into the hand of them that seeke their life and into the hand of the King of Babilons armie which are gone up from you Behold I will command saith the Lord and cause them to returne to this city and they shall fight against it and take it and burne it with fire and I will make the city of Iudah a desolation without an inhabitant Yet was not this sentence though thus uttered with indignation as yet altogether unchangeable much lesse was this peoples safety peremptorily decreed by God as their false Prophets misperswaded them This errour concerning the tenour of Gods decree or covenant being planted in them the Egiptians expedition against the Caldean armie for Ierusalems succour might with faire applause be pretended as a meane ordained by God for effecting their safety To quell this their vaine confidence in the strength of Egipt the Prophet reavoucheth his former message with some additions Ier. 37. 7. 8. 9. This saith the Lord God of Israel thus shall ye say to the King of Iudah that sent you unto me to enquire of me Behold Pharaohs army which is come forth to helpe you shall returne to Egipt into their own land and the Caldeans shall come againe and fight against the city and take it and burne it with fire thus saith the Lord deceive not your selves saying the Caldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart For though yee had smitten the whole armie of Caldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burne this city with fire Yet was not the event here foretold at this time altogether inevitable but inevitable only upon their refusall to obey the Prophets counsell for after this time the same Prophet shews King Zedechiah a way or meane ordained by God which if he had followed a great part of this calamity so peremptorily denounced might have beene avoided Ierem. 38. 17. Then said Ieremiah unto Zedechiah thus saith the Lord God of Israel if thou wilt assurely goe forth unto the King of Babilon then thy soule shall live and this city shall not be burnt with fire and thou shalt live and thine house But if thou wilt not goe forth to the King of Babilons Princes then shall this city be given into the hands of the Caldeans and they shall burne it with fire and thou shalt not escape out of their hands This was the last warning which he was to expect from God by his Prophet for his peace But not hearkning unto his voice whilst it was called to day but seeking to escape the Iudgements denounced by flight he inevitably brought them upon himselfe upon his Princes upon the temple in a greater measure especially as they concerned himselfe and his house then they had beene threatned When the Caldean Princes entred the city Zedechiah and the men of warre fled out of the city by night but the Caldeans hoste pursued after them and overtooke Zedechiah in the desert of Iericho and brought him to Nebuchadnezar King of Babell unto Riblah where he slew the sons of Zedechiah before his eies and all the nobles of Iudah a lamentable farewell to the sence of sight and liberty for immediatly after he put out Zedechiahs eyes and put him in chaines to cary him to Babilon v. 7. Thus have you heard how Ierusalē and Iudah came to a lamentable tragicall end by diseases in their nature not incurable but made such by their own wilfulnesse in not hearkning to the voice of Gods Prophets Did then the wisdōe of God who out of compassion sent his Prophets unto them whilst the first temple stood come in person himselfe to increase the misery of that generation with whom he converst here on earth or to destroy the second temple with a more fearefull destruction then had befallen the first That this generation became a prey in the issue to the Roman vultures was not from want of good will in him to gather them but from their unwillingnesse to be gathered under his wings witnesse himselfe Mat. 23. 37. Ierusalem Ierusalem c. But did he speake this as God or as man a captious question What if I should say that it was vox humana and yet vox Dei the voice of God uttered by man the very personall voice of the sonne of God as S. Luke testifies He spake as never man spake and was so affected towards Ierusalem as never man was affected The Prophet Ieremy after he had seene that tragedy really acted which he had represented in words did wish his head had beene a fountaine of teares that hee might weepe day and night for the slain of his people The wisdome and sonne of God became a more sorrowfull spectatour of a second tragedy of Ierusalem not as yet within forty yeares probability to be acted when he came neare saith S. Luke 19. 41. he beheld the city and wept for it saying Oh if thou had'st even knowne at the least in this day those things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes These his teares though he wept as man were a visible expression of his divine inexpressible love toward Ierusalem and her inhabitants after they had deserved this ill at his hands stifly bent to deserve much worse As yet it was called to day but this was a criticall day and full of danger howbeit Ierusalems sin was not sealed up untill the signe of the Prophet Ionas was expired After his Resurection from the dead Ierusalem had yet forty dayes for repentance as Nineveh had for so long our Saviour remained here on earth but Ierusalems Children not repenting within that time as Nineveh did their estate became as desperate as their murmuring fore-Fathers had been in the wildernes they were to wander forty yeares in the wildernesse before any of them could enter into the land of promise and as many as were aboue twenty yeares being cut off by oaths from all hopes or possibilities of entring in at all This generation whom our Saviour here forwarnes were to continue in it forty yeares which being expired they and their Children haue beene exterminated and banished from it for almost forty times forty yeares During the forty yeares wherein they were permitted to remaine in it their estate was no lesse miserable then their fore-Fathers had beene in the wildernesse There dyed in the wildernesse almost six hundred thousand men of this latter generation well nigh twice as many within the same compasse of time did die more miserably Ierusalem being first made their prison afterwards their grave first an heape of carkasses and then a heape of stones Now seeing as our Apostle saith these Iewes did not stumble to the end that they should fall but rather that by their fall salvation might come unto the Gentiles let us beseech our gratious God that from Ierusalems ruine we may in time and whilst it is called to day seeke
determine or farther enquire after in this place Therefore leaving these points with all submission to the learned professors or interpreters of lawes Ecclesiasticall or municipall the next enquiry must be of the manner how this prophecie of our Saviour and the signes of the time which he did prophetically interpret were accomplished Of the severall sorts of Divine forewarnings THe manner of Gods forewarning by matter of fact or other visible signes is so various that it cannot be comprehended by art or observation Sometimes hee forewarnes by signes in the Sunne and Moone sometimes by apparitions in the ayre sometimes by monstrous births sometimes hee makes the murren of cattel or mortality of beasts of the field or birds of the ayre to be forerunners of plagues or pestilence unto men Sometimes he forewarnes men as we say in kind and gives them a touch of publique ruine or desolation ensuing without repentance by the suddaine disasters of some few men or children in the same nation So Herodotus tels us that before the desolation of the people of Chios these strange signes did happen Sed videlicet quoties c. ut suprà Etenim Chiis ante hanc cladem ingentia signa contigerant Vnum quòd ex choro centum juvenum quos miserant Delphos duo omnino rediere nonaginta octo pestilentiâ absumptis Alterum quod sub idem tempus paulo ante navalem pugnam tectum suprapueros litteras discentes corruit ita ut ex centum viginti pueris unus omnino evaserit Haec eis signa Deus praemonstravit post haec excepit pugna navalis quae civitatem in genua deiecit Accessit ad cladem navalis pugnae Histiaeus cum Lesbiis qui Chios iam exhaustos facile ad excidium deduxit Herodotus lib. 6. The signes were two One that of a hundred young men whom they had sent to Delphos two onely returned the rest being consumed by pestilence another but a litle after the same time before the losse of their Navy and Mariners by sea the roofe of the Schoole-house did fall so suddainly that of an hundred and twenty children but one escaped with life And these signes as hee conceives God did give them of that great disaster which they had by sea which brought the city first upon her knees and after to that utter ruine and desolation which the Lesbians in their weakenesse did bring upon both city and people These forewarnings as before was intimated runne parallel with these two in my former text the fulfilling of which as also of the parable uttered by our Saviour in the words immediatly following come now to be discust LVK. 13. verses 6. 7. 8. 9. 6 He spake also this parable A certaine man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard and he came and sought fruit thereon and he found none 7 Then said hee unto the dresser of his vineyard behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none cut it downe why cumbreth it the ground 8 And he answering said unto him Lord let it alone this yeare also till I shall digge about it and dung it 9 And if it beare fruit well and if not then after that thou shalt cut it downe THese words are as an appendix of our Saviours precedent discourse concerning such signes of the time as did portend or foresignifie the utter ruine of the Iewish nation and of the visible Church planted in it How peremptory soever the forewarnings were how infallible soever he was in his predictions of their ruine yet both were subject to this exception or condition unlesse ye repent ye shall all likewise perish The use or importance of the parable was to admonish them that these forewarnings or signes of the time which God did give them whether by the expresse words of this great Prophet which was then amongst them or by strange matters of fact legible in the bookes of the visible creatures were not to continue in infinitum They had their period set before all times from eternity And however it is elsewhere said That at what time soever a sinner doth repent him from the bottome of his heart I will put all his wickednesse out of my remembrance Yet is it no where said that sinners may repent them at what time they will or find the just fruits of such repentance as they performe But as there is an indefinite or long time within which it is possible for sinners to repent and a promise universall that at what time soever within this limited time sinners doe repent their prayers supplications shall be heard So there is a peremptory day set to all nations respectively after which there is no accesse by true repentance no entrance by such repentance as they tender unto temporall safety Today saith the Psalmist If you will heare his voice harden not your hearts as in the day of temptation in the wildernes when your fathers tempted me proved and saw my workes forty yeares Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said they doe alwaies erre in their hearts and have not knowne my waies So I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Heb. 3. v. 7. 