Psal. cxxxvii. 5. " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my tongue " cleave to the roof of my mouth.'' The pouring out of this spirit of compassion, will be a token for good to us ; Psal. cii. 13, " Thou wilt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to fa- " vour her, vea, the set time is come."" But how knew he that ? " For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the " dust thereof" Upon which words one * glosseth thus ; ' It is ' as if he should say, Would you have me give an account of my ' hope and confidence, that God will arise and have mercy ' upon Zion ; why (saith he) do you not see the servants of ' God every where troubled for Zion, and bemoan Zion, and ' weep over her, crying out over her ruins, O is this Zion ! What, ' the city of our solemnities ? What, she that was the praise and ' beauty of the whole earth ! Ah, Lord, who can hold his peace ' at such a sight as this ? Oh, who can look upon Zion with dry ' eyes ? Are these her stones that lie thus scattered in the dust ? ' dh it is a thousand pities to see Zion in such a sad and mournful * condition ! Oh that our heads were waters, and our eyes rivers ' of tears ? Come, Sirs, what shall we do for Zion ? Is there no- ' thing we can do by our counsels, our prayers, for repairing of ' these breaches ?' O thus it should be with us at this day : No7i sunt ista litigandi sed orandi tempora, as Mr. Perkins said of his day. These ai*e not times of striving, but praying ; it is no time now to strive ^Hth one another, but to unite our strength, and like the true generation of Jacob, to be striving with our God. To be minding the world, and seeking of great things for ourselves now, is no small evil : God expects his saints should now be clothed in black, and walk as true mourners under the great and sore rebukes of their Father : should we now make mirth 't Ezek. xxi. 10. *' It contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree." God brings it in as an heavy charge upon the people, Amos vi. 6. that they *• are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph ;'' or as the Hebrew, over the rentings and tearings in pieces of Joseph, that is, the church. It is a lively allusion to the sad lamentation that old Ja- cob made over the supposed renting of his dear Joseph, Gen. xlii.
* Mr. Case in England's encouragements, p. 74,
AXTIPHARMACUM SALUnERRIMUAI. 551
SI. Joseph is not, I will go clown to the grave to my son mourning : but his brethren saw the anguish of his soul, and pitied him not. And may not many of the Lord's own people charge the same thing upon their hearts at this day, that they did upon themselves, *• We are verily guilty (say they) concerning our brother Joseph."" Ah ! have we not heard of the anguish of Zion, and the sore dis- tress upon many of her children at this day, and yet have not been so tenderly touched with the due sense of it ? Oh ^vrite that man bowellcss, that hath no compassion in his spirit now for Zion : you may promise to yourself immunity from the common calamity, but God hath said, Amos vi. 7. " You shall go captive with the first " that go captive.'' Ah ! is this a time, as God said to B iruch, Jer. xlv. to seek great things for yourselves; it is enough if you have your life for a prey : are you now building and feathering your nests, when the ax of judgment lies at the root of that tree you build in, to cut it down ? Surely we may say of such designs now, as Hushai did of tlie counsel of Ahithophel, " It is not good *• at this time." In that day did the Lord call to mourning ; and is there not as loud a call at this day ? " The voice of the rod crieth '* to the city," Mic. vi. 9. Oh ! be not deaf to that cry ; now go to the Lord with an holy importunity, under a quick sense of Zion's misery, and give him no rest till he arise and have mercy on her. And among many other, these arguments may persuade to it.
Arg\ 1. The gracious nature of that God to whom you go for help and mercy ; Oh remember you lie down at the feet of a ten- der-hearted Father, willing to be overcome by you : Amos iv. 12. " Therefore thus will I do unto thee, and because I will do this, " prepare to meet thy God, O Israel," i. e. in a way of humiliation to prevent him : So Luke xviii. 7. And shall not God avenge his [ozon elect] that cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them.? Mark the motive [his owii] q. d. Can a father shut up the bowels of mercy from his own flesh ? How much less God, to whose compassions the most dear and tender affections of all the parents in the world, is but as a drop to the ocean. This Jonah well understood, Jonah iv. 2. " Was not this my saying when I " was yet in my country ? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, " for 1 knew that thou art a gracious God, slow to anger, and of " great kindness, and repentcst thee of the evil :" q. d. Yea, Lord, I knew before-hand what it would come to ; I must go to Nine- veh, and denounce thy judgments against it, and then if they do but humble themselves a little, thy mercies and compassions are so tender and abundant, that thou canst not smite them ; if they do but come upon the knee, the rod falls out of thy hand : I knew it would be so, I was persuaded before-hand, that free-grace would
55^ ANTiniARMACUM SALTTBERRIMITM.
make me appear as a liar to them, therefore I fled to Tarshish. O what a motive is this to bring you upon the knee before God at this day !
Arg\ 2. Consider how dear an interest it is that you espouse and plead for, dear to God, and therefore the greater probability of success ; you may say to God, as Mary and Martha did to Christ concerning their brother Lazarus, " Lord, he whom thou lovest is '' sick."' Ah ! the interest of his Son, which I persuade you to plead with him, lies near his heart, and dear to you, if you be real saints : for, alas ! what joy can you have to survive Sion's prosperi- ty ? Would you not in such a case say as the prophet, 1 Kings xix. 4. " Ah Lord God, it is enough, take away my life also."*' O therefore strive with God for it.
Arg\ 3. Consider how much you have contributed to the pro- voking and procuring cause of its present misery ; it is Sion's own sons and daughters that have procured this unto her; and shall there be none among all the sons she hath brought up to take her by the hand, and comfort her ! It is our contests and Mranglings one with another, our barrenness under the gospel, our abuse of deliverances, and most precious gospel-enjoyments that have pro- cured all this. Ah sirs ! will you not strive to pray back the mercies you have helped to sin away ?