this Deliverance by the nearness of the Destruction it was in articulo mortis all was almost concluded our Passing-bell rung the day was presum'd to be their own and now delivered as Daniel è faucibus perditionis from the very jaws of Destruction from the very mouths of our Enemies Oh wonderful goodness And most fitly might I mention the means of our Deliverance Vna eadémque manus vulnus opémque feret How did this sweetest Honey come from the Lions carcass Men of their own Party must impart it to us those of their own Conclave are means under God to deliver us from their own Counsels Oh the wonderful Authority of God that wrought on their Consciences so long benum'd Oh the Wisdom of God that works by contrary means No Violence constrained them but what the Almighty used with them no Policy induced them so much as Divine Power Vse 2. Is it the designe of God in delivering to reduce from sin and oblige to Holiness Let us then examine our selves whether we have answer'd these holy designs of our gracious God Oh Reader faithfully ask thine own heart Have I not been as loose and profane as vile and vain as carnal and formal as ever I was before What inducement hath this gracious preservation been to the reformation of my Life What Sin have I faithfully forsaken what displeasing Lust have I unfeignedly left what spiritual Obedience have I closed withal since I enjoyed this unspeakable Mercy Doth not thy Conscience accuse thee of thy regardlesness of it Doth not thy heart smite thee for not observing the Duties thou art oblig'd to by it Abasuerus would know what was done to Mordecai for the good deed he had done for the Kingdom Ask thy self What good hath been done to God for all the good deeds he hath done for thee What hath been done to him for his delivering of thee Hast thou not sinned the more against him and turn'd his Grace into wantonness Is that a meet requital for his kindness Are Pride Drunkenness Sensuality fit Votive Tables for our merciful escapes Oh let not this Mercy be lost for want of improvement lest you never enjoy such another Remember exoneratio supplicii est oneratio officii the laying off and freeing thee from punishment lays obligations upon thee for dutiful Obedience Mercies are to be like showers on Valleys making them fruitful as a grain of corn sown in the tilled earth bringing forth a plentiful crop of expected fruit God hath sown the seeds of his Mercies let not the Devil reap a crop of Sin Oh how might I plead with you as loving Ionathan with hard-hearted Saul 1 Sam. 19.4 Let not the King sin against David for he hath not sinned against thee and because his works are good Oh let not us sin against God let us not rebel against him he never dealt unjustly with us but his deeds are good He is ever working for us He is ever heaping up Mercies shall we sin against him It will be better not to receive a Mercy than not to be better'd by it Oh come now and consider with your selves say with thy self Hath God in his Providence made me a freeman from Popish Slavery and shall I make my self a Slave to Lusts and a Vassal to the Devil Shall God continue my Life and shall I cast it away as worth nothing Oh examine your selves how you have acted Plato seeing any disorderly would say Num ego talis Am I such an one Thou seest many go on in sin ask thy self Am not I such an one Do not I go on in sin What a folly is it in us that we utimur perspicillis plusquam speculis use spectables to see other faults more than looking-glasses to see our own Learn the Art of Self-reflection and that is the way to Self-reformation Vse 3. Is it Gods design and desire to reduce us from sin by these merciful methods Then let us not foolishly cause the Lord to use more forcible and fearful means to effect this in us Let us not force a gracious God out of his delightful ways of Mercy Why should we make him be doing his works of Judgment since he declares his unwillingness to it Shall we turn his Scepter into a Rod Shall we drive away those precious Mercies by sinful courses which with mournful hearts and wringing hands we shall be glad to be recalling Shall we make our Showers of Mercy end in Flouds of Vengeance Shall we wrest the Sword of Justice out of the Sheath of Patience and violently pull down Vengeance on our own heads Will you tell the Lord you are weary of his Mercies and will never regard them Will you declare in the presence of God that if he will not powre out his Vengeance and display his Justice and make your Plagues wonderful that you will not fear him nor break off sins Is your strength so great to stand before his Anger that you are resolute in provoking of him Will nothing serve your turn but destruction and desolation and undoing judgements You must either cease sinning or God will cease waiting and give over favouring of you God speaks Ezech. 