1. It is a fad time with them, when the Lord hides his face from them; "Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled," Pfalm xxx. 7. When they are made to cry out, "How long wilt thou forget me! how long wilt thou hide thy face!" Pfalm xiii. 1.

2. It is a fad time, when the Lord contends with them, and yet doth not tell them wherefore, as it was with Job, when he said, "Shew me wherefore thou

contendeft with me."

3. It is a fad time with them, when God is a terror. to them, and they are put to fay, "Lord, be not a terror unto me, Jer. xvii. 17.-While I fuffer thy terrors, I am distracted."

4. It is a fad time with them, when they are in darknefs, when they walk in darknefs, and have no light, Ifa. 1. 10. When encompaffed with the darkness of fears and doubts, and fad apprehensions,

5. It is a fad time with them, when grace comes under a lamentable decay in their foul, and they are left to pine away in their iniquity; when inftead of tendernefs of heart, hardness of heart seizes them; Ifa, Ixiii. 17. "O Lord, why haft thou made us to err from thy ways? and hardened our heart from thy fear?"

6. It is a fad time with them, when corruption prevails, and when the flaves and fervants come to ride upon horses in their foul; and nothing to be heard but, "O wretched man that I am! who fhail deliver me from the body of this death?"When temptations are throng, and inward hellish injections, tending to atheism, infidelity, blafphemy, and profanity, and many thorns in the flesh buffeting them.-When nothing is left but complaints of hardness, blindness, weakness, impotency, treachery, failings, fhort-comings, and the power of Corruptions and temptations.

III. The Third General Head propofed was, To speak of these sweet grounds of encouragement, that the church or city of God hath amidst these fad times, imported in the RIVER, the ftreams whereof do make glad the city of God. Here I fhall fhew what is the river; why God is

com

compared to a river; and touch at the nature of this gladnefs.

ift, What is the River that makes glad the city of God? I anfwer, God himself is the river, as in the following verfe, God is in the midst of her.

"For my

1. God the Father is the river; Jer. ii. 13. people have committed two great evils; they have forfaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cifterns, broken cifterns, that can hold no water."

2. God the Son is the river, the fountain of falvation; Zech. xiii. 1. "In that day, there fhall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleannefs."

3. God the Spirit is the river; John vii. 38. " He that believeth on me, as the fcripture hath faid, out of his belly fhall flow rivers of living water.-John iv. 14. Whofoever drinketh the water that I fhall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water fpringing up into everlasting life." 2dly, What are the ftreams of this river?

Anfw. The perfections of God, the fulnefs of Chrift the operations of the Spirit; and these running in the channel of the covenant of promife.

1. The perfections of God, O! what an ocean of gladness and joy is here? Here is wisdom, to direct; power, to protect; holiness, to fanctify; juftice, to justify; goodness, to pity; and faithfulness, to make out all that he hath faid. There is more ground of comfort in that one word, I will be thy God, than there is in thousands of worlds. What can they want that have a God to go to? Can they want water that have the ocean, or want light that have the fun? Befides this, God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in all thefe perfections. Here then is fpirituality, to make the gladness and happiness fuited to the nature of the foul: the more fpiritual the gladness is, the more pure and pleasant. Here is infinity, to make it boundless: here is eternity, to makę it endless here is unchangeableness and immutability, to make it steady and immoveable.

2. The fulness of Chrift is another ftream of the river his fulness of purchase; fulness of wisdom, as a

Pro

Prophet; righteoufnefs, as a Prieft; and power, as a King; fulness of grace, as a Surety, to pay all our debts; fulness of fkill, as a Phyfician, to heal all difeafes; and fulness of ftore, as a treasury, for fupplying all wants: "Out of his fulnefs have all we received, and grace for grace," John i. 16. Col. i. 19. and ii. 9, 10.

