There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession; the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited, swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit, before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it. This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land; they must come into, and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness, where they must be bruised with many pressures, humbled under many overbearing difficulties, they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity, flowed with Milk and Honey. The Truth of this Type, the Prophet Hosea explains, and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition, Hos. 2. 14, 15. I will lead […] into the wilderness, and break her heart with many bruising Miseries, and then I will speak kindly to her heart, and will give her the Valley of Achor ⟨p. 6⟩for a door of hope; the story you may recall out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing, and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed, like water spilt upon the ground, because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them, the Text says, they having found out the offender by lot, they stoned him, and they said thou hast troubled Israel, we will trouble thee, and they called it the Valley of Achor, and after that God supported their hearts with hope, and encouraged them with success, both in prevailing over their Enemies, and in possessing the Land. So it shall be Spiritually, the Valley of Consternation, perplexity of Spirit, and brokenness of heart, is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope, and assured expectation of good. This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place, and part of the description of a good Hearer, Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word, and keeps it, by strong hand, and brings forth fruit with patience; the fruit is Obedience, Patience is part of Sanctification, and the holy disposition of heart, that must be in the heart, that brings and bears such fruit, that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation, which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word, and from him to receive that lively virtue of Patience, and readiness to every holy word and work.
There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession; the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited, swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit, before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it. This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land; they must come into, and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness, where they must be bruised with many pressures, humbled under many overbearing difficulties, they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity, flowed with Milk and Honey. The Truth of this Type, the Prophet Hosea explains, and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition, Hos. 2. 14, 15. I will lead 〈…〉 into the wilderness, and break her heart with many bruising Miseries, and then I will speak kindly to her heart, and will give her the Valley of Achor ⟨p. 6⟩for a door of hope; the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing, and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed, like water spilt upon the ground, because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them, the Text saies, they having found out the offender by lot, they stoned him, and they said thou hast troubled Israel, we will trouble thee, and they called it the Valley of Achor, and after that God supported their hearts with hope, and encouraged them with success, both in prevailing over their Enemies, and in possessing the Land. So it shall be Spiritually, the Valley of Consternation, perplexity of Spirit, and brokenness of heart, is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope, and assured expectation of good. This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place, and part of the description of a good Hearer, Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word, and keeps it, by strong hand, and brings forth fruit with patience; the fruit is Obedience, Patience is part of Sanctification, and the holy disposition of heart, that must be in the heart, that brings and bears such fruit, that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation, which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word, and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience, and readiness to every holy word and work.
