put thee in minde of the maker Because thou art forgetfull let thine inheritance remember thee of heauen let thy purchase remember thee of regeneration let thy fruites remember thee of thy life let thy haruest remember thee of thy death let thy store remember thy soule and let all remember thy poore brother The reasons of this doctrine are these first because the most prophane and wicked idolaters Iere. 4. 17 18 19. thinke that the onely cause of multiplying the fruites of the earth is for the worship of God and therefore who but Atheists can denie the same vnto him for he onely it is that maketh them to growe and blesseth all our stores and therefore most vnthankfull wretches are wee if for all we should render him none againe And this is much to be feared that the little regard which is had hereof in our land is the onely cause why our former yeeres haue brought forth no greater plentie for if we generally regarde the multitude we shall finde that those which haue the greatest fieldes the largest barnes the widest patrimonies and most store of riches haue and do make most bolde with the Lord and come least into his presence Another reason of this doctrine may be this because these benefites are the promised blessings to them that loue him Deut. 28. 1 2 3. which ought euermore to put vs in minde of our loue to God that we might loue him more and more and so receiue of him more and more abundantly let vs I beseech you consider our estate and not fall away from our first loue for seeing we haue had in former times greater plentie then now we haue let vs knowe for certaintie that our store is lesse because our loue is lesse When the Gospell came first among vs how ioyfully did we followe it and how diligently heare it in so much as the preachers being but few we would haue giuen them our owne eies if it had beene possible to doe them good but now we are as wearie of them as the Israelites were of Moses when they would haue stoned him and therefore then were we filled with loue and with plentie but now we are emptied of godly care and plagued with mortall want The vses which arise from the consideration of this point are these first that we desire of the Lorde to haue pitie and care for our lande which is wasted and to cast his eies to our poore and penurious time offamine and dearth Deut. 11. 12. For alas our miserie groweth so great and incurable euery day more more that we haue great cause to feare least his long suffering turne into wrath and our pinching famine into death Who hath beene cast downe throughly not for a day but for a yeere in this occasion surely few or none and therefore is the Lorde as a stranger among vs and as one that tarrieth but for a night O my deere brethren let vs at the length yet learne the true and right way to remedie our euill and to encrease againe the fruites of the earth how haue our pastures beene drowned our medowes ouerflowed our corne blasted and our tilled lande made barren insomuch as we may see or might not long since haue seene how the hils and mountaines wept foorth whole streames of water for their barrennesse Let vs followe their example and be ruled by their line to doe the like for it as it hath done for vs. It is not we see in the planter or in the waterer but in the Lorde that giueth encrease of him let vs entreate this blessing that his hande may bee staied in time before all bee left destitute and the face of our countrey like the lande of Sodom let vs labour in praier as we haue done in tillage let vs bestowe as much cost in supplication to pacifie our glorious God as we haue done in husbandrie to amende our barren lande if he say but the worde all shall bee remedied Oh let vs powre foorth wordes and liues and harts and soules that this may bee remooued Another vse heereof seeing these creatures as great crops of corne large fieldes and other things must onely serue vs that wee may serue God then how fearefull a thing is it to abuse any of these whereby both the worship and workmanship of God are defaced therfore the holy Ghost admonisheth Rom. 14. 20. that we destroy not the work of God for meates sake Some surfet in their abundance to their death other disfigure the good shape of their bodies through pride and vanitie such as are yoong gallants and gentlewomen and the more they haue receiued the more they haue abused some in their ease and idlenes are growne like tunnes in compasse being vnfit for labour vnprofitable to any goodnes and vnwoorthy of any blessinges The labouring mans estate is much to be commended though it be poore yet it is happie he is an image of Adam created to worke he is an image of God created in righteousnes and the image of Christ created for calamitie his health is maintained by labour his bodie is refreshed with rest his minde is renewed with religion and his life is studious of the Lordes worship his hungry morsels make him more thankefull to God then the great delicates of the rich his bare bread and water or small drinke giue him more healthie nourishment then the fowles and dainties of the other his life is wearied with labour his minde is prepared for God and his soule is readie for rest Let vs all liue in this trauaile that we may die in this manner let vs keepe vnder our bodies and lustes as we refraine a yoong colte and let moe bridles of abstinencie and sinceritie curbe shorter all our pleasure and vanitie Another doctrine which we may gather out of this verse may be this that seeing the creatures of God do call vpon vs to worship him and therefore they be helpers vnto vs therein wee gather that our worship of God in this life cannot possiblie bee absolute and perfect that wee shoulde bee alway like affected and obserue time place order and zeale in our religion for heere wee see that the worship of God was violated bicause the fruites of the earth ceased our knowledge is obscured by naturall ignorance our time is omitted through sorrow sickenes care and worldly busines our harts are hindered through feare loue ioy pleasure vanitie and temptation and a thousand other waies shall wee finde that all we can doe in the Lordes seruice is but in part as Paul prooueth 1. Cor. 13. 9 10. How wicked are the bragges of them that boast of their vprightnes whereby they serue the Lorde thinking that there is nothing but of themselues they bee able to performe it But wee must know that the greatest doctor the learnedest preacher and the painfullest hearer cannot comprehende or teach or learne whatsoeuer is requisite to our saluation no not the whole church of God togither so
we aduertise them thereof If this be the commendation of all humane artes and worldly trades that each one leaueth more skill and greater perfection behinde him then at the beginning hee founde why shoulde it not then so fall out in heauenlie workes that euery father for his sonne euery pastour for his people euery captaine for his countrey and euerie doctor for religion shoulde leaue more then was before Surely how great an abhomination is it to see all worldly things growe better and better but all spirituall things to waxe woorse and woorse that we shoulde be better Philosophers since Plato better Phisitions since Galen better husbandmen since Virgill and better Poets since Homer but religion and sanctification being wrote by God himselfe and all the Prophets and Disciples of Christ yet is it in woorse estate then it was in the beginning It should be as golde which is more fined by comming through manie furnaces but it is like not of it selfe to the riuer Nylus which the farther it floweth the more dirt and draffe it draweth with it so euerie man patcheth and peeceth the worship of God that fathers leaue it woorser then they founde it The vses which arise from this doctrine as they are founde in the worde of God are these first seeing wee must be so carefull what we commende to our posteritie first that we leaue not any practise or president behinde vs which we haue not learned of the Lord Deut. 24. 8 9. If in the leprosie men ought to be so carefull where they were assured of apparant danger that not in any thing they must forget the Lords ordinance or adde any more to his commandement vpon paine of so heauie displeasure of his highnes then must all the world be carefull also to frame their actions according to the worde which dooing they shall not deceiue nor be deceiued And first of all we must beware of false and foolish prophesies which being but the dreames of many brainsicke persons haue bewitched the hearts of men that heard them and seduced the liues of some that receiued them and we may reade both in the booke of God and out of the Scripture that princes and countries haue been destroyed thereby Many of the learneder sort are much affected with the prophesies of the Sibilles Methodius and others many of the popish sort are continually contemplatours of the oracles of Briget and other papistical and monastical dreames but aboue all the simple and vulgar people imagine that there is no Scripture like to Merlins prophesie If I shoulde stande in the specialties to shew you when where and wherein the vnstable new fangled minds haue bin deceiued I should rather feed the curious then fill the righteous This shall be sufficient to admonish vs that wee neither presume to make our names famous by this meanes by giuing errours nor yet be so base minded as to embrace and receiue the same for truth whosoeuer hee be that vttereth it because Peter telleth vs 2. Pet. 2. 1. That there shal be false prophets in the church whō we must beware least we fall with them into the same perdition Others there are also which regard neither prophesie nor religion or any other spirituall exercise either feigned or vnfeigned but giue their whole liues and trauaile to an vnsatiable desire of gaine to gather landes and lordships by right or wrong and to leaue great store of wealth to their posteritie let these men bee also warned if they woulde bee warned that they commit not the gaine of vngodlinesse the wages of vnrighteousnesse and the Lordes portion for their inheritance For surely as our Sauiour speaketh Matth. 15. 13. Euery plant not planted by his father shall be pulled vp againe Their houses shall bee ruinous their posteritie infamous their possessions troublesome and strangers shall inherite their labours But in our daies also there is another wicked and wretched president for posteritie to be lamented that so many in this golden age of Christes Gospell are tickled with vaine conceites accounting their glorie if they can prooue the founders of new sectes whereby religion is defamed or penne some idle toyes for histrionicall plaiers whereby many good soules are endangered There are few or no Italian follies Spanish inuentions or French-faynedwanton-volumes but in our daies for the times succeeding they are taught to speake English I thinke for this purpose that now whiles religion ruleth it might bee troubled by them and when christianitie is remooued by their meanes iniquitie may be enthronized I haue read many of them and considered of them too long I must freely confesse that they be the voices forerunning and preparing a way for Atheisme idolatrie heathenisme or any kind of impietie And therfore all good Christians should do with them as the Ephesians did Actes 19. 19. with their bookes for I protest vnto you either you must forsake God or them Secondly wee must make one vse more of this doctrine which is this Seeing we must be carefull for posteritie that we suffer nothing to passe from vs or by vs to them that sauoureth of iniquitie let vs also liuing in these times like to the daies of Christ follow the example of Christ which is to pray for them which shall come after Luc. 22. 31 32. where he telleth his disciples that he hath prayed for them that although sathan should haue them in his fanne to winnow them as a man cleaneth wheate yet should not they faile so likewise Iohn 17. Christ praieth for all them which should beleeue in his name to the worldes ende Now my beloued brethren if you consider the causes why Christ did not onely procure the welfare of his children while he was liuing but also praied for their sinceritie when hee should be dead you shall also finde that we haue all as great cause to pray for our children as then our Sauiour had for his disciples One was because as we heard that they lay open to the malice of the diuell who would trie his vttermost either to make them denie him or to die for him So my deere brethren the malice of sathan is as hote against vs as euer it was against them if he could he would turne our countrie into seas our people into diuels our meate into serpents our drinke into poyson our profession into Atheisme our pleasure into hell And will he thinke you be more fauourable to our posteritie No no assure your selues if he may or might worke his will he would make them as poore as beggers as miserable as Iob in aduersitie and as desperate as Iudas to make their owne handes to bee their owne murtherers hee woulde feede the dogs with their blood the birds with their flesh the rauens with their bowels the infidels with their landes the Atheists with their houses and damnation with their soules pray therefore with teares and zeale that the grones of your hart may preserue the fruites of your bodies Another cause why
Christ praied for the disciples and the posteritie of the Church to the worldes ende was this Ioh. 17. 