The earth mourneth [and] languisheth
All Christendom, being now under the power, dominion, and tyranny
of antichrist, and the church's faithful witnesses slain, and a
stop put to all Gospel ministrations; and therefore the church
must be in a very languishing condition, and great reason for
mourning: Lebanon is ashamed, [and] hewn down;
being stripped of its stately cedars; as now the church of
Christ, comparable to that goodly mountain Lebanon, will be
deprived of its able ministers, which were like tall and
spreading Cedars, for their gifts, grace, strength, and
usefulness: Sharon is like a wilderness;
such parts, as Great Britain, which have been most fruitful (as
Sharon was a very fruitful place) for the Gospel, and Gospel
ordinances, in the purity of them, and for professors of
religion, being fruitful in grace, and in good works, shall now
be like a desert; there being no ministry, no ordinances, nor
any, that dare to make an open profession of the true religion:
and Bashan and Carmel shake off [their fruits];
before they are ripe, or come to anything; places noted for being
fruitful, and pastures for flocks; and denote, as before, such
spots in Christendom where the Gospel has most flourished, but
now should be like barren heaths, and desert places.