The Pouring Out of the Spirit

Zechariah 12:10 to the end of the chapter. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of Supplication, &c.

These words contain a notable description of a gracious gift, which God promised to bestow upon his people in the days of the Gospel. This gift is the Spirit of Grace, set forth first by the donor or giver of it, I will pour it out, which intimates both God the Father, and God the Son.

Secondly, it is described by the manner of bestowing it: In a large measure, I will pour it out.

Thirdly, the subjects, or persons upon whom, the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Fourthly, the gift itself, the Spirit; amplified by an adjunct, and by an effect.

An adjunct, it is the Spirit of Grace.

The effects are three:

The first work it has in the heart of him in whom it is bestowed, is prayer, supplication, that is, humble prayer.

Secondly, it works a looking upon Christ, who is set forth by his passion, and that by their hands.

Thirdly, it works a mourning for Christ; and this mourning is amplified by the greatness of it; and that greatness amplified by a double comparison: 1. As the mourning of him that mourns for the loss of his firstborn: 2. Like the mourning of Haddadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

Secondly, amplified by the privacy of it, the secrecy and inwardness of it, every one apart; which inwardness of their mourning first implies the soundness and sincerity of it; they shall mourn not only when they are seen, but every one apart, concealing it, at least for that time from any.

Thirdly, it expresses the freeness of it: to mourn one family with another, or the whole congregation together, would provoke and stir us up to mourn with them that mourn: as the weeping eyes of them that sit near us, are many times uncomfortable to us; so the sight of some mourning many times melts the hearts of those that behold them. Now this is such a mourning as shall have no such helps; their own hearts shall put work enough into their hands; their looking upon Christ shall make them mourn.

Now for handling these points in order, I might first speak of the author and bestower of this gift, as also of the manner of bestowing it; and thirdly of the subjects upon whom it is bestowed; but some other will be more suitable to be first handled. Therefore first to speak of the gracious gift which God has promised to pour out abundantly in these days, which is the Spirit, described by the adjunct, a Spirit of Grace, and his effect, a Spirit of Prayer. Observe this note:

Doctrine: The Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Supplication.

A spirit of prayer; so God describes the spirit he promises to give his people: a spirit of supplication, that is, humble prayer. Now the spirit of grace which God bestows upon his people, is partly a spirit of adoption, and partly a spirit of regeneration, both one spirit, only having diverse manner of workings; and both these are a spirit of prayer. You have not received the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father (Romans 8:15). We and all Christians that first receive the spirit of bondage, and after the spirit of adoption, we pray humbly and frequently Our Father (Galatians 4:6). We receive the adoption of sons by our redemption by the Lord Jesus, and then we receive the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, whereby we are not only adopted, but regenerated and made the sons of God, and thereby come to cry Abba, Father. This is the spirit of grace; adoption is to make and account us his own children: and by the spirit of grace he seals to us the assurance of our adoption, and so makes us of one nature with the Lord Jesus, by communicating to us of the divine nature (1 Peter 1:4), and so we become gracious as he is gracious, holy, wise, and patient as he is, every way like the Father, only reserving to God those excellencies which our natures are not capable of. Now this Spirit is in the text called a Spirit of Grace.

First, because it is freely bestowed on us without any desert of ours, indeed without so much as our desire (Ezekiel 36:25-27, together with verse 32). Meaning, not for any goodness in you, but for my own holy name's sake.

Secondly, it is called a spirit of grace, because it makes us gracious like to our heavenly Father. So that now by this means we are transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, by this Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18), from one glorious grace to another. The Spirit is also called a spirit of prayer: you read a charge to this purpose (Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20). It is the Holy Ghost in whom we do pray, and by whose strength and might we do pray. We know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit helps our infirmities (Romans 8:26).

Reasons, 1. taken from the work that this spirit of grace makes in the hearts of all that receive it, which is, Wherever God gives the spirit of grace, that heart grows immediately sensible of all its former ungraciousness. It is deeply sensible of that as soon as ever the spirit of grace visits our hearts, we begin to see that we were born children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). It lets us see we are the children of this world (Luke 16:8), and have been the children of the devil (John 8:44), as Manasses was: and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:22). When a man wittingly and willingly commits any known sin, he does as actually give his soul to the Devil, as a Witch does her body and soul; we thereby renounce the covenant of God, and Satan takes possession of us. Now by the spirit of grace we see this; and that by nature we are strangers and enemies to God (Colossians 1:21), and have been servants to sin (Romans 6:7). Thus we begin to be sensible of the ungracious frame of nature we brought with us into the world, in which we have grown up, and been hardened in, to this day: so as now the poor soul begins presently to stand amazed at her former condition, and looks at it as most dangerous and desperate; and now the soul begins to loathe itself, and to abhor itself, and to complain and confess its wickedness before God (Ezekiel 36:26, 31). Then they remember their evil ways, and loathe themselves, etc. Now they see so much wickedness in both heart and life, that they are amazed to think of it. And hence it comes to pass, that the soul has now matter enough to say against itself, you need not tell him what he had need to be humbled for, but then, I have sinned against heaven, and before you (Luke 15:18-19). He had enough to say, and he need not go to any to be taught; so that thus it becomes a spirit of prayer, because it so fits us with sense of our own estates.

Reason 2. This will appear more especially, if you add this second reason; and it is taken from the estate of the spirit of grace in those in whom it is received; and what is that? It is a spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2), the same spirit of which he speaks in verse 15. Yet such a spirit of life, as is an imperfect life, a weak life, as of a child newborn, true life, but very weak, being pained and bruised in the birth, it cries out bitterly; so a newborn babe in Christ, as soon as it has received the spirit of grace, it feels itself in a cold and naked condition, and thereupon feels its own weakness and hunger. An imperfect life strongly desires relief, and if it be afflicted with any sense of death, it will exceedingly struggle, and strive, and wring every way, if it be possible, to preserve the life; so we no sooner receive a spirit of grace, but we find ourselves compassed about with a body of death (Romans 7:24). Now all life when it is compassed about with death, it will so strive to preserve itself, that you would think the dying man to be the most lively: so there is no Christian soul that receives a spirit of grace, but finds itself compassed about with enemies, the flesh lusting against the spirit, so as there is a great strife in him (Galatians 5:17). Faith strives against doubting, his heart being changed; his heat and zeal against coldness; humility and meekness against pride and wrath; and thus he strives earnestly for the preservation of his life. Now then you shall need no more to make a prayer; for if once a man grow to be sensible of his own weakness, he has matter enough to complain of to God and himself, he sees what he stands in need of, he wants faith, and a soft heart, an humble spirit, and zeal for God's glory; now he wants every thing; so as (that I may so speak) he can tell God stories of his misery, and that with some earnestness, and heartiness, as a man struggling for his life; can now plead for anything that might make him live in God's sight, and the Spirit teaches us all this (Romans 8:26).

Use. First, it is a sign of trial, whether we have indeed received the spirit of grace or not; if we have received the spirit of grace, we have also received a spirit of prayer, of supplication, humble prayer; if we have not a spirit of prayer, we have not received a spirit of grace: for you see the spirit of grace both gives us matter, and right manner and utterance to pray; right matter in prayer, that is, whether it be sins to be confessed to God, or grace to be desired from God; it gives us both these sensibly and feelingly, so as we can see plainly by the spirit of grace, what wicked wretches we are, how rebelliously we have spent our time; it makes us call to mind our wicked thoughts, our loose affections, our idle, vain, and perverse speeches; it makes us remember all the wicked courses we have run, the Sabbaths we have profaned, the parents we have grieved, we can go on with it point by point for the matter. And for the manner, with such abomination, and loathing, and grief, and shame, and freeness of confession, that we know not how to lift up our eyes to heaven, with the poor Publican (Luke 18), we are ashamed, and confounded, and blush, as Ezra, to think what lives we have led; this is humble supplication. And for matter of petition and expression of our desires, the spirit of grace gives us matter in this. We can now pray for a soft heart, for an humble spirit, for a believing heart, for peace of conscience, and for grace to make us new creatures, and to make us fit for our callings, and therein to walk as becomes Christians in our particular places.

And the spirit of grace also gives us fit manner, that now we pray for these with all fervency, and wrestling, and so contending and pleading with God for them, as that he shall not be able to say us no; and so it leads us on to a spirit of power, so as now those that formerly could never tell how to set one word before another, to any purpose, can now declare their minds very fully; and in case they do want utterance, yet they have the lively speech of all in point of prayer. (Romans 8:26) It has sighs and groans that cannot be uttered. If such a soul cannot speak, it can sigh, and mourn, and weep, what for remembrance of sins past, and longing desire after grace to come, he can mourn exceedingly: so that here is an evident work of the spirit of grace; if we have received the spirit of prayer, we have received the spirit of grace.

To make this a little more plain, there be three things the Spirit helps us to in any duty we take in hand: First, ability for it; Secondly, liberty or freedom of spirit in it; Thirdly, it puts a kind of necessity upon us, that we must needs do it.

First, for ability, it is a spirit of power (2 Timothy 1:7). It enables us in some measure to do what God calls for.

Secondly, of liberty, so we read (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Thirdly, it puts a necessity upon us (2 Corinthians 5:14; Acts 20:22).

Now then consider, if God has given us a spirit of prayer, then has he in some measure enabled us to pray, whether we say much or little; we have much to say, if we could speak; and if we can speak, we can tell God of our former ways, and present wants; the Spirit of God is a spirit of power. And for liberty, whereas before it was a most unwelcome business to him, he could never tell what to make of this praying, come to a sad and a long prayer, and it is very irksome to him, but now his heart is free, prayer is not now troublesome to him. And thirdly, not only free, but now he must needs go to prayer; he that before could never pray, since he was born, he must now needs go aside into some corner or other, he can have no rest till he has done it; so that here is an easy discerning whether we have received the spirit of grace or no. These ever go together, where there is a spirit of grace, there is a spirit of prayer. On the contrary, if you cannot pray, if you neither know what to pray, nor how to pray, if you go to prayer unwillingly, not any work so wearisome, or straining to you as prayer is; if for any business that comes to you, you can be content to avoid prayer; if any idle company come to your house, all must be set aside to mind them; not but that a man's business may sometimes be such as may hinder him for a time: but if a man be glad of any such occasion, and he comes to prayer as a bear to a stake, then be not deceived, you may think you are gracious, but the truth is, unless you find some measure of ability, and liberty, and necessity to pray, you yet want a spirit of grace. You would scarce think a child were living, if it did not cry as soon as it is born; if still-born, you take it for dead born. If you are a still-born Christian, you are dead born; if you have no wants to tell God of, if yet unwilling to pray, and would be glad of any occasion to shut out prayer, be not deceived, where there wants prayer, there wants grace; no prayer, no grace; little prayer, little grace; frequency of prayer argues power of grace.

Use 2: Of direction to such as want a spirit of prayer, what course to take to obtain it: there is no better means than this in the text. Do you think it will serve the turn, if a man read some prayers? Not that I would discourage any poor soul from prayer upon a book, for I think as we may sing Psalms upon a book, so we may in some cases pray upon a book; but yet you will neither pray, nor sing well upon a book, unless God give you a spirit of grace. Therefore rest not in your book, though I do not forbid them to use books that want other strength, yet by no means rest in them; for what though your prayer book has many good forms of prayer in it, yet unless you have the spirit of prayer, you know not which is fit for your condition; and though the book might give you matter, yet it cannot give you humility, and fervency. Use books as young swimmers use bladders; the spirit of grace will help you beyond what you would think, and thereby you will more sweetly tell God your mind, and therefore labor chiefly for a spirit of grace.

But how shall I get a spirit of grace?

First, if God be pleased to open your eyes to see what a dry soul you have, and are sensible of the dryness of your own heart, wanting sap and moisture, and are therefore thirsting for want of grace, then it is very hopeful God will give you a spirit of grace. (Isaiah 44:3) To whom will God give the spirit of grace? To those that are dry, and thirsty, that feel themselves thirsting for want of grace. Though you cannot yet call God Father, nor look at him as your friend, yet if you have but a thirsty soul, and long for grace, under sense of your own spiritual dryness, then God will not deny the Holy Ghost to them that ask him (Luke 11:9, 13). And suppose God will not give you a spirit of grace, for any love's sake you discern in God toward you, and any neighborly and fatherly care he has over you, yet if God give you but a heart to feel your own want, and thirst after it, when you ask such bread for your souls, he will not give you a stone, but he will give you a spirit of grace.

Secondly, by a diligent hearing the Word of God (Galatians 3:2), implying that he does usually breathe the Spirit by the breath of his Word; he breathes indeed where he wills (Job 3:8). But yet as it is with material churches, if there be any wind anywhere, it will gather about them; so does the Spirit of grace most gather to the congregation of God's people; if there be any breath of the Spirit stirring, usually it is there.

Thirdly, another means is that, (Proverbs 1:22-23) How long will you love scorning? Turn at my reproof, and I will pour out my spirit upon you: implying, that if God give a man but so much honesty of heart, as to leave his folly and scorning, and turn from his evil ways, then God will pour out his Spirit upon him: implying, that which hinders the Spirit from being poured out upon us, is because we will not part with some or other beastly sin, as pride, hypocrisy, etc. The Spirit of Grace will not come but into a heart in some measure prepared; the Spirit of Grace will not come into a cage of unclean lusts: but if God give a man a heart to lend a patient ear to a reproof, and lay down all scorning, and turn from his loose and unprofitable courses, then the promise is evident, I will pour out my spirit upon you.

Use 3. It may serve to teach those that have received the spirit of Grace, how to maintain and keep alive the spirit of Prayer, for we have daily need of praying, and of making supplication, of earnest prayer, humble and hearty prayer, what for our friends, our enemies, our children, servants, brethren, churches abroad, kingdoms we live in, we shall be able to pour out supplication to God in behalf of them all, if he pours upon us a spirit of Grace; and if you would keep an open heart and mouth this way, keep the spirit of Grace in a good frame in your souls; so far forth as the spirit of Grace is lively in you, so far will the spirit of Prayer be lively in you: as you would have Prayer lively, so grieve not the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30), but grieve the Spirit, and you constrain Prayer.

But how shall we avoid the grieving of it?

Take heed of giving way to any scandalous sin; if you do, you shall not be able to pray. In Psalm 51:15, he confesses he had made his heart unclean before God, and thereby was so dampened, that he knew not how to come before God, till the Spirit of God should re-visit him, and then, Open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise. As if he should say, the defilement in his heart and hands choked him, and made him unable to pray: therefore grieve not the Spirit of God by bearing with yourselves in any sinfulness of heart or life.

Secondly, despise not prophesying (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying, by neglecting the word, or slighting of it, or by not attending to it with fear, and faith, and obedience.

Thirdly, take heed of all murmuring in any afflictions. If God cross our wills, and we fall to murmuring, then we cannot make so much as a quiet prayer, much less a humble and fervent prayer: we vex the holy Spirit of God when we grumble at any affliction (Isaiah 63:9-10), to show you, that if a man have an unquiet and impatient heart, especially when anything crosses him, he cannot pray, no not in affliction, though then he has most need to seek to God (Hosea 5, last verse). If we cannot take afflictions in good part, and submit our wills to the will of God, we cannot pray.

Fourthly, take heed of provoking the spirit of your brethren, or of suffering your spirit to be provoked by them; either of both these will hinder us in our prayers; it will hinder us from performing any spiritual duty in a spiritual manner (Galatians 5:25-26). See a lively precedent of it in Moses — they vexed his spirit, and then he spoke unadvisedly with his lips (Psalm 106:33). He that was unfit to speak in God's name to the people, was more unfit to speak to God by Prayer. See therefore that we be not provoked; no Christian can pray wisely and advisedly when his spirit is provoked. Therefore the Spirit of Grace must ever over-rule us, without which we cannot put up a savory prayer to God upon any occasion.

Zechariah 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, etc.

We come now to a second effect, which the Spirit of Grace works wherever it is bestowed, and that is a looking upon Christ — they shall look upon me, etc.

Doctrine. The Spirit of Grace, and of Prayer, wherever it is, it does open our eyes, and lift them up to look upon Christ, as our sin, and as our Savior.

As if before their eyes were blinded, and they saw him not; or if they saw him, they looked at other matters, rather than at him; but now they begin to have their eyes opened, and settled upon him in some measure of intent beholding of him, as their sin: they shall look upon me whom they have pierced; they shall look upon their piercing and crucifying of him; they shall see me as the greatest sin they ever committed; their eyes will more be set upon that, than upon all their other sins, or any object that ever they beheld.

As their Savior: for Christ pierced is, as the sin, so the salvation of all the people of God. The piercing of him made way for the issuing out of that blood, by which we are justified and sanctified (John 19:30, 32, 37), that so the Scripture might be fulfilled.

For opening of this point, first see what it is for men thus to look upon Christ: secondly, why the spirit of Grace works this in us: and thirdly, make application.

For the first, this looking upon Christ, which is here said to spring from the spirit of Grace, and of Prayer. The first looking upon him is with an eye of knowledge, as discerning that we are they that have crucified him, to know and consider that it is we that have pierced him, and that in so doing we have sinned, and that grievously. This was fulfilled in the Jews by the ministry of Peter in the first sermon that he made to the Christian Church (Acts 2:36), when he had convinced them of the truth of what he had said, he concludes his sermon thus: Let therefore the whole house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made him both Lord and Christ, even this Jesus whom you have crucified. When they understood this, then were they pricked in their hearts (verse 37). They discerned plainly by Peter's sermon that it was they that had pierced the Messiah — that was the first work it wrought in them, and therein did they see their sin: for in that it is said their hearts are pricked, it argues they saw their sinfulness in that work.

