be said, This is Zion, that no man careth for ; but that those who love the Loi-d Jesus Christ in sincerity, and are, by faith and obedience, separated from the perish- ing world, following the Lamb, according to the light which he is graciously pleased to impart unto them, and engaged, by the providence of God, in that work which he hath undertaken to accomplish amongst us, be not overborne by a spirit of pro- faneness and contempt of the power of godliness raging in the earth ; that they may be preserved and secured from the return of a hand of violence, and encou- raged in the testimony they have to bear to the kingdom of Christ, in opposition to the world, and all the ways which the men thereof have received by tradition from their fathers, that are not according to his mind ; — you will, undoubtedly, in your several conditions, receive blessing from God. Which also that you may, in all your concernments, is the daily prayer of
Your humble Servant
In the worlv of our dear Lord Jesns,
John Owex.
SERMON X.
GOD'S WORK IN FOUNDING ZION, AND HIS PEOPLE'S DUTY THEREUPON.
" What shall one then answei* the messengers of the nation ? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it." — IsA. xiv. 32.
The head of the prophecy whereof these words are the close, hes in verse 28, " In the year that kmg Ahaz died was this burden;" which gives us the season and just time of its revelation and delivery. The kingdom of Judah was at that season low and broken ; — foreign in- vasions and intestine divisions had made it so. An account hereof is given us, 2 Chron. xxviii. throughout, as it is especially summed up, verse 19 of that chapter, " For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel ; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord." Amongst their oppressing neighbours that took advantage of their low and divided condition, their old enemies the Philistines, the posterity of Ham in Canaan, had no small share, as verse 18 of that chapter, " The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the vil- lages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there."
In this state of things, God takes notice of the joy and triumphing of the whole land of Palestina, — that is, the country of the Philistines, — in that the rod of him that smote them was broken ; that is, the power of the kings and kingdom of Judah, which, for many genera- tions, had prevailed against them, — especially in the days of David, 2 Sam. v., and of Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6, — and kept them under, was made weak and insufficient for that purj^ose, verse 29, " Rejoice not thou, whole land of Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken."
It is no wonder if Palestina, that was to be smitten and broken by the rod of God among his people, rejoice at their perplexities and
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402 god's work in founding zion.
distresses when we have seen men so to do who pretend to dwell in Jiidah.
To take them off from their pride and boasting, their triumph and rejoicing, the Lord lets them know that, from the people whom they despised, and that broken rod they trampled upon, their desolation was at hand, though they seem to be perplexed and forsaken for a season, verses 29-31, " Kejoiee not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken : for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying ser- pent. And the first-bom of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety ; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, 0 gate; cry, 0 city; thou, whole Pales- tina, art dissolved : for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times." That it is Hezekiah who is principally intended in these lofty allegorical expressions, that was then rising up from the broken rod of Judah, is evident. He is termed a "cockatrice," and a " fiery flying serpent," not from his own nature, which was tender, meek, and gentle, wherein the comparison doth not at all lie nor hold ; but in respect of the mischief that he should do unto, the irrecoverable destruction that he should bring on, the land of Palestina: which, accordingly, he performed, 2 Kings xviii. 8, " He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city ; " that is, he Avasted and destroyed the whole land, from one end even to the other.
It is, it seems, no neiv thing, that the season of the enemies' re- joicing, built upon the outtuard appearance and state of things among the people of God, is the beginning of their disappointment and de- solation. The Lord make it so in this day of England's expectation, that the rod of it may be strengthened again, yet to smite the whole land of Palestina !