submit to the government of the Shepherd That as Justinian the Emperour saith there may be a sweet harmonie between Prince and people that no string may be too high or too low that is the best musique in the eares of God If Pharaoh desire for his people how should they beg of God in the behalfe of their Soverain Paul when he wisheth that Prayers should be made for all men in the first place he puts Kings And it was the practise of holy people of God in former time Cyprian when they were charged with some rebellion We are far from that we wish well to the King saith he And his Master before him for so he calls Tertullian he professeth concerning the Christians that they begged of God in the behalfe of the Emperour they desired long life a secure regiment and reigne a safe house worthy Counsellors strong and valiant Souldiers c. Let not this be forgotten by us we are too defective in this many of us pray in private for our selves but when doe we remember our Governours O the light of our eyes and the breath of ournostrills is deprived of our prayers If it be a sin to forget a naturall father certainly it is no lesse to forget our politicall father The next thing to be observed which is the second generall is the promise that he makes I will let the people goe I will but touch one thing and so conclude you see here that now he cannot get from under the judgement what evapourates from him he will let the people goe that they may sacrifice If god reserve us God willing we shall observe that he did flie off from this But in the meane time somewhat he saith and promiseth and It is no strange thing that the worst of men have good motions sometimes This Pharaoh saith another time I have sinned And the sorcerers say after It is the finger of God And Balaam saith Let me die the death of the righteous Num. 23. And Saul may say he hath sinned and Ahab may humble himselfe and Felix may sometimes tremble and Agrippa will cry out he is almost made a Christian by Paul And it was never known of the most desperate adulterers the most bloudy men or oppressors or excessive persons but some time or other they did thinke ill of their own courses and did think that another way was better and it may be have had motions and resolutions tending to reformation The ground is the light that God puts into the consciences and the power that he hath indued it with that will sometimes put a man in minde of his abberations from the right way that this is not the course hee should take Again there is a generall illumination in the world that enlightens every man by this they come to have some notions But as Bernard saith in another case they come in frequently and passe away as speedily They are like the morning dew or the morning cloud soon dissipated not so good as Ephraims cake that was halfe baked they are soon gone as Tertullian saith of the flower it is a thing to look on and breath on and smell to and it is gone So it is with these motions of the wicked they passe away as smoke Therefore for the use of it Let us not be confident of the motions and flashes of the wicked unlesse they persist and continue in them there is little hope Nay let us not please our selves for motions that are like flashings of lightning in the soule they are not worth the talking of When motions come that are good cherish them keep them on foot that they may be actuated and perfected Thus God would have us to doe it is a sparke of the divine fire therefore the Lord would have it blown till it come to a flame If at any time we finde it dying as like enough the dear Saints of God may doe we must stir it up and excite the grace of God by the use of the Ordinances of God as the Apostle speaks And likewife by reflecting upon our many omissions and neglects and it may be suppression of motions by the consâ—â—â—â—â—tion of the fearfull account we must give one day for these neglects stir it up and keep it fresh and by the blessing of God there may come great matters That that is now a sparke may be a flame that that is like a cloud no bigger then a hand it may after mask the whole heavens That that is now as a grain of mustard seed it may be a great tree wherein the fowles of the air may make their nests Of all take heed of quenching and suppressing this Spirit of puting it out and that is done by wilfull grosse sins When God gives good motions if men would cherish them and keep them alive there might be much good in them but when they run into foul sins that waste conscience the graces of God die and all good motions are as far to seek as if they never had been This will add to a mans judgment when God shall put these things in his heart and he by untimely frosts nipps them in the bud whereas if he would cherish them they would come to great perfection and improvement THE EIGHTH SERMON Vpon EXOD. CHAP. 8. VERS 8.9 And I will let the people goe that they may doe sacrifice unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh Glory over me when shall I intreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people c. THere is one thing that remaines of the eighth Verse remaining that I will speedily dispatch and so go on Pharaoh saith here I will let them goe that they may sacrifice to the Lord. Ubi potentiae Ubi superbiae saith one upon my Text. How now Pharaoh what is become of thy power what is become of thy pride not long since thou wast in thy ruffe and said Who is the Lord that I should seare him or let Israel goe Thou wert so farre from dismissing them that thou eldst more intensively hate them and multiply their sorrowes Thou didst contemne Moses and Aaron that came with a Commission from God and now behold thou art under a judgement and knowest not how to extricate thy selfe from this perplexitie now thou wilt let the people goe now thou acknowledgest God now thou suest to Moses and Aaron now thou art glad to dismisse the people Even thus it was and in that it was thus my observation must bee concerning The necessitie of afflictions All faire meanes would do no good with this man God was faine to take the rod in his hand and then wee see the issue so great is the necessitie of afflictions And it drives at divers things First afflictions make a man see his sinnes as wee see in the brethren of Joseph Gen. 41.21 In their trouble in Egypt they reflect upon their unnaturalnesse to their brother they confesse that the cause of this trouble and distresse was because they did not hearken to
his power to mischiefe to plague Gods people so as he provoked God to plague all Egypt And my observation shall be this Multitudes are punished oft-times for one mans sinne The borders of Egypt all of them all the places and inhabitants were plagued for Pharaohs offence Examples in Scripture are frequent to prove this Abimelech was the faulter the party that faulted and behold all the wombes in Abimelechs family were shut up Gen. 20. So in Ios 7. Ay was besieged and some were to goe up against it but some of the men come out of Ay and slay 36 of the Isralites It troubled Ioshua and the Elders and they fall downe before the Lord and he satisfies them presently There is an accursed thing among you seeke it out or else you shall not prevaile So there was one Athan that had stollen a Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold Saith Salvianus One mans sinne was many mens misery Saul was the man that sinned against the poore Gibionites you see how all Israel was plagued with three yeares famine 2 Sam. 21. So we finde David whether out of curiosity or vain-glory he would needs number the people yet seventy thousand were slaine by the pestilence 2 Sam. 24. Ionah was the man that faulted and all the ship and the people in the ship were in danger and he himselfe ingeniously confessed that it was for his sake that the storme came and that they should prosper and doe well if they were disburthened of him Therefore the heathen could say the whole City must suffer for one mans ill And another of them observed of the Greeks unius obnoxa furia c. one mans wickednesse is all mens trouble Now will some man say if it may be lawfull to aske the question what justice is there in this that one man should sinne and other folke be punished will not this justifie the cavill of the old Atheists That one man was sicke and another tooke the physicke Doth not God say in Ezekiel The soule that sinneth shall dye and would he not have that cursed proverb suppressed The fathers have eaten soure grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge And doth not St. Paul say Gal. 6 Every man shall beare his owne burthen Why then if Pharaoh sinne let Pharaoh alone be punished why should God smite all the borders of Egypt David said when he saw the Angell forrage the whole Army and the people What have these sheep done 2 Sam. 24. Now for the answer to this there must be one ground necessarily laid in the first