Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 9
SERMON IX.
Preached at a Churching.
MICAH 2. 10.
Arise and depart, for this is not your Rest.
ALL that God asks of us, is, that we love him with all our heart: All that he promises us, is, that he will give us rest, round about us; Judah sought the Lord with a whole desire, and he gave her rest, round about her. Now a Man might think himselfe well disposed for Rest, when he lies down, I will lay me down, and sleep in peace, sayes David; but it is otherwise here;Psal. 4. 8. Arise, and depart; for here, (that is, in lying, and sleeping) is not your Rest, sayes this Prophet. These words have a three-fold acceptation, and admit a three-fold exposition; for, first, they are a Commination, the Prophet threatens the Jewes; Secondly, they are a Commonition, the Prophet instructs all future ages; Thirdly, they are…a Consolation, which hath reference to the Consummation of all, to the rising at the generall Judgement. First, he foretels the Jewes of their imminent captivity; Howsoever you build upon the pactum salis, the Covenant of salt, the everlasting Covenant, that God will be your God, and this land your land, yet since that confidence sears you up in your sins, Arise and depart, for this is not your rest, your Ierusalem must be chang'd into Babylon; there's the Commination: Secondly, he warns us, who are bedded and bedrid in our sins; howsoever you say to your selves, Soule take thy rest, enjoy the honors, the pleasures, the abundances of this world, Tush the Lord sees it not, The Master will not come, we may ly still safely, and rest in the fruition of this Happinesse, yet this Rest will betray you, this rest will deliver you over to eternall disquiet: And therefore arise and depart, for this is not your Rest, and that's the Commonition. And in the third acceptation of the words as they may have relation to the Resurrection, they may well admit a little inversion; Howsoever you feel a Resurrection by grace from the works of death, and darknesse in this life, yet in this life, there is no assurednesse, that he that is risen, and thinks he stands, shall not fall; here you arise and depart, that is, rise from your sins, and depart from your sinfull purposes, but you arise, and depart so too, that you fall, and depart again into your sinfull purposes, after you have risen; and therefore Depart and arise, for here is not your rest; till you depart altogether out of this world, and rise to Judgement, you can have no such rest, as can admit no disquiet no perturbation; but then you shall; and that's the Consolation.
First then, as the words concern the Iewes; Here is first an increpation,1. Part. Divisio. a rebuke, that they are fallen from their station, and their dignity, implied in the first word, Arise, for then they were fallen; Secondly, here is a demonstration in the same word, That though they lik'd that state into which they were fallen, which was a security, and stubbornnesse in their sins, yet they should not enjoy even that security, and that stubbornnesse, that fall of theirs, but they should lose that; though it were but a false contentment, yet they should be rou…'d out of that, Arise; first arise, because you are fallen, and then, arise, though you think your selves at ease… by that fall. And then thirdly, here is a continuation of Gods anger, when they are risen; for they are not rais'd to their former state and dignity, from which they were fallen, they are not rais'd to be established, but it is arise, and depart; And in all this (which is a fourth Consideration) God precludes them from any hope by solicitation, he reveales his purpose his Decree, and consequently his inexorablenesse evidently, in that word, for; never murmur, never dispute, never intreat, you must depart, For it is determined, it is resolved, and here is not your Rest; In which also the Commination is yet more and more aggravated; first, in that they lose their Rest, which God hath sold them so dearly, by so many battailes, and so many afflictions, and which God had sworn to them so solemnly by so many ratifications; they must lose their Rest, they must have no Rest, Here; not there; not in the Land of Promise it selfe; And then lastly, as they are denied all rest there; There, where was the wombe, and Center of their Rest, so there is no intimation, no hope given, that they should have rest any where else, for as they were to rise, onelyonly to depart, so they were to depart into Captivity.
