to have need of stirring up like unto that elegant metaphoricall decomposite of the Apostle unto Timothie Stir up the gift of God The graces of God being like fire must ever and anon be russled and stirred up else will grow cold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh stirre up your selves Secondly being stirred up by prayers faithfull and fervent men lay hold on God And againe I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it Our Saviour speaketh of offering violence to the Kingdome of Heaven and the violent taking it by force wherein prayer hath a speciall part for woe were it with many if bodily strength carried it away but the poorest and weakest Christian sicke in bed and scarce able to breathe yet by sighes and groanes may offer violence and take Gods kingdome by force and S. Paul beseecheth the Romanes For the Lord Iesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that they would strive with him in their prayers to God for him He would have them pray but not coldly and negligently as the Papists mumbling and tumbling over their beads when their mindes are wandring about earthly occasions but hee would have them strive with God and put all their strength to it yea to strive to the shedding of bloud as the word signifieth Christ being in an agonie his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud Thus for confirmation of this Doctrine you have God and his Prophets in the old Testament and Christ and his Apostles in the new To this purpose sweet are the sentences of some of the Fathers An ancient one saith When prayers joyne together in devotions they doe as it were even band themselves together to encounter God And another saith The Saints have God so bound that he cannot punish without their permission and licence Loe loe the incomprehensible mercie and loving kindnesse of God towards such as truly feare and serve him making them in his goodnesse in his bottomelesse goodnesse I say so powerfull and mightie with him that their prayers are as it were bands to tie his hands and as a wall against him that hee cannot execute his anger though most justly deserved unlesse they will suffer him and as it were stand out of his way How may the consideration hereof make us exclaime O Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou regardest him or as Iob hath it That thou doest set thine heart upon him Iob 7. 17. Will you see how powerfull Gods Saints are with God by their prayers I meane not to obtaine great blessings and doe great works the Scripture is so full in this I should finde no end but according to the Text and Doctrine raised in preventing threatned judgments to themselves or the Church of God Take a few selected out of many for instance When Iacob soresaw destruction threatned to himselfe and wives and children by his cruell and bloudie brother Esau comming out against him with 400. men then saith the Text was Iacob greatly afraid and distressed and falleth to prayer unto God for deliverance yea and with that fervencie that hee is said to wrestle with God and told him hee would not let him goe till hee had blessed him and in the end by his prayers and teares he prevailed and thereupon was his name changed from Iacob into Israel which signifieth a Prevailer with God the evill he feared was removed his brother that came out against him as fierce as a Lion when they met was as meeke as a Lambe yea hee confesseth hee saw his face as the face of God When the Amalekites came out against Israel and threatned their destruction Moses went up into the mountaine and prayed and when hee held up his hands in prayer unto God Israel prevailed but when he let downe his hands Amalek prevailed which sheweth that the push of Moses prayers did more than the pikes of all Israel besides When againe for that great sinne of worshipping the golden Calfe God before hee signified to Moses his purpose to consume them and blot out their names from under Heaven bade him let him alone yet Moses by prayer prevailed with God for pardon of their sinne and continuance of his favour whereof David speaketh thus He said he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turne away his wrath where he compareth Moses to a valiant Captaine who when besieging enemies have made a breach in the wall the Citie is like to be lost steppeth up into the breach and defendeth it which Moses did by the power of his prayer and turned away Gods wrath from his people Againe for the children of Israels murmuring against Moses and Aaron the plague beganne amongst them and there died foureteene thousand and seven hundred wherefore Moses commanded Aaron quickly to take fire from the Altar and put on incense and stand betwixt the living and the dead and so the plague ceased whereof in the Wisdome of Solomon we have an excellent paraphrase and fitting our purpose the blamelesse man made haste and stood forth to defend them and bringing the shield of his Ministerie even praier the propitiation of incense he set himselfe against the wrath and overcame the destroyer the words in the Greeke Text are verie significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propugnavit hee fought valiantly hee brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arma Ministerij the weapons of his Ministerie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he resisted wrath non vi sed precibus all the created powers in heaven and earth cannot resist God yet