Secondly, this looking at Christ is to behold him with an eye of faith; not only to look at him as pierced by our sins, but also at this as our salvation, in which our salvation is laid up, if at all we come to be saved. This is an act of faith, to look at Christ with assurance, as our Savior, that this salvation is in him; therefore we must look up to him for salvation: as they that by faith looked upon the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8-9). Which Scripture being expounded in (John 3:14-15), it is expressed, that whoever looks up to Christ with an eye of faith for salvation, shall be saved.

Now this kind of faith of looking upon Christ, has in it sundry acts in sundry Christians, in some more, in some less, as God is pleased to lead them onward in the way of his grace.

First, sometimes they look upon Christ by an eye of faith, as one that is highly to be prized (if they could obtain him) above all the blessings of this world, as one in whom such excellent and heavenly salvation is: that might they but find salvation in him, they would think it their happiness; and in the mean time they look at the want thereof as their misery. So the spouse looks at Christ as white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand (Song of Solomon 5:10). The purity and holiness of Christ is white, his death is ruddy, both which make him glorious and beautiful; and he would be more welcome to her than a thousand other things. In respect of both which, if she could but find him, she would account it her happiness that she might obtain him.

Secondly, this looking at him by faith, enables us to see a possibility of salvation, and redemption by him. There is mercy, or pardon with you (Psalm 130:4). The soul looks up to Christ for pardon. First, there is much to be had in Christ (verse 7): in him is plenteous redemption. They look up to him for it, though they do not as yet find themselves sprinkled with it. Isaiah 17:7: Then shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the holy one of Israel.

Thirdly, faith casts a longing and desiring look after salvation in him. Isaiah 45:22: Look to me all you ends of the earth, and be saved; which is expounded in (Philippians 2:9-10), that looking is opposed to the looking to their idols; instead of looking to them, look to me, and be saved. So that when a man looks not for salvation from idols, but so looks up to Christ, as that he prays to him, and desires salvation from him, this is to look at him as our Savior.

Fourthly, this faith helps us to look at Christ as indeed made to us of God, our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He has given his Son for me, in whom he has loved me, and given me of his Spirit, so as that now I know in whom I have believed (Galatians 2:20; 2 Timothy 1:2). Thus you see the spirit of grace wherever it is poured forth, does open our eyes, and lift them up to Christ.

But thirdly, this phrase of looking up to Christ, expresses an act of hope, as well as either an act of knowledge, or of faith. Isaiah 8:17: I will look to him that hides his face from the house of Israel, and I will wait for him. Suppose that God gives us a heart to see that we have crucified Christ, and yet to see there is salvation, even in that wicked act, and that there is plenteous redemption in him, if yet God does delay us, and does not reveal the Lord Jesus to be ours, then the soul looks up to Christ with an eye of hope, and waits till the Lord shows mercy. Suppose the Lord hides his face, and I see not my salvation yet dispensed to me, yet I will wait for it (Psalm 123:1-2; Micah 7:7). I will wait upon the Lord, and look up to the God of my salvation; the time will come when he will hear me: but in the mean time I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him (verse 9).

Fourthly, this act of looking does also express an act of love (Song of Solomon 4:9). You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes; it expresses a single looking at Christ, such a cast of the eye, as that it ravishes the heart of a Christian. I do not dislike their judgments that apply it to the state of the Church. In (Acts 15:11), when some would put upon them certain ceremonies to look at Christ by, they say, We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved, etc. As if they should say, We are out of love with ourselves, and our own good parts, etc., and we have singly set our eyes upon Christ to be saved by him. The chain of your neck. Such parabolical speeches do fitly express those golden wholesome laws which are made in the Church and commonwealth, whereby a man is not fettered, and snared, and captivated; but they are as ornaments to him, such as by which we glorify God, and edify ourselves; and such are the laws they there make, that they should not lay upon the Gentiles the yoke of Moses' ceremonies, only that they be careful to avoid the offending their brethren, etc. And there was a royal law of love among them, such precious ornaments there were as did much affect the Church at that time. Such a single look at Christ, was that which Paul expresses of himself (Philippians 3:6-9): he had many excellent privileges, yet all loss for the knowledge of Christ; here was a single eye, he rests not in covenant of parents, nor his own good parts, but singly at the grace of Christ.

Reason 1: Taken from the blindness of nature. By nature we are blind, and have not an eye open to look at Christ, much less fastened upon him. It is grace alone by which we see sins against Christ. By nature a man never rises higher than this: you may convince him of some sins against man, and of some sins against God — as the transgression of his Law, either that wrought in our hearts by nature, or given by primitive institution — as you may convince of swearing, Sabbath-breaking, etc. And a man's heart may sometimes be affected, and afflicted with such sins, but to be afflicted for sins against Christ, and the grace of God revealed in Christ, this can we never do till the spirit of grace lifts us up to behold Christ (Luke 23:24). Father forgive them, they know not what they do — and yet they had crucified Christ, and had reproached him, they put all despite upon him, but had any of them such good nature, as to think this was a villainous usage of a man? They sought many false witnesses against him, but found none. They could say, he had done all things well, and when he came to Jerusalem to suffer, they could sing Hosanna: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And now of a sudden fall into such a bitter rage against him, and yet by nature, they could not discern any sin in it — they know not what they do. Take a man by nature, and you may convince him of any sin against man, or against the moral Law of God: but go about to convince him of sins against the grace of Christ, by which God's people would be saved, and he no more understands it, than a blind man sees. I know that through ignorance you did it (Acts 3:17). In such a case, a man is not sensible of any sin he commits against such things wherein Christ is conveyed. If any man comes to it, the spirit of grace has opened his eyes to see it. If any man comes to see he has wronged Christ in his person, or his members, or ordinances, there has been the Holy Ghost, and has opened the eyes of that man (John 16:2-3). But I say further: opened, and lifted up a man's eyes — a man may have a spirit of bondage, and so comes to see his sins; therefore, to make the doctrine more plain: it is the work of the spirit of grace, not only to open our eyes, but to lift them up to Christ, and to fasten them upon him. Judas had his eyes opened, and said, I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood (Matthew 27:3-5). He saw now his sin against Christ, but it was by a spirit of bondage, and he saw Christ was his sin — but was this a saving sight of Christ springing from a spirit of grace? No, his eyes were not lifted up to see Christ his Savior; he did not look at a possibility of salvation in Christ for him, he never fastened his heart upon him, he did not wait on Christ for salvation, he had neither an eye of faith, nor hope, nor love, towards Christ, but goes away and hangs himself. He looks down to the horror of his sin, and to the anguish of his conscience, down to the bottomless pit of despair. And though he mourned, yet it was not a saving mourning, springing from any spirit of grace, but a hopeless and desperate mourning. So that it is only the spirit of grace, that makes one to look for salvation nowhere, but in, by, and from Christ. Nature can go no higher, than sins against nature. He looks at it as a horrible murder to betray so innocent a master, but he never sees it as a sin against grace, as against him in whom salvation was — at least not looking for salvation by him.

Reason 2: Taken from the power of the life of the spirit of grace. Wherever it is, the spirit of grace is a spirit of life, and life loves to preserve itself, and use all the means to save itself, and to nourish itself, especially when it is imperfect, as all our life of grace is. And hence it is, that this spirit of grace being a spirit of life, it looks forthwith at Christ, in whom all our life is. In him is all our life of justification, and sanctification, and redemption. Now by the spirit of the Lord, we cease not looking at Christ, till we be changed from grace to grace (1 Corinthians 3:18). It looks at him, that we may be the more established in him, and grow up in him from one degree of grace to another, and that makes us look to him for more enlargement, and establishment in grace. As the child newborn, of the same matter of which it is begotten, of the same it is preserved, and looks in every ordinance of Christ for establishment (1 Peter 2:2).

Reason 3: Taken from the sense which any has, in whom a spirit of prayer dwells, of his own unworthiness, that any of his prayers should be accepted for his own sake. There is none that has a spirit of prayer, but has his spirit sometimes strained, that unless Christ put life into his prayer, it is but lost labor. And if Christ put life into him, yet still he needs that Christ should accept him. He prays that God would forgive him, though he had been large in that prayer — when his heart is most enlarged in prayer, yet: O Lord, forgive and show mercy for the Lord Jesus' sake (Daniel 9:17). When you speak of two Lords, one of them is always Christ. It was a proud distemper in Uzziah, that he himself went into the Temple of the Lord, to burn incense upon the altar of incense (2 Chronicles 26:16). Why? Ought not kings and princes to pray as well as priests? True, but God would have no Christian — not he that is best able to pray — to burn incense himself, but to bring it to the priest, who stood in the place of Christ. Therefore bring all your prayers to Christ, that in him they might be accepted, and by him presented to the Father. Uzziah for the contrary was struck with leprosy. When we think God has heard our prayers, because we were enlarged, is the next means to be struck with some strong temptation. Therefore when you are most enlarged, say: Alas, what am I? If God should mark this prayer, there are so many deficiencies in it, that unless Christ sprinkle them with his blood, they will be turned out of doors. Entreat Christ to accept, even when you are most and best enlarged.

Use 1: An evident sign of trial of our own estates, whether yet we have received the spirit of grace and prayer, yes or no. If God has poured the spirit of grace and prayer into your heart, then you begin to see that you have crucified the Lord Jesus, you see your sins against Christ and his grace, against his ordinances, and the motions of his Spirit — these are the sins upon which your eyes are most set, and these your hearts are most troubled with; and where this is not, there is no spirit of grace; if it were, your heart would be more exercised about sins against grace, than any else. I say more especially, for a man also will be sensible of his ungraciousness to parents, and any other disorderly courses, and we say true, for want of grace we committed such and such sins against the moral law. So as though Christ had never been revealed, these were sins of Gentiles as well as of Christians; but a man may know all these to be sin, and yet be far off from grace; and he may have some trouble for these, and yet have no grace. But if ever God give a man a spirit of grace, these are not the things that he looks most at, but this above all the rest, that he has sinned against God's grace, against the ordinances of his grace, against Christ that has been revealed for his salvation, and these draw his eyes to look most upon Christ, these most wound his soul. (1 Samuel 12:19) In this we have sinned above all our other sins: and so says every soul that has a spirit of grace in him. He is more troubled that God should wait so long for him, and he still should reject all those motions which the Word of God has propounded to him; many a time the Spirit stirred him to pray, and he had no mind to it; the sense of this so wounds his heart, that all other sins seem nothing in comparison thereof. If a man be troubled for other sins, as for stubbornness against governors, etc., yet this most afflicts him, his heart most ponders upon this. Oh the wretchedness of his heart to neglect and despise the blessed means of grace conveyed to him, what for slighting grace before he received it, and what for waxing wanton with it: this more vexes a good heart, that he should be still doubting of God's grace and favor to him; to look at all the gracious favors of God towards him, as counterfeit delusions, when he has so many evident signs of his favor, this vexes him above all his other sins.

And again, take a child of God, when he is in a comfortable estate of grace, and consider how many ways he grows more loose and unprofitable, notwithstanding all the goodness of God towards him, this makes his heart smart more than any other sin he has committed besides: therefore do but consider what sins you are most troubled for; it is good to be troubled for any sin, but there may be much unsoundness in trouble for sin; but what is it you most complain of? If of your profane conversation, it is well; but this may be done without any jot of the spirit of grace: the spirit of bondage can help a man to do this: and therefore say not, (when you hear men complaining of these things) they will now reform and grow wiser; I tell you they are yet never a whit the nearer repentance: for without a spirit of grace a man may do all this. But do you see a man complain of this, as his greatest sin, not that he has committed murder, and adultery, etc., but that he has stood out against God so long, despised his ordinances, neglected prayer, refusing the grace of Christ? Such a man as this in all likelihood will do well, nothing here will hurt, unless we draw back our eyes when we have begun to see it. Do you then look at Christ for salvation, and you wait upon God for it, and now all your own gifts and parts are no comfort to you? Then there is a spirit of grace in your heart, the injuries you have done to him and his children most pierce your heart, and this sin is ever before you (Psalm 51:3). This spirit of grace within you will never leave till it has brought you to an estate of glory. Judas for want of this fell into utter despair. But if of all your sins you look least at this, the despising and slighting of God's servants you account but a little sin, we think it but a small sin to come to church and go home no better than we came; though we never pray, nor meditate after hearing, it troubles us not; it troubles us that we have made such a hard bargain, that we have been drunk, or committed adultery; but if you look at sins against grace as a light matter, and your other as your chiefest sins, then your heart is not right in the sight of God.

Use 2: To every soul, as he desires to find any comfort in ill hours, so look at sins against grace, as the greatest evils that ever you committed; for in them you have sinned above all your other sins. Lay this down as a principle: though your other sins be bad enough, yet fasten your eyes most upon sins against grace. What are all the sins that we have committed, when as one look at Christ washes them all away? And to neglect to look up to Christ is a more horrible sin than all the sins of Sodom (Matthew 11:20): therefore look at sins against grace as the greatest. If when you come to church, your hearts ache to think how you have sinned against God, and you cannot rest till you have promised to turn to God, but yet when you are gone home, you forget all these good motions, and this never troubles you, make account if you have been drunk, you but abuse drink; if you have been unclean, you have but abused a creature like yourself; but to abuse Christ, nothing is comparable to this. If you shall slight Christ when he is offered to you, make account it is your chiefest sin. Consider therefore what sins you have committed against God, how he has proffered himself to you, and wooed you, and still you have slighted and neglected the blood of Christ, and despised the spirit of grace: look at these as the greatest evils as ever you committed, and so all your doubting after grace received, and all your unprofitable walkings under grace, set these ever before you, and they will help you much.

Use 3: To reprove the Papists, that say they dare not look immediately at Christ in their prayers, but first at Saints, and Angels: What a poor piece of work is this? I tell you, if God give you not grace to look at Christ, you want grace; all your devotion to Saints, and Angels, is a testimony, that your hearts are not endowed with grace. Grace goes directly to Christ, as a child new born goes to the mother's breast, and never leaves crying till it be laid there.

Use 4: To teach such Christians as are given to pray, to be sure you look to Christ in your prayers; look at him, and they are accepted; look not at them, nor the comforts you take in them, for so may you fall short of acceptance; but look at Christ in all, and then you shall not be struck with leprosy: it is a spirit of grace that looks at Christ, and by so doing, we shall still draw upon ourselves, more grace in every duty.

Use 5: Of comfort to all those poor souls, as find themselves looking up to Christ; they complain they see little grace in themselves; it may be none at all as they think, yet they see they have often despised grace, and dishonored grace, their lives have been a shame to religion, and now they complain there is no grace in them. Well, you want grace, and you want prayer, and you want Christ, you want all that which others comfortably attain to, you want power to express yourselves in company: Well, if your eyes be set upon Christ, and upon your failings in grace, and yet in Christ you see there is salvation, and you wait upon him for it, and all your own parts are empty things in comparison of Christ; it is an evident sign God has given you grace, you could never have looked after Christ, had not he first looked after you, and he having once looked after us, he will nurse us up to the day of the Lord Jesus.

Zechariah 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, etc.

Come we now to the third effect of the spirit of grace, wherever it is bestowed.

Doctrine 3: When the spirit of grace opens our eyes to behold Christ, whom we have pierced, it pierces our hearts with godly sorrow.

So says the text; They shall look upon him, (meaning, when this spirit of grace, and of prayer, is poured forth upon them) it shall not be a wandering look, or a slight beholding; but such a fixed and serious beholding him whom they have pierced, as shall make them mourn exceedingly, as a man for the loss of his only son; or as the commonwealth of Israel, for the loss of Josiah. They shall mourn for him, or over him: it is not therefore a worldly sorrow, for it is set upon a spiritual object, Christ; nor is it merely such a sorrow, as a spirit of bondage, or despair may work. For a man in hell may mourn for sin; but it is not here said, they shall mourn for themselves, but for him, their mourning shall be chiefly conversant about Christ; so that a gracious looking upon Christ pierced for us, and by us, pierces our hearts with godly sorrow, pierced by us; They shall look upon him, whom they have pierced, and not merely by us, but for us, whom they have pierced; not only to the shame, and confusion of their own faces, but pierced also to the shedding of his blood, whereby ourselves are healed; such a look upon Christ, whenever it is wrought by the spirit of grace, there it pierces the heart with godly sorrow. (Acts 2:36-37) where this Scripture is literally accomplished, Peter convinces them, that he whom they had pierced with the sorrows of death, was the Lord Christ. Upon the hearing of this, they were pricked in their hearts, they that had pierced him by their sins against him, now feel their hearts pierced for him. Again, (Acts 5:3) there was added to the Church two thousand more, but how were they brought on? By this very argument, I know that through ignorance you have crucified him, you have denied the Holy, and Just one, and killed the Prince of Life, and Glory (Acts 3:14-15). And thus he goes on to convince them, that however, of ignorance they had killed him; yet, he whom they had killed, was the Prince of Life: and however the high Priest took it offensively, Chapter 4:3, yet, they that heard the word believed, and still more was added to the Church; so that it comes to this issue, that the two first Sermons, that did show to the people of God, that by their wicked hands, they had crucified Christ, they prevailed to bring five thousand to godly sorrow.

Now for opening this point, I said, this godly sorrow, by which men are brought on to Christ, springs from beholding of Christ pierced by us, and for us: See these opened.