place and that is this That however things appeare to us God neither is nor can be unjust as in nothing else so not in punishing God forbid that the judge of all the world should be unjust Gen 18.25 Is God unrighteous Rom. 3.5 when he executes vengeance It is true the wayes of God are far beyond out apprehension beyond the possibility of our attaining we may as well empty the Ocean into a cockle shell The righteousnesse of God is a high mountaine the judgements of God is a great deep Psal 36. The well is deepe and wee have not wherewith to draw Ioh. 4. But this is ever certaine though we doe not alway see the reason there is a reason that we cannot see That God is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works Psal 145.17 That is the ground that I lay in generall More particularly now for the answer some will say That a King and his People make but one person or one body therefore it is free for God since Pharaoh sinned to plague all Egypt since they were his dominion and people it was free for him for a paine in the head to open a veine in the arme As men take liberty when the hand is faulty to put the feet in the stockes But this comes not home sufficiently though it may hold in regard of Pharaoh and his people making one body or in regard of a Master and his family that make but one body or of a Father and his childe because as Aquinas saith The childe is part of the parent But how doth it hold when men are in the same ranke and condition and multitudes of them are punished for one mans sin Therefore to salve it fully know that there is a double impulsive cause of punishment First that that is called pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to perplex you with the nycities of the Schooles thesetwo causes differ thus as the cause and the occasion To put an instance A man that hath fed full a long time comes to have a pletory fulnesse of crude and raw humours in his stomach It falls out that this party riding after in the wet taking cold he begins to shiver and shake and after he falls into a durable lasting Feaver If the Physitian be a wise and understanding man aske him what was the proper cause of this sicknesse and he will tell you the inward ill humours of the body and the abounding of them yet it is like enough that it had not turned to a Feaver so soone if he had not tooke cold of his feet or beene some way troubled in his journey So when God brings punishment upon people the proper cause is in every mans selfe There are personall sins inevery man to make him obnoxious to the curse of God yet may the sinnes of the father or parent or neighbour be the occasion that God will punish sin So that we say the personall sinnes of men are the primary internall antecedent dispositive cause of Gods judgements but the sinnes of other men they may bee the externall irritating exitating cause of Gods judgements for these are the tearmes of the Schoole-men And this helpes to salve that great question Why the children are punished for the fathers sinnes For God in just judgement oft-times gives up the chile to follow the steps of the father There is something in nature for especially those sinnes that are sensuall that symbolize with the predominant humour in the body may prove oft as diseases in the body hereditary Secondly sometimes example that workes much vitius corrumpunt vitia c. examples that are so neare us often corrupt sooner and taint deeper Sometime education may helpe the father may instruct his childe in Idolatry in the rudiments of covetousnesse and the like So many beggars bring up their children to idlenesse and theeving But suppose the childe be free from the fathers iniquity which hee hath committed yet he hath sinnes enow of his owne that may justly cause the wrath of God towards him yet it may be when he shall be punished in such a time in such a measure and manner and other circumstances the sinnes of the father may be the occasion of the childs punishment the remembrance of that may cause God to punish him at that time and with those circumstances Now for the use of this to our selves
it lets us see Beloved if a multitude may be punished for one mans sinne what a mischiefe a wicked man is to the place he lives in For as it is with the childe of God he is a great blessing wheresoever he comes as God said of Abraham Thou shalt be a blessing Gen. 12. So was Lot he was the party that bare the Sodomites all the time that he was among them Gen. 19. So you shall finde that had there beene tenne good persons in all those Cities they had beene spared The innocent man delivers the Island Iob 22.30 and reprieves it from the sentence that is gone out against it Abab hath so much sense that he thinkes he shall be the better by Ieboshaphats accompanying him to the battell And all the people fared the better for St. Pauls going in the ship Act. 27. Saith St. Ambrose Good men are the wall of the Country and St. Chrysostome saith They are the marrow of the Country On the other side a wicked man is a plague and a curse to the place he lives in let him be never so noble never so honourable or potent or wealthy if he bee a prophase man hee labours to hasten Gods judgements on the place he is in We read of one Byas the Philosopher that travelling in a ship in a tempest with a great number of odd fellowes some of them very rakeshames and naught they began in the tempest in that extremity as men will doe to call upon the gods he comes to them and saith unto them with some jest not in earnest saith he Hold your peace lest the Gods take knowledge that you are here and not only you but we suffer for your sakes And the History saith That Iohn the Evangelist when he came into the Bath where Cerinthus was he got out presently his reason was lest the Bath should fall for that mans sake Many a wicked man being challenged for his impiety and not able to excuse or justifie it any way yet he hath thus much to say What need you trouble your selfe about me I hurt none but my selfe Alas God knowes if it were no more it were too much that a man with Saul should fall upon his owne sword Vtinam vel sic c. as St. Austen saith I would to God it were no more but if thou be a wicked man thou hurtest not only thy selfe but more I speake not of thy example so much thou ingagest the place thou livest in to the wrath of God thou pullest it down The City of Abell entertained Sheba 2 Sam. 20. It had like to cost them all their blood for if the head of that Traitor had not beene throwne over the wall the edge of Ioabs sword had fallen upon the whole City And if the people had not separated themselves from the Tents of Corah Dathan and Abiram they had been involved in the same judgement Num. 16. Therefore it behoves the children of God nearly to take heed what company they consort with not only in regard of suspition that they may not be suspected to be such as they converse with but in regard of infection for sinne is as taking as the plague Thirdly in regard of the malediction Therefore in Revel 18. God saith Come out of her my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues There is a humour in some people in the world if the seat be pleasant or extraordinary commodious and profitable they will cast themselves into the place though the inhabitants be as full of sinne as may be It was the humour of Lot he liked the plaine of Iordan well and thought Sodome as the garden of Eden thought he My lot is fallen in a good ground he looked not to the inhabitants but hee rued it after So all those that for pleasure or profit cast themselves among the wicked certainly they shall be scorched with those flames that the wicked are apt to kindle where they dwell The second Use since God takes occasion by one mans sinne to punish many and yet those not without fault It should teach us to acknowledge when God punisheth us that it is just and that we our selves deserve it what ever the occasion be Seneca tells a story of Pison a Roman Generall he commanded a Souldier to be put to death because he returned without his fellow that went out with him to the Campe and said he killed him because hee mist him The Captaine that had order to put the fellow to death espying the man comming that was missing stayed the execution Therefore Pison put all three to death What was his reason Saith hee to the first I have condemned you already I will nor reverse my judgement Saith he to the second man you shall dye because of your going away and exposing your fellow to death And to the Centurion you shall dye because you know not what it is to obey a Generall So saith Seneca he busied his head to finde some cause because there was none But it need not be so with God he need not busie his braine to finde cause to punish any of us that can pretend the greatest innocency for our owne thoughts words and deeds God knowes minister hourely occasion and knowledge Therefore