perfectly yet it may in some measure be collected It remains that we consider the imprudence of it O foolish people and unwise III. I may not I need not insist long upon this Argument There are as I conceive but these five suppositions which possibly might exempt them from the censure of the text 1. If their God were like the gods of the heathen and did not know their behaviour toward him Or 2. If he were the God of Epicurus and did not resent it Or 3. If they could escape from him Or 4. If they could excuse themselves to him Or 5. If they were able to support themselves against him If none of these were in the case they will stand convicted of horrible imprudence it will then be manifest that they were a foolish people and unwise Of these things briefly 1. Did not God know their behaviour The Psalmist indeed tells of a brutish people which wrought all manner of wickedness and yet they said The Lord shall not see it neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But O ye fools saith he when will ye be wise He that planted the ear shall he not hear He that formed the eye shall not he see He that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth beholding the evil the good For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings He penetrates all things and searches all things If they say peradventure theâ— darkness shall cover them then shall the night be turned into day the darkness is no darkness with him but the night is as clear as the day 2. But it may be though he knew their behaviour yet he did not concern himself about them it may be he did not much resent their dealings with him Neither if they be righteous is he the better neither if they be wicked is he the worse Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the son of man but if thou sinnest what dost thou against him and if thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him Nay but did not he concern himself for them what meaned then the sounding of his bowels toward them what mean such pathetical exclamations as these O that there were such an heart in them that they would keep my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their seed for ever Again O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end O that they had hearkened what iniquity have they found in me Did not he resent it when they made the calf He said Behold I have seen this people and it is a stiff-necked people let me alone that I may blot out their name from under Heaven When they murmured I will come in the midst of them in a moment and consume them at once When they rebelled against Moses Get you up from among them that I may consume them in a moment When they tempted him and questioned his power He heard it and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel Many a time would he have destroyed them had not Moses stood in the gap to turn aways his anger 3. But possibly for all this there might be some way to escape from him and to conveigh themselves out of the sphere of his activity There have been those who have conceived the God of Israel to be a topical God a God of the mountains only and that the valleys were out of his power and jurisdiction true but because the Syrians said that he was not God of the valleys he delivered them into the hands of Israel who slew a hundred thousand foot-men in one day Nay but Behold the Heaven of Heavens cannot contein the God of Israel he filleth all things Shall they escape for their wickedness Whither can they go then from his Spirit or whither can they flee from his presence If they could ascend into Heaven he is there if they could make their bed in hell behold he is there 4. But though they cannot escape out of his reach possibly they may plead something in excuse of their doings which may mitigate his indignation perhaps they were ignorant that God was concerned ignorant of his will and of his ways they had no instruction they had no warning of their danger But I say unto them Had they no Caveats Take heed saith Moses keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen When thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God Had they no memento's How often doth God command them to bind his precepts and his prodigies for a sign and a token and a memorial upon their hands for frontlets between their eyes to write them upon their posts and their gates to teach them their children lest they should forget them Did they not know I call heaven and earth to record this day against you saith Moses that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing Had they no warnings of their danger If thou do forget I denounce this day that thou shalt surely perish and this song was made to testifie against them Had they not heard had they not seen Yes that which had not been heard and seen since the foundation of the world from one side of the heavens to another Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire and live They saw Thundrings and Lightnings Noise Trumpet Mountain smoaking Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu the Seventy Elders the Nobles the People saw the Lord and the sight of the glory of God was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel so that they were without excuse 5. And the only remaining consideration is this whether they were able to resist the Lord to support themselves against him or at least wise to endure the utmost of his indignation What is their hope that they behave themselves proudly that they kick against the Lord or wherein lies their confidence that they rebell against him Who art thou O man that strivest against God Canst thou overturn immensity or circumvent omniscience or grapple with omnipotence The Lord is a man of war great and terrible is his name who can stand before him when he is angry Behold the Nations are as the drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing all Nations are counted to him as Grashoppers â—ay less than vanity and nothing Where were they when the foundations of the world were laid and a line was stretched upon it Can they command the thunder or furnish out the
