God only that can build and plant a Nation He is the only Architect that can build our waste places and make up our dilapidations though never so great he is the only Gardner to pluck up our Weeds and to plant usefull and fruitfull Trees in the Orchard of this Nation And if he please he can do it and that in an instant with a word speaking For so it is in the Text At what instant I speak concerning a Nation to build and to plant it Though the House of the Kingdom be never so much out of repair God can in an instant build us and plant us and make us better then ever But if God begin to repent of what he hath done woe to the Nation For except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it in vain to rise up early and to sit up late c. God will unravell all and though he hath brought us neer Canaan he will carry us back again and make us to tarry forty yeers for a Reformation or it may be he will at last carry us back again to Egypt which was the last and greatest curse threatned against the people of Israel and it is the greatest misery that can come upon this Nation But on the contrary if we turn from our evill wayes God will perfect his building and finish his plantation he will make us a glorious Paradise an habitation fit for himself to dwell in he will set up his ordinances after a purer manner and watch over us for good from the beginning of the yeer to the end of it Oh that these words of mine might be as goads and as nails to fasten this point upon your hearts that it may take deep impression and abide for ever upon your spirits It may be some will say That this doctrine is as common as the high-way It is true It is a common high way but it is the high way to heaven And though it be not a Doctrine to glut your ears yet it is savoury meat such as Iacob provided for Esau whereby he obtained the blessing Turn or burn for ever in Hell Let every man labour first to turn himself and then let us endeavour to reform one another There is a great complaint in the Kingdom The Ministers complain of their people that they are factious seditious covetous dis-respectfull of the Ministery c. And that because they do not reform therefore the judgements of God are not turned away from us The people complain of their Ministers that they are dumb dogs greedy dogs which can never have enough and that they are superstitious more for pomp then substance and that untill the scandalous Ministers be removed Gods heavy hand will never be removed from us The rich complain of the poor that they are lazy and theevish The poor of the rich that they are proud and hard-hearted The superiours cry out against their inferiours and the inferiours against the superiours And because every man expects when his neighbour should turn hence it cometh to passe that no man in particular turns We look for that in another which we forget to do in our selves I know no way to reconcile this division but by raising a new division and by perswading all sorts of people to strive who should be the first in turning to God who should first get into Christ who should first get into the Ark Every man strives for worldly precedency Oh let us strive for this spirituall precedency It is no pride in this to go one before another He is the humblest that goeth first And being reformed in our own persons let us in the next place labour to reform one another We are all of one nation of one body one flesh one Church There is a Nationall Communion a Morall Communion a Politicall Communion a Spirituall Communion amongst us I may adde There is a Communion in misery We are all in the same condemnation Let us labour to pitty one another and to turn one another Let every man search what drunkard what swearer what adulterer c. He hath in his House and either cause the sin to depart from the person or both sin and person from his house First reforme your own families and then you will be the fitter to reforme the family of God Let the Master reforme his servant the Father his childe the Husband his Wife Will a man keepe a servant in his house all night if he were assured he would murther him before morning Such a servant is sinne It will murther soul and bodie Let us cast it away from our selves and from our families There is one Motive more and that is from the ayd you are sending to Ireland to distressed Ireland that at this instant calls to England with aloud cry for help and assistance I doubt not but you are sensible that delay is as bad as deniall almost I shall offer only one Text to be considered on when you send forth your help and that is Deut. 23. 