are in the face of the Soul Jam. 1.23 24. Sanctuarydiscoveries resolve many intricate cases in the providences of God See Psal 73. v. 17. Here also the hearts of God's People may be abundantly satisfied Psal 36.8 for here 's goodness from God to do it Psal 65.4 Ordinances are Canales gratiae Channels through which Divine Grace and Influences flow to Souls Zech. 4.12 These display Christ open Gospel-priviledges Promises Terms of Salvation are as the gate of Heaven well then may and must the observant believing Soul lament after both the Ordinances of God and God in his Ordinances 4. Head is an Objection which may be framed against all I have said You 'l say What 's all this Canting for How doth it concern us Have we not publick Ordinances Doth not the Gospel flourish Is there not excellent Preaching in Publick Places The generality have no reason to complain since we have Christian Magistrates a glorious Church Learned Preachers nay others that pretend Tenderness of Conscience these do complain before they are hurt Have they not their Separate Meetings in a Publick way without disturbance Little reason have any to make this ado in lamenting What cause have you to lament I answer as Cleophas Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem in England and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days If you ask what things Do I need to inform you or rub up your memories by telling you that twenty years ago two thousand Ministers then found in peaceable possession of their publick places were dispossessed and ejected by the Act of Uniformity commencing Aug. 24. 1662. and shortly after 1665. were prohibited meeting together above four for Religious Worship and another Act prohibited them from coming or being within 5 miles of any such place where they had preached or a Corporation and were severely menaced and punished by a Second Act against Conventicles with Sharper penalties and though the Kings Majesty set them at liberty for a season yet that was quickly retracted and many could have little benefit by it and whether the silencing of Ministers be not an obstructing of the Gospel and of Ordinances judge you and if you say you are not concerned in this case I shall not speak to you but turn my discourse to others Only I shall briefly propound some Questions 1. About the Ordinances of God 2. The God of Ordinances and leave it to you to judge whether there be not some cause to lament after the Lord. 1. Are all congregations supplyed with able faithful Ministers God forbid I should condemn all or censure any blessed be God there are some gracious men in publick station whose main design is to win Souls to God but Oh how small is their Number I would rather you read an account of this in Ichabod or five groans of the Church writ by a conformable Minister A. Dom. 1663. lamenting 3000 raw young heads that teach before they have learned 1500 debauched Ministers many factious men some illiterate trades-men Simonists Pluralists and Non-Residents particularly described God knows whether these things be true but it 's well if many have not cause to complain as our Lord Matth. 9.36 Who when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no Shepherd you know what follows If all publick places were well supplyed there would be less need of us If there were no need we should be glad of a Supersedeas 2. Yet is there not work enough for all the Ministers in England if all were faithful conscientious and set themselves seriouslly to the work of God Oh how many thousand ignorant Souls to be instructed Obstinate to be admonished careless to be quickened weak to be strengthned wandring to be reduced surely they that know any thing of the worth of Souls of the work of the Ministry and of the importance of eternity cannot but bitterly lament that so little is done for saving of sinners and that there are so few to lay out themselves or that do actually or effectually the work of faithful Pastors for the conviction and edification of sinners Souls If every Minister in England were gracious and had an hundred persons under his cure and charge he would find it as difficult to manage as a Physician dealing with so many patients under several diseases hic labor hoc opus 3. Is not the liberty that some take in their dispensing Ordinances under many disadvantages Are they not subject to fines confiscations imprisonments banishments censures and all have not equal opportunity of feeding Christs flock where there is as much necessity What liberty is taken it 's but stoln and upon courtesie still they are exposed to the rage of malevolent spirits and under the lash of the Law and censures of being undiscreet Zealots that adventure further than their more prudent Brethren yet still the Candle is under a bushel and they that need it the most have least share in it and are glad they are out of the sound of it and are furnished with stones enow even from present constitutions to cast at such as would disturb them in their career of sin and posting to Hell and they whose Eyes are opened to see the blind running into a Pit cannot but lament that their hands are so bound that they cannot stop them 4. Are there not sad symptoms upon us of a departing Gospel It would not now be seasonable to enumerate the Prognosticks of God's taking away his Ark and Ordinances Mr. Jurnal speaking of the unkind welcom the Gospel hath found among us addeth Oh what will God do with this degenerate Age we live in O England England I fear some sad Judgment or other bodes thee If such glad Tidings as the Gospel brings be rejected sad news cannot be far off I cannot think of less than a departing Gospel God never made such a settlement of his Gospel amongst any People but he could remove it from them He comes but upon liking and will he stay where he is not welcom who will that hath elsewhere to go Read the rest Two words on this observe 1. Have there not been great Attempts made to quench the Light amongst us
