have him take it away yet if this Magistrate should be guilty of the same sin or that which amounteth to the same sin God will avenge himselfe upon this Magistrate as upon a Murtherer as here God revengeth himselfe upon the house of Iehu as for murther yet Iehu was a Magistrate and this was commanded Iehu by God himselfe So suppose a Magistrate fine a man for any evill and that justly yet if he be guilty of the same himselfe God will deal with this Magistrate as if he robbed by the high way side and took away a mans money by violence It is apparent out of the Text. Certainely my brethren therefore great wrath and vengeance hangeth over the head of wicked Magistrates All this you learn from what is here said that God will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu upon the inquiring into the reason of it And he will doe this upon the house of Iehu that is the third Question What is the house of Iehu That is his Posterity his Family that was to succeed And indeed it was to the fourth generation till God came against him as we shall heare by and by God followeth wicked men to the 3. and 4. generation The posterity of the ungodly specially Idolaters shall suffer for their Fathers sin It is very observable what you have in the second Commandement that God in no other doth threaten the sinne of the fathers upon the children but in the second Commandement What is thereason of this That Commandement forbiddeth Images Because your superstitious worshippers of all men are strengthened by the tradition of their Fathers Oh our Fathers did thus and thus and shall we be wiser then our Fore-fathers We have now a company of up-start men and they will be wiser then their Ancestors Because superstitious worshippers harden themselves so much in that way upon their Fathers therefore it is that in that very Commandement against making and worshipping of Images God threatneth to visite the sinne of the fathers upon the children and in no other What the house of Iehu after Iehu was dead how can this be Yes as a Prince that hath to doe with two Traitors both of them have deserved death but the Prince is enclined to shew mercy and against the one there commeth this Accusation This mans Father was a Traytor and his grand-father and his great grand-father were Traytors Nay then let him dye saith the Prince But now the other that is guilty of as much as this man was yet it is told the King Sir This mans Fathers hath done a great deale of excellent fervice for the Common-wealth there were never any of his house but were loyaâ—l This man now is spared though hee deserveth death and guilty with the other of the same treason and the King is just in this And so the first man may be said to dye for his Fathers sinne that is he should not have been executed if his Fore-fathers had not been in the fault Take heed what you doe in the course of your lives if you regard not your selves yet for your childrens sake that you may not leave a curse behind you upon the off-spring of your loins and fruit of your wombs look upon them pity them Though you your selves may escape in this world yet you may leave the inheritance of your sinnes unto your children Pity your children that they may not have cause to curse the time that they were borne of such parents and wish that they had rather been of the off-spring of Dragons and a generation of Vipers then to be born of such parents that have left them a curse for an inheritance It had been better you had left them never a peny then to leave them to inherite the curse of your wickednesse Vpon the house of Jehu The house of Jehu fareth the worse for Jehu Those that desire to raise and continue the honour of their houses let them take heed of wayes of wickednesse for wickednesse will bring down any Family whatsoever But why is it The house of Jehu without any addition of Jehu the King as in others it is usual Hereby God would give a check to Jehu and bid him look back upon the meannesse of his birth for Jehu was not of the Kingly race yet how unthankfull was he who was raised from the dung-hill thus unworthily to depart from the Lord. You whom God hath raised up on high to great honours and estates look back to the meannesse of your beginning that God hath raised you from and labour to give him an answerable return of obedience Those that will not give God the glory of their honours and estates it is just their honors and estates should be taken from them But what is this Yet a little while This is to be understood in reference to Jehu or in reference to the house of Israel Yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cease the Kingdome of the house of Israel It was a long while before God came upon the house ol Jehu and yet now he saith yet but a little while I will stay but a little longer ere I avenge the blood of Iezreel upon the house of Iehu It was now the third generation since Iehu committed those sins nay it will appeare that it was above an hundred years from the sinnes of Iehu to Gods avenging the blood of Iezreel upon his house for Iehu raigned 28. years his sonne Iehoahaz 17. years and Iehoash his sonne 16. years and Ieroboam his son 41. yeares and then in the days of Zachariah the son of this Ieroboam God came to avenge this blood which was above a hundred years Oh the patience of the Lord towards sinners But though he stayed long yet he saith yet a little while Here is an excellent observation from hence That God sometimes commeth upon sinners for their old sins for sins committed a long time agon Sins a long time agone committed are perhaps forgotten by you yet they are remaining filed up and recorded in heaven above a hundred years after the commission It is like these sinns of Iehu were forgotten yet God commeth now at last to avenge the sins of Iehu upon his house So he did for the sins of Manasses and for the sins of Iosephs brethren it was 22. years before they came to have their consciences troubled and then say they We are verily guilty concerning our brother therefore is this distresse come upon us and now saith Reuben behold also his blood is required Looke to your selves you that are young take heed of youthfull sinnes Youthful sins may prove to be ages terrors Perhaps you think it was a grat while agone that you when you were a young man were in fuch a Taverne or in such a journey and committed such and such sins Have you repented for them Have you made
be seene and another thing to do a thing that it may be seen And yet Gods people may do both not do good onely that may be seen but if they keepe still the glory of God above in their eye as the highest ayme they may desire and be willing too that it may be seene to the praise of God But this I confesse requireth some strength of grace to do it and yet to keep the heart upright The excellency of grace doth consist not in casting off the outward comforts of the world but to know how to enjoy them and to over-rule them unto God so the strength of grace doth consist not in forbearing of such actions as are taken notice of by men or not to dare to ayme at the publishing of those things that have excellency in them but the strength of grace consists in this in having the heart enabled to do this and yet to keepe it under too and to keep God above in his right place Thirdly It shall be said they are sonnes c. It is a great blessing unto Gods children that they shall be accounted so before others Not onely that they shall be so but that they shall be accounted so Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God This is a blessing not onely to be Gods children but to be called Gods children We must account it so and therefore we must walk so as may convince all with whom we do converse that we are the children of God and not thinke this sufficient well let me approve my heart to God and then what need I care what all the World thinks of me God doth promise it as a blessing to have his people called the children of God then this must not be slighted You shall find it often in the Gospel that Christ made a great businesse of this to make it manifest to the world that he was sent of God he would have them to know that his Father sent him and that hee came from him So the people of God should count it a blessing and walk so as they may obtaine such a blessing that the world may know that they are of God Further. In the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them Ye are the sonnes of the living God Marke It is not said thus that in the place where it was said they are not my people it shall be said to them they are my people No but further it shall be said they are sonnes and sonnes of the living God this goeth beyond being his people Hence then the observation is That The grace of God under the Gospell it is morefull and large and glorious then the grace of God under the Law For this is spoke of the estate of the Church under the Gospell They were Gods people indeed under the Law but the sonnes of the living God this is reserved for the times under the Gospel Sometime they under the Law are called by the name of sonnes but it appeareth by this Text that in comparison of that glorious son-ship that they shall have under the times of the Gospell that they in former times were rather servants then sonnes There is very little of our adoption in Christ revealed in the Old Testament No that was reserved for the Sonne of God to reveale for him that came out of the bosome of the Father and brought the treasures of his Fathers councel to the world the revelation of these things were reserved to the time of his comming both adoption and eternal life was very little made knowne in the time of the Law therefore Saint Paul saith that life and immortality were brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. 2. Sonnes Because in the time of the Gospell the spirits of the Saints are of son-like dispositions they are ingenuous not mercenarie In the time of the Law God carried on his people in offering rewards especially in outward things but in the time of the Gospell we have no such rewards in outwards but the Scripture speakes of afflictions most there is not spoken so much of afflictions in the time of the Law but much outward prosperity there was then but in the time of the Gospel more affliction because the dispositions of the hearts of people should not be so mercenary as they were before they should be an ingenuous a willing people in the day of Christs power 3. Sonnes Because of the son-like affection to be much for God their Father out of a naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should have more then in the times of the Law I suppose some of you have heard of the story of Craesus his sonne though he was dumb all his dayes when he perceived a souldier striking his father his affection brake the barres of his speech and he cryed out to the Souldier to spare his rather This is the affection of a sonne and these affections doth God looke for from his children especially in the time of the Gospel that they should heare no wrong done to him but though they could never speake in their own cause yet their should be sure to speake in their Fathers cause 4. Sonnes Because they have not such a spirit of servility upon them as they had in the time of the Law Christ is come to redeem us that we might serve the Lord in holinesse and righteousnesse before him without feare all the dayes of our life to take away the spirit of feare Hence the Apostle saith We have not received the spirit of feare but of love and of a sound minde And Heb. 2. 15. Christ is come to redeem those who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The spirit of a sonne is not be spirit of feare We have not received the spirit of bondage to feare again but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father It is unbeseeming the children of God especially in the time of the Gospel to be of such servile spirits as to feare every little danger to be distracted with fear and presently to be amazed Hath not God revealed himselfe to us as a Father to his children that we must not feare He would not have us feare himselfe not with a servile sear as men do and therefore surely not to fear men be they what they will be We are sons Again Not only sons for so we might find in Scripture where the people of God under the Law perhaps are sometimes called so but elder sons sons come to yeares It is true they were before us and so in that respect we are not elder bnt sons that are come to our inheritance that is it I mean that we are such sons Not children under tutorage not under School-masters and governours as they were in the time under the Law You know what comparison the Scripture makes of the difference betweene
heart is a Scripture-frame The holy Ghost tells you Isa 66. 1. God looks at him that trembleth at his word come with hearts trembling at the word of God come not to be Iudges of the Law but doers of it You may judge of your profiting in grace by the delight you finde in Scripture as Quintilian was wont to say of profiting in eloquence a man may know that saies hee by the delight hee findes in reading Cicero much more may this be said of the Scriptures it is a true signe of profiting in Religion to whom the Scriptures are sweeter then the honey and the honey-combe And now I shall onely tell you what the work is we have to doe and then we shall fall upon it and that is to open Scripture unto you not onely difficulties but to shew unto you what divine truths are contained in them what may come fresh and spring up from the fountain it selfe to present them unto you with adding some quickness This is our worke not to enlarge any thing with long Explication Probation or Application There are these five things to be enquired concerning this our Prophet whose Prophesie I have now pitched upon to open 1 Who he was 2 To whom he was sent 3 What his errant was 4 His Commission 5 The time of his prophesie All these you have either in the first verse where most of them are or you shall find them in the Chapter For the first then who this Prophet was I will tell you no more of him then what you have in the first verse Hosea the son of Beeri His name signifieth a Saviour one that brings salvation It is the same root that Ioshua had his name from and many saving and savory truths wee shall finde this Prophet bringing to us He was the sonne of Beeri This Beeri we doe not find who hee was in Scripture only in that he is here named as the father of the Prophet in the entrance into this Prophesie Surely it is honor is gratia to the Prophet and from it we may note thus much That so should parents live and walke as it may be an honour to their children to be called by their names that their children may neither be afraid nor ashamed to be named by them The Iews have a tradition that is generally received among them that whensoever a Prophets Father is named that Father was likewise a Prophet as well as the Son If that were so then surely it is no dishonor for any man to be the Son of a Prophet Let those that are the children of godly gracious Ministers be no dishonour to their Parents their Parents are an honour unto them But we find it by experience that many of their children are farr from being honours to their godly parents How many ancient godly Ministers who heretofore hated superstitious vanities whose sonns of late have been the greatest zealots for such things It puts me in mind of what the Scripture notes concerning Iehoiakim the sonne of Iosiah the difference betweene his father and him Iosiah when he heard the Law read his heart melted and he humbled himselfe before the Lord. But now Iehoiakim his sonne when hee came to heare the Law of God read he tooke a pen-knife and cut the roll in which it was written in peices and threw it into the fire that was on the hearth untill all the roll was consumed A great deale of difference there was between the Son and the Father and thus it is between the sons of many ancient godly Ministers and them their Fathers indeed might be an honour unto them but they are dishonour to their Fathers The sonne of Beeri This word Beeri hath its signification from a Wel that hath springing water in it freely and cleerly running So Ministers should be the children of Beeri That that they have should be springing water and not the mud and dirt and filth of their own conceits mingled with the word This only by way of allusion To whom was this Prophet Hosea sent He was sent especially to the Ten Tribes I suppose you all know the division that there was of the people of Israel in Rehoboams time tenn of the Tribes went from the house of David only Iudah and Benjamine remained with it Now these tenne Tribes renting themselves from the house of David did rent themselves likewise from the true worship of God there grew up horrible wickednesses and all manner of abominations amongst them To these ten Tribes God sent this Prophet He sent Isaiah Micah to Iudah Amos and Hosea he sent to Israel all these were contemporary If you would know what state Israel was in in Hoseas time read but 2 K. 15. 19. you shall find what their condition was Ieroboam did that which was eâ—ill but he fight of the Lord he departed not from all the sins of Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat which made Israel to sinne But notwithstanding Israel was thus notoriously wicked and given up to all Idolatry yet the Lord sendeth his Prophets Hosea and Amos to Prophesie to them even at this time O the goodnesse of the Lord to follow an apostatizing people an apostatizing soule It was mercy yet while God was speaking but woe to that people to that soul to whom the Lord shall give in charge to his Prophets prophesie no more to them But what was Hosea his errand to Israel His errand was to convince them clearly oâ— this their abominable Idolatry and those other abominable wickednesses that they lived in and severely to denounce threatnings yea most fearfull destruction This was not done before by the other Prophets as wee shall afterward make it appeare but it was Hosea his errand to threaten an utter desolation to Israel more than ever was before and yet withall to promise mercy to a remnant to draw them to repentance and to Prophesie of the great things that God intended to doe for his Church and children in the latter dayes What was his Commission The words tells us plainly The word of the Lord came to Hosea It was the word of Iehovah It is a great argument to obedience to know it is the word of the Lord that is spoken When men set reason against reason and judgment against judgment and opinion against opinion it prevails not but vvhen they see the authority of God in the Word then the heart and conscience yeeldeth Therefore hovvever you may look upon the instruments that bring it or open it to you as your equalls or inferiours yet knovv there is an authority in the Word that is above you al It is the word of the Lord. And this word of the Lord it came to Hosea Mark the phrase Hosea did not goe for the word of the Lord but the word of the Lord came to him he sought it not but it came to him factum fuit verbum so are the words the word of the Lord came or
