Hosea 3

Ver. 1. Then .said tlie-Lord imto me, Go yet, love a vomaii beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, uiio look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

The close of the former chapter had in it much mercy, and this contains the expression of much love also to Israel; but yet God tells them of the mean and low estate they are likely to be in, before the time comes for the fidflUing of all the good which he intends for them. God pm-poses gi-eat mercy, but they must, for a long time, bear their iniquity, and be brought into a

vile and desolate condition in their captivity; even until 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 peo])le on the face of the earth, as a people that he intended yet to mari-j- unto himself; and ui time, mercy should break forth gloriously upon them, and his name be magnified in then- so retm-ning to him, that their hearts should melt toward his goodness, and not abuse it any more as formerly they had done; but they should “return, and seek the Lord then- God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.” This is the scope of the chapter: In which you have tlu’ce things.

1. God’s love continued to “an adulteress,” Israel.

2. The low and mean condition of this “adulteress” for a long time.

3. The return of God in infinite mercy toward them at the latter da-, together with their return to him.

“Then said the Lord unto me. Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress.”

We have here a new injunction to the prophet, and that more cUfficult than the former. In the fii-st chapter God commanded him to go and “take a w ife of whoredoms,” but here, to “love an adulteress,” which is somewhat more than to take her unto himself. What was meant by taking “a wife of whoredoms,” has been explained in the fonner chapter, and may save us some labour in this. Here there is a vision, as there; as if God should say, Hosea, it is just with me as it would be with thee, if thou hadst a wife an adulteress; notwithstanding all the love she has foimd, yet still an adulteress; and thine affections were fixed on her, so that thou couldst not withcbaw them, but must needs continue to love her: so this people, whom I have loved, and to whom I have done so much good, have gone a whoring from me, and are an adulteress; yet, for all that, my heart cannot be estranged, but is still toward them; I yet love them.

Obs. It is through the strength of the covenant that God’s love is so permanent. Others, who are not in covenant with him, God casts off for lesser sins, for any sins; but as for his covenant people, not even their adulteries, their idolatries, alienate the heart of God wholly from them. Surely then, if thou canst appeal to God; O Lord, thou that knowest all things, knowest that there is nothing of thy mind revealed to me but my heart is ready to do, and if I fail in any tiling, thou knowest it is the greatest bm-den to my soul; oh that I knew more of thy mmd! and that I had power to do more! surely God will love thee. Y’ou hear he loves his people, though an adulteress: so, now take tlxis lesson, as thy sins cannot overcome God’s goodness, let God’s goodness overcome thy sinfulness.

‘■ A woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress.”

That is, (as Calvin, Vatablus, and many others interpret it,) beloved of her husband; as if God should say. Had they any such excuse for departing from me, that I have been a bitter husband to them, that I have used them hardly, and with rigom-, then indeed they might have some plea; but I have loved them dearly, done much for them, and ever treated them in the kindest manner; yet are they gone a whoring from me. The wife that follows other lovers, thinks, if she can but say, her husband is hard to her, cares not for her, and loves her not, it palliates her adulteries; and so if the adulterous husband can say. What -n-iU you have me to do? I never come home but my wife is ill-tempered; and .she loves other men: he thinks this is plea enough for him. But Israel could not have this excuse for herself, for she was an adulteress, yet beloved of the Lord. If we understand the passage thus, we may briefly

Ob’s. 1. The husband should be a frlenct to his wife.

There should be nothing inconsistent with a friendly demeanour between them. Yea, the love of the husband to the wife should far surmount the love of any friend in the world; he should be, at least, a friend to comfort and cherish her in time of sorrows, to bear the burden of affliction with her: and so the wife in return should act toward the husband.

Obs. 2. A ba-se heart will prove base against all bonds of love. “Beloved of her friend, yet an adiJteress.” If you should ask, ‘Who is he, or where is he, that is so tase? Lay thy hand on thine own heart, and consider what the love of God has been toward thee all the days of thy life, and what return thou hast made to him. Thou hast had from God love that might break the heart of a de-il; yet when any temptation comes to draw thee from God, thy base heart listens to it.

06s. 3. It is a great aggi’avation of sin to sin against much love. We ought to fulfil our relative duties, though others do not so towards us. If a ■lrife has an unkind, churlish, ungodly husband, yet she is bound to love and to obey him, to be observant of him in whatever may give him all lawful content. So, if servants have froward, churlish, cruel masters or mistresses, yet are they bound to be obedient to them: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward,” 1 Pet. ii. 18. It is no sufficient excuse for the wife to say, My husband is froward and unkind, and therefore what shall I do? nor for the servant to say. My master, or mistress, is unreasonable and cruel, what can I do? You must do your duty to them, though they do 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 di-aw the heart; the knowledge that it is our duty may force obedience, but it is love that draws the heart most kindly. So, if a servant have a godly master and mistress, who respect and tender his good; if he should sin against them, this aggravates the sin exceedingly. To wrong love is a very great sin. Delicata res est amor, Love is a most delicate thing, and must not be rudely handled. A man who is of an ingenuous spirit had much rather be ^^Tonged in his estate than in hLs love; he cannot bear the injurv’ done to it; when his love is abused it goes to his very heart: so it affects God when his people sin against his love; therefore it is said of the saints, when they sin, that they grieve the Spirit of God: he never says so of the wicked; they anger God, but the saints gneve him, because they sin so much against God’s love. Charge this aggi-avation of your sin on your souls, and be humbled; collect together all the expressions of God’s love to you, and let them lie glowing at your hearts, and melt them.

But inasmuch as God bids him take “a woman beloved of her friend,” and calls not this friend husband, I think those express the intention of the Holy Ghost in this more fully, who interpret it thus: this friend is not meant of one who is fully married, but rather one in a way of marriage. Among the Jews it was usual for women to be under the protection of men: “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying. We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name,” let us be under your protection, Isa. iv. 1. Kvcn “the strange women,” Prov. vii. 5, were wont, though they had many lovers, yet to have some in particular, under whose protection and care they might be; who was to see that they were not ^^Tonged, and to make provision for them; and such a one they were wont to call their friend; and often these friends would so provide for them, as to give them good hopes of marrjnng them at length, if they would be reclaimed, and forsnke all their oilier lovers. Arms Montanus refers us to the Mcond Elegy of Propertiu.s; respecting the charge and rare of such a friend. The CJrecians had a similar

custom: they called him under whose protection they put themselves, eraTpof, and the woman, iralpa. It is said of Plato, that he had one Archenassa, who was called Plato’s ha’ipa. Here the Lord would have the prophet take an adulteress beloved of her friend, that IS, one that was a common adulteress, and yet luider the protection of some special friend; so that if he could supplant that friend, and in time reclaim the love and affection of this adulteress, he might marrj’ her to himself This is according to the love of God to his people, that is, as if God should say. This people is going a whoring, but I will be content to take them unto myself, I will be as their friend, and so protect them, and care for them, until there be some proof of their being reclaimed, and then I will niarrj’ this adulteress fully unto myself. For God is not now fully manied to the Jews, neither will that marriage take [ilace until the glorious time of their calling comes; but yet God is as a friend to them to this dav, that is, God takes this people yet under his protection, though they seem to be in a rejected condition, and .so gives hope, yea, makes many promises, that upon their return to him he will mam- them unto himself; yea, there shall be a more glorious marriage between the Jews and the I,ord Christ, than ever yet there was between him and any people on the face of the earth. This I think to be the very scope and meaning of the words, “beloved of her friend.”

Somewhat suitable we have Deut xxi. 12, 13: when one of the Jews took captive a woman, he might not forthwith marry her; but if he loved her, she was to continue a certain time, and undergo certain purifications, and then he might take her. The Jews are for the present as that captive woman, in bondage, yet God has a love for them unto this day; but so, that they must abide a while until God be married to them; they are beloved of God, but as yet with the love of a friend.

The Seventy read the words “beloved of her friend,” “one that loveth evU things,” a mistake easily arising from the Hebrew words, for friend, and evil, differ only in the points.

“Who look to other gods.”

Their eyes are upon other gods, ^^’here the heart is, there is the eye. Timor figit oculuin, so amor; Fear fastens the eyes, and so docs love. The workings of the soul apjiear as much in the eye as in any member; it well conveys emotions of love, of trust, and of confidence. They “look 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. cxxi. 1, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence Cometh my help;” that is, I look for help, and confidently expect it. But how from the hills? What! does David’s help come from them? Some think this to be the place where afterward the temple was built, and the same as was then the place of the .sanctuar)-; but because that is usually in Scripture in the singular number, the hill of God, not the hills; therefore I find Calvin, Mollenis, and others, think that David here speaks of confidence in the creature, because he presently retracts in the second verse, “My help Cometh from the Lord.” 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 Jinisalem (which was a hilly ])lace); I look for forces to come from thence, but they come not; well, I will not tni.st any longer in them, Jehovah is my help. So they interpret it. But now I would rather free the prophet from vain confidence in the creature, and so the words may, if on read them thus, Do I lift up mine eyes unto the hills? do I expect help from the creature? God forbid I should, for “my help cometh from the I-ord.”

Vvs. 1.

IHE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.

Fi’.rther, sometimes the Hebrew Ss« is used for Sy aiui so might be translated “above the hills;” other men look to the hills, I look above the hills. But rather thus, “I lift up mine eyes to the hills,” that is, I look to God; why? because the place where the temple was to be built was hilly; and so this expression refers to those two hills, or rather, two ridjtes of the same hill, on which it was built, Moriah and Zion: as 2 Chron. iii. 1, “‘riien Solomon began to buUd the house of the Lord at Jerusalem m mount Moriah;” and Psal. ii. 6, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” I look, saith David, unto God, my faith has reference to the place which God has chosen for himseh’: that this is the meaning will appear if we compare this with Psal. lxxxvii. 1, “His foundation is in the holy mountains;” not mountain, but moimtains. The respect idolaters had for their idols, being manifested by lifting up their eyes to them, therefore God commanded them not so much as to lilt up their eyes to their idols, Ezek. xxiii. 27: and mdeed, we had need take heed of so much as liftmg up our eyes to look on the enticements of the flesh; many will not commit their former sins, but they love to be looking that way. I have read of a loving wife, who, being at the marriage of C)Tus, was asked how she liked the bridegroom? How? saith she; I know not, I saw no one but my husband. Love and respect di’aw the eye either to God or to the creature. According as our hearts are, so our eyes will be. “And love flagons of wine.” The word comes from one which aigtti&es fundaint, he has established. The Vulgate renders it, viraciaiivarum, the leaves, skins, and stones of the gi’ape that remain after pressing, and sink down into the bottom of the vessel; noting thereby, how sapless, tasteless, and degi-ading idolatrous worship is in comparison of the true worship of God. The true worship of God is sweet, and lovely, and excellent; but man’s institutions, how improfitablc are they! ,The spirits of such as plead for and delight in superstitious vanities, the devices of men, how dead and vapid do they soon become! though heretofore they have had some life and energy, yet, if once they delight themselves in the inventions of men in God’s worship, their spu’its gi’ow very unsavoury to those with whom they converse.

But take the translation as it is in your Bibles, “flagons of wine,” called by this name in the Hebrew, because the flagon, broad at the bottom, stands securely; that is, (as some interpret it,) they are as drunkards that call for one flagon after another. Superstitious and idolatrous people, when they have one mode of superstition, call for another; and when they have got that, they will have another, and are still deshous of more, never satisfied, but, as drunkards, they still thu-st after their flagons.

Or rather, to denote the sensuality of the forms of then’ idolatrous worshi]), then- flagons of wine are joined to then- gods. The Seventy translate the word Trf/ifiara, brttaria, delicacies made of wine and grapes by every art they could devise in order to please the appetite. From thence this observation evidently arises:

Obs. Spiritual adultery and carnal sensuality go together. They used flagons of wine in their idolatrous solemnities, and that made them love then- idols so much the more. In the true worship of God, there is abundance of sweetness to satisfy the hearts of the saints, they need not sensual pleasiu’cs to complete their hapi)iness; but in superstitious worship there is none such, therefore they are fain to call for flagons of wine, and other sensual tilings, to make up a full delight to themselves. Superstitious and idolafa-ous rites bring with them pleasm-e to the flesh, and hence are they loved and followed; people can hardly ever be taken off from them. In their idolatrous solemnities, they were wont to have feasts to pamper the flesh. Judg.

ix. 27, “They went out into the fields, and gathered then- vineyards, and trod the gi’apes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.” So Amos ii. 8, “They drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.” What is that? By oppression and violence they would rend the estates of men from them, and then make merry, yea, come into the house of their gods, and (h-ink bowls of wine which they had gotten from the possessions of those whom they had wrongfully condemned. Let idolaters have their lusts satisfied, and they care not what god they serve. 1 Cor. viii. 10, “If any see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple;” “at meat,” they had their flesh satisfied in the idol’s temple. Thus God complams of his people here. As if he had said, Let all bemoan my condition, for though I have loved Israel dearly, she has gone a whoring fi-om me, and loves flagons of nine; and because she has more pleasure to the flesh in serving idols, she will serve them, “lat an abominable thing is it to forsake the blessed God merely for the love of wine! How many are there in the world who forsake all that good which is in God, in Cluist, in heaven, in eternity, merely for flagons of wine!

Calvin renders it flagons of grapes, so the words are in the Hebrew, not flagons of wine; and observes, of grapes rather than wine, because there were artificial means used by them to make their superstitions more grateful to them: as when dnmkards have drunk even ad nauseam, and begin to loathe what they delighted in, then they will use some artificial mixtiu’e of grapes or something else with the wine, to give it a new flavour, that they may still delight themselves in chinking: so, (saith he,) because their old superstitions have nothing in them to satisfy the heart, therefore they invent new kinds to please themselves with; and although they boast of then’ antiquity, yet the truth is, they are devising new ceremonies every day, to give a fresh lustre and pomp to then- worship, or else it woidd grow loathsome even to themselves. We have seen in our own experience, that the wantonness of men’s hearts in superstitious ways is very great, they are ever inventing new devices to uphold their old moth-eaten vanities.

Ver. 2. So I bought her lo me for flftetn pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

The prophet obeys God in this other hai’d command. God many times sends his prophets on very u-ksome duties, yet they must be willing to serve the Lord in the hardest work. “So I bought her.”

The word here ti-anslated “bought,” signifies also to dig, and is taken (as some ’ ‘^’ think) from the piercing of the servant’s ear, who was to be a slave tmtil the year of jubilee, to denote the slavish condition this people should be m for a long time.

It signifies also to cut, excidit, “he jo»„j,,„„ ^,^ has cut asunder.” These difi’erent signi- ma Pagn. fications may be reconciled by reference Contahenie. dexto the customs of the Jews, who in then- „”?/„ nitSn’’esscbargainings were wont to cut a beast in “u^Sn’mscmdesunder, and so to go between the two te;’’ jl;”’^!’?? pieces; or because they joined then- right dissecabaniar. hands together, and then another came °^’ and put his hand between theirs, (as a spade is put into the earth.) and so did, as it were, cut them asimder: thence arose the various acceptations in which the word was used.

“To me.” This buying was in order to marrying, that she might be under his care for a while, and then come to be his wife. It was the custom of men in those days to buy their wives. Jacob served twice seven years for Rachel, and so bought her. David bought his wife

for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines; and C’hi-ist purchased his church to himself at a dear rate, even by his ovm blood: but “I bought her” (saith he) “for fifteen pieces of silver.”

