be seene and another thing to do a thing that it may be seen And yet Gods people may do both not do good onely that may be seen but if they keepe still the glory of God above in their eye as the highest ayme they may desire and be willing too that it may be seene to the praise of God But this I confesse requireth some strength of grace to do it and yet to keep the heart upright The excellency of grace doth consist not in casting off the outward comforts of the world but to know how to enjoy them and to over-rule them unto God so the strength of grace doth consist not in forbearing of such actions as are taken notice of by men or not to dare to ayme at the publishing of those things that have excellency in them but the strength of grace consists in this in having the heart enabled to do this and yet to keepe it under too and to keep God above in his right place Thirdly It shall be said they are sonnes c. It is a great blessing unto Gods children that they shall be accounted so before others Not onely that they shall be so but that they shall be accounted so Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God This is a blessing not onely to be Gods children but to be called Gods children We must account it so and therefore we must walk so as may convince all with whom we do converse that we are the children of God and not thinke this sufficient well let me approve my heart to God and then what need I care what all the World thinks of me God doth promise it as a blessing to have his people called the children of God then this must not be slighted You shall find it often in the Gospel that Christ made a great businesse of this to make it manifest to the world that he was sent of God he would have them to know that his Father sent him and that hee came from him So the people of God should count it a blessing and walk so as they may obtaine such a blessing that the world may know that they are of God Further. In the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them Ye are the sonnes of the living God Marke It is not said thus that in the place where it was said they are not my people it shall be said to them they are my people No but further it shall be said they are sonnes and sonnes of the living God this goeth beyond being his people Hence then the observation is That The grace of God under the Gospell it is morefull and large and glorious then the grace of God under the Law For this is spoke of the estate of the Church under the Gospell They were Gods people indeed under the Law but the sonnes of the living God this is reserved for the times under the Gospel Sometime they under the Law are called by the name of sonnes but it appeareth by this Text that in comparison of that glorious son-ship that they shall have under the times of the Gospell that they in former times were rather servants then sonnes There is very little of our adoption in Christ revealed in the Old Testament No that was reserved for the Sonne of God to reveale for him that came out of the bosome of the Father and brought the treasures of his Fathers councel to the world the revelation of these things were reserved to the time of his comming both adoption and eternal life was very little made knowne in the time of the Law therefore Saint Paul saith that life and immortality were brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. 2. Sonnes Because in the time of the Gospell the spirits of the Saints are of son-like dispositions they are ingenuous not mercenarie In the time of the Law God carried on his people in offering rewards especially in outward things but in the time of the Gospell we have no such rewards in outwards but the Scripture speakes of afflictions most there is not spoken so much of afflictions in the time of the Law but much outward prosperity there was then but in the time of the Gospel more affliction because the dispositions of the hearts of people should not be so mercenary as they were before they should be an ingenuous a willing people in the day of Christs power 3. Sonnes Because of the son-like affection to be much for God their Father out of a naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should have more then in the times of the Law I suppose some of you have heard of the story of Craesus his sonne though he was dumb all his dayes when he perceived a souldier striking his father his affection brake the barres of his speech and he cryed out to the Souldier to spare his rather This is the affection of a sonne and these affections doth God looke for from his children especially in the time of the Gospel that they should heare no wrong done to him but though they could never speake in their own cause yet their should be sure to speake in their Fathers cause 4. Sonnes Because they have not such a spirit of servility upon them as they had in the time of the Law Christ is come to redeem us that we might serve the Lord in holinesse and righteousnesse before him without feare all the dayes of our life to take away the spirit of feare Hence the Apostle saith We have not received the spirit of feare but of love and of a sound minde And Heb. 2. 15. Christ is come to redeem those who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The spirit of a sonne is not be spirit of feare We have not received the spirit of bondage to feare again but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father It is unbeseeming the children of God especially in the time of the Gospel to be of such servile spirits as to feare every little danger to be distracted with fear and presently to be amazed Hath not God revealed himselfe to us as a Father to his children that we must not feare He would not have us feare himselfe not with a servile sear as men do and therefore surely not to fear men be they what they will be We are sons Again Not only sons for so we might find in Scripture where the people of God under the Law perhaps are sometimes called so but elder sons sons come to yeares It is true they were before us and so in that respect we are not elder bnt sons that are come to our inheritance that is it I mean that we are such sons Not children under tutorage not under School-masters and governours as they were in the time under the Law You know what comparison the Scripture makes of the difference betweene
well pleased with it Esay 53. 10. Why was God pleased with it Because the Lord saw this was the way for him to communicate himself in the fulnesse of his grace unto his Church and therefore though it cost him so deare as the death of his own Son yet he was well pleased with it And as for Christ he takes delight in letting out himself to his people after he had suffered the Text saith he was satisfied when he saw of the travell of his soul As if Christ had said O let me have a Church to communicate my self unto though I see it hath cost me my blood it hath cost me all these fearfull sufferings yet I am satisfied I thinke all is well bestowed so I may have a people to partake of my love and mercy for ever Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes Then for the Saints the delight they have in communicating themselves unto Christ is unutterable Stay me with flaeggons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love saith the Church Cantic 2. 5. Psal 63. 5. My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatnesse and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate of thee in the night watches Take this note the more fully you lay out your selves for Christ the more comfort you shall have in your lives Here is the great difference between hypocrites and others in the comfort of their lives It is impossible that any hypocrite can have that comfort in his life as a gracious heart can have upon this ground because a hypocrite reserveth somewhat of himself for something else there is not a full comunication of himself unto Christ he alwayes keepes somewhat back and thereby loseth his comfort But a gracious heart fully letting out himselfe into Christ from thence cometh the comfort sweetness that he hath in the ways of Christ above all hypocrites in the world Perhaps you thinke that the onely comfort you can have is by receiving some benefit some mercy from God you are much mistaken the comfort of letting your hearts out to God is a greater comfort then any comfort you have in receiving any thing from God And now Oh how happy are they unto whom Christ is thus espoused How comfortably may you live being made sure to Christ and how comfortably may you die It is our work to seeke to draw soules to Christ to allure soules to be in love with him Gen. 24. 35. You may see what course Abrahams servant took in drawing the love of Rebekah and her friends to his Masters son he begins wiâ—h telling them that he is the servant of Abraham and that the Lord had blessed his Master greatly so that he was become great and that the Lord had given him flocks and herds and silver gold and that he had an onely soone that was to be heire of all this This is the work of Ministers to tell people what riches of mercy there are in God and that all the treasures of those infinite riches of the infinite God are in JESUS CHRIST and to be let out in him this gaines the heart Yea it is not onely the work of Ministers but it should be worke of every gracious heart thus to seek to draw souls to Christ as Rev. 22. 17. not onely the Angels there say Come but the Bride saith Come and let him that hea eth say Come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely VVere I not in such a way of explication as I am surely wee could not get off such a point as this but that which I shall say for the present is onely this Know that it is not want of any worth in you that can hinder communion with Jesus Christ doe not reason in that manner I am a poor wretched sinfull creature will ever Christ be married unto me It is not thy sinfulnesse it is not thy base condition that can hinder thee Christ never joynes himselfe to any because they are worthy but he joynes himself to them that they may be worthy hee makes them to be worthy in joyning himselfe unto them The woman is not married unto the King because she is a Queen but the King maryeth her to make her a Queene And further know if your hearts be not taken with Christ to joyne with him in his holy mariage if he be not your husband to enjoy conjugall communion with you he will be your judge to condemn you But besides this betrothing between Christ a soul there is a betrothing between Christ a visible Church especially the Church of the Jews when they shall be called God shal appeare in his glory when this maryage shall be between Christ and the Jewish Church the King will then be in his Robes if a man of estate have a sonne to marry and intends to solemnize the maryage according to his estate if he have any better cloathes then other he puts them on that day so at the calling of the Jewes the King of heaven will be in his robes God will appeare in a most glorious manner to the world then ehe did since the creation Yea and you know the Bridegroome too will be very fine upon the mariage day so Jesus Christ will then appeare whether personally or otherwise wee say not but certainly hee will gloriously appeare at that day Tit. 2. 15. We looke for the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour jesâ—s Christ And 2 Thes 1. 10. Christ shall come so as to be admired in all them that believe the Church likewise shall then be arrayed in her fine cloaths shee shall be then cloathed in white cleane and fine liâ—nen as it is Rev. 19. 8. all in the righteousness of Christ the great doctrine of justification by Christ shall be made out full and cleare Yea and the creatures her servants shall put on the best rayment as in a great marriage the servants in the house have new cloathes at that day there will be a change in all the creatures and another kind of face in the world then now there is Then will be the marriage supper and happy shall those be that shall then be found worthy to enter into the bed-chamber let us now love Christ let us now cleave to him let us now suffer for him we may perhaps be some of those who beside our eternal enjoyment of christ in heaven may enjoy him in this mariage upon the earth But we must leave this argument we spake something of it in the end of the first chapter And I will betroth thee unto me for ever For ever This adds to the mercy to make it glorious this for ever makes a misery though never so little an infinite misery and a mercy an infinite mercy This betrothing for ever shall be fulfilled
in a visible church communion to the Jewes and in the spirituall communion of Christ with the soule for the present Of the visible form first Isa 60. 15. I will make thee an eternall excellency a joy of many generations I thinke this is not onely meant concerning the spiritual happines of the Saints but that God hath a time to make his visible church to be an eternall excellency and a joy of many generations an excellency that shall never have an end And this their perpetuall condition their enduring happinesse shall arise from three grounds First from the precious foundation that shall be laid upon that Church when it shall be Isa 54. 8. With everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord but mark the ground vers 11. Behold I lay the foundation with Saphires all the rubbish shal be taken away it shal not be raised upon a rubbish foundation God will lay the foundations of it with Saphires and then with everlasting mercy he will embrace that Church Secondly that Church shall be in a peaceable condition no rent no division there therefore in a perpetuall condition Esay 33. 20. A Tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed Why the very words before shew the reason Jerusalem shall be a quiet habitation Thirdly this Church shall look wholly at Christ as their Judge and their Law-giver and their King Isa 33. 22. The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Churches are ready to change while they mixe other things with the worship of Christ and the lawes of men with his laws but when they can look to him I mean in that which is spirituall as their Law-giver as their Judge and as their King then the happinesse of it shall be perpetuall never to cease in this world the Lord Christ will betroth this Church unto him for ever Though I verily think the holy Ghost aymeth at this in great part yet we are to understand this betrothing for ever further of the spirituall communion the soul hath with Christ When Christ betroths himselfe unto a soule it is for ever the conjugall love of Christ with a gracious soule shal never be broken At the first mans condition was such as man laid hold upon God and let goe his hold but now God lays hold upon man and hee will never let goe his The bond of union in a believer runs through Jesus Christ it is fastned upon God and the spirit of God holds the other end of it and so it can never be broken This union is in the Father who hath laid a sure foundation 2 Tim. 2. 19. Rom. 9. 11. In the Son who loves his to the end Iohn 13. 1. In the Spirit who abides in the elect for ever John 14. 16 17. Esay 54. 10. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee My loving kindnesse shall be more stable with thee and endure longer then the mountains themselves It is as sure as the ordinances of heaven Jer. 31. 35 36. Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the Moon and of the Stars for a light by night if those ordinances dopart from before mee then the seed of Israel shall cease c. And Jer. 33. 20 21. Thus saith the Lord if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant You have these three expressions of the abiding of Gods love to his people 1. The continuance of the mountains 2. The continuance of the ordinances of heaven and earth 3. Gods covenant with night and day Here is the bottome of consolation to the Saints They shall be kept by the power of God 1 Pet. 1. 5. As if God should say the speciall power that I meane to put forth in this world shall be to uphold the spirits of my Saints to bring them to salvation certainly it is so The speciall work that God hath in this world to exercise his power about is to keep Christ and the Saints together Though it be through Gods power that the heavens and the earth be kept up yet if God must withdraw his power from one hee would rather withdraw it from upholding heaven and earth then from upholding one gracious soule that hath union with his Son The union that is between Christ and his people it is too neere an union ever to be broken I remember Luther hath a notable expression about this As it is impossible for the leaven that is in the dough to be separated from the dough after it is once mixed for it turneth the nature of the dough into it selfe so it is impossible saith he for the Saints ever to be separated from Christ For Christ is in the Saints as neerly as the leaven in the very dough so incorporated as that Christ and they are as it were one lump Christ who came to save that which was lost will never lose that which he hath saved Heb. 7. 16. it is said that Christ was made a Priest not after the law of a carnall commandement That is he was not made a Priest as the Priests in the law after a ceremonial way but after the power of a indissoluble life Coeli virture by a celestiall vertue so Calvin upon the place The argument why Christs life is indissoluble rather then the Priests in the law is because they were made by the power of a carnall commandement not by a Celestiall power So those who professe godlinesse according to a carnall comandement in a ceremoniall way may faile vanish and come to nothing in their way of worship as many have done but such as are professors of Religion by the vertue of Gods Spirit in them they have the power of a life indissoluble There are two soul-staying and soul-satisfying grounds to assure of Christs betrothing himselfe for ever First when any soul is taken in to Christ it hath not onely all the sinnes that it hath committed heretofore pardoned but there is a pardon laid in for all sin that is to come There is forgivenesse with thee Psal 130. 4. There lyes pardon with God before hand for all that is to come as well as for that which is past There is no condemnation unto them which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. That is there is no instant of time after they are once in Christ Jesus wherein it can be said they are under the sentence of condemnation Now were it not that there were a pardon laid before-hand for all sin that is to come there might upon commission of a new sinne be said at that time that now they
