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concupiscence, and Satan's rage, all rise up toge ther; for as a fountain casteth out her waters, so the heart casteth out its wickedness, Jer. vi. 7; or, as Isaiah saith, "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." So that the So that the poor sinner has a torrent from above, and a great deep broken up beneath: and between these two he is at his wit's end. But this teaching shows him and assures him how matters will go with the wicked in the great day; for as sure as Abraham, by offering up his son, saw Christ's day, so sure does a sinner, thus taught of God, see the day of judgment.

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted!" I cannot help thinking but this word, tossed, alludes to the ark of Noah, which went upon the face of the waters, for that must meet with a good deal of tossing upon a sea without a shore; and all vessels are much tossed upon the waves and swells of the sea, especially when the waters are agitated with a violent storm and tempest, such as God compares the church's troubles to in my text.

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted!" afflicted both in body and soul, tossed in a tempest, and destitute of all consolation. And so the mind of a poor sinner is tossed from one thing to another; first upon a broken law, which works death and wrath; then into his own heart, where he sees nothing but enmity, impenitency, and rebellion; then to his past.

life, to his own evil way, which was not good, and there he meets with a thousand crimes; then he looks forward to the day of judgment, and nothing is to be seen there but an inexorable judge to consume the adversaries. If he looks to the earth, trouble and anguish, and if to the heavens they appear as iron; if he looks to his own performances, there is sin in them all; and if to the encouraging promises, the accounts of impostors and apostates meet him there; if he looks to the saints, their safe and happy state provokes him; and if he looks to his sinful companions, they shun and ridicule him; so that the vileness of his nature within, and the sight of his past follies without; the accusations of conscience, and the darts of Satan; keep him full of tossings to and fro, both by day and by night, Job vii. 4. Besides this, he is tossed from one human invention to another. He tries alms, forms of prayer, vows, and resolutions; and goes for counsel to all the divines and religious characters that he knows: and some cry one thing, and some another; lo here, and lo there; and he tries all their advice, and, like the woman with her issue, gets worse instead of better; for there are but a few interpreters who understand this hand-writing; nor are landsmen of much use in this storm. Nevertheless, all this helps forward this work, though it appears to us only to help forward our calamity; for it makes us sick of an arm of flesh, and it teaches us to know the unskilfulness of such physicians; and

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this makes the Saviour the more precious when he appears; and, being a friend in need, he is much prized; and he that does the whole work shall receive the whole glory. "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted!" No comforters among men, no comfort from the promises, no comfort from the Spirit, no comfort of hope, no comfort of love, no comfort in the world, no comfort in life, no comfort in thyself, no omfort from God.

"Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours." I will turn thee from a vessel on the waves into a building of mercy. "I have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation;" and upon that rock shalt thou be built, and neither sin nor death shall ever prevail against either thee or that. And in doing this, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place," Isaiah xxviii. 17. "Judgment also will I lay to the line;" I will exact full satisfaction of thy Surety for every breach of the line of precept: and righteousness will I lay to the plummet; I will exact a perfect obedience in uprightness; so that Zion shall be redeemed with judgment executed on her Surety, and her converts with righteousness perfected by her covenant Head. And you that lie unpolished in the quarry of fallen nature shall come to this foundation that I have laid in Zion, and as lively

stones I will build you up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. "Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded." "I will lay thy stones with fair colours," and make thee and thy daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace, Psalm cxliv. 12. God laid the foundation, and God takes from the quarry of the impenitent race of mankind whom he will, and brings them to Christ, when he hath polished them for his purpose, and lays them upon the foundation, making them one in him, and one among themselves, and builds them up a spiritual house, a palace for the King of kings and Lord of lords; hence called a temple, an habitation of God through the Spirit. "I will lay thy stones with fair colours;" it shall be a building of every precious stone that adorns the diadem of princes; as it is written, "The Lord of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land." Here we see the materials of this building, and what sort of stones they are; not Portland, nor marble, but the stones that adorn a crown of

state, or jewels; as it is written, "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. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him,” Mal. iii. 16, 17. Here at 3 the stones of which the church is composed; anl God will lay them with fair colours, that they may answer to the foundation, which is of sapphires. Now there are various colours in these precious stones; and we see that the breastplate of the high priest, and the materials of the foun, dation of the New Jerusalem, the Lamb's wife, were mostly the same sort of stones. "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours."

Now these precious stones require a deal of cutting and polishing before the beauty and lustre of them appear, which is the principal cause of their being so violently tossed in the above tempest. And as the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem were the same as were set in the breastplate of judgment, and in which stones were all the names of the twelve tribes engraved, this serves to show us that the twelve brilliant stones, at the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem, should send their lustre, and shine with all their glory, throughout that mysterious fabric called the bride,

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