There is a necessity for fully explaining tliesc words, that you may not only see the meaning of this, but like- ■n’ise better understand some other passages of Scri])ture.

“Fifteen pieces of silver.” How much is that? Fifteen shekels; for it is a rule among the Hebrews, when a piece of silver, and not the sum, is named, alwavs to understand a shekel; and when a sliekel is set Aovn, and the metal not expressed, there silver is understood. Kow the common shekel was, according to some, of the w eight of one hundred and sixty grains of barley; according to Jerome on Ezek. iv. it weighed hjjf an ounce. Josephus saith its value was about four drachms; that is, about eighteen or twenty pence of our money; and so I find most consider it, though much difference exists among interpreters.

This was to signify the vile and base condition into which Israel had brought herself, for thu-ty shekels of silver was to be given for the ])rice of a maid-servant. Exod. xxi. 32, “If the ox shall push a man-sen-ant or a maid-servant, he shall give unto theii- master thu-ty shekels of silver.” Thirty shekels must be given as a recompence for the loss of a slave; yet the prophet must buy this adidteress for half as much, fifteen shekels. Israel, all the ten tribes, yea, the whole people of the Jews, are signified by this adulteress, beloved of her friend. So that now Israel, who were heretofore the dearly beloved of God’s soul, his only people on the face of the earth, the peculiar treasure of God, his portion, his inheritance; had now by their sin brought themselves into a meaner condition, and were worth but half as much as any poor bond-woman in Israel. This thirty pieces of silver was the goodly price Christ was valued at by the Jews, Zech. xi. 12; Matt, xxvii. 9. This showed how Christ was humbled, that he must be sold for no more than was the price of a slave. But the price of Israel is but fifteen pieces, half as much. Israel was proud in the day of her prosperity, but now she has brought herself by her sin into a meaner condition than a slave.

“And for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.” AVhat that homer of barley was, and what the Holy Ghost intends by mentioning it, must be inquired into. First, an homer contained ten cphahs, and an ephah is nearly as much as our bushel, so that this homer contained about ten of our bushels. In Ruth ii. 17, it is said, that when Kuth gleaned in the field after the reapers, she beat out that she had gleaned. and it was an ephah’ of barley. And by this you may know the meaning of Isa. v. 10, “The seed of an homer shall yield an e])hah:” why an homer was ten bushels, how then should the seed of nearly ten bushels yield but one bushel? It was a threatening of a famine, that thoiigli they sowed much they should reap but little, they should sow ten busliels, and reap but one.

Some, however, intcrjjret an homer to be about the burden that an ass was able to bear; for n*cn in the Hebrew signifies an ass, and so the burden of that creature was called an homer; but Ezek. xlv. 11, tells us ])lainly that an ephah is the tenth part of an homer.

There is great difficulty in understanding this, if we compare it with Exod. xvi. IG, where it is said they were to gather of the manna “even,’ man according to his eating, an homer for every man;” and ver. 3(i, “an homer is the tenth part of an C])hah.” This seems contradicton,-, here an ephah is the tenth part of an homer, and there an homer is the tenth part of an ejihah. lint those who imderstand Hebrew kjiow that these words are written with difl’erent letters, though in our English the pronunciation is the .same; that in Exodus with y and the other with n in English the former is

Gnomer, the latter Chomer, and so they should be read. Now this homer of manna which God gave for each man daily, was almost the tenth part of a bushel, four or five times as much as the Roman dimensum or chtpm’x, the allowance given by them to their servants; noting thereby that God is exceedingly liberal to his people.

But why “an homer of barley?” Because it was a mean food, and in those times rather the food of beasts than of men; God jjromised to feed his people with the finest of the flour of wheat: therefore. Rev. vi. 6, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.” But what means this, that there must be an homer of barley, and a half homer of barley, given for this adulteress, whom the prophet was to take unto himself? The scope of all is, to signify the mean condition in which the ten tribes, and afterward all the Jews, should be, till ClirLst came to marry them to himself First, they should be in a contemptible condition, they should be valued but at half the price of a slave. Secondly, they should be fed but meanly and basely, even as slaves, or rather as beasts; this homer and half of barley should be for their sustenance.

This not only refeiTed to the time of their captivity before Christ, but to all their captivity ever since, and that which they shall endure until their calling. Their mean condition, in the time of their first captivity, you may see, I.am. iv. 5, “They that were brought up in scarlet, embraced the dunghills;” they either lay in filthy places, like beasts, or else they were employed in carrjing dung up and down. And to this day, we know that, in the esteem of others, the Jews ai’e the vilest people on the face of the earth. An historian tells us of an emperor travelling into Egj-jit, and there meeting with some Jews, by whose appearance he was so disgusted, that he cried 6ut, O Marco- „ M.r.oa,..,i, o mani, O Quadi, &c., at length I have Qu«di, o s.nn.»,

‘., “1. 1 1 taiidcm aliod volpu

met With men viler than such or such, arimion-! inrjni. reckoning up divers of the basest people ^“™“”- “‘’■ on the face of the earth. And to this day the Turks will suS’er no Jew to turn Mahometan, unless he first become a Christian: so much more they esteem the Christians, acknowledging that Jesus Christ, though not God, yet was a great prophet; but as for the Jews, they think them a dishonour to the Turkish religion. And we read that the Romans, when they conquered other nations, would permit the vanquished to call themselves liomans, except in the case of the Jews, though never so willing to conform themselves to their customs, and to be their servants; piLui |x-r,iioi.?ii, lest the glory of the Romans should be q’uid’ub!r’.^hij. tarnished by that odious jieople. Thus S?SS’.°°i«rfiii’’’ we see what shame God has cast on that genOT-Auguain. jieople even unto this day, that they are counted as the very oft-scouring of all nations. Suetonius tells us, that in the exactions that the Romans require of people, they im- *n,’ii’,1Io,’c’.”12. posed on the Jews more than on any other ])coplc. Thus, history and our own experience ])roye the fulfilling of this scripture, which I am now opening to you: She shall be bought for fifteen pieces of silver, and fed with barley; she’ shall be in a verj- low, base, and mean condition, imtil Christ shall come and marr)- her to himself

Hence we may

Obs. 1. A people who have been high in outward glorj-, when they depart from God, make themselves vile and contemptible, God casts contempt on wicked men, especially on the w icked who corrupt his worship. Do we not see it at this day? In Aial. ii. 9, it m threatened that the priests, who departed from the law, and corrupted their ways, should be base and contemptible i)el’ore the people. Has not the Lord done thus at this day? Even those who, not long since, gave

18J

themselves the title of the triumphant clergy, and the triumphant church, and boasted as if they would outface heaven itself, and scare all men with their high-commission coui’t. But what shame has God east on this generation! the people loathe them, and we hope in time the Lord will sweep away the proud and haughty of them as the refuse of the earth. Yea, our whole nation has been a proud nation; what vaunting has there been of what a glorious church we had! Never such a one on the earth! AVe sat as a queen amongst the nations, and have behaved ourselves haughtily, and God may justly cast contempt upon us. The Jews called themselves “The temple of the Lord,” “The temple of the Lord;” but God has now made them the basest nation on the earth. And indeed God has now begun to cast much shame upon us. The time was when the kingdom of England was a terror to other people, but of late they have been the scorn and contempt of nations. “When Ephi-aim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died:” he became as a dead, poor, vile, contemptible people, Hos. xiii. 1. The Lord loves to stain the pride of men. How many have you known who have been proud and lofty, and the Lord has cast shame and contempt in theh’ faces! even before those whom they looked upon heretofore with contempt, have they now been humbled.

O/).?. 2. Though a people be under contempt, yet God’s heart may be towards them to do them good at the latter end. The love of God’s election still is on this people; God remembers them, and yet intends good to them. “Who knows what contempt God may cast upon us? Perhaps he may let our proud adversaries trample us under then’ feet; but we hope he will not, because he sees their- hearts so proud. But if he should, we should not despau’; we must not conclude that God has quite cast off England, though he should bring all his people under contempt, so as to be ti-ampled under the foot of pride. And if there be any of you whom God has so depressed as to render you contemptible, humble yourselves before God, but do not despair, the Lord may yet have a love for you; though you are now under shame and contempt, who knows but that this was the only way that God had to bow yomhearts? God puts his own people under contempt, and yet it is all from love to them, and with an intent to do them good at last.

Obs. 3. After many promises of God’s mercy and of a glorious condition, which he intends for his people, he may yet hold a very hard hand over them for a great while; and this we should especially remember. God having promised so much mercy in the former chapter, Israel might quickly grow wanton, and say. Though we be vile and wicked, yet God will marrj’ us to himself, and we shall be a glorious people; and why need we take care? Nay, saith God, stay, though my heart be toward you, yet this generation shall suffer, and the next generation, and the succeeding one, shall suffer hard things, you shall be brought into the very vilest condition; yet my promise shall be fulfilled at the last. Here we see what care God takes that people should not grow wanton with his mercy, and think, O we are in covenant with God, and God has jiardoned om- sins, what need we care? Take heed of growing wanton, thou mayst suffer fearful things in this world. Though God may save your souls, yet you may be brought into as woeful a condition in your own apprehensions as ever any creature was on ‘the earth. And for England, though it is true we have as many proofs of the love of God to us as any nation ever had, yet who knows what this generation may suffer, that has so suUied itself with superstitious vanities? We may be brought into •woefid slavery, and then God may raise up unto himself another generation, upon whom he will bestow the mercy intended.

Obs. 4. Those who will delight then flesh to the full in a sensual use of the creatiu-e, it is just with God they should be cut short, and made to live meanly and basely, made to feed on coarse fare. The Jews had their “delicacies before, and fared deliciously; now they must be fed with barley, worse than then- servants, and cat that which was meat for beasts. How many has God thus dealt with, ■nho not long since had their tables furnished with the choicest fare, and are now, perhaps, glad of a barley loaf for themselves and their childi-en!

Obs. 5. If God will not utterly destroy a people as he might, but reserve mercy for them at last, yet they have cause to bless God, though their subsistence for the present be most mean. Though there be a threatening here, yet it contains a promise. The people of Israel, had they known all, had no cause to nim-mur at God’s dealing, but to wonder at his mercy, though they had but a little barley to sustain them. And suppose God should bring us, in England, into such a low condition as to be glad of a barley loaf; and we know famine commonly follows war, and God may bring that upon us in a manner far beyond what we or our forefathers ever knew; but yet if the Lord do not cast us off utterly fi’om being fiis people, though he feed us with brown bread, though we have never so mean a subsistence for the present, we shall have cause to bless his name. It was wont to be a phr-ase, Brown bread and the gospel are good fare.

Obs. 6. It is the way of God to humble those to ■n-hom he intends good, to prepare them for mercy, by cutting them short of outward comforts. If any of you have lived full-handed, your- wives, perhaps, brought you good portions, and now all is lost; you had good friends in the country, and many of them now are plundered in their estates; and you fare meanly, and if you have bread for your childi’en think it well; but, consider this. Is not God now humbling nie, and thereby preparing my heart for himself? Oh blessed be God for this my condition; this bread is sweeter to me than all the provisions of my former life. When you sit in your house with yom- wife and childi-en, and have nothing but barley bread to feed on, have these thoughts; I hope God does this in love and mercy, he is making this my condition the best I was ever in, and the greatest blessing to me.

Ver. 3. And I said unto her, Thou shall abide for me many days; ihou shall, not play the harlot, and Ihou shall not be for another man: so tcill I also be for thee.

You shall not only be in such a low condition as a slave, and worse than a maid-servant, and be fed with barley; but you shall abide thus, and that for “many days.” Thus they have abode these sixteen hundi’ed years since Clu-ist’s time, besides their former captivity. The Lord would fully prove Israel, that then- hearts were thoroughly humbled, before he would take them to mercy again. Never did any people deal more falsely with God in then- humiliations, than they formerly. How often when they were in misery did they come with their seeming repentance and cry for mercy, and God showed them mercy; and as soon as they were delivered, they fell oft” again and went after their idols; and then, being in misery again, they cried to God and he delivered them, and then presently they returned to their idols again! WeU, saith God, I will not deal so with you hereafter, I wQl not tnist you as I have done; you have been in misery, and I have delivered you when you have cried to me, and then you have returned to your sins: but now you shall be thoroughly humbled,” you shall be many years in this low and mean condition, and then your hearts will be completely broken, so that, when you return to me again, you shall never backslide. God has dealt so with

many of you j you have been in afRiction, and he has delivered you, and you have returned to your sins: you have been in affliction again, and he has delivered you once more, and you have backslidden again; and thus you have trifled with the great God: God maybring a sore and long affliction on you, that you shall be so thoroughly humbled, that you shall never return to your sins again as you have done. This is the meaning of “abide many days.” ^Vhen we would thoroughly cleanse a filthy garment, we do not only ira-sh it, but we lay it soaking a great while, and let the frosts of many a night fall upon it: the Jews have so lain many hunched yeai-s. The hardness of man’s heart is such, that afflictions will not work immediately. Though many wedges be inserted, and many blows struck on knotty wood, it stirs not: some metals are long in meltuig, yea, though the fire be very fierce.

Obs. 1. “When God promises mercy, it is his ordinaiT method to seem to go quite contrary to a people, to seem as if he would quite destroy them. I will marry myself unto them in loving-kindness and in mercies: but yet I will let this people be above sixteen hundred years in this forlorn condition. And so it has been in all God’s administrations since the beginning of the world.

06*. 2. When God comes to humble sinners, they must be content to be humbled God’s own time; they must not impatiently exclaim, “Lord, how long?” 1 have been thus long in a sad condition; I have prayed thus long. Is your sadness and affliction eternal? O no, a year or two perhaps; yet you have deserved an eternity of misery.

“Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be’ for another man: so will I also be for thee.” That is, All this time you must take care that you do not seek after other lovers; let me have experience that you will now worship the only true God, and I will promise to stay for you as you abide for me.

“Thou shalt not be for another man.” The Hebrew phrxse, “to be” to or “for another man” means, thou shalt not marry another. Ezek. x. 8, “I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.” Fuisti mihi, thou wert to me, that is, thou wert married to me. Lev. xxi. 3, “A virgin which hath no husband:” qucenon/uit mVo, a virgin that was not to another man. Hence we may profitably

Obs. 1. That husband.s must be to their wives, and wives to their husbands; that is, live to them: whatever thou hast, any knowledge, any parts, any grace, it must be to thy wife, for the benefit of thy wife’; and what the wife has must be to the husband.