may a poore man by the power of his prayers turne away Gods wrath and procure an undeserved blessing and remove a most just deserved punishment As the young infant more prevaileth with the father or mother by a teare than the strength of arme so God pitieth us as a father hath more compassion than a mother he cannot but fulfill the desires of such as feare him David saw the Angell stretching his hand out upon Ierusalem to destroy it and yet by praier prevailed with God to spare it who said to the Angell It is enough stay now thine hand In that great tempest by sea when there was no hope of life yet Paul prayed and God gave him the lives of all that passed being to the number of two hundred threescore and sixteene soules so as though they made shipwracke and with the violence of the sea the ship was broken to peeces yet not one soule was lost all came safe to shore And if the praiers of one be so powerfull with God how much more the praiers of many being united Let Hesther and Mordechai and the Iewes fast and pray and then commeth most wonderfull deliverance to
it shall be given into the hands of the King of Babylon and he shall burne it with fire saith the Lord The like he counselled Zedekiah the King Bring your necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon and serve him and his people and live why will ye die thou and thy people by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence And as he advised the King and people to yeeld themselves so he wrote a letter to those that were carried away captives requiring them in the name of the Lord to be quiet and to pray to the Lord for the peace of the Citie which sheweth that Ieremie well knew that the Lords purpose was absolute and his prohibition to pray for them so too If any man shall aske me whether Gods threatnings be not conditionall I answer that many of Gods threatnings of temporall punishments are conditionall so saith God by our Prophet At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill I have thought to doe unto them It was the case of Ninivie against which Ionah by commission from the Lord pronounced Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed yet Ninivie repenting Ninivie was not then destroyed God changed his revealed will and sentence the prophesie fell but the Citie fell not yea the same punishment which at the first threatning is conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome conditionally threatned when as at Abrahams suit the Lord was brought from fiftie to ten If there be found but ten righteous persons in Sodome I will spare it for the ten sake but because they could not be found the destruction was absolutely threatned when the Angell said to Lot We will destroy this place the Lord hath sent us to destroy it and if God had not beene mercifull to pull Lot away he had beene destroyed in it Such was the case of this people If when Ieremie began his ministerie reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivitie they had humbled themselves and repented in sackcloth and ashes it might have been prevented but growing worse and worse and unto their former sinnes adding this of extremely abusing the Prophet the Lord grew to be resolute they should into captivitie as well as their brethren he revealed it unto his Prophet and forbade him to pray for them which he did and only counselled them to yeeld themselves into their enemies hands Thirdly by way of prevention God satisfied his Prophet in what he foresaw might be objected The Prophet might object that hereby both his justice and truth might be questioned he satisfieth the Prophet in both first he cleareth his justice and that two wayes first by declaring the greatnesse of this peoples sinne whereof you shall more hereafter for a taste looke but the next verse following my text Seest thou not what they doe in the Cities of Iudah and streets of Ierusalem The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough to bake cakes to the Queene of Heaven Therefore my furie shall be poured out on such a people unworthie to be prayed for Is it not a just thing to send such into captivitie Secondly he declareth his soveraigne and absolute authoritie over all people and nations so as without controll he may justly build and plant or pull downe and destroy which he shewed in the pottershouse in whose hands a vessel that he made of clay being marred he made it another vessell as seemed good to the potter then came the word of the Lord saying O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this potter behold as the clay is in the hands of the potter so are yee in mine hands The clay is not beholden to the potter for it had being before and the clay never offended the potter yet the potter may make what vessell he will and the vessell not complaine Why hast thou made me thus But we are beholding to God for our being and we have sinned against him and may he not doe with us as pleaseth him This sinfull people shall into captivitie the Prophet must not pray for them yet is God herein most righteous and just Yea but harken how the Prophet bemoaneth Gods truth saying Ah Lord God the Prophets say unto them yee shall not see the sword but you shall have an assured peace in this place Then sayd the Lord the Prophets prophesie lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spoken unto them they prophesie a false vision and divination the deceit of their owne heart but I will bring