ENGLANDS Looking-Glasse PRESENTED IN A Sermon Preached before the Honorable House of COMMONS At their late solemne FAST December 22. 1641. By Edmund Calamy B.D. And Preacher at Aldermanbury LONDON EZEK. 18.31 Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new Spirit Why will yee die O house of Israel Published by Order of the House LONDON Printed by I. Raworth for Chr. Meredith and are to be sold at the Crane in Pauls Churchyard 1642. To the Honourable House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT OBedience is a virtue of such great worth that Luther did rather desire to have grace to be obedient than power to work miracles Out of this very Principle it was that I first adventured to preach before such a grave and judicious Senate coram tam multis viris tam paucis hominibus And from the same Principle it is that I now present the Sermon to a more publike view The time allotted for the making of it was so short by reason of your more serious affairs that it might have been a sufficient Apology to excuse both the preaching and printing of it had not pure Obedience justly silenced all such Apologies And now it is printed the Sermon it self is so poor and mean that it may fitly be answered to me what Apelles once did to a Painter who having drawn many Lines in a little space of time and boasting to Apelles that he had done so much in so short a time it was replyed That he wondered that he had drawn no more But yet howsoever my humble request is That you would accept of this poor Mite this little Goats-haire which your commands like a Mid-wife have brought into the world And indeed the kinde entertainment it found in the hearing and the great acknowledgement of your Thanks farre above all expectation or desert afterwards is an abundantly sufficient incitement against all discouragement whatsoever The subject of the Sermon is of great concernment It is about the ruine and repair of Kingdoms and Nations a matter sutable for you that are the representative Body of the Kingdom Sin ruines Kingdoms When Nicephorus Phocas had built a mighty Wall about his Palace for his defense he heard a voyce in the night crying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Though thou build'st thy walls as high as Heaven sin is within and this will easily batter down thy walls Sin is like a Traytor in our own bosomes that will open the gates to the enimy Sin weakens our hands and makes them unapt to fight Sin taketh away the courage of our hearts It was not the strength of Ai that overcame the Israelites but Achans sin Sinne causeth a great Army to be overcome by a little one The Army of the Syrians came with a small company of men and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers The sins of England are the enimies of England These beleaguer our Walls and are as so many Canaanites alwayes rising up in rebellion against us But now on the contrary Repentance and Reformation repairs and upholds Kingdoms and Nations this is their Fortresse and Tower of defense their Munition Armour and Wall of Brasse to defend them Righteousnesse exalteth a Nation but sinne is a reproach to any People The Lord in mercy ruinate our sinnes and not the Nation the same Lord worke a Nationall Reformation and make you his Instruments in this great work Much hath been done by you this way already which is acknowledged in this ensuing discourse with great thankfulnesse The Lord enable you to perfect what you have begun He that is the Finisher of our faith finish this much-desired Reformation It is very observable that when God raised up Magistrates such as Nehemiah Zerubbabel and others to pity Sion that lay in the dust and to repair her breaches at the same time he raised up Prophets also such as Haggai Zechariah and others to strengthen the hands of the Magistrates and to encourage them in so noble a service and therefore it is expresly said Then the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied unto the Iews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the Name of the God of Israel even unto them Then and not before rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the Prophets of God helping them And Ezra 6.14 The Elders of the Iews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the sonne of Iddo and they builded and finished it according to the Commandment of the God of Israel c. By both these Texts it appears that the Magistrates began and finished the reparations of Gods House by the help of the Prophets of God Suffer me therefore as divers others have done before the unworthiest of all Gods Ministers according to my duty and place to beseech and exhort you to the consummation of those blessed good things which you have begun to do for the Church of God in England And the God of all blessings blesse you and yours So prayeth Your much obliged Spirituall Servant EDMVND CALAMY A Sermon Preached at a Fast before the Honourable House of COMMONS Jerem. 18.7 8 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evill in my sight that it obey not my voyce then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them THis Text may fitly be called a Looking glasse for England and Ireland or for any other Kingdom whatsoever wherein God Almighty declares what he can do with Nations and Kingdoms and what he will do 1. What he can do He can build and plant a Nation and he can pluck up pull down and destroy a Nation And when a Kingdom is in the depth of misery he can in an instant if he but speake the word raise it up to the top of happinesse and when it is in the heigth and Zenith of happinesse he can in another instant speake a word and throw it downe againe into an Abysse of misery 2. What he will do God will not alwayes use his Prerogative but he will first speake before he strikes he will first pronounce judgement before he executeth judgement And if that Nation against which he hath pronounced the evill of punishment turn from their evill of sin then will God repent of the evill he intended to do unto them And not only so but he will build and plant that Nation and of a barren