Obs. 2. In the time of the sorest affliction and trouble we must take heed we forsake not God. “You shall abide for mo many days.” Though I use you hardly for a long time, yet you mu.st not think to go and shirt for yourselves any other way. Li time of afllliction, though trouble continue long,’ we must not seek to help ourselves by false comforts. We have an excellent text, Psal. xliv., which describes a most afflicted state of God’s people. Vcr. 11, “Thou hast.’-cattercd us amongst the heathen.” Ver. 12, “Thou sellest thy people for nought.” Ver. 13, “Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.” Ver. 17. “All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.” And, ver. 19, 20, “Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god.” As if he should say, God forbid such a thing as this; though we be in the place of dragons, under reproach, and in great affliction, yet

we have not lifted up our hands to another god. AVo must not say as king Jehoram, 2 Kings vi. 33, “What should I wait for the Lord any longer?” He seemed to be humbled, and put on sactcloth; but would not be contented to wait longer for the Lord. Men’s spirits under affliction are prone to think, Why should I wait for God any longer? I will now seek to help myself in mine own way, to shift for myself. The Lord forbid that such thoughts should be in any of our hearts. Sedebis mihi, Thou shalt be quiet, though thou dost abide in this sad condition a long while. Isa. xxx. 7, “Their strength is to sit stUl.” And, ver. lo, “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Alas! thou art now afflicted j where wilt thou find help, poor soul? Wilt thou go to false gods, to thy former sinful lusts? that is not the way to help thee; thou must abide until God’s time come to show mercy to thee. The heart of man is strongly set upon good, and cannot be content to stay God’s time; but if God subdue thy heart so far as to render it content to abide, though never so long, for God, and that it will not try to relieve itself by any tinlawful means, this is a good sign that there is much love in reserve for thee. It is a proof of a strong affection in a woman, when there occur things that hinder the match between her lover and herself’; Well, saith she, though there be some obstacles, and you make many objections, I will never marry as long as I live, except I may have him: this argues fen’our and strength of affection. So here, I will marry you unto myself, saith God, and many things are to be done before that day, but then, after you have stayed my time, I will come to you in a glorious manner. As God deals with the Jews, so often in his marrying himself to a particular soul.

06*. 3. God not only commands them to do it, but it is a promise and a prophecy that they shall do ii. “Thou shalt abide,” &;c. 13ut you will .say, I low have the people of the Jews abode for God? Thus; they have never to this day chosen any other god, and though they have not received the Messiah, yet ever since the captivity they have hated idolatry, and that was the thing God specially meant in this; Thou shalt not have any more idols, thou shalt choose no other god, no other husband; though thou hast been very wicked and sinful in this way, and formerly chose all manner of gods, the gods of the Amoritcs, and Moabites, and of all the heathens round about you, yet now thou shalt choose no other gods but me. Thus to this day the Jews have acknowledged Jehovah to be the only true God, and cannot endure images. There Ls a remarkable passage relating to this in Eusebius’s Antiquities, cap. 18. “Ulien Caius Caligula sent one Petronius to set up an image in the tcmjjlc of Jenisalem, many of the Jews pleaded with Petronius, saj-ing. Sir, what is it that you do? we beseech you do it not, deprive us of oiu* lives first; for it is impossible, while we live, to submit to this, we will all die first. But, replied he, it Ls the command of the emperor: op])osition is vain, it must be done. They answered. Seeing you will not transgress Ciesar’s command, neitlicr will we violate the command of our God; we are not so faint-hearted, nor have we such a vain desire for the continuance of our lives, as to enjoy them at the risk of Uiat eternal life, which is projiosed for the keeping of God’s commands. Such was their spirit then, and to this day they will not endure idols; and their being scattered here and there among papists, and seeing so much idolatry among them, they are thereby stumbled at Christianity, and their conversion greatly prevented; Init if God would once pull down popery, certainly the Jews would quickly come in. God now seems about to do it, therefore all of us should assist as far as we can to demolish all monuments of idolatr)-, to make the worship

V.

i of God more pm-e, and this mil be a means to bring about the conversion of the Je-ws, and in this respect they have abode for God’all this while: such I conceive to be the meaning of the text.

•’ So will I also be for thee.” “What is the meaning of that? First, though you shall be long in captivity, saith God, and in a low’ condition, be content, do not take any other god as your husband; I will be content, I will stay, I will have no other people upon the earth but you, all the time you are in captivity.

But how does God abide for Israel now? God has chosen the Gentiles, how then does he stay for them?

First, All the Gentiles who are called” come in to God, as being joined to the people of the Jews; God honoured the Jews so far, as that all the Gentiles who come in are to be made the Israel of God.

But rather thus, God abides for the people of the Jews to this day, m this sense, God never has taken, nor ever will take, to himself any nation upon the earth to be a national chui’ch, as the Jews were, and as it is ‘i probable the Jews shall be at theii- conversion: though God takes the converted Gentiles by their several congregations to be chm-ches, yet to man-y himself to a whole nation, as he did to the Jews, that is, if a man be born of that nation it shall be sufficient to make him a member of the church, this God never did smce the Jews’ rejection, and never will till the Jews be called again. God chooses kingdoms now, and so, in some figurative sense, a nation perhaps may be called a chm-ch; but to speak properly and saictly, there is no such national church as the Jews were. But then God will be married to that nation in a more glorious manner than ever; and God abides to this day for the glory which he intends for Jesus Chr-ist, until, they come in. And this i take to be a great reason why God, for the present, suffers his chui’ches to be persecuted as they are. The church, ever since Christ’s time, has been in a low and persecuted condition; the wicked have prevailed. “What is the reason? God abides for this people of the Jews, and he is pleased himself to undergo many sufi’erings; and seems to say. In the mean time do you abide for me. I will be content to suffer much dishonour myself: many shall come in to Chiist; but yet they shall be a poor, contemptible people, the wicked of the world shall prevail against them, shall scorn tlicm, shall contemn them, so that I shall not appear to the world to be their husband, until you be called again: but when you shall return to me, then I wUl manifest myself indeed; you shall be a most glorious church, and there shall be such a full marriage between us, that all the world shall acknowledge it, and shall say, Come, behold the bride, the Lamb’s wife. This is the scope of this scripture.

Obs. 1. Husbands .should not require of their wives any thing but what they will answerably do for them. God doth so here; “Abide for me,” saith he, “and I will abide for you;” there shall be par pari, like for like. Many husbands will rcquii-e hard tilings from” t:r wives, but will do little themselves; and, on the

nr side, wives expect great things from their husiils, but do little themselves. There must be a proportion between what they expect from each other, and what they do to or for each other.

Obs. 2. In om- sad condition God suffers as well as

.. This may help us in our sufferings, to think, though suffer much, God suffers as much as we. The people

: the Jews, if they had heai’ts, might see now that God stays for his honour till they come in. So in all the persecutions of the chm-ch, does not Christ suffer, because the great work of reformation does not advance? K we arc grieved, the Spirit of God is grieved ■IS well as we, and suffers as much as we; God, as it were, abides for us, and stays for his glorj-. “We desire iliat God would come and manifest himself, then we might be happy and rejoice; but so long as God stays

our happiness, he stays his own glorj-. “Miat abundance of glory does God lose in those praises he would have if the refoi-mation were immediately perfected! but God has other ends, and is content to stay for his praises. Let us be content to stay for what we desire to have; it concerns God to hasten the work as much, yea, far more than it concerns us to desu-e it; we suffer something for want of it, but God suffers more.

Obs. 3. That soul which endures hardship a long time for God, and resolves to reserve itself for him, so that if it cannot have comfort m God it will have none elsewhere, may assui’e itself that God resen’es himself for it. Certainly, nothmg shall take oft’ the heart of God from that soul, but there will be a blessed marriage between it and him. Is there ever a poor creature here with whom God seems to deal hardly, yet finds in himself this frame of spu’it, “Well, though God seem to leave me, and I am thus desolate, yet if I can have no comfort here, I will have none elsewhere: I will be content to wait; no creature shall have my heart. It is true, I am not able to guide myself, but I am resolved Satan shall never guide me; I am not able to do the will of God, but I will never do the will of the devil: and if God should leave me never so long, nay, leave me eternallv. I will never have any other husband, I will rather die a widow; if he do not many himself to me, I wOl be without comfort as long as I live. Is thy heart in this frame? Peace be unto thee; certainly God intends thoughts of mercy to thy soul; there will certainly be a maniage between God and it. And wheresoever this fi’ame of heart is, oh how will it help against temptation! “When a soul is in distress, and God seems to go oft’ farther and farther, it exclaims, I have prayed long, and yet God seems not to hear, and afliictions prevail. AA’“e may ask, “Why do you pray any more? why do you come and hear any more? if God will never come, you might as well take your pleasure for a while, you can but perish at the last. But when the heart answers. It is true, the Lord indeed seems to be gone, and I have cause to fear lest he should reject me: but, become of me what w-iU, yet I will never have any other husband but God, never any other comfort but God’s comfort, no other peace but the peace of God, and I am resolved that, if I perish, I will perish cning for it. In this fi-ame thou art waiting for God, and God is waitmg for thee in ways of mercv; and at length the bowels of God’s mercy will yeai-ii towai-ds thee, as the bowels of Joseph yearned towards his brethren. For a long time Joseph used his brethren roughly, but they behaved themselves humbly and submissively towards him, and at length he could not refrain: so God may be using thee somewhat hardly for a while, yet keep thou in a humble and submissive frame of spirit towards him, do that which beseems a creature to do, whatever God does to thee; say. It is fit God should exercise his absolute power over me, and that I should do my duty to him: do this, and be sure thou art a soul that God will maiTy to himself in the end.

Obs. 4. So far as we are willing to be for God, God is -nining to be for us. God requires that you should seek him with your whole heart, Jer. xxix. 13. Mai-k how God answers,” I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant thcm’m this land assuretUy with my whole heart and with my whole soul.’’ Jer. xxxii. 41. AVUl you seek God with your whole heart? I will do you good, saith God, with ‘my whole heart. If all the faculties of vour souls work t’oward God. all the attributes in God shall work for yom- good. If thy estate be wholly given up for God, God’s riches shall be wholly for thee. Wouldst thou know how God’s heart works’ towards thee? lay thy hand upon thine own heart; according to the beatings of thy heart towards God, so are the workings of the heart of CJod towards

CiiAP. m.

thee: thou mayst determine it thus; thou canst not go up to heaven to know it, but go into thine own heart, and there thou mayst know: as a man may discover by the working of an engine within, what its operations are abroad. That is the reason why the saints, when they have had their” hearts enlarged in prayer, have resolved what God will do for them, or for his church: as it is said of Luther, when he had been one time more than ordmarily earnest with God in prayer, he came to his friends and said. Well, it shall go well with Germany all my days; look ye to it afterward. He knew what was decreed in heaven, by what took place in his owi heart. We may know in a great measure what God means to do with his church, ac- ‘Cording to the inward beatings of oui” own hearts.

Obs. 0. See the happy advantage of the saints, beyond the men of the world, thus: Be you for me, saith God, and I will be for you. The men of the world can say, I am for the world, and the world is for me; I am for my honour, and my honour- is for me; this is all their happiness: but now a saint can say, I am for God, and God is for me.

Oh the goodness of God towards us, that he is willing to be for us as we are for him! For him! alas, what can we be for him? we are poor wonns, vile creatm-es in oiu-selves, what can we do? he has no need of us, we are bound to do all that we do. It is as if a king should come to a poor beggar, and say. Poor man, thou hast but little, yet do what you can for me, I will do what I can for you. This were a mighty disproportion. Alas, what can the beggar do for the king? If you will but use your staff or what you have for me, I will use my riches, and glory, and all for your good, saith the king to the beggar. So saith God to a poor creature. Be you for me, and I will be for you; stand for me, and I will stand for you; use any thing you have for me, and I will use what I have for you. Oh the blessed condition of the saints! Who would not be for God? Do not now say, Alas! I am a poor, vile, and unworthy creature; so were the Jews: do not say, I have gone a whoring from God, and dealt falsely with him; the Jews did so: Yet, saith God, whenever you will be for me, I will be for you. It is now the great question amongst us, “^’^^o are you for? I will put the question to you all, AVho are you for? Ai-e yoiu’ hearts s holly given up to God, or are you for your lusts, for the creature? Certainly the creature will deceive you ei-e long, and bring you no good: if you be not for God now, he wUl send you to the creature in the time of your distress. There is a time coming that evei-y one of us shall see the need we have that God be for us; let us be for God now, that God may be for us then. When we ay to him, and say, O Lord, let thy mercy and goodness be for us; he will say, “VMio were you for? You were for your lusts, now go to your lusts; you would have none of me before, I will have none of you now. “You would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear Cometh,” Prov. i. 2o, 2G. Mark, they would have none of God’s reproof: he does not say, They would have none of my mercy, they would have none of my grace, therefore 1 wLU laugh at their destruction; but they would have none of my reproof. AVTiy? The reproofs of God are the bitterest and harshest things; yet, because they would have none of God’s rejiroofs, he laughs at their destruction. AVhat shall become of them then, who will now have none of the riches of God’s gi’ace offered to them in Christ?

Ver. 4, 5. Far the children of Israel shall abide ma7i!/ dat/s icilhout a king, and tiilliout a prince, and without a sacrifice, and uilliout an image, and uilhoul an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shnll the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God.

Here is much privation, six “withouts:” 1. “Without a king;” 2. “Without a prince;” 3. ““Mthout a sacrifice;” 4. “AVithout an image;” 5. “Without an ephod;” 6. “Without a teraphim:” but the last verse makes up for all; “They shall return, and seek the Lord theu- God, and David then’ king.” These “withouts” show the woefuU)’ confused estate that Israel was to be in for “many days,” many years, both in regard of theii’ civil and of their church estate. The civil state, “without a king, without a prince.” Their chmxh, without the foiu- thmgs which succeed. Though once they were the happiest peojile on the face of the earth in both respects, yet now they shall be most miserable. This they had brought on themselves, by setting up theu- idols in Dan and IJethel; Dan, the place of judgment; Bethel, the house of God; there was abundance of coiTuption both in places of judgment, and in the house of God; and now there comes on them abimdance of confusion both in then’ cilil and in their chru-ch estate. They received their laws, as well for civil as for church government, fi’om God himself out of heaven, which no other people ever did; but they leave God’s institutions, and so are brought into all confusion.

They shall be “mthout a king.”

How “without a king?” AVhen they were in captivity, they yet were under a king, the kings of Babylon and AssvTia; and they are still, in then’ dispersion, under the govenmient of kmgs and princes. I answer, they have kings over them, but not of then’ own nation; and that is the judgment: neither are they governed by theu- own, or rather by God’s, laws: and for them to be in slavery under kings, is to them as bad, yea, worse, than to have no king at all. How sad a condition, for a people to be without a king to protect them, and to maintain their laws, jjrivileges, and liberties!

When men reject God from ruling over them, it is just with God to put them under the rule of tyrants, of oppressors, of destroyers, and public enemies to their state. The blessing of government is very gi’cat, if just; and therefore the Persians were wont, on the death of theu- king, to let all the people be for five days without any government at all, that, seeing the inconvenience and mischief resulting, they might the more willingly submit to government, and be more obedient when under it.

It is a question among politicians, whether t)Tanny or anarchy, tjTannical government or no government at all, be preferable. Though tvTanny (unless carried to a great extreme) may be better than anarchy, yet certainly it is not better than to reduce power luider good regidations, though that be attended with some trouble. The Power which fu’st raises power, designs such persons and families to hold it, and puts limit to it, surely cannot be unable to regulate it that it should not prove its own destruction.

