out before the Lord and fasted that is as the Chaldee observeth they poured out their hearts before God and shed teares in such abundance as if they had drawne water and powred in upon the ground whereupon God tooke their Cause in hand against the Philistims So Iehosophat proclaimed a Fast when the Moabites came against him 2 Chron. 20.3 And it is reported of O tho the great that being to joyne battel with the Hungarians he proclaimed a Fast in his Campe and called upon God If we would thus humble our selves God would soone humble our enemies it is his owne Covenant Ps 81.13 O that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries This Covenant is expressely set downe by our Prophet Chap. 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speake concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull downe and destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them The like is promised 2. Chron. 7.14 If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turne from their wicked wayes then will I heare from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heale their Land Where observe that we must not only humble our selves pray and seeke Gods face but also we must turne from our wicked wayes otherwise we cannot expect that God should heale our Land Therefore in the next place I say that with our humiliation we must joyne the reformation of our lives It is not enough that we bow down our heads like a bul-rush and afflict our soules for a day by fasting if afterwards we returne to our sins as a dogge to his vomit we have often fasted or made a shew to fast since this bloody Rebellion begun but it seemes God hath not regarded our Fastings for his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still And the reason is we doe not fast from sin but pour out our selves into all manner of wickednesse and so long as we by our sins fight against God we may be sure that God will fight against us When Trajan Generall to Valens the persecuting Emperour was defeated by the Gothes the Emperour upbraiding him with cowardise and sloth as the causes of the overthrow he told the Emperour that himselfe was the cause of the losse for you doe so warre against God Niceph. lib. 11. cap. 4. saith he that you abandon the victory and send it to your Enemies When Phocas had built a mighty well about his Palace for his security in the night he heard a voyce saying O King though thou build as high as the clouds Cedren Hist pag. 5 42. yet the City may easily be taken the sinne within will marre all Except sin be cast over the wals a wall of brasse is but a vaine thing To this purpose speaketh the Comick Si incolae benè sint morati pulchrè munitam arbritror at nisi invidia avaritia ambitio exulent centuplex murus parum est Therefore the Romans at first in their warrs as Vlpian and Flavius Vopiscus doe testifie made choice of no criminous parties no adulterers no condemned persons yea no bondslaves nor contentious brawlers But afterward as Li. vie saith the Common-wealth being brought to the very pinch of despaire they imployed such wicked persons whereof Scipio complained Liv. l. 10. Dec. 3. saying Non est mihi tantum ab hostibus armatis periculi c. We need not so much to fear the forces of our enemies as our own ill conditions for indeed as Ambrose saith Graviores sunt inimici mores pravi quam hosies infesti Our sinnes areenemies more to be feared then armed men It is out sins that have layd Christian Kindomes open to the tyranny of the Turke now our sins have betrayed us into the hands of more cruell and harbarous enemies then the Turkes our sins are the only cause of their prevailing they have not prevailed so farre for that their cause is good or their carriage better then their cause for both are starke naught but God cannot endure that in his own people which for a time he will in his enemies the Midianites who caused the Jsraelites to sin were worse then the Jsraelites yet God first corrected his owne people and then vexed the Midianites Therefore how carefully should wee take heed unto our wayes now when the sword is upon the lâ—nd many think that in the time of war there is a liberty of sin and they may doe what they list such is now for the most part the carriage of our Soludiers they doe not Sanctifie a warre as God requireth Ioel 3.9 but by their godlesse behaviour they discredit the good cause for which they fight As we should keepe our selves from sin at all times so especially in the time of warre sin hath no time allowed for it but it is never more untimely nor out of season then in the time of Warre for Warre is the punishment of sinne Warre is the sicknesse sin is the surfeit now when we are sicke of a surfeit will we not be carefull to order our selves well to keep a strict diet and not then to drinke in iniquity like water distemper our selves as though wee were in perfect state of health and so make our disease desperate Warre is the rod of Gods wrath for our sinnes now when Gods fearfull rod is over us when his hand is upon us for our sinnes then to sinne and provoke God more is a high contempt against him a putting him to open defiance Warre is an act of Justice of justice corrective whose office is to punish sinne and is it not absurd that we should then poure out our selves into sinne when we goe about to correct sinne in others Or with what face can we punish Rebells when wee our selves stand out in rebellion against God Besides God is the Lord of hosts the battell is his and he giveth the victory now how can we expect that God should give us any victory or goe out and in with our Armies if we continue still in our sinnes whereby Gods wrath is provoked against us Remember therefore I beseech you that caveat which God hath given us Deut. 23.9 it is the great Canon of Martiall-discipline When thou goest out with the hgst against thine enemies keepe thee then from all wickednesse The reason followeth ver 14. For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Campe to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee therefore shall thy Campe be holy that he see no uncleane thing in thee and turne away from thee For by experience we find that speech to be true which Azariah the Prophet spake to King Asa 2. Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while yee are with him but if yee forsake him he will forsake you As with our humiliation we must joyne reformation of our lives so we must testâ—fie this our repentance by workes of mercy and charity towards the poore Daniel joynes these two together in that counsell which he gave unto Nebuchadnezzar Breake off thy sinnes by righteousnesse and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poore Dan. 4.27 Surely if ever there were a time to extend the bowells of mercy now it is when there are so many objects of mercy even men full of misery But that whereunto I am now to exhort you is not onely a worke of charity and mercy but an act of thankfulnesse whereunto you are bound by the Law of Nature namely to contribute for the reliefe of the poore maimed and sick Souldiers who have ventured their lives and spent their blood for the defence of their Country I will adde onely one thing more that this our repentance must be generall as our sin is generall and Nationall a particular man by turning from his wicked wayes may avert a particular judgement hanging over his owne head but where the Rebellion against God hath been generall and the judgement prepared is some generall calamity upon the Land there nothing can turne away Gods wrath but a generall conversion unto God as the Lord himselfe hath taught us Ezech. 14.13 Sonne of man when the Land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously then will I stretch out my hand upon it and though these three men Noah Daniell and Iob were in it they should deliver but their owne soules by their righteousnesse they shall deliver neither Sonnes nor Daughters they onely shall be delivered but the Land shall be desolate If the Sea roare and swell and be ready to breake the bankes it is not the care of one or two in repairing their bankes that will prevent the inundation but there must be a generall concurrence of all that are neare the place So now when God hath begun to roare from above against our Nation and is ready to swallow us up there must be a generall endeavour to stop the breach otherwise the particular care of some few will not prevent the deluge of his wrath Would we therefore remove this generall judgement which is upon our Land our repentance must be generall as the sinne was generall that brought the judgement let us therefore call one another as did the repenting Israelites Hos 6.1 saying Come and let us returne unto the Lord for he hath torne and he will heale us he hath smitten and he will bind us up And as it is Chap. 50.4 of this book let the Children of Israel and the Children of Iudah come together and weeping seeke the Lord. Thus if we seeke him hee will be found of us he will yet heale our Land and restore unto us the yeares which the Caterpiller hath devoured he will give us beauty for ashes and the oyle of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse hee will make the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce which God of his infinite mercy grant c. FINIS
this time It is a sword like that which is described Ezek. 21. A sword a sword sharpned and also fouâ—bished ver 9. It is the sword of the great men that were slain entring into the privy Chambers ver 14. It contemneth the rod of my sonne ver 10 that is it regardeth not the Kings Scepter where even the Geneva note in the Margine tells us that the King is called the Sonne of God because that all men should reverence Him as being in Gods place But this is a desperate sword as is expressed verse 13. And what shall this be if the sword contemne even the rod Such is the sword which God hath sent against our Land It contemneth the rod despiseth the Scepter spareth not the person of the King himselfe so that the breath of our nostrills the anoynted of the Lord was almost taken in their pits Lam. 4.20 This sword is so desperate that it devoureth without respect of sex age or conditions of men and there is no end of destroying We may now with sad hearts and wet eyes behold the whole Kingdome like a sorrowfull Widow not onely as Rebecca pained with the strugling of her children in her wombe but as Rachel weeping for her children who will not be comforted because they are not It is repotted of Judas Macchabaeus 2. Mac. 12. that after a shaughter of the People he caused to offer up Sacrifice for the dead Now howsoever that author hath related this story yet I cannot believe that Judas offered any Sacrifice for the benefit of the dead for certainly that error is not so ancient but it may wel be that he caused to offer up Sacrifice because of the dead that is to say by the slaughter of those men that fell he perceived that Gods wrath was kindled against all the People and so he offered Sacrifice to make an atonement for themselves So we shall doe well now to offer up sacrifice because of the Slain to turn away Gods wrath from us lest we all likewise perish I know there is a sacrifice intended but it is such as will make no atonement Many divelish polititians would now make a sacrifice of the Church they call it a Reformation