Samuel would declare how angry God was with the People for their wantonnesse in desiring a change of their Government he tells them that he would call for thunder and rain 1 Sam. 12.17 which at that time of the year in those parts was altogether strange That saith he ye may perceive and see that your wickednesse is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a King And when upon this the Lord sent thunder and rain the people were so apprehensive of their danger that immediately they cry out to Samuel Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we dye not as conceiving that God would not stop or rest satisfied with a bare denunciation of his anger but go on to the extremity of it Joel 1.15 17. So the Prophet Joel makes an unseasonable seeds-seeds-time and an unfruitfull harvest forerunners of some greater vengance Alas saith he for the day for the day of the Lord is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come And this he gathers because The seed is rotten under their clods the garners are laid desolate the barns are broken down for the Corn is withered As when the pillars and supports of an house are removed and taken away we may learn infallibly that the house it self will not long stand So when Bread-corn which is called in Scripture the stay and staff begins to fail we need not doubt but some worse judgement is at the doore and just entring in Under this head of extraordinary mutations I may rank Eclypses Comets unusual Apparitions and strange Accidents in any of the Elements which our Saviour sayes should and as we read in Josephus did actually precede the destruction of Jerusalem But of these I spoke before Secondly Signe 2 Another Sign of an approaching judgement is when the heart and affections of such as God sends to Preach in his Name are mightily drawn out to speak against the abominations of a Land but they meet with no successe answerable to their labours but are either reproached and scorned or Imprisoned and Silenced for it Among the aggravations of Zedekiahs sinnes this is reckoned as one 2 Chron. 36.12 That he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And likewise of Herods who though he were an incestuous and voluptuous wretch yet saith the Text He added this above all Luke 3.20 that he put John Baptist a sharp and severe Preacher in prison As if his other sins were small in comparison of this It is therefore recorded as the cause which did both hasten and compleate the ruine of Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36.15 16. That The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place And therefore sent his Heralds before he would wage open War But sayes the Text they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets and what followed Untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no remedy For when a people refuses to hear the voice of God which speaks alwayes in these Prophets that he Commissions then he hath no way to vindicate his honour but to make bare his arme in their destruction As David avenged the outrage offered unto his Embassadors in the utter slaughter and devastation of the Ammonites When the Jews had arrived to that degree of complacency in sin as to say unto the Prophets Amos 2.12 13. prophesie not then God presently threatens I will presse your place as a Cart presseth that is full of sheaves i. e. I will so load and pursue you with my judgements that they shall dash and break you to pieces as a loaded Cart doth crush the Waggoner or whatever else it falls upon And therefore it is observable that none ever imprisoned Gods Prophets but they met with sudden and unexpected deaths When Ahab had commanded to put Micaiah in Prison the next news we hear of is 1 Reg. 22. that he went down to Battle and perished there Amos 7.10 12 And when Amaziah the High Priest of Bethel had accused Amos of sedition and treason and forbad him to prophesie any longer at Bethel for it was the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court Amos denounceth against them this heavy doome that his Wife should be a strumpet his children should fall by the sword and notwithstanding his endeavour to prevent his prophesying by Prison and Pillory yet God would certainly fulfill it It is so unpleasant a taske so contrary to flesh and blood and so full of apparent hazard to reprove sinne in the world that where-ever God stirs up the spirit of any to do it with those Cautions and in that manner which the Word of God warrants such an one will have Gods power to stand by and to defend him and to suppresse this duty in any onely hastens the judgement as when in a rage men put out the Candle it presently involves them in an helplesse and irrecoverable darknesse Lastly It is an assured signe of an approaching judgement when the iniquities of a Nation are arrived to their height There is a certain fixed measure and fullnesse of sinne which when it is once made up the stroke of the Clock doth not more certainly follow the motion of the Hand than Gods judgement doth pursue the cry of those sinnes It is therefore rendred as a reason by God why he did defer the punishment of the Amorites so long because saith he Gen. 15.16 The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full And when God descends to visit Sodom he alledgeth this as the occasion of it Gen. 18.20 The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great and their sin is very grievous wherefore saith he I will see whether they have done according to the cry of it implying that their sinne was grown so clamorous loud and importunate