6.9 how the Jews had broken him with their whorish heart that is he tells them they should remember Eum quasi objecta quadam violentiâ à proposite abductum invitum planè adductum essë eorum persidia ut interrumperetur cursus misericordiae Calv. That he was turn'd from his gracious purposes with the violence their sins offered to him and that it was by their perfidiousness he was brought to break off the course of his mercies Thus God is broken off from ways of mercy by our not breaking off our ways of sin The holy God is resolv'd to make us leave off sinning one way or other if his goodness cannot gain us if his mercies cannot induce us his justice will come out against us and by his mighty power he will rule us Ezek. 20.33 As I live saith the Lord surely with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you God will bring us into subjection by mercies or judgments his fury shall do that his favour will not But why should we cause the Lord to be so severe unto us we weary man but will ye weary God also Let us be constrained to amendment by his love or else he must curb us by tormenting punishments It was said of Israel Psal. 81.11 Israel would have none of me Shall it be so said of England that we refus'd and slighted what God gives and what he doth in way of mercy Shall it be said we will have none of his mercies none of his deliverances shall we not then have his judgments and feel his vengeance Vse 4. Is this the designe of God in delivering then wisely make use of this as an Argument to invalidate all future temptations to sin When sinful occasions offer themselves unto you damp the hurtful influence of
what crying sins are to be seen amongst us Have we not sins of the greatest magnitude who have mercies of the highest nature Are not our sins worse than Sodoms when our mercies are abundantly more than that enjoyed Sins in England are greater than sins in other Nations that have not partaken of such signal favours as we We wonder God bears with Antichristian Rome with forreign Idolaters Alas their sins are not of that nature that ours are Our sins it may be are minoris infamiae of lesser infamy but majoris reatus of greater guilt than theirs Our sins are double and the more our mercies increase the more abundant aggravations belong to our sins Are we not sinners above all that have favours beyond any Our sins that are small in abstracto considered abstractly are great in concreto considering the circumstances of them If small sins will not startle us here are great sins then to amaze us Oh let our sins that we have committed be more before us that so the sense of their greatness may prevent our proceeding in them 2. Hence see what need we have of great Repentance an ordinary sorrow will not answer our extraordinary sins Gravissima peccata gravissimis lamentis indigent Greatest provocations call for greatest lamentations Oh what tears and lamentations can be great enough for our horrid sins What sighs can be deep enough for a Nation so deeply involved in sin Should not our mourning be as in the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon every family apart every person apart Should not Ninive be our president Should not our England become a Bokim and our Island be overflown with tears Oh what floods of tears is there need of to wash away our abominable pollutions Oh what wailing and weeping should be in a Nation living and wallowing in such iniquities Aut poenitendum vel pereundum Repentance onely can prevent our ruine Repentance onely can make justice to retreat Repentance onely can deliver us now delivered But where shall we finde it Where are the weeping eyes the mourning hearts Oh that repentance might appear among us lest judgments appear against us Oh that we could lay our selves down at the feet of mercy by humiliation that we may not be laid down in a dreadful desolation by the hands of justice Oh that a hearty repentance might prevent our hastening ruine Oh that we might lie in breathing sweats of Godly sorrow that we may not lie sweltring in our blood Our sins reach up to Heaven let our sorrow reach to heart Oh that each part of unfeigned repentance might be really acted by us Let us make a strict inquiry into our fins commune with our hearts let us go the Circuit of our hearts and lives and see the abominable sins to be condemned there Let us read the Book of Conscience and see what sins we there stand indicted for As Letters wrote with the juice of Oranges are not to be read but by the fire Thus some have their sins written and will not read them now but shall at last read them by the fire of Hell Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our ways Oh we are senseless of our sins but aeger non sentiens periculosius laborat a senseless sick man is most in danger Oh open your eyes then and see what disorders in heart what wickedness in life refuse not a sight of thy sins now one day God will set them before thy eyes Disown not the Charges that are against thee without reason Let us no longer sew Fig-leaves on our sins The impartial Judge of Heaven