much unconstancy fickleness in our love one to another but the love of God to his people is stable setled firm constant love That is the meaning in the first place though not all Esay 62. 5. As the Eridegroome rejoyceth over the Bride so shal thy God rejoyce â—ver thee that is the love of Christ after thousands of yeers is still but as the love of a bridegroome upon the wedding day then ordnarily love is hot appears much not the love onely of the husband but as the Bridegroome There is no moment of time but Christ rejoyceth not onely as a husband but as a Bridegroome over every gracious soule Christs love is steady because it is pure without mixture it is a holy love Observe the comparing of two Texts Esay 55. 3. The sure mercies of David are promised there In Acts 13. 34. that Scripture is quoted and there it is The holy things of David As noting because the love of God is holy therefore it is sure and stedfast Christs love unto his people is in righteousnesse as before and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and mercies It is from the sweetness of his nature and therefore it is steady firm With him there is no shadow of change It is grounded upon a sure covenant therefore firme Though indeed the love of Christ may be to us as the shining of the Sun not alwayes in the fruits of it shining out so gloriously but the Sun keepes his course in a steady way though sometimes it is clouded and we have it not so gloriously as at other times The Saints should fasten upon the love of Christ in the Covenant and though other things be never so uncertaine yet they should quiet their hearts in this that their happiness in the Covenant of grace is certaine Perhaps the love of our friend is uncertaine very fickle and inconstant those who will glavor upon you and seeme as if their hearts were with you but what sullen moods and fits will there be at times and when you have most need of them you know not where to finde them But the love of Christ is certaine and stable 2 Sam. 23. 5. Marke how David comforted himself in the stablenesse of the love of God in the covenant Though he doth not cause my house to grow yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all my desire all my hope that is that the Covenant is sure and stedfast And as we have opened it in all the former so here it must be mutuall I will betroth thee in faithfulnesse and make thee faithfull too that is thou shalt have a steady firme stable spirit in thy love to me though not in that degree that Christs is yet there is a stability in the hearts of the Saints unto Christ they are not carried up and down with every wind of doctrine with every puffe of temptation as other men are The righteous is an everlasting foundation Pro. 10. 25. The upright holdeth on his way Iob. 17. 9. It must needs be so because the affections of the Saints unto Christ are holy affections too though not perfect they have indeed some mixture therefore some instability but they have holiness therefore stability And they choose Christ in righteousnesse and in judgement And they have the Divine Nature in them and as that hath no shadow of change so they come to have something like to the immutability of the Divine Nature some shadow of it Esay 26. 3. A godly man is described thus Whose minde is staid upon God he hath a stable spirit not a wandring fickle roving spirit he hath fixed himself upon God he can say My heart is fixed The men of the world because they have not that which can satisfie run up and downe first after one contentment then after another they have no where to fix but the Saints finde all-sufficiency in God when they are there their hearts are satisfied and there they fix As a Bee lighting upon a flower finding but a little honey gets away to another and to another and to another but when it comes to a flower where it may suck honey enough it fixeth it stayeth there The hearts of the Saints find a fulnesse of good in God and there they fixe A fickle wavering unstable spirit is exceeding unbeseeming a Christian As it is in the body some who have flushings of heat have a very good colour for a while but when we know this good colour is but a flush it is rather an argument of a disease then of a good complexion An end of a candle that burnes in the socket gives some flashes of light now and then but a candle that is set upon a table gives a steady and constant light Mad people you know have their Iudicia intervalla some times wherein they doe acts of reason but you may perceive they are not in their wits because there is not constancy and evennesse in their actions This stablenes this evenes in a Christian way is the beauty and glory of it Though you be never so forward sometimes in that which is good yet if at other times your hearts be off there is no beauty in your conversation But give me a Christian whose wayes are even that you may finde a constancy in him in all his wayes Those who have such fickle uncertaine inconstant hearts are never like to excell if they have any truth in them yet they will never be eminent Christians Gen. 49. 4. it is said of Ruben Ruben unstable as water but hee shall not excell so it may be said of a Christian unstable here is one of good affections at sometimes very forward but unstable as water he shall not excell Constancy in love is exceeding comely and beautifull between man and wife from thence is the expression of the holy Ghost here it adds much unto the lustre and comfort of their lives For men to seeme sometimes to be mighty fond other times to be bitter and sowre like Nabals or the wife to be very fond sometimes and to be grievous irkesome at other times this takes away the beauty the comfort of their lives But there is more in this faithfulnesse then stability and firmeness I will betroth thee in faithfulnesse I will certainly performe all the good you can expect from me which is befitting a husband yea such a husband as I am to doe to my Spouse you may confide in me I will be faithfull to you not onely my love but my faithfulnes shall binde me to you My loving kindness my mercifull disposition is a great bond but my faithfulnes shall binde me also I will be content to ingage my selfe to you that you may certainly confide in me so as you may not only expect it from my love but challenge it from my faithfulness We deny not Gods providence to other creatures but the Spouse challengeth
mine And amongst other things by which God will make all the world to know that his people are his this is one in sâ—tting up the beauty of his Ordinances amongst them Ezek. 37. 27. My Tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and the Heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them Thus they shall know saith God that they are my people and that I am their God when I have set my Sanctuary in the midst of them for ever Were it that the Ordinances of God might be set up in their purity amongst us in England were Reformation perfected and the Saints walked humbly peaceably as they should the whole world will be convinced that these are indeed the people of the Lord and that God is amongst them And they shall say thou art my God God must begin withus we cannot begin and say Lord thou art my God but God must begin with us first and say You are my people There are a great many who say God is their God but God never said they are his people Joh. 1. 12. it is said of those who beleeved in Christ that God gave them power to be the Sonnes of God the word signifies authority that they might with authority acknowledge themselves to be the sons of God and call God Father they had the broad Seale for it Will you call God Father where is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your authority if God call you children if he say you are my people you may give the Ecchoto Gods mercy and say thou art our God Secondly When God speakes mercy to us we must answer according to it Doth God say you are my people we must answer Lord thou art our God This is a great fault amongst Christians God manifests himselfe to many a gracious heart in abundance of love and mercy they give an answer to God in a way of dispaiting and discouragement Gods ways toward thee speake thus and say thou art one of my people but thy heart works as if God were none of thy God Hath not God done much for thee thou thinkest it is all in hypocrifie that thou dost whereas the truth is it is the fruit of his love and kindnes to thee He speakes aloud in what he hath done for thee that thou art one of his people and yet thy heart thinks that he is thy enemy that he haâ—â—s thee and will cast thee off at last The wayes of God are full of mercy to thee and he hath set his stampe upon thee by his ways of love he tels thee that thou belongest unto him O unbeleeving soul answer Lord thou art my God! lay aside these discouraging sinking thoughts of thine O that thou wouldst goe away with such an answer in thy mouth Doe not answer Gods loving kindnesse and his gracious dealings towards thee with discouragement and sinking of heart this is dishonorable to him and tedious to his Spirit Thirdly God works an answerable disposition in the hearts of his people unto him This is thy duty but God will work it in time if thou belongest to him As thus doth God chuse us to be his people then the hearts of the Saints chuse him to be their God Doth God say you are my people the Saints say Lord thou art our God Doth God say I will dwell with them they answer Lord thou art our habitation Doth God say I delight in them they say Lord our delight is in thee Doth God say I will rest in them for ever the Church saith O my soule returne unto thy rest Here is a sweet answer a rebound of all Gods loving kindnes Lastly the Saints must professe God to be theirs It is not enough to beleeve with the heart but thou must confesse with the mouth professe it outwardly of this before Further This is the highest happinesse of the Saints that God is their God when they can say this they have enough If we could say this house is mine this street this Lordship this City this Kingdome this World is mine What is all this A Christian comes at length and saith this God that made all is mine As it is reported of the French Ambassador and the Spanish meeting together saith the Spanish Ambassadour my Master is King of Spaine my Master replyed the French is King of France my Master said the Spaniard againe is King of Naples and my Master said the French is King of France my Master is King of Portugal and my Master is King of France still he answered with that my Master is King of France as being enough to answer all the several Kingdomes of the Spaniard So one saith I have this house this land this stock this estate this trade yea but saith a Christian I have God God is mine Surely having him thou hast enough And if God be thy God he will be a God to thee 1 Chron. 17. 24. The Lord of hosts is God of Israel even a God to Israel So it must be with thee if thou beest a Saint of God be a Saint to God Are we a people of God then we must be a people to God Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Thus we had opened the gracious manifestation of God to his Church in part fulfilled spiritually to spiritual Israel here but more sensibly to be made good at the great day of Jezreel that is when the Jews shall be called then the Spouse of Christ in a visible way shall be thus married unto him and the Lord will be their God Jerome saith upon the Text All these things that are here promised to the Church the Jewes expect it at the end of the world after the time of Antichrist And I make no question though in a spiritual sence this Scripture is made good for the present unto the Saints yet in a more visible and sensible way all this Scripture will be made good to the people of the Jews the Gentiles then joyning with them even literally the glory of the Church shall be visible and apparant More whereof in the next Chapter HOSEA CHAP. 3. The First Lecture CHAP. 3. VER 1. 2. 3. Then said the Lord unto me go yet love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteresse according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who looke to other gods and love flaggons of wine So I bought her â—o me for fifteen pieces of silver and for an homer of barley and an halfe homer of barley And I said unto her thou shalt abide for me many dayes thou shalt not play the harlot and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee THe close of the former Chapter had much mercy in it and this Chapter containes the