I say whensoever it pleaseth God to lay his hand on us though another may be the occasion yet justifie God in his sayings and cleare him when he is judged All the difference is but this as you see it is with a company of fellons that have committed robberies in several places of the County they are all brought to the same Gaol they are all arraigned at the same bar they all perish at the same tree so God gathers the sins of men it may be upon some occasion and punisheth them all together but they have sins enow of their owne in particular that expose them to wrath therefore let us ever acknowledge that God is just I have heard and read of that saying of Prince Henry in the time of his sicknesse that same delitiae humanae as it is said of Titus whose death was to this Kingdome as so much of the best blood let out of the veines of Israel when it was told him that the sinnes of the people caused that affliction on him O no saith he I have sins enow of mine owne So should we all confesse though God take occasion by another mans sinne and by the neglect of another person to fire my house yet God hath just cause to bring it on me God had cause against the seventy thousand that dyed of the plague though Davids sin were the occasion yet there was a meritorious cause in them So though Pharaoh sinned yet all these Egyptians were not without faust for they hated the Isralites and without doubt were glad of the hard measure of the people of God therefore they justly suffered Though the hardnese of Pharaohs heart were the occasion yet there was cause in
him when he cried in the anguish of his soule You may gather so much from the speech of the widow of Sarepta when her child was dead she comes to Eliah and saith Art thou come to call my sinnes to remembrance and to kill my child Affliction is that that will call a mans sinnes to remembrance And out of all doubt next to the Law of God there is no glasse wherein a mans sinnes are more impartially represented to him then the glasse of afflictions Therefore Elihu saith Job 36.8 When the Lord hath a man in the cords of affliction hee shewes him his sinnes and transressions then he can talke with him and tell him from point to point what he hath done and set his sinnes in order before him Hence it is that the ancients compare afflictions to the smiting of the Flint that fetcheth out a sparke of fire that gives the good man light They compare them to the wood that Elisha cast into the water by which hee raised the head of the hatchet that was sunke Those sinnes that are sunke to the bottome that lie buried in the mud and there is no notice taken of them afflictions will raise them up and discover them They have compared it likewise to the clay and spittle that Christ anointed the eyes of the blind man with that hee restored to sight Joh. 9. This is that that Gregory hath oculis culpa c. that eye that was shut with sinne is opened by punishment and hee hath it from David Afflictions give understanding The trouble that was upon the hoast of God urged them to scrutiny Achan that was the cause of that discomfiture And the tempest that the mariners were in caused them to find out Jonah that was the author of the tempest of whom the ship must be discharged Secondly afflictions as they are necessary to bring us to the sight of sinne so to humiliation for it and the wicked of the world if the hand of God bee on them will confesse their sinnes So you see in Saul so in Achab so in Judas when terrour of soule was on him hee cries out I have sinned in betraying innocent blood The spirit of a man will be tooke downe by afflictions be hee never so great for in the time of prosperitie we are apt to be proud In regard of God In regard of Our brethren In regard of The things in our selves Wee are apt to be proud in regard of God as wee see in Nebuchadnezzar in Psal 10. God is not in a wicked mans thoughts men thinke not of God in prosperitie Nebuchadnezzar thought not of heaven but when the Lords hand was upon him hee saw whom he had provoked and how vaine it was to lift up himself against God Secondly a man in time of prosperitie is apt to bee proud in regard of his brethren David while he was in prosperitie he greatly cared not for that wrong that hee did to his servant faithfull Uriah but when the hand of God was upon him hee was afraid to doe the least harme to his mortall enemy as appears in that instance betweene him and Saul in the Cave And he would not suffer the railing dog Shimei to bee punished when he came barking fearfully 2 Sam. 16.11 affliction upon him mortified his spirit and killed his pride Thirdly when wee are in prosperitie we are proud of those things that are in us people sometimes are proud of beautie sometimes of strength sometimes of apparell sometimes of wealth Now all these things are layd low therefore it is very necessary the woman that was proud of her beautie if the hand of God seize on her by a sharpe acute feaver when her feather is brought to a Kercheife there is no more talke of the pride of her beautie that is taken off So the strong man that bragged of his strength when a feaver hath grappled with him and laid him all along and tooke him off from his feet then hee acknowledgeth the vanitie of this house of clay this body of humiliation as the Apostle calls it Phil. 3.21 So for apparell when Gods hand is upon people they more desire an easie pillow then gay cloths And for wealth it doth but little comfort in a sharp sicknesse a man would give all for one nights rest for one dayes ease Thirdly beloved affliction is necessary to work a man to good resolutions and purposes So Nebuchadnezzar being in affliction and trouble hee will have none acknowledged but the God of heaven So likewise the prodigall sonne being in trouble hee resolves to goe to his father and say Father I have sinned against thee To go no further when the hand of God was upon Pharaoh and his people hee cries out I will let the people goe And I will bee so charitable that for the present hee might speake uprightly For the use of this It should teach us First to justifie God when hee inflicts judgements for how should God make good his justice to the world if he should not punish sometimes if offenders should goe alwayes free How should God make good his power to the world if hee should not shew himselfe able to subdue the contumacious how should hee make good his wisedome to the world if having used many faire invitations and plausible meanes and those contemned hee should not draw out the sword against rebellious ones Solomon makes it a part of wisedome to use severity in the right place Secondly wee should justifie God in inflicting of judgements because they are so necessary for us for wee have proud hearts of our owne and God knows they are not easily subdued before they bee brought downe the flesh must smart to some purpose And this smoake is not onely found dwelling in the wicked but in the habitations of the righteous Looke on Hezekiah after God had added a lease to his life of 15. yeares more the Text saith his heart was lifted up 2 Chron. 32. And this sinne of pride is so naturall to us that when all other sinnes decrease this is improved Nay the Devill will watch us such a turne to continue the sinne of pride that rather then wee shall not bee proud hee will make us proud because wee are humble Therefore the Lord laies his hand on us by spirituall and temporall and corporall visitations that hee may bring us to be humble I beseech you observe that place Jer. 9.7 the Lord saith there that he will melt and trie the people for saith he what else should I doe to the daughter of my people As if he had said I know no better way to cure them then to put them into the melting pot of affliction there I must purge them from their drosse certainly they must have some sharpe medicine for the purging out of the malignant humour Secondly since afflictions are so necessary labour in the feare of God that they may be profitable And then afflictions are profitable when they bring us to a sight of our sinnes