Pierced by us: This implies two things. First, that we look at all our sins, as piercing Christ; a man that is led by a spirit of grace, to a penitential, and godly sorrow, is brought on to consider thus much: That all his sins he has committed, have been a piercing, and crucifying of Christ; the sin of his nature, the vanity of his childhood, the rebellions of his youth, and sins of riper times, whatever they be, whether against nature, or the moral law of God; this is one work, which the spirit of grace effects, in the hearts of all God's people: It opens their eyes to see, that all their sins in conclusion, have reflected upon Christ, the burden, and smart of them, have fallen upon him, for (Romans 6, final verse) The wages of sin is death; either we must die for every one of our sins, or else, the Lord Jesus Christ must die for every one of us; every sin must either pierce us, or him to the death; and therefore when we see that there is life, and hope of life in us, it makes us see, that by his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:17). There is not any sin we commit, but brings with it God's wrath and curse upon our souls (Galatians 3:10), so that if there be any work of the Law that we have not continually performed, we are accursed; and either we must bear the curse and wrath of God, or else the Lord Jesus must suffer for us. Look at all our sins, as so many nails that fastened him to the cross, as so many venomous darts in his soul, as so many vials of the fierce wrath of the Lord; had not he borne the insupportable burden of the wrath of God for our sins, we had every soul of us perished everlastingly. Now this does not a little melt and afflict a gracious heart.

Secondly, but yet there is more in the point than that; for by the spirit of grace a man looks at Christ as pierced not only by our sins, but especially in this respect, that the greatest sins that we have committed, have been sins against Christ himself, and that makes them most grievous, as being committed against Christ; and by this means we come to mourn bitterly. It is no small anguish to see so many of his sins like so many darts in his heart; but that we should personally sin against him that has done so much for us, this wounds so much the more; that when a man sees any sin against Christ, whether against his person, or against any ordinance of his, it is so much the more grievous, by how much the more nearly it concerns Christ.

For first, a man considers he has sinned against the blood of Christ, against the value and the virtue of it. The Apostle mightily prefers the blood of Christ above the blood of bulls and goats (Hebrews 10:4), and yet there is not any gracious heart but is sensible that he has despised the blood of Christ more than he would have done the blood of a bull, or a goat, or a ram. Take this instance in particular. Suppose you should never swear an oath, or tell a lie, or broken the Sabbath at any time, but it would have cost you a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a trespass-offering, and fine flour, and wine, and oil for a meat-offering, would you not by this time have left all your oaths, and lies, and profaning of God's Sabbaths? Should every transgression in this kind have cost you but a bullock, or a ram, or a lamb, you would before now have grown very chary of committing these sins; and yet this was the express law of God in former times, a man might not commit any sin, and look for the pardon of it, but so much must go for a sin-offering, and so much for a trespass-offering, etc. And hence it came to pass, that generally scarce any of these vices were found among them, especially when the people of God sought after God in any measure of truth, because they knew no pardon, unless it cost them something.

Now if this prevailed to the working of a universal reformation, but when a man now shall know that it is not the blood of bulls and goats that can free him from such sins, but now he must have his soul sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus, and without that there is no peace nor healing to his conscience. Why then, do but consider whether we do not vilify the blood of Christ, when we that know there is no redemption from sin, but by the blood of Christ, and yet live in open sins, blaspheming God, cursing, swearing, etc., for the least of which had we been to pay the blood of a bullock, we had left such wickedness many a day ago. And though we know the blood of Christ is far more precious than the blood of all the bullocks in the world, yet we go on to multiply our sins against God, and our brethren; have not we thereby sinned against the value of Christ's blood, as if it were of less value than the blood of a goat, when as we make no more conscience of swearing, and lying, etc., no not so much as we would, if it were to cost us a sheep or a lamb. Yet though you know the blood of Christ must go for every sin, else it cannot be healed, yet we make no conscience of any sin, and so also we sin against the virtue of Christ's blood; for when a man shall consider he has been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and his heart yet defiled with hypocrisy, and uncleanness, etc., what is there no virtue in the blood of Christ? Is it spent in vain? The blood of bulls and goats could have left us no worse: If the blood of Christ leave us thus, is not the blood of Christ shed in vain, when it cleanses neither the inward nor outward man? Now the sight and consideration of this, helps us to some measure of godly sorrow for sin.

Secondly, a sin against Christ is not only sinning against his blood, but when we sin against the word of his grace; for it is the word sprinkled by the blood of Christ, by which it has any efficacy in our hearts (Acts 20:32). There is no man that sees Christ by a spirit of grace, but he begins to see that he has sinned against the Gospel of Christ, and this is to pierce Christ: and this afflicts him deeply, that the word of his grace which he has caused to be sent forth for my conversion and salvation, and for me to stand out against that, this much afflicts me. Proverbs 5:11-13, speaking of a man turning to God, "You shall mourn in the end," he shall say, in sense of his sin, "How is it that I have hated instruction, and despised reproof?" I was almost in all evil, etc. Thus will a man mourn and lament for his sin, when he comes to see how vain his course is; it will vex his soul, and pierce him to the heart, to consider how many ways God has spoken to him, how many sweet reproofs and counsels have been tendered to him, what sweet offers have been made him, if he would turn to God, and how have I made a shift to despise them all? Thus will a man's heart bleed within him, to consider that he should thus sin against the word of God's grace.

Thirdly, we sin against Christ, when the spirit of grace opens our eyes to see that we have sinned against the seals of the covenant of grace, as Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. In Baptism he promised to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and there gave up himself to the family of Christ, to become a servant to him: and in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we receive the Lord Jesus to be not only our Savior, but our Governor; and now comes to consider how vainly we have abused both these Ordinances, it much afflicts him: to have lived a baptized Christian, twenty, forty, or sixty years, and not more washed from sin than a Turk or a Jew, considering he has been baptized, and received the Sacraments, and his heart as vain, and life profane as ever, this makes his soul to bleed within him.

Fourthly, we sin against Christ, when the spirit of grace opens our eyes to let us see that we have sinned against himself (Ephesians 4:30), and herein we see we have sinned above all our other sins, and it will come to a man's mind not only how many good counsels he has despised, but how many checks of conscience he has resisted, the good motions that he has smothered, then he begins to conceive that he has sinned against the Holy Ghost, thinks he shall never be forgiven. And though it be not that unpardonable sin, yet it works him to much anguish and sorrow.

Fifthly, the spirit of grace opens a man's eyes to see that he has sinned against the members of Christ: we pierce Christ in piercing his members (Acts 9:4-6). When he comes to consider that he has compelled the members of Christ to blaspheme, this vexes and anguishes his heart; for everything of Christ is Christ himself, you cannot pierce any one of his members, but you pierce him.

Sixthly, you will see it to be a sin against Christ, in that you have sinned against the fatherly chastisements of God, sometimes sickness, sometimes loss of goods, many sweet and wholesome afflictions, and yet we are never a bit the better; this pierces a soul to consider that God has done all this about him, and yet still he as unprofitable as ever, this will make a man mourn exceedingly (Jeremiah 31:18).

Seventhly, the spirit of grace helps us to see how much we have despised the gracious blessings God has multiplied upon us; he has filled our basket and our store, and has blessed our goings out and our comings in, in all that we have set our hearts or hands to. Now when he considers that God has done all this for me, and that yet after all this I should neither address myself, nor train up mine to fear him, but still live as if all this had sprung out of the earth, and not merely from the bounteous goodness of God himself, this will so pierce a heart with shame and grief, to think that these come not only from God's bounteous hands, but they are given us by virtue of Christ's death; for us to sin against him that has done so many great things for us, this will pierce the heart of any man. Do you thus requite the Lord, oh you foolish people and unwise? (Deuteronomy 32:6).

But secondly, the spirit of grace opens our eyes to look at Christ pierced for us, so as now we begin to consider that in Christ there is plenteous redemption, there is in his blood remission for the sins of all that will come to him, and hence we come to hope on Christ for salvation. And then to consider that all this the Lord Jesus has done for me, had there been no more sinners but myself, his blood had been spilt for me; now that Christ should do this for me, this so afflicts a soul, that now he is willing to set himself apart, and go alone, and bewail the wretchedness of his heart before God.

Reason 1: Taken from the hardness of our hearts which is found by nature in every soul, that unless the spirit of grace set all these to work, we shall never mourn for him. Take a natural man, and tell him that if ever he be saved, it is by Christ's blood; tell him how much he has sinned against the blood of Christ, and the spirit of grace, the Sacraments, the chastisements, the mercies of God, this no more sinks into him, than rain into the nether millstone. If he grieve for anything, it is for corn, and wine, and oil (Hosea 7:14). He makes a mock at sin (Proverbs 14:9), especially of sins against Christ. Or suppose we be brought to a little shame and grief, it is but because they wound our consciences, not because they have pierced Christ. Judas' grief was not for that he had wounded Christ, but his own conscience. Take the best hypocrite that is farthest carried on-end by common grace, and his heart is never so much softened as to lament for piercing Christ. By nature we cannot once cry for any sin, further than it is burdensome to our consciences.

Reason 2 is taken from the power of the grace of Christ. It opens our eyes to see sins against grace as our greatest sins; no wickedness like to that. Nehemiah 9:27: the deliverers of God's people were called Saviors, and therefore now sinned in this above all our other sins. 1 Samuel 12:13, 19: the spirit of grace looks at sins against Saviors as the chiefest and greatest; though they had doubtless committed many other sins, yet none pierced them so much as this — it was because they grew weary of their Savior. So Chorazin and Bethsaida were greater sinners than they of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 11:20, 24), and yet the Sodomites defiled with most loathsome abominations (Isaiah 16:49); yet they had committed greater sins in slighting Christ and his grace than the Sodomites had done. Better be a whoremonger, or an adulterer, than an unprofitable hearer of the Word.

Reason 3: Because it opens our hearts to see and discern the wonderful love of Christ in every ordinance of his; by how much the more abundant the mercy of God is to us, so much the more are our hearts confounded within us, that we have sinned against them all. Luke 7:36 to 47: she was reputed for a notorious sinner, a common harlot, yet comes to Christ and weeps over him, and our Savior renders the reason — she had much kindness showed her in the pardon of many and great sins, and therefore she loved much; much forgiven, and therefore the heart melts much.

Use 1: A sign of trial — take hence a true discerning, whether we have received a spirit of grace or not; if we have, it will evidence itself in this: we shall not only look at our sins against Christ as great, but we shall see our sins as so many venomous arrows wounding the heart of Christ, we shall mourn more for wounding Christ than for anything. The spirit of grace lets us see our sins as so many daggers pointing at the heart of Christ; it melts our hearts in regard of the kindness of God, that God should forgive us such monstrous and ugly sins. If God therefore has given you to see that you by sin have been injurious to the Lord Jesus, and there is no sin you have committed that pierces you more than that you have so much slighted the blood of Christ, and this troubles you most — that you have stood out so long against the Word and motions of God's Spirit, that you have grieved God's children, and despised his counsels and chastisements — if these grieve you most, it is a good testimony of the saving work of the Spirit of Grace. But on the contrary, if we can only grieve because the world is hard, or for sin because it sends to hell, or wounds your conscience, then your heart is not yet right in the sight of God.

Use 2: To teach every soul that desires to train up his heart to any measure of brokenness — then call to mind your gross sins; they may afflict you, but not melt you, till they be edged and pointed at the heart blood of Christ. Conscience may afflict a man, and he may weary himself with such restless discouragements as to have no quiet, and yet his heart far enough off from Christ; but as soon as we see our sins darting against Christ, then will the heart begin to melt, for that we have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory. If therefore you would bring your heart to unfeigned godly sorrow, then pile your sins as a sharp arrow shot at Christ, else they will not kindly wound you. Consider further how you have slighted Christ, as if it had been a small thing; but know, you had been slackened in your mother's womb, had it not been for the blood of Christ. And consider that you have been a baptized Christian thus long, and yet many natural men are as well-carriaged men as you are. Consider how often you have refused good counsel, sinned against the afflictions, chastisements, and mercies of God. This is the course the Spirit of God takes to melt our hearts.

Use 3: A direction to some doubting Christians, how to judge of their humiliations. Some will say, could I be but humbled enough, I should hope of God's favor toward me; but it is so little, as I fear I have no grace at all. Would you not be deceived? Be it never so little, if it looks at Christ, it is a work of the spirit of grace. To grieve for sin as it is a shame to the world, and a torment to your conscience, they in hell may do as much; but do you see your sins setting Christ all on a light flame? If sins of this nature melt you, it is an evidence of an unfeigned humiliation.

Use 4: It may be some ground of allowance to a course questioned — whether it be lawful to bring suspected murderers to the person murdered. I think this text gives some warrant to it: for the sight of a man pierced by us may by a double work discover the murderer, and both from God, and no witchcraft. First, looking at him whom we have pierced — though we look at it but as a sin against nature, or against the moral law of God, or against our souls, the sight of him may and often does work in a man a spirit of bondage, for doing an act so contrary to the law of God, and of injustice to my brother. So it worked upon Judas; it is likely he thought his Master would have got away, as at other times, but when he saw that he was condemned, this so pierced him that he must needs confess that he had sinned.

Secondly, but besides a spirit of bondage, it may please God to set it on by a spirit of grace, as it is in the text, and that will open a heart in such a case to see that he has not only pierced his brother, but the Lord Jesus Christ, and that will make him to mourn bitterly, and so may the poor soul come to be saved, though condemned to bodily death in this world. Therefore it is not an unwarrantable course, but a serving of a wise and just providence of God; for (Genesis 9:6) the words are first a command to magistrates, secondly a threatening to the murderer, thirdly a promise that it shall be found out. Though men should fail, yet God will not fail (as we many times see) to discover murders that have long time been buried in the dust.

ZECHARIAH 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, etc.

We come now to a fourth note, which is this,

Doctrine. The mourning of a gracious heart for the piercing of Christ, is as bitter and as sad a mourning as any that any man takes up for the greatest and sorest loss that can befall him in his family or kingdom he lives in.

As bitter as any loss: for the most bitter and grievous loss that any man meets with in his family, is the loss of his only son, of his firstborn; this sets all the family a mourning; and that not only together, when they see one another, but it makes them go aside into corners, both husband and wife condole asunder, and weep bitterly upon such an occasion. The woman of Shunam, when she had lost her only son, she tells not her husband of her grief, only desires his leave to go to the Prophet; when she comes at him, she could not tell him her mind neither, but falls down at his feet, whereby he perceived her spirit was much anguished (2 Kings 4:27); her grief was too much to be expressed. And when she speaks, she says not, The child is dead, but Did she desire a child? was it not his own offer to her? as if it were the greatest loss she could meet with. In the like manner our Saviour going by the way, meets with a young man, the only son of his mother, carried to be buried, and they wept sore (Luke 7:12-13). So Rachel wept for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not (Matthew 2:18). Though Joseph was not the only son of Jacob, nor Jacob the weakest Christian in his time, but as strong as his grace was, and as many children as he had, yet when he thought Joseph was slain, he wept bitterly (Genesis 37:34-35), and though his sons and daughters came about him to comfort him, he would not be comforted; which shows, that mourning for an only, or an only beloved son, is matter of greatest lamentation in a family. And it is therefore the greatest, because it is the loss of the parents in most bowels; it is the loss of the chiefest comforts of their greatest hopes.

But you say, The loss of some husband or some wife would be more grievous than the loss of a child: was not Elkanah better to Hannah than ten sons (1 Samuel 1:11)? Though Samuel was more worth than them both, yet they then knew not of Samuel: how then stands it with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, (since conjugal affection leaves sons and daughters to cleave one to another) to express the greatest mourning by the loss of an only child?

I answer, You are to conceive (as it is evident in the text) that he speaks of such a loss to a family, as shall alike afflict both the parents, bitterly grieve both the parents, who though they be the nearest, yet their grief shall be severed; and if he had spoken of the loss of either of them, he had wanted a fit resemblance of the privacy of their mourning, and therefore he expresses it by such a loss, as may be common to that pair in the family that is most entire one to another.

But secondly, in this loss, the Holy Spirit does not omit the loss of yoke-fellows, though he does not express it in plain words, but by evident consequence in the words following, Like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. There was a great mourning of wives for husbands, and husbands for wives, as well as parents for children, and brothers and sisters one for another.

Now therefore for that, that was a mourning which was caused by the greatest loss that could befall any Commonwealth, it was for the death of good Josiah, a better prince than whom the earth never bore, whose loss therefore was the more grievous, because in his loss the wise hearted discerned the utter ruin of church and state, and families, private and public persons, all crushed in his death. That mourning is described (2 Chronicles 35:24-25): upon his death, there was a great lamentation, general and public, as the loss itself was. And further also it was an ominous and dreadful loss, foretelling the utter ruin of church and state. In his death, husbands saw the death of their wives, and wives the loss of their husbands, and both the loss of their children. So great and bitter was this lamentation, that it was written in a book of lamentations, and all the singing men and women had turned all their songs into mourning; the breath of their nostrils was now stopped (Lamentations 4:20). Every man now saw himself undone, family, church, Commonwealth, all undone in his loss (Lamentations 2:13). He compares the loss to the breach of the bank of the great sea, that breaks out and swallows up all before it; and so accordingly was their mourning exceeding great and bitter, an unmatchable mourning. Come here and see if ever any sorrow was like to my sorrow (Lamentations 1:12). This day of the Lord's wrath, is it nothing to you? no cause, nor any expression of sorrow like to this; in this they saw the captivity of church and Commonwealth. See how they express it (Lamentations 2:11), Mine eyes, mine eyes fail through tears, my heart, my heart, my bowels burst forth, etc. They saw their blood poured forth, they saw the ravishing of their virgins, the slaughter of the whole city, the depopulation of church and temple, the laying waste and throwing down all the ordinances, and therefore they express a great mourning, as for the greatest and most public loss. And also it was a durable and hereditary loss, and so was it a durable and hereditary mourning: for this was not a mourning of a few days and years, as David's was for Amnon, which lasted but three years (2 Samuel 13:38-39), but this mourning was durable and hereditary, they wrote it in a book, and left it as an ordinance from age to age (2 Chronicles 35:25). Thus you see what kind of mourning it is, from which the Holy Spirit fetches his comparison. Now such shall be the mourning of every gracious heart, looking upon Christ pierced by him; such a mourning is expressed (1 Samuel 7:6): when they mourned for their sin, they drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, as men draw water out of a well, one bucket full after another. The people poured out buckets full of tears in abundance, not drop by drop; but as God pours a spirit of grace into the heart, so the heart pours out many tears, at least mourning and groans.