expression of much love also to Israel but yet withall God tells them of that meane and low estate they are like to be in before that time comes for the fulfilling of all that good that God intends to them God purposes great mercy for them his heart is much set upon them but they must for a long time beare their iniquity they must be brought into a vile and desolate condition in their captivity even untill a second appearing of Christ But in all this time the heart of God would be toward them his intentions would be strong for good to that people above all the people upon the face of the earth though they might seeme to be utterly rejected of the Lord and that for many yeers yet hee would look toward them as a people that he intended yet to marry unto himself in time mercy should breake forth gloriously upon them and his name should be magnified in their returning unto him so as their hearts should melt toward his goodnesse they should not abuse it any more as formerly they had done but they should returne and seeke the Lord their God and David their King and feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes This is the scope of the Chapter In which you have three things 1. Gods love continued unto an adulteresse Israel 2. The low and mean condition of this adulteresse for a long time 3. The returne of God in infinite mercy toward them at the latter day together with their returne unto him And the Lord said unto me goe yet love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulter esse We have here a new injunction to the Prophet and that somewhat harder then his former In the first Chapter God commanded him to goe and take awife of whoredomes but here God commanded him to love an adulteresse which is somewhat more then to take her unto himself What that was of taking a wife of whoredomes hath been opened in the former Chapter and may spare some labour in this It is here a vision as it was there As if God should say unto Hosea Hosea it is just with me as it would be with thee if thou shouldst goe and have a wife an Adulteresse notwithstanding all the love she hath found yet still an Adulteresse thine heart should be upon her so as thou couldest not take thy heart from her but thou must needs love this Adulteresse still This people whom I have loved for whom I have done so much good yet they have gone a whoring from me they are an Adulteresse yet for all that my heart cannot be taken off from them but is still toward them yet I love them This is through the strength of the Covenant that Gods love is so permanent Others who are not in covenant with him God casts out for lesser sins for any sins but as for his people who are in Covenant with him no not their adulteries their idolatries takes not the heart of God wholly from them Surely then if thou canst appeale to God O Lord thou knowest all things knowest that there is nothing of thy mind revealed to me but my heart is ready to do it and if I faile in any thing thou knowest it is the greatest burden of my soul O that I knew more of thy minde and that I had power to doe more surely God will love thee you heare he loves his people though an adulteresse as before so now take this lesson thy sinnes cannot over come Gods goodnesse let Gods goodnesse overcome thy sinfulnesse An adulteresse beloved of her friend This is as some carry it Calvin Vatablus and many others beloved of her husband as if God should say had they any such excuse for their departings from me that I have been a bitter husband to them that I have used them hardly and rigidly then indeed they might have some plea but I have loved them dearly I have done much for them they were beloved of me I have carried my selfe to them in the most friendly way that possibly could be yet they are gone a whoring from me The wife that followes other lovers thinks if she have but this to say her husband is hard to her hee cares not for her he loves her not it excuses in part her adulteries and so the husband a company keeper an adulterer if he can say what will you have me to doe I never come home but my wife is alwayes bâ—awling and she loves other men he thinks this is plea enough for him But Israel could not have this excuse for her selfe for she was an Adulteresse yet beloved of the Lord. If we take the words thus the notes briefly would be these First The husband should be a friend to his wife There should be nothing but friendly carriage betweene man and wife Yea the love of the husband to the wife should farr surmount the love of any friend in the world but a friend at least to comfort her to cherrish her in time of sorrowes to beare the burthen of affliction with her and so the wife towards the husband Secondly A base heart will be base against all bonds of love beloved of her friend yet an adultoresse if you should ask who is he or where is he that is so base Lay thy hand upon thine owne heart and consider what the love of God hath been towards thee all the dayes of thy life and how thou hast carried thy selfe toward him what love thou hast had from God that might breake the heart of a devill yet when any temptation comes to draw thee from God thy base heart listens to it Thirdly It is a great aggravation of sin to sinne against much love We ought to doe our duties to those that we stand in relation unto though they doe not their duty to us if a wife hath a froward husband a bitter churlish rugged wicked ungodly husband yet she is bound to doe her duty to him she is bound to love him to obey him to be observant of him in what may give him all lawfull content So if servants have froward churlish cruel Masters or Mastresses yet they are bound to be obedient to them 1 Pet. 2. 18. Be subject to your masters not onely to those that rae good and gentle but to the froward It is no sufficient excuse for the wife to say My husband is froward and unquiet and therefore what shall I doe Nor for the servant to say My Master or Mistresse are unreasonable they are cruell what can I doe You must doe your duty to them though they doe not theirs to you But if you have a loving husband tender over you then love is required much more Love above all things should draw the heart the knowledge that it is duty may force obedience but it is love that draws the heart most kindly So if a servant have a godly Master and Mistresse who respects and tenders his good if
he should sinne against them this aggravateth the sinne exceedingly To wrong love is a very great sin Delicata res est amor love is a most delicate thing and it must not be wronged it is tender a precious thing A man who is of an ingenuous spirit had rather a great deale be wronged in his estate then in his love he cannot beare the injury that is done unto his love when his love is abused that goes to his very heart So it goes to the heart of God for his people to sin against his love therefore it is said of the Saints when they sinne that they grieve the Spirit of God he never saith so of wicked men they anger God but the Saints grieve him because they sinne so much against Gods love Charge this aggravation of your sinne upon your hearts and be humbled collect together all the expressions of Gods love to you and let them lye glowing at your hearts and melt them But in that God bids him take an Adulteresse beloved of her friend and calls not this friend Husband I thinke those who goe another way expresse the minde of the Holy Ghost in this more fully thus This friend is not meant of one who is fully married but rather one in a way of marriage Amongst the Jewes it was usuall for all women to be under the protection of some men or other Esay 4. 1. Seven women came and tooke hold of one man and said Let us be named by your name we will eate our own bread and weare our own cloathes onely let us be named by your name let us be under your protection Even whores were wont though they had many lovers yet to have some one speciall man under whose protection and care they would be who was to see them not to have wrong and to make provision for them and such a one they were wont to call their friend And many times these friends would so provide for them that if they would be reclaymed forsaking all their other lovers they would give them good hopes of marrying with them at length Arias Montanus refers us to one Propertius in his first Book and second Elegie to reade about the charge and care of such a friend The Grecians had that custome likewise they called him under whose protection they put themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whore was called from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is said of Plato that he had a whore one Archenassa who was called Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Lord would have the Prophet take an Adulteresse beloved of her friend that is one that was a common Adulteresse and yet under the protection of some speciall friend so as if he might come in place of that friend and gain the love and affection of this Adulteresse to himself and in time getting her to be reclaimed he might marry her unto himselfe This is according to the love of God to his people that is as if God should say This people is a going a whoring but I will be content to take them unto my selfe I will be as their friend and so love them as a friend to protect them to have care over them untill such a time that there may be some experience of their being reclaimed and then I will marry this Adulteresse fully unto my selfe for God is not now fully marryed unto the Jews neither will that marryage be untill that glorious time of their calling comes but yet God is as a friend to them to this day that is God takes this people yet under his protection though they seeme to be in a rejected condition and so as he gives hope yea makes many promises that upon their return unto him he will marry them unto himselfe yea there shal be a more glorious marriage between the Jews the Lord Christ then ever yet there was between him and any people upon the face of the earth This I thinke to be the very scope and meaning of the words Beloved of her friend Somewhat sutable is that we have Deut. 21. 12. 13. when one of the Jews took a captive woman he might not marry her presently to himself but if he had a love to her she was to continue a certaine time and to be so and so purified and then he was to take her The Jewes are for the present as that captive woman they are in bondage yet God hath a love to them unto this day but so as they must abide a while untill God be maryed to them they are beloved of God but yet with the love of a friend The Seventy reade these words Beloved of her friend One that loveth evill things upon the mistake of the Hebrew word for indead a friend and evill are the same letters only differing in the points so there might easily be a mistake Who looke to other gods Their eyes are upon other gods Where the heart is there the eyes is Timor figit oculum so Amor Feare fastens the eyes and so doth Love The workings of the soule appeares as much in the eye as in any member the workings of love of trust and confidence appeare much in the eye They looke to other gods that is they have confidence in other gods Looking up to a thing in Scripture phrase is to have some confidence in it Psal 121. 1. I lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence commeth my help That is I look for help I have confidence and expect help But how here to the hills then What doth Davids help come from the hills Some thinke this to be the place where afterward the Temple was built and was then the place of the Sanctuary but for that it is said that usually in Scripture is but in the singular number the hill of God not the hils therefore I finde Calvin Mollerus and others thinke that David here speakes of confidence in the creature because he presently retracts him selfe in the second verse My helpe is in Jehovah As if he should say I lift up mine eyes unto the creature for help this is the frailty of my nature and of the nature of man to look for auxiliary Forces from Jerusalem which was a hilly place I looke for Forces to come from Jerusalem but they doe not come well I will not rest any longer upon them Jehovah is my help so they carry it But now I would rather if it may be free the Prophet from vaine confidence in the creature and so the words being rightly understood may free him if you reade them thus doe I lift up mine eyes unto the hils doe I expect help from the creature God forbid I should doe it for my help is in God Further sometimes the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it would bee translated above the hils other men look to the hils I look above the hils But rather thus I lift up mine eyes to the hils
and so terrible yet now behold the feete of him that bringeth good tydings that publisheth peace God abroad publisheth war yet he hath a messenger to publish life and peace to some Is it not so this day It is true the wrath of the Lord is kindled the wrath of the Lord burneth as an oven and it is hot but it is against the ungody but peace shall be upon Israel And let us sanctifie the name of God in this too for so it followes in this very Chap. of Nah. ver 15. Oh Iudah keepe thy solemne feasts performe thy vowes for the wicked shall no more passe through thee And because God revealeth such rich grace in the middest of judgement let this engage your hearts to the Lord for ever Yea a little further because it is an instraction of great use in these times and may be yet of further use in times we may live to see not onely when God threatneth judgements let us sanctifie Gods name in looking up to promises but when judgements are actually upon us Suppose we should live to have most fearful judgments of God upon us yet even then we must look up to promises and exercise our faith and have an eye to God in the way of his grace at that time this is harder then in threatnings You have an notable place for that in Esay 26. 8. In the way of thy judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soule is to thy name Oh blessed be God my brethren the Lord calleth us to wait upon him in the wayes of mercy for the present It is true there was a time not long since that the Lord was in a way of judgement toward England and there were some of Gods people when he was in the wayes of his judgements amongst us yet would wait upon God and keepe his wayes though there were many because Gods judgements were abroad and they saw that they were like to suffer departed from God and declined his wayes Much cause of bitterness of spirit and of dread of humiliation have they that did so But others may have comfort to their soules that in the very wayes of Gods judgments they waited for him they can now with more comfort wait upon God when he is in the ways of his mercy But if God should ever come untous in the ways of his judgments let us learne even then to wait upon God keep his way And yet another Text that may seeme to be more notable than this for this purpose and that is Iere. 33. 24. Consider est thou not what this people have spoken saying the two families which the Lord hath chosen he hath even cast them off thus they have despised my people that they should be no more a nation Marke the low condition the people were in at this time Oh God hath cast them off they are despised contemptible not worthy to be accounted a nation This condition was very low but though they were brought low in a condition contemptible yet now God confirms his Covenant with them at this time For observe ver 25. Thus saith the Lord. If my Covenant be not with day night and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven earth then will I cast away the seed of Iacob ond David my servant As if God should say let them know that whatsoever their condition is now yet my love my mercy my faithfulness is toward them as sure as my covenant with day night and as the ordinances of heaven and earth An admirable Text to help not onely nations but particular persons when they are cast under contempt by wicked ungodly men yet at that time the Lord is most ready to confirm his covenant with them to be as sure as his covenant with day night and heaven earth This bringeth honour to God when at such times we can looke up to God and exercise our faith And indeed this is the glory and dignity and beauty of faith to exercise it then when Gods judgements are actually upon us But what promises are these They were not promises to any that then lived the promise that is here made was to be fulfilled in future Ages yet it is brought in by the Prophet as a comfort to the people of God living then in that time Hence this excellent note that nearly concerns us Gracious hearts are comforted with the promises of God made to the Church though not to be fulfilled in their dayes If the Church may prosper and receive mercies from God though I be dead and gone and rotten in the grave yet blessed be God When Jacob was to die saith he unto Joseph Behold I dye but God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers he will fulfill his promises to you though I am dead Our fore-fathers that generation of the Saints that lived a while since how comfortably would they have dyed if God before their death had revealed to them that within 3. or 4. or 7. yeares so much mercy should come to England as we now have seen in these dayes Yea how comfortably should any of us have died I appeal to any gracious heart here suppose God should have taken thee away but this time two yeares and he should have said thus to thee Go and be gathered to thy fathers in peace within these two years such and such things shall be done for England as we now live to see would not we willingly have dyed would it not have been comfort enough against the fear of death but to have had revealed to us what should have been done in after time to our posterity what mercy then is it now that it is not onely revealed to us but enjoyed by us That is the second Note But thirdly What was this promise This promise was that Israel should be a multitude that the number of them shall be as the sand of the sea shore VVe shall examine the excellency of the mercy of God in this promise by and by Onely for the present enquire we a little why God would expresse himselfe in this that his grace should be manifested in this to multiply them as the sand of the sea shore If we compare Scripture with Scripture we shall finde that God therefore promiseth this because he would thereby shew that he did remember his old promise to Abraham for that was the promise made to Abraham that God would multiply his seed as the starres of heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore and now God along time after commeth in with renewing this promise Hence we are to observe this Note That the Lord remembers his promises though made a long time since God is ever mindful of his Covenant as it is Psal 111. 5. When we have some new and fresh manifestations of Gods mercy our hearts rejoyce in it but the impression of it is