as Sampson I will go out as at other times before and shake my self But he wisteth not that the Lord is departed from him When he reflects on himself and finds it so will he not see sad cause to lament And have not some Godly Souls cause to say as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us And where be all his miracles which our Fathers told us of But now the Lord hath forsaken us 1. In point of quickening exciting and actuating their graces May not that sad complaint be taken up Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee For thou hast hid thy face from us hast consumed Heb. melted us because of our iniquities Where is that flaming love that working faith Gospel-repentance that lively hope that filial fear that spirit of adoption that found mind tender conscience and working affections as in former days It 's much to be feared there 's a general decay of grace or damp in point of exercise on the Spirits of living Christians it 's well if the Bridgroom find not even the wise Virgins asleep 2. As to strength and assistance against the assaults of temptation and out-breakings of corruption many Thorns in the flesh Messengers of Satan do too prevalently push forwards Gods Children to sin and they find not his grace sufficient for them as sometimes but stumble and fall and are broken snared and taken Yea sometimes to the breaking of their bones dishonouring of God scandal of their profession and endangering of their precious Souls Oh let not such things be told in Gath or published in Askelon lest the uncircumcised Philistins triumph over Gods People and be hardened in their sinful ways Alas where shall Gods tender Spirited Children hide their faces when their brethren prophane Gods holy Name and men shall say These are the People of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36.20 These are your Praecisians and scrupulous Zealots that will not do as others now they shew that they are a pack of Hypocrites This cuts deep and wounds to the heart 3. As to communion with God Gods People of old could assert it with a truely however carnal men scorn it now 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not only in that secret essential fundamental communion whereby grace is maintained in its being and life but that sweet sensible Soul-refreshing fellowship that gives grace its activity maintains intercourse betwixt God and the Soul in duty But alas have not Gods Children cause to complain as the Church that God withdraws himself She seeks him but finds him not in publick Ordinances in secret Duties in communion of Saints Gods Children complain with Job chap. 23.8 9. Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him c. He looks East West North South but in vain This is strange that God who is every where should be found no where but though the Child of God be aware of Gods general Omnipresence and feel his common Providence yet is not satisfied without his special presence and gracious influence And missing this he hath reason to lament after the Lord when he hides himself 4. As to assurance settlement and comfort sometimes Gods Children are left to a sad unsatisfyed and doubting frame full of fears troubles jealousies are much in the dark in point of state this is a very general complaint at this day Many have blurred their evidences by sins or carelesness and cannot give any distinct account how their principles are stated what condition their Souls are in are damped and daunted as to their interest in Christ title to the promises hopes of Heaven Have not these great cause to lament after the Lord And surely these must say as David Psal 51.8 12. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit O my God! My Soul is cast down within me one while I argue with my own heart communing expostulating challenging charging my Spirit and alas I can do no good with it other whiles turning me to God but still I am restless cannot be quiet but am tossed with tempests and not comforted Well I am determined to look towards Gods holy temple and cast my self at Gods feet in the vertue of that promise Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth Thus much for the Doctrinal part and the clearing of an objection All the Application I shall make of this point shall only be of Exhortation to put us all upon this so seasonable and needful a duty of lamenting after the Lord the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of the Ark. In prosecuting this I shall do these four things 1. Propound some Motives and Arguments to press this duty upon our Spirits 2. Discover what sort of Persons are concerned thus to lament after the Lord. 3. Lay before you some Helps to carry on this work of serious lamenting 4. Propound some Cordials to incourage our hearts till we overtake the Lord. 1. For Motives to persuade prevail with our hearts to practice this duty once at last and