9. When the Host goeth forth against their enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing If sin be in the Host it will make you turn your backs upon your enemies Turn to God and he will make your enemies turn their backs upon you But it is not in my power to turn unlesse I were praedestinated I answer with Master Bradford that we must first go to the Grammar-schoole of Repentance before we can be admitted to the University of Praedestination It is not a dispute about Praedestination that will turn away Gods wrath but it is the practise of humiliation and Reformation It is most certain that God is not the cause of any mans damnation He found us sinners in Adam but made none sinners Thy perdition is of thy selfe oh Israel And it is as certain that it is not in the power of man by nature to convert himselfe And that therefore God commands what we cannot perform that we might therby take notice what we should do and what we once could do in Adam and where we should go to get power to do that which we cannot do of our selves Go to the Word that hath a creating power God oftentimes in speaking gives power Go to prayer for converting Grace Pray with Austine Lord give me what thou commandest and command what thou wilt It is an excellent rule observed by the same Author That there is nothing required of us from God as a duty in Scripture but it is either promised by God as a gift or some of Gods Saints have prayed for it as a gift As for example God commands us to turn unto him but Ieremy prayes for it Turn us oh Lord and we shall be turned And God promiseth it Deut. 30. 6. Ezek. 36. 26. Let us therefore be sensible of our inability to keepe the commandement of the text and let us beleeve in his promise to give us power to keepe it and pray for the performance of his promise FINIS Mallem obedire quam miracula facere Luther 2 Chron. 24.24 Prov. 14 34. Ezra 5.1 Verse 7. Verse 8. Verse 8. Verse 9. Ver. 10. Doct. 1. Verse 2. Verse 4. Verse 6. Dan. 4.34 35. Reas. 1. Ro. 11.36 a Eodem die fuistis omnium miserrimi omnium beatissimi Nox una non tantum vos a morte in vitam traduxit sed ex abysso profundissima evexit supra omnem terrenam faelicitatem ac si in nubibios equitaretis Vse 1. Isa. 40.15 Iere. 10. 6 7. Iere. 5.22 Isa. 51.12 13. Text. Isa. 30 33 Reve 6. 15 16. Psal. 4. 1 Cor. 10.22 Vse 2. Vse 3. Athanas. in vita Antonij Doct. 2. Reas. 1. Isa. 45.7 Reas. 2. Cant. 2.8 Reas. 3. Vse 1. In vita 1. Agrip. Lib. 5 de Bell. Gal. Tertul. Apolog. Motives Bernard Bernard Sermon de triplici miseric. Bernard Sermon de triplici miseric. quatuor miserat Doct. 3. Deus vult mutationē sed nunquam mutat voluntatem Aquinas Deus aliquando mutat sententiam sed nunquam mutat decretum Greg. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Naz. Tertul. de paenit Paenitentia radens verrens peccata Ibid. Use of exhortation unto two Duties 1 To Humiliation Seven Buckets to draw out the water of tears Job 14. 17 Ps. 56. 8. Eph. 4 30. Am. 2. 13. Ezek. 6. 9. Six Reasons to move us to great sorrow for little sins Buck. 2. Ps. 105 7. Aust. Epist 6 4. Heb. 13.4 Vrsin's preface to his Catechisme 3. 4. Luk 19. 41 42. Iustin. A fifth help to humiliation A sixth Bucket Ps 6.8 Plutarc in vita Alexand. Gen. 19.27 28. Neh. 1.3 4 5. Proemium Cōmentar in Ezek. 1 Sa. 4.19 Mat. 2. 18. Jud 5.28 7. In vita ejus apud Surium The second duty is Reformation This Reformation must be 1 Personal Jona 3.8 Ps. 18 23. Luke 15. 2 Sam. 23.15 16. Quo grandius nomen ca grandius scandalum Act. 18.8 2 It must be nationall Quest Answ. Nehe. 3 1. Ioh. 1 1.44 Ioh. 10.5 Ioh. 11 44. Sleidan Convent Isai. 62.1 2 Chron. 30.14 15. 2 Chron 31.1 Motives to a Reformation Ex. 1.21 Hagg. 1.4 5 6 7 8 9. Esth. 11. 13 14 15. Zach. 4 7. Tect de poenitent Matth. 3. ◠Mat. 4. 17. Luk. 24. 47. Tertul. de poenit Ezek. 18. Tertull Quest 2 King 23. 26. Answ. 5. Doct. 4. Ezra 9 8. Psa. 68.13 Zac. 4.10 Ezra 10. 11. Nehe. 12.22 Gene. 6. 2 Sam. 6. Reason 2 Chron. 15 2. 1 Sam. 12.23 Vse Ef. 26. Ier. 5. 31. Vse 2. Psa. 1 7 1. Deut. 28 68. Object Answ.
dry Fleece when we are like his wet Fleece bedewed with sorrow and lamentation You must not look alwayes to drink so deep of the Cup of prosperity when we have drunk so deep of the Cup of adversity God hath made us examples to you but if you amend not God will make you your selves the next examples It is a most true saying Legimus Historias ne ipsi fiamus historia If you will not learne righteousnesse by our History God will make you the next History Discite justitiam moniti non temnere Divos This is a loud and powerfull voyce 5. God speaks now more neerly unto us by the bloudy rebellion that is in Ireland The sword that is there drawn is like the Comet that for a whole yeer hung over Ierusalem in the likenesse of a fiery flaming sword This sword is Gods warning peece to England It is like Tamberlaines red Flag threatning ruine and desolation to us For it is an old saying He that would England win must with Ireland first begin A Serpent the neerer it is the more dangerous it is The sword is now come very neere us It is like a Serpent in our bosomes The Lord awaken our sleepy spirits God hath 3. swords The sword of the Angel which is the plague the sword of the Spirit which is his Word and the sword of the Enemy We have been wofully massacred with the first sword The Plague hath been grievously upon our bodies but the plague of sin still remaines upon our soules this sword hath done little good If the sword of the Spirit will not now at last cut down our sinnes we must expect the sword of the enemy to cut us down and to destroy us 6. God now also speakes unto us by the many sad divisions and unhappy fractions that are in Church and State A Kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand It is observeable that scarce ever any great enemy entred this Kingdome but when it was at Schisme and division within it selfe Tacitus saith that nothing gave the Romans more advantage against the ancient Brittains then this Quod factionibus studijs trahebantur Mandubratius as Caesar cals him out of hatred against Cassibellanus brought in