The first is an increpation, they were fallen; but from whence? It was once said,Increpatio. Ceciderunt. Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat, but he that is earth it selfe, whither can he fall? whither can Man, derived from earth before his life, enamored of the earth, embracing it, and maried to it in his life, destined to the earth, betrothed to it for a second mariage after this life, whither can he fall? It is true of us all, I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my Mother, and my sister; Iob 16. 14.and can we fall into worse company, contract an alliance with a more base, and beggerly kindred then this? Not if we were left there; then we could not: but when we consider a nation, of whom God hath said, sponsabo te mihi, I will mary thee, without any respect of disparagement in thy lownesse, I will not refuse thee for it, I will not upbraid thee with it, I will mary thee for ever, and without any purpose of divorce (sponsabo in aeternum,) of this nation thus assum'd, thus contracted, thus endowed, thus assured, why may not we wonder as vehemently, as the Prophet did, of the fallen Angels, Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer filius Orientis, how did this nation fall out of Gods armes, out of Gods bosome? Himselfe tells us how; what he had done to exalt them, what they had done to devest his favours: for their naturall lownes, he says, In thy nativity when thou wast born, thy Navell was not cut, thou wast not washed, thou wast not salted, thou wast not swadled; No eye pitied thee, but thou wast cast into the open fields in contempt, I passed by,Ezek. 16. 3. and saw thee in thy bloud, and said thou shalt live; I sware unto thee, and entred into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine; I washed thee, anointed thee, and adorned thee: and thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I set upon thee; well then, in this state, Quomodo cecidisti de caelo; how fell she out of Gods armes, out of his bosome? thus; Thou didst trust in thine owne beauty, because of thy renowne, and so playedst the harlor. When that nation was in massa damnata, a loafe of Adams dow, through all which the infectious leaven of sin had passed without difference, when that nation had no more title, nor pretence to Gods mercy, then any of their fellow wormes, when God had heaped, and accumulated his tempor all blessings upon them, and above all, dwelt with them, in the alliance, and in the familiarity of a particular Religion, which contracted God and them, and left out all the world beside, when God had imprinted this beauty in them, and that they had a renowne, and reputation for that, they trusted to their owne beauty, (to worship whom they would, and how they would) they followed their own invention; yea they trusted in beauty, which was not their owne, in borrowed beauty, in painted beauty, and so tooke in, and applied themselves to all the spirituall fornications, to all the Idolatries of the nations about them; some that were too absurd to be hearkned to; some too obscene, and foule to be named now by us, though the Prophets, (to their farther reproach, and confusion) have named them; some, too ridiculous to fall into any Mans consideration, that could seriously thinke of a Majesty, in a God, which should be worshipped; yet all these, absurd, and obscene, and ridiculous Idolatries, they prostituted them selves unto.
Take them in their lowness, for any disposition towards the next world, and this was their state, Their navell was not cut; that is, they were still incorporated into their mother, to earth, and to sinne; and they were not one step higher, then all the world beside, in Iacobs ladder, whose top is in heaven. Take them in their dignity in this world, and then we finde them in Egypt, where they were not Personae, but Res, they were not their Masters Men, but their Masters goods; they were their cattell, to vex, and wear out, with their labours spent upon the delights of others; They must goe farre for straw; a great labour, for a little matter; and they must burne it, when they had brought it; they must make bricke, but others must build houses, with their materialls, and they perish in the fields; they must beget children, but onelyonly for the slaughter, and to be murdred as soone… they were borne; what nation, what Man, what beast, what worme, what weed, if it could have understood their state, would have changed with them then?
