God will suffer sinners to stand till they are come to their full stature in sin and then he cuts them down and makes an end of them Thus Christ speaks to the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 23.32 Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers i. e. Ye will be filling up the measure of their sins till the Lord comes and measures out judgment to you according to the measure of your sins Oh then what cause have we to fear lest the Vials of wrath should suddenly be poured out upon us Is not the harvest of sin almost ripe or will not these showers of mercy suddenly ripen it And then the sickle must be put in a bloody enemy let in among us that shall cut us down as the reapers do the corn Oh let us dread the approaches of vengeance under the increases of sin and wickedness The measures of wrath have been long a filling the iniquities of our fathers are lay'd up for us and may be rewarded on our heads when the measure is full We ripen apace for judgments now destruction may be at the door ere we know Inferences from the fourth and fifth Propositions concerning the destructive nature of Sinning after deliverance Vse I. May destruction come after deliverance Then hence we may learn that present impunity can be no evidence of our future safety Mercies are not so inseparably entail'd upon us that justice cannot deprive us of them Present prosperity may have a mournful ending in dismal adversity National as personal salvation from present dangers may end in destruction The wings of our feathery confidence had need be clipt when we fondly presume the Almighty to be ever bound to deliver such a people as we because he hath once more graciously done it 2 Pet. 2.9 God reserves the unjust to judgment The bird that escapes the fowlers net for once may be afterwards caught we that are wonderfully preserved from the snares of hellish Plotters may at last be made a prey if we grow no more watchful Our cloudy Heavens threaten new storms The world is very full of great and unexpected mutations The turnings of the wheels of Providence are very swift and various We may now as suddenly be destroy'd as we have often been delivered Iud. 5. After delivered God destroyed those that believed not The ship that evades the dangers of the Sea more than once may be swallowed up in its Sands or shattered by its Rocks at last The reprieved malefactor may justly expect his deserved execution after a little space afforded for preparation And in truth the relief our offended God hath given us seems more like a Reprieve than a Deliverance and cause we have most seriously to fear that ere long we shall experience that Justice can destroy as Mercy can deliver Our impunity is not from Gods impotency but patience and that may soon be expir'd We have cause to dread that awakening word Josh. 24.20 If ye forsake the Lord then will he turn and do you hurt after all the good he hath done you Our not returning under good will make him turn to do us harm Proceeding in sin will interrupt the course of mercies and introduce successions of judgments You may be surprised with sudden miseries in the midst of your feigned safety God will not always draw with cords of love Hos. 11.3.4 5. I drew them with cords of a man with bonds of love that is I dealt with them in the most gracious manners striving to draw their rebellious hearts into subjection but since I cannot prevail v. 5 They shall not go down to Egypt they shall have no shelter there but the Assyrian shall be their King and the sword shall abide in their cities and devour his branches Thus may the dealings of God be changed and cords of love be turned to chastising rods to lash the backs of stubborn fools We cannot ensure the continuance of mercies but by our compliance with the designs of God by them That which was spoken to Ephraim may fall upon us Hos. 9.11 As for Ephraim his glory shall flee away like a bird We imagine we have mercies sure as a bird in the cage but as the door being opened the bird flies away so mercies will take their wings and be gone from a sinful people Trust not then to your present freedom you may be enslaved flatter not your selves in hopes of perpetual deliverance destruction may come at last 3. Will this persistence in sin hasten such certain and miserable ruine Then see what reason there is to shake off our pleasing but hurtful security admitting some fearful thoughts and affecting our hearts with apprehensions of our eminent danger Unwilling we are to admit of such Truths near our decoying hearts which may affect us with fear or grief But 't is far from the nature of wisdom to flatter our selves into ruine or to fancy our selves secure in a glorious Paradise till we be miserable in a desolate wilderness Three things says Luther will undo a Nation Oblivion of Mercies Politick contrivances and Carnal Security Well will it be if these prove not our ruine at last Oh what a fearless Age do we live in we sleep on pillows stuft with the fire of divine vengeance We cry Peace Peace and