of my patience to be yours you shall not have my creatures to be yours you shall not have those fruites of my bounty to be yours No but I will not be yours I my selfe will not be yours This is the sorest threatning that posibly can be to a gracious heart It is a greater misery to lose God himself then to be deprived of whatsoever commeth from God And this indeed is one special difference between an hypocrite and a true gracious heart an hypocrite is satisfied with what cometh from God but a true gracious heart is satisfied with nothing but God himselfe though God lets out never so many fruits of his bounty and goodnesse to him yet he must have union with God himselfe or else he is unsatisfied It is a notable speech of Bernard Lord saith he As the good things that come from me please not thee without my selfe so the good things that come from thee please not me without thy selfe This is the expression of a gracious heart Let us tender up to God never so much never such duties with never so great strength except we tender up to God our selves they never please him So let God bestow never so many favours upon us except God give us himselfe they should never pleaseus I mean please us so as to satisfie us so as to quiet us if for our portion You know what God said to Abraham Fear not I am thy exceeding great reward But Lord what wilt thou give me seeing I goe childelesse What is all this to me so long as I have not the promise fulfilled that so I may come in Christ to enjoy thy selfe And Moses would not be contented though God told him his Angel should goe before them No saith hee Except thou goe with us thy selfe let us not depart hence It is the difference between the Strumpet and the loving wife the strumpet careth not so much for the person of her lover as for his gists for what she hath by him but the true lover cannot be satisfied with lovetokens but she must have the person himselfe So it is with a gracious heart It is very observable that of David in Psal 51. 9. Turne away thy angry face from my sins It seemes Gods face was angry and yet presently ver 11. Cast me not away a facie tua from thy face Gods face was an angry face yet David would not be cast away from this face of God Oh no rather let God be present with a gracious heart though he be angry though his anger continue yet let me have his countenance This is plainly gathered hence in that God saith not I will not give you these and these favours but I will not be your God that this is the sorest threatning that possibly can be to a gracious heart 5. This is the judgement for sin Gods not being their God It hence appeares that sin carryes along with it in it selfe its own punishment How is that Thus By sin we refuse to have God to be our God by it we depart from God we do not trust God nor love him nor fear him The very nature of sin hath this in it that it causeth a sinner to depart from God yea to reject God from being a God unto him and this is the punishment I will not be your God And this is the sorest punishment to a sinner that he shall not for ever have God to his God Lastly You are not my people and I will not be your God Hence learn this When any forsake God from being their God we should do as God doth reject them from being ours if they will not be Gods neither should they be ours will not such a man have acquaintance with God will he forsake him and his wayes then he shall not have our acquaintance we will forsake him How far we may withdraw from a Church that it shall not be ours we shal fully meet with all in the second Chap. somewhat will be said about it there Onely now thus much though it be true when a people forsake God we are to forsake them yet let them grow never so wicked our natural and civill relations cannot be broken because of their wickednesse but the relations of husband and wife father and childe master and servant must be acknowledged servants must be dutiful to their masters though never so wicked And the wife must be loving and dutiful to her husband though he be never so wicked a man But for any inward intimate familiarity with those not thus joyned in such Relations ought not to be if they reject God if they will not be Gods they should not be ours It is said Iob. 8 20. That God will not take the ungodly by the hand It should be true of us all wee should not take the ungodly by the hand Thus much for the name of this third childe Lo-ammi you are not my people and I will not be your God That which remaineth in the Chapter it is a promise of mercy both to Israel ver 10. and afterwards to Israel and Judah together ver 11. To Israel first and that is Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the Sea which cannot be measured or numbred c. And so he goeth on with wonderful gracious promises of mercy to Israel in future generations though for the present God had determined what to do with this Israel Here then we have first a promise of mercy to Israel in the middest of the sorest judgement that God threatneth he comes in with promises of mercy even unto Israel And Secondly this mercy to be in future generations And thirdly to consist in the multitudes that should be gathered to Israel These three things are observable in general First That there is such a gracious promise immediately after such a sore and dreadful threatning as this as indeed it is one of the most dreadful threatnings we have in all the Book of God yet here in the close of the Chapter we have as gracious a promise again as is in the whole Book of God From whence we may observe thus much That the Lord in Judgement remembreth Mercy It is a sore thing when God in mercy shall remember judgement but it is as comfortable when God in judgement remembers mercy When God threatneth most dreadfully yet he promiseth most graciously Wee should therefore when we most feare the threats of God yet looke up to the promises of God looke up to see when wrath is denounced in the most hideous and dreadfull way whether we cannot spie a Promise whether there be not yet a little cloud though but as big as a mans hand whether there be not yet a little crevis through which we may see whether God doth not break forth with a little light in a way of promise It is a usual thing when we are in prosperity to forget all threatnings and fo it is
as usual when we are in adversity to forget all promises When wee hear of mercy to Gods people we are taken up and never thinke of Gods wrath and on the other side when we heare of his wrath on unbeleeving hearts are taken up as wel and never think of his grace and mercy We ought to sanctifie the name of God in both when God is in away of justice look up to his grace and when he is in a way of grace look upon his justice and sanctifie that name of his likewise And for that end I shall give you two notable Texts of Scripture there are many of this kinde but two I shall give you that are as famous as any I know in the book of God the one that declareth to you that when God expresseth the greatest mercy yet then hee doth expresse greatest wrath and the other when God expresseth greatest wrath he then expresseth greatest mercy And I shall shew you the name of God oughto be sanctified in both The first is in that 34. of Exod. 6. 7. The Lord there when he passed by before Moses proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands for giving iniquity transgression and sinne What abundance of mercy is here exprest Now it followes And that will by no meanes cleare the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third and fourth generation Here is an expression of great wrath And then for our sanctifying of Gods name in this it followes ver 8. And when Moses heard this he made hast and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped before the Lord. Thus we must bow and worship before God in our sanctifying his Name in both together both his mercy and justice On the other side Nahum 1. 2. and soon God is jealous and the Lâ—rd revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies dreadful expressions yet ver 8. The Lord is slow to anger there is a mittigation at first Then he goeth on still in expressions of wrath But he is great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked and ver 5. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwel therein who can stand before his indignation and who can abide the feircenesse of his anger his fury is powred out like fire and the Rocks are throwne downe by him What more terrible expressions of wrath then these that come from God here Now marke ver 7. The Lord is good and a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth those that trust in him What a strong expression of grace is here observe it my brethren that in the middest of Gods anger yet God is good still a gracious heart must acknowledge God though he be provoked to anger yet to be a good God still and it is a good signe for the soul to fall downe before God when he is in the way of his wrath and to say the Lord is good As that good old man Eli did after the denuntiation of that dreadful sentence against him and his house by Samuel The word of the Lord is good let him doe what seemes him best All of you will say when God bestoweth avours upon you The Lord is good oh blessed be God he is a good God but when God revealeth his greatest wrath truely then the Lord is good Luther saith he will acknowledge God to be a good God though he should destroy all men in the world much more then is he to be acknowledged in a day of trouble when indeed he appears most graciously to his Saints The Lord is good and a strong hold in the day of trouble Is God a strong hold now when such wrath is revealed yea and specially now a strong hold to his Saints in the day of trouble and he knoweth those that trust in him for all his wrath is abroad in the world he knoweth those that trust in him Many men when they are angry they scarce know the difference betweene their foes and their friends Many when they go abroad if any displease them they come home and are angry with their wives with their servants with their children with their friends with every one about them they know not then who is a friend and who is not when they are in their passion their wives and children and servants wonder what the matter is with them Sure some body or other hath displeased my master abroad to day he is so touchie so angry upon every little thing My brethren It is a dishonour to you in the eyes of your servants and it layes low your authority in your families for them to see you come home in such a per that you know not how to be pleased though they have done nothing to displease you God doth not so though he be never so angry yet hee knowes those that trust in him Let Gods anger be never so publick and general abroad in the world if there be but a poor soul in the world that lies in a poor cottage in a hole that is gracious the Lord knowes it and takes notice of it and that soul shal know too that God doth know it It is true when the wrath of God is revealed abroad in the world seemes as if it would swallow up all those of the Saints whose spirits are weake and fearfull they are then afraid of Gods wrath that they shall be swallowed up in the common calamity be of good comfort God knowes those that trust in him even when his wrath is never so dreadful and general abroad in the world It is in this case with Gods children as it is with a childe in the mothers Armes if the father violently layes hold upon his servant and beates him and thrust him out of doores for his demerits there is such a terrible reflection from the fathers anger against the servant upon the childe that the poor childe falls a crying So it is with the children of God when they see God in a terrible way â—aying hold upon wicked men to execute wrath upon them they cry out they are afraid lest some evil should befall them too Oh no be of good comfort The Lord is good and a strong hold in the day of trouble and knoweth them that trust in him when his anger is never so great and general So it is here though this Israel be not my people yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the Sea for all that so you shall find it in the 15. ver of that first of Nahum Behold saith the Text upon the mountains the feete of him that bringeth good tidings What at this time though Gods way be in the whirl-winde
soone gone Many of you when you have beene seeking God have had many manifestations of his love and God hath entred into Covenant with you for a while you have been comforted but you lose all your comfort againe within a short time Oh remember God is ever mindefull of his Covenant though made 20. 40. years agoe he remains the same still be you the same still be you ever mindful of your Covenants When men are brought into the bond of the Covenant their consciences are awed with it and they walke very strictly and they clare not in the least thing goe from the Covenant at first But after a few moneths or weekes are over their heads they forget their engagement their Covenant they made with God there is not such a strong bond upon their spirits as there was before Oh my brethren know that this is a great and sore evil in you God is ever mindfull of his Covenant so you should be And as of his Covenant so of his threats too by way of proportion God remembreth his threats that were made many years agoe we are affected with Gods threats for the present but within a while the impression is gone But let us know time altereth not God as it doth us But yet we must enquire a little further because it is often in Scripture that the children of Israel should be like the stars of the heaven and as the sand upon the Sea shore Why did God expresse this covenant to Abraham what was the matter Thus First Abraham hee left his fathers house and all his kindred at Gods command and upon that first God made this covenant wiâ—h him that he would make his seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the Sea As if God should have said to Abraham Abraham be willing to leave your fathers house I will make a great house of you a great family of yours Secondly you shall observe that afterwards God confirmed this covenant to Abraham and that with an oath It is very observable when he came first out of his countrey and left his fathers house God made this promise of the encreasing of his seed but not with an oath but afterwards in Gen. 22 16. God renews this promise of multiplying his seed and that by an Oath for saith he By my selfe have I sworne for because thou hast done this thing and hast not witheld thy sonne thine onely son that in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is upon the Sea shore Marke here It was upon Abrahams being willing to offer up his son Isaac his onely son Isaac Abraham was willing at Gods command to offer â— ship own son and upon that God promiseth to multiply his seed as the stats of heaven and as the sand of the sea Yea he comes in with an oath By my selfe I sweare saith the Lord that I will do it because thou hast done this We have two most excellent notes from hence First there is nothing lost in being willing to lose for God Abraham was willing to lose his fathers house the comfort of his family for God I will make thee a glorious family as the stars of heaven saith God Againe Abraham was willing to lose one son his onely son for God Art thou willing to lose one son for me thou shalt have ten thousand sons for this one thou losest yea though it be lost but in thy intention Thou shalt have thy own son and yet have ten thousand sons besides Oh let us not be afraid to part with any thing for God Gods people they know how to make up in God what ever they lose for God But God will not onely make it up in himselfe but will make it up even in the very thing it selfe the creature it selfe thou losest for God Art thou willing to lose a little of thy estate Thou mayst with comfort expect so far as if thou knewest all thou thy selfe wouldst desire to have it made up in abundance even in that very way You know the promise He that forsaketh father or mother or wife or children or lands or houses for my sake shal have an hundred fold in this world and in the world to come life everlasting How hath God fulfilled this this day in many of our eyes and too many of our experiences how many have you known who have beene willing to part with that they had and to put it out as it were to the wide world God hath made it up not onely in himselfe but in the very thing it selfe and thereby taught them and all the world to be willing to venture for God to part with any thing for him and his cause Secondly When we are willing to lose for God then is the time when God will renew and confirm his Covenant with us Then God confirmed his covenant with Abraham when he was willing to part with his sonne to be deprived of all his seed The way to be made sure of what we have is to be willing to part with it You all desire to be sure of your estates oh that we could in these times wherein we see nothing sure make our estates sure this is the desire of every one Would you make sure of your estates sure illing to imploy your estates for God for a good cause This is the way to have God to renew his covenant to you for an assurance of that way Here is the best assurance office in the world But how comes this in at this time to his people in Hosea his Prophesie Thus it comes in now because the Lord by the Prophet would answer an objection of the people They might have said thus What Hosea doe you thus threaten judgement the destruction of Israel why you promise mercy to Judah and Judah is but a handful to us we are the ten Tribes with us are the chiefe the greatest part almost all the seed of Abraham and yet you threaten our destruction it can never possibly be What will become of Gods promise then Did not God promise Abraham that his seed should be as the stars of heaven as the sand on the sea shore you seeme to goe crosse to God God saith that he would multiply that seed and you take a course to make men beleeve that the seed of Abraham should bee brought into a narrow compasse and be nothing Thus doubtless they were ready to pleade against the Prophet The Prophet answereth thus What doe you say what will become of Abrahams seed Know that God can tell how to provide for his Church and fulfill his promise made to Abraham whatsoever becomes of you for you are mistaken in thinking you alone are the seed of Abraham for you shall know that Abraham hath not onely a carnal but a spiritual seed all those that shal come to joyne in the faith of
