the day of judgement 2 Pet. 3.3 Know this saith Saint Peter that there shall be scoffers in the last dayes Walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue say they as they were from the beginning of the creation And thus many because the World hath continued so long a time in the same state do perswade themselves that it shall continue so for ever and that there shall be no end of the World nor day of judgement These Saint Peter in the same place confutes by this reason That though the World have continued in the same state for a long time yet it followes not from thence that therefore the World should continue so for ever for it wa a long time from the Creation of the world till the coming of the floud yet the world was then destroyed by one of the elemente whereof it was made namely by water and so though it seems a long time till the end of the world yet in the end it shall be destroyed by another element namely by Fire And as they who lived in the time of Noah would not be perswaded that the world should be drowned till the floud came suddenly and swept them away so the end of the world and Christs coming to judgement shall as suddenly come upon unbelievers while they think not of it Christ indeed doth deferre his coming in divers respects As that the number of the elect may be fulfill'd whom God hath decreed from all etermity to call in all ages by the preaching of the Gospel till the end of the world that the patience of the faithfull who waite and long for the coming of Christ may be tried and exercised and that the wicked may be left without excuse being forborne so long and having had so large a time of repentance In these respects Christ defers his coming but though his coming be deferr'd for a time yet in the end he will not faile to come as the Scripture assures us by evident testimonies by visible signes and by invisible reasons The testimonies are divers The Prophesie of Enoch which is alleadged by Saint Jude is plaine and evident Jude 14.15 Enoch saith he the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deads Where ye see the world was no sooner made but that the end thereof was presently fore-told for Enoch was but the seventh from Adam and yet he prophesied of Christs coming to judgement and that so plainly as if he had seen him coming Ecce venit Behold saith he he comes Dan. 7.9.10 So Daniel prophesied of the day of judgement I beheld saith he till the thrones were prepared and the auncient of dayes did sit there issued forth a fiery stream and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened I saw saith Saint John the dead both small and great stand before the Lord Revel 20.12 and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged c. Where to shew the certainty of Christs coming to judgement he speaks ye see thereof as if it were past because he shall come at the time appointed as certainly as if he were come already I might alleadge many other places wherein the coming of Christ to judgement is plainly fore-told And as the Scriptures have fore-told Christs coming to judgement so to assure us the better thereof it hath likewise given us many signes which go before it whereby we may know that it will not be long before he come When the King ye know is come to a Town he commonly sends his harbingers before him and when they see his harbingers they say the King is coming because they know by the coming of his harbingers that it will not be long before the King himselfe comes Christ hath given us many signes of the end of the world and his coming to judgement which are as his harbingers sent before his coming and these signes which go before his coming are of two sorts either such as go longer before his coming and are further from it or such as go but hard before and shall be nigh unto it Of the former sort are divers signes as the preaching of the Gospell all over the world foretold by our Saviour Mat. Mat. 24.2 Thes 2. Rom. 11. Luke 17. 24. The revealing of Antichrist that man of sinne and sonne of perdition fore-told by the Apostle 2 Thes 2. The calling of the Jews fore-told by St. Paul Rom. 11. The great security want of faith which shal be found in many foretold by Christ Luke 17. And many other signes which the Scripture mentions many whereof are already past and are fore-runners of the end of the world and shall continue and prolong their course till the very day of Christs coming to judgement Of the second sort are those fearfull signes which the Scripture mentions in divers places as that the earth shall tremble and move out of her place Mat. 24.29 Acts 2.20 that the seas shall roare and make an hidcous noise that the powers of heaven shall be shaken that the starres shall fall from heaven that the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into bloud before that great and notable day of the Lord come These things shall come to passe at the end of the world and when these things come to passe they are evident signs that the end of the world is then hard at hand For like as it is in the body of man when the eyes waxe dimme and the sight failes when all the joynts waxe weake and the whole body trembles it is a signe of old age and a manifest token that he in whom these signes are to be seen is very near his end and cannot hold out long So it is likewise in the great Body of the world when the eyes of the world the Sunne and the Moon begin to wax dim and their light failes when the heavens shall be shaken as it were with a palsie and the earth shall tremble and move out of her place as the Scripture speaks it is a manifest signe that the world is ending Lastly As the Scripture hath foretold the end of the world Christs coming to judgment both by evident testimonies and visible signs so likewise by divers invincible reasons For first all other things which the Scriptures have fore-told are come to passe as namely of Christs first coming in the flesh of the destruction of Jerusalem of the dispersion of the Iows of the coming of Antichrist all which and many other as they have been fore told so they have been likewise accomplisht and therefore the
