with their tongues too, "We shall have peace, though we walk after the imaginations of our own hearts." And is there not a set of people in the land, and I fear too many of them in this city, who speak the same language? Let God say what he will by his word, let him say what he will by his providence, let ministers and private Christians testify against them ever so much, and warn them of their sins, and of the judgments of God they are bringing on themselves and the land; yet they say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us; we will go on and prosper; we will "add drunkenness to our thirst: To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Some are sinning with a high hand against the great God; but their high hand will fall, when God lifts his hand; they may deal proudly, but God will be above them: let them do their utmost," the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted," although it be to their ruin and destruction. I would have you who promise yourselves impunity in your evil ways to remember, that though "sentence against an evil work be not speedily executed," yet when the time of execution comes, the severity of the stroke will make a recompense sufficient for the delay of it; God's hand is heavy when it is laid on, and that you will find to your cost. "Consider this, ye that forget God." Consider this, ye who, to the offence of all sober and serious Christians, are following these obscene spectacles and comedies that are set up in this place, and you who, in your night-revellings, adventure to profane the holy word and worship of God in the open streets. You may imagine that evil shall not overtake you: but whether shall God's word or yours hold good? You say, "You shall have peace, though you" thus insult the great God, and "add drunkenness to thirst;" but God says, "There is no peace to the wicked." But now follows another scene; a scene of mercy is opened up in ver. 11: In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. Where briefly we may notice, 1st, The designation that God gives to his church, particularly in the New Testament church; it is called the tabernacle of David. I think it is so called, with an allusion to the tabernacle that was made by Moses in the wilderness, which was a badge of God's particular presence among that people: it was a kind of portable thing that they carried about with them from one place to another, till they came to Canaan; and then it was set in the place which God had appointed for it in the temple of Jerusalem. God's militant church in the world is a kind of move able thing: "The tabernacle of God is with men," but it is not always fixed in one particular place; sometimes he sees meet to remove his tabernacle, as the tabernacle was removed of old from one place to another: sometimes he removes it from one nation to another; hence Christ tells the Jews, that "the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and given to a nation that would make a better use of it. Sirs, God's tabernacle has been pitched among us for a long time; but it has met with coarse handling, many foul hands have been admitted to approach it. None but those that were called of God were allowed to touch the tabernacle; but, alas! how many are there in our day who intrude upon tabernacle work, that never had the call of God, or his people, unto that service! And this I look upon, among other things, to be one of the many melancholy signs of God's removing his tabernacle from among us. Little of God, little of his glory, is to be seen, as in former times: the cloud of his presence is departed. But then the tabernacle is here called the tabernacle of David. David had great pleasure in God's tabernacle: "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts? One day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Alas! this is not the spirit of the generality now-a-days; many love rather to be in a tavern than in the tabernacle. But by David here, we are not to understand David personally, but David typically, the Son of David; he in whom David's family, David's throne, and David's power, were perpetuated. And then it is called the tabernacle of David, because it is his property. The church is Christ's property; he bought her at a dear rate, even with the price of his precious blood; she is his dwelling-place, and he has no other dwelling upon earth but his church: he says of Zion, where the tabernacle was placed, "This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell, for I have desired it," Psal. cxxxii. 14. 2dly, We may notice the present case of the tabernacle of David; it is fallen, there are breaches made upon it, and it is in a ruinous condition. "The boar of the wood had wasted it, the wild beasts of the forest had devoured it :" the laws of the temple had been violated and profaned, as they are in our day: God, in his righteous judgment, had let robbers into it, that had spoiled it: "Who gave Jacob to the spoil and Israel to the robbers? He against whom they had sinned.” 66 Civil robbers, ecclesiastical robbers, break in upon his vineyard, and spoil the tender grapes and vines," instead of preserving them; they carry away the rights of the people of God, instead of patronising and defending them. The typical taber nacle of David fell when Christ rose from the dead; the Mosaic economy was then unhinged, giving way to the New Testament church. 