Chapter 10
If God restrain the showers, you howl and cry;
Shall saints not mourn, when spiritual clouds are dry?
OBSERVATION.
It is deservedly accounted a sad judgment, when God shuts up the heavens over our heads, and makes the earth as brass under our feet (Deuteronomy 28:23). Then the husbandmen are called to mourning (Joel 1:11). All the fields do languish, and the bellowing cattle are pined with thirst. Such a sad state the prophet rhetorically describes (Jeremiah 14:3-6). The nobles have sent their little ones to the waters, they came to the pits and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty, they were ashamed, and confounded, and covered their heads; because the ground is chapped, for there is no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads: indeed, the hind also calved in the field and forsook it, because there was no grass: and the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes failed because there was no grass.
And that which makes the want of rain so terrible a judgment, is the famine of bread, which necessarily follows these extraordinary droughts and is one of the sorest temporal judgments which God inflicts upon the world.
APPLICATION.
And truly, as much cause have they to weep and tremble, over whose souls God shuts up the spiritual clouds of the Gospel, and thereby sending a spiritual famine upon their souls. Such a judgment the Lord threatens in Amos 8:11. Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water; but of hearing the word of the Lord. The meaning is, I will send a more fearful judgment, than that of the famine of bread; for this particle [not] is not exclusive, but excessive — implying, that a famine of bread is nothing, or but a light judgment, compared with the famine of the word. Parallel to which is that text (Isaiah 5:6): I will lay it waste (says God of the fruitless Church) it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers, and thorns; I will also command the clouds, that they rain not upon it. And we find both in human and sacred histories, that when God has shut up the spiritual clouds, removing or silencing his ministers, sensible Christians have ever been deeply affected with it and reckoned it a most tremendous judgment. Thus the Christians of Antioch, when Chrysostom their minister was banished, they judged it better to lose the sun out of the firmament, than lose that, their minister. And when Nazianzen was taking his leave of Constantinople, as he was preaching his farewell sermon, the people were exceedingly affected with his loss; and among the rest, an old man in the congregation fell into a bitter passion, and cried out, Aude pater, & tecum trinitatem ipsam ejice. (that is) Go farther, if you dare, and take away the whole Trinity with you; meaning, that God would not stay when he was gone. How did the Christians of Antioch also weep and lament, when Paul was taking his farewell of them (Acts 20:37-38)? He had been a cloud of blessings to that place, but now they must expect no more showers from him. O, they knew not how to give up such a minister! When the ark of God (which was the symbol of the divine presence among the Jews) was taken, all the city cried out (1 Samuel 4:13). O, the loss of a Gospel ministry is an inestimable loss! not to be repaired but by its own return, or by heaven. Mr. Greenham tells us, that in the times of Popish persecution, when godly ministers were hauled away from their flocks to martyrdom, the poor Christians would meet them in the way to the prisons or stake, with their little ones in their arms, and throwing themselves at their feet, would thus address them: What shall be our estate, now you are gone to martyrdom? Who shall instruct these poor babes? Who shall ease our afflicted consciences? Who shall lead us in the way of life? Recompense to them, O Lord! as they have deserved, who are the causes of this, Lord give them sad hearts. Quis talia fando, temperet a lachrymis? And to let you see, there is sufficient ground for this sorrow, when God restrains the influences of the Gospel, solemnly consider the following particulars.
That it is a dreadful token of God's great anger against that people from whom he removes the Gospel. The anger of God was fearfully incensed against the Church of Ephesus, when he did but threaten to come against her, and remove the candlestick out of its place (Revelation 2:5). It is a stroke at the soul, a blow at the root; usually the last, and therefore the worst of judgments. There is a pedigree of judgments, first Gomer bears Jezreel, next Lo-ruhamah, and at last brings forth Lo-ammi (Hosea 1:4, 6, 8-9).
There is cause of mourning, if you consider the deplorable estate in which all the unregenerate souls are left, after the Gospel is removed from them. What will become of these? Or by whom shall they be gathered? It made the bowels of Christ yearn within him, when he looked upon the scattered multitude that had no shepherd (Matthew 9:36). What an easy conquest does the devil now make of them? How fast does hell fill in such times? Poor souls, being driven there in droves, and none to rescue them! Matthew Paris tells us, that in the year 1072, when preaching was suppressed at Rome, letters were then framed as coming from hell; wherein the devil gave them thanks for the multitude of souls they had sent to him that year. But truly we need not talk of letters from hell, we are told from heaven, how deplorable the condition of such poor souls is. See Proverbs 28:19, Hosea 4:6.
