saving such as have received it How then can they bee forgotten of him that knoweth them all by their names Thus David reasoneth Psal 23.1 Psal 23.1 The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want Observe the conclusion of the Prophet in this place the Lord was his Shepheard and he one of his sheepe therefore he is assured he shall never want therefore he will have a speciall care of him For what I pray you can they want who have God to be their Shepheard Hence it is that hee saith elsewhere I am poore and needy Psal 10.17 yet the Lord thinketh upon me But it will be objected Obiect Doe we not see many of Gods servants live in want to suffer hunger thirst nakednesse cold and an heape of many miseries to be driven from house and home and to wander from place to place and doth not the Scripture teach us as much 2 Cor. 11.27 Heb. 11.37 I answer Answ God feedeth his in such extremities as these another way hee strengthneth and stayeth them up with his grace that they cleave unto him and depend upon him for hee is their portion and never forsaketh them They have such inward peace that the world knoweth not of which made the Apostle say Phil. 4 11 12. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to bee hungry both to abound and to suffer need This hee expresseth more at large 2 Cor. 6.8 9 10. What then is there nothing required on our behalfe Yes doubtlesse for we have no promise of earthly things Matth. 6 32. except we seeke first of all the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse If our chiefest care be of heavenly things all these temporall things shall be added unto us And this must bee our chiefest care for these causes First the soule is of more excelelnt price then the body by many degrees Matth. 16.26 and draweth neerer to the nature of God because it is a Spirit immortall and invisible Secondly corporall and earthly blessings are common blessings Luke 12.16 16.19 23. 18.18 23. the ungodly are partakers of them as well as the godly nay oftentimes they have the greatest share and portion of them Luk. 12.16 16.19 18.23 Thirdly temporall blessings serve onely for this present life but spirituall belong to the life to come As then the life to come ought more to be desired which never shall have end then this present which is transitory and cannot continue but passeth away wee know not how soone so we should much more desire the blessings of the next life which abide for ever 2 Cor. 4.18 2 Cor. 4. For the things that are seene are temporall but the things that are not seene are eternall Fourthly we may have earthly blessings and yet they may lie dead by us and wee have no use at all of them either to our selves or to others it is not so with heavenly blessings such as possesse them alwaies doe good with them Fiftly spirituall things are simply and absolutely necessary to salvation so that without them we cannot be saved the other not so For albeit they be required for the use of this life yet they are not necessarily requisite to bring us to salvation Nay sometimes through the abuse of them and sometimes through the want of a speciall sanctifying grace they become hindrances and clogs and snares and thornes unto us as lamentable experience in the world teacheth Lastly spirituall blessings once received shall never bee taken away from us because his owne Iohn 13.1 Rom. 11.29 Luke 22.32 whom he loved in the world he loveth to the end his gifts and graces are without repentance and their faith shall never faile whereas temporall things are onely left and lent unto us but the time shall come when they must leave us and we them These two points last remembred are concluded out of the words of Christ himselfe Luke 10.42 Luk. 10. touching the necessity and perpetuity of spirituall graces as for temporall blessings they are indeed convenient and profitable but not simply necessary so that we may be saved without them as many are condemned with them For the soule of Lazarus was carried into Abrahams bosome that wanted them and the soule of the rich man to hell and torments that had them Lastly we are moved to seeke Gods Kingdome before and above all earthly things because as earthly things are Gods gifts so they belong rightly and properly to the faithfull They onely have the promise that they shall not want and therefore they have the truest title and tenure whereby they hold them as Esay 65.13 This made the Prophet say Psal 37.25 I have beene yong and now am old Psal 37.25 yet have I not seene the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread The Lord hath made no such promise to ungodly men True it is they have earthly blessings oftentimes more then the godly to make them without excuse but they have them not by vertue of his promise For where hath hee given to them any such promise or how can they shew us their charter nay they and their children have a contrary judgement wayting upon them Psal 109 9 20. Let his children bee continually vagabonds and begge Psal 109. Such as will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord to observe all his Commandements shall be cursed in the City and in the Field Deut. 28.15 16 c. 2 Sam. 3.29 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.32 Matth. 