it shall come to passe that at evening time it shall be light Mark what shall be in that day ver 8. And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem ver 9 In that day shall there be but one Lord and his name one and then ver 20. In that day shal there be upon the bels of the horses holiness to the Lord and ver 21. In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts Certainly my brethren these Scriptures speakes of a glorious day that is a comming but yet in the beginning of it is just like such a day as we have now for the present wherein the light is neither cleere nor darke It is true not long since it was darke now this darkenesse beginneth to be a little dispelled but it is not cleere yet many things for the present darken the light and there is opposition and many dampes upon the hearts of Gods people and things go not oâ—â—s we desire but blessed be God it is not night with us though it be not 〈◊〉 day it is not darke as it was though it be not as cleere as we desire therfore this is now a day which is neither cleer nor darke but even as it were twilight Well but it shall be one day that is one special day and indeed it is our day now it is the greatest day that ever yet England had It shall be one day which shall be knowne to the Lord a day wherein the Lord hath great thoughts and purposes to do great things and certainly this our day is known to the Lord great things God is about to do for his Churches laying a foundation of glorious things for the good of his people And then mark though it be neither day nor night yet at the evening time it shall be light What a strange expression is here It shall be a duskie cloudy day all day and then a man would thinke that at evening it should be quite dark what to be cloudy at noone and to be darkish at three or foure of the clock in the afternoone what then will it be in the evening surely then it must needes be more darke No though it be not cleere now though it be a cloudy day and part of it darke yet at the evening time it shall be light When it shall be least expected to have light and when we shall most feare darknesse when wee shall be ready to conclude O our day is gone once indeed God did bring a day to England a comfortable day though it was a little darke yet there was a glorious light in comparison of what we had before but now it is grown towards evening the evening begins to shut upon us we looked for light but behold darknesse Perhaps many will be complaining if they see things go on with any difficulty and opposition they will be ready to have their hearts sink within them and to cry out now our day is gone and the evening is comming we must look for darkness yea and feare a dismall darknesse Now my brethren be of good comfort for at evening time it shall be light when we think it shall be evening when it is most unlikely to be light then shall the light of the Lord breake forth most gloriously For whensoever this day of Iezreel commeth there must be such a glorious work of God as may magnify his name before the eyes of all men and therefore at evening it shall be light And in that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem We have had some drops of living waters in this our day but there is a day a comming wherein living waters shall even flow out of Jerusalem Now to winde up all There is a day for the Saints a rest for the people of God a day wherein God will deliver them from all afflictions I have met with one that speaking of the Sabbath that the Jewes might kindle no fire upon their Sabbath because that rest was to signifie the rest of the Saints he applyeth it thus That was saith he a type that there is such a time of rest for the Saints that they shall be delivered from all fiery tryals all their afflictions shall be gone and taken away Great shall be the day of Iezreel The consideration of this me thinks might be a strong argument to draw in all people to the wayes to the love of godlinesse and Religion to come and joyne with the Churches in appointing Christ head over them All you wicked ones that hath forsaken the Lord hitherto come in joyn now and submit unto Jesus Christ as your Head for great shall be the day of Iezreel There is a great day for the Church of God a day of glory a day of abundance of wonderfull mercy of God to the Churches They shall have their day come you in and embrace Religion that you may partake of their glory Certainly the Saints of God shall have the better of it shall have the day of all the world let the world strive against them what they can Every man desires to follow the stronger party and to cleave to that would you cleave to the stronger part Cleave to the Saints of God to the Church for certainly it is the stronger part It is a going up it is rising and will rise more and more till it be risen unto the heighth Though there be some opposition yet it is such as shall make the glory of the day so much the more Those men that 〈◊〉 shall stand to pleade for Antichrist and to oppose the work that God is about certainly they are men borne out of time borne in an ill hour Your Papists and superstitious people that heretofore stood for that way they prospered in their way because the day of God was not so neare but the day of his patience in permitting Antichrist to continue was then But doest thou come now what superstitious now what opposing the work of God now when God is comming out to fight against Popery and superstition when God is about to do such great things for his Churches as he certainly is Thou fightest against God and God will fight against thee and thou shalt be throwen upon thy backe Thou art borne in the worst time that possibly could be worse then all the adversaries of the truth in former times And if there be such a day let us be willing to suffer for a while let us be willing to mourne for the Churches a while in that way of mourning that God calls us unto for there is a recompence comming glory enough comming even in this world There is a time of triumphing let us be content with our warfare here for a while Thirdly Let us study these things These things are usefull for people in these times to look into to search into these truths of God that so they may be the better
when Ieremiah had told them the mind of God that they should continue in the land of Iudah and not goe down into Egypt Then spake Azariah and Johaâ—an and all the proud men saying unto seremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord hath not sent thee to say Goe not into Egypt to sojourn there They are loth to break off their association with Egypt I remember Gwalter in his Comment upon Hosea though not upon this Text telleth a story of the Grecian Churches that in the yeare 1438. because they were afraid of the Turks breaking in upon them they sent to the Bishop of Rome that they would be under his subjection meerly that they might have the help of the Latine Churches to keep them from the rage and tyrannie of their adversaries but within a few yeares they were destroyed Constantinople and the Empire were subdued so as Heathenisme and Atheisme prevailed and this is the fruit saith hee of seeking the association of others in a sinfull way But because this is not the chiâ—â— thing that is aimed at we passe it by She said she would goe after her Lovers that is her Idols What those were we shall see by and by Idolaters use to keepe good thoughts of their Idols They call them their Lovers they look upon their Idols as those that love them and hence they used to call them Baalim from Baal a husband So it should be the care of the Saints evermore to keep good thoughts of God to look upon God as their Lover as one that tendereth their good Idolaters doe so to their Idols shall not the Saints do so to the true God My brethren let us not be ready to entertain hard thoughts of God it is a dangerous thing Gods great care is to manifest to us and to all the world that he loveth us and he hath done much to manifest to us here in England and to our brethren of Scotland that he loveth us and them In Revel 3. 9. the Text saith of the Church of Philadelphia that God loved them Forty yeares ago Master Brightman interpreted that Text of the Church of Scotland Philadelphia signifieth as much as brotherly love You know how they are joyned in Covenant one with another and wee see that those that said they were Iewes they were the Church the Church but proved themselves to be of the Synagogue of Satan are forced to bow before them and if they were not madde with malice they must needs acknowledge that God hath loved that Church And since God hath done great things for us to manifest that he is the lover of England let us then keep good thoughts of God Seventhly Idolaters highly prize the love of their Idols They do not only maintain good thoughts of their Idols or thinke that their Idols are their lovers but they set a price upon them they said I will follow my lovers I must make account of their love they must doe me good for ought I know more then any thing you speak of It is true both of bodily whoredom and spirituall whoredom I will onely make use of one Scripture to daunt the heart of whore-masters and uncleane wretches that so much prize the love of their whores and whore-masters You prize their love but what get you by it you get Gods hatred by it You rejoyce that you have the love of your whores and upon that God hateth and abhorreth you Marke that good you will say Thus Pro. 22. 14. The mouth of a strange woman is a deepe piâ— he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein What get you by this your whores imbrace you and God abhorres you If there be any whore-master any unclean wretch in this Congregation either thou art an Aâ—heist or this text must strike thee at thy heart Art thou in that way and yet not repenting thou art the man that this day God tells thee to thy face that he abhorres thee But how then should wee prize the love of JESUS CHRIST our husband Cant. 1. 4. The remembrance of thy love is better then wine The Church prizeth the love of JESUS CHRIST more then men in the world prize their delight in wine And my brethren doe you prize Christs love and Christ will prize yours and that is observable according to the degree and way of your prizing Christs love so Christ will prize your love Cant. 4 18. you have there the same expression of Christs love to his Church answerable to what hers was before Thy love is better then wine saith the Church to Christ How much better is thy love then wine saith Christ to the Church Eightly I will follow my lovers In bodily and spirituall whoredome there is a following hard after those things they commit whoredome withall I will follow them and not onely say they are my lovers but I will expresse it by following of them The heart of whore-masters and Idolaters do follow hard after their uncleannesse in bodily and spirituall filthynesse First for bodily filthyness observe whore-masters how they follow their lovers Josephus in his Antiquities tells us this strange story of one Decius Mundus that offered to give so many hundred thousand Drachmies that came to six thousand pound English money to satisfie his lust one night with a whore yet could not obtaine his desire neither Will not you be content now who have been guilty of spending a great part of your estate in a way of uncleannesse now to doe as much for Religion for God and Christ and his Kingdome as ever you have done for your whores If there should be any in this place that have beene profuse for their uncleannesse and yet now are strait handed in these publike affaires such as these are fitter to be taken out of Christian congregations and to be shut up in slies For spirituall whoredome I shall shew you how superstitious and Idolatrous people as they prize their idols so they follow hard after their lovers You know that story of the children of Israel when the Calfe was to be set up upon proclamation all the men and women tooke off their ear-rings and their jewels and brought them to Aaron to make the Calfe What a shame will it be to us if we should keepe our eare-rings and our jewels and things perhaps that have not seene the sunne a great while that we should keepe them now when God calleth for them Let women do that for God his truth for your own liberties posterities that they did for their Idols Though you have care-rings and jewels and rings that you prize much yet let them be given up to this publicke cause And it were a shame that gold-rings should be kept meerly to adorn the fingers when the Church and State is in such necessity as it is Away with your niceties now and your fineness and bravery and look to necessities and to the preservation of the lives and liberties both of your selves and your
lewdnes the Greek word translated there lewdness doth elegantly set forth the disposition of a lewd man namely such a one as is easily drawn to any wicked way I will discover her lewdnesse in the sight of her lovers In the sight this is a great aggravation of their shame God will cast filth on them not before those that are strangers but those before whom they would be honoured It is a note of Calvin upon this that seemes to reach the meaning of the holy Ghost alluding to the way of whores who having great men for their lovers favourites with Princes at the Court they rest on their power and confide in their greatness they care not what their husbands can doe against them and so grow proud against their husbands because their lovers have great power There was a remarkable example of this here in England that you may remember it were but to â—ake in a filthy dunghill to mention it I will take away their confidence though their lovers be never so great the Assyrians and Aegyptians whosoever they be they shall have no power to help you but I will discover their lewdnesse before their face From hence take these observations First all wickednesse and especially Idolatry hath many covers for it except we looke very narrowly to those that are superstitious and idolatrous we shall not see the evill of that sin Some covers are subtilly woven but it may be said of them all as Isa 28. 20. The bed is shorter then that a man can stretch himselfe on it and the covering narrower then that he can wrap himselfe in it Secondly Prosperity in a sinfull way is a great cover though it be a very vile and sinfull way yet prosperity is a cover to it This glisters so in many mens eyes that the filth of sin is hid many a foule hand is under a faire perfumed glove an ill complexion may have a painted face and prosperity is no other to wicked men then a painted face to a foul woman As a painted face is no argument of a faire complexion so neither is prosperity of a good condition Crooked diseased bodies halfe rotten may have fine cloths Green leaves on a tree may hide the rifts the mossiness and blackness of the body which appears in winter Many men are abominable false in all their wayes cruell and bloody in their hearts against God and good men their spirits are invenomed and they have given up themselves to most horrible sins yet so long as they have power about them all is covered were all their prosperity taken from them and all their glory and greatness and nothing but their falshood and hatred of the wayes of God appeared what dreadfull creatures would they bee There is many a man that is taken with a strumpet when shee hath painted her selfe bravely like Iezebel but if he should see this whore whipped up down the streets and full of botches how odious would this strumpet be in his eyes take away her bravery and she is to him the Ioathsomest creature upon earth Thirdly Retaining some truths in the way of worship is a great cover to much falsenes When some of you are to pay a great sum you can shuffle in a brasse six pence or shilling or a light piece of gold so some though they retaine many errors yet because they keep some truths they think to cover much superstition False wares will be holpen off amongst good and a man that useth to lie will sometimes tell some truths to put off a lie A man that is a base selfe-secker will many times deny himselfe many times you shall have the proudest spirits that are to bee as crowching and subject to those that are their superiours as any and so by seeming humility cover a great deale of pride So the evill of ceremonies and false discipline passe without much contradiction you must not trouble your selves about these things and why have not we as wholsome soule-saving doctrine as in any Church in the world because of this the corruption of the other is covered much hypocrisie is covered under excellent gifts the gifts are gifts of Gods Spirit but they oftentimes cover much vileness Further observe Outward pompous devotion in Gods worship is a great colour of notorious Idolatry as gilded Crosses painted Churches pompous Ceremonies how hath it covered the most desperate hatred to the power of godlinesse that ever was I will discover thy lewdnesse God hath a time to discover wickednesse it shall appeare one day in its colours vile and abominable wickednesse shall not always goe uncovered God will not discover her infirmities neither should we wee should doe as God doth discover the lewdnesse of men but not their infirmities Love covers a multitude of faults if they be but infirmities And when you discover the lewdnesse of others take heed you do not discover your owne lewdnesse in the mean time Many when they go about to discover the lewdnesse of other men do it with such bitternesse of spirit and with rejoycing that they have got any advantage against those that are religious if they heare any reports against such whether true or false they care not they relate it confidently something will stick This is for men to discover their own lewdnesse when they cry out against the lewdnesse of others Those who are wise and understanding are able easily to see it but if wee would not have God discover our lewdnesse let us get such a cover as shall never be uncovered You may have many shifts to cover your sinnes that are not large enough but I wil tell you of a cover that is large enough to cover all What is that The righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Psal 32. 