The judgment will yet appear very heavy, if you consider the loss which God's own people sustain by the removal of the Gospel; for therein they lose (1) their chief glory (Romans 3:2). The principal thing in which the peculiar glory of Israel consisted was this, that to them was committed the oracles of God. On that account it was called the glorious Land (Daniel 11:16). This made them greater than all the nations round about them (Deuteronomy 4:7-8). (2) By losing the ordinances, they lose their quickenings, comforts, and soul-refreshments; for all these are sweet streams from the Gospel fountain (Psalm 119:50; Colossians 4:8). No wonder then to hear the people of God complain of dead hearts, when the Gospel is removed. (3) In the loss of the Gospel they lose their defense and safety. This is their hedge, their wall of protection (Isaiah 5:5). Walls and hedges (says Musculus in loc.) are the ordinances of God, which serve both ad separationem and munitionem, to distinguish, and to defend them. When God plucks up this hedge, and breaks down this wall, all mischiefs break in upon us presently. (2 Chronicles 15:3-6) Now for a long season Israel had been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law — and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries and nations was destroyed of nation, and city of city; for God did vex them with all adversity. How long did Jerusalem remain, after that voice was heard in the temple, migremur hinc? — let us be gone. (4) With the Gospel, we lose our temporal enjoyments and creature comforts: these usually come and go with the Gospel. When God had once written Loammi upon Israel, the next news is this, I will recover my wool and my flax (Hosea 2:9). (5) And lastly, to come up to the very case in hand, they lose with it their spiritual food and soul-subsistence; for the Gospel is their feast of fat things (Isaiah 25:6), their spiritual wells (Isaiah 12:3), a dole distributed among the Lord's poor (Romans 1:11). In a word, it is as the rain and dews of heaven, as has been shown, which being restrained, a spiritual famine necessarily follows: a famine of all the most terrible. Now to show you the analogy between this and a temporal famine, that therein you may see what cause you have to be deeply affected with it, take it in these six following particulars.
A famine is caused by the failing of bread, or that which is in the stead, and has the use of bread. Dainties and superfluous rarities may fail, and yet men may subsist comfortably. As long as people have bread and water they will not famish; but take away bread once, and the spirit of man fails. Upon this account bread is called a staff (Psalm 105:16), because what a staff is to an aged or feeble man, that bread is to the faint and feeble spirits, which even so do lean upon it. And look what bread is to the natural spirits, that, and more than that, the word is to gracious spirits (Job 23:12): I have esteemed the words of your mouth more than my necessary food. If once God break this staff, the inner man, that hidden man of the heart, will quickly begin to fail and falter.
It is not every degree of scarcity of bread that presently makes a famine, but a general failing of it; when no bread is to be had, or that which is, yields no nutriment. For a famine may as well be occasioned by God's taking away panis nutrimentum, the nourishing virtue of bread, that it shall signify no more as to the end of bread than a chip (Haggai 1:6), as by taking away panem nutrientem, bread itself (Isaiah 3:1). And so it is in a spiritual famine, which is occasioned either by God's removing all the ordinances, and making vision utterly to fail; or else, though there be preaching, prayer, and other ordinances left (at least, the names and shadows of them), yet the presence of God is not with them. There is no marrow in the bone, no milk in the breast; and so, as to soul-subsistence, it is all one as if there were no such things.
In a corporeal famine, mean and coarse things become sweet and pleasant; famine raises the price and esteem of them. That which before you would have thrown to your dogs, now goes down pleasantly with yourselves. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet (Proverbs 27:7). It is the Dutch proverb, and a very true one, hunger is the best cook.
Iejunus stomachus raro vulgaria temnit. Horat.
In time of famine coarsest fare contents,
The barking stomach strains no complements.
It is storied of Artaxerxes Memor, that when he was flying before his enemies, he fed hungrily upon barley bread, and said, Cujusmodi voluptatis hactenus in expernus fuit? — Oh, what pleasure have I hitherto been ignorant of. When great Darius drank the puddled water, that had been defiled with dead carcasses which had been slain in that famous battle, he professed he never drank more pleasant drink. And famous Hunniades said, he never fared more daintily, than when (in a like exigence) he supped upon bread, onions, and water, with a poor shepherd in his cottage.
