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
for their sins they should be carried into captivitie and with an oath affirmed it it must needs be granted the decree and sentence were absolute and that according to the letter of the prohibition the Prophet must not pray for them in this neither did hee but submitted himselfe to Gods holy will and pleasure The maine objection which I know of that may be made either against this sense delivered or the practice of our Prophet is a like Prohibition to Moses which yet was but conditionall for he presently prayed and prevailed so we reade that in Moses absence the people causing Aaron to make a golden calfe which they worshipped God told Moses what a great sinne they had committed and addeth Now therefore let me alone that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation and Moses besought the Lord and he repented of the evill which he thought to doe to his people I answer that betwixt that to Moses and this to Ieremie there is a great difference for howsoever that be delivered to Moses in the Imperative as well as this yet that carrieth the face of a milde instruction and intimateth that it was in Moses power to give leave or to let God so as Moses receiveth thereby encouragement to pray What is it for God to say Let me alone but to make him bold to pray but this charge is with waightie words Thou shalt not pray nor crie nor make intercession for I will not heare thee Secondly Moses was but once bid let God alone but our Prophet was thrice expresly forbidden to pray for them Now if Ioseph told Pharaoh his dreame was doubled because the thing was established of God he will bring it to passe how much more may I say this charge is tripled to his Prophet to signifie that he meaneth good sooth their captivitie is decreed and established of God and he will bring it to passe Thirdly and lastly God threatned to Moses he would utterly consume the people yea and blot out their name from under heaven that God could not doe but much dishonour his name and therefore Moses urgeth in his prayer wherefore should the Aegyptians speake and say For mischiefe did he bring them out to slay them in the mountaines and to consume them from the face of the earth Againe to doe so were to breake promise and oath which he had made with their fathers and therefore Moses doth specially urge that Remember Abraham Isaack and Israel thy servants to whom thou swarest by thine owne selfe and saydst unto them I will multiply your seed as the starres of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it So that what face soever it carried Moses saw well enough God did not meane he should not pray for them But the case is here altered first Gods glorie is no way endangered no more than it was by the captivitie of the ten Tribes nay this was greatly for his glorie first that all nations might see what a just God he is who will not forbeare to punish sinne no not in his owne people for many nations shall say Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great Citie and they shall answer Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshipped other Gods and served them but his deliverance of them out of captivitie should be much more for his glorie for hee meant that should be more eminent and glorious than their deliverance out of Aegypt was so as after that time it should be no more said The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of Aegypt but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither he had driven them See how greatly their captivitie should be for his glorie Neither was this against any promise or oath for hee had already performed them he had cast out the Heathen and planted Israel in Yea rather herein God was as good as his word for hee had threatned them if they were rebellious and disobedient he would give them into the hands of their enemies and they should reigne over them Thus I hope by conference of Scriptures I have sufficiently cleared the sense of this viz. that it was an absolute prohibition and therefore howsoever the Prophet was exceedingly afflicted to foresee in spirit and afterwards to see with the eyes of his bodie the captivitie of the Iewes and desolation of the Citie and Temple neither was hee ever wanting to give them good counsell and pray in other cases for them yet in this he might not in this he did not Now it followeth to build doctrines for Instruction Consolation and Reprehension and by application to make them usefull unto us which doctrines naturally arising are many and namely these First God commonly giveth warning before he bring any judgement upon any place or persons specially on his Church or people or on any place where his people are This doctrine will be sufficiently proved both from positive and exemplarie Scriptures Thus saith the Prophet Surely the Lord God will doe nothing but hee revealeth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets Before God brought the floud God revealed it to Noah who by word of mouth and building the Arke gave warning to the old world for 120. yeeres before hee sent fire and brimstone to consume the Cities in the plaine hee revealed it to Abraham and then to Lot and his children before the judgements were executed on Pharaoh and Aegypt God revealed it to Moses and Aaron before he destroyed Ninivie he gave knowledge thereof to Ionah and he proclaimed Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed The Iewes shall not be destroyed but the day and time shall be first proclaimed that Gods people may betake themselves to fasting and prayer Before the captivitie of the ten Tribes God revealed it to many of his Prophets as Isaiah Iehu Eliah Michaiah Obadiah Hosheah Amos Ioel that as before a great storme the cocks crow loud and thicke so before this great judgement the Prophets threatned and cried loud and shrill before the captivitie of Iudah and Beniamin many other Prophets knew of it and were sent to threaten it as Esay Ezechiel Zephanie and our Prophet who most plainly told them for how long it should continue How were the Iewes abundantly warned before their finall destruction and dispersion how is Babylon fore warned how those golden Churches in Asia Minor how are wee all forewarned of the destruction of the world by fire how are we all forewarned of the destruction of the wicked in hell fire yea what judgement can befall us but our consciences must needs testifie that some way or other yea many wayes God hath given us warning All which doe sufficiently confirme our