that it had attained its full growth and therefore he could no longer defer his vengeance This is expressed in Scripture under the similitudes of an Harvest and a Vintage Jer. 51.33 as in Jeremy God saith of Babylon The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floore it is time to thresh her yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come i. I will mowe her down with my judgements because she begins to be as it were mellowed in sin and thereby ripe for ruine So in Joel Joel 3.13 Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the presse is full the fats overflow for their wickednesse is great or according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is multiplyed i. e. There is not one sinne wanting to compleate the number which when it is made up judgment alwayes follows it as the breaking of the Ordnance doth its being overcharged with Powder It is for this
highly provoking sins Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath saith God from doing thy pleasure upon my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord and honourable It follows Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth i. e. I will signally bless and prosper thee Now we must take notice that whereever there is promise of a blessing for our obedience Ier. 17.21 there is alwayes threatned a curse for disobedience Therefore when Jeremy had commanded in the name of the Lord that they should carry no burden upon the Sabbath day but hallow it i. e. by forbearing such kind of employments according as God had commanded He concludes that if they would not hearken then saith God Verse 28. I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched From whence I infer that if to bear a burden which otherwise was lawfull and necessary be so severely prohibited upon that day How much more are sports and recreations which are alwayes needless and for the most part suspicious to be avoided then Ezekiel therefore having told the people of the Jews Ezek. 20.12 that God had given them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them that they might know saith he that I am the Lord which do sanctifie them But they by their profanation having polluted these Sabbaths Wherefore saith God I gave them statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live i. e. I brought my judgments upon them to destroy and to overthrow them And since the parity of reason doth obliege us to the same observance of a seventh day or of one day in seven with the Jews we cannot doubt but our breach and violation of it will bind us over to the same punishment Having thus found out in general what are the certain and infallible signs of an approaching judgment the next part of our duty is to enquire how far these signs do concern us and whether we of this place have any just reason to be afraid of them And here I shall advise you not so much to cast your eyes abroad in beholding the state of others though that likewise is to be done as to turn your eyes inward and to consider with you selves whether any of these tokens of death be upon you Survey your past actions and discern what measure your sins in particular have contributed to fill up the Nations Cup. For as when the Sea roars and swels the parts of water which lye next the bank though they seem to be still and quiet yet do because of their contiguousness as much contribute to the noise and tumult of the Ocean as any of those which are more remote so your sins and mine though perhaps they make not that stir in the world nor flye up and down so much upon the tongues of men yet do indeed as much make up and complete the Nations sinnes as any of those that are more discoursed of Therefore run over these provoking transgressions mentioned a little before and see what is your part in them And when you have found them out then 1. Confess your guilt and give God the glory of his mercy in that he hath so long delayed to punish When Job would testifie his integrity and thereby use an argument why God should ease him a little of his heavy load Iob 31.33 he sayes I did not cover my transgressions as Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosome And David praying likewise for respite useth this motive Psal 38.18 For I will declare mine iniquity I will be sorry for my sin As when God hath brought his judgments confession of sin is the best way to redress and remedy them as he tels the Israelites that when he had driven them out into forreign Lands yet saith he Levit. 26.40 If then they shall confess their iniquity with their trespass which they have trespassed against me and if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they accept of the punishment of their iniquity i. e. If they acknowledge that they did deserve whatever I laid upon them Ier. 3.13 then saith God I will remember my Covenant and restore them unto their Land So before a judgment comes confession is the best way to arrest and stop it As God himself prescribes the method return saith he to me and I will not let my anger to fall upon thee Only acknowledg thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God Till we confess we have sinned Ier. 2.35 the same Prophet tels us that God will continue to plead with us David no sonner confessed but he obtained pardon which when it is once gained no judgment either is or ought to be terrible Because then it looseth its name and instead of a punishment as from a Judg is only the Rod of a tender and compassionate Father 2. Prevent the growth of future judgments by a particular and serious repentance Confession and