or wonted triumphes shee takes upon her the beggers garbe and becomes an humble suppliant for bread and for that not in iust competency but in such a measure as might asswage or prevent extremity of hunger of which shee had suffered so much as shee thought would have given full satisfaction either to her ancient and inveterate foes or to the most malignant of her moderne enemies enough as shee thought to have drawne sighes from the barbarous Getes or to have wrung teares from the mercilesse Swab or to have cast Parthia her selfe into a swoon so shee might have beene a spectatour of her ruefull and tragicall plight yet all this evill came upon her not by observation it was not preventible by any forecast or policy besides that which Ezekiah here uses this would have sufficed so it had beene practised in time But it is not the representation of that which hath befallen others long since or may hereafter befall our selves which will so much affect us as the recognition of that which we our selves have formerly suffered It will not then I hope be unseasonable to put you in minde how in these later times whilst neighbour nations addresse their Embassadors to to this court either to condole the death of our Soveraignes or to congratulate our ioy for the happy continuance of royall succession there still hath come one unwelcome or unexpected Embassador either with them or before them to this people And however he seeme to plead for the grave yet his message is from heaven and for our peace though he find audience for the most part with needy sicke or dying men yet his instructions are principally directed to the living and potent amongst us and the tenure of them is in effect thus thinke you that those whom the Lord hath wounded with his poisonous arrowes were greater sinners then your selves or that they have suffered more then they have deserved I tell you nay but except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish unlesse you prepare your hearts to meet the Lord while hee is on the way a greater plague then the plague of pestilence is comming against you Yet hath that plague beene twice in our memory more fearefull then in the daies of our forefathers To omit that great mortality which was almost universall throughout this land about twenty seaven yeares agoe The calamities which followed upon the 2d arrivall or returne of this Embassadour about 5 yeares agoe did leave a live print or character of that feare by which the Prophet Amos describes the day of the Lord. Amos. 5. v. 18. 19. The day of the Lord saith he is darknesse and not light as if a man did flye from a Lion and a Beare met him and went into the house and leane his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Many fled from the great city as a man would flye from a Lion and thought themselves safe if they could get into a ship for some other port but sped no better then if they had met with a Beare death being as ready as they were to imbarque it selfe as a passenger for every port authorized to execute his commission as well by sea as by land others comming to the shore were more harbourlesse in the wished for haven then if they had committed themselves to the mercilesse waves of the sea which way soever they tooke their case was like unto a stricken deare haeret lateri letalis arundo They could not shift aside from Gods arrow which still tooke up some vitall part for his marke Some after their arrivall in their native soyle wandred without companions to support them in their weaknesse and lastly dyed in the fresh and open aire without that comfort which the infected places from which they fled might have afforded them without consorts in their sighes and grones without such mutuall expressions of griefe as Sympathy of nature brings forth in the beastes of the field But amongst the wofull spectacles which the calamity of those times presented none me thinkes more apt to imprint the terrour of Gods iudgements deeper then to have seen men otherwise of undaunted spirits men whom no enemies lookes or braggs could afright afrayd to hold parley with their native countrey-men that came unto them with words of love and peace more agast to embrace their dearest friends or nearest kinsfolks then to graspe an adder or a snake The plague of pestilence is above all other diseases catching and such as have beene most observant of it's course tell us men of covetous mindes or unseasonably greedy of gaine are usually soonest caught by it though exposed to no greater or more apparent visible danger then others are The course which this messenger of death observes if these mens observation of it be true may leade our conjecture to one speciall cause why it was sent amongst us with such large commission surely if in the daies of health and peace it had not beene usuall for one neighbour to prey upon another and to verifie the saying homo homini lupus the neighbour-hood and presence of men of the same nation and profession would not have become more terrible unto others then if their habitations had beene amongst Wolves or Lions or other