Reason 1: Taken from the object of mourning; there can be no sadder or greater occasion of mourning: It is the greatest cause that does befall the sons of men, to mourn for those sins above all other, wherein they have sinned against Christ. It is much cause of grief to wrong either husband, or wife, or parent, but considering the wrong is done against Christ, nothing is answerable to this cause of mourning. David could not but be sensible that he had wronged Uriah in causing him to be put to death, and Bathsheba, in defiling her, both these could not but deeply afflict him; yet all this was nothing in comparison of the wrong he had done to the Lord, "Against you, you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight" (Psalm 51:4). He doubles it, he would have you know there lies his grief; What, against you only, and not against Uriah and Bathsheba? Yes, these were very burdensome, and therefore he cries out, "Deliver me from bloodguiltiness" (verse 14), but yet that was not the thing that did so much afflict him as this, that it was done against God, he had thereby caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. No sins like to sins against Christ and his grace; the sins of Sodom, though so abominable as not to be named, for which God consumed them with fire from heaven, yet the sins of Chorazin and Bethsaida were worse than theirs (Matthew 11:20-24), because Sodom's sins were at the worst but sins against angels, creatures like themselves: but when a man sins against the grace of Christ, this is the greatest object against which men can sin; and therefore the mourning needful to be proportionable.

Again, there is this more in the object, God's wrath which is kindled upon this occasion, is the most grievous evil the soul can conflict with (Psalm 130:3). Now a gracious heart is very sensible of God's wrath, being provoked by it.

And yet it is not the greatest neither, but there is a third thing in the object, and that is the loss a man feels his heart to sustain, when he looks upon Christ whom himself has pierced; he sees not only that he has done wrong to a dear Lord and Savior, but the spirit of grace helping him to see Christ pierced by him and for him, so his heart thereupon begins to feel the loss of Christ by piercing him, such a heart conceives in its first looking towards Christ; and in that such a loss, as wherein he loses not only a son, or a dear parent or friend, but he loses all these together, he loses all the comforts of this life, and all the hopes of a better, so that he looks at his loss as unmatchable; had he lost a husband, or wife, etc. he could have borne it, but to lose a Savior, in that he loses all at once. As it was with Mary (John 20:11), she sat by the sepulchre weeping, and this was the matter, they have taken away the Lord: thus it is with every soul when they find Christ pierced by them, they are taken up with thoughts, that doubtless by piercing of him they have lost him, made him utterly away for ever from being comfortable to them, and therefore now they have no hope to find him, and this is such a cause of mourning, as that than which there is no greater.

But then, when they look upon him as pierced for them, and so as in time they shall come to enjoy him, and find some sprinkling of comfort of his bestowing himself upon them, that aggravates their grief; it is as much as if a man should say, that Christ has died and done all this for love of me, and this afflicts him much. I read of Austin, of a certain unclean woman which made away herself for the love of him, which when he knew, it afflicted him very much; thereupon he goes to God, and says, Here a wicked woman has lost her life for me, and see how I can weep; but yet the Lord Jesus has not been unwilling to lay down his life for very love to me, and yet my heart is not able to mourn for him. As if the soul should consider it thus, that one of such worth as Christ is, the Prince of life and glory, that he should take such a long journey from heaven to earth, and live here such a miserable life, and to do such service to me, to work so many miracles, to be buffeted and scourged, to lose his friends, to be excommunicated out of church, to be censured by the judge, to be crucified, and all this for my soul's sake, he is content to lose his life, and the favor of God, which is better than life, and all this for the love of my soul, and had he not done thus for my soul I had never been saved; this is such an object of lamentation, as indeed no sorrow like to this sorrow.

Reason 2: Taken from the subject that does grieve and mourn. What person is it that grieves? It is the spirit and heart of a man, which is not ordinarily afflicted, but wounded, and only wounded with this stroke (Proverbs 18:14), wounded for sins against God and Christ, and who can bear that? That mourning is an unsupportable mourning: any other mourning the spirit of a man can sustain him in, as loss of husband, or wife, or child, etc., but when the heart comes to be wounded, who can heal that? None but only the mighty and powerful spirit of God, without which a man would be utterly swallowed up of despair, an incurable wound, unless by the same hand that wounded it.

Reason 3: Taken from the principle from where such a mourning springs; a principle greater than that which is in the world (1 John 4). Worldly sorrow cannot reach this; the spirit of grace in the heart is greater than the world; nothing can work that which the spirit of grace can do; it teaches us to cry with sighs and groans unutterable (Romans 8:26). A soul cannot tell God how much it grieves in such a case as this, because the principle of it is the spirit of grace; we are shallow, and can soon run our eyes and hearts dry for any grief we take up ourselves; but where the spirit of grace works, the grief that it puts forth cannot be expressed; as it comes from a deeper fountain, the eternal love of Christ, so it has a deeper work, it searches the deep things of God, it is a profound spirit, and so it works a profound work.

Use 1: For trial of any man's estate, whether his mourning be sincere and sufficient or not. Many a soul will say, I have been humbled, but did I know my humiliation were sufficient, it would be some comfort to me, but alas! I cannot discern that it is enough. Why so? If it come from a spirit of grace, it is then enough. But how shall I know that? Why, if it be such a mourning as is greater than any mourning, if as great or greater than for the loss of an only child, or of such a prince, as in whom you lose all your comfort. Has a man then lost husband, wife, child, etc. yet if he has but Christ, he has enough: a sign then that a man has mourned more for Christ than for these. Again, does a man that has parents, wife, children, and every thing according to his desire, and yet says, Indeed, but I want Christ, and I cannot be satisfied with these things? Then is your mourning for him as the mourning for the loss of an only son: for though you have all the comforts of this life, yet the Lord Jesus you are doubtful whether you have him or no, and notwithstanding all these comforts, your soul goes drooping for want of him, it is a sign all these comforts do not countervail the want of Christ, and that is deep mourning for Christ. I know godly sorrow runs very shallow in many good hearts, yet this you are sensible of, though you have other comforts at will, yet because you fear you want Christ, you are more uncomfortable for the want of him, than all your other comforts can refresh you. How shall you know that? It appeared Jacob loved Joseph better than all his other children, because when he was gone, though he had all his other children about him, yet could not be comforted by them all, and all because he wanted Joseph. So Joab said to David, I see you love Absalom more than the whole kingdom (2 Samuel 14:6). How knew he that? Because when Absalom a traitor was slain, and his kingdom now at peace, he yet weeps for Absalom, and wishes that himself had died for him: it was a carnal spirit that David did express at that time. A good man may sometimes be more besotted in one darling child, than in a whole town or kingdom besides: but Joab told him right, and just so it is in this case. If a man can see, that though he has all the comforts of this life, and yet is not satisfied in them, and all for want of Christ, then you truly mourn for him. It is true, there may be for a time some reason why a man can express less grief for the one than for the other. Some man will say, Were my wife or child dead I could weep day and night, but I cannot tell that I ever wept yet so for the loss of Christ, how then does it appear that I mourn more for Christ than for outward losses? Let me tell you, expressions for outward losses may sometimes be great: First, because all causes concur to make a man's expression of grief for outward things very great. When you see the windows of heaven open, and the fountains of the great deep broken up from beneath, there must needs be a great deluge (Genesis 7:11). Here were all causes concurring, no impediment stood in the way to hinder the flood, yet as great as it was, it was not so durable as great, but in a certain number of months it was dried up, and never returned again from that day to this; and when it was come to the height, it went no farther, but decreased. But now in our mourning for Christ, though the windows of heaven be opened, yet many times the fountains of the great deep are not open; we have hard and stony hearts, which much hinder spiritual sorrow. You may have a land-flood run down a channel, or a plain gravel that makes a great noise, and carries all before it, but a deep river runs more slowly, and makes less noise. So worldly sorrow it runs on end, all causes concurring, heart soft towards children and parents, etc. and grace concurs to mourn for them; windows from above are opened, that is, grace, and the great deep from beneath is broken up, that is, nature, and now here must needs be a great expression of sorrow. But now when a man comes to mourn for sin, there is a hard heart in the way, a heart full of weeds, and thorns, and briars, many cares, and lusts, and worldly businesses, and these so choke the current of our godly sorrow, that when it should run and overflow, it is dammed, and the expression much hindered. But yet the greatest worldly sorrow is but a torrent, it makes a great noise, but it wants a spring in the bottom, and will in time decay. David mourns for Absalom, and for Amnon, two or three years, but in time the sense of their loss grew out, wanting a spring it was not durable, whereas godly sorrow comes from an everlasting spring (John 4:10, 14). Though sometimes stopped, yet it will break forth again, and it lasts while life lasts. And which is more, the spirit of grace helping us to mourn, it will make our grief to grow to be more at the last than at the first: worldly sorrow is ever more at first than at last; it will slack in time, and in the end vanish quite away; but godly sorrow increases, as a man grows in grace, so he grows in grief. Do therefore thus much for yourselves, as to consider whether your mourning for outward things be such, as that the love of Christ cannot moderate it, then you yet lack a spirit of grace; but otherwise if no comfort can satisfy you, because you want Christ, it is a sure evidence of the spirit of grace.

Use 2 To teach Christian men to cherish godly sorrow: If you would have godly sorrow, you see it comes from a spirit of grace: Look therefore at sins against God, as greatest, especially sins committed against the blood of Christ, against the motions of the Spirit, and the word of grace, and look at these as your greatest evils. And if God give you but so much grace as to mourn for Christ, labor to maintain it in you, pluck up all the weeds that choke the free passage of it; if there be any seeds of pride, or hypocrisy, or of any distemper in any kind in you, away with them all, they will dam up this sorrow, at least for a while. In every ordinance observe how you have sinned against Christ, and so daily observe what sins in an especial manner have been committed against Christ, and specially such as are against his gospel and grace. Consider seriously, what Christ has done for you, as that he was content to come and live a poor beggar's life for you, was content to suffer death, and to suffer loss of his Father's favor for you, and this will in time raise your heart to such godly sorrow, as you shall mourn abundantly for all the evils you have done against Christ. And to encourage you to this, consider that by how much the more you shall take to heart your sins against him, you will find this issue of it, the less will any outward loss or cross in the world stick near to you; though you should lose your goods, and be cast into prison, etc. your heart would be able to bear all, as Job did, The Lord has given, and he has taken away, blessed be his name (Job 1:21). What helped Job to this? Why, he feared God, and he shunned evil, and he knew that his Redeemer lived, and that so quieted his heart, that though he had lost all the world, yet he could tell how to be comforted in all; he loved wife and children well, but when all failed him, his heart failed him not, because he had learned to mourn for Christ. That day in which a man has not seen Christ, that day if any cross befall him, he will not bear it well, but will be disquieted upon every occasion. Well then, if you would be lord of the world, and of all the crosses that befall you, then observe your daily sins against Christ, and mourn for him.

Use 3 Of the Prothesis, which is the former part of the comparison, Hadadrimmon signifies a place of store of pomegranates: From hence learn, Has God been pleased to exercise you with the loss of a dear husband, or wife, or child? Take example by that grief, and apply it to the Lord Jesus Christ; turn the stream of it into that channel; Did God never afflict you in that kind? Then be the more thankful; and especially for you that are in authority, as ever you desire to die lamented, and much desired, then be like Josiah, who while he lived, mourned for the sins of his people (2 Chronicles 34:27). So all you governors, if when you die you would be sadly lamented, that all about you might mourn to think of your loss, then mourn you for the sins of your children, friends, towns, and countries; take you to heart the sins of the times and places where you live, and God will take care that there shall be a great and a lamentable mourning for you when you die.

Zechariah 12:10. And they shall be in bitterness for him.

There yet remains one doctrine more from the effect, from the word bitterness.

Doctrine 5 A gracious heart looking upon Christ pierced by it, shall be in bitterness for him.

A gracious heart, that is, such a heart, as upon whom the spirit of grace and prayer is poured, when it looks upon Christ pierced by it, it shall be in bitterness. This is expressed, Luke 22:61. Peter seeing Jesus look back at him, remembering what Christ had said to him, he went out and wept bitterly.

Now for opening of this point, see what bitterness it is that the soul finds when it does look upon Christ as pierced by him, and then the reasons and application of it.

There is a fourfold bitterness of soul which a man's heart is taken up with in such a case.

First, there is a bitterness for sin; for sin itself yields bitterness to the conscience. It is bitter itself, but is not felt till a man look upon Christ, and begins to take to heart his sins against him. Notable is that confession of Solomon after his grievous apostasy (Ecclesiastes 7:27). I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is as snares, etc. An evident argument that Solomon penned that book after his repentance, and there he describes most excellently the whole course of repentance in those few verses. I find such sins more bitter than death, drawing him on to sin, and holding him fast therein. There is indeed a strong bitterness in sin, but yet a man is not sensible of it, till his eyes be open to see Christ. Peter, that had seen and felt the bitterness of his own sin in piercing Christ, he could see the bitterness of the estate of other men (Acts 8:23). I perceive you are in the gall of bitterness, (speaking of Simon Magus) where he describes the carnal estate of a natural man; Simon had not as yet showed any bitterness and malice against the ways of Christ, but he perceived by the unsavoriness of his question, that he was yet in a carnal estate, for he had offered him money for the gift of the Holy Ghost, whereas he knew the gift of grace could not be bought and sold for money. How then is that carnal estate a gall of bitterness? Bitterness it was that made him unsavory in himself, so that a godly heart can relish nothing in such a one but that which is as bitter as gall; he gives him gall to drink, when he puts forth such a question, a covetous and carnal question.

2. And so it is the nature of all sin to provoke God to bitter wrath.

3. It is the nature of sin to corrupt others, and therefore it is called a bitter root (Hebrews 12:15). So the estate of nature, and the ways of sin, they are bitter as gall (Deuteronomy 32:32-33). All is bitterness that comes from a natural man, his thoughts and life are unsavory, he is bitter to God and to his people. Now when men's eyes are open to see Christ, they see and feel that in sin which before they felt not; then we see our sinful course most bitter, the very grapes of gall and wormwood.

Secondly, there is the bitterness of God's wrath which a man sees and feels when he sees Christ pierced by him (Hosea 12:14), and God's wrath being embittered against us is very bitter (Jeremiah 8:14 and 9:15). All such afflictions are like wormwood and gall to us: so the Church complains, God has made me drunk with wormwood (Lamentations 3:15, 19). And (Job 13:26) You write bitter things against me.

Thirdly, there is another bitterness caused by a man looking upon Christ, and that is by reason of the loss of Christ: we never either had attained to him, or else now we have lost him; now we see we have no portion in Christ, and that is bitter to our souls (Jeremiah 2:19). A man in such a case sees that the fear of God is not in him, that the Lord Jesus he has forsaken; estrangement from God is bitter to such a soul (Ruth 1:20). That which you read of Esau is very memorable in this case (Genesis 27:34): when he saw he had lost the blessing, that Christ was given away from him, he went out, and lifted up his voice, and cried with a very bitter cry. I doubt not but Isaac and Rebecca took pains to catechize their families, and therefore surely in some measure he saw what he had lost; but how much more bitter would it have been to him, had he had but a sight of Christ?

Fourthly, such a soul is in anguish for the bitterness of soul which the Lord Jesus himself did taste and feel for our sakes; whenever the soul sees Christ with a gracious look, it beholds all the bitterness Christ tasted of for his sake: Men gave him gall, and vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21), but they fell short of what cup God gave him to drink — he tasted of the bitterness of the wrath of God, and all for our sakes; and a soul seeing this is deeply embittered in the sense thereof.

Reason 1. First, God intends thereby to chasten, and check, and punish us for that sweetness and delight that formerly we have taken in sin; that God might make our sins afflictive to us, he will make them bitter to us. (Jeremiah 2:19) Your own ways and your doings shall correct you.

Reason 2. God will have it to be bitter to us, not only to correct us for former wickedness, but likewise to make us cast up our sins in a free confession and a serious reformation; as long as sin is sweet to us, we hide it under our tongues (Job 20:12, 13), that is, so long we shall never confess it, nor forsake it; but when it is bitter to us, then we vomit it out in free and hearty confession. Bitterness of sin will bring a man to confession for sin (Psalm 32:3, 4). For might a man go on, and feel no burden under his sin, he would never confess it; but when God's hand is smarting upon him, when God afflicts, we purpose an acknowledgement of sin; now sin confessed and forsaken, makes way for pardon and mercy (Proverbs 28:13). This bitterness for sin draws us to confession to spit it out, and to keep us from turning to it again, it now forever appears unsavory to us.

Reason 3. That so we might be sensible of the bitterness of the cup of God's wrath, which our Savior drank to the dregs (Matthew 26:39), implying, that what bitterness Christ relished in sin, and in the wrath of his Father, the same shall every soul do in some measure that has any part in Christ (Matthew 20:23), and thereby shall we know the wonderful love of Christ towards us, that he would drink such a potion to the dregs for our sakes.

Reason 4. That so we might relish more sweetly the love of God to us, and his grace in pardoning and healing all our sins (Isaiah 38:17): For peace I had great bitterness, but you have in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption. This bitterness that a soul tastes of, makes the love of God sweet and savory to his soul, and it is a special reason that God looks at in all the bitterness which he gives us to taste of in all our sins, that so our pardoning and healing in Christ might seem more precious in our eyes. And hence it was that in old time God commanded the Paschal Lamb should never be eaten but with bitter and sour herbs (Exodus 12:8): why so? To make the Lord Jesus more savory to us. God never gives us taste of Christ, nor to feed upon him, but in bitterness of soul, that we might relish the more savor in God's love to us.