5.5 in their basket and store in all their fruit and increase Deut. 28. 2 Sam. 3.29 As for the godly it is not so with them Christ Iesus is theirs and therefore no marvaile if all things else be theirs and that they shall inherit the earth The Sheepe of Christ have all by a right of donation the ungodly hold all by a wrong of usurpation Can there be a better or truer title then Gods gift by which Israel possessed the Land of Canaan or can there be a meaner or worser hold then to usurpe that which is not their owne as the theefe doth the true mans purse All that the godly man hath is his freehold touching the Conscience Iohn 8.36 Gal. 4.26 as themselves are made free by the Sonne and as his service is perfect freedome his food is free his house and land if hee have any is free his dwelling is free all that he putteth on or any way belongeth unto him is of a free tenure Howbeit understand thus much that this freedome of the faith full exempteth them not from Princes lawes but is wholy spirituall and this is their advantage that which they have is their owne and they may use it to their comfort For they have an interest both from God and man from Heaven and earth to enjoy the things of this
repentance The former penitency or humiliation and compunction of heart is the ground-worke and foundation of true repentance and maketh way for it as the needle doth for the threed This consisteth in avoyding evill and in doing good This abstaining from evill is signified by our abstinence from food and it is the cheefe end of fasting For what is our forbearing from meats and drinkes if we doe not fast from sinne but drinke in iniquity as water like the fishes of the sea Esay 1.13 58.4 This was it that caused the Lord so often to reject the fastes of the Iewes because they filled themselues with all wickednesse they fasted for strife and debate To abstaine from sustenance and not to abstaine from sin is the Devils fast it pleaseth him but not God If then we desire to approve our fasting to him let us practise the workes of piety toward God and that in the sincerity of a good conscience as in the sight of God and likewise the workes of Charity toward our brethren forbearing one another and forgiving one another remitting debtes to the poorest sort that are no way able to pay and especially in bestowing almes upon such as want releefe and fustenance Esay 58.3.6.7 Zach. 7.9.10 At least let us bestow so much as is spared by our abstinence that day least under a pretence of godlinesse we practise miserablenesse like those that allow of this exercise to pinch the bellies of their labouring seruants Hence it is that Christ Iesus joyned fasting and almes together in precept Math. 6.23.16 Act. 10.30.31 and we must joyne them both together in practise like Cornelius He that doth not thus repent doth not truly repent If every mans fasting were measured by the line of his repenting Iona. 3.8 I feare the greatest number of those that abstaine from food would be found to doe nothing lesse then repent of their offences The third part is prayer which we must make in time of fasting No prayer no true fasting for fasting without it is as a dead carcasse without life This is one end of fasting to make our praiers more feruent and forcible Hence it is Ioel. 2.17 that the Lord prescribed a platforme of praier to the Priestes the Ministers of the Lord in the solemne assemblies of sanctifying a fast Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people where is their God These Ninevites having but a short warning and a little light of knowledge knew thus much for they proclaimed a fast that neither man nor beast should either eate or drinke but they added with all and cry mightily unto God vers 8. Luk 2.37 Math. 17.21 Act. 10.30 1 Cor. 7.5 Thus did Anna serue God with fastings and prayers not with fasting alone neither with prayers alone but with both of them joyntly together Neither is it ordinary prayer onely that should be conceived at such times but as the occasion of the Assembly is extraordinary so ought our prayers to be Thus therefore ought every one to rouse up himselfe to be feruent in prayer and as faithfull remembrancers of the Lord to give him no rest untill he heare us and grant our requestes This prayer consisteth partly in confessing our speciall sinnes that have brought his judgments craving pardon of them and beseeching him to turne away his wrath and heavy displeasure from us and partly in asking such things as are needfull for us The severall sorts of a religious fast The severall reasons and causes of publike and private fastes which a man undertaketh to make his soule and body the fitter to pray more feruently to God are these two private and publike to these I will joyne the severall causes and reasons wherefore they have beene taken in hand which vary according to severall occasions The private is which we sanctifie in secret and before God for such causes as our owne Consciences beare record unto us Math. 6.18 Of this sort our saviour speaketh Mat. 6. We may not appear unto men to fast but unto our Father which is in secret the Father which seeth in secret shal reward us openly This David practised what time his child was striken