behold this blessed light that shines to us much more unworthy to enjoy these conveniences and opportunities of meeting in thy house to know the way and means to a better life But most worthy of all thy plagues to be powred down upon us both in this life and that which is to come For besides that originall corruption wherein wee were borne and conceived and which like a leprosie hath over spread all the powers faculties both of soul and body we have heaped up a numberles number of actuall transgressions There is not any of thy holy Commandements but in thought word and deed most grievously and frequently we have violated And which advanceth our iniquity and heightens our rebellion these evills have not only escaped us in the times of ignorance but even since it hath pleased thee to inlighten us with the knowledge of thy truth so that notwithstanding thy mercies thy judgements the motions of thy good Spirit the blessed light of thy Gospell afforded to us we have continued the course of our rebellion against thee yea that we may be yet more vile in thy presence even at this time when we come before thee we are clogged with so many imperfections that if thou shouldest be extreame to marke what is done amisse how mightest thou plague us in our bodies in our goods in our good names how mightest thou fill us with the fury of an unpacified conscience and write bitter things against us and a wounded spirit who can beare How mightest thou give us up to a reprobate sence to commit sinne with greedinesse and punish one evill with another and after all this cast us into that place of torment to sucke out the dregs of thy vialls O God in all this thou shouldest be justified and clear when thou are judged and we deservedly punished Our sinnes our sinnes O Lord call to heaven for vengeance the pit is ready to shut her mouth upon us if thou wert not the Lord of mercies But thou hast opened a way for poore distressed sinners to come to thee through thy Son We flye to the horns of the Altar and intreat thee for Jesus Christ sake to be mercifull to us And thou sweet Saviour of the world whose name imports mercy and whose worke brought salvation for the sons of men thou knowest that we are but flesh and remembrest that we are but dust Thou that art a High Priest touched with our infirmities that knowest the power strength of old Adam how it leads us captive to sin and wickednes stand between us the wrath of thy offended Father mediate our cause with thy Father that all our iniquities may be done away by thy sufferings that we may ever finde to our comfort that though we have done ill we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And doe thou dear Father every day more and more assure and perswade our souls that thou art reconciled to us in thy Son by sending his Spirit into our hearts to renue us to that glorious Image of thine from whence wee are fallen and which may enable us to performe every good duty that as heretofore we have given our bodies and soules to be weapons of unrighteousnesse so in every part and power of them we may glorifie thee our God and Saviour and as much time as remains in the flesh worke out our salvation with feare and trembling And be cause thou of thine infinite wisdome hast set apart the Ministery of thy Word for this purpose good Lord blesse it to us at all times and at this time Enable me that am to speake the most unworthy of all the sons of Levi Lord cover all my sins and manifold imperfections in that mercy of thine that hath no measure and be pleased so to assist me by thy more particular helpe that I may deliver thy word boldly truly feelingly and sincerely Circumcise the hearts and eares of this thy people that they may heare attentively treasure it up in their hearts carefully and bring it forth in their lives and conversations conscionably to thy glory and assurance of their owne salvation in the day of Jesus Christ to whom with thee O Father and thy blessed Spirit be ascribed as is most due all honour and glory both now and for evermore Prayer after Sermon VVEE returne unto thy Majesty O Lord our God most humble and hearty thankes for all thy mercies most plentifully bestowed upon us as election creation redemption preservation vocation for the time and means thou hast given us of repentance whereas thou mightest have took us away in the middest of our sins O God what are we or what is our fathers house that thou shouldest bee thus mercifull to us to prevent and to follow us with thy kindnesse we are lesse then the least of thy mercies yet suffer us to take the cup of salvation and to praise thy Name accept of our poor acknowledgement adde one mercy more deare God to the common heap grant that we may expresse our thankfulnesse in a godly care of all holy obedience Blesse that part of thy word that we have heard delivered at this time Good Lord make it effectuall to our souls to salvation grant that it may bring forth fruit in some twenty in some thirty in some sixty in some a hundred fold though in some more and in some lesse yet in all some to the henour of thy Name Blesse with us thy whole Church wheresoever dispersed or howsoever distressed on the face of the earth and prosper O God the cause of the same where ever it is maintained in all the world as may be for the confounding of the Kingdom of Sin and antichrist and for the encouragement of all such as professe thy Gospel in sincerity Blesse us in these Kingdomes continue to us our liberty forgive our crying sinnes turne away thy judgements open our eyes at last to see the day of our visitation Blesse thy servant our Sovereigne Charles by thy Grace King of England Scotland France and Ireland in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill next and immediately under thy Son supreme governour Blesse the Queens most excellent Majesty Prince Charles the Princesse Palatine and her issue The Lords of his Majesties most honourable Privy Councell The whole Nobility Blesse thine owne inheritance the Tribe of Levi by what names or titles soever they be called And for a supply of Davids Towers with Worthies blesse all Schooles of Learning the two Vniversities of this Land Cambridge and Oxford Blesse all Congregations this committed to my charge Remember all that are in affliction in mercy whether outwardly in body or inwardly in minde or for the testimony of a good conscience Lord draw neare to every of them according to their desires Receive us Deare God and all ours and all thine into thy love and favour and protection therest of this day and for ever Let thy holy hand protect us let thy blessed
men as if the Devill were entred into a company of swine we have observed these and other sinnes that provoke Gods wrath And these and the like we have seene impenitently committed and we have spit in the face of these abominations not only seven times but seventy times seven times And now we see no reformation we are bold in the name of our God to denounce judgements and we have told you that plague and famine would come for the sinnes of the land and hath the Lord suffered one jot of the words of his servants to fall I and yet we must tell you that continuing in your iniquities will provoke God to further wrath and we may boldly say If we be deceived God hath deceived us and though heaven and earth perish there is not one word of God shall perish If thou refuse to let them goe Saith Tostatus upon this place The common way of men that are suppliants to others is to intreat a thing but never to seeme to distrust them that they aske of and to question it for though they bee perswaded that they shall be denied yet they will not intimate so much for feare they should be thought to distrust the goodnesse of the giver And indeed if a man finde himselfe distrusted though he had a prompt minde to satisfie the request he is ready to fall backe againe But if a man goe so farre as to manifest his distrust of the performance yet it is not the fashion of suiters to threaten therefore saith my Author See in what manner Moses comes not in his owne name but in the name of God and though he spake to one that was above him yet he saith Let them goe for God will not brooke a refusall Thus we that are Ministers as we call to men for obedience and threaten them for their disobedience and we speake it out of the dominion and authority and power that God hath invested us with we speake it home For the businesse doth not lye between God and his people as between man and man that are reciprocall that may be equall but it is betweene God and his People as between a King and his Subjects where there is a wondrous disproportion Therefore Moses might speake and speak imparatively and with a commination If thou refuse c. But I will not stand upon that If thou refuse to let them goe Hee doth wisely premise this before hee speake of the judgement that Pharaoh and all the world may take knowledge that God never punisheth without a cause If thou refuse to let them goe I will smite thy Country with frogs God forbid that the judge of all the world should deale unjustly saith Abraham Gen. 18. Ezek. 14. ult And saith the Lord When these things are done you shall know that I have done justly that what I have done was not without a cause Never did God punish any man without a cause Was there not cause for our first parents punishment even that we have heard they refused to heare the command of God and to obey it Was there not cause of the punishing of Cain Yes he refused to heare God when he spake to him fairly to prevent a wickednes Was there not cause of punishing the old World Yes they were full of lusts and of cruelty and refused to heare the Preacher of righteousnesse so Noah is called