that dwell in this city, have continual occasion of feeing the King in his beauty. 10. A city is a place of pleasure and beauty, beyond all villages and country-cottages; fee what is faid of this city, the church of God, Pfal. xlviii. 2. "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion." Here also are to be heard the fongs of Zion; the joyful found, through the filver trumpet of the gofpel. 2dly, Why is the church called the city of God? I answer, 1. It may be called the city of God, because he dwells in it; God is in the midst of her, says the verse following my text. The place where a man or woman dwells, is called their city; so the town of Bethany is called, "The city, or town of Mary and Martha :" so this is the city of God, because he hath fixed his refidence there; "The Lord hath chofen Zion: this is my rest, here will I flay:" it is here the King of glory keeps his court; it is the city of the great King, Pfalm xlviii. 2. 2. It is called the city of God, because he founded it, and built it. This is the answer that is given to the messengers of the nations, The Lord bath founded Zion, Isa. xiv. 32. He hath founded it in his eternal decree, laid the foundation of it in the covenant of redemption or grace, and he hath built it on the foundation of prophets. and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; and fo it may be called the city of God. 3. It may be called the city of God, because it derives all privileges and immunities from him. This city hath its magnalia, or great things, from him: all that it does enjoy was purchased by the blood of Chrift, and came to the church by promife through him, in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen. Grace here, and glory hereafter, all are derived from God, as the fruits and effects of his free grace: therefore it may well be called the city of God. 4. It may be called his city, because he is the chief Ruler and Governor in the city. He is the fupreme Sovereign, that hath the chief command of it. He is the Legissator here. Here he publishes his commands and royal orders; and he will call all the citizens to an account of their obedience, for he will judge every man according to his works. 5. It is his city; because it is his property. He not only possesses it, founded it, privileges it, and governs it, but it is his own property; it belongs to him, and none other: he hath a manifold claim to it. He gave a being to all citizens of the city; "He made them, and not they themselves:" he made them as inen, and he made them as believers: he redeemed them by his blood. And, 6. He draws the rent of it. There is a revenue of praise that he doth draw from them, more than all the reft of the world; "This people have I formed for myself, and they shall fhew forth all my praife." - Upon all these accounts the church may well be called the city of God. II. The next General Head proposed was, To fhew what are these sad times that put the city of God into confufion. There are fad times with reference to the church in general, and with reference to the people of God in particular. 1st, There are some sad times with reference to the church in general. As, 1. It is a fad time when God's difpenfations twards his church and people feem to contradict his promife, to contradist their prayers, and to contradict their hope and expectation; to contradict their defires and wrestlings: when the knife of providence is, as it were, at the throat of Ifaac, at the throat of the promise and hope of his people. 2. It is a fad time when the church is oppressed by the wicked, perfecuted for the fake of truth, and when the buth is burning, and all in a flame; when he shews his people hard things, and makes them drink the wine of astonishment, Psalm 1x. 3. When the enemy breaks in pieces his people, and afflicts his heritage, Pfalm xciv, 3. And when these afflictions are continued, and enemies make long their furrows, while, like plowers, they plow upon their back, Pfalm cxxix. 3. 3. It is a fad time when the Lord seems to disregard the prayer and cry of his people, and rather to be angry at 1 at them; Pfal. 1xxx. 4. "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry at the prayer of thy people! Lam. iii. 8. When I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer."Sometimes he seems inexorable, and will not grant the fuit of his special favourites, when interceding in behalf *of the church, even the suit of a Noah, Daniel, and Job, the fuit of a Mofes and Samuel, &c. 4. It is a fad time in the city, when the Lord fuffers enemies within or without doors, to over-run all his own work, to pluck up the vine which his own right-hand hath planted, Pfalm 1xxx. 8, -16. To cast fire into the fanctuary, to pull down his carved work, as with axes and hammers, Pfalm lxxxiv. 4, 5, 6, 7. He that runs may read, that this is the fad cafe of the church in our day. 5. It is a fad time, when fin and error overflow all their banks, and run in upon the city, and when Satan's feat is in the midst of the city; Rev. ii. 13. "I know thee where thou dwellest, even where Satan's feat is; and thou haft them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." When in the church of Christ there are that hold the doctrine of Arians, Atheists, Deists; the doctrine of Arminians, Socinians, Pelagians, and the like. Oh! but a finning time, wherein profanity abounds, and a time of error in doctrine is a fad time. 6. It is a fad time when faithful citizens and officers are removed, and few or none left to fill their room; when woful apostasy takes place; when the courts of the city are corrupted; when seminaries of learning are defiled; and pulpits, and Sabbaths profaned; when Reformation is hated, instead of being revived; and when the Spirit is restrained, and nothing but barrenness of the churches appear; few or no real converts to be seen. When there is both a scarcity of faithful paftors, and paucity of found profeffors: when minifters are tinctured with loose principles, and study flourishing harangues, instead of powerful, evangelical, applicatory preaching: when faints are become rare, Pfalm xii. 1. Isa. lvii. 1. Jer. v. 1. Micah vii. 2. 2dly, There are fad times with reference to the people of God in particular. E 4 1. It 1. It is a sad 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!" Psalm 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 faid, "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me." 3. It is a fad time with them, when God is a terror to them, and they are put to say, "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 darkness, when they walk in darkness, and have no light, Ifa. 1. 10. When encompassed with the darkness of fears and doubts, and fad apprehenfions. 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 instead of tendernefs of heart, hardness of heart seizes them; Ifa. lxiii. 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 servants come to ride upon horses in their foul; and nothing to be heard but, "O wretched man that I am! who shail 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, short-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 sad times, imported in the RIVER, the streams whereof do make glad the city of God. Here I shall shew what is the river; why God is com compared to a river; and touch at the nature of this gladness. 1st, What is the River that makes glad the city of God? I anfwer, God himself is the river, as in the following verse, God is in the midst of her. 1. God the Father is the river; Jer. ii. 13. "For my people have committed two great evils; they have forfaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 66 2. God the Son is the river, the fountain of falvation; Zech. xiii. 1. In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem, for fin and for uncleanness." 3. God the Spirit is the river; John vii. 38. " Не that believeth on me, as the scripture hath faid, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.-John iv. 14. Whofoever drinketh the water that I shall give him, shall never thirt; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." 2dly, What are the streams of this river? Answ. The perfections of God, the fulness 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 sanctify; justice, 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? Besides this, God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in all these perfections. Here then is fpirituality, to make the gladness and happiness suited to the nature of the foul: the more spiritual the gladness is, the more pure and pleasant. Here is infinity, to make it boundless: here is eternity, to make it endless: here is unchangeableness and immutability, to make it steady and immoveable. 2. The fulness of Christ is another stream of the river: his fulness of purchase; fulness of wisdom, as a Pro |