with mortall sicknesse because in the sicknesse of the child he did consider the wrath and displeasure of God against himselfe for the remooving whereof he fasted 2 Sam. 12.22 mourned and prayed and never gave over day nor night untill such time as he saw Gods will fulfilled by taking away the life of the child 1 Sam. 1.10 So did Hannah the wife of Elcanah she wept and did eate nothing but in the bitternesse of heart she prayed to the Lord. The causes of private fasts This is and hath beene undertaken when a man becommeth an humble and earnest suter for the pardon of some great and grosse sinne that lyeth heavy upon the conscience Sometimes for the preventing of some sinne whereunto a man feeleth himselfe to be tempted Zach. 3.2 1 Cor. 10.13 that God would rebuke Satan even that the Lord who hath promised to assist his children with sufficient grace would rebuke him and not suffer us to be tempted above the strength that he hath given us but make a way to escape that we may be able to beare it Sometimes to obtaine some speciall blessing which we want Sometimes to turne away some judgment which we feare or is already fallen upon our selues and our families Sometimes to subdue the flesh to the spirit and such like The other sort is the publike Fast The publike fasts which is openly commanded and publikely practised Of this the Scripture speaketh evidently in this place 2 Chro. 20.3 Ezr. 8.21 Ioel 2.15 16. and oftentimes elsewhere which is done when a whole congregation or severall congregations assemble together to performe the forenamed duties of humiliation and to remove some publike calamity as the sword famine pestilence inuasion of enemies and such like But let us consider the reasons in particular The first is to prevent some heavy and imminent danger threatned as a fire ready to fall upon his people and to consume them For this cause did Iehoshaphat proclaime a solemne fast and joyned it with prayer saying 2 Chron. 20.12 In us is no strength to stand against this great multitude that commeth against us neither know we what to doe but our eyes are upon thee The second cause is the angry face of God punishing thereby to remove the present calamity as warre famine plague and other like fearefull sicknesse or contagious visitation Thus have we present occasion to humble our selues if ever we had For if we must seeke the Lord before affliction come while he sharpneth his arrowes and whetteth his glittering sword how much more when the destroying Angell is sent among us and many fall downe on every side This moved Ioshua and the Elders of
make mention and yet it was not priviledged from the judgements of God This teacheth that the sinnes of a nation or people or kingdome when they are growne to an hight both in the manner measure Doct. 3 doe cause the Lord to bring desolation and destruction upon that land When sinnes grow generall the judgements are generall When sinnes are generall and overspread a kingdome as a Leprosy doth the body then Gods judgements also are generall See this Gen. 6.5.7 and 18.20.21 and 19.24 Deut. 9.4.5 For the wickednesse of the nations the Lord did drive them out from before thee and 2. Samu. 24.15 2 King 21.12.13.14.15 Hos 4.1.2.3 The reasons Reason 1 First because the justice of God requireth that the punishments of sinne should be answerable to the sinne it selfe If the sinne once become common it is just with God that there should come a generall judgement also And albeit haply some few should repent and bee free yet it is no reason this should priviledge and exempt the rest and keepe away the generall judgement from them for hee that doth repent shall have a recompence for himselfe when notwithstanding a generall judgement as a violent flood shall sweepe them all away Againe when sinne is extreame it is reason that judgemēt also shoud be extreame when sin is at the highest it is reason that judgement should be at the highest and a generall defection of sinne must of necessity have a generall waight of judgement that when we have filled up the measure of the one God may fill up the measure of the other Gen. 15.16 Vse 1. Seeing this is true that God will bring desolation upon a land for sinne then have we cause to feare that the day of our desolation and of our mourning is not farre off For seeing it hath beene proved that wee are growne to the hight of wickednesse both in the manner by breaking all the bounds that God hath set to keepe us and also in the measure by adding sinne unto sinne then certainely in the next place what can be expected but that our land should mourne and destruction come upon us Hos 4.1.2 as paine upon a woman in travaile because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land but by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they breake out and blood toucheth blood And if God destroy his owne people and other nations and roote them out for the same sinnes that sway and swarme among us filling all places and abounding in all persons every where what can we looke for but that wee having the same weight of sinnes should also have the same waight of judgement God hath made us to drinke of as bitter judgements as ever any nation did onely this remaineth that as yet