1. Blessed is he whose transgresison is forgiven whose sin is â—overed There is a cover that covers from the eyes of God and man for ever I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers I will take such a way to manifest her vile lewdness before her lovers that she shall neither prevail with them nor be upheld by them Whence observe When God discovers mens lewdness they shal do little hurt 2 Tim. 3. 6. But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall bee made manifest to all men There are many who have secretly gained on the spirits of other men by faire pretences that they will doe nothing but thus and thus and they seek nothing but the publicke good and they desire the furtherance of the Gospel but when opertunity shall serve there shall be a ciscovering that their intentions goe another way then their words seemed to import and then they shall proceed no further for they shal be vile and contemptible in the eyes of those with whom they prevailed before Againe further I will doe it in the sight of their lovers When God sets himself against his enemies he will goe through his work in
regard of Religion and godlinesse in regard of their debts then others It is true there is a complaint of many that are godly that they have little care and conscience in paying their debts the justnesse of that complaint I know not but there may be a slothfulnesse in many if not unfaithfulnesse and if there be carelesnesse unfaithfulnesse in some it is enough to cast an aspersion upon all that are godly but though those that are godly should be more carefull of paying their debts then others but if they cannot you are bound to be more mercifull unto them then to others because they are godly and not to seeke to take advantage the rather upon them because they are godly this is a vile and a wicked heart to take advantage so much the rather if thou seest them godly laborious in their calling and it be meerely a providence of God and not any negligence of theirs thou art bound to shew much commiseration unto them In that forenamed place Deut. 15. 9. Beware there be not an evill heart in thee to be lesse merciful to thy poore brother because of the seventh yeeres rest of the ground or because the debt was to be released that seventh yeere but verse 10. thou shalt surely give it him and thy heart shall not be grieved because for this thing the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in all thy workes and in all that thou put test thy hand unto Notwithstanding there must be a cessation of plowing and sowing and vintage in the seventh yeer yea and notwithstanding thou wert bound to release thy debt in the seventh yeer yet you must doe this and not do it grudgingly you must not murmure and say what doth God require of us that we must neither plow uor sow and that we must release our debts and give too nay and give and not have our hearts grieved too that we must not complaine of this Oh my brethren God loveth exceedingly cheerfull givers and hearts inlarged with bowels of compassion he doth no love hearts grumbling and objecting against giving Many men have no quicknesse of understanding in any thing else but against workes of mercy how quick are they in their objections and can finde such subtle wayes to save their purses that a man would wonder at it against this there is a solemne charge Deut. 15. 11. Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother to the poore and needy in the land The third thing to be done once in seven yeers was the release of servants too they must goe free and they must not be sent away empty neither as ver 18. of that Deut. 15. It shall not seeme hard to thee when thou sendest him away free from thee you must give them liberty as ver 14. It is true we are not bound to the letter of this every seven yeers to doe thus but there is a morall equity in it when servants have done you faithfull service you must not think that it is enough that you give them meate and drink and cloth but you must be carefull of your servants how they should live after they are gone from you This was the first sabbath of yeers But the second was most famous and that was the rest that was every seven times seven yeers the fiftieth yeer which was called the yeere of jubile from that trumpet that they were wont to proclaime that yeer by which as the Jewes tell us was a Rams-horne In this yeere there were divers of the same things done that was in the seventh yeer as the release of debts the release of servants But there are some things observable that were done at this time beyond what was done every seventh yeer As for servants the release of them was not onely of such servants as had then served seven yeers yea if they had served any time they were then to be released but besides there was order taken by God for release of some servants that would not be released in the seventh yeere for when the seventh yeer came though all servants might then be released yet there were some that would not be released and there was an order taken by God for that Exod. 21. 6. if there were a servant that loved his master and would not goe free then his Master should bring him to the post of the door and with a nayle bore his eare and then the Text saith he should serve him for ever Now that for ever is by Interpreters interpreted but for a time of Jubile and then he should have rest Here it is to be understood of the 50. yeer the yeer of Jubile There are some kind of spirits that are so slavish that when they may have liberty they will not they deserve to have their eares bored to be slaves to the fiftieth year if not for ever Many amongst us this day have such spirits God offereth us a release from bondage how many of us love servitude still It is just with God that we should have our eares bored and that we should be slaves even for ever but we hope there will be a Iubile come at length for our deliverance God would have a Iubile even to deliver those that were of the most servile spirits and might justly be left to serve for ever It is true when God began with us in the beginning of our Parliament like the seventh year God offered to us a release and we refused it then and since we deserve that our ears should be bored but God is infinitely mercifull though we be of servile spirits and know not how to pitty our selves we hope the Lord will pity us and grant us out of free and rich grace a Iubile even to deliver those who have a mind to be bond-slaves I am sure God doth so spiritually If God should not deliver those that are minded to be slaves he should deliver none It was a great mercy so to provide for servants that they might be delivered The greater because servants then were not as they are now there was a great deal of hardship that servants indured then more then now they were bought and sold not only other nations but the Hebrews were bought for servants also so you shall find it Exod. 21. 2. Besides servants were in such bondage then as if the Masters did beat them with a rod untill they killed them yet they must only be punished they must not have blood go for their blood yea though he died under his hand yet he was but to be punished and if the servant lived but 2. or 3. days after the Master was not to be punished at all so you have it Exod. 21. 20 21. If a man smite his servant with a rod and he dye under his hand he shall be surely punished notwithstanding if he continue a day or two he shall not be punished for he is his money Oh that servants would consider of this and bless God for the
that mercy of his therefore he gives these fields this title calls them by this name and this custome of the Jews seemes to have warrant from Scripture it self Canticles 8. 5. Who is this that commeth up from the wildernesse leaning upon her beloved That was the way of marriage they came out of the fields leaning upon their beloved and so were brought unto the Bridgegroomes Fathers house So Christ brings his Spouse through this world which is as the wildernesse and Christ is here solemnizing his espousals and hath his nuptiall songs in this world and the Church leanes upon Christ all the while she is in the world but Christ is carring her to his Fathers house and ere long we shal be with him there solemnizing the marriage of the Lambe in a more glorious way This expression goes on clearly thus I will allure her and bring her into the wildernesse As the Bridegroome speakes sweet and comfortable words to his Bride and carries her abroad into the fields and there solemnizes the nuptials and so comes back againe having his Spouse leaning upon him and bringing her to his Fathers house so I will deale with you in the fulnesse of my grace I will performe all the nuptiall rites with you I will be married againe unto you and looke what the most solemnity in your City of Jerusalem or any of your Cities there is in any nuptials I will make as great a solemnity in the nuptials betweene you and me It is true when a marriage is such as people are loath to make it known then there is no such solemnity but when it is a great marriage indeed and such as marry together with their friends would glory in it then there is the more full solemnity so saith God I will not be ashamed to take you againe but I will take you openly I wil have the solemnity of my marriage with you as publickly as may be I will carry you abroad into the fields and look what rights soever there are in the most solemne marriages amongst you those rights I will performe unto you that it may be a most glorious marriage solemnity between you and me again thus I will bring into the wildernesse and speake comfortably unto them And speake comfortably to her These words that are translated here speake comfortably in the Hebrew are loquar super cor or ad corejus I will speake to her heart I will speak to her either so as to prevaile with her heart or speake to her so as to do her good at the very heart Many Scriptures may be brought to shew that speaking kindly friendly or comfortably the Hebrews expresse by speaking to the heart I will give you two or three instances Genesis 34. 3. Shechem spake kindly to the Damosell the words are in the Hebrew Shechem spake to the heart of the Damosell So Ruth 2. 13. Thou hast comforted me for that thou hast spoken friendly to thy handmaid thou hast spoken to the very heart of thy handmaid there are two more remarkable places for this one is Esay 40. 2. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem the words are speak to the heart of Jerusalem What should be spoke to the heart of Jerusalem Cry unto her her warefare is accomplished her iniquity is pardoned These are the comfortable words that God required should be spoke to the heart of Jerusalem O that God would speak thus to England this would do good at the very heart if God would speake thus from heaven Her iniquity is pardoned and her warefare is accomplished But yet a place that is more suitable unto this expression in the text it is Iudges 19. 3. There you have the story of a Levite whose wife having played the harlot yet he was willing to be reconciled to her the text saith that he went spake friendly to her Now the words are in the Hebrew Hee went and spake to her heart And indeed it is a word to the heart of an adulterous spouse if her heart be humbled when she knows that her husband will be willing notwithstanding her playing the harlot to be reconciled to her this was the condition of Israel who had gone a whoring from God yet when God promises a renewall of the marriage rites he saith he will speake to her heart from whence we might observe this note That an Apostatizing people or an Apostate soul had need have words of comfort spoke to their hearts or else there can be little ease to their terrified consciences We read of Spira that famous Apostate he had words of comfort enough spoke to his eare but they did him little good God did not come in and speak to his heart therefore his conscience could not be quieted the throbs of it could not be eased How many lie under the troubles of an accusing conscience and have the throbs and bitings of a guilty spirit because they have been back-sliders from the truth and though they come to Sermons one after another hear the Covenant of grace opened to them in the fulnesse of it the riches of Gods goodnesse set before them in the beauty of it yet they goe away without comfort why the words come to the eare God all this time speaks not to the heart sometimes it pleases God to take but the hint of a truth and dart it upon the heart of a troubled sinner that he feeleth it at the heart and sayes Well this day God hath spoken to my heart so he goes away rejoycing eased comforted pacified when as perhaps such an one had heard a hundred Sermons before wherein there were blessed and glorious truths presented to him and it did no good untill Gods time and when the time of Gods love is come some little hint of a piece of a truth God darteth to the hearts and that doth the thing God shews hereby that it is not in the word of man to comfort an afflicted conscience Hence an expression Luther hath in his Comment upon Genesis It is far harder to comfort an afflicted conscience then to raise the dead you think it is nothing to Apostatize from the Lord you thinke it is easie to receive comfort you will find it is not so easie you will find it as easie to raise the dead as to comfort your afflicted consciences But you told us before how rich the grace of God was that God tooke advantage from the greatnesse of our sins to shew the riches and greatness of his mercy grant it let the grace of God be never so rich but till this grace be applyed to the heart till God be pleased to speak himself to the heart of a sinner it will not do I remember a story of one who had made profession of Religion and afterwards Apostatised and made little of it when his acquaintance told him that those things he now did he would smart for one day he thought because he had some knowledg in the Gospel that it