indeed it 's a very sad consideration that this People of Israel were twenty years before they began to feel their feet or come to themselves This shall be the First Argument That a professing People may lye long under dreadful Spiritual judgments without a sensible Spirit It was so with them here it 's well if it be not so with us And this sensless frame is greater evil than any other judgments Qu. But how comes it to pass that men may be so long senseless and not lament after the Lord all this while Ans 1. From the nature of sin sin is of an hardening stupifying brutifying nature when men fall into sin their hearts are hardened by it Heb. 3.13 Sin is of a cold congealing nature it freezeth the Soul rocketh conscience asleep and like the Fish Torpedo that diffuseth its benumming poison through the hand arm and creeping at last to his heart kills him so doth sin It 's not to tell how David's sin rockt him asleep and led him on to other sins till it indangered his Soul's sleeping the sleep of death 2. From the worldly enjoyments men have in room of Ordinances as the Captives in Babylon being well settled in their conveniences forget God's Appointments and Jerusalem comes not into their mind while their enjoyments afford contentment Yea though some returned they can sleep quietly in their Cieled houses while the House of God lies waste Hag. 1.4 God's Ark
is forgotten when mens private Chests are full Personal comforts thrust our spiritual as the Sun Beams eat out the Kitchin fire 3. From the want of quickening Means in the want of Ordinances When the Prophets are dead naturally or civilly their Monitors to duty are taken away Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there 's no more any Prophet neither is there any among us that knoweth how long When men want an Haggai or Zechariah they lie still asleep for want of awakening Helps It 's Samuel that promotes this lamenting after the Lord. 4. From the withdrawings of God's grace Psal 80.18 Quicken us and we will call on thy Name As long as God turns his back on us we shall be so far from kindly lamenting after him that we shall turn go back from him My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63.8 How comes that to pass why Thy right hand upholdeth me It 's God that gives a repenting heart a lamenting Soul Oh what are we if God leave us to our selves Study these causes of senslesness and let our Souls be ashamed Tremble at these causes and their effects bewail sin settle not in worldly injoyments beg quickening helps and above all Divine grace for our assistance in lamenting after the Lord. This is the first 2. That God's Professing People may and must stir up themselves to lament after the Lord. All men have rational faculties Gracious Souls have spiritual Principles sloth kills both Self excitation is possible and a furtherance to this lamentation after God Men as men have Consciences and Conscience is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly by self-reflection discovering the want of God and goodness checking for evil putting on to what is good if you follow it not as far as it leads you you wrong it rebel against its Master and deprive your selves of further helps Contradict this Preacher in thy bosom at thy peril Means intervene betwixt a man's can and his cannot if thou canst not move a spiritual step thou must move a natural step after the Lord if thou canst not create a new heart yet thou canst and must endeavour to make thee a new heart and a new spirit If thou be not able to do God's work thou must be doing thy own work bemoan thy self tell him what an unruly Bullock thou art and desire him to turn thee and then thou shalt be turned Stir up thy self to take hold on God Stir up the Gift of God in thee Charge thy self as David My Soul wait thou only upon God Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Awake awake put on thy strength oh Zion put on thy beautiful Garments oh Jerusalem shake thy self from the dust loose thy self from the bands of thy neck oh Captive Daughter of Zion Isa 52.1 2. Now at last God expects you should labour to work your hearts to a discovery of your misery the necessity you have of God of his presence and Ordinances You may rouze your selves to this work you must and if you do God will help if not your destruction will be of your selves 3. This lamenting after the Lord and his Ark hath been the practice and is the true Character of God's Children Eli's heart trembled for the Ark of God Phinehas's Wife thought it not worth the while to live when the Ark was gone I will wait on the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and will look for him Isa 8.17 This was when it was said Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples v. 16. Yea if you would seek and find God seek not to familiar Spirits but to the Law and to the Testimony v. 19 20. For should not a People seek unto their God Sirs shew what you are and act as you seem If you be God's Children run weeping after your Father cry after him and say Be not a terrour to me Yea why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Lord art not thou in the midst of us We are called by thy Name leave us not Jer. 14.8 9. Be not thou far from me O Lord for trouble is near for there is none to help Oh! where is that antient serious Spirit of lamenting after the Lord Where are those genuine workings of Child-like bowels after such a Father What 's