be not offended at the manner though simple plaine and popular a plaine iron Key may vnlocke the doore of a golden treasure the evidence of the spirit is most seene in plainnesse the Spiders web is curiously wrought but unprofitable curious delivery well pleaseth itching eares my desire is to profit and to have the praise of teares rather than of tongue though I had never so great leasure I cannot study for words phrases If I could yet now I had no leasure being often thrice in one weeke in the Pulpit My desire was rather to worke upon the affections than the understanding there being much more knowledge than devotion Our forefathers disease was ignorance ours impiety they sicke in the braine but we at the heart therefore I am briefe in the Doctrines and larger in Vses with Application and Exhortation If it shall please thee to accept them kindly read them devoutly censure them charitably and lovingly correct such errours as may have escaped Author or Printer being so farre asunder I shall be encouraged to communicate some of my Lectures wherein I have taken greater paines But if thou shalt read with a purpose to finde matter of dislike and reproofe I shall forbeare to proceed any further in this kinde a duty neither so directly commanded nor hath the like blessing promised where it is performed nor the like woe threatned where it is omitted yet I friendly advise thee reprehend not these till thou hast published better of thine owne If otherwise if in Cynicall disposition thou lovest to speake all such words as may doe hurt and like an idle drone canst not afford that others should bring any honey to the Hive I leave thee to the iudgement of the great day and only complaine Many dislike few doe like Farewell and helpe him with thy prayers who will not spare any paines to helpe thee forward in the waies of life and salvation From mine house in Christ-Church Cant. Thomas Iackson Iudah must into Captivitie SIX SERMONS LATELY PREAched in the Cathedrall Church of Christ in Canterbury and else where by THOMAS IACKSON Doctor in Divinitie and one of the Prebends of the said Church IEREMY 7. 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people c. BEsides the ordinary and setled Office of teaching Priests whose lips preserved knowledge the people were to seeke the Law at their mouthes and who did every Sabbath day preach the Law in their Synagogues God extraordinarily raised up others and sometimes endued those Priests with extraordinatie revelation whereby they were able to foreknow and foreshew things memorable to come good or euill to Gods people or strangers friends or enemies in regard of which excellent gift and facultie they were called Prophets i. foretellers of things to come or Seers both because God was seene of them in visions and dreams as God himselfe said If there bee a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my selfe knowne unto him in a vision and will speake unto him in a dreame and also because they foresaw things to come which gift of prophecie was given in the old Testament as well as the New and in both to women as well as men so that there were in both Testaments as well Prophetesses as Prophets though they much more rare This gift of prophesie in the old Testament began with the world for the first man was a Prophet and is registred in the Catalogue and ended with Iohn the Baptist so saith Christ The Law and the Prophets continued untill Iohn the Baptist and the gift of Prophesie vnder the new Testament began with Christ the chiefe of Prophets and ended with Iohn who wrote the Revelation containing all memorable things to befall the Church of God or enemies there of to the end of the world For how soeuer I will not tye the spirit of God but hee may still at his pleasure endue with this gift and Iustin Martyr speaketh of Prophets in his time who lived some fortie yeares after the writing of the Revelation yet it may seeme that Iustin Martyr by Prophets meant but such as did open and expound the ancient Prophets of God as Saint Paul calleth the preaching of the Gospell prophesie It is true that Bellarmine doth hold that this is the twelfth note of the true Church and to that end alledgeth the Prophesies of Benedict Bernard Francis forged and fabulous things If wee should joyne issue with him I might better alledge from true and authentike stories the wonderfull prophesies of Iohn Hus Ierome of Prague Luther Walter Brute Hooper which indeed came to passe yet I take it the ordinary gift of Prophesie ceased in the Church with Iohn Brocard and some others who professed themselves Prophets and by written Prophesies foretold many things the sequell hath proclaimed them for fooles liers and deceivers and that they never had any such gift of God For the Prophets of the old Testament in some ages God raised up many in some very few in some none From the time of Malachie untill Christ we have no writings nor knowledge of any which was about 400. yeares at the least Then might the people of God complaine indeed wee see not our signes there is no more any Prophet And this was to stirre up in Gods people a greater longing for Christ and his forerunner Iohn the Baptist of whom Malachie had so plainly prophesied The times