21. that there might bee a vnitie betwixt God and Christ and his members and considering this vnitie the vnbeleeuing worlde might be reclaimed Would not this vnitie doe well also betwixt vs and our posteritie that there might bee like father like sonne like mother like daughter Christians by regeneration and Christians by generation that our religion might abide with our names and our inheritance and that wee might bee ioyned in the affinitie of soules as we are in consanguinitie of bodies But oh wretched men or wicked sathan the oke feedeth okes the vine vines the oliue oliues the beastes engender their kindes and the fishes multiplie their like onely righteous men breede vnrighteous impes and their fruite is not pleasant till they bee graffed Why should not good men haue good sonnes as good seedes bring good corne the question is easily answered though with sorrow considered Religion goeth not by propagation but by adoption they beget such children as themselues were begotten that is the sonnes of wrath for whome we must pray without ceasing weepe without comfort and watch without wearinesse that they may be made the sonnes of righteousnesse The fifth Sermon Vers 4. That which is left of the palmer worme hath the grashopper eaten and the residue of the grashopper hath the canker worme eaten and the residue of the canker worme hath the caterpiller eaten NOw we haue by the mercifull assistance of diuine grace finished the preface of this prophesie let vs also with the same power enter vpon the prophesie it selfe We shewed you at the beginning that from this fourth verse vnto the twelfth of the second chapter is vttered by the prophet those iudgements which are threatened by the Lord. In declaring whereof he obserueth this order First in this fourth verse he sheweth the instrumentall cause or beginners of their miserie vnder God and afterward by exhortations and sundry amplifications he describeth before their eies the force of these hurtfull creatures bred and brought foorth onely for the destruction of these Iewish people The instrumentall causes are named to be these fower the Palmer-worme the Grashopper the Canker-worme and the Caterpiller small creatures comming with great force to inuade this countrey And this is that which made the Prophet so cry and call to the people for audience and attention that so woonderfull a matter should be effected not onely as Esay saith that a woman should compasse a man but that a flocke of little wormes should ouerthrow a whole nation and these beasts should come successiuely the one after the other that whosoeuer escaped the first should be taken by the last and that which was not touched by the former might be consumed by the latter And it may seeme that the foundation of their ouerthrow was wrought by a famine for we must not imagine that at the first these beasts set vpon men but began with their fruits with their corne their vines their trees and their store to cast downe those castles of confidence which they had raised vp in the abundance of their belly-cheere In like manner if it were lawfull for me to compare vs with them and to weigh the euent of our times by that which we feare and not by that which we feele might not all godly minds iustly doubt that whereas there is and hath beene so great an harmony in the transgressions of both people and such a consent in both our calamities that they are both begun with famine the continuance and the end should also resemble theirs I prophesie not what shal be but what may be I cannot say certainely that as their land was wasted their stores consumed their corne accursed and their richest men impouerished so shall ours be or that as they had their sacrifices stayed their temple emptied their law remooued their chiefe glorie the outward worship of God vtterly forsaken so shal ours be or that as they were at one instant time lamenting their losses weeping for their miseries and shedding abundance of teares to see their owne bodies famished their owne children perished and the grauest persons among them to be pitifully tormented hauing their houses filled with cries of people their streetes swarming with dead corpses and their fields and woods ringing with roaring and bellowing of beasts so shal ours be no not so but so may ours be the Lord graunt that this as we feele be not the beginning of sorrowes for verily I perswade my selfe that our countrey which hath receiued great heapes of benefits as the Iewes had and hath rewarded with great heapes of sinnes as the Iewes did shall also if not shortly be finally ouerthrowen with great plentie of iudgements as the Iewes were But now let vs returne to the words and herein looke for some doctrines which may edifie vs and admonish vs for of the other matter we shall haue fitter occasion to speake hereafter Then here we haue the prophet after his crie making his proclamation in the name of the highest king of heauen and earth telling them and vs that there shoulde come an infinite number of palmer-wormes to deuoure their fruits and that which they touched not should the Grashopper deuoure and that which the grashopper left should the canker-worme poison and that which the canker-worme poysoned not should the Caterpiller consume that by a quaternion of successiue spoilers they might be made to feele that which they were not willing to heare But some will say this was a small matter for the prophet to preach on thinketh he that we haue no other busines then to heare a tale of Grashoppers and Canker-wormes which leape in euery medow and hang on euery leafe or doth he imagine that we are such weake hearted souldiers and faint hearted persons that we should be terrified with a muster of fraybugs and little wormes of an inch long indeed these are matters to fray children and not olde men and therefore he must either tell vs of weightier matters or else silence his toong from such trifles And yet if any think thus in these daies as they were neuer more readie to take exception against the preachers I might answere them that they are not trifles which the Lord hath treasured in his word neither are they recorded onely to feare children but also to terrifie yea and condemne old men We must not weigh them in the ballance of naturall reason but lay them to a sound spirituall iudgement and we shall finde them more heauy then moūtaines which we deemed lighter then feathers The waies of God are not like the waies of men First of all we must know and remember vnto you that these fower kinde of beasts had euery one his yeere to worke the hurt that the Lord had assigned him to doe wherin they multiplied exceedingly and preuailed mightily in so much as no industrie of man could counteruaile their forces By this we obserue
TIMES LAMENTATION or An exposition on the prophet IOEL in sundry Sermons or Meditations Ierem. 13. 17. But if you will not heare this my soule shall weepe in secret for your pride and my eies shall weepe and drop downe teares bicause the Lords flocke is carried away captiue Bernard sentent The whole race of mankinde may lament these three things their birth full of vncleannesse their life pressed with wickednesse and their death in woefull danger AT LONDON Printed by Edm. Bollifant for George Potter 1599 TO THE RIGHT Honorable Sir Charles Blunt Lord Mountioy Knight of the most noble order of the Garter c. all earthly and heauenly felicitie RIght Honorable Lord Time is the measure of all things and therefore to shewe the misertes thereof is the fittest noueltie for our daies To consider the ancient or first time of the world which God created and approoued to be good Gen. 1. 4 5. where of one speaketh thus Flumina iam lactis iam flumina nectaris ibant Flauaque de viridi stillabant illice mella And this was called the golden age of the world wherein were riuers of milke and nectar and the rocks dropped downe honie where in was no destroying sword or pining sicknesse or burning hatred or wearisome labour to molest or disquiet the life of man would make vs either to woonder like fooles or to weepe like wise men But time is changed it was golden it was good it is wooden it is euill short was that time for it continued not many or as some thinke not any daies for sinne followed the creation therefore time may well clad her selfe in mourning weede and say with Iacob Few and euill are her daies Zimri was a king yet it lasted but seuen daies and then he burned himselfe aliue so time was glorious but seuen daies and then he burned himselfe aliue so time was glorious but seuen daies and then it fell into flames of woe that euery childe of time may weepe with Ierusalem Lament 4. 16. and say The crowne of our head is fallen woe now vnto vs that we haue sinned If I may be so bold with your Lordship to stand a little on the miseries of the world and to picke out here and there a consideration or an example from ancient historie whereunto your Lordship as vnto all other good learning haue deuoted your selfe I knowe that you will easily say with that princely-wisest Salomon that all is but vanitie and vexation of spirite and much commend the sorrowes and teares of Heraclitus who neuer laughed and of Serapion who euer weeped the one for the world the other for his sinnes If now your Honour aske me of the state of the world or the whole life of man liuing in the world what opinion I euer hold concerning the same I must answer you that it is the house of mourning and not one commeth thither but in all the partes of his life and profession he may truly say Quisquis non causas mille doloris habet that he was borne in sorrow and liueth in sorrow and dieth in greefe and is buried in lamentation though afterward he liue in glorie for ante mortem nemo beatus The world consisteth of two sorts of men of good men and euill good men doe euer sorrow for the worlde is their hell and euill men shoulde euer sorrow because God is their enimie the one for the affliction which they feele the other for the iudgement which they feare yea verily weeping seemeth so naturall in our sinfull state that ioy constraineth men to weepe For so we reade of Ioseph when he saw his brethren and met with his father and of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus when the Seuentie interpreters had finished the Bible and deliuered it to him he wept for ioy abundantly If we turne our eies to pitie the estate of the distressed although our selues haue not tasted of aduersitie yet this pitie if it be true pitie will enforce vs to greefe When Xerxes had his infinite huge armie in the fielde before him and tooke a view thereof he could not refraine from weeping to see the miserie of mankinde When Scipio had set Carthage on fire and sawe the flames there of soaring vp to the cloudes although he was their enemie yet the teares trickled downe his cheekes to beholde their ruine When Titus besieged Ierusalem and sawe euery day the infinite number of dead bodies throwne ouer the wals into the ditches which famished in the citie whereby he knewe their surpassing calamitie whereof himselfe was the cause yet in compassion of their estate he could not behold them but with waterie eies To goe yet farther in the affections if men be angrie they will easily mourne as Christ did ouer Ierusalem and thus you may beholde how ioy and loue and hatred and pitie and anger and desire doe call men to mourning Mourning and lamentation are so needefull that God hath made euery creature fit for the same The heauens haue their cloudes the earth hath his riuers and fountaines the beastes haue their roarings and howlings and the hard marble stones send foorth their fountaine teares Againe if we looke into the causes as we haue looked into the affections we shall perceiue that the same causes haue caused much mourning which pretended much reioycing Some will thinke that men hauing fine wits and hauing attained great knowledge being good Polititians the world will neuer frowne on them time shal neuer lament them but you know it is far otherwise for one saith too truly that the best clerks haue the worst fortunes For Socrates died in prison another by swallowing of a raw fish Aeschilus was brained with a tile Sophocles perished with a bunch of grapes the dogs tore Euripides in peeces Homer was famished Aristotle drowned and Glaucus an excellent Phisitian was put to death by Alexander and as Plutarch saith was crucified would not this make a man to mourne to see such rare wits haue such hard haps and may not Time well lament her vnwoorthinesse because she may not nurse such children Surely the Prophets haue for the most part tasted of this cup and violence hath brought them to their latter ende But peraduenture although the world doe frowne vpon schollers yet it laugheth vpon other for kings and souldiers liue in the world without all want But they are much deceiued Saul was a king yet he slew himselfe Caesar was a king but he was slaine in the Senate Valens was an Emperour yet flying to a shepherds cottage was burned therin Vigellius lost his eies Claudius Herminianus was eaten with woormes as Herod was Seuerus for very griefe did poyson himselfe as Annibal did and one said well if the people knew but the least part of a Princes cares they would thinke the cloth of state woorse then a russet coate And for soldiers or men most excellent in armes they are destinated to labour while they conquer and get fame and
that he which is cracked in credit and as it were one prooued periured shoulde come afterwardes in a triall of death and life whereas they which are neuer detected of the like enormities shall be excluded But God his thoughts are not like to mens thoughts nor his waies as mens waies the weakest things of God are stronger then the strongest of men and he choseth the despised castawaies to confound the mightie he looketh on a begger and regardeth not a prince the angels lie in the chaines of darknesse when men are aduanced to their places in heauen Euen this doctrine you may reade in the 1. Cor. 4. 9. where the Apostle teacheth that we are appointed vnto the ministerie as men are condemned to death that we might be made a gazing stocke to the worlde and to angels and to men shewing vnto vs that the very angels are beholders of the labours of the ministerie being present by the appointment of God at the assemblies of his saints that they might be witnesses of our labours vnto God as we are of Christes sufferings vnto the world The reasons of this doctrine may be easilie gathered out of the worde of God whereof this may be one that as our redemption was to be wrought onely in the nature of man not of angels no more was the preaching of the saide redemption to be declared by angels or any other creature saue onely man This reason the apostle seemeth to vse 2. Cor. 5. 18. when he saith All things are of God which hath reconciled vs vnto himselfe by Iesus Christ and hath giuen vnto vs the ministerie of reconciliation where he maketh our reconciliation made by the man Iesus Christ to be the ground or beginning or commission of the ministerie for without Christ and without reconciliation there is no ministerie And this serueth most highly to commend vnto vs the dignitie of the ministerie of the Gospell which is as it were the trumpet of peace and pardon vnto the godly to sounde vnto them those victories which they haue obteined against the kingdomes of darknes and vnto Christ to proclaime his royall maiestie ouer all the kingdomes of the worlde insomuch as those which labour against the preaching of the Gospell as all the Romish Religion-bond-slaues do they bid war vnto the king of glory and as our sauiour tolde Paul Act. 9. They kicke against the pricke and procure their owne paines Then it is manifest that Christ is no where more exalted then where hee is daily and continually preached so is hee no where more denied then where his word is silenced his ministers banished his members afflicted and all good exercises idly and carelesly frequented Then let vs that are the ministers and professors of the Gospell gather this comfort to our selues that we are the soules and persons which haue glorified his maiestie in this world by telling and teaching hearing and studying the praises of him who is blessed and praised for euermore Amen Secondly another reason of this doctrine why the Lorde hath committed the dispensation of his worde rather to men then to angels or anie other creature is this because none can be so neerely touched with the feeling of humane infirmities as men can be who knoweth a mans hart sauing a mā If they preach they speake by experience if they exhort they do it as if they were exhorted And this was one cause wherfore Christ became man that he might taste of our infirmities Heb. 4. 15. For my beloued when a man seeth his own flesh weeping wil he not weep also if he see his owne flesh afflicted wil not he be compassionate toward that if a man should see a father preaching to his sonne a brother to his brother a husband to his wife or one kinsman to another would not this mooue him more to see his deerest friend spending this labour vpon him then if a stranger whose face he neuer saw should perswade him Yes verily euen so the Lord to mooue vs more earnestly to the obedience of his son hath made choise of such dispensers of his mysteries as we know to be men like our selues feeling our paines desiring our pleasures wishing our welfare lamenting our losses and abhorring our sinnes to this intent that when we see them speake vnto vs in the name of God we shoulde thus presently reason with our selues This is a man like my self I am addicted naturally to fulfill my lustes to enlarge my profits to reuenge my malice to care for no pleasure but pastime to feare no displeasure but the worldes but these men although men haue denied their lustes and are become contemptible to the worlde they speake the worde of God boldly and feare no mans person they bring themselues to pouertie their names to ignominie their liues to shame and their friendes to hate them What shoulde be the cause of all this either they haue no wit or we haue no zeale they are not blessed or we are vngodly Reason thus with your selues then will it come to your mindes that surely for your sakes euen for the peoples sakes are the ministers made fooles that they might be wise the preachers poore that they might be rich and the prophets despised that the flocke might be honorable 1. Cor. 5. 10. Therefore my beloued when you see vs earnest in rebuking of sinne or exhorting to righteousnes that then we speak with feeling of those dangers that threaten destruction to all cōming vnto you as the Syrians came to the king of Israell with the halters about their neckes to mooue him to pittie them or rather we come vnto you as the prophet came to Ahab 1. King 20. 35. willingly offering our sides to be gored and our bodies to be wounded that our bloud may be your sorrow by the sight of our wounds you may come to the feeling of your sinnes by the paines we take in this worlde you may consider what are the plagues of the world to come Surely if we make but a calfe to cry in the field all the beasts come roaring running vnto it to succour it how much more ought men of better vnderstāding then beastes hearing their owne kinred and friends crying vnto them the vengeance of God with all speed to runne to the preachers to knowe the cause of their complaint and crie with the Iayler Men and brethren what shal I do to be saued Be not so rude as beastes be not woorse then bullockes The vses which naturally arise out of this doctrine are these first we ought not lesse to esteeme of the ministers of the worde being sinfull men then if they were more honorable creatures The Apostle Paul Gal. 4. 14. expresseth the sincere affectiō which the people ought to bear towards their pastors whē he witnesseth that they receiued him as an angell of God testifying vnto them their great fall which once thought euery worde of his mouth to be a deuine oracle and that his person was more then a