was but to believe in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came to pardon sinners c. when he came upon his sick bed he was in great torment of conscience and grievous vexation and cryed out bitterly of his Apostacy there came some of his acquaintance to him and spake words of comfort and tells him that Christ came to save sinners and he must trust in Gods mercy c. At length he begins to close with this and to apply this to himself and to have a little ease upon which his companions began to be hardned in their ways because they saw after so ill a life it was so easie a matter to have comfort but not long before he dyed he brake out roaring in a most miserable anguish O! saith hee I have prepared a plaister but it will not sticke it will not sticke wee shall find though the grace of God be rich and the salve be a soveraign unlesse God be pleased to make it stick by speaking to our hearts nothing can be done From hence further learn this note As when God speaks comfortably to his people he speaks to their hearts so Gods Ministers when they come to speak in Gods name should labour to speak so as to do what they can to speak to hearts It is true indeed it is impossible that any man of himselfe can speake to the heart of another but yet he may endeavour and aime that way there is a kind of speaking that God doth assist so as to bring it to the heart of his people What speaking is that you will say That that cometh from the heart will most likely go to the heart though I know God can take that which comes but from the lips and carry it to the heart when he pleases yet ordinarily that that comes from the heart goes to the heart therefore Ministers when they come to speak the great things of the Gospel they should not seeke so much for brave words and enticing ways of mans wisdome but let them get their own hearts warmed with that grace of the Gospel and then they are most like to speak to the hearts of their Auditors It is a good note that I have met with from Ribera let Ministers remit saith he of their care of fine curious words of brave neate phrases and cadencies of their sentences but let them bend their studies to manifest humility and mortification and to shew love to the soules of people otherwise though they speake with the tongues of men and Angels they shall become but like the sounding brasse and the tinckling cymball this is an expression even of a Jesuite it were then a great shame that Gods Ministers should not labour to speak so as that they may speak to the hearts of people you must be desirous of such kind of preaching as you find speaks to your hearts not that that comes meerly to your eares how many men love to have the word jingle in their ears and in the mean time their hearts go away and not one word spoke to them but when you finde a Ministry speake to your hearts close with it bless God for it and count it a sadd day when you goe from a Sermon and there is not one word spoke to your hearts in that Sermon From the connection of these two I will bring them into the wildernesse speak unto their hearts if we should take the wildernesse for bringing into affliction because there are so many interpreters that are very godly men learned men go that way I dare not wholy reject it but that there may be some intention that way Hence the first note is Afflictions make way for Gods word to the hearts of sinners there are many obstructions at the hearts of men while they are in prosperity but when afflictions come God by them opens those obstructions and so gets his word to their hearts afflictions cannot convert the heart but they can take away some obstructions that did hinder the word from coming to the heart Many of you have heard thousands of Sermons and scarce know of any one that hath come to your hearts but when God casts you upon your sicke beds and you apprehend death then you feele the same truthes that you were not sensible of before they lie upon your hearts the threatning word of God that went but to the ear before now it is got to the heart now it terrifies now you cry out of your sins and rellish the sweet promises of the Gospel that afflictions make way for I remember an expression that I have read of Bernard he had once to a brother of his who was a Souldier but riotous and prophane Bernard gives him many good instructions wholsome admonitions and counsels his brother seemed to slight them he made nothing of them Bernard comes to him and puts his hand to his side one day saith he God will make way to this heart of yours by some speare or launce he meant God would wound him in the Wars and so hee would open a way to his heart and then his admonitions should get to his heart and as he said so it fell out for going into the Wars he was wounded and then he remembers his brothers admonitions they got to and lay upon his heart to purpose It God should let the enemy in upon us their swords or bullets may make way to our hearts that so Gods word may come to have entrance there the Lord rather pierce our hearts by his spirit then that way to our hearts should be made thus Secondly when we are brought to great affliction that is the time for Gods mercies This should make us not to be so afraid of afflictions how afraid are we how do we hang back when we see afflictions coming why art thou so loth O thou Christian to come to affliction the time of affliction is the time for God to speake to the heart of a sinner many sinners may say that their condition hath been like Jacobs he never had a more sweete vision of God then when he lay abroad in the fields with no other pillow under his head then a stone it may be God will take away all your outward comforts and when they are all gone then may be Gods time to speake comfortably to your heart Thirdly the words of mercy O how sweet are they when they come to the heart after an affliction Psam 141. 6. Thy Judges shall be overthrown in strong places they shall he are my words for they are sweet If the words be taken for bringing into the wildernesse that is for Gods wonderfull workings for the good of his people then the note is When God works great and wonderfull things amongst a people then God speaks to the heart of that people then surely God hath spoken to our hearts for he hath done great and wonderfull things amongst us he did not more wonderfull things amongst his people in the wildernesse
then he hath done omongst us here in England But from that meaning of bringing into the wildernesse as the custome of marriage of solemnizing of nuptials then the note is this When God is reconciled once to a people they may expect full manifestations of his love unto them one manifestation after another as alluring and carrying abroad into fields and nuptiall songs all kind of manifestations of Gods love A people a soule that was never 〈◊〉 sinfull before and is new reconciled may expect it Let all back-fliders then whom God is about to draw again to himself listen and hear what God saith unto their hearts if they come in and repent let them know that God is willing to manifest all expressions of love and goodnesse to them Againe there is yet one note more from this expression of bringing into the wildernesse and speaking to the heart yet because it is the most improbable I will onely but mention it to you there may be yet some good use made of it and therefore I will set it before you I finde divers going that way it is this say they by bringing into the wildernesse God meanes that he would take them off from their engagements in their own Country carrying them to a strange place and so take them off from their houses lands shops estates friends acquaintance from the pomp the glory and all the clutter of the world that they enjoyed and were snared by in their owne Countrey and so he will carry them aside into desolate places and there he will instruct them when he hath got them as it were alone That hath been Gods way in making himself known unto his people whom hee hath had a love unto to draw them aside from the clutter of the world from their engagements and there to speak to their hearts We have a famous place for that Mar. 8. 23. the poor blind man whose eyes Christ intended to open the Text saith Christ took e him by the hand and carryed him out of the City and there fell a working upon him and opened his eyes he carryed him from the clutter of people from his friends and acquaintance and there opens his eyes While we are in the midst of engagements here in our owne land while we have our estates and all well about us wee are scarce fit to hearken what God hath to say to us Many of Gods people have found it by experience that whereas there were many truths of God that they had some incklings 〈◊〉 while they were here and read books about them and heard much of them yet they could not be convinced of them and their consciences tell them while they were here they did not go against the light of their consciences but how ever it came to passe convinced they were not but when God took them aside from their engagements and from the pomp and glory of their land and carryed them into the wildernesse or into some remote places where the glory of their own Countrey did not so glister before their eyes they then could see into truths that they never saw before those things that could not get into their hearts before now when God drew them aside got in and it is not now their conceit but they knovv certainly that they do understand much of Gods minde that they did not understand before vvhen God hath taken them aside then God hath opened their eyes Vers 15. I will give her her vineyards from thence Vinatores so some translate the vvord her vine-dressers and indeed the Heb. vvord that is for vine-dressers vines or vine yards is the very same letters only the puncta are different but vve vvill read it as it is here from thence illinc ibi either from that time that they are in the vvildernesse or from that condition of their affliction in the wildernesse wherein I will speak comfortably to her thence I will give her her vineyards God threatned to destroy her vineyards now God saith he will give vineyards Observe God can as easily restore as he can destroy It is an easly thing for men to make havock to do mischief but it is not so easy a thing for them to restore all again they can easily spoile a Country but they cannot so easily raise a Country again Psal 52. 1. Why beastest thou thy selfe in mischiefe O mighty man There is no reason that a man should boast that he can do mischiefe we have some who make their boasts in nothing but this that they can go up and down the Country and plunder spoile and make havock but can they make all up againe that they undo Plut arch tells us of one commending the power and valour of Philip for that he had utterly destroyed Olynthus a City of Tracia a Lacedemonian standing by answered but he cannot build such a City A foole may breake a glasse and all the wise men in the Countrey are not able to make it up againe Men may do a great deale of hurt and mischiefe but it is not their lives nor the lives of a thousand such as they are can make up againe what hurt is done by them But it is Gods property he can destroy vineyards and he can restore them againe I will give them their vineyards againe when I am reconciled to them Suppose there be the greatest Pacification that can be yet all this while who shall make up the hurt is done if there be reconciliation with God he will make up all our hurts again Secondly I will give her her vineyards It is a note of Calvin God saith not I will give them their corne that is for necessity but I will give them their vineyards that is for delight the note is When God is reconciled to a people hee will not onely give them substance but abundance even for delight as well as for necessity Thirdly When God is reconciled to a pâ—â—ple he comes with present reall evidences of his love he reserveth indeed abundance of mercy afterwards but he is never reconciled but he comes presently with some reall evidences and demonstrations of love God saith not onely I will speake comfortably to them and there is an end and they shall expect mercy along time after No but I will speake comfortably to her I will give her her vineyards againe I will give unto them reall manifestations of my love so it should be with us when we come in to God to be reconciled to him we should come in with reall expressions of our repentance of our respects unto God Here is a deceit I beseech you confider of it many when they lye upon their sick beds will promise what they will doe for God if God restore them but they doe nothing for the present and so they are deceived When you therefore finde your hearts wrought upon broken and melting take heed of this deceit doe not satisfie your selves in promising what you will doe for God
if you be in such a condition and such a condition but doe something presently set upon the work presently and so engage your hearts to God if once you be engaged by doing something the worke will goe on It is a great matter when we can engage the heart of a man to God in any businesse suppose a man promise to doe this or that yet if all this while he have done nothing he lookes not upon himselfe so really engaged as when something is done he therefore sooner flies off again but if together with his promise he be brought to do hee will not so readily flye off God doth so with you he together with his promise gives some real evidences of his love Againe After God speakes to the heart and then restores vineyards then they are blessings then they are sweet indeed for then God restores them as fruits of reconciliation with him Many a poor afflicted soul know what belongs to this comfortable note I thought my sinfulnesse forfeited all my comforts all mercies and God indeed tooke away this and the other comfort from me but it pleased God to come in graciously upon my heart and to speake to my heart and in some measure to breake it and to humble it before him so that I hope peace is made up and notwithstanding those great offences of mine he hath now restored mercies he took away a childe but he hath given another a beâ—â—eâ— he hath took away one mercy he hath given a better this I can though with holdness yet with humility say it is as a fruit of my reconciliation with my God O how sweetly may such a one enjoy that mercy from God! If after the meltings of thy heart after God he then comes in with mercies to thee thou mayest take them as tokens of love to thee now thy house is a comfortable blessing to thee thy yoake-fellow thy children about thee O how comfortable blessings are they yea the meat on thy table is sweet with a double sweetness when thou canst looke upon all as the fruit of Gods reconciliation with thee As the Christians Acts 2. 46. 47. when they once believed in Christ they did eate their bread with gladnesse singlenesse of heart praising God We may enjoy all our common mercies in another manner then other men can they will be blessings doubled yea a hundred fold encreased I will speake to her heart and then I will give her her vineyards Perhaps God hath given thee an estate in the world more then thy neighbors more then thy brother But hath God spoke to thy heart Are Gods blessings upon thee as a fruit of Gods speaking to thy heart in away of reconciliation with thee otherwise it is but a flat dry comfort to have an estate and not to feele God speaking to our hearts I will restore unto you your vineyards from thence From whence From the wildernesse There the Note is God can bring vineyards out of wildernesses Let us not be afraid onely let us make up our peace with God and then though we be in a wilderness God can from thence bring us vineyards Our brethren have found vineyards in the wilderness and many of Gods people in the midst of their straits have found abundance of mercy Further From the wildernesse they shall have more love mercy working more strongly for them now it seems then they had before They had vineyards before but they had none in the wildernesse Now God will dravv mercies out of those things that were unlikely he will bring forth good unto them out of things that seemed to goe quite contrary to them the Lord hath done so for us out of those things that seemed to goe quite contrary to us God hath brought much good to us as if hee had made vineyards to spring out of a wildernesse But the close of all is Those mercies that come to us out of great difficulties and seeme to be raised out of contraries are the sweet mercies indeed those we are to rejoyce in and therefore it followes and they shall sing Deut. 32. 13. God made them to suck honey out of the rock and oyle out of the flinty rock When did God doe so where did you ever reade that God did cause his people to suck honey out of the rock or oyle out of the flinty rock wee reade indeed that the rock was smote and the water did gusb out of it but when did we reade that ever oyle or honey came out of the rock there was never any such thing that we reade of but the meaning thereof is because they being in necessity God brought forth water yet being brought out of the rock by such a mighty hand of God it was oyle it was honey to them it was as good as if God had given them oyle and honey Why because it came out of so much difficulty So all the mercies that God gives to his people when he brings them out of difficulties and straits they are sweet and glorious mercies Let us be patient a while though we seeme to be in the wilderness and we see nothing to fetch out water from but onely rocks stones and difficulties yet God at length will bring mercies out of those difficulties and they will be honey mercies to us then we shall sing and praise the name of our God with joyfull hearts The Thirteenth Lecture HOSEA 2. 15. And the valley of Achor for a doore of hope c. THe words are an excellent expression of mercy to Israel For the opening of which these three things are to be enquired into 1. What this valley of Achor was 2. The reason of the name 3. Why this is said to be a doore of hope For the first Achor was a very pleasant delightfull fruitfull rich valley and lay neer Jericho The first place that Israel came into in the entrance upon and taking possession of the land of Canaan Esay 65. 10. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lye down in for my people that have sought me First it is joyned with Sharon Can. 2. 1. I am the rose of Sharon that was a sweet pleasant place Secondly It is said to be a place for the herds to lye downe in a fat pasture that they shall even tumble in And thirdly It is promised as a blesâ—â—◠〈…〉 the Lord. The reason of the name Achor That hystory we have Iosh 7. sheweth Achan who 1 Chron. 3. 7. is called Achar having taken the accursed thing God left the Campe and Israel fell before the men of Ai which was the first battell that ever they fought for the possession of Canaan upon that their hearts were exceedingly troubled as if the whole worke had been at an end so fraile is mans nature so soone discouraged when it meets with opposition notwithstanding all the experiences of Gods mighty