But hero they were not only to be “without a king,” but “without a prince” also. The word translated “prince,” signifies a rider, judge, or governor, and so I find it often used in Scripture. “All these were the rulers,” the princes, “of the substance,” 1 C’hron. xxvii. 31. And Neh. iii. 9, “The ruler,” the prince, “of the half part of Jerusalem.’’ So that by “prince” here is meant judges, or any kind of rulers; they shall be “without a prince,” that is, without any judges or rulers. Though they had no kings, yet if the government had been in the hands of eminent men, judges over them, their condition had not been so sad. No long time had elapsed since their hapjjiness consisted not in being governed by kings; they were in a flourishing condition before they had any, and when first they came under their government it wa.s from their own choice. God i)rofessed they had rejected him, and sent them their first king in his WTath. Therefore their, misery certainly did not depend wholly on being with-THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.

out a king. If God restrain not kings, they often desire to encroach on those hberties which the laws of the land, the light of natm-e, and God himself, give to subjects. Plutarch tells us, that, on PjTrhus’ coming ^’“‘”vr’Jhf ^“^ to Athens, the Athenians, to show theiirespect and do him honoui”, admitted him, contrary’ to then- custom with strangers, into then- citadel, to sacrifice there to Minerva. When he came out, he told them that he was much indebted to them for that great favour, and in requital would give them this advice: Take heed that you never let a king agam enter this place; intimating how easily they may be persuaded to inti-ench on the liberties of those who come under their power.

And this should “abide for many days.” It did abide for 700 years and upward before Christ. From the sixth of Hezekiah to Clu-ist, the ten tribes never were under any governor of then’ own in all that time; and since Christ’s time neither Judah nor Israel have had either king or prince of their own. Oh what a blindness is there upon this people! how di-eadful is that darkness in which they now are; that, notwithstanding the prophecy was so clear, that “the sceptre should not depart from Judah until Shiloh came,” and they have now been without a prince these 1600 years, yet they ■wiU not believe that Shiloh is come! Thus, when God gives men over to blindness and hardness, the clearest declarations will not be believed.

But their confusion in their chiu’ch estate is more grievous than then- civil; they shall “be without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.” Two of these foiu- express their being deprived of God’s own ordinances, and the other two, of theu- being deprived of their false worship. They made a mixture in worship, and would have their sacrifice and their- ephod, but, together with them, thenimage and their teraphim.

Obi: 1. Man’s perverseness leads him to introduce mixtm-es into God’s worship, he will retain something of that which is God’s, but will also bring in something of his own, and that spoils all. An emperor of Rome, in one temple would have Christ and Orpheus worshipped both together. And of those who were sent into Samaria by the king of Babylon, we read, 2 Kings xvii. 33, “They feared the Lord, and served then- own gods;” but, ver. 34, it is said, “they fear not the Lord;” that is, though they acknowledged the true God, yet they woxdd mix the worship of idols with his -worship, and so God rejected all; “they did not fear the Lord” at all. It is no fear of God except we fear him only; it is no acceptable worship of God unless we worship him only. The heathens are content with mixtui-e in their worship; you may worship one god, and join with it the worship of another, because there is not one of them who challenges to himself to be the universal good; but our God being the universal good, must be worshipped alone, without mixture.

There are two things m which we must take heed of mixture: the one is in Divine worship; the other is in that great point of justification. It is as much as omlives are worth to introduce foreign matter into either of these, we must in them both adhere to the rule laid down closely and strictly. These people had both, and God thi-eatens they should be without both; seeing they would not confine themselves wholly to his institutions, they should have none at all; neither God’s institutions nor their own. ’

We this day much resemble Israel. With respect to our civil state, much confusion is in that, though not altogether so much as was in theirs. And our church estate is vei-y similar: we have neither the right way of worship, nor the false, in respect to the government of the church; the false is cast away and professed against, and yet we have not the true; only here is the mercy

of God, that we are inquiring after the true, and “seeking the Lord, and David our king.” The Lord gives us hearts to inquu-e to pm-pose.

The Septuagint translate these four words, naxrj nst D’B-ini n^SN by terms expressing true worship only; and therefore they render naSD by OvaiaaTriptov, an altar; D’Bnn by ‘upareiac, priesthood; and tlSN by SiiXwamg, or diiXiov, manifestations, a word used for the Urim and Thummim. But the Hebrew means, “Sacrifice, image, ephod, and teraphim,” as expressed in your books.

Fu-st, then, to inquire into that which was the right and true worship, “sacrifice and ephod,” and in what it consisted; and then into the other, “image and teraphim.”

“Sacrifice.” They should have no sacrifice at all, for since then- temple was destroyed it was impossible they could. Hence it is that they pray with that mighty fervency of spu-it, that God would build the temple again, “Lord, build, build, build thy temple in our days, in our days, in om- days,” iJcc.; because they knew they could have no sacrifice so long as their temple was in ruins. This was then- sad condition, and to this day they have not the legal sacrifices, nor that which was t)-pified by them. There were these three things in their sacrifices:

1. Their dedicating of themselves to God, showing then- respect to him in the way he required, in theii’ bm-nt-ofl’ering.

2. Seeking the expiation of sin, in their sin-offering.

3. Seeking for mercy, and rendering thanks, in their peace-ofi’ering.

Now to have no sacrifice in any of these three kinds, that is, to have nothing to offer up to the high and blessed God to show om- respect to him; to have no means to expiate our sins when we have offended him 7 to have no way to seek to God for mercy in oui- necessities, nor to retm-n praise; this must needs be a sad condition: this is the present state of the Jews. We have Christ, who is to us all these. Presenting him to God, is showing the gi-eatest possible respect to God; presenting him is the expiation for our sins, the seeking of whatever blessing we desire, and oirr eucharistical sacrifice too for all oiu- mercies. But those who are without Christ, are to this day without sacrifice, they have nothing to present to God. K thou wilt off’er up thine estate, thy body, thy liberty, or thy name this is no sacrifice acceptable to God; except thou hast Christ to present it to him, and canst ofi’er all in him and through him, then indeed God graciously accepts. “When thou hast sinned, what sacrifice wilt thou ofi’er to God to expiate thy sin? all thy prayers, thy tears are nothing, unless accompanied with this sacrifice, Jesus Chi-ist; in him, indeed, a contrite heart is an off’ering very acceptable to God. But so long as thou art without “Christ, the judgment of the Jews is upon thee, thou art without a sacrifice.

“And without an ephod.”

By this he means, first, that they should be without the priesthood. They .should not have any church officers. And, secondly, they should have no means to know the mind of God. That this is the scope, appears thus:

First, That by the “ephod” is meant the priests, is evident from that expression, 1 Sam. xxii. 18, where it is said that Doeg “slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a hnen ephod;” that is, fourscore and five priests.

Secondly, Without the means of knomng God’s mind, for the Urim and the Thummim were on the breastplate that was fastened upon the ephod; so that when they were without the ephod, they must needs be without their breastplate, for it was attached to the ephod, and coidd not be used for discovering the wdl of God,

but only by applying it to the ephod. 1 Sam. xxx. 7, 8, “David said to’Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son,

1 pray thee, bring me liither the ephod. And David inquired at the Lord, saying. Shall I pursue after this troop? “It -was by the presence of the ephod that he inquired what God wished him to do in the matter, whether he should follow the troop, or not. And the 6th verse is very observable: you may see when it was that David was so anxious to make use of the ephod, to know of God what he should do. He was in an exceedingly disb’cssed condition, for Ziklag, his own city, of which he had the charge, was bm-nt; and the men were all “grieved in soul,” and talked of stoning him, because the Amalekites had come in his absence and taken away theii’ goods, their wives and chUdi’en, and burnt the town. If the acts of men in public places turn out unsuccessfully, the people are ready to fall in a rage upon them; this renders their condition verv dangerous and troublesome, and should lead us to pray much for them. AVe are ready to em7 those above u.s, who are employed in public services; but considering theu- danger, and how far the blame of every thing that falls out otherwise than we desire, is forthwith laid upon them, their condition is not so happy as we imagine. In this state was Da-sid, nay, in a worse, for the text saith that he and the men that were with him “lifted up then- voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep,” their hearts were so broken; yet in this sad and grievous condition “David encom-aged himself in the Lord his God,” and called for the ephod, to inquire of God what he should do. You observe, that this is the fh’st time we read that David in his battles called for the ephod: v. hen he went to Achish, he did not mqiure: when he invaded the Geshurites and Amalekites before, he did not inquire; but now, when he was brought into straits, when his heart was broken, when he was in a weeping condition, he called for the ephod. MTien God brings men into straits and humbles them, then they will inquh-e of God with pm-pose of heart. We are now about to inquire of God, to know his mind: but we are not humbled enough, our sti-aits have not broken our hearts, and perhaps we shall not so readily know God’s mind; God may yet humble us more; and then we will come to inquire God’s mind more effectually.

But to open this garment a little. The AccmLi word“ephod,”signifies, to closein.orgird

about, because of the fitting of the garment to the priests, and the girding of it about them. There were various sorts of ephods: one peculiar to the high priest, which you have Exod. xx“iii. 6. Others wiucli the ordinary priests wore, and that you have in the place before referred to, about the fourscore and five priests slain by Doeg. A third was common to the Levites; thus Samuel, 1 Sam. ii. 18, “ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.” A fourth, worn by others in theu- holy actions, especially by kings; “David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was guded with a hnen ephod,”

2 Sara. vi. 14. And to this day the Jews have a kind of linen gamient, but not like om’ ephod, yet with some resemblance to it, which they wear upon then- heads, and sufi’er to hang down. When Alexander came to Jerusalem, Jaddus the high priest, an-ayed in all his priestly garments, met him; which caused him, out of reverence, to fall do’HTi and prostrate himself before him. Josephus tells us, that the people likewise came with white garments, garments that had some kind of resemblance to this ephod; and adds, that the ephod was a garment a cubit in length, covering only the shoulders and the breast, open above and on either side, and girt around the chest. Others make it a long robe reaching down to the very feet. But the ephod was worn also over another robe; so Christ appeared

to John, Rev. i. 13, “clothed with a garment down .> the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle,” like the priests, for so they were wont to be arrayed; and Rev. xv. 6, the muiisters of the churches, called by the name of “angels,” are described as “clothed in pure and white linen, having their breasts girded with golden girdles;” not gu-t about their loins, but about their breasts, near their hearts. That which makes ministers of the gospel ready prepared for their work, is the girdle of truth, and this must be about their hearts; if thenown devices and selfish aims gird them, that is, incite them to do what may advance their own interest, this is not the golden girdle, but like that rotten girdle of Jeremiah’s, that “was profitable for nothing,” chap, xiii. 7.

This ephod then was a holy gannent, and others must beware of meddling with such, or of seeking to imitate them. “WTien God had given Gideon a great victory over the Midianites, he imitated this ephod: and of the spoO he took from the Jlidianites, he made a rich and a glorious ephod; but the text observes, that thing proved to be “the destruction of Gideon’s house,” for “the people went a whoring after it:” he made it with a good intention, to testify’ his thankfulness to God for his ^^ctol7, not thinking that it woidd be ever worshipped. It is dangerous for governors to imitate God’s ordinances in garments or the like, and to preserve them amongst people: though with never so good an intention, that will not excuse them. Gideon’s presumption in making an ephod, in imitation of the ephod appointed by God, proved to be the destruction of his house; yet this was that Gideon who a little before had destroyed the altar of Baal, and though then so much against idolatiy, yet now he does that which promotes it. So may governors, if they take not heed, pidl dolni one kind of false worship anil set up another.

The Jews have many mysteries about this garment, it would weai-y you to hear them. I shall only observe, as most useful for you, that we must not read the books of the Old Testament as if they concerned us not. First, upon the shouldei-s of the ephod were set ranks of precious stones, with the names of the twelve tribes, according to their generations, engraven on them. And in the middle of the ephod, upon the breastplate, which was to be four-square, there were four rows of precious stones, and upon them likewise were engraven all the names of the tribes of Israel: and he bore them upon his heart. There is much to be observed in this.

Obs. 1. Let the tribes be never so mean in themselves, yet, upon the ephod, they were precious stones. The priest wearing the ephod was a type of Chi-ist: let the godly he never so mean in themseh-es, yet, in Christ, God looks upon them as precious stones.

06*. 2. These precious stones, that were lipon the shoulders of the ephod, are called “a memorial,” Exod. xsviii. 12. First, to signify Qirist bearing the namt of all the saints before his Father for a memorial, thosi twelve tribes representing all the chm-ehes that shoiih! be unto the end of the woild. AAHien God remember his chui-ch, it is through Christ. God never remember his church, but by Christ’s carrying it before him: and that is the comfort of the saints; he therefore can never remember them to revenge himself upon them, for he never thinks of them but only as Christ presents them unto him.

Secondly, a memorial, (say the Jews,) not only because the priests were to bear the names of the twelve tribes, engraven in those stones, for a memorial before the Lord, but to signify- that the priests themselves were to remember to pray for the tribes.

And thirdly, a memorial, to signify’ that both the pnests and all the people .were to remember their godly ancestors and predecessors, and to follow their virtues, and not in any wise to dislionoiu- them.

V£U. -1,

But the first is the chief. These precious stones with the names of the tribes, were first upon the shoulder, and then upon the heart: upon the shoulder; this notes that Chi’ist carries his chiu’ch upon his shoulder, bears its burden, all then weight, all their afilictions. The shoidder of Chi-ist stands under the churches, certamly therefore they shall never sink.

But may they not be so biu’densome to Christ as to induce him to shake them off? No, Christ carries the memorial of his churches at his heart as well as upon his shoulders, and that makes Christ laboiu- strenuously for the good of the churches. There is an infinite comfort in the spiritual meaning of this ephod, that belongs to all the godly; Chi-ist night and day has thee upon his shoidder, and upon his heart, as a precious stone before God the Father. One thing further is observable about it. In Exod. xxviii. 12, the names of the tnelve tribes were to be engraven on these stones in order, according to then- bu-th: now in Rev. xxi. the twelve apostles, who in regard of their doctrine are made the twelve precious stones of the foundation of the new Jerusalem, are all the very same precious stones by name, excepting fom’, and these four’ I find intei-preters think to be the same as the others, only imder difierent names; for precious stones, either in regard of the places where they are fovmd, or then- quality or colour, bear various names: so that it is very probable that the stones in the Revelation were the same with those in Exodus: but there we do not find that they are set according to any dignity in one apostle above another, as there was in the setting of the names of the tribes; for the fii’st precious stone to be laid of the foundation of the new Jerusalem, of the glorious church that should be, is the stone of Benjamin, who was the youngest; and if there might be any myster)’ in it, we may think it signifies thus much, at least we may thus adapt it by way of allusion, that the Lord will make use of the young ones of this generation, to open the way for the new Jerusalem, before any of the other tribes; God will cuU out them to be the first stone of the foundation of that glorious church. In that we find there was not such order observed among the apostles as among the tribes, we are taught that Cliiist woidd not have us regard the apostles as superior one to another, and therefore you find they ai’e never named in one unvarying order; in one evangelist they ai-e set do’mi in one order, and in another in another, as Matt. x.; Mark iii.; Luke ix.; so Acts i.; noting thereby, that there is no superioritj’ nor inferioritj- in the ministers of the gospel.