in the old Testament which most abounded with Prophets were the times before the captivities of Israel Iudah to reprove them for their sinnes threaten them with judgements comfort the godly and make the wicked excuselesse who contemned God and his word this being often and most heavily laid to their charge that he did rise up early and late sending all his Prophets but they would not heare Concerning our present Prophet hee was an excellent man of God sanctified in his mothers wombe and abundantly furnished with extraordinarie graces and gifts of God his name was Ieremie about the Etymon whereof the godly learned are somewhat divided in opinion two of them are good you may chuse whether yee will One deriveth his name from such rootes in the Hebrew tongue as signifie an excellent man of God and so was he indeed in regard of sanctifying grace and propheticall gifts and is by a learned man proposed to Preachers of the Gospell as being an admirable Preacher Another deriveth his name from such a roote as signifieth to cast off Iirmijah ramah Iah the reject of the Lord and so he was in regard of his condition for of all the Prophets of God hee suffered most and was most calamitous Me thinketh when I reade his Storie and Prophesie hee is even another Paul and might say of the Prophets as hee did of the Apostles Are they Hebrewes so am I are they Israelites so am I are they of the seed of
pray heartily for the welfare of Ierusalem and then stand still and see the salvation of God who hath meanes that we see not to accomplish his act his strange act and to bring to passe his worke even his strange worke A second use is to love honour and make much of such as are so gracious and powerfull with God as to stand in the breach and to withstand and remove threatned judgements Oh let Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse have double honour let Lot be loved that doth grieve his righteous soule let us make great reckoning of Moses that standeth in the breach to stay the Lords anger for as was said of Elijah These these are the chariots and horsemen of Israel These these are the protection of the Church and fortification of the Land These are to us as Paul was unto them in the ship with him the saving of houses and goods lives and liberties it is for the godlies sake that dwell amongst us that the Gospell and our gracious King and Governor peace and prosperity with all other our blessings are continued unto us if it had not beene for their sakes we may well assure our selves the full viols of Gods wrath as in the Powder Treason or otherwise had long since beene powred downe upon us And here give me leave upon so just occasion to reprove the unthankfulnesse of the world towards such as under God are a singular meanes of our preservation Never were Noah or Lot more mocked scorned and derided than the godly in these daies disgraced and loaded with all indignities as the men unworthy to live in the world who if they humble their soules with fasting and put on sack cloth they that sit in the gate speake against them and the drunkards make songs of them Psal 69. And when it pleaseth God to take them away by death they are as glad thereof as the inhabitants of the earth were for the death of the two witnesses who reioiced and made merry and sent gifts one to another Alas that this foolish world should be such an enemy to its best friends and from whom it receiveth most good Oh little doe wicked men know what a treasure they lose in the death of a good man how open then they lie to the lash of Gods judgements when he is gone that used to stand in the breach It was said of Elijah as you heard that he was the chariots and horsemen of Israel And it was said of godly S. Ambrose Bishop of Millaine and of whom Theodosius the Emperour pronounced That hee onely knew Ambrose worthy to be called a Bishop That he was the wals of Italy and Stilico the Earle said his death did threaten destruction to Italy And indeed how Italy hath beene harrowed and brought to desolation by the fire and sword of barbarous Nations the Goths Hunnes and Vandals and made the Theater of most lamentable Tragedies Histories doe report In places where enemies are up in Armes chariots and horses are in great request and when enemies besiege there is great regard had to the wals if they have breaches made in them and none to defend or fall downe flat as the wals of Iericho did those Cities must needs be surprised Now good men are as the wals of the Common-wealth City or Towne where they dwell if it were not for them the judgements of God would breake in and destroy them How are such to be esteemed Noah was as a wall to the old world and no sooner in the Arke but the floud came and destroyed them all Lot was as a wall to Sodome and no sooner in Zoar but fire and brimstone fell and consumed them all The Christians were as the wall to Ierusalem and no sooner in Pella but Ierusalem was surprised and sacked No sooner had Iosiah his eies closed that he might not see the vengeance but be taken to rest as God had promised but straightway the wofull tragedy of Iudah and Ierusalem beganne Wherefore the Prophet complaineth that good and mercifull men are taken away and men doe not take it to heart as