that there is a speciall iudgement of God when hurtfull creatures are increased If either the flies or the wormes or any small beasts arise aboue their vsual number thē know for a certain that these little beasts are infallible tokens of the Lords wrath Psal 105. 34. The Psalmist describing vnto vs the woonderfull workers of God which he wrought for his church saith He spake there came Grashoppers and Caterpillers innumerable so likewise the Prophets Ieremy and Ezechiell among the grand and inuincible plagues of God reckon this for one the growing or multiplying of noysome beastes For the Lord which is infinitely wise is able infinite waies to manifest that deuine power of his maiestie whereby once hee created all things of nothing and euery day sheweth vs our sins by changing his good creatures into hurtfull destroyers making the earth to pine vs the heauens to burne vs the aire to benum vs and the silly beasts to annoy vs. The reasons of this doctrine are these First because the Lord by these meanes doth not onely admonish vs all of our transgressions but especially punisheth vs for our singular rebellion Exod. 10. 4. 5. Among all these plagues which were wrought in Aegypt to punish hard harted Pharaoh and the blinde minded Egyptians the Lorde in great number sendeth grashoppers that prince and people might bee brought to destruction And surely if the Lorde haue so many meanes to reuenge the cause of his Saints that hee maketh bruite beastes the executioners of his wrath then let vs learne neuer to molest any in whome any graces of God appeere for then shall wee bring an heauie house of wrath vpon our heads Another reason of this doctrine is because that hee sometimes sendeth and multiplieth plentifullie his good wholesome creatures to the destruction of them that receiue them and if the good creatures of God be sent that he may more freely take vengeance by them vpon our iniquities much more when the noisome hurtfull beastes are increased doth he powre out his wrath and execute his anger We may reade Numb 11. 31 33. that the Lorde brought abundance of quailes vpon the tents of Israell but withall he sent leannes into their soule and his wrath came vpon them while the meate was in their mouthes that the lustes of their mindes cost them the bloud of their bodies and although they seemed to haue a great blessing yet it turned to a heauie curse In like maner they are not alwaies the happiest persons which haue all things at their wish nor yet is it alwaies a good thing to be aduanced to the highest roomes as Haman was to eate of the daintiest meate as the rich man did to be clothed with the softest raiment as the courtiers are to haue the poore bowing to our persons the worlde woondring at our wealth and the voices of all men to commende our workes For notwithstanding all these the soule may be poore naked comfortlesse and despised in the eies of the Lorde and what shall it profite vs to winne the whole worlde and loose our owne soules Let not pouertie dismaie vs for that was on Christ let not riches aduance vs for they were on Herod let not aduersitie trouble vs for good men professe it and let not prosperitie reioice vs for euill men enioy it Now let vs make some vses of this doctrine which may either strengthen our faith or amende our liues Therefore first of all the Lord shewing how manie iudgements he had powred vpon the Israelites Amos 4. 9. telleth them the vse of all which was that they should be cōuerted vnto his maiesty so that as Dauid saith He maketh his angels his ministers in like maner Amos might say He maketh the beastes of the earth to preach repentance vnto men For it is most requisite that when men become beastes in their liues drowning al reason within them then should beastes like themselues in reason though not in bodie come vnto them to reprooue their follie whose blowes should breake their harts that woulde not turne them at the preaching of men Now then the whole course of nature and naturall things do remember vs and helpe vs to worship the Lorde for if they bee subiect to vs and serue to our vses they tell vs that we must be subiect to God serue in his vineyard if they rebel against vs annoy vs with their presence they preach repentance to our liues conuersion to our soules whither then shall we go from the presence of the Lorde If we burie our sins in the earth as the wicked seruant did his talent yet we must bring them foorth againe to receiue our condemnation if we keepe them in secret yet the birdes of the aire shall reueale them if we neglect them and not regard them the lyons of the woode shall requite them if we dissemble them the Lord himselfe in flaming fire shall disclose them and if we continue in them the little woormes the seelie grashoppers and the simple creeping creatures shall reuenge them But wee in our daies haue not much tasted of this fourth plague which is the multiplying hurtfull beastes I meane our lande hath not been giuen to the locusts and our labours haue not beene spoiled by the caterpillers yet we are more troubled with more hurtfull beasts I say in the similitude of men such beasts as wander not in the fields but lodge in our houses being more vnreasonable then the palmer-wormes and more vnresistable then all the heards of canker-wormes The godly may cry out with Dauid the fat buls of Bashan did roare vpon me and with the Apostle that they fight with beastes in the likenes of men and yet Dauid neither feared the buls nor the Apostle fought with beastes indeed But such beasts as haue al reason against reason and no reason to any religion are swarming almost in euery corner of England we may as easily perswade the oxe to eat no grasse the birds to eate no corne the lyons to seeke no pray the lambe to refuse the pap of his dame as reclaime this kinde of beasts from their euill kind of sins Deafe adders they are they wil not heare wittie and politike foxes they will not be taken vipers without feeling the sorrowes of others wanton kine euer kicking against the poore stately lyons rauening whatsoeuer liketh them greedy beares byting al that com nigh them sleepy dogs profiting no body and what shall I say more They depriued themselues of all kind of humanitie therefore let these great beasts mooue vs seeing we haue no feare of little beasts These sleepe in our bosomes eate at our tables gather vp our profits and consume God his benefits Let these I say make vs innocent watchfull warie diligent obedient meeke gratious and zealous in religion that either our liues may conuert them or their beastlinesse amende vs. Another vse of this doctrine is this that as God can vse and also doth these his
these drunkards when they were awaked what they should do not go to their feastes againe or to the vomits againe or to the tauerns or to the ale-houses or to their mirth but he biddeth them go to the house of mourning Weepe saith the prophet and howle that is as if he had said lay away your pleasures and banish all euill companions drinke vp your teares as wine and eate your sorrowes as bread for a sudden calamitie is come vpon you the meate that is in your hand shall not come into your belly and your mouths shall be weaned from sucking and swilling in of strong drinke From hence when the prophet biddeth them to weepe I might note vnto you the nature or rather an inseparable companion of true repentance which is a mournfull heart and a weeping countenance which doth not onely sorrow for the fault but as it were wash away the sinnes of the soule for the teares which we weepe in this life do shew our vncleannes which if they were able they would cleanse away Teares are said to be the blood of the soule because they proceede of a wounded and sorrowfull spirit and therefore let not desperate ruffians and carnall persons thinke that the sighes and groanes and wishes of their hard hearts can goe for payment in the Lords presence or that the bare misliking and leauing of their old sinnes is true repentance for as the wound cannot be healed but the partie shall be payned so the life cannot be amended except teares or true sorrow be expressed But I will come nearer to my purpose for I cannot stande on euery worde and therefore I will onely note that which is fittest and of greatest necessitie The seuenth Sermon IN the next place he biddeth them to howle which is an action properly belonging to wolues and is metaphorically applied vnto these drunkards for they are both deuourers the one of lambes the other of corne both are beastes the one in nature the other in likenes and seeing they haue reioised like beasts now also he biddeth them to lament like beasts And therefore seeing I seldome find this word Howle but it is applied vnto beasts or wicked men I therefore note hereby that the vngodly comming into aduersitie are like to the brutish and vnreasonable creatures They sorrow without hope they weepe without comfort they howle without praier and they haue their wits and their ease taken away at once if they be merry it is for their wealth if they be heauy it is for their want So that then we may say iustly of them as Paule said of some Ephesians they are beasts in the likenes of men the prophet Dauid telleth vs Psal 49. 20. That man being in honour continueth not but becommeth like beastes that perish The wicked being in honour are inconstantly seated that serueth for their glorie but they are like the beasts that perish that sheweth their miserie in prosperitie they are vncertaine in their aduersitie they are vnhappie when they are lifted vp they will be more then men but when they are thrust downe they are founde equall to beasts The prophet Isay cap. 16. ver 7. prophesying the destruction of Moab because of their pride arrogancie indignation and lyes telleth them as this Ioell doth that Moab shall howle vnto Moab and euery one shall howle for the foundation of Kirhareseth shall yee morne and yet they shall be striken Will a man spare a woulfe although he cry bitterly No no for he knoweth he will rauen againe so God will not spare the wicked although they howle mournfully for he knoweth they will sinne againe Looke vpon this you desperate wicked persons and wretched bondslaues of Sathan heere may you see what you will do when the Lords hand is vpon you will you then turne vnto him when hee is turned from you or will you then remember him when your owne memorie is remooued thinke you then to haue power to praie or any hearts to hope in Christ when your reason and heart is taken from you thinke vpon it I beseech you before hande for else you vndoe your owne soules insomuch as when the water floudes of trouble come vpon you as the iust vengeance for your liues then you be filled with easelesse yelling beastly howling vnmercifull suffering intollerable complaining and no manner of relieuing then shall you finde that they which refuse knowledge instruction and correction in mercy shall feele the same in iudgement and you shall wish that you had endured any torment to be released of your present desperation The reasons heere of are plaine first because they cannot vnderstande iudgement Prou. 28. 5. If they bee crossed in their affaires and cast downe in their liues they know not that then they are arraigned before the iudgement seate of God which maketh them as farre without all naturall reason as they were before without all spirituall religion Dauid saide of them that the Lordes iudgements are farre aboue the sight of the wicked and therefore saith hee doe they defie all their enimies alas seelie soules they thinke that other mens harmes doe not warne them and that the Lord will neuer call them to account for their follies They imagine if they please themselues they displease not God and thinke if the hardest fall vpon them that euer can come yet their estate is better then other mens But my beloued saue your soules I beseech you out of Sathans clawes he draweth you on with deceitfull perswasions telling you that in aduersitie you shall be like other men in the meane season your eies are blinded that you cannot see howe heauie the iudgements of God lie vpon you purposing to take you at aduantage in extremitie that in sicknes he will make you raging in famine he will bring you to blasphemie in warres he will make your desperation that which is worst of al in death hee will bring you to endlesse condemnation Therefore thinke I beseech you with your selues and reioice not like beastes and then shal you mourne like beastes learne the course and causes of the Lordes iudgements that you may neuer feele the want of a peaceable and bolde conscience Another reason is this bicause this is onely the prerogatiue of the Lordes children in aduersitie to keepe their soules by patience Luk. 21. 19. Rom. 5. 3. and therefore the Lord will not giue his childrens meate vnto dogges nor yet cast such a pearle before such swine Where there is a dissimilitude of ioy there is also a dissimilitude of sorrow but betwixt the good and bad there is no likenes of their mirth and therefore there shall be no likenes of their woe they are proud when we are poore they are many when we are fewe they are merrie when we are sorrie they are glorious when we seeme comfortlesse and therefore when we are relecued they are distressed God is our comfort but it is their comfort if there were no God the diuell is our enimie but their