3dly, We have a promise here of rebuilding David's tabernacle: I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. We read of great furniture laid into the hand of Christ, of great gifts bestowed upon our Emmanuel. But for what end? It was for building a house for God to dwell in among the sons of men: "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among us." Christ laid the foundation of a new tabernacle in his blood, and he ascended up to heaven, and sat down upon the throne, in order to pursue that great end, to raise up a spiritual temple for himself and his Father to dwell in; for from eternity "he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men." Now, the tabernacle of David was fallen, but "the man whose name is the BRANCH, he comes out of his place, he builds the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory thereof." But then, 4thly, That which I would have you particularly to notice is, the time or season when this is to be done; it is in that day, when the Lord destroys the sinful kingdom from off the face of the earth;-that day when he sifts the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve;—that day, when the sinners of his people shall die by the sword. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David. From this connexion I only take notice of this observation, and so shall conclude at present. OBSERV. "That God many times ushers in a glorious work of reformation, by very cloudy, dark, and dismal dispensations of providence." What a dismal aspect had God's procedure in the preceding verses! and yet grace and mercy break out of that dark cloud. But the farther prosecution of this doctrine I shall refer till the afternoon. The Lord bless his word. THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID RUINED BY MAN, AND 1 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.-AMOS IX. 11. THE SECOND SERMON ON THIS TEXT. HAVING explained this portion of scripture in the forenoon, I shall not stand to resume any thing that was said that way. I just named a doctrine from the words taken in their connexion, to wit, "That it is God's ordinary way to usher in the revival and restoration of his own work, by very awful, dark, and gloomy dispensations of providence." Here was a very dark day, a day of destruction from the presence of the Lord, a day of hewing down by the sword, a day of unhinging nations and churches; and yet you see what it all terminates and resolves in:-In that day will I build up the tabernacle of David, I will restore the breaches, and repair the ruins thereof, as in the days of old. I remember, when the prophet Elijah came to mount Horeb, the Lord passed by him, and he knew it not. There is a very strange appearance made to the prophet: first, there was a great and stormy wind raised, which breaks the rocks and shakes the mountains, but God was not in the wind: after the wind came an earthquake; but God was not there: after the earthquake came a fire; but God was not in the fire. Well, what does all this resolve in? This was just a preparation towards God's manifesting of himself to the prophet in the still and small voice. This is God's ordinary way of working, both towards particular persons, and particular churches; clouds and darkness are round about him in his way, before mercy and truth are seen going before his face. I read you two or three texts of scripture to confirm it. The one you have in the prophet Malachi, the last chapter of the Old Testament, 1st and 2nd verses: “ Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Well, but the cloud turns about, and the bright side of it appears, in ver. 2: “But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Right eousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." Ver. 3: “ And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Zech. xiii. 8, 9: "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off, and die, but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried." Well, what follows upon that? "They shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." I only name another, in the prophecy of Isaiah, chap. iv. We see terrible work in the close of the preceding chapter: "Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty men in the war. gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground." And the land shall be so desolate, that seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Well, what comes out of that? See it in ver. 2, 3: "In that day shall the branch of the house of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely, for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." 66 And her For the farther confirmation of this truth, I shall produce two or three instances, from which it will appear, that God's ordinary way is to usher in the enlarging and up-building of his church by such awful and terrible dispensations. And the first I name is, God's planting a church for himself in the land of Canaan. When God has a mind to pitch his tabernacle there, according to the promise made to Abraham, by which he made a grant of it to him and to his seed, what way goes he to work? First, Israel is brought into Egypt, and are made to groan there for four hundred years. When the time of their deliverance comes, Egypt is plagued; Pharaoh and his host is turned into the Red sea, there they are executed as on a high gibbet; six hundred thousand that came out of Egypt, are made to dung the wilderness with their carcasses; after that, twenty or thirty kingdoms are overthrown, and the old inhabitants are pulled up by the roots. And then the Lord sets up his tabernacle, and puts Israel in possession of the land, according to his promise. Another instance to the same purpose is in the return of the children of Israel from the Babylonish captivity. Before |