MOUNT PISGAH. A SERMON, Preached at the PUBLIC THANKSGIVING, Feb. 14th, 1688-9, for ENGLAND's Deliverance from Popery, &c. Upon DEUT. iii. 24, 25. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. To the Right Honourable GEORGE Earl of Southerland, Lord Strathnaver, Heritable Lord of Regality, and Sheriff in the Shire of Southerland. MY LORD, IT T was a sweet refreshment to me in the days of our late exile, to be providentially caft into your Lordships company and acquaintance. I favoured in yourfelf and your moft accomplished Lady, thofe things which are rarely found in perfons of your eminent station and quality in the world. I have neither forgotten your tender fympathy with poor diftreffed Sion, nor my weak endeavours to prop up your faith, with refpect to a more cheerful afpect of providence upon the churches. And now, my lord, we that mourned for, and fuffered with Sion, are this day called to rejoice with her. Yea, you are called to rejoice with a joy above the cominon joy, inafmuch as your Lordship is not only a partaker of the common mercy with others, but God hath honoured you in accompanying and aflifting the glorious inftrument of our deliverance. My lord, it is a greater honour to be serviceable to the interest of Chrift, than to defcend from the blood of nobles It is the honour of angels that they are miniftering Spirits for the church's good. What my apprehenfions of, and expectations from this providence are, your lordthip will meafure from the following dif courfe. Let England rejoice to behold a Proteftant king upon her throne; a king that gives more honour to the throne than it is capable to reflect on him that fits thereon. His foundness in Proteftant prin ciples, his prudence and equity in government, his zeal for the intereft of Chrift at the loweft ebb, fpeak him fuch a bleffing to this nation as for ages paft it hath not enjoyed: And now, my Lord, we may expect, if ever, to find that glorious description of a juft and holy king anfwered in him, that "he fhall be to us as the light of the morning, when the fun arifeth, even a morning without clouds," 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. My Lord, having in my place performed the duty of thanksgiving to God, enjoined by public authority with the fame alacrity that Mofes's mother obeyed the command of Pharaoh's daughter to nurfe her own child; I am bold (notwithstanding the imperfections that attend it) to offer it in all humility to your Lordship's hands; being confident the design of it will be agreeable to your Spirit, though there be nothing of external ornament to commend it to your fancy. So, heartily congratulating your Lordship's fafe and happy return, with your pious and ingenuous Lady, in the memorable year of England's deliverance from the Romish yoke, I beg your honour's pardon for this prefumption, and remain Your Honour's most obliged Servant to command, J. FLAVEL. MOUNT PISGAH. DEUT. iii. 24, 25. O Lord God, thou haft begun to fhew thy fervant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand; for what God is there in heaven, or in earth that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee let me go over and fee the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. IT 1 T is the obfervation of a learned * man, that the revolution of a hundred ears hath produced (efpecially in thefe latter times) new motions and alterations in the church, like unto thofe that fell out a hundred years before. So it was in Germany and Bohemia; * Dr Goodwin, in Apoc. p. 189. John Hufs, at the stake, about the year 1417, uttered this remarkable speech, After an hundred years, you Papifts fhall be called to an account. The Bohemians caufed poft centum annos to be stampt upon their coin for the prefervation of fo memorable a prediction; and accordingly in a hundred years, 1517, Luther arofe, and with him the reformation. It hath been fo in England. Our fathers defervedly fet a fignal remembrance upon the year 1588, Annus octogefimus octavus eft annus mirabilis; the year eightyeight is a wonderful year; and it was fo indeed, for then the Lord defeated the formidable enemies of his caufe and people with a mighty hand, and an out-ftretched arm upon the great waters. Then did England fing his praifes, faying, "Who is like unto "to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like unto thee, "glorious in holiness, fearful in praifes, doing wonders?" Exod. XV, 11. A full century is now run out fince that year of wonders, wherein we have reaped the precious and ineftimable fruits of that year's mercy. And notwithstanding the great ingratitude of this nation for all the civil and fpiritual mercies it hath enjoyed in confequence of that mercy, whereby God hath been highly provoked to fay to England as he did to Ifrael, Judg. x. 13. I will deliver you no more; yet, behold! another eighty-eight crowned and enriched with mercies, no lefs admirable and glorious than the former; a year for which the children yet unborn fhall praise the Lord. You are called this day to rejoice; I am not only called to rejoice with you in the public mercies of this day, but alfo to direct you to the best way of improving the mercies you rejoice in, that they may prove introductive to greater mercies than themselves. To that end I chofe this fcripture, which contains both parts of the work and duty of the day. The text contains the fum of Mofes' prayer at Edrei, after the fignal victory God there gave him over the last enemy that forbade his paffage to the confines of Canaan. This Edrei was a town on this fide Jordan, fituate in the fruitful country of Baihan, near unto that famous river by which it was divided from the land of promife, and afterwards fell to the lot of