AN

EXPOSITION

Of the LIVth Chapter of Jaiah,

from Verfe 11. to the end.

The words are thus:

Ver. 11. O thou afflicted, and toffed with tempeft, and not comforted; bebold, I will lay thy ftones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with faphires.

12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones, &c.

T

HIS place of fcripture is very useful to the church of God, in these times wherein we live; yea verily, this prophet did not fo much prophefy to his own age as to ours, nor to the Jewish church as to the christian. For unto them it was revealed, that not unto themfelves, but unto us, they did minifter the things which are now reported unto you, 1 Pet. i. 12,

The prophet Isaiah prophefied in the spirit, touching the kingdom of Chrift, which stands not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; and delivers from the Father by the Spirit many excellent promifes, to be fulfilled in the Son incarnate, head and members,

The first promise in this chapter, is touching the great increase of the church, in the days of the New Teftament; that whereas before the church was to be found but in one kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, Rev, v. 9.

now,

now, it should be gathered out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And this is fo defirable and comfortable a thing, that in the beginning of the chapter, he calls upon all to rejoice at this; Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into finging, and fhout aloud, thou that didft not travail with child: for more are the children of the defolate than of the married wife, faith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them ftretch forth the curtains of thy babitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy ftakes: for thou shalt break forth on the right hand, and on the left; and thy feed fhall inherit the Gentiles, and make the defolate cities to be inhabited. Ifai. liv. 1, &c. So that there shall certainly be a most wonderful, and numerous increase of the faithful, in the christian church, till they become as the stars of heaven, and as the drops of the morning dew, that cannot be told, all of them affembled in the beauties of holinefs.

And therefore let us not be overmuch troubled, though at present we fee, in a numerous nation, but few true children of the spiritual church; for God fhall blefs these few, and bid them increafe, and multiply, and replenish the earth: fo that though the affemblies of the faints be now but thin, and one comes from this place, and another from that, to these assemblies; and in many and moft places of the kingdom, these few are fain to come together fecretly, for fear of the Jews, that is, the people of the letter; yet through the pouring forth of the Spirit, it fhall come to pafs, at laft, that they fhall come in flocks, and as doves to their windows. And it fhall be faid to the church by the Lord, Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, all these gather themselves together and come to thee: As I live, faith the Lord, thou shalt furely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doth, &c. till at last the church fhall fay in her heart, Who hath begotten me these, feeing I have loft my children, and am defolate, a captive, and removing

removing to and fro? and who bath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; thefe, where bad they been?

Yea, these very promises, are now in the very act of accomplishing among us; for the fpiritual church hath received a very great increase within these few years, and God hath many faithful people in many places of this kingdom.

And one thing that is remarkable touching the increase of the church at this day, is this, That where Christ fends the ministration of the Spirit, there many young people are brought in to Chrift; as being moft free from the forms of the former age, and from the doctrines and traditions of men, taught and received instead of the pure and unmixed word of God: whereas many old profeffors, who are wholly in the form, prove the greatest enemies to the power of godlinefs: and thus, the first are the laft, and the laft first.

Now this great and sudden increase of the faithful, is that which doth fo exceedingly trouble the world, and makes them angry at the very heart. For, if they were but a few, mean, contemptible and inconfiderable persons, whom they might easily suppress and destroy, they would be pretty quiet: but when they begin to increase in the land, as Israel did in Egypt; and, notwithstanding all the burdens of their task-masters, wherewith they are afflicted and grieved, do yet increase abundantly, and multiply, and wax exceeding mighty, till they begin to fill the land; and when they confult to deal wifely with them, left they multiply too much, do yet fee them grow and multiply the more, that they know not at what country, or city, or town, or village, or family, to begin to fupprefs them: this is that which doth fo exceedingly vex and inrage the world, and makes them even mad again, as we see this day. For the increase of the faithful, as it is the glory of the church, so it is the grief and madness of the world.

But

But these men in vain attempt against this increase of the faithful, as the Egyptians against the increase of the Ifraelites; for none can hinder the increase of the Church, but they that hinder God from pouring out his Spirit; and according to the measure of God's pouring forth the Spirit, is and must be the increase of the church, in defpite of all the oppofition of the world.

And thus much touching the first promise of the church's increase,

Now in the words I read to you, the Lord comes to another promise: so that the Lord, because of the church's weakness, adds one promise to another; and these promises are nothing but the outgoings and manifestations of his love, through the word, Chrift, But to look more nearly upon the words,

Ver. 11. O thou afflicted.

Affliction in the world, doth fo infeparably attend the church, that the church even takes its denomination from it, O thou offlicted. The condition of the church, is an afflicted condition. For the church being born of God, and born of the Spirit, is put into a direct contrariety to the world, which is born of the flesh, and is also of its father the devil. And fo, the whole world is malignant against the faithful and spiritual church; and all that are not regenerate, fet their faces, yea their hearts and their hands, against the faints; and the unregenerate world, is against the regenerate; and the carnal world, against the fpiritual; and the finful world, against the righteous; and all the people and nations in the world, are against that people and nation which the apoftle calls, a boly nation, and a peculiar people.

As the world cannot endure God in himfelf, fo neither can it endure God in the faints; and fo the more God dwells in the faints, the more doth the world afflict the

faints;

faints: for they oppofe not the faithful for any thing of flesh and blood in them, but because that flesh and blood of theirs is the habitation of God, and the very presence of God himself is there: as he faith, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. Agreeable to this is that of Christ, where he faith, All this fhall they do to you, for my Name's fake; that is, when the name of Chrift is called upon us, and we are taken into his Name, that is, into his righteousness, and life, and truth, and wisdom, and holiness; and into his Nature, which comprehends all this; then, when the world perceives the Name of God in the fons of men, and the nature of God in the natures of men, then presently they fall a perfecuting the faints, for this Name and Nature's fake: and he that strikes at God in his faints, would, if he could, ftrike at God in himself. And therefore let the world take heed what they do in this point; for while they perfecute the faints, they are found fighters against God himself, because God is one with them, and they are one with God in Chrift. And let the faints be admonished, fo to hide and retire themselves into God through Christ, that whoever is an enemy to them, and oppofes them, may rather be an enemy to God, and oppose God than them, they living and acting in God, and not in themselves.

Now this affliction, the church meets with in the world, is profitable for the church; it is good for it that it should be afflicted: for the more it is afflicted in the flesh, the more it thrives in the fpirit: this affliction ftirs us up to the exercise of our faith and prayer; yea, then is our faith most active and vigorous, and our prayers moft fervent, till they fill the whole heavens again; then are we most in the use of the word; then are we fet off furtheft from the world; then do we keep clofeft to God; then have we nearest intercourfe and communion with hum: fo that we could better want fire, and water, and the fun, than want

afiliction,