licence you to make your wills your laws and your lusts your gods and to commit not onely peccata but monstra that are Pessimi maximi not Optimi maximi The great Jehovah against whom you sin is greater than the greatest he bindeth Kings in chains and Nobles in lincks of iron He hath provided Tophet of old yea for the King it is provided Hell was made for great men as well as poore Observe how resolutely and emphatically the Prophet speaks yea for the King it is prepared Potentes potenter torquebuntur Ingentia beneficia ingentia vitia ingentia supplicia To whom God hath given great mercies if they abound with great vices God will inflict great punishments upon them Think of this you that trample the bloud of Christ under your feet by your prodigious oathes and by the contempt of the day worship and servants of Christ The bloud which you contemne is nobler than the noblest bloud that runs in your veins It is the bloud of the eternall God of that God before whom the great as well as the small must appear at the great day of Judgment in which terrible day the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men vnd the chiefe Captains and the mighty men will hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains And say to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb c. They that are here cloath'd in silk and velvet shall wish for the mountains to cover them which yet shall be but a poor shelter For the mountains melt at the presence of the Lord and the rocks rend asunder when he is angry They that made others to flye away from them as innocent Lambs from devouring Wolves shall be afraid of the wrath of the Lamb that sitteth on the Throne Great men must dye as well as others and when they are dead there is no difference between the dead bones of Philip of Macedon and other men as Diogenes told Alexander Remember the wofull Catrastophe of Herod the great Agrippa the great Pompey the great Oh let all men fear to sin against that God that removed the Assyrian Monarchy to the Persian and the Persian to the Graecian and the Graecian to the Roman That toucheth the mountains and they smoak before whom the Devils feare and tremble Oh let not our hearts be harder than the rocks worser than Devils Oh England feare the God of Heaven and earth Oh you House of Commons tremble and sin not most in the World sin and tremble not Do you tremble and sin not We are all in Gods hand as a flye in the paw of a roaring Lion as the clay in the hand of the Potter Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he Consider the advantages God hath us at and our dependencies upon him and let us not dare to sin against him A Sanctuary in all distresses and dangers Let us flye to this God of power who giveth Kingdoms and taketh away kingdoms as he pleaseth The great superintendent Fly to him as to thy Ark thy Pella thy City of refuge And in our deepest miseries let us sing cheerfully the 46. Psalm as Luther was wont to do God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble I will not feare though the earth be moved and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea c. A divine project to secure a Nation from ruine to make this great Jehovah our friend for if God be on our side we need not feare those that are against us Deus meus omnia Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia And for this very purpose we are here met this day in Gods Sanctuary flying to the horns of the Altar to beseech that God who is the only Potentate King of kings and Lord of lords that only doth wonderfull things that he would be reconciled unto us that he would quiet the commotions that are in Ireland reduce the Rebels into order sheath up the sword that is there drawn and quench the flames that are there kindled That the Lord would knit the heart of our Soveraign to his people more and more and of his people to him That he would unite both Houses of Parliament that they may joyn together with one heart as one man to relieve poor Ireland and reforme England Athanasius tells us that Anthony the Monk fought against the Divell with that Text Psalm 68.1 Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him The Divell is more afraid of this Text then any other for he knows he is Gods greatest enemy and if God arise he must needes be scattered Oh let us set God on work this day to destroy the implacable enemies of his Church arise oh Lord and scatter the Irish rebells arise oh Lord and confound Antichrist and build up the walls of Ierusalem The Romans in a great distresse were driven to take the weapons out of the Temples of their Gods and to fight with them and so they overcome This is our course this day wee fight with the weapons of the Church Prayers and Teares The Spartans walls were their speares Our walls are our prayers our helpe standeth in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and earth Lord speake a word and Iericho shall fall be favourable to England and Ireland Lord take away our tinne and purely purge our drosse Our trust is not in our bow nor speare Let us labour to become Gods favourites and then we have all happinesse concentred in two words The second Doctrinall conclusion Though God hath this absolute power over Kingdomes and Nations yet he seldome useth this power but first he gives warning I say he seldome useth it for I do not lay it downe as a generall rule Deus non alligat suas manus God may and doth sometimes destroy at once and give no warning Thus he dealt with the Heathen Ammonites and Idumaeans as Calvin observes but he seldome or never sends any great judgement upon his own people but first he speaks before he strikes First Verba then Verbera as it is in the Text At what instant I shall speak c. If that Nation concerning which I have pronounced c. First God pronounceth a judgement before he executeth a judgment he lightneth before he thundreth he hangs out his white Flag of mercy before his red Flag of utter defiance first he shoots off his warning Peeces before his murdering Peeces And the Reasons are 1. That all the World may take notice that all punishments and afflictions come not by chance or fortune but from the immediate hand of the great God It is he that forms the light and creates darknesse it is he that makes peace and creates evill I the Lord