8. 9. 10. Psal. 95. 7. The meaning of the Psalmist in that place is more fully and plainly expressed by our Saviour verses 24. and 25. of this Chapter in his answere to that question Lord are there few that shall bee saved And hee said unto them strive to enter in at the straite gate for many I say unto you will seeke to enter in and shall not bee able But to what end should they strive to enter in at that gate at which they are not able to enter Shall wee say that albeit they that strive to enter be not able of themselves yet it is possible for them to enter in by Gods assistance Or that albeit they are not able to doe any thing possible that may merit their entrance yet they may doe somewhat which being done God will make the entrance possible to them and enable them to enter in This answere in some other cases is most true yet not in this it can no way satisfy the question proposed unto our Saviour it is no way pertinent to the meaning of his parable concerning entring in at the straight gate or this parable of the unfruifull figtree It is at some times at many times possible for all that heare the word to become obedient to the word heard and by this obedience to enter in at the straite gate But it is not possible for any to enter in at it after they have sometimes contemptuously or often times carelessely omitted the opportunity which God had offred them for their easy entrance into it or passage through it The gate is not so straite but that all men which have heard of it may enter in at it whilst it is open so they seeke to enter in at it in order not tumultuously But after this gate is
a visible model or character of his owne forme◠dealing with this stubborne people When wee read the sacred story 2. Chron. 26. or the lamentations of Ieremy concerning the miserable massacre of both Priests and people of young and old and the utter destruction of both city and temple by Nebuchadnezzar we cannot much wonder at such cruelty as was then practised by a barbarous and cruell tyrant alwaies willing to doe his worst against all that did oppose him But that these historicall expressions of Ierusalem's misery under Nebuchadnezzar a patterne of tyrants should become true prophecies that the miseries of this people at that time should be but as prodigious signes or portendment of farre greater miseries under the Roman Titus the flower of curtesy and mirrour of affability amongst Princes this points at somewhat extraordinary at somewhat worthy of admiration This visible type or shadow hath a body answerable unto it Titus is the type or shadow than whom no man that day living could have beene more unwilling either to practice cruelty upon any private man or to bring ruine upon any city or Nation And yet the Iewish Nation and Ierusalem the Queene of cities did suffer farre greater misery under him than any city or Nation of the world besides did ever suffer under the most bloudy tyrant into whose hands the Lord had given them But how unwilling soever he was to practice cruelty or suffer it to be practised by others under him yet he was bound to practice the discipline of warre not to staine either his owne worth or the majesty of the Roman empire by prostituting his native clemency unto desperate stubborne rebels That of the Prophet Hosea was never more truely verified never more exactly fulfilled in any generation of this people than it was in this last Perditio tua ex te ô Israel salus ex me That this city and Temple was spared so long that this people had so large a time for repentance this was altogether from God who willeth not the death of him that dyes and to testify this amor benevolentiae this good will of his unto them as they were men even unto the last end and after they had broken off amorem amicitiae the love of friendship he sends for a generall against them not a Vitellius but a Titus a man quoad haec or in this particular after his owne heart a man as it were composed of princely valour and clemency That in the issue the city the Temple and people perished after such a tragicall and unparallel'd a manner as they did this was their owne doing their owne seeking They themselves did give fire first unto the Temple and afterwards by their desperate stubbornesse provoked the Roman souldiers to accomplish the combustion so contrary unto Titus his will and command that nothing besides necessity would have excused them but thus they and their forefathers provoked God himselfe to punish and plague them so often as they were plagued hee being alwaies of his owne nature and goodnesse more compassionate towards them than any father can be towards his sonne than any mother towards the fruits of her wombe To conclude this point the blood of these few Galileans which Pilate mingled with the blood of their sacrifices and that disaster which befell those eighteene by the fall of the Tower in Siloe being compared with the nationall disaster of Ierusalem Galilee beare but the same proportion which the cloud that Elias servants saw arising out of the sea like a mans hand did unto that great inundation which immediatly followed upon it Now as none but a Prophet could have prognosticated such abundance of moisture from so litle an appearance so none but the Prince of Prophets could have discovered that unparallel'd destruction of Galilee Iudea and the Iewish Nation from such pettie and private disasters as these two mentioned in my text forty yeares before their accomplishment THE MORALL PART OF THIS TREATISE THE most vsefull consideration which these words discussed compared with the former chapter afford us are for the generall two First they teach us to beware of rash iudgment or censuring others as extraordinary sinners or more grieuous sinners then our selues though Gods visible iudgments vpon them which are alwayes most just be extraordinary Secondly they instruct us to lay Gods extraordinary judgements upon others or other unusuall signes of the times unto our own hearts For these are the usuall meanes whereby the spirit of God doth worke sinners to true repentance Wherein true repentance which is the duties whereunto our Saviour by these signes exhorts the people doth consist is the subject of other meditations consonant to these present To the first point that rash judgment or vnadvised censuring of others is a foule fault even in best men all men good and bad doe agree But not to censure or esteeme of others on whom God hath shewed notorious judgments as more notorious sinners then those which escape his judgments this may seeme for diverse reasons questionable First as all sober-minded men agree it cannot stand with the goodnesse of God to plague or punish any but for some sinne or other And if thus to deale with men be a branch of his goodnes it must be a branch of his justice to recompence extraordinary and grievous sinners with extraordinary and grievous punishments What fault is it then to judge of the cause by the effect why may we not censure them for notorious sinners or more grievous sinners than our selves whom the righteous Lord hath remarkably judged or grievously punished If to reward every man according to all his waies bee the irresistible rule of eternall and unchangeable justice what reason have wee to deny all those to bee most grievous sinners which he that cannot erre in judgment hath punished most severely Every part of these Quere's would sway much with any reasonable Christian if there were no punishment reserved by Gods eternall justice for the life to come All of them would bee unanswerable if the truth of that maxime or generall rule God rewards every man according to all his wayes or workes did determine or expire with our last mortall breaths But seeing we all expect or at least professe our expectation that Christ Iesus shall come to judge as well all those which are dead as those which he shal finde alive at his second comming we cannot by rule of faith or reason expect that every man should be rewarded according to all his waies before that last and finall judgment Wee may not presume that any man the least sinner that dyes in his sinnes should be punished according to all his deserts before that last and generall assize After that day or after the eternall and most righteous judge hath given finall sentence wee may safely say and pronounce that this man hath beene a more grievous sinner than that than we our selves were because we see him more grievously punished or sentenced to a more
joynt or member of the body wherein the Gangrene or other deadly spreading sore hath got possession or roote From this internall imbred corruption he proceeds unto more publique and grievous wounds or diseases usually made by causes externall as when Israel shal be overthrowne before their enemies v. 25. When the heavens shall be shut up and the earth be without raine v. 26. When there shal be Famine Pestilence mildew Grashoppers or Caterpillers When the enemy shall besiege thee in the Cities When they shal be afflicted by any Plague or sicknesse v. 28. The soveraigne remedy for all and every one of these and the like is the very same and it is this v. 20. 21. Then heare thou from heaven from thy dwelling place their prayer and their supplications and maintaine their cause and forgive thy people which haue sinned against thee v. 29. But what if this people should be led captive into a foraigne land not permitted to repaire unto this house where the Lord had placed his name This Solomon foresaw as a matter not impossible how ample soever his promises unto his father David and his seed might in ordinary construction seeme to be is there any possible salve for this possible fore or can this house which he had consecrated to be an house of prayer afford them in this case any remedy when they could not come to pray in it yes the remedy is prescrib'd v. 38. 