the sword yea and by the sword shall those false Prophets also be consumed speake unto the people and charge them that they harken not to the Prophets Diviners Dreamers Inchaunters and Sorcerers which say ye shall not serve the King of Babel for they prophesie a lie unto you Thus God preventeth his Prophet and declareth that this judgement is well deserved and standeth with justice and truth and would have the Prophet to rest therein and not pray for them Lastly though many temporall judgements be denounced conditionally yet that this is absolute and that he meaneth indeed his Prophet should not pray for them in this may be gathered from the manner of his revealing of this purpose which was first with many words of most earnest and vehement asseveration saying The land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it That must needs stand which the Lord thus avoucheth yet to make it if it were possible more sure the Lord hath sworne it I sweare by my selfe saith the Lord this house shall become a desolation An oath saith the Apostle is amongst men an end of all strife and God that he might fully declare the immutabilitie of his counsell having no greater to sweare by hath sworne by himselfe Loe how the Apostle saith an oath declareth the immutabilitie of his counsell God never sware but hee performed it He hath sworne and will not repent saith David if God sweare he will never repent of it he may change his sentence but never reverse his oath yea God swearing that Moses should not enter into the promised land though he repented of his sinne and most earnestly intreated this favour could not obtaine but received a kinde of rebuke Let it suffice speake no more to me of this matter Deut. 3. 28. He cannot lie much lesse forsweare himselfe he hath seldome sworne but ever made it good Seeing then God revealed to his Prophet that
judgement afarre off and like faithfull watchmen from the wall give warning to the City as soone as ever they descry the Lord comming against his people Secondly they must labour by their Ministery to bring the people to repentance that so Gods wrath may be pacified and judgements prevented and to that end they must faithfully reprove them for their sinnes and let them see the hainousnesse of their transgressions and call earnestly upon them for repentance Thus did Noah before the floud Lot before the burning of Sodom the Prophets Isay Ieremy Ezechiel Ioel before the Captivities Rent your hearts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God thus did Christ and Iohn Baptist before the finall destruction of the Iewes Repent repent Except yee repent yee shall all perish Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree and O generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life yea thus have all Gods servants done that desire to be free from the bloud of all men for if they give not warning the bloud is required at their hands and therefore it behoveth them to bestirre themselves that if it be possible they may save Gods people from the wrath to come or at least deliver their own soules and be found a sweet savour unto God even in them that perish Thirdly it is the faithfull Ministers duty to be very tenderly affected towards all such as mourne in Sion and with David are afraid of Gods judgements they must be sure to speake a word in due season to such as are weary God gave the Prophet Isay a charge to speake comfortably to the heart of Ierusalem And hence it is that the Prophets Christ Iohn Baptist and the Apostles did ever interlace reproofes and threatnings with heavenly comforts to prepare them for times of triall and tentations that howsoever they lived amongst the wicked and some great judgement and generall might come yet come what will it should goe well with them yea let vs Ministers be assured the Lord will require as strict an account of us how we have cheared and comforted the godly as that we have reproved and threatned the wicked And I say upon this occasion in the word of the Lord Be of good comfort all godly Magistrates and Governors if your hearts be set aright to advance Gods Religion and holy Gospell of Christ and to suppresse and beat downe Atheisme Poperie and all wickednesse whereby Gods anger is kindled and heavie judgements procured Be of good comfort yee Ministers of Christ that watch and warne Gods people having continuall sorrow and heavinesse to see their sinnes and being farre off from serving the time and flattering them saying Peace peace when there is no peace but faithfully reproving them for all their sinnes and earnestly calling on them for repentance And be of good comfort all yee people whose hearts are broken with godly sorrow to see the sinnes of the Land and you that strive to keepe your selves unspotted of the world and to walke worthy the Gospell and such great mercies as God vouchsafeth and humble your soules before God privately in fasting and praiers and so farre as you can and is lawfull labour to draw on others in the like practise of piety know that you are sealed and maintained of God assure your selves the eie and hand of God are on you for good his compassions shall not faile the hils shall sooner remove out of their places than his mercy can be removed from you his covenant with day and night shall sooner be broken than with you you are written upon the palmes of his hands and are ever in his sight and either God will be pacified and spare for