a great losse and fearefull prognostication of evill For conclusion seeing Gods servants are so powerfull with God and that only by praier and we doe not know how to pray as we ought ourselves but it is the Spirit which helpeth our infirmitie and maketh us cry Abba Father And God hath promised to give his Spirit to them that aske it As every good gift commeth downe from the Father of lights so specially this most excellent proper and peculiar gift of praier I pray you observe that whereas the Lord by his Prophet promiseth I will destroy all the Nations that come against Ierusalem he presently addeth in the next words as the meanes whereby so great a favour is procured I will poure upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication Where note first what is the lot and condition of all the persecutors of Ierusalem that first or last they shall be destroyed Secondly that the meanes whereby destruction is procured of the enemies of Ierusalem Gods Church and people is praier Lastly that this gift of praier commeth downe from God it is his gift he will poure out the spirit of supplications and verily as there is no gift more necessary and usefull none more rare how poore are some in this that are rich in some other graces I know God giveth this in measure to some more and some lesse according to his good pleasure And God forbid I should discourage any and specially novices and younglings for it is most cleare that even the sighs and groanes of a faithfull penitent soule are loud and shrill cries in the eares of God short ejaculations God be mercifull unto me God blesse his Church God prosper his Gospell God convert or confound the enemies of his Church and Truth even these uttered not for forme fashion vse custome but fervently heartily are most excellent and powerfull praiers yet herein we are not to rest but to seeke after a growth in this as in other graces of the Spirit and never to cease begging of God till in good measure according to the Scripture phrase even in the language of Canaan we be able to expresse our owne wants and the wants of his Church and in his owne words to crave such blessings and graces as we or his people doe stand in need of Standing in the breach with his owne weapons of gracious Covenant and Promise and Oath in one hand and urging his owne Arguments of truth grace glory Oh this is an excellent gift indeed and this is the way to bring destruction upon the enemies of Ierusalem and whosoever seeketh this grace shall in good measure obtaine it and as any receive let them use it and they shall to their great comfort see a blessed increase of
the Sabbaths another sinne causing their captivity and much reproved and threatned by the Prophets of God Moreover the land was full of bloudie crimes by reason of murder man slaughter quarrelling fighting Also polluted with all manner of carnall uncleannesse adulterie and fornication assembling themselves by troopes in harlots houses and they were as fed horses in the morning every one neighed after his neighbours wife Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soule be avenged on such a nation as this Yea this was so common a sinne that he called them all adulterers yea they committed incest humbling their owne sisters and defiling their daughters in law yea humbling such as were set apart for pollution Likewise they did oppresse defraud and wrong one another by false weights and measures and devoure one another by cruell usurie and unjust gaine and did even set traps and snares to catch men building houses by unrighteousnesse and chambers by wrong using their neighbours service without wages and not giving him for his worke taking usurie and increase and greedily gaining by extortion And all this was spent in sumptuous buildings setting their nests on high and making glorious houses in pride of apparell taking up every vaine foolish and new fangled fashion And when Gods Prophets did most threaten vengeance and they should have humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes loe then did they most give themselves to garishnesse tricking pranking and painting themselves in scorne of God Wherefore the Lord threatned them that he would punish the Princes and Kings children and all such as were clothed with strange apparell Also they gave themselves to maintaine excesse in diet drinking and making one another drunke which one of the Prophets thus threatned Woe to him that giveth his neighbour drinke that putteth the bottle unto him and maketh him drunken Moreover they were most unthankfull for blessings received never said Let us feare the Lord our God that giveth raine both the former and latter raine in his season he reserveth to us the appointed weekes of the harvest Neither did they amend by gentle corrections the Prophet bewailed it O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rocke they have refused to returne Loe these are the maine linnes which reigned in Iudah and Ierusalem before their captivitie which God sent his Prophets to reprove and threaten but all in vaine for they did trust because they had the Temple and worship of God no evill should happen unto them and therefore answered their threatnings with these words of vaine confidence