become of that sighing frame of heart that Spirit of Adoption that God's Children of old were indued with It 's well if new Notions do not drive out that old Spirit of lamentation Shew you are Saints by this as those few declared themselves Saul's faithful Souldiers whose hearts God had toucht following him trembling or trembling after him So Hos 11. v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roar like a Lion when he shall roar then the Children shall tremble from the West Observe it God's roaring in terrible threatnings or executions drives not God's Children from him but to him only they come trembling appealing from God to God from an avenging Justice offended to tender Mercies through the Merits of Jesus Learn this Mystery an Christian Property 4. This is no controverted Point but a granted duty on all hands I am persuading to Who dare contradict it Yea who dare dispute it What exceptions can any bring against this of lamenting after the Lord I challenge any Caviller to produce any shew of reason against either branch of it either as to the Ordinances of God or God in his Ordinances I think all Parties are agreed in the Theory Oh that all were also agreed in the practice of this duty whatever disputes men make about other Rules or Canons of practice methinks there should be none about this Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. Whence I discern 1. That it 's a vain praeposterous thing for persons to spend time in disputing about abstruse and dark Points while they neglect momentous and palpable duties 2. The only way to get Unity in less material Truths or Duties is conscientious practice of what is necessary and indubitable I may truly say that nothing is more likely to make us cordial Friends than the practice of the Duty in my Text when Judah Israel fall a weeping and seeking the Lord then they go together How amicable doth converting grace make those that were at deadly and desperate feud for Repentance turns the hearts of Parents and Children to each other Alas till our faces be set towards the Lord our backs will be on each other and we shall rush with fury one against another But if we agree in this best act and object
waste and ye run every man to his own house Self-seeking here is self-undoing Men ruine themselves by neglecting God's Interest If men will not lament the Ark's Captivity God will make Judah go into Captivity If men lay not to heart the mourning waies of Zion God hath a way to make them go without strength before the pursuer Men can well dispense with the loss of the pleasant things of the Sanctuary it shall be tryed how they will resent the loss of their temporal pleasant Enjoyments If men lament not the Gates of Zion the Gates of the City shall lament mourn and being desolate shall sit upon the ground If professing People lay not to heart sad and silent Sabbaths God may make the Land to keep her Sabbaths Great and fair Houses must be desolate without Inhabitant because God's House is desolate and none regardeth God can tell how to meet with the selfish heedless persons If they regard not God's Interest God will care as little for theirs He can tell how to come near you in matters of sense that can make nothing of what concerns your Souls And Ordinances of God will then be good when sickness pain poverty death arrest you Or these spiritual things will be good when out of your reach and you shut up in the Prison of Hell where there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Psal 141.6 When their Judges are overthrown in stony places they shall hear my words for they are sweet When that sad Plague of Sweating Sickness was here in England how much were proud Nobles in seeming love with faithful Ministers how glad were they of advice from them then Ordinances were of more worth than purses full of gold God can make his Ministers to be prized by the prophanest Scorners yea he knows how to make a wounding Sword to make way through their bleeding sides for instructions to enter the most flinty hearts as Bernard told his ranting Brother 9. How long must the Lord wait for your sensible lamentings we are soon weary of the yoak and think it long to wander in the wilderness Sometimes we are for returning back into Aegypt and then all in post-hast for Canaan as Israel in the Desert The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed that he should not die in the Pit but then we would break Prison and are loth to take God's way or stay God's time this retards us rather than quickens our deliverance God puts us to our how longs because we put him to his how longs How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee How long will it be ere you attain to innocency Oh Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be We were in post-hast for a Restitution many years ago as Moses for Miriam Heal her now O God I beseech thee God saith If her Father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven daies But our heavenly Father hath spit in our face in the open sight of the world we have been shut out of his house well near three times seven years yet alas it 's to be fear'd we are not Evangelically ashamed Absalom was three years at Geshur and two years at Jerusalem and saw not the King's face and pretended dissatisfaction therewith Oh! but where 's our real longing to enjoy the Lord in his Ordinances Alas it's not length of time that will put our hearts into frame When