1When Christ humbleth, he may put us in remembrance of our nation, and national sins, Isa. 51.1. Look to the Rock whence ye were hewen, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were ⟨p. 173⟩digged—I alone called Abraham, he was an Idolater, Hos. 9.10. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, they should have been wild grapes rotten in the wilderness, had I not put them in my basket, Ezek. 16.2. Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination. How? Make them know the stock they came of. 3. And say, thus saith the Lord unto Jerusalem, Thy birth, and thy nativity, is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. When the Jews was to offer the first fruits to the Lord, Deu. 26.5. And thou shalt speak, and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and went down to Egypt to sojourn there. Thus the forgetting of what we are by nature, addeth to our guiltiness, Eze. 16.22. And in all thine abominations, and thy whoredoms, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked, and bare, (and wast) polluted in thy blood: So the Ephesians must be told how unfit they were by nature for Christ; being the very work-house, and shop of the Devil, in which he wrought, Eph. 2.1, 2, 3. National sins hath influence in their guilt and contagion on believers: 1. When they mourn not for them, Gods displeasure should be our sorrow: 2. When they stand not in the gap to turn away wrath, Ez. 22.30. There were, Isa. 59. Godly men that departed from ill, v. 15. But Gods quarrel ⟨p. 174⟩was, that there was no intercessor: in Fasting, believers, though pardoned, may have on them a burden of the sins of three nations, and be involved in that same wrath with them: National repentance is required of every one, no less then personal Repentance: who sorrows for the blood of Malignants and Rebels? for their oaths, mocking, scoffing, Massing; The sins of the Land, Idolatry, Superstitious days, vain Ceremonies, &c. have influence on a believers conscience in his approach to God. But we are here to consider, that Christ doth two great and contrary works at once: 1. He humbleth the believing woman, in reproaching her as a profane Dog, unworthy of the children's bread, that the Will may be more broken for believing: And 2. He trieth and tempteth her, to see if she can, by reproaches be taken off from Christ.
1When Christ humbleth, he may put us in remembrance of our nation, and nationall sins, Isa. 51.1. Look to the Rock whence ye were hewen, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were ⟨p. 173⟩digged—I alone called Abraham, he was an Idolater, Hos. 9.10. I found Israel like grapes in the wildernesse, they should have been wild grapes rotten in the wildernesse, had I not put them in my basket, Ezek. 16.2. Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination. How? Make them know the stock they came of. 3. And say, thus saith the Lord unto Jerusalem, Thy birth, and thy nativity, is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. When the Jews was to offer the first fruits to the Lord, Deu. 26.5. And thou shalt speak, and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and went down to Egypt to sojourn there. Thus the forgetting of what we are by nature, addeth to our guiltinesse, Eze. 16.22. And in all thine abominations, and thy whoredoms, thou hast not remembred the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked, and bare, (and wast) polluted in thy blood: So the Ephesians must be told how unfit they were by nature for Christ; being the very work-house, and shop of the Devill, in which he wrought, Eph. 2.1, 2, 3. Nationall sins hath influence in their guilt and contagion on beleevers: 1. When they mourn not for them, Gods displeasure should be our sorrow: 2. When they stand not in the gap to turn away wrath, Ez. 22.30. There were, Isa. 59. Godly men that departed from ill, v. 15. But Gods quarrell ⟨p. 174⟩was, that there was no intercessor: in Fasting, beleevers, though pardoned, may have on them a burden of the sins of three nations, and be involved in that same wrath with them: Nationall repentance is required of every one, no lesse then personall Repentance: who sorrows for the blood of Malignants and Rebels? for their oaths, mocking, scoffing, Massing; The sins of the Land, Idolatry, Superstitious dayes, vain Ceremonies, &c. have influence on a believers conscience in his approach to God. But we are here to consider, that Christ doth two great and contrary works at once: 1. He humbleth the believing woman, in reproaching her as a prophane Dog, unworthy of the childrens bread, that the Will may be more broken for beleeving: And 2. He tryeth and tempteth her, to see if she can, by reproaches be taken off from Christ.
- 1National sins may occur to the consciences of the child of God in his approach to God.Nationall sins may occurre to the consciences of the child of God in his approach to God.