ravenous creatures But to what end soever this fearefull messenger was sent amongst us the tenor of his message either was not well understood or is not perfectly remembred And for this reason his commission hath beene renewed of late in the times of our hopes and joy for the continuance of royall succession in a straight line But Gods name be ever blessed who hath hitherto so tempered his judgements with mercy that we have more just cause of joy and thanksgiving for the birth of one then of sorrow for the death of many Yet let not this I beseech you abate our feare of future judgements or occasion us to thinke that the Lord either hath repented or will repent of the evill which hee hath so often threatned whereof he hath given this land and people so many warnings untill wee bring forth better fruites of our repentance then hitherto wee have done That thus we may doe let us pray continually to the Lord that hee would teach us to feare as Hezekias did that he would teach us to pray as Hezekias did As for him hee is the same Lord still the same loving Father to us that he was to Iudah and cannot forget to repent whensoever wee shall truly turne unto him Convert us O Lord we shall be converted IER 26. 19. And the Lord repented him of the evill which he had pronounced against them Thus might we procure great evill against our soules THIS is the resolution of a controversie debated from the beginning of this chapter vnto this place between the Priests the Prophets and the people and the Princes of the land whether the Prophet Ieremy were to be put to death for saying the Lord would make his temple like Shiloh and the
us For the unerring eye of his all-seeing providence and omnipotently stedfast hand by which he wields the scales of justice would not have suffered his consuming wrath to come any nearer to us then we were come unto the full measure of our iniquity 10 The first thing which then was or now is to be enquired after is what were the extraordinary and speciall sinnes which drew Gods iudgements so neare upon us These were not the cruelty of lawes enacted against professors of that religion which these traitors professed as they as foolishy as impiously alleadge nor was the negligence or connivence of such as were put in trust with the execution of these lawes the cause of the iudgement then threatned as some others out of misguided zeale suspect Of such negligence or omission or of whatsoever else may give any advantage to the adversaries of our peace and religion there were some positive causes in our selves God only knowes how many but of these we cannot but take notice which the Prophet Micah expresseth or some like unto them as sacriledge oppression and bribery in the layty Simony and time-serving in the Clergy luxury prophanenesse and hypocrisie in both Now when the professors of true religion shall give undoubted proofe of their constant and impartiall zeale against these foule enormities or for enquiring after the most enormous delinquents in all these kindes there will bee good hope that the lawes already enacted or projected against idolatry against superstition and false religion shall have their wished successe But suppose that upon the occasion or opportunity which these idolatrous miscreants had in a manner thrust into the hands of our law-makers the suppression of idolatry and superstition throughout this land had been more exact and more compleat then that which Hezekiah in the beginning of his raigne had wrought in Judah Was there any probability that those other diseases which Micah mentions would have beene one jot abated any likely-hood that the most amongst us would not have learned that song or ditty by heart is not the Lord now amongst us or the Antiphony unto it would have been no evill can come upon us Other grosse exorbitancies usually come within the stroake of the civill sword and lye open to the execution of wholesome lawes but for snipping this secret hypocrisie or presumptuous leaning upon the Lord though in the professors of true religion the severest execution of wholesome lawes or exercise of the civill sword hath no force or dint the cure of this disease properly belongs unto the Divine and the method to cure it is contrary to the ordinary course of law or physicke wee must breake a generall custome of this people and teach them not to rare their affections unto truth by their opposition unto false-hood not to measure their zeale and love to true religion by their hatred of false religion These be the very rootes of that hypocrisie or presumption which Micah so deeply taxeth in the state of Iudah the chiefe ingredient in the leaven of the Pharisees But lest more of this people should slide into an errour too common unto many as if such a reformation of religion as they affect would acquit or secure the state and kingdome from all danger of Gods threatned judgements let us here behold the severity and mercy of our gratious God Mercy I say towards us and severity towards our brethren professors of reformed religion in neighbour nations whom he hath of late