This was their dejection, their exinanition in Egypt, if we shall beginne there to consider, what he did for them: As after, in the Christian Church, he made the bloud of the Martyrs, the seed of the Church, so in Egypt, he propagated, and multiplied his Children, in the midst of their cruell oppressions, and slaughters, as though their bloud had been seed to encrease by; under the weight of their depressions, he gave them growth, and stature, and strength, as though their wounds had been playsters, and their vexations cordials; when he had made Egypt as a Hell, by kindling all his plagues, in her bosome, yet Non dereliquit in Inferno, he left not his beloved in this Hell, he paled in a Paradise in this Hell, a Goshen in Egypt, and gave his servants security; briefly, those whom the sword should have lessen'd, whom labour should have creepled, whom contempt should have begger'd, he brought out, numerous, and in multitudes, strong, and in courage, rich, and in abundance; and he opened the Red-sea, as he should have opened the booke of life, to shew them their Names, their security, and he shut the sea, as that book, upon the Egyptians, to shew them their irrecoverable exclusion. If we consider, what he did for them, what he suffered from them, in their way, the battailes, that he fought for them, in an out-stretched arm, the battails, that they fought against him, in the stifnesse of their necks, and their murmuring, we must, to their confusion, acknowledge, that at a great deale a lesse price, then he paid for them, he might have gained all the people of the earth; all the Nations of the earth, (in app…arance) would have come in to his subjection, upon the thousand part of that which he did for the Israelites in their way. But for that which he did for them, at home, when he had planted them in the Land of Promise, as it were an ungratefull thing, not to remember those blessings, so it is some degree of ingratitude, to think them possible to be numbred. Consider the narrownesse of the Land, (scarce equall to three of our shires) and their innumerable armies; consider the barrennesse of many parts of that Countrey, and their innumerable sacrifices of Cattell; consider their little trade, in respect, and their innumerable treasures; but consider especially, what God had done for their soules, in promising, and ratifying so often a Messias unto them, and giving them Law and Prophers, in the mean time, and there you see their true height; and then consider the abominations, and Idolatries, in which they had plung'd, and buried themselves, and there you see their lownesse, how far they were fallen.
This then was their descent;Non gaudebunt. and as Saint Paul sayes (when he describes this descent of the Jewes, into all manner of abominations) one step of this stayre, of this descent, is, unnaturall affection, they were unnaturall to themselves; that is, not sensible of their own misery, but were proud of their fall, and thought themselves at ease in their ruine; and another stayre in this fall is,Rom. 1. 28. that God had delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to suffer them to think so still. And then for their farther vexation, God would take from them, even that false, that imaginary comfort of theirs. Surgite, sayes God, since you have made that perverse shift, to take comfort in your fall, Arise from that, from that security, from that stupidity, for you shall not chuse but see your misery; when all the people were descended to that basenesse, (as nothing is more base, then to court the world, and the Devill, for poore and wretched delights, when we may have plentifull, and rich abundance in our confidence in God) when the people were all of one mind, and one voice, omnes unius labii, their hearts,Gen. 11. Aug. and tongues spoke all one language, and, (populus tanto deterior, quanto in deterioribus concors, Men are the worse, the more they are, and the more unanime, and constant they are in ill purposes) when they were all come to that Venite comburamus, Come, and let us burn brick, and trust in our own work, and Venite, aedificemus, Come, and let us build a tower, and provide a safety for our selves; since they would descend from their dignity, (which dignity consists in the service of God, whose service is perfect freedome) God would descend with them, Venite descendamus, sayes God; but what to doe? Descendamus, ut confundamus, let us goe down to confound their language, and to scatter them upon the earth. Ascensio mendax, descensio crudelis, Bern.sayes holy Bernard, A false ascending, is a cruell descending: when we lye weltring in our bloud, secure in our sins, and can flatter our selves, that we are well, and where we would be, this deceitfull ascension, is a cruell descent into hell; we lye still, we feel no pain, but it is because we have broke our necks; we doe not grone, we doe not sigh, but it is, because our breath is gone, the spirit of God is departed from us. They were descended to a flatnesse of tast, Egyptian Onions had a better savor, then the Manna of heaven; They were descended to a new-fanglednesse in Civill government, they liked the form of government amongst their neighbours, better then that of Iudges, which God had established for them then; They were descended to a newfanglednesse in matter of Religion, to the embracing of a foraine, and a frivolous, and an Idolatrous worship of God: but then being in their descent, when they delighted in it, as Sea-sick men, who had rather be troden upon, then rise up, then God frustrate that false joy and false ease of theirs, he rouses them from all that, which they had proposed to themselves, Surgite, arise, arise from this security, because you are fallen, you should rise, but because you love your misery, you shall rise, you shall come to a sense, and knowledge of it, you shall not enjoy the ease of an ignorance.