of Religion but it would prove the destruction of it This hath bin often attempted before and it was observed by M. Cartwright the author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline that it was covetousnesses which set on worktheir Lay-followers to bring in their discipline Whilest they heare us speake against Bishops and Cathedrall Churches saith the author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline it tickleth their eares looking for the like prey they had before of Monasteries Yea they have in their hearts devoured already the Churches inheritance They care not for Religion so they may get the spoyle They could be content to crucifie Christ so they might have his garments Our age is full of spoyling souldiers and of wicked Dionysians who will robbe Christ of his golden Coate as neither fit for him in Winter nor in Summer And saith M. Cartwright They are Cormorants and seeke to fil the bottomlesse sacks of their greedy appetites They doe yawne after a prey and would thereby to their perpetuall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood So that even in the judgement of these men who were the founders of this Rebellious Sect it is no acceptablesacrifice to God for men to appropriate to themselves the maintenance of the Church and such things as have been dedicated to Gods service This is not to offer up a Sacrifice to God but to sacrifice the things that are Gods unto wicked and Sacrilegious men Such a Sacrifice will be so farre from pacifying Gods wrath that it will incense it the more against us and against the whole Land such a Sacrifice will be as abominable unto God as was under the Law the cutting off a Dogs neck and the offering of Swines blood Isa 68.3 It is another Sacrifice wherewith we must make an atonement even that Sacrifice which David repenting of his sin vowed unto God Ps 51.17 The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart which God will not despise Wee must humble our selves in the sense of our sins and cry mightily unto God that the fiercenesse of his wrath may be turned away By this humiliation Gods wrath hath beene often pacifyed Ahab by an outward humiliation procured the adjourning of a temporall judgement So did the Ninevites when their destruction was within fortie dayes they humbled themselves and fasted whereupon the Lord repealed his sentence and they were not destroyed In the second of Ioel I find that even when the day of the Lord was nigh at hand ver 1. that is destruction readie to fall upon them presently yet God was willing to stay his hand and that his people should make his threatnings voyd for in the 12. verse he exhorts them unto repentance saying Therefore also now saith the Lord turne you unto me also now that is even now when the sentence is gone forth when the judgement is at hand now when I have whet my Sword bent my Bow and prepared the instruments of death yet Turne ye unto me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning rent your hearts and turne unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull who knoweth if he will returne and repent and leave a blessing behind him Therefore blow the Trumpet in Sion sanctifie a Fast câ—ll a solemne Assembly Let the Priests the Ministers of the Lord weepe betweene the Porch and the Altar and say Spare thy People O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach When Shishak King of Egypt came up against Ierusalem in the dayes of Rehoboam and tooke in the fenced Cities of Iudah the Princes of Israel and the King humbled themselves And when the Lord saw they humbled themselves the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying They have humbled themselves therefore I will not destroy them but I will grant them some deliverance and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Ierusalem by the hand of Shâ—shak 2 Chron. 12.7 So powerfull is true humiliation to asswage the flames of Gods wrath But for want of this humiliation many times Gods people maintaining a good Cause by lawfull authoritie yet are foyled as were the Israelites before Ai who could not prevaile untill such time as Ioshua fell on his face and mourned and cried unto the Lord. Jos 7.6 The Israelites going against the Tribe of Benjamin were Gods people they had a good Cause and a speciall Commission from God yet were they twice foyled because they did neglect to seek God by repentance and humiliation as doth appeare by the event for being beaten unto it they went up to the Lord and wept and fasted and offered burnt offerings and Peace-offerings before the Lord. Iudg. 20.26 Whereupon they overcame the Benjamites In the first of Sam. 7.6 it is said that the people drew water and powred it
of God in which they trusted could not free them from vengeance as the Lord himselfe forewarned them in the seventh chap. of this Prophecie Behold yee trust in lying words which cannot profit saying the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord will yee steale murther commit adultery sweare falsely burne incense unto Baal and walke after other Gods whom yee know not and come and stand before me in my house which is called by my name and say we are delivered to doe all these abominations Is this house which is called by my â—ame become a den of robbers Therefore will I doe unto this house which is called by my name and wherein yee trust as I have done to to Shiloh and I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your brethren even the whole sâ—ed of Ephraim Yea those prerogatives and benefits which they had received were so farre from saving them in the day of vengeance that they did aggravate their guiltinesse and double