seed of God a great day 1. They are the seed of God The seed of the blessed and there is a blessing in them They are the precious seed that God preserves in the world hath done ever since the beginning of the world They are that seed that preserveth the glory of God in the world Were it not for a few gracious holy people in the world where would the glory of God be What would become of it Those that are godly however contemptible in the world they are the precious seed that God reserves in the world for great and glorious ends They are the seed to preserve the continuation of the Doctrine of the Gospell and the blessed truths of God as Isa 6. 13. The holy seed shall be the substance thereof Though they shall be under great afflictions yet there shall be a holy seed that shall be the substance thereof and there shall be his blessing Psal 72. 17. His name shall endure from generation to generation the words are read by Montanus His name shall be childed that is so continued as families are continued one generation after another one begetteth another and so shall the name of Christ continue in the world and so it hath done And though seed be but a handfull in comparison of the harvest so the Saints of God then were and yet are but as a handfull in comparison of the glorious harvest that shall be yet they are very precious before God and God will make the world hereafter know that they are the precious ones of God Isa 61. 9. All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed Seed you know a man will be carefull of that what ever becomes of his other corne In the time of dearth the husbandman wil rather pinch his own belly then have his seed-corne to be spent So in times of common calamity of common dearth yet Gods care is over his seed the Saints are as I may say Gods seed-corne to preserve his name in the world to other generations that are to come he will not therefore have them destroyed Seed is the most precious of the corne which is most winnowed and made cleane and so are the Saints the cleane ones and the most precious ones God perhaps doth winnow them and fanne them more than he doth others by the fannes and winnows of afflictions why because they are his seed Perhaps other corne that hath drosse in it the husband-man will give the fowles and the cattell that he bestoweth not much winnowing upon it but the corne that is for seed he winnows that he would not willingly have a dernell amongst it It may be thou complainest thou art more winnowed more fanned then other men perhaps thou art more precious in Gods eyes thou art to be reserved as seed as the seed of the blessed The wicked indeed they are seed too but a corrupt seed a seede of evill deers Esay 1. the grand-father was an enemy unto God yea the great grand-father and the father and the children after him continue enemies to God And God in mercy unto his Church doth many times cut downe the wicked before they do seed too much As you that have gardens if they have weeds in them and you see the weeds come up and grow to seed you think then that it is time to pull them up you will not suffer them to seed God lookes upon many families and sees wretched and sinfull men as a seed of evil doers and sees they are ready to seed and if they be not cut down suddenly there will be a wretched brood of wicked ones in such a family This is the reason of Gods suddain cutting down of many wicked families But to come to the point that is chiefly intended that is That this seed of the Lord shall have a great day Great shall be the day of Jezreel The men of the world they have their day in which they ruffle it out and they have all the doings Saint Paul seemes to speake of this in 1 Cor. 4. 3. he saith there that he did not passe for mans judgement the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mans day Now men have the day they have all the bravery in the world well saith Saint Paul I doe not passe formans day I expect another day besides mans day I know not how it commeth to passe to be otherwise translated you translate it judgement in your books but in the Originall it is day Man hath a day As men have a day so shall Gods Saints have a day too Wee use to say many times when we see the Malignant party jocund and merry surely they hope to have a day My brethren be joyfull in the Lord God hath a day for you and a great day too Great shall be the day of Jezreel The beginning of Gods mercy to his people is called a day of small things Zach. 4. 10. and that must not be despised Let no man despise the day of small things It was the beginning of the reformation and deliverance of the people of Judah from their captivity But God hath a day of great things and certainly that day shall be honorable A day first in which the glory of God shall exceedingly appear wherein God shal be as I may so speak with holy reverence as it were in his robes As we know Princes upon great dayes put on their robes so the King of glory shall have a day for his people wherein even he himself will put on his robes Ps 102. 16. When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory It seemeth while the Church is in affliction while the witnesses prophesie in sack-cloath God is as it were cloathed in sack-cloath In all their afflictions he is afflicted but because God hath a day a great day to his Churches he will reserve his robes till then and when that day commeth he will put on his robes for when he shall build up Zion saith the Text then the Lord shall appeare in his glory A great day it shall be for Jezreel for the seed of the Lord. Secondly It shall be a great day for this day shall be the riches of the world Marke that place in Rom. 11. 12 speaking of the Jews If their fall saith he be the riches of the world and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles how much more their fulness It was a rich mercy to the Gentiles when they were brought out of darknesse and called into the knowledge of Jesus Christ here was riches to the world of the Gentiles But God hath a greater day then that for it is spoken here of a day that is to come that is their fall was the riches of the Gentiles much more their calling in again So then there is such a day of calling home the people of God as shall be the riches of the Gentiles the riches of all the world
will be convinced I suppose of it that it is fit for children to plead with their parents when they go from God Thus we see it was with Jonathan 1 Sam. 19. 4. there you shall finde that he pleaded with his father when he saw him so furious and in such a passionate mood as he was in and in such a cruell way toward poor David Let not saith he â—he King sinne against his servant Let not the King he gives him very respectufll words and sheweth his due honour to his father Let not the King sinne against his servant and then goeth on and tells his father of the good service David had done and that David did not deserve such ill usage from him Thus when children shall see their Fathers or Mothers to be in a fâ—â—ous rage or passion it is fit enough for them if they come in an humble and submâ—ssive way in a beseeching way I be seech you father or mother consider that by these distempered passions in stead of helping your self you sinne against God you have known it by experience that you have often in such passion so broken out that many sinnes have broken from you and you have grieved for it afterwards oh doe not againe that which your Conscience hath so often checked you for If children should come thus in an humble and submissive way to plead with their parents they doe no more then their duty and their parents are bound to hearken to them in it I confesse they should be very carefull in keeping their due respect to their parents and not speake mallapertly but with all reverence and submission to them and to speak privately too if possibly it can be not to divulge their parents weaknesses You know Cham was cursed for discovering his fathers nakedness though he was drunk he did not shew his due respect at that time to his father but if he had sought to cover his fathers nakednesse and after had come and pleaded the case with him certainly he had not beene cursed but received a blessing Yea and there is a great deale of reason that children should pleade with heir parents and that you should give them leave so to doe because you know children are the worse for your sinnes God thrâ—tneth to visit the sinnes of the parents upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there are many threatnings against children for the sinnes of their parents therefore it concerns your children that they should plead with you and that you should suffer them For you say Sirrah what have you to do with me What doth it concern you Yes the child if he doth it in modesty and humility may say O father it doth concern me I may fare the worse for your sinnes God may come upon me for them therefore give me leave I beseech you to pleade the cause of God with you And if you will not give your children leave in this they may rise up as witnesses against you another day If children in an humble and submissive way plead with their parents and they will not hearken unto them then a very good pleading will be for them to burst out into teares before their parents and it is a very sutable and powerfull pleading that when children cannot prevaile in an humble and submissive way then to burst out into teares before them We read in the story of King Edward the sixth when Cranmer and Ridley came to him and were so earnest to let him give way to his sister the Lady Mary to have Masse he stood out and pleaded the case with them told them it was a sinne against God they used many carnall arguments to perswade the King but hee withstood them a great while at length when King Edward who was but a childe about 15 years of age saw hee could not prevaile with pleading against those grave men he burst out into teares and that so prevailed with them that they went away and concluded that the King had more Divinity in his little finger then they had in all their bodies and so yeelded to him Certainly in such pleadings the heart of a parent must needs be much hardned if hee will not breake and yeeld to his child You that are parents looke upon your childrens pleading with you and consider with your selves what doth God send one out of my loins out of my own wombe to come and plead the cause of God with me to draw me from the wayes of sinne and to do good to my soul for ever surely it is a mercy to have one out of my owne bowels to stand for the cause of God surely God is in it I see this child in other things walks humbly and obediently unto me As indeed you that are children that plead with your parents you need be carefull so much the rather to be obedient to them and not take upon you in an unseemly manner to check and reprove them and then it cannot but convince the heart of a parent What a blessing will it be to your children if you that have received your naturall life from your parents should be a means of the spiritual and eternal life of them Thus much for the expression Plead with your Mother Now for that which is chiefly aimed at Plead with your mother that is the Church and State Hence the Note is Those that are Godly should not onely sacrifice themselves to do good to themselves or friends in private but they are to labour to doe good to the publique too Not onely say to your sisters and to your brethren but pleade with your mother There are many narrow spirited men who if they can discharge as they think their consciences with their families and can plead with their servants and children or some of their own neere acquaintance perhaps they have done enough though for the publique they take no care at all Hence it is apparently implyed that all those that are members of any Church ought to be men of knowledge why because they are such as are called upon to plead with their Mother It is not for an ignorant Sot to plead with a Church of God and yet such should be all the members of every Church as in some cases they should plead with their mother Lastly which indeed is the maine Observation of all God giveth liberty to some private members of Churches yea it is their duty in some cases to plead with the whole Church This we must speak unto a little more Gods wayes and his Cause are so equal that private Christians though they be very weak yet they may be able to plead it with a Church It is true there is a great deale of disadvantage that a poore weak private Christian hath when he is to deale with a whole Church where there are many godly and learned but where as there is a disadvantage one way so the advantage is as much the other way in regard that the
whorish upon the breasts of the Church upon the Ordinances the Word and Sacraments Christ Jesus a bundle of myrrhe between their breasts hath been delightfull to them I finde another reading of the words in the Septuagint Translation Whereas we reade it Let her take away her whoredoms from her sight I finde that they reade it as a speech of God I will take away her whoredoms from my face And Ciryl reading the words according to the 70. hee hath an excellent note from thence God saith he threatneth that he will take away her whoredomes from his face as when a member of a body is so putrified that it cannot be cured by salves and medicynes it is cut off and so the disease commeth to be cured so God laboureth to cure the people of Israel by admonitions by exhortations by threatnings by promises of mercy and when all would not do then he threatneth to cure them by another way that is by cutting them off by the Assyrians I will send an enemy against them and he shall take them out of their owne land and carry them into a strange land then they shal be farre enough from their calves far enough from Dan and Bethel so I will take their whoredomes from before my face Thus many times doth God take away the sinnes of a people or of a particular person from before his face As for instance Thou drunkard thou unclean person thou hast had exhortations threatnings many mercifull expressions from God toward thee from thy sinnes to take away thy sinnes from thee that will not do God commeth with some noysome vile disease upon thy body that thou shalt not be able to act thy sinne any more and God takes away the act of thy sinne at least that way in such a violent manner by his judgements and so sometimes men and women that have estates and will be proud and vaine and make their estates the fuel of their lusts when the Word cannot take away their sinnes and the expression of their wickednesse God by some violent judgement takes away their estates that they shall not be able to commit those sinnes that they did before though they would never so faine This is a dreadfull taking away of sin Yea when God shall come so to take away the sinne of men and women as to take away their souls together with taking away their sinne for so it is threatned Job 27. 8. What is the hope of the hypocrite when God taketh away his soul Thou that wouldest not suffer the word to take away thy sin thou must expect that God wil take it away another way even by taking away thy soule Ezek. 21. 29. It may be said of some sinners as there God threatneth The time is come saith the Text when their iniquity shal have an end God will suffer them to live no longer to sin against him he will take away their sinnes but so as to take away their soules they shall not sinne any more against God in this world Lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day wherein she was borne There is much in these words and because they are so exceeding sutable unto us God still bringing points to hand sutable to our times so long as this is you must give me liberty to insist a while upon them and not runne over them so fast as otherwise I would doe I must not slightly passe over those truths that are so cleerly presented and so neerly concerning us Lest I strip her naked c It seems by this that Israel had once been in a very low condition when she was borne a very pittifull estate But God had put many ornaments upon her and now he threatneth to bring her again into the same condition and to strip her naked In the day wherein she was borne This I finde Interpreters to referre to divers conditions of Israel but most refer it to the time of their deliverance out of Egypt that is called here by God the day wherein she was borne We must inquire first what was the condition of Israel in the day wherein she was borne Secondly what ornaments God had put upon her afterwards and then we shall come to see the strength of the threat that God would strip her naked and set her as in the day wherein she was borne For the first two we shall not need to goe farre we have them fully and most elegantly set out unto us in Ezek. 16. That Chapter may be a Comment upon this what Israel was in the day wherein she was borne and what ornaments God had put upon her In the third verse Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite ver 4. And as for thy nativity in the day thou wast borne thy â—avill was not cut c We must a little open the expression there or else wee cannot open this Text in Hosea Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite When thou wert borne thou wert in this condition What their father an Amorite and their mother an Hittite Abraham was their father and Sarah their mother why here an Amorite and an Hittite Secondly Because there were other nations besides Amorites Hittites theâ—â— were the Jebusites the Perizites why rather an Amorite Hittite then a Jebusite and Perizite These two questions must be answered First Abraham was their father yet because they were in such a disposition so like to the Amorites and Hittites so vile and so wicked now they deserve not to have the honour of Abrahams being their father but to be called the children of the Amorite and the Hittite As John Baptist calleth the Pharisees the viperous the serpentine brood so those that are like the devil are called the Children of the Devil Secondly Why the Amorite and Hittite rather then others For the first the Amorite because the Amorite was the chiefest of those nations in Canaan that were driven out All the five were called by the name of Amorite The sinnes of the Amorites are not yet full Secondly the Hittite because they seemed to be the vilest of the five and for that there is a Text of Scripture that seemeth to infer so much Gen. 27. 46. I am weary of my life saith Rebekah because of the daughters of Heth. She onely mentioneth the daughters of Heth and those that were now called Hittites were of the daughters of Heth And saith she What good will my life doe if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth Why there were other daughters besides them but those were the vilest therefore she onely mentioneth them Yea but what was Israel at this time when they were delivered out of Egypt for that is the time wherein shee was borne that is spoken of here were they in so ill a condition as that their father was an Amorite and their mother