your sakes or as he knoweth best will provide for you either take you to himselfe that you shall not see the evill to come or whatsoever evill come his good Angels shall guard you his spirit support you his grace be sufficient for you he shall enrich you with peace patience and joy and in good time make an end of all misery and set the crowne of immortall glory on your head The second duty particular is for the chiefe Magistrate to command such as are subordinate and inferiour to see execution these are to testifie how greatly they are affected with tokens of Gods wrath and appearance of judgements by labouring to reforme sinne and enjoyning fasting and humiliation for pacifying of Gods anger and preventing of judgements Thus did Moses Ioshuah David Iehoshaphat Nehemiah Hesty King of Ninivie It would aske too long a time to shew you how wonderfully God hath beene appeased and how strangely judgements have beene prevented by this most godly and Christian exercise the Scriptures are plentifull in this point Yea it is registred that even Ahab only thereunto moved with a base feare of judgement threatned and but fasting and wearing sackcloth in hypocrisie God deferred the judgement untill his sonnes daies Oh what a blessing did this Land receive hereupon in Ann. 1588. I am perswaded never any did humble themselves before the Lord in true fasting and praier but found a blessing from heaven thereon Oh that I could but perswade you to make triall hereof and to prove the Lord herein I assure my selfe God is the same loving God as ready now as ever most graciously to answer the soule that setteth it selfe aright to seeke God by such waies and meanes as he hath prescribed Now let us come and make application of these things to ourselves That God hath many waies testified his anger and displeasure and not only threatned but also in some measure executed his judgements who so blinde as seeth not But how are men and women affected herewith Doe we in the conscience of our sinnes judge our selves unworthy of any common blessing peace food sleepe apparell and most worthy of all those heavie judgements which either he hath threatned or executed on any others Are we afraid of Gods judgements and specially of those that are spirituall I say againe of those that are spirituall and most dreadfull Doe we grieve exceedingly and mourne in our soules that we have so justly offended God and purchased his anger and displeasure and to have the very floudgates and all the sluces of his judgements drawne up to our utter overthrow and destruction Doe we bend our selves with all our strength to pacific God and prevent his judgements And to that end doe we with full purpose of heart resolve to forsake our owne knowne sins and to put in practise all holy purposes and vowes to reforme presently whatsoever we know to be amisse in us and to shew forth more true zeale of Gods glory and the power of godlinesse in our lives than we have done
it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy The Land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That such may be the sinnes of Gods deare Church and people in generall and of his faithfull servants in particular that he will bring some temporall judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most
generall or of his owne deare servants in particular that God will not heare themselves nor others for them but will bring such a temporall punishment as he hath purposed upon them But now me thinketh I heare some say Oh this is an heavie and comfortlesse doctrine indeed and seemeth to checke all devotion and humiliation for will not men hearing this doctrine delivered say If the case be so that for sinnes yea even small sinnes as the sinnes of Moses and David in speaking unadvisedly and numbring the people seeme to be God will be so farre provoked as no praying fasting crying teares of their owne or others for them can prevaile but God will bring a temporall punishment to what end then should we weepe and mourne fast and pray and afflict our soules Let us eat and drinke and be merry as we may we must beare that punishment which God hath purposed to lay upon us let us therefore never make two evils of one but take that which God hath appointed and there an end Gods will be done Oh God forbid that any should hearken and give way to such subtill and malicious suggestions of Satan so seeking to pervert and abuse even the best things Marke therefore and from Gods booke thou shalt learne that the doctrine doth not abrogate but establish the meanes of pacification Dost thou dwell in a nation Countrey or Citie and dost thou feare the sinnes of the people are such as God will bring some judgement upon them Now marke what God requireth of thee even to seeke the Lord to turne to God by fasting weeping and mourning to stand for the land and if the Lord will not heare thee for them yet thou shalt save thine owne soule The Lord is not more marvellous in any thing than in preserving his in some generall judgement and calamitie that have mourned and wept and sought his face as wee see in the deliverance of Noah Lot Iosiah and the marking of those in the forehead that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem Thou dost not know what good thou maist doe to others even to the whole Church of God wherein thou livest but thou shalt be sure to doe thy selfe good Or dost thou feare that thine owne sinnes are such as God will bring a