192 FIFTH SERMON tempering the heat of those hotter countries, and so causing the face of things to flourish with beauty and delight. So God promiseth to be unto his people in their troubles, " as a cloud of dew in the heat of liar - vest," Isa. xviii. 4. The spiritual joy and heavenly comfort which the peace and grace of God ministers to the consciences of believers, Rom. xv. 13. v. 1. Phil. iv. 4. 1 Pet. i. 8. is said to make the bones flourish like a herb, Ìsa. lxvi. 14. as on the other side a broken spirit is said to dry up the bones, Prov. xvii. 22. " Their soul," saith the prophet, " shall be as a watered garden, they shall sorrow no more ; I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them," Jer. xxxi. 12, 13. By all which we should learn, to be sensible of our own personal and spiritual dryness, barrenness, emp- tiness of fruit and peace, hard hearts, with red con- sciences, guilty spirits, under our own particular sins; so in regard of the whole land to take notice of that tempest of wrath, which like an east wind out of the wilderness, " drieth up our springs, and spoileth our treasures," as the prophet complains, Hos. xiii. 15, 16. and to be humbled into penitent resolutions, as the church here is. If God who was wont to be as dew to our nation, who made it heretofore like a paradise, and a watered garden, be now as.a tempest, as a con- suming fire unto it, turning things upside down, burn- ing the inhabitants of the earth, causing " our land to mourn, and our joy to wither," as the prophet speaks, Joel i. 12. this is an evident sign that the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof," Isa. xxiv. 4, 5. Therefore as our sins have turned our dew into blood, so our repentance must turn our blood into dew again. If ever we look to have a happy peace, we must make it with God. Men can give peace only to our bodies,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=