Verse 5

VER. 5.

What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

Now they shall remember their solemn days, their feasts, and see themselves cut off from any further enjoying of them, it must needs be a great saddening to their spirits to think what days once they had, Oh what solemn times and feasts that they did keep to God; for any to sit down in times of affliction and say, I remember what days of joy in the service of God I once had, but now they are gone, Oh! the days that I was wont to have, how sweet were they? but all is now past and we must sit down in sorrow and affliction. There was a time (says God by the Prophet) that you would not suffer any to go up to the feast, but now you shall be far enough from Jerusalem or any other place of worship, and the very remembrance of those solemn days shall be grievous to you, Oh! what will you do in those solemn days? Those solemn days were days of joy, in (Numbers 10:10). Thus I think some carry it, they make those feasts to be the feasts that they should have gone up to Jerusalem in; but I take not this to be the scope of the Holy Ghost here, but rather thus; by the solemn days and feasts of the Lord is here meant, the solemn day of God's wrath and vengeance upon them; now for the making out of that I shall show first, that in Scripture the day of God's wrath is called the solemn day, and the day of God's feast is the day of his wrath, a day wherein God feasts.

First, the solemn day it is the day of God's wrath, in (Lamentations 2:22). You have called as in a solemn day, my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped. So that the solemn day is the day of the Lord's anger there.

And secondly, the day of God's feast, that time when God does execute his wrath upon wicked men is the day of a feast to God. In (Revelation 19:17, 18), an Angel cried with a loud voice to all the fowls that fly in the heavens, Come, and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of Kings, and the flesh of Captains, and the flesh of Mighty men, and the flesh of Horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both free and bond, both small and great: it is the day of the Lord's feast. Now 'tis a solemn day, a day of the execution of God's wrath, because now God executes wrath publicly and brings much wrath together. You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round about. You know that in the day of a petty sessions there may be some justice done, but more privately: but in a day of solemn assizes, when there is a full gaol delivery, then judgment is done publicly; so God executes justice sometimes upon men particularly, but God has his solemn day to execute his judgments publicly before all, and then the Lord feasts.

The day of execution of God's wrath upon wicked men is a day of feast, upon this ground.

First, because the day of their feasts were days of slaying sacrifices, so they should now be slain, and God would account even their bodies that were slain to be as sacrifices for this great feast of his, in (Isaiah 34:6). The Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And in (Zephaniah 1:7), the day of the Lord is at hand, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has bid his guests. And then it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the Princes, and the Kings' children &c. He has bid his guests; so here's the feast of God, and the slaughter of great men are here, the dishes as it were of sacrifice that God would have at this his feast, the executioners of God's wrath are now his priests to kill his sacrifices. Soldiers and executioners they are turned the priests of God for to kill his sacrifice for this his feast. Hence in (Jeremiah 6:4), Prepare you war against her, it is in the original, Sanctify the War; and in another Scripture, those that were the executioners of God's wrath, were called God's sanctified ones.

