2. Get this wedding garment out of the king's wardrobe ; as Esther : chap, xxix., ' Such things as belonged to her and her maids were given her out of the king's house ; ' and Isa. Ixi. 10, ' He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.' God delights in the graces of his own Spirit ; no man is born clothed ; we have it from God, therefore go to him for it.
3. Wear your wedding garment. Not only get grace, but exercise it in all duties towards God and man : Kev. xvi. 15, ' Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.'
4. Keep your garments undefiled and unspotted from the world : Kev. iii. 4, ' Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.' Your sins are a great dishonour to Christ, because you are nearer to him, as well as a shame to yourselves, because you profess better.
5. Wash your garments often in the blood of the Lamb : Kev. vii. 14, ' And have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' The garments of the best need washing, and nothing will make them white but the blood of the Lamb. It is his merit and satisfaction hath procured this cleansing grace for us.
A FAST SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.
Therefore thus ivill 1 do unto thee, 0 Israel; and hecause I ivill do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel. — Amos iv. 12.
The first word in this scripture is illative, and directeth our thoughts to the context. Therefore why ? Three things are especially charged upon them in this chapter.
1. The first is oppression in their great ones : ' Hear this, ye kine of Bashan, which are in the mountains of Samaria, which oppress the poor, and crush the needy, which say to their masters. Come let us drink.' This concerneth the governor and rulers, as his former expostulations were directed to the body of the people. And he calleth them ' kine of Bashan.' Amos the herdsman doth hot bespeak them in courtly language, with soft and silken words, but in terms proper to his own function and ancient calling. He giveth them not the title of lords, the style of Your Honour and Excellency ; he was not skilled in this kind of language, neither would it consist with the freedom and duty of his office. God's messengers may use a liberty and freedom in slighting sinful greatness. ' Ye kine of Bashan ; ' men of brutish manners deserve no better compellation. They were impudent, wanton, refractory, impatient of the yoke, therefore he calleth them kine, with the addition of Bashan, which was a fertile hill full of rich pastures, and so apt to fatten cattle. Bulls of Bashan we read of elsewhere, ^6e<; evrpocfioi, so Symmachus, kine full fed. But yet more plainly, lest they should lie hid in the metaphor, ' that are in the mountain of Samaria' — the metropolis and royal city of Israel, as noting the chief of the nation. These are the persons. What is their crime ? ' They oppress the poor, and crush the needy ; ' that is, by burdensome levies and violent extortions to maintain their own great- ness and luxury. When men make their lust their law, their will their reason, their belly their god, they are more like cows than men; ' Which say to their masters, Come, and let us drink.' This, I suppose, is spoken to their clients and dependants that encourage them to poll the people to feed their riot and luxury. Now God threateneth that he would make these men like cattle out of their fat pastures, and to leave all their wealth, houses, and stately palaces behind. Well then,
24 A FAST SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.
oppression in great persons accompanied with luxury, is a sure forerunner of judgment. When men like ravenous harpies extort from the poor that they may minister to their lusts, and glut themselves and their dependants with the spoils of the poor ; and when others languish with want, they are secure, and drunk with worldly wealth and pleasures, God will go an-angling and a-hunting. Take these fishes out of the pond, and drive these beasts out of the pastures : he is the world's guardian, and the great one's judge, higher than the highest; they shall no longer sport in their fish-ponds and fat pastures.
2. The next sin is corruption in worship : ver. 4, 5, ' Come to Bethel and transgress in Gilgal ; multiply transgressions, and bring your sacri- fices every morning, and your tithes after three years. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offer- ings : for this liketh you, 0 ye children of Israel, saith the Lord.' This whole place must be understood as a sarcasm, as appeareth by that clause, ' Go transgress at Gilgal.' The Lord doth not allow sin, much less command it The meaning is, since you love to fill up the measure of your iniquities, go do so, and see what will come of it. At Bethel there was one of Jeroboam's calves, therefore called Bethaven, the house of iniquity, instead of Bethel, the house of God. The pre- tence was they thought it was better to worship there than at Jeru- salem, because there he appeared to Jacob. Gilgal was another place of idolatry : Hosea ix. 15, ' Their wickedness is in Gilgal ; for there I hated them, for the wickedness of their doings,' &c. There Joshua renewed the covenant. It was the chief seat of the idolatry of the ten tribes. They were punctual in observing all the ordinances of the temple, and rites of God's instituted worship ; as daily sacrifice, God instituted it : Num. xxviii. 4, ' The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb in the evening.' Daily we are to make use of Christ. The tithing, after three years, was instituted : Deut. xiv. 28, ' At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase/ &c. For the peace-otferings, they were to be offered with leavened bread, Lev. vii. 13. In all these formalities they were very precise. Where was the fault then? they had changed the place instituted from Jerusalem to Bethel and Gilgal ; they had changed the priesthood from the sons of Levi to the basest and vilest of the people ; and they had set up their calves as relative objects of worship. Well then, from the whole we learn that it is a very provoking sin when men set up new ways of worship out of their own brain without an express rule from the word. As these, though they kept the substance of worship, erected another temple, another altar, and another priest- hood. Here was altar against altar, and threshold against threshold; therefore God is angry, and giveth them up to do what they would : Go take your swing and course, and go on, and see what will come of it. A nation is not only to look to oppression, but corruption of worship, if they would provide for their own welfare.