and Earth knows our crimes Let us therefore return and say Father I have sinned Thus did those Lam. 5.16 Wo be to us we have sinned David yeilded the case to Nathan I am the man maist thou not justly say I am the man that have been nothing the better for deliverance I am the man or woman have gone on in Pride Sensuality without repentance reformation Defend not thy sins by excuses but own them be convinced without further demur and condemn thy self as a guilty malefactor Then let us pour out our tears and open the Flood-gates of Godly sorrow and if we would escape let us be like those Ezek. 7.16 Who were like Doves in the Valleys mourning every one for their own iniquity Oh that our proud hearts might yeild to this work Our dry eyes be filled with tears Let us fill Gods bottle with our tears What is weeping good for but to testifie our sorrow for sin it cannot recover a dying friend it may a dying Nation it cannot stop the course of death it may the coming of judgments Open then the windows of Heaven and break up the deeps and let us make us a hearty weeping as may prevent the heavy judgments our great sins are calling for Then let us make a holy resolution in the strength of the Almighty to cease from our sins Say as holy Iob Job 34.32 If I have done evil I will do it no more With holy indignation reject thy former villanies Oh let our souls be raised to a deserved hatred of these great iniquities and let nothing content us but the utter ruine of our ruining sins Let us not be dismai'd at the difficulty attending that blessed work 'T is hard to destroy sin but will it not be harder to be damned for it If it be hard to bear the launching of those ranker'd wounds what will it be to bear the smart of the envenomed arrows of divine justice for ever Know also thou may'st do all things through Christ that strengthens thee then carry thy sins with the solemnity of penitential tears to their eternal funeral And unless this reformaon shall attend thy repentance thou repentest with an absurd contradiction Optima poenitentia est nova vita The best repentance is a new life This is the repentance our hainous sins require and all this is to be done in a more than ordinary way because of the greatness of our sins 3. If sins after deliverance are so great hence see how near judgments may be unto us because the measure of our iniquities will be so suddenly â—illed The patience of Hâ—aven will soon be worn out with these daring provocations As we are heaping up Sin the Almighty is heaping up Wrath and the greater sins the sooner the treasures of wrath will be full The more fuel we bring the sooner the fire will be kindled to consume us The Lord in his mercy is waiting to be gracious backward to judgment but such iniquities will soon waste his patience and provoke his wrath We read Gen. 15.16 that the Lord delayed punishment because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full The measure of sin and wrath are often filling many years and according as sins are aggravated judgments approach faster or slower Thus Ioel 3.13 God calls for Sickles to be put in because the harvest was ripe the pressës were full and the fats did overflow
him Oh how will Conscience fly on thy face and check thy Soul Remember when you were in distress before thou didst cry to God and he delivered thee but thou never didst love him the more serve him the better for it Then wilt thou imagine with thy self Oh how can I go to God again How can I think he will try me with further Mercies who have been so unfaithful under those I received How can I expect he will be prevail'd with to prolong my Life when I have heapt up provocations after his former prolongations of it Oh what heart-faintings and failings will a sense of despised Mercy produce What a Hell of Misery will this be to all thy Torments that thou durst not approach to God Will not inward troubles be a dreadful increase of distress in times of Judgment And what inward trouble more heavy than this to finde our hearts condemning of us and to be clogg'd with the sense of abused Mercies Wilt thou not fear God will tell thee thy Prayer is an abomination Wilt not dread lest he say as Iephthah to the Elders of Gilead after they had expell'd him Judg. 11.7 Are ye now come unto me when ye are in distress What are you so impudent after all your unkindness to me to seek kindness from me What do ye think I will shelter such enemies as you Will not God say thus to us when fleeing to him in distress What do ye that have forsaken me so long flee to me now Do ye that despised my former Deliverance come to me for another Will not God say Be gone I 'll admit you no more I 'll hearken neither to your Prayers nor Promises And then we may cry out as Salv. Quid dignius quid justius non audivimus non audimur non respeximus non respicimur What more merited what more just We have not heard God and we are not heard we have not regarded and we are not regarded What