Was there not cause of punishing Gods people and of the destruction of Ierusalem God saith he sent his Prophets early and late and they refused to heare them We have not hearkned to the voice of thy servants the Prophets acknowlodging the sins of the people Dan. 10. And Christ himselfe when he gives the reason of the destruction of Ierusalem He would have gathered them as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wing but they would not Certainly as St. Austen saith Judgement never knew the way into the world without Sin Sin ushered it in therefore God must be justified in all things For the very childe that is new borne that never committed actuall iniquity nay that was prevented in the birth must justifie God if it be sent to hell for in the rigour of Gods justice it is condemned before it be borne Therefore let no man say when he is afflicted as Rebecah said Why am I thus upon the strugling of the twins in her womb reflect on thy self and thou shalt find cause enough of the judgement of God and greater then thou canst conceive It cannot possibly be but thou shalt finde a cause yet this is a certaine rule Gods judgements may be secret but they cannot be unjust I will smite thy land and all thy borders with frogs Much might be said concerning that party smiting that all the world might know that none but he hath done it Much might be said concerning that word I will smite as if he should say It shall not be a signe it shall now be a plague a stroake on thee thou shalt be sensible of it I will not now deale with signes but will come nearer then before but these I passe and come to speake of the judgement I will smite thy land with frogs Though it be true that God hath all creatures to serve him He being the Lord of Hoasts they are at his beck The fire comes downe to burne Sodome The water drownes the Egyptians The earth swallowes Corah Dathan and Abyram The Lion consumes the disobedient Prophet The Beares destroy 42 children that mocked Elisha The Serpents sting the disobedient in the wildernesse Which by the way will be a shame to man at the last day that all creatures are dutifull to God and man only rebels As one said That beasts shall give evidence at the last day against man that they serve him but he doth not serve God to shew that they are dutifull to their maker but man is refractory and a rebell But now though God have all creatures at his beck to command them and that he can send one disease and one judgement as well as another yet here hee sends frogs And why frogs Reverend Calvin gives two reasons why frogs rather then any other judgement First saith he Ignominio causa c. He would shame Pharaoh that proud monster that cried out Who is the Lord that I should obey him The Lord takes downe the pride of him by base contemptible creatures Certainly you must needs thinke that it troubled Pharaoh much and he would say with himselfe when he saw the abundance of frogs that after God willing we shall speak of What! if we had been overcome by power If a for raine Prince had invaded my land and thrust me out it had been some honour but to have my land overrun with frogs that I cannot eat my meat or lye in my bed with comfort for these contemptible creatures what a vexation is it It must needs vex the heart of that proud King God would take him downe in his insolencie by this poore base
in a whirlewind They that know the nature of a whirlewind know that it moves not regularly much lesse upward it runnes round in a tumultuous manner But against the nature of it God makes it carry him up to heaven So the viper that lighted upon Pauls hand against the nature of it it hurt him not What is more naturall for a viper then to bite and sting yet it did not hurt him but he shakes it off free Act. 28. So wicked men what is more naturall then for them to play the beasts with the children of God for those are the beasts that St. Paul fought with yet sometimes God contrary to their corrupt nature makes them doe good offices to Gods children Nay the Devill himselfe that roaring Lion all the world knowes that he desires to do nothing but mischiefe for when he is doing good he findes no rest Mat. 12. yet God overrules him and makes him contrary to his nature to depart and dispossesseth him For the Use of it Let us first tremble at the great power of God and stand in awe and not sinne God hath a wonderfull power he can command all creatures and whatsoever their naturall inclination be and we thinke them harmlesse God can make them hurtfull contrary to their common course God is able to bring creatures from the place where their proper element is to those places where they never were before to plague his enemies Secondly I would we could learne obedience from the creatures they contrary to their natures obey God It is not so with men for if things runne not in their owne straine but are contrary to their inclinations by no meanes they will doe it let God say what he will Hence it is that the yoake of God is so heavy hence it is that the Commandements of God because they are against corrupt nature are grievous Hence it is that mortification is so severe a taske Hence it is that suffering of affliction in a good cause is so troublesome that the flesh saith as Peter Master be good to thy selfe but we should remember who hath said If you will be my disciples you must deny your selves Nature must be subdued and suppressed and all the fond reasons of the same and a man must captivate himselfe in obedience to God Almighty This blinde obedience is lawfull as Abraham followed God not knowing whither be went Shall I leave my fatnesse saith the Olive Shall I leave my sweetnesse saith the Fig-tree Shall I leave all to obey God Shall I leave my Country as Abraham did and sacrifice my Isaak Shall I cut off my hand and sacrifice my life so I may be obedient to God I know nature is strong it is hard for a man to conquer it but let me tell you the truth Flesh and bloud cannot enter into heaven Therefore all private respects must be neglected that God may bee obeyed I hasten to an end And they shall come up into thine house In the former Chapter it is said that when Pharaoh saw the waters turned into bloud he returned to his house Marke how God followes him God saith The frogs shall come into his house It is like enough for the judgement that was before inflicted though it were seven dayes together hee might have wine and other juyces to quench his thirst and he was not so sensible of the calamity as the common sort but God comes close hee followes him to his house that would not be warned abroad How hard is it for a man to flye from the judgements of God It is so impossible for a man to flye from the judgements of God that the Lord saith to Elia 1 King 17.19 He that flyeth from the sword of Hazael shall Iehu slay and he that flyeth from the sword of Iehu shall Elisha slay So a man cannot flye from judgement if God have marked him for vengeance In Isay 24.16 17. saith the Lord There shall be a feare and a pit and a snare unto you O ye inhabitants of the earth He that escapes the noyse of the feare shall fall into the pit and when he is come out of the pit from the bottome he shall fall into the snare So here is a succession of judgements a man can never get out if God have marked him for vengeance So in Amos 5.19 The Prophet describes a man hunted out by Gods vengeance thus He shall be as if he did flye from a Lion and a Beare met him and as if he escaped the Beare and were got to his owne house he should leane upon the wall and a Serpent should bite him So there is no freedome wheresoever If he get into his owne house and shut the doore a Serpent in the wall shall bite him So he that flyes shall not escape if he flye to the top of Carmel and hide him there No though a man goe to the bottome of the Sea and hide him there is an eye of providence a Serpent to bite him there is no flying from the judgements of God Adrm may flye among the bushes but God will pull him out to his deserved punishment Cain may flye from place to place and build Cities and thinke to keep himselfe from being a vagabond but he must be a runnagate So Ionah may flye from the presence of God but God hath a messenger to dispatch after him that was a tempest with a shrewd message in its mouth And mark what the Barbarians said of Paul Act. 28. See though God hath suffered him to escape the sea vengeance hath followed him to the land Though a man may escape this and that judgement he shall one time or other be caught God will follow him to his owne home God hath many hands therefore a man cannot escape him it is not distance that can save him he hath a long hand and a heavy hand there is no escaping from God God can dispatch a message wheresoever a man goes If Pharaoh bee in the field there is bloud if in the house there are frogs I told you of a Bishop that flouted the poore Christians and called them rats the rats followed him and at last got into his Castle in the middest of the Sea and there they smote and consumed him God will not suffer a man to be free let him use all the meanes of safety he can Let us make our peace with God there is no security but in being reconciled to God Almighty let us ever seeke to him We have knowne those that have lived out of the favour of God and in defiance to him in prophane courses that have prospered in nothing vengeance hath hunted them they could be quiet no where They say there is one of the furies called Ichma that followes men step by step and makes every thing unprosperous Other men have escaped from time to time but God hath found them out at the last As Moses saith There is no flight from God Almighty David tooke a good course I would we could