And then further, a day of feasting is a day of rejoicing; this day of the execution of God's wrath upon sinners, especially great sinners that do escape men's hands, it is a day of rejoicing to God, as in a day of feast. And this word that is translated feast, it signifies dancing, it is a day wherein the Lord's heart does as it were leap within him because of joy, God rejoices in the execution of his righteous judgments upon them. Therefore God's wrath in Scripture is called wine: they shall drink of the wine of his wrath. The Lord at length when sinners continue impenitent is as much delighted in the execution of his justice, as men can be in drinking of wine. In Deuteronomy 28:63, As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, so the Lord will rejoice over you for evil. And in Ezekiel 5:13, Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted. (It's a very strange expression.) Oh! let us, my brethren, take heed how we rejoice in sin, God may rejoice in the execution of his judgments upon us due to our sin. Men have their days in joy and mirth in sin; and God has his days of joy and mirth in the execution of his wrath. Oh! how sad is the condition of a creature when the infinite merciful God shall rejoice in his ruin! Surely then, if God does so rejoice in the execution of his wrath upon wicked men, then the saints also may rejoice. In Psalm 58:10, The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked: taken from the custom of those countries, that were wont after their travels to wash their feet with cold water, and that did refresh them; so the blood of the wicked should be refreshment to the righteous. Now this is not an insulting joy over them, but rejoicing in the honor that God has, and in the good that does come to the Church by the execution of such men, both to God and to his people. So that it follows in Psalm 58:11, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth. The saints may look upon wicked men when they see them executed and pity them as men; but they may rejoice in this, because they see such a spectacle before them as makes this Scripture to be good, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth. And in Psalm 52:6, The righteous shall see, and fear, and laugh: mark, though he may rejoice, yet he must have fear mixed with it, he shall see, and fear, and laugh. And note, that Scripture is spoken of a great courtier, of Doeg, one that was a most desperate enemy to God's people, one that watched all the ways he could to do mischief, and especially to do mischief to David, and he was the man that came and stirred up the King against David. This 52nd Psalm is made concerning this Doeg, and a prophecy of his destruction; says the Spirit of God, The righteous shall see, and fear, and laugh. If a man can keep his heart spiritual, sanctifying God's name in the beholding such an object, those that are eminent wicked men brought to execution, he may lawfully according to the mind of God, feast his eyes in the beholding of it; such a day is called the feast of the Lord. And the Lord does not use to feast himself, but he calls his saints to feast with him. In Proverbs 11:10, When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there is shouting. And this is according to God's mind it should be so. And therefore Christians above all men should be far from a proud insulting even over these men, but yet when God lays an object before them wherein they may see the answer of so many prayers, and the fruit of the cries of so many thousands that were oppressed, yes, of so many thousand conscience-oppressed ones, that have cried against such a one, if at the stroke of God, they with hearts lift up to him shall give a shout that shall come up to the heavens, this pleases God, and the holy angels, and it is music fit for the day of the feast of the Lord. Thus the saints may do in the day of the feasts of the Lord.

Yes, but says the Holy Ghost here by the Prophet, But what will you do? The saints may do thus when God makes this his feast in the execution of such eminent wicked men, he calls you to it, to rejoice and bless his name, he bids you look here and see, is it not good waiting upon me? The saints may do so and bless God, but what will YOU do in the day of the feast of the Lord? What will wicked men do in that day? What will become of all your jollity? What will become of all your stoutness, and willfulness, of all your pride, of all your scorning, of all your vain hopes, when this solemn day comes, and when the feast of the Lord comes? In Isaiah 10:3 we have a Scripture parallel to this, What will you do in the day of visitation? What will you do, and to whom will you fly for help, and where will you leave your glory? Can you tell what in the world to do? You can tell what to do now, you have your wills, and pride it, and stout it out now, but what will you do in the day of visitation, when God's solemn day and this feast comes? Oh! what can they do but as the great and mighty men, Revelation 6, they cry to the hills to fall upon them, and to the mountains to cover them, for the great day of the Lamb's wrath is come. Those that are the most bold and presumptuous in their sins, when this day of the Lord comes they shall be in the most miserable perplexity not knowing what to do, they know not how to bear that which is upon them, nor how to avoid it, nor what course to take, what can you do in such a day? For,

First, all your comforts they are gone, all such things that your hearts closed withal and made as gods to yourselves, they are gone.

Secondly, now God himself fights against you. In Isaiah 13:6, Howl you, for the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. But it may be you look only upon such and such men that are the instruments. No, but it is a destruction from the Almighty, and therefore what can you do?

Thirdly, conscience in that day will terrify you.

Fourthly, you shall not know where to go for help: to the creature, that cannot help you, your vain hopes in the creature has the very heartstrings of them broke, you thought that you might shift and help yourselves there, but now you see there is no help there.

What then? You cannot go to God, then the very thoughts of God must needs be terrible to you, and then what will you do?