Manaffeh. Hither Moles had led the people, and now it was but one remove more, (their paffage over Jordan) and they fhould finish their wearifome peregrination, and arrive at the defire of their hearts, even reft and fettlement in that good land the Lord had promifed them. And here you may fee how fwift and ftrong the motions of Mofes' spirit in prayer were, now it was come fo nigh the center, almoft in fight of that pleafant land where God intended to settle his worship, and record his name. "O Lord, "thou haft begun to fhew thy fervant thy greatness," &c. I pray "thee let me go over, and fee the good land that is beyond Jor"dan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." Wherein note, 1. The mercy prayed for. 2. The argument pleaded to obtain it. 1. The mercy Mofes prays for, that he might go over and fee the good land, &c. The good land was Canaan, called the glory of all lands, Ezek. xx. 6. It was a glorious land in refpect of its natural fertility and amenity; but much more glorious in refpect of the prefence of God in his ordinances. And therefore above all the picafant fights of Canaan, he defires to see that goodly mountain, that is, Mount Moriah, on which Abraham offered up his only fon Ifaac, and whereon, by the spirit of prophecy, Mofes forefaw the glorious temple was to be built, whither the tribes fhould go up to worship, even the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Ifrael. There were to be the fymbols of his prefence, and the houfe of prayer for all people. There the ark was to rest, and all the promises made to Abraham and his feed to be fulfilled. This inflames the defires of Mofes (now upon the very borders) to have a fight of that goodly mountain, and Lebanon, that famous forest fo renowned in fcripture, of whofe ftately cedars the glorious temple was to be built, 1 Kings v. 5, 9. This defire of Mofes was not from any fuperftitious opinion he had of the holiness of the place, in refpect of the patriarchs whose bones were laid in that land, (as fome Popish gloffes would have it) but he earnestly defired to fee the accomplishment of the promifes, now fo nigh the birth, by the actual poffeffion of that good land. This was the mercy he prayed for. Objection. But how could Mofes defire to go over Jordan into this good land, when God had before fo exprefsly told him he fhould not? Numb. xx. 12. " And the Lord fpake unto Mofes "and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to fanctify me in the "eyes of the children of Ifrael, therefore ye fhall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." Did this holy man fuffer his defires to transport him beyond his duty, to go further than God would have him? Sol. No, he did not; not being fure the threatening was abfolute, but might be fuch a one as was made of Hezekiah's death, 2 Kings xx. 1. or of Nineveh's deftruction, Jonah iii. 4. there was room for prayer. You fee the mercy Mofes prayed for. 2. Let us next confider the argument by him pleaded for the obtaining of his fuit, and that is taken from the whole feries of former mercies, which were all introductive to this remaining and completing mercy, the planting of them in the land of promife. O Lord God, thou haft begun to fhew thy fervant thy great " nefs, and thy mighty hand," &c. Where note, 1. His moft thankful acknowledgement and magnifying of past and prefent mercies. His eyes were not fo dazzled with the fplendor of mercy to come, and in a near expectation, as to overlook the former or prefent mercies as small and inconfiderable. No, he lifts sup the name of God in his praifes for them, and tells him, he had begun to fhew him his greatnefs in them. They are great in Mofes' eye, and he expreffes a fuitable fenfe of them. He well knew the way to engage further mercies, is thankfully to acknowledge and magnify past and present ones. But, 2. He refts not there, but improves thefe beginnings of mercies, and pleads them in his argumentative prayer for the confummating and perfecting mercies yet to come; q. d. Lord, thy works are perfect, thou dost not use to begin and not finish as men do; to bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth: the gods of the heathen are a lie and vanity, but thou art the true God, and thy promises are truth itself. Now, Lord, in purfuance of thy pro-mises to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, thou hast begun to fulfil the mercy promised; Ifrael is brought with figns and wonders, and a mighty hand out of Egypt, and upon the very borders of the land? Lord, complete the work now, in giving them the poffeffion of it; and for me, Lord, I pray thee (if it be thy will) let me enter with them; and as I have had my part in the troubles of Egypt, ftraits and trials thefe forty years in the defart, let me take my part alfo in the joy, reft, and comfort of that bleffed land to which I am now come fo nigh. This feems to be the fenfe and meaning of Mofes' prayer. Divers excellent points of doctrine naturally offer themfelves from the text, as, Doct. 1. That the rest and profperity of the church is a very defirable mercy in the eyes of the faints. If any thing will make a Christian desirous to abide on earth, next to the finishing of the work of grace on him, and the work of obedience by him, this is the thing: Pfal. cvi. 4, 5 "Remem"ber me, O Lord, with the favour that thou beareft unto thy "people: O vifit me with thy falvation: that I may fee the good "of thy chofen, that I may rejoice in the gladnefs of thy nation: "that I may glory with thine inheritance." Doct. 2. How defirable foever it be to fee the church's glory and profperity on earth, yet the greatest and best of faints may be denied it. Mofes, the faint of God, the favourite of heaven, earnestly de, |