wildernesse make it a fruitfull Paradise But if that Nation do evill in Gods sight and will not obey his voice then will God repent of the good wherewith he would have benefited them and pull down what he hath built and pluck up what he hath planted and of a fruitfull Paradise make it a barren wildernesse By all this it appears That as this day is a Nationall day and this Honourable Assembly a Nationall Assembly so this Text is a Nationall Text every way sutable for the occasion about which we are met The Lord make it as profitable to you as it is sutable for you From the words thus explained I gather these four Doctrinall conclusions 1. That God hath an absolute power over all Kingdoms and Nations to pluck them up pull them down and destroy them as he pleaseth 2. That though God hath this absolute Prerogative over Kingdoms and Nations yet he seldome useth this power but first he gives warning 3. If that Kingdome against which God hath threatned destruction repent and turn from their evill God will not only not destroy that Kingdome but build it and plant it Or thus Nationall Repentance will divert Nationall judgements and procure Nationall blessings 4. That when God begins to build and plant a Nation if that Nation do evill in Gods sight God will repent of the good he intended to do unto it The first is this 1. That God hath an independent and illimited Prerogative over all Kingdoms and Nations to build them or destroy them as he pleaseth This is set forth in the beginning of the Chapter by ocular demonstration God bids Ieremy Arise and go down to the Potters house c. them and when he came there he beheld the Potter making a Vessell of clay and breaking it and making it again another Vessell as seemed good to the Potter to make it And God himselfe makes the application Oh House of Israel cannot I do with you as this Potter saith the Lord Cannot I make you Vessells of honour or dishonour cannot I save you or destroy you as I please Behold as the clay is in the Potters hand so are ye in mine hand O House of Israel Because Nebuchadnezzar would not confesse this truth he was driven to school to the beasts of the field and he had the heart of an Oxe till he acknowledged that God doth whatsoever he will in the Army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou This supremacy of Gods power is founded upon this absolute Right that God hath over us as he is our Creator For he is Jehovah that gives being to all and receives being from none Of him and to him and through him are all things All creatures are beams from his Sun drops from his Ocean If I speak saith the Text I in whom all men live move and have their being I that made all things out of nothing and can as easily turn all things into nothing If I speak This power of God over Kingdoms hath two properties 1. It is illimited and independent which appears by three expressions in the Text 1. By these words At what instant which hold forth unto us that God can destroy a Nation in an instant in the very twinckling of an eye In the morning the Sun shone upon Sodome but before night it was destroyed with fire and brimstone The old World was drowned as Luther thinks in the Spring time when all things began to bud and blossome The flood came suddenly saith Christ it came de repente according to the vulgar translation of these words when they least expected it And on the contrary God can in an instant make a Nation happy The Israelites were in an instant brought out of Egypt a and were in one and the same day of all people most miserable and of all people most happy as Calvin well observeth upon this Text 2. By these words I shall speak If God do but speak to destroy a Nation it is presently destroyed He spake the word and the World was made and if he speak the word the World will return to its first Principles If I bring a sword upon a land and say sword go through that land so that I cut off man and beast from it Though these three men were in it as I live saith the Lord they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters c. Ezek. 14.17 18. On the contrary if God do but speak to plant a Nation it is planted for Gods benedicere is benefacere 3. This absolute power of God is likewise deciphered by three synonimicall expressions in the Text To pluck up pull down and to destroy Which three words do intimate That God hath an illimited Prerogative over Kingdoms and that he can overturn overturn overturn uhem as it is said Ezek. 21.27 Or as Hugo glosseth upon the words He can pluck up all mercies pull down all judgments and destroy them that is make an utter ruine of them 2. This power of God is universall For the words run in generall At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation not this or that Nation but a Nation indefinitely There is no Kingdome exempted from Gods jurisdiction or that hath Letters Patents to priviledge it If I speak concerning Ierusalem or concerning England c. God is the Governour of the whole World all alike to this Heavenly Potter If Gods power over Kingdomes be so large If and so absolute let all the World stand in awe and not dare to sin against such a mighty and terrible God A God before whom all the Nations of the World are as a drop of a bucket and as the small dust of the ballance And if all Asia Africa Europe and America be but as the drop of a bucket what a little drop of that bucket is one man though never so great If all the World be but as the dust of the ballance what a little little particle of this dust is one man Who would not fear thee oh King of Nations forasmuch as there is none like to thee O Lord Thou art great and thy Name is great in might Will ye not fear me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which hath chained up the sea with fetters of sand c. That am the God of earthquakes the God of thunder and lightning a God that can cast both body and soule into Hell fire Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man which shall bee made as grasse and forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the Heavens and layd the foundatons of the earth Think of this you that are greater in sin than in greatnesse that make no other use of your greatnesse but as of Letters Patents to free your selves from all humane punishments and to