in the Law These having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts between themselves accusing or excusing one another And now this being considered what right can we have thus fiercely to declaim against these Mahometans concerning whom were St. Paul alive to determine the matter if but for their Zeal for their Religion even false as it is in respect of our selves he no doubt would pronounce them Saints So that to bring down this Text to Christianity and our own times we are the Jerusalem therein charged and in our Skirts also is this Blood most eminently discernable And when God shall arise to make Inquisition for it as most certainly he will at our Hands it must be required For we are the Watchmen which should have warned those wicked Men from their evil ways the Sword came and we have not blown the Trumpet nor warned the People and therefore their Blood must be upon our Heads And then it must needs go hard with us and that chiefly upon the score of that abundant Light and Knowledg and that Purity of Religion we so much boast in For Atrocius sub sanctinomine peccamus saith one and that Servant which knew his Masters will but did it not shall be beaten with many Stripes saith our Blessed Lord. And you only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities saith God by his Prophet And who knoweth but that our prophane Silence and unchristian connivance thus long together at those Spiritual Murthers and Soul-depredations are the very accursed thing which hath caused us hitherto not to prosper And that for this our supine and shameful neglect of Religion and that when those Elymas's abroad and their wicked Agents here Those Enemies I say of Righteousness that do not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord those Soul-Merchants that in the very Letter of the Text do tread under Foot the Son of God and as it were crucify him afresh and put him to an open shame and that account his Blood an unholy thing and do each hour do dispite unto the Spirit of Grace I say when these like Eli's lewd Sons have made themselves vile by the Blood of so many Innocent Souls and we restrained them not no not by Word or Writing and so far at least to have vindicated God's Honour and Truth against them Who I say knows but for this Our God hath hitherto put us to Silence and given us Water of Gaul to drink and that when we looked for Peace no good came and for a time of Health and behold Trouble And that he hath sent those Serpents and Cockatrices among us which will not be charmed and that he hath hedged up our way with Thorns and caused all our Mirth to cease That he hath set us against each other every one against his Brother and against his Neighbour yea City against City and even these against themselves And that our Spirit doth fail in the midst of us That God hath destroyed our Counsels and mingled a perverse Spirit in the midst of us and hath caused us to err in every work and that we are afraid even in our selves And then might it not to be demanded of us as our Prophet here doth of Jerusalem Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord when he led thee by the way and had done such great things for thee I shall not here stand to enquire how agreeable to Christianity which commands us First to seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then afterwards to look after other less necessary things a Precept very idle and ridiculous amongst this sort of Christians Nor how suitable the pretence of Trade and Commerce is to that undergoing of the Cross and self-denial and to that condition of forsaking all by our Lord prescribed to all his Followers but shall only observe that if St. Peter was by the same meekest Lord termed a Devil for his too carnal respecting not his own but the same blessed Masters outward Ease and Tranquility to the prejudice of the World's Salvation he will certainly for ever disclaim those Mammonists who prefer their Trade and their Merchandise before him as unworthy of him And if Job's Inference be good that to make Gold our Hope is to deny the God that is above doubtless their Christianity must be very desperate who do the same by their Trade Christ will one day deny all such denyers of him before his Father and the Holy Angels Wherefore since God hath signed this eternal Precept of Blood for Blood and hath as it were sworn That he will require the Blood of our Lives at the Hand of every Man's Brother yea and of the very Beasts too and hath also in several places no less positively declared That no satisfaction shall be accepted for the Life of a Murtherer and that a Land defiled with Blood cannot be cleansed of it but by the Blood of him that did shed it all which is to be referred only to the Body What Punishment can we suppose answerable to this so much more horrid Crime of murthering of Souls If Blood for Blood and Life for Life must go for the one certainly then Soul for Soul here is the least that can be required How long Lord God holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our Blood upon them that dwell upon the Earth was the incessant cry of the Souls under the Altar And Abel's Blood is said to have pursued Cain to his very Grave 't is certain it cryed for vengeance against him And yet 't was but Abel's Body not his Soul that was murthered Had Cain been guilty of this Lamech's revengeful hand had made but a very defective and sorry expiation The Brimstone-lake must then have been his Portion as undoubtedly it will be of all impenitent Murtherers of Souls And then How will those Mammonists remain in the gaul of Bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity And our Apostats and Hypocrites be confounded and tremble when they shall most sensibly feel themselves perishing together with their impious Money which was the price of Souls And then they shall be admirably convinc'd that they were but Fools indeed for thus determining their Hopes and fixing their whole expectation upon the things of this Life for the getting whereof they sinned against their own and murthered their Peoples Souls And finally they shall be pronounced Children of the Devil because Enemies of Righteousness that is of the Gospel And Christ himself whom they thereby have so Impudently affronted and denied not ignorantly and as the Jews who knew not what they did shall speak them into an Hell as black as that