Just so, does the famine of the Word raise the price and esteem of vulgar and despised truths. O what would we give for one of those sermons, one of those Sabbaths we formerly enjoyed? In those days the word of the Lord was precious. When God calls to the enemy to take away and remove his contemned, but precious dainties, from his wanton children, and a spiritual famine has a little pinched them, they will then learn to prize their spiritual food at a higher rate.
In time of famine some persons suffer more than others. It falls heaviest and pinches hardest upon the poorer sort, as long as anything is to be had for money, the rich will have it. So it falls out in a spiritual famine; although the most experienced, and best furnished Christians, will have enough to do to live in the absence of Ordinances, yet they are like to subsist much better, than weak, ignorant, and unexperienced ones. Some Christians have husbanded their time well, and like Joseph in the seven years plenty, laid up for a scarcity. The Word of God dwells richly in them. Some such there are, as John calls young men, who are strong, and the word of God remains in them, of whom it may be said, as Jerome spoke of Nepotianus, that by long and assiduous meditation of the Scriptures, he had made his breast the very library of Christ. But others are babes in Christ; and though God will preserve that good work which he has begun in them, yet these poor babes will soonest find, and be most concerned in the loss of their spiritual fathers and nurses.
In time of famine there are pitiful cries, and heartbreaking complaints wherever you go. O the many pale faces you shall then see, and the sad language that rings in your ears in every place! One cries, bread, bread, for Christ's sake, one bit of bread; another faints and falls down at your door. All the people sigh (Lamentations 1:11). Indeed, the poor little ones are brought in (verse 12), crying to their mothers, where is the corn and wine? and then pouring out their souls into their mothers' bosom. Just so it is in a famine of the Word; poor Christians everywhere sighing and crying, O where are our godly ministers? Our sweet Sabbaths, Sermons, Sacraments, my fathers, my fathers, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen of it? How beautiful were your feet upon the mountains! And then weeping, like the people at Paul's departure, to think they shall see their faces no more.
Lastly, in time of famine, there is nothing so costly or precious, but people will part with it to purchase bread. They have given their pleasant things, for meat to relieve their souls (Lamentations 1:11). And doubtless when a spiritual famine shall pinch hard, those that have been close-handed to maintain a Gospel ministry, will account it a choice mercy to enjoy them again at any rate. Though the Lord feed you with the bread of affliction, and give you the waters of adversity, yet it will sweeten that bread and water to you, if your teachers be no more removed into corners (Isaiah 30:20).
REFLECTIONS.
Is the famine of the word such a fearful judgment? Then Lord pardon my unthankfulness, for the plentiful and long continued enjoyment of such a precious and invaluable mercy. How lightly have I esteemed the great things of the Gospel? O that with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, I might bless the Lord, that ever I was brought forth in an age of so much light! in a valley of visions, in a land flowing with Gospel mercies. Has not God made of one blood, all the nations of men, to dwell on the face of the earth? and determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation (Acts 17:26). Many of these great and populous nations are involved in gross darkness. Now that of all the several ages of the world, and places in it; God should espy the best place for me, and bring me forth into it, in such a happy nick of time, as can hardly be paralleled in history, for the plenty of Gospel mercies, that this age and nation has enjoyed; that my mother did not bring me forth in the deserts of Arabia, or wastes of America, but in England where God has made the sun of the Gospel to stand still, as the natural sun once did over Gibeon; and that such a mercy should no more affect my soul, let shame cover my face for this, and trembling seize my heart.
