it shall be given into the hands of the King of Babylon and he shall burne it with fire saith the Lord The like he counselled Zedekiah the King Bring your necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon and serve him and his people and live why will ye die thou and thy people by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence And as he advised the King and people to yeeld themselves so he wrote a letter to those that were carried away captives requiring them in the name of the Lord to be quiet and to pray to the Lord for the peace of the Citie which sheweth that Ieremie well knew that the Lords purpose was absolute and his prohibition to pray for them so too If any man shall aske me whether Gods threatnings be not conditionall I answer that many of Gods threatnings of temporall punishments are conditionall so saith God by our Prophet At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill I have thought to doe unto them It was the case of Ninivie against which Ionah by commission from the Lord pronounced Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed yet Ninivie repenting Ninivie was not then destroyed God changed his revealed will and sentence the prophesie fell but the Citie fell not yea the same punishment which at the first threatning is conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome conditionally threatned when as at Abrahams suit the Lord was brought from fiftie to ten If there be found but ten righteous persons in Sodome I will spare it for the ten sake but because they could not be found the destruction was absolutely threatned when the Angell said to Lot We will destroy this place the Lord hath sent us to destroy it and if God had not beene mercifull to pull Lot away he had beene destroyed in it Such was the case of this people If when Ieremie began his ministerie reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivitie they had humbled themselves and repented in sackcloth and ashes it might have been prevented but growing worse and worse and unto their former sinnes adding this of extremely abusing the Prophet the Lord grew to be resolute they should into captivitie as well as their brethren he revealed it unto his Prophet and forbade him to pray for them which he did and only counselled them to yeeld themselves into their enemies hands Thirdly by way of prevention God satisfied his Prophet in what he foresaw might be objected The Prophet might object that hereby both his justice and truth might be questioned he satisfieth the Prophet in both first he cleareth his justice and that two wayes first by declaring the greatnesse of this peoples sinne whereof you shall more hereafter for a taste looke but the next verse following my text Seest thou not what they doe in the Cities of Iudah and streets of Ierusalem The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough to bake cakes to the Queene of Heaven Therefore my furie shall be poured out on such a people unworthie to be prayed for Is it not a just thing to send such into captivitie Secondly he declareth his soveraigne and absolute authoritie over all people and nations so as without controll he may justly build and plant or pull downe and destroy which he shewed in the pottershouse in whose hands a vessel that he made of clay being marred he made it another vessell as seemed good to the potter then came the word of the Lord saying O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this potter behold as the clay is in the hands of the potter so are yee in mine hands The clay is not beholden to the potter for it had being before and the clay never offended the potter yet the potter may make what vessell he will and the vessell not complaine Why hast thou made me thus But we are beholding to God for our being and we have sinned against him and may he not doe with us as pleaseth him This sinfull people shall into captivitie the Prophet must not pray for them yet is God herein most righteous and just Yea but harken how the Prophet bemoaneth Gods truth saying Ah Lord God the Prophets say unto them yee shall not see the sword but you shall have an assured peace in this place Then sayd the Lord the Prophets prophesie lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spoken unto them they prophesie a false vision and divination the deceit of their owne heart but I will bring the sword yea and by the sword shall those false Prophets also be consumed speake unto the people and charge them that they harken not to the Prophets Diviners Dreamers Inchaunters and Sorcerers which say ye shall not serve the King of Babel for they prophesie a lie unto you Thus God preventeth his Prophet and declareth that this judgement is well deserved and standeth with justice and truth and would have the Prophet to rest therein and not pray for them Lastly though many temporall judgements be denounced conditionally yet that this is absolute and that he meaneth indeed his Prophet should not pray for them in this may be gathered from the manner of his revealing of this purpose which was first with many words of most earnest and vehement asseveration saying 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 That must needs stand which the Lord thus avoucheth yet to make it if it were possible more sure the Lord hath sworne it I sweare by my selfe saith the Lord this house shall become a desolation An oath saith the Apostle is amongst men an end of all strife and God that he might fully declare the immutabilitie of his counsell having no greater to sweare by hath sworne by himselfe Loe how the Apostle saith an oath declareth the immutabilitie of his counsell God never sware but hee performed it He hath sworne and will not repent saith David if God sweare he will never repent of it he may change his sentence but never reverse his oath yea God swearing that Moses should not enter into the promised land though he repented of his sinne and most earnestly intreated this favour could not obtaine but received a kinde of rebuke Let it suffice speake no more to me of this matter Deut. 3. 28. He cannot lie much lesse forsweare himselfe he hath seldome sworne but ever made it good Seeing then God revealed to his Prophet that