they were as a childe cast out such a one as the countenance and feature promised no good Thou wert cast out in the open field because they never hoped to have any good of thee and indeed as if God should say if I had regarded what I saw in you I might have past this judgement upon you too there was little hope of good from you But what though the child be cast out in the field yet there may come some by accidentally as Pharaohs daughter did that may pitty the child and have compassion on it No saith God thou wast not onely cast out but worse then so thou wast cast out and so cast out as no eye pityed thee You have sometimes bastards poor childred laid at your doors and left there some in baskets otherways yet when you open them see a child and a childe weeping there is some pity in you and you will take care some way or other that it may be fed brought up But saith God to Israel You were cast out in the open field no eye pityed you that is all the heathen were against you and others in the land rose up against you the Egyptians they came out to destroy you you had the sea before you and them behind you none had pitty upon you This was the condition wherein you were borne Now see what ornaments God had put upon them They were in a sorry condition you see when they were borne But marke that fore-named place of Ezek. ver 8. I took the saith God and entred into covenant with thee and then becamest mine That is the way of a peoples becomming Gods his entring into covenant with them The Lord hath begun to enter into Covenant with us and we with him in former Protestations and if any farther Covenant binding us more strictly to God be tendred to us know that God in this deals with us as he did with his own people We are as children cast out in the open field and no eye pityeth us but many plot against us and seeke our ruine If God will be pleased now to enter into Covenant with us and give all the people of the Land hearts to come close to the Covenant to renew their Covenant with him and that to more purpose then in former Covenants the Lord yet will own us The Covenant of God was the foundation of all the mercy the people of Israel had from God and we are to look upon it as the foundation of our mercy and therefore as in the presence of God willingly and cheerfully to renew it with him After Gods taking this people to himselfe as his own it followes ver 11 12. I decked thee also with ornaments I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chaine on thy necke And I put a jewell on thy fore-head and ear-rings in thine ears a beautiful crown upon thine head Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver and thy rayment of fine linnen and silk broidred worke and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty Thus God did with the people of Israel he had added to what they had when they were born Miserable they were when they were borne but the mercies of God toward them are thus set out And nowhee cometh to threaten that he will strip them naked and set them as in the day wherein they were born Yet further for the opening of this we must know that it was the custome among the Jews when any married what they brought to their husbands and their dowry was written down in a table and if afterward he should divorce his wife except there could be proved some grosse and vile thing against the woman though she should go away yet she was to go away with her Table with her dowry and what she brought she must not goe away naked But if there could be proved some notorious villany that shee had committed then she was sent away Sine Tabulis naked without those tables wherein her dowry and other things were written and destitute of all things as being unworthy of them because she had played the harlot Thus God threatneth this people She is not my wife but unlesse she put away her whore doms from before her face and her adultery from between her breasts I will strip her naked as in the day wherein she was borne She shal be seâ—â—â—ay without any tables naked and wholly destitute And thus you have thâ—â—â—pening of the words The Observations follow The first is The beginnings of great excellencies are sometimes very low and meane This plainly riseth up from the opposition of her condition when she was borne and what she had gotten from God afterward I will strip thee naked and set thee as in the day wherein thou wert borne Therefore it is cleare she was born in a very mean condition gotten up to a very excel lent condition though now they be high glorious yet once they were very low mean God many times raises up golden pillars upon leaden Bases the most glorious works of God have had the lowest beginnings This beautifull frame of heaven earth was raised out of a Chaos of confusion darkness This is true personally or nationally and that in regard of outward conditions or spirituall How poor and low and meane have many of your beginnings beene even in the world who could ever have thought that such low beginnings could have beene raised unto such high things as some of you have beene raised unto in the world It was not long since when you came hither to this City which may be said to be the day wherein you were borne for your civill estate though not your naturall you were low enough meane enough you had but little to begin withall you came hither with your staffe and now behold two bands It is sometimes so likewise in regard of the spirituall estate You may remember not long since Oh what darkness and confusion was there in your mindes and hearts what poore low meane thoughts had you of God and the things of his Kingdome what unsavory spirits when at first God was pleased to worke upon you Oh what a poor condition were you in then though you had some light put into you yet you were as a childe new borne wrapped up in filth and blood many noysome distempers and boisterous lusts there were in your hearts as it is usuall with new converts like a fire newly kindled where there is a great deale of smother and smoke that afterwards weareth away But now behold the shining of Gods face upon your soules Oh the abilities that God hath given you to know his minde and doe his will Oh the blessed communion that you have with God the sparkling of that divine nature the glory and beauty of the divine nature is put upon you So for Nations we will not goe further then our owne How low and meane were we at first
upon them when it shall be seasonable for them but when they come upon the wicked it shal be when they are most unseasonable for them As a husband-man if he would cut his Tree so as onely to lop it that it may grow and flourish again he will be sure to do it in due time as in January or February but if he would cut it that so it may dye hee will lop it when it flourisheth most at Midsummer God indeed letteth wicked men grow up and flourish to the height of their prosperity and then he commeth and loppeth them because then hee knowes they must die and perish It were better to be lopped in January in winter time before you flourish then you may live for your good but if you stay till the summer you die for it You have an excellent Scripture Zeph. 2. 4. They shall drive out Ashdod at noon day In those Countries that were exceeding hot and scorching she pheards and others that had their businesse abroad used to keep their houses at noon day or get into some shady places and sleepe Now when God threatneth a judgement in wrath and denyeth mercie saith hee they shall drive out Ashdod at noone day in the worst time that possibly Ashdod can be driven out in the middest of scorching Because God intended to destroy them he drives them out at noone day Again thirdly When God commeth upon the wicked and denyeth mercie he regardeth not the proportion of any affliction or any evill whether it be enough or not enough for them what is that to him When hee cometh upon his own people he weigheth out his wrath Never did any skilfull Physitian or Apothecary more carefully weigh out to every dram what the potion should be that is to be given to a child then God doth weigh out every affliction that he sendeth upon his children The difference is just as if you should goe to the Apothecaries to take ratsbane to poyson or kill vermine you doe not weigh out how much you should take but give them it at adventure and let them take as much as they will and let them burst but if you take any thing for your child if it have any strong vertue in iâ— or without composition it may be poison you will take heed you will not take a dram a graine too much but will be sure to weigh it out exactly Thus though when God commeth to his children hee weigheth out their afflictions yet when he cometh with judgements upon the wicked he cares not how much how many or great they be whether sutable to their conditions or no whether they can beare them or no whether their backes breake or no he cometh with judgements upon them to destroy them Fourthly When afflictions commeth without mercie upon the wicked God stoppeth his ears at all their cryes If they cry when God cometh with judgements against them he calleth their cryings howling Hee tells them though they cry aloud yea cry with teares he will not heare them Fifthly God commandeth all creatures that they should deny help to them They may stand and be amazed but help them they cannot They all say how can we help seeing God helpes not Sixthly There is the curse of God mixed with every judgement to drive them further from God and to harden them more in their sinnes Lastly One judgement is but the making way for another yea all judgments in this world are but the fore-runners and makers-way for eternall judgements This is the portion of the cup of the wicked when God saith he will shew them no mercie The afflictions of the Saints may seeme to be more grievous outwardly but thus God never afflicteth them there is mercie alwayes for them VVherefore all yee Saints of God who are under any affliction at any time be patient and quiet be contented under it for though your afflictions before and grievous yet God delivereth you from such afflictions as these wherein he saith he will shew no mercie But further I will not have mercy upon her children Her children The judgement of God in punishing the sin of the fathers upon the children we spake somewhat of in the Chapter before wee will wholly let that passe now and onely consider children in another way then we did before in a politicall consideration for certainly that is the meaning of the Text I will not have mercy upon her children that is I will not have mercie upon the particular people that belong to Iezreel Private and particular people are called the daughters of Jerusalem the daughters of such a Country So that the whole community together with the officers Governours they are as the Mother and the private and particular people they are as the children So that when God saith he will have no mercy upon her children hee doth not onely threaten the State and the Church the Governours and the whole Community thus but he threatneth every particular person of them though you that are in the multitude perhaps thinke you may escape in the crowde No saith God I will looke to every one of you of the multitude of the private and particular persons of Israel and my wrath shalâ— not onely come out against those that are in higher places but it shall come out against you also I will slay her children It is true indeed the heads and governours of places are usually most invelved in the guilt of the sins of nations and their judgements are usually most dreadfull when God commeth with nationall judgements As Num. 35. 3. 4. The Text saith there that Israel joyned themselves to Baal Peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and the Lord said unto Moses take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the sunne The Lords anger was kindled against the people but he bade Moses especially look to the heads and take them and hang them up beâ—â—re the Lord that the fierce anger of the Lord might be turned away from Israel Certainly execution of wrath upon great ones upon such as have beene heads in evill is a Sacrifice exceeding well pleasing to God But though God ayâ—â—e at them especially in nationall judgements yet the multitude and private people must not thinke to escape and that upon these grounds First Because many times it is for their sins that God suffereth their Governours to doe so much evill as they doe As Israel had sinned and God was wrath with Israel therefore David did what he did in numbring the people When you see your Governours doe that which is naught lament for your own sins doe not spend your time onely in crying out against them but look to yourselves it is for your sinnes that God hath left them to do as they have done Secondly It may be the reason why Governours do not reforme is in the perversenesse of people that they are not in a preparation to receive that good which
will not see it they shall not see it because God intendeth to destroy them though judgments are out against them yet they will not repent You shall finde it divers times in the book of the Revelation that those that followed Antichrist though they were tormented all the judgments of God were against them yet they repented not This I say is the curse of God upon such God will not give them repentance unto life for they are the children of whoredoms whom God intendeth to have no mercy upon therefore the higher their rage riseth the higher your hearts should rise against them But we must go on to the 5. verse For their mother hath played the harlot Their mother that is the State and the Church for they were both involved in one hath played the harlot This For hath reference two ways either it may have reference to those words I will not have mercy upon them for not only they are but their mother is defiled with whoredomes she hath played the harlot or secondly it hath reference onely to the latter part they are the children of whoredomes for their mother hath played the harlot either it referreth to the reason why God will not have mercy upon them because their mother hath played the harlot or secondly to the reason why they are the children of whoredomes for their mother hath played the harlot And from both these references we have very usefull observations for us The first God cannot endure a succession in wickednesse I will not have mercy upon them their mother hath played the harlot they are children of whoredoms themselves and their mother hath plaid the harlot there is a succession of wickednesse among them and that I cannot beare The ground is because those that keep up a succession of wickednesse from the mother to the children and so goe on downeward they are guilty of all the wickednesses that went before them in that line Else how can that be understood where Christ saith he will require all the blood from Abel to Zacharias upon that generation but because they continuing in that way of sin kept up the succession of that sin and so that generation was guilty of all the sins of that kind that went before even unto Abel So the father is a whore-master and the child he proveth to be one too and so goeth on the child is not only guilty of that sinne of his owne but of his fathers and of his grandfathers and hee is guilty of all that kind of sinne that is gone before even up to the beginning of the world why because hee keepeth up the succession of that sinne in the world This is a most terrible thing to consider of enough to wound the strongest heart in the world especially of those that know they have had wicked Parents Again For their mother hath plaid the harlot consider this word For as having reference to the reason why they are children of whoredomes for their mother hath plaid the harlot The observation is Children usually goe according to their parents which way their parents goe commonly the children goe It is a usuall thing where there are prophane parents to have prophane children if the parents sweare to have swearing children if the parents be superstitious to have superstitious children if parents be scorners of Religion to have children scorners too we find it true in experience in that new nick-name that is brought up on the godly in roome of the former it is as frequent in the mouths of children as in others because children go according to what their fathers formerly did I will give you one notable Text of Scripture for this it is 2 King 2. 23. When Elisha the Prophet was going up to Bethel there came forth little children out of the City and said unto him Goe up thou bald-head goe up thou bald-head The thing that I note it for is this that not only the children did it and so were destroyed for two she-beares came out of the wildernesse and tare 42. of them but what children were they that did this If you observe the Text you shall finde that they were the children of Bethel and what place was that That was one of the places where the calves were set up and it was a place of much superstition and the children were as superstitious as their parents A place that had the name the house of God but a place exceedingly abused and no place did more degenerate from the name then it it was a Bethaven a house of vanity and wickednesse It was the place that was most superstitious and those were the children that scorned at the Prophet But we need no other proof but only experience yet there is one notable Scripture further for it Jer. 7. 18. The children saith the Text gather wood their fathers kindle the fire and their mothers kneaded the dough the children joyned you see Pelagius thought that there was no sinne came into the world but only by imitation children imitating their parents Certainly imitation is of great power and force to prevaile with the hearts of children You that are wicked parents had need to looke to it what you doe before your children He that sinneth before a child specially a parent sinneth doubly for a child will be ready to imitate it What will you not only sin against God and be enemies unto him but will you leave a succession that when you are dead and gone some must out of your loynes and from your bowels blaspheme God after you are rotten in your graves Suppose you that are parents had a plague sore upon you would you goe among your children and breath upon them this cruelty is much worse will you goe into your families and breath infection into your children and so make them like you and guilty of your sins and of the plagues of God together with you oh cruell parents On the otherside as therefore children of whoredomes because their mother hath plaid the harlot why then should not children be gracious and godly who have gracious and godly parents Why should it not be said This childe is a godly childe for his mother was a gracious woman and his father a godly man You that have godly parents let this be your Encomium You are godly and gracious children and you had godly and gracious parents this will be your honour before the Saints But how vile is it when it may be said Here is a wicked wretch yet he had a godly father and a godly mother here is an uncleane and filthy liver yet hee had gracious parents It is no wonder to say thus This man is filthy for his father was filthy and his mother was a harlot but to look upon one and say Here is a whoremaster yet his father was a godly gracious man Here is a harlot yet her mother was a holy woman O how vile is that I remember a speech of that reverend Master