39. If they returne to thee with all their heart and with all their soule in the land of their captivity whither they haue caryed them captives and pray toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers and towards the city which thou hast chosen and towards the house which I have built for thy name Then heare thou from heaven c. Soe then both Prince and people were to pray in this house whilst they possest this land and city wherein it stood to pray towards it when they soiourned in forraigne Coasts or were detained in the land of their captivity to pray towards the place wherein it had stood in case it should be demolished So did Daniel after this house which Solomon built was burnt to the ground 3 The prerogatives which he petitions might be bestowed upon this house of prayer were you see exceeding great Was it then any part of his intention in the suite or of Gods purpose in the grant to have this house endowed with such ample priviledges for the use or benefit of Israel only or of Abrahams seede according to the flesh surely Solomon did conceive his prayers out of a perfect and speciall faith yet the specialty of his faith in Gods promises made unto Israell or to Abrahams seede did no way extinguish his charity or abate his good affectiō towards others for he expressely consecrates his house to be an house of prayer for the use benefit of all the nations under heaven though in the first place for Israel Moreover as touching the stranger which is not of thy people Israel but is come from a farre country for thy great names sake and thy mighty hand and thy streched out arme if they come and pray in this house then heare thou from heaven even from thy dwelling place and doe according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for that all people of the earth may know thy name and feare thee as doth thy people Israell and may know that this house which I haue built is called by thy name 32. 33. He knew the gracious goodnesse of his God to be in it selfe so great so truly infinite that it could not be a whit lessoned towards Israell how farre soever it were extended towards others as it is extended to all men without exception insensu divise though not in sensu composito it is thus far extended unto all to the end that they might come to the knowledge of the truth but not extended not communicated to such as love darknesse better then light and falshood then truth It was then well with Israell when their charity towards others was like their heavenly fathers love without factious partiality or respect of persons It was their seeking to ingrosse Gods promised blessings unto mankind which twice brought that greivous curse upon them under which at this day they sigh and groane Now if all the nations on earth had this interest in Solomons Temple shall we deny any one of what Nation soever the like interest in Abrahams seed concerning whom the Lord had sworne that in him should all the nations of the earth be blessed Thus much of the generall scope or view of this Chap to retire my selfe unto my text which is as the center or fittest Angle for taking the exact survey of this long and fruitfull field 4 To give you then a briefe comprehension of the principallest and most fundamentall truths either directly incident into or naturall emergent out of it First it is taken as granted by Solomon and it is to us a point of faith that as well the Calamities as the Prosperities of states and kingdomes are from the Lord It is he that giveth life as well to bodyes politique as to naturall It is he that woundeth and it is he that maketh whole Secondly no Calamity or wounds of state are in their nature incurable if this remedy be sought in time they grow incurable only by neglect of the medicines in Gods word prescribed Thirdly the only Soveraigne remedy for restoring states and kingdomes diseased and wounded by the hand of God unto their perfect health is prayer and Supplications to the King of Kings The last must be the conditions of the prayers or qualification of the Supplicants by whom such prayers as may prevaile with God must be made Vpon this point Solomon often toucheth in severall passages of this Chapter Such of the heathens as were alwayes ready to sacrifice unto their owne right armes for victory inbattle and unto their owne wit in policy for the sweet fruits of peace did often observe certaine surplusses of successe good or bad which they could not account to be the naturall issue either of their industry or contrivance and whatsoever fell without the mould of their hopes or feares was attributed to fates if it were disastrous to fortune or chance if it were good now whatsoever the heathens did ascribe to fortune to chance or fate or to any other supposed guide of nature or intermedling power in humane affaires all these the wise king ascribes wholy unto his God he is the God of peace and yet the God that maketh warre the Lord of hostes the God of plenty and yet the God that sendeth scarcity The God of our health and life and yet it is he which punisheth with plague and sicknesses Nor are we bound only to derive all extraordinary successe which the heathen gave to fortune and fate but ever even the usuall successe of ordinary endeavours be it good or bad from his providence That the
it as was the worke of mans hands did stand for forty yeares after yet it stood but as a Carkasse the soule and spirit of it was translated unto the Temple of his body For as he said Veios habitante Camillo Illic Romafuit Rome was at Veii whilst Camillus in whom the life and spirit of the Ancient Romans did then wholly reside had his residence in that towne Or as we say the Kings royall presence makes the Court So was it alwayes the immediate or peculiar presence of God by way of inhabitation which made that goodly edifice which Solomon now erected to be the Temple or Sanctuary the house of prayer Now from the time of our Saviours death God withdrew his extraordinary presence from the Temple made with hands all the priviledges wherewith it was endowed and the secret influence of his grace are now wholy treasured up in the sunne of righteousnesse or in the body of Christ in whom as the Apostle speakes the God-head dwelleth bodily God is not so present in any other body or place as he was in the Temple of Ierusalem not present any where by way of inhabitation save only in the body of Christ and in the members of it that is his Church But in as much as God is by such speciall manner present in Christs manhood our accesse unto him in all our troubles and distresse is more immediate than Solomon or his people had any They were to pray in the materiall Temple or towards it their prayers had no other accesse to heaven than as it were by way of Echo from the earthly Temple and though by this way they found a true accesse unto heaven yet had they not altogether the same acceptance there as ours now have or might have Solomon indeed beseeched God here in my text that his eyes might be open and his eares attent unto the prayers which were made in this place to wit in the house which hee had built But this hee spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of men For God had not then the eyes of men to looke upon men nor the eares of man as now he hath to entertaine the prayers of men This is one speciall comfort that the Sonne of God that very Lord unto whom Solomon directs his prayer is become our high Priest not such an high Priest as cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sinne He hath his Temple or Sanctuary at the right hand of his Father Act. 3. 26. where he sits to pray for us as Solomon did for his people in his name Yea but he is placed there as the Apostle speaks to blesse us with all spirituall blessings and what are these to blessings of states and kingdomes for which Solomon here prayes Much every way or rather all in all For if blessings spirituall include godlinesse in them they have blessings temporall annexed unto them as appurtenances Godlinesse saith the Apostle is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1. Tim. 4. 8. THREE SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE KING Vpon Ier. 26. 19. By THOMAS IACKSON Dr in Divinity and Chaplaine in ordinary to his MAIESTY OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD An. Dom. 1637. IEREMIAH 26. V. 19. Did he not feare the Lord and besought the Lord and the Lord repented him of the evill which hee had pronounced against them THe Text is part of an Apology for the Prophet Ieremiah against whom the Priests and Prophets and all the people had pronounced this peremptory sentence v. 28. Thou shalt surely dye why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord saying this house shall be like Shilo and this city shall bee desolate without an Inhabitant But this sentence you shall finde reversed or contradicted by the Princes and all the people v. 16. Then said the Princes and all the people unto the Priests and Prophets this man is not worthy to dye for he hath spoken unto us in the name of the Lord our God The scales of Iustice being thus farre turned the right way the Elders and Sages of the land sought to keepe them at the point whereto they were drawne more through vehemency of present motion then by permanent waight of reason by alleaging a former rule beyond exception All that the Priests and Prophets could pretend why Ierusalem having made her selfe equall to Shiloh in sinne might not bee made equall to her in punishment was this That albeit Shiloh had beene the place of Gods rest the Towne or City where the Arke of his Covenant did reside yet it never had the title or priviledge of the place which God had chosen to place his name in This was Ierusalem's prerogative amongst all the Cities of Israel But what prerogative soever Ierusalem did from this title enioy these had beene the same in the dayes of Hezekiah which now they were And if in the Iudgement of Hezekiah the state of Iudah it were lawfull for Micah to threaten that Sion should be plowed as a field that Ierusalem should become heapes the mountaine of the house like the high places of the forrest It could be no capital crime in Ieremiah to say that the Lord would make the Temple like Shiloh and Ierusalem a curse to all the Nations of the earth Now Hezekiah and the state of Iudah as these Elders alledge were so farre from putting Micah to death that Hezekiah for his part did feare the Lord and besought the Lord. And when it is said he feared the Lord it is included that he did not only patiently heare the Prophet but truely believe him For the feare of the Lord in this place is neither to be extended further nor contracted narrower than thus He feared least the Lord should put the Iudgments denounced by Micah in speedy execution and as is probable by Sennacherib King of Assyria By what meanes soever the likelyhood was that this Iudgement should be put in execution the only meanes which Hezekiah resolveth upon for avoiding or preventing it was hearty and unfained praiets Did he not feare the Lord and besought the Lord c. In this his resolution and successe these foure particulars present themselves to your considerations First his wisdome in making choice of prayer before and above all other meanes which the opportunity of those times might suggest Secondly what advantagious successe did accrue from feare unto the efficacy of his praiers or how feare of God's Iudgements doth prepare mens hearts to pray Thirdly of the iust occasion of his and his peoples feare or of others feare in like case Fourthly in what sense God is said to repent If I should say that Hezekiah in thus doing did shew himselfe a godly and religious King none would deny it but to say he was in this a wise and politick King this will not be granted For what policy was therein fearing