Upon the ephod there were likewise the Urim and Thummim. It is very hard to tell the true signification of these; men have difi’ered so much about it, that it would be tiresome even to enumerate their various opinions. Augustine, in his 117th question upon Exod., saith, it is hard to discover what this Urim and Thummim was; and Cajetan declares, that none yet have ever Faientur Rabbmi ^^P^f’™^’! it! nd they add, “that even the summiun esse ip’ud Rabbins themselves saw, the Jews were ?™?^’oiS;Si’’ very ignorant on this point. But most probably one of these two, especially the latter. Some think that they were stones set in the breastplate, which by then- brightness or darkness gave an answer to what they demanded of God; that is, when the high priest went to inquii-e of God what was to be done in any great and public affairs, he presented this breastplate with these stones before the Lord, and if God would give an affirmative answer, the stones gave a more than ordinary brightness and lustre; but if a negative, then the stones were darker than before. But we ai-e not certain of this, and may rather conclude, on the other hand, that the Urim and Thummim (though we know not what matter they were made of, no more than we know what manna was made of) were somewhat that God gave Moses to put into the breastplate, which by him was appointed as an ordinance, and to be presented before the Lord by the priest when they would know the mind of God; and when this was presented. God usually gave an answer to the priest, either by an audible voice, or by secret inspu-ation; yet not always obliging himself to answer thus, for we find that sometimes God did not reply when sought to by Urim and Thmnmim, as when Saul thus inquired of God no answer was returned. And it seems likely Josiah would not have sent only to Huldah the prophetess, if he might have had an answer by Urim and Thummim; but the answer depended on the pleasure of the Lord.

The words Urim and Thummim signify “lights and perfections:” some would make them to signify the knowledge and integrity of life that should be in ministers; but I rather think the meaning is, that they were bright, precious stones, perfected and fitted to do that for which God appointed them. The Septuagint calls them 6yiov, the oracle. Hence, 1 Pet. iv. 11, “Kany man speak, let him speak oig 6yia, as the oracles of God.”

Now this must be on the breastplate of the priest, which the priest using, the people thereby came to know the mind of God. This was to signify’ that we must look for the mind of God by Christ. It is Christ who is come fi-om the Father to reveal his counsels to us, and if we expect a revelation of the will of God in any other way than through him, we are mistaken. And further, this Urim and Thummim, this breastplate of judgment, was to be on the heart of the high priest, and that when he went in before the Lord, Exod. xxviii. 30.

Obs. 1. The answer that any minister of God in the name of Christ should give his people, should be an answer from his very heai’t, he must speak nothing but what it dictates; when he would answer any case of conscience, or make known any thing of the mind of God, his answer must proceed from his heart.

Obs. 2. It must be as in the presence of the Lord, as before God; he must consider in whose place he stands, to answer as fi-om God through the great Prophet of the church.

To be thi-eatened with the deprivation of the Urim and Thummim, seeing it was of so much use to them, is a great judgment. And this should be for “many days.” Josephus saith, that they were without this two hunihed years before he wrote his Antiquities, that was a hun(h-ed and five years before Chiist; but it appears that they had no Urim and Thummim long before that time, for at then- return fi-om captivity, Ezi-a ii. 63, “the Tii-shatha,” that is, the rider, “said unto them, that they shoidd not eat of the most holy things tQl there stood up a priest -with Urim and with Thummim;” therefore they had not then a priest with Urim and Thummim, but expected to have one; whether that hope was realized afterwards is not known. This was the reason of that giievous complaint of Asaph, Psal. lxxiv. 9, “We see not our signs, there is no more any jn-ophet, neither is there any among us that knoweth how long.” Now it is probable that Psalm was made about the very time of their retm-n from captivity, for in Ezra ii. 41, Asaph is named among those that came to Jerusalem from the captivity; “The smgers, the children of Asaph, an hundred twentj- and eight.” But let it be then or afterwards, by this Psalm we may find that it was very lamentable to be without Urim and Thummim.

Obs. 3. The result of all is, that it is a grievous thing to the samts, when in the time of their straits they know not God’s mind. “When God at any time lrings his people into straits, yet if they can discover the mind of then- God, they are refi-eshed and encouraged; but when they shall seek to know God’s mind, and the

Lord refuses to declare it to them, this is a sad condition indeed.

About their being without an ephod — Jerome obser’es, That the hardness of the hearts of the Jews is very remarkable: that they should be so many huntbed years without sacrifice and without ephod, without the true worship of God among them, or means to know his mind; and yet not guilty of any greater sin than the sin of idolatry, except it be the killing of Jesus Christ; is it not surprising that they do not reason thus, A^^lat sin is it that thus provokes God against us more than ever? Sm-ely there is some greater sin than we have ever yet committed.* But, saith he, they can never find any offence, except the killing of Christ, to be a greater offence than idolatry, and yet they have a heavier judgment on them than ever they had, though they are not guilty of that sin as formerly. Sui-ely, were they not extremely hardened, they would be convinced that all this is because of their rejecting and cniclfying Christ the Son of God.

As they had the ordinances of God, so they had ways of false worship of their own, images and teraphim. I must show you what those were, and then how it is a threatening that they should be without them.

“Without an image,” seems to refer to the two calves they had set up in Dan and Bethel, in which they so much gloried; they should be taken away.

“Teraphim;” that likewise should be taken away. Now if you ask what this teraphim was? in the general, Taraph is a divining image: as the ephod was God’s ordinance by which to know the mind of God; so the teraphim was an invention of Satan to foretell things that were to come.f The teraphim w-as the image of the head of a man wrung of!’ his body, perfumed by precious spices. Upon this head was a plate of gold with the name of that spirit by whom they would divine, or, (as some,) put under the tongue of this head; and this being set up upon a wall, burning candles and incense were offered to it, under some constellation: thus they inquired concerning something that was to come. It was an oracle of the devil, that told them what success they should have in this or the other business; and sometimes it hit right. See the superstition of the Jews; they desired much to know the mind of God, but because they were afraid they should not know all by the ephod, which was the ordinance of God, they would join with the ephod the teraphim.

Obs. It is a very great and fearful evil, when men, in searching to know any thing of God’s mind, do not keep themselves to God’s ways of knowledge, to God’s own ordinances. It concerns us much now at this day. A^’e are about inquiring the mind of God, that we may know it in matters which regard the commonwealth, but more especially concerning religion. I suppose there is none of us but will acknowledge, that the medium which God has ajipointed for the revealing of his will, is the Scriptures; that we must look into them, and seek to know God’s mind there. So far is good, but let us not join teraphim with them. Then do we join teraphim, when we rest not upon Scripture alone, but search after rules of man’s devising, and what may consist with our own carnal ends. The Lord may justly meet with us in WTath, if we presume to join our teraphim with his ephod. Pray that at this day, w-here there is so much searching after God’s mind, that those who are employed in it may confine themselves to the

* Qua? sit causa tarn Rrandis offensae ut tanto tempore relict i sunt? maxime cum itiola non colant, pro-ter intcrfcctioncm Salvatoris aliam nnn valent invenire. Hieron. in loc.

t Qucmadmodum per ephod Deo consecratum quid agendum esset consulentibus signiticabattir, ita per teraphim idolorum prtcdictiones dcclarabantur. Procop. -in Sam. xv. 23.

X Mactabant hominem, cujus caput torquendo prxscindeephod, to the Scriptures, to that which is God’s ordinance for the revealing of his mind, that they may not join the teraphim, their own fancies and inventions of men, with them. So long as we keep to that rule, we may hope to do well enough; but if the teraphim be joined with the ephod, if any thing be joined with the Scriptures, though apjiarently never so rational, we have cause to fear God will leave us.

“We find this word teraphim used sometimes in Scripture for the image of a man: as 1 Sam. xix. 13, when Michal took an image and laid it in the bed instead of David, the word in the Hebrew is teraphim: so when Rachel stole away her father’s images, the word is, she stole away her father’s teraphim; and some think they were her father’s divining images, and that she rather stole those than any others, because she woidd not have her father divine which way they were gone. Zech. x. 2, it is said, “The idols have spoken vanity;” the word is, the teraphim: by which we may see they were wont to consult their idols about their successes. And sometimes we find in Scripture that idolatiy is called by this name, as 1 Sara. xv. 23, “stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry;” the word is, is as teraphim.

But here occurs the question; God threatens to take away the sacrifice and the ephod, and that plauily is a threatening, but how is it so to take away the image and the teraphim?

You may imderstand it as a threatening thus r It is as if God would tlu-eaten to bring Israel into as desolate condition as a strumpet is brought mto, when not only all her kindred and true friends leave her, but when all her lovers forsake her too, even those who pretended the most love to her, in whom she took abundance of comfort, and from whom she expected protection; yet now she is brought into such a concUtion, that she sitteth desolate, forlorn, and helpless: so shall ye be, saith God, your sacrifice and youi- ephod, yea, and teraphim, shall leave you.

Or rather thus: Howsoever it is a mercy for God to take away false worship from a people, images and teraphim, yet here it is a threatening, because it would much disquiet them to be deprived of these images and teraphim, and would be in their apprehension a judgment: as for instance, what trouble have we when the people conceive that any false worship is about to be taken away from them! they think they are undone; nay, when the inventions of men in God’s worship are but questioned, what excitement is there! men think their gods are taken away; as Judg. xviii., when the children of Dan came to the house of Jlicah and took away his ephod and his teraphim, he cried out after them, “Ye have taken away the gods that I have made, and what have 1 more?” what worse thing could you have done more? I had rather you had taken away all I had; and yet you say unto me, ““WTiat aileth thee?” Is it not so at this day? WTiat is it that now breeds such disturbance in England, but that jicople think their teraphim shall be taken from them? whereas they have heretofore worsliij)ped God in a false way, after the inventions of men, and now he is ])leascd to shed some light, and there is an inquiring after a right foi-m of church government, and the true manner of worshipjjing God, they are even mad at this, and would rather lose their lives and their estates, than that their tera])him should be taken away: let that be taken away, and how shall they be able to pray? what! w ill you take away Uieir religion? This is the language of

bant, quod pnstca sale el aromatibus condiebant, scribebantquc super laminam auream nomen spiritus immundi, qua supposita eapiti ejus, ponebant illud in pariete incendentes coram eo candclas, et adorantes coram co, supnonebant nomen spiritus immundi sub lingua ipsius, et ille alloquebatur eos. Sic R. Eliez.

men in many ignorant places in this kingdom, yea, the very language of many even amongst us here; they are verily persuaded that the parliament intend to abolish all religion in the kingdom; and the adversaries go about to infuse into men, that the parliament are a company of Brownists, merely because they anxiously inquire after the true way of -n-orshipping God, and •n-Quld have the land purged of all superstitious vanities: thus people cry out for theu- teraphim: “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” When King Edward the Sixth had but banished the mass, an army rose in Devonshii-e, and sent several articles to the king about their grievances, as causes of their rising. First, they said that their children were denied baptism: and as they now cry out that none but a company of Anabaptists do all this; so then the popish priests infused into the people of those remote counties, that they were to have no more children baptized, thinking this would exasperate them then against king and parliament. And secondly, they complained that their service, meaning the mass, was taken from them. King Edward was fain to write, to tell them that they were exceedingly abused, that they should still enjoy what was according to the word of God, that their children should be baptized; and as for the mass, that the Common Prayer Book was just the same, only whereas it was in Latin before, it was now turned into English: and so he quieted and satisfied the people. Thus it comes to be a threatening, that God will take away their image and teraphim, because the hearts of people are so vexed when then’ forms of superstition are abolished.

Now upon this confusion, when they are without king, prince, sacrifice, ephod, image, and teraphim, what shall be the result?

Ver. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, a7id David llteir king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

A little before God’s time is come to raise the most glorious church that ever existed in the world, the greatest confusion is likely to arise. Lac- ■•’’’■ ■a,“‘’il*- -*’ tantius tells us, that just before the glorious church, all right shall be confounded, laws shall perish, men shall possess all things by force, good men shall be scorned and contemned; and though, in the times in which we live, one would think that wickedness had reached its highest, yet, in comparison of those evil dajs that shall hap])en just before this glorious time, these maybe called the golden age. God will reduce all to a chaos first, as he did in the fii’st creation, and then bring out of it a glorious building. We know the raising of that glorious church of which so much is prophesied, is called a creation, ‘• a creating a new heaven and a new earth;” and it is probable enough, that as the heavens and the earth were first made out of a chaos, so those “new heavens and new earth “will be raised out of a chaos, out of that which seems to us to be but confusion. Of what do people complain at this day but of confusion? All things, they say, are brought into confusion. It is true, confusion is an evil thing, and we are to grieve for it, and to seek to prevent it; yet let us not be too much troubled, for you see, when the greatest confusion comes on the people of the Jews, then follows the greatest mercy, then they shall” return, and seek the Lord their God”:” never return before that time. Indeed, till men be taken off from all others they will not return to God. AVhen Saul had but a witch to whom he could go, he would rather have recourse to her than seek the face of God in repentance. Because God seems to leave us for the present, and suffers us to be in confusion, and we know not what to do, let not our hearts be disquieted, let us not reciu- to unlawful means; for mark, it

was just a little before Saul was to be destroyed that he had attained that height in evil. There was a time that Saul inquired after God’s mind, and God refused to answer him, but yet he would not then adopt such an unlawful course, but searched to see what sin was amongst the people that caused God to refuse him an answer. When Jonathan took the honey, ‘• Saul asked counsel of God, but he answered him not that day. And Saul said. Draw ye near hither, and see wherein this sin hath been this day,” 1 Sam. xiv. 3T, 38: but afterward he became so evil, that when he was in a strait, and God answered him not, he forthwith went to the witch; but this was when he was near destruction.

Ohs. 1. Wicked men near destruction, (as Saul was,) finding things in confusion, and God not showing them what is to be done, are soon in a rage against God, and seek after unlawful means to deliver themselves. The Lord forbid that this should be our condition. Let not us say. Things are now in such disorder that we cannot discover the mind of God; we consult ministers, and they know not what to say; they have cast out one government, and they know not what to bring in; and therefore it were better we were as before. If this be our reasoning, it is a sign that we are, like Said, nigh to destruction. Let us be content to wait; they shall be “manydays without a king,” kc, and “then they shall return;” the fruit of then- being without king, and prince, and ephod, and sacrifice, shall not be vexation and disquiet, but a returning to God and repentance. If things be worse, and we be brought into greater straits than ever we supposed, let us not murmur, but let us repent. Every one is complaining, but who is repenting? if there were as much repenting as there is mui’- muring, then we should soon know the mind of God.

Ohs. 2. The use of sanctified affliction is to cause returning to God: “Then they shall return.” Jerome expresses the life of an impenitent sinner by a line stretched out, he goes from the centre in a right line, and so goes in infinitum from it; but a penitent sinner is like a line bent, and turning back to the centre, though by sin he goes from it, yet by repentance he turns to it again: They are gone from me a great way, saith God, but I will turn them, they shall bend back again and return to me.

Obs. 3. Repentance is described by the word “return,” to denote the folly of sin. In sin thou goest out of the way, and the truth is, though you think you choose a good path for yourself, yet you must either return or perish. It is just like a traveller, who sees a dii-ty lane before him, and is told that is the way he must go; but on the other side of the hedge there is a green and pleasant path, and he gets over into it, and so rides on a mile or two, till at length he is compassed about with ditches and rivers, so that he must either turn back or else lie there and perish; he returns with shame, and if any one that before told him of the other way see him, he now reproaches him with his folly. So it is with sinners; there are ways of God that lead directly to heaven, but because these ways are rugged, and they meet with trouble and persecution in them, and they see by-paths, though leading to hell, yet more plain and smooth, they will transgi’ess, (for that is the word for sin,) will pass over, and for a while, in this their w-ay, enjoy pleasure: but, friend, you must come back again, and if ever you mean to be saved, you must go in the way that you have refused. i

Obs. 4. Here is an encouragement for old sinner?. “They shall return, and seek the Lord their God.” The Jews have been above sixteen hundred years in this woeful condition, forsaking God; but in their latter days they shall return, and seek the Lord, and God shall be’merciful to them. Hast thou been forty, fifty, sixty years going from God? there is hope for thy soul: O return, return, ye old sinners.