destruction is coming How do we stupifie our Senses fear our Consciences lock up our Understandings to keep out all fears in the midst of most dreadful dangers What stupifying Opiums hath the Devil perswaded us to swallow that makes us so mindless of approaching miseries How do we fortifie our selves with most fond presumptions against the threats of vengeance denounc'd from Heaven Can fancyed safety deliver our Nation from Enemies when we have nothing else to secure us Can empty boastings of conceited ability to defend our selves prevent the assaults of Enemies or deliver our Land from the ruine designed Will security in sin be sufficient guard to preserve us from all Conspiracies can neither God nor man do us any harm whilst we imagine our selves out of danger Oh nos miserrimos Oh miserable England how do we surfeit with mercies and wax sick with the kindness of Heaven and yet say It shall be well with us How do we wound our selves when the Lord is healing and destroy our selves when the Lord is delivering and yet say The Lord will go on to deliver What Prosperity do we promise our selves whilst God is threatning our ruine What Halcyon-days do we vainly expect though Miseries are ready to seize us Oh the dreadful Dooms that are threatned to so stupid a people in the Word of the Lord Oh the sad Calamities have come upon a people in this condition Is not this the posture our Enemies so greatly desire to finde us in What is their work but to lull us asleep and then to be butchering of us What is the great contrivance at this day of the Papists and such as affect them but to suppress our fears by cheating devices knowing our deepest security
operations cast an unmerited eye of pity on our sinful Nation languishing with undiscerned distempers when the boundless goodness of the Eternal God made a timely stop to our hastning ruine when the heavenly witness that is conscious to the secret actions of unmindful Mortals detected the vaulted contrivances of the undermining Moles of our Common-wealth when the Almighty God who places bounds to the roaring waves and says to the raging sea Hitherto and no farther took off the Chariot-wheels of our furious Enemies when he unto whom belongs the issues from death as by a glorious Resurrection rescued us from the jaws of destruction who bore the Image of death upon us when the faithful God discovered the unfaithful dealings of perfidious Plotters and by a glorious ray of infinite goodness shining on our clouded Land hath made us a Land of Goshen who were near to be made a miserable Golgotha This is the Deliverance never to be forgotten the wonderful work with such impressions of mercy which is to be beheld with most fixed intention Now can we cast our eye on this magnificent master-piece of mercy but our eye must needs affect our hearts and ingenerate such motions as were in the heart of thankful David Psal. 116.12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercy Can we pass by this Heavenly favour without a pious inquiry into the gracious designs of our blessed God in bestowing of it Hath this unexpected deliverance continued the choicest of blessings to us and shall we dis-appoint the expectations of God who is looking for signal requitals of it Surely such a glorious work as this wherein hath appeared the immediate hand of Almighty God the most wonderful goodness of his sweetest nature the highest testimonies of his enduring patience can never be over-looked by us unless we design to affront his mercy disdain his kindness and dare his justice But oh miserable Nation oh ungrateful people Where are the tokens of thankful respects for unmerited favours What notice is there taken that such a work hath been done amongst us Who lays to heart the operations of his hands Where are the lips that praise him the lives that honour him for it The Idolatrous Philistines could assemble and sacrifice to their Dagon for delivering Sampson their Enemy into their hands Iudg. 16.23 24. But when have we assembled to offer the sacrifice of praise to our God for delivering us from the hands of our Enemies Oh regardless people if talking of Deliverance be recompense enough we have paid it if cursing our foes be sufficient reward we have given it but if repentance of disobedience be the onely return we have yet omitted it if reformation can onely be regarded as a suitable requital we are without it What have we seen but unchanged conversations in our changed condition What have we given to the Lord but a doubled measure of Impieties for his doubled mercies What have we done but endeavoured to revenge our selves on the mercy of God that hath spared us Oh undeserving Generation that we are how do we enjoy mercies and never improve them How do we comfortably reap the profit of Deliverance and unfaithfully rob the Lord of the glory of it How do we bless our selves in escapes and forget the Almighty that gives them to us We are sollicitous wanters but careless enjoyers How are we joyful when getting out of danger but how little careful