grand-child to this Manasses as good a King as could be wished for a man that needed no reformation a fit patterne for reforming others But this heavenly starre was placed in an earthly sphere hee had to deale with such a lewd court and naughty people as choaked the influence of his goodnesse And albeit his personall performances in his attempted reformation were no way inferior to Hezekiah's practice in this place yet neither his performances nor prayers found the like successe He could not plant the feare of the Lord either in his people or in his owne childrens hearts And if we sequester Iosiah his attempt of reformation from Hezekiah his time unto the destruction of the City and Temple there was sometimes on the Princes part sometimes on the peoples part usually on all parts Prince and people if not a continuall increase of sinne yet a continuance in usuall and wonted sinnes And where Gods Iudgements have once seized upon a land or people there is no removall of them without publique repentance no true repentance without prayer no prayers effectuall without feare of the Lord. Did hee not feare the Lord and befought the Lord c. His prayers were earnest and effectuall because his feare was hearty and unfained not affected But how feare should performe the office either of mother or mid-wife for the bringing forth of succesfull prayers is a Quaere not to be omitted and was the second generall proposed Pray we may but our prayers cannot bee successefull unlesse they be conceived in faith And faith as our Apostle tels us Heb. 11. 1. is the ground or substance of things hoped for And what affinity is there what agreement can there be between feare hope or confidence which is if not the nature yet the native issue of faith From these words of the Apostle faith is the ground of things hoped for haply it was that some late writers have put fiducia or confidence in the very definition of faith But wee are to consider that the former words of our Apostle containe rather a character then a iust description or definition of faith Otherwise his words following had beene superfluous faith is the evidence of things not seene And under this more generall character things feared may be as directly conteined as things hoped for But have we any Scripture to warrant us that faith in some cases may be as truely the ground of things feared as of things hoped for Yes By faith saith the Apotle Heb. 11. 7. Noah being warned of God of things not seene as yet mooved with feare prepared an Arke for the saving of his house Or if we consider faith not in it's universality as it equally respects the whole word of God but as it hath a peculiar reference unto his covenant with this people that wee know was not a covenant of life only but a covenant of life and death And all the writings of the Prophets which were to them and are to us the truest leaders and guides unto faith are as full of threatnings as of promises their sweetest hymnes are composed as well of iudgement as of mercy So that faith if it be not lame or defective hath two hands aswell a left hand to apprehend the truth of Gods iudgements threatned whilst we swarve from the waies of life as a right hand to lay hold on the truth of his promises whilst we are not conscious of such deviation Feare then which is no other then an expectation or apprehension of evill is the left hand of faith and hope which is the expectation or apprehension of good is the right And they who place the nature of faith in fiducia or cōfine it unto confidence do utterly maime it on the left side being maimed or dead on the left side it cannot be sound or lively on the right That which they terme fiducia or confidence in Gods promises if it be not supported with an implanted feare of his iudgements threatned is in true language but presumption It cannot bring forth the prayers of faith For prayers made in faith presuppose and include a sincere renouncing or relinquishing of those desires or practises which by nature or course of Gods Iustice are either incompatible with the blessings which we pray or hope for or are the causes of the evils threatned or inflicted He that will offer the sacrifice of prayer unto God for his health must abandon all excesse and riot otherwise he doth but mocke God And he that supplicates for the forgivenes of his sinnes must be prepared in heart to forgive such as have sinned or trespassed against him 'T is our Saviours owne comment upon the prayer which hee hath taught us And hence the heathen Cynick did justly deride such supplicants and sacrificers as continued in riot whilst they tendered their prayers and sacrifices to intreat Gods favour towards themselves for health Whilst we retaine malitious or revengefull purposes towards our neighbours it is to put in a caveat against our owne suits or petitions in the court of heaven Now unto this qualification or preparative unto prayer which consists in the abandoning of those practises or resolutions which stand as a barre or caveat against our petitions and supplications there is no meanes so effectuall no method so compendious as hearty and unfeined feare of Gods iudgements It is the very arme or hand of faith for remooving all such obstacles For feare as wee said before is the expectation of evill approaching And the apprehension of any remedilesse mischiefe of any greater inconvenience or inestimable evill will oversway the hope or expectation of any inferiour good be it matter of pleasure or commodity by which two matters onely we are withdrawne from goodnesse it selfe And if any man bee altogether wedded unto temporary delights or contentments it is for want of feare In the beginning of a storme the Merchant or passenger will be unwilling to cast any part especially of his most pretious commodities over board but in case stormes increase to his sight or observation if then the Pilot or Mariner can perswade him that the ship wherein he sailes unlesse it be speedily disburthened will shortly sinke the certaine feare of loosing all will moove him to part with one halfe or instant dread of loosing his owne life will make him willing if need so require to part with all The griping Vsurer will be ready to release the unconscionable interest covenanted for if the Lawyer in whom he trusts can perswade him that by rigorous exaction of the use he may come to loose the principall or to incurre a censure from which both use and principall will not free him The case of Iudah in this extremity was the very same if we compare the iudgements threatned by Micah with the nature and quality of the sinnes that had provoked them as you may finde in the Prophet Micah 3. 9. They build up Sion with blood and Ierusalem with iniquity The heads thereof judge for
reflattered by their flocks into an higher conceit of themselves then any Pope pretends unto For though the Roman consistory usurpe the Monopoly of the Holy Spirit and of his gifts yet neither doth the Pope take upon him to secure the Cardinals nor the Cardinals to secure him that whensoever either of them dye they shall infalliby be saved and bee as glorious Saints as Saint Peter to morrow if they chance to dye this day But why doth the Prophet Micah when he assignes the causes of Gods iudgements threatned mention only the sinnes of the rulers Magistrates and Clergy Was not the people at that time infected with the popular diseases of all times as with adultery murther luxury of all kinds and prophanenesse No doubt they were and doe not these sinnes deserve vengeance They doe Yet the iudgements due unto them are usually charged upon the transgressors themselves not upon the land or state wherein they live unlesse the principall transgressors escape unpunished by the connivence or corruption of rulers in this case the sinnes of private men become the sinnes of the land and solicite publique visitations So doth oppression specially when it is practised by men of authority upon the poore and helples men Of others wrongs or of wrong done unto others that which Eli said unto his Sonnes 1. Sam. 2. 25. is most ture If one man sinne against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sinne against the Lord who shall intreat for him Now when iudges and Magistrates suffer the poore and helplesse to suffer wrong they sinne against the Lord for though he be Lord of all and the avenger of all wrongs yet is he in speciall manner the protector of the fatherlesse widow and the helpelesse and what can be more iust then that they which oppresse their helplesse brethren should be opprest by foraine enemies And how ever men esteeme of us the Sonnes of Levi we are by Gods ordinance and appointment as fathers to our flocke committed to our charge and though wee haue not that coercive authority over them which Eli had over his sonnes yet we shall partake of his punishment if wee prove not more faithfull remembrancers of their negligences and transgressions then Eli was to the Sonnes of his body Finally as the other sinnes which Micah taxed were their sinnes which did commit them so their leaning upon the Lord in the consciousnesse of such sinnes were the sinnes of the Priests and Prophets which should have forewarned them of the wrath to come and have put them in mind of their strange neglect of warnings past That the neglect of Gods forewarnings or summons to repentance whether these be meere monitions or mixt with punishments is a fearefull Symptome of a dangerous disease and without repentance a presage of death is a point so common and knowne as it needs no proofe The divers kindes of such fore-warnings sometimes given by the hoste of reasonlesse creatures sometimes by the reasonable and the danger increasing by their neglect are pathetically recounted by the Prophet Amos. Chap. 4. with this item or caveat still repeated at the neglect of every message yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord And I also have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And also I have withholden the raine from you when there were yet three moneths to the harvest c. v. 6. 7. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees increased the palmer-worme devoured them yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt your yong men have I slaine with the sword and have taken away your horses and I have made the stioke of your camps to come up unto your nostrils yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. v. 10. The same burden is twice repeated in the verses following for not returning unto the Lord after two calamities inflicted upon them distinct from the former as well for time as quality The space or distance of time betweene the first and last of these fore-warnings was so long that many of them which had knowne the first or could take notice of it were dead before the last approached most of them whom the last message did specially concerne were unborne when the first warning was given And yet the neglect of it is laid to their charge of all these fore-warnings or chastisements beside the desolation of some cities there is scarce one which hath not beene paralleld by the like given to this kingdome long agoe 9 To begin with that which most resembles this fore-warning given by the Prophet Micah unto this people Sion for your sakes shall be plowed as a field This was to them a meere monition for God repented of the plague denounced against them such was the powder-plot unto us It was a gentle monition of a fearefull iudgement For however such as foretold it were lying Prophets Sonnes of Belial whom no sonne or child of God was bound to believe when they threatned iudgement yet the warning which God in mercy gave us by them was truly reall The sepulchers of our Kings were neerer the point to have been more pittifully plowed then Sennacherib intended to plow Sion or the city of David when in the daies of Hezekiah he did besiege it Gods mercy towards us was that time no lesse then at any time it had beene unto Sion our deliverance though not so miraculous was yet no lesse wonderfull for valuation then Ierusalems deliverance from Sennacheribs army shortly after this fore-warning by Micah But did either warning or deliverance take the same effect with us as the like had done with Hezekiah and his people Herein we truly imitate Hezekiah not so much in the use which he made of this forewarning as in his demeanour after his recovery from his sicknesse that we doe not render according to the reward bestow'd upon us An anniversary thanksgiving was upon our delivery by publique authority presently enjoyned and hath since by all sorts of men professing true religion to the eyes of men beene duely observed Vnto this day yong and old whilst they blesse God for his mercies accurse the malice of such as did project that fearefull plague against us and his curse be upon him that shall thinke either their practise or principles whence they inferred or sought to warrant it can bee detested too much Yet for all this we may detest their practise and religion yea we may magnifie Gods mercies towards us though never too much yet much amisse If our acknowledgement of his mercies had been or were yet sincere and intire our feare of his judgements ever since that time would hve held full equipoize with our hatred or detestation of our adversaries mischievous imaginations against
or wonted triumphes shee takes upon her the beggers garbe and becomes an humble suppliant for bread and for that not in iust competency but in such a measure as might asswage or prevent extremity of hunger of which shee had suffered so much as shee thought would have given full satisfaction either to her ancient and inveterate foes or to the most malignant of her moderne enemies enough as shee thought to have drawne sighes from the barbarous Getes or to have wrung teares from the mercilesse Swab or to have cast Parthia her selfe into a swoon so shee might have beene a spectatour of her ruefull and tragicall plight yet all this evill came upon her not by observation it was not preventible by any forecast or policy besides that which Ezekiah here uses this would have sufficed so it had beene practised in time But it is not the representation of that which hath befallen others long since or may hereafter befall our selves which will so much affect us as the recognition of that which we our selves have formerly suffered It will not then I hope be unseasonable to put you in minde how in these later times whilst neighbour nations addresse their Embassadors to to this court either to condole the death of our Soveraignes or to congratulate our ioy for the happy continuance of royall succession there still hath come one unwelcome or unexpected Embassador either with them or before them to this people And however he seeme to plead for the grave yet his message is from heaven and for our peace though he find audience for the most part with needy sicke or dying men yet his instructions are principally directed to the living and potent amongst us and the tenure of them is in effect thus thinke you that those whom the Lord hath wounded with his poisonous arrowes were greater sinners then your selves or that they have suffered more then they have deserved I tell you nay but except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish unlesse you prepare your hearts to meet the Lord while hee is on the way a greater plague then the plague of pestilence is comming against you Yet hath that plague beene twice in our memory more fearefull then in the daies of our forefathers To omit that great mortality which was almost universall throughout this land about twenty seaven yeares agoe The calamities which followed upon the 2d arrivall or returne of this Embassadour about 5 yeares agoe did leave a live print or character of that feare by which the Prophet Amos describes the day of the Lord. Amos. 5. v. 18. 19. The day of the Lord saith he is darknesse and not light as if a man did flye from a Lion and a Beare met him and went into the house and leane his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Many fled from the great city as a man would flye from a Lion and thought themselves safe if they could get into a ship for some other port but sped no better then if they had met with a Beare death being as ready as they were to imbarque it selfe as a passenger for every port authorized to execute his commission as well by sea as by land others comming to the shore were more harbourlesse in the wished for haven then if they had committed themselves to the mercilesse waves of the sea which way soever they tooke their case was like unto a stricken deare haeret lateri letalis arundo They could not shift aside from Gods arrow which still tooke up some vitall part for his marke Some after their arrivall in their native soyle wandred without companions to support them in their weaknesse and lastly dyed in the fresh and open aire without that comfort which the infected places from which they fled might have afforded them without consorts in their sighes and grones without such mutuall expressions of griefe as Sympathy of nature brings forth in the beastes of the field But amongst the wofull spectacles which the calamity of those times presented none me thinkes more apt to imprint the terrour of Gods iudgements deeper then to have seen men otherwise of undaunted spirits men whom no enemies lookes or braggs could afright afrayd to hold parley with their native countrey-men that came unto them with words of love and peace more agast to embrace their dearest friends or nearest kinsfolks then to graspe an adder or a snake The plague of pestilence is above all other diseases catching and such as have beene most observant of it's course tell us men of covetous mindes or unseasonably greedy of gaine are usually soonest caught by it though exposed to no greater or more apparent visible danger then others are The course which this messenger of death observes if these mens observation of it be true may leade our conjecture to one speciall cause why it was sent amongst us with such large commission surely if in the daies of health and peace it had not beene usuall for one neighbour to prey upon another and to verifie the saying homo homini lupus the neighbour-hood and presence of men of the same nation and profession would not have become more terrible unto others then if their habitations had beene amongst Wolves or Lions or other ravenous creatures But to what end soever this fearefull messenger was sent amongst us the tenor of his message either was not well understood or is not perfectly remembred And for this reason his commission hath beene renewed of late in the times of our hopes and joy for the continuance of royall succession in a straight line But Gods name be ever blessed who hath hitherto so tempered his judgements with mercy that we have more just cause of joy and thanksgiving for the birth of one then of sorrow for the death of many Yet let not this I beseech you abate our feare of future judgements or occasion us to thinke that the Lord either hath repented or will repent of the evill which hee hath so often threatned whereof he hath given this land and people so many warnings untill wee bring forth better fruites of our repentance then hitherto wee have done That thus we may doe let us pray continually to the Lord that hee would teach us to feare as Hezekias did that he would teach us to pray as Hezekias did As for him hee is the same Lord still the same loving Father to us that he was to Iudah and cannot forget to repent whensoever wee shall truly turne unto him Convert us O Lord we shall be converted IER 26. 19. And the Lord repented him of the evill which he had pronounced against them Thus might we procure great evill against our soules THIS is the resolution of a controversie debated from the beginning of this chapter vnto this place between the Priests the Prophets and the people and the Princes of the land whether the Prophet Ieremy were to be put to death for saying the Lord would make his temple like Shiloh and the