and a â—y-word and a reproach among all their neighbours round about Cursed shall they be in the wife of their bosom and cursed in the fruit of their body The Lord shall smite them with a consumption and with a feaver with an inflammation and with an extreme burning He shall smite them with the botch of Egypt and with the Emerods and with the scab and with the itch with â— botch that cannot be healed from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head Their carcase shall be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth and no man shall fray them away 2. Moreover he shall pour out spiritual judgements upon them he shall give them over to the wickedness of their hearts he shall let them aloneâ— that they may commit sin with greediness He shall send upon them a spirit of blindness and hardness of heart a spirit of slumber and carnal security Then when they have filled up the measure of their enormities he shall smite them with madness and astonishment with terrours of conscience and desperation His arrows shall stick fast in them and his hand shall press them sore there shall be no health in their bodies because of his displeasure nor any rest in their bones by reason of there sin The iniquity of their heels shall take hold upon them the terrours of death shall compass them about and the flouds of their ungodliness shall make them afraid Every man that sees me shall slay me said cursed Cain my punishment is greater than I can bear I have slain a man in mine anger and a young man to my wounding If Cain shall be avenged seven sold surely Lamech seventy times seven Hearken unto me ye wives of Lamech They shall be weary of life and wish for death and hasten sometimes to break off their torments by tragical and fearful ends Fall thou upon me and slay me saith desparing Saul Behold anguish is upon me because my life is whole in me Away with the wages of iniquity cryed despairing Iudas and he betook himself to the fatal halter and the tree 3. Yet all these are to the finally impenitent but the beginnings of sorrow the praeludium to those unutterable miseries which are eternal to the worm which dyeth not to the fire which never shall be quenched to utter darkness and everlasting burnings For they go down quiâ—k into hell As it is with persons so it is with Nations when their iniquitie is full when once they have filled up the measure of their abominations if none of all his methods will bring them to repentance if they will not humble themselves if they will not fear if they will not turn from their evil ways he will set his face against them to destroy them He will pour out blindness upon them also and the things belonging to their peace shall be â—id from their eyes He will do to them as he did to Shilo he will take away their light he will come quickly and remove the candlestick out of its place He will give them over to the career and swinge of their abominations Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone Though it be with violence to his nature though it be with reluctancy to his inclination O Ephraim how shall I give thee up O Ephraim yet their numbers shall not defend them their privileges shall not excuse them from destruction Though Conâ—ah were as the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Though Ephraim is his dear son though Israel be a pleasant child though Iudah is a pleasant plant yet if they will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquities and Iudah also shall fall with them Though Noah Daniel and Iob were there they shall deliver neither son nor daughter but their own souls only For unnatural and extraordinary rebellions he hath supernatural and extraordinary judgements The windows of heaven were opened the cataracts were poured forth and drowned the old world Fire descended and brimstone came down from heaven and consumed the Cities of Sodom and Comorrha The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the congregation of Abiram The Sun stood still till Ioshua was avenged of the Lords enemies The stars in their courses fought against Sisera For the usual and ordinary impenitency of Nations he hath his three fold national scourge his judgements in ordinary The famine the pestilence and the sword Sometimes he breaks the staff of bread and they shall eat bread by weight and with care and they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment that they may want bread and water and consume away in their iniquity Their seed shall be rotten under the clods their garners desolate their barns broken down their beasts shall groan their cattle shall be perplexed the flocks of sheep shall be made desolate They shall eat their children of a span long they that did feed delicately shall be desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet shall imbrace dunghils Sometimes he sends forth his Plague 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the raging and the noisome pestilence the pestilence that walketh in darkness the plague that destroyeth at noon day He scatters infection like lightning he casts forth his Contagion and tears them in a moment he shoots his poyson'd arrows and consumes them Sometimes he gives commission to the sword to revenge the quarrel of his covenant by intestine rebellions or forreign invasions He suffers a fawning Absalom to steal away the hearts of the people from their Sovereign or a cursed Sheba to blow a trumpet and cry To your tents O Israel He permits a spirit of giddiness of fears and jealousies and of fanatick wildness to inrage whole Nations to tear the womb that bare them to destroy them and their king He causes nation to rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom He calls in the families of the North he hisses for the Assyrian the rod of his anger Behold saith our Saviour the day is coming when thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee on every side Then all things shall be filled with plunder and confusion and garments roll'd in bloud Her stately Palaces her goodly Temple shall be destroyed The thorns shall come up in her palaces nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof and it shall be an inhabitation for dragons and a court for owls The satyre shall cry to his fellows the owle and the vulture to his mate the scrichowle shall make its nest there Faunes and satyres shall dance there Babylon is fallen it is fallen Ierusalem is a place for dragons Behold the reward of obstinate and final impenitency behold the portion reserved for the persons in the Text. When neither interest nor ingenuity â—udgements nor mercies could
