Church and the Work of GOD in the Land runs so much parallel with this to get the plots and Plotters discovered that opose this begun Work of GOD the Letters ranverse and the Impediments removed and Instructions from the King to carry on the begun Work of GOD Should not this be observed as a new and Eminent call of GOD for Clearing Confirming and Encouraging all Ranks of people in the Land to build up the Walls of the LORDS Temple among us And in this glasse of Providence may we not see clearly that new Plots are like old Plots new Opposition to the Work of GOD like the old Oppositions and new Deliverances like old Deliverances The Fourth Call to carry on this begun work of Reformation is from the Noble Examples and Presidents in Scripture who when ever the Providence of GOD put an opportunity in their hands opened the doors of the House of the LORD set up the Instituted Worship of GOD and removed the corruptions and defilements that Idolaters and others had brought unto the Temple ye see a famous Instance of this Worthie of our Imitation in that good King Hezekiah 2 Chron 29 and 3 verse He in the first Year of his Reign in the first moneth opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them and he brought in the Priests and the Levites and gathered them together unto the East street and said unto them Hear me ye Levites sanctifie your selves and sanctifie the house of the LORD GOD of your fathers and carrie forth the filthiness out of the holie place Verse 6. For our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our GOD and have foresaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD and turned their backs c. See also what good Jehosaphat and tender Josiah did in this matter for Recovering and Advancing the work of Reformation as they were great men so they were greatly concerned in their day and Generation for the Truths of GOD for which they bear an honourable and savourie character in all Ages while others that were opposers of GODS work have a black mark put upon them The Fifth Call To carrie on this work of Reformation is from the eminent Apostasie and abounding wickedness and profanitie that has followed thereupon in our Land great backslidings as they call for great Repentings so also for Remarkable and great Returnings especially when GOD gives unto People repeated calls thereunto and have not we had such Remarkable and Repeated Calls both from the VVord and eminent providences GOD has again and again spoken to us in that language that he spoke to His Church in the days of Jeremiah as you may see in his third chapter the 1 the 14 and 22 verses where we have the call for Returning thrice repeated And O that the Inhabitants of our Land might give in such an answer as is recorded in that 22 verse Return ye backsliding children there is the Call and I will heal your backslidings there is the motive And O that we could give in such an answer as follows Behold we come unto Thee for Thou art the LORD our GOD. O ye who pretend to be concerned in the work of Reformation will ye see if ye can prevent Souls from going down to the pit Let there be such Laws made and revived and carefully put in execution as may suppress crying and abounding abominations inconsistent with a true and through Reformation such as Sabbath-breaking swearing drunkenness and whoredom the predominant sins in our Age that cannot but draw down vengeance on the Land if not prevented As also all Antichristianism errour and ungodliness and seeing the season of doing this is put in the hands of Magistrates and Ministers if they joyn not together and make a right use of it for the end given then it is likely to draw down that threatned judgement Ezek. 24.13 verse Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my furie to rest upon thee And that judgement which our Saviour pronounced upon that people who had a day and season of Reformation and Salvation given them but they made ill use of it and therefore you see Luke 19.41 how He laments their folly and that with tears before He pronounce their doom if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are bid from thine eyes And we know not how soon the day may come when our Enemies shall cast a trench against us and lay us and out Temple even with the ground because we know not the time of our visitation VVe never read that Christ wept but twice and one of them was at the prospect of the death burial of His Ancient Spouse the Jewish Church VVe have had a Three years and an half Gospel-day which is thought to have been the time that CHRIST the Sun of Righteousness after He appeared to preach the Gospel shined in the Orb of Gospel Ordinances unto this Church And yet that day proved not the day of their deliverance but only of their Tryal and of ripening of them for a more desolating strock of Judgement under which they ly unto this very day And may we not be affraid that this be our very case for we have had as long a season and are like as badly to improve it And therefore I may put this Question to one and all of you to resolve VVhether this be a time of tryall or a time of deliverance that we are under for several judicious Christians do doubt of it But you who are the Members of this Honorable Parliament have an opportunity to put in your hands which if you manage well may give a decision unto this Question And O that you may have wisdom Courage and Resolution given you so to do The sixth Gall To carrie on this begun work of Reformation is GOD's promise to be with you whom he calls and employs in this publick service and this is plainly and I may say powerfully exprest in the last words of the Text for I am with you this is a clear and Comfortable promise and then he backs it with power and Authority and O that it might be so upon our hearts when he says I am with you saith the LORD of hosts This tittle JEHOVAH is thrice repeated but in the last place it is thus exprest the LORD of hosts which must import some what beyond the former two and has certainly a great Emphasis in it the scope of which I take to be for removing their fears and stirring up their Zeal and Courage As if he would say ye are but a few ct weak Companie to undertake the Reformation who have been in miserie under the Babylonish Captivitie and firy furnace of a prolonged affliction and so have not that Courage that is
