fenfible of your Condition, as to fay, Alas my Brother.

You must look for affliction in the World, but you must look for no comfort there. When God fhall caft us into forrows and fufferings, let us not look for one worldly man to ftand by us, no not of those that now fmile upon us, and pretend friendship to us; no nor yet of our near Relations; but then that fhall be fulfilled, I was a franger to my brethren, an alien to my mothers children. Nay yet further, they that are weak or worldly Chriftians, will ftand aloof from thee, and will be fhye to own, and countenance, and encourage, and comfort thee publickly. The Dif ciples of Chrift, when he was led to the Crofs, they all forfook him, and fled, and left him to tread the wine prefs alone. And fo if you fuffer, in the righteousness and truth of God, you fhall find little comfort from men. O thou afflicted, toffed with tempeft, and not comforted.

Now this the Lord doth in much mercy to his Saints, he leaves them deftitute of earthly Comfort, that they may look for heavenly; he leaves them deftitute of all comfort from men, that they may look for comfort from God alone. And therefore when thou art brought into fuch a cafe, to be afflicted and not comforted, lift up thy heart to God, and expect all from him. Saith Chrift, Joh. 16. The world fhall hate you and perfecute you, and fhall put you out of their fynagogues, and (hall kill you; and in doing all this, fhall think they do God good fervice: But, faith he, I will send you the comforter. Chrift knew well enough, that among all thefe evils, they fhould have no Comforter on Earth, and therefore promises to fend them one from Heaven.

And therefore, when thy Soul is placed in affliction, never look after any earthly or fenfual, or

creature

Church in

creature comforts, for they will prove poifon to thy Soul; but only look for heavenly comforts, fuch as the Spirit brings, fuch as flow immediately from God; for thefe are pure, and fweet, and unmixed, and refreshing, and fupporting, and fatisfying, and enduring comforts; comforts that are able to make thee rejoyce, not only in fulnefs. but in wants; not only among friends, but in the midst of enemies; not only in good report, but in evil report; not only in profperity, but in tribulation; not only in life, but in death; they will make thee go finging to Prifon, to the Crofs, to the Grave; they are mighty Comforts, infinitely stronger than all the Sorows of the flesh; and hence it is that many Saints and Martyrs have gone cheerfully to the ftake, and fung in the very flames; the comforts of God in their Souls, have ftrengthned them to this.

Thou that art a Believer, and in Union with Chrift, never doubt of this comfort in thy greateft forrows. When Chrift had none to ftand by him and comfort him, God fent an Angel from Heaven to do it: And fo when we are left alone in the world, rather than we shall want comfort, God will fend us an Angel from Heaven to comfort us; yea, the Spirit it felf, which is greater than all the Angels in Heaven; and we fhall certainly be comforted by God, when we are af flicted and toffed with tempeft, and not comforted by Men.

Behold, I will lay thy ftones with fair colours, &c. The Spiri- The Lord feeth the Church in its affliction, tual without all comfort in the world, and then the affliction, Lord comes and comforts it himself, and this he comforted doth by a Promife. They are the fweetest comby a pro- forts, that are brought to us in the Promifes. mife. The Promises are the fwadling-clothes of Chrift, they carry Chrift wrapt up in them; and Chrift

reprefented

represented to the Church, hath been the comfort of it, in all its evils, outward or inward.

And therefore whatever affliction takes hold on thee, have recourfe to the promises, to draw thy comforts from Chrift through them. Oh how sweet is that life that is led in the promifes! a life led in the promises, is the best life in the world. Men that have Eftates in Money or Land, depend on thofe things for their maintenance, but a Chriftian may have little or nothing of these in the world, but he hath a promise, which is a thousand times better, and makes his life more comfortable: I am God All-fufficient; and, I will not fail thee nor forfake thee; whereupon he comes to this refolution, The Lord is my portion, faith my foul, I will trust in him. O how fweet a life is this life, that knows no cares, nor fears, nor troubles, nor difquietments! here, faith a Believer, lies my Estate, and Living, and the Lot of mine Inheritance; and this is a thoufand times better and more certain Estate, than all the Mannors and Lordships in the Kingdom; for, my bread Jhall be given me, my waters fhall be fure; The Lord is my fhepherd, and I shall not want; no not then, when the Lyons (the great Men of the Kingdom, to whom every poor man is a prey) fhall lack and fuffer hunger. He that hath given me his own Nature and Spirit, will not leave me destitute of food and cloathing.