Reason 5. That so he might strengthen our faith against all the bitterness of the wrath of men, and of death itself, or of hell, which else we might be in bitter fear of all our days. A man that has sometimes been in hell, is able afterwards to say truly, as Agag said presumptuously, Surely the bitterness of death is past. He that has been sensible of the torment of hell, he does ever after, more or less, walk in some comfortable assurance that bitterness and wrath is past. (Psalm 116:3) I found trouble and anguish: but verse 7, 8, now return to your rest, O my soul. Because the sorrows of death have formerly compassed him about, now he knows God will speak ease and rest to his soul: and so the heart is much strengthened against the fears of men (Luke 12:4, 5), he having already felt more bitterness than men can put upon him. Moses he endured as one that had seen him that was invisible, he feared not the bitterness of the King's wrath (Hebrews 11:27). Nothing now can make us impatient under any affliction. The more bitterness we have found in sin, the more savor shall we find in any affliction: No affliction seems bitter to such to whom sin feels bitter: to whom sin is sweet, to them affliction is as bitter as death (Micah 7:9).

Reason 6: That so he might ever after make our spirits more savory and less harsh: There is in us a natural harshness; though some men be better natured than others, yet there is a root of bitterness in every one by nature: Nor is there any way more effectual to make us more sweet, and amiable, and savory, than to see the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be brought to a sense of bitterness by such a taste and sight. (Ephesians 4:31-32) a taste of the bitterness of Christ does banish from us all thoughts of revenge. Physicians tell us there is no better medicine to purge out the most gloomy and clammy obstructions of the stomach, and to dry up such superfluous humors, than taking some bitter thing, as Aloes, and Centaury, or the like: That is the true nature of this gracious look upon Christ, it will cleanse the soul from whatever keeps us off from fellowship with God, it purges out all clammy and choleric distempers, it preserves the frame of the spirit sweet and savory, bitterness is not the wisdom which is from above (James 3:12-14) when once it has wrought the heart to this heavenly wisdom, then it makes a man gentle and meek without partiality, etc.

Use 1: For a sign of trial of our own estates, whether ever we looked upon Jesus Christ with a gracious look, yes or no: If we never knew what bitterness of soul was for sin, nor the wrath of God, nor the want of Christ then we never yet beheld Christ with any gracious look. They to whom sin has been bitter, they who know no bitterness for want of Christ, nor any pangs they have suffered for him, such souls have not yet received a spirit of grace. Had we received a spirit of grace, long ere now we should have felt the bitterness of God's wrath, the loss of Christ, the pain he suffered, in some measure: a point of much clearness and evidence for the discerning any man's estate. While sin is sweet, and we find relish in it, though it be unlawful profit or pleasure, if any of these seem sweet, and ever have done so, we have then never yet seen nor known the Lord Jesus; and yet this is for the most part the frame of the spirits of the sons and daughters of men. What a lamentable thing is it, when all of us by nature are a Simon Magus, that any man may say of us, You are in the gall of bitterness, that we are of an unsavory and bitter frame of spirit, ready to corrupt ourselves and others, and yet we know it not, we neither see, nor feel this? But if sin was never bitter to us, then have we neither part nor portion in Christ. It is true, a man may be in bitterness for sin, when God's wrath lies heaviest upon him, as it was with Judas, which made him not to hide it under his tongue, but to confess it (Matthew 27:3-4). But was he then in bitterness for Christ? No verily, it was for sin against him, but yet only so far as the bitterness thereof did reflect upon himself; but it was not for any loss of Christ he felt, or for what Christ by that means was to undergo, but he was in bitterness in himself: For Esau cried out with a great and a bitter cry, but not for Christ, but for himself, because he had now lost that which now he could never recover.

You say, How can I tell but that my best bitterness is no better than so? How shall I know it is for Christ? I may be in bitterness for sin, and for God's wrath upon me for sin, and for want of the pardon of my sins, that I might be rid of the burden of it. But how may I know it is for Christ, and for my loss of Christ, whom I desire above all things to enjoy?

Answer: I know not better how to put a difference, than by taking a survey of the fruits of your bitterness; If a man be in bitterness only for himself, it will end in one of these two; either in bitterness of despair, as it did in Judas, and therefore he hanged himself, a sign he was not in bitterness for Christ, but for bitter anguish of heart, which was greater than he was willing to endure; Or else, secondly, if not so, it will end in bitterness of malice against them that have their part in Christ: So Esau cried out bitterly for the loss of his blessing, and birthright; but (Genesis 27:41) it is said, He hated his brother Jacob: So that if a man be in such bitterness for the loss of Christ, that he hates those that enjoy Christ, his bitterness is not for Christ; But if a man can find this to be the frame of his heart, that sin therefore seems and tastes bitter to him, because by it he has pierced Christ, and thereby the wrath of God is kindled against Christ; and the more that I do meditate upon the death of Christ for me, the more it embitters me, that I should crucify him that has not refused to do so much for me; This is an undoubted argument of the spirit of grace poured forth into such a soul.

Use 2: May teach us to take heed of resting in the estate of nature, or in a course of sin, for make account this will be bitter in the end, it will either be bitter in your repentance, when God calls you home to himself, or bitter in the nethermost hell, when God's wrath breaks forth against you to the utmost: We may make a sport of sin, but in the end it will be bitter. (2 Samuel 2:14) That which was but a play in the morning, proved bitter in the evening. So though a man in the morning of his age, look at sin but as a trifle, yet the time will come when you shall say, it is bitterness (Isaiah 24:9) and (Proverbs 23:32) it will in the end bite like a serpent: Though at the first the lips of a whorish woman seem sweet, yet in the end they will fill you with gall and wormwood (Proverbs 7:4-5). So you will find this to be the issue of all sin; Though a play and a pastime in the beginning, yet in the end it will be bitter. But if you come to a sight of Christ, there is no bitterness like to that; yet no man can expect any better fruit of sin: Therefore let no man content himself in a carnal estate, nor a course of sin, for bitterness will be the end of it.

Use 3 May serve to teach all the people of God, that are at any time embittered in their souls for sin, to walk in the sense of that bitterness all their days. For God calls you ever and anon to look at Christ, and therefore it behooves us in our whole conversation, to carry about us not a spirit of bitterness and harshness, but such a frame as has sprung from sense of Christ pierced by us, and that will make us savory, both to God and to his people: though it be like Aloes in the taste (Psalm 45:8), yet (as Aloes be) it keeps the whole man from putrefaction, and the Churches garments smell of this, that it all the graces of the Spirit of God, with which the soul of the Church is clothed, as with a garment, without which she is naked, they all relish of Christ crucified, and of the gracious love of God in Christ, being pierced for them, it makes them all savor sweetly, they are not defiled nor corrupted with sinful distempers; and therefore as a man in all his ways and duties would be sweet and savory, so let him ever and anon renew his look at Christ, and see what he has done and suffered for us, and that will make all our graces always savor of a spirit of humility, and will effectually cleanse us from all wrath and vain-glory, and every other distemper. And if at any time you find yourself embittered with affliction and extremity for the loss of any thing, go in this case and look at Christ, consider what he has done and suffered for you, and then your bitterest afflictions will soon be sweet to you, look at the bitterest of your sins that pierced him, and that will sweeten your greatest losses. Do you at any time find your spirit harsh, and unsavory, uncomfortable, and unquiet? Your garments do not now smell of myrrh, this kind of bitterness must be put away; but it is for us so to feed upon the death of Christ, as that the sweetness of God's love in pardoning sin in Christ, may make us quietly and meekly express ourselves in our carriage towards our brethren; this would set an amiable lustre upon all our graces, and upon our whole conversation; and if you see any of your brethren embittered, harsh or unsavory husbands, wives, neighbours, bitter one to another, though otherwise they be never so gracious, yet you may say, they have not seen Christ that day, it may be not for many days together; and look how long it is since we saw Christ crucified, so much will a spirit of harshness creep in upon us: but by how much the more recently any man has seen Christ, and tasted of the bitterness of his death; and therein also of the sweetness of his love to us, so much the more savory and gracious will our carriage be, both before God and man; and therefore if at any time you find your spirit harsh and unsavory, take this medicine, Let the sense of the bitterness of your sins purge it out, and so it will, though you are exercised with the loss of an only child, or an only Prince, yet looking at Christ would put us into a savory frame, and make us relish well before God and our brethren.

Use 4 For a word of comfort to such souls as are in bitterness for Christ: Bitterness against Christ is a most fearful estate, and of all conditions the most miserable. For you see it is the condition of God's children to be in bitterness for Christ: But there is a generation that is full of bitterness against Christ, and his children, and the ways of his grace; a most fearful condition. If such as have received a spirit of grace, be in bitterness for Christ, then such as are in bitterness against Christ, have received the spirit of the Devil; If you are in an estate of nature, and do not know what you do, your estate is less dangerous, but yet very dangerous it is; but if a man be in bitterness for Christ, it is a most comfortable estate. A Christian is never more gracious, never more Christ-like, than when he is in bitterness for him; such bitterness will end in everlasting consolation. If therefore you are in bitterness for him, and for the wrath of God, as it has pierced Christ, and for the loss of Christ, whom you have grieved by walking so unsavorily, in the profession of his name, in bitterness for all the evil Christ has borne for you, in bitterness for performing duties so unsavorily, do not think it a dangerous and desperate condition, for this is the sweetest temper of a Christian soul (Isaiah 65:13).

Objection. It is true, a Christian, a true Christian man is called to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4). And you say, how should he always be in bitterness?

Why, by how much you can find your soul in bitterness for Christ, so much the more cause have you to rejoice in Christ, and to rejoice always; it is the truest cause of joy, that can befall you; for the text says, Such an one has received a spirit of grace; and so much as any soul walks heavily, and droopingly, as many times many a Christian does, in such bitterness, as wherein it finds no joy, that which makes your heart so uncomfortable, is, because your bitterness is not for Christ; for if it were, it would be so sweet to you, as that you would say, you never had more cause to rejoice, than when your soul was in greatest bitterness for Christ: If you are in bitterness for Christ, it will make you both comfortable to yourself, and to all that you shall converse with, every thing will be sweet to you when you mourn for Christ.

Zechariah 12:12. And the land shall mourn.

Now we are to speak of the mourning and repentance of a gracious heart, here amplified by a double argument: First, by an adjunct of greatness, verse 11, amplified by the greatest, both domestic and public, mourning; as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, for the death of Josiah.

Now of the second, in which you have this mourning set forth by a distribution of the subjects mourning described formerly by the privacy of it, but that is not all; but also by declaring the various persons which do mourn. First, it is said the land shall mourn, verse 12. Secondly, the land more particularly distributed, families, families, as it is in the Original. It is translated every family; and words so doubled, are sometimes put indefinitely, sometimes signifying every family, and sometimes various families apart from others: so that here is described in these words, families, families, the mourning of various families, the mourning of sundry families together apart from other families that mourn together, and also included some mourning of every family apart by themselves. Sometimes the land mourning, sometimes families, families; sometimes every family mourns apart by itself, and sometimes in those families, husband and wife do mourn retiredly one from another, so that here is four sorts of mourning persons.

The land shall mourn.] When was it ever known in the days of the New Testament, that the whole land of Israel mourned? I take therefore Calvin's answer to the question, and the note is:

Doctrine. The mourning of God's people in a land, is the mourning of the whole land.

God never poured out the spirit of grace upon the whole land of Israel, no not then when this prophecy was in a special manner accomplished (Acts 2:41). It was poured out upon thousands (Chapter 4 and 6). There was a great multitude believed: And Chapter 21:20, 'You see brother Saul, many thousands of the Jews believe;' so as they are called the churches of the Jews (Galatians 1:22), that is, many congregations of the Jews. But yet thus much remember, (as Calvin well notes) the body of the nation was an untoward generation (Acts 7:51). The bulk and mass of the people was untoward still. They loved to be contrary to the people of God, and yet because there are families, and they mourn, and sundry families, they mourn, therefore that which is the act of these various families, is accounted the act of the whole land.

And indeed so far was this mourning the mourning of the whole land, as that Zechariah 13, first three verses, there is as well public blessings poured out upon the whole land, as upon those that did mourn. The idols were cut off, and the word of God so mightily prevailed, as that those sects which were used to delude the people, Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, were blasted in the eyes of all the people, and generally the Gospel had free passage granted to it, by the mighty hand of God upon the people, from one end of the country to another, yet the whole land mourns not. It was not a universal mourning of all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, but of Shushan the Palace, and yet they prevailed with God for the safety of the whole land (Esther 4:16-17), by which was cut asunder all the snares of the Jews, so as before they in the country knew their danger, they knew their deliverance, or at least the means thereof was prepared. And so Daniel being to be cut off, hearing of his danger, he goes to his three companions, and prays them to put up their prayers to God, and they did so (Daniel 2:17-18), and presently after he bids them to bless God, for their desires were accomplished; by which means, not only themselves escaped, but under their shadow the whole church of God found refreshment. And when Daniel prayed for deliverance out of captivity (Chapter 9:20 to 23), his prayer was heard, and an angel sent to take order for the deliverance of the people: to show you, that when there are some, be they more or fewer, that unfeignedly set themselves, to humble themselves before God, for the public evils that lie upon themselves, to the danger of the whole church, God is then used to look at it, as a universal mourning, as if the whole land had mourned.

Reason 1. Taken from the place, and standing which the people of God have, in the countries in which they do inhabit; they stand there as the first fruits of a nation (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4). Now in the sanctification of the first fruits, stood the sanctification of the whole lump (Romans 11:16), according to that in the law (Leviticus 23:10). When the first fruits were offered to God, then all the rest was clean; so in this case, the multitude of a whole land before God, is but as so many several stalks of the field, and the several families, are but as so many several sheaves. Now when God's people draw near to him, he looks at it, as if all the sheaves of the field had come and bowed before him; so that their work, is the work of the whole field.

Reason 2. Taken from the cause both of this reason, and the doctrine itself, that is, from the valuation that God has of his people, wherever they be, his valuation of them in his eternal counsel. Now in God's eternal counsel, thus he conceives his people; All are not Israel, that are of Israel, but only they who are the children of the promise (Romans 9:6-7). Look what God promises to Israel, it is chiefly fulfilled to them that are Israelites indeed; and if they go about to offer up any acceptable sacrifice to God, in God's account, it is as if all Israel had done it.

Reason 3. Hence it comes to pass, that God made that ancient covenant with Abraham, and it is the main tenor of the covenant, I will give you for a blessing, etc. (Genesis 12:2-3). Which does express another passage of the like nature (Isaiah 65:8): One says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; as if, though there were many branches of the vine dead, yet if but a cluster of grapes, the vine shall not be cut up, till that be gathered. When God shall see his faithful servants bring forth clusters of sweet fruits to him, they shall be a blessing to others; implying, that wherever God's servants are, because of his covenant with them, wherever they crave a blessing, and mourn for the want of it, God will provide it shall be stretched forth upon the whole country they live in.

Reason 4. From all which comes a fourth reason, which is taken from an ancient promise which God made to his people (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). My people that are called by my name: Who are those? Expounded (Isaiah 43:7): You are called by my name, I have created you for my glory, etc. (verse 3) These are they whom he has manifested, and magnified his rich mercy on. In usual speech you know, none is called by the name of another, but either children by the name of their father, either natural, or adopted, or wives by the name of their husbands; now therefore, if God's espoused and adopted children shall seek his face, and humble themselves before him, for whatever distress lies upon the place in which they live, he will hear them.

For further clearing this point, let me answer this doubt. You say, if the mourning of God's people in a land, be the mourning of a whole land, how is it then, that they prevail not with God sometimes to save the land, for which they do mourn, but sometimes the land perishes, and only themselves preserved? As (Ezekiel 9:4): Set a mark on them that mourn, but utterly slay all the rest; which was accomplished. (Jeremiah 24:5) The basket of good figs was preserved, but the other was for a prey to captivity, and the sword, and pestilence, and to utter extirpation from the earth. Hence is that you read (Ezekiel 14:14): They shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but themselves only. And (Jeremiah 15:1). So that, though sometimes the mourning of God's people, is accepted for the mourning of the whole land; yet sometimes, though clusters of good families should meet in God's house, and humble their souls together, for their own, and their country's sins; and though there were such among them, as Noah, Daniel, and Job, men eminent in their generations, for turning away God's wrath; indeed though Moses and Samuel joined with them, men of renown; yet though these five men, and their five families, and the rest of the good figs with them, were joined together to seek God's face, yet you see sometimes the case is such, as that God himself swears, they should save neither child nor chicken, but only themselves.

Question. How then should one conceive this to be true which is here gathered?

Answer. In God's ordinary estimation of things, the practice of his people, is the act of the whole state in which they live; if they be innocent, so is the whole nation before him; if they be humble, reformed, and upright, such is the whole nation in his sight. They are the first fruits of his creatures, in them the whole lump is sanctified; they are precious in his sight, them he has made for a blessing; wherever they live, if they seek him, he will hear in heaven, and all the country shall fare the better for their sakes. But yet two cases there be, wherein the mourning of God's people is not counted the mourning of the whole land.