Bolton who died not long since It is repoâ—ted that upon his death-bed he had his children come to him he speaks thus unto them I doe believe saith he there is never a one of you will dare to meet me at the tribunall of Christ in an unregenerate condition So let me say to you that are evill children of Godly parents let me in their names speak to you How dare you with what face doe you think you shall dare to meet with your godly father and gracious mother before the judgement seat of Jesus Christ at that day if your godly father stand at the right hand of Christ how dare you appeare before that face in the guilt of those horrible wickednesses that you now live in Certainly the thought of this hath power to daunt your hearts She hath done shamefully The word in the Hebrew it is in Hyphil and so it may be translated transitively signifieth She hath made ashamed as well as done shamefully and so I find it according to some thus rendered Shee hath made ashamed her husband she hath made ashamed her children shee hath made ashamed her self and all these three may be meant Yea I conceive the intent of the holy Ghost is to expresse them all Her husband first the Church is the Spouse of Jesus Christ Christ is the husband of the Church and you know the Scripture saith that the woman is the glory of the man I remember I gave the meaning of that heretofore So the Church being the Spouse of Christ should be the glory of Christ the woman should be the glory of the man but yet being wicked and filthy she makes her husband many times ashamed The evil of the wife is a shame to the husband so the evill of the Church is a shame to Iesus Christ The Church in Scripture is called the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23. If our brethren be enquired after they are the messengers of the Churches and the glory of Christ Isa 4. 5. Vpon all the glory shall be a defence It should be so but when it commeth to be defiled it shameth Christ their wickednesse reflects upon Christ Christ is said to walke in the middest of the golden Candlesticks Rev. 2. 1. Every Church is a Candle-stick and it should be a golden Candle-sticke but if it come to be a filthy rustie Candle-stick it is a dishonour unto Christ who walketh amongst them Wicked men doe not shame Christ but godly doe My brethren let us take heed of that It is an evill thing to bring shame to our selves and one to another but to bring shame upon JESUS CHRIST is the greatest evil Many of you perhaps are ashamed of Christ take heed you be not a shame to Christ They are ashamed of Christ that are ashamed to appeare in the cause of Christ but as for you that are so Christ hath more cause to be ashamed of you for you are a shame to him It is true I cannot deny it but many Churches of God and that of late have brought some shame to Jesus Christ by their dissentions and fractions and they must take shame to themselves and they have taken shame to themselves they have acknowledged it to the glory of Christ and in that regard in some measure have washed off that shame that they have brought to Christ Againe further a shame they are to their children Wicked Parents are a shame to their children when a child appeareth forward towardly and hopefull and it be said Would you not wonder to see him so forward the father of him is a beastly drâ—nkard a filthy whore-monger of a vile and malignant spirit now the child is ashamed to heare of the evil of his father and of the evil of his mother As foolish children are a shame to their Parents so wicked Parents are a shame to their children You that have gracious children take heed you be not a shame to them and so a shame to your selves And then a shame to her selfe she hath plaid the harlot she hath done shamefully Wherein had she done shamefully I will onely mention one particular Certainly that shame of hers was especially in subjecting Religion to carnall policie For what did she doe what was the great sinne of the ten Tribes It was this because they were afraid that if they did go up to Jerusalem to worship the people would then depart from the house of Jeroboam to the house of David therefore out of politicall regards they would have the worship set up at Dan and Bethel there they would have Calves they must not goe up to Jerusalem the place which God had appointed to worship in but at Dan and Bethel This was a meere politique fetch for they could not but acknowledg that God did require that they should worship at Jerusalem where the Temple was and there was no other reason why they would worship at Dan and Bethel but meerely out of State policie that they might prevent the people from going backe to the house of David and indeed they did professe so much themselves Here then they did shamfully The Observation then from hence is that for governours or any to subject Religion to policie is a shamefull thing It is shamefull to make Religion an underling and to make policie the head Perhaps they call this wisedome a prudentiall way wee must be carefull and wise to foresee inconveniences that may follow But what if God give it another name God may give it a name of base temporizing a name of folly and wickednesse to subject Religion to policie it is shamefull because it abaseth that which is the great honour of any Country it makes it an underling what is the excellency of man but Religion what is the excellency of a Country but Religion and what hath England been glorious for more then for Religion Now to put the excellency of a thing under any inferiour this is shamefull to put the Crown that is for the head under ones foot is a dishonour to it although a thing hath in it self but little excellencie if it be brought beneath it selfe under other things that have not so great an excellency in them it makes it vile And shamefull also it is because it holdeth forth this that we dare not trust God for our civill estate and for our peace therefore Religion must come under Shamefull it is again because it is grosse folly for there is no such way to breede disturbance in a politicke state no such way to undoe a State as to make Religion an underling to policie Was it not so here That very way that they tooke to uphold their policie was the way to destroy their State did destroy it at last even their corrupting of Gods worship What cause had they then to be ashamed of this that God should take that which they thought to helpe themselves by and make that the very thing that should cause their ruine And certainly it
joyne with a Malignant party to bring such woefull confusion and trouble even to our Mother We may say to them justly as Saul said unto Ionathan passionatly You children of the rebellious and perverse why have you chosen to joyne with them for the confusion of your Mothers nakednesse Let us do what we can to help Shall we see her bowells torne and not stirre at all She calleth now to us to come and help her and let us know that if it go ill with her it cannot go well with us If the Mothers breast thorough some incurable disease must be cut off the tender Father takes away the children and will not suffer them to behold the torture of their Mother Who knows but that this hath been Gods end in taking away his deare children in former times because hee would not have their tender hearts to see so much sorrow and evill as should befall their Mother And what God hath reserved us to see in the sufferings of our Mother we do not know Howsoever let not her suffer by us let not her suffer for want of our help let not her suffer without us let not us be so unnaturall as to be every one shifting for himselfe for the private and particular neglecting the publicke the community neglecting our Mother that should be as deare to us as the bowels out of which we came She hath done shamefully VVe should have the affections of children to her though she hath done shamefully But further Here you have the amplification of her whoredomes shee hath plaid the harlot and so plaid as she hath done shamefully The latter end of the verse is by way of probation of this amplification for how doth it appeare she hath done shamefully for she hath said I will goe after my lovers c. For the first then this amplification of her whoredome her whoredome is such as is shamefull Hence first observe That sinne but especially whoredome is a shamefull thing Pro. 13. 5. A wicked man is loathsome and commeth to shame Pro. 14. 34. Sinne is a reproach to a nation or to any people Sinne of its owne nature let it bee what it will be it is shamefull Much more then whoredome to play the harlot for all sinne doth drowne a man it brings him beneath the excellency of a man it is contrary to the image of God in man to that wherein true honor beauty glory doth consist It makes men vile I will give you but one Text for it Dan 11. 21. And there shal arise a vile person Who was that It was according to interpreters Antiochus Epiphanes the great King of Assyria and yet a vile person Josephus tells us that the Samaritans when they were in danger of suffering from him because he thought them to be Jewes they wrote to him in this manner To Antiochus the mighty God and his very Epithet Epiphanes is as much in our English as Illustrious Antiochus the Illustrious the famous bright in his glory He that was so illustrious and so great a Prince that was written unto as the mighty God yet in the Scripture language being wicked he is a vile person It is a special note of one that is fit to dwell in Gods Mountain of one that is a Saint Psal 15. 4. to be able to see the vilenesse of sin thorough all the glory of the world in whose eyes a vile person is contemned Sin is a shame because it deceiveth a man The way of the wicked shall deceive him What profit have you now of those things where of you are ashamed It is a good signe of grace to be able to see into the deceits of sinne so as to be ashamed of it But though all sin be shamefull yet whoredome especially and that either bodily or spiritual First bodily the expression of shamefulnesse though especially it aymeth at their Idolatry yet it hath its rise from bobily whoredome if that were not shamefull the expression could not be full that she had played the harlot and done shamefully Pro. 6. 32. Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own soul a wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away It makes one to be as one of the fooles in Israel And I saith Tamer when Amnon defiled her whether shall I cause my shame to go and as for thee thou shalt be as one of the fooles in Israel 2 Sam. 13. 13. Amnon though a Kings sonne though a brave gallant yet by his uncleannesse he makes himselfe as one of the fooles in Israel Deut. 23. 18. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore nor the price of a dogge into the house of the Lord they are joyned both together for Scripture language makes those to be doggs who are uncleane and filthy When Ishbosheth charged Abner with the sinne of uncleannesse 2 Sam. 3. 8. Am I a dogs head saith he that thou chargest me with a fault concerning this woman Many Adulterers goe very fine and spruce many young wantons are bravely drest but in Gods esteeme they are as dogges thorough their uncleanness It is not a harsher title then the spirit of God gives them I have read of a people amongst the heathen that condemned this sinne with death and with a shamefull death according to the nature of the sinne the death was this they would have the adulterers or adulteresses head to be put into the paunch of a beast where lay all the filth and uncleannesse of it and there to be stifled to death a punishment fit for so filthy a sinne And as this sin is ever shamefull so especially the more lovely any yoke fellow is that is forsaken and the more vile and fowle the whore is so much the more shamefull is the sin Athenaeus bringes in Plato bewayling himself in his own condition that he was taken so much with a filthy whore It is more shamefull for Christians then for heathens because they know that the covenant of mariage is the covenant of God as Pro. 2. 17. But further corruption in Gods worship is most shamefull for that is aymed at especially here The shamefulness of corrupting the worship of God is exprest in that most famous Text we have for this purpose Exod. 32. 25. Aaron made the people naked unto their shame how was that but by false worship though it was of the true God In false worship there is shame because in that a man subjects his conscience to vile things Conscience that is not to be subject to any creature only unto God himselfe is here made subject to low and vile things Indeed it is not shamefull to subject our consciences to God in the use of creatures though never so meane appointed by himselfe but those that doe subject unto creatures in wayes of false worship not appointed by God subject not their consciences to God but unto those creatures and that is shamefull In false
children If you should see a malignant party come with their spheares and pikes and your children sprawling upon the toppes of them and their blood gushing out what would your gold-rings what would all your niceties and braver doe you good I will give you for this because it is a point of such concernment foure notable expressions in Scripture about Idolaters eagerness and earnestness of spirit in following after their Idols The first is Isa 57. 5. The Text saith there that they were inflamed after their Idols they were on fire after them The second is Jer. 50. 38. They were madde upon their Idols Thirdly You have a text more sutable to that I am speaking of It is Isa 46. 6. it is said there that they did laviâ—h gold out of the bagga They did not onely give their gold rings that were of no use and part with that which they could well spare but they did lavish gold that was in the bagge they would not onely bring some of it but they did lavish it for so the word is and they lavished not their silver but their gold and that not a piece or two out of a paper but out of the bagge they brought their bagges of gold and did lavish gold out of them and this they did for their Idols Oh what a shame is it then that any should be penurious and not come off full in the publicke cause of the Church and Common-wealth The fourth Text is Jerem. 8. 2. and there we have five expressions together of the pursuance of the heart of Idolaters after their Idols the like wee have not in all the booke of God in one verse Speaking of their Idols First he saith whom they have loved Secondly whom they have served Thirdly after whom they have walked Fourthly whom they have sought And Fifthly whom they have worshipped and all this in this one verse O how are the hearts of people set upon the wayes of Idolatry I remember Cambden reports of a King of England Canutus that spent as much upon one crosse aâ— the revenues of the Crowne came unto in a whole yeer he was so profuse in charges about his superstitious vanities Master Calvin in a Sermon of his upon that Text seeke ye my face hath this expression Foolish Idolaters when they endure much in their pilgrimages spend their money waste their bodies and abused in their travail yet they goe on and thinke all sufficiently recompenced if they may see and worship some Image of a Saint or holy relicke Shall the beholding saith he some dead carrion or apish Idol have more power to strengthen them then the face of God in his ordinances shall have to strengthen us My lovers that gave me my bread and my water my wool and my flaxe mine oyle and my drinke What were these Idols The Idol that gave their bread was Caeres shee was the goddesse that the Heathens did worship for corne For their water Luna the Moone was the Idol they worshipped for their drinke and all moist things For their wool and flaxe Ashtaroth was their god And for their oyle Fryapus The seventy translate that which wee say here wooll clothes and that which we say flaxe they linnen and they likewise for the fuller expression adde a word or two more and all other necessary things So they though their Idols gave them all flaxe and wool and hempe and all things Observe from hence Idolaters have a great many idols to supply their severall wants My lovers in the plural number The idols of the Heathen do not supply all good but one one thing and another another thing And that is the difference betweene the true God and Idols The excellency of the true God is that he is an universal good we have all good flaxe and oyle and bread and wine and all in one in our God in our lover And that is the reason that God chalengeth the whole heart Idols are content with a partiall obedience because they are but partiall in bestowing of good things but God justly requires the whole heart of his worshippers because he is an universall good to them My Lovers that gave me my bread c. Marke The end that Idolaters ay me at in their worship is very low They follow their lovers and are very earnest for what I pray for their wool and their flaxe and their bread and their water their oyle and their drinke These are the things they aime at they desire no more they look no higher may their flesh be satisfied give them but-liberty to sport on the Lords day to have their feasts their wakes merry meetings and they care for no more Their spirits are vile and accordingly is their worship Therefore their worship is external it is bodily because their aimes are at externall and bodily things As a mans end is so is a man either base or honourable There are many men that cry out as if they aimed at God and Religion in many things they doe they make a noise about Religion and God and Christ and his Ordinances and the publicke good but the truth is their aimes are at gaine and credit and at their wool and their flaxe and herein they shew the baseness of their spirits like the lapwings that make a loud cry as if they were come neere their nests when their neasts are somewhere else VVhatever their cry be for God and the publicke good but if you marke them their neast is in their wool in their flax in their profit in their honour and preferment in these outward things But the end of the true worshippers of God is a great deale higher they soare aloft there is a spirituall heighth of soule whereby they are raised upwards by the grace of God A godly mans feete are where a wicked mans head is that which he accounteth his chiefe good a godly man can trample under his feete He lookes at God himselfe at his service he worshippeth the high God he is a child of Abraham not Abraham but Abraham what is the signification of that Pater excelsus a high Father for he is the father of children of high spirits not only of Children that are beleevers but of those that have high raised spirits so Abraham signifieth a high father Cleopatria told Marcus Antonius that he was not to fish and angle for gudgeons and trouts but for Castles Forts and Towns so I may say of a Christian he doth not fish angle especially in matters of Religion for wool and flax and oile he hath no such low and base ends but at God and Christ and heaven and glory and imortality he lookes there he serves God not for these things hee desires these things that by them he may be fitted more to serve God One that hath beene acquainted with the free grace of God in Christ will serve God for himselfe without indenting with him he will be willing to go into Gods Vineyard and not
