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slept securely under our ministry, will fear and tremble under his rods; those that are without faith, are not without sense and feeling, their own eyes will affect their hearts, though our words could make no impreffion on them.

Sect. 2. But of what use soever these national judgments are to others, to be sure they shall be beneficial to God's own people; when others die by fear, they shall live by faith; if they be baneful poifon to the wicked, they shall be healthful physic to the godly. For,

1. By these calamities God will mortify and purge their corruptions; this winter weather shall be useful to destroy and rot those rank weed's, which the fummer of profperity bred, Ifa. xxvii. 9. "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged." Physic in its own nature is griping and unpleasant; but very useful and necessary to purge the body from noxious and malignant humours, which retained, may put life itself in hazard : And it is with the body politic, as with the body natural.

2. National judgments drive the people of God nearer to him, and one to another; they drive the people of God to their knees, and make them pray more frequently, more fervently, and more feelingly than they ever were wont to do; in this posture you find them in ver. 8, 9. of this chapter. " Yea in the way of thy " judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee, the defire of

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our fouls is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my foul have I defired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit " within me will I feek thee early."

3. In a word, by these distractions and distresses of nations, the people of God are more weaned from the world, and made to long more vehemently after heaven; being now convinced by experience that this is not their rest. When all things are tranquil and profperous, God's own people are but too apt to fall asleep and dream of pleasure and rest on earth, to say as Job in his profperity, " I shall die in my nest, I shall multiply my days

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as the sand." And then are their heads and hearts filled with many projects and designs, to promote their comforts, and make provision for their accommodations on earth: the multiplicity. of earthly cares and comforts take up their time and thoughts too much, and make them that they mind death and eternity too little. But faith God, this must not be so, things must not go on at this rate, the profperous world must not thus enchant my people; I must imbitter the earth that I may thereby sweeten heaven the more to them; when they find no reit below, they will furely seek it above.

These, and such like, are the gracious designs and ends of God

in fhaking the world by his terrible judgments, but yet, though national troubles must necessarily come, the wisest of men cannot positively determine the precise time of those judgments; we may indeed, by the signs of the times, difcern their near approach; yet our judgment can be but probable and conjectural, feeing there are tacit conditions in the dreadfullest threatenings, Jer. xviii. 7, 8. Jonah iii. 9, 10. And fuch is the merciful nature of God, that he oft-times turns away his anger from his people, when it seems ready to pour down upon them, Pfal. Ixxviii. 38. The confideration whereof no way indulges fecurity, but encourages to repentance and greater fervency in Prayer.

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Opening and confirming the second proposition, viz. That God's own people are much concerned in, and sught to be fuitably affected with those judgments that befal the nation wherein they live,

Sect. 1.

I

F 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 2. Upon a religious

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1. Upon a political account, as they are members of the community, and so are equally concerned in the good or evil that befal the nation in which they live, their cabins must follow the fate of the ship in which they fail, their lives, liberties, estates, and interest sink and swim with the public. The good figs were carried away with the bad, Jer. xxiv. 5. In these outward respects it often-times bears as hard upon the righteous as upon the wicked. Ezek. xxi. 3. "I will draw forth my " fword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righ" teous and the wicked." In these outward respects, as it is with the good, fo with the sinner, Eccl. ix. 2. The same fire that burns the dry tree, often-times burns the green tree too, Ezek. xx. 47. Grace is above all hazards, but creature-enjoyments and comforts are not. The sins of the Sodomites involve 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 faints themselves have an hand in the provocation of these judgments, as well as others, Deut. xxxii. 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 fweep 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, Pfal. cxxxvii. per totum; " we wept when we remembered thee, O Zion." Not only Ifrael flies, but the ark is taken prisoner by the enemy, I Sam. iv. II. And you find the people of God more deeply concerned upon this account, than for all their outward losses and others fufferings, Zeph. iii, 18. " I will gather them of thee that

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are forrowful for the folemn assemblies, to whom the re" proach 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. ii. 5.

Thus you see a twofold concernment that the people of God have in the effects of national judgments.

Sect. 2. This being fo, how should all that fear God be affected with the appearances and signs of his indignation? So was David, Pfal. cxix. 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. iii. ver. 16. " When I heard, my belly " trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rettenness entered ** into my bones." Expressions denoting the deepest seizures of fear and greatest consternations; not that I would perfuade you to fuch slavish fear, or unchristian dejection, as it is not only finful in itself, but the cause and inlet of many other fins: but

to a due fense both of the evils of misery that will befal the nation when God's indignation comes upon it; and the evils of fin that have incensed it; and to fuch a fear of both as may feafonably 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, Pfal. cvii. 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, is the common ship in which we are all em• barked, and if this in judgment be cast away, whether dash• ed against the rocks of any foreign power, or swallowed up • in the quicksands of domestic divisions, it must need ha• zard all the passengers: Or if you were fure, that for your * parts you might be safe, would it not be a bitter thing to stand upon the shore, and fee 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 welltilled fields to be made a prey; for you to fow, and another ' to reap, impias has fegetess for the delicate woman upon whom the wind must not blow, to he exposed to the luft and ' cruelty of an enemy, and be glad to fly away naked to prolong 'a miferable 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 confider, * must this child in whom I have placed the hope of my age; ' for,

Omnis in Ascanio ftat chari cura parentis ; 'He that hath been so tenderly bred up, must he fall into the rough hands of a bloody foldier, skilful to destroy? It had ' been well for me if God had given me dry breasts, or a mifcarrying womb, rather than to bring forth children unto murtherers; or if you might be safe, how could you endure ' to fee 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.

* Mr. Strong

xlv. 4, 5. and dream of exemption, but by so much the greater will our distress be, when it shall furprize 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 fun upon the prophets, the lofs of your sweet fabbaths, and gospel feasts, and the gross darkness of popery to fill the earth: O it is hard parting with these things. It is said, I Sam. vii. 2. when the ark was removed, "that all the houseof " Israel lamented after the Lord." Pity your own fouls, and be deeply affected with the misery of others, the poor Chriftless world, who are like to perish for want of vision, Prov. xxix. 18. In the year 1072, faith Matthew Paris, preaching was suppreffed at Rome, and then letters were framed by fome as coming from hell; in which the devil gives them thanks for the multitude of fouls sent to him that year.

3. But especially labour to affect your hearts with the fin that have incensed God's indignation: So did the faints in Jerufalem, Ezek. ix. 4. they sighed and mourned for all the abominations committed in it. So did Lot, 2 Pet. ii. 7. "He vexed " his righteous foul from day to day." So did David, Pfal. cxix. 136. "Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because men "kept not thy law." O who that loves God can refrain tears, to see the God of pity, the God of tender mercies, a Father full of bowels of compassion, so incensed and provoked to indignation! Oh, it is an heart-melting confideration where there is any ingenuity. If our afflictions grieve God to the heart, as it doth, Judges x. 16. our souls should be grieved for his disho

nour.

4. To conclude, get upon your hearts such a sense of God's indignation as may quicken you to the use of preventing duties. So Amos iv. 12. "Because I will do this, prepare to meet "thy God, O Ifrael." So the prophet, Zeph. ii. 1, 2. "Gather yourselves together before the decree bring forth." It was Mofes's honour to stand in the breach, Pfal. cvi. 23. And Abraham's to plead so with God, though he did not pre

vail.

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