First, in case that God's people themselves be wrapped up in the contagions of the sins of the times and places they live in; if they be wrapped up in the common stream of the sins of the times, they will be wrapped up in the fellowship of the calamities of the times, and they will not then be able to stand in the gap; and though God know how to save their souls from eternal destruction, yet they may be swallowed up in the common deluge. God would no longer save the old world, when his own sons became fleshly, that is, the children of the church, with whom God had entered into covenant (Genesis 6:2). If once they become carnal, as the rest of the world was, then says God, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, then all flesh had corrupted their way; who though they perished, according to men in the flesh, yet doubtless many of them were saved (2 Peter 2:5 and 2 Peter 3:6, 17). When God's people became carnal, then they are not in case to stand in the gap, but look as you see, then the bottoms of the great deeps were broken up, and so overwhelmed the whole world; so when the children of heaven are let loose to all uncleanness, and the wicked children of the earth are broken loose to all licentiousness; in such a case, the flood may soon overwhelm the face of the earth. And now, no wonder if only Noah, and eight persons more for his sake, be preserved. (Jeremiah 5:30-31) Had there been many horrible things committed, and God's people but mourned and been ashamed of them, God would never have looked at it, as such a wonderful and horrible matter; but when such wickedness is committed, and my people love to have it so; then what will you do in the end thereof? What do you think will be the end, when there is none to stand, or lift up his heart or hand to God? Nothing will be the end but horrible confusion and destruction.

Secondly, but suppose they should keep themselves entire and spotless, as those five — Noah, Daniel, and others — and suppose they should save themselves from a corrupt generation, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, which is the best hope that may be, that they should so do; yet notwithstanding it may fall out, this mourning will not be accepted for the whole state, and that is, in case they may not be suffered to mourn for the people, nor themselves either. But when they thrust themselves into the gap, families apart, or congregations apart; when they set themselves against the wrath of God, rather run themselves into hazard with God and the world, than to have a judgment befall them, and may not be suffered there to rest; then you must not wonder, if these do no good, they are thrown out of the gap, which they would have made up, if they might have been allowed to it; in such a case, though they should mourn abundantly, they should save neither son nor daughter; this you shall find expressed (Isaiah 59:15-16). He that sets himself to work righteousness, makes himself a prey, and the Lord wondered that there was no intercessor. Why was there no righteous men there? Yes, but their righteousness was their ruin; they were not suffered in their righteousness, nor tolerated to be righteous. Now in such a case, there is no intercessor; this you shall find in the very case of the text. Time was, when these families that mourn now apart, went from house to house, and sought God together, and in so doing, they had favor with all the people (Acts 2:47 and Acts 5:13). Though many people dared not join themselves with them, yet they magnified them; and which is more to be observed, when any stir did arise, all the governors and people hearkened to Gamaliel, and let them alone: so that in such a time, when some give good counsel, and the people of God in these duties had favor with all the people, then their mourning is the mourning of the whole land. But now when the case was thus far altered, when many of them had believed, and fell to persecuting their brethren, that were not of the same mind with them (Acts 20:21, 23), and when persecution began to arise against Stephen, and others (Acts 8:1), then God began to cut scant with the land, and then he made a division. He will not make a division so long as they do comply with them; but if either God's people fall out with their brethren, or neither higher nor lower persons suffer them, nor favor them, then see what a division God makes (Zechariah 13:7) — it is the prosecution of the story. Then God begins to sunder them one from another, two parts shall be destroyed, and a third cast into fire, and they shall learn to call upon the name of the Lord. So that, so long as God's people keep themselves free from the pollutions of the time, and mourn for the sins of the times, and find favor in so doing, all that while, all that which is the act of families, is the act of countries, kingdoms, and nations.

Use 1: Direction and instruction, to all the people of God, in any times of the church's dangers and distresses, what you are to do: for, if the mourning of God's people be the mourning of the whole land they live in; then, as the people of God shall behave themselves in times of public dangers, so will the state of things stand. Therefore it is for the servants of God in such times to take these few rules of practice.

First, be well acquainted, not only with your own sins, but be not strangers to the sins of the town and country you live in.

Secondly, keep yourselves unspotted from these evils, save yourselves from the fellowship of them.

Thirdly, mourn before the Lord, in regard of them.

Fourthly, and as much as may be, give no occasion of provocation to other men to disturb you.

These four duties performed will prevent whatever danger our sins justly threaten against us; for when public sins are committed, should God stay to show mercy till the generality of the people come before him, there would never be safety in that place; for never was it found, or very rarely, that men in such a case did universally turn to God, when they had provoked him, but therefore God, that looks at his people's spirits, as the life, pith, and marrow of the land they live in, he looks at them, and indeed he has no respect to any nation under heaven, but for his servants' sake that have reference to it; if they be holy, the rest are so in his sight, if they stand in the gap, there is enough to turn away his wrath, if they humble their souls before God, it is a universal reformation, I mean so accepted. Therefore let every Christian family, and every person therein, be well acquainted with the sins of the places they live in, and then save yourselves from them; God complains much that his servants should be so blind, as not to see the sins of their times (Isaiah 42:19). Let not God's servants be disloyal, nor irreverent to uncover the nakedness of others; but if they see evident transgression of God's laws, they must not be blind, lest that bring a mischief upon the place they live in. But when you see them, save yourselves from them (Acts 2:40), have nothing to do with them, be not entangled in the fellowship of their sins; and then be careful to humble yourselves unfeignedly before God, and confess your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers, and whatever lies in your own hands to reform, be sure that be done (2 Chronicles 7:14), and that will be accepted as if the whole nation did universally turn to God. If God's people shall do thus, the Lord may yet prevent such judgments as lie heavy upon other countries; and this God's people may do, and neither hurt themselves nor others: so much the more do we walk humbly before God, by how much the more we see others do it not; if we would speak and talk less, and pray more, we might comfortably expect yet God had some further blessing in store, and that not for ourselves only, but for others also. Complain not therefore of any declension of times, or decays of things that are good, or breaking in of things that are naught; weary not yourselves with sad thoughts in this kind, (though they ought unfeignedly to exercise us) but follow close to a wise and faithful preservation of ourselves from fellowship in these evils, and as much as in us lies, reform what is amiss in ourselves and ours; and let it be a strong motive to us to fall faithfully to this work, because if we shall so do, such a mourning of a few will be counted the mourning of a whole land.

How would you know that the land mourns? Why, when families, families mourn, some together, and some apart, then the land mourns. And I know it is of great consequence when magistrates themselves are given to mourn; a man of authority is of mighty sway before God (Jeremiah 5:1). Ten common righteous men might have saved Sodom, but one godly magistrate would do as much good as ten private Christians; but if all join together, there is so much the more good to be hoped for. Many a man will say, what can such a poor creature as I do, or such a poor family as mine is, what can you do? Why, do but what lies in you to do, and one coal will kindle another; and then God will set open a fountain for sin and uncleanness, for such duties' sake; and therefore as ever you would stand as stakes in the hedge, and would make up breaches in families, towns, and countries, live as those that often see the Lord Jesus, and him crucified; mourn you for your own sins, and that will set families to work, and a few families will set others to work, and God may work mightily by this means.

Use 2. To teach men that have no great will to mourn themselves, yet to be of a loving heart towards those that love not to be better than others, but to mourn for their own and others' wants; if you would not be public incendiaries to a state, then be of a loving affection to those that are mourners in Zion; let them have, if not your fellowship, yet your favor; and so far as you can counsel others to refrain from these men, as Gamaliel's counsel was, let them alone in their way; and had they so done, Jerusalem had stood to this day. Let the Scribes and Pharisees have taught and worked as wickedly, and as hypocritically as before, yet had they refrained themselves from hurting the Christians, they had prevented the mighty power of the Roman armies. As ever therefore men would be friendly to the state they live in; learn to be praying Christians: you say you cannot do that, but cannot you favor them that are willing to do so? Those that pray and mourn, do not you thrust them out of the gap, let them lie there, their mourning need not make you sad, take you the comfort, and let them have the mourning, and so shall you do much good service to the place you live in, and to the whole body of Christendom; for it never fares ill with any place where God's people dwell, if they keep themselves unspotted, and are but suffered to mourn; and therefore do but the servants of God this favor, draw them not to evil, for if you corrupt them, the judgment of God will fall upon you together: whatever you do yourselves, defile not them, for if they should be polluted, there is none to stand in the gap for you; and it is but a small request, they ask no great matters at your hands, give them but leave to mourn when they see occasion; and then God has said, I will bless them that bless you, though a man cannot bless himself, yet he may hold off his hands from touching them that would bless you.

Use 3. Of strong consolation to God's people, as they find themselves to grow up to a spirit of mourning; if though today you can rejoice and be glad, yet if occasion serve, you can mourn tomorrow, then bless God, be not without a spirit of mourning upon any occasion, that you may be fit to stand in the gap, so shall you be instruments of public good in the place where you live.

Zechariah 12:13-14. The family of the house of Levi apart, etc.

We have spoken of the subject, that is here said to mourn. The land shall mourn, that is, not the whole land, but many godly families in a land. Now we come to another note from the true sense of the words.

Doctrine. The spirit of grace and prayer does lead the people of God to mourning, not only in sundry families together apart from others, but also every family apart by itself, and in those families, husbands and wives apart one from another.

This is the sum of the distribution of the subjects mourning. The words hold out (that I may so speak) all the forms of humiliation, which at any time God's Spirit led the hearts of Christians to, in the first days of the Gospel.

1. Every family apart. In the original, it is Families, Families, that is, sundry families together, apart from some others.

2. Every family apart by itself.

3. In these families husbands and wives apart by themselves, and sometimes in the same family, many men meet together, when their wives are not with them, and sometimes the women without the men. Families, Families. These kind of ingeminations do not always signify every family, but sometimes sundry and many families, sometimes universality, and sometimes multitude, as Hebrew grammarians say; as to show you some instances, (Genesis 14:10) the valley was full of slime pits, in the original it is pits, pits, that is sundry or many pits; so Families, families, is many families; not all pits, for then there had been no room to fight; but many pits. So (2 Chronicles 31:6) they laid up their provision for the temple, heaps, heaps, as it is in the original, sundry heaps, or here and there a heap. So (Mark 6:39-40) they sat down ranks, ranks, that is, sundry ranks; so Families, Families, that is, sundry families; and that is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the text, it is evident from the accomplishment thereof. (Acts 2:41, 46) there were three thousand converted at one time, and it is said, they did eat their meat together from house to house, not that three thousand of them met together at one man's house, for whose house could hold them? Especially considering that most of them were poor men, therefore impossible it was, that three thousand of them should meet at one man's house, but some in this, and some in that; and so divided themselves, that in several families they did all meet. Read the same accomplishment of this prophecy, (Acts 12:12) when Peter was miraculously delivered out of prison, he came to the house of the mother of John, where many were gathered together praying, many families were there met, and they had the happiness to know first of his deliverance; for the whole church puts forth instant prayer in his behalf; and there was above five thousand more added to the church by that time, for they multiplied exceedingly, but the whole church was then assembled one where or other; and that James was not among them at Mary's house, it is evident, from verse 17. Go, show these things to James, as a sign he was not there; thus they met in sundry families.

But this is not all, but besides this, it is said, they met every family apart, last verse; so that they did not only meet when many families could get together, but every family had a mourning by itself, sometimes no family joining with them, only themselves, their wives, and children, and of such as so joined with them, came that saying, the church in their house, (Romans 16:15) (Colossians 4:15) and (Philippians 2). They and their families met solemnly together, as Joshua said, I and my house will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15). And I know that Abraham will teach his family, (Genesis 18:19) to show you that all the children of Abraham will do as Abraham did. It is true, the words in the epistles, such a man, and the church in his house, may have a double meaning; for it may be taken the whole congregation met in such a man's house, in such an eminent Christian's house; as in the church of Colossae, there was Nympha's house. But in this case I like well of the judgment of the present Bishop of Salisbury, as taking it for granted, that both this sense and the former are herein included: Sometimes (says he) it may be the whole church was met together in some eminent man's family, but yet withal it includes that the family itself was a church of God.

Now for their wives apart, and sometimes husbands by themselves: that has been an ancient custom of old. Hannah mourned bitterly by herself alone, when her husband knew not what she did, (1 Samuel 1:10-11, 13). But besides that, David's example and Bathsheba's, (2 Samuel 12:16-24). They had both together committed folly and wickedness in God's sight, and though therefore they had the more just cause to be humbled together, yet David goes and lays himself upon the ground seven days together, and though Bathsheba was in the house, yet he took her not with him, as (chapter 11:27). And for her it is said, that when the child was dead, he rose up from mourning and weeping, and went in and comforted Bathsheba; a sign that she was mourning alone. And so sometimes men by themselves, and women by themselves, as it was a custom; in thanksgiving, the women went out with Miriam, (Exodus 15:20) and so I conceive the like reason of days of humiliation, men or women did give thanks alone, or were humbled alone, and yet sometimes give one another a meeting. When Esther took her maids to mourn with her, she met with many women together, (Esther 4:16). So we read of sundry women, called fellow-helpers, (Philippians 4:3) showing there were some women that labored to help forward the Apostle's work; where he scattered any seeds of grace, they would labor to ripen it. This they did, partly, by instruction, and partly by communicating their experiences to them, and prayer with them: for every ordinance is sanctified by the word and prayer; what he did in public, they helped forward in private, (Romans 16:12).

Thus you see four sorts of mourning subjects stirred up to this duty of mourning.

Reason 1: Why many families together, and not all the church; it may be taken from the great number and store of Christians, that were found in a great city or town, impossible for so many to get together in one place. (Acts 2:41-42) They met Families, Families, sundry in one family, and sundry in another.

Reason 2 is taken from the inability of some families, and insufficiency to perform some kind of solemn duties of humiliation, without the help of their neighbors. (Acts 12:12) In the original it is many thronged together to pray; that is, there was then a sufficient number found, implying, that John, Mark and his Mother alone, had not been a sufficient number to have besought God upon such an occasion; but there was a sufficient number, multitudes thronging together about it. Consider that to a solemn duty of humiliation, there were sundry gifts required, which were very rare to meet with in one family: for you have some Christians, that have excellent gifts, for the acknowledging of their own sins; and bewailing their wants, who yet are not so large-hearted to mourn for the times and places they live in; and some are fitly able to mourn for the state and church, and not so able to mourn for themselves.

And herein to propound to your consideration, the example of Heman and Ethan, two men of excellent note for wisdom, and see the frame of their spirits, the 88th and 89th Psalms; Heman, in Psalm 88, breathing out bitter mourning for spiritual desertions, not any man's case so deeply bewailed, as he bewails his own, and he sets it forth at large, yet expresses nothing of the state of the church of God. Now Ethan his brother, as wise a man as he, not so much taken up with spiritual desertions, but most severely expresses the state of the church, and the misery it was exposed to (Psalm 89). Now both these would have done well together, in a time of solemn humiliation; the one mourning for his own corruptions, and the other, for the sins of the town and country he lives in; and this makes a fit combination in such a duty. Then consider, you may have men that may be excellent in both these, and yet want faith to press God to heal; these here would fit well such a spirit, as Moses to stand in the gap, and to press God to remember his covenant, and his nature, etc., and this mightily prevails with God (Exodus 32:10).

Again, but yet sometimes a spirit of consolation is requisite, such as was found in Barnabas (Acts 14:36). He had a sweet frame of spirit, a very comfortable man, and therefore such a man would do well in the end of day; but scarcely shall you find all these meet together in one family, and therefore there must needs be a sufficient number for all these to be performed.

Reason 3 is taken from the fellowship in the like occasion of mourning that may befall many families at once: Peter's enlargement and imprisonment concerned them all, they all stood in need to be sensible of that blow (Acts 12:12), and therefore many were met together upon that occasion.

Reason 4 is taken from the fellowship which some families had with some, which they had not with others; as first, means of acquaintance: One occasion of fellowship or acquaintance, is nearness of dwelling, or next neighbors (Exodus 12:4). Close in such duties with next neighbors, rather than with those that are further off. Another occasion of fellowship, was nearness of kindred, and that is evident in the text: The family of the house of David met by themselves, and so the house of Nathan; some take him to be one of David's sons (Luke 3). When Solomon's line did cease, his line came in his room, of whom the Virgin Mary descended; but I rather with Junius take him to be Nathan the Prophet, because there is a distinction made of his kindred. So the house of Levi, and the house of Shimei; some take him to be Simeon, one of the twelve tribes, others think it was the posterity of Shimei that cursed David; but it is not likely his posterity should be so blessed: but others think this Shimei, is mentioned (1 Kings 1:8), a sign there was a family of Shimei in David's Court, a man of great note in the state, an eminent man in his time: and he may well sustain the person of all men, that are neither kings, nor priests, but private men, each family and kindred by themselves.

Thirdly, nearness of acquaintance. (Job 2:11, 13) Job's friends, that were of his acquaintance, came with one consent to mourn with him.

Now, secondly, why every family apart.

Reason 1 is taken from the great covenant God has made with every Christian man and his household, to be a God to him, and to his seed after him forever (Genesis 17:7), and by virtue of that covenant, every male in Abraham's house was to be circumcised (verse 13). Now then, if this be the tenor of the covenant, observe it diligently. If God make a covenant, to be a God to you and yours, then it is your part to see it, that your children and servants be God's people; for God becomes a God to you and your seed, that is his part of the covenant; but look you to the second part, that you be God's child (Genesis 18:9). You will discovenant all your children and servants from having fellowship with God and his covenant, in case you train them not up to be sons and daughters to God; in this case *Esau* and *Ishmael* were discovenanted, they neither of them took care for their families; and though a man find his family backward enough, yet if he endeavor it, he does not discovenant them.

And further, Baptism is the seal of the covenant, we are baptized into the name of the Trinity, into the house of God; now if the name of the Trinity be put upon us, then we must do service to the Trinity, and the Trinity yields us, protection, and provision; a man then discovenants his family, that takes no care to bring them on to God.

Reason 2 is taken from the dedication of our houses to God (Deuteronomy 20:5; Psalm 30). What is it for us to dedicate our houses to God? Is it not to devote ourselves, and all ours, to keep house with and for God? Unless we dedicate our houses to God, they are but tabernacles for devils. And is it not then to mock God, when we do not pray with our families?

Reason 3: Consider the duties that are required for every householder; he should see that none belonging to him should break the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10-11). And we should whet the word upon our families (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). And how should any ordinance be sanctified without prayer?