subiected to the enemies sword and other calamities of warre for what transgression in particular hee only knowes but surely not for those transgressions which some out of discontented zeale conceive to be the only cause of his displeasure against this nation whensoever any crosse or calamity befals themselves for no man can suspect those foraine Churches which he hath visited of late were deepely guilty either of connivance to superstition or to much favouring Arminianisme However the righteous Lord by chastising them doth fore-warne us to examine and judge our selves and if we find no other causes or probable occasions to feare the approach of the like Iudgements upon our selves yet even this alone will in the day of visitation make a great addition to our generall accompt that we did not humble our selves with feare and trembling whilst the Lord did humble and correct them whilst his hand was heavy upon such of our nation as were sent abroad for their succour Our consciences will one day accuse us when wee shall have occasion to seeke the Lord that we have not for the yeares late past besought his goodnesse with greater feare and devotion to remoove the rod of his wrath from them But did the Lord in this interim direct no messengers of his wrath unto us within our own coasts Did mortality and famine only follow the campe abroad or townes besieged in other nations The famine Gods name be praised for it hath not for many yeares beene either universally spread throughout this land or extraordinary grievous upon any greater portion of it and yet hath left so deepe impression in some native members of this great body as may evidently convince the rest of great stupidity in not sympathizing more deepely with them And stupidity or dulnesse in any member whilst other suffer is an infallible Symptome of a dangerous disease oft-times a certaine prognosticke of death and hee were but an indocile Christian that could not by those knowne calamities which much people of this land have suffered from this messenger instruct himselfe how easie it is for the righteous Iudge to bring such calamity upon this kingdome by this messenger alone as would move even the most malicious and cruell enemies that we have had to bemoane our case although we were fully assured of a constant peace with all other neighbour-nations that have any power or ability to annoy us by the sword or any practice of hostility Rome in her growth in her height of greatnesse and in her declining dayes had received many grievous wounds was subiect in all estates to fearefull calamities and disasters yet never in such a lamentable and ruefull plight as the famine had brought her to if wee may iudge of her inward griefe either by her bitter outcries or by the deiected and gastly dresse in which one of her sonnes then living hath set her forth Si mea mansuris meruerunt moenia nasci Iupiter auguriis si stant immota Sibillae Carmina Tarpeias si nec dum despicis arces Advenio supplex non ut proculcet Oaxen Consul ovans nostraeve premant pharetrata secures Susa nec ut rubris aquilas figamus arenis Haec nobis haec antè dabas nunc pabula tantùm Poscimus ignoscas miserae pater optime genti Extremam defende famem satiavimus iram Siqua fuit lugenda Getis flenda Suëvis Hausimus ipsa meos horreret Parthia casus After a solemne resignation of all clayme title or interest to all former victories
rest For though they repented of their folly and besought God with teares that hee would revoke his sentence offering their service which before they had neglected for conquering the land of promise yet the Lord would not heare them and which is more remarkeable he would not heare Moses in this particular for himselfe because he was involved as an accessary in that sentence for he spake unadvisedly on their behalfe So Moses himselfe doth testifie Deut. 3. v. 23. c. And I besought the Lord at that time saying O Lord God thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatnesse I pray thee let me goe over and see this good land which is beyond Iordan and that goodly mountaine Lebanon But the Lord was wroth with mee for your sakes and would not heare me and the Lord said unto me let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter get thee unto the top of Pisgah and behold it with thine eyes for over this Iordan thou shalt not goe So then God repented him that hee had made Saul King over Israel because he had the Kingdome only by meere promise not by promise confirmed by oath But God would not repent of his deposition nor reverse his sentence because Saul by his preposterous indulgence unto Amalek Gods sworne enemy did by this fact incurre the sentence of deposition by oath and more deepely participate with the Amalekites than Moses had done with the Israelites whom God had cut off by oath from entring into the land of Canaan I hope I shall not bee thought to flatter men whilst I blesse the name of our glorious Lord for setting a King over us as farre from Saul's or Ahab's disposition as they were from the disposition of king Hezekiah for giving him a people nothing