deadly warre disquieteth them then are they heauie then onely are they sorrowfull Reu. 18. 9 10 11. Luc. 17. 27. Hose 7. 14. They account it a speciall madnesse to mourne for the affliction of Ioseph that is to weepe for their owne sinnes for the persecution of the Lords flocke for the decrease of the faithfull and contempt of the Gospell also they thinke it a meere follie for men to reioice at the hearing of a sermon or the reproouing of sinne or the planting of a preaching minister and the remoouing of a cypher or the establishing of religion But let them knowe it is a thing accursed to reioice for vanitie and not for godlinesse to weepe more for the losse of a father or the want of bread or the feeling of sicknesse then for the famine of God his worde or the death of a faithfull man The reasons for confirmation hereof may be these because onely in these temporall and worldly things they place the rest of their soules Luc. 15. 19. The rich man hauing new builded his barnes reaped his corne and filled his storehouses biddeth his soule to take her ease for he had store ynough for many yeeres we maruell then that the losse of these things goeth so neere them when with them they loose the very health of their soules What shall wee say to the greedy cormorants which to gather wealth as this man did reposing therein the hope of their health while vnlawfully they would saue their soules vnrighteously they condemne them Oh let them also beware which being the outwarde professors of the Gospell yet neuer make an ende to encroach more liuing I cannot say they hope to be saued by them but I may be bolde to say that they much distaine the glorie of God while they aduaunce their names they endanger their soules Secondly another reason is because the loue of these carnall commodities banisheth away the loue of God 1. Ioh. 2. 16. How shal men which haue denied God and are become idolaters as all worldly men are Ephes 5. 5. care for any religion or reioice for any goodnesse yea rather lament it or how shall they lament any euill but rather reioyce in it because they are voide of all goodnesse themselues A godly father saide of them in this sort that they account that euill which doth not make them euill as famines sicknesse and other calamities but for swearing drunkennes whooredome and other vices they call them not euils They are not ashamed while they praise good things themselues to be euill and they thinke it a greater disgrace to haue a ragged towne a thatched house an vnhansome legge or a poore estate then to haue an ill life This said hee long agoe and now with teares I may say it againe that men in our times through the want of religion which through abundance they haue loathed and rebellion they haue vomited vp feare no God but the enimy loue no knowledge but their law euidence and they care for no health but bodily medicines and thus they weepe when they should reioice and reioice when they should weepe The vses which arise from this doctrine are these First that these carnall mindes and men shall neuer be eased in their carnall sorrowes or comforted in their worldly comforts Therefore Iames said cap. 4. 2 3. Ye lust and haue not ye enuie and haue indignation and cannot obtaine you fight and warre and get nothing be cause you aske not you aske and receiue not bicause you aske amisse that you might consume it on your lustes Wherein the heauenly Apostle hath set out to the full the nature of al worldly wishers carnal criers wherin these things I be seech you to obserue most diligently First that this is the nature of wicked mē in their praiers being in distresse that they enuie and haue indignation euen at God himselfe thinking that he doth them great iniurie thus to disquiet their ease and to trouble them with want Oh fearefull condition of wicked men that their very praiers are nothing else but murmuring against the Almightie Secondly he noteth the verie cause why the wicked craue any thing at the hand of their creator that saith he they might bestow it on their lustes And surely I am much afraid that the feigned praiers of a great number in this time of dearth and famine haue had the like inward motion which is the cause that the Lord regardeth not our praiers and remooueth not his iudgements Thinke not therefore that euer your cries for corne for bread for meate for plentie for cheapnes and for comfort shall take any effect although you fill the aire with your outcries or the earth with your teares vntill your carnall mindes be banished your enuying spirits be humbled your vniust and vnlawfull suites be silenced yea vntill you haue more regard to your soules then to your bodies to the Gospell then to the corne fields and to the glorie of God aboue wife or children life or saluation Another vse belonging to this doctrine our Sauiour giueth Mat. 6. 31. 32. Take no thought saith he what you shal eat or what you shall drinke or wherwithal you shal be cloathed for after these things seek the Gentiles your heauenly father knoweth that you haue neede of those things but seeke you first the kingdome of God and the righteousnes thereof and all these things shal be ministred vnto you Here may we learne the medicine for our sicknes the supply of our want the comfort of our distresse who shall bid vs mourn because we haue no meate Indeed it is to be lamented yet Christ saith take no thought for it thou art a poore man so was he thou hast a familie so had he thou liuest by thy labour so did he thou liuest in times of scarsitie so did he Then he speaketh by experience sorrow not for thy want he was the sonne of God so art thou it was his meate to do his fathers will so let it be thine Say not as the woman did to Eliah we will eate this and then die but rather we will endure this and then die The Gospell is my meate the sonne of God is my cloathing and the kingdome of heauen is my inheritance shall I lust after other meate or desire a woollen garment and wish for a worldly inheritance No no heauen is all things there is for me and my children Christ is all things he will cloath me and my children and the Gospell is all things it shall feed me and my family my soule shall eate my body my body shall not deuoure my soule Thus let vs comfort the poore members of Christ that want and encourage one another in distresse against distrust let vs weep with them that weepe and mourne with them that mourne that we may reioice with them that shall reioice in the kingdome of heauen For it shal be pulled from your mouth Hauing awaked these persons by calling and troubled them
that if you looke vpon all that is to be done of a faithfull man you shall finde many vnwilling and ineuitable slippes and falles in the purest obedience of all men The church of God hath felt and complained of this miserie in all ages that she coulde neither doe as she woulde nor performe what she ought to the Lordes obedience For if we be rich and neuer so godly then wealth hindreth vs if wee be poore want oppresseth vs if wee be magistrates gouernmēt doth let vs if we be seruants worldly obedience doth staie vs. So that as it cannot be but that in the purest corne there will growe some weedes so in our holiest worship of God there will appeere some wantes Dauid coulde not worship when he was at Gath and the saints of God although they haue willing mindes want powre and meanes to accomplish their desire And therefore let vs not bragge but confesse as our Sauiour saith in the Gospel when we haue preached our whole life long praied with neuer so entire affection and laboured with neuer so great diligence in the kingdome that wee are vnprofitable seruants hauing left moe things behinde which we ought to haue done The reasons of this doctrine are these first bicause that we shoulde neuer leaue of labour more and to encrease farther and farther so long as wee liue in this worlde as the Apostle saide of himselfe Phil. 3. 13. The which lesson I woulde to God were oftener learned and better followed in our daies wherein men thinke if they haue done a little seruice on the Sabbaoth day they holde themselues contented for the whole weeke following and hauing gotten a little knowledge of the common profession they are satisfied and trauaile for no more Oh howe strange is it that men are neuer satisfied and haue their fill of any thing saue onely of religion the which presently cloyeth them bicause they thinke it is no part of their dutie to bestowe their daily labour in some part of godlinesse I knowe this doctrine will please them well that no man can worship God perfectly and therefore they will worship him sparingly and coldly But they must knowe that there is not any man which hath his perfect health and yet he liueth and mooueth and groweth in stature so there is not any mans religion absolute yet it must striue labour for perfection as a sicke man doth for health Another reason of this doctrine is this that considering our imperfection through the sinne of our natures we should more earnestly desire to bee with Christ Philip. 1. 23. for he that is wearie and cannot goe as hee woulde yet he hath this in his wish to desire the perfection of the worship of God Whereby we may note that there is not any thing that may mooue vs to loue the being in the world the world it selfe wil hate thee if thou be a Christian why shouldest thou desire to liue therein thou canst not knowe the maiestie of God thou shalt not feele the loue of Christ and thou canst not enioy the end of the faith If thou wouldest haue the wish of Dauid to liue and to declare the works of God yet it shall be better to die that thou maiest liue in the glorie of God In this life thou art sometimes sicke carefull heauie hated oppressed enuied and hast but a little comfort of God because thou canst not professe him but a little therefore desire the other where friendes and ioies and health and loue and peace and comfort shall be euerlasting and they worship most absolute without sinne or ceasing The vses which arise of this doctrine are these first that although we can neuer be absolute in this life in God his worship but we shal haue as many lets as we haue howres yet let vs not cease to lament them and to desire their absence when Dauid had beene long absent from the place of the Lords seruice he cried out saying How long shall I dwell with Mesech and be constrained to abide in the tents of Kedar why might not Dauid thinke that it was not his fault but his enimies rage that did constraine him to that neglect because he was banished from his people Indeede it is apparant he knew it well enough yet least he should be contented with his miserie he calleth to God for a remedie so although we dwell in sinne and liue in a thousand wants of bodies and soules because they cannot be remooued in this life yet let vs not rest contented herewith but lament this mischiefe that we must so doe and desire a speedie release Art thou lodged in thy chamber through sicknesse or banished from the companie of the faithfull through persecution or kept away by imprisonment or hindered by hard parents or maisters or molested through pinching pouertie all which thou canst not auoide yet that the Lord may knowe and that thy soule may liue desire to bee eased of this burden Thinke not that thou shalt bee excused if thou canst not come and worship as thou oughtest but will the thing thou canst not performe and thinke it long till thy bondage be at libertie thy want be supplied and thy soule remooued from thy bodie that thou maist see God and loue him and liue with him and praise him for euer and euer Art thou a Christian and hast thou not greater cause to wish for heauen then Dauid had for Ierusalem and if you haue then pray with as great zeale that thy will may be turned into action thy lets into helpes thy wants into supplies thy soule into pietie and all thy worship into sinceritie Another vse may be this that men doe not any thing the lesse esteeme of the worship of God because they haue hearde that it is but temporall O this were accursed that a sicke man should be lesse regarded because he is sicke and not rather be the more attended shall a sonne despise his owne father because he is poore this were iniquitie and so is it a greater abhomination that men should lesse serue the Lord because the greatest measure is imperfect Although Dauid might not builde the temple yet he prouided wherewithall to do it and so although thou canst not loue God as thou wouldest and as thou oughtest yet loue him as thou canst and as farre as thou art able be not discouraged because thou art not able to goe through with religion for if thou haue any religion knowe thou that the least things of God are greater then the greatest of the world and the weakest things of God are stronger then the strongest of men Honour them that haue the giftes of God in them although they be imperfect for who despiseth a crased peece of gold or who throweth out of doores a broken siluer pot and therefore who but a mad man would lightly regarde the small graces of God in men But alas it is the miserie of our time wherein religion is measured by wealth and deuotion
followeth that it is a most wretched thing to goe backeward and to cease from being righteous for this cause the blessed seruant of God exhorted Reuel 22 11. Let him which is righteous be righteous still shew therefore if thou haue euer obtayned any mercie of God in the knowledge of the Gospell retaine the same for euermore If euer thou haddest any dislike of prophannesse any hatred of euill any conscience of goodnes and any desire of mortification that thou diddest euer abhor vaine sports foolish words wicked works vnprofitable members godles companions and truthlesse superstitions continue so minded for euermore but as thou hast beene iust so abide righteous The sheepe once blacke or white neuer chaungeth colour the vessell once seasoned neuer looseth sweetnes and the soule once sanctified neuer forsaketh holines Be not vnsauourie salt be not vnstedfast winde be not a foolish builder and be not a cursed backeslider Call not the truth once beloued into question but fight for it as for life receiue not the filthines once banished but flye from it as from death Loue not that sinne which once thou hatedst least all other sinnes become suiters for thy soule Goe out of vanitie and ignorance and hypocrisie and securitie as Lot went out of Sodome and neuer looke so much as backe vpon them Destroy vtterly the citie and dwelling of Sathan in thy soule as Ioshua destroyed Ierico and curse them that builde it againe follow all the examples of all the godly Paule once conuerted neuer reuoked Peter once strengthened neuer more halted Onesimus once reconciled to his master neuer ranne from him any more And so seeing thou canst say I haue heard sermons I haue loued prayer I haue harboured the saintes I haue hated dauncing tabling carding vsuring swearing lying stealing and all other abhominations oh wallow not againe in that filthy mire but continue righteous to the end Alas alas as the eies of man cannot weepe enough for the backesliders so the toong of man cannot speake enough of their accursed apostasie some fall to pouertie some to securitie some to vanitie some to open impiety som into heresie some into schisme some into the world some into the flesh and all of these into hel and thus they goe away as Gedeons souldiers which were at the first 21000. but in the end they were but 300. Might Rahel weepe bicause Herod kilde her children and may not the church weepe because the diuell killeth her children Well woe be to him for his malice and woe be to them for their backsliding Secondly seeing wee all neede encouragement vnto good things let vs not onely bee exhorted but assured that the presence of God shall assist vs. When Zerubabel and Iehoshua were stirred by the prophet to finish the temple of God the Lorde promised his presence to assist them Hag. 2. 