Some that have beene base Panders and procurers in furthering others lusts Some that have made a trade of wicked wayes but many times have beene ingenious in whom there have beene some seeds of good left that have cursed the time that ever they officiated for other people in wickednesse Not only out of sense of neglect of those that have imployed them though that have been just with God and it hath often fallen out that they have beene shaken off that have been instruments to others and when they have been troubled in conscience they have been shaken off as Iudas was by the Pharisees not only thus but in the apprehension of the judgements of God before whom all must appeare they know that every man must stand upon his owne bottome and the master shall not then answer for the servant or the servant for the master The servant shall then looke on his master and behold him that is ingaged in the same wickednesse saith Austen not as a patron for his cause but as a companion in his punishment for it is the speech of old Ely that is truth it selfe If a man sin against his brother the judge shall judge it but if he sinne against God who shall plead for him Master and father and mother and all to whom thou art tyed by strict relation that have used their power to command thee to sinne they cannot keepe thee from judgement then thou must answer for thy selfe and receive according to that thou hast done whether it be good or evill Therefore I commend to you the resolution of Ioseph that when his mistris solicited him to evill he said How shall I doe this great wickednesse and sinne against God As if he had said I may content thee and thou maiest thinke that I doe the part of a good servant to give thee satisfaction in this but how shall I answer God and my conscience I may not doe that that I may not doe with the preservation of my peace and the salvation of my soule So much for that Pharaohs servants were punished I goe on And they shall come into thine ovens and into thy kneading troughs or into thy lump of dough For so the word signifieth and so it is used Exod. 12. The Septuagint hath it into thy pastrie And here there is another aggravation of the judgement a fearfull one Before God disabled this people in regard of their drinke for he turned their water into blood that they could not drinke of the river without noy somnesse and danger too for blood is no congruous drink for mans body Before he deprived them of their rest for how could they rest when the frogs skipped upon them in their beds and filled their chambers and crept there So now he disables them in regard of their diet that though they had provided food and made it into dough yet there should be frogs in it and in their pastrie and in their troughs nay they should goe into their ovens to consume at least to defile As Iosephus saith every thing bread and meat had frogs Nay in their drinke too they did not only eat but drinke frogs Nothing but filth and noysomnes there was nothing to invite them to eating but defilement So now see here a fearfull aggravation Thirst before had like to have killed them and want of rest and now want of food as if God meant to sterve them Observe I beseech you How able God is for the sinnes of men to disable those Pulchra natura those common supports and stayes of humane nature He can prevent us in taking food though it be ready he can send such judgements in it that we shall not bee able to take it if we provoke God there shall be frogs in our dough and in our dish that that shall make us justly distaste it that we shall be afraid to eat it That the Lord threatneth in Deut. 28. You shall be plagued in your basket and in your store in your dough In those things that are serviceable for sustentation Sometimes God makes things that they are not eatable though of themselves they be provided for nourishment Sometimes though of themselves they be eatable yet there shall come a loathing and fastidiousnesse upon the sight of it And when it is taken into the body God sometimes restrains the worke and operation of it that it shall not nourish For as in the creation God infused a quality and faculty into the creature so in the exercise of it God is able to dispend them If God inlarge not himself and give a word of blessing those creatures will not doe that that we would have them It is admirable to thinke how many wayes the Lord can prevent the use of the creature that that should sustain us in the way of food Sometimes he prevents men from having food by unseasonable weather that they cannot sow their seed Sometimes if they sow their seed God suffers it to rot under the clods that it comes not up If it come up and be in the blade God smites it with mildew and nips it with untimely frosts If it be in the eare God hath other judgements for it If the time of reaping come the weather may be so unseasonable that it cannot be got in If it be carried into the barne God can make it mould in the mow If it be threshed in the floore God hath judgements for it there If it be ground in the Mill and brought to be bread as it was here the frogs shall be in the trough that they cannot eat their bread unlesse they will eat frogs with their dough Nay further if it be baked and taken into the bodies of men yet God reserves the power of making it nourishable to himselfe It is he that gives the staffe of bread bread is the staffe of our strength but bread it hath a staffe that is the word of Gods blessing as Christ saith to Satan Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God That is it that gives it soule and life and makes it nourishable If God restrain this Pharaohs seven leane kine may eat up the seven fat ones and not be the fatter As a man that hath the Boulemia a dog-like appetite he may eat and eat and is not the fatter As one in the Poet that the more he eat the more he might Gods blessing upon food that must be taken in to make it beneficiall To make use of this you see God prevented them though they had dough and provision they cannot eat it God hath this power over the creatures to prevent us altogether or else in making use of it What is the reason that we first aske leave for the use of Gods creatures and beg a blessing There is great reason that when we come to take the creatures of God we should call upon him and invocate his name for a blessing that he would sanctifie them for if it bee
the provision of the King such as was for the captive children it will not nourish without Gods blessing This hath beene the practice of holy people in all times Samuel blessed for the people they did not eat till he had blessed 1 Sam. 9.13 So it was with our Blessed Lord himselfe he never eat before he gave thankes and Paul in a great tempest at sea Act. 27. hee brings them together and defires them to take meat but they did not touch it before he gave thankes Plutarch saith that the Heathen did it And the Turkes now are observant of giving thanks Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians shewing the course that Christians used in their feasts and â—â—ting of their meat they never sate downe to the table before prayer was made to God that he would sanctifie the creatures Secondly as it is meet that we should aske Gods blessing so when we have found that they nourish us and our spirits are refreshed and enlivened and quickned by them and we are made more nimble and agile for imployments then we have reason to give God thankes to returne thankes When thou hast eaten and art full remember saith Moses the Lord thy God thou shalt blesse him Deut. 8.12 And as it is said of Christ after they had eaten their supper they sang a Psalme before they went out of the roome Mat. 26. And Athanasius speakes of some people that were wont as soone as ever they had done supper or dinner to turne themselves upon their knees to give God thankes The Pharisees were so strict this way when a Pharisee had forgot to give God thanks at table though he were in the field he must returne to the place where he had eaten to doe it And he is no lesse then an Atheist that