Page:Duty of redeeming the time in evil days, illustrated and enforced.pdf/19

Rh the day: Advert to the saying of the wise man, Prov. xxviii. 4. "They that forsake the law, praise the wicked: but such as keep the law, contend with them "

4. Be mourners in Zion, wrestlers with the Lord in the case of the evil of the days. Mourn for your own sins and the sins of others.

5. Lastly, Strengthen and stir up one another in the way of the Lord. The people of God had need to animate one another in duty, in a special manner when the torrent of sin runs high, that so they may the better oppose it, and keep themselves from being carried away with it. Follow the practice of the Lord's people who lived in a very declining time of the Jewish church, recorded Mal. iii. 16. "Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."

Thirdly, Our days are evil, in regard they are days of the hiding of the Lord's face. Well may say as Isa. xlv. 15. “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour.” The Lord's gratious appearances in the powerful operations of his Holy Spirit on the souls of men, make good days; and sometimes there have been such eminently good days: but, alas! our days are evil, being days of God's hiding his face; whereof take these evidences.

1. The little power and efficacy on the souls of men, that accompanies ordinances at this day. Well may we say, as Isa. liii. 1. “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed" A sound work of conviction is very rare, and the work of conversion is yet more rare. The word is heard, but where is the fruit of it? They that were filthy are filthy still. The profane are not reformed, the secure sinner is not awakened, the formal professor is not brought acquainted with the power of godliness, and they that have the root of the matter in them, are not so liberally fed as sometimes they were. Whence is all this, but that the Lord hides himself, and appears not in the assemblies of his people as sometime a-day? We have sinned away his presence, and provoked him to say, "Your new moons, and your