their condemnation as is expressed Amos 3.2 you onely have I knowne of all the families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities as if he should say because I blessed you more then others seeing now that you prove unthankfull I will punish you more then others God useth his former benefits as arguments to prove that judgements were due unto them for these three follow of course Ingentia beneficia ingentia peccata ingentes poenae where God vouchsafeth to conferre great benefits upon a Nation and they answer him with great sins certaine it is that great judgements will enâ—ue How doth our Saviour take on against these Cities where he had preached and wrought many miracles and they were not converted Woe be to thee Corazin Woe be to thee Bethsaida woe be to thee Capernaum for if that the great workes that have beene doâ—e in thee had been done in Tyrus and Sydon in Sedome and Gomorrah they would have repented but it shall be easier for them of Tyrus for them of Sodome at the day of judgement then it shall be for you Matth. 11.20 c. So may I say unto many who now injoy the meanes of Salvation and have drunk deepe of the cup of Gods blessings and yet continue in their sins the time shall come when they shall cry out oh that I were of Sodome oh that I were of Gomorrah oh that I had beene borne a Turke a Pagan and never knowne the good Word of God rather then having knowne it to have turned away from the holy Commandement Let us not therefore flatter our selves in respect of an outward profession of the true Religion and because of the manifold blessings wherewith Almighty God hath blessed our Nations for when God once commeth out of his place to punish the Inhabitants of the earth for their iniquities then the plea of Templum Domini will not serve the turne if reformation of the heart and life be wanting The Jewes because they had Abraham to their Father thought themselves free and could not endure to heare of bondange and indeed they were the seed of Iacob the only visible Church that God had yet when the faithfull City became an Harlot God gave her a bill of divorce his soule was avenged upon that Nation Good God if thy justice spared not Ierusalem what Nation can looke to escape The Apostle directs us what use we should make of all the punishments of the Iewes 1. Corin. 10.6 c. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evill things as they also lusted And that Scripture brings me to my generall application You have heard Gods threatning against his people in handling whereof I have proved that great sins procure not onely a visitation but a vengeance yea a speedy vengeance not only upon particular persons but even upon the whole Nation yea upon any Nation though never so neare and deare unto God as upon the Nation of the Iewes Now if we will reflect upon our selves we wil find that we may vie blessings with the Iewes blessings spirituall and blessings temporall the blessing of Peace the blessing of plenty the blessing of many great and extraordinary deliverances from out enemies and above all the inestimable blessing of the word of God And it fears me that we shall find we may tell sins with them also and overmatcht them by farte I pray you what were the sins for which God was pleased to execute vengeance upon his owne people Was it Epicurisme and fleshly lusts for these standâ—ne â—rest to the threatning in my Text when I had fed them to the full they then committed adultery they assembled themselves by troopes in the harlots houses they were as fed Horses in the morning every one neighed after his Neighbours wife Whereupon followeth this threatning shall I not visit for these things Or was their sinne Blood and Oppression Bribery and Injustice Fraud and Deceipt Robbery and Extortion Lying Avarice and Ambition Pride and Prodigality Oathes and Blasphemy Or was their sinne Ingratitude and Hypocrisie neglect of Gods word disobedience to his call abuse of his servants and prophanation of his Sabboths carnall security hardnesse of heart and contempt of Gods judgements Or was it corruption in worship and grosse idolatry Of all these crimes they stand indicted by the Prophets and in all these we have gone beyond them as Jerusalem justified Samaria so have we more then justified Jerusalem in all her abominations I will instance only in one or two Our Prophet saith Chap. 23.10 Because of swearing the Land mourneth And yet the least child in our streets could teach them all to sweare that sin could not be so very common amongst them for they had a custome to teare their clothes when they heard one to blaspheme if we should doe so in this age I am sure we should not leave a ragge upon our backs As we goe beyond them in swearing so also in lying never was there any Iow nor Frier either that had a face so impudent to devise such lies as now are published allowed rewarded as being the best meanes they have to advance their holy Cause Besides there are many sins common amongst us which were either rare or altogether unknowne unto the Iewes as Usury which was not practised by them except in their dealing with strangers neither doe we read of their Sacriledge till after their returne from the captivity Here if time would permit me to speake of your gaming dicing of your Masques and Stage-playes c. I could make it appeare that there are many great sinnes allowed amongst us which were not knowne vnto the Iewes not so much as heard of in Sodome or Gomorrah We haue new devices to cozen with new inventions to pamper our bodies and sacrifice to our panch new fashions to be proud with new oathes to blaspheme with new dressings and tires of women to provoke lust we have a