accepted of him therefore take this trueth for helping of you against this fore temptation when you are in affliction which will be apt to come in Oh I cry to God now in my affliction I should have done it before surely God will not heare me now This may be a temptation I confesse I cannot speake in this point without a trembling heart lest it be abused but the Text presents it fairely to you and you must have the minde of God made known unto you though others abuse it Psal 88. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction Lord I have called daily upon thee This is spoken of Heman and God did accept of him as it is apparrent in the Psalm yet he cryed by reason of affliction and Psal 120. 1. In my distresse I cryed unto the Lord and he heard me though it were in my distresse yet the Lord heard me Onely take this one note about it It is true Though our being stopped in all other wayes may make us cry to God and God may heare us but when God doth hear us he works more then crying out by reason of that affliction though at first our affliction be the thing that carryeth ns unto God yet before God hath done withus and manifest and any acceptance of us hee workes our hearts to higher aymes then deliverance from our affliction Againe further I will goe and returne A heart effectually wrought upon by God is a resolute heart to returne to God As they were resolute in their way of Idolatry I will follow after my lovers so their hearts being converted they shall be as resolute in Gods wayes she shall say I will returne to my first husband When God will worke upon the heart to purpose he causeth strong arguments to fasten upon the spirit and nothing shal hinder it no not father nor mother nor the dearest friend Perhaps the Lord beginneth to worke upon the child and the father scornes him and the mother perhaps saith What shall we have of you now a Puritane This grieveth the spirit of the child yet there are such strong arguments fastned by God upon his heart that it carryeth him thorough he is resolute in his way he will returne Further Those who have ever found the sweetnesse of Christ in their hearts have yet something remaining that though they should be apostates will at length draw them to him Christ hath such hold upon their hearts as at one time or other he will get them in again there will be some sparkes under those embers that will flame and draw the soule to returne againe to Christ Therefore if any of you ever had any friends in whom you were verily perswaded there was a true work of grace though they be exceedingly apostatized from Christ do not give over your hope for if ever there were any true tast of the sweetnesse that is in Christ Christ hath such a hold upon their hearts that he will bring them in again one time or other Further I will return to my first husband for them was it better with me There is nothing gotten by departing from Christ You goe from the better to the worse when ever you depart from him What fruit have you in those things whereof you are now ashamed I the Lord saith God Isa 48 17. teach to profit sinne doth not teach to profit you can never get good by that but the Lord teacheth to profit It may be you may think to gaine something by departing from Christ but when you have cast up all the gain you may put it into your eye and it will doe you no hurt Job 27. 8. It is a notable place What is the hope of the hypocriâ—e though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Perhaps a hypocrite that is departed from God a back-flider that was forward before in the way of godlinesse and now like Demaâ— he hath forsaken those wayes and cleaved to the world he thinkes he hath gained and perhaps is grown richer and liveth braver then before yet what hope hath this back-slyder this hypocrite when God taketh away his soul then he will see that he hath gotten nothing As it is said of the Idolater Isay 44. 20 A deceived heart hath turned him aside he feeds upon ashes that he cannot deliver his soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand What shall there be more in a lust then in the blessed God then in JESUS CHRIST who is the glory of Heaven the delight of Angels the satisfaction of the Father himselfe Can a lust put thee into a better condition then Christ who hath all fulnesse to satisfie the soul of God himself certainly it cannot be Againe There must be a sight and an acknowledgement of our shamefull folly or else there can be no true returning unto God I will goe and return to my first husband for then it was better with mee then now As if the Church should say I confesse I have plaid the foole I have done shamefully I have loft by departing from Christ it was better farre then it is now Ier. 3. 25. We lie downe in our shame and our confusion covereth us for wee have sinned against the Lord our God saith the Church there so it should be with all that come in to return to Christ they must lie downe in their shame This I note as very seasonable in these times we have many now who not long since have been very vile apostates they have gone with the times they saw preferment went such a way and their hearts went that way Now they see they cannot have preferment in that way they went and God of his mercy hath changed the times they will bee Converts Wee have in England many parliamentary Converts but such as wee are not to confide in Why should wee not confide in them If they will repent and returne God accepteth them and why should not we It is true such an one was before an enemy and followed superstitious vanities but now he is grown better and preacheth against them and why should not wee receive him To that I answer It is true if deep humiliation have gone before that reformation if together with their being better they have been willing to shame themselves before God and his people to acknowledg their folly in departing from God and be willing to professe before all that knew them and have been scandalized by them It is true God began with mee and shewed me his wayes when I was young I began to love them and to walk in them but when I saw how the times went and preferment went the Lord knows I had a base time-serving heart I went away from God they were no arguments that satisfied my conscience but meerly livings and preferment and now I doe desire to take shame and confusion of face to my selfe Woe unto me for the folly and falsenesse of my heart it is
I speak it the rather because I was an eye and eare witnesse of it living not far from the place A godly man desiring his friends to meete to blesse God for his blessings in a plentifull Harvest after dinner was done comes in a little child who was indeed a very lovely child Oh saith the father I am afraid I shal make a God of this child by and by the child was missing and presently they went to looke him and hee was found sprawling drowned in a pond Consider this ye parents who have your hearts inordinately set on your children Againe I will take away my corne and my wine and my wool and my flaxe Marke before they made them their own in the former verse they said they are theirs now God challenges them for his here we have My My My repeated on Gods side as frequent as before it was on theirs Fourthly God keepes the propriety of all that we have though God gives all yet he keepes the propriety of all in his own hand God hath another propriety in our estates then any Prince in the world hath Subjects have propriety in their estates and enjoy them with as true a right as their Soveraignes but no creature hath any propriety in what it hath in reference to God this great Soveraign of all the world holds the propriety of all his hands not onely what we have but what we doe and what we are is all Gods yea sayes Luther even our thanksgiving to God for gifts is a gift of God It is therefore a very vile thing to attribute to our selves what is Gods when God hath enriched us we adde this odious particle sayes Luther I have done it yea sayes he men do so often say Feci Feci I have done I have done it that Fiunt faeces they are as dregs before the Lord By this you may see they are not your goods that you abuse it is a great argument to be bountifull and free for good uses because what wee have is Gods I will give you a notable Text for this 1 Chron. 29. 14. For all things come of thee and of thine own we have given thee David thought not much of his bounty towards the Temple because all was Gods Therefore I will take away This Therefore hath not onely reference to the abuse of them but to that in the 7. ver and she shall follow after her lâ—vers but shall not overtake them c. then shall she say I will goe and return to my first husband for then it was better then now God makes this to be a meanes of working that frame of spirit in them of returning to their first husband And from hence the note is Fifthly The taking away those good things we enjoy is a meanes of making us returne to God it is a speciall meanes of conviction to convince us of sinne when God comes with some speciall worke of his against us it workes more upon us when we see some reall expression of Gods displeasure when God takes his mercies from us then when we heare the threat now wee come to be sensible of our sinnes You that are tradesmen and runne into debt and your Creditors tell you they will come upon you yet you goe on till the Bailife comes into your shop and seizeth upon all and goes into your house and takes away your bed from under you and all your goods when you see all goe out then you thinke of your negligence and then the husband and wife wring their hands So though God threaten you for the abuse of the creature that hee will take it away yet you are not sensible of it till God indeed takes away all and then conscience begins to be awakened and fly in your faces VVhen David saw God taking away his people then his heart smote him for numbring them hee was told of the evill of that way of his before by Ioab but he goes on in it VVhen Samuel prayed for raine in wheat harvest and there came thundring and lightning then the people feared exceedingly and acknowledged their sin in asking a King Those who have abused their estates in these times when the enemy comes what gratings of conscience will they have Then these thoughts will arise Have I used my estate for God have I done that I might doe have I not satisfied my lusts with those things God hath now taken from me There is usually a grating of conscience for the abuse of any thing when God takes it away When God takes away a wife if the husband hath a tenderness of conscience his first thoughts are Have I performed the duties of my relation to my wife as I ought have I not neglected my duty towards her and this causeth sad thoughts And when God taketh away a child Have I done my duty towards this child have I prayed for it and instructed it as I ought Againe I will take away your corne in the time thereof and your wine in the season thereof This presents this truth to you That there is an uncertainty in all things in the world Though they promise faire yet they are ready to faile us when they promise most A husbandman that hath a good seed time promiseth much to himselfe it comes up and thrives and yet at harvest it is all blasted Habak 3. 17. Though the labour of the olive faile The phrase is Though the Labour of the olive lye that is the olive promised faire it grew up and looked very faire and ripened but it did lye that is it did not performe what it seemed to promise for in the time thereof it vanished and came to naught I had certain information from a reverend Minister of a strange work of God this way The thing was in his owne Towne there was a worldling who had a great crop of corne a good honest neighbour of his walking by his corne saith he Neighbour you have a very fine crop of corne if God blesse it Yea saith he I will have a good crop speaking contemptuously and before he could come to get it into the barne it was blasted that the corn of the whole crop was not worth six pence Here we see the uncertainty of the creature in the time thereof when it seemes to promise never so faire when wee are ready to take it into the barne it depends on God as well as when it is under the clods Oh the blessednesse of Gods servants who are sure of their good for time to come We may promise our selves certainty even for the future in the things of Christ but for outwards they are never sure no not when men have them in their hands Many things fall out betweene the cup and lip as we have it in the proverb I will take away my corne in the time thereof and wine in the season thereof Hence Observe God lets out his displeasure many times to those that provoke him when they make
and his ill savour shall come up because hee hath done great things and so in Psal 59. 7. They belsh with their mouths saith David and they goe up and down the Citie grinning like a dog these are the expressions of David and in that Psalm he means no other but those his adversaries that were about Saul in his Court and Ezek. 38. 3 4. To the chief Prince of Meshech and Tubal I will put hooks in thy jawes saith God and in Dan. 7. the four great Monarchs Babylonian Persian Grecian Roman are set out by four beasts the fourth Monarchy which by most Interpreters interpreted the Roman Empire Dan. 7. 7. it is described to bee dreadfull and 〈…〉 and strong exceedingly it had great iron teeth it devoured and brake in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was divers from all things that was before it Now this beast raged first in the heathen Empire and after it gave its power to the beast Antichrist as you may reade in Rev. 13. and that beast was like a leopard spotted full of uncleannesse and filth or as some translate it a panther who by the scent of it drawes other beasts to him but devoures them and his feet like a Beare and his head like a Lyon Thus you see how God describes the great ones of the world to be as beasts looking with a contemptible eye upon them Thirdly It is a sore and a heavy judgement for a people to be delivered up to the rage of cruell adversaries the beasts shall devoure them I will give you up to them who will bring you under you will not be obedient to me but to them you shall I will let out cruell wicked men upon you Hence David prayed Lord let me not fall into the hands of men when God would put him to his choyce to choose what judgement he would have he was quickly resolved what to refuse hee would be sure he would not have that judgement to be given up to the hands of men that he knew was dreadfull and Psal 55. 6. he prayes O that I had the wings of a dove that I might flye into the wildernesse and there abide Into the wildernesse Why hee should be among the wilde beasts in the wildernesse and yet he cryes O that he had the wings of a dove he would abide in the wildernesse VVhy what is the matter here it was because of the cruelty of Saul and his courtiers David apprehended them so cruell that he had rather fall into the hands of Tygers and wilde beasts in the wildernesse then into theirs I could give you notable examples of people that would rather endure any misery in the world then be given up into the hands of their enemies That story is most famous of Numantia in Spaine when Scipio came against it and they were afraid it would be taken all the young men first took all the old men in the City and killed them with as faire a death as they could then they brought all the treasure and riches of the City to the market place and set all on fire and after that they all took poyson and poysoned themselves and thus in one day old and young and all in the City were quite destroyed rather then they would fall into the hands of their enemies Psa 22. 20. Deliver my soul saith David from the sword my darling from the power of the dog the power of the dog and the sword is but one the interpretation of the other and that text is observable 1 Cor. 15. 32. That I have fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men some interpret this litterally that he did indeed really fight with beasts as being one way of torment they put the Christians to to fight with beasts but it is rather thought by most interpreters that the meaning is with men that were beastly with cruell men and Esthius thinkes those men to be no other but those that are mentioned in Acts 19. 9. of whom the text saith there that divers were hardned and spake evill before the multitude Paul then departed from them and 〈◊〉 he disciples Paul says that it was a most 〈…〉 to get the multitude to be gathered together and there to speake against him and his doctrine and against Christ when all the multitude were got together now their malice thought that a fit opportunity to vent all their venome against Paul and his doctrine upon that the spirit of Paul was so provoked saith the text that he departed from them and separated the disciples he saw them desperately set upon it with malice that they would take such an advantage so to speake against him and his doctrine before the multitude it is thus with many the more sedition is raised the better are their designes furthered Christ tells his Disciples Marke 16. 18. that Serpents should do them no hurt and drinking poyson shall not hurt them yea in the 19. of Luke the beginning he tells them they shall have power over divels Serpents shall doe them no hurt poyson shall doe them no hurt they shall have power over Devils but Mathew 10. 17. Beware of men they might say why blessed Master what need we be afraid of men Serpents shall do us no hurt we shall have power over Devils and yet for all this Christ bids them take heed of men as if there weere more danger of hurt from wicked men then from Devils or from Serpents and therefore S Paul in the 2. of the Thessalo 3. 2. prayes that they may be delivered from absurd men so the words are that those that had lost the very principle of reason and were even as beasts There are a generation risen up amongst us who have sucked up the poyson of the old Serpent and are sweld with it who are set on fire of hel and the poyson of Asps is under their lips and in their hands and as it was said of Romulus and Romus the founders of Rome they were suckled by woolves so are these who desire to build up Rome againe much like the first founders of that Rome they seeme to be men suckled by wolves or as the Poets faine of Lycaon turned into a wolfe for his cruelty or as it is said of their S. Dominick that was the Father of the Dominicans that when his Mother was with child of him she dreamed that she brought forth a wolfe with a firebrand in his mouth according to that representation she had in her dream of her childe she proved afterwards and if we look to the cruelty and the rage of these kind of men we may even think that their Mothers have brought forth wolves with firebrands in their mouths in these Satan rages and we hope therefore his time is but very short because he rages so much had they prevailed and brought all under their power no Chronicle of any Nation under Heaven would afford the like stories of horrid
