and oratory of his Father Ionah in faire weather would be running from God but the tempest and the Whale brought him backe againe Nay a Dungeon freed Manasseh from the Pit of Hell had he not beene chained in Babilon he had gone on in sinne till hee had beene bound hand and foote and cast into utter darknesse This people who in prosperity like Balaam rode poast to sinne yet when Divine vengeance drew upon them as the Angel did upon him then downe upon their faces and cry If it displease the Lord wee will goe backe againe Numb 22. These who before made the holy one of Israel to cease yet now the rod is upon them sue to him without ceasing and verifie that which the Lord spake in the verse before in angustijs manè requirent me in their afflictions they will seeke me earely Truely in this men use God as children doe fruite trees throw stickes at them in faire weather but when once a storme comes runne under them for shelter The Lord could not otherwise scowre Israel but with the file of afflictions they would not looke towards their Maker untill the destroyer was come forth nor turne backe till judgement trode on their heeles this indeede prevailed more with them without speaking a word than God and all his Prophets could with their passionate Sermons The Almighty threatned them two verses before this I will be a Lyon unto Ephraim and as a yong Lyon to the house of Judah I will teare even I and none shall rescue them yet threatning would doe no good no newes as yet of their conversion but when the wrath of God had brought the Assyrian troopes into their land and they beganne to bathe their swords in their bowels then every man to his knees O Israel venite revertamur come and let us returne to the Lord. O how powerfull is Justice to save when grace comes with it these who before forgat God and themselves yet now in their miseries remember both they who before sought after pleasures and profits yet now when the Lord slew them then they sought him Psal 78. 'T is true Reprobates will not owne God in his Judgements unlesse extreame nothing can startle some but thunder yet good natures will repent at the first blow and like gracious children kneele to the mothers for mercy at one whipping These men could discerne the Lord through the thickest troopes of the Assyrian Armies and in the middest of their swords confesse it was his hand not King Iareb nor Salmanaser nor chance but Dominus rapuit the Lord hath smittenus And thus as in Sampsons riddle Out of the Eater came forth meate when out of this tearing Lyon they could gather the honey of comfort making Gods wrath an argument of his love and returne they will because he hath smitten them Now their argument may bee framed thus 'T is Gods Nature say they to punish where he affects and to chasten every sonne whom he loves Now like a just father he hath smitten us but to breake our stomacks not our bones though he punishes our sinnes yet he pitties our humanity like a wise Chyrurgion he has torne us yet not to kill but cure our festered sores hee is salus Israel Jer. 3. the health of Israell therefore let us returne And thus like Iob they acknowledge affliction commeth not out of the dust nor misery spring out of the earth and therefore resolve with that Champion of heaven Though the Lord teares and slaies us yet will we trust in him And happy are they who so kisse the sonne when he is first angry and fall upon their knees before his whole displeasure bee arose a teare may doe that with God in time which afterwards a shower of blood cannot But thrice miserable they who when they feele the rod yet will not see the hand but arme themselves with Past-boord against the murthering Canon and begge of the creature helpe against the Creator Thus Asa in his disease sought to the Physitian not the Lord thus Iobs Wife in her husbands misery when he should have kneel'd to Prayer fell to cursing Thus wicked Ahaziah turn'd from the God of Israel to seeke helpe from Baalzebub the god of Eckron but all these knockt at a wrong doore and tooke great paines to goe to hell Thou turnest man to destruction saith David Againe thousai'st come again ye children of men And as Hannah sung 1 of Sam. 2. It is the Lord that kils and makes alive that brings downe to the grave and lifts up againe ideo revertamur cries Israel therefore let us returne and this is the first argument the second is drawne A misericordia dei from Gods mercy He will heale he will binde us up A Metaphor taken from Physitians and Chyrurgeons the Septuagint turnes it alligabit sicut fascijs he will binde us up as with swathes as Chyrurgeons doe sores till they are whole St. Ierome uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 linteola Linnen ragges put by a Chyrurgeon into wounds to eate out the corrupt matter Indeed in Israels recovery the Lord used much Art and played the skilfull Chyrurgeon first he applyed applyed sharpe corrosives to eate out the festered corruption judgement to eate out sinne then he suppled their broken spirits with his mercy and swathed them with a gratious pardon so David Hee forgives thy sinnes and heales althy infirmities Psal 103. Their disease would admit no Physitian but God