them, like the roaring of the sea and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof." Isa. v. 30. Which way soever they look, upwards or downwards, on this side or that, there shall be trouble and distress encompassing all of them as men in a fog. There shall be universally trouble on earth and anger from heaven and no appearance of ease or relief to such a people, Jer. xlv. 5. "Behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord; and xii. 12. "The sword of the Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land; no flesh shall have peace."

2. Intensivè, intensively. Their miseries and sorrows will be like to grow more intense and sharp, pinching and distressing, to have more and more of divine anger in them, and so be more hard to be borne, and fill those under them with anguish and vexation. "And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves." Isa. viii. 21. Their necessities and distresses shall be such as shall make them grow extremely impatient and exceedingly disquieted. "Behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish and they shall be driven to darkness." Ver. 22. Many words of the same notion are heaped up to express the great extremity of their distresses. Eng. Annot. The Lord will make more and more wrath appear in his judgments upon such a people, make his arrows in their hearts sharp, cutting and piercing. "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies." Ps. xlv. 5. He will put bitterness in their cup, fill their souls with bitterness, make their affliction and so their condition bitter. "The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter." 2 Kings, xiv. 26. “He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood." Lam. iii. 15. Expressions denoting the sharpness and extremity of their affliction. When God is set in a way of judgment against a people, he will make the end and issue of that dispensation a bitter day. "And I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day." Amos viii. 10.

Thus the sorrow and misery of a people set under judgment will be like to grow more general, and more and more bitter and pinching. And that,

"And I

1. Because God is set against them as an enemy. will set my face against them, they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them." Ezek. xv. 7. It is impossible but that they should sink more and more, whom God in his anger hath set himself against. "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with

to us.

thee? I the Lord have spoken it and will do it." Ezek. xxii. 14. God's being against us is enough to make every thing to be hurtful There is no standing before him when he is angry, nor can any creature give us relief. "Thou, even thou, art to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry ?" Ps. lxxvi. 7. "At his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." Jer. x. 10. "When he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only." Job xxxiv. 29. If God give charge to the contrary, no creature can afford us any relief.

2. Because there are not waters of true repentance brought to quench God's anger, or, there is not a turning and returning unto God. God's anger against such a people, as he hath set himself against in judgment, it is as a burning flame, and it will as the flame of fire rise and grow higher and fiercer, unless prevented, quenched and removed by unfeigned repentance and reformation: Which though not efficiently causal, yet qualifies the subject for the receiving of the mercy which God for his own sake will bestow through Christ. "For behold the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire." Isa. lxvi. 15. "Therefore as the fire devoured the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff: So, &c. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Isa. v. 24, 25. The reason of this continuance of God's anger is directly given, (Isa. ix. 12, 13.) where the same words are repeated; "For all this his anger is not turned away," &c. and the reason plainly given; "For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts." So long as there is not repentance and reformation in a people, there is no likelihood that God's wrath should be pacified by judgments formerly inflicted: but rather that there will be a procedure to further, greater and sorer judgments: For when the sovereign God hath once taken a people thus into his hand, it is likely in reason that he will have' his will of them or bring them very low, mend or mar them, bow or break them, Lev. xxvi. 23. "And if ye will not be reformed by these things;" and ver. 27, 28, "And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury."

3. Because where there is not repentance and reformation under affliction there will be an increase of provocation. The Lord's expectation is frustrated, and thereby will he be provoked: Besides

such who thus frustrate God's expectation, they will grow more hardened in sin and security by affliction, if not more bold to sin. "I said, surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction: so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings." Zeph. iii. 7. And this will be like to continue and increase their affliction. "And now (postquam moniti fuerint et castigati, Rivet. after they have been warned and chastened) they sin more and more. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as a smoke out of the chimney." Hos. xiii. 2, 3. By which four similitudes, the greatness and certainty of their calamity is denoted, and that flourishing prosperity which they hoped for should come to nothing.

Prop. III. The miseries of such a people will be like to proceed till there be a pouring out of the Spirit from on high upon them to their sound conversion. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, &c. Text, ver. 15. If God hath once so far taken a people in hand as to set them under a dispensation of judgment, there is no grounded hope of their deliverance and release in mercy, till God do in a gracious manner pour out his Spirit upon them, or wonderfully work a saving change in them and among them by the effectual operation of his Holy Spirit: Till abundance of grace be given forth for the procuring and effecting of their sound conversion.