at last will God raise up some awakening Samuel that shall sound the Alarum in the Ears of all Israel Oh! when shall we awake out of our long sleep when shall we see our need of God in his Ordinances when shall our Souls lament after God to purpose Surely it 's time to bestir our selves once at last 10. Can we lament to any else that will or can hear or help us May not Kings or great ones say as that King once to that crying Woman that said Help my Lord O King he said If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Alas we may say Truly in vain is Salvation hoped for from the Hills and from the multitude of Mountains Truly in the Lord our God is the Salvation of Israel Jer. 3.23 The greatest Princes are not to be trusted in God thinks fit to frustrate our expectations from men to confute our carnal confidence in man Surely men of low degree are vanity if they have a mind to help they cannot and men of high degree are a lye if they can help yea if they promise to help they will not our best course then is to pour out our hearts before him and say God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 9. For all Power is God's v. 11. We may say as David I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me refuge failed me no man cared for my Soul I cryed unto thee O Lord Psal 142.4 5. The Comforter that should relieve our Souls is far away There 's none to guide poor Zion of all the Sons whom she hath brought forth neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the Sons that she hath brought up Isa 51.18 As for us our Eyes as yet failed for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a Nation that could not save us We are as Napthali and have been struggling as sore for a Masculine Parliament as the Antient Primitive Church long travelled for a Man-child a Christian Emperour we had one they also struggled for uniting the Protestant Subjects and alleviating our grievances they were broken off by breaking up We had a second which set themselves to help us but the Children were come to the birth and there was no strength to bring forth all Attempts prov'd abortive since our Moses and Aaron by Votes or Disputes have represented our case sought favour and used means of help our Bricks are doubled Spirits are more inraged and our savour is abhorred and a keener Sword is put into some mens hands to execute the Law with more severity and is it not time to have recourse to God We are not permitted so much as to petition to men and make a true representation of our case that way is barred and all other doors are lockt up what else can we do but lament after the Lord he is able to help he is willing and hath promised Oh! let 's go to our God There and there only we may ease our hearts and find help let us lift up our Eyes above the Hills from whence cometh our help Our help cometh from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth Psal 121.2 2. Head is Who are the Persons People that are to lament after the Lord I answer 1. Graceless persons these have the greatest reason to lament after the Ordinances of God and the God of Ordinances For alas these poor
Gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Hos 14.3 These are the Duties implied in the Text spread before you required of us all in this World work of lamenting after the Lord. But to help our hearts to and in the due performance of these required Duties I shall propound some qualifications as so many Directions to carry on this work successfully 1. See to your State and Principles except you be related to God you 'l not lament after him nor be much concern'd about him or his Ark whether going or coming Relation is the foundation of Affection A Child will cry after his own Father Now God is not our Father since the Fall till Regeneration make a real and Adoption a relative change of our State and when we have received the Spirit of Adoption then never till then shall we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 They only will cry after God that love him fear him honour him as a Father with a filial Affection and they only shall be entertained by him as for others he owns their out-crys no more than the howlings of a Dog Oh therefore examine your State God-wards Hath Converting Grace under Ordinances changed your hearts Hath the Spirit awakened your Consciences convinced you of your undone State by Nature transformed you by the renewing of your Minds translated you out of darkness into light deal faithfully with your Souls in this case you come into the World with your backs turned upon God and you will never lament after him without a turn Yea naturally there 's an enmity and antipathy in our hearts to God and his waies Hath God crushed and conquered that and planted right Principles in you to incline you to him if yet you find not a Divine Nature a new Nature begot in you flatter not your selves you will rather run farther from him than lament after him Let your Souls be chiefly concerned for this first then for the rest Union precedes Communion A real Title is antecedent to laying Claim A Principle of Grace is before an actual exercise of it There must be life before there can be any desire of or nutrition by food I have no hopes of prevailing with graceless Souls to lament after God till they have life and breath voice and lungs except formally for company or for carnal ends which is insignificant Oh for grace truth of grace a reality