Iulius Caesar Adminius brought in Claudius Gnortigernus first and Mordredus after brought in the Saxons Toustains division and inrode made way for the Normans and there were more divisions than one to helpe in the Danes And there is nothing more likely to bring in the Romans once more into our Kingdome than these Mandubratians the Adminians J had almost said these Arminians Oh sad divisions these are as thicke blacke clouds threatning a great shower of desolation 7. God speakes unto us by the great demur and delay of the reformation of the Church For the Childe of reformation is come to the birth but there wants strength to bring it forth This is a signe That there are some great obstructions in the Kingdome that hinder the birth of this much desired Childe And it shrewdly presageth as if God had begunne to repent of the good that hee hath begun to doe for us And that it will be with us as it was with Tamar in the time of her travell Genes 38.28,29 Zarah first puts forth his hand out of the Wombe but afterwards drew it in againe and Pharez came out in his stead So it gives us cause to feare least the Childe of Mercy should goe backe into the Wombe againe and the Childe of judgement come forth in his stead 8. God hath spoken to us by the voice of our owne consciences There is no man that lives in any knowne sinne but his conscience hath often told him as Abner did Ioah Will not this sinne bring bitternesse in the latter end And as Reuben to his Brethren Did I not tell you of this aforehand That this sinne would bring you to hell There is a Light which God hath set up in all our soules which is as a Beacon set on fire to give notice of Gods Wrath and Vengeance This light is Conscience which Tertullian calls praejudicium judicij This is Gods bosome Preacher and when this is silenced it portends nothing but utter ruine and desolation And thus you see how many waies God hath given warning to this Kingdom Now I beseech you Let the long-suffering and goodnesse of God drive us to repentance This is the use the Apostle Paul makes Rom. 2.4 which is the more to be laid to heart because that Saint Peter pickes out this exhortation from out of all the Epistles of Paul as one of the choisest and urgeth it upon those to whom he wrote as you may read 2 Pet. 3.15 And account the long suffering of the Lord is salvation even as our beloved Brother Paul also hath written unto you Now I conceive this is no where written but in the place forementioned Let not that which is our salvation as Peter saith become our damnation Let us follow the example of Noah Heb. 11.7 Noah by faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house c. Noah had but one warning and that of a judgement which had no print in nature But wee have had eight kindes of warnings and there are many prints and foot-steps of Gods judgements amongst us O let us beleeve these Voices of God and let faith worke feare and feare worke care to prepare an Arke before the Floud comes Let us be amended by Gods warning-peeces lest we be consumed by his murdering-peeces There are two Motives to quicken us to the obedience of this exhortation Gods warnings are in Gods keeping No man hath a locke and key of Gods patience Hee is long-suffering but not alwaies suffering and how long he will suffer no man knows Sometimes God is warning of a people 120. yeers as he was the old world Sometimes but 40. yeeres as he dealt with the Jews before the destruction of Ierusalem Sometimes but 40. dayes as in Ninive's case Sometimes but one night as in Lots case who had warning of the burning of Sodom but the night before We in this Nation have had many yeers warning I feare me the Taper is almost burnt out That the Sun of our prosperity is ready to set And that the houre-glasse of our happinesse is almost run out This is our last warning Mistake me not I doe not prophecy what God will do but what wee deserve God should doe and what wee may justly expect he will doe and what wee ought to provide if hee should doe Let us amend now or never before the day of Mercy be past before the draw-Bridge be taken up It may be too late the next yeer The warnings of God when they are slighted they will necessitate and aggravate our condemnation 1. They will necessitate our condemnation For there are three degrees of Gods wrath His threatning wrath his punishing wrath and his condemning
Oh that your lives might shine forth in holines after this day and that it may be with you as it was with Hezekiah when he and all his people kept the Passeover together the first thing they did before the killing of the Passeover was the taking away all the Altars that were at Ierusalem and casting them into the brook Kidron And when the Passeover was finished all Israel that were present went out to the Cities of Iudah and brake the Images in peeces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the Altars out of all Iudah and Benjamin in Ephraim also and Manasseh untill they had utterly destroyed them all I speak not of any tumultuous disorderly illegall way but of an orderly and legall reformation Which I desire like this of Hezekiah may be the issue of this day The Motives are many 1. If you build Gods house God will build Houses for you as he did for the Hebrew Midwives he will blesse and prosper you Remember what the Prophet Haggai saith Is it time for you O yee to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lye waste Now therefore thus saith the Lord consider your wayes Yee have sown much and bring in little yee eat but ye have not enough ye cloath you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Thus saith the Lord Consider your wayes go up to the Mountain and bring Wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord c. Read also Verse 9 10 11. 