Further, for these miseries they are but the beginning of sorrows, this day of the Lord it is but a preparation for another day; there is yet a more solemn day of the Lord in coming than this present. Oh! what will you do in the day of the Lord? However a man may resolve to set a good face upon a thing; Oh! but my brethren, though you cannot see daunting in a countenance, yet did you but see the black bosom, and the woful guilty spirit that there is by sin within, you would know that they could not in the world tell what to do in the day of the Lord.

It's strange what a man may do even before death, in the presence of men, although his own conscience tells him quite otherwise, and though men are ready to be taken with dying men's expressions, yet many times there is much deceit in them.

Why you will say? What a man does profess when he is ready to die, certainly it must needs be a truth.

There is a notable story concerning this that Bishop Latimer has, in one of his Sermons, he tells of the desperate stoutness of a certain man's heart even when he was to die: as he was riding he comes to a place where the execution of a man was to be, he turns aside, and when the people saw him they made way, and he comes to speak with the man, and both he and all that were about him could not get out of him to give glory to God for the guiltiness of the fact for which he was to be executed, but stood out in it, that he was not guilty; and when they could get nothing out of him they turned the ladder, and the rope being cut and he down, they thought the life had been gone from him, but at length they saw a little motion in him, and by rubbing and chafing of him they got life, so as he was able to speak, and then he confessed all; that he was guilty of those very things that he had took upon his death that he was not. Thus it's possible for men in the stoutness of their hearts even at the last rather to venture their souls upon it; and well may they that ventured their souls so much before upon other things, think that they may make bold with God at such a time as this is. But however there is much dejection of spirit, and they know not in the world what to do. Well, it's happy for us to consider what we do, and to lay to heart what we have done, that so in such a day of the Lord as this, we may know what to do; the servants of God who have walked conscionably before him, they know what to do in the day of public calamity.

For first, they can bless God that ever they knew him, that ever they knew his ways, that ever he put it into their hearts to fear his name.

Secondly, they know what to do in a day of calamity, they can exercise their faith upon that word in which the Lord has caused them to trust, they can make it to be the support of their souls, and the joy of their hearts, even in such a day.

Thirdly, they know what to do, they can sanctify God's name in his righteous judgments, they can see mercy and the love of a Father in the sorest and heaviest afflictions that do befall them.

Fourthly, they know what to do; they can ease their souls by pouring them forth into the bosom of a gracious and reconciled Father.

Fifthly, they know what to do; they can see beyond all these present evils, they can see immortality and glory, they can see that on the other side a little beyond these troubles and afflictions, there is an everlasting joy and day of peace coming to them. A Job can tell what to do, he can profess that though God kill him he would trust in him. A David can tell what to do, In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, your consolations refresh my soul. A Habacuk can tell what to do, Although the fig-tree should not blossom, nor fruit be in the vines, the labor of the Olive shall fail, and the fields shall yeeld no meat, the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no heard in the stalls: yet will I rejoyce in the Lord; yet will I joy in the God of my salvation. Thus you see the saints they know what to do in such a day; and this is the excellency of grace, that it can never be put so to it, in any strait, but it can tell what to do; as David said to Achish in (2 Samuel 28:2), Surely you shall know what your servant can do. So the saints in time of common distresses they should set their graces so on work that all may see what their faith, and humility, and patience can do, that they may be able to say, well, you shall see now what the servant of the Lord can do. If one should say to one that has made profession of godliness, You spake much of the excellency of grace, but what can you do with it? The answer that such a one may well give, is this: When you cannot tell what to do in the world nor which way to turn yourselves, yet through God's mercy I can tell what to do. Grace will be able to carry a man through fire and water, that faith of mine, and the grace that I have gotten by the Word, that you can scorn at, it's that does through God's mercy enable my soul to rejoyce, yes, to triumph in tribulations, Can you do that? You can rejoyce now when you are in a Tavern, but in the day of tribulation, when a dismal day shall come to the world, what will you do then? I thank God I have that that can rejoyce my heart in such a day as this is; and that that I have gotten by the Word, and by prayer, and by the Ordinances, can enable me to do that that you cannot do; that's something, that when a man in times of tribulation can carry himself above all, so that men or devils are not able to put him in such a case as he cannot tell what to do. It follows.