and peculiar manner were troubled with this Disease which is unknown in these dayes as ye know there are many Diseases now which have not been known in former ages Now though the Leprosie was a grievous Disease yet there is a Disease the Leprosie of sin that is farre more grievous The outward Leprosie infects but the body but this spiritual Leprosie infects the soule so that no Leper is so unclean in the sight of man as the sinner is loathsome in the sight of God If we know of a man that hath an infectious Disease we will be very wary how we come in his Company for fear he infect us But for those whose Company is far more dangerous who by drunkennesse and the like communicating sins do infect mens soules many are so far from shunning their Company that they take pleasure therein as if they took delight to be infected by them We have not any of those kind of Lepers which the Jewes had but of these kind of Lepers that by drunkennesse do daily infect others I would we had not too many in every place Those Lepers were separated from the Congregation and were not suffered to come among them but these Lepers that are drunk from morning to night almost every day in the week and so continue infecting others all the year long are not ashamed to shew their faces amongst us but come openly to Church into the Congregation Those Lepers were constrained to live a part by themselves but these have liberty to frequent Tavernes and Ale-houses where for the most part they are the welcomest guests Those Lepers had their Cloathes rent in signe of their sorrow and did acknowledge themselves unclean but these are so far from acknowledging their fault that they take a pride in their sin and glory in their shame boasting that they are able to make others drunk as if it were a Credit and commendation unto them Those Lepers would gladly have been rid of their Disease and therefore came unto Christ to be cleansed and he did cleanse them But what hope can these have to be cleansed by Christ who delight in their Leprosie and are unwilling to leave it Christ indeed is that skilfull Physitian that cures both our corporal and spiritual Diseases but it is onely of such as are loaden and weary of the burthen of their sins and desire nothing more then to be rid of them And therefore if they would be cured of their spiritual Leprosie they must be weary of it and have an earnest desire and do their best indeavour to be freed from it and then coming to Christ as these Lepers did they shall be cleansed The next cure which is here mentioned is that the deaf heard We read in the Scripture of two sorts of deafnesse the one corporall the other spirituall The corporall deafnesse when the eare cannot hear is a great defect and in some respect it is better for a man to want his sight then to want his hearing because by hearing we attaine more knowledge then we do by seeing For hearing is the sense of knowledge and discipline in which regard Salomon when he begins to teach us Wisdom Proverbs 1.8 first knocks at the doore where Wisdom must enter and cries hearken my Sonne For Wisdom and Knowledge is got chiefly by hearing and as some have thought is rather lessened and impared then increased by seeing Therefore we read of some of the Philosophers who purposely put out their own eyes that they might the better attaine unto knowledge wherein they thought that their sight would hinder them and distract their minds with variety of objects And we read of many blind men that never saw at all but were born blind and yet have been famous for their wisdome and knowledge But we never heard of any man that was deafe from his birth and could never hear that ever attained to knowledge and understanding in any measure For how should they have understanding in any thing to know what they should do or leave undone which they were never taught and how should they be taught who could never hear and so are uncapable of learning any thing Therefore though God have strook some blind and some dumb yet he strook them not deaf but spared their hearing Though he strook Zachary dumb Luke 1. for his unbelief Luke 1.20 Acts 9.9 Paul blind Acts 9. for persecuting the Church yet he left them their hearing because if he had strook them deaf withall they could not have known his will Blessed is he that readeth Revel 1.3 and they that hear the words of this Prophecy Some cannot read as they which are blind and they which were never taught yet they are not excluded from this blessing because they may hear it read but they who are deaf can neither read it themselves nor hear it read by others Yet I speak not this as if they who are born deaf are therefore absolutely excluded from this blessednesse but that they are excluded from the means of it Yet God can save them without the means and we may well think that God who is so gracious will not exact the imployment of a talent where he hath not given it I might further shew you many great inconveniences which come by deafnesse whereby we might see what a benefit it was which Christ did for them in taking their deafnesse away from them and what a blessing we have of God in that he hath given us the sense of hearing But though this outward deafnesse of the eare be a grievous defect yet there is a deafnesse the deafnesse of the heart whereby obstinate sinners will not suffer that which they hear with their eares to enter into their hearts which is farre more grievous Such are they who are compared by the Prophet David to the deafe adder that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer Psal 58.4 5. Pro. 1.20 but though wisdom cry aloud in the streets yet they will not hear her Such a one was Pharaoh who though Moses Aaron cryed daily unto him Dimitte populum Let my people goe and though God thundred from Heaven with his judgements upon him yet he would not heare them And so though a man as God willed the Prophet Esay 58.1 life up his voice like a Trumpet and cry never so loud against covetousnesse oppression drunkennesse and the like yet many stop their eares and will not suffer what they hear to sinke into their hearts This is a willfull and obstinate deafnesse And this deafnesse untill our hearts be opened as Lydia's was is by nature in every one of us And therefore as the deaf here came unto Christ so every one of us must come unto him to be cured of this deafnesse The next cure which is here mentioned is Christ's raysing of the dead His raysing of the dead was a more miraculous cure then any of the former The blind and the deaf whom Christ restored did onely want