came out of the fathers loynes or out of the bowels of the mother the fruite of the wombe shall not be so neere now to thee nor must it love thee so much as this party that not long since it was a meere stranger unto Whence cometh this but meerly from the power of an Ordinance One would thinke that the affection of a mother to the fruite of her own bowels should be more then it were possible for her to have to a stranger she had never seen before in her life but it is not so when a woman cometh under this Ordinance she now commeth to have according to that which is her duty more affection to one that was ere while a stranger then to the child that came forth of her owne bowels so a man then to one that came out of his owne loynes Here is the power of Gods Ordinance though but civill Now then if an Ordinance of God though but civill hath such an efficacy in it what efficacy have divine Ordinances then Certainly they have mighty efficacy upon the soule when they are administred in the way of God So it is here I will betroth thee as if God should say thou wast not long since as a stranger unto me one cast off yea thou wast as an enemy unto me but now all the creatures in heaven and in earth the very Angels themselves shall not be more deare unto me in a nearer communion then you This is true of a wretched sinfull creature that hath not onely been as a stranger unto God but an enemy unto him he cometh now upon conversion and union with Christ to be in a nearer conjunction and further communion with God then the very Angels in heaven are in some regard for they are never said to be the Spouse of the Son of God so as the Saints are This is the mighty power and love of God in uniting his Saints to his Son Secondly There is in nothing in the world that full communication of one creature to another as there is in that condition of marriage so in our spiritual marriage with Christ there is an inconceiveable communion of one to another â—â—ally God hath two wayes of communication of himselfe one is infinite that is to his Son in that inconceivable mysterie of the generation of the Son he hath other wayes of communication of himself after a finite manner but of al the finite ways this is the greatest his comunication of himself to his Saints in Christ God hath no such comunication of himself to all the creatures as he hath to his Saints in his Son God in comparison communicateth little or nothing of himself to the frame of heaven earth so as he doth to any one of his Saints So far as there wants communion in a married estate so far there wants the blessing of it it should be full The communion of God to his Church is a full communion his wisdome power riches are made over to the Saints the merits the righteousnesse of Christ are made all over to them This is mutuall there is no such communication of any creature to another as there is of the hearts of the Saints to God one converted to God le ts out his heart into God in a fuller way then any creature can let out it selfe to another creature Suppose all the creatures in the world should have their beauty and excellency put together in one and present it self wholly unto thee to be an object of thy delight yet it were not possible that thou shouldst communicate thy self so fully to it as thy soul will communicate it selfe to God upon thy conversion The soul gives up it selfe to God as into an infinite ocean of goodnesse so as it would not retaine any thing of its owne as a drop of water into a tun of wine it retains not its savour or colour that it had before but it is as it were turned into wine And hereby you may know whether your conversion be right yea or no As that which is Christs cometh to be thine so that which is thine cometh again to be Christs My beloved is mine and I am his saith the Church Hence it is that the honour that Christ the Husband hath reflects upon the Saints they shine with the brightnesse of his beams Esay 43. 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight thou becamest honourable It was wont to be the custome among the Romanes in their marriages when the wife was brought home she had this speech Where you are Caâ—us I am Caja How meane soever the woman was before yet being married she partakes of the honour of her husband So the Saints whatsoever they were before they are now looked upon as honourable in the eyes of the Father in the eyes of Christ in the eyes of the holy Ghost aud in the eyes of the Angels and the rest of the Saints who are able to discerne their excellency And so on the other side for still it is mutuall as the Church hath honour from the lustre of the beams of Christs glory so even the Church is a glory unto Christ As the Scripture saith The wife is the glory of the man which place heretofore you have had opened unto you so the truth is the Church is the glory of Christ How is that you will say It is true Christ is the glory of the Church but that the Church who is a company of poore creatures should be the glory of Christ how can that be yes it is so Christ accounteth himselfe glorified before the Father that he hath such a Spouse Mark that place 2 Cor. 8. 23. Whether you inquire of Titus he is my partner or of our brethren the messengers of the Churches the glory of Christ Titus and the brethren are there called the glory of Christ And Ephes 1. 23. the Church is said to be the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all Howsoever we are to be low in our own eies yet this is certaine that it is the glory of Christ before the Father and the blessed Angels that he hath such a Spouse as he hath Hence Rev. 21. 9. Come Behold the Bride the Lambs wife The very Angels rejoice in this O come behold the Bride the Lambs wife Certainly had it not been for the glory of Christ the Angels would not in such a triumphing way have called all to behold the Bride the Lambs wife They call to behold the glory of Christ in his Bride Psalm 45. the Church is described to be brought in to the King all glorious and beautiful with araâ—ment of needle-worke c. Christ rejoyceth and his very heart even springs againe to present his Church unto his Father Father here behold my Spouse that I have married unto my selfe It is true a childe may sometimes marry against his fathers consent such a one as he may be ashamed to think of bringing to his fathers house because she will be a disgrace to
I will sow thee there shall come a blessing upon thee and though thou beest scattered up and down in the earth yet in all places thou shalt be as seed from whence my Church shall spring Hence the notes are First that Gods people are the seed of the earth But of that before in the latter end of the first Chapter onely I will adde a note of Ribera about it The seed saith he lies under the clods and at length fructifies so should the Saints be content to lie under the clods and though they may seem in regard of their afflicted condition to be dead to be rotten yet they shall be glorious and fructifie afterward Before the time of the Churches glory times of great calamity and distresse come which this rotting of the seed before the fructifying sets out unto us Secondly every godly man should so live as either in life or death hee should be as a seed from whence many may spring he should be a meanes that many should be begotten to God It is reported of Cicilia in the history of the Church a poore Virgin that by her gracious behaviour in her mattyrdome she was the means of converting four hundred to Christ As in the Indies one corn bringeth forth divers hundreds so we should labour to convert as many as wee can that some that live after may continue to beare up the name of Christ and the profession of his truth Especially be carefull of your children leave them as seed to hold up the name of God in thy family when thou art dead and gone And further I will sow her to my selfe The Saints are sowen unto Christ they are seed for Christ therefore all their fruit must be given up unto Christ Christ must have all the fruit we bear who should have the fruit but he that soweth it Therefore Cant. 7. 13. All manner of pleasant fruits new old which I have laid up for thee O my beloved Are we able to bear any fruit Let us lay it up all for Jesus Christ for it is he that soweth us unto himselfe we must not sow to our selves not to the flesh for then wee shall reap corruption but all for Christ And I will shew mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy Divers things about Gods shewing mercy after rejection were spoken of in the first Chap. Only these notes for the present There are none so rejected as that they can conclude that they shall never have mercy those that have committed the sinne against the holy Ghost excepted though Israel had not obtained mercy though they were cast out yea cast out to the beasts to be devoured yea saith God I will shew mercy upon her 2. Children of wicked parents may at length obtain mercy from God Though Israel be cast off yet her children shall have mercy A comfort to us in regard of the Idolatry of our fore fathers yea a comfort in the regard of the children that are to come Our fore fathers have broken the Covenant why may not we obtaine mercy But suppose we should be the generation of Gods wrath and not obtaine mercy yet we may have hope that the posterity following shall have mercy Thirdly Mercy after it is thought to be past if then it come Oh it is sweet mercy indeed when she seemed to be utterly rejected then to have mercy shewed this is sweet Fourthly Mercy is the cause of all the good the Saints have One Scripture for it Psal 57. 3. Send from heaven saith David David was in the Cave in a poor condition hunted for his life persecuted by Saul I see little hope from earth saith he therefore O Lord send from heaven What shall God send Angels from heaven to deliver thee David No but mark what followeth God shal send forth his mercy his truth as if he should say Lord though I have no help in earth though I see no Angels from heaven to helpe me yet let me have thy mercy and truth and that is enough This satisfies a gracous heart if he may have Gods mercy and his truth that is Gods mercy revealed in a promise Lastly God hath a speciall day of mercy for his people for his Churches I will have mercy upon her that hath not obtained mercy Let us cry to God for the hastening of this day let us open the miseries of our own Kingdome and of Ireland Oh when shall this day come that thou wilt shew mercy to thy owne people which thou hast told us of Oh that that day may hasten Come Lord Jesus come quickly And I will say to them which were not my people This is that we had in the first Chapter onely with some differences there it is In the place where it was said yee are not my people And I shewed you when I opened that place both out of the Romanes and out of Peter how the Apostle makes use both of that in the first Chapter and this here in the second onely take a hint of the truths in it First God hath a special interest in his people they are his people they are called his peculiar people Tit. 2. 14. The word hath this emphasis in it God lookes upon all other things as accidents in comparison and his substance is his people they are his very portion as Deut. 33. 19. and Exod. 19. 5. they are his peculiar treasure above all people in the world and Esay 19. 25. Assyria the worke of my hands and Israel mine inheritance I have made all people but Israel is mine inheritance This is the happines of the Saints therefore they are not as other people are Num. 23. 9. This people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the Nations this is a great ground of prayer Lord leave us not we are thy people called by thy name we have an interest in thee Againe This is an argument to walke so as God may not be dishonored by us for we are his people If those in a mans family walke disorderly it is a dishonour to the Master of the family it is no dishonour to him for a stranger or one who hath little reference to him to walke disorderly It is not so much dishonour to God for the wicked to walke disorderly as for the Saints in regard of their neerenesse to God And besides their light is as I told you three story high and if they sin they sin against a greater light then others doe their sin is greater then the sinne of the wicked in that regard Further I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people I will own them before all the world It is a great mercy for God to make it knowne to the world that his people are his people The world will not beleeve it they think they are a poor contemptible people but there shall come a day that I will make it knowne they are
mine And amongst other things by which God will make all the world to know that his people are his this is one in sâ—tting up the beauty of his Ordinances amongst them Ezek. 37. 27. My Tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and the Heathen shall know that I the Lord doe sanctifie Israel when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them Thus they shall know saith God that they are my people and that I am their God when I have set my Sanctuary in the midst of them for ever Were it that the Ordinances of God might be set up in their purity amongst us in England were Reformation perfected and the Saints walked humbly peaceably as they should the whole world will be convinced that these are indeed the people of the Lord and that God is amongst them And they shall say thou art my God God must begin withus we cannot begin and say Lord thou art my God but God must begin with us first and say You are my people There are a great many who say God is their God but God never said they are his people Joh. 1. 12. it is said of those who beleeved in Christ that God gave them power to be the Sonnes of God the word signifies authority that they might with authority acknowledge themselves to be the sons of God and call God Father they had the broad Seale for it Will you call God Father where is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your authority if God call you children if he say you are my people you may give the Ecchoto Gods mercy and say thou art our God Secondly When God speakes mercy to us we must answer according to it Doth God say you are my people we must answer Lord thou art our God This is a great fault amongst Christians God manifests himselfe to many a gracious heart in abundance of love and mercy they give an answer to God in a way of dispaiting and discouragement Gods ways toward thee speake thus and say thou art one of my people but thy heart works as if God were none of thy God Hath not God done much for thee thou thinkest it is all in hypocrifie that thou dost whereas the truth is it is the fruit of his love and kindnes to thee He speakes aloud in what he hath done for thee that thou art one of his people and yet thy heart thinks that he is thy enemy that he haâ—â—s thee and will cast thee off at last The wayes of God are full of mercy to thee and he hath set his stampe upon thee by his ways of love he tels thee that thou belongest unto him O unbeleeving soul answer Lord thou art my God! lay aside these discouraging sinking thoughts of thine O that thou wouldst goe away with such an answer in thy mouth Doe not answer Gods loving kindnesse and his gracious dealings towards thee with discouragement and sinking of heart this is dishonorable to him and tedious to his Spirit Thirdly God works an answerable disposition in the hearts of his people unto him This is thy duty but God will work it in time if thou belongest to him As thus doth God chuse us to be his people then the hearts of the Saints chuse him to be their God Doth God say you are my people the Saints say Lord thou art our God Doth God say I will dwell with them they answer Lord thou art our habitation Doth God say I delight in them they say Lord our delight is in thee Doth God say I will rest in them for ever the Church saith O my soule returne unto thy rest Here is a sweet answer a rebound of all Gods loving kindnes Lastly the Saints must professe God to be theirs It is not enough to beleeve with the heart but thou must confesse with the mouth professe it outwardly of this before Further This is the highest happinesse of the Saints that God is their God when they can say this they have enough If we could say this house is mine this street this Lordship this City this Kingdome this World is mine What is all this A Christian comes at length and saith this God that made all is mine As it is reported of the French Ambassador and the Spanish meeting together saith the Spanish Ambassadour my Master is King of Spaine my Master replyed the French is King of France my Master said the Spaniard againe is King of Naples and my Master said the French is King of France my Master is King of Portugal and my Master is King of France still he answered with that my Master is King of France as being enough to answer all the several Kingdomes of the Spaniard So one saith I have this house this land this stock this estate this trade yea but saith a Christian I have God God is mine Surely having him thou hast enough And if God be thy God he will be a God to thee 1 Chron. 17. 24. The Lord of hosts is God of Israel even a God to Israel So it must be with thee if thou beest a Saint of God be a Saint to God Are we a people of God then we must be a people to God Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Thus we had opened the gracious manifestation of God to his Church in part fulfilled spiritually to spiritual Israel here but more sensibly to be made good at the great day of Jezreel that is when the Jews shall be called then the Spouse of Christ in a visible way shall be thus married unto him and the Lord will be their God Jerome saith upon the Text All these things that are here promised to the Church the Jewes expect it at the end of the world after the time of Antichrist And I make no question though in a spiritual sence this Scripture is made good for the present unto the Saints yet in a more visible and sensible way all this Scripture will be made good to the people of the Jews the Gentiles then joyning with them even literally the glory of the Church shall be visible and apparant More whereof in the next Chapter HOSEA CHAP. 3. The First Lecture CHAP. 3. VER 1. 2. 3. Then said the Lord unto me go yet love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteresse according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who looke to other gods and love flaggons of wine So I bought her â—o me for fifteen pieces of silver and for an homer of barley and an halfe homer of barley And I said unto her thou shalt abide for me many dayes thou shalt not play the harlot and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee THe close of the former Chapter had much mercy in it and this Chapter containes the