of interest in Christ and all the Priviledges he hath purchased 2. Inform your selves throughly of the terms we stand in with God Consider how the Lord carries towards us as to our particular Souls and the Nation in general We shall never lament after him till we see him withdrawn Ignorance of the State of things with us keeps Persons in senslesness What the Eye of body or mind sees not is never laid to heart Make some collections and constructions of things at this day Yea make comparisons betwixt former and present Times What think you Hath not God manifested himself more in his Providences for us than of late Have we not reason to take up the Church's complaint in Psal 44.1 9. or to expostulate as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us and where be all his Miracles which our Fathers told us of I have told you how much restraining grace is withdrawn from many how rare Conversion is by Ordinances how much God hath withdrawn both from the Societies and Spirits of his Servants I shall not trouble you with repetitions look over these things compare them with what you see and observe and if you find the Lord as formerly be thankful if otherwise be humbled and lament after him It 's to be feared that if you be observant discerning Christians you 'l yet find out more than hitherto hath been mentioned both demonstrations of God's remove and Prognosticks of future removes The most excellent and eminent Servants of God pluckt away by death from amongst us and God saith They are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 The Spirit of Giddiness Atheism and Idolatry spreading at a strange rate beyond all parallel Other things I might mention but I leave them to your inquiry Only there 's one Text methinks is astonishing Zech. 11.8 Three Shepherds also I cut off in one month and my Soul loathed them and their Soul also abhorred me It 's one of the saddest words in all the Bible Whether they were good or bad Shepherds that were cut off it 's dreadful that it hath no better effect than mutual abhorrency Oh that this were not our case We lie under woful fruits of God's loathing us and it 's well if men do not loath him A Spirit of opposition to Godliness is the sad fruit of Divine dereliction which produceth greater Spiritual and Temporal Plagues Hence he adds v. 9. Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another They shall have no Gospel-Pastors to feed their Souls that 's a Spiritual Plague which fell on the Jews for rejecting Christ They shall devour one another with cursed rage and malice as in seditions conspiracies or in their necessity of food by the terrible Famine Thus the Jews were destroyed in Jerusalem's miserable Ruin The like Prognosticks are upon us Lord prevent the fame effects and awake our hearts to use God's appointed Means for prevention 3. Make diligent inquiry into the Reason of our present and approaching calamities Is there not a cause Surely affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Sin is the Mother and Nurse of sorrow Is not God bringing our iniquities upon us Doth not our own wickedness correct us and our backsliding reprove us Doth not this Rod say Thy ways and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart or Soul Jer. 4.18 Let Ministers and People lay their hand on their heart and search our Consciences Conversations Is it not I that shut out Ministers as the good Woman said I broke my Ministers Leg My pride unteachableness unprofitablebleness formality neglect of duty censurings and uncharitableness sensuality worldliness hypocrisy and lukewarmness vain glory and mindlesness of Gods glory and my Souls eternal good these these made all the excluding banishing fining imprisoning Laws that ever came out against God's Servants These chiefly have broken all assemblies scatterred meetings armed all the Officers retarded our deliverance By our sins are our enemies strong and the hands of our friends weak Alas It 's my own iniquity that hath brought us low set back a good work banisht God lift up the right hand of our enemies Nor is it the Sins of profane but professors Of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful and forgotten God that
with this word repeated vers 7 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah And if God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Who would not follow after such a God with prayers tears groans and hearty lamentations that he would return to us continue with us Oh! who would not have an hand in bringing back the King such a King as by his presence can make us truly and eternally happy See what it is to have God with us Isa 42.13 14 15 16. Yea it becomes every one to study the usefulness of God's Ordinances that their hearts may be ingaged to and inlarged in lamenting after the Ordinances of God Both these are larger Subjects than I can prosecure to explain the advantages coming to a People by the presence of the Ordinances of God or the God of Ordinances You must look on the Ordinances as fruits and tokens of God's special favour for all have not the Ordinances of God Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them That this Sun-shine of Gospel-Light is on one place and not on another proceeds from discriminating Providence who sent Embassadours for the Gospel to be brought to them Surely that 's preventing kindness But when it hath left some impression on hearts some Myrth upon the handles