fast-Fast-works It is added by way of exposition in the next words The Lord saw their workes that they turned from their evill wayes Unlesse God sees turning from our sinnes in a Fast he sees no worke in a Fast It is not talking of sin nor talking against sinne but turning from sinne that is the worke This must be the result of all Abstinence Prayer Preaching Hearing Covenanting Mourning must all be resolved into turning from our evill wayes Without this God sees no worke in Fasting but the worke of hypocrisie and such can expect no wages but the wages of hypocrites to have their praying and weeping and teares here rewarded with weeping and wayling and gnashing of teeth for evermore So farre of the point as it may be applyed to the workes of this Speciall Duty Now for workes in Generall First it convinces those who thinke of drawing a Curtaine and spreading a vayle of darknesse betweene Christ and their workes Some while they doe things not fit to be seen would willingly perswade themselves they are not seen in doing them Thus the proud subtle mercilesse oppressor is described in the tenth Psalme He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his Ps 10. 11. face and will never see it The same sort of men a sort of men as bad within a degree as bad can be are brought in under the same Notion of Atheisme In the 94th Psalme They breake in peeces O Lord thy people Psal 94. 5 6 7. and afflect thy heritage they slay the widow and the stranger and murther the fatherlesse yet they say v. 7. the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it Others perhaps have not made out this heart securing conclusion yet with those in Iob they argue and debate it Iob 22. 13 How doth God know can he judge through the darke Cloud You may reade these Querists resolved in the next words Thicke Clouds are a covering to him that he cannot see He that vvill let his heart dally awhile about blasphemous Questions may quickly be setled in blasphemous Conclusions But let all such whether questioning or resolving heare themselves fully and bitterly confuted by the Psalmist in the place afore quoted Psal 94. 8 9 10. Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fooles when will ye be wise He that planted the eare shall not he heare He that formed the eye shall not he see He that teacheth man knowledge shall not he know The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vaine and this the vainest thought of all That God knowes not their thoughts Moses saw him who is invisible Doe not thinke that Heb. 11. 27 he who is invisible cannot see God like the Opticke virtue in the eye sees all and is seen of none No man needs a window in his breast as 't is said the Heathen Momus wish for God to looke in at every man before God is all Window There is no darknesse faith Elihu nor shadow of death where the workers of wickednesse may Iob 34. 22. hide themselves No naturall darknesse no artificiall darknesse no dust raised or mist scattered by Politicians can hide them The eyes of Christ are as a flame Rev. 1. 14. of fire and the Schoole of Nature teacheth us that the fiery eye needs no outward light that sees extra mittendo by sending out a ray and by the same ray which apprehends the Object doth also enlighten the Medium or passage to it Secondly this may be for Admonition To lay a mighty restraint upon our Spirits and keep us from every evill worke It was an advise of the Moralist to his Schollers that they should ever carry in their eye a conceived representation of some severe Cato or Criticall Aristarch as the Overseer and censurer of all their actions That he thought would hold them in Compasse God seemes to speake the same Counsell and almost the same Language to Abraham Walke before Gen. 17. 1. me and be thou perfect The eye of Conscience restraines much it is hard for a man to sin under the eye of Conscience What then is the eye of God who is greater then Conscience and knoweth all things Could we as 1 Ioh. 3. 20. Ps 16. 8. Acts 2. 25. David speakes in the type of Christ set the Lord alwayes before us Or as the Apostle quotes it could we foresee the Lord alwayes before our face we should not be so often so easily moved by temptations as we are And as this should caution all men in all works so especially those who are actively concerned in works of Iustice In these as Christ hath a more speciall Interest all power being put into his hand and from him communicated unto man so upon these he hath a more speciall Eye God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty Psal 82. 1. he judgeth among the gods Not alwayes by consenting for they may erre and judge unjustly v. 2. And Christ will never vote with such but he alwayes judgeth by discerning whether the sentence be just or not Iehoshaphat warnes his Iudges upon this very ground Take 2 Chr. 19. 6 heed what ye doe for ye judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the judgement as if he had said I cannot ride circuit with you to all places or fit with you in all your Consultations but the Lord can and doth he is with you in the Iudgement With you not onely by way of assistance and protection as that phrase often imports but also by way of notice-taking and observation Hee keepes a record of every judgement and will at last judge them all over a second time Thirdly the Doctrine carries wrath and terrour in it against all evill-workers Woe to them that seeke deepe to hide their counsell from the Lord and their works are in Is 29. 15. the darke and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us And why woe to these The Psalmist tels us why arguing the certainty of revenges upon this ground Thou Lord hast seen it for thou beholdest mischiefe Ps 10. 13 14 and spite to requite it with thy hand though no eye of man or Angell sees it yet thine doth And therefore though no hand of man or Angell requite it yet thou wilt requite it with thy hand Surely I have seen yesterday the bloud of Naboth Murder ever bleeds fresh in the eye of God to him many yeares yea that eternity which is past is but yesterday Surely I have seen yesterday the 2 King 9. 26. bloud of Naboth and the bloud of his sonnes saith the Lord and I will requite thee in this plat saith the Lord. Bloud shall surely enough be requited with bloud because surely the Lord hath seen it That which a man sowes the same also shall he reape he that soweth to the flesh shall Gal. 6. 7 8. of the flesh reape corruption And why the reason is
