Chap.-;o. An ixpofition upon the Book! of J o a. Verf. 3;1 It is raid ofthewiddow (a Tim. 5. 54 She is defolate, that is, in a defolate Condition ; though a widdow fhould have many friendsand Children about her, yet fhe is defolate becaufe fhe wants That Company which wasoaoft fumble to her, her huf. band. And fo Thole places aredefolate which want their fpeci_ all Company, though they are tilled and crowded with other Company. Thus Chrift tell, the Jews(Mat.23.38.) Beholdyour houfe is left unto you defolate ; Becaufe God (who is the filling of the houfe)was departing thence. Whenneither the gracious pre- fence, nor the Spirit of God would flay there, the houfe was defolate. The greateft throngs and Congregations are defolate places, unleffe God by his Spirit be with them in their admini- ttrations. Churches are defolate, when God is not in them; A wilderneffe is defolate, becaufe men are not in it; Thewilder - neffe is a defolate place in the largeft fence , having none but beafts in it, who are unfit for the focietyof men. In farmer time defolate and wall. The word waft, is of the fame root with the word defolate; and yet it feemes to Intimate fomewhat more: a wilderneffe may be called waft, not only as having little in it, but as having all taken from it. And fo theScripttare fpeakingof thr Judgement of God upon a Nation, faith, The land ps before them as tke garden ofEden, andbehinde them a defolate wilderneffe, yea and nothing Jhalt efcape them ( Joel 2. 3.) The tnoft pleafant Land becomes a wilderneffe whenall is layd waft how waft then is a wilderneffe when 'cis fpoyled and layd waft. In oppofLion to which, we read of that gracious promife (Ezek. 36, 34, 35. ) And the defolate LandJball be tilled, whereas it lay defolate in the fight ofaX that paf ed by, and they ¡hall fay this Land that was defolate is become like the gardenof Eden. The wilderneffe which . is waft by nature, is fometimes madewaft by providence; Inch a wilderneffe might that be, here intended by fob, bothwaft, and wafted. Hence note ; Sin drives then into a wildernele. Sin
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