condition that God hath brought us to to have these liberties and ordinances according to his own way but within a while we may say as the Apostle to the Galatians Where is the blessednesse you spake of They would have pulled out their eyes for Paul What is become of all now All their beauty glory is quite damped let us take heed that when our hearts seem to be raised and mightily affected with mercies we do not soon loose our vigour heat It hath been so with England when they have had fresh mercies at first they rejoyced in them exceedingly I have read of the City of Berne when they were first delivered from Antichrist they wrote the day of their deliverance upon pillars with letters of gold Was it not so with us here in England I will only instance in that deliverance upon the fifth of November how mightily was both King and Parliament affected with it their hearts were exceedingly up then there was blessing God for their deliverance from Papists then there were prayers and thanksgivings set forth and in them this expression against Popery Whose faith is faction whose Religion is rebellion whose practice is murthering of soules and bodyes When the mercy was fresh how did their spirits worke then they profest against all kinde of Popery Reade but the Proclamation about the solemnity of that time and the expressions of the prayers then set forth and one would have thought verily then that Popery should never have prevailed in England again who would ever have thought it possible that a Popish Army should ever have had any countenance in England more Certainly if a Popish Army had been raised at that time when mens hearts were so up all the people of the land if it had been but with clubs would have risen and beaten them to pieces It is so with many young people when God first beginneth to worke upon their hearts O how are they for God! then their spirts are mightily up for Christ Psal 90. 14. O satisfie us early with thy mercies and then we shall be glad and rejoyce all the dayes of our lives It is a sweet thing when the latter part of that prayer followeth when God satisfieth young people with his mercy and that satisfaction abideth so as they rejoyce all the dayes of their lives afterward The Lord doth many times satisfie young ones with his mercy but they quickly grow dead and cold and their hearts are soone hardned and polluted and they doe not rejoyce all the dayes of their lives Another Observation that restored and recovered mercies are very sweet and precious mercies They shall sing as in the dayes of their youth They were once in a blessed sweet singing condition they had lost it but now God promiseth to recover them Iob 29. 2. O that I were as in months past as in the dayes when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I warlked thorough darknesse as I was in the dayes of my youth when the secret of God was upon my Tabernacle Iob desireth this earnestly that he might have restored recovered mercies What a happy condition should I be in then saith he if it were now with me as in the dayes of my youth May not many in this place say so God hath been gracious to them in former dayes he hath given many sweet manifestations of his love many soule-ravishing communications of himself unto them but how have they lost them They may well say O that it were with us as in the dayes of our youth Oh that God would restore to us what mercy we once had what a blessed condition should we be in then But God here giveth a gracious promise that he will restore them that he will give them that which is the petition of David Psa 51. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation Lord I have lost it O that I might have it againe How happy should I be So Ps 132. 1. By the Rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept there when we remembred Zion we hanged our harps upon the willowes They were in this sad condition but if one should have come to them and have said what will you say if you shall be restored againe and goe to Zion to Jerusalem againe and have songs there as much and as delightfull as before their hearts could not have held in them This mercy would be like that wine mentioned Cant. 7. 9. that is so sweet that it causeth the lips of those that are asleepe to speake If there be any life left such a mercy will raise and actuate it Psal 126. 1. 2. When the Lord turned againe the captivity of Zion our mouthes were filled with laughter and our tongues with singing when God granted them a recovered mercy As a poore prodigal that hath left his fathers house and afterward is come to beggery and misery and is under bondage is almost starved he sitteth down under a hedg wringing his hands falleth a lamenting the losse of his Fathers house and considering what comfort he had in his Fathers presence cryeth out of his folly and madnesse but if one should come and say to him what will you say if your Father should be reconciled to you and send for you home and promise to put you in as comfortable a condition as ever O how would this cause singing in his heart Thus God promiseth to his people that he would restore them to that singing condition they had lost They shall sing as in the dayes of their youth That which made this mercy so sweet was because it was a promised mercy Hence this Note Promised mercies are sweet mercies Luke 16. 61. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up a home of salvation to us in the house of his servant David as he spake by the mouth of all his Prophets And ver 77. To performe the mercy promised there is the cause of singing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath performed the mercy promised Giving out of a promise is sweet to a gracious heart it can sing then much more sweet is the promise when it cometh to be fulfilled 2 Chron. 20. 17. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord there is the promise Mark now how Jehosaphat and the people were affected with the promise And Jehosaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Iudah and the Inhabitants of Ierusalem fell before the Lord worshipped the Lord. And the Levites and the child en of the Koathites the children of the Korhites shall stand up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voyce on high And ver 21. He appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of holinesse and to say Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever Jehosâ—phat had not got the promise fulfilled it was only
gods and goddesses This promise to take away the names of Baalim comes in upon Gods reconciliation to his people From whence the next note is when God is reconciled to his people there will be a thorow Reformation both outward and inward Idolatry is cast out not onely from the heart but from the mouth the taking away the names from their mouthes is a synechdoche and notheth the uttertaking away of all wayes of Idolatry in the outward practice as well as in the inward affection The more reconciliation there is with God the more enmity against Idols and superstitious worship A fruitfull signe then it is that we in England were never thorowly reconciled unto God because we never yet have cast off our Idols As some remaynders of superstition abiding amongst us did not long since break forth to most horrid and vile ways of false worship so some remainders of Gods wrath that hath been amongst us this day breakes forth into a most dreadfull flame When the people of the Iews shall be called again and God shall be perfectly reconciled to his Churches then Idolatry shall be perfectly rejected and there shall never be so much as mention of their Idols any more this Text aymes at those times and shall perfectly be fulfilled at that day that is the day when God will do it They shall call me no more Baali but Ishi my husband Thence the note is When a people is reconciled to God then they call God theirs my husband Isbi Psal 16. 3 4. David professeth that he would not so much as take up their names into his lips of which before Now mark what followeth presently upon that ver 5. The Lord saith he is my portion when the Prophet is so taken off from Idols as not to mention the names of Idols then The Lord is my portion So here now Ishi the Lord is my husband now can we claim a peculiar interest in God indeed This is the evil of sin it hindereth a nation a soule from clayming this interest in God God is a blessed and glorious God yea but what is that to this people to this apostatizing people what is that to this apostatizing soule but when the soule comes into God comes off throughly to the work of Reformation then this God is my God Ishi my husband Can any comfort any profit that you have in ways of sinne countervaile this great loss you gaine some contentment in the flesh some profit in your estate but you lose the comforts of your interest in God what is your gaine now thinke of this when any temptation comes I may be yeelding to this temptation get this contentment to the flesh but I shall lose this blessed priviledg of clayming an interest in my God I shall not be able to say Ishi my husband Thirdly Ishi The word compared with the former Baali is a word of more love then the former Baali is a word though it signifies my husband too as well as Ishi but it is husband under the notion of dominion under the notion of power that causeth feare but Ishi is a husband under the notion of love and protection Hence the note is God delights to have his people look upon him with love and delight It is Gods care and it is his good pleasure that his people should not looke upon him so much as one that hath dominion over them but that they should look upon him with joy and love and call him Ishi The more reconcyled we are unto God the more have we the use of the loving appellations of God For a soule to be alwayes under the spirit of bondage to looke unto God only as the Lord of all this is not so pleasing to God but when you come to have the spirit of adoption the spirit of grace an Evangelicall spirit that you can look upon him with love and say Ishi my husband that title of love and goodnesse this pleases God at the heart It is reported of Augustus that he would not have the title of Lord given to him he refused it and would rather have his people to looke upon him under the notion of love as a father rather then to feare him It were happy that all Princes were of this minde to desire that their people should rather love them then feare them It is a most villainous wicked and cursed principle that is in some who infuse into the spirit of Princes let your people feare you no great matter whether they love you or no. Suetonius relateth this passage of Augustus when a poor man came to present a petition to him with his hands shaking and trembling out of feare the Emperor was much displeased and said It is not fit that any should come with a petition to a King as if a man were giving meat to an Elephant that is afraid to be destroyed by him God doth not love the bread of mourners to be offered up in sacrifice hee loveth to have people come unto him with a holy boldnesse with a filiall not with a servile and slavish spirit Christ laid down his life to redeeme us that wee might serve the Lord without feare Fourthly They shall call me Ishi that is My strength The Church should looke upon Christ as the strength of it Thy maker is thy husband and who is he The Lord of Hosts is his name thy redeemer the God of the whole earth shall he be called When the people of God can look upon Christ their husband as the Lord of hosts and their Redeemer as the God of the whole earth then they finde quiet and satisfaction in their spirits Psa 89. 17. God is said to be the glory of the strength of his people Though we be weake in regard of our outward helps let us looke up to Christ our strength he hath been our strength he is the glory of it Fiftly I will take the names of Baalim out of their mouth and they shal be no more remembred by their name Repentance must be proportionable to mens sins How doth that arise before ver 13. God charged them that they had forgotten him They went after their lovers and forgat me saith the Lord. Now saith God your Idols shall be forgotten your hearts were so far set upon your idols as you forgat me now in your repentance your hearts shall be so much upon me as you shall forget your Idols Those men who have beene so wicked and ungodly heretofore that they have forgot God God hath not been in all their thoughts God expects now from them that their lusts should not be in all their thoughts It is not enough that you forbeare the act but you must not roule the sweet of them in your thoughts you must not so much as remember them except it be with the detestation of them If there be not a proportion between your repentance your former sins you may expect there will be a proportion
his father and his friends But how mean and sinfull soever we are in our selves when once we are betrothed unto Christ he will not thinke it any dishonour no not before his Father that he hath such a Spouse but he will account it his glory before him and the blessed Angels that he hath betrothed her unto himself And again this communion makes the Afflictions of Christ the Churches afflictions and the afflictions of the Church the afflictions of Christ There is a communion in evill things as well as in good The very sins of the Church come to be charged upon Christ as a woman that was in debt before maryage and so subject to arrests if she be once maryed she is no more troubled with the Serjeants none can arrest her but all the debts are charged upon the man so though we be in debt owing a debt of punishment because we have not payed the debt of obedience and while we are out of Christ before this blessed marriage we may feare every moment to have some sergeant of the Lord upon us to arrest us to hale us to prison there to lye untill we have paid the uttermost farthing but when the soul is married unto Christ all debts all sinnes are all transacted upon Christ all charged upon him if the law come now and require satisfaction if justice comes you may send them unto your husband to answer all and he will not take it ill A husband perhaps may take it ill and thinke he hath brought himself to misery when arrests come upon him for his wives debts it may take off his heart from her but Christ will never love you the worse for all your debts when they are charged upon him he will willingly satisfie them and he will rejoyce in the satisfaction of them before his Father And if there be any affliction befall you Christ is afflicted with you Esay 63. 9. In all their afflictions be was afflicted So on the other side all the afflictions of Christ are the afflictions of the Church doth Christ suffer you take it unto heart as if it were your own suffering Christ takes your sufferings unto heart as if 〈…〉 his own 〈◊〉 And you take the sufferings of Christ unto heart as if they were your owne Thirdly In a married condition there is a mutuall intire love That is First loving the person more then what cometh from him True conjugall love is pitched upon the persons mutually rather then upon the estates or any thing they enjoy by the person So on Christs part his love is pitched upon the persons of the Saints Christ loves your persons more then al your actions It is true all these gracious actions you doe are lovely before Christ for they ate the fruits of his spirit but know the pitch of Christs love is upon your persons chiefly So the pitch of your love if it be a right conjugall love is upon the person of Christ rather then upon any thing that comes from him thou seest him altogether lovely in himselfe besides those riches of pardon of sin and precious promises that thou enjoyest by him his person is that which satisfies thy soule Secondly In prising the love each of other true love can be satisfied witht nothing else but love love villifies every thing that is tendered except it comes as a fruit of love and if there be love a little is highly prized if it be but a cup of cold water it is more then a kingdome without it the giving the body to be burned is nothing without it I will give you two Scriptures one wherein the Saints prize Gods love the other wherein God prizes the Saints love Psal 36. 