Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A66116
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A sermon preach'd at the assizes held in Warwick, April the 1st. 1690 by John Willes ...; published at the request of the high sheriff and grand jury, for the county of Warwick.
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Willes, John, 1646 or 7-1700.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing W2303; ESTC R38937
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14,615
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36
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and Gomorrah and you were as a Firebrand pluck'd out of the burning And again in my Text the Prophet by way of question most emphatically assures them That there is no evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it As if he had said There is no such thing as Chance or Fate in all your Sufferings Afflictions do not come forth out of the Dust nor do troubles spring out of the Ground but they are all the effect of God's over-ruling Providence without whose Knowledge and Appointment not one Hair falls from your Head And tho' this be the plain and genuine Sense of these Words yet because there is a Race of Men in the World that can pervert every thing to a bad meaning quote God's Word as the Devil did to our Saviour quite contrary to the Design and Intent of it and in this very place from the doubtful signification of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil have made God the Author of their sins I shall first clear these Words from this blasphemous abuse of them and then consider them in their proper Sense and Design as I have already explain'd them No sooner had the first Man sinned but he found out this excuse for himself to lay the fault upon God Gen. 3. 12. The Woman that thou gavest me she gave me of the Tree and I did eat And some of his unhappy Offspring have gone yet further and thought God altogether such an one as themselves Psalm 50. 21. And whoever hath work'd himself up to this pitch of wickedness will never be persuaded that God will punish any one for being like him but with some of the * See Lucian in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terence in Eunucho August de Civ Dei 1. 2. c. 7. c. Heathens will be apt to justifie his own Villanies by pretending to follow so great an Example To prevent this dangerous and Fundamental Error God hath taken care throughout all the Scriptures to work in us true and proper Notions of himself his Justice Holiness and Mercy and make us such a discovery of his own Perfections as might work us up to the highest degree of Holiness and Virtue His Laws which are his revealed Will are all holy just and good Rom. 7. 12. and have this one principal Design in them to make us so too All the Sanctions of his Laws are so many severe Punishments of Sin and Rewards of Virtue and from one end of the Bible to the other nothing but Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. So that to make God the Author of Sin is to make him act contrary to himself and his own Nature contrary to his Justice Holiness and Mercy which are all essential to him contrary to his Laws and revealed Will and in one word contrary to the Scope and Tenour of all Religion in the World whether natural or revealed Let not any one persuade you therefore that God is the Author of Evil in this Sense and by his unalterable Decrees compels Mankind to that which himself hates and detests Far be these things from God let him be true and just and good and every Man a Liar I am sure St. Paul tells the Romans 8. 29. That whom God foreknew those he did predestinate and so makes all God's Decrees to Punishments or Rewards to be founded upon his Prescience of our doing good or evil And then as to God's foreknowledge that doth not at all destroy our Freedom God foreknew the sins of the Jews when by his Prophet he foretold them and yet still lays the Fault upon them that they had sinned Christ knew from the beginning that Judas would betray him John 13. 27. and yet Judas acted out of his own free choise and in the bitter Agony of his Soul cried out That he had sinned in betraying of innocent Blood Matth. 27. 4. And indeed to what purpose are all God's Threats and Exhortations if we are all over-ruled by the fatal Impulse of an irreversible Decree To what purpose is God's Solemn Adjuration Deut. 30. 19. I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing therefore choose Life that both thou and thy Seed may live Why doth God tell Israel That his Destruction is from himself Hos 13. 9. and still lay the Fault upon the wicked that he is so O Jerusalem Jerusalem saith Christ how often would I have gathered you as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her Wings and you would not And again Why will you die O House of Israel Ezek. 18. 31. Why are the wicked punished for those things they cannot help Why were the Jews cut off for their Unbelief Or why doth the Apostle bid the Christians take care by their Example Rom. 11. And therefore Solomon amidst all his Knowledge concludes of this as the most certain thing in the whole World viz. That God made Man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles 7. 29. Give me leave to add this only that this cannot possibly be the meaning of the Prophet Amos in my Text unless he contradicts himself and the whole design of his Prophesie He is here sent to reprove the Israelites for their sins to assure them that all the Miseries they suffer'd were God's Visitation and that nothing but Repentance could remove them Now for the Prophet in delivering this Message to tell them that not they themselves but God by his irreversible Decrees was the proper Author of their sins would be so far from working in them sincere Repentance that it would be the most probable Argument to hinder it to make them continue in their Sins and in their Sufferings and so he would most effectually contradict the whole Design of his Prophecy And having thus far cleared the Words I proceed to consider them in their genuine and natural Sense as I have already explained them viz. That there is no Evil no Calamity or Misery in a City or Country which God is not the Author of and therefore in all the Judgments that befall us we should learn to see God's Hand and humble our selves under his Visitation And for a more distinct and methodical consideration of the Judgments and Calamities that befall a Kingdom for their sins I shall shew I. That when God first made the World he so order'd the connection and dependance of Causes and Effects in the whole course of it as that very many sins naturally produce mischief and sorrow to the Authors of them II. That when this doth not happen and sins are great and daring God sometimes breaks through all the course of Nature and disturbs the Order of the World to make his Power and his Justice known to vindicate the Honour of his Providence and cast Vengeance upon the Sinner III. That even the effects of second Causes and which are produced by an heap of Circumstances