5. and his spirite to remaine with them Now marke who are exhorted but the prince or chiefe gouernour and the priest or chiefe bishop and all the people of the land let vs not therefore feare to enter into a farther reformation of our selues and doubt nothing but the Lord shall finish our buildings We are not Babel and the builders thereof what neede wee feare confusion we are not Saul what neede we despaire of victorie we are not Achitophel we will not distrust our counsell we are not Iudas why should we vndoe our selues for our sinnes If we haue deferred our repentance and amendment and ran away from God as Ionah did yet being called againe let vs goe boldly to the Niniueh of our owne soules and preach the fearefull curse of God against sinne The Lord came to Abraham in the plaine of Mamre sitting in his tent and there promised him a sonne why should we not be perswaded that when we are in meditating on any goodnesse and louing any rightcousnesse and aduenturing any holy businesse but the Lorde will come vnto vs and promise vs life eternall Therefore my deere brethren and sisters aduenture farre for the religion of your soules and knowe that he shall goe with you to helpe you to your wish feare not any power for he is omnipotent nor any enimie for he is your shield nor any subtiltie for he is your wisedome nor any want for he is your sufficiencie nor any constancie for hee neuer changeth nor any death for he is your life Beleeue that you cannot conceiue vnderstand that you cannot see beare that burden which he giueth you abide that sorrow that he sendeth you and practise that gospell which hee hath taught you Pray for repentance and faith and knowledge and zeale and obedience and holinesse and life eternall for the Lord is in thine owne soule and feare not he will giue it thee Girde your selues Againe out of these wordes wherein the prophet biddeth the priestes to be girded to lamentation that is to be throughly prepared and to put on sackcloth that is all outward and inward testimonie of sorrow and to lie all night before the Lord that is to endure any paine and labour to be reconciled to God Out of the which I might note as many doctrines as words as first that vpon good counsell and godly meditation men must come to lament their miseries before God not rashly nor rauingly nor furiously but with a godly preparation Againe that the ministers in any common danger must more earnestly be humbled then any other Againe seeing he calleth for such sorrow and such continuance thereof he thereby noteth that if God be once angrie we must vse all meanes that can bee found to appease him though it cost our sweetest health and our deerest blood But I will specially obserue this doctrine that all both minister and people when they come to entreate for the remoouing of the Lord hand must be sure that they be throughly humbled Nehem. 1. 4. their cause must be well pondered and weighed their mindes must bee well prepared and perswaded their liues must be most zealously reformed and their continuance in their humiliation must be most instantly and inuiolably obserued I haue obserued a great defect in the humiliation of many in the time of our late calamities of famine and warre and plague when we were cast downe before the Lord. For men would come to these exercises from tauernes and alehouses from shops other busines no otherwise prepared then at another common time againe the notes of their pride in apparell and all brauerie fond expences they brought with them and came more like plaiers then mourners into the Lords house and also they were quickly wearie for some would neuer tarrie till the end and other if they once came they neuer came more And surely these were too euident signes that wee were not throughly humbled and therefore no maruell though the plague preuailed on so many and the famine hath continued so long Oh that therefore this exhortation of the prophet might worke a newe and often remembrance of vnfained humilitie
before the Lord when wee euer meete againe about the like occasion and this I would haue practised both in priuate and publike humiliation The reasons that may mooue vs vnto this dutie to be throughly humbled are these first because the Lorde will not looke on our aduersitie without this perfect and absolute contrition Isa 58. 3. for he then especially looketh to the inwarde disposition of euery soule to see who they be which tremble at his word and iudgements and they which then will not nor cannot there is little hope of grace and goodnesse in them The heathen king of Niniueh and all his subiects had that conscience when the Lord sounded their destruction by the prophet Ionah Ahab mourned when he heard the words of Elijah the prophet and when God speaketh to the Assyrians and Moabites he biddeth them come downe into the dust and ashes to lament their miseries Alas why doe I rehearse either precepts or examples to mooue men vnto this which they would not doe for if their owne liues and bloud and soules will not prouoke them hereunto other mens waies will not perswade them yet let them thus consider that it will greeue them more to loose this their counterfeite humilitie as the Iewes doe in the forenamed place when they shall say we fasted we praied we trauelled and we desired to iustifie our soules and yet their fast shall be as vanitie their praier abhomination and their comming into the Lords presence like his which had no wedding garment and therefore was hee and so shall they bee cast into vtter darknesse Another reason is this because that those iudgements which call for this humiliation must teach vs righteousnesse Esa 26. 9. and so we encrease in righteousnesse as we exceede in humilitie and for this cause we must know that the more religion a man hath the more humble he is and the more hee saith hee encreaseth in goodnesse the more he must studie to shew it outwardly As for those which thinke they serue God well enough when they neither pray with their toongs nor bende with their knees nor vncouer their heads nor mooue out of their houses I leaue them to their fancies let euery beast bird of the aire confute their fancies for the Lord which hath assigned euery member his office will haue euery one to execute it himselfe The vses which offer themselues by the consideration of this point are these seeing we must bee throughly humbled therefore let vs auoide all manner of idlenesse in this worship of God Iam. 2. 19. when we are once perswaded of this point we shall not onely lende an eare to this businesse but thinke all time too little that we spend not herein The poore saintes of God in that forenamed place crie in the night watches as these priestes which lay all night in lamentation and so when the feare of the Lords wrath and the conscience of our owne dangers doe once meete together then there is not any thing that will bee so acceptable to vs as praier This feare will driue from vs our sleepe as the windes driue away the cloudes the sicke man will sit vp the olde man will holde vp his hands the weake man will stand for his life the woman will weepe without ceasing and euery one so touched will auoide all worldly actions then will or rather then must the rich man forsake his counting house the farmer leaue his plough the seruant auoide his rest the labourer neglect his meate and the drowsie person hold vp his eies All the Apostles slept till the high priestes seruants came to take our Sauiour but then they awaked fled for their liues but why did they not wake before in praier that thē they might haue slept without danger oh let vs therefore come both great small to appeere in the Lords presence with al diligence let not any long iourney any lack of prouision any loue of ease any losse of health make vs idle Rise early to praier watch late to lament sleepe little that thou maist spende the more time to gaine thy soules health In the day we labour for our bodies in the night let vs labour for our soules My soule saith Dauid thinketh on thee in the night watches and so let our soules thinke on the Lord when other thinke on their rest and their pleasure Another vse which commeth by this consideration is this that seeing we must be throughly humbled or not at all let vs take for our example the paterne of them that mourne for the dead as the prophet exhorteth Ierem. 6. 26. How many are the teares of them which loose their louing husbands their tender children and their loyal friendes Iacob for feare of this said before hand it woulde make his hoare head goe downe into the graue But so slight is the mourning of many among vs that they neither wette their cheekes for their sinnes nor yet would willingly depart with this life for the enioying of the life to come Surely this is woorthy to be noted in them which earnestly lament the dead that they desire to be with them so let vs desire to be free of this feare of death and sinne with the death of our sinnes and liues let vs so bitterly bewaile our time as we may be most willing to change our life for no other cause then to cease from sinne The Israelites bewailed Moses thirtie daies together and let vs with great and long continuance mourne not for Moses who is in heauen but for our selues who would be in heauen When Naomy bid her daughters Ruth and Orpah goe backe into Moab they wept at her words if they were so vnwilling to liue in Moab and to depart with Naomi why are not wee as vnwilling to liue in this world and to depart with Christ seeing he is our head and we his members we must goe to him and he may not come to vs let vs therefore by his example endure many sorrowes and great dangers that we may be more willing to leaue this life The theefe inclosed in the prison ceaseth from stealing and when wee are closed in iaile of many griefes and clogged with the irons of many crosses then let vs know that we cease from many externall and internall abhominations Yee ministers of my God In this that hee calleth the priestes which serued at the altar the ministers of God he thereby giueth vs to vnderstand whose possession are the ministers namely and onely the Lords Num. 3. 12. The Lord challengeth the tribe of Leui to himselfe to be his peculiar and royall priesthood and the Apostle willeth the Corinthians that they should so thinke of him as of the minister of God and disposer of the secrets of his kingdome and therefore writing to the Galathians hee telleth them hee is not by man nor by the will of man but of God Once in steede of the appointed ministerie were the first borne of euery familie
and you shall like of it better loue it deerer heare it oftener and leane to it more safer then euer you did Againe seeing we must heare the worde of God with feare and trembling let vs also make an ende of our saluation with feare and trembling Philip. 2. 12. that is feare not onely in the church or when thou art neere vnto danger but all thy life long vntill thou haue made an end of thy saluatiō For so long as thou fearest so long thou art in safetie but when the world shall say peace peace and there be no feare of iudgement then shall come their destruction for as when he in the gospell promised to himselfe greatest safetie in his riches that night did they fetch away his soule so when we say we haue done it is finished I haue sorrowed long ynough I haue endured the crosse of Christ thus many yeeres and therefore now I will take my pleasure then shall our danger bee neerest and our woe bee greatest therefore let vs neuer cease fearing till we be in heauen as the shipmen neuer cease watching till they bee in harbour Oh here is a Christians triall if other men vexe him let him beare it if he be free from other men let him chastise himselfe Feare the Lorde least he be thy iudge feare thy Sauiour least he prooue thy enimie feare thy sinnes least they ouermatch thee and tremble at the word of God least it condemne thee A day of darknesse and obscuritie a day of cloudes and of blacknes as the morning spread vpon the mountaines so is there a great people and a mightie there was none like it from the beginning neither shall be any more after it vnto the yeeres of many generations A day of darknesse Now the prophet proceedeth to describe the great wrath of God in the furie of these small beastes which he doth first by consideration of the qualitie of the day or time when they should come and secondly by the manner of their comming taken from many resemblances and similitudes For the time he describeth it after the vsuall manner of the scriptures which setteth foorth a sorrowfull day of indgement by darknesse cloudes and mistes secondly he sheweth the cause hereofto be the great and mighty people meaning the locusts and the residue for he calleth them a people as Salomon calleth the ants and the conies Prou. 30. 25. and he saith they shal obscure the light as the morning darknes bicause their company should bee so many as we may reade they did in Egypt Exo. 10. 15. And therefore he saith there was not the like from the beginning meaning for a long season nor yet should bee againe to many generations following So that he telleth them that this was a fearful time when all the heauens should be couered with clouds the earth be darkened with an innumerable swarme of noisom beasts Cōcerning the multiplying of these beasts we haue spoken in the former chapter First when hee sheweth them that the day of their trouble shoulde bee cloudie gloomie and full of darkenes wee may learne that these thinges doe put vs in minde of the great wrath of God Psalm 18. 11. For in truth thus the Lorde will haue it that we shoulde bee feared from the heauens aboue vs and from the earth beneath vs. It is reported for a great wonder that wee in Englande seldome haue any daies wherein we see not many cloudes whereas in other countries they see not any cloudes for manie monethes togither Let vs therefore make this aduantage of our countries scituation that on the day time when we beholde the cloudes wee thinke vpon the great iudgement of God whereby from the cloudes hee once rained downe a great floude that destroied the worlde and howe one day in a cloude Christ shall come to iudge both quicke and dead Againe by night let vs meditate on the light of heauen that wee may escape that vtter darknes where shal be nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth The reasons of this doctrine are these First bicause this want of light was the first punishment that God inflicted on the Iewes for the death of Christ Matth. 27. 45. the which thing made them much afraid for they had darknes instead of light to shew them that Christ which should haue beene their light was nowe made darkness vnto them from whom they could receiue no sight to walke to heauen And surely if this outwarde and carnall darknes bee so terrible especially in the daie time then what is the inward and spirituall darknes in the mindes of men whereby they are depriued of all light of God all partaking of the spirite and all the hope of the worlde to come Oh woulde God this their perplexitie coulde prouoke their harde and vnbeleeuing hearts to forsake their damnable securitie this their darknesse is so grosse that other men feele it yet they are so blinded that they cannot see it Let vs therefore my deere brethen know that God will leaue none without excuse but either the word or the world shall tell them their duties and let vs learne to praise the Lord for couering the heauens with cloudes Psalm 147. 8. that by this meanes not onelie watereth the earth and maketh it fruitefull but also admonisheth the mindes of his children of a continuall preparation to iudgement But in our times all these are nothing regarded for signes tokens remembrances of righteousnes yea some knowe not so much as the vse of the rainbowe in the cloudes neuerthelesse in the right vse of God his creatures consisteth one great part of religion so that this is the best kinde of Astrologie or Prophesie to bee made of the starres that they may direct vs to a holy life and prepare vs for a blessed ende Moreouer by this that the Prophet saith The like hath not beene seene nor shall not be in many generations Wee may obserue that God doth verie seldome change the course of nature and turne light into darknes for nature being a rare worke of God he seldome vseth his omnipotencie to alter and change the same since the foundations of the worlde were laide The reasons are these First in regard of the Lordes owne promise Genesis 8. 21. For after the floud he determineth neuer to drowne the world againe and therefore he gaue the rainebowe to be a pledge thereof and also that the continuall course of nature shoulde remaine for euer Now the Lorde is faithfull and will remember his promise or else we knowe that the worlde might manie times since haue beene destroied for there hath beene more sinne since the floude then euer was before Since the floude haue sprung idolatrie the poison of the worlde and many other abhominations not knowen of in the first age as wars and Sodometrie and such other like yet for his promise sake hee forbeareth destruction Another reason may be the same that Dauid vseth Psalm 119. 90. 91. That