of the Lock such should yea will lament after him when he 's gone as the Church did For such have tasted how good the Lord is and look on the Ordinances as their Heritage and highest Priviledge Oh that you knew what helps Ordinances are to promote God's work in our hearts in begetting and increasing Faith Repentance Love new Obedience this is that clear Chrystal-glass through which we may see the face of God and be transformed into his Image that Glass in which we may see the face of our Souls and be humbled and ashamed Here you may have your doubts resolved fears dispersed hearts satisfied graces quickened fellowship with God promoted our Souls prepared for Heaven Oh that your eyes were opened to see the necessity excellency utility of God's Ordinances I am very confident that if your Souls be as new born Babes you will desire after the sincere Milk of the Word if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2.2 3. As for others that want spiritual life and light to discover and feel the marrow of Ordinances no wonder if they slight or despise both the Appointments themselves and such as long for them and lament the want of them and therefore I urge this that you learn by your own experience the sweetness and advantage of enjoying the presence of God in the Ordinances of God 6. Get and maintain publick Spirits Oh take heed of private Spirits to look only after your own concerns and worldly Interests This hath been the Ruine of the Church and also of particular persons at last Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you O ye to dwell in your cieled Houses and this House lye waste therefore ye have sown much and bring in little q.d. You think to secure your personal and domestical comforts with neglect of my concernments but I will cross you in that which concerns you because you are heedless in what concerns me On the contrary David concern'd himself about God's House and God built his House 3 Sam. 7.2 11. So true is that of our Saviour that whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Self-seeking is the way to self-undoing self-denying is the only way to self-advancing Scripture and Experience prove this Well then my advice is that you chiefly mind the Interest of our Lord in the World and put as great an accent on this in your prayers as if it were your own case and indeed it is your own Your little Boat hangs on the great Ship but all judge not so therefore there are few lamenters after the Lord But if you would look on Zion's case as your own and so carry it as having yours really involved in that bottom it would be both an help and spur in your lamentings The more gracious persons have been the more have they forgot themselves to think on the Church Upon me saith St. Paul cometh daily the care of all the Churches Upon Moses lay the burden of all the People Uriah will sympathize and suit himself to the Ark and Israel and Judah in the Camp and not suit himself to the delights of the City Nehemiah inquires after and condoles with his suffering Brethren Look through the Bible and you 'l find this gracious publick Spirit breathing in all the Servants of God Psal 137.5 6. If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Marg. the head of my joy q.d. I profess my self to be a Member of that Mystical Body the Church and how can a Member rejoyce when the whole Body mourns If the touching of one String of an Instrument make the rest move how can I forbear a sad Eccho to the Church's mournful Elegy Shall not her dewy Eyes cause mine Eyes to water How can it go well with me when it goes ill with the Church Oh that I could set self aside We have need saith one to be redeemed from our selves rather than from the Devil or World I should make a sweet bartering and give old for new if I could shuffle out self and substitute Christ my Lord in place of my self Oh wretched Idol when shall I see thee wholly decourted and Christ wholly put in thy room Oh that I had but gone as far yet as the Heathens Primar we are not born for our selves surely then I should not be so much taken up with my own matters but think on the Church Alas what 's my danger to Zion's damage if it go well with Zion it shall comfort my heart whatever my personal troubles be But I must hang my Harp on the Willows while the Church is in Captivity Lord do good in thy good pleasure to Zion build thou the Walls of Jerusalem though my broken bones be not set or though my heart still keep bleeding 7. Learn the right Art of praying and pleading with the Lord this lamentation is in the way of supplication that a gracious promise Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem Princes and People the Spirit of grace and of Supplications And then follows a great mourning both in families and in closets Oh that this work were set forward Surely if all the People of England yea professing People could set forwards in this so needful