Lord O foolish people and unwise This is the Interest which these words have in the song and they consist of two general parts 1. An expostulation Do ye thus requite the Lord 2. A censure O foolish people and unwise The former of these needs no explication being an ardent and vehement exprobration of the ingratitude of this people wherein every word is weighty and very Emphatical The manner of the retribution the parties Requiting and Requited Ye men Ye men of Israel do ye make such a requital such a requital to the Lord To requite evil for good among Equals is against the light of the sons of Noah and much more against the light of Israel But for Israel after their instruction and their experiences to do despight to the great and the gracious and the terrible jealous and avenging God it implies so much ingratitude and so high a degree of wickedness and madness as is not to be measured And therefore he doth not attempt to delineate or describe it but like one astonished at it he expostulates with them in a vast abrupt Interrogation Do ye thus requite the Lord But now the latter general part which contains the censure of them may perhaps require a little explication Foolish and Unwise may possibly seem to some to have a little flatness in it and tautology Here therefore we must be take our selves to the Original and there we shall find a considerable difference betwixt the notions of those two words which are thus translated The words for Vnwise is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies that they were imprudent and acted against their interest and concernment The words translated foolish people are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingrate popule signifying base unworthiness and perverseness They were Am Nabal such for a people as Nabal afterwards for a man Now concerning Nabal the Scripture tells us that the Character of his person was answerable to the notion of his name As is his name so is he Nabal is his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vilitas cum â—o Interlin Dedecus cum ipso Syriac A base unworthy dishonourable person churlish and evil in his doings surly and morose such a man of Belial that one might not speak to him Insolent and as such persons use to be cowardly and dead hearted a drunken stupid sottish and to sum up all an ungrateful wretch that requited evil for good This was the Character of Nabal and this the folly bound up in the heart of the Children of Israel so that there is no tautology in the text The first word signifies the Wickedness the second the imprudence of Israel's Requital And these are the things which I am to speak of I. Israels requital towards God implyed in the expostulation Do ye thus requite II. The Wickedness of that requital III. The Imprudence pâ—essed in the censure IV. Application 1. Requital is a word of a reciprocal notion it signifies a return made for something done And to set forth Israel's requital to the Lord we are to consider 1. Gods dealings with Israel and 2. Israel's return to God 1. Of the former we have various instances in the following words God hath prevented them with Grace and favour and followed them 1. Made Fathers 2. Bought 3. Established them with mercy and loving-kindness He contrived advantages for them before their Original he designed them great and glorious privileges long before they had any being The Scripture computes their Original from Iacob who was called Israel A Syrian ready to perish was their Father but long before Iacobs time The most high divided to the Nations their inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam the Lords portion was his people and Israel the lot of his inheritance He chose Iacob for himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure before Jacob or Esau had done good or evil he chose them because he loved them to shew his prerogative and manifest his absolute Sovereignty When Abraham was an hundred years old and Sarah ninety and they had no child betwixt them he contracted with Abraham both for their being and their inheritance He brought him forth and said Look toward Heaven and tell the Stars so shall thy seed be And the same day he said Vnto thy Seed yet in Idea have I given this land from the River of Egypt to the great River Euphrates So that he was their Father and maker in a peculiar manner even as if from stones he had raised children unto Abraham Seing that from one and him as good as dead there sprang so many as the Stars Nay far more than the Stars which Abraham could see when he looked up into the Sky the number of all the Stars visible to the naked eye upon all the various positions of the Sphere not exceeding eleven hundred whereas there were numbred of this people at one time 603550 fighting men above twenty years old beside the tribe of Levi and beside women and children As was their first creation such was their conservation and propagation instances of the united forces of the goodness wisdom and power of God when he saw them in their blood he said unto them Live when he found them in the howling wilderness he kept them as the apple of his eye He protected them from all the storms which passed over them when they passed through the water when they went through the fire he provided for them when there was famine in their land In a prodigious way of mercy he made use of their own wickedness and turned it to their preservation When they sold Ioseph into Egypt Ioseph saith God sent him to preserve them a posterity and to save their lives ye thought evil against me but God meant it for good He sent them down into Egypt for their preservation he preserved them there 430 years and when the Egyptians were turned against them the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew Doubtless he was their father though Abraham was ignorant of them and Israel knew them not for in their affliction his bowels sounded towards them And 2. he was their Redeemer as well as their Maker he bought them for so saith the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possedit acquisivit eos i. e. asseruit in libertatem When by the rigour of the Egyptians their lives were bitter God heard their groanings and he remembred the Covenant made with Abraham and his prediction that they should serve and be afflicted 400 years and that then he would judge that nation whom they should serve Surely I have seen saith he the affliction of my people I have heard their cry I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them He sent Redemption to his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron He gave Commission and Power and Command to Moses to make known his Omnipotence and his favour to his people and