7. How excellent is thy loving kindnesse O God Psal 91. 14. Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliâ—er him I will set him on high Thirdly This intire love is a love in all conditions Christ loves his Church in their afflictions as intirely as he doth out of their afflictions Deut. 32. 10. He found him in a desart land and in the wast howling wildernesse he led him about he instructed him hee kept him as the apple of his eye Marke they were in the wildernesse in the wast howling wildernesse yet even there they were deare unto Christ they were kept as the apple of his eye The Church on the other side looks upon Christ in his afflictions as lovely still as ever Cant. 1. 12. A bundle of myrrhe is my well beloved unto me he shal lie all night betwixt my breasts Myrrhe is a bitter thing yet the Church professeth that Christ though bitter in his afflictions should lie as lovely betweene her breasts as a bundle of myrrhe I remember Herodotus reports of one Artemesia Queen of Halicarnaffus and Plinie speaks something of her too when her husband was dead she took his ashes drank it in wine out of respect to him though dead The Church loveth a crucified Christ as well as a glorified Christ A most notable example of the love of a Spouse to her husband wee have in our English Chronicle Elenor the wife of Edward the first the King having got a wound by a poysoned dagger she to shew the intire love she bare to her husband because she thought if the poyson did stay a while in the wound there would be no cure therefore with her own mouth she sucked out the poyson that was in the wound so ventured the losse of her own life to preserve her husbands Here was love in a Spouse to her husband There is the like love of the Church unto Christ if Christ be wounded with the poysonous tongues of ungodly men in reproaches and blasphemies let him be never so persecuted in the world they that are truly gracious are willing to suck in that very poyson to themselves so they may take it from him Let the reproaches of Christ fall upon me O let me suffer rather then Christ It was Ambrose his wish Oh that God would turne all the adversaries of the Church upon me that they might turne all their weapons upon me and satisfie their thirst with my blood this is the disposition of a true spouse of Christ The fourth is unspeakable delight communion hath delight the greatest communion the greatest delight the greatest delight that God hath is to communicate himselfe to his Son firstly and next in letting out himselfe to his Saints If there be delight in God in letting out himself to the Saints in reason one would thinke there must needs be delight in the Saints in letting themselves out into God in flowing into God God takes such delight in letting out his mercy to his Saints as that he was well pleased with the death of his own Son as a meanes conducing thereunto One would thinke that the death of Christ should be the most abhorring to the heart of God of any thing in the world yet the Scripture saith God was
have staid born the brunt but how have they born it by yeilding to superstitious vanities being ceremoniall and Prelaticall it will be found that those who have been willing to follow Christ in the wilderness our of love to him his truth and ordinances that Christ will remember that for kindnes Thirdly For young people to give up their young yeares to Christ that is kindnes by way of allusion at least we may make use of that Scripture I remember the kindnesse of thy youth when thy bones are full of marrow and when the world seekes to draw thy heart after the vanities of it when thou mayest have thy delights and pleasures in the flesh to the full if then thou beest willing to deny all and to give up thy selfe to Christ this is loving kindnesse one that is old may possibly come to heaven upon repentance but what kindness is that for him who hath nigh worn out all his dayes and strength in wayes of sinne in the pleasures of the flesh and now when he is going out of the world and can have no more pleasure in his sin he comes to Christ for mercy what kindnes is here here is self-selfe-love indeed but little kindness Secondly loving kindnes one to another I wil bet roth thee unto me in loving kindness I will put such a spirit into you of loving kindnes unto your brethren as I have towards you The word that is here used for loving kindness you shall finde it often in Scripture used for Saints those who are called godly and Saints in your bookes in the Hebrew are called kinde ones it may be as well translated kinde ones as thus Psal 4. 3. Know ye that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself It is a most admirable text as if he should say there are multitudes in the world and all the world is mine but I looke upon all the world as refuse in comparison of some few onely here is a godly man a godly woman I set them apart they are for my self but the note I observe is That that word which in your books is godly in the Hebrew is the kind one the Lord hath set apart those that are kinde those that are of sweet gentle kinde dispositions And Psal 16 10. Not suffer thy holy one to see corruption the Hebrew is not suffer thy kinde one to see corruption it comes from the same roote with that that here is translated loving kindnesse So Psal 149. 1. Sing his praise in the congregation of the Saints of the kind ones and the same word againe is verse 5. Let the Saints be so full in glory the Saints that is the kind ones noting what an ingredient loving kindness is to Saint-ship unto godlinesse therefore it is not enough for Christians to be godly but they must be kinde one unto another too 2 Pet. 1. 3. And to godlinesse adde brotherly kindeness You thinke you are godly but you are of a rugged rough-hewen disposition surly cruell rigid severe froward perverse know here is the exhortation unto you this day from God if you will approve your selves to be godly Adde to your godlinesse brotherly kindnesse except you adde that you can have little comfort in your godlines It is impossible indeed for one that hath the power of godliness and hath the true comfort and sweetnes of it to be of a rugged and rigid disposition the reason is because there is that infinite satisfaction as I may so say that such a heart hath in God that there is nothing that can come from without that can make such a heart bitter there is so much sweetnes in that satisfaction that it hath in God as the Scripture saith A good man is satisfied from himselfe that it is not all the bitterness from without that can sowre such a heart It is true indeed if you have a vessel of honey a little gall will make all that bitter but if you have a vessel of gall a little honey will not make that sweet But in grace it is thus though there be a great deale of bitterness in a man or womans nature though they be of rugged natures yet a drop of true saving grace will sweeten all that gall and if they be once gracious a great deale of gall bitternes that cometh from without will not imbitter that sweetnes I beseech you take notice of this one note when God hath left men they grow more passionate and froward then they were before And I verily beleeve this is one ground of the frowardnesse and passionateness that is in professors they have made breaches between God and their soules their peace between God and them is broken and nothing then can give them content As usually it is when a man hath been abroad and others have angred him when his inward comfort and joy is gone then every thing angreth him he is pleased with nothing his countenance is lowring and he is unto ward to every one and why because he hath lost the sweetnesse of his own spirit and now nothing from without can content him all seems bitter unto him but let this man goe abroad and things fall out well it may be he gets a good bargaine hears of excellent good newes that his goods are come home safely hee can now beare a hundred times as much as before and you can scarce anger him why because his heart is filled with sweetness So it is here let a Christian walke close with God keepe his peace with him he will have so much sweetnes in his heart that it is not easie to put him into any passion of frowardnes why he hath enough within perhaps his friend his wife his neighbour is crosse but his Christ is loving though there be little comfort in my maryage with one who is so peevish perverse yet in my marryage with Christ there is satisfaction enough But when the heart hath made breaches between Christ and it self when it hath lost the sweetness in that marryage communion no marvaile if there be no sweetnes in the other maryage communion I will give you a notable example of this a man who before his breach with God was of a sweet disposition was very milde and loving but after he was of a perverse and cruell froward disposition The example is Saul When he was first chosen King how humble was he hee acknowledges himself to be of the least of the tribes of Israel and the least in his fathers house and when some raysed npon him and said shal this man raigne over us the text saith he held his peace and when others would have had them killed no by no means they must not be slain because God had shewen him mercy in a late victory given him But after Saul had fallen from God O the rugged perverse cruell disposition of his spirit then even to Jonathan his son a gracious loving sweet natured son then Thou
of God VVould you be so Learne then to exercise faith much about the infinite riches of the mercy of God in Christ this will fill you with all the fulness of God you complain of barrennes and emptines in your hearts and lives it is because you exercise so little Faith in these mercies of God in Christ God betrotheth his Church unto himselfe in mercies in bowels Let us learne to pleade these mercies before the Lord to pleade them when we are in any strait to pleade with God for bowels Esay 63. 15. Looke downe from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holi esse and thy glory where is thy zeale and thy strength the sounding of the bowels and of thy mercies towards us are they restrained Lord hast thou not said that thou wilt betroth thy Church unto thy self in bowels Where is the sounding of thy bowels Lord let us have these bowels of thine in which thou hast betrothed us through Christ Oh what confusion will there be one day unto those that shall misse of all these mercies of God in which the Lord hath betrothed himselfe unto his Church VVhat will you content your selves now with crums that God casteth to dogs with the fruits of Gods generall bounty and patience when you heare of such glorious mercies as are in Jesus Christ These things should so raise our hearts that wee should protest as Luther did I protest saith hee God shall not put mee off with these things of the world with my portion here Oh no the Lord hath shewed me greater riches though I be unworthy of any yet I know his mercy is free why then should not I have my portion in these glorious things Come in then come in oh sinfull soule be in love with Jesus Christ the ways of godlinesse know that all these mercies are tendred unto thy soule this day to break thy heart even that hard heart of thine and they are as free for thee as for any There is nothing more pleasing unto God then for thee to be taken with the glory of the riches of his mercy Thou canst perform no duty so acceptable unto God as this to have thy heart break upon the codsideration of his bowels to have thy bowels yern again and to come in and close with this infinite rich and glorious grace of his Which if thou dost know that the first moment thou art united to Christ thou dost lanch into the infinite Ocean of mercy now thou breathest in the element of mercy now thou livest upon nothing but mercy Is it so Then know God expects a mercifull disposition from thee too God betrotheth thee in righteousnesse and putteth righteousnesse into thee in judgment and gives thee judgment too in loving kindnesse and makes thee loving and kind likewise in mercies and putteth mercies into thee bowels into thee also First toward himself Why can we be mercifull unto God what good can wee doe to God God expects you should have bowels toward him How Thus Dost thou see the name of this blessed God thy husband to be dishonoured in the world Oh thy bowels should yern thou shouldst have bowels working now What doth God look upon thee in thy blood in thy misery and doth his bowels yern toward thee Canst thou look upon God in his dishonour and his cause trampled under foot and do not thy bowels yern toward him It should pitie thy soule to see this blessed God to be so much dishonoured in the world as he is to see that there are so few in the world that love and feare this God who is thy God and hath done thee so much good VVhat is there any good cause up wherein the name of God should be honoured Thy bowels should work presently toward it Cant. 5. 4. My beloved put his hand by the hole of the doore and my bowels were moved for him VVhen Christ did but begin to open a door put but in his hand when there was any good but beginning to be done Oh my bowels were moved saith the Church and I could never be at quiet untill I had enquired after yea and found my beloved Is there any beginning to let in Christ into the Kingdome in his government amongst us Dowe feele him putting in his hand at the door certainly if we be skilled in the way of Christ we may seele him putting his hand in at the door Oh that our bowels would yern and cause our hearts to flow to the boâ—ntisulnesse of the Lord and joyn with Christ in that blessed work of his that he is about Our bowels must also be toward the Saints It is extreamely against the spirit of Christ for a Christian to be hard-hearted toward his brethren Christ expects bowels And as you would account it â—grievous misery to have your bowels rotten to have diseases in your bowels know it is as great an evill to have your hearts unmercifull that is to have a disease in your bowels so the Scripture phrase is Amos 1. 11. He cast off all pitie his anger did tear perpetually so it is in your bookes but the words in the Originall are And corrupted his bowels their bowels were corrupted when they were not pittiful toward their brethren in misery It was a grievous condition that Iehoram was in 2 Chron. 21. 15. when his bowels came forth by reason of his disease An unmercifull heart is a worse disease then this What are wee and who are we that Gods mercies should be shewen towards us why not our mercies toward our brethren then The Scripture calleth exceedingly for mercy in the Saints toward one another Col. 3. 17. Put on as the Elect of God bowels of mercy and kindness VVould you have an argument unto your selves that you are Gods Elect put on bowels then Never was there time since you lived or your forefathers lived wherein God called for bowels more then now Do you hear of the miseries of your brethren their goods spoiled houses burnt wives children ravished themselves imprisoned their bodies wounded and yet no bowels all this while what you hard-hearted in the meane time Are you the elect of God why I pray you what is your flesh more then the flesh of others what are your comforts more then the comforts of others why should you lie soft and safe more then others Is there any such difference betwixt you and your brethren that they should be in misery and you must be pampered and scarce feele the very wind to blow on you and yet in the meane time your hearts hardned towards them It is true God it is that hath made the difference you will say and God may make a difference where he pleaseth I grant it and it would not grieve God to make such a difference betweene you and them if he saw your bowels yern towards them But if God layes such afflictions upon your brethren who are better then you and have done more for him then