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A53745
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Englands warning by late frowning providences, especially the immediate hand of God upon the straits-fleet improved in a sermon preacht April 1st, 1694 ... : from Ezekiel V, viii ... / by Jonathan Owen ...
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Owen, Jonathan.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing O826; ESTC R17899
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21,718
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36
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Wrath by the Judgment of strange Fire from Heaven to destroy them Lev. 10.1 2. Did not Vzza dig his own Grave by going contrary to the command tho' out of a good Inâ—â—â—tionâ— when he put forth his Hand to support the trembling Ark 〈…〉 13.10 Beloved wherefore did God so much let himself 〈…〉 Israel was it not for their spiritual Whoredoms and Idolâ—â—â—â—â—â— See Deut. 6.14 15. Jer. 1.16 I will utter my Judgments against them touching all their Wickedness who have forsaken me and have burnt incense unto other gods and worshipped the Works of their own Hands This way of affronting Gods Authority always meets with some evident remarks of Gods displeasure His Heart could not be towards Israel for it and had not Moses his chosen stood in the gap he had cut them off in his Wrath. And beloved if this Sin be found with us you may know whence Destruction comes nor can we expect it will fare otherwise so long as Persons stand more upon Bowing the Head and bending the Knee at the Name of Jesus and at the same time have no regard to be Subject to him in their Hearts and Lives Corrupting Gods true worship provokes Him to declare by his Judgments I even I am against you and will execute Judgment in the midst of you in the sight of the Nations 2. It 's Apostacy backsliding and departing from God this also sets God against a People or a Nation When the Inhabitants of a Nation as the Psalmist speaks of the proudly wicked Psal 36.3 4. He hath left off to be wise and do good and he setteth himself in a way that is not good When Persons by fearful backsliding from God and his ways which they formerly made Profession of when the Power of unbelief Reigns to such a Degree that Persons generally depart from God and the true Doctrine of the Gospel And Beloved is not this Achan in our Camp and this Jonah in our Ship yea sure Ah! how many are there in England that have forsaken God in their Judgments by their imbibing Errors for Truth in their Affections by losing their first Love and in their Conversation by neglecting practical Godliness in their Families and Civil Employments Ah alas how many are there that were taller like Saul by the Head and Shoulders in the House of God now have bid adieu and never come there how many that were zealous for Gods Worship Publick and Private now have left off to Hear to Pray and instruct their Families Children and Servants for this wrath is gone out from the Lord and by his Judgments he seems to declare I even I am against thee c. O that these Scriptures may be consider'd by those whose Consciences tell them as Nathan did David Thou art the Man Isa 1.28 31. They that forsake the Lord shall be confounded 31. And the strong shall be as Tow and the maker of it as a spark and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them Ezra 8.11 The hand of the Lord is for good upon all those that fear him but his Power and his Wrath is against all those that forsake him Well you see that it is our departing from God that makes him depart from us 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you O England hast not thou forsaken thy God Therefore by his Judgments he now saith I even I am against thee c. 3. Another Sin which provokes God by his Judgments to declare himself against a People or a Nation is Pride pride as some think was the Sin that turned the Apostate Angels out of Heaven and hath shut them up in Hells Misery and it 's this Diabolical reigning common Sin of Pride that hath justly incensed the anger of the Lord against this Nation I grant that the root of Pride is in the Heart but the Index of it is in the Carriage and Habit of Persons And ah alas did this Heaven-daring and Nation-destroying Sin ever more abound in England than now among all Ranks and Degrees of Persons Is it not become a common thing for Persons yea Professors in effect to quarrel with Gods handy-work and by their Patching and Painting declare their dislike of themselves because God hath not made them in the Fashion tho' such Attires are more to be lamented in Bedlam than permitted in Christian Assemblies Beloved the high God and proud Persons bid defiance one to another And so long as Pride reigns in the Heart there can be no Peace from God to such a Soul I grant Persons might be distinguished one from another by their Habits but its unmeet that any especially Professours should exceed the approved bounds of Modesty much more that indecent Practice when the Maid with her Broom is hardly by Habit distinguishable from Persons of Honour and Quality this ought not to be so and because of this Iniquity abounding Pride the Land mourns and God hath a controversie with us as is manifest by his executing Judgments in the midst of us See these Scriptures Psal 138.6 Prov. 16.5 Jer. 50.31 32. Behold I am against thee O thou most proud saith the Lord God of Hosts For the day is come and the time that I will visit thee And the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a Fire in his Cities and it shall devour all round about him 4. The shameful Prophanation of Gods Holy Sabbath is another Sin which provokes God by his Judgments to declare himself against a People or Nation Beloved the great God hath consulted his own Honour and our good and advantage and therefore when he might justly have requir'd six days out of seven to himself he hath allowed us six for our common Callings and taken to himself but one to be wholly spent excepting Works of Mercy and Necessity in his Publick and Private Worship Butah how many now plead for a sinful licentiousness in this day and make it a light matter to Rob God of his Honour by spending this Holy Day in the service of the Devil and their own Hearts Lusts Ah Sirs is not the Lords day converted into the Devils Drudgery and do not many amongst us Trade more for Hell than Heaven in it if we consider how much of this precious Time is spent in Ale-houses and Taverns in idle Walks sinful Chats and unnecessary Visits we must conclude for this also the Land Mourns and Judgments are executed in the midst of us in the sight of the Nations See Neb. 13.15 18. O that such a Spirit from the Lord might excite our present Magistrates for verily God is contending for our breach of Sabbaths and by his late Dispensations loudly cries in our Ears as in Jer. 17.27 If you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day and not to bear a burthen even entring in at
