say Tush this is no matter of feare unto us we have no Prophets in these dayes to foretell judgements or whose threatnings we need to regard I answer Though the gift of prophecie properly so called be ordinarily 〈…〉 Church neither doe the true Ministers of the Gospell now take upon them to foretell wherewith when and how the Lord will punish the sinnes of a people yet assuredly the providence of God is wonderfull to direct them in their ministerie what texts of Scripture to handle what Doctrines to raise what promises or threatnings comforts or reproofes to use If therefore thou art placed under the ministerie or hearest such an one as thy soule and conscience doth witnesse he is the true Minister of Christ know that the spirit of God doth wonderfully guide and direct his studie and meditation his Sermons and preaching and therefore if he be much in the promises of the Gospell reioyce if in reproofe of sinne be sorrie if in the threatning of judgements feare he speaketh not rashly and at randome the fictions of his owne braine or publish the suggestions of an evill spirit but undoubtedly he delivereth what he hath received from the Lord it is the good Spirit of God directeth his heart tongue and pen to thinke write and speake what he knoweth most needfull for his people and therefore receive it with reverence as from God and submit your selves to such as watch over your soules and must give account unto God for you And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that as God hath many waies testified his anger so hath he stirred up his faithfull servants both here and elsewhere by word and writing 〈…〉 and presse zealously to reprove the great and monstrous sinnes of this age and as sonnes of thunder to cause every corner of the Land to ring with the threatning and denunciation of some judgement or other and to call and cry for repentance whereby the same may be prevented which cannot be without God who undoubtedly without repentance will in his good time make good their word when mens hearts shall breake within them to remember they were told so before And so much for the maine reasons why sometimes God will not be intreated to the contrary but will punish a people viz. The declaration of his justice and truth that he may be feared and beleeved when by his servants he doth threaten It now followeth according to my proposed method to declare what sinnes they are which then did now doe and for ever will so provoke God and exasperate him that he will not spare and namely what were the sinnes which brought this miserable and inevitable captivity upon this people and which threaten the like judgement wheresoever found And therein two things are to be considered viz. The sinnes for their kindes and the measure or proportion of them What their sinnes were will appeare from the Prophets sent unto them to reprove them and threaten their captivity which were our Prophet Ezechiel Nahum Zephany Habacuck and Ioel Wherefore from their Prophesies only and specially of those two great and worthy Prophets I will gather light to this purpose and from them prove what I shall deliver And that I and you may the more orderly proceed and better remember them I will range them in certaine rankes As first the sinnes of the Priests and then of the people the sinnes of the Priests either in regard of their Ministery or conversation the sins of the people were either the greater as against the first Table or lesser as against the second Table The laying open of these things will both declare the justice of God who would not be entreated to spare so sinfull a people and also admonish all people to beware of such sinnes for feare of a like judgement And first note that judgement beginneth at Gods Sanctuary And no marvell for there beganne the corruption of all sorts of men The Prophets did most reprove and cry out against the Priests who in their Ministery first were blinde and ignorant It is true they were wonderfully conceited of their learning and knowledge and like enough they had a great measure at least some of them of worldly wisdome and humane learning but they rejected the word of the Lord and then what wisdome was in them Whereby it appeareth that howsoever the Priests lips should preserve the knowledge of God and God made his Prophets Seers and Watchmen to preserve the people from judgements to come by declaring their sinnes and directing them in the waies of God yet before the captivity they generally rejected the word of God and were simple without any power to tell the people of their sinnes or give direction what course to take whereby to prevent ensuing judgements Secondly they dealt falsely in their Ministery which the Lord complaineth of saying If they had stood in my counsell and declared my words to my people then should they have turned them from their evill waies And the Prophet bewaileth this fault Thy Prophets have not discovered thine iniquity to turne away thy captivitie but gave themselves to serve the time and please men flattering and saying peace peace building and dawbing with untempered morter They told the people all was well and that they should see neither sword nor famine nor any evill And if any one dealt more faithfully with the people shewing their sinnes and labouring to touch their consciences and to humble them that so they might prevent the judgement as Ieremy Ezechiel and some others did those wicked Priests and Prophets were angry and assured the people they did but terrifie and discourage them without cause all was well Yea that false Prophet Hananiah tooke away the yoke which by Gods command Ieremy did weare whereby to signifie their captivity and brake it prophesied falsely Thus within two yeeres will God breake the yoke of Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babylon yea Pashur could not hold his hand but smote Ieremy and put him in the stocks And as they were corrupt in their Ministery and enemies to such as were faithfull so were they most prophane in their lives and conversations being carnall and earthly minded From the least to the greatest every one was given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet to the Priest every one did deale falsely And againe Both Prophet and Priest are prophane yea in mine house have I found their wickednesse saith the Lord Whereas God told Baruch that which I have built I will breake downe and that which I have planted I will plucke up even this whole Land and seekest thou great things for thy selfe seeke them not Ier. 45. 4. As this was the great corruption of the Priests and false Prophets so the people did exceedingly further it and increase it in them For first they approved and liked well of flattery so the Lord himselfe said