repentance must be joyned together like the purge and the plaister the one doth cleanse the wound the other cures it Confession is the sick and sinfull souls Vomit Repentance is its Diet the one doth stir the humours and discover the distemper the other begets new bloud and spirits and brings us to a more healthfull habit To encourage you to this consider First By this means you may be instrumentall in retarding Gods judgments as to the whole Nation Had there been but ten righteous men in Sodom Gen. 18. God would not have medled with it And when he came to punish Jerusalem he descends to a lower proportion and declares that if there had been but one but a man that executed judgment Ier. 5.1 and that sought the truth and he would pardon it And he often complains that he sought for a man amongst them that should make up the hedge Ezek. 22.30 and stand in the gap before him for the land that he might not destroy it but he found none Thou sinner whoever thou art that now lyest surfeiting in thy wickedness thou knowest not but thou maist be the man for whose sake if thou repentest God will save the Nation Thou maist be raised out of the mire wherein thou now wallowest and become a pillar to uphold a tottering state Or at least if Gods decree be gone forth and there be no reversing it yet Secondly Thou wilt be sure to save thy self though the sentence of destruction should be gone out of Gods mouth and we were a people utterly devoted to ruine nay though God was just now aiming his thunder and levelling his arrows yet could you suppose in that very instant that a sinner would repent the threatned and intended evil would not come near him Ier. 18.7 8. Thus God himself expresly At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And the reason is clear because repentance changes the person God is angry only with sinners but he that hath once repented is no longer accounted a sinner Repentance evens all accounts and sin once truly sorrowed for is not only forgiven but remembred no more When we have once attained to such peace with God the tumults and stirs in the world may allarm but they ought not to affright us Therefore to conclude in the Prophet Zephanies words Before the decree bring forth Zeph. 2.12 before the day pass as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment seek righteousness seek meekness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords Anger FINIS ERRATA Page 1. line 2. for command read demand page 2â— line 28. for observe read afford
SIGNES OF THE TIMES OR PROGNOSTICKS OF Future Judgements WITH The way how to prevent them BY Edward Bagshaw Student of Ch. Church LONDON Printed for Simon Miller at the Star in St. Pauls Church-yard 1662. The Preface AMong the names whereby the publick Ministers of the word are expressed in Scripture there is none either more usefull unto others or if neglected more dreadfull to themselves than the stile of Watchmen which is so often given them whose businesse it is to foresee the first Approach of Danger and to give timely Notice that so all who through sleep and ease would not rouse up themselves and take the Alarum might be inexcusably guilty of their own Destruction But saith God to Ezekiel Ezek. 33.6 whom he had deputed for the discharge of that forlorne employment if the Watchman see the Sword come which may be understood proportionably of any other impending Calamity and blow not the Trumpet and the people be not warned if the sword come and take any person from among them he is take away in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thy hand It was I believe for fear of this terrible account which the common sort of meerly self-called and humanely appointed Prophets consider not that Habakkuk who was by God himself commissioned for this Taske to declare his diligence cries out I will stand upon my watch Hab 2.1 and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say to me And to shew that what he received in this kind was not to be concealed or reserved only for his own use Verse 2. God presently bids him Write the vision and make it plain upon Tables that he who runs may read it i. e. Whatever you find upon your most strict and severe enquiry let it not be imprisoned in secret but unfolded to all in the most perspicuous and apparent manner since such visions like light are lost as to the use of them if they be not communicated If this was the duty of Prophets heretofore it must needs follow that it doth equally belong to Preacher now whose burden is not at all lessend but as their Ministry is more glorious so there is a double weight of care incumbent upon them For they Heb. 13.17 saith the Apostle speaking of Gospel-Ministers do watch for mens souls as those who must give an account And when the Apostle Paul would testifie how carefully he had discharged his Ministry he tells the Ephesian Elders Acts 20.26 that he was clear from their blood Thereby implying that had he not with so much sollicitous industry and watchfullnesse performed his office in denouncing their danger as well as in declaring their duty he should have been accountable for their miscarriage This Consideration alone without any circumstantiall inducements will sufficiently justifie me in venturing to Publish what I have now not without great anxiety for a long time observed That so if these indeed are Signes of the Times or Fore-runners of Future Judgments which I have impartially Collected for such out of the Scriptures of Truth then others together with my self might take notice of and be warned by them For though I shall alwayes pray that I may prove herein a false Prophet yet so long as our National sinnes are so great and crying I should not have been faithfull in my Ministry which I doe not take to be confined within the circuit of any one Parish should I not have thus Blown the Trumpet and endeavoured to awaken all into whose hands this Treatise may come that while the Cloud is gathering they might looke up and labour to avoid their danger Edward Bagshaw Drury-lane Jan. 28. 