The knowledg and practice of the Truth being that alone which can reconcile her unto God and entitle her to his Favour which is the Life thereof For as Syracides saith The Bread of the Needy as well the Spiritual as the Temporal is their Life and he that defraudeth him of it is a Man of Blood And he that taketh away his Neighbours Living slayeth him and he that defraudeth him of his Hire is a Blood-shedder So likewise That the Soul should be without Knowledg it is not good saith the wise Solomon Indeed it is no other but to murther her And therefore he saith again That the Lips of the Wise disperse Knowledg the most proper and necessary Food for Men's Souls This was it which Almighty God complained of by his Prophet Hosea That his People were destroyed for lack of Knowledg Instruction the means thereof being withholden from them And likewise in Isaiah where it is lamented That they were gone into Captivity and their honourable Men were famished and their Multitude dried up with Thirst because they had no Knowledg This also was the sad condition of the poor Flock in Zechariah They fell into distress because there was no Shepherd or such only as did not regard nor pity them no not when they were sold and slain For those that were cut off they did not visit they neither sought out the young nor healed the broken nor fed that which was still But that that dieth let it die was all they cared so they might but eat the flesh of the fat retain the Oppressors Favour and so thrive and grow rich Wherefore to obviate this sore evil for the future Almighty God in the Chapter ensuing the Text promiseth to give them Pastours after his own Heart which should feed them with Knowledg and Vnderstanding the only sure Preservatives of the Soul Nor let any one here think to shift off this Guilt by lessening this Sin into an Omission only even where it so happens which is seldom It being our very great Crime to but omit what is our strictest duty to perform as most certainly it is to persuade others to both believe and practise whatsoever we hold our selves obliged to The forbearance whereof was in Moses's Esteem no less than a hating of our Brother who therefore thus directs us Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin to rest upon him or as 't is in the Margent that thou bear not Sin for him intimating therein the danger of that Omission That all connivance at Wickedness is an encouragement to it especially in such who both can and ought to prevent it was the opinion of a virtuous Heathen Agreeable to that of St. James To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it in Sin Solomon did not hold him excused who had only forborn to deliver those that were drawn unto Death and that were ready to be slain no not tho he pleaded Ignorance and should say that he knew it not For as it follows Doth not be that pondereth the Heart consider it and he that keepeth the Soul doth not he know it And shall not he render to every Man according to his works The Piety of the great Artaxcrxes would not allow that any should remain ignorant of the Laws of the God of Heaven And therefore in his Commission to Ezra he gives an especial charge for the careful instruction of those who knew them not It was not enough in our blessed Saviour's esteem for St. Peter to be converted himself but that being accomplished he was to employ the like charitable endeavours for his Brethren also And upon that so prevalent motive of Charity our Blessed Lord urgeth to all in general a seasonable Reproof and Admonition of our Brother For if he hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother and thereby saved his Soul This is that perfect love of God and of our Brother or Neighbour which cannot be separated and which whosoever wanteth is at once an Enemy both to God and to his Brother For he is a Lyar and a Murtherer saith St. John He walketh in Darkness and not in Light He abides in Death and can have no hopes of Eternal Life withal adding that such a Person is not of God and cannot love him that hates or doth not love his Brother confirming his Assertion with a most substantial Reason demanding How he can love God whom he hath not seen who hateth his Brother whom he hath seen For whom he ought to lay down his Life but much more to extend his Charity and to open his bowels of Compassion to him being in need whether of Spiritual or Temporal Assistance So that this Omission as they term it which of a charitable pious Christian renders a Man a Lyar a Murtherer and an Apostate c. is but a bad Plea and very far from an extenuation of our Crime But then if this love of our Brother by admonishing and reproving him be thus every Man's duty much more must it be of such who are peculiarly ordained and appointed to that work as we read the Watchman in Ezekiel was against whom it was determined That he should surely die if he did not speak to warn the wicked from his way Wherein it is observable that nothing of any Crime actually committed by the Watchman is therein mentioned but only an Omission of his Duty nor was this Penalty to be inflicted for any treacherous correspondence with the Enemy or for betraying his Cause or Party but only for holding his peace in a time of danger From hence alone could St. Paul acquit his Innocence as to the Blood of all Men because he had not omitted to declare to the Souls under his charge the whole counsel of God nor any thing that was profitable unto them Of which yet his partiality or silence must have impleaded him deeply Guilty For it had been a concealing of the Truth and therefore confessedly a shedding of their Blood and a murthering of them This was that Fruit which our Lord Christ acquaints his Disciples that they were to go and bring forth and that their Fruit might remain and which alone could qualify them for that honourable Title of his Friends viz. by an industrious and active conformity to all his Commands of which this we are speaking of was none of the least And how far those shifts and excuses which upon this occasion are usually produced will avail us at the last day the sad doom both of the slothful Servant and of the sleepy Virgins may serve to inform us And so much for my second Observable I proceed now unto III. THE Third which is to represent the most usual and common Inducements to this Sin And they are four Whereof The first is that root of Bitterness or spirit of Unbelief attended with a most violent Spite or Enmity to