The temple of the Lord The temple of the Lord The temple of the Lord. Wherefore the Lord assured the Prophet he would cast them out of his sight they should goe into captivitie and he would doe to that house wherein they so vainly trusted as he had done to Shiloh in the dayes of their forefathers As these were their sinnes for kinde so had they long continued in them notwithstanding they had had such faire warning in the captivitie of their brethren for the same which did not a little adde to the measure of their sinne which being full vengeance must needs come and the harvest of their iniquitie being ripe the sickle of Gods iudgement must needs cut them downe and God will not heare his Prophet intreat for them Now to come to our selves and make Application of all we have heard I beseech you with all godly feare and reverence receive and consider well these foure propositions First that we in England by Gods mercy yet are and for many yeeres have beene as happie as ever Iudah and Ierusalem were in our Kings and Queenes Iudges Magistrates Ministers peace plentie prosperitie deliverances from dangers fatherly corrections for amendment but above all for advancing and continuing of his glorious Gospell to be so generally professed in such safetie for making of our kingdome to become an harbour and sanctuarie to Gods afflicted servants of other countries and for many other blessings wherein it hath beene so enriched and preferred that with Capernaum it hath beene exalted to heaven and made the wonder of the world Secondly that we are at this time nothing sound but all swellings and sores a sinfull nation and loaded with iniquitie You have heard what were the sinnes of Iudah and Ierusalem doe you not see them to be our owne Shall I goe over them againe and search for them with candle-light It needeth not they are written in such Capitall letters as he that runneth may reade them Whosoever shall with reverence and conscience reade the writings of those worthy Prophets and compare our times thereto shall finde they doe so lively picture out the iniquities of our daies as if they had beene sent unto us and had prophesied against us and therefore their writings are ours either to admonish us and turne us away from all our evill waies and to prevent the like judgements or to make our condemnation the more just and our plagues the more terrible if in his justice he shall execute them upon us It may be some exception may be taken against one sinne and indeed one of the greatest viz. that we cannot be charged with Idolatry as Iudah was I answer it is true God be blessed that Romish Idolatry is by our Christian and wholesome Lawes suppressed and his Excellent Majesty both by peerelesse labours and exquisite writings hath throughly discovered the Antichrist and by godly Edicts and Proclamations advanceth pure Religion to the utmost wherein the Lord enable him to persist that he and his may be blessed for ever Amen But give me leave to make a few Quaeres Have we not too many Chemarims Seminaries Priests and Iesuites sacrificing to Baal Have we not too many that sweare by the Lord Malcom as all our Church-Papists that professe religion in Gods house and have also their close chambers of Imagerie at home Is not the number of Idolatrous Recusants greatly increased even since that most hellish powder-treason for which no name can ever be devised able to set forth the nature of it which a man would have thought would have beene the bane of Poperie thorow the world it being a fruit of their Religion and practise of their positions and principles oh how fearefull that Idolatrie even since that time should so increase Thirdly as we have many enemies so are they most fierce barbarous truculent and sanguinarie plotting and devising most cruell and unnaturall proiects and stratagems and where they prevaile executing such murders and massacres as were never read nor heard of witnesse our powder-plot the mercilesse French massacre
persecuting Citie which liveth so deliciously and saith I sit a Queene and shall see no sorrow Her purple flatterers vaunt that temporall felicite is a note of the Church and make a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholikes have had and as one saith scarcely ever received the foile in a just warre yet the holy truth assureth us the Beast and false Prophet shall be taken and all the sowles of Heaven filled with the flesh of those Kings Captaines and mightie men which have fought against the Gospell Yea Babylon as a mill-stone cast into the sea shall be throwne downe and found no more and she rewarded double according to her works at whose destruction all the Kings and Merchants of the earth who have lived deliciously and committed fornication with her shall bitterly lament and cry Alas alas that great Citie bow in one boure is she made desolate So Heaven Prophets Apostles and all the Martyrs Saints shal praise God with many a ioyfull Alleluiah Therefore stumble not at it that for the sins of his people hee giveth them into the hands of such as are more wicked than themselves for when his people are sufficiently scourged their enemies shall for ever be destroyed But some object againe wee have continued long in our sinnes