shall intercede for them Zoar seems to have been as wicked as Sodom yet the Lord was intreated for it by Lot because it was a little one but Abraham himself could not prevail for Sodom Now National Judgments are so peculiarly the effects of God's Wrath and Anger that in Scripture they are emphatically call'd His Ezek. 14. 21. When I send my four fore Judgments the Sword the Famine the noysom Beast and the Pestilence It was God that gave the Sword a charge against Askalon and Egypt it was God that brought Evil upon Jerusalem and gave his People into the Hands of their Enemies It s he that stops the Clouds from dropping their fatness on us or sends an Army of Locusts to destroy the Plenty that he had given yea even Fire and Hail Snow and Vapours Wind and Storm fulfil his Words Psalm 148. 4. 'T is not Fate nor Fortune that makes a Nation happy or miserable but the Piety or Wickedness of them that dwell therein We need not consult the Planets to discover the rise of National Calamities nothing but sins that are as publick can be the cause of them and if a Nation fall into Disgrace its Sin that is the reproach of any people Prov. 14. 34. It s this that makes God remove his Candlestick from a Country and give his Kingdom to a Nation that will bring forth Fruit. II. Calamities appear to be from God tho' in private Persons when they bear a particular relation to and oftentimes the very stamp and character of the sin And as its usual for Malefactors that are punished to have their Crimes written in a Paper and put upon their Breasts and the Cross heretofore bore the Inscription of the Faults for which the Persons suffer'd so God also many times so exactly suits the Punishment to the Sin that all Men shall say this is Gods Work Thus when we see the Family of the Sacrilegious come to want and beggary as it often happens and not only other Curses but Poverty also pursue those that thought to enrich themselves with holy things when we see Corah's Priests for offering strange Fire consumed immediately with Fire from the Lord and Jehojakim that denied so much as a decent Burial to the Prophet he had murder'd himself buried with the burial of an Ass cast forth out of the Gates of Jerusalem When we see Adonibezek with his Thumbs and great Toes cut off as he had used to serve others and Haman hang'd upon that very Gallows he had prepared for Mordecah we must needs cry out That it is the Lords doing and its marvellous in our Eyes and confess with the Angel in the Revelations That his Judgments are righteous and true He that reads the History of Pharaoh's being drown'd must needs reflect upon what he had before done to the Israelitish Infants And when we find David's Concubines abused publickly by his Son we must needs consider what he had before done to the Wife of Uriah If the Spies bring a false Report of the Land of Canaan after their forty days Search of it and the People murmur against God they must all wander Forty Years in the Wilderness before they come to enjoy it When the Jews serv'd other Gods God sent them Captives to the Nations where those Gods were worshiped Jer. 5. 19. 2 Chron. 12. 5. If they walked contrary to God then God walked contrary to them Levit. 26. 23 24 27 28. and if they neglected to let the Land have rest in the Sabbatical Years as God appointed the whole Nation is sent to Babylon for 70 Years together that the Land may enjoy her Sabbaths Levit. 26. 34 35 43. 2 Chron. 36. 21. So that whereas according to the Hebrew we translate Lam. 1. 7. The Adversaries mocked at their Sabbaths the Septuagint translate it They mocked at their Captivity If David's Pride make him number the People God punisheth his Pride by sending a Plague upon his Subjects and so making their number less and tho' Plagues scatter a secret Infection and the Pestilence walketh in darkness yet it s so very obedient to God's Commission that David of the three Evils offer'd him therefore chose that because he would fall into the hands of God And lastly it was David's own Observation upon God's Proceedings Psalm 109. 17. They that love cursing it shall come unto them and they that delight not in Blessing it shall be far from them And thus I have shewed How God is known by the Judgments that he executeth and when the Footsteps of his Providence are so plain and visible we may easily answer the Question in my Text Are there any such evils and the Lord hath not done them Now as God makes use of a Lex talionis in his own Judgments so he gives particular direction to his Judges after the same manner for instance to punish Perjury Deut. 19. 16 17 18 19 21. If a false Witness rise up against any Man to testifie against him that which is wrong and the Judges after diligent Inquisition shall find that he hath testified falsly against his Brother then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his Brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among you thine eye shall not pity but life shall go for life eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot VVe meet with a famous Instance of the execution of this Law in the History of Susanma where the Elders who by their Perjury would have taken away her Life are themselves put to Death for it v. 62. According to the Law of Moses they did unto them in such sort as they maliciously intended to do to their Neighbour and they put them to death VVhen Ahab had by the Perjury of two Sons of Belial first took away the Life and then possessed himself of the Field of Naboth God sent his Prophet to him with this Message That in the place where Dogs licked the Blood of Naboth shall dogs lick they blood even thine 1 King 21. 19. And if Perjury be one of the crying sins of this Kingdom which hath long called for Vengeance and for which our Land mourns Jer. 23. 10. It s much to be lamented that the Punishment of this sin is still so slight and trivial Why is it thought a lesser Crime to rob a Man of his Estate by two Knights of the Post at an Assize than to do it by two High-way-men upon the Road Why is it a lesser Crime to take away a Man's Life by a false Oath than to do it with a Sword or Dagger There are men saith David whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword I can see but this only difference betwixt them that he that doth it by Perjury is the worse since besides the Theft and the Murder which is the same in both cases he pawns his Soul blasphemes God and with an impudent Face defies his Vengeance at that very time