But he raised them not,Depart. to reestablish them, to restore them to their former dignity; there was no comfort in that Surgite, which was accompanied with an Ite, arise and depart: and depart into captivity. If we compare the captivity, which they were going into, (that of Babylon) with the other bondage, which they had been delivered from, (that of Egypt) it is true, there were many, and reall, and important differences. That of Egypt was Ergastulum, Exod. 6. 6. Deut. 4. 20.a prison; and it was fornax ferrea, an Iron fornace; but in Babylon, they were not slaves, as they were in Egypt, but they were such a kind of prisoners, as onelyonly had not liberty, to returne to their owne countrey. But yet, if we consider their state in Egypt in their roote, in Iacob, and in his sonnes, they came for food thither in a time of necessity; and consider them in that branch that overshadowed, and refreshed them, in Ioseph, he came thither as a bondman, in a servile condition. So that they were but few persons, and not so great, as that their pressures could be aggravated, or taste much more the bitterly, by comparing it, with any greatnesse which they had before; Though they were fallen into great misery, they were not fallen from any remarkeable greatnesse. But between the two captivities of Egypt, and Babylon, they were come to that greatnesse, and reputation, as that they had the testimony of all the world,Deut. 4. 6. OnelyOnly this people is wise, and of understanding, and a great nation. Now wherein? In that which followes; what nation is so great, as to have the Lord come so neare unto them; so great, as to have Lawes, and Ordinances, so righteous, as they had? Now this peculiar greatnesse, they lost in this captivity; whether they lost absolutely the bookes of the Law, or not, and that they were reinspired, and redictated againe by the holy Ghost to Esdras, or whether Esdras did but recollect them, and recompile them, Saint Hierome will not determine: He will not say whether Moses, or Esdras, be author of the first five bookes of the Bible; but it is cleare enough, that they were out of that ordinary use wherein they had been before: and though they kept their Circumcision, and their Sabbaths in Babylon, yet being cast thither for their sinnes, they had lost all ordinary expiations of their sinnes, for they had no sacrifices there; (as the Iews, which are now in dispersion, are everywhere without their sacrifices) They were to rise, but not to stay, Arise and depart; And they were to depart, both from their Imaginary comforts, which they had framed, and proposed to themselves (when they were fallen from God, they should be deceived in their trust in themselves) and they were to depart even with the law, and ordinances, in which their preheminence, and prerogative above all nations consisted: when Man comes to be content with this world, God will take this world from him: when Man frames to himselfe imaginary pleasures, God will inflict reall punishments; when he would lie still, he shall not sleep; but God will take him and raise him, but to a farther vexation.
And this vexation hath another heavy weight upon it,Quia. in this little word, for; for this drawes a Curtain between the face of God, and them: this locks a dore between the Court of mercy, and them, when God presents his judgements with such an assurednesse, such a resolution, as leaves no hope in their heart, that God will alter it, no power in themselves to solicite God to a pardon,Prov. or a reprieve; but as he was led as a foole to the stocks, when he hearkened to pleasant sins before, so he is led as an oxe to the slaughters, when he hears of Gods Judgements now; his own Conscience prevents God, and tels him, there is a for, a reason, a necessity, an irrecoverablenesse in his condemnation. God had iterated, and multiplied this Quia, this for, oftentimes in their ears: This Prophet was no upstart, no sodain, no transitory Man, to passe through the streets with a Vae, Vae, Wo, wo unto this City, and no more; but he prophecied constantly,v. 1. during the reign of three Kings, of Iotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah: He was no suspitious Man out of his singularity; but he prophecied jointly with Isaiah, without separation, and he held the communion of his fellow-Prophets; He was no particular man, (as many Interpreters have taken it) so, as that he addressed his prophecies upon Iudah onelyonly; but he extended it to all, to all the Tribes. It is not a prophecy limited to Idolatry, and the sins against the first Table, but to robbery, and murder, and fornication, and oppression, and the sins between