city of Ierusalem a curse to all the earth The Priests and Prophets contend that he was to be put to death and the people at the first concurre with them in this bloudy sentence but afterward comply with the Princes whose verdict was that he was not worthy to die because he had spoken to them in the name of the Lord their God And vpon this verdict the elders of the land giue judgment from a ruled case in the Prophet Micah who had spoken more terrible words against both citie and temple in more peremptory manner then Ieremy now had done and yet not therefore put to death but reverenced by Hezekiah as you haue it in the beginning of this 19. verse Did Hezekiah king of Iudah and all Iudah put Micah at all to death Did he not feare the Lord and besought the Lord Now if the solemne practise of so good a King as Hezekiah was could not moue them yet the happy successe of his practise should in reason allure them to deale more mildly with Ieremy then was intended by them For vpon Hezekia's prayers and repentance the Lord repented him of the euill which he had pronounced against Ierusalem and Sion and when they further adde thus might we procure great euill against our soules they imply thus much that if this present assembly doe not repent of their ill intentions against Ieremy the Lord would not repent of the euill which by his mouth he had pronounced against them The points which offer themselues to be discussed are but two The first in what sense God is said to repent The second in what case it is said that God will not repent or that he is not as man or the sonne of man that he should repent Deus tunc poenitere dicitur quando non facit aut quod minatur aut quod permittit God as some giue out who take vpon them to resolue this point is then said to repent when he doth not effect the evill which he threatneth or the good which he promiseth All this is true yet no true definition no iust expression of repentance either as it is applyable in Scripture to God or man Most true it is that whensoeuer God is said to repent it must be conceived that he did not effect either the euill which he threatned or the good which he promised But it is not reciprocally true that whensoeuer God doth not bring that euill of punishment to passe which he threatneth it is rightly said or conceiued that he did repent A loving father may sometimes threaten to chastise sometimes promise to reward the sonne whom he loveth best and yet not be truly thought to repent albeit he neither chastise nor reward him For hee may thus mingle threatnings with incouragements with purpose only to try his present disposition Thus we read that God who is a most loving father to mankind did command Abraham to sacrifice his only sonne Isaac whom he loved This was a threatning command at least in respect of Isaac Now albeit the Lord did withhold Abraham's hand from executing this command yet doe we not read nor is it to be conceived that God did repent of that which he gave Abraham in charge The reason is because he charged Abraham thus to doe not with purpose to have Isaac then presently sacrificed but only to try the sincerity and strength of Abrahams ' faith and obedience and by this triall to gaine his assent unto the offring up of the seed promised from the beginning of the world which was from this time irreversibly ordained to be the seed of Abraham For seeing God from the beginning had determined to give his only sonne for the redemption of man it was his good pleasure to confirme this promise by oath unto a man that was ready to offer up his only sonne in sacrifice unto God and Abraham from this very intended worke as S. Iames tels us was called the friend of God the promise made to our first parents was now accomplished by way of contract or covenant betwixt God and Abraham that the sonne of God and seed of Abraham should bee offred up in sacrifice for a blessing unto all the nations of the earth This being the end or purpose of God in commanding Abraham to sacrifice his only sonne Isaac in whom his seed was called there is no semblance of repentance in God although he did withhold Abraham's hand from doing that which he had commanded him to doe They therefore come neerer unto the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this particular expression who tell us that Deus tunc poenitere dicitur quando non facit quod facturus erat God is then said to repent when he doth not that which he was about to doe or that which hee intended or purposed to have done For without a revocation or reversing of somewhat seriously purposed or intended there can be no true notion of repentance whether in God in man or Angels And this notion or expression of repentance as it is attributed unto God in scripture we have expressely delivered by the Prophet Ieremy Chap 18. from v. 7. to the 11. At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a Kingdome to plucke up and to pull downe and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them And at what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to build and to plant it if it doe evill in my sight that it obey not my voice then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them This generall to my observation was first drawne into a rule or doctrinall forme by the Prophet Ieremiah yet the truth of the former part of it was experienced long before in the men of Nineveh though contrary to the mind and expectation of the Prophet Ionas not out of a nescience of this rule or Gods usuall dealing with men but out of a particular dislike or discontent that the sentence which God had commanded him to pronounce should not be put in execution The sentence was yet 40 dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed Ionas 3. v. 4. This solemne proclamation the Lord did dictate unto him as it is v. 2. Did the Lord thus speake to try the Ninevites disposition only had he no intention or thought as the Prophet Ieremy speakes to overthrow or destroy the citie Certainly the Ninevites did thinke he had and yet this their thought or opinion is commended unto us by the Holy Ghost under the stile or title of beliefe for so it is said v. 5. The people of Nineveh believed God Wherein did they believe in him or what did they believe of him Surely they believed in the first place that hee meant as he spake that he had a purpose or intention to destroy them They knew their sinnes had deserved no lesse and they believed that God
call portenta or prodigia that is in sacred language peculiar signes of the time or forewarnings of greater calamities to follow we gather from the first words of the Chap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were some present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in illo ipso articulo temporis in that very season or nick of time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilat had mingled with their sacrifices What season was that That point of time wherein he said vnto the people 12. Chap. 4. v. When yee see a cloud rise out of the West streightway yee say there commeth a showre and so it is And when yee see the South wind blow yee say there will be heat and it commeth to passe Yee Hypocrites yee can discerne the face of the skie and of the earth but how is it that yee doe not discerne this time Yea and why euen of your selues iudge yee not what is right And when the Pharises with the Sadduces came tempting and desiring him that he would shew them a signe from heauen as it is Math. 16. v. 1. 2. c. He answered and said vnto them when it is euening yee say it will be faire weather for the skie is red And in the morning it will be foule-weather to day for the skie is red and lowring O yee Hypocrites yee can discerne the face of the skie but can yee not discerne the signes of the times And albeit his recited speeches Luk. 12. v. 54. were directed vnto the people or promiscuous multitude then present yet in that multitude there were no question some Scribes which had the prerogatiue and portion of the first borne in the title of Hypocrites Now our Sauiour's discourse immediately before my text being of the signes of the time and a taxe of his Auditors dulnesse in not discerning them This unexpected intersertion of those Galileans whose bloud Pilat had mingled with their sacrifices whatsoever the newes-mongers intended was indeed no interruption but rather an illustration of his doctrine It comes in ' its right cue and the relators of this sad accident serve his turne as fitly as the Chirurgion doth the Physitian by making a visible dissection of that part on which the other makes an Anatomy lecture The implication or importance of the newes thus suted by divine providence unto the point then handled by our Saviour is in effect as much as if hee himselfe had said unto his Auditors If you want other signes of the time to meditate upon take these two for your theame the unusuall masacre of these Galileans and the disaster of those eighteene inhabitants of Ierusalem upon whom the tower in Siloe fell and slew them These are the first drops of Gods displeasure against the Nation but these drops without repentance will grow into a current and the current into a river and the river swell into a flood and the flood into an ocean of publique woe and tragique miseries The Prophet Ieremie long before had taxed their forefathers as more dull and stupid then the reasonlesse Creatures as the birds of the ayre for not discerning or not observing those signes of the time which did foreshew Gods judgments vpon them with the causes which did provoke them Ier. 8. 6. 7. I hearkned and heard but they speake not aright no man repented him of his wickednesse saying what haue I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel yea the Storke in the heauen knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow obserue the time of their comming but my people know not the Iudgment of the Lord. This stupidity or senslesnesse in man whether Iew or Gentile whether Christian or Heathen in thus slighting or neglecting the signes of the time that is such portendments or prognostiques of Gods judgments or calamities as the very booke of nature or of the visible creatures affords argues the nature at least the disposition of men in whom this stupiditie is found to be farther out of frame then the nature of the birds of the ayre or beasts of the feild For they commonly fore-see vnseaonable weather or storme comming and seeke in time for some refuge or shelter but so doe not men for the most part returne to God who is their only refuge vnder the shadow of whose wings there is only hope of safety albeit he daily giues them more pregnant prognosticks of wrath ensuing then the disposition of the ayre doth vnto birds or foules From these circumstances of the season wherein these newes were brought unto our Sauiour the ensuing discourse must take its rise by these degrees first of the peculiar signes of times portending unusuall calamities and of their generall use Secondly of the manner how this prophesy was fulfilled upon the whole Iewish Nation according to the scale or model of these two signes upon these few Galileans and inhabitants of Ierusalem Thirdly of the morall use or application of both these signes and predictions That the preserver of mankind doth alwayes in one kind or other gently yet seriously forwarn every city or nation of such extraordinary calamities as hang over their heads and without repentance inevitably fall upon them there can bee no better proofe than by induction that is by the generall agreement of Historians whether sacred Christian or heathen in all ages Of Historians whose workes are entirely extant or unsuspected to be the Authors whose names they beare Herodotus is the most ancient and he hath made up the induction to out hands untill his owne times Quoties ingentes sunt eventurae calamitates vel civitati vel nationi solent signis praenunciari Extraordinary calamities whether such as befall cities or peculiar Segniories are alwaies foreshewne by some signe or other This author lived before Alexander the great but after Cyrus had taken the city of Babilon and is quoted by Aristotle who was Alexanders instructor I referre his instances or ensamples confirming his former induction of generall observation to a fitter opportunity diverse of them being more paralleld to the signes of the times in my text then any I haue read in any heathen Author In the age next ensuing the Author of the second booke of Maccabees A man of authentique credit for matter of fact though not of Canonicall authority for his doctrine or judgement vpon matter of fact related by him hath recorded the like forewarnings though in another kind foresignifying the warres that befell the Iewish nation by Antiochus Chap. 5. 2. 3. To parallel these with the like in every age since that time would be lesse painefull to an ordinary Preacher then troublesome to his auditors Matchiavel a man as free from superstition or vaine credulity as any other writer that hath bin borne and bred amongst Christians out of his owne reading and experience hath made the same induction which Herodotus did but somewhat more full Vt causam facilè confitebor me ignorare it a rem