to him alone belong the issues of life and death the balmes of Gilead were antidotes too weake for the oyle of the Scorpion must heale his owne stinge and the sight of the Brazen Serpent expell the poyson of the fiery Serpent In the chapter before ver 13. When Ephraim saw his sicknesse and Iudah his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Iareb for helpe yet could he not heale nor cure you of your wound No said Ier. 3. in vaine is salvation hoped for from the Hils and mountaines the Kings and great men of the earth God is the health of Israel ver 23. so that now they conclude with Solomon Proverbs 21. There is neither prudence nor councell nor wisedome against the Lord What is the Physitian over his patient without God but a busie Ant striving to put life into a mountaine There is no flying from him but to him from the hand of his justice to the armes of his mercy and looke how much the arme in length exceedes the hand by so much his mercy to the penitent is extended beyond his justice O! this is a safer Sanctuary than was Ierusalems hallowed Temple his favour is a stronger protection than ever were the hornes of the Altar and therefore the Prophet calls them the sure mercies of David mens mercies are sometimes cruell alwaies deceitful but Gods are sure mercies such as never failed any soule that trusted in him And though the same Physicke which helpes an Ague will not cure a Fever yet the same mercy
let us returne So much for the persons and their ingenuous confession I come to the next thing the Act which they resolve upon revertamur Let us returne BVt can a man returne when he will Hath hee power as to sinne so to convert himselfe from it Are not the hearts of men in the hands of God who turnes them like the rivers of water Why then doth not the Lord say Egoreducam I will bring them backe but suffers them to take it out of his hands with a venite Come let us returne I answere they are both true and the second supposes the former our returne Gods preventing grace by which being led we freely goe and the Lord brings us backe to him yet not without our selves that is God doth so reduce man to himselfe that we are neither refractory nor idle but contribute to our owne happinesse as Ionadab the sonne of Rechab did in the 1. of King 10. when Iehu call'd to him give me thy hand ascend my Chariot so we must obey the sweet motions of precious Grace which some men resist to their owne damnation T is true the Graces of God insinuate themselves by secret wayes and the impressions of the will are extreamely nice all that past is is a dreame and the future a cloud where thunders murmure in the darke and though the matter be plaine to wit no man comes to Christ except the Father draw him Ioh. 6. yet the manner how is most hidden and secret God drawes every man yet not violently by the head and shoulders but rather by the eares with sweet and gracious perswasions I let them with the cords of love Hos 11.4 God led but they followed and leads by peacefull love no rough violence As the Sun who breaks neither doores nor windowes to enter into houses but penetrates mildly with his gentle beames so Grace finds a quiet passage into mans soule which like a chaste love being fairely woo'd is most willing to be won Indeed from the beginning it was not so in our creation there was Gods hand faciamus hominem Gen. 1. let us make man but in our conversion there is if I may so say but digitus Dei the finger of God no absolute irresistable power for then man might be saved without himselfe and all the rewards of Vertue would perish in the world But redemption was not wrought to make men idle and therefore the Scripture divides the childe sometimes it gives it to Gods grace sometimes to man working by grace I will draw them saith the Lord Chap. 11. and they shall seeke me in the vers before my Text. But to leave the dispute and come to the practise The Lord at this instant speakes to every one that heares me to returne and offers grace sufficient to all that will goe about it Will you stand still as Lots wife did and thinke to be ravished to heaven by some fatall decree fie no though mans soule bee Gods spouse as 't is in the 2. Chap. ver 19. sponsabo te mihi yet he must enjoy thy love by willing contract not by ravishment And therefore lasie Faith adew let us acquit our selves like men like Christians and use that Grace which is now offered and which exercise will improve and seeing the gracious Lord of heaven and earth knockes at the doores of our hearts to come backe let us answere him with David paratum est cor meum Domine My heart is ready O God my heart is ready and seeing he calls to us by his Prophet Iere. 3.22 O yee disobedient children returne and I will heale your backslidings let us take up that answere which the Prophet made for them Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Thus much for the Act revertamur I come to the Object to whom that is ad Dominum Let us returne To the Lord. PEccantes recedunt a Deo affectuum non locorum spatijs saith Saint Ierome Sinners wander from God by the distance of affections not of place they may goe from his mercies they can never goe from his judgements