only is to be prayed unto that can hear our praiers he onely can hear them that knows our hearts and understands with what affection we pray unto him But suppose again that Saints and Angels could hear our prayers and did know our hearts and suppose that God had put it to our choise whether we would pray to him or to them have we not more reason to pray to him who is the fountaine of grace then unto them who are but vessels of grace Would they be so propitious as he is unto us Would they be so ready to hear our prayers As he commands us to pray unto him so he promiseth to gives us whatsoever we aske John 16.23 Whatsoever saith our Saviour John 16. ye shall aske the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And because of our selves we know not how to pray nor what to aske he gives us his Spirit to help our infirmitie and to teach us to pray He prepars our hearts as David saith Psal 10.17 and his eare hearkens thereunto And because we are not so ready to ask as he would have us he therfore many times prevents our asking is more ready to grant our requests then we are to make them So he promises Esay 65.24 Antequam clament ego exaudiam Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear So he dealt with David in this 32 Psalme who had no sooner said he would confesse his sinne but God forgave him Nay as he prevents our asking so many times he exceeds our desires and gives us more then we aske of him 1 King 3.13 So he dealt with Solomon when he begged of God that he would give him a wise and understanding heart God gave him both that which he did desire and told him besides I have also given thâ—e that which thou hast not asked both Riches and Honour And can we have greater incouragements then these to pray unto God who is so ready to grant our prayers And so there is great reason why we should pray onely to him And thus much likewise for the Object of prayer I now procced unto the last point The time when the godly shall come unto God by prayer nuncly 〈◊〉 time when he may be found But some man may say why is there time when God may not be found will God at any time absent himselfe and keep himselfe out of the way when men seek after him Indeed Bâ—â—als Priests 1 King 18. They sought and all to besought their God sâ—â—â— morning to noon but could not finde him Cry saith Eluck 〈◊〉 aloud unto your god for it may be he is talking with some body anâ— doth not mark you or it may be he is rid on of town and is in his journey or it may be he is taking a nap and â—â—ust be Wakened before he can hear you Thus the Prophet derided their counterset good but it is not so with the God of Jacob Psal 12â— 4 the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps If David seek him David shall finde him nay David and every godly man shall find him whensoever they seek him Paul and Silas cannot pray at mid-night but the will hear them Acts 16.25 Mat. 18.20 Two or three cannot be gathered together in his name but he will be in the midst of them Nay he is so far from not being found that if thou offer thy selfe unto him with the Prodigall he will go forth to meet thee Luke 15.20 Luke 15.4.5 nay though thou be strayed away with the lost sheep he will go after to seek thee and never lin seeking untill he have found thee Why then saith David here In a time when thou mayest be found why is there a time when God may not be found The answer is That there is a time as the very words imply when God may not be found and therefore if we will find God we must come in a time while he may be found The time when God may not be found is two-fold Tempus impossibilitatis and tempus improbabilitatis the time when it is impossible to finde him and the time when it is unlikely to finde him The time when it is impossible to finde him is when this life is ended For after this life there is no time for grace no time for repentence no time for good works Therefore it is that Christ saith John 9.4 I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night comes and then no man can work by day understanding the time of this life and by night death Hie amittitur vita aut reciperatur saith â—â—prian In this life the life to come is either lost or gotten He that defers the seeking thereof till this life be past he knocks with the foolish Virgins when the gates are shut and then it is to late he that seeks not for mercy till after this life he shall find none no not so much as a drop of cold water to coole his tongue For as the tree falls so it lies and as the day of our death doth leave us so shall the day of judgement find us The time when it is unlikely to find God is when he offers us grace and we reject the same when he calls us by his Word and we harden our hearts and when upon presumption of the mercy of God whensoever we repent we deferr our repentance to the end of our lives and so indeed do never truly repent And therefore the Counsell is very good Ecclesiasticus 5.7 Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put it not off from day to day for suddenly shall the wrath of God break forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed And as there is a time when God may not be found so there is a time when he may be found this time is likewise twofold either more common and generall or more proper and speciall The common and generall time when God may be found is this whole life time from the beginning of our life till the end thereof And therefore if we must come unto God while he may be found and he may be found this whole life time then we cannot begin to soone to come unto him Therefore Solomon counsells us to remember our Creator in the dayes of our youth that so we may be seasoned with godlinesse and Religion in the beginning of our life The more speciall time when God may be found is when he cals us unto him by the preaching of the word for then he offers his grace unto us and knocks by his Spirit at the doore of our hearts that he may have entrance If we open unto him he will say to our souls here will I dwell for I have a delight herein but if we refuse to give him entrance if we harden our hearts when we hear his voice we know not when whether ever or never he will come againe