habitually omits the giving of thanks to God I will not say but a man may forget it and against his purpose but if it be habituall to sit downe and rise without giving thanks he is a brute beast and let him looke and he may expect the next time he eats to have a frog in his dish that is to have some judgement For the Lord will not indure such wretches Lastly since sinne lets the judgements of God loose especially in this particular of restraining a blessing upon the creatures Take heed of grosse sinnes those that the Father calls fearfull pressures such as waste conscience and so provoke God not only to cut us short in that which is superfluous but to maime us and lame us in necessaries in food that is the support of this tabernacle without which it cannot stand more then the lampe can continue without the supply of oyle And because it may be the wickednesse of this people in gluttony of meat caused this judgement upon them for they were given to that and because in experience God restraines men of their meat for that take heed of gluttony I confesse at this day intemperance in drunkennesse is now more then that of eating and the more generall sinne but intemperance of eating is of too great a breadth and as great a sin as the other And judge you now how many thousands there bee in the world that eat above their meanes and ability Though they pinch their backs their dainty tooth must be satisfied I read of old that they were wont to feast openly in the streets If it were so with us there would be many observed to spend that that they had reason to spare Againe how many thousands are there that though they eat not above their ability yet above their condition and calling for nothing will please them but rarities such as are congruous for Kings meane men must have All their pretence is they are able to doe it what of that I tell thee and I tell thee as a Minister of God that the rule of our apparrell and our meat it is not our ability but next to Gods word it must be thy calling and estate thou art in That is not lawfull for a meane man that is for a noble man this would bring attaxie and confusion into the world and blend those things that God hath digested so sweetly Againe for the manner how many thousands eat unjustly I meane are content to eat well and to lye soft and in the meane time never pay their debts They are so far from that that the Apostle speakes of eating their owne bread that other mens goods must furnish their tables How many eat unseasonably That is when the Church is under persecution and judgements are upon them and the places they are in they are most prone to feast a fearfull sinne God said it should not be purged from some till they dyed Isay 22. How many eat uncharitably without respect to the poore That stretch themselves upon their beds of Ivory and are not touched with the afflictions of Ioseph So the rich man in the Gospell he fared deliciously every day and did not respect the poor man at his gate though he asked but a crum How many eat immoderately I may say as Austen saith of them They eat not daily bread but as much at one time as is fit for them for three or foure meales what a fearfull thing is this Nay Beloved how many are there in the world that eat impiously that not only disable themselves from the workes of their ordinary calling but from the performance of any act of Religion towards God as if there were no God to serve but their bellies They are farre from the practice of the Primitive Christians as Tertullian saith in the former place that did alway eat so as that they remembred that God was to be worshipped They would not for all the world indispose themselves in regard of those holy performances Is there any of you that heare me that can deny this to be a truth I know you confesse it is a truth I know your righteous soules grieve that there is such just cause of complaint and I know you feare the harvest that this feed will bring out What was the sin of the old world was not this one among the rest Mat. 24. they ate and dranke as brute beasts and did not God bring a deluge upon them What was the sinne of Sodome was not one of them fulnesse of bread and did not God bring a fiery showre from heaven and burne them What was the sinne of Esau was it not gluttony when for a morsell of meat he sold his birthright and so after was deprived of the blessing he was prophane as it is Heb. 12. And what was the sinne of the Israelites among others this they lusted and were gluttons therefore when the meat was in their month wrath fell on them And doth not wise Solomon threaten men that are gluttons in their diet as well as those that are drunkards that they shall come to rags and poverty All this is true And what do we thinke to gather grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles or are we conceited as some that Austen speaks of in his time that God punished the murthers of Troy but loved those of Rome That God punished the distempers of former times but will not now That there shall be no fregs in our dishes though Pharaoh had them Is not he the same God and our sinnes as foule as theirs and doe they not provoke God to wrath Wee have found it by some experience if we goe backe a little way What spued out those Abbey-lubbers but gluttony What hath beene the ruine of many great families but this What was the cause that God punished us the last yeare with famine Many sins we have but I cannot ascribe it to any more properly then to gluttony God punisheth such licentiousnesse with penury and scarcity And if we goe on and provoke God as we have hitherto God will plague us in our basket and in our store and that that before was but a rod he can whip us with scorpions God be thanked though we had it deare we had it for money but God will cause the earth to denie her strength that it shall not be to be had then we may eat our flesh for bread and our bowells shall sound as a shalme And this may be the cause of the plague for famine and the plague goe together Thus the Lord can curse us in our basket and in our store and send frogs into our kneading troughs and into our chambers Therefore in the fear of God let us be ashamed of our former intemperance and let us now labour to honour God I bridle not men up to necessity only Religion gives a faire way as any reasonable man in the world can desire but take heed that we dishonour not God abuse them not if we doe penury will be the reward of abused plenty THE FOVRTH SERMON Vpon EXOD. CHAP. 8. VERS 4. And the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants And the Lord spake unto Moses say unto Aaron stretch forth thine hand c. IN this fourth Verse there is yet a further amplification of the judgement These frogs should not onely bee in the high waies but in the houses not only in the common roomes but in the bedchambers And they should not stay here neither but should crawle upon the bodies of men they should get up upon them and there should be no possibility to brush them off Galerius upon this place observes That the Egyptians were punished in this plague upon all the five senses The sight was punished that was offended with the multitude with the greatnesse with the hideous forme and colour of these frogs Their hearing was offended with the croaking of them for it was but harsh musicke to dainty eares Their smell was offended with the stench of them Their taste was offended that they came into their troughs the places of their dough and so hindred them of the food that was provided for their nourishment And for their feeling that certainly was exercised for not only he but Tostatus upon the place saith That many of these frogs were poysonfull such as we call toads and they afflicted and oppressed the Egyptians when they lighted on them But I stand not upon this but content my selfe with the words of the Text They shall come up and crawle upon thee and upon thy servants So that thou shalt not rid thy selfe of this annoyance What! in their meat and drinke and upon their bodies Then observe with me Beloved God can lay judgements upon people that shall not be more painfull and troublesome then odious loathsome and noysome This you shall see in sundry respects That of Iob Iob 7.5 he complaines that his skin was broken and he was become loathsome I will not follow Pineds the Jesuit that reckons up scores of diseases that this poore man was afflicted with and all of them as the Physitian speakes of the worst kinde and quality The Scripture saith enough and tells us that he was stricken with boyles from the top of the head to the sole of the foot and was faine to retire himselfe from the company of men and to sit upon a heap of ashes that they might receive the corruption from his wounds and to get a piece of a potsheard to scrape himselfe with Iob 2.7.8 Such a noysome disease had David whatsoever it was as hee complaines Psal 38.7 Thou hast filled my loynes with a loathsome disease The Septuagint and the Latine translation read it Thou hast filled my loynes with delusion and mocking but the Chalde paraphrase renders it better Thou hast filled me with burning paine and noysome So the Hebrew word there used will beare it out which comes from a word to roast a thing and it signifies to be made vile So that it seems it was a burning furious disease and that also that made him odious and loathsome to the people and to himselfe a burthen What a loathsome judgement did the Lord send upon Iehoram 2 Chron. 