the Prodigall childe from his fathers house went afar off but as by sinning we depart from God so by forsaking it we come backe againe neither can our conversion be right unlesse it end in him who is Alpha and Omega If thou wilt returne O Israel saith the Lord returne to me Iere 4.1 some did returne but it was not to the most High in the 7. chap. of this Booke 16. ver they returned from one sinne to another as dogs to the vomit or the sow that was washed to wallow in the mire but these are the Devils returnes a malo ad pejus ours must be to the Lord Turne ye unto him from whom ye have deeply revolted Esay 21. from whom we have strayed to him we must goe backe Against thee onely have I sinned Psal 51. and therefore to thee onely will I returne Esay 44. Well these men did so and to the honour of their faith be it first spoken that although they had sinned against heaven and the Lord of it and were of sonnes become rebels yet they knew God remained unchangeable and if they would returne he would be still their father though they had lost their way they had not as yet lost their faith they beleeved God would bee gratious though they had beene sinners And this sparke of faith did kindle in them a holy fire of Charity which is the next thing observeable in their friendly compellation venite come let us Though every man had gone after his owne lusts and scattered their wayes to strange gods Ier. 3.13 yet now they will not onely mend one but one another such is their Charity that they will not steale no not to heaven but stirre up all to go you heare no lasie Solifidians creditè nor the Centurions Ite goe thou go he but the Saints community venite come let us And this was that which proved their faith to bee quick and legitimate Faith in God neither ought nor can bee without charity to our neighbour Faith is a good huswife and lives by her worke she cryes for them as Rachel did for issue give me children or I die Non quaerit quae sunt suae saith St. Paul 1. Cor. 13. Shee seekes not her owne she was not so nobly borne to be her owne center and Divinity but like the Sun to do good to all St. Iren. cals it a present from heaven the top and Zenith of all vertues it is the gate of the Sanctuary which leades us to the vision of the Trinity 't is the double spirit which Elisha required wherewith to love God and our neighbour You are not much to afflict your selves to become perfect saith St. Augustine Love God and then doe what you will And if you would know whether your love to God be reall mark how you love your neighbour by how much the lines draw nearer to one another by so much
the more they approach the Center by how much the nearer you approach to your neighbour in love by so much the nearer you are to God In the old Law the Iewes were commanded to lift an Oxe or an Asse out of the Pit into which they were fallen Numquid Deo cura de Bobus What hath God care of Oxen surely he hath more of men by how much man comes nearer to his Nature than does the Oxe or the Asse And it was our Saviours charge to St. Peter Luke 22. Thou being converted strengthen thy brethren Peter lovest thou me then feede my sheepe Wee are members of that one body whose head is Christ and as in the naturall so in this mysticall body one member has neede of another member the head is to instruct the hand and the hand to guard the head the eye must see for the foote else they will both fall into the Ditch And this St. Paul calls the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 For the Law commands no more than to love And a more delicate warre saith Chrysologus was never heard of than to conquer all by love and St. Cyprian observes that all the volumes of the Scriptures are to be found in this one word Love in this all religion hath her consummation Surely Charity is a sacred flame kindled in our breasts by the God of Nature 't is the soule and life of the whole World it knowes no more how to hide it selfe than fire does in straw for as fire will bewray it selfe by light and heate so will Divine Charity it gives light by holy examples and heat by pious admonition teaching and admonishing one another Col. 3.16 The Donatists would to heaven alone as wee have some who will allow salvation to none but them of their faction whereas the blessed St. Paul would have ventured to be accursed for the salvation of his brethren and these good men here judged it in glorious piety a piece of repentance to be repented of to returne to the Lord alone fearing perhaps GOD would give them that answer which Ioseph did the Patriarchs Gen. 42. You shall not see my face unlesse you bring your brother with you this made them move together like the fingers of one hand like the eyes of the same head and in love that might invite the eyes of Angels locke arme in arme and as if they had had but one soule to say with one voyce venite come let us Note againe out of their venite what we may think of those who neither returne to God themselves nor suffer others but are as the Authors of their Schisme so the hinderers of their conversion Truely we may fafely judge that they are not of Christs fold who mis-leade his sheepe and it was a sinne which made Lucifer the Divel to draw the Angels away from God and they who on earth goe about to divide Christs seamlesse coat the Church shew that they are not members of his body Union builds Gods Church but Schisme puls it downe and judge you whether it be not a greater sin then Idolatry when it was punished with a greater vengeance then Idolatry the greatest Idolatry of Israel was to be punished with the Sword Ex. 32. but to destroy Church Rebels the Lord did a new thing on earth and made that earth which fed the peacefull devoure the factious Israelites who went downe quicke into the grave and because they were so unworthy to live the Lord scarce permitted them to dye but gave them that deadly vae of our Saviour Matth. 