and have felt none evill why should wee now be so earnestly called upon and urged to repent and threatned with judgement If wee repent not God is not so hastie I wis as our Preachers would make us beleeve I answer It is the continuance in sinne doth increase our danger as Iudah and Ierusalem were not carried into captivitie for the sinnes of a few yeeres but for their sinnes wherein they had long continued even ever since they were brought up out of Aegypt the men of the old world were spared long even an hundred and twentie yeeres yet continuing in sinne were in the end drowned Iudah and Ierusalem were spared long after their brethren were carried captive even 130. yeeres but continuing in sinne in the end they were carried into captivitie too The Lord is patient and slow to anger yet if there will bee no end of sinne there will be an end of mercie and God may repent so often that hee will repent no more and as our Prophet saith he can no longer beare and as he saith in another place God is wearie with repenting this wee have in the Scriptures illustrated by two familiar and elegant metaphors The first is of a large vessell which by drops asketh a long time of filling so God told Abraham the iniquitie of the Amorites was not yet full and our Saviour bade the Scribes and Pharisies of his age Fill ye up the measure of your fathers The second is of an harvest Corne when it is sowen is not by and by ripe The husband-man saith S. Iames hath great patience Why did not men cut downe their corne at Easter because it was not then ripe why are they now in many places so busie with sithes and sickles because the harvest is come and corne is ripe So God calleth to the executioners of judgements when wickednesse is great as unto his reapers Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe Oh then doe not say we have sinned often or long and what evill hath happened for a vessell at last may be filled with drops and corne may so long grow till fields be white to harvest and readie to be cut The last objection is Oh but England is a most happie and flourishing kingdome blessed with a most wise and prudent King a most hopefull issue wee have many learned and religious Preachers multitudes of godly and sincere professours Gods true religion established by Law and maintained by authoritie God hath heaped such temporall blessings upon us that it is another Canaan flowing with milke and hony God hath most wonderfully delivered it from matchlesse dangers and ruine intended it is a verie Sanctuarie of refuge for the Saints of God elsewhere persecuted Oh the consideration of these things makes many an one so secure that no warning fro heaven or earth word or works of mercie or justice will doe them good but they proceed from evill to worse as though no hurt could come unto them But give me leave as I doe most unfainedly acknowledge the great mercies of God so I would plucke away these pillowes from under their elbowes whereupon they sleepe in security I say then that the greater are the mercies of God unto any people the greater shall be their judgements if they abuse them The higher that Capernaum is exalted to heaven the lower shall it be cast downe into hell if it repent not And God threatneth Coniah As I live saith the Lord though Coniah the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I plucke thee thence and I will give thee into the hands of them that seeke thy life Was there ever any people in the world could compare with Iudah and Israel for privileges and prerogatives yet could they not secure them but their sinnes comming to height God forsooke the house whereon his Name was called yea and gave the dearely beloved of his soule into the hands of her enemies or as some Translations reade his beloved soule Oh if God did not spare such a people as he acknowledgeth to be the dearely beloved of his soule who had such a good and religious King when Ieremy beganne to prophesie viz. Iosiah who reformed Religion destroied the monuments of Idolatry and strictly compelled all to serve the Lord according to his word such excellent Prophets and some learned and worthy Teachers and some good people that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem yet when their sinnes came to be full he would not heare any for them but gave them over to a long and wofull captivity What have any people to presume on No no this Doctrine shall stand against all the subtill objections of Satan and of flesh and bloud against it That the sinnes of a people may come to that height that God will bring some temporall judgement upon them and not heare any that shall pray for them Now to come to ourselves that we may make good use of all that hath beene spoken and heard You hearken what I should say concerning our owne estate and that you shall doe first from the mouth of an enemy When Ieremie heard the false Prophet Hananiah prophesie much good to Iudah he answered feelingly Amen the Lord doe so Pererius the Iesuite writing on that you have heard in Genesis The sinne of the Amorites is not yet full saith If any doe marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of the Catholikes there he doth answer thē with the words of the Text Because their sinne is not full