then are we to be getting out of sin Methinks the Moon that is often changing and still keeps its old spots is a plain Emblem of our wicked Nation when all things are ruining sin remains unruined when enjoying escapes from ruine still sin remains to be again a cause of ruine Oh what unchangeable Ethiopians are we in our sins How like are we to the hardned Mariners who escaping the fatal dangers of a threatning storm remain secure till another Tempest hangs over their heads What succession of mercies do we promise our selves in the vilest continuance in destroying iniquities But is there no hope◠that the consideration of delivering Mercies may over-power us from going on in our wicked courses Were they prest upon our Consciences would they not prevail to effect some reformation It may be a word that will suit to the works of the Lord amongst us may make some impression effect some conviction and produce some amendment Behold then a Word enough to melt our hearts with the reading of it to dissolve us into tears by meditating on it to make us reform by applying of it Seeing thou hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy commandment Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us c. In these words are contain'd 1. A thankful acknowledgment of the undeserved mercy their gracious God had exercised towards them consisting in these two things 1. He had punished them less than their sins deserved They admire the Clemency of Almighty God that when their iniquities were wonderfully great their punishments should be mitigated with so much mercy The Hebrew Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used signifies 1. Cohibere se to with-hold ones self And so the sence is elegant Thou hast with-held thy self from doing what our iniquities deserved from thee Thou wouldst not suffer thy direful anger to break out against us to the utmost but didst refrain thy self from making an irreparable ruine amongst us Hadst thou proportioned thy destroying judgment to our daring provocations and thy wrathful dealings to our vast deserts we had not been a people at this very day but thy mercy detain'd the hands of thy Justice and thou didst not so much design to consume us but onely to correct us The like acknowledgment have we cause to make having had experiences of the same clemency for when our provoked God hath come out against us with wasting Wars destroying Plagues devouring Flames yet he restrained his wrath and suspended the greatest part of the judgments we deserved from him and although when he began there was cause enough to make a full end of us all yet in the midst of Justice he remembred mercy and graciously desisted from ruining of us 2. The word signifies Cohibere aliquid to restrain any thing else So the sence is Thou hast restrained kept down our sins from rising up in judgment against us for had they appeared against us we had utterly been ruin'd 2. This Mercy was exprest to them by the working out for them so great a deliverance Since thou hast given us such a deliverance implying how merciful how seasonable how undeserved a deliverance that was they received and such is ours that the Almighty God hath vouchsafed to us 2. You have here the deep sense of duty that was upon his heart which duty was to break off sin which onely can be a just return to God for his goodness 3. You have his sense of danger if sin was persisted in after such a deliverance Wouldst
will be their greatest advantage They know our Throats will lye open to be cut by their cruel hands when once we have emptied our hearts of sollicitous thoughts of destruction Hence hence it is instruments are active to inform us deceitfully that we are sufficiently provided against them for this they instruct theirs and the Devils Martyrs to obtrude on the world the highest Protestations of Innocency For this they strain their throats to swallow renouncing Oaths which they will as certainly keep as ever they intended which I fear was not at all Hence they force themselves to a Parish-Church that we may certainly think they cannot belong to the Romish Mother and that we may fancy they cannot go thence to contrive our miserable ruine Oh then if this be their plot how have they got us by it How do we please our enemies and promote their designs by our sinful Security But shall we not fear the Hammer and Nail will cleave our Pates when Sisera-like we are droll'd into sleep with a Lordly Dish of Butter and Honey You may certainly believe this stupifying Opium will be like the poyson of Asps at last Is not this the Posture most have been in when Judgments came upon them What was there but careless and senseless doings when that dreadful Deluge surpriz'd the world of old Mat. 24.37 38. How unexpected was the ruine of Sodome and Gomorrha How incredulous were the Jews of their sad Captivities and of their utter Desolation at last Observe we but the frame of persons when Judgments have been rained from Heaven upon them and we shall finde they were fearless of any storms and conceitedly