Take another Inftance. A Man feeling the bitterness of affliction to flesh and blood, is ready to think, Oh how fhall I ever be able to suffer this or that, or to part with my Relations, with my Eftate, with my Life, and all that is near and dear unto me? Why, when a Christian lays hold on the promise, Gcd is faithful, and will not fuffer us to be tempted above that which we are able. O, faith a Christian, God will never bring me to

any

The fpecial promife

any temptation or trial, but he will give me ftrength proportionable to it, or above it; and fo lives fatisfied with the truth, and goodness, and power of God. And thus you fee in these instances, that a Life led in the promises, is the fweeteft and beft Life; when a Man can draw all from God himself, through a promise.

And this in general, That God comforts his Church by a Promife.

But to come more particularly to the words. Behold, I will lay thy ftones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with Saphires.

Verf. 12. And I will make thy windows of Aga tes, and thy gates of Carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant ftones.

The Promife relates to the Spiritual Church of the New-Teftament; and this you shall obferve, that com is oft in Scripture compared to a Building, and forts the Church, is, that to a moft ftately, fumptuous, magnificent that God and glorious Building, as being all built of prebimfelf cious ftones, and fo more glorious than the first Shall build Temple, which was built up of common ftones; it up glo- and it was Prophefied, that the glory of the feriously.

cond Temple fhould far exceed the glory of the firft. The firft Temple was Solomons, which was indeed filled with the outward prefence of God; but the fecond Temple is the humanity of Jefus Chrift, or the flesh of Chrift, both Head and Members; this is the living Temple of the living God; the Temple that God hath built by his Spirit, for his own Habitation, wherein God dwells truly, really, fpiritually, and most neerly, by the way of the moft near Union, whereby God and the Creature are knit together; and this Spiritual Temple is more glorious than the firft material one, either according to the first edition of it by Solomon, or the fecond edition of it by the Fathers, in the days of Cyrus, Darius, and Artax

erxes.

Herc

2

Here then you fee, that the Lord promifeth to build up the Church of the New-Teftament, with ftones of fair colours, with precious ftones. Í will not ftand to enquire particularly into the natures of the several stones here named; for the Jews themselves do not fully agree about them. It fhall be fufficient for us to attain to the meaning of the Spirit in this place, and that is this.

That the Spiritual Church of the New-Teftament, is not to be built with common, but with precious ftones.

Now the full fense of these words I shall give you forth in feveral Particulars.

1. You fee here the matter of which the Church The matter of the New-Teftament is made; and that is not of which of common, but of precious ftones; elect and the Spiri precious ftones; and fuch are the faithful: For, Church is

tual

1. They have a more excellent nature than o- made. ther men have; for they are born of God, and fo partake of the nature of God; and fo in this fense may be faid to come forth from God, as the Child from the Father; and the Lord Jesus did not more truly partake of the nature of Man, than thefe do partake of the nature of God; and therefore faith Peter, Great and precious promifes are made to us, that we should be partakers of the divine nature. Others have only the nature of men in them, or which is worse, the nature of the Devil; but the faithful, have in them the nature of God, communicated to them through a New Birth.

2. They have a more excellent Spirit than others have; as it was faid of Daniel, that there was a more excellent Spirit found with him, than with all the other wife men. Now the excellency of each Creature, is according to the Spirit of it, but the Saints have the Spirit of God, even the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwelling in them; G

they