Gods people and destruction to their enemies Doth there come up an huge multitude of Moabites Ammonites and Mount Seir against King Iehoshaphat let but him proclaime a fast throughtout all Iudah and let them pray and God will make their enemies destroy one another and he and his shall looke on and only sing and praise God Oh Peter is in prison a great calamity is thereby threatned to the Church but if the Church make praiers to God for him the Angell of the Lord came with great power and glory into the prison and brake off Peters chaines opened the prison doores yea and made the iron gate open of it owne accord Loe how the praiers of Gods children are stronger than fetters and gates of iron Yea Christ is gone on high and hath left his Church what is now to be done let them continue in praier and doe their duty after the Holy Ghost commeth as this day witnesseth which and much more that might be said to this purpose doth abundantly confirme your raised Doctrine viz. That Gods faithfull servants by their praiers are powerfull with God to turne away and prevent threatned and imminent judgements to themselves or the Church of God which made zealous Luther say There is nothing omnipotent under God but faithfull praier This commandeth all things in heaven earth hell in all the elements aire fire earth water But it would not be amisse to search that we may know the reasons why the praiers of Gods servants are so powerfull with God and they are principally these two viz. First our praiers are not our owne as the worke of our reason will affections or any thing that is naturall in us but the operation of Gods owne Spirit in us For as for us we know not what to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh request for us and againe It is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father In nothing is there so evident demonstration of the spirit of God as in zealous praier To which purpose Gregory hath an excellent saying The Saints receive from God what they oppose to his blowes and as I may say from him it is whereby they lift up themselves against him and whereby they are enabled to resist him Iacob wrestled with God prevailed but it was God gave him the strength so to doe now God cannot but acknowledge the worke of his owne Spirit and therefore we know that whatsoever we aske of the Father according to his will he heareth us and our Saviour hath said Whatsoever yee shall aske my Father in my name he will give it you But the praiers of Turkes Iewes Idolaters Heretikes Infidels Hypocrites are of no power with God because such are not made by the Spirit of God the praiers of a wicked man are abominable and turne into sinne no more accepted of God than if he cut off a dogs necke God hath threatned that though such doe multiply their praiers hee will not heare them The second reason hereof is Gods owne free love and mercy who is pleased to make all the faithfull his favourites so as Haman nor any favourite could ever doe so much with those Monarchs and Kings that have set their love upon them as the least of Gods Saints may doe with the Lord for if earthly Kings be exceedingly offended favourites must give way Hamans face must be covered he shall never see the Kings face any more But though God be angry and have mustred his Armies yea and besieged and battered so powerfull are Gods servants that they can stand up in the breach and by their praiers turne away threatned judgements Oh who would not be such a Kings favourite who cannot deny any thing which is for his glory and their true good The more I thinke on this the more I am astonished that man poore miserable man weake sicke diseased vile and abominable in his owne eies despised of others yet should be such a favourite to the King of Kings Oh the free mercy and love of God! How should the consideration hereof ravish us This being so when the sinnes of a people are full and when the Lord is purposed to bring a judgement upon a people hee commonly maketh way thereunto As an earthly King purposing to doe a thing which he knoweth is displeasant to his favourite who would hinder him in it will make way by sending him out of the way or forbidding him to speake or some way taking him off So the Lord sometimes by taking to himselfe and calling out of this world such as else would stand in the gap whereof the Prophet Esay thus speaketh The righteous is taken away from the evill to come Thus God tooke away good King Iosiah that in his sonnes daies he might bring the threatned evill upon the Land And God tooke good S. Augustine when his City Hippo was besieged by the Vandals that he should not stand in the breach for them Or if he suffer them to live he restraineth them from praier as here he did our Prophet and rebuked Samuel How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have reiected him from reigning over Israel Or else he takes away the spirit of praier and doth suffer it to be dulled as that they cannot pray fervently as Esay complained that no man did stirre up himselfe to lay hold on God but as it were grew weary As then it is a most comfortable thing to see godly