2. Consider what Mordecai said unto Esther Think not with thy self that thou shalt escape in the Kings house more then all the Iews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Iews from another place But thou and thy Fathers House shall be destroyed And who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this As Ierome said concerning the day of judgement That whether he did eat or drink or whatsoever he did he did alwayes hear the voice of the Arch-Angel Arise yee dead and come to judgement So doe I desire that you would at all times and in all places remember and consider this soul-awakening speech of Mordecai and Esther 3. Consider the famous examples of Ezra Nehemiah and Zerubbabel what care and pains they took for the rebuilding not only of the Walls but also of the Temple of Ierusalem It is not enough to set the State in tune but you must remember to repair the Temple also Be not afraid of Tobiah Sanballat or of any other enemy Who art thou O great Mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain A Parliament-man must be like Athanasius who was Magnes Adamas A Loadstone and an Adamant A Loadstone by his affable carriage and courteous behaviour drawing all men to the love of him But in the cause of God he was as an Adamant untameable and unconquerable 4. If we reform and turn God will turn If we turn from the evill of our sins God will turn from the evill of his judgements Tertullian speaks of himself That he was born to nothing else but to Repentance An excellent saying for every one to lay to heart The first Text that ever Iohn Baptist preached on was Repentance The first that ever Christ preached on was Repentance And the first thing that Christ commanded his Apostles to preach was Repentance God himself hath consecrated Repentance by his own example saith Tertullian Dedicavit poenitentiam in semetipso He repenteth to teach us to repent This is that which God not only commands and entreateth but sweareth that he would have us to do Happy we for whose sake God swears but most unhappy if we beleeve not God when he swears and if we live not as we beleeve Will a nationall reformation certainly divert Gods judgements from a Nation Did not Iosiah reform and yet it is expressely said That notwithstanding this Reformation Yet the Lord turned not from the fiercenesse of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Iudah because of all the provocations that Manasses had provoked him withall 1. A nationall reformation will certainly deliver us from everlasting misery 2. It is Gods ordinary way for the removeall of temporall judgements There is no instance fully against it but this of Iosiah but to this it may be replyed that Iosiahs reformation in reference to the multitude was hypocriticall and therefore it did only prorogue and adjourn but not totally remove Gods wrath That it was so in regard of the people appears Ierem. 3. 10. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but fainedly saith the Lord A sincere Nationall turning will certainly divert Nationall Judgements and procure Nationall Blessings If we will not turn reform and repent of our sins God will repent with a new kinde of repentance he will not repent of the evill but repent that he hath repented of the evill he will repent of the good wherewith he said he would benefit us And this leads me to the fourth Doctrinall Conclusion Doctrine 4. That when God begins to build and plant a Nation if that Nation do evill in Gods sight God will unbuild pluck up and repent of the good he intended to do unto it This is a point of great concernment expressely set down in the tenth verse It is certain that God hath begun to build and plant this Nation and he hath made you his Instruments Right Honourable in this great work We reade Zechary 1.19 of four horns which scattered Iudah and Ierusalem By these four horns are meant all the enemies of Gods people that are alwayes pushing at them and goring of them And verse 20 we reade of four Carpenters whom God raised up to fray away these horns Such Carpenters have you been unto us You have knockt off all those horns wherewith the fat Buls of Bashan pushed at us You have endeavoured to under-prop the House of this Kingdom and to keep it from falling You have stubb'd up many unprofitable Trees and taken away at least in your endeavours many rotten posts you have removed a great deal of rubbidge You have been our Ebedmelech's to release our Ieremies out of the Dungeon Indeed you have done marvellous things blessed be the Name of the Lord And we have cause to be enlarged in much thankfulnesse though you never have opportunity to do more for us Ezra blessed God that had given them a little reviving in their bondage A man that hath been for many yeers in a dark Dungeon will rejoyce exceedingly for a little crevise of light though never so little We have been in the Dungeon of despair and we blesse God for the