those Plagues and Judgments which this Impiety if longer persisted in must necessarily draw down upon us In the first Queen Elizabeth Act for Vniformity there is extent a certain Clause containing an Adjuration in God's Name earnestly requiring the due and true execution thereof as they should answer to Almighty God for such Evils and Plagues wherewith he might justly punish the neglect of it So that it seems in those Days there was some apprehension of Plagues and Judgments to follow Impiety and the neglect of Religion Nay long before that the Persian Monarch Artaxerxes was not wholly insensible of the same when he issued forth that strict Decree for the speedy re-edifying of the Temple fortified with this Reason For why should there be wrath upon the Realm of the King and of his Sons 'T is true some Apostate Israelites before their Captivity to save themselves the labour of reforming their Lives we read had fallen into a most abominable practice of scoffing at and denying Providence affirming That the Lord had forsaken the Earth or tho he had not yet that he did neither good nor evil But these it seems by a hard Journey they afterwards made to Babylon became in a short time better instructed For upon an Appeal which the Prophet Zechariah made to the Children of these prophane Scoffers whether God's Words and his Statutes which he had commanded by his Servants the former Prophets had not overtaken their stubborn Fathers They in despite of their proud Hearts were forced to confess That like as the Lord had purposed to do unto them according to their ways and according to their doings even so had he dealt with them And Hast thou not procured this unto thy self saith our Prophet here in the Text in that thou hast forsaken the Lord when he led thee by the way And hereupon the Prophet Hosea doth not doubt to declare God's Judgments for Sin to be as clear as the Light that goeth forth There are then Judgments for Sin There is a flying Roll which brings a Curse along with it There is a Leprosy in the Wall which rotts and consumes the Timber and eats out the stone-work thereof And why then must this above all other escape this so black a Sin of Irreligion which striketh directly at God himself and therefore as good old Eli reproving his wicked Sons saith is the hardest to be intreated for And of which God had bound it with a most solemn Oath that it should not be purged with Sacrifice nor burnt-Offering for ever And rather than let it go unpunished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Gregory speaks God doth often cause even Contrarys to unite and agree together for to effect it This was it which at first brought the Deluge upon the Earth and reduced the whole World to but one small Family For before the Flood saith Berosus the Giants were Contemptores Religionis Deorum Agreeable to that of Moses God saw that the wickedness of man was great whereupon ensued that severe Determination I will destroy Man whom I have created from off the Face of the Earth And to bring one Instance for all of our own Country To this very Sin viz. of neglecting to preach the Gospel to the Saxons and Englishmen it is that Gildas ascribes his Britains overthrow And can we then persist in the same tho clog'd with abundance of aggravating Circumstances and not live under a fearful expectation of God's Judgments due for it How can we read of Aaron's Calf of Achan's Wedg of Saul s massacring the Gibeonites Israel's Apostacy and Judah's Abominations with the various Calamities and Mischiefs pursuant thereupon And if we believe them not at the same time dread the like or worse for this so much more horrible Irreligion and equally Vniversal And since these did prove such fatal pull-backs to them can any less be the Issue of this more inexcusable Wickedness this so palpable Elymasm if I may so call it And if God hath been pleased to chastise meer Heathens for their Enmity to his Religion with which 't is possible they were wholly unacquainted and has threatned to smite with most grievous Plagues those Infidel Regions and Kingdoms who have not called upon his Name of which haply they had not heard what portion of God from above or Mercy can be extended to those who as it were in a prophane mockery of profesing his Name and that too in the most refined and purest manner have been actual Enemies thereto And that under the disguise of the greatest Zeal for it even in this its Purity have been the Stiflers and Betrayers of it only in favour of their accursed Mammon Certainly if ever Judgments do fall it must be upon such and of all Judgments none beneath the most calamitous and the most lasting And tho other Punishments a thing next to impossible should fail yet the divine Vengeance may stir up these very Soul-oppressed People as it did the Arabians and the Philistins against wicked Joram and make them the Rods of his Anger to chastise this Sin That so their own wickedness may correct them and their own back-slidings reprove them and that they may know and see that it was an evil thing and a bitter that they have thus forsaken the Lord their God and that his Fear was not in them as our Prophet speaks And that by such a severe Discipline nothing less being like to be of force so as to work upon them they may be brought to understand as the Holy Scripture speaks of Rehoboam's Invasion by Shishack the difference between God's Service and the Service of the Kingdoms of the Countries that is of the wild and barbarous Heathen And that what they do so frequently most blasphemously give out as the mischievous effect of Christianity may thro the want of it be brought upon them and that by the same Sin wherewith they have sinned they may be punished And so in the end they may with that inhuman Tyrant Adonibezeck be compelled to acknowledge God's Justice in requiting them even as they have done unto others And then for such at home who have so patiently over-looked the Sufferings and Miseries of Religion in those parts and have been at least unconcerned Spectators tho perhaps not actual Partakers in those bloody Tragedies and therefore may lean upon the Lord and presume that no evil shall happen unto them those soft Pillows which they thus plant under their seared Consciences will but deceive them and the untempered Mortar with which they plaister over their Impiety will be in like danger of being washed away by the overflowing Showre For Jupiter being offended doth punish all said the Poet and in common Judgments and Calamities 't is not only the most guilty that are seized as in the several Captivities of Tobit and of Daniel are to be