Man, and Man: It is not a timorous prophecy, directed onelyonly to persons, whom a low fortune, and a miserable estate, or a sense of sin, and a wounded Conscience, had depress'd, and dejected, but principally bent upon rulers and Magistrates, and great persons. So that no Man hath a Quia against this Quia, a for against this for, to say, we need not heed him, for he is an upstart, a singular person, and all these his threatnings are rather Satyricall, then Propheticall, or Theologicall; but this thunderbolt, this Quia, this reason, why these judgements must necessarily fall upon them, fell upon them with so much violence, as that it stupefied with the weight, and precluded all wayes of escape. These be the heaviest Texts that a Man can light upon in the Scriptures of God, and these be the heaviest Commentaries, that a Man can make upon these Texts, that when God wakens him and raises him from his dream, and bed of sin, and pleasure, and raises him with the voice of his judgements, he suffers him to read to the Quia, but not to come to the Tamen; He comes to see reason why that Judgement must fall, but not to see any remedy. His inordinate Melancholy, and halfe desperate sadnesse carries his eye, and mind upon a hundred places of Commination, of threatning in the Prophets, and in them all he finds quickly that Quia, This curse must fall upon me, for I am faln into it; but he comes not to the Tamen, to that reliefe, yet turn to the Lord, and he will turne to thee. This was a particular step in their misery, that when they were awaked, and risen, that is, taken away from all tast, and comfort, in their own imaginations, and pleasures, when God was ready to give fire to all that artillery, which he had charged against them, in the service of all the Prophets, they could see no refuge, no sanctuary, nothing but a quia, an irresistiblenesse, an irremediablenesse, a necessity of perishing; a great while there was no such thing, as Judgement, (God cannot see us) Now, there is no such thing as Mercy, (God will not see us.)
What then is this heavy Judgement,Quies. that is threatned … It is the deprivation of Rest. Though there be no war, no pestilence, no new positive calamity, yet privative calamities are heavy Judgements; to lose that Gospell, that Religion, which they had, is a heavy losse; Deprivations are heavy Calamities; and here they are deprived of Rest; Here is not your Rest: Now, besides that betwixt us and heaven, there is nothing that rests, (all the Elements, all the planets, all the spheres are in perpetuall motion, and vicisitude) and so the Joyes of heaven are express'd unto us, in that name of Rest; Certainly this blessing of Rest was more pretious, more acceptable to the Jewes, then to any other Nation; and so they more sensible of the losse of it, then any other. For as Gods first promise, and the often ratification of it, had ever accustom'd them to a longing for that promis'd rest, as their long, and laborious peregrinations, had made them ambitious, and hungry of that Rest, so had they (which no other Nation had but they) a particular feast of a Sabhath, appointed for them, both for a …all cessation and rest from bodily labours, and for a figurative expressing of the eternall Rest, their imagination, their understanding, their faith, was fill'd with this apprehension of Rest. When the contentment and satisfaction, which God took in … sacrifice, after he came out of the Ark, is express'd, it is express'd thus, The Lord … a savor of Rest; Gen. 8. 21.our services to God, are a Rest to him; he rests in our devotions; And when the Idolatrous service, and forbidden sacrifices of the people are expressed,Ezck. 20. 28. they are expressed thus, When I had brought them into the Land, Po…u…runt ibi …dorem quieturn suarum, they placed there the sweet savors of their own Rest; not of Gods Rest, (his true Religion) but their own Rest, a Religion, which they, for collaterll respects, rested in. And therefore when God threatens here, that there shall be no rest, that is, none of his rest, he would take from them their Law, their Sacrifices, their Religion, in which he was pleas'd, and rested gratious towards them, he will change their Religion: And when he sayes, Here is not your Rest, he threatens to take from them, that Rest, that Peace, that Quiet which they had propos'd, and imagin'd to themselves; when they say to themselves, Why, 'tis no great matter; we may doe well enough for all that, though our Religion be chang'd; he will impoverish them, he will disarm them, he wil infatuate them, he wil make them a prey to their enemies, & take away all true, and all imaginary rest too.
