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or fuch like; and there is no reforming of them. The word cannot do it.-The Lord is contending,

came.

(4.) Because of our abuse of mercies, and God's good creatures. We have had long peace, and God has wrought wonders for our deliverance. But we were furfeited with peace ere the war The good creatures of God profpering and thriving, were but fuel to our lufts, and fo fnares to lead us away from God, that it is no wonder they get a stroke, like idols of jealousy, wherewith God has been provoked.The Lord is contending,

(5.) Because of that woful fecurity and unconcernednefs for the public caufe of God and of religion which prevails. God is a jealous God, and when he is going out against a land, he calls all the inhabitants thereof to fear and to tremble; and he cannot endure indifference when his caufe is at ftake. This provokes him to blaft people's private concerns: Haggai, ii. 14.—17. "Then anfwered Haggai, and faid, So is this people, and fo is this nation, before me, faith the Lord; and fo is every work of their hands, and that which they offer there is unclean. And now, I pray you, confider from this day and upward, from before a ftone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. Since thofe days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the prefs-fat, for to draw out fifty veffels out of the prefs, there were but twenty. I fmote you with blafting, and with mildew and hail, in all the labours of your hands, yet ye turned not to me, faith the Lord." This woeful selfishness has prevailed in an amazing manner aLittle were we concerned with the dift effes which many others of the nation were under; very indifferent were we as to what way public

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matters fhould go, as if we had been fet here to be idle fpectators of the reelings of the nation. But we fee God has many arrows in his quiver, and will even have us to groan with the rest. And if people go lightly under the burden of the public, he will give them a burden of their own to bear. God knows, your distress by this ftorm has lain near my heart, as I bear a part in all your afflictions; but feeing, with grief of heart, your prevailing temper to be fuch, that I could not call you together to wrestle for the public caufe, I could not have confidence before the Lord to do it upon an inferior caufe, though in itself a very weighty one.-The Lord is contending with us,

(6.) Because of the contempt of the gofpel, and unfruitfulness under the means of grace. This makes a land to groan, and the creatures in it to bear a fhare.

4. Let the groans of the creatures ftir us up to repenting groans before the Lord. Shall we be groaning under trouble, and the creatures groanmg for our fakes, and yet not groan for fin, which is the cause of all? For the Lord's fake, firs, be pliable to the word, and do not think yourselves above warnings, but receive convictions from the word, and be humbled under the hand of God, and take a look of your ways, and repent, and reform yourselves and families. Wrath is Wrath is gone out from the Lord against the land and us. us try to quench it ere it go farther, left it break out like fire, that none can quench it. Let us be concerned for the public caufe, and take a lift of Zion's burden this day. Be not indifferent in the cause of a Proteftant king, and a Popish pretender. Ye have had fair warning to prepare to meet the Lord, and God followed the clofing of our fermons on that fubject hard at the heels with the stroke.

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And if this do us no good, take heed it come not next from the ftall to the hall, and men and women be as fore ftraitened as the poor dumb creatures are this day.

5. Let us come here, and learn various other leffons. We know the book of the creation is an instructive book; every day we may have a lesson from them, from the higheft, Pfal. viii. 3. 4. to the lowest, Prov. vi. 6. 7. 8. namely, from the heavens to the ant. But in fuch a day as this we may learn more from them than ordinary; now they speak much and loud to us. God makes them

groan thus for our inftruction, as he curfed the fig-tree, for a leffon of faith to his difciples; and flew the cattle of Egypt, to make the owners fee what they might expect. The creatures groan out thefe leffons to us:

He is angry

(1.) That God is angry with us. with the land, has a controverfy with our mother, and he is angry with the creatures, for they fmart under it. We may fay, as in Hab. iii. 8. “ Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the fea? that thou didst ride upon thine horses, and thy chariots of falvation." Sure if it is fo, it is for our fakes, and therefore he is angry much more with us. Look now through the whole creation, above, under, and about us, and we will fee the characters of the Lord's anger. It is true, these things have natural caufes, but God guides thefe. And this leffon we may take for a certain evidence of our fin; fee fermon on Joel, i. 18.. Another leffon is,

(2.) That it is not eafy to get the flame of wrath quenched when once it is kindled. We may fay this day, as in Pfal. lxv. 5. "By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou anfwer us, O God of our falvation."

falvation." Men's fins may bring that on the creatures, which they will not foon get removed. Learn here to beware of kindling the fire by provoking God! It is easier to keep the fword of vengeance in the fheath, than to get it fheathed. again when once drawn. It is dangerous to depend on the praying for mercy on a death-bed, delaying all till then, for then wrath may be gone out, not to be quenched.

(3.) It is dangerous to be concerned with thofe with whom God hath a controverfy; thus, all that belonged to Achan perifhed with him: Jofh vii. 24. 25. "And Joshua, and all Ifrael with him, took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the filver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his fons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his affes, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua faid, Why haft thou troubled us? the Lord fhall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with ftones, and burned them with fire, after they had ftoned them with ftones." Had these oxen and affes been another's than Achan's, they had not perished in the manner they did. Thus poor creatures lament their relation to finful men; and many fmart fore upon the occafion of the controverfy God has with them with whom they are nearly connected. A companion of fools fhall be destroyed. Even thofe God has a kindness for may fmart full forely for the fake of others; fec 1 Kings, xiv. 10.—13.Another leffon is, (4.) That fin is a heavy burden, which none are able to bear up under. O firs! what think ye of fin, that makes the very earth to groan under it this day? Ifa. xxiv. 20. "The earth fhall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and fhall be removed like a cottage, and the tranfgrefion thereof shall

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be heavy upon it, and it fhall fall, and not rife again." Ye walk for the prefent full lightly under it, but the weight of it, ere long, will be felt by the most stupid finner; a dreadful weight! that makes the whole creation groan. Are not the

bands of guilt strong and strait, that thus gird up the heaven and earth, and bind down the creatures, that they cannot get up their head? It is an offence to an infinite God, no wonder it doth lay an infinite weight on the offender.-We are inftructed,

(5.) That God is a jealous and juft God, who will not fuffer fin to go unpunished. Deceive not yourselves with misapprehenfions of God, like the wicked, who, as in Pfal. 1. 21. think him altogether fuch an one as themfelves; for as fweet as fin may be in the mouth, it will be bitter in the belly Job. xx. 12.-14. "Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he fpare it, and forfake it not, but keep it still within his mouth :Yet his meat in his bowels is turned,' it is the gall of afps within him." Therefore, Exod. xxiii. 21.

Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your tranfgreffions." He is true to his word, and it cannot fail. He will reverse the order of nature, turn the heavens to brafs, and the earth to iron, rather than one word of his fall to the ground. We may alfo learn,

(6.) That the creatures are ever weak pillars to lean to. You have need of fomething else to bear your weight, the weight of your comfort, much more of your happiness, for they are not able. There is a vanity that they are under, by reafon of which they cannot reach that end: Ecclef. i. 2. “All is vanity." They that have not fomething elfe to lean to, may foon have nothing to

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