judgement yet humble thy soule and if thou canst not by repentance fasting and praier alter the decree yet thou maist alter the manner of execution Let Moses repent that he did not sanctifie God and let him begge leave to enter and if that will not be granted yet see with what favour the sentence shall be executed he shall have leave to goe up to the top of Pisgah and see it and if he goe not into the land flowing with milke and honey he shall be translated into heaven which is best of all Let David fast and pray and if the childe die God will give him a Solomon in stead of it Let the people repent and if God will not heare them nor any other for them but they must into captivitie yet God will make even those that lead them away captive to pitie them Oh religion never lost it reward never did any serve God for nought Wherefore Gods will be done but lèt us doe our duties it shall one way or other be requited us and if God heare us not according to our desire he will heare us to our profit Now let us proceed to consider the reasons wherefore the Lord sometimes will not be intreated but will bring some temporall judgement upon his Church and people and they are principally these First to declare the justice of God for if God did threaten and at every intreatie should forbeare to execute this were great mercy but where were justice Wherefore God sometimes will not pardon in regard of temporall punishment no not his deare servants upon repentance and intreatie that thereby he might proclaime to all the world the severitie of his justice and thereby men be warned to take heed of sinne it being a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God And verily if we had grace the remembrance hereof would be a notable bridle to restraine us from sinne if when Satan tempteth us and wee are in danger of falling wee would say as Ioseph did to his impudent mistresse How shall I commit this great sinne against God It may be this sinne will adde so much to the measure of my former sinnes that God will not be intreated to pardon it but bring some heavie temporall judgement upon me Would not God heare his Prophet Ieremie no nor Moses and Samuel Noah Iob and Daniel though praying for his owne people but cast them off a prey to the pestilence famine and sword Yea would not God heare his deare servants Moses and David praying for themselves but even for small sinnes in comparison brought heavie temporall calamities and chastisements upon them Oh what am I a worme of the earth that I should commit such and such sinnes and presume of impunitie O ye sonnes of men stand in awe and sinne not The second reason is for declaration of his truth for if God should threaten judgements by his servants and upon every humiliation and intreatie revoke the same his Prophets would be found liers and light fellowes and no credit given to their words This was it that displeased Ionah so exceedingly that having threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroied yet upon their repentance he also repented of the evill and did it not And indeed some of the wicked have in this respect bolstered up themselves in their sinnes against the Prophets of God saying Let us eat and drinke for to morrow wee shall die but the Prophets words are but winde tomorrow shall be as to day and much more abundant yea desperately call for the execution of their threatnings Let the Lord bring to passe and hasten his great worke that we may see it but the dayes are prolonged and every vision faileth Ezech. 12. 22. For this cause both to maintaine the credit of his Prophets and to make the wicked to tremble at his word howsoever sometimes upon repentance he altered the sentence yet sometimes he would not be intreated but executed judgements as he had threatned Which Iehu observed when having strucken Ioram dead the King of Israel and sonne of Ahab he said to Bidkar his Captaine Take and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth for remember how that when thou and I rode together after Ahab his father the Lord laid this burden upon him And againe being told that the dogs had eaten Iezabel he said This is the word of the Lord which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite saying In the portion of Iezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Iezabel Thus hath God made good his threatnings But me thinketh I heare some insult and
persecuting Citie which liveth so deliciously and saith I sit a Queene and shall see no sorrow Her purple flatterers vaunt that temporall felicite is a note of the Church and make a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholikes have had and as one saith scarcely ever received the foile in a just warre yet the holy truth assureth us the Beast and false Prophet shall be taken and all the sowles of Heaven filled with the flesh of those Kings Captaines and mightie men which have fought against the Gospell Yea Babylon as a mill-stone cast into the sea shall be throwne downe and found no more and she rewarded double according to her works at whose destruction all the Kings and Merchants of the earth who have lived deliciously and committed fornication with her shall bitterly lament and cry Alas alas that great Citie bow in one boure is she made desolate So Heaven Prophets Apostles and all the Martyrs Saints shal praise God with many a ioyfull Alleluiah Therefore stumble not at it that for the sins of his people hee giveth them