1661. Signes of the Times Matth. 16.3 Ye Hypocrites ye can discern the face of the Sky and can ye not discern the signes of the Times THese words contain our Saviours answer to an impious command of the unbelieving Pharisees who notwithstanding the many Miracles he had wrought yet now come to require a visible sign from him a sign from Heaven and this they did not out of any desire to be convinced by him but willing some way or other to entrap and ensnare him The Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 playing the tempters with him For Matth that we may know by what spirit they were acted we shall find that the very first temptation whereby the Devil did set upon our Saviour was to desire such a sign of his Divinity from him If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread so these show us a sign from Heaven Our Saviours absolute refusal both then and here to satisfie this bold and unwarrantable curiosity leaves us this Observation That where ordinary meanes for the attaining of faith may be had there it is nothing else but a tempting of God to request a Miracle Miracles are the rarities and reserves of Heaven which God will not suffer to be squandred away to no purpose but Gods visible store-house and treasure of good things must be first searched and ransacked before that other way may be so much as in a wish attempted Had the Pharisees done that part of their duty which was to search the Scriptures and to enquire thence what kind of person the Messiah was to be and what he was to do and suffer they might thence have arrived to a better satisfaction of their doubts than any miracle could have procured them Our Saviour therefore remits them to these ordinary and safe because sanctified wayes of trial and by a familiar instance convinces them of their great folly and indiligence in this so serious and important businesse You are saith he very carefull to observe the Heaven and from the various aspects of it are able to collect what kind of Weather the following day will produce which industry of yours in that which is of so small concernment argues you to be but Hypocrites in that you neglect to take notice of the times the signes of which are as visible and as easie to be known as the prognosticks and indications of the Weather By times here I take it our Saviour means those calamities and miseries which were then hanging over and because of their rejecting of Christ would certainly come upon the Jews So is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred times to be understood in other places as where the Apostle Paul saith 1 Thes 5.1 3. But of the times and seasons ye have no need that I write unto you for that your selves know that the day of the Lord i. the destruction he hath threatned so cometh as a thief in the night For when they shall say peace and safety e. i. there is nothing at all to be feared then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travaile upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape So when our Saviour wept over Jerusalem in contemplation of those miserable slaughters and devastations which were then coming upon
not idle And their damnation or punishment slumbreth not And it were well for Nations if such Drones who eat the honey and make a noise and yet have no sting no piercing quicknesse in their Ministry to rouse and stir up a secure and sleepy sinner were to perish alone in their iniquity but they are a general plague a fretting leprosie that infect and consume all round about them For saith Jeremy Jer. 5.30 31. a wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the Land The Prophets i. the Preachers prophesie falsely and the Priests i. the superiour Order of the Jewish Clergy bear rule by their meanes and my people love to have it so Which complaint he ushers in with this menace Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this When those who are stiled Lights do either not shine at all or else cast a false and deceitfull lustre which meerly misleads the unwary Travellers God then thinks it high time for him to come with his Candle and to search out their iniquity till he finds none And if vain-Preaching doth thus provoke God much more doth vicious living For if the salt becomes unsavoury it is not only to be thrown away it self but it defiles a Land and makes it but a noisome dunghill fit only for the raine of vengeance to purifie and wash it Isa 56.10 12. The Watchmen of Israel in Esays time were ignorant and blind and as a consequent of that they were dumb Dogs which could not bark and likewise great voluptuaries sleeping lying down and loving to slumber Such Shepherds which though they did not understand i. e. what belonged unto their proper dtuy yet they could look to their profit well enough They all look to their own way every one for his gain from his quarter And with their Gains they procured Wine and strong drink and eat and drank like Epicures Whereupon God sends a summons All ye beasts of the field come to devour Verse 9. As if such brutish and swinish Teachers were only fit to be a prey unto their fellow beasts Ier. 23.14 So