men to live and to see men zealous in preaching praying and serving God as when a storme commeth to see all men betake themselves to their tacklings as the Prophet saith to stirre up them selves to lay hold on God so is it a fearefull thing to see the righteous taken away by death or such as have beene zealous to become cold carelesse and negligent set all at six and seven let others care whom it doth more concerne and so post it over from one to another For hereby God even maketh way to the execution of some great judgement by removing such as might stand in the breach and stop his course And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that within these few yeeres past God hath taken away a great number of his faithfull servants both Magistrates Ministers and Christian people and howsoever in his mercy he hath left a remnant some few Noahs and Lots Nehemiahs and Esaies that being sensible of Gods judgements doe warne this secure and unthankfull world lift up their hearts and hands with Moses against Amalek make intercession with faithfull Abraham mourne for the abominations of the Land wrestle and weepe with Iacob otherwise we had surely beene made long agoe as Sodome and like to Gomorrha yet alas what are these amongst so many prophane carelesse and secure sinners and how are these scorned and derided disgraced and discouraged how are such for signes
and the incredible havocke of thousands and millions where Romanists have prevailed Oh cruell and bloudy Rome how are thy children every where knowne by their red liverie Fourthly England hath had as many and faire warnings as ever Iudah and Ierusalem had by strange tokens signes and wonders The captivitie of the ten Tribes was not a fairer warning to them than the calamitie of the Churches abroad is unto us But above all for these many yeeres he hath most powerfully reproved sinne and thundred out vengeance by his heavenly word in the mouthes of his holy servants greater than Ieremie or Ezechiel yea by the testimonie of Christ greaterthan Iohn who was also greaterthan any of the Prophets thereby declaring to all the world how unwilling he is to enter into judgement with us of all other people though wee have provoked him above all people professing his holy and heavenly truth and to this end whereas his hand is so heavie on our neighbours he sendeth us his Ministers unto you as on the one side both to set your sinnes before your faces whereby you anger him and the meanes how to pacifie and appease him that he may perpetually continue a good God to you and yours so on the other side to threaten you that he will make you a spectacle of wrath and misery to all people as he made Ierusalem without speedy and unfained repentance Lastly and which is most fearefull generally men live in security and presumption Yea doe not men and women every where grow in senslesnesse and harden themselves against all signes and tokens and warnings putting farre from them the evill day and say tush we shall neither see sword nor famine Yea are not too many come to that height of impiety as to scorne and deride such as are affected with the threatnings of Gods judgements and will not runne into the same excesse of ungodlinesse they have done Is it not more safe to commit sinne than reprove it Nay is not the practise of piety and zeale for the Gospell in many companies more reprochfull than to lie speake filthily swagger and blaspheme to scorne and jest at Religion and make a sport of sinne Yea that which is worse than all this are not the Ieremies and Ezechiels sent unto them hated mocked scorned and derided and even loaded with malicious slanders as the vilest men on earth and not worthy to live Who so blinde as seeth not these things and who so simple as from them cannot conclude therefore surely God must needs be avenged on such a Nation unlesse we repent speedily and whilst there is time we all meet him with entreaty of peace Oh England at the last know the time of thy visitation and awake out of thy deepe security watch fast and pray But I foresee many objections will be made against this conclusion As first some like the proud Pharisie may say I thanke God I am not an Atheist Idolater blasphemer murtherer adulterer nor such a sinner as you have named and reproved out of the Prophet therefore I need not so take things to heart and humble my selfe I shall escape well enough I answer though thou wertest as just and righteous as thou braggest for yea as righteous as Noah Iob or Daniel yet thou knowest these sinnes doe every where reigne and abound and thou maist be wrapped in a generall judgement The Scriptures afford us memorable examples of great and generall judgements procured by the sinnes of some few and indeed all make but one body quilibet homo est pars communitatis and the sinnes of the wicked are in some sort the sins of all them where they dwell but specially their open and knowen abominations If thou seest an Atheist Idolater a murtherer a drunkard and dost not to the uttermost of thy power seeke to stop and reforme the same or if that way thou canst doe but little yet if thou dost not mourne in thy soule to see Religion thereby disgraced God dishonoured and his anger kindled and dost not pray to God for pardon how just soever thou art in thine owne person yet those sinnes are in some sort thine and the judgements temporall may wrap thee in them Let it never be forgotten that when Achan had stollen the excommunicate thing for which God was angry and Ioshuah lamented saying Oh Lord God what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies God answered Israel hath sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant they have taken of the accursed thing and have stollen and dissembled and have put it even amongst the stuffe See how God challengeth and punisheth all Israel for Achans sinne and at his execution Ioshuah asked him Why hast thou troubled us Oh Lord if this were remembred and beleeved it would justly cause a great deale of feare to see or heare of the sinnes of the Land or Countrey much more of the City Towne or Parish wherein we live and therefore how innocent soever we thinke our selves let us be grieved for the sinnes of others and labour to prevent such judgements as may justly wrap us in them of which more was said from the second Doctrine this being said to be one of the reasons why the godly are so exceedingly affected when they perceive his anger and heare his threatnings Secondly say some we see such as are professed Idolaters and most corrupt in doctrine and profane in conversation in whom all the forenamed sinnes doe reigne yet live and thrive and prosper in the world why should we then be so affected for our sinnes I answer That small sinnes of such a people as have entred into league and covenant with God and have received the knowledge of his truth and make profession of his feare are more grievous and displeasing unto God than great rebellions of professed Atheists and Idolaters God is more offended with the sinnes of Iudah and Ierusalem than ten thousand times greater in Babylon If his children observe not his Lawes nor keepe his Commandements he will be sure to visit their offences with the rod and their sinnes with scourges Hence it is that the Apostle saith Iudgement beginneth at Gods house If a man have a stranger yea an enemy come to him yet he will make him welcome carve to him liberally and of the best beare with his talke and manners though very absurd and displeasing whereas his childe is set at lower end and served with leavings and if hee offend but in looke is rebuked but the stranger goeth his way and commeth no more the sonne abideth in the house and enjoieth the inheritance The wicked whose portion is in this present life are filled with Gods hidden treasure and fatted as against the day of slaughter whereas his children for whom he hath provided better things in the next life are cut short and chastened that they be not condemned with the
Judah must into Captivitie SIX SERMONS On IEREM 7. 16. LATELY PREACHED in the Cathedrall Church of Christ in CANTERBVRIE and elsewhere by Thomas Iackson Doctor in Divinitie and one of the Prebends of the said Church 1. COR. 10. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AVGVST Illa est poena peccati justissima ut amittat unusquisque illud quo bene uti noluit cùm sine ulla difficultate posset si vellet id est ut qui sciens recta non facit amittat scire quid rectum sit qui rectum facere cùm posset noluit amittat posse cùm velit Optimum aliena frui insania LONDON Printed by I. Haviland for Godfrey Emondson and Nicholas Vavasour and are to be sold at their shop at the signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1622. A GENERALL VIEW of the principall Doctrines raised confirmed illustrated objections removed questions answered Vses made with Application of all to these times for the benefit of Gods children Doct. 1 GOD commonly giveth faire warning before he bring any iudgement specially on his Church and people Doct. 2 Gods people when they see evident tokens of his anger and perceive some great iudgement comming doe take it to heart and by all good meanes labour to pacifie him Doct. 3 Gods faithfull servants are very powerfull with God and as his deare favourites by their supplications and praters to prevent and turne away iudgements and calamities from themselves and Gods people Doct. 4 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 iudgement upon them and will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL AND MINE HONOVRAble friend Sir ISACK SYDLEY Knight Baronet Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplied WOrthy Sir I can truly say my greatest and in effect only joy in this world is either to be preaching or preparing for it fishing or mending my net That which to many is a great paine and wearisomnesse is to me greatest pleasure and content I finde that saying of Saint Augustine most true Wherein a man delighteth there is no labour or that labour is loved It is a true saying that Printing is a kinde of Preaching and though not so plausible and effectuall to perswade wanting the habit and gesture of a living man the life of Oratorie yet is it both of larger extent seeing a man may preach to moe with his penne than he can with his tongue and be further heard out of the Presse than the Pulpit the matter delivered more memorable affording greater leave to pause and consider and also of longer continuance for a dead man may live in his bookes and by them preach to the living though unborne when he dieth I would account it a double happinesse if I could doe good both waies and could truly say with that blessed and prime Apostle I thinke it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up Moreover I will endevour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance Oh now is the time if ever for Ministers of the Gospell instantly to preach the Word and now if ever to presse the practise of repentance Gods judgements are abroad in the world and can no other way be prevented As I am bound by mine office to preach the word and woe be to me if I doe it not so hath my loving master whom I have now served in foure full apprentiships well deserved that I should faithfully lay out and trade with such gifts as he hath committed to my trust as may