Reas. 4 God does give families fellowship in sundry occasions, both of prayer and praise; it is he that keeps house for us, and preserves us night and day (Psalm 127:1-2). All the family reaps this blessing together in common, all lie down and rise in peace (Psalm 118:15). The Devil himself could say, God had made a hedge about Job; and it vexed Satan to the heart, it was a hedge of thorns to him, that he could not tell where to get into Job's house, estate, or family, every one was in a good frame, wife and children in good order, and every business prospered well, the Devil could no way get in to do him mischief. But now sometimes this hedge is broken down, and Satan is let in, and then much vexation is wrought in the family, and in such a case families have just occasion to be humbled together.

Reas. 5 Taken from the blessed reward that God gives to families that are willing to take this course, and that is double.

First, God will reveal his secret counsels to such, and make them of his counsel (Genesis 18:18-20).

Secondly, he will bring upon Abraham all the good he has promised him: it is the ready way to bring about the accomplishment of all God's promises to us; otherwise God will heap upon you much more evil than you are aware of (Jeremiah 10, last verse; 1 Samuel 25:21-22).

Thirdly, why alone by themselves?

Reas. 1 Because sometimes the untowardness of yoke-fellows is such, as that they are not fit to join together; Esther must do it alone (Esther 4:16; Micah 7:5-7).

Reas. 2 Suppose they may trust one another, yet sometimes it is meet to pray apart, because of the bitterness that may lie upon the one, that is not fit to be communicated to another (Proverbs 14:10). They may have some private corruption, which is not fit for them to reveal, if they may be helped by their own private endeavors.

Reas. 3 Taken sometimes from the strong work of God in them, so as they are not able to express their estates in company, full of sighs and groans unutterable (Romans 8:26; Psalm 77:3-4; Psalm 141:4; Psalm 102:6-7).

Reas. 4 Taken from the nearness, and close fellowship which every man's heart ought to have with Christ, above his dearest and nearest friends, Christ should be nearer to us, than either husband or wife (Psalm 73:25; Psalm 30:8-9).

Use 1 To teach us a lawful warrant of some duties, which some are doubtful of; to pray in their own families, that they think is necessary, yet some are so curious that they begin to question, whether it be not rather a free-will offering, than a duty enjoined.

Use 2 For a sign of trial. Would any man or woman know whether they have received a spirit of grace and prayer, or not? Why, ask your own heart, do you pray with your family? If not, you lack grace and prayer, for more or less, they ever go together; if once there be grace, there will be a care of family duties; see here the fearful danger of the neglect of these duties, you discoverant yourselves and yours: labor therefore to be sensible of it, and neglect it not. And so I say further, you say you have been at prayer in the family, but have you been so by yourself? If not, I say not that you lack grace, but I fear you lack a spirit of prayer; if once the spirit of grace be received, then both husband and wife learns to mourn apart; if you have received a spirit of grace, you can mourn in your closets as well as before others; it is a suspicion of hypocrisy, if a man's gifts be only family gifts.

Use 3 Of exhortation to all the people of God; as ever you desire to quicken the spirit of grace and prayer in your souls, so be conscientiously careful of all these duties, and by no means neglect your closet duties: you have much to say, that none must know but God only; be sure you fail not to keep covenant with God, and [reconstructed: bring] up your families in the fear and nurture of the Lord; and as much as is possible, be careful to help all your kindred, and your neighbors that are willing to be helped by you, and those of your acquaintance, you see how by this means, many blessings are multiplied upon the church of God, and because you perform such duties many times, and your heart is not melted, then take this course to help it that is in the text; before you come to such duties, have a sense and taste of Christ, and consider the evils you have committed against him, and be sensible of your unworthiness of the least mercy from him, and then your hearts will melt before him; a sight of Christ will banish out of your humiliations, all sinister suspicion one of another.

Use 4 Of comfort to mournful Christians, that can put a spirit of mourning upon any occasion, that whatever duty you are called to in public and in private, you are fitted for it; rejoice in the Lord, and bless his name, that has not sprinkled, but poured out his grace upon you.

Zechariah 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, etc.

There yet remains to be handled from these words, the three first arguments propounded in the beginning, namely, the author of this spirit of grace, the plentiful measure of it, and the persons on whom it is poured out. Of the first of these, the giver of it, you have heard it opened, from 2 Timothy 2:15, where you heard, that God is the author and giver of grace. And therefore come we to the other two, and from there observe this doctrine.

Doctrine. In the days of the gospel, the Lord dispenses a plentiful measure of grace, not only upon ministers, but upon all sorts of Christians.

For so says the text, in that day the Lord will not only sprinkle the spirit drop by drop, but will pour it out in a plentiful measure; and pouring out implies not only extension upon many people, but intension also in a great measure upon those many persons.

And who are these persons? Not the house of Levi alone, but also upon the house of David, the blood royal, and the King's Courtiers, and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Citizens and Tradesmen therein; indeed, and in Jerusalem dwelt all sorts of people, of every nation under heaven (Acts 2:4-5). Read this accomplished (Acts 2:17-18). I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and in which place the Lord tells you, that he will not sprinkle, but pour out his spirit, and not on a few select persons, but upon all flesh, Jews and Gentiles. So (John 7:37-39) he that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters: This he speaks of the Spirit, so that in the days of the New Testament, running streams of the Spirit shall ever be flowing from a believing soul; he shall have a spring of grace in his soul, that shall ever be like a running river cleansing his heart and way, and making him fruitful in all places, cooling and refreshing his own and others' souls with the experience of God's favor to him in Christ.

Why now, rather than in former times?

Reason 1: Taken from the different estate of the worship of God now, and that of the Old Testament. Then the worship of God was dispensed under veils and shadows, so as when the Law was delivered, Moses put a veil upon his face (2 Corinthians 3:13-15), so as the people could not clearly see the Lord Jesus, nor the life nor power of him in any ordinance then dispensed; he means the veil of ceremonies and shadows, but now the veil is taken away, and we all behold the glory of the Lord with open face (verses 17-18). Showing that by how much the more simply and plainly the ordinances be dispensed, so much the more plainly do the people of God see Christ revealed in them; and ever where there is the less shadow, there is the more substance.

Reason 2: Taken from the different estate of the children of God now, and of them in the Old Testament. They were then the children of God, and heirs of the kingdom with us. But yet the heir while he is under age, is under tutors and governors; and (Galatians 4:1-7) he speaks of God as a wise Father, he will not reveal himself freely and familiarly to his children, while they are under age, but when grown to age, he will freely communicate with them. Now thus the Apostle applies it: The Israel of God were under age, till the fullness of time came, and when Christ came, then was the fullness of the age of that Church, and then God sends forth the [reconstructed: Spirit of his Son] into the hearts of his people: This is the spirit of adoption, whereby God acquaints you with his counsels, and entrusts you with a great part of his inheritance. Under the Law they had but a dark draft of the image of Christ found in them; but now the fullness of time being come, God seeing his children fit to be entrusted with a larger measure of grace, he sends forth a spirit of grace into their hearts, and therefore they then called upon God, as God and Lord, and but seldom as Father. The Evangelical Prophet Isaiah, indeed he sometimes says, Doubtless you are our Father (Isaiah 63:16). But scarcely shall you find it throughout all the Psalms; Father in the Old Testament is a rare expression; but now scarcely any of the poorest believers, but the name of Father is as ready with them, as if all were taught to say, Our Father, and Abba Father: Now the Father looks at us, as come to fullness of age. Moses was the schoolmaster to bring the Jews to Christ, and then God walked towards them with a reserved countenance, but now he dispenses himself more freely.

Reason 3: Taken from the different dispensation of Christ in the Old Testament and in the new; he is called the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:1-2). And in the days of the Old Testament, Christ was not then risen, and though they had the Moon and the Stars, yet it was dark, because the Sun was not yet risen. So the Apostle says (2 Peter 1:19), but when Christ was born, then the dayspring from on high visited the people (Luke 1:78). Now as the day dawning brings in our light, more than all the glistering stars: so the Lord Jesus when he came into the world, the Church discerned more by him, than by all the Prophets that were before him; and yet after Christ's ascension into heaven, when he was ascended to his full height, then the least of the ministers of the Gospel, and professors of Christ, saw more of Christ, than any while he lived on the earth. And hence the Apostle fetches the abundant Revelation of Christ from his ascension (Acts 2:33), he brings it as a reason to prove that the Disciples were not full of new wine; for it is said, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and Christ being now exalted to the right hand of his Father, he has shed forth his spirit, which you now see and hear. So then it is from the exaltation of Christ, that we come to have the spirit of grace poured upon us, and Christ himself expounds that place (John 7:38-39) after this sort, The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because the Son was not yet glorified; when God had exalted Christ to the height, then he shed forth light and heat, as the Sun at noon day. The Holy Ghost was not yet given: Why, was not all the Prophets inspired by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1, last verse)? Indeed, but though they had the Holy Ghost, yet in comparison of that measure which is now given, it was but crumbs; in comparison of that measure, the poorest believers ordinarily have in these days: God dispenses not the spirit to rare and singular men, priests and prophets, and eminent Christians only; but now I will pour out my spirit upon maids, and young men, upon all sorts of Christians.

Use 1: It is a matter of just reproof to any that now live in the days of the Gospel, that are at this day destitute of all the drops and sparks of the spirit of grace. These are days in which God has said he will pour out his spirit upon courtiers, upon busy tradesmen, etc. Now then consider what times we live in; shall rivers of grace flow from many poor Christians, and shall not one drop be sprinkled on our souls? A wicked man in the land of uprightness, will not learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:10). It is the chief happiness for men in these days to live under means of grace, yet a wicked man when all about him relish of uprightness, yet he will there do wickedly, and all this is, because he will not behold the majesty of the Lord, he thinks not that Christ is there; consider therefore any soul that cannot say, God has sprinkled you at least with the first fruits of the spirit, there is a heavy curse lies upon you. (Ezekiel 47:11) The impure places thereof shall not be healed: the waters that flow from the sanctuary are healing waters; the spirit of grace flowing from Christ, is healing water to heal his people; but such creatures as still live in sin, foaming out mire and dirt to their shame, that content themselves only with the blessings of this life, they are exposed to an everlasting barrenness; so (Isaiah 32:11, 13), as if he should say, Every soul upon whom the spirit of grace is not poured forth, there grows upon them nothing but briars and thorns. There is a double meaning of it, do but observe the best fruits of a natural carnal man, his best fruits are but as briars and thorns. And again, the best comforts he has in this land, their trades, yoke-fellows, etc., they are all but briars and thorns, they choke good things in us; therefore let no soul content itself in slighting the Spirit of God. What an uncomfortable thing it is, that so many trees of righteousness should grow on every side of us and we only barren and unfruitful? Let this therefore be to us all an occasion of searching diligently, whether we have received the spirit of grace or no. Three sorts of things are said to be poured forth; water (Isaiah 44:3), oil and fire (Isaiah 42:25). Observe then, if you have received the spirit, you have received it as water, as oil, as fire; as water, cleansing you from all your filthiness (Ezekiel 36:25), and making you fruitful (Psalm 1:3). If you have received the spirit of grace like water, then you have received some such grace as cleanses your unclean heart, and you begin to be fruitful in the ways of grace; or if sometimes you have been scorched in your conscience with the fiery wrath of God, and have afterward found your heart cooled with experience of God's favor, this is like water. Or if like oil, the spirit is poured out to heal and bind up your wounds, and to make your heart cheerful (Psalm 104:15) (Luke 10:35). Grace makes the countenance shine (Ecclesiastes 8:1). God has acquainted you with his secret counsels (Acts 2:18). If God has warmed you with experience of his favors, and enlightened you with the knowledge of his will, you may have comfort in your condition; but if now your heart be as unclean as ever, if no more fit to offer up to God spiritual sacrifices than ever, you are not so much as sprinkled with the spirit of grace.

What shall I then (say you) now set myself about?

First, give diligent heed, and have a tender care to attend to the word of life; come not to hear the voice of a pleasant singer (Ezekiel 33:31), but come to the glorious Gospel of Christ, as the ministration of the spirit, you receive the spirit by the hearing of faith preached (Galatians 3:2, 5) (Romans 10:17).

2. Whatever known sins you have heretofore lived in, abandon them, and then God will pour out the riches of his mercy upon you (Isaiah 55:6, 7) and (Proverbs 1:22). When you hear a sin reproved, turn from it, and then he will pour out his spirit upon you.

3. Pray to the Father, and he will give you the Holy Ghost (Luke 11:13). Now what a fearful case is it, that a man should live in a congregation where the spirit of grace is poured forth upon many, and yet we never beg such a blessing? But continue knocking, and you shall receive.

Use 2: To exhort all the children of God to take heed of resting in the first fruits of the spirit, or of standing at a stay: for you live now in an age wherein God not only sprinkles his grace, but pours it out. Forget what is behind, and endeavor after that which is before (Philippians 3:13, 14). He labored more than all the rest, and yet I count not that I have attained. How should we now be ready to think, had we but the grace of such a choice one as Paul was, could we but be content in every state, could we but do God's will with joyfulness, and labor more than our brethren, might not we sit down and kiss our hands, and bless ourselves, and have cause forever to bless God for this large portion of grace? But Paul knew where he lived, and so should we. We are to be thankful for the least measure of grace, but not to rest satisfied with that estate we are come to. Indeed, what if a man could pray like a saint, preach like an angel, exceed all the Apostles of Christ; yet still he might set Christ before him for a pattern: we live now in an age, that the least Christian, after Christ his ascension, has reason to see and know more than John the Baptist did.

For further encouragement herein, consider that place (Ezekiel 47:3, 4, 5). It shows you the marvelous efficacy of the spirit of grace in the days of the Gospel: first a Christian wades in the rivers of God his grace up to the ankles, with some good frame of spirit; yet but weakly, for a man has strength in his ankle bones (Acts 3), and yet may have but feeble knees (Hebrews 12:12). So far as you walk in the waters, so far are you healed; why then in the next place, he must wade till he come to the knees, go a thousand cubits, a mile further, and get more strength to pray, and to walk on in your callings with more power and strength.

Secondly, but yet a man that wades but to the knees, his loins are not drenched, for nothing is healed but what is in the water. Now the affections of a man are placed in his loins, God tries the reins; a man may have many unruly affections, though he be paddling in the ways of grace; he may walk on in some evenness, and yet have many distempered passions, and may have just cause to complain of the rottenness of his heart in the sight of God: why then, you have waded but to the knees, and it is a mercy that you have come so far; but yet the loins want healing, why, wade a mile further than; the grace of God yet comes too shallow in us, our passions are yet unmortified, so as we know not how to grieve in measure, our wrath is vehement and immoderate, you must therefore wade until the loins be girded with a golden girdle; wade on, and think all is not well until you be so deep, and by this you may take a scantling, what measure of grace is poured out upon you. And if you have gone so far, that God has in some measure healed your affections, that you can be angry and sin not, and so on, it is well, and this we must attain to. But suppose the loins should be in a good measure healed, yet there is more goes to it than all this; and yet when a man is come thus far, he may laugh at all temptations, and bless God in all changes: but yet go another thousand cubits, and then you shall swim; there is such a measure of grace in which a man may swim as fish in the water, with all readiness and dexterity, gliding on, as if he had water enough to swim in; such a Christian does not creep or walk, but he runs the ways of God's Commandments; whatever he is to do or to suffer he is ready for all, so every way drenched in grace, as let God turn him any way, he is never drawn dry.

Thus we see now what in these days God calls us to; we are now planted by the waters; in which some Christians wade to the ankles, (and be we thankful for that) some can but creep as it were in the way of grace, and some it may be can walk on with some strength; some have yet gone deeper, till they be wholly drenched in grace, and this should we all labor after. But how may we attain to this large measure of grace?

First, consider the times you live in; we all behold the glory of God with open face, and are changed from glory to glory. First therefore look upon the Lord Jesus Christ with open face in his ordinances as in a glass; you would think it an excellent glass, that a man could never look in it, but it showed him a deformity, and would heal it; now we may behold Christ in his ordinances; which that we may do, we must come to them with a trembling spirit. Observe, and you shall find it true, you shall never hear the word with a trembling heart, but you will go home with a humble heart, you go a thousand paces that Sabbath (Isaiah 66:2). If we tremble, fearing we should hear unprofitably, or not sanctify God in our hearts, such a look at Christ will heal a thousand distempers in such a heart. A bold impudent heart that comes into God's presence will be dirty and unclean still: but God gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Come in sense of your insufficiency to profit, and come in sense of the majesty of the Lord Jesus, and you shall get a blessing.

2. Look at God in his ordinances with a believing eye; when a man sees Christ in his ordinances, it will help him to mourn for all the defects and blemishes which the Gospel discovers to him, so it is in the text. Looking at Christ with an eye of faith does heal mightily, it so melts the heart with the sense of its own feebleness, that it begins to change the hard and stony heart into mournful tears: as they were healed by looking at the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8-9), so we by mourning for Christ.

Thirdly, Look at Christ, as the Lord that teaches us to profit (Isaiah 48:17-18). Oh that you had listened to me, then your peace would have been like a flowing river; had we looked at Christ as our Redeemer, he would have undertaken to have taught us to profit, and then would the peace of our consciences and estates have been abundant, and our sanctification had been like the waves of the sea, and every wave greater than other, till there had been neither bank nor bottom; such a looking at Christ would have changed us from one grace to another.

And yet for a second means, When you are thus taught of God, then go on in your uprightness and cleanness of heart in your whole conversation, so shall you wade deep in the streams of grace (John 17:9). If therefore you see any uncleanness in your heart, abandon it, and resolve with full purpose of heart against it, hold on your way, and you will increase your strength (Proverbs 10:29); so also (2 Chronicles 2:10), the Lord will show himself strong to all that are upright before him. God's eyes run to and fro in the congregation, and he minds a very upright creature, and where he spies such a soul, he shows himself strong with him, so also (Isaiah 40:31-32).