magnificent for Christ When we spare no cost 1 Sam. 24. 23. nor sticke at any price to serve Christ and his Church or Christ in his Church If we shal be rewarded thus for cold water from the spring which can hardly be called ours what shall we be for warm water froÌ„ our browes bodies given to a disciple in Christs name If we shall be thus rewarded for water what shall we be for our bloud shed for the name of Christ When for Christs sake we labour and sweat and dye to do good for others When to Christ and to his people in his name we give our time and our strength our sleep and our meats our comforts and recreations our credit and our estates our liberties and our lives When Ahasuerus read in Hest 6. 1 2 3. the booke of the Records of the Chronicles how Mordecai had discovered a treason against his person The King enquires what honour and what dignity hath bin done unto Mordecai for this It seemes if the King had thought on or read him sooner he had rewarded him sooner God hath ever in his eye all the Records and Chronicles of your good workes he reades your journals every day and when he meets with any that have done or spoken aright for him he enquires what honour what dignity hath been done for this man If none hath been done he will doe it himselfe if any thing hath been done he will doe yet more He that honours 1 Sam. 2. 30. me I will honour Who would not worke for thee O King of Nations Who would not worke for thee O King of Saints None shall lose a word no nor a thought for Christ Wherefore as the Apostle concludes so shall I this first Doctrine My Beloved Brethren 1 Cor. 15. last be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And this leades me on to the first part of the Gradation observed and approved by Christ in their works The laboriousnesse of them I know thy worke and thy labour Laborious working in a good cause is very pleasing Doct. 2 unto God God is not unrighteous to forget your worke Heb. 6. 10. and Labour of Love Where we have the same Gradation in the same words and there not to forget is to delight in God is himselfe a pure Act and he loves to see man Active And the more active we are the more like we are to God and therefore the more liked of God Likenesse is the ground of Love He makes his Heb. 1. 7. Angels or messengers Spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Spirits are the most active creatures living and fire is the most active creature without life Fire is the most operative Element and flame is the most operative part of the fire No sooner had man received his being but he is put to labour to serious labour though not to consuming labour The Lord God tooke the man Gen. 2. 15. which he had made and put him into the Garden to dresse it and to keep it No sooner was man fallen but he was put upon sore consuming labour In the sweat of thy face shalt Gen. 3. 19. thou eat thy bread Sinne brought in sweat and now not to sweat increases sinne It is a part of our holinesse to submit to that which was a part of our curse The idle man is Satans Agent and the laborious man is Gods Not but that Satan hath nimble hands and heads in his service Satans idle man is he that will not doe the worke which God sets him he is ready enough to toyle like a horse in the worke his owne lust sets him He will not worke in the Garden of some honest imployment or not there honestly and all this while he is idle though he sweats and breaks his sleep because he doth not a stroake of Gods worke Of such an idle man it is chiefly said Diabolus quem occupatum non invenit ipse occupat He imployes whom he finds not well imployed On the contrary Deus quem occupatum invenit ipse occupat God imployes them whom he finds well imployed He found Moses labouring on the plaines among his flockes and sends him to Pharaoh for the deliverance of his people He finds Peter and Andrew casting a Net into the Sea and he saith follow Mat. 4. 18 9. Eccl. 9. 10. me and I will make you fishers of men Then heare the counsell of the Preacher Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it with all thy might To doe and not with the might we have is to doe nothing We live no more then we worke and we worke no more then we labour As idlenesse is the buriall of our selves so unlaboriousnesse if I may so speake is the buriall of our workes without diligence they not onely flat but dye upon our hands There are some whose very businesse is idlenesse and there are many who are idle in their businesse Seest thou a man diligent in his businesse Pro. 2â— 29. Rom. 12. 11. saith Solomon Not sloathfull in businesse saith the Apostle To be slow in businesse is ill but to be sloathfull is farre worse An industrious man is often wearied with working but he is never weary of his worke Spontaneae lassitudines morbos loquuntur is an Aphorisme Hip. Apb. of Physicians To be weary when we know not why foreshâ—wes diseases of the body I am sure it is an Argument of a diseased soule The heart of the sluggard is like the field of the sluggard overgrowne with Pro. 24. 