secure from any miseries When the Massacre broke forth in Paris the cruel butchering was acted in Ireland the ruining Persecutions and Distresses fell upon Germany they were all involv'd in Lethargical Distempers besotted with fatal Security This is the time the beasts of prey have ever gone out to glut themselves with fatning blood This hath been the season ever selected to manage the overthrow of Kingdoms Yet examples do not warn us but we foolishly seem resolv'd to gratifie our enemies with a suitable season to ruine us Is not this the posture that God hath severely threatned in his Word to which he will ever be faithful Isai. 22.13 14. In that day the Lord of Hosts called to mourning and weeping and behold joy and gladness and it was revealed in my ears Surely this Iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die Nothing urges Justice more to confound a people with floods of Vengeance than Epicurean stupidity under awakening Alarums Hath not the Lord threatned Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved and still hardens his neck shall be destroyed suddenly and that without remedy Why then do we flatter our selves and cry Peace peace Shall we say as those Zeph. 1.12 The Lord will do neither good nor evil Will not God then say as v. 13 Therefore your goods shall become a booty and your houses a desolation Whatever may be the foundation our Security is builded upon so long as provoking Sins are heaping up Wrath Security doth but hasten our Misery 'T is possible we are incredulous that Judgments can ever destroy a People renowned in Profession as we but since our Profession is but as Samuel's mantle under which are shrouded most devilish sins or as a carpet cast over the mouth of Hell it can never be a shelter for us but stirs up the Lord to vengeance Outside-Holiness and mocking Formality renders our condition the worse Micah 3.11 12. They leaned upon God in ways of sin and said Is not the Lord among us do we not profess him and worship him Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountains of the House of the Lord as the high places of the forrest The Ark of the Lord could not save the Israelites sinning Zion will be no shelter for Hypocrites 'T is in vain to flatter our selves with conceits of safety in an outward shew of Godliness that hay and straw can be no fence from the ruining flames of Divine Vengeance Awake then from brutish security and fall to work to prevent the threatned ruine by repentance and amendment Fancy not your selves beyond the reach of judgments but tremble in your selves that you may have rest in the day of trouble Make the Almighty your friend that he may not be a terrour in the day of Evil. Be afraid of all his judgments For if you will not learn to fear that great and dreadful Name the Lord thy God then will he make thy plagues wonderful Deut. 28.38 Is not destruction coming after deliverance Are not dreadful days approaching to us Consider these few particulars following and you will see what cause we have to shake off security and prepare our selves to meet the Lord in ways of judgments who have so long enjoy'd the shines of mercy 1. May we not justly fear our ungrateful carriage towards God will hasten his formidable departure from us Unkindness shown to friends coming to us will certainly discourage them from abiding with us The happiness of a Nation consists above all in the fruition of the favourable presence of God and if by a regardless carriage or displeasing behavior we provoke him to depart our sudden ruine will be the consequence of his deserting of us Hos. 9.12 Wo also to them when I depart from them There is that absolute necessity of the presence of the Lord with a people to conduct them by his Counsel to protect them by his Power to succeed them by his blessing in use of saving means to deliver them in unconquerable dangers that if he withdraws it from them none of these things can be done by another hand Hence the Lord unwilling to ruine Ierusalem with bowels of compassion cries out Ier. 6.8 Be instructed O Ierusalem lest my soul depart from thee and thy land becomes desolate and not inhabited The soul of a man is the vivisick principle on the separation of which from the body there ensues a death all strength counsel beauty leaves the body Thus when the Lord departs the soul of a Nation is gone and then the Nation is only a mouldring heap and as a liveless carcass We certainly loose all good when the presence of God is withdrawn from us If we by our sins make the Almighty go away he for our sins will take away all kinde of Mercies from us Deut. 3.1.17 I will forsake them The regardless Athâ—ists of our age will say Let him go and what then Oh says the Lord. Then shall ye be devoured and many evils and troubles shall come upon you so that they shall say in that day Are not these evils come upon us because the Lord is not amongst us Now may we not fear God will depart from a people that behave themselves so unkindly as we at this day We slight his presence abuse his