11 7. Woe to them by whom offences come It was Ieroboams brand set upon him by God himselfe that he made Israel to sinne and brought that Schisme into the Church which rent 10 Tribes not onely from the Scepter but the God of Iudah As for himselfe hee lived to see his Altars cracke under the horrour of his new religion and his posterity were so closely pursued by the wrath of God that in the revolution of a short time there was not a handfull of the dust of his house left alive upon the face of the earth and the miserable Tribes whom he seduced were lost in forraigne captivity and scattered as so much dust before the wind or as so many strawes upon a wrought sea And thus in Eusebius the famous Schismaticke Novatus swore all his Communicants upon the Sacrament that they should adhere to his Sect and never more returne to the Orthodox Cornelius The Church at unity with her children is the fairest among women but when once torne in sunder by severall Factions she prooves like the Levites divided Concubine the horrour and detestation of every eye The speediest way to set a man at variance with God is to be at opposition with his brother and what a shame is it that Theeves and Murderers should goe more friendly to hell than Christians doe to he even O that our Novatian brood they of the separation would consider this who dispose Heaven to 〈◊〉 but them of their brother and sisterhood would they would remember That heaven was made for more then for themselves though they entitle God to a cruell Decree and passe the sentence of Reprobation upon all that are not as mad as themselves Yet maugre their malice all are their brethren that can say Our Father brethren by a threefold tye that is not easily broken by the same Father God by the same mother the Church by the same Redeemer Christ And therefore I will beseech all Christians in the powerfull words of an Apostle 1. Cor. 1.10 by the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that they would be perfectly joyned together in the same judgement and the same minde that yee all speake the same things And if ye now hope to reestablish your broken peace with God The newes Carryer of Ipswich you must be at unity with his Church Let the seditious man who sowed his tares by night his Pamphlet in your streets rayle on till the accuser of his brethren the Devill who set him on worke pay him his wages as for our selves the way to recover our union with God lies in the happy agreement with one another when you all say with one heart and one voyce what Israel here did venite revertamur ad Dominum come let us c. And so I passe from the proposition with its adjuncts faith and charity to the reasons whereof the first is drawn A Iustitia Dei from Gods Iustice For he hath torne and he hath smitten us ANd this may seeme a strange reason that a man should returne to him by whom he is sore wounded and kisse that hand to whose severity he owes the losse of blood as if David should embrace Saul for running at him with a javelin Yet such is the wholesome power of affliction that whom faire words could not returne rough blowes will bring backe againe and the Prodigall childe did more at the urgence of hunger and could than at the teares
which helpes the soule of one sinne can cure it of all Returne to me saith the Lord and I will heale all thy Rebellions Jer. 3.22 And therefore out of this booke let me take up one peeble to throw against the brow of the Gyant Despaire though the Lord like an inraged Lyon does smite and teare us with his judgements yet wee here learne if we will returne he wil heale us hee will binde us up and why will he O because with him there are multitude of mercies with him there is plenteous redemption and with this hope Israel in captivity did now even guild their chaines It was prophesied in the fourth of Malach. ver the second Vnto them that feare my name shall he come with healing upon his wings Who is Hee that shall come O 't is Messiah the Saviour of the World hee shall come with wings to shew his speede that he will even flye to be mercifull Secondly he shall come with infinite vertue and unspeakable comfort hee shall come with healing upon his Wings and therefore never feare your sanabit but God will heale and bind you up and this is the second argument The third is drawne A potentia bonitate Dei from Gods power and goodnesse After two dayes hee will revive us the third day hee will raise us up AMong many opinions of these dayes I will