21. ult by which he rotted as it were piece-meale he was wondrously afflicted and troubled and tormented and the Text saith there Ragelat bele Kemdar he departed without being desired Some understand it he was so wicked that every body desired his death he went away and was not missed every one was glad But it may be understood also he was so loathsome by his disease that people were-glad he was gone he was so troublesome and he tooke no pleasure in himselfe by the noysomenesse of his disease In 2 Macab 9.9 we read of Antiochus a great persecuter of Gods people God smote him with a loathsome noysome judgement having received a bruise by a fall from his chariot for very torment and paine saith the Text his flesh fell piece meale from him and the stench of him was grievous to the whole Army every one wished him gone he was such a trouble to them And was it not a noysome loathsome judgement that was sent upon Herod to be eaten up of wormes Act. 12.23 Iosephus saith That the Great Herod the Askalonite was eaten up of wormes also But after him it is certaine that Maximinus as Eusebius tells us had a fearfull loathsome disease upon him and he sent out a filthy smell he saith he was a fearfull spectacle to looke upon Nay the very Physitians saith the Story that came neare him were killed with the stench of his infirmity So we read of Scilla that he had a loathsome fearfull judgement sent upon him And Pliny in his Naturall history saith that he died a more grievous death then ever he inflicted upon any other And was it not an odious loathsome judgement that was sent upon Arrius that scoured out his bowells upon the stoole So Evagrius speakes of Montanus that he had his tongue rotted in his mouth and he dyed miserably I could reckon more examples but these are sufficient in the proofe of this I would not be mistaken because I
whole world Well may we incline his mercy by our repentance but certainly we can never doe our selves good by resisting Secondly never measure the worke of God by any distance It was a fault in Naaman the Assyrian when he was to be cured of his leprosie Elisha said Goe wash in Iordan saith he I thought he would have come out and have laid his hand upon the sore as if it could not be wrought without touching So it was some infirmity in the Ruler Goe downe before my sonne dye As if Christ could doe nothing without he were present So Ioh. 11. saith Martha Lord if thou hadst beene here my brother had not dyed As if God could not have prevented it at a great distance The Lord is able to shew mercy from heaven and to execute wrath as farre Why doe we speake of distance when the Lord is every where and fills all places No man is able to get out of the circumference where God is not The Lord is present in all places and doth what he will in heaven and earth where and how he will there is no flying from his presence if a man goe to heaven or to hell or to the utmost parts of the sea there shall the hand of God finde him out We come to another thing And the frogs came up and covered all the land of Egypt Mark how God inlargeth the judgement not one part of the land but all the land was covered with these vermin God sometimes smites a whole family as we see in the family of Abimelech Gen. 12. And God threatneth to smite whole families head and foot Deut. 28. God smites sometimes whole Cities as we see Samaria had a famine a fearfull one and Ierusalem was vexed by famine that as Iosephus saith The children were taught a new way into their mothers wombe againe they were faine to eat them for hunger I God smites divers Cities together as the sisters of Sodome Nay God sometimes proceeds to smite a whole Country The sinne of Saul was punished in the dayes of Ahab for three years the heavens were shut up till the bridle of heaven Eliah unloosed them So God visited the whole world I will not speake of that great plague that Evagrius saith in his time there was a plague that continued in the world fifty yeares together though it possessed not all the world at one time yet successively it went over all We have examples in Scripture God overthrew the whole world by water and will he not when he shall bring a deluge of fire at the last The reason why God makes his judgements so generall is the generality of sinne Looke in all the instances I mentioned Pharaoh and Abimelech So in the City of Samaria that was punished it was full of sinne the greatest sinnes of all Israel were in that Metropolis The sinne of Israel is Samaria The Prophet makes a sad complaint against Ierusalem being the worst So that City of Sodome you may easily see how ill they were that solicited God for vengeance that there were not ten righteous men found there if there had they had secured all It was an epidemicall complaint a generall disease So we may say of the dayes of Saul when there was such a generall famine it was for a foule sinne Nay all the whole land was tainted So in the dayes of Ahab they were full of Idolatry and wickednesse Eliah complained that there was such a generall defection that he saw none besides himselfe to serve God though God told him of seven thousand that bowed not their knees to Baal yet what were these to all Israel And in the dayes of the Prophets and in the old world the bloud and stain of sinne was so bad that God knew not else how to wash out that staine So at the last day Iniquity shall abound therefore God will bring fire to consume them For the Use of this Solomon saith He went by the field of the sluggard and received instruction Let us see how Gods judgements have spread The destroying Angell hath been in all places he hath not stricken all places at once but he goeth further and extends himselfe Surely there is a generality of sinne I would God I had nothing to accuse mine owne Nation of as Paul saith But why should I hold my peace when the sinnes of the land proclaime themselves as the sinnes of Sodome Who shall censure me or any Minister for laying downe the cause of the plague Looke on some sinnes how generall is the sinne of pride A common sinne that fills the land from Dan to Beersheba in every corner even to her that grindes at the mill Nothing will keepe people from vanity this way How common is the sinne of excesse The sinne of the Court of the City of the Country and among the base Gadarens this Devill is entred into a herd of swine It is come into the Country and every roome smells of it Nay how doth this sinne reigne in this City that the Lords day is divided betweene the Tavernes and the Church Nay will you not say that the Devill goes with the better part So for swearing for oaths the land mournes A common generall sinne that unnecessary vaine sinne The oaths of men are like Ioabs sword ever drawne out men can scarcely speake but they must sweare A man can come into no company or place but his righteous soule will be vexed with this blasphemy against God Nay I would to God we could say that perjurie were not growne to a great height men have no care of oaths though it were held sacred among the heathen What shall I say of uncharitablenesse It is a crying grosse common sinne and a great number that seem to professe Religion that are most forward and zealous this way The truth is they are brinish salt lights that spit and burne and scald they care not what dead flyes they cast into this oyntment It is far from the power of Religion and the holy fire of charity I could instance in a great number but what should I trouble you By these you may gather that God hath a just controversie with this Nation of ours and the sin being so generall these frogs creeping in every corner and croaking in every nooke when God sends his judgements in every coast we must not but say He his righteous The last thing which I will conclude with is this This judgement as it was the second so it seemes to be much greater then the former for in the former judgement there was but the turning of the nature of a thing the turning the water into bloud but here there is a creating of an innumerable company of frogs Againe there some might escape there is no other likelihood but the Noble-men and the King himselfe and many of ability might have wine and other juices and waters to satisfie their thirst but here there was not a man in the Kingdome but had frogs leaping upon him and