to repent who for any thing that I know are as great sinners as they so as if God should bring upon us a heavier judgement than he hath done upon them yet were it most just our consciences must needs witnesse we have had warning abundantly But above all blessed be God who hath given and doth daily give us such faire and full warning of the last judgement and destruction of all the Reprobate in hell fire oh beware of them The second Doctrine is that all Gods true servants when they see by evident signes that the Lords anger is kindled against his people for their sinnes and perceive some fearefull judgements to come upon them they are wonderfully affected therewith take it to heart and labour by all good meanes to pacifie and prevent it This doctrine ariseth from this word Doe not lift up a crie unto mee which noteth that hee would not in a cold and senslesse manner have prayed but as being wonderfully affected to foresee the miserie of Gods people for their sinnes he would with sighes and groanes yea and bitter teares have prayed to God for them if he had not bid him hold his peace for to cry in the Scriptures when it is referred to praying noteth to pray unto God in most earnest and vehement manner as where God asked Moses Why criest thou unto mee and David complaineth O my God I crie by day and thou hearest not and the Apostle saith That our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares In all which and many other places which might be alledged to this purpose crying doth rather signifie mournfull intention of heart zeale and fervencie of spirit rather than any loud vociferation and contentions of words And from this word our Doctrin ariseth which would first bee confirmed and backed with some other Scriptures And to begin with Moses when hee saw imminent destruction to the people of God at the red sea he cried unto God little did any know the bitter affliction of his soule but God who saw it and revealed it Moses why criest thou How was David moved when he saw the Angell that smote the people and said Lo I have sinned and dealt wickedly but these sheepe what have they done Holy King Iosiah when hee heard from reading the Booke of the Law that was found what great wrath of God was kindled against the people for their sinnes to make them a desolation and a curse he rent his cloathes his heart melted and his eyes poured out abundance of teares How did godly Mordechai and Hesther take to heart the decree gone out for the destruction of the people of God and humble themselves with sack-cloth fasting weeping and praying crying with loud and bitter cries When Ezrah heard of the great sinnes of the people and foresaw some imminent judgement hee rent his garment plucked off the haire of his head and beard and did neither eat bread nor drinke water but mourned exceedingly The Prophet Esay foreseeing the captivitie of Gods people said Turne away from me I will weepe bitterly labour not to comfort me because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people Our Prophet exceeded in this who thus complained My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart mine heart maketh a noise in mee I cannot hold my peace because I have heard the sound of the trumpet and alarum of warre destruction upon destruction is cried and wished Oh that mine head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night for the slaine of the daughter of my people And againe Let mine eyes run downe with teares night and day and let them not cease for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach and a very grievous blow The Prophet Ezechiel upon the same occasion seeing the Angels destroying Gods people feil on his face and cried Oh Lord God wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in pouring out thy furie on Ierusalem Our blessed Saviour wept when hee prophesied the destruction of Ierusalem The blessed Apostle protesteth the continuall heavinesse and sorrow of heart for the miserie of Gods people and forewarned the Philippians with teares of the evill to come By which cloud of witnesses out of the old and new Testament our doctrine is sufficiently confirmed viz. That when Gods anger is seene and some great judgement to befall Gods people is foreseene Gods true servants are greatly affected therewith and labour to prevent it It being then most cleere that it is so let us now proceed to consider the reasons thereof why it is so and why they are thus affected The first is because there is nothing so sweet and deare unto them as Gods love and favour nothing doth so much affect them with joy as the sense thereof I say againe Gods children are men and women and subject to passion as others and are glad of the comforts of this life but this is the glorious and unspeakable joy wherefore David prayeth Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us and thrice in one Psalme the Church prayeth Cause thy face to shine and wee shall be saved Yea the greatest blessing the Priest could pronounce was The Lord blesse thee and keepe thee the Lord make his face to shine on thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee And no marvell for David saith that in Gods favour is life And if Salomon say The favours of an earthly King be as a cloud of the latter raine what is Gods Prov. 16. 15. What more urged by the Apostle than this pleasing of God as Offer up your bodies a living sacrifice holy and pleasing unto God and he saith this is a maine thing wherein the happines of single life consisteth the unmarried careth how he may please the Lord and S. Paul prayed for the Colossians that they might walke worthie of the Lord to all pleasing of him and biddeth children obey their parents in all things in the Lord for this is well-pleasing to the Lord and calleth almes a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God and beseecheth the Thessalonians so to walke as they may please God Oh doe good children finde such comfort and content in the good favour and pleasure of their parents wives of their husbands servants of their masters and subjects of their Kings how much more true joy content and comfort doe Gods children finde in Gods favour and good pleasure So as if hee be well pleased they care not though all the world be offended And as nothing is so sweet and joyfull and highly esteemed and prized as Gods favour and doth even ravish the heart with joy unspeakable and glorious so there is nothing so bitter and grievous as sense
it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy The Land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That such may be the sinnes of Gods deare Church and people in generall and of his faithfull servants in particular that he will bring some temporall judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most