bodie of Saul doe when his soule was so laden with sin for he knew that the Philistines must needes haue his life and the diuell his soule in like manner will the enimie bewitch you when you are in aduersitie Therefore cast down your castles and defences for sin as the Lord exhorteth Hos 10. 14. before the diuell make them inuincible For as the raigne of Abimelech was the slaughter of Gedeons sonnes and the raigne of Athaliah was the ouerthrow of all the kings seede so is it betwixt vs and our sinnes if they raigne we must die if we put them downe we shall liue Let vs therefore cast them downe betimes for as the Israelites did at the first spare the Canaanites afterwarde they could neuer destroy them so if at the first we dallie with our sinnes in the end they will grow vnresistable Oh that we might liue to say of our sinnes as Christ said of the temple that there might not one sinne be left vpon another Let vs bury our sinnes as Ieremy said Iehoijakim should be buried Ierm 22. 18 19. that their deaths be not lamented but let them be cast out of our soules as a dead asse is cast out of a citie for as a dead corps procureth nothing but wormes and stinke and feedeth fowles so our sinnes cause nothing but woe and sorrow and feed diuels Againe let vs not onely cast away our sinnes in heart as many say they haue done but in words and works professe and shew the same Hos 14. 3. for by our words we shall be saued and by our words we shall be condemned A repentant man is knowne by his confession as Rahabs house was knowne by the thred that was tied in her window which caused her all her kindred to be spared and so if we would be spared at the great day of the Lord let vs confesse our selues to be of his family Many I know there be which thinke it sufficient to leaue sin and neuer to make confession thereof so also there be many that thinke it sufficient to beleeue the Gospell although they neuer professe it but in my opinion the one and the other are both deceiued For wee must not bee of Abrahams heart and of Belials life wee may not beare the soule of Dauid and the shewe of Pharisees Good king Iehoshaphat being in shewe like wicked Ahab was in danger to be slaine for Ahab so are all those in danger of death who haue inwardly good heartes and outwardly euill liues Confesse thy sinnes thy faith thy God thy sinnes to thy brethren thy faith to the church and thy God to the whole worlde that thou maiest bee as farre from note of euill as euer is light from the shewe of darknes The xviij Sermon Vers 7. They shall runne like strong men and goe vp to the wall like men of warre and euery one shall goe forwarde in his way and they shall not staie in their paths NOwe the Prophet commeth to the last similitude wherein he compareth these deuourers to souldiours for in truth there is not any mischiefe like to the mischiefe of warre which is well termed the slaughter house of mankinde and the hell of this worlde And in this treatise following I must enter into martiall affaires that as I haue hitherto taught you to be christians so now I must instruct you to bee soldiours and learne you the arte of warre Wherein this Prophet toucheth two things The first is the order of an armie vers 7. 8. Secondly the ouerthrowe or sacking of the conquered For the first he noteth what manner of men souldiors shoulde be namely Strong men Exod. 17. 10. For God hath so ordeined that all men haue their crosses and callings to humble them If thou be bee wise thou art emploied in gouernment if thou bee strong thou art busied in warre if thou be weake thou art tormented in want if thou be a woman thou art vnder subiection if thou bee a foole thou liuest in contempt Therefore thou which art a souldier make this vse of this point that thou encrease thy strength and cast away feare Deuter. 31. 8 Vndoe not thy strength by quarrelling or drinking or watching or fasting or feasting or whooring but keepe thy body in strength to benefite thy countrey Againe make another vse which the Lorde taught Iosuah the most noble captaine and souldier of the worlde who had the leading of sixe hundred thousand men and ouercame thirtie and one seuerall kinges in a little time this exhortation is set downe Ios 1 8. That alway in warre thou looke to the worde of God whether thy cause bee iust thy heart bee willing and thy calling be lawfull whether thy handes strike when God biddeth and thy foote stande when God calleth Looke to this I saie and robbe not kill not and fight not but against a lawfull enimie But alas Iosuah is dead and al those which sawe his doings now in warres there is gaine in steade of godlines courage in steade of equitie bloudthirstines in steade of valour policie in steade of iustice and you seldome see a souldier of any religion and neuer praieth till he bee in danger of death Another instruction ariseth out of this verse when the prophet saith Like men of warre whereby we obserue that souldiers should bee disciplined and instructed before they be sent into wars or else they cannot be like men of war This benefite Dauid acknowledged that he receiued of God Psal 18. 34. it is a dangerous matter to aduenture a whole army vpon yoong souldiers and more dangerous it is to vndoe any through want of skill The reason is bicause men must not onely haue strength but wisedome and cunning in their weapons and sometime vse the stratagems of warre where policie and experience is woorth tenne thousand mens handes as wee may see in Iosuah cap. 8 4 5 6. and in the Israelites Iudg. 20. Wherfore make this vse in thy warfare of this doctrine howsoeuer thy cause be good thy strength be great and thy experience much yet neuer fight til thou haue cōmended the victorie to God 2. Sam. 10. 12. for God is the warrior which daunteth euery enemy and directeth euerie dart to the person appointed Be not too bold as the Israelites were Deut. 1. and were chased backe againe by the Amorites but vse deuotion to God and discretion in thy busines remember well that the sword cannot cut except the Lord whet it that thy arme cannot strike except God enable it that the enimie will not flie except he discomfort him and that victorie will not follow thee except God be on thy side Againe if thou bee an able man for the warre both in strength and skill come willingly when thou art called and refuse not to fight in a good cause although it bee against thy own brother Yeeld obedience to them that shall teach thee and as the captaine in the Gospell said that his souldiers did
the quietnes of thy minde if both be grauelled togither then comfort thy selfe bicause thou liuest And so thou shalt see one staffe to beate thee and another to defende thee one cause to punish thee but a greater to comfort thee Then denie not God although thy comfort seeme small for that begger were worthie of stripes which woulde raile on a gentleman giuing him a grote which was able to giue him a crowne Another reason God hateth them that crie out against him Ier. 12. 8. Now how can we more blasphemously crie against him then when wee traitorously denie him for if we acknowledge not him to be ours then wee denie our selues to bee his wherein wee shake off all obedience and spit in his face O consider what a thing it is to make the Lorde to hate vs the worlde will laugh at vs the church will defie vs the angels will not defende vs but the diuell will haue vs for he watcheth for the Lordes hatred as a rauen doth for a bullockes death or the butchers slaughter day We cannot preuaile by complaining against God for to whom shall wee appeale therefore if we would preuaile let vs complaine of our selues that he may be iustified and we acquited Let vs take heede that wee tempt not God in our miseries for hee will take vengeance of the sinnes we commit in aduersitie Ezech. 20. 15. The Israelites being in the wildernes without drinke hauing the whole world to bee their enimies their number being great and their miseries being many yet the Lord made their owne bloud to wash away their murmuring And let not vs tempt the Lords power as they did nor yet lightly esteem these mercies we enioy being wearie of patience and grudging at our poore estate neither let our weake wits or sicke bodies excuse our follies for we see the Lord will plague vs with one miserie after another Some are of this minde that they thinke they may be borne withall if they goe awrie in aduersitie as to lie to sweare to steale to be absent willingly from sermons because they bee poore or lame or sicke or light-witted but they are farre deceiued for it is not lawfull to doe euill that they may be well If a stubborne sonne feeling his fathers rod shall reuile him he will punish him the more so God will punish vs the more if we abuse him in our aduersitie Iob was more blamed for his vnaduised speeches in the time of his trouble then for all the vanities of his former life Therefore my deere brethren let vs be aduised how we murmur against the Lord notwithstanding our aduersitie for the Lord will not holde him guiltlesse that presumeth on his mercie or despaireth of his goodnesse let not our wordes be stout against him that we defie him or too base that wee should forget him Another vse we knowe the Lord doth multiply our miseries to the intent that we should more earnestly seeke after him Hos 5. 15. He giueth vs the more stripes that wee shoulde giue him the more praiers hee encreaseth our sharpe sufferings that we should encrease our bitter weepings and for this cause he punisheth vs that he might bee knowen to be our God What then will some say hath he no other meanes to manifest his iurisdiction and to challenge our liues to himselfe then by laying on a loade on our backes of intolerable miseries To whome I answere that he hath moe meanes to worke it then any liuing are able to shew it but this meanes liketh him best especially after men haue forsaken him It is lawfull for him to crush their bones into powder their flesh into peeces their blood into dung and their liues into death if it please him and most blessed is their estate that are thus aduaunced by him Now then learne if thou haue tasted of the sower cup of sorrowe to flie to God more speedilie and to entreate him more earnestly He hideth himselfe that we shoulde seeke him he runneth from vs that wee should runne after him hee casteth vs off that wee should make account of him he it is that bringeth vs into danger that we might knowe he will deliuer vs out of danger We are taught by experience we are reclaimed by correction wee are purged by his rod and he taketh from vs our delight that wee might come to him for delights Let vs therefore goe out of our selues much more out of our houses to seeke his presence which is euery where his benefites which are generall and our owne happinesse in the valley of teares neuer giuing ouer till wee haue found him whome our soule loueth For he is gracious Now we are come to the reasons which the prophet vseth to perswade him to repentance which are set downe in this verse and in the next in this verse taken from the adiuncts or properties of God in the next they are taken from his effects or works His properties are described to be these fower gracious mercifull long suffering and repenting him of the euill whereof euery one hath a singular waight to perswade men to repentance By the first hee meaneth plentifull in giftes by the seconde readie to forgiue sinners by the thirde waiting for their conuersion by repentance by the fourth the changing of his iudgements threatened So that the prophet might thus reason with them Repent O ye men of Iudea for the Lord hath many blessings in store doe not loose them hee is most readie to pardon you doe not refuse it for he hath and doth tarrie long for your amendment abuse not his patience and it may be if you will repent these lamentable miseries shall be all reuoked Againe can you not repent the Lord is gracious he will helpe you with his spirite Are you afraide it will be in vaine noe he is euermore entreated Thinke you it is too late that cannot bee for he is long suffering Feare you that your land and liues shall bee yet destroied his promises notwithstanding I tell you plainly you shall no sooner repent of your sinnes but hee will change his minde and repent him of the euill By the first word gracious let vs learne that all the spirituall and temporall giftes of God do call vs to repentance Deut. 4. 33 38 40 Repentance being a thing so needefull as without it none can bee saued the Lorde hath made as many preachers thereof as he and all his creatures are If wee looke vp to him wee see his grace that putteth vs in minde of repentance if we looke to his creatures marke for whom they were made that is for vs then they ouercome vs if how they were made by the vnspeakable power of God then they dismay vs if we consider their estate sometime seene and somtime not seene somtime pleasant and sometime not pleasant sometime glorious and anon troubled all this will teach vs to bee troubled for sinne Thou changest thy garments then change thy life thou seest the earth