be for his greatest advantage The desire of my soule is the evening of my life drawing on and the shadowes thereof stretching out not only to be found well doing and to have my gray haires a Crowne being found in the way of vertue but that I may bring forth more fruit in mine age and my last workes be moe than the first that when I shall lay downe this earthly Tabernacle whose Keepers begin to tremble and shall come to render an account of my Stewardship I may receive such commendation and reward as he hath gratiously promised I doe humbly commend these few Sermons to your Worship as a supply of my needfull and allowable absence from that part of the Church to which my goodwill is not only to deale the Gospell of God but even mine owne soule also Accept them both as a fruit of my love to the good things I have observed in you and desire the increase of and also as a testification of my service and thankfulnesse for all such manifold curtesies and encouragements as I have received from your worthy selfe and the rest of your Christian and religious family Read them at your leasure regard remember and practise and Christ blesse your hearing and reading to the furtherance of your salvation to whose blessed direction and protection I commit you and yours and remaine ever At your Worships command THOMAS IACKSON To the Reader CHristian and courteous Reader how I was affected at the appearance of the blazing Star and with the Sermon of that stately tongue of Heaven and shaking of that fiery Rod God and mine owne conscience know What I said of it in my next Lecture being so iustly oceasioned by the sequell of mine ordinary Text they that then heard me can testifie whose memories I helped by reducing the effects to these sixe words Death Drought Dearth Winds Wonders Warres How answerably things have fallen out may lamentably be read in the face of Christendome and how I have ever since endevoured by handling of penitentiall Scriptures to worke Repentance the only way to prevent eminent and imminent Iudgements they can best witnesse where by Gods providence I have exercised my ministery Having lately in divers Sermons handled this excellent portion of Scripture out of the Prophet Ieremy one of those whom God extraordinarily raised after the Captivity of the tenne Tribes and sent him to Iudah and Ierusalem to reprove them for their sinnes exhort to repentance admonish them to be warned by the example of their brethren else to threaten them with the like Captivity howsoever they were delivered to many yet me thought the matter doth so fitly concerne these daies and times as there arose a great conflict in my bosome and I could not have peace till I was resolved to communicate them further that by Gods blessing I might helpe to awaken moe out of security and provoke them by fasting and prayer to make up the hedge and stand in the gap for the Land that he should not destroy it Thus by Gods providence these Sermons are come to thine eyes to read who it may bee wast farre off when they were preached by word of mouth Regard the matter and
and appearance of Gods anger Who saith Moses considereth the power of his wrath Psal 90. Oh it is a powerfull wrath indeed as Hezekiah and David say It crusheth and breaketh the bones it woundeth and killeth If the wrath of a King who is but a mortall man be as messengers of death what is the wrath of the King of Kings Oh saith David when thou turnedst away thy face I was troubled and Solomon said A wounded spirit who can beare Oh it is the sense of Gods anger troubleth woundeth killeth is the hell on earth at the appearance whereof Gods children are so affected mourne and cry The second reason is because next unto God Gods Church and people are dearely beloved of all the true members thereof as being the people that God hath redeemed with his bloud entred into perpetuall league and covenant with yea the spouse of Christ Ephes 5. 32. and therefore it wonderfully affecteth Gods servants with griefe and maketh them cry when they foresee any judgement or miserie befall them the rather because in the miserie of Gods Church Gods glory seemeth to be stained whereof they are so zealous that rather than that should happen Moses wished to be blotted out of the booke and S. Paul to be separated from Christ Oh how father Eli was afflicted at the report of heavie newes when one told him that Israel was fled before the Philistims his two sonnes slaine and the Arke of God taken It strucke him dead at heart he fell backward from his seat and broke his necke and his daughter in law hearing the same newes presently fell into the throwes of travaile and being delivered of a sonne called his name Ichabod When zealous Nehemiah heard how the people of God were in great affliction Ierusalem broken downe and the gates burnt with fire he could not containe himselfe but sate downe and wept and being the Kings Cup-bearer and as much as his office and life was worth to appeare sad and hee never had beene so before yet now he could not hide it his countenance bewrayed it the King tooke notice of it and asked him Why is thy countenance sad seeing thou art not sicke this is nothing else but sorrow of heart Oh the ruines of Ierusalem lay at his heart which also made the people of God so imprecate themselves If I forget Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning yea let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth if I preferre not Ierusalem to my chiefestioy The third and last reason whereof flesh and bloud are more sensible than the two former is That the godly may be wrapped with the wicked in the same temporall punishment and therefore when they see