in Jeremy God complains I have seen in the Prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing They strengthen the hands of evil doers that none doth return from his wickednesse Therefore I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of gall For from the Priests is profannesse gone out into the Land For according to Hose as words which may be Proverbially used Hosea 4.9 Like Priest like People When sin gets credit by the Preachers example it spreads presently It is no wonder then if God works i. sends some suddain judgment for men will be sure to make void his Law when such as should be the reprovers of sinne are the principal and most noted committers of it 3. Lastly The sins of a Nation are then full and ripe for vengeance when those commands of God are most commonly broken which God hath most particularly pressed upon our observance which he seems as it were to have an especiall care of and therefore hath hedged in and fenced about with his Prohibitions Of this sort I might mention many As 1. Oppression of the poore Prov. 14.21 which who so practiseth reproacheth his Maker and therefore ought to expect that God will vindicate his quarrel 2. Adultery and uncleanness which is said greatly to defile a Land Ier. 3.1 And when a Land is filthy God saith he will sweep it with the beesome of destruction 3. Entrapping and injurious Laws When the Law instead of being a protection becomes a snare when men are made offenders for a word Isai 29.21 and wait is laid for such as reprove in the gate and the just are turned aside for a thing of naught i. e. for small and trivial causes good and upright men are condemned and sentenced But to pass by these I shall insist only upon three Commands all which are contained in the Decalogue and God seems by his manner of enforcing them which he doth in more words than he spends upon all the rest to have a principal esteem and concernment for them 1. That against Idolatry Com. 2. 2. That against Swearing Com. 3. 3. That against Sabbath-breaking Com. 4. 1. The Command against Idolatry is fenced with a severe Commination that God is a jealous God and that he will punish not the persons only but also the posterity of such as hate him for so he counts all them to do who set up their commands and worships in competition with his for did they indeed love God they would reverence his Wisdom and not presume to serve him any other way than he hath appointed This Precept therefore is broken not only when Images are erected and divine honour given to them which is but a gross and dull part of Idelatry and yet as stupid and sensless as it is it is at this day in these very terms practised and enjoined among the Papists but also when we have inventions and devises of our own to adorn as we think but indeed to adulterate the worship of God which is then best when it is most simple and savouring of its divine original This was the sin of which the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty in our Saviours Matth. 15. who worshipped God after the commandments and traditions of men for which he threatens that they should be rooted up Every plant saith he which my Father hath not planted shall be rooted up God doth so much disdain to have his worship squared by mens modell that he will root up all such impious pretenders who by giving way to their own imaginations do secretly tax the goodness of God as if he were not holy and wise enough in his own appointments For let men say and use what fine distinctions they please it will at last be found that all such self-devised forms though they are not so gross and palpable yet have every whit as much of the nature and spirit of Idolatry in them as the open adoration of Images And the reason is clear for when God rebukes this sin by the Prophets he chargeth them most with this that they did what he never commanded Jer. 7.32 31. As in Jeremy They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it And they have built the high places of Tophet to burn their sons and daughters in the fire Which saith God I commanded them not neither came it into my heart Jer. 18.15 And in another place My people hath forgotten me they have burnt incense to vanity and they have caused them to stumble in their wayes from the ancient paths to walk in paths in a way not cast up i. in a way which God never chalked out for them Hosea 13.2 So in Hosea God complaints That they made themselves Images of silver and gold according to their own
understanding Whereupon it is recorded as a great aggravation of Jeroboams sin that he offered to God in the fifteenth day of the eigth moneth 1 King 15.32 even in the moneth which he had devised of his own heart From all which places it appears that the Idol did not so much provoke God as the ill temper of heart in the idolater which occasioned it and that was a proud conceit of mending the Law of God and of adding something to make it more specious And this corrupt principle is the true spring of all invented uncommanded and therefore unwarrantable forms of Worship In defence of which whoever pleads custome and antiquity doth only use Names for which we ought so much the more to detest it Since the older an error is the worse it is and calls for the sorer rain of judgment to wash those inveterate stains of it away As God threatens by Amos Amos 2.4 For three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn away the punishment because they have despised the Law of the Lord and have not kept his Commandments and their lies caused them to erre after the which their fathers walked They it