ipsam cum ex antiquis tum novis exemplis agnoscere oportet confiteri omnes magnos motus quicunque aut vrbi aut regioni evenerunt vel à coniectoribus vel à revelatione aliquâ prodigijs aut coelestibus signis praedici ac praenunciari solere Matchiav disput lib. 1. cap. 56. But besides the induction made by Herodotus whose works I doubt but know not whether Matchiavel had red many other instances he brings out of his owne observations and experience But some will aske what credit is to bee given to Matchiavel or men of his temper Litle or none I must confesse in point of censure or opinion concerning matter of religion or sacred use But as the testimony of the Iew in matter of fact is the most pregnant proofe that wee Christians can use against the Iewes themselves or for confirmation of our religion so Matchiavels testimony in matter of fact of this nature whereof we treat is most authentique against the Atheists or men of no religion For this great Politician was so farre from being too superstitious or credulous in this kinde that by his writings many have suspected him to have been rather irreligious more inclining to Atheisme then either to the Christian or Iewish nation And whatsoever in this kinde he hath observed as hee himselfe confesseth was in a manner evicted or extorted from him by the evidence of truth The true cause of such prodigious signes or forewarnings he professes he did not know and we have reason to believe him in this because he was ignorant of the right end or use of them But this saith he all we of Florence know that the comming of Charles the eigth French King with a puisant army was foretold long before by Ierome Savanorola and likewise foreshewed by many other signes rife in his times throughout the Dukedome of Tuscany Now this divination of Savanorola was not gathered from any politique observation for Charles his attempt was in all politique esteeme so incredible and rash that the grave Senators of Venice would give no credence unto the first newes of his entring into Italy untill one of their ancients better acquainted it seemes with that French Kings disposition then the rest told them that he could more easily believe this rash attempt of that French King then of any of his predecessors But besides the testimony of Matchiavel for this particular wee have the undoubted testimony of Philip de Comtnes that grave and religious Historian who was then agent for the French King in Italy and relates this prediction from Savanorola his owne mouth with more particulars then Matchiavel mentions for he expresly foretold him of that unexpected successe which Charles at his first comming did finde but this hee foretold with this proviso or caution that unlesse the King his master did faithfully execute the worke whereunto the Lord of Lords and King of Kings had designed him he would quickly call in his commission and bring the French armies backe againe into their owne land with disgrace and losse The event did prove both these parts of this prediction to be most true This great alteration of state and warres in Italy as Matchiavel confidently affirmes was likewise portended or foresignified by such apparitions in the ayre as the Authour of the second booke of Maccabees in his 5. chap. mentions that is by apparitions of great armies of men joyning battel over Aretium a Towne in Tuscany The words of the Authour of the second of Maccabees before cited are these And then it hapned that through all the city for the space almost of 40 daies there were seene horse-men running in the ayre in cloth of gold and armed with lances like a bande of souldiers and troopes of horse-men in array encountring and running one against another with shaking of shields and multitude of pikes and drawing of swordes and casting of darts and glitterings of golden ornaments and harnesse of all sorts wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turne to good He instances in another signe or prodigie well known to all in Florence which did portend or fore-signifie the death of Lorenzo de Medices who laid the first foundation of the present Dukedome of Tuscany in his family being a man who by his wisdome had preserved all Italy a long time in peace For a litle before his death the roofe of their chiefe Church or Temple tooke fire from heaven which much defaced it The banishment of Petrus Soderinus a great peere and pillar of the state of Florence in his time and the calamities which ensued thereupon were likewise fore-signified or portended by the burning of their Guild-hall or Senate-house by lightning or fire from heaven These examples he brings from his owne knowledge another he brings out of Livy of one Aeditius an honest countrey-man who was warned and commanded by a voice in the dead of night more cleare and shrill then the voice of man to tell their Magistrates that the Gaules their enemies were comming to be revenged upon the Romans So hee concludes his discourse as hee did begin it that whatsoever might be thought of such conjectures or forewarnings this is most certaine by experience that some great alterations alwaies follow upon such signes or forewarnings As for Herodotus I like his verdict in this kinde the better because hee refer'd this observation of prodigies or signes of the time unto the Egyptian nation which was the most ancient and most remarkeable Kingdome amongst the Heathens And what reason the Egyptians had to observe these prodigies and signes of the time more than others both Iewes and Christians canno but know or may remember seeing God had shewed such signes and wonders in the land of Egypt as had not beene shewne in any nation before such as can scarce be paralleld in any nation since besides in the destruction of Ierusalem untill the day of judgement or the signes which shall bee given before it come Vnto matters related by the Author of the second book of Maccabees if not for his own esteeme yet for S. Pauls or whoever were the Author of the epistle to the Hebrewes we owe such an historicall beliefe as may ground maters of sacred or canonicall use or application because that sacred Author hath given him credit or countenance in his relations of the persecutions of Gods people long before his owne time which are not registred by any ancient Author now extant besides this Author of the second booke of Maccabees 2. Maccab. 7. 7. Heb. 11. 35. They extend an undoubted truth too farre which make canonicall scriptures to bee the only rule of our beliefe as well for maters of fact as for matter of Doctrine or use For some maters of fact though not related in canonicall scriptures wee may and doe beliefe or know as certainly as those maters which are related by sacred historians Wee all of us as stedfastly believe and know that God hath often visited this land with the
sword and by the infection of dead corps which had no other grave besides the open streetes the Temple and their houses would be a labour infinite and superfluous for this place seeing they are so fully and so pathetically related by Iosephus whom God had appointed as the fittest man to keepe the register of them and you may at your best leasure without any fee peruse his records now more common in our English language then the records or Chronicles of our owne nation And so no doubt it was Gods will to have them that our Nation might take example or instructions by them whom they more concerne then they doe any Nation since they were first written by him My present aime or levell directs me only to observe the fulfilling of our Saviours words in my text and the accomplishment of those signes of the time which the owner of this vineyard did give unto this people after that the dresser of it that was our Saviour had given over his speciall protection of them and left them to the ordinary course of his fathers justice The blood of those Galileans whom Pilate slew did but make a mixture with the blood of the sacrifices which they offered and in this mixture we doe not read that the blood of these seditious men was praedominant or that it was a mixture of the blood of men and beasts ad pondus or in equall measure But after Ierusalem was besieged by the Roman army Iosephus who relates only the matter of fact without any reference to the prediction of our Saviour in this place doth tell us that the Altar did swimme with the blood of men the blood of Galileans as well as of the inhabitants of Ierusalem in greater abundance then at any time it had done with the blood of beasts The blood of beasts or of legall sacrifices whilst they were legally offered that is whilst the law was in force was an infallible signe unto this people that God would spare their persons and accept of their commutation that is of the blood of beasts in liew of the blood of men which hee might at all times have justly exacted But when the blood of men about the Altar or Courts of the Temple was shed in greater abundance and that by men of Iewish progeny then the blood of beasts had beene this was a signe and a fearefull one that the righteous Lord would no longer accept of legall sacrifices but did require the blood of those men who had abused the legall sacrifices not as a meanes to pacifie his wrath or to deferre their deserved punishment as the blood of beasts in former time had done but rather as an infallible signe that this was the time appointed for taking full vengeance of all the righteous blood which they or their forefathers had shed in this holy city Or to use our Saviours words Luk. 11. 