it comming they are much affected and labour to prevent it I say againe howsoever God is marvellous in commonly providing for his children before a judgement come as we shall heare more hereafter yet many times even the godly are wrapped with the wicked in the same temporall punishment and therefore are so affected Shall we condemne all that perished in the waters and all that were consumed with fire God forbid If yee doe yet know that though all were not guiltie of the sinne of making and worshipping the golden Calfe yet it endangered all Let mee alone saith God and I will utterly consume them and blot out their name from under Heaven for Achans sinne Iosuahs armie is put to flight and many slaine for Sauls sinne in killing the Gibeonites there came a famine upon the land for three yeeres together and you know for that great villanie committed by the inhabitants of Gibeah in abusing the Levites Concubine not only vengeance came upon the Citie wherein it was committed but upon all the Tribe of Beniamin because they delivered them not up to be punished but rather would seeme to defend them yea not only upon that Tribe which might seeme justly accessarie but upon the inhabitants of Iabesh Gilead because they came not up to the warre to see Gods judgements executed upon those wicked men Let him that readeth that story consider how farre the judgements of God may extend themselves towards all such as are not affected with Gods anger and doe not to the uttermost of their power endevour to punish sin This was it made all the people of Israel so much afraid when they heard how the Reubenites Gadites and halfe the Tribe of Manasseh had erected an Altar on the other side Iordan and supposed it had beene to offer sacrifice on their Commissioners told them if they did so rebell against the Lord the next morrow the Lord would be wroth with all the Congregation of Israel If then the zeale of Gods glorie and love to Gods people will not move yet the love to ourselves and estates may move us to mourne for sinnes and abominations of the land and to take greatly to heart the tokens of anger and threatnings of judgements because wee also may be wrapped up in them But mee thinketh I heare some say such is Satans malice and bloudie murtherous desire to have Gods judgements generall and therefore dulleth the spirits of Gods children thus Alas what profit will it be for me to mourne and afflict my soule if the judgement come I and mine all we are and have shall be wrapped up in it as well as those who take nothing to heart but live joyfully and therefore let us even eat and drinke and let God doe his will Oh fainting soule be not abused and deceived step up for thy part into the breach to stay Gods wrath seeke the Lord amongst the meeke of the earth for Sions sake hold not thy tongue and for Ierusalems sake give God no rest bee one of his remembrancers day and night in all thy supplications and prayers hold up thy hands against Satan and Antichrist and bee thou to the uttermost of thy power an enemie to all the enemies of the Church and helpe the Lord and his people against them with prayer prease and push of pike if thou beest thereunto called and crie mightily unto God for helpe in this that God would generally open the eyes of all men to see our sins and the judgments thereby deserved that all mens hearts may melt into teares as Iosiahs did in the like case and that all as one man may goe out and meet the Lord by repentance before his decree bee executed upon us Yea if none shall joyne with thee but in this case thou mayest complaine with Eliah that thou art left alone yea so farre from helping as that they doe mocke and discourage thee as David complained For thy sake I have borne reproach and shame hath covered my face when I wept and chastened my soule with fasting that was my reproach I put on sackcloth and became a proverbe they that sate in the gate spake against
judgement afarre off and like faithfull watchmen from the wall give warning to the City as soone as ever they descry the Lord comming against his people Secondly they must labour by their Ministery to bring the people to repentance that so Gods wrath may be pacified and judgements prevented and to that end they must faithfully reprove them for their sinnes and let them see the hainousnesse of their transgressions and call earnestly upon them for repentance Thus did Noah before the floud Lot before the burning of Sodom the Prophets Isay Ieremy Ezechiel Ioel before the Captivities Rent your hearts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God thus did Christ and Iohn Baptist before the finall destruction of the Iewes Repent repent Except yee repent yee shall all perish Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree and O generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life yea thus have all Gods servants done that desire to be free from the bloud of all men for if they give not warning the bloud is required at their hands and therefore it behoveth them to bestirre themselves that if it be possible they may save Gods people from the wrath to come or at least deliver their own soules and be found a sweet savour unto God even in them that perish Thirdly it is the faithfull Ministers duty to be very tenderly affected towards all such as mourne in Sion and with David are afraid of Gods judgements they must be sure to speake a word in due season to such as are weary God gave the Prophet Isay a charge to speake comfortably to the heart of Ierusalem And hence it is that the Prophets Christ Iohn Baptist and the Apostles did ever interlace reproofes and threatnings with heavenly comforts to prepare them