hell will once againe commit and bequeath you to condemnation as the fruitles fig tree was Thinke not your selues happie that you liue so long before you bee called to beare for verily long agoe were you appointed and called to yeelde him his haruest If therfore you wil not striue to yeeld it thinke that God wil reape where he did not sowe and gather where he did not lende and hee will tarrie no time for the figge tree bore no fruit bicause the time of fruites was not come yet was it reprobated So if God come to thee although thou neuer were able to yeelde him any commoditie yet he will regarde himselfe and not thee his expectation and not thine his glory and not thy welfare for he which is hardlie prouoked is more hardly pacified neither sparing in his rage man woman beast or angell That the heathen These wordes containe another grounde of their praier wherein they desire that the Lorde woulde spare them least that by reason of famine they shoulde be driuen to the Lordes enimies for succour or else they feared that when their scarsitie shoulde bee noised abroade the heathen woulde come conquer them From hence we may obserue that there is not any thing more odious to godly mindes then that the heathen idolatrous men without religion should rule ouer them Psal 74 4 5. As it is vnnaturall and dangerous that men shoulde bee ruled by beastes sheepe by woolues and little birdes by the great hauke euerie minute threatening to teare them in peeces so is it when good men are driuen through want or warre or loue or feare of life to seeke harbour among the enimies of God Well they know that their libertie is woorse then imprisonment and that the highest place of dignitie among the wicked is inferior to the lowest in the church of God as Dauid saide I had rather keepe a dore in the house of God then to dwell in the tents of wickednes What pleasure haue we of sight liuing in darknes or of health liuing in imprisonment or of strength liuing in bondage or of meate liuing in sickenes and no more shall we haue of all worldly things when we are in the lande of heathens The first reason bicause in the dominion of the wicked there is no conscience of bloode or care of equitie Ezech. 22. 27. They turne their subiects to slauerie their widowes to destruction their children to beggerie and they send heapes of dead carkeises at one time to the graue they care not for religion neither respect the king of heauen and earth Although the streetes flowe with bloode and the liuing be not sufficient to burie the dead yet if they may raigne they care not Life and liuing and honestie is nothing woorth among them They denie God persecute his church and burne his worde most wickedly they regard not olde men rauish women and murther children villanouslie They take away houses landes rentes goods patrimonies and wiues from them that possesse them and therefore there is no greater crosse then to liue vnder the gouerment of a heathen Another reason bicause their wickednes shall be a continuall heart-burning vnto them 2. Pet. 2. 7. Psalm 120. 5. Their eares shall heare their blasphemies their eies shall see their idolatrie and their liues shall feele their treacheries All thinges shall bee lawfull among them saue goodnes for nothing is lawfull that tendeth to godlines Oh how will this grieue a godly soule to heare his Sauiour reuiled true religion slandered the godly to be hated the worlde to bee loued the diuell to bee worshipped and heauen to bee neglected Hee must not speake for feare of death he must not pray but in secret hee shall not dare to disclose himselfe hee shall finde no neighbours nor friends nor followers nor comfort among them The first vse Let vs therefore forsake the fellowship of vnbeleeuers Esay 52. 12. whose presence is damnable whose liues are abhominable whose profession is execrable and whose ende is condemnation of these the worlde is filled and yet we must auoide them Let vs not bee defiled with their sinnes nor corrupted with their manners nor allured with their pleasures but go out from the middest of them They are hated of God possessed of diuels bewitched with vanities and professed miscreants Howe shall wee loue God and dwell among them but either the anger of God or the loue of the worlde or the baite of lustes or the inchantments of vanities will drawe vs away Oh let vs take our selues to desolate places and rather dwell with the brute beastes then with these godles persons we cannot trust them we may not liue with them we must flie from them or else be condemned among thē therefore put them from your houses and from your tables and from your conference and from your friendship I knowe you woulde bee ashamed to bee seene daily conuersing with an open and shamelesse harlot therefore much more be ashamed and forsake their company whose liues are like beasts whose hearts are like heathens whose faces are like harlots and whose actions proceed of euill I tell you their waies do leade vnto death and their lodgings are chambers of hell Where is nowe their God That is either they are not the Lordes people that are thus afflicted or else their God is no God that cannot deliuer them From hence wee may gather that it is the propertie of wicked men if they get aduantage against a professour of religion then presently they turne it against God himselfe and fall to reuiling his glorious maiestie Psal. 74. 10. So in our times if any haue any small profession of religion and doe fall into the handes of the worlde then presentlie they scoffe and scorne and laugh and deride Christ the Gospell religion and all the followers thereof If they happen to be poore why wil an atheist say canst thou not get thy liuing by hearing of Sermons If they bee rich men their faults shall be aggrauated The reason heereof is bicause they might be knowne to be not so much enimies to the godly as to God himselfe like the Iewes that crucified Christ Matth. 27. Let vs rather lament them that fall into their enimies handes then reioice at their sinnes and ouerthrowes let vs know that the Lord will surely take their cause into his owne hande and seuerely punish such intollerable blasphemie as he did in Rabsakeh and the king of Syria Esay 37. although their wordes bee great their pride be infinite their power glorious their mindes ambitious and their crueltie extreme yet will and shall the Lorde defende his name and truth and children from all their blasphemies and this shall bee a cause of their more speedy destruction The xxvj Sermon Vers 18. Then will the Lorde be iealous ouer his people and spare his land NOw at the length by the mercifull assistance of the Almightie are we come to the last part of this prophesie wherein as in the
defend them against the force of men Christ to fight for them against the rage of Sathan Let vs therefore learne to giue all diligence that wee may bee sure of the fauour of God Psa 23. 6. And for this cause Peter biddeth vs giue all diligence to make our election sure meaning that this is the greatest worke of the world that men should be certaine of the promises of God When we haue the promises and cannot certainly yeeld vnto them then are we like sicke men which haue good phisicke but cannot be perswaded to take it because they thinke it will doe them no good so wee thinke these promises vncertaine and some they haue holpe but some they failed But we must know that the promises neuer failed if the men were not vnfaithfull for as men will not plant corrupt impes and graftes so God will not make vnstedfast promises but as the ground doth many times alter a good plant that it groweth not so men doe choke the promises that they helpe not Therefore if God bid thee not feare then cast away feare if he bid thee not weepe then cease from teares as when hee biddeth thee not kill thou refrainest from murder The assurance of the Lordes fauour must growe by a continual practise of repentance as the Apostle teacheth when he saith Patience worketh experience Rom. 5. and therefore this benefite wee may reape by our often sorrowes that we may come with confidence to the throne of grace Another vse seeing the promises of God must be so auailable in vs that they must expell all feare of euill then let vs especially bee armed with them against the feare of death that euery one of vs may say with Iob. 13. 15. that although God slay vs yet will we trust in him What doth more trouble all the worlde then doth the departure out of the world for it maketh good men pray with Dauid I will not die but liue and it maketh euill men at their wits end to thinke on the paines of death therefore blessed is the remedie of the sweete promises of God which enable vs against death Daniel being once preserued among the lions aliue would neuer be afraide to be cast among them againe so we which once were not and now are once were dead and now aliue once were vnder the diuell but now vnder Christ let vs not I say feare the gates of death or the sorrowes of the graue To whome doe I speake but to them that shall passe vnder the hande of death therefore learne attentiuely what is deliuered when thou beginnest to drawe towarde the sunne setting of thy life I meane thy death then looke vpon al the promises of God which euer thou heardest at Sermons or didst read in the Scriptures laie them to thy soule bidding it not to feare death for the Lorde hath commanded thee not to feare it But peraduenture it will replie vnto thee say the paine of death is intollerable how can I but feare it then tell it againe that it is not so for death hath lost hir sting as the apostle saith O death where is thy sting what is an adder a viper or a serpent when they haue lost their sting Surely euerie yoong childe may play with them and handle them And as the paines of a trauailing woman do bring foorth a man child so thy paine shall worke pleasure thy life shall bring death thy sorrowes shall gaine ioyes thy friendes shall bee turned into saints thy parents into angels and thy gouernours into God himselfe If thou bee a woman hee will be thy husband if thou bee a man hee will be thy wife and if thou be a seruant hee will bee thy Lorde Oh feare not death but learne the promises of God to comfort thee against it and thinke what shall bee thy blessednesse to forsake the worlde to goe to heauen to forsake thy pouertie to goe to riches to forsake thy sicknes to go to health to forsake thy friendes to goe to God and to forsake a liuing of house and lande for a whole kingdome Oh trust in God in life that thou maiest trust in God in death beleeue in Christ in health that thou maiest beleeue in him in sicknesse praie vnto him in thy ioyes that thou maiest praie vnto him in thy sorrowes And be not afraide while thou art liuing of the power of man that thou maiest not be afraide when thou art dying of the power of death and condemnation For God shall Nowe hee giueth them the reason of this exhortation why they shoulde not feare bicause the Lord would do mightie things for them whereby wee may note that the vnspeakeable power of God shoulde make men to reioice Esay 14. 27. For what can better assure vs of his promises then this that hee is able to performe them and therefore as the godly comfort themselues with this saying The Lorde is king bee the earth neuer so vnpatient so let vs lift vp our selues in comfort in the kingdome glorie maiestie power and mercie of God that hee can doe what hee will and will doe what we praie for The first reason bicause for the godlies sake hee worketh myracles Exod. 15. 12. and therefore wee ought to reioice in his power We may reade Marke 2. that for one myracle all the people gaue praise vnto God Wee haue many myracles and woonders done for vs and who is able to tell what God hath done for his soule therefore yet let thy heart reioice when thy toong is not able to expresse the power of God Another reason bicause nothing can stande against the saluation of his elect Psal 107. 14. For the sea shall be emptied the earth shall be remooued the rockes shall be broken and the heauens shall bow themselues that the power of God may be manifested and his saints be saued Let vs learne by consideration of his power to serue him more earnestly as Dauid doth Psal 118. 27. when he had tolde howe mightilie God destroied his enimies as a fire of thornes then hee presently addeth Binde the sacrifice with coardes vnto the hornes of the altar As God is powerfull to saue so is hee powerfull to destroy and therefore bee afraide least as hee is able to blesse thee if thou doe well so hee curse thee if thou doe euill Pilate woulde haue had Christ haue answered bicause he saide hee had power to loose him or to deliuer him but hee was rebuked for his labour let vs much more answere the Lorde for hee hath absolute power to doe with vs whatsoeuer he will Againe let vs learne by consideration of the power of God to beleeue in him more confidently as Abraham did Rom. 4. 21. although hee sawe no reason howe the promise of God shoulde be fulfilled if Isaac were sacrificed yet this did animate him that God was able to raise him from death to life and so let vs bee obedient to the Lordes commandements when they are
Againe let rich men especially looke to themselues Iam. 5. 1. for they for the most part esteeme more of gaine then of grace and of a great gentleman though he be an infidell then of a poore and true member of Christ Let them remember how fewe good rich men are named in the Scriptures and let them alway set before their eies that most dreadful saying of our Sauior It is easier for agable to goe thorough the eie of a needle then for a rich man to enter into heauen Let them bee liberall to good vses courteous to euery christian sparing in all expenses humble in all authoritie not gorgeous but clothed with Christ not couetous but open handed not ambitious but content with their place and not infidels but as farre exceede other in faith as they doe in wealth He shall giue you the first raine In those countries they had ordinarily two raines in the yeere especially desired wherof the first was most acceptable when they first sowed their seede and the latter raine was in the spring of the yeere which is here called the first moneth answering in some part to our March and Aprill because the world was made as it were in the spring of the yere But in this that the Prophet promiseth them the first and the latter raine we must obserue that it is the Lord that ruleth the cloudes giuing al seasonable and vnseasonable weather 1. King 18. 1. The reasons are bicause he will onely be knowen to blesse the workes of our hands Deut. 28. 1. Againe it is onely hee which decketh the heauens with clouds Psal 147. 8. Let vs therefore learne to feare the Lord by the consideration of raine Ierem. 5. 24. for hee reserueth for vs the appointed weeks for haruest Me thinkes that euerie creature of God do so admonish vs of our duetie that not so much as the little drops of raine but they teach vs to feare him Oh that our soules could so thirst for the mercie of God as the earth thirsteth for the water drops or the grace of God might so fall from heauen on our hearts as the raine doth issue from the cloudes on the ploughed land Againe let vs seeke for the testimonie of the Lords fauour towards vs in them Act. 14. 17. the Apostle sheweth the raine of the clouds the spring of the earth and the encrease of temporal things to be a sufficient meanes for the old world to haue searched for and found out God but yet they did not search into it and so is it now a good meanes for many ignorant soules to leade them to God at the first if they consider the world continueth the grasse groweth the corne increaseth the raine falleth down from heauē that by these as it were by the crosse-row of letters they might com to greater knowledge in religion When he saith that their barnes shall be full of wheat and their presses shall abound with oyle and wine he noteth thereby that their decaied houses shall be builded againe and their full ioy restored And also that if God do once begin to do good to his people hee neuer thinketh any thing too much that is bestowed on them if they be repentant The xxix Sermon Vers 25. And I will render vnto you the yeeres that the grashopper hath eaten the caterpiller and canker-woorme and palmer-woorme my great hoste which I sent among you NOw he toucheth the restitution of their goods lost in famine telling them that all their former yeeres deuoured by the beasts shall bee restored againe By which we may note a woonderful example of the Lords kindnes that he wil giue to the repentant whatsoeuer they haue lost in trouble It were enough for him yea more then he oweth vs if he did onely ease our miserie yet is he not contented therewith but giueth vs as much as we desire and beyond our desires as much as we lost so he dealt with Iob. cap. 42. 10. giuing him a thousand for fiue hundred sixe for three fourteene for seuen The first reason because he would haue none to be like him in mercie and liberalitie Mich. 7. 