30 weeds They who worke for Christ should imitate Christ in his worke for us I must worke the workes of him that sent Ioh. 9. 4. me saith Christ There is an Emphasis in that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As they speake in Ieremy Come Ier. 18. 18. let us devise devises against him Which notes strong plotting to mischiefe the Prophet so to worke a worke notes the strong intention of Christ upon it Many doe rather play their works then worke their works And it is observed that as mean men play so commonly rich and great men worke but for recreation Christ who had unsearchable riches in himselfe and in greatnesse was Gods Fellow will yet worke a worke for us Shall we thinke any labour too great for him Christ by his own labour in your cause when your foules lay a bleeding hath out-bid all the labour you have or can bestow in his cause now his Church lyes a bleeding I know Honourable and Beloved you have often dined upon businesse so did Christ My meat is to doe the will of Ioh. 4. 34. him that sent me and to finish his worke I know you have laboured in the midst of many crosses but Christ laboured for us upon the Crosse I know you have wrestled with many difficulties but Christ for your sakes wrestled
things saith he that holdeth the seven starrs in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks A description which fits none but him to whom all power in heaven and in earth is committed Iesus Christ God and man I know There is a twofold knowledge first simple 2. Mixt. Simple knowledge is the bare apprehension of the object what it is Mixt knowledge is that which carries along with it either pleasure or dislike according as the object is we apprehend Thy workes Workes are of two sorts Good or Bad and in reference to either workes are taken somtime strictly as opposed to words as opposed to thoughts Sometime more largely and so our words come in account among our works and so our very thoughts are works yea in a large sence even things not done nor spoken nor thought may be numbred among our workes To abstaine from evill is a worke of grace to omit good is a worke of sinne not to doe our duty is a worke of darknesse In this larger sence take works in the Text. Good works are expressed here in these two verses and some evill the decay of their first love and the consequent of it falling from their first workes in the two following where he is plaine with them I have somewhat against thee he reckons up their faults too and in refernce to both pronounceth I know thy workes I clearly apprehend all what are good I know and approve what are evill I know and dislike Hence observe That all the workes of men lie open to the sight of Doct. 1 Christ who is God and Man Be they good or evill be they actions words or thoughts be they abstinences from evill or omissions of good they all fall within the prospect of Iesus Christ The wayes of a man saith Solomon are before the Lord and he pondereth Pro. 5. 21. or weigheth as in a ballance all his wayes If they be but halfe a graine to light his beame Pro. 15 3. will discover it The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evill and the good The hundred thirty nine Psalme is but a continued Paraphrase upon this point v. 1. O Lord thou hast searched me and Ps 139. 1. c. known me Men often search men and yet cannot know them There are secrets and depths in man which man cannot reach What man knoweth the things of man save 1 Cor. 2. 11. the spirit of man which is in him But the Spirit of Christ knoweth what is in any man better then any mans own spirit He hath a thred which will lead him into all and thorough all the Labirynths and turnings of the most Matchavilian spirit He hath a light which will discover in man the very depths of Satan v. 24. Thou hast searched and knowne me Me not only Me naturall of which hee speakes vers 15 16. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy Booke were all my members written but also Mee civill and Mee morall as it is expounded verse 2 3. Thou knowest my downe sitting and my uprising thou art at both ends of all my workes thou compassest or winnowest my path if there bee any chaffe or trash thou wilt make it fly and art acquainted with all my waies He finds God not only at his fingers ends but at his tongues end too v. 4. There is not a word in my tongue but loe ô Lord thou knowest it altogether His knowledge staieth not here in the porch or lobbies but passeth into the presence yea into the privy chamber v. 2 thou understandest my thoughts and not only thoughts present but those which are in posse and to come thou knowest my thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afarre off that is before I thought them Things before they be are known to him by whom all things have their being Who knows saith Solomon Pr. 27. 1. what a day may bring forth man knows not what is in the womb of the next day we cannot see unerringly an houre before us But Christ knows what lies in the Wombe of eternity he knowes what all ages shall bring forth he can see thousands of years before him He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done Is 46. 10 Heb. 4. 13. All things saith the Apostle whether past present or to come are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both elegant Metaphors and implying thus much that as the outward proportion and lineaments of the body are distinctly seene When that is naked and uncloathed that as the bowels and internals are perfectly discerned when the body is dissected even so are we and all we doe and all that shall be done before the Lord. That Sea of Glasse like Chrystall Revel 4. 