for times of triall and tentations that howsoever they lived amongst the wicked and some great judgement and generall might come yet come what will it should goe well with them yea let vs Ministers be assured the Lord will require as strict an account of us how we have cheared and comforted the godly as that we have reproved and threatned the wicked And I say upon this occasion in the word of the Lord Be of good comfort all godly Magistrates and Governors if your hearts be set aright to advance Gods Religion and holy Gospell of Christ and to suppresse and beat downe Atheisme Poperie and all wickednesse whereby Gods anger is kindled and heavie judgements procured Be of good comfort yee Ministers of Christ that watch and warne Gods people having continuall sorrow and heavinesse to see their sinnes and being farre off from serving the time and flattering them saying Peace peace when there is no peace but faithfully reproving them for all their sinnes and earnestly calling on them for repentance And be of good comfort all yee people whose hearts are broken with godly sorrow to see the sinnes of the Land and you that strive to keepe your selves unspotted of the world and to walke worthy the Gospell and such great mercies as God vouchsafeth and humble your soules before God privately in fasting and praiers and so farre as you can and is lawfull labour to draw on others in the like practise of piety know that you are sealed and maintained of God assure your selves the eie and hand of God are on you for good his compassions shall not faile the hils shall sooner remove out of their places than his mercy can be removed from you his covenant with day and night shall sooner be broken than with you you are written upon the palmes of his hands and are ever in his sight and either God will be pacified and spare for your sakes or as he knoweth best will provide for you either take you to himselfe that you shall not see the evill to come or whatsoever evill come his good Angels shall guard you his spirit support you his grace be sufficient for you he shall enrich you with peace patience and joy and in good time make an end of all misery and set the crowne of immortall glory on your head The second duty particular is for the chiefe Magistrate to command such as are subordinate and inferiour to see execution these are to testifie how greatly they are affected with tokens of Gods wrath and appearance of judgements by labouring to reforme sinne and enjoyning fasting and humiliation for pacifying of Gods anger and preventing of judgements Thus did Moses Ioshuah David Iehoshaphat Nehemiah Hesty King of Ninivie It would aske too long a time to shew you how wonderfully God hath beene appeased and how strangely judgements have beene prevented by this most godly and Christian exercise the Scriptures are plentifull in this point Yea it is registred that even Ahab only thereunto moved with a base feare of judgement threatned and but fasting and wearing sackcloth in hypocrisie God deferred the judgement untill his sonnes daies Oh what a blessing did this Land receive hereupon in Ann. 1588. I am perswaded never any did humble themselves before the Lord in true fasting and praier but found a blessing from heaven thereon Oh that I could but perswade you to make triall hereof and to prove the Lord herein I assure my selfe God is the same loving God as ready now as ever most graciously to answer the soule that setteth it selfe aright to seeke God by such waies and meanes as he hath prescribed Now let us come and make application of these things to ourselves That God hath many waies testified his anger and displeasure and not only threatned but also in some measure executed his judgements who so blinde as seeth not But how are men and women affected herewith Doe we in the conscience of our sinnes judge our selves unworthy of any common blessing peace food sleepe apparell and most worthy of all those heavie judgements which either he hath threatned or executed on any others Are we afraid of Gods judgements and specially of those that are spirituall I say againe of those that are spirituall and most dreadfull Doe we grieve exceedingly and mourne in our soules that we have so justly offended God and purchased his anger and displeasure and to have the very floudgates and all the sluces of his judgements drawne up to our utter overthrow and destruction Doe we bend our selves with all our strength to pacific God and prevent his judgements And to that end doe we with full purpose of heart resolve to forsake our owne knowne sins and to put in practise all holy purposes and vowes to reforme presently whatsoever we know to be amisse in us and to shew forth more true zeale of Gods glory and the power of godlinesse in our lives than we have done
generall or of his owne deare servants in particular that God will not heare themselves nor others for them but will bring such a temporall punishment as he hath purposed upon them But now me thinketh I heare some say Oh this is an heavie and comfortlesse doctrine indeed and seemeth to checke all devotion and humiliation for will not men hearing this doctrine delivered say If the case be so that for sinnes yea even small sinnes as the sinnes of Moses and David in speaking unadvisedly and numbring the people seeme to be God will be so farre provoked as no praying fasting crying teares of their owne or others for them can prevaile but God will bring a temporall punishment to what end then should we weepe and mourne fast and pray and afflict our soules Let us eat and drinke and be merry as we may we must beare that punishment which God hath purposed to lay upon us let us