wee have not drunke the dregges we have not yet tasted the cup of utter desolation and destruction Now if God have gone thus farre with us and our sinnes are heaped up to a full measure pressed downe and running over why should not wee feare to drinke of utter desolation as well as any other seeing the same sinnes are to be found among us So then we see that the day of Gods visitation cannot be farre off by his course of Iustice and certainely it is the nearer because all feare is so farre from us and the land so full of security which being added to our former sinnes will be a great meanes to hasten his judgements Secondly it teacheth us notably who are the greatest enemies of a land and bring wrath upon it certainely the greatest enemies are those that bring the daies of ruine and desolation and mourning upon it It is not simply such as sinne for there is no man that sinneth not daily but such as commit sinne with an high hand breaking all the bounds and bankes that God hath set unto them continuing in sinne and adding one sinne to another These certainely are they that pull downe destruction upon a land It is true such persons are ready to accuse the Ministers of God and the faithfull of the land as Ieremy was charged to weaken the land and to hasten the desolation thereof and to be the troublers of the state howbeit they may answer these as Elijah did Ahab 1 King 18.18 I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy fathers house in that ye have forsaken the commandements of the Lord. Is the physition the troubler of the patient or the disease that is within him Is the law the cause of strife and contention or the malice and envy and emulation that is in men Is the watchman the cause of the approch of the enemy or the armour and munition and fortifications the weakning of a Citty No doubtlesse these strengthen the same and serve to keepe him out The Ministers of God are the physitions of the soule to cure the diseases thereof and the horsemen and Charets of Israel to defend it 2 King 2.12 13.14 and the word is the meanes to beate downe sinne which weakneth and wasteth the land till it come to destruction Lastly this serveth for instruction and admonition for all and every one of us If we have any love to our Countrey if we long after the peace and prosperity thereof or desire the florishing of our kingdome if we would not destruction to come upon us and it and if we would live in quietnesse the way is to take heede of adding sinne to sinne and prophanenesse to prophanenesse We account him an enemy and that justly that combineth and conspireth with another to bring him to destroy the land and undermine the state thereof so is he the greatest spirituall enemy that a State can have that followeth sinne with greedinesse and multiplieth one iniquity upon another The way therefore to prevent such judgements is to breake off our sinnes by true repentance which turne upside downe kingdomes Citties Families private houses and particular persons We wish to have our Citties flourish and our families prosper and our children to continue our names and memories after our departure but what availeth all this unlesse wee set our selves to worke holinesse and righteousnesse This is the onely way to keepe our State our Citties our townes our villages our families and our children from mourning and misery and to prevent the desolation and finall destruction of them To conclude let no man blesse himselfe because wickednesse overspreadeth the land as water doth the sea neither thinke that we may with more safety and security commit sinne because the land is generally wicked but let every soule and sinner repent him of his sinnes and not harden his heart because of the wickednesse of the times 5. So the people of Nineveh beleeved God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them Hitherto of the preaching of Ionah now followeth the effect thereof wherein consider two things both what the
am not worthy as we have noted before On the other side as they take away all worthinesse from themselves Rev. 4.10 11. and east downe their Crownes at the feete of him that sitteth upon the Throne so when they speake of God they give all praise and honour and ascribe all worthinesse to him Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Secondly Rom. 1.30 2 Tim. 3.21 all such as are boasters and proud persons heady high-minded and there are not a few of those whose practices cannot stand with true humility Some are boasters of false liberality like cloudes without raine or bubbles of water that rise up and suddenly vanish away Such were Ananias and Saphira his wife Acts 5.3 8. who kept backe part of the price of the Land they sold and yet boasted of their bounty as if they had brought the whole price and had sold it for so much onely Some are boasters of false obedience as if they had dealt soundly and sincerely with God and yet offer unto him a lame service as it were a blinde and maimed sacrifice which he abhorreth Mal. 1.8 1 Sam. 15.13 20. Such was Sauls oblation which was indeed rebellion yet he gloried that he had done all that the Lord commanded and had left nothing undone This boasting of his sincerity was a notable discovering of his hypocrisie Some are boasters of perfection as if they had gone as farre as God prescribed like such as thinke themselves at their journeis end as soone as they are set forth out of doores Matth. 