3. The operations, graces, and influences of the Spirit. Here is another fource of pleasure and comfort: he is the Comforter; and he gives fometimes ftrong confolation. In all his various operations, there are manifold confolations; and hence the Spirit's working is compared to wind, for fanning and itirring up the dormant graces, Song iv. 16.; fometimes to water, for cleanfing the foul heart, John iii. 5.; fometimes to fire, for warming the cold heart, Mat. iii. 11.; and fometimes to oil, for foftening the hard heart, Pfal. xlv. 7. 1 John ii. 27. This is the wind that fills their fails, and forwards their voyage to the heavenly harbour: this is the well of water that fprings up in them to everlafting life: this the fire that makes their hearts burn within them: and this is the oil of joy that anoints the wheels of their fouls for running their Chriftian race; the joy of the Lord is their ftrength. And all running in the channel of the covenant of promife; for we receive the Spirit, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. "Altho' my houfe be not fo with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure: this is all my falvation, and all my my defire. This is my comfort in my affliction, thy word hath quickened me." One fcripture-promife is a cordial beyond all riches, pleafures, and honours of a world; thefe evanifh, but, "The word of the Lord endureth for ever." What comfort can we find without 2 promife? And what can give forrow when God gives a promife? Sickness, with a promife; is better than health; poverty, with a promife, is better than riches; a prifon, with a promife, is better than a palace; bonds and confinement, with a promife, is better than liberty; yea, death, with a promife, is better than life. All that you have, without a promise, you may lose this night, and your fouls and hopes with it; but all that you have,

may

with a promife, you may be fure of it; yea, believer, you be vaftly more fure of that which you have in a promife, than of that which you have in poffeffion: the comfort you have in poffeflion, is but the fiream-comfort, that may be cut off; but the comfort you have in promile, is the fountain comfort, that cannot be cut off: hence you are called to live by faith, and not by fenfe. We may go thro' death rejoicing, with a promife of life in our hand, while infidels ly down in the duft with defperation.

3dly, Why is God in Chrift, by the Spirit, running in the channel of the new covenant, compared to a river?

ANSW. It may be upon account of thefe qualities of a river, the opennefs, plenty, powerfulnefs, purity, and perpetuity of a river.

1. The opennefs and patency of a river. It is open, patent, and common to all that pafs by; fo is God in Chrift, by the Spirit, exhibiting himself in the gofpel difpenfation. No finner is excluded among mankind: "Go preach the gofel to every creature."

2. Rivers are profitable to fome cities, both for navigation and fortification. Some rivers are profitable for commerce, traffic, and conveyance of rich commodities of one kingdom to another; even fo the Spirit of God, that chryftal river of the waters of life, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb, is that by which we have commerce with heaven: therefore Chrift says, He fhall receive of mine, and fhall fhew it unto you." There is no trading to heaven, but by failing in this riThe fhip of faith cannot fail but as fupported by thefe waters of the fanctuary.-Some rivers are profita'ble to cities, for fortification and ftrength: this river is 'the strength of the city of God; "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, faith the Lord of hofts, Zech.

ver.

iv. 2. When the enemy comes in like a flood, it is the Spirit of the Lord that lifts up a ftandard."-Some rivers are the fafety of the town that they environ: fo the Lord is a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein goeth no galley with oars, nor gallant fhip paffeth thereby, Ifa, xxxii. 21. They that are thus environed, need not fear the ftormings of men and devils. And as fome rivers bear

up

up ships of a great burden, fo this river bears up the weight of the whole church and people of God, while failing, like a fhip, along these waters.

3. Rivers have plenty of water. O! the infinite fulnels of God, of God in Chrift! O! the plenitude of the Spirit, that is in Chrift, for the behalf of the city of God! "Out of his fulness we all receive, and grace for grace." Here is all the fulness of the Godhead. A veffel may foon be emptied and drunk out; but this river is inexhauftible: here is enough for men and angels to eternity.

4. Rivers are powerful, and run irrefiftibly; they cannot be driven back by the force of men: even fo are the influences of the Spirit of God, when the promife is accomplished, Ifa. xliv. 3. "I will pour water on the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." This mighty flood makes its way through all oppofitions, and forces them all down before it. What but this stopt Paul in his perfecuting career, and made him cry out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" O! a plentiful effufion of the Spirit would throw down unbelief, atheism, enmity, carnality, and all carnal reasonings.

5. Rivers are pure and purifying. A fwift ftream washes away all filth. They are more clear and favoury than pools and ftanding water. Where-ever this river of the water of life runs, it carries away all pollution, washes away all corruption: in Rev. xxii. 1. it is called a pure river, clear as chryftal*. What need of this river to run through this generation, to purge it from the pollution and corruption thereof?

6. Rivers are perpetually running, never stand still, but are always in motion. Thus God hath promised to water his church invifible, and to water it every moment, Ifa. xxvii. 3. And Chrift fays, "He that believeth in me, fhall never thirst," never be in total want. He fays," The water that I fhall give him, fhall be in him a well of water fpringing up into everlafting life," John iv. 14. In a word, all earthly elementary water hath a beginning; but this river is from everlafting to everlafting, without beginning and without end. Other rivers are fed by

By confulting the Author's fermon on this text, Vol. VI. p. 232. the reader will find more on this fubject.

fprings