The Spirit is given or poured out for that end that there may be conversion. And that either,

1. The conversion of sinners, which is expressed in the text by, the wilderness becoming a fruitful field. "Sinners shall be converted unto thee." Ps. li. 13. The Lord sends down his Spirit for this end to convince, awaken, convert, regenerate and sanctify sinners, (Joh. xvi. 8, 11.) to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God: This is the work of the ministry, (Act. xxvi. 18.) which works effectually only through the power, presence and assistance of the Spirit accompanying the same. It is the work of the Spirit efficiently to deliver sinners out of the power of darkness, and translate them into the kingdom of the dear Son of God to make them of unholy, profane, proud and vain; serious, humble, holy, pious and conformed to the image and will of God: to love those things [of God] which they have not loved nor regarded; and to hate and abandon those things [of sin, world and vanity] which they have loved and set their hearts upon. "And such were some of you but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. Or,

2. The conversion of saints and Christians. Which is expressed in the text according to the interpretation given, by "the fruitful field being counted for a forest." Peter was converted before Satan sifted him and made him deny his Master, for saith Christ; "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not :" But he must be converted again, and therefore Christ says to him; "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Luke xxii. 32. Though the relative change of state in believers is but once wrought, it is wrought at once and continues forever, and the real change in their persons by sanctification is perfect in its parts, yet this latter admits of degrees: It is so wrought in the believer as that it needs constant carrying on in this life and it may so decay as to need to be done over again, and so the Christian to pass under the work of conversion again, a second time. Hence David prays when he had as it were lost the work or effect of former conversion, that God would create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him.' Ps. li. 10. Apprehending himself deprived in a manner of that holy disposition and power of godliness, which God had formerly wrought in him, as before he begged for pardon, so here for the sanctification of God's Spirit. The word renew, I conceive hath reference to his former piety, which he found greatly decayed in him, wherewith he desires to be established again.' Jackson in loc. Now this is the work of the Spirit, to renew the work of conversion, and carry on the work of grace in believers. He is given for this end, for the furthering the work of grace and holiness in believers in renewed and more strong acts of repentance, faith and obedience; to make them more free from sin and pollution, more and more conformable to the will of God in all things, more abundantly fruitful in every good work; to enlarge them in duty; and to make their faces and conversations to shine, that they shall in good earnest be engaged for God, his service and glory.

Hence when the Spirit is poured out upon a people, all, or the generality of them, or at least very many among them, will be either inquiring for, or walking in the way to Zion with their faces thitherward. "In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." Jer. 1. 4, 5. Which last expression may intimate their sincere intention and fixed resolution to go on in the way they inquired after. 'To set one's face, is to fix the affections and actions without declining to any other way.' Wilson's Christ. Diction. Such a people will be bound for God, having received the Spirit of God every one will go bound in the Spirit to the performance of his duty and the glorifying and honoring of God.

They shall be signally carried out in seeking God's face and doing of his will. There would appear a right and full bent of Spirit for God in persons, doing all sincerely in the name and in an evangelical manner exactly according to the will of the Lord Jesus, heartily giving thanks to God and the Father by him, (Col. iii. 17.) The Spirit of God and of holiness will breathe and be manifest in them: There will be a godly sorrow and mourning for sin in all. "But they that escape of them shall escape and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity." Ezek. vii. 16. A hearty grief that they have displeased, dishonored and provoked God by their sin; and a sincere and earnest care and endeavor to repair the honor and glory of God's name by future holy obedience; these are the immediate effects and fruits of the pouring out of the Spirit.

And till the Spirit be thus poured out and these gracious effects of it in some good measure obtained to the conversion and sanctification of a people under judgment, their misery and sorrow will be like to proceed and continue. And that,

1. Because the profaneness, unbelief and impenitency of sinners, and the unholiness and unfruitfulness of Christians are the causes of these sorrows and miseries. And as till the causes be removed there is no probability that the effect should cease. "Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you." Josh. vii. 12. So in order to the removal of these from a people, the pouring out of the Spirit from on high upon them to their sound conversion and sanctification is the grand expedient. And therefore till this be, they will remain a generation of God's wrath: His anger will not be like to be turned away from them till this work be wrought in and for them.

2. Because till the Spirit be in some measure poured out upon them they will not be fit for mercy. They will not duly acknowledge nor improve it, but profane and abuse it. Till by the gracious work of God's Spirit in them they be brought to a compliance with his will, they will not be in a posture to receive mercy They will not carry it aright under mercy. "Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake. But, they soon forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel. They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great things." Ps. cvi. 8, 13, 21. And therefore there is little probability that God will bestow salvation upon such a people.

3. Till then they will be provoking God. Though the Lord be striking them they will certainly be adding new provocations. "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction, they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to