that People for fear I come short of the main things I purpose to speak to this Honourable Auditorie We do not read that this People of the Jews to whom this Propher Haggai was sent had immediately after their return from the Babylonish Captivity any Prophet among them and yet they had such as were able to direct them in their work But they proving sinfully and shamefully negligent and sloathful for a considerable while after their return in the work of Reformation which GOD had called them unto And for which they had the Civil Authority even Cyrus his grant The LORD at length raised up this prophet Haggai and after him Zechariah to awaken and stirr them up to their dutie in carrying on this Work that was begun several years ago Their neglect and carelesness in this matter was occasioned partly from their own timerousness and weakness being but few when compared with their Ancestours who builded the first Temple and with the multitude of Enemies that at present opposed them no wonder they were timerous having been so long houled and kept at under in Babylon Where their long affliction and Captivitie had dispirited them Partly this neglect was occasioned from the bold and violent opposition of enemies that did what they could to mart the begun work of GOD in the Land Such as Sanballat the Horonite and his Complices Partly from their too too much minding the things of the world and preferring them to the things of GOD as we have them reproved for it chapter 1st ver 4th Is it time for you O Ye to dwell in your Cicled houses and this housely waste and this is a disease that abounds much in our days This second chapter wherein my text lves is full of encouragement for them to proceed in the work notwithstanding of the discouragements on the one hand and the oppositions they met with on the other The first encouragement lys in the latter words of the text from the promise of GOD's Presence with them in this work For I am with You saith the LORD of hosts therefore be strong and work you need not fear all your enemies that oppose you when I am with you The second encouragement for removing their timerousness and spiriting them to their work is taken from the standing Covenant that was between GOD them that of a long old date even since the day that he had brought them out of the land of Egypt where we have to admire GOD's faithfulness to them in keeping this Covenant when they were guilty of many breaches thereof to him Verse 5. According to the Word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Aegypt so my Spirit remaineth with you fear ye not The third Encouragement to go on in their work is taken from the Lords promise to compense the external despicableness and meanness of this fabrick they had begun and about which they were so discouraged because it had not that Extensiveness and Largeness of Building neither had they Solomons riches to give it that internal splendor and Glory that Solomons Temple had all this the LORD promises to make up with his own Glory and the Mediators personal presence verse 7 8 9. The 4. encouragement to proceed in the begun work is that although for their neglect they were falsen under many Judgements and especially that of famine as in the preceeding Chapter Verse 6. Ye have sown much and brung in little and also in this Chapter When they came to an heap of twenty Measures they proved but ten when they came to the Press to draw out fifty Vessels full it filled but twenty Verse 16. By which ye might easily have conjectured that I had a controversy with you And itconcerned you to have enquired unto the causes of my controversie But now sayes the LORD If ye will proceed in the work O Zerubbabel Joshua and the people I will remove these Judgements and bring Blessings in the room of them The last Argument which is very considerable to move and encourage them to go on in their work and should have great weight with us Who are affraid of the Nations about us is the LORDS promising Safety and Security to them in the midst of great Commotions and desolating Judgements upon the Nations round about As if he would say though I make Kings and Nations fall by the Ears and destroy one another though you may hear it or see it yet it shall not come near you and this ye see in the last verses of the Chapter and it is like that sweet Promise to the Church Psal 91.7 8. Verses A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand But it shall not come nigh thee Only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked In the Verse we have read to you more particularly we have these things to be considered 1. The Exhortation be strong and work this is the Call which the LORD sends by the Prophet Haggai 2. We have the persons to whom this Call and Message is directed and sent and that is to Zerubbabel to Joshua and to all the People Magistrates Ministers and People they are the Persons to whom this Call comes 3. We have the person calling and that is the LORD of Hosts by his Prophet Haggai Thus saith the LORD of Hosts 4. We have the Arguments which the LORD makes use of in this Verse to press them unto the giving of a Cordial and present Obedience unto this Call and Message and these Arguments are two which ye would do well to take notice of one of them is taken from the Patience of GOD another is taken from the Promise of GOD. That which is taken from the Patience and Forbearance of GOD lyes in the first Words of the Verse yet now after so long a foreslowing and neglect of the Work in you as if the LORD would say and after so long Patience and Forbearance in me it concerns you to fall upon this Work that I call you to I might have come and destroyed you after I brought you out of Babylon for your unanswerableness to My Command yet have I forborne and stretched out My Patience towards you and put a new opportunity in your hands and given you a new Call ought not My former Patience and Forebearance and My present Goodness to lead you to Repentance to mourn over and redress the wrongs that you have been formerly guilty of The second Argument that he backs this Call withall is in the last words of the Text and that is the promise of his being with them in this undertaking For I am with you saith the LORD of Hosts 5ly We have this message delivered with a double note of attention to the leading men in Church and State persons too incident to be heedless importing no less than this that it concerned such as them at this verie Juncture to give ready Obedience to GOD's Call to be