But further, they shall rettim to “Jehovah,” and seek him. Jer. iv. 1, “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me.” They shall not turn from one false way of worship to another, but from the false way to the true, they shall retiuTi to God. It is that we now should look to. We must not think it enough to cast one false mode of government out of the church, and turn to another, though not so bad, yet not God’s mode; if from any carnal policy we reject the way of God, it will prove a sore el to us: it is one thing not to be able to bring in the way of Christ, another to reject it.

They shall seek Jehovah. The word “seek” signifies, conalu ac studio qutsrere, to seek with endcavouiing and study, rather than merely to ask and inquire; they shall be studious in seeking after God. They “shall seek the Lord,” that is.

First, They shall seek his face and favour for the pardon of all then’ evil ways; they shall come and acknowledge their false ways and doings, and seek mercy to pardon.

Secondly, They shall seek the trae worship of the Lord. Calvin, in a sermon on “Seek ye my face,” interprets it to be a seeking of the ordinances and the ti-ue worship of God. So IPsal. cv. 4, “Seek the Lord, and his strength:” what is meant by the strength of God there? It is the ark, for that Psalm was made at the bringing of the ark into the place which David had prepared, as you may see by comparing with 1 Chron. xvi. where the ark of God is called the sti-ength of God, and Psal. lxxviii. 61, He gave “his strength into captivity.” Sui-ely, if the true worship of God be the sti’ength of God, it is oiu- sti-ength too: a people are then strong when they entertain the ark of God, the true worship of God; and then indeed we seek God aright, when we seek to know the way of his worship.

Lastly, They shall seek to know his will in all their ways, and to do it.

Obi: It is not enough for them to be content to do just that which he has commanded, but they shall seek to know his mind, and what his worship requires. Some yield thus far to God, if any com-ince them that this should be done, then they will do it, they dare not then but comply; but when the heart is in a ti’ue repenting frame, it is in a seeking frame, it is laborious and industrious to know the mind of God. AVTiercas the heart of a sinner heretofore lay dead and dull, never stirred after God, now it is in a stiiTing, in an inquiring way; which is a sign of much good. Though thou hast not what thou seekest for, yet be comforted in this, that thou art seeking; “Their heai-ts shall rejoice that seek the Lord.” Though thou complainest, I have been seeking a long time, but I know not the mind of God, I cannot apprehend the love of God, and the pardon of my sins: True, but the hearts of those “shall rejoice that seek the Lord;” if thou art in a seeking way,thou art in a saving way, there is cause thou shouldst rejoice in this, that God has led thee thus far.

They “shall seek the Lord,” and that not faintly, but anxiously and effectually. Jer. 1. 4, 5, They, “the children of Israel, and the children of Judah,” when they shall be together, “shall go weeping, and seek the Lord theu- God; and they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward.” Many of you ask questions, but your hearts are not right, your faces and the strength of your sjjirits are not set to yield to the will of God when it is revealed to you. And mai-k how it appears that their faces are thitherward, “Come,” (say they,) “and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.” To seek God, is not merely to go to a minister and ask him a question, l)ut to go with the strength of our spirits set to know the mind of God above all things, and so to resolve to obey, as to be willing to enter mto a perpetual

covenant, to bind ourselves to jield to whatever God shall reveal. AVhen you come to a sermon, come not to get a little notional knowledge, but with your faces toward Christ and his truth previously; if you be a true seeker, enter into covenant with God, that to whatever God reveals to be his mind you wUl yield; and though you have heretofore opposed many revealed truths, say, Lord, here I am, ready and willing to enter into an everlasting covenant to be under the command of every truth. This is seeking God aright.

They “shall seek the Lord their God.” This “their God” has two references, either to what is past, or to what is to come. To what is past; “their God,” that is, the God who was once the God of the Jews, the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And secondly, “their God,” that is, that God who is yet ready and willing to be reconciled to them, notwithstanding all thek sins. Thus they “shall seek the Lord their God.”

Obs. 1. It prevails much with the heart of a backslider, to think what God was once to him before he apostatized, and what he was to his gocUy parents and progenitors. There was a time that I enjoyed God sweetly, when I went to prayer I had blessed communion with him; it is othei-wise with me now, I have apostatized. Let this considei’ation catch hold on thy heait and turn it this day: O turn, turn, thou apostate sou!; God, who was once thy God in a gi’acious manner, is the same that thou hast vilely forsaken, yea, thy father’s God also. Thou hadst a godly father, a godly grandfather; remember what a blessed God he was unto them, and return.

06s. 2. The apprehension of a possibility to obtain mercy from the Lord, is a strong means to draw the heart to retui-n to him. ‘• Their God,” the God whom they may yet hope to enjoy, notwithstanding all their departings from him. MTien they look on God as a God in covenant with them still, there is nothing to prevent his yet becomin”; their God. Let this argument arrest the spirits of all sinners who have departed from God. Backslider, thou hast departed from God in a foul and vile manner, but men and angels know nothing to the contrary but that he may be thy God for all this. Let me speak to the vilest sinner in this place before the Lord this day. Thou hast indeed most desperately and wickedly sinned against God; the Jews have done so. Hast thou crucified Christ? they have done so. Hast thou denied the truth and followed false ways? they have done so. Notwithstanding all thy wicked and evil ways, seeing thou art yet alive. I do this day yet once more pronounce to thee in the name of the great God, that there is nothing to the contraiy, that either angels or men can possibly know, but that God may be thy God, and that this day God may enter into covenant with thee, and thou with him; this night he may come in and sup with thee, and thou with him; there may be a blessed reconciliation between God and thee; return, return, thou sinful soul.

“And David their king.” That the ’

Jews shall retm-n and believe in Christ, is JSlZ>’“cS!i’uS!; most ordinarily spoken and believed by Srmonibua™ cSdS i the faithful, saith Augustine. In this their ^”“‘jj; fiJeUum.. return and seeking God, they “shall seek “^ David their king.”

For the explanation of this, there are five things to be inquired into.

1. Who tills David was.

2. Why David is named rather than any other.

3. Why he is mentioned in this place.

4. ^Tiy joined with seeking of Jehovah.

5. AVhy this epithet is added to David here, “David their king.”

First, 13y “David “is evidently meant Jesus Christ. Nothing is more manifest than that Christ Nihu «i in w. v is meant by the name of Datid, saith ^,’^ iSJa’”,!):

nomine significatus Augustine. The Scriptui’e is explicit on iif ^rS.^’ut. this, in the New Testament calling Christ ‘*■ =■ ^*- by the name of David. Compare Isa.

Iv. 3, Tvith Acts xiii. 34.- Isaiah saith, “I will give you the sure mercies of David.” “lat are they? In Acts xiii., where that place of Isaiah is quoted, the words are TO. oaia Aajii?, the holy things of David; the Holy Ghost there adopting the translation of the Septuagint, as is usual in the New Testament. And Psal. xvi. 10, where David seems to spealc in his own person,” Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; ueitlier wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption; ‘’ is appUed to Christ, Acts xiii. 36, 37. And Acts xv. 16, in the assembly of the church of Jerusalem, James, in his speech to the assembly, tells them of a prophecy that God would “return and build again the tabernacle of Da-id,” that is, convert the Gentiles to the profession of Chi-ist. But you will say. Is this quoted right? for it was James’s intention in the assembly (and it concerns all in such a grave assembly) to speak to the point; but how does James so here? The question at issue was, the calling of the Gentiles, and he proves it by that scripture where it is said, that God would “build again the tabernacle of David;” but how does that prove that God would call the Gentiles? You may see, if you examine the prophecy whence this was quoted, that this text was most appropriate; it is in Amos ix. 11, 12, where, after he had said that he would “build again the tabernacle of David,” there follows, “that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name.” So that the tabernacle of David is indeed the tabernacle of Clu-ist, and it shall be raised to this end, that ho may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the Gentiles that were to be called by the name of God. David is Christ because he was his type, and Christ was the seed of David.

Secondly, ‘Why David is named rather than any other, rather than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; others were tyes of Christ as well as he, and Christ was their seed as well as David’s. The reason is, because David tj-pified Christ, especially in his kingly power over his own people, David was the first godly king over God’s own people. Melchisedecwasaking,king of Salem; but over the people of God David was the fust tj-]]e of -Christ.

Thirdly, ‘Vhy he is mentioned in this place, why the Holy Ghost adds to seeking the Lord, that they shall “seek David?” Was it not enough if the Holy Ghost had said, TVTien the ten tribes of Israel (for he speaks of them especially) shall retm-n they shall “seek the Lord” and the Messiah, but that they shall “seek the Lord and David.” The reason is, the expression is introduced to remind these tribes of then- great sin in revolting from the house of David; when they shall repent, this will lie near then- hearts, they will moiu’n for this their transgression, and when they choose Christ to be their King, shall do it under the name of David; as if they should say. We mdeed have cast off the house of David sinfully, but we now come and choose the Son of David to be our King. Thereby reminding us that,

Obs. Ti’ue penitents, in mourning for their sin and returning to God, will go as far as possible to the foot of their transgressions, to theii- first defection, and mourn for that, and labour with all diligence to refomi in that very thing wherein originated their sin.

Fourthly, V^iy joined with seeking the Lord; “they shall seek Jehovah, and David then- lung.” It is added to show us, that none can seek God rightly but through Christ, they must seek God in Christ. “This is Mfe eternal, to know thee, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent:” to know God alone is not eternal life, but to know God and his Son; so to seek God alone is not eternal life, nor will it ever bring to eternal life, except there be a seeking of God in Christ, seeking Jehovah and David con’oivitJv Grace from God the

Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ must go together: no grace from God the Father, but from him through Christ; so no seeking of God the Father, Jehovah, but it must be with seeking of David likewise. It is not only dangerous, but terrible, to on solum pciitliink of God without Christ; the very ^.-gS’™; d^Dc“’ thought of him out of Christ is most 5,’.;^^-’^’’j;;;’,;;’” “^ tbeadful to the hearts of those who know ‘’”’ God. There are some indeed who have bold, presumptuous hearts, who will go into God’s presence though reeking in the very guilt of their lately-committed sins, and seek to Clod for mercy, and never think of Christ the IMediator; they understand not the necessity of seeking God in Christ, because indeed they know not with what a God they have to deal; but the soul that knows what God is, dai-es not think of God, much less come into his presence and seek him, but only through Christ. Plutarch, in the Life of Themistocles, relates. That when the Molossians would seek the favoiu- of the prince, they were wont to take the king’s son in their arms, and so go and kneel before his altar m his chapel; and that Themistocles did so when he sought the favour of King Admetus. So Cluistians, in ‘seeking the face of God the great King, should take up his Son in the arms of

„., 1^ -r»i 1 Ego sxpB et ulienfaith. Luther, on Psal. cxxx., observes, ter hoc inaaco, ut Often and willingly do I inculcate this, fc5rt*iuV.“cS°.™’ that you should shut your eyes and your J|;’^”„^ Jis”!re ears, and say you know no God out of?““°’JJi’J’j’y5JJ |^’ Christ, none but he that was in the lap of rtsu1™beraejus. Maty, and sucked her breasts; he means, ^’’”“”■• none out of him. We must not, we should not, dare to look upon God but through Christ, and seek him together with David.

This is the evangelical way of seeldng God; when we have sinned, if there be any way of help, it must be by seekuig a merciful God; thus far nature goes, and most people go no farther; yea, most Cluistians, though they have the name of Cluist in then- mouths, yet their hearts go no farther than natural principles carry them. But the seeking God in Christ, is the true sphitual and evangelical way, “the mystery of godliness,” to present a Mediator to God every time we come into his presence. I fear that many of our prayers are lost for want of this. There is much fasting and prayer, tlu-ough God’s mercy, amongst us, and I would to God there were no abatement; but though we ask. Will God leave his people when there is such a spirit of prayer? let us know, if it be not a seeking God in his Son, it is om- own spuits rather than the Spirit of God. We may be earnest in prayer and cry mightily to God, yet if we take not up his Son in the “arms of faith, and present him to the Father, thousands of prayers and fasting days may be all lost for want of this. The trath is, we must not depend so much on our prayers, though we are to rejoice and to bless God that there is so much prayer; but God’s dealings towards us seem as if he would take us off, not from the practice of prayer, but from relying on it, to rely upon free grace in Christ alone. As this is the supernatural seeking of God, so it is the most powerfid. It is not enough to seek God by vu-tue of a promise, except we seek him by vii’tue of Christ, who is the foundation of all the promises. We seek him because he is merciful, that is one way; yea, we seek him because he has promised mercy, this is a step higher; but we must go higher yet, we must look to his Son, in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen; otherwise, though we seek him never so earnestly, though we challenge his promises, and cry to him to remember them, yet if we do not act our faith on his Son, we may altogether fail.

And herein we sanctifj- that great name oi God m that which is his gi-eat work, his master-piece, as we may say, or the gi-eat design he has to honour himself

by in the world here, and everlastingly hereafter. Certainly, though God has made the creature for his own glory, and expects we shoidd honour his image in it; yet the great uesign God has to honour himself in and by is, that the children of men may behold this his glory as manifested in his Son, and reflect it on his own face; except you glorify God in this, he cares not much for whatever other glory you can give him.

AATien you seek God, you must not, therefore, expect good things from him merely because he is merciful, you must not think that the mercy of God serves to eke’out our righteousness. Perhaps some will say. It is true, we are poor sinful creatures, and what can we expect from God, being sinful? but we hope that the mercy of God will pardon our sin, and so accept of our poor services. This is the way with most, they, as it were, employ God’s mercy in a work that God never intended it for, that is, they would make the mercy of God to eke out their own righteousness, that so both joined together might serve as a means of atonement. No, you mistake God’s mercy; the work of God’s mercy is not this, but it is to show us our unrighteousness, our misery, our uncleanncss, to show us Jesus Christ, to cb’aw our hearts to him, to empty us of ourselves that we may wholly rely upon that righteousness that is by faith in him, and jirosent that to the Father for sanctiiication and atonement: this is the work of God’s mercy, and when it thus works, then it has its true, genuine effect.