a work what mercy were it prayer is needful at all times in all cases but much more now If any thing fetch back a departing God it must be a believing prayer 2 Chron. 7.14 If my People which are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their Land You see the duty You see the incouragement prayer is sutable to a sad disposition and dispensation Prayer is the Conduit of comfort Afflictions make us seek out Promises Promises to seek Faith Faith to seek Prayer Prayer to seek and find God What should God's Children do were it not for this priviledge of praying When they cannot preach and hear they may pray when they cannot meet together they may meet at the Throne of Grace when they are shut out from petitioning men they may be admitted to the Court of Heaven and the Lord's Ears are still open to their cry I should think the Spirit of Prayer to be the best token for good to us Thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine Ear to hear Psal 10.17 Moses besought the Lord and the Lord seems as bound fast by his prayer Let me alone saith God The People here intreat Samuel not to cease to cry to the Lord for them and he did pray and you see the issue Oh that we could not only pray but lift up a prayer for the Remnant that 's left If God return to us it must be upon the wings of such an advanced Prayer When Sennacherib had sent Rabshakeh to blaspheme God the Text saith For this cause Hezekiah the King and the Prophet Isaiah the Son of Amoz prayed and cryed to Heaven For this cause If any thing will quicken God's Children to Prayer surely it will be the dishonour of their Father they would not answer them but complain to God this was then and is still the most effectual course to speed When Nehemiah was to make request to a great King he saith Then prayed I to the God of Heaven It was an ejaculatory Prayer for he spoke it not yet it was effectual he thought if by Prayer he could move the main wheel all the rest would move This is a way to set a work all Second Causes Indeed we have no other means in prospect let us betake our selves to this spiritual Armour for Prayers and Tears are the Church's Weapons Ephes 6.18 19. Praying alwaies with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the Mystery of the Gospel This is our case we beg our Peoples Prayers for our restitution Oh that Ministers and People could strive or be in an Agony together in their mutual Prayers to God for each other If you could pray more and better we should come the sooner and with a greater blessing even in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ and for your encouragement to pray for us we hope we can truly say as Heb. 13.18 Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Though we suffer as evil-doers and are reproached as factious seditious schismatical as Paul was accounted an Apostate an enemy to the Law but we carry our selves as Subjects as Ministers living orderly in our places giving none offence so that none can challenge us in any thing save in the matters of our God and in that they must excuse us if we cannot in all things see with their Eyes nor swallow down such Oaths Subscriptions as some dare whom we judge not but are afraid of nothing so much as sin and as for our Preaching to you though prohibited by men it 's our obligation to duty For woe be to us if we Preach not the Gospel Zeal for God's glory and love to your Souls that exposeth us to all these censures and oppositions it is for your sakes that we bear all these affronts and will not you pray for us Surely your selves are concerned in our work we are content to endure all for the Gospels sake we ask nothing of you but your entertainment of our Message and Prayers for our persons we spend our time and strength and lungs for you will not you pray for us If God help us will not this turn to your advantage Your Prayers will return into your own bosoms We have been serving almost three Apprentiships in our divorcement from Publick Places and Imployments yet our God hath not forsaken us but secured our Persons and some Liberties he hath delivered us doth and will deliver liver us 2 Cor. 1.10 11 12. You also helping together in prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf for our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience c. Having obtained help of God we continue to this day at great uncertainties as Melancthon said Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio quadraginta annos nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse So we may say we have continued by Divine bounty and care of us twenty years and could never say assuredly nor upon any probable grounds that we should abide one week to an end Much of this may be ascribed to the effectual Prayers of the Church as a mean under God Who can tell but in a short time your Prayers may fetch us back again Howsoever we are persuaded that these things shall turn to our and your Salvation through your Prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Only see that your Prayers be such as God will accept I cannot inlarge on this Head but hint the due qualifications of such a Prayer as shall undoubtedly prevail 1. Your Persons must be in covenant 2. You must act Faith upon the Mediator Christ 3. You must pray in the Holy Ghost 4. Ask what is according to God's Will 5. Aim at God's Glory as your main end 6. Cast away all sin in heart and life 7. Live in the daily exercise of Repentance 8. Maintain an holy Awe of God in your hearts 9. Set your hearts in order for the duty 10. Pray with understanding minding the object 11. With fervency importunity 12. Forgiving others that have offended you 13. Watching against Temptations 14. Living up to your Prayers 15. Maintaining communion with God 16. Coming with hopes to speed 17. Be Sincere as to frames and ends 18. Be dayly sensible of wants weaknesses 19. Wait patiently for returns of prayer 20. Be thankful for any in-comes after Prayer Such