Briefly,Tertul. it is the mark of all men, even naturall men, Rest: for though Tertullian condemn that, to call Quietis Magisterium Sapientiam, The act of being, and living at quiet, wisdome, therein seeming to exclude all wisdome, that conduces not to rest, as though there were no wisdome, in action, and in businesse; Though in the person of Epicurus he condemn that, and that saying, Nemo alii nascitur, moriturus sibi, It is no reason, that any Man should think himselfe born for others, since he cannot live to himselfe, or to labour for others, since himselfe cannot enjoy rest, yet Tertullian leaving the Epicures, that placed felicity in a stupid, and unsociable retiring, sayes in his own person, and in his own opinion, almost as much, Vnicum mihi negotium, nec aliud curo, quam ne curem, All that I care for, is that I might care for nothing; and so, even Tertullian, in his Christian Philosophy, places happinesse in rest; Now, he speaks not onelyonly of the things of this world, they must necessarily be car'd for, in their proportion; we must not decline the businesses of this life, and the offices of society, out of an aëry, and imaginary affection of rest: our principall rest is, in the testimony of our Conscience, and in doing that which we were sent to doe; And to have a Rest, and peace, in a Conscience of having done that religiously, and acceptably to God, is our true Rest: and this was the rest, which the Jewes were to lose in this place, the testimony of their consciences, that they had perform'd their part, their Conditions, so, that they might rely upon Gods promises, of a perpetuall rest in the Land of Canaan; and that rest they could not have; not that peacefull testimony of their Consciences.
They could not have that rest,Hic. no Rest, not there, not in Canaan; which was the highest degree of the misery, because they were confident in their term, their state in that Land, that it should be perpetuall; and they were confident in the goodnesse of the Land, that it should evermore give them all conveniencies in abundance, conducing to all kind of rest: for, this Land, God himself cals by the name of rest, and of his rest; Psal. 95. 11. Aug. Ser. 105. de tempore.I sware they should not enter into my rest; So that, rest was proper to this Land, and this Land was proper to them. For, (as St. Augustine notes well) though God recover'd this Land for them, and reestablish'd miraculously their possession, yet they came but in their Remitter, and in postliminio, the inheritance of that Land, was theirs before: for, Sem the son of Neah, was in possession of this Land; and the sons of Cham, the Canaanites, expel'd his race out of it; and Abraham of the race of Sem, was restor'd unto it again: So that, as the goodnesse of the Land promis'd rest, so the goodnesse of the title promis'd them the Land; and yet they might have no rest there.
They had a better title then that; Those often oathes, which God had sworne unto them, that that land should be theirs forever, was their evidence; If then that land were Requies Domini, the rest of the Lord, that is, the best, and the safest Rest, and that land were their land, why should they not have that rest here, when the Lord had sworne they should? Why, because he swore the contrary after; but will God sweare contrary things?Aug. why, s…lus securus jurat, qui falli…non potest, says Saint Augustine, onelyonly he can sweare a thing safely, that sees all circumstances, and foresees all occurrances; onelyonly God can sweare safely, because nothing can be hid from him. God therefore that knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath, and knew againe how contemptuously those conditions were broken, he takes knowledge that he had sworne, he denies not that,Psal. 95. 11. but he sweares againe, and in his anger, I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. Those Men (says he) which have seen my glory and my Miracles, and have tempted me tenne times, and not obeyed my voyce, certainly they shall not see the land whereof I sware unto their fathers; Numb. 14. 23.neither shall any that provoke me see it; He pleads not Non est factum, but he pleads conditions performed; he denies not that he swore but he justifies himselfe, that he had done as much as he promised; for his promise was conditionall. The Apostle seemes to assigne but one reason of their exclusion, from this Land, and from this rest, and yet he expresses that one Reason so, as that it hath two branches;Heb. 3. 18, 19. He sayes, we see that they could not enter, because of unbeleef and yet he asks the question; To whom sware he, that they should not enter into his Rest, but unto them, that obeyed not? Vnbeleef is assigned for the cause, and yet they were shut out for disobedience; now, if the Apostle make it all one, whether want of faith, or want of works, exclude us from the Land of Rest, let not us be too curious enquirers, whether faith or works bring us thither; for neither faith, nor works bring us thither, as a full cause; but if we consider mediate causes, so they may be both causes; faith, instrumentall, works, declaratory; faith may be as evidence, works as the scale of it; but the cause is onelyonly, the free election of God. Nor ever shall we come thither, if we leave out either; we shall meet as many Men in heaven, that have lived without faith, as without works.