name but one and that is of them who by two dayes understand a short time by the third a long time and both of them uncertaine whose accomplishment they might not know but ought to expect and blessed is he that waites saith the Prophet Dan. 12. but cursed is he that saies with the King of Israel Why should I waite upon the Lord any longer 2. King 6.33 Now if two dayes bee taken for a short time then the argument runs thus The time wherein we are to be afflicted is no long time therefore never despaire 't is but two dayes no more and therefore O yee seede of Abraham beare your Crosse with patient spirits your afflictions are not everlasting afflictions though heavinesse may endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning and if not the first yet sure enough upon the second Post biduum after two dayes he will revive us But if the third day bee taken for along time then thus The Lord can raise a carkasse as well after three dayes when it beginnes to smell and putrifie as the first day and houre it dyed Elishas Coffin raised a man that had beene many yeares dead as easily as Elias did the childe that had been so but a few houres Now if Prophets could doe thus surely the God of those Prophets could doe much more and therefore although three daies that is along time we have laine in the grave of our captivity yet the Lord can raise us up Some have undertaken to shew these three dayes in the Chapter before my Text at whose 14. ver the Lord said He would be a Lyon to Ephraim and Iudah and would teare them as a Lyon doth his prey and sell them for nothing to the Kings of Assyria and Babylon and this may be the first day Dies Crucis Mortis The day of their death Secondly at the 15. ver I will goe saith the Lord to mine owne place I will wash mine hands of Israel as a people that are dead and buried they shall lie in desperate captivity without Prince Priest Ephod and Teraphin and this is the second day Dies sepulturae The day of their buriall Thirdly the Lord sayes in that same ver he would not forsake them for ever Donec Vntill they acknowledged their faults and sought him no longer shewing that after those dayes of death and buriall hee would returne and put new life into his people which is to be understood not carnally but spiritually and respects not onely their deliverance out of Babylon but their freedome from the slavery of sinne and hell to be accomplished ere long by Emmanuel the Savior of the world Now out of their Vivificabit we may learne that mans best life comes from Gods grace unlesse he revive us with his Spirit wee are dead in sinne like the Widow in pleasure 1 Tim. 5. She was dead though alive Secondly these men buried in miseries cry Vivemus We shall live to teach that life is to be hoped for in the jawes of death and though the Grave gapes never so wide yet it cannot devoure the Article of our Resurrection Wherefore my spirit and flesh shall rest in hope for though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet with these eyes I shall see God Thirdly here are Gods children in the darke night of Captivity raising arguments of comfort to helpe one another teaching that man should never despaire of Gods goodnesse or his owne Salvation but to beleeve in hope though against hope He that is good to himselfe neede not feare that God will be ill to him Would time permit I might shew you how this Text was verified upon Christ and how upon each Christian how Christ had these three dayes of Death Buriall and Resurrection upon whom God did let fly like an enraged Lyon did teare and smite him in the day of his fierce wrath and how each Christian must drinke after him in this bitter cup and in this life passe through the Iewes purgatory But I hasten to the period of all which like Iobs latter end is better than his beginning which stands like a beloved harbour beyond a churlish sea which looks like a cleare Heaven after a battaile of clouds and thunder 't is Visio Dei after all these tearings and smitings deaths and burials Vivemus coram eo We shall live in his sight ANd this is no meane happinesse to live in Gods sight in the last Chapter the Lord turned his backe upon them and did what he threatned Ier 7.15 I will cast you out of my sight And this Cain confessed to be no light punishment but one greater than he could beare Gen. 4.14 Behold thou hast driven mee out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I bee bid and it shall come to passe that every one that findes mee shall slay mee Some affirme that wheresoever Caine set his foote the earth trembled and Procopius adds a tradition that hee perpetually saw certaine Spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him the truth whereof I know not Yet this I am sure of no sword could be more fiery than that of his conscience which every moment with hidden launches did open his breast and made him thinke every creature he met owed him a murder And such is the estate of every one whom God turnes his backe upon but now it was Israels comfort that the Lords face was turned to them his favour and protection and though hitherto they had been cast out of both yet now they should live in his sight In a word the life