cleare that such may be the sinnes of a people that God will not regard their owne praying and fasting Hearken how the Lord himselfe threatneth a rebellious people Because I have called and yee have refused I have stretched out mine hand and no man regarded but yee have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I will laugh at your calamity and mocke when your feare commeth when your feare commeth as desolation and your destruction commeth as a whirlwinde Then they shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seeke me earely but they shall not finde me Lo how the sinnes of a people may come to that height that in their greatest calamity and destruction and when they cry most fervently and seeke God earely yet God will be so farre from hearing and answering of them that he will laugh and mocke them And againe When yee spread forth your hands I will hide mine eies from you yea when yee make many praiers I will not heare And againe by our Prophet he saith When they fast I will not heare their cry but I will consume them by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence And againe I will bring evill upon them which they shall not be able to escape and though they shall cry yet will I not hearken unto them And againe I will deale in fury mine eie shall not spare neither will I have pitie and though they cry in mine eares with a loud voice yet will I not heare them Loe how plainly and plentifully this is proved though but by a few places in stead of many And as he hath threatned he will not heare themselves though they fast and pray and cry aloud so neither will he heare any others no not the best of his servants for them Marke your Text Ieremy an excellent man of God and sanctified in his mothers womb yet God telleth him if he pray against the peoples captivity he will not heare him yea and telleth him because he should not thinke that he was out of favour that if Moses and Samuel stood before him yet his minde could not be towards his people Cast them out of my sight and let them goe forth and if they say whither shall we goe forth thou shalt tell them Thus saith the Lord such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for the captivity to the captivity See what persons God hath picked out of all the bunch of the Patriarches Prophets Judges and Kings Who ever prevailed more by praier with God for others than Moses and Samuel When the people had committed that foule Idolatry in worshipping the golden Calfe God said He would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood up in the gap But Moses he besought the Lord and prevailed The Lord repented of the evill and did it not And when the Philistims came up against Israel and they were exceedingly afraid Samuel Oh faithfull Samuel the Lords Priest cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him and thundred with a great thunder and discomfited the Philistims But if Moses and Samuel did now stand before the Lord his minde cannot be won towards this people but they shall goe into captivity And againe by another Prophet he saith Sonne of man when the Land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously and I stretch out mine hand and breake the staffe of bread and send a famine and cut off man and beast though these three men were in it Noah Iob and Daniel they should deliver but their owne soules by their righteousnesse Or if I bring noisome beasts or bring a sword or a pestilence to cut off man and beast as I live saith the Lord though these three men were in it Noah Daniel and Iob yet should they deliver neither sonne nor daughter they should only deliver their owne soules but the Land shall be desolate Oh see againe what three Worthies he doth instance in Noah that upright man in the old World when all flesh had corrupted their waies Iob that upright man and fearing God in the Land of Vz and Daniel that man of Gods desire in Babylon Three men who could doe much with God for whom God did much yet if they had praied for this people God would not heare them they should not be able to deliver sonne nor daughter but only their owne soules And as such may be the sinnes of a nation or people so also of a particular person yea of Gods deare servants that he will not heare them but bring some temporall punishment upon them How great a favourite was Moses unto God to whom God spake mouth to mouth as a man talketh familiarly with his friend who obtained by his praier so many and great things at the hands of God for others so apparently honoured and graced of God that the Lord asked Aaron and Miriam Wherefore were ye not afraid to speake against my servant Moses Yet this great and good man for not sanctifying God at the waters of strife yea for once speaking unadvisedly with his lips and thereunto much provoked by that rebellious people was threatned he should not goe into the promised land An heavie judgement And though Moses made it his earnest suit unto God O Lord God thou hast begun to shew to thy servant great kindnesse I pray thee let me goe over and see the good land that is beyond Iordan that goodly mountaine and Lebanon yet the Lord would not heare him but cut him off saying Let it suffice thee speake no more to me of this matter David Gods deare servant and a man after Gods owne heart and for whose sake he did much to others how often have we these promises for my servant Davids sake yet he begetting a childe on Bethshebah the wife of Vriah the Lord strake the childe that it was very sicke and though David besought the Lord for the childe and fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth yet God would not heare him but on the seventh day the childe died according to the word of the Lord by his Prophet Nathan Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the childe that is borne to thee shall surely die And againe for his great sinne of numbring the people the Lord sent him a message by his Prophet Gad that he would send either pestilence famine or sword and though David repented and complained that he was in a great strait yet he could not obtaine freedome but according to his choice God sent a pestilence whereof in three dayes there died seventie thousand men Let all men and women then subscribe to this undoubted truth of God that such may be the sinnes of Gods Church in
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
it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy 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 Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That 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 judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most