into the hands of such as are more wicked than themselves for when his people are sufficiently scourged their enemies shall for ever be destroyed But some object againe wee have continued long in our sinnes and have felt none evill why should wee now be so earnestly called upon and urged to repent and threatned with judgement If wee repent not God is not so hastie I wis as our Preachers would make us beleeve I answer It is the continuance in sinne doth increase our danger as Iudah and Ierusalem were not carried into captivitie for the sinnes of a few yeeres but for their sinnes wherein they had long continued even ever since they were brought up out of Aegypt the men of the old world were spared long even an hundred and twentie yeeres yet continuing in sinne were in the end drowned Iudah and Ierusalem were spared long after their brethren were carried captive even 130. yeeres but continuing in sinne in the end they were carried into captivitie too The Lord is patient and slow to anger yet if there will bee no end of sinne there will be an end of mercie and God may repent so often that hee will repent no more and as our Prophet saith he can no longer beare and as he saith in another place God is wearie with repenting this wee have in the Scriptures illustrated by two familiar and elegant metaphors The first is of a large vessell which by drops asketh a long time of filling so God told Abraham the iniquitie of the Amorites was not yet full and our Saviour bade the Scribes and Pharisies of his age Fill ye up the measure of your fathers The second is of an harvest Corne when it is sowen is not by and by ripe The husband-man saith S. Iames hath great patience Why did not men cut downe their corne at Easter because it was not then ripe why are they now in many places so busie with sithes and sickles because the harvest is come and corne is ripe So God calleth to the executioners of judgements when wickednesse is great as unto his reapers Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe Oh then doe not say we have sinned often or long and what evill hath happened for a vessell at last may be filled with drops and corne may so long grow till fields be white to harvest and readie to be cut The last objection is Oh but England is a most happie and flourishing kingdome blessed with a most wise and prudent King a most hopefull issue wee have many learned and religious Preachers multitudes of godly and sincere professours Gods true religion established by Law and maintained by authoritie God hath heaped such temporall blessings upon us that it is another Canaan flowing with milke and hony God hath most wonderfully delivered it from matchlesse dangers and ruine intended it is a verie Sanctuarie of refuge for the Saints of God elsewhere persecuted Oh the consideration of these things makes many an one so secure that no warning fro heaven or earth word or works of mercie or justice will doe them good but they proceed from evill to worse as though no hurt could come unto them But give me leave as I doe most unfainedly acknowledge the great mercies of God so I would plucke away these pillowes from under their elbowes whereupon they sleepe in security I say then that the greater are the mercies of God unto any people the greater shall be their judgements if they abuse them The higher that Capernaum is exalted to heaven the lower shall it be cast downe into hell if it repent not And God threatneth Coniah As I live saith the Lord though Coniah the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I plucke thee thence and I will give thee into the hands of them that seeke thy life Was there ever any people in the world could compare with Iudah and Israel for privileges and prerogatives yet could they not secure them but their sinnes comming to height God forsooke the house whereon his Name was called yea and gave the dearely beloved of his soule into the hands of her enemies or as some Translations reade his beloved soule Oh if God did not spare such a people as he acknowledgeth to be the dearely beloved of his soule who had such a good and religious King when Ieremy beganne to prophesie viz. Iosiah who reformed Religion destroied the monuments of Idolatry and strictly compelled all to serve the Lord according to his word such excellent Prophets and some learned and worthy Teachers and some good people that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem yet when their sinnes came to be full he would not heare any for them but gave them over to a long and wofull captivity What have any people to presume on No no this Doctrine shall stand against all the subtill objections of Satan and of flesh and bloud against it That the sinnes of a people may come to that height that God will bring some temporall judgement upon them and not heare any that shall pray for them Now to come to ourselves that we may make good use of all that hath beene spoken and heard You hearken what I should say concerning our owne estate and that you shall doe first from the mouth of an enemy When Ieremie heard the false Prophet Hananiah prophesie much good to Iudah he answered feelingly Amen the Lord doe so Pererius the Iesuite writing on that you have heard in Genesis The sinne of the Amorites is not yet full saith If any doe marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of the Catholikes there he doth answer thē with the words of the Text Because their sinne is not full