So, when the gospel sheds its cheering beams It warms their hearts, their languid graces cheers, The gracious showers these spiritual clouds do yield, Which God hath bless'd. Oh! 'tis exceeding sweet, CHAPTER X. UPON A DEARTH THROUGH WANT OF RAIN. If God restrains the showers, you howl and cry: OBSERVATION. Ir is deservedly accounted a sad judgment, when God shuts up the heavens over our heads, and makes the earth as brass under our feet. Deut. xxviii, 23. Then the husbandmen are called to mourning. Joel i. 11. All the fields do languish, and the bellowing cattle are pined with thirst. Such a sad state the prophet rhetorically describes. Jer. xiv. 3, 4, 5, 6. "The nobles have sent their little ones to the waters; they came to the pits and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads, because the ground is chapt; for there was no rain in the earth; the ploughmen were ashamed, they covered their heads; yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass; and the wild asses did stand in the high places; they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed because there was no grass." And that which makes the want of rain so terrible a judgment, is the famine of bread which necessarily follows these extraordinary droughts, and is one of the sorest temporal judgments which God inflicts upon the world. APPLICATION. And truly as much cause have they to weep and tremble, over whose souls God shuts up the spiritual clouds of the gospel, and thereby sends a spiritual famine upon their souls. Such a judgment the Lord threatens in Amos viii. 11. "Behold the day is come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." The meaning is, I will send a more fearful judgment than that of the famine of bread; for this particle [not] is not exclusive, but excessive; implying that a famine of bread is nothing, or but a light judgment compared with the famine of the word. Parallel to which is that text, Isa. v. 6. "I will lay it waste," saith God of the fruitless church, "it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briars and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain not upon it." ́ And we find, both in human and sacred histories, that when God hath shut up the spiritual clouds, removing or silencing his ministers, sensible Christians have ever been deeply affected with it, and reckoned it a most tremendous judgment. Thus the Christians of Antioch, when Chrysostom their minister was banished, they judged it better to lose the sun out of the firmament, than to lose their minister. And when Nazianzen was taking his leave of Constantinople, as he was preaching his farewell sermon, the people were exceedingly affected with his loss; and among the rest an old man in the congregation fell into a bitter passion and cried out, Aude, pater, et tecum trinitatem ipsam ejice; (i. e.) Go, father, if you dare, and take away the whole Trinity with you; meaning, that God would not stay when he was gone. How did the Christians of Ephesus also weep and lament, when Paul was taking his farewell of them? Acts xx. 37, 38. He had been a cloud of blessings to that place, but now they must expect no more showers from him. Oh! they knew not how to give up such a minister!-When the ark of God, which was the symbol of the divine presence among the Jews, was taken, "all the city cried out." 1 Sam. iv. 13. Oh! the loss of a gospel ministry is an inestimable loss, not to be repaired but by its own return, or by heaven! Mr. Greenham tells us, that in the times of popish persecution, when godly ministers were drawn away from their flocks to martyrdom, the poor Christians would meet them in the way to the prisons, or stake, *It is better for us to want the light of the sun, than the teaching of Chrysostom, with their little ones in their arms, and throwing themselves at their feet, would thus bespeak them: "What shall be our estate now you are gone to martyrdom? Who shall instruct these poor babes? Who shall ease our afflicted consciences? Who shall lead us in the way of life? Recompence unto them, O Lord, as they have deserved, who are the causes of this: Lord, give them sad hearts." Quis talia fando temperet a lachrymis? And to let you see there is sufficient ground for this sorrow, when God restrains the influences of the gospel, solemnly consider the following particulars : 1. That it is a dreadful token of God's great anger against that people from whom he removes the gospel. The anger of God was fearfully incensed against the church of Ephesus, when he did but threaten to come against her, and remove the candlestick out of its place. Rev. ii. 5. It is a stroke at the soul, a blow at the root; usually the last, and therefore the worst of judgments. There is a pedigree of judgments; first, Gomer bears Jezreel; next Lo-ruhama, and at last brings forth Loammi. Hosea i. 4, 6, 8, 9. 2. There is cause of mourning, if you consider the deplorable estate in which all the unregenerate souls are left after the gospel is removed from them. What will become of these? or by whom will they be gathered? It made the bowels of Christ yearn within him, when he looked upon the scattered multitude that had no shepherd. Matt. ix. 36. What an easy conquest doth the devil now make of them? How fast doth hell fill in such times? Poor souls being driven thither in droves, and none to rescue them! Matthew Paris tells us, that in the year 1073, when preaching was suppressed at Rome, letters were then framed as coming from hell; wherein the devil gave them thanks for the multitude of souls they had sent to him that year. But truly we need not talk of letters from hell, we are told from heaven how deplorable is the condition of such poor souls. See Prov. xxviii. 19. Hos. iv. 6. Or, 3. The judgment will yet appear very heavy, if you consider the loss which God's own people sustain by the removal of the gospel; for therein they lose (1.) their chief glory. Rom. iii. 2. The principal thing in which the peculiar glory of Israel consisted was this, "That unto them were committed the oracles of God." On that account it was called "the glorious land." Dan. xi. 16. This made them greater than all the nations round about them. Deut. iv. 7. 8. (2.) By losing the ordinances they lose their quickenings, comforts and soul refreshments; for all these are sweet streams from the gospel fountain. Psalm cxix. 50. Col. iv. 8. No wonder then to hear the people of God complain of dead hearts when the gospel is removed. (3.) In the loss of the gospel they lose their defence and safety. This is their hedge, their wall of protection. Isa. v. 5. Walls and hedges, saith Musculus in loc. are the ordinances of God, which served both ad separationem et munitionem, to distinguish and to defend them. When God plucks up this hedge, and breaks down this wall, all mischiefs break in upon us presently. 2 Chron. xv. 3, 4, 5, 6. "Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries, and nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city; for God did vex them with all adversity." How long did Jerusalem remain after that voice was |