19.20 Such was the yong man in the Gospell that professed hee had kept the whole Law from his youth Rom. 8.3 which notwithstanding is not possible through the flesh who said to our Saviour All these things have I performed what lacke I yet Such was the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.17 which boasted shee was rich and had need of nothing Revel 3.17 and knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked Such also are they that boast of workes of supererogation swelling like a bladder till they be ready to burst againe as if they were able to doe more then God requireth at their hands and had more strength then ever he gave them These make themselves over-iust Eccles 7.16 and are indeed over-unjust Some boast of their sinne and wickednesse in filthinesse and prophanenesse in whoredome in drunkennesse and beastlinesse as if a sicke man should glory in his sicknesse in his wounds and ulcers in his boiles and blaines and blisters in his running and putrifying sores which no man that is sober and well in his wits would doe Sinnes are the ulcers and sores of the soule Psal 38.5 at which we should rather blush then boast and of which there is cause why we should be ashamed rather then any way enamored Some filly soules boast of their ignorance that they know nothing neither God nor themselves neither any thing pertaining to the salvation of their soules as if a man should glory that he liveth in a dungeon or in the darke and thanke God he never had the Sunne shining in his face all the daies of his life or as if a subject should boast he never knew any of the Princes Lawes or a servant that he never regarded to know the will and pleasure of his Master Such are silly fooles and love their owne folly and are to be pittied for their simplicity Some boast of their hypocrisie that they can carry matters so closely and so cunningly as not to be espied Luke 12.2 never considering that there is nothing covered that shall not be discovered and revealed Some boast of their felicity and prosperity some of their riches some of their honour and nobility all which the Apostle esteemed as dung in comparison of the righteousnesse of Christ that hee might win him Phil. 3.8 nay he would not glory in divine revelations lest hee should be exalted but rather in his infirmities 2 Cor. 12.9 that he might be humbled by them and that the power of Christ might be magnified in him Secondly let us not thinke highly of our owne gifts neither yet be high-conceited of our abilities as proud persons that rise early to praise and admire themselves because no man else will doe it or can doe it We have sundry exhortations and admonitions in holy Scriptures to this purpase as Rom. 12.2 16. Rom. 12.3 16 Minde not high things but condescend to men of low estate be not wise in your owne conceits And againe Verse 3. Let every man thinke soberly of himselfe according as God hath dealt to him the measure of faith and let him not think more highly of himselfe then he ought to thinke So likewise Prov. 3.7 Prov. 3.7 Be not wise in thine owne eyes feare the Lord and depart from evill So we are also charged in giving honour Rom. 12.10 to goe one before another Rom. 12.10 for there is little hope of a conceited foole that thinketh better of himselfe then any besides and is so blinde that he cannot see his grossest corruptions that are as beames in the eyes nay is so weake in judgement that he thinketh his blemishes to bee ornaments and his vices to be vertues in himselfe Therefore Salomon saith Prov. 26.12 Prov. 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his owne conceit there is more hope of a foole then of him Let us examine our selves whether we bee indeed lowly or not Matth. 5.3 and that by these rules First if we be poore in Spirit knowing and evermore meditating upon our infirmities insufficiences weaknesses imperfections defects and faults labouring thereby to understand them better and better and to heale them the sooner this is one signe of humility Secondly if wee despise and disgrace none though never so meane and reject not the opinion and judgement of any though much more unlearned then our selves and farre inferiour to our selves Gen. 21.12 Abraham must sometimes be content to hearkon to the voice of Sarah the higher to the lower the man to the woman the husband to the wife Moses the great Prophet of the Lord and the Church must learne of Jethro his Father in law Exoâ— 18.24 2 King 5.1 4 12. Naaman a Master and great Captaine and honourable thought it no disparagement to himselfe and his high place to follow the aduice first of his poore Maid-servant and afterward of his Men-servants or else that foule leprosie had cleaved unto him for ever David a mighty man of warre and anoynted to be King disdained not the wise counsell of Abigail a woman 1 Sam. 25.33 and therefore kept himselfe from sheading of blood and blessed God for it Apollos was an eloquent man fervent in the Spirit and mighty in the Scriptures who watered where the Apostle planted Acts