Fifthly, Why this epithet is added to David, “David thcii- king.” ‘True, we must seek the Lord and Christ, but why Christ the King? Because Christ in the latter days shall be fully honoured in his kingly power; they shall look upon him not only as Prophet and Priest, but as King. Hitherto Christ has been much honoui’- ed in his prophetical and priestly office, but not so much in his kingly; but in the latter days, when God shall call home his people, (the Jews,) then Christ shall be fully honoured in his kingly office. The tabernacle of Christ was raised in the primitive times, according to that speech of St. James, Acts xv. 16, “God shall build up again the tabernacle of David,” he speaks of its accomplishment then; but there is a time when God shall not only raise the tabernacle of David, but the throne of David; Christ the King shall appear in glory. Ezek. xxxvii. 24, 25, “And i)avid my servant shali be king over them;” it was spoken on the union that should take ])lacc between Judah and Israel, then “David my servant shall be king over them.” David was long dead, but there is a time when David must again be king, that is, Christ shall reign on the union of all the tribes together. And again, the text adds, “David shall be their ])rincc for ever;” when they are brought back into their own land: surely this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. And Luke i. 32, 33, “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” I know we usually think that this is meant only of his sjjiritual reign, but certainly there is to be a fulfilling of this prophecy in a reign that shall a])])car outwardly before the children of men. This o])inion gathers strength liy comparing this with other passages. Kev. xi. 15, “‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” In a spiritual sense the kingdoms of this world are always the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, but a time is here spoken of, when the kingdoms of this world shall manifestly appear to be the Lord’s and his Christ’s, and then “he shall reign for ever and ever.” Kev. iii. 21, “‘I’o him that ovcrcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Mark this text, as one of the

most remarkable we have. Thai kingly lule which Christ has for the present, is on his Father’s throne; he is not yet on his own, but reigns conj[ointly with the Father; but there is a time in which Cmist will have a throne himself

Now you will perha])s think that that throne of Christ is in heaven at the day of judgment; but we find, 1 Cor. XV. 24, that at that day he comes to resign the kingdom: the words do not seem to import that became to take it, but to gi e up the kingdom unto God the Father; therefore there is a time for Christ himself to have a throne, and with him the saints shall reign. !Matt. xxi. 9, the childien cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” because they looked upon the Son of David as one who was to reign.

In these “latter days” Christ shall break the kings of the earth who stand against him, a.s, indeed, many, yea, most of the kings of the earth have ever stood out to hinder this his kingdom. There will be a mighty shaking of the kingdoms of the earth when this shall be: “Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath jiromised, saying. Yet once more I shake not the earth oidy, but also heaven;” quoted in Heb. xii. 26, out of Hag. ii. (5, 7. God, in giving the law, shook the earth, but then he will shake the earth, and the heavens, which some interpreters expound thus: not only the power of the meaner people, but that of the highest kings and emperors, and whatever is lofty in the world, shall be shaken when Clu’ist comes to take the kingdom to himself; the Father wUl set him King upon his holy hill. Though “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away then- cords from us; he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion:” “yet” have I done” it, though the lungs of the earth and great ones of the world fret, and vex, and rage, and collect their might; though they blaspheme, and say he shall not reign, the Lord sitteth in heaven and laughs at them; let them do what they can, and gather what strength they can, and oppose it to the uttermost, “yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.”

Tills is acceptable news, it is the joyful voice of the gospel, to tell you of Christ’s coming to reign in the wond. Isa. lii. 7, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings!” ‘’hat arc those “good tidings?” those that say unto Zion, “Thy God leigneth.” This, indeed, is the triumph of the church. Isa. xxxiii. 22, “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king;” for then shall the churches be delivered from the oppression of all tyrants in the world.

And this kingdom of Christ shall indeed be like David’s kingdom j Christ shall be “David their king.” I might show you many pai’alleLs, but I will only instance these two:

Fust, David was one of the most gentle of princes, and exceedingly loving and kind to his subjects: 1 Chron. xxviii. 2, “Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said. Hear me, my brethren, and my peo-I)lc.” Mark how be, a king, speaking to his jieople, addresses them; he stood upon his feet, and said, “Hear me, my brethren, and my jieople.” Thus the kingdom of Christ is declared to us, Psal. xlv. 4, “In thy majesty ride pros])crously, because of truth and meekness.” Christ shall be a most meek king; not a king of blood, ruling «itli violence and harshness, so as not to care for the love of Ids people, making his finger heavier than the loins of others; but he shall rule his people with all gentleness. Therefore the government of Christ is expressed by” a ^epherd gently leading those

that are with young; ‘” and in this David and Christ are alike: Psal. lxxviii. 70, 71, “He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.” So Isa. xl., having spoken of the glad tidings of Christ’s kingdom, adds, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his ami, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” AVhen Christ shall reign, he shall have great respect to the good and comfort of his people, he shall not disregard their liberties, but their benefit and his own glory shall be blended in one.

Secondly, “Band their king,” in regard of faithfulness. David was very faithful to his people, and therefore the mercies of God in Christ are called “the sure mercies of David,” because “David was found faithful before the Lord.” In Psal. xlv. 4, a prophecy of Christ’s kingdom, the text saith, “In thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness:” there shall be righteousness in the kingdom of Christ. It is a blessed thing when we may confide and fully ventiu’e our estates, our liberties, and our lives on the promises of those who are above us. We know how many there are about great personages to draw them from things that they have promised with the utmost seriousness, and most solemn protestations to perform. I will give you one or two remarkable instances of this. King Edward the Sixth sends letters to London in the behalf of the duke of Somerset, the then protector; many of the lords had risen up against him, thinking he o])pressed the peojile, and they sent at the same time to London for aid and assistance. On this there was a common council called in the city, and amongst them a wise and an honest man, one George Stadlowe, addressed the council thus; I remember a story in Fabian’s Chronicle, of the wars between Henry the Third and his barons; the barons then demanded aid of the city of London, as our lords do now, and that in a rightful cause, for the good of the commonwealth, for the execution of divers good laws which the king would not sufl’er to be enforced; and the city did aid theni, and an open battle ensued, and the lords prevailing, took the king and his son prisoners. The lords afterwards restored the king and his son to their freedom, on certain conditions, amongst which this was one, that the king should not only grant his pardon to the lords, but also to the citizens of London; and the conditions of this accommodation of peace were ratified by act of parliament; but what followed? was it forgotten? no, surely, nor forgiven neither, during the king’s life: the liberties of the city were taken away, strangers appointed to be our head and governors, the persons and goods of the citizens endangered, and one persecution succeeded another. Again, in the history of Queen Mary’s time we find, that because there was some dispute about her coming to the crown, she went to Sufiblk, to the place where the duke that then rose up for another was most hated; and being at Framlingham castle, the Suff’olk men came to her and promised their aid, on condition that she would not attempt the alteration of religion, which her brother King Edward had just established: she promised them there should be no innovation in religion, no, God forbid, yea, she promised it so solemnly that no one would or could doubt the performance; but afterward, when she got the power into her hand, the Sufiblk men came to make supplication to her, that she would be pleased to perform the jjromise she made them, and she replied thus: Forasmuch as you, being but members, desire to rule your head, you fhall one day be made sensible that members must obey their head, and not expect to bear rule over the same. And not only so. but to cause the more terror, one Master Dobs, a gentleman that lived neai-Windsor, who presumed in a humble adtU’css merely to remind her of her promise made to the Suffolk men, was three times set in the pillory, and others for the same cause sent to prison. We may see what hold heretofore promises have had on those who had the power to break them, and what temptations they have to withdraw then- hearts from the fulfilment of their engagements. But when this om- Prince comes, David our King, we shall find “the sm-e mercies of David,” we shall find nothing but faithfulness in all his dealings.

“And shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.”

“Shall fear the Lord.” The words are, shall fear lo the hord, pavebuni ad Dominum. The fear of God is much upon the heart of a sinner in his return to God. Such a sinner has high and honourable thoughts of God. They shall return, and fear the Lord. The unthinldng vanity of his spu’it, the boldness of his heart, are gone, and the fear of God rides in it. The majesty, the power, the authority of the great God are strongly impressed on him; when he comes to worship, the fear of God makes him worship God as God, it abides with him even all the day long, you may see written on his life the fear of the great God. And this not a servile, slavish fear, but a holy, reverential, filial fear. Isaac had such a fear of God, that from it God is called ‘• the fear of Isaac.” This is a most precious fear: others fear poverty, imprisonment, disgrace, their fellow men; but, saith a true repenting heart, “I fear the Lord:” this fear is the well-spring of life to him, it is the very treasure of his soul, Isa. xxxiii. 6.

I shall speak of the fear of God here only as it concerns this place. It is introduced here, to show that when this glorious church shall be formed, when God shall call home his own people the Jews, and bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, then shall the fear of God mightily prevail upon the hearts of people; and the greater God’s goodness shall be, the more shall the fear of God be on their hearts. It is remarkable, that almost all the prophecies which speak of the glorious condition of the church, ever make mention of the fear of God that should rest then on the hearts of the people. One would rather think there should be a reference to the joy they would have, and that there should be nothing but mirth and triumph in those times; but the Scripture speaks much of fear that shall be then, and more then than at any other time. Thus in Rev. xi. 18, a most remarkable prophecy of Christ’s coming, and taking the kingdoms of the earth, and bringing his reward with him, it is said, he shall come and give a reward to those that fear him. And Rev. xiv. 6, 7, “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him.” Mark an angel when he comes to preach the everlasting gospel, how does he preach it? what, Cast now away fear and rejoice in this everlasting gospel? No, preaching this everlasting gospel, he saith with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to him.” So Rev. xv. 3. 4, contains the song of the saints when they are delivered from the power of antichrist, and what saith it, Rejoice and be glad? No; “Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee. O Lord, and gloriiy thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before’thee: for thy judgments are made manifest.” And again, Rev. xix. 5, “And a voice came out of the throne, saying. Praise our God. all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.”

But why fear the Lord in these times?

For these four reasons.

First, Because of the glory of Christ their King. They shall behold their King in glory that shall cause fear. Rev. xix. 12, 13, 15, 16, Christ is described with

his “eyes as a flame of fire, and on his head many crowns; and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and he hath on his vestm-e and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Thus they shall behold Christ, and therefore they shall fear.

Secondly, Because of the great works of God that shall then take place; “the heavens shall depart like a scroll, and the elements melt with fervent heat.” This is meant of the time when there shall be “new heavens and a new earth,” and refers to the prophecy of Isaiah, and apparently, and so interpreters generally explain it, regards the state of the church. Heb. xii. 26, quoted out of Ilag. ii. 6, “AATiose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying. Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” There shall be wonderful works of God in the earth when those days come, therefore there shall be much of the fear of God.

Thirdly, Because the holiness and purity of the worship of God, and of his ordinances, shall cause fear. Did we see the ordinances in their true and native puritj’ and holiness, it would inspire us with much awe. Some have but seen the execution of thai one ordinance of excommunication solemnly performed, and it has daunted their spirits, and struck awe mto the most proud, profane, stubborn, and wicked heai-ts; the beholding, then, of all the ordinances, and all duties of worship, in tkeir native purity, holiness, and glory, cannot but cause much fear. Psal. l.wiii. So, “O God, thou art ter-I’ible out of thy holy places:” God will be ten-ible out of his holy places and out of all his holy ordinances.

Fourthly, Because the holiness of the saints, appearing brightly in their very faces and conversations, shall strike great fear. “Holy and reverend is thy name,” is said of God, and so it .shall be said of the saints in that day; their gi’aces shall be much exalted, they shall sparkle with abundance of the gi-aces of God’s Spirit resting on them; theu- wisdom and holiness shall make their faces shine, “holy and reverend shall be their names.” Psal. lxxxix. 7, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints;” saints who walk close with him have a majesty in theh appearance which appals guilty consciences. I appeal to apostates, to ])rolessors who frequent secret haunts of wickedness; when you come but into the presence of one who is a truly gracious and godly person, whom your conscience tells you walks close with God, does not even the veiy sight of such a one awe you? the very lustre of the holiness you see in such a one strikes on youi’ conscience; then you think, he walks close with God indeed, but I have basely forsaken the Lord, and have frequented haunts of wickedness, and have brought (headful guilt on my soul smee I saw him last. Ecclesiastical history tells us, when the officers came to apprehend Basil, being then engaged in holy duties, such a majesty and lusti-e came forth from his countenance, that the officers fell down backward (as they did who came to apprehend Christ) and were not able to lay hold of him. Surely, when the saints shall be exalted in their holiness, when eveiy one of them shall have their souls filled with God, it will cause abundance of fear in the hearts of all those who shall even converse with them.

But the wicked shall fear too, as well as the saints. Luke xxi. 26, “Men’s hearts shall fail them for fear,” shall be verified in these days, as it was in the destruction of Jerusalem.

The saints .shall “fear the Lord and his goodness;” the words in the original are, they shall fear nrn’-Sx to the Lord, and ^aia-Ss to his goodness. It is in eflect the same; the goodness which God shall manifest shall excite this fear in their heai’ts.

You will say, Mliat goodness? what shall that goodness of God be that shall move the hearts of this jieople with so much fear?

I will tell you briefly, for I have spoken of it at large on the last words of the first chapter of this prophecy, “great shall be the day of Jezreel;” and shall now only add, The goodness of (3od which in that day they shall fear, shall be this:

First, That ever he should regard such a wretched people as they, and pardon all theh sins. ‘N^Tiat! Israel, the ten ti’ibes, who had most wretchedly forsaken God, who had crucified Jesus Clu-ist, crucified David theu- King, yet that that blood which they shed shoidd be applied to them for the pardon of then- sin! Oh the goodness of God! They shall fear this goodness in showing mercy to such a hai’d-hearted, stubborn, stiff-necked people as they have been; this goodness of God will break their hearts.

Secondly, Because God shall then make the difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not. Then shall God take away all the reproach of his saints. What bitter reproach has there been on the saints since the beginmng of the world, especially since the times of the gospel! Reproach, first, because they are a mean people. Secondly, because they suffer so much, and God lets his adversaries prevail over them. Thirdly, because they wait upon God, and God seems not to come, the adversaries say, %Vhere is yom- God? no marvel you pray and fast, what is become of all? Here will be manifested the goodness of God at that day in wiping ofl” all this reproach. They shall have so much mercy, so much honour li’om God, that it shall appear before all the world that it was good to wait upon him; so much as shall compensate abundantly all theh sufferings; they shall bless God that ever it was put into then’ hearts to suffer for him, and to wait upon him. And because God foresees what goodness he has laid up for his people, which they shall enjoy ere long, (and we know a thousand years with him are as one day,) is the reason why he suffers them to be so oppressed for the present; he knows he has such goodness for them hereafter, yea, in this world, that all the world shall say that God has dealt well with them, that he was not a hard master to them, to make them wait so long, and to let them suffer so much as they do. I wUl give you for this one excellent scripture, perhaps you have not considered the emphasis of its argument, it is Heb. xi. 16, “But now they desu’e a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” The poor persecuted saints wandered up and down, were content to leave then’ own country, then- estates here, and sought another country, a heavenly, but they had it not, theii- enemies prevailed over them, as if God had forsaken them; but “God is not ashamed to be called then- God;” why? “for he hath prepared for them a city.” Mark the force of the argument, “for he hath prepared for them a city.” This city is the one referred to in the text I am now speaking of: sometimes it is described as a tabernacle, “The tabernacle of God shall come down from heaven;” sometimes as a ci<,y, sometimes as a country, as a kingdom, sometimes as an inheritance; here, “God hath prepared for them a city,” that is, there is a glorious time for God’s people, when they shall have the new Jerasalem come down from heaven unto them. Now then, saith God, though my people be in a suffering condition, “I am not ashamed to be called their God,” I am not ashamed to own them, for I lune glory enough for them: as if God woidd be ashamed that he should ever profess such an interest in this people, and they such an interest in him, if there were nothing in store for them, if there were not a time to recompense all their sufferings. As if a master should have a servant, or a orince a subject, and they suffer extremely, and

have no help; but still -when they expected aid, none should arrive, and when they think, Sui-ely now it will come, still it should fail them; yet if you know that at such a dav you shall be able to recompense them for all this, and to advance them and bring them to such honour that they will bless God that ever they were in your service, you wUl not be ashamed to own them. But If these servants shall suffer in your cause, and you have no time nor ability to recompense them, but they must suffer, and suffer for ever, you would be ashamed to ow:i them. So God is pleased to speak here; Because I have prepared for them such a city, though they be in present persecution, I am not ashamed to own them for my people, and do not accovmt it any dishonour to me, for there is a time coming that will answer all objections. This is the goodness of God.

