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النشر الإلكتروني

1. Confider, That the working of the believer's heart, under the preffures of these burdens, vents itfelf varioufly, Sometimes he is faid to be in heaviness, 1 Pet. i. 6. If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Sometimes he is faid to figh under his burdens, and to figh to the breaking of his loins; He is faid to fetch his fighs from the bottom of his heart; My fighing comes before I eat, fays fob. Sometimes his burdens make him to cry: Sometimes he cries to his God, Pfal. cxxx. 1. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Sometimes he cries to byftanders and fpectators, as fob did to his friends. Have pity on me, O ye my friends; for the hand of the Lord hath touched me, Job xix. 21. Or, with the church, Lam. i. 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and fee, if there be any forrow like unto my forrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, Sometimes he is faid to roar under his burden; My roarings, fays Job, are poured out like | water. I have roared all the day long, fays David, because of the difquietness of my heart. Sometimes he is at the very point of fainting under his burden; I had fainted, unless I had believed to fee the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Sometimes his fpirits are quite overfet and overwhelmed, Pfal. Ixi. 2. From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Sometimes again he is, as it were, distracted, diftracted and put out of his wits, through the weight of his burdens, especially when under the weight of divine terrors: Thus it was with holy Heman, Pfal. lxxxviii. 15. While I fuffer thy terrors I am diftracted. Yea, fometimes the matter is carried fo far, that it goes to the drinking up

of

of the very spirits, and a drying and withering of the bones; as ye fee in the cafe of Job, The Arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my fpirits. O the heavy toffings of the believer's heart under his burdens! The apoftle here expreffes it by a groaning; We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.

12. For clearing this, ye fhould understand, that there are three forts of groans that we read of in fcripture. 1. Of groans of nature.

of reason.

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2. Of

groans 3. Of groans of grace. ift, I fay, we read of groans of nature, Rom. viii. 22. We know, fays the apostle, that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now. Man, by his fin brought a curfe upon the good creatures of God, Curfed is the ground for thy fake, Gen. ii. 17. And the very earth upon which we tread groans, like a woman in travail, under the weight of that curfe and vanity that it is fubjected unto, thro' the fin of man; and it longs, as it were, to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and to fhare of the glorious liberty of the fons of God, at the day of their manifeftation.

2dly, We read of groans of reafon, or of the reafonable creatures under their affliction. Thus we are told, that the children of Ifrael groaned under the weight of their affliction in Egypt, by reafon of the heavy tasks that were impofed upon them, Exod. vi. 5. I have heard, fays the Lord, the groans of the children of Ifrael, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage.

3dly, We read of groans of grace, or of fpiritual groans, Rom. viii. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and maketh interceffion for us with groans which cannot be uttered. And of this kind, we

conceive,

conceive, are these groans which the apoftle speaks of in our text; they are not natural, neither are they merely rational groans, (tho' even these are not to be excluded) but they are gracious and fupernatural, being the fruit of fome faving work of the Spirit of God upon the foul. And therefore,

A 3d remark I offer is this, that thefe groans of the gracious foul, here fpoken of, feem to imply, as was hinted at in the explication of the words, 1. A great deal of grief and forrow of fpirit on the account of fin, and the fad and melancholy effects of it on the believer, while in this imbodied state. 2. It implies a difpleasure, or diffatisfaction in the believer, with his prefent burdened eftate; he cannot find reft for the fole of his foot here below: He finds, that this is not his refting-place. And, 3. It implies a breathing and panting of foul after a better ftate, even the immediate enjoyment of God in glory, ver. 1. He groans with an earnest defire to be clothed upon with his house which is from

beaven.

But I procced to the 4th thing in the method, which was the application of the doctrine; and the firft ufe fhall be of information.

1. Hence we may fee the vaft difference between heaven and earth. O what vaft odds is there between the present and future ftate of the believer, between his prefent earthly lodging, and his heavenly manfion! This world is but at best a weary land; but there is no wearying in heaven: No, They shall ferve him day and night in his holy temple. This world is a land of darkness, where thou goest many a time mourning without the fun. But, when once thou comeft to thine own country, The Lord fhall be thine everlasting light, and thy God thy

glory.

glory. This world is a land of distance; but in heaven thou shalt be at home; when abfent from the body, thou shalt be prefent with the Lord. This world is a den of lions, and a mountain of leopards; but there is no lion or leopard there, they fhall not burt nor deftroy in all God's holy mountain above. This world is a land of thorns: Many pricking briers of affliction grow here below; but no pricking brier or grieving thorn is to be found in all that country above. This world is a polluted land, it is defiled with fin; but there can in no wife enter into the land of glory, any thing that defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. In a word, there is nothing but matter of groaning for the most part here; but all ground of groaning ceafeth for ever there. 2. See hence a confideration that may contribute to flay or allay our griefs, fobs and groans from the death of godly relations; for while in this tabernacle they groan, being burdened: But now their groans are turned into fongs, and their mourning into hallelujahs; for the ranfomed of the Lord, when they return, or come to Zion, at death or the refurrection, it is with fongs, and everlasting joy upon their beads: They obtain joy and gladness, and forrow and mourning flee away, Ifai. xxxv. 10. And therefore,

Let us not forrow, as them that have no hope. If our godly friends, that are departed, could entertain converfe with us, they would be ready to fay to us, as Chrift faid to the daughters of Jerufalem, O! weep not for us, but weep for yourselves; for we would not exchange conditions with you for ten thousand worlds: Ye are yet groaning in your claytabernacle, oppreft with your many burdens; but, as for us, the day of our complete redemption is come, our heads are lifted up above all our bur

dens,

dens, under which, once in a day, we groaned while we were with you.

3. See hence, that they are not always the happiest folk that have the merriest life of it in the world. Indeed, if we look only to things prefent, the wicked would feem to have the best of it; for, instead of groaning, they take the timbrel and the harp, they rejoice at the found of the organ; they Spend their days in wealth and eafe, Job xxi. 12, 13. But, O firs, remember, that it is the evening that crowns the day; The triumphing of the wicked is but fhort, and the day of the hypocrite is but for a moment: Whereas the groanings of the righteous are but short, and their jubilee and triumph fhall be everlasting. Mark the perfect man, fays David, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the tranfgreffors fhall be deftroyed together, and the end of the wicked is to be cut off, Pfal. xxxvii. 37. I will read you a paffage, that will fhew the vaft difference betwixt the godly and the wicked, and discover the ftrange alteration of the fcene betwixt them in the life to come, Ifai. lxv. 13, 14: Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, my fervant fhall eat, but ye shall be hungry: Behold, my fervants fhall drink, but ye shall be thirfly: Behold, my fervants fhall rejoice, but ye shall be afhamed: Behold, my fervants fhall fing for joy of beart, but ye fhall cry for forrow of heart, and fhall bowl for vexation of Spirit.

4. See hence, that death needs not be a terror to the believer. Why? Because, by taking down this tabernacle, it takes off all his burdens, and puts a final period to all his groans. Death, to a believer, is like the fiery chariot to Elijah; it makes him drop the mantle of his body with all its filthiaefs, but it tranfports his foul, his better part, into

the

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