6. standing before the Throne is well expounded to represent the whole world with the confluence and series of all things therin The World is like the Sea because so tempestuous up and downe ebbing or flowing ever but it is called a Sea of Glasse like chrystall to note that Christ doth not onely looke upon it but through it it is to him corpus diaphanum a cleare and transparent body There are foure motions very necessary to be made First part of the application in regard of the present duty in regard of this daies dutie Prayer and Fasting the Doctrine in hand joynes strongly with me in the making of them all First the duty of this day moves us to Selfe-searching and Selfe examination The voyce of this dutie sounds like that voyce of the Prophet Ieremy Let us search and try our wayes Like that voyce of Lam 3. 40. Zeph. 2. 1. the Prophet Zephany Gather your selves together or as others render it Fanne your selves yea Fanne your selves ô Nation not desired This is a day wherein every worke is called to the touch-stone to try their metall and all our wayes to the ballance even the ballance of the Sanctuary that wee may know their weight The Doctrine cals as loud for this also For doth Christ know our works and shall we be ignorant of them Doth he travell into our hearts and shall our hearts be terra incognita unto us Shal we be strangers at home A sinne of Ignorance is lesse then a sinne of Knowledge but to be ignorant of those sinnes we may know for the enquiry increases and heightens them Paul in one case after he had searched said I know nothing by my selfe yet 1 Cor. 4 4 am I not hereby justified but if we know nothing by our selves because vve vvill not be at the pains to search vve shall hereby be condemned both because the best have many sinnes they may know and because to all their sinnes they have added this the not endeavouring to know them The Heathens say that
Oracle of theirs came downe from Heaven Nosce teipsum know thy selfe I am sure no Christian can ascend to Heaven unlesse he know himselfe Unlesse he both know himselfe to be a sinner and desire to know according to his light in what he hath sinned Secondly The duty of this day moves us to the free full and sincere confession of sinne vvhich is the putting of our selves into the hands of Iustice in hope of mercy This is one of the essentials in a Fast and vve finde a fourth part of the day allovved to it in Neh 9. 3. the 9. of Nehemiah The Doctrine moves as strongly for confession as this daies duty can What more prevailing Argument to confesse our sinnes unto God then this that we cannot conceale our sinnes from God God cals for confession but not for information Why doe we make such long Narratives in Prayer Why doe we tell the story of our sinfull lives in the eares of God What is it to teach or instruct the Almighty O no God knowes our sinnes enough to punish them though we doe not confesse them but he will never know them so as to pardon them unlesse we confesse them Take then that excellent counsell of the Ancient Fac confitendo propitium quem tacendo non facis August To. 8. in Ps 74. nescium make him willing to pardon thy sinne by confessing whom thou doest not make unknowing of thy sinne by concealing For though thou sittest as close this day upon the Idols of thy heart and the evils of thy way as Rachel did upon her Fathers Images yet thou doest not hide thy sinne from God but the mercies of God from thy sin Thirdly the duty of this day cals us to Self abasement and blushing to shame and confusion of face before the Lord. Thus Ezra in the day of his mourning cryes out O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up Ezr. 9. 6. my face to thee So Daniel in his Fast O Lord to us belongeth Dan. 9. 8. confusion of face that is as I conceive we have great reason to be ashamed and blush For those naturall tinctures of the face the white and the red are so confounded in a blush that while it lasts no man can distinguish the Complexion The present doctrine cals us to this gracefull shame and becomming confusion of face Shame ariseth two wayes first from the doing of somewhat against common light and ordinary Principles Secondly from an apprehension that what we have done is knowne The very sight of a man who to our knowledge knowes such a thing by us fetches a blush from bare ingenuity How should this make us ashamed this day while we consider our selves in his presence who knowes every sinne of our Lives or rather our whole Lives to be a sin Who knowes all the errour of our works or rather all our works to be an errour Who knowes the lightnesse and vanity of all our wayes or rather all our wayes to be but lightnesse and vanity Any but a whores forehead a forehead steeled with impudence will be ashamed of such works as these when we heare God knowes them For none can heare and beleeve and not be ashamed O let not the shew of our countenance witnesse against us as it did Isa 3. 