world yet all in love As many as I love I rebuke and chasten If we be without correction we are bastards and not sonnes I beseech you remember this No sinnes so displeasing and provoking God as the sinnes of his people for whom he hath done most and who professe most You only have I knowne of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And this is that which God said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me Nadab and Abihu must die for it if they presume to offer strange fire Small holes in others are great rents in Moses David Salomon they had best take good heed to their walking if they fall they shall be sure to pay for it They are so farre greater sinners than our selves that God will never suffer them to prevaile I answer This is it so offended the Prophets and made them so to expostulate the matter with God as our Prophet Righteous O Lord art thou when I plead with thee yet let me talke with thee of thy iudgements Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deale very treacherously And the Prophet Habacuck complained The wicked doth compasse about the righteous And againe Wherefore dost thou hold thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Whereby it appeareth the Prophet had a great combat in himselfe to thinke that the Babylonians more wicked and ungodly should so prosper and devoure the Israel of God as no doubt but it troubleth many that the Papists such Hereticks Idolaters bloudie men and generally most prophane that they should so devoure the Protestants more righteous than they But let Gods children humble themselves it is just and let not the enemies boast for their day is comming Hearken what God saith by your Prophet Loe I begin to bring evill on the citie which is called by my name and shall ye be unpunished ye shall not be unpunished And againe They whose iudgement was not to drinke of the cup have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shall goe altogether unpunished thou shalt not goe unpunished but thou shalt surely drinke If iudgement first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospell of God And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare Grievous was the calamitie of Gods people the Iewes by the Westerne Babylonians and so affected the Prophet to whom the Lord revealed it that he wished his head were waters and his eyes a fountaine of teares that he might weepe day and night and on which occasion he did write his booke of Lamentations so full of passion but it was nothing to the miserie of Babylon Theirs was a captivitie for 70. yeeres which being finished they were gloriously delivered but Babylon came to perpetuall ruine In the Prophecies of their captivitie many consolations were mixed and they made their miserie the greater through their obstinacie because they did not beleeve nor would obey the counsell of the Prophet bidding them yeeld themselves assuring them they that did so should have their lives given for a prey yea if the King would have done so the citie had not beene burnt with fire But the Prophecies against Babylon are altogether fearefull let me give you a taste thereof When seventie yeeres shall be accomplished I will punish the King of Babylon and the land of the Caldeans and make it perpetuall desolations And againe Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hisse at her plagues And againe Babylon hath beene a golden cup in the Lords hand and all the earth hath beene drunken and the nations mad with her wine but she is suddenly fallen and destroyed her iudgement reacheth to Heaven howle for her Yea he spendeth those two whole large chapters in prophesying the severe judgements of God against Babylon in revenge of Israel and that with such words as who can reade them and not tremble Adde hereunto the prophecie of Esay Babylon the glorie of kingdomes the beautie of the Caldees excellencie shall bee as when God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrha it shall never bee inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation the Arabian shall never pitch his tent there nor Shepherds make folds there but wilde beasts of the desert shall lie there their houses shall be full of dolefull creatures Owles shall dwell there and Satyrs dance And againe I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant sonne and nephew I will make it a possession for the Bitterne and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction saith the Lord of hosts And lastly Come downe and sit in the dust ô virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground there is no throne ô daughter of Caldeans for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate Take the mill-stones and grinde meale uncover thy locks make bare the leg I will take vengeance and thou shalt no more be called the Ladie of kingdomes All which prophesies have long since beene fulfilled by the Medes and Persians But wherefore hath the Lord brought such destruction upon her the Lord telleth her plainly I was wroth with my people and gave them into thine hand and thou shewedst no mercie upon the ancient hast thou verie heavily laid the yoke Oh see what a dangerous thing it is even to be the rod of Gods wrath though his people have well deserved to be scourged if they thinke not so but exercise all manner of crueltie Farre greater is the miserie which the westerne Babylon hath brought upon Gods Church and most cruell instruments are they of Gods anger to his people and for many hundreds of yeeres have oppressed Gods people with the iron yoke of captivitie never more barbarous and bloudie acts heard of than executed by Papists heretofore in this land oh how doe they shew themselves to be the sonnes of that father who was a murtherer from the beginning and of that mother the great whore who is drunke with the bloud of the Saints But that God who by his Prophets foretold and fulfilled the Easterne Babylons destruction hath as plainly fore-told by his Apostle the destruction of this Westerne Babylon and hee hath a Cyrus the Lord of hosts hath a chosen shaft in his quiver wherewith to wound it wee leave the time and meanes to God but doe stedfastly beleeve that the great whore which hath in her forehead a name written Mysterie Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth so long drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Shee shall be hated and made naked and desolate yet they shall eat her flesh and burne her with fire that bloudie and