Prophet brings men to the consideration of the love of a mother to her child can a Mother forget her Child c The love of Man to God holds no proportion to his Excellency and his goodness and the heart in judging of it is obnoxious to mistakes and very deceitful therefore the Apostle helps us towards an apprehension of it He that loves not his neighbour whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen So seeing the turpitude of mens ingratitude towards God is ineffable and inconceivable it will be requisite to speak a little of the unworthiness of Ingratitude towards men and leave you to work out this proportion Look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth so great nay infinitely greater is the unworthiness of ingratitude towards God And here I shall not go about to Philosophize or to demonstrate the turpitude of ingratitude from the nature of it à priori The immediate and evident corollaries of natural principles admit only of jejune and inconsiderable reasonings in that kind of demonstration The odiousness of ingratitude is such a corollary naturally and immediately flowing from that universal maxim quod tibi fieri non vis c. which runs thorow all morality and is not only the last resolution of Philosophy but of the Law and the Prophets and of the Gospel Luke 6. 31. As therefore when an abstruse proposition in matter of speculation is resolved into an evident principle or the contrary position into a plain absurdity the demonstrator goes no further but hath said all that can be pertinently spoken so when a piece of doubtful Morality is once resolved into this grand absurdity Omnia dixeris there is no more to be added all the rest is diminution It is said that Lycurgus made no law against ingratitude because Nature had made one to his hand So some Divines have observed that there is no direct precept against ingratitude in the Scripture though many testimonies in effect against it because it was needless as being supposed from the light of nature and below the Majestie of the spirit breathing in the scriptures to insist upon it according to that of our Saviour If ye love and do good and lend to them that love and do good to you what thanks or reward have you do not Sinners or Publicans even the same To that spirit which commands us to return good for evil to love our Enemies c. it were a kind of whiffling to command the return of good for good or prohibit the return of evil to those that have obliged us Now of these two sorts of ingratitude the former is branded in Scripture with an everlasting brand in the case of Pharaoh's Butler to Ioseph the Israelites to Ierubaal and the like But the ingratitude in the text being of the latter kind and of a deeper die and because the easiest Criterion of turpitude is the detestation of all the sons of men I shall endeavour à posteriori by some Scriptural instances of the resentments of that kind of ingratitude to shew the turpitude of it in the judgment of mankind We read when Ioash had commanded Zachariah to be stoned who was the son of Iehojada who had preserved him in his minority from Athaliah and made him King his own servants conspired against him and kill'd him in his bed because he remembred not the kindness of Iehojada but slew his son When Abner apprehended ingratitude in Ishbosheth whom he had made King consider his resentment he was very wroth he said am I a Dogs head who do shew kindness to the house of Saul God do so to Abner and more also except I translate the Kingdome from the house of Saul He swore he would do it and he did perform it It may be objected that the resentment of these men was not so considerable as that the Judgment of Mankind should be collected from it those that conspired against Ioash were Zabad the son of an Ammonitess and Iehozabad the son of a Moabitess and we read not any great praise either of the piety or morality of Abner Consider then the resentments of Gideon of whom it is said the Lord was with Gideon and of David the man after God's own heart When the men of Succoth dealt ungratefully with Gideon he said that he would tear their flesh with the thorns of the Wilderness and he took the Elaers of the City and the thorns of the Wilderness and with them he taught the men of Succoth i. e. he taught them better Morals When Nabal had upon a good day the shearers feast refused to give a little something that should come to hand and put a scorn upon David who is David c. then David said Surely in vain have I kept the goods of this fellow and he hath requited me evil for good so and more also do God to the enemies of David if I leave of all that perteineth to him before the morning light any that pisseth against the wall But it may be said that these be men of war and those enraged and these might be the resentments only of their passions Proceed we therefore to the resentments of Prophets and righteous men let us have recourse from David the Captain to David the Prophet and the Psalmist when he was composed and when he was composing Had it been my open enemies then I could have born it but it was thou my friend and my acquaintance it was an act of Treachery and Ingratitude let death seise upon them and let them go down quick into hell And again They rewarded me evil for good let them be confounded let them be as the dust before the wind let their way be dark and slippery and the Angel of the Lord persecute them Shall evil be recompensed for good saith Jeremy I stood before thee to speak good for them and they have digged a pit for my soul Therefore deliver up their children to the famine and pour out their blood by force of the sword c. Briefly because it may be objected that all these were the resentments of a legal and Mosaick spirit consider the resentment of the lamb of God the son of man the man Christ Jesus when he denounced a woe upon Corazin c. Woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre c. Therefore it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for thee Consider his resentment when he pronounced a judgment upon Ierusalem O Ierusalem Ierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children and ye would not Behold now your house is left unto you desolate From what hath been spoken of the resentments of men the wickedness of Israels ingratitude against God though it cannot be