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All worship, not in faith, is fruitless to the worfhipper, as well as difpleafing to God: and this faith is the gift of God, and the nature of it is to purify the heart, and give fuch as truly believe, victory over the world. Well, but they go on: We have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoice in his falvation. The prophet adds, Bleffed are all they that wait upon God: and why? For they that wait upon the Lord fhall renew their strength; they fhall never faint, never be weary: the encouragement is great. O hear him once more! For fince the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye feen, O God! befides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." Behold the inward life and joy of the righteous, the true worshippers; thofe whofe fpirits bowed to the appearance of God's Spirit in them, leaving and forfaking all it appeared against, and embracing whatever it led them to. In Jeremiah's time, the true worshippers alfo waited upon God:" and he affures us, that The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the foul that feeketh him. Hence it is, that the prophet Hofea exhorts the church then, to turn and wait upon God. Therefore turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually." And Micah is very zealous and refolute in this good exercise: I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of Jer. xiv. 22.

'Ifaiah xxx. 18. Isaiah xl. 31. m Ifaiah Ixiv. 4. n

• Lam. iii. 25.

* Hof. xii, 6.

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falvation my God will hear me. the children of the fpirit, that thirsted after an inward sense of him. The wicked cannot fay fo; nor they that pray, unless they wait. It is charged upon Ifrael in the wildernefs, as the cause of their disobedience and ingratitude to God, that they waited not for his counfels. We may be fure it is our duty, and expected from us; for God requires it in Zephaniah: Therefore wait upon me, faith the Lord, until the day that I arife,' &c. O that all who profefs the name of God, would wait fo, and not offer to arise to worship without him. And they would feel his ftirrings and arifings in them to help and prepare, and fanctify them. Chrift exprefsly charged his difciples, They fhould not ftir from Jerufalem, but wait till they had received the promife of the Father, the baptifm of the Holy Ghoft, in order to their preparation for the preaching of the glorious gospel of Chrift to the world. And though that were an extraordinary effufion for an extraordinary work, yet the degree does not change the kind; on the contrary, if fo much waiting and preparation by the spirit was requifite to fit them to preach to man; fome, at least, may be needful to fit us to speak to God.

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§. XII. I will clofe this great fcripture doctrine of waiting, with that paffage in John, about the pool of Bethefda: There is at Jerufalem, by the sheep-market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having

↑ Mic. vii. 7. * Zeph, iii. 8. • Acts i. 4. 8.

five porches; in thefe lay a great multitude of impotent folks, of blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain feafon into the pool, and troubled the water: whofoever then firft, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. A most exact representation of what is intended by all that has been faid upon the fubject of waiting. For as there was then an outward and legal, fo there is now a gospel and fpiritual Jerufalem, the church of God, confifting of the faithful. The pool in that old Jerufalem, in fome fort, represented that fountain, which is now fet open in this new Jerufalem. That pool was for those that were under infirmities of body; this fountain for all that are impotent in foul. There was an angel then that moved the water, to render it beneficial; it is God's angel now, the great angel of his presence, that bleffeth this fountain with fuccefs. They that then went in before, and did not watch the angel, and take advantage of his motion, found no benefit of their stepping in: thofe that now wait not the moving of God's angel, but by the devotion of their own forming and timing, rush before God, as the horfe into the battle, and hope for fuccefs, are fure to miscarry in their expectation. Therefore, as then they waited with all patience and attention upon the angel's motion, that wanted and defired to be cured; fo do the true worfhippers of God now, that Jehn v. 2, 3, 4.

need and pray for his prefence, which is the life of their fouls, as the fun is to the plants of the field. They have often tried the unprofitableness of their own work, and are now come to the fabbath indeed. They dare not put up a device of their own, or offer an unfanctified request, much lefs obtrude bodily worship, where the foul is really infenfible or unprepared by the Lord. In the light of Jefus they ever wait to be prepared, retired, and reclufe from all thoughts that cause the leaft distraction and discomposure in the mind, till they see the angel move, and till their beloved please to wake: nor dare they call him before his time. And they fear to make a devotion in his abfence; for they know it is not only unprofitable, but reprovable: Who has required this at your hands? He that believes, makes not hate." They that worship with their own, can only do as the Ifraelites, turn their ear-rings into a molten image, and be curfed for their pains. Nor fared they better, That gathered fticks of old, and kindled a fire, and compaffed themselves about with the sparks that they had kindled; for God told them, They should lie down in forrow. It fhould not only be of no advantage, and do them no good, but incur a judgment from him: forrow and anguish of foul should be their portion. Alas! flesh and blood would fain pray, though it cannot wait; and be a faint, though it can not abide to do or fuffer the will of God. With the tongue it bleffes God, and with the

"Ifa. i. 12. and xxviii. 16.

* Ifaiah 1. 11.

tongue it curfes men, made in his fimilitude. It calls Jefus LORD, but not by the Holy Ghoft; and often names the name of Jefus, yea, bows the knee to it too; but departs not from iniquity: this is abominable to God.

§. XIII. In fhort, there are four things fo neceffary to worfhipping of God aright, and which put its performance beyond man's power, that there feems little more needed than the naming of them. The firft is, The fanctification of the worshipper.

Secondly, The confecration of the offering; which has been spoken to before fomewhat largely. Thirdly, What to pray for; which no man knows, that prays not by the aid of God's fpirit; and therefore, without that fpirit, no man can truly pray. This the apoftle puts beyond difpute; We know not, fays he, what we fhould pray for, as we ought, but the spirit helpeth our infirmities. Men unacquainted with the work and power of the Holy Spirit, are ignorant of the mind of God; and those, certainly, can never please him with their prayers. It is not enough to know we want; but we fhould learn whether it be not fent us a bleffing: disappointments to the proud; loffes to the covetous; and to the negligent stripes: to remove thefe, were to fecure the deftruction, not help the falvation, of the soul.

The vile world knows nothing but carnally, after a fleshly manner and interpretation; and too many that would be thought enlightened, are apt to call providences by wrong names:

7 Rom. viii, 26.

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