so untoward either towards God or him as the murmuring Israelites were towards God his servant Moses But whatsoever hath been said or is written concerning the Kings of Israel or Iudah were written for our instruction whether Prince or people The most immediate use of the point last discust concernes great Princes and their followers their followers thus farre that they never sollicite or importune their soveraigne Lords or in case they doe it deeply concernes Princes not to suffer themselves to be wrought by any sollicitation or importunity to favour any cause which stands accursed by Gods eternall law not to take the persons of any men into their protection whom the supreame Iudge hath exempted from his not to patronage any whom the law of God and man have designed unto utter destruction For by doing such bodily good to prodigious malefactors they shall procure as my Prophet speakes great evill unto their owne soules Evils at least temporall unto themselves and to their people of which the Lord will not repent For where such favour is shewne unto men or rather where favour and pity is shewed unto such men as God is thus highly displeased with there can be no true feare of the Lord. In whomsoever that feare is it is praedominant and will command all other affections whether of hope or feare whether of hatred love or favour to men Vnlesse such feare of the Lord bee first planted in their hearts no Prince nor Potentates no state or Kingdome can iustly pretend to this blessing which Hezekia's prayers obtained For he first feared and then besought the Lord before the Lord repented of the evill which hee had pronounced against him and his people Now it is our hope assurance that God will repent of the evill denounced which makes our feare of him or of his iudgements to be a filiall not a slavish feare For no man can feare God with a true filiall feare but hee that apprehends him as a loving father and one as is sorry for our aflictions one that delighteth not in the punishment of his sons or servants but in their repentance that they may become capable of his fatherly mercy or loving kindnesse With thee there is mercy saith the Psalmist therefore shalt thou be feared Why doth any man feare Gods mercies more than his iustice No. This was no part of the Psalmists meaning We feare his iudgements in and for themselves and as they bring evil upon us We feare God himselfe for his mercy we are afraid to offend him if we bee his children because hee is mercifull and because the greatest evill which any man can procure unto his own soule is to deprive himselfe of his mercy who is goodnesse it selfe the sole fountaine of all the good which can be derived unto us Or it may be a further part of the Psalmists meaning that it was our apprehension or beliefe of his mercy which keepseth our feare whether of him or of his judgements within his proper sphere or limits as if he had said with thee o Lord there is mercy therefore shalt thou bee feared hated thou canst not bee by such as apprehend or believe thy mercies whereas feare of iudgements or perpetuall punishments unlesse it be tempered with hope of mercy runs out of his wits and running beyond its bounds alwayes ends in hatred It is not possible either for that man not to love God which truly beleeves that hee hath mercy in store for all or for that man not to hate him or at least not to occasion others to hate him which is perswaded that he hath reserved iudgement without mercy to some men as they are men or that hee hath destinated them to inevitable destruction before he gave them life or preservation To bee thus perswaded argues an uncharitable disposition as well towards God as towards men and from both roote and branch of this error from all such heresies hatred malice and uncharitablenesse good Lord deliver us that are thine heritage thy whole Church especially this land and people A TREATISE CONCERNING THE SIGNES OF THE TIME OR GODS FOREWARNINGS CONTAINING The summe of some few Sermons delivered partly before the Kings Majesty partly in the Towne of New-Castle upon Tine OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD An. Dom. 1637. LVK. 13. 5. I tell you nay but except yee repent ye shall all likewise perish THe words containe an emphaticall negative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the emphasis of the negative doth inferre a vehement affirmative though conditionall or exceptive but except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish Besides the grammaticall emphasis or vehemence the same words are twise repeated by him who used no tautologies by him whose nay was nay and whose yea was yea and Amen The ingemination of the same sentence was from two severall occasions The one given to our Saviour the other taken by him The occasion given ye have v. the 1. There were present some that told him of the Galilaeans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices Who these Galilaeans were and what was their crime is no where to my observation registred in particular probable it is that they were the reliques of