Is the Gospel indeed departed? Its sweet influences restrained? and a famine worse than that of bread come upon us. Alas! for the day, for it is a great day, so that none is like it; it is even the day of Jacob's trouble. Woe is me, that ever I should survive the Gospel, and the precious liberties and mercies of it! What horrid sins have been harbored among us, for which the Lord contends, by such an unparalleled judgment? Lord, let me justify you even in this severe dispensation; the provocation of your sons, and of your daughters have been very great, and among them none greater than mine. May we not this day read our sin in our punishment? O what nice and wanton appetites, what curious and itching ears, had your people in the days of plenty? Methods, tones and gestures, were more regarded than the excellent treasures of divine truths. Ah my soul! I remember my fault this day — little did I then consider, that sermons work not upon hearts, as they are thus elegant, thus admirable, but as they are instruments in the hand of God appointed to such an end. Even as Austin said of the conduits of water, though one be in the shape of an Angel, another of a beast, yet the water refreshes as it is water, and not as it comes from such a conduit: By this also, O Lord, you rebuke the supineness and formality of your people. How drowsy, dull, and careless have they been under the most excellent and quickening means? Few more than I. Alas! I have often presented my body before the Lord in Ordinances, [illegible]; but my soul has been wandering abroad, as Chrysostom speaks. I should have come from under every sermon as a sheet comes from the press, with all the stamps and lively impressions of the truths I heard upon my heart. But alas! If it had been demanded of me, as once it was of Aristotle, after a long and curious oration, how he liked it, I might have answered as he did, Truly I did not hear it, for I was all the while minding another matter. Righteous are you, O Lord, in all that is come upon us.
I am now as a spring shut up, that can yield no refreshment to thirsty souls, ready to perish. You have said to me as once to Ezekiel, Son of man, behold, I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, and you shall be dumb. This is a heavy judgment, but you must be justified and cleared in it. Although men may not, yet God, if he please, may put a lighted candle under a bushel. And herein I must acknowledge your righteousness. Many times have I been sinfully silent, when both your glory and the interest of souls engaged me to speak. Most justly therefore have you made my tongue to cleave to its roof. Little did I consider the preciousness of souls, or the tremendous account to be given for them, at the appearing of the great Shepherd. I have now time enough to sit down and mourn over former miscarriages, and lost opportunities. Lord restore me once again to a serviceable capacity, to a larger sphere of activity for you, for I am now become as a broken vessel. It grieves me to the heart, to see your flock scattered, to hear your people cry to me, as once to Joseph, Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? Your word is like fire, shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing. O, that you would once again open the doors of your house, that there may be bread enough in your house for all your children.
The Poem.
When God does make the heavens above us brass,
The earth's like iron. Flowers, herbs and grass
Have lost their fragrant green; are turned yellow,
The brooks are dry, the pining cattle bellow.
The fat and flowery meadows scorched and burned,
The country's mirth is into mourning turned.
The clefted earth, her thirsty mouth sets ope,
To the empty clouds; as 'twere in hope
Of some refreshing drops, that might allay
Her fiery thirst: but they soon pass away.
The pensive husbandman with his own eyes,
Bedews his land, because he sees the skies:
Refuse to do it, just so stands the case,
When God from souls, removes the means of grace.
God's ministers are clouds, their doctrine rain;
Which when the Lord in judgment shall restrain:
The peoples' souls in short time will be found
In such a case, as this dry parched ground.
When this sad judgment falls on any nation,
Let saints therein take up this lamentation.
O dreadful, dark, and dismal day!
How is our glory fled away.
Our sun gone down, our stars overcast;
God's heritage is now laid waste.
Our pining souls no bread can get,
With wantons God has justly met,
When we are fed to the full,
This man was tedious; that was dull.
But they are gone, and there remain
No such occasions to complain.
Stars are not now for lights, but signs;
God knows of what heart-breaking times.
Sure heaven intends not peace, but wars;
In calling home ambassadors.
How long did Sodom's judgment stay?
When righteous Lot was snatched away.
How long remained that stately hall,
When Samson made the pillars fall?
When horsemen, and commanders fly;
Woe to the helpless infantry.
This is a sad and fatal blow,
A public loss and overthrow.
You that so long have wished them gone,
Be quiet now; the thing is done.
Did they torment you ere your day?
God has removed them out of the way.
Now sleep in sin, and take your ease;
Their doctrine shall no more displease.
But Lord! what shall become of us?
Our teacher's gone, and left us thus!
To whom shall we ourselves address,
When conscience labors in distress
O, who shall help us at our need?
Or pour in balm, when wounds do bleed?
Help Lord, for to you our eyes
Do pour out tears; our groans, our cries
Shall never cease: till you restore,
The mercies which we had before.
Till Zion's paths where grass now grows,
Be trodden by the feet of those
That love your name: and long to enjoy
The mercies they have sinned away.