and make us look up to free grace not take us off from the practise of any but from relying upon any onely to rely upon free grace in Christ As this is the supernaturall seeking God so it is the most powerfull way of seeking him It is not enough to seeke God by vertue of a promise except vve seek him by vertue of Christ who is the foundation of all the promises VVe seek him because he is mercifull that is one way yea we seek him because he hath promised mercy this is a higher degree but we must go higher yet we must look to his Son in whom all the promises are Yea Amen otherwise though we seek him never so earnestly though we chalenge his promises and cry to him to remember his promises yet if we do not act our faith upon his Son wee may misse in all And herein we sanctifie that great name of God in that which is the great work of his his master-piece as we may say or the great designe hee hath to honour himself in the world here and everlastingly hereafter Certainely though God hath made the creature for his own glory expects we should honour him in beholding him in the creature yet the great design God hath to honour himselfe in and by is in that glory of his that is manifested in his Son to have the children of men behold this his glory and reflect it upon his own face except you give God his glory in this he cares not much for what soever glory you can give him otherwise You must not therfore expect when you seek God that you must have good things from him meerly because he is mercifull you must not thinke that the mercy of God serveth to eike out our righteousnesse Perhaps some will say it is true we are poor sinfull creatures and what can wee expect from God being fin full but we hope that God will pardon our sin and so will accept of the poor services that we perform This is the way that most goe they do as it were imploy Gods mercy in such a worke that God never intended it for that is they would make the mercy of God to eike out their owne righteousnesse and so both put together they think they will serve to be a means of atonement No you mistake Gods mercy the worke of Gods mercy is not this but it is to shew us our unrighteousnesse our misery our unclearnesse to shew us Jesus Christ to draw our hearts to him to emptie us of our selves that wee may wholly rely upon that righteousnesse that is by faith in him and tender up that to the Father for sanctification and attonement that is the work of Gods mercy when it hath this work then it hath the true genuine work indeed The fifth is why here added King True wee must seeke the Lord and Christ but why Christ the King The reason is because Christ in the latter dayes shall be fully honoured in his Kingly power they shall looke upon him not only as Prophet and Priest but as King Hitherto Christ hath bin much honoured in his Propheticall and Priestly office but not so much in his Kingly but in the latter dayes when God shall call home his people the Jewes then Christ shall be fully honoured in his Kingly office The Tabernacle of Christ was raised in the Primitive times according to that speech of St. James we had before Acts 15. 16. God shall raise the tabernacle of David hee puts it as fulfilled then but there is a time when God shall not only raife the tabernacle of David but the throne of David Christ the King shall appeare in glory Ezek. 37 24 25. And David my servant shall be King over them It was spoken upon the union that there should be between Judah and Israel then David my servant shall be King over them David was dead a great while before there is a time that David must again be King that is Christ upon the union of all the Tribes together And againe David shall be Prince for ever when they are brought againe into their owne land David shall be Prince over them for ever saith the Text surely this prophesie is yet to be fulfilled And Luke 1. 32. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end I know we usually think that this is meant only of his spirituall reign but there is a mistake in it certainly there is to be a fulfilling of this prophesie in a reign that shall outwardly appeare before the children of men which will appea more in comparing this with other Scriptures Revel 11. 15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord his Christ and so he shall reign for ever and ever VVhy in a spirituall sense the kingdoms of this world are always the kingdomes of the Lord and of Christ but there is spoken of some famous notable time when the kingdomes of this world shall appeare to be the Lord and his Christs and then he shall reigne for ever and ever after another manner then now he doth Revel 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Mark this Text as one of the most notable of any wee have That kingly rule that Christ hath for the present is upon his Fathers throne he is not yet upon his own in comparison of what he shall be the kingdome that Christ hath now is the joynt reigne of him with the Father but there is a time for Christ to have a Throne himselfe Now that Throne of Christ it may be you will thinke it is in heaven at the day of judgement but we finde 1 Cor. 15. 24. that at that day he comes to refigne the kingdome the words do not seeme to import as if hee came to take it but that then hee doth give up the kingdome unto God the Father therefore there is a time for Christ himself to have a Throne with whom the Saints shall reign Matth. 21. 9. The children cryed out Hosanna to the sonne of David because they looked upon the sonne of David as one who was to reign In these latter dayes CHRIST shall breake the Kings of the earth who stand against him as indeed many yea most of the Kings of the earth have ever stood out to hinder this kingdome of his There will be a mighty shaking of the kingdoms of the earth when this shall be Heb. 12. 26. Whose voyce then shook the earth but now he hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the earth onely but also the heaven quoted out of Hag. 2. 6. 7. God in giving the law shooke the earth but he will shake the earth and the heavenâ— which some Interpreters expounds thus not only the meaner power of
match as this The woman is the glory of the man How for so I desire not only to open the Scripture that I read here but as I go along and quote Scripture so far as may be for your edification and suteable to our argument to open there too In two respects she is so 1. because it is a glory to a man that he hath such an image for shee is from the man and as the man being the image of God sheweth the glory of God because he is the image of God and from him so the woman being from the man and as it were his image shee is the glory of the man 2. Because man hath such an excellent creature brought under subjection to him so the woman is the glory of the man Man is not only made glorious by God in that God hath put all other creatures under him but especially in this that God hath put such an excellent creature under him as the woman is so the woman is the glory of the man This could not be here in such a match as this 3. It could not be that it was a reall thing but a vision from the prophesie it selfe for then Hosea must have stayed almost a whole yeare before hee could have gone on in his prophesie For first he must take to him a wife of whoredomes and beget a child of whoredomes then he must have stayed till the child had been born before he could have come to the people and say My child is borne and his name is Iezreel and it is upon this ground that I have named him thus and then hee must have stayed almost a yeare more before he could have Locuhamah and then after that he must stay almost another yeare longer before Loammi could be born And lastly that which is noted by Polanus the expression that wee have here is that God spake in Hosea speaking and appearing to him by an inward vision as it were in an extasie saith Polanus therefore we must take it so that this wife of whoredomes that Hosea was to marry was in a way of vision it was to signifie that Israel was to God as a wife of whoredoms and as children of whoredomes should have been to the Prophet if he had been marryed to her From all these there is this result that the people of Israel were gone a whoring from God Idolatry it is as the sin of whoredome and I cannot open this Scripture except I shew you wherein idolatry is like the sin of whoredome The idolatry of the Church not the idolatry of Heathens is whoredome One that committeth adultery doth give her selfe to another The Heathens because they were never marryed to God their idolatry is not adultery but the people of GDO being marryed to the Lord their idolatry is adultery Adultery first because it breaks the marriage bond there is nothing breaks the marriage bond between God and his people but the sin of idolatry as not between man and wife Though a wife may be guilty of many faylings and be a grievous trouble and burthen to her Husband yet these doe not breake the marriage knot except she defile the marriage bed So though a people may be guilty of notorious and vile sins yet if they keep the worshp of God pure they are not guilty of whoredome but still God is marryed to them 2. Whoredome is a loath some thing though delightsome to men yet loathsome to God Idolatry is so therefore the Scripture calleth the Idols that men set up by a name that signifieth the very excrement that comes from creatures Ezek. 22. 3. Idolaters think their way of idol-worship to be very delightsome but that which they call delectable God calleth detestable so you shall find it if you compare these two Scriptures Isa 44. 9. they call their Idols delectable things but in Ezek. 5. 11. God calleth them detestable things Idolatry is a detestable loathsome thing 3. There is nothing wherein a man is so irreconcileable as in the point of the marriage bed the defiling of that by adultery causes an irreconcileable breach Jealousie is the rage of a man and he will take no ransome There is nothing wherein God is so reconcileable to a people as in the point of false worship 4. Adultery is a besotting sinne Whoredome and new wine take away the heart saith the Prophet and in that 44. Isa 19. there saith God he hath no understanding to consider and say What have I not taken one part and roasted flesh with it and with another part have baked bread upon the coales and warmed my selfe with another part and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination and fall downe to the stock of a tree Hee hath no understanding to consider this Idolatry is a besotting sin as well as adultery And therefore we need not marvail though-men of great parts and abilities continue in their superstitious way of worship for nothing besotteth mens hearts so much as that doth Againe 5. Whoredome is a most dangerous sinne Wee have a most dreadfull place for that Prov. 22. 14. The mouth of a strange woman is as a deep pit heth at is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein Oh most dreadfull place to an Adulterer if there be any Adulterer in this place this day when thou goest home turn to that Scripture and let it be as a dart to to thy heart the mouth of a strange woman is as a deep pit he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein A signe of a man abhorred of God and so is Idolatry for in 2 Thes 2. 11 12. God gave them over to believe a lye that they might be damned Those that follow the Idolatries of Antichrist are given over by God to beleive a lye That lye of Popery is altogether one lye Hence it is that the Popish party invent so many such strange lyes all to uphold that great lye What is this that they might be damned It is a dreadfull dangerous sin the sinne of Idolatry though they think they please God in and by such wayes of worship yet they are given over by God that they may be damned If this prove to be a place that concerns those that follow Antichrist if Rome proves to be so as by that place is described it is a dreadfull place to all Papists Again Whores use to deck themselves up in pompous attyre in dainty glorious rayment So idolaters use to deck up their Idols in bravery and lavish gold as the Scripture speaks upon their Idols whereas the Kings daughter is all glorious within and the simplicity of the Gospel will not permit such things And lastly as whores though they goe a whoring from their Husbands yet still they retain before the divorce the name of wives and their children though bastards retaine the name of children and beare the fathers name So Idolaters they will retain the name
of the Church the Church and those that they beget must still be called the only sons of the Church But how are his children said to be children of whoredomes for suppose his wife were a wife of whoredomes yet being marryed to her wherefore should the children be called children of whoredomes To that is answered first some think upon this ground because the children when they are grown up would â—ollow the way of the Mother as it is an usuall thing for children to doe Therefore you need to take heed how you enter into the state of marriage for your childrens sake for they will follow the way of the Mother Or rather this because though they were begotten after marriage yet they will ye under suspition as those that are illegitimate the children of one that hath been a whore are always suspected and so in repute they are the children of whoredome and fornication so saith God these people are to me as if their children were accounted the children of fornication For the whole land hath gone a whoring from the Lord. In going a whoring they goe a whoring Or as Arius Montanus reads it In going a whoring they will goe a whoring They not only Have but Will they are set upon it they are stout-hearted in the way of Idolatry and it is the land that hath done it the people of the land But why the land It is a secret check to them and upbraiding them for their unthankfulnesse that when God gave them so good a land the land of Canaan that flowed with milk and honey the land of promise that was given to them for that end to nourish up the true worship of God yet they made this land of God this land of promise to be a land to nourish up most vile Idolaters Gone a whoring from the Lord. From Jehovah The more worthy the Husband is the more vile and odious the adultery of the Wife What to goe a whoring from God the blessed God in whom is all beauty and excellency and turn to blind Idols What change the glory of the invisible God into the similitude of an Oxe that eateth grasse with what indignation doth God speak it Oh you that go a whoring after your sinfull lusts this one day will lye most dreadfully upon your consciences that it was from the Lord that you departed from that infinite glorious eternall Deity the fountain of all good to cleaye to whoring after base sinfull and unclean lusts Who is this whore and what are the children that are begotten to Hosea by her So he went saith the Text He obeyeth We must obey God in things that seem to be never so much against our reason and sense He tooke Gomer the daughter of Diblaim The word Gomer here commeth from a word that signifieth perficere and defiâ—ere perfection defection and so it may be applyed both ways Some apply it to perfection that is a harlot that was perfect and compleat both in her beauty and in her fornication and wickednesse The word likewise signifieth rottennesse corruption and consumption so indeed are all things in the world as soon as they grow to any perfection they begin to decline quickly to corruption All things but spirituall do so they indeed grow still higher and higher This Gomer we will take rather in the second acceptation of it as it signifieth rottennesse and consumption Who was this Gomer She was the daughter of Diblaim The signification of that is according to so me one that dwelleth in the desart in reference to that famous desart Diblath of which we read Ezek. 6. 14. noting the way of Idolaters that they were wont to goe into woods and desarts and there to sacrifice to their Idols But rather according to most Diblaim signifieth bunches of dryed figs that were the delicacies of those times so Oecolampadius from which hee hath this note That rottennesse and corruption proceedeth from voluptuous pleasures from delicacies and the like Though the pleasures of the flesh be very contentfull to you yet destruction is the fruit of them destruction is the daughter of sensuall pleasures and delights of all your delicacies so saith the Scripture Rom. 8. 13. If you live after the flesh you shall dye Phil. 3. ult whose God is their belly whose end is destruction But to apply it to Israel Israel was as Gomer the daughter of Diblaim that is the people of Israel were now neare to destruction and were the daughters of sensuall delights they gave over themselves to sensuall delights and pleasures It is the usuall way of Idolaters those that forsake the true worship of God to give up themselves to the pleasures of the flesh Sensuality and Idolatry doe usually goe together When the people of Israel sacrificed to the calves what did they They eate and dranke and rose up to play that was all their worke and good enough for the worshipping of such a god a calfe You know the more we began to decline in the worship of God we began to be so much the more sensuall there must be Proclamation to people to take their sports and delights upon the Lords day And indeed it is that which doth usually accompany defection in the way of Gods worship False worship doth not lay such bonds upon mens consciences for the mortifying the lusts of the flesh as the worship of God doth Therefore those men that love most to take liberty to the flesh they are those that are soonest enticed to ways of superstitious worship Jerem. 24. 9. there Jeremy setteth out the state of those naughty Jewes that were in Captivity by that similitude of a basket of rotten figs sutable to this and the more confirming this interpretation that Israel was as Gomer the daughter of Diblaim that is rottennesse the daughter of sensuality Thus for the Mother But now the son that is begotten of this mother it is Iezreel Call his name Iezreel The Prophet must give a name to his son It is that which belongeth to Parents to give names to their children Godfathers and Godmothers as they call them are of no use for this or for any thing else that I know and in such holy things as Sacraments are we must take heed of bringing in any unusefull any idle things But here we are to enquire First the signification of this name Secondly the reason why the son of Hosea must be callied by this name Iezreel You shall find a great deale in this before we have done with it For the first Iezreel signifies the scattered of the Lord. For the second there are five reasons may be given why the sonne of this Prophet must have this name put upon him Iezreel First that hereby God might shew that he did intend to avenge that blood that was shed in Iezreel Secondly to shew that Israel had lost the honour of his name and was no more Israel but Jezreel There seemeth to be much neernesse