This then was the case; God had sworne to them an inheritance permanently there, but upon condition of their obedience; If they had not had a privity in the condition, if they had not had a possibility to perform the condition, their exclusion might haveseemed unjust: and it had been so; for though God might justly have forborne the promise, yet he could not justly breake the promise, if they had kept the conditions; therefore he expressed the condition without any disguise, at first,Deut. 30. 17. If thy heart turne away, …pr… nounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish… you shall not prolong your dayes in the land. And then, when those conditions were made, and made knowne, and made easie, and accepted, when they so rebelliously broke all conditions, his first oath lay not in his way,Ezek. 17. 19. to stop him from the second, As I live, saith the Lord, I will surely bring mine oath that they have broken, and my covenant that they have despised upon their head, shall they breake my covenant, and he delivered, says God there.v. 15. God confesses the oath and the covenant, to be his covenant and his oath, but the breach of the oath, and covenant, was theirs, and not his.
He expresses his promise to them, and his departing from them together, in another Propher; God says to the Propher, Buy thee a girdle, bury it in the ground, and fetch it againe; And then it was rotten, and good for nothing: for says he, as the girdle cleaveth to the loines, so have I tyed to me the house of Israel, and Iudah, that they might be my people, that they might have a name and a praise, and a glory, but they would not heare; Therefore, say unto them, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; (Here was a promise of plenty:) and they shall say unto thee, Doe not we know, that every bottle shall be filled with wine… (that God is bound to give us this plenty?) because he hath tyed himselfe by oath, and covenunt, and promise.) But behold, I fill all the inhabitants with drunkennesse; (since they trust in their plenty, that shall be an occasion of sinne to them) and I will dash them against one another, even the father, and sonnes together; I will not spare, I will not pity, I will not have compassion, but destroy them. God could not promise more, then he did in this place at first; he could not depart farther from that promise, then by their occasion, he came to at last. Gods promise goes no farther with Moses himselfe; My presence shall goe with thee, and I will give thee rest; Exod. 24. 14.If we will steale out of Gods presence,Prov. 4. 1. into darke and sinfull corners, there is no rest promised. Receive my words, Psal. 37. 3.says Solomon, and the years of thy life shall be many; Trust in the Lord, says David, and doe good, (performe both, stand upon those two leggs, faith, and works; not that they are alike; there is a right, and a left legge: but stand upon both; upon one in the sight of God; upon the other in the sight of Man;) Trust in the Lord, and doe good, and then shall dwell in the land, and be fed assuredly. That paradise, that peace of Conscience, which God establishes in thee, by faith, hath a condition, of growth, and encrease, from faith to faith; heaven it selfe, in which the Angells were, had a condition; they might, they did fall from thence; The land of Canaan, was their own land, and the rest of that land, their Rest by Gods oath, and covenant; and yet here was not their rest: not here; nor for any thing expressed, or intimated in the word, any where else. Here was a Nunc dimittis, but not in pace; The Lord lets them depart, and makes them depart, but not in peace, for their eyes saw no salvation; they were sent away to a heavy captivity. Beloved, we may have had a Canaan, an inheritance, a comfortable assurance in our bosomes, in our consciences, and yet heare that voice after, that here is not our rest, except, as Gods goodnesse at first moved him to make one oath unto us, of a conditionall rest, as our sins have put God to his second oath, that he sware we should not have his rest, so our repentance bring him to a third oath, as I live I would not the death of a sinner, that so he doe not onelyonly make a new contract with us, but give us withall an ability, to performe the conditions, which he requires.