seems pleaded custome too and tradition from Fathers but this very thing did so little abate that it is mentioned as a cause of their punishment And it is very observable that when the people of Israel were flat Idolaters God did content himself with punishing them only by seventy years captivity But in our Saviours time when in great zeal not for Gods Law but for their own false glosses and Comments upon it by which they sought to uphold their superstitious usages they rejected Christ and would not endure the simplicity of his Gospel At which time they were so far from idolatry that they would not brooke so much as the Emperours Statue to be set upon the Temple yet God did look upon that refined and more subtle Idolatry that will-worship of theirs to be so great and so incurable a sin that he soon after fulfilled all those wees which our Saviour had denounced against them and left them neither place nor Nation and they are at this day a terrible Instance both how ill managers of holy things humane fancy is and likewise how severely God will avenge such bold and unlicensed intermedling 2. The second Command which God hath fenced with a commination is that against taking Gods name in vain concerning which he affirms that he will not hold the doers of it guiltlesse i. e. he will certainly and unavoidably punish them By taking Gods name in vain may be meant either false or vain swearing and either of them is a grievous God-provoking sin For the first viz. that of perjury or forswearing the Instances are so notorious that I need not insist on them The cases of Joshua and the Gibeonites which was an Oath got by fraud Ezek. 17.13 19. of Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar which was an Oath extorted by force might seem to have something pleadable in their excuse but Gods indispensable punishing the violatours of those solemn Vowes sufficiently showes us that those persons who have been in the same case must needs expect the same punishment if they shall venture to commit the same sin I shall therefore omit the prosecution of the guilt of perjury against which so many curses are denounced in Scripture that as certain as God is true so certain is it that that sin will never long scape unpunished And only mention the inevitable danger of vain-swearing which because it is more common men are apt to think is more excusable This swearing in ordinary discourse is that which our Saviour in his explication of the Law Mat. 5.33 37. sayes was originally entended should be forbidden and therefore it is expresly prohibited by him because it proceeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that evill one who delights in all manner of superfluity of naughtiness Iames 1.21 as the Apostle James calls sinne and therefore needless and unnecessary Oaths must needs take their first rise from his instigation And when this sin did abound among the Pharisees in our Saviours time who made as little scruple to make as to break their Oath for which we read they had found out many subtle distinctions as that an Oath by the Altar did not bind Mat. 23.16 22. though an Oath by the gold upon the Altar did and the like Our Saviour first tells them that every Oath they swear by any thing how light and trivial soever was sacred and obligatory since it had an immediate aspect upon the Creator whose name though it was not interposed yet was understood in all those solemne asseverations And then denounces a Woe against them for such rash and inconsiderate swearing Deut. 28.58 since it betrayes a great want of reverence towards God so lightly to mention his name which ought to be feared and dreaded by us And if they would plead that they did not mention the name of God but only swear by the creature as by their head c. the crime is so much the worse since it puts the creature into the place of God who only hears our vows and can take notice to punish the breach of them So James where he bids us not sware at all gives this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least ye fall under judgment i. e. Incurre some signall punishment and judgment from God for God will not have his Name tossed about irreverently in our mouths An Oath is a religious tye and therefore ought to be solemn as well as sacred When therefore a Nation abounds with oaths and cursing when swearing and banning and blaspheming becomes our ordinary language it is a sign that the tongues of men are set on fire of hell Iames 3.6 and that calls for the fire of divine wrath to purifie them Lastly The third command which is especially recommended to us and therefore the breach of it cannot but be very dangerous is that about keeping the Sabbath which begins with a Memento to shew that it is very remarkable and concludes with urging Gods example who is to be our pattern in all holy performances And it s this which gives that command its obligation for since the reason there alledged is universally equal viz. That we ought to rest because God the Creator did rest upon the seventh day it must needs follow from hence that the command is universally binding Whereupon we find that it was enjoyned unto Adam in Paradise Gen. 2. when the nature of man was in its highest and most elevated degree of perfection and therefore neither pretences of piety with some nor commands from Authority with others nor examples of antiquity with the most either can absolve any or ought to prevaile with us to quit and to leave off this duty Hence we find that in all predictions the breach of the Sabbath is alwayes reckoned for one of the greatest and most