therefore never make two evils of one but take that which God hath appointed and there an end Gods will be done Oh God forbid that any should hearken and give way to such subtill and malicious suggestions of Satan so seeking to pervert and abuse even the best things Marke therefore and from Gods booke thou shalt learne that the doctrine doth not abrogate but establish the meanes of pacification Dost thou dwell in a nation Countrey or Citie and dost thou feare the sinnes of the people are such as God will bring some judgement upon them Now marke what God requireth of thee even to seeke the Lord to turne to God by fasting weeping and mourning to stand for the land and if the Lord will not heare thee for them yet thou shalt save thine owne soule The Lord is not more marvellous in any thing than in preserving his in some generall judgement and calamitie that have mourned and wept and sought his face as wee see in the deliverance of Noah Lot Iosiah and the marking of those in the forehead that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem Thou dost not know what good thou maist doe to others even to the whole Church of God wherein thou livest but thou shalt be sure to doe thy selfe good Or dost thou feare that thine owne sinnes are such as God will bring a judgement yet humble thy soule and if thou canst not by repentance fasting and praier alter the decree yet thou maist alter the manner of execution Let Moses repent that he did not sanctifie God and let him begge leave to enter and if that will not be granted yet see with what favour the sentence shall be executed he shall have leave to goe up to the top of Pisgah and see it and if he goe not into the land flowing with milke and honey he shall be translated into heaven which is best of all Let David fast and pray and if the childe die God will give him a Solomon in stead of it Let the people repent and if God will not heare them nor any other for them but they must into captivitie yet God will make even those that lead them away captive to pitie them Oh religion never lost it reward never did any serve God for nought Wherefore Gods will be done but lèt us doe our duties it shall one way or other be requited us and if God heare us not according to our desire he will heare us to our profit Now let us proceed to consider the reasons wherefore the Lord sometimes will not be intreated but will bring some temporall judgement upon his Church and people and they are principally these First to declare the justice of God for if God did threaten and at every intreatie should forbeare to execute this were great mercy but where were justice Wherefore God sometimes will not pardon in regard of temporall punishment no not his deare servants upon repentance and intreatie that thereby he might proclaime to all the world the severitie of his justice and thereby men be warned to take heed of sinne it being a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God And verily if we had grace the remembrance hereof would be a notable bridle to restraine us from sinne if when Satan tempteth us and wee are in danger of falling wee would say as Ioseph did to his impudent mistresse How shall I commit this great sinne against God It may be this sinne will adde so much to the measure of my former sinnes that God will not be intreated to pardon it but bring some heavie temporall judgement upon me Would not God heare his Prophet Ieremie no nor Moses and Samuel Noah Iob and Daniel though praying for his owne people but cast them off a prey to the pestilence famine and sword Yea would not God heare his deare servants Moses and David praying for themselves but even for small sinnes in comparison brought heavie temporall calamities and chastisements upon them Oh what am I a worme of the earth that I should commit such and such sinnes and presume of impunitie O ye sonnes of men stand in awe and sinne not The second reason is for declaration of his truth for if God should threaten judgements by his servants and upon every humiliation and intreatie revoke the same his Prophets would be found liers and light fellowes and no credit given to their words This was it that displeased Ionah so exceedingly that having threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroied yet upon their repentance he also repented of the evill and did it not And indeed some of the wicked have in this respect bolstered up themselves in their sinnes against the Prophets of God saying Let us eat and drinke for to morrow wee shall die but the Prophets words are but winde tomorrow shall be as to day and much more abundant yea desperately call for the execution of their threatnings Let the Lord bring to passe and hasten his great worke that we may see it but the dayes are prolonged and every vision faileth Ezech. 12. 22. For this cause both to maintaine the credit of his Prophets and to make the wicked to tremble at his word howsoever sometimes upon repentance he altered the sentence yet sometimes he would not be intreated but executed judgements as he had threatned Which Iehu observed when having strucken Ioram dead the King of Israel and sonne of Ahab he said to Bidkar his Captaine Take and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth for remember how that when thou and I rode together after Ahab his father the Lord laid this burden upon him And againe being told that the dogs had eaten Iezabel he said This is the word of the Lord which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite saying In the portion of Iezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Iezabel Thus hath God made good his threatnings But me thinketh I heare some insult and