They shall fear this goodness. Fear it; how?

In these several respects.

First, They shall admire “his goodness,” and in then’ admkations stand even amazed at it; the fear of amazement shall possess them. 2 Thess. i. 10, when Christ shall come, “he shall come to be admired in all them that believe.” In Luke v. 26, it is said, “They were all amazed, and glorified God, and were filled with fear,: ying, We have seen strange things to-day.” AMien:’:ii “goodness” of God shall come, all the saints shall it and admiring it with amazement, and say one unto another, We did heretofore hear of prophecies and promises, and we thought when they were opened to us, our hearts did bum within us; oh, they were blessed things! but now here is goodness we never thought of, this is higher and more glorious than we ever imagined. Thus they “shall fear the Lord and his goodness.” You have a similar place in Jer. xxxiii. 9, “It shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.”

Secondly, They shall upon this fall down and worship this God with fear. Oh how shall their hearts adore this God, because of this his goodness! As we read Exod. xxxiv., when God had told Moses that he would “make all his goodness pass before him;” when God came and “passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquit)- and transgression and sin;” the text adds. When Moses heard this, he “made haste, and bowed his head and worshipped” before the Lord. Indeed nothing will cause a gracious heart to make more haste to worship God, than the beholding the glory and lustre of God’s grace and goo’dness; then the heart will not stand dal-Ijing and trifling any longer, but will make haste to worship before the Lord. God often shows his greatness to you, and that convinces yom’ consciences a little, and you think you must abandon you“” Rinftil courses; then temptation prevails over you ag».iJ; but when God comes and makes known £is goodness, then the heart stands out against the Lord no longer, but gives up itself to him in an everlasting covenant.

Thirdly, They shall fear to offend this goodness of God. It shall be a mighty engagement on their hearts 1 I walk close with God. It is a sweet disposition indeed when the heart has been both humbled before God and his justice, and fgars God and his goodness.

Obs. Whereas many will say. Oh the goodness of f -od will break our hearts, if ministers did preach only it; but when they preach the law, when we hear of terror, that hardens our hearts: take heed of this, there is more evil in it than you are aware. A tndy gracious heart will fall down’before any exhibition of the Lord, and it is not a good sign to be .WTOught upon

only by the goodness of God, but may arise from much stubbornness of heart. Have you never known a perverse servant, or child, that as long as you are displeased with them, would resist you; but, perhaps, if you would yield a little, they would j-ield to you? Is “this a good disposition? does it not arise from obstinacy in a child, or in a servant, or in a neighbour, that they will never yield to you tiU you yield to them? This is precisely the disposition of many; as long as they hear of God’s greatness, and the terrors of the law, and God’s justice, they are hardened; and why? because they stand out stoutly against God, notwithstanding his wrath is revealed from heaven. But, say they, when God’s goodness is preached, then we )ield; that is, except God wUl yield to them they will not jield to God. But when I can yield both ways, fear his goodness and his justice, then it is a sign of a gracious disposition indeed.

Fourthly, They “shall fear his goodness,” so that they shall no longer slight nor abuse the goodness of God; they shall not do evil because God is good, but shall fear his goodness. We have a generation of men who, at this day, extremely abuse the goodness of God, even God’s goodness in the gospel, m those blessed thuigs revealed to us in Jesus Christ. As thus: we find this revealed in the gospel, that it is God that must work the yyiH and the deed; the covenant of gi’ace to be such, as that God does not only requu’e, but work all for us: how is this goodness misinteri)reted and abused! Therefore, say they, what need we do any thing? why do ministers urge people to duties? Your principle is good; the truth is good, that it is God that works all in the covenant of grace, but it is very absurd and vile, and an abuse of God’s goodness, to infer that therefore you must not work together with the Lord as rational beings. Again, the gospel reveals to us “the righteousness of God iir Christ,” that we must not stand before God in otir own, but in the righteousness of Christ; this principle is good, but how is it abused! false deductions and absurd consequences di-awn from it: therefore say they. To make conscience of duties, what is it but legal? and they who do it, what are they but duty-mongers? Oh! wanton, wanton spirits, who do not fear God and his goodness, but abuse them both! Again, the Scriptiu’e tells us m the gospel, that all sins are pai’doned to believers in Christ, all sins both great and smaD; “there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” no, not one moment after they are once justified: this is God’s goodness, and thou shouldst fear it: the principle is right, but it is vile to deduce as a consequence, that to preach that we must be humbled for sins is legal preaching; neither will these men ever confess their sins because of this goodness of God. This is to be wanton indeed, not to fear this goodness of God. Moreover the goodness of God in the gospel tells us, that the grace of God is strong, that the saints shall persevere, that those that ai-e once in CTirist shall never fall away; therefore say they. Let us indulge ourselves; why need we be careful of om- ways, seeing the grace of God will cany us thi-ough? Oh! thus to abuse this goodness of God is wicked; the heavens may blush to behold it, and the earth tremble under it. But we have not so learned Christ; the more of the goodness of God in Christ that is made known to us, the more should we fear him.

The goodness of God in the gospel is so rich, that, the tnath is, because the hearts of men are so vUe, and so ready to abuse it, we are almost afraid to preach it. Oh! is this the fi-uit of the preaching of the gospel? Never was the gospel so clear as in England, and in no age as in this; and is this the fruit of all, that men should draw such absirrd consequences from it, and go away harder from that which is the softening word? len we come to preach the goodness of the gospel,

we come, I say, with fear, yoa, trembling, lest it slioukl cost the damnation of some soul. The preaching the goodness of God in the gospel certainly causes, ex accidente, the damnation of many a soul. Therefore, meanwhile, you who are God’s saints, know how dearly God tendereth you, when he will have the goodness of the gospel preached to you though at the risk of the damnation of manv a soul. You had need prize it therefore, and make a good use of it. Let this meditation cause you to improve to the uttermost what you hear of all the goodness of the Lord: That which I hear is costly to some, it costs the perishing of many a soul that I may have it; and though God see that many souls will ‘be hardened by it. Yet, saith God, let them be hardened, these my servants shall not want it, though they perish for ever. “When a man hath a thing in his house, and he hears that it cost dear, even the lives of many men, he has other thoughts of it than before. David had a reverent respect to the water of the well of Bethlehem, because procured at the hazard of men’s lives. Learn then to fear God and his goodness.

Fifthly, In all rejoicing in and praising God for his goodness, there shall be a mixture of fear. They shall be well skilled in this mystery of godliness, when they enjoy so much of God’s goodness, and are called upon to sing and rejoice, yet sing with a mixture of fear. Their hearts shall be” very serious and spiritual in all their joy. It is veiy hard for us to rejoice in God’s goodness, and not to have our heai-ts grow light and vain, to keep a day of thanksgiving with a serious spirit; for joy commonly causes vanity in the heai’ts of men. But now the goodness of God shall be so strong in their hearts, that though they shall seek and rejoice abundantly in God’s goodness; yet with such an abundant mixtiu-e of fear, that their hearts shall be kept serious, holy, and spiritual in his service: thus, in Exod. xv. 1 1, when Moses was blessing God for his goodness in delivering the people out of Egypt, (which was a typical song, as appears m the Revelation, that bondage typifying antichristian bondage,’) mark the expression, “Who is like unto thee. O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises? ‘’ God is to be praised, but so praised, that his name must be “fearful in praises.” Consider this in all yom- joyful celebration of the memorial of God’s goodness; you must so rejoice and bless God. as to manifest this before all you converse with, that the name of God is fearful in the praises you offer to him: this a slight, trifling spirit cannot do. So Psal. lii. G, “The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him.” Mark what a mixture is here, “The righteous shall see, and fear, and laugh,” he “shall rejoice,” but “with trembling,” Psal. ii. 11.

God much delights to have the glory of his goodness appear thus. We have much goodness of God at this day, and he calls us to fear him and his goodness: if we give him not his glory in this, he may soon call us to fear him and his greatness; to fear him and his justice; to fear him and his wrath. This is the argument now, “There is forgiveness with thee, that’thou mayest be feared.” But how soon may God justly turn this, and oblige us to say, There is wrath, vengeance, sword, fire, blood, storm, an horrible tempest, with thee, therefore thou shalt be feared! Our consciences are ready to misgive us when we have any evil tidings, for we have much guilt on our spirits; we have had much goodness indeed from God, (who ever thought to have lived to see the goodness that you liavc seen?) but because you have not feared God and his goodness, this is the reason of your hearts misgiving at evil tidings, and saying, Oh, now God is coming against us with his wrath that he may be feared.

Sbmething might be said to explain a little the difference between fearing God and his goodness, and

fearing God and his wrath and justice in a legal way; but 1 shall only briefly observe,

1. Such a fear as enlarges the heart, is the fearing God and his goodness; other fear contracts it. We have an excellent text for this in Isa. Ix. 1, compared with ver. 5: ‘• Arise, shine; for thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee: “and so he goes on describing God’s goodness, in reference to the times that we are speaking of; then adds, “Thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged:” when the heart so fears that it is enlarged unto God, this is the fearing God and his goodness aright.

2. It is a fear that leads the heart to cling to God for ever; it drives not from God, but makes the heart cleave closer to him; such is the force of the Hebrew here, they shall fear to God and to his goodness: “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” This binds the heart to God.

3. This fearing God and his goodtiess works the heart to a high degree of sanctification. 2 Cor. vii. 1, ‘■ Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; “and Heb. xii. 28, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Lastly, It is a fear joined with love, whereas the other fear leads the heart to have hard thoughts of God. Beware of that fear of God that makes you to think hardly of him. In times of danger many begin to fear, and jn’esently they wish they had never engaged themselves so much in ways that succeed so ill; and ciT out of others. You would needs do thus, and you see the result. But the fear of God and his goodness, is joined with blessing God that ever you knew his ways and were engaged in them.

“In the latter days.”

God is content to stay for that which is indeed his chief glory until the latter days, for though in these former days God has had glorj-, yet he has had but very little. Let this be an argument for our patience; though we have sufi”erings now, let us wait as God waiteth.

But “the latter days,’’ when are they? The times of the gospel are generally called •’ the latter days;” but this, though it refers indeed to the whole time of the gospel, yet especially to the latter times of those latter days. If you would know what these latter days i are, though I will not take upon me to give you the day, / or week, or month, or year, yet I will show you that / probably these “latter days” are at hand. /

For understanding this, we are much assisted by what ’ we have in Daniel concerning the fom- kingdoms, and the prophetical chronology; it comprises the time from the captivity of the Jews to that ni which the counsel of God shall be fulfilled. You have there a description of four several monarchies, the Babylonian, AssjTian, Cirecian, and Koman; now in the last of these, Daniel saith, chap. ii. 44,” .shall the God of heaven .set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” In this last (namely, the Roman) has the kingdom of Christ begun to ajjpear already; but God tells Daniel, chap. xii. 13, “Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” Now observe, the chief prophecy we have respecting the time of these latter days is contained in that expression of “time and times and half a time; “and compare with this Dan. vii. 25,” And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and dividing of time,” and Rev. xi. 2, “The holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months,’’ njid ver. 3, The “witnesses shall ])rophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days;” now a thousand two huniUed find sixty days, are the days of a “time and times and half a time,” or of three years and a luilf, and so are the days of forty-two months. Then the -noman in the wilderness, Rev. xii. 6, shall be fed there a thousand two hundred and sixty days, still the same number; the witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundi-ed and sixty days; the holy city shall be trodden under foot forty-two months; and the woman in the wilderness shall be there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. And again, Dan. xii. 11, “From the time the abomination that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days;” a few days more, not many. You see then the Scripture prophesies of some great thing to be done at this time, at the end of which are these “latter days.”

But all the tUfficulty consists in understanding when the three years and a half, or forty-two months, or one thousand two hunibed and sixty days, begun; having discovered it, we may know when these latter days shall be. Brightman makes the one thousand two hundi’ed and ninety days begin at Julian’s time, when he woidd have set up the abomination, that is, the Jewish worship again, by rebuilding the temple; and reckoning one thousand two huncted and ninety days for one thousand two hundred and ninety years, his time by computation wUl fall about the year 1650. The other passage in the Revelation (and that in Daniel refers to the same) denotes the time that the chm’ches shall be under the persecution of antichrist; for a thousand two hundred and sixty years the beast shall prevail, and the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, and the woman abide in the wilderness.

But when did antichrist begin to reign?

For that observe. It must be at the time when the Roman empire was broken up, and the cb-agon resigned his power to the beast; when the power of the dragon that persecuted the Christians under the Roman empire was given to antichrist, so that they became subject to persecution under him: here the one thousand two hundred and sixty days begin.

That the Roman empire must be given up first, appears, 2 Thess. ii. 7, “For the mystery of iniquity doth ab’eady work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way; “that is, as expositors generally interpret it, when the power of the Roman empu-e is” taken out of the way,” then shall that wicked one be revealed; there were many antichrists before, but then that wicked one that shall “exalt himself above all that is called God,” shall have power to persecute the church. Hence it is observable, that the custom of the church was to pray for the continuance of the Roman empire, because they knew when that was broken antichrist would come. Now the dissolution of the Roman empu’e was at the raising up of those ten distinct governments, called in the Revelation, ten kings; and the raising up of those kings was about four hundred years after Christ; it is hard to fix on the precise year,, so much difference exists in chronologers’ computations; and after that period there must be one thousand two hundi’ed and sixty days, that is, one thousand two huncb-ed and sixty years. Make this computation, and compai’e all these passages together, and it would seem that the time cannot be distant, but that in the present century these latter days shall come, when the people of God and the Jews shall “return to Jehovah and David their king, and fear the Lord and his goodness.” The nearer the time comes the more will these things be cleared: Dan. xii. 9, ‘• Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end:” none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall lay it to heart.

But one point remains, why the Scripture expresses this rather by so many days, than years? The reason is, because God would have his people think

the time until his goodness should be revealed but short; if he had said they should be one thousand two huncbed and sixty years under antichrist’s persecution, it would have sounded harsher: No, saith he, it shall be but so many days (though flesh and blood may think even this time long); yet look upon it as days; it is but a short time to me, and it will be a short time to you; within one thousand two huncbed and sixty days you shall be delivered from his tjTanny, and then you shall have this voice from heaven, “The kingdoms of the earth are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever;” and then shall ye, together with the Jews, seek the Lord and David your king, and fear the Lord and his goodness.

Now, by God’s goodness, we have gone through these three chapters. Tertullian saith, Adoro plenitudinem Scripturarum, I adore the fulness of the Scriptures. By searching thus into the Scriptures, we mav come to see rich treasures in them, and so, Uke him, adore their fulness. How do we read over texts, as if they contained nothing! but certainly God has revealed much more of his mind in them than we are aware of: let us all then be in love with the study of the Scriptures.