50. 51. That the blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world might be required of this generation from the blood of Able unto the blood of Zacharias which perished betweene the Altar and the Temple verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation But had this people no other forewarnings to desist from this desperate warre after Ierusalem was besieged by Vespasian besides these prophetical forewarnings of our Saviour yes though the booke of the Law and Prophets were now sealed up that they could not read or understand the meaning of it though our Saviours forewarnings were quite forgotten or not observed by them yet the booke of the visible creatures was still legible they wanted not prodigies or other remarkable signes of the time which testified Gods speciall providence in directing all occurrences for the good of the Romans and for their destruction And these signes were observed even by the Heathens and others which had no true knowledge of Christ or of his prophecies A remarkable one was pressed upon them by Iosephus in his oration unto them The fountaines which before gave you no water yeild it to Titus in great abundance You know that before his comming the fountaines without the city and Siloe were so dried up that water was sold by measure yet now they flow so plentifully that they doe not only serve all the armies and their cattle also but besides that doe water all the gardens about lib. 6. c. 11. It is a short but a remarkable observation which the same Author there makes Vespasian saith he so gained by warring against us that hee hath hereby got the whole empire This was a pregnant signe of the time for indeed the manner how the Roman empire did within the space of sixteene moneths devolve from Nero upon Galba from Galba upon Otho from Otho upon Vitellius rather to crush them than to advance them and the manner againe how the same empire after this long tumble did quietly settle under Vespasian and his sonnes did abundantly testify even unto the naturall morall man that this resolution was wrought by the speciall hand of God Every sober or civill man which had any notion of the divine providence might have cleerly gathered that albeit Nero had appointed Vespasian generall against the Iewish Nation yet it was the Lord of Lords and King of Kings which had directed and appointed Nero thus to make this choice and did confirme it Hee againe in those times which had perused the prophecies might have collected that the same Lord of Lords which gave Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar for his diligent service against the proud city of Tyre had now reserved the Roman empire for Vespasian as his pay or stipend for the faithfull service which hee had done him in his wars against Galilee and Iudea The character which the Roman historians have put upon Galba was briefe but pithy dignus imperio nisi imperasset that hee was in all mens judgments worthy the empire if hee had not taken it upon him And Vespasian himselfe who afterwards enjoyed the empire did esteeme Galba worthy of it Now that Galba enjoyed it or his life after he was chosen emperour so short a while as he did that was not above seven moneths and seven dayes this wee may say was by the speciall appointment of the Lord to the end that Titus being farre on his way towards Rome to present his fathers service and his owne unto Galba might upon the unexpected newes of Galba's death turne backe againe into Iudea to manage the battailes of the Lord against Ierusalem and other cities of the province in his fathers absence who in the interim was chosen emperour And this warre Titus managed with as great valour and alacrity as could be expected of any Roman then living and yet with greater wisdome and clemency A man he was of such a temper and disposition that we may thinke he was either chosen or fitted by the maker of all men for this purpose specially that the obstinate Iewes and all the world besides might have
what shall bee the signes when these things shall bee fulfilled Marke 13. v. 34. All of his Disciples at least all of them which moved this question did agree in this prenotion that all these things should bee fulfilled at his comming and that at his comming to judgement the world should have an end Hence S. Mat. 24. 3. relates the question thus Tell us when shall these things bee and what shall bee the signe of thy comming and of the end of the world But this question though not so intended by them was fallacia ad plures interrogationes a question consisting of two parts one so different from the other that one and the same answer could not befit both and therefore hee makes answer distinguendo or respectively to both parts Concerning the signes of his first comming to declare himselfe to be the judge of the world or the signes precedent to the destruction of the Temple he gives them a plaine peremptory answer Mat. 24. from v. 4. to the 36. And so againe Mark 13. from v. the 5. to v. 32. And in this Chapter from v. 10. to v. 32. But concerning the other part of the question when the world should end or the signes that should preceede that he conceales or rather exhorts them not to enquire after it But of that day and houre that is the day of finall judgement or the end of the world knoweth no man no not the Angels of heaven but my father only Mat. 24. 36. And Mark 13. 32. But of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in heaven neither the Son but the Father That this answere concernes only the second part of the former question to wit the time wherein the world shall end is hence evident for that the Angels yea and such as understood the Prophets at least our Saviour Christ as man did know the time appointed for the destruction of the Temple and the desolation of the holy Citie and land for thus much was punctually and litterally foretold by Daniel Chap. 9. 24. Seaventy weekes are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sinnes and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse c. No question but Daniel himselfe and the Angel which instructed him did know the precise point of time when these seaventy weekes did commence although Chronologers at this day varie a little upon this point he that knew the time when they begun might easily collect at what time they were to end For these seaventy weekes or seaventy seavens of yeares make vp the iust summe of foure hundred and ninetie yeares and so long did Ierusalem continue after it was restored againe by Cyrus and his successors in the Persian Empire And albeit our Saviours Desciples did not at that time perhaps clearely vnderstand the Prophecie of Daniel yet they might cleerly forsee the time of Ierusalem's destruction by the signes which our Saviour gives them in this Chap. and in the 24. of S. Matthew The signes were specially three first earthquaks and strange commotion of warres in severall nations as specially betweene the Iewes and other Nations subject to the Roman empire Secondly the generall hatred wherewith all Nations did persecute Christ's Disciples which were then no Nation but the fewest of any sect or profession For unto the time betweene our Saviours death and the death of the Emperour Nero that saying of our Saviour yee shall bee hated of all men for my name's sake hath speciall reference And it was most remarkably fulfilled whilst the Iewish Nation did flourish or was in strength For that Nation did beare more deadly hatred to such as professed themselves to bee Christs Disciples then they did unto the Heathen And the Heathens againe specially the Romans did hate and persecute the Christians as the worst sort amongst the Iewes of whom they tooke Christ's little flocke to be a stemme or branch because the governours of it Christs Apostles were Iewes by progeny So that the Lawes which were ennacted in Rome against the Iewes were most severely executed upon the Christians besides many lawlesse and barbarous cruelties which were practised upon many of them in the time of Nero without any check or impeachment This was a second signe precedent to the desolation of Ierusalem The third was the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel and expounded by our Saviour Mat. 24. 15. For the overspreading of abominations saith Daniel Chap. 9. v. 27. Hee shall make it desolate even unto the consummation and that determined shall be powred upon the desolate It is termed by our Saviour the abomination of desolation because it was an abomination which did portend the utter desolation of the city and of the Temple wherein this abomination was practised by the seditious or that faction which was called the zealous And this abomination became most remarkable from that time that the seditious begun first to depose the high Priests and afterwards to murher them in the Temple For then they turned the house of God not into a denne of theeves but into a den of murtherers even a slaughter house The fulfilling of this part of our Saviours prophecy you may read at your leasure in Iosephus in his sixth booke of the Iewish warre Chap. 1. O miserable city saith he what didst thou suffer at the Romans hands to bee compared unto this although they entred with fire to purge thee from thy iniquity For now thou wast no longer the house of God neither could'st thou endure being made a Sepulcher of thine inhabitants and having by thy civill warres made the Temple a grave of dead bodyes It was the abomination which this desperate and gracelessely Iewish people did commit in the holy place that is in the Temple and in the courts of it which brought that miserable desolation upon the Temple upon the city Nation The Romans were but executioners of Gods wrath vengeance against them And those interpreters of the Gospell who by the abomination of desolation understand the Roman forces though many theybe yet the more they be or shall be the more they multiply a strange errour or grosse incogitancy But after the practice of such abominations as Iosephus relates in the holy place the doome pronounced by our Saviour against the Temple against the city and Nation became so inevitable and was to bee executed with so much speed as every one that in those times feared God might see the just occasion and necessity of our Saviours admonition Mat. 24. 16. c. Then let them which are in Iudea flee unto the mountaines let him which is on the house top not come downe to take any thing out of his house neither let him which is in the field returne backe to fetch his clothes c. Then shall be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time nor ever shall