and we may not only see his fortitude and courrage in this Undertaking but his Zeal as ye have it set down Psal 132. I will not go up to my bed nor give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to mine eye lids till I find out a place for the Mightie GOD of Jacob. And when they came to the Ark you see what is their supplication Verse 8. Arise O LORD to thy rest We are come to carrie GOD back again so to speak and the Ark of GOD that has been so long out of the Land and out of the Sanctuary we see also how gladly he would have been at the building of the Temple and what preparations he had made for it But when he saw that the honour was to be conferred upon his Son Solomon how does he press him to forwardness and faithfulness in that matter 1 Chron 22. to the 14 Now my Son The LORD be with thee only the LORD give thee Wisdom and Vnderstanding and give thee Charge concerning Israel that thou mayest keep the Law of the LORD thy GOD then shalt thou prosper if thou takest heed to fulfil the Statutes and Judgements which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel Be strong of good Courage dread not nor be dismayed So that you see what estimate this great and holy man put upon the work of GOD and how concerned he was about it as the principal business he had to do in the World and 1 Samuel 2.30 verse GOD hath said he that honours me I will honour O how dangerous is it to have an opportunity put in our hand to serve GOD and his Interest and not to guide it well and what ever figure any of You may make in the World yet you only signify so far in the sight of GOD as You act for him in your Station and Generation and do you not know that many may stand for a great summ make a great figure in the eyes of men that will stand but for ciphers in Heavens Arithmetick Reason second As it is GODS Work so he visiblie clearly and eminently calls us to it and that by these six Calls First By the call of his word for the Reformation we are called to is that which is suited unto GODS Law contained in his written Word and the LORD hath Honoured Scotland beyond many other Nations of the World in that he hath written unto us the great things of his Law Hosea 8.12 O that we may not count them a light thing And may it not be said of us as Psal 146 19 20 He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his Judgements unto Israel He hath not dealt so with every Nation Have we then GODS Laws His Statutes and his Judgements then certainly we have them either for something or nothing and can they be given us for any thing else but to direct our service and obedience to GOD and is there any of you the honourable members of this Parliament that will make Laws and promulgatt them and would not take it ill if the people did not Obey Would you not Judge such disobedient persons to the Law to be Rebells and punish them accordingly Of how much sorer punishment will they be found worthy that take no heed to the Laws of GOD revealled in His Word that they may give a Constant and Conscientious Obedience thereunto Now the Reformation that we are called to is most suitable unto this Divine Law which has been owned contended for and witnessed to by the Godly party in the Land and that of all Ranks both while they lived when they dyed and that as the purest Reformation of any Protestant Church and this was testifyed many years ago by a great man of this Nation who Blessed GOD that he was born in a Church whose Reformation was purer then that of England of France or Geneva And seeing we have Ordinances Means and Opportunities again put in our hands Persons of all Ranks had need to take Care to manage them so as we may give a good accompt of the Trust committed to us But least I transgress too far and trespass upon your patience I shall Close at this time The Second SERMON HAGGAI 2 4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the LORD be strong O Joshua son of Josedech the high Priest and be strong all ye People of the Land saith the LORD and work For I am with you saith the LORD of Hosts THERE is nothing more to be lamented by the Sons of Men then this one thing that we have sinned our selves unto such a benighted and dark Condition as that we can neither take up our danger aright to flee from it nor our Duty and what is the rightest season for the right performance the reof So that in this Case we are more to be pittied then the beasts of the field For the Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib But Israel doth not know My People doth not consider Isaiah 1.3 Yea Jer 8.7 Yea then the birds of the Aire for the stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Cran and the Swallow observe the time of her coming but My People know not the Judgement of the LORD And is it not a great peice of Condescending Love and Mercy in GOD that when we neither know nor consider our Work nor the season of it he Condesends to send Messengers to put us in mind of both This people when they proved Negligent in the greatest and most Important bunness in which their happiness was folded up He sends the Prophet Haggai to tell them what they had to do and what they had neglected and that if they would mourn for what Sins they had committed and what duties they had neglected be zealous and careful for the future in answering and obeying what GOD called them unto all bygones should be bygones If I may so speak yet now be Strong c. You know the Doctrine I was upon That it is the dutie of all Ranks of People in a Land to joyn Cordially and unanimously together to carrie on a begun work of Reformation when the LORD Eminently calls unto it and promises to be with them in it I am come the length of the 2d reason of the Doctrine to shew this Honourable Auditory that as this work is the work of GOD so he doth Eminently call you to it and that first by the call of his word as I have touched for if the Laws of Heaven given to the Jewish Church did obliedge them to renounce all Idolarrie and false worship and to reform and worship GOD precisely according to the Divine Iustitution do they not equallie oblige us are they not the rule in our day as well as they were in their day he 〈◊〉 not given us these statutes laws and Judgements for that very end that he gave them to the Church of old which if we do we shall live in them and which