18. Secondly that the wicked may note a difference betwixt the iust and the vniust Mal. 3. 18. therefore let not any thing in the worlde hinder thy conuersion Ierem. 7. 14. for thy sinnes shall bee chaunged into much holines thy pouertie into great wealth thy sorrow into double ioy and thy short life into twise so many daies If thou hadst little ease now it shall be more or little peace it shall be increased or little grace it shall bee augmented or little ioy it shall be multiplied and thus will God take away curse and change it into blessing and turne our punishment into pardon Againe let vs hereby be instructed that there shall neuer be any hinderance to the ioy of the Lords saints Isa 40. 2 3. the crooked shal be made straight the high shall be made low the low shall be made high the weake shall be made strong the sicke shall be made whole the lame shall be made wel limmed the sorrowfull heart shall bee reioysed and the contrite soule shall be glorified the great power of sathan shall not hinder the tyrannie of sinne shall not preuaile nor the space twixt heauen and earth shall keepe vs from ascending to ioies Oh come on my brethren with hope and comfort and bestow your labour in the word more cheerefully that our single sorrowes may receiue double ioyes So you shall eate and bee satisfied and praise the name of the Lorde your God that hath dealt maruellouslie with you and my people shall neuer bee ashamed Hauing signified vnto them their plentie nowe hee granteth vnto them the free and lawfull vse of euerie creature telling them they shoulde eate and drinke them and praise the name of God for them When hee saith They shall eate and bee satisfied we may note a great blessing of God vpon meate temperately receiued for it satisfieth vs meaning it nourisheth and maintaineth life Hag. 1. 6. but when it is riotously and gluttonously deuoured then men fall into sicknesse in steade of health into raging in stead of quietnesse and this is the very cause why our affraies and quarrels are begunne at tauernes and alehouses and at great idoll and glutton feastes bicause men receiue them not in moderation but in excesse The first reason bicause meate so taken giueth strength to the body 1. Sam. 1427. Ionathan tasted but a drop of hony and his wearied body was strengthened and his eies almost blinde recouered their sight Another reason because meate thus taken cheereth the hart of man Ruth 3. 7. Let vs therfore learn what a singular benefit it is to eat be satisfied with the labours of our owne hande Eccle. 5. 16. 17. for if the Lord should breath thereon then were our trauaile in the dust meate hath no life in it and yet it
keepeth life in vs who is able to shewe the cause heereof but the Lorde who knoweth all and if this one blessing shoulde faile vs although our possessions were as great as Salomons yet they woulde not serue vs. Againe let euery man in his place gather this meate and comfort for his life Esay 62. 3. that so we may perfourme the olde commandement of God to Adam that wee eate our meate in the sweate of our faces The Bees will not suffer one drone among them and so let not vs suffer them that are carelesse to prouide some thing whereby their dutie may be discharged to God and their liues preserued in the worlde Secondly he telleth them with what affection they should receiue their meat With praise and thankesgiuing to God Whereby wee may see one principall token of a temperate receiuer in that hee can giue thankes to God for his meate 1. Cor. 10. 25. but gluttons and belli-gods take their meate as Swine doe although with more manners yet with as little reuerence sitting downe to fill their bellies and rising vp to fulfill their pleasures and through immeasurable fulnes their teeth put their mouth to silence and sleepe falleth on them that their harts doe not onely forget their feeder but their maintainer also The first reason bicause it is a token they loue God Deut. 12. 11. and they that loue neuer offend for loue is the fulfilling of the lawe Againe meate is onely blessed vnto them that ioine thankesgiuing with it 1. Sam. 9. 13. So that whatsoeuer is not thankfully receiued must needes be accursed And surely if Paul saide he had rather neuer eate meate as long as hee liued then eate to the offence of his brother wee may more lawfully pine in famine starue in want and perish in distresse of meate rather then God shoulde bee offended Theeues which steale for meate coseners that deceiue for meate beggers that counterfaite for meate idle persons that worke not for meate and rich men that praie not for meate can neuer bee thankefull for that which they eate but all is accursed vnto them Let vs therefore for feare of the curse and especiallie for conscience of death liue soberly in praier in our eating and drinking working and resting sleeping and waking bicause wee knowe not whether wee eate our last morsell as the Israelites which died with meate in their mouthes or worke our last day-worke as the poore man that was stoned for gathering stickes on the Sabbaoth or sleepe our last sleepe neuer wake againe Surely as Iacob ended his life when he had blessed his children so shall we be happy if wee ende our liues when we haue praised God Againe let vs not tempt God for meate whatsoeuer distresse wee liue in but seeke it humblie in praier Psal 104. 27. that wee may eate more cheerefully and bee assured that God will continue his blessings for what shall it profite to feede our bodies to the full and let our soules goe starue and pine away to death That the Lord hath This clause is added vnto their praises at meate because then they ought to remember the Lordes benefits the which thing ought to driue away all vaine and foolish table-talke wherein men silence the mercie of God and praise the taste of their meate or the liberalitie of the feast-maker alway thanking him and neuer thinking on God whereas they are bound to do both We may note in these words that God doth not onely vse his ordinarie power in the deliuerie of his church but also his extraordinarie whereby he worketh maruels and woonders 1. Pet. 1. 5. for by the woonderfull power of God are we continued in our profession contained in the church and preserued to life eternall God told Dauid 2. Sam. 12. that if he had not done ynough for him yet he would haue done much more for him so that he hath not limited his power nor his mercie toward the faithfull The reasons first because we should knowe that we are saued through grace and the great power of God 1. Cor. 1. 18. as it is not a light matter to enioy a kingdome so is it not a small matter to climbe vp into heauen but the vnspeakable power of God must be vsed therein Againe the more power he vseth in his church the more must be his glorie Mark 7. 17. and this is the cause why all good men thinke they can neuer praise God ynough although euery day they renewe their thankesgiuing in heauen is the power of God most of all seene and therefore there the angels and saintes doe nothing but praise the power of God And therefore we may hereby learne that all miracles which God doth in the world doe call vs to bee partakers of his kingdome Matt. 12. 28. and if we refuse them and doe not come the same power shall be vsed in our condemnation that is promised in our saluation Neither let vs euer forget the works which God doth for vs Psal 106. 21 22. but remember them in our meate in our beds in our labour in our ease in our watching and in our reioicing that our God may still continue to doe them as we doe still perseuere to remember them Lastly in this verse hee promiseth that they should neuer be more ashamed of any reproches Whereby we may note that religion doth not commit any thing that either we may be ashamed of or repent 1. Cor. 15. 58. for our labour in religion is not in vaine If any thorough the feare or commaundement of God should slay their children as Abraham would or deceiue their maisters as Iacob did or beguile their husbands as Rebecca did or disobey their princes as Moses did or murther their enimies as Sampson did or loose their liues as Christ did yet shall they neuer neede to repent any of them Oh what a maruellous benefite hath a man by religion which he cannot haue by any other thing in the world There is nothing in all the life of man but wee may repent except it bee the feare of God We repent our words our works our expences our gettings our wanderings our negligence our diligence our sleepe meate and money and all We are ashamed of our thoughts our to yes trifles plaies childishnesse wantonnesse loue hatred lust pouertie nakednesse and the very parts of our body but of no part of religion Thou shalt neuer repent that thou forsookest the worlde beleeuedst in the Lord mournedst for thy sinnes studiedst in the scriptures heardest the preachers was obedient to the gospell praiedst many howers watched many nights fasted many daies endured many troubles and shalt die any death for the Lords sake seeing heauen is thy rest Nay rather we see many men in their death-beds wish with teares that they had hawked and hunted and plaied and laboured and loued and hated much lesse for now in their sicknesse their sinnes come on them as the Philistines came on Sampson when
2. 8. Therefore as the olde fathers searched for saluation 1. Pet. 1. 19. so doe thou and as the woman did for her money which neuer gaue ouer sweeping and seeking till she had found it in like manner doe thou but follow saluation as Isaac followed Abraham vnto the place where he should be sacrificed Secondly when he saith that there shall bee deliuerance in Mount Sion wee may note that God will euermore haue some among the people of the Iewes that shall be saued Rom. 11. 15 16 26. so that notwithstanding their intolerable hardnesse of hart and great obstinacie against the Gospell yet there are some beleeuers among them and it may be that there shall be a day when they shall all beleeue in the Messiah and I thinke verily that this is the very cause why they are reserued aliue for else in consideration of that great villanie offered to our Sauiour Christ with their infidelitie and other notorious sinnes they had long agoe beene destroied man woman and childe Thirdly the prophet alleageth the proofe hereofwhen he saith as the Lord hath said whereby we may note that the promise of God shall preserue his church in what distresse soeuer it be Heb. 13. 5. yea when heauen and earth shall be burned they shall be preserued The reasons first because all the promises of God in him are Yea Amen 2. Cor. 1. 18. 20. they are not changeable but constant as it is already declared because he is mighty that doth his word Againe life eternall is giuen by promise Col. 3. 14. and if the promises neuer faile in that no more they can in this Therefore let vs through patience doe the will of God and waite for the promise Heb. 10. 26. and hauing once receiued it let vs feare no euill nor any death Gen. 32. 9 10. Fourthly when he saith that saluation shall be to a remnant and to as many as God shall call we may note that but a remant that is a very fewe shall bee saued Luc. 13. 23. The reasons because of the great hatred of God against sinne Rom. 5. 14. the which hatred shall cause the damnation of many thousands Secondly the Lord will make but a short account of all the earth Rom. 9. 28. Therefore let euery one studie to enter although he knowe there be but few to be saued that if it may be he may be one of those few Luc. 13. 24. Againe let vs knowe that except the Lord of his great mercie did keepe this remnant from the violence of sinne and sathan no not one should or coulde euer come to life eternall Isai 1. 9. Lastly when he saith to as many as God shall call wee may note that we must be called by the gospell before we can be saued in the kingdome Iude 5. But of these points I haue often already spoken in the former treatises and therefore I may the safer excuse my breuitie and the God of all mercie giue a blessing to all The xxxij Sermon Chap. 3. Verse 1. For beholde in those daies and in that time when I shall bring againe the captiuitie of Iudah and Ierusalem THis thirde and last chapter of this Prophet Ioel containeth a most lamentable destruction of mankind namely of those which were the sworne enimies to the church of God which cannot choose but mooue a heart of stone to exceeding sorrowe and abundant teares to consider that so manie braue men stately kings warrelike souldiers honorable persons rich possessors beautiful women and innocent yoong children as it may seeme shoulde be violently driuen and drawen vnto the slaughter-house of woefull destruction Oh how may men forrowe that they were so borne to bee enimies to God and so liue that they hurt themselues and so shall die as they condemne their soules for their bloode is woorse then water their flesh is viler then dung their heart is baser then the earth and they were onely created that they might be destroied In the handling of this chapter we will obserue this method First the time when the enimies of the church shall be discussed and secondly the manner The time is set foorth in this vers to bee then when the Lorde shoulde bring againe the captiuitie of Iudah and Ierusalem that is when he shoulde deliuer them from all manner of thraldome For beholde The prophet after the vsuall maner of the Scriptures beginneth the matter with wordes of demonstration and attention and so telleth them of this matter as if it were alreadie in action bidding them to beholde it as we may see the like Esay 24. 1. 42. 1. Ierem. 51. 1. Matth. 24. 25. By which wordes wee may note the worde of God in prophets and preachers must teach vs to consider as well the things that are to come as those that are present 2. Cor. 4. 18. Wee looke not saith the Apostle on the things that are seene but on the things that are not seene The voice of the Lordes worde must not be like the stroke of the musition which onely affecteth a man while hee heareth the sounde but it must bee like a Phisitions potion which worketh in the bodie many daies after it is taken But what doe I talke of daies as Ionathan loued Dauid when he neither saw him nor hearde him so must we loue the word of God and thinke thereon when we neither see it nor heare it The oxe careth for the pricke which presently goreth him but yet he neuer thinketh on the slaughter which is comming the childe feareth the rod which hee seeth but thinketh not on it when it is hidden the sheepe windeth from the storme when it bloweth but in calmer times it neuer remembreth but God which hath made vs more excellent then oxen and sheepe and willeth vs to be more wise then children hath giuen his worde that wee may know and feare the things that are to come So that in this sort thou must perswade thy selfe if thou heare the preacher tell of any plague then thinke with thy selfe that thou now beholdest it a far off therefore it will certainly come Beleeue the Lord and his prophets saide Iehoshaphat and you shall prosper but alas our dull hearted hearers will beleeue no more then they see will feare no more then they feele nor bee righteous any longer then they are in affliction Death is farre off they care not for it and the day of iudgement will be God knoweth when and therefore if their time be so long they thinke it will be neuer Oh wretches beholde presentlie before your eies how the Lorde commeth how the sword wasteth howe the bloude runneth howe vengeance encreaseth howe Christ condemneth and all thinges are ouerturned If thou canst so beholde the comming miseries and with teares lament them as if they were present thou shalt likewise by the worde of God so beholde the comming ioies of another life with hart reioice as if now thou