the Duty of a faithful Watchman and not fearing to give them Disturbance in their sleepy secure State he lets them understand what eminent Dangers their great Abominations had brought them into for as much as now God did manifestly declare himself to be against them In the preceding Verse I find the Prophet in the Name of God charges them with their Wickedness thus because ye multiplyed more than the Nations that are round about you some by this understand the 〈…〉 manifold Blessings and signal Favours which God gave them and should have been improved to thankfulness and Obedience to God but were not but I humbly conceive it rather relates to their Sins because ye multiplied more than the Nations that are round about you in Sin thy Transgressions have been more and of a deeper Dye than theirs thou hast more grievously offended than the very Heathens that know not God and the following Words explain it And have not walked in my Statutes neither have kept my Judgments neither have done according to the Judgments of the Nations that are round about you i. e. The Heathens have been more saithful to their false Gods than you have been to Me the only True God they have by the Light of Nature been more stedfast to their cruel Injunctions than you have been to my Holy and Divine Institutions they have been stedfast to their Gods but you have been given to change and not only to comply with them but you have exceeded them in Sin and Guilt Therefore thus saith the Lord God I even I c. In the Words you have these things considerable 1. An Argumentative awful Preface Therefore thus saith the Lord God Wherefore Because ye multipti'd more than the Nations that are round about you You excell'd them in Sin and Wickedness 2. You have a necessary Duty call'd for and required from them Behold the Word imports the Clearness Certainty and Awfulness of the things he is about to Denounce and Declare as being somewhat extraordinary which duely weighed by them might make their Ears Tingle to hear it and cause their Hearts to tremble to Meditate upon it for it 's the worst and severest of Judgements Thus saith the Lord God I even I am against thee c. 3. You have the Subject matter it self which I can scarce without Horror and Trepidation mention I even I am against thee mark the Congemmination I even I not once I but twice I even I that it might make the greater Impression upon them I that formerly set my Heart upon you am now wean'd from you I that chose you before other Nations not because you were more than others but only because I had a Favour for you I even I that took you into special Covenant with my self do now declare against you I that have Graciously superintended you do now take my Heart off from you I that have wrought wonders for you in the sight of the Nations I that have preserved you alive in Famine I that deliver'd you out of the Hands of the Cruel Tyrant Pharaoh I that divided the Red-Sea that fed you in the Wilderness I that have carried you as upon Eagles Wings all your days I that have been a Father and a Friend to you I even I am against you my Heart can't be toward you nor can I bear with you any longer 4. You have the plain Evidence and full Confirmation of this his being turn'd to be their Enemy And will execute Judgments in the midst of thee I will not only shake the Rod over you but I will lay it heavy upon you and you shall smart and groan under it sensibly What I will do in my fury shall not be done in a Corner or upon a part of you but in the midst of you I will strike at the very Heart you shall feel it for I will execute Judgments one upon another in the midst of you you shall be sick of my Smiting and groan under my heavy Judgments in the midst of you my Heart shall not Pity my Hand shall not help you but I will with my immediate Hand afflict you with Judgments one on the Neck of another in the midst of you 5. You have the fore Aggravation of it and that in the sight of the Nations round about as your Sins have been so shall your Sufferings be you dishonour'd me with your Abominations before the Heathens and I will execute my Judgments before the Nations You have not ceas'd to prophane my Name before them and in their sight will I vindicate my great Name and shew that I am of Purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity they that beheld your Sins shall be Spectators of my Judgments in the midst of you Therefore thus c. From the Words I shall Collect and Depose several Doctrines but shall speak more fully to the last of them Doct. 1. That Ministers of the Gospel like faithful Watchmen must give their People warning of apprehended present and approaching Judgments So did the Prophet and so must all others if they will be faithful to Christ and the precious Souls they are to watch over We must declare what of the Night and like Paul keep back nothing that we might have their Record that we are clear from the Blood of all men Acts 20.27 Isa 58.1 There faith God to the Prophet Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my People their Transgressions and the House of Jacob their Sins Doct. 2. That whatsoever Personal Family or National Judgments befall a People it is certain that Sin is the meritorious procuring cause of them It 's Sin that is the Teeming Mother of all Mischief the procuring cause of all Calamities whatsoever Its that which lets in all Misery and causeth Destruction to come in upon a People like an armed Man or an overflowing Flood Therefore thus saith the Lord God c because ye multipli'd more than c. It was Jerusalems Abominations which inevitably brought their Desolations and it 's Englands Sins that cause God to execute Judgments in the midst of us at this day If Sin abounds without controul Judgments will follow Ezek. 14.23 for he doth nothing without a cause and it 's not difficult to relate what is the Cause of great Anger being gone out from the Lord against this Land not the late Deliverance which God graciously wrought for us as some little better than Papists dream but our not improving so unspeakable a Mercy to an obliged Reformation Doct. 3. In all the Judgments which are executed upon a People God himself hath a Hand in it and sometimes more visibly than at other times Amos 3.6 Isai â—2 24 25. Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned For they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient unto his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the Fury of his Anger and the strength of