confusion will this fill our faces withal What a Calamity will this be to all our Misery Oh take heed then of incurring any further displeasure from God by abusing deliverance lest when renewed dangers come upon you thy mouth should be stopt thy confidence dampt and thy conscience thus checking of thee But put Iniquity far from thee and then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot then shalt thou have access to the Lord in thy troubles and if destruction should come thou maist cry for deliverance and have gracious returns Destruction for sinning under these circumstances will be aggravated by that pitiless frame that shall be not only in God but in man to those that are involv'd in such deserved destruction God will not pity but be strangely hard-hearted to such hardened Sinners Misery calls for pity but there can be no pity where there is no mercy or where Mercy is disengaged Ezech. 5.11 Neither shall my eye spare neither will I have pity He laid aside his tender compassions his bowels of mercy were shut up and now he hath no tender affections to them Thus men also that may be preserved from our calamities will have just cause to be pitiless to us It was said of Vitellius when going to Execution with his Hands bound divested on Robes that men had no pity of him Nam deformitas vitae misericordiam abstulerat Tacitus The impiety of his Life had taken away mens pity for his Death Will not our sinning after Deliverance give such cause of abstaining from pitying of us Will not men say They deserve to be miserable that will not desist from being sinful Oh dreadful aggravation of misery to have all bowels shut against us Extrema est miseria cùm nemo miseri vices dolet 'T is extreme misery the height of distress when we are not only destitute of Help but destitute of Pity Jer. 22.18 Shall not say Ah my brother or ah my sister They â—hall not lament for him saying Ah Lord â—â— ah his glory I shall now endeavour to make some particular Vses of what hath been spoken Vses from the 1. Propos. Vse I. Is it the great designe of God in delivering a people from imminent dangers to oblige them to break off sin Let then the remarkable Deliverance that the Almighty God in abounding goodness hath lately bestowed upon us effect this blessed change in our lives and conversations With what face can we trample on the just and sacred Commands of our merciful God whilst he smiles upon us with such unmerited favours Can our Hearts be so damnably obdurate so insensibly hardned as not to be melted by such an unexpected Deliverance as this Should we again break his Commandments What pretence can favour such Impieties What profession can cloak such Wickedness What Allurements can entice us against Conscience Reason and Religion to obviate and oppose the righteous requests and demands of such a patient God Should we again return to our Flesh-pleasing security in sin the Fountain and Spring of our greatest misery What but our belluine and besotting stupidity involved us in our direful dangers and shall we return to our former posture not regarding the rousing alarums the late discoveries of misery have sounded to us nor minding the awakening calls to prepare for Judgments or turn from the Impieties that deserve them Would not this be an unpardonable crime and a means most infallibly to ruine us Should we again dishonour this delivering God by profane licentious courses filling our Land with the hateful noise of our crying Iniquities when God hath fill'd it with the blessed sounds of unspeakable Mercies What an unworthy ungrateful unanswerable carriage would this be deem'd by all that bear the title of Christians Would Heathens offer to do such things to their feigned Gods or offer such affronts unto them could they but do such favours for them And shall we to affront the Majesty of Heaven belch out abominable Oaths and account them as pleasing Ornaments of Language Shall we shew our despite to our God by blasphemous Expressions against inviolable Truths concerning the nature and being of God Shall we to express how little we value his kindness provoke the eyes of his Glory by Noon-day Drunkenness Rioting and Debaucheries Shall we witness a cursed contemning of him by impudent profanations of his holy Sabbaths as before we have done Shall not his Kindness courting us to amendment prevail Shall not his Goodness endeavouring our betterment operate upon us Is it not impossible to be so wicked after such wonderful expressions of Love Should we again with greedy minds pursue the perishing enjoyments of this alluring world neglecting the profitable exercises of Religion and required Devotion Did the Almighty prolong our expiring Lives to spend them thus With what conscience can we allow our selves those large dispensations from holy Duties for the sake of our worldly employments after we are purposely deliver'd to augment and increase our deserved Obedience Will not our days be yet shortned if we