Chapter III: God's Own People Ought to be Suitably Affected with those Judgments that Befal the Nat
78:38. The consideration whereof no way indulges security, but encourages to repentance and greater fervency in prayer.
CHAPTER III
Opening and confirming the second proposition, viz. That God's own people are much concerned in, and ought to be suitably affected with those judgments that befal the nation wherein they live.
Sect. I. IF God's people have no concernment in these things, why are they called upon in this text, to turn into their chambers, hide themselves, and shut their doors, till the indignation be over-past?
Certainly though God hath better provided for them than others, yet they are two ways concerned in these cases as much as others: viz.
1. Upon a political account.
2. Upon a religious account 1. Upon a political account, as they are members of the community, and so are equally concerned in the good or evil that befals the nation in which they live; their cabins must follow the fate of the ship in which they sail: their lives, liberties, estates, and interest sink and swim with the Public. The good figs were carried away with the bad,
Jer. 24:5. In these outward respects it often-times bears as hard upon the righteous as upon the wicked. Ezek. 21:3. "I will draw forth my soul out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked." In these outward respects, as it is with the good, so with the sinner, Eccl. 9:2. The same fire that burns the dry tree, often-times burns the green tree too, Ezek. 20:47. Grace is above all
hazards, but creature-enjoyments and comforts are not. The sins of the Sodomites involves not only their own houses and estates, but Lot's also, in the ruin and overthrow; wicked men often fare the better for the company of the godly, and the godly often fare the worse for the company of the wicked.
And it is not to be wondered at, if we consider that even the saints themselves have an hand in the provocation of these judgments, as well as others, Deut. 32:19. "And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters." We have contributed to the common heap of guilt, and therefore must justify God if we partake with others in the common calamity.
2. They are greatly concerned in such judgments upon a religious and Christian account, for it is usual for the flood of God's judgments not only to sweep away our civil and natural, but our spiritual and best enjoyments and comforts. Thus the ordinances of God ceased in Babylon, and there the faithful bewailed their misery upon that account, Psal. 137. per totum; "we wept when we remembered thee,
O Zion." Not only Israel flies, but the ark is taken prisoner by the enemy, 1 Sam. 4:11. And you find the people of God more deeply concerned upon this account, than for all their outward losses and other sufferings, Zeph. 3:18. "I will gather them of thee that are sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, to whom the reproach of it was a burthen." For by how much our souls are more excellent than our bodies, and the concerns of eternity over-balance those of time; by so much the more are we concerned in the loss of our spiritual, more than of our temporal mercies and enjoyments.
Grace indeed cannot be lost, but the means and instruments by which it is begotten may; the golden candlestick is one of the moveables in God's house, Rev. 2:5.
Thus you see a two-fold concernment that the people of God have in the effects of national judgments.
Sect. 2. This being so, how should all that fear God be affected with the appearances and signs of his indignation? So was David, Psal.
119:120. "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments." He that feared not a bear, a lion, a Goliah, yet trembleth at God's judgment. So did Habakkuk, chap. 3 ver. 16. "When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones." Expressions denoting the deepest seizures of fear and greatest consternations: not that I would persuade you to such slavish fear or unchristian dejection, as it is not only sinful in itself, but the cause and inlet of many other sins; but to a due sense both of the evils of misery that will befal the nation when God's indignation comes upon it; and the evils of sin that have incensed it; and to such a fear of both as may seasonably awaken us to the use of all preventing remedies. And, First, 1. O that all would lay to heart the national miseries that God's indignation threatens upon us. It is said, Psal. 107:34. "A fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." It was long since told England by one of its faithful watchmen*, 'The nation and church in which we are, are the common ship in which we are all embarked, and if this in judgment be cast away, whether dashed against the rocks of any foreign power, or swallowed up in the quicksands of domestic divisions, it must need hazard all the passengers: Or if you were sure, that for your parts you might be safe, would it not be a bitter thing to stand upon the shore, and see such a glorious vessel as this nation is, to be cast away? To see this glorious land defaced, the blessed gospel polluted, the golden candlestick removed, it cannot but affect men that have any bowels.
Or if this move you not, yet to see a stranger to lord it in thy habitation, and thy dwelling place to cast thee out; for your delightsome dwellings, your fruitful, pleasant, and well tilled fields to be made a prey; for you to sow, and another to reap, Impius has segetes; for the delicate women upon whom the wind must not blow, to be exposed to the lust and cruelty of an enemy, and be glad to fly away naked to prolong a miserable life, which they would be glad to part with for death, were it not for fear of the exchange. For the tender mother to look upon the child of her womb, and consider, must this child in whom I have placed the hope of my age; for,
Omnis in Ascanio stat chari cura parentis; 'He that hath been so tenderly brought up, must he fall into the rough hands of a bloody soldier, skilful to destroy? It had been well for me if God had given me dry breasts, or a miscarrying womb, rather than to bring forth children unto murderers; or if you might be safe, how could you endure to see the miseries that should come upon your people, and the destruction of your kindred.' Thus far he.
But alas! What security have any of us as to our earthly comforts from the common calamity? We may please ourselves as Baruch did,
Jer. 45:4, 5. and dream of exemption, but by so much the greater will our distress be, when it shall surprize us.
2. You that are the people of God ought to be deeply affected with the spiritual miseries that threaten us in the day of God's indignation: do you consider what the removing the candlestick out of its place is? A departing gospel, the going down of the sun upon the prophets, the loss of your sweet sabbaths and gospel feasts, and the gross darkness of popery to fill the earth: O it is hard parting with these things. It is said, 1 Sam. 7:2. when the ark was removed, "that all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." Pity your own souls, and be deeply