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
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
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
and preaching 2. God thinks good sometimes to abscond and hide these tokens of his presence from a professing people 3. This with drawing may be continued a long time 2 Chron. 13.3 so in Babylon Zoch 1.13 in latter days Hos 3.4 4. God takes particular notice of the duration of his Churches affliction in Egypt 400. years so Rev. 11.11 5. Peoples Priviledges may be long removed before they be kindly sensible of their loss long before they recover themselves 6. When Gods Ordinances are but privately dispensed it 's a great loss to the body of a People such as need them most have then least of them 7. Continuance in sin prolongs deliverance and absence of the Ark or Ordinances is an occasion of continuing in sin Men do withdraw their hearts from God that 's sinful God withdraws helps from them that 's poenal men repent not ordinarily without helps God denies helps and is just therein 8. Attendance on Ordinances raiseth the envy of wicked men this hath been the quarrel from the daies of Cain and Abel successively to this day Gen. 4.5 Exod. 9.1 Ezra 4.12 13. Gal. 4.29 Esther 3.8 Dan. 3.12 6.13 9. One stirring active Instrument for God may by God's blessing promote Repentance and Reformation amongst a people Oh what hurt may one sinner do So what good may one useful man do when God stirs up their hearts Samuel sets things a working so Ezra 5.1 2. Hag. 5.12 10. When God designs a Reformation and Restitution of his Ordinances he orders an harmonious concurrence of providences for that end The accomplishment of God's threats affright awaken Samuel comes in the nick of time speaks words upon the wheel God moves things go on apace 2 Chron. 29.36 31.21 These I pass briefly and pass on to the main Point from the last clause of the verse And all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord. They did not lament so much under their pressing burdens grievous oppressions by the Philistins but after the Lord i. e. for the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of the Ark for the recovery of God's gracious presence and the visible tokens thereof lachrymis deplorarunt summam miseriam Religionis Reipublicae they bitterly lamented the calamities of Church and State Religion and Polity This say Interpreters is an admirable place by reason of the general Conversion and Repentance of the whole People we have scarce the like in all the Scripture except Acts 2. From the words then results this Doctrine That when God's Ark is long obscured or Ordinances obstructed it becomes God's Israel or professing People to lament after the Lord. Serious lamenting after God is well becoming those whom God afflicts in the loss of Priviledges The Text presents to us 1. The Persons lamenting God's peculiar People these only love and mind God's presence when the Lords and Cities of the Philistins are weary of him and send him away yea and the Bethshemites though a city of the Levites belonging to the Church of God through their ill management of matters send to get a release yet Gods Israel will look after their God 2. Here 's the object they lament after not peace plenty victory over enemies but after the Lord Jehovah is the object of their affections 't is him they love and long for communion with Psal 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary 3. Here 's the Universality of these all Israel the whole house of Israel come they that had wofully degenerated and were gone after their Idols what a wonderful act of Gods power and soveraignty was this upon their spirits by this he manifests that he is the true God and that Samuel was his Servant the like see in Elijahs prayer preaching Sacrifice and success of all 1. Kin. 18.21 37 39. 4. Here 's the manner and nature of the Peoples repentance they lamented after the Lord which is a very comprehensive word and I shall open it anon In prosecuting this point I shall proceed in this method 1. Shew how ordinances are obstructed obscured 2. What 's implyed in lamenting after the Lord. 3. How and why Gods Israel thus lament 4. Answer an objection So make application 1. What is it for ordinances to be either 1. Obstructed or 2. obscured both which may be a great affliction to Gods People and oft occasion a lamentation 1. For Ordinances to be obstructed is a prevention of the liberty of dispensation of them and suppression of its dispensers by imprisonment banishment inhibition or suspension as in Ahab's daies Jezabel cut off the prophets of the Lord the rest werehid by fifty in a Cave and fed with bread and water 1 Kin. 18.4 yea such scarcity was there at that day that Elijah thought he was left alone 1 Kin. 19.10 Such as were left were latent and had indeed their lives not liberties to proclaim the Word or to celebrate God's Ordinances openly It 's true Truth seeks not corners yet publishers of Truth may be driven into corners God's Candles may be put under a Bushel the Church's pleasant things may be taken away Sabbaths and solemn Assemblies may be forgotten in Zion and the waies of Zion mourn Lam. 1.4 7. The Church complains Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there is no more any Prophet The Church may flee into a wilderness of obscurity and persecution her witnesses may be slain by a natural or civil death some time or other these prophecies have an accomplishment Jeremah and Ezekiel may both have their mouths stopped by their brethren and God himself may be a little Sanctuary to such as want the open Sanctuary-priviledges Ezek. 11.15 16. Gospel-course may be stopped obstructed so that Paul is putting believers on to pray for him that the word of the Lord may have free course 2 Thes 3.1 intimating that it had met with a stop by what by mens rage or the Devils subtilty or both 1 Thes 2.16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles and v. 18. Satan hindred us Some times the Devil stirs up men to obstruct the course of the Gospel The histories of the Church in all ages will offer their Service to bear witness to this truth that liberty of Ordinances is sometimes infringed and so the Ark is retired into private for where God hath a people they must and will worship God and attend his Institutions if they cannot do it openly they act more privately as Christs Disciples frequently met in houses in the night the doors being shut and that for fear of the Jews Joh. 20.19 And it may be that word in Isa 8.16 refers to such a day Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples 2. The Ark Ordinances may somtimes be obscured as well as obstructed this refers to the Purity as the former to the liberty of God's Appointments The light may
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
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