Fruitfulness in growth, bring forth fruit in Christ, it may be a branch of the former; uprightness will draw you on to fruitfulness (John 15:2). In particular, look to these.

First, have a special care to delight in God's Sabbaths; if you count the Sabbaths precious, God will give you a delight in his house (Isaiah 58:13-14; Isaiah 26:4-7).

Secondly, have special respect to family duties; be helpful to children and servants, for that is a means to multiply talents (Matthew 25:28-29). This course Abraham took (Genesis 18:17-18).

Thirdly, Be fruitful in conversing with your brethren, counsel them, and stir them up to good ways, and you shall find this will much increase strength in yourselves. Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost; how does that appear? He exhorted them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord (Acts 11:23-24).

Fourthly, be willing among other graces to grow in patience, and be not put out of your patience; whatever discouragement you meet with, you will find it a mighty help for growth in grace (Colossians 1:10-11). It will make you perfect and entire, lacking nothing (James 1:4). Let not patience, by anything be disturbed; any one act of patience when it is put to it, will set you a thousand paces forward. You therefore that would wade on in the paths of grace till you would swim therein, be sure to maintain these graces alive in you.

Zechariah 12:10. And I will pour upon the house of David, etc.

There is yet one note more from these subjects upon whom the Spirit of grace is poured forth, who were these, the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; were they not those that pierced Christ, that killed the prophets, and stoned them, the same men that lived in that age, of whom our Savior said, that all the innocent blood of the prophets that has been shed, shall be required of that generation (Matthew 23:35). A generation of whom Paul said, that the wrath of God was come upon them to the utmost (1 Thessalonians 2:16). A people whom Peter calls, a perverse generation (Acts 2:40). Whose perverseness Paul does fitly express (1 Thessalonians 2:15): they have both pierced and killed the Lord of life, and persecuted us, God they pleased not, and are contrary [reconstructed: to] all men. Now these are the men, and we stand and wonder at it, of whom the text says, I will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and of supplication; hence observe:

Doctrine 9: That God does sometimes pour out the Spirit of grace, upon the most bloody, and most heinous, and most desperate, and most profane, and most abominable sinners.

Such as have pierced Christ, and killed the Lord of life, that had excommunicated him, and all that call upon him and profess his name; they at whose hands the blood of all the prophets was to be required, etc. Men that expressly curse themselves to the nethermost hell, those that were mad against Christ; upon these very men will God pour out a Spirit of grace and supplication; and lest you should think this to be peculiar to the Jewish nation only, read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Such were some of you, such as all these, but you are washed, and sanctified, etc. by the Spirit of our God, that is, by this Spirit of grace poured out upon them, some of all these sorts, and some that had them all together, the worst that you could name under the sun, and such were some of you; but are you so still? No, but you are now washed. So you see, the Spirit of grace may be poured out upon such as have been idolaters, adulterers, etc. Notable is that speech of Paul to Titus, concerning Cretians his countrymen (Titus 1:12-13). The words are very elegant in the original: they were always liars, given to beastly courses, sluggish in anything that was good; now think you that ever these base-spirited people should come on to be good Christians? Yet, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; a sign the apostle was not hopeless of their estate. So Isaiah 1:10: hear this, you princes of Sodom, and you people of Gomorrah, etc. To what purpose do you come before me, and your hands are full of blood; yet notwithstanding (verse 16-17), wash you, make you clean, and then come and let us reason together; so wonderful is the grace of God. Let him speak to men that know him not so much as the donkey his owner, such as rebelled more and more when he chastised them, such whose hands were full of blood; yet let but such as these come and wash themselves, cease to do evil, and learn to do well, and then all these scarlet crimson sins shall be as snow. But of all the precedents in this kind, Manasseh seems to me to exceed them all, a man (2 Chronicles 33:2) that gave himself to witchcraft, to shed innocent blood, and yet notwithstanding (verse 12), in his distress he sought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly, and the Lord was entreated of him, which you would wonder at. Therefore sometimes God pours forth his grace upon such as are abominable and bloody sinners; what hope think you were there of a man's salvation, when he rejects the God of his salvation? There is no name under heaven to be saved by, but the name of Christ (Acts 4:12), and if we put out his name, where shall we have salvation? Yet these men did so, and so Paul says of himself (1 Timothy 1:13): I was a blasphemer, an injurious person, a man that did another hurt with injury and scorn; such a one was Paul, yet see how wonderful God brings matters about (Acts 9:12). Behold! now he prays; well might God put an "Behold" to it; he that was before a blasphemer, a persecutor; behold! he is now fallen to praying, and he will never give over praying, till he hears some word of mercy in the pardon of his sins. So that God does sometimes pour out rivers of grace, not only upon those whose frame of spirit has been more civil, but upon those who have despised the holy One of Israel; they that before knew not what prayer meant, shall now pray and mourn bitterly.

Reason 3 is double. First, to magnify the name of God: where sin has abounded, there grace has abounded much more (Romans 5:20). God will ever give this honor to his grace, he will never have it said but that there is more grace in him to forgive, than gracelessness in us to destroy ourselves; never can a man be so empty of grace, but God is able to fill him. And this reason is mentioned (1 Timothy 1:13-14, 16): the grace of God was exceeding abundant toward me; it had been too little to have said, the grace of God was enough for me, but the grace of God was abundant above my wickedness; and if that were too narrow a word, it was exceeding abundant toward me; and this has God done to me, to show upon me an example of long-suffering, to all that hereafter shall believe on his name: not a singular example, such as never should be the like, but that all might see, there is an exceeding abundance of grace in God. It is a strange expression that of Balaam (Numbers 23:23): there is no enchantment or sorcery against Jacob; it shall be said of Israel what God has wrought. Balaam and the Devil cannot prevail against them, because it may be said, what God has wrought.

And so for a second branch of this first reason; God has not only a purpose to magnify his own grace, but to magnify the value and virtue of Christ's blood, if it had been sufficient only to have saved honest orderly men, it had not come near the value and virtue that is in it, but when it is sprinkled upon desperate sinners, the blood of Christ is able to wash them away (1 John 1:7). No sin, setting aside the sin against the Holy Ghost, but it will cleanse us from it, and that scorns to be sprinkled with it (Hebrews 10:29). Sins of ignorance and of infirmity, of presumption and blasphemy, yet even those sins the blood of Christ will search to the bottom; it was by the virtue of this blood, that David was cleansed (Psalm 51:7). Purge me with hyssop; there is an emphasis in his own person, that speaks it, purge me, me, whose hands are full of blood, I that am stained with such beastly, gross, and filthy lewdness, I that have given scandal to religion, even me, Lord purge me, and I shall be clean. Thus there is a value and virtue in Christ's blood, to wash away even roaring desperate sins, and to make such white as snow.

And for a third branch of this reason. God intended to magnify the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of grace here shed abroad into the hearts of these men. The Spirit breathes where it wills (John 3:8). If he take pleasure to breathe in a man, there is nothing can hinder him, it will blow upon the most foul dunghill in any place, and be never a whit the more defiled; and he is not only free, but mighty and powerful through God to cast down every high thought (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). The preaching of the Gospel by the help of the spirit is able to break the hard and stony heart, to cleanse the most profane spirit.

There are yet some other reasons that move God to this end, as he has respect to the enlargement of the hearts of his people: as, first, that he might enlarge the hearts of his people to an abundant measure of the love of God, and of the brethren, that he might ever keep alive a vein of brotherly love, and a child-like enlarged love to himself, he will have some of all sorts in every age, that shall still be coming in to his grace, of the most notorious sinners under the sun. Mary Magdalen a notorious harlot, yet she comes and expresses much love to our Savior, and this testimony our Savior gives of her, She loves much, because much is forgiven her (Luke 7:47). God means to have much love from some of his servants, others may limit it with him, but God will have some, that out of much sense of the much mischief they have wrought in the days of their vanity, shall love him abundantly; (for pardoning them) when it comes to the trial, they who have but a little forgiven them, will love but a little, but they who have much forgiven them will love much. And so also God delights much in the savor of an abundant spirit of love among Christians one towards another; he would have some not to be put out of their love, notwithstanding all the distempers of their brethren, and it is meet it should be so for the honor of his own grace. Paul though he is called a mover of sedition, a pestilent fellow, yet he is not distempered, The love of Christ constrains him (2 Corinthians 5:11, 14). He had known the terror of the Lord in his own spirit, and he could not hold off his hands from persuading men to avoid it: so as if any should say, What need he be so forward to expose himself to such disestimation? Why, the love of Christ constrained him, he knew Christ had forgiven him, that had been a desperate sinner, and being filled with the love of God himself, he could not hold wherever he came, but as much as in him lay endeavored the salvation of all, he knew that they did not know the terror of the Lord. So David, if God would restore to him the joy of his salvation, then would he teach the wicked his ways, and sinners should be converted to him (Psalm 51:13-14). The love he received of God should reflect upon all wicked men, Show all meekness to all men, for ourselves in time past served diverse lusts, and of his mercy he has saved us; Let us therefore in all meekness instruct those that are contrary minded (2 Timothy 2:25). John it is likely had not much forgiven him, when he would have fire come down from heaven upon the Samaritans (Luke 9:53-54). He came very young to Christ, some conceive he was not above seventeen years old, and he lived till a hundred years after Christ, and he was not yet defiled with lusts and the world, and therefore see how little love he expresses when he is crossed, but he being reproved, I doubt not but he repented, and afterward none breathed out a spirit of love more than John did; In all his epistles you read little else, but either directions or motives to brotherly love. So Paul to the Galatians (Galatians 4:12, 16), You have not injured me at all; he was full of the spirit of love (1 Thessalonians 2:7). We are gentle among you, as a nurse over her children; she has many weary times with them, yet she is gentle towards them, and so ought we to be one towards another.

Reason 2: That so God might thereby enlarge the hearts of his own people to humility in doing his will, and to patience in suffering it, that they might never open their mouths to any arrogancy of spirit in doing any lowly service (Ezekiel 16:48, 51, 60–63), that if ever after they did any good duty, they should never be proud of it, and if put to any mean service, not think themselves too good for it: had not God intended you great mercy, you had never known what mercy had meant, and therefore now you must forever walk humbly and carry the shame of it in your faces, and never murmur with God any more; and that you may so do, God will show you an abundant mercy. Least of all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9), least of all saints (Ephesians 3:8), chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) — he remembers his former wicked life, and therefore thinks himself less than any. God bids Ananias talk no more of what he had been, for he shall suffer many great things for my name's sake. God will sometimes show great mercy to great sinners, because they must suffer great evils for his name's sake. They have great things to suffer, and therefore they had need of great humility and patience (1 Corinthians 4:12, 15–16). He suffers much, and takes all in good part, because God has done so much for him; so the Prodigal: now no more worthy to be called your son (Luke 15:18). The other brother, if the father crosses him, he so sulks, that he will neither eat nor drink with them; he that had but little forgiven him is apt to take offence for every occasion, but the Prodigal would now be content to be a hired drudge.

Further, they are enlarged to much fruitfulness in their course: there is no more ready way to make you a fruitful Christian, than to have run a lewd course of life, and in the end to have our wills subdued, and brought to the knowledge of Christ: such a soul as has been fruitful in sin, is afterwards as fruitful in the ways of righteousness. So Paul (1 Corinthians 15:9–10), as if the grace of God had been bestowed in vain upon Paul, if he had not done more service than the rest of the apostles; and I think the words will bear it, he compares his labors to the labors of all other the apostles, put all their labors in one balance, and Paul's in another, and yet, not more than any one of them; which was much for a man that had been a Pharisee, a hypocrite, a malicious enemy of the church: for him to have learned so much religion, as any one of them in so short a time; it had been a large growth, but yet his labors were more than the labors of them all; as if Paul who had done more wickedly than they all, should not now be more in grace and godliness than they all, the grace of God had been bestowed upon him in vain. A thing is then in vain, when it is disappointed of its end; God bestows great grace on great sinners, he intends they should bring in more service to his will, and comfort to his people; than a dozen of other men, if he exceed not a dozen others in fruitfulness, his grace is but in vain.

Use 1: To reprove that desperate discouragement, sometimes found in the hearts of some sinful men, that looking back at their former oaths and drunkenness, etc., and what their present corruptions are, they begin to conceive they shall never overmaster such distempers, it is impossible God should ever show mercy upon such wretches as they are; and thereupon they begin to lay all care aside; now they are hardened in sin, they have gotten such a scarlet dye, as it is impossible their sins should ever be washed away; and therefore take up Cain's desperate conclusion, go from the presence of God; and say, My sins are greater than can be forgiven (Genesis 4:13, 16). But do you think that your heart is more ungracious, than the God of heaven is gracious? Have your sins deserved a greater punishment than the blood of Christ is of value to make atonement for you? Is your heart so high, that God cannot lay it low? Be not so desperate as to stand so aloof off from the grace of Christ, make not such desperate conclusions as these be; you find such inclinations to the world, but is not he that made the world, greater than the world? Indeed if you still go on in that course, because you think it is desperate, and go not about to amend it, you will live to see the day, that others, that have run as desperate a course as you, and have had as proud hearts as yours be, and God has humbled them, you shall see it, but shall not taste of it (2 Kings 7:19). Lay down therefore all such thoughts as ever you desire to honor the grace of Christ.

Use 2: To every ungodly soul, to stir up himself for the obtaining of the spirit of grace; for it shall be poured out upon such as have pierced Christ, a bloody scornful generation: remember therefore, that a disease that has been cured, or is curable in one, is not incurable in another, that which has been done, may be done again, as long as the same physician lives. If you have been an idolater, an adulterer, etc., what if any, indeed, what if all these? Why, such were some of you: but you are washed, and why may not we? What if you have been given to witchcraft? What if you have been a blasphemer? Manasseh and Paul were such, and yet the grace of God was exceeding abundant towards them; so that unless you can make your estates worse than ever anyone's was, delay the time no longer, but wrestle with God for grace.

But that none may be hardened in his presumption, let me say: First, if you have been greater sinners than others, make account you will stand in need of greater mercy than others; and therefore entreat God for tender mercy (Psalm 51:1–2).

Secondly, that you will stand in need of greater humiliation than other men; so Manasseh humbled himself greatly (2 Chronicles 33:12). Great sins must have great humiliations; Paul fell down trembling (Acts 9:6). The jailer comes in trembling (Acts 16:29). But yet this I say, I had rather ninety-nine hypocrites should go to hell with presumption, than one poor sinner fall short of heaven for want of consolation: yet there must ever be so much humiliation as makes sin most bitter, and Christ most sweet (Jeremiah 2:19).

You say, How shall I hate sin, as sin?

First, you hate all sin, as well gainful and pleasurable sins, as any you have least benefit by (Acts 19:19). When you hate sin, as it is a dishonor to God, and a piercing of Christ, and a crucifying him (Psalm 51:5).

You hate sin as sin; if you are grieved for sin, not as it is grievous to your conscience, and an amazement to your spirit, but as it is loathsome and filthy in the sight of God; when you can abhor yourself for sin (Job 42:6). A man takes up a coal and feels it hot, and throws it down again, not because it is black, and so might defile him, but because it is hot, and so might burn him; so many a man begins to lay down his sin, because it is too hot; God begins to speak wrath to his conscience; so it was with Judas: but he that truly leaves sin, not because it brings him horror and anguish, but because it is filthy in the sight of God (Ezra 9:8).

You must be content to take great pains with your soul, in the use of all good means: it is not small pains that will serve the turn, but you must use great diligence. If a cloth be foully stained, it is not a little rinsing in cold water that will get it out, but it will take much rubbing, batting, and scouring; it is not a few tears, but washing thoroughly that you must look for (Psalm 51:2, 10).

You will stand in need of no small patience to wait long; you must be content to wait long upon God, who has been so patient to wait long upon you; and though it be all your days, and though you should never see peace in this world, yet say it is enough, if you may but see grace and favor towards you, before you depart hence and be no more seen, though it be but at the last gasp, if but then you may find mercy, think that you are graciously dealt with (John 14:14). I will wait and look for the God of my salvation (Micah 7:7, 9). You must bear all things patiently, indeed the discouragements that shall befall you; and you that have friends and kindred in this condition, be you the more humbled for them, by how much the less they are humbled in themselves.

Use 3 — Of exhortation to every soul that has found itself in a woeful case; if you have found yourself in a desperate case, by reason of your sin, and the grace of God afterwards has abundantly been poured forth upon you; then learn to see what God requires of you. First, you should forever glorify the rich grace of God, and forever magnify the value and virtue of Christ's blood. Time was, when David's bones were broken (Psalm 51:8) and all the comfort of his soul shattered to pieces, and does God now show David mercy? Then all my bones shall say, Lord who is like to you? (Psalm 35:10).

You whom God has forgiven much, he looks for much love from you. How I love the Lord? What shall I render to him for all his benefits? (Psalm 116:1-2). How ought we to love the Lord Jesus, to grow in humility, and never think much to be exposed to any [reconstructed: vile discourtesy] for his name's sake? Take pains with your brothers, by how much the Lord has taken pains with you; if God has forgiven your great sins, remember and consider it, that God has done all this in vain for you, if now, if now you do not more service to God than a dozen other Christians, that never knew what such sins were, as you have committed; if you be not more humble, more fruitful, more patient, and more forward in every good duty than others be, you walk unworthy of the mercy you have received, and therefore it behooves you, as you would not receive the grace of God in vain, so to be much more abundant in the work of the Lord, you must be filled with all the fruits of righteousness to the glory and praise of God, and the good of your brothers.