9. against those Jewes that we have this day declared our sinne as Sodome If we be not ashamed it will there was no shew of shame in their countenance and that was to declare like Sodome To confesse sinne in the sight of God and not be ashamed is an act of impudence not of repentance It is better to hide our sinnes for shame then not to be ashamed of them when they are not hid O let the shew of our countenance witnesse for us that we have this day declared our sinnes as Sion as the mourners in Sion Let us be ashamed that we may never be ashamed Fourthly this duty bids us be very cautious and watchfull When we come to be humbled for all our old sinnes we had need take heed we doe not renew our sinnes and make debts while we come to get discharges Our miscarriages in this duty may be such as will provoke God while we come to pacific him and fasten those judgements upon the Kingdomes which we are seeking to remove As therefore we are called to the duty of fasting so the duty cals to us take heed how ye fast This motion the Doctrine brings also and cryes with a mighty voice take heed how ye fast Why Fasting and Prayer are a worke I strong worke spirituall worke Therefore Christ who knowes all our works knowes these above all In a sence all our Services in reference to God are eye-services but on this service his eye is fixed 1 King 8. 29. Mat. 18. 20. as it was prayed about the Temple Let thine eyes be open toward this house night and day Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them To be in the midst notes a Speciall presence I will not onely stand at the doore and looke in but I will come in amongst you and into the midst of you to take a view what all doe of all your Services as well as to take delight in and give assistance to or concurrence with my faithfull Servants In the two and twentieth of Matthew it is said That the King came in to the Feast to see Mat. 22. 11 12. the guests And there quickly espyed out a man a single person though but one he could not escape in the throng unseen that had not on a wedding garment Surely Christ that King is come this day to the Fast to see his mourners and he will quickly espye every man in this Congregation that hath not on him a mourning garment that hath not in him a mourning heart He knowes when it is a Fast and when not when it is his Fast and when it is our Fast As he questions or rather upbraides the Jewes did ye at all fast unto me even Zach. 7. 5. to me As here he discovers it none of his Fast by a failing in the end So in the 58. Chapter of Esay he discovers it to be none of his Fast by their failing in the manner Is it such a Fast that I have chosen He knowes Isa 58. 5. when we are but as a people that seeke and when we seek indeed When we onely act a part and personate a holy Praying Fasting humbled people and when we are really such He knowes whether we are come together by the Order and Law of our owne hearts or only by the Law and Order of the State He knowes when we make a worke of Fasting and when but onely a talke of Fasting But when is Fasting a worke you may learne that in the Fast of Niniveh In the close of which it is Ion. 3. 10. said that the Lord saw their works And what were their
gave place by subjection Gal. 2. 5. no not for an houre His imprecation in the same Epistle goes deeper then his practise I would they were even cut Gal. 5. 12. off which trouble you The truth is First such evill men will not long be Reason 1 evill alone Evill men endanger the good As weeds the corne or bad humours the bloud or an infected house the neighbourhood Nemo errat sibi ipsi sed dementiam spargit in proximos The Apostle compares them Sen Ep. 94 to Leven which quickly sowreth the whole Lump On this ground he adviseth Timothy to shun prophane and 1 Cor. 5. 6. vaine bablings that is prophane and vaine bablers for 2 Tim. 2 16 â—7 they will increase unto more ungodlinesse and their word will eat as doth a Canker or a Gangrene This is often given as a reason why the Iewes might not beare the Canaanites Thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor Exod. 23. 32. 33. with their gods they shall not dwell in thy Land lest they make thee sinne against me And when contrary to this rule they did beare them the event is answerable to that minatory praediction They did not destroy the Nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them but were mingled Psal 106. 34 35 36. with the heathen then immediately followes and learned their works He means not works of Art or Agriculture of war or peace but of false worship and Idolatry They served their Idols which were a snare unto them It was an ancient heresie of the Pelagians denying the Aug Tom. 7. lib â— de pec mer c. 9. propagation of sin that all sinne is handed from one to another by example and taken in by imitation But it is a too much experienced truth that sinne is mightily increased and spread by example and imitation We have seen dangerous if not destructive errours and vain superstitions spreading farre and neare when countenanced with the practise and by the tenets of some in great place Those opinions and innovations which at first were begun by a few and hist at by many grew suddenly into credit with most and would in time have invaded all Secondly if we beare such though we could escape Reason 2 the pollution yet we shall fall under the guilt of their sins We sinne in others while we suffer them to sinne We commit all the evill which is in our power to hinder if we hinder it not Vitia aliorum si feras facis tua We become guilty of other mens sinnes not onely by commanding counselling and approving them but if wee may by not stopping and restraining them I will judge the house of Eli for ever saith the Lord for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves 1 Sam. 3. 1â— vile and he restrained them not He gave them fatherly advice but he did not use his Fatherly Authority When Christ cals his people out of Babylon this Rev. 18. 4. is added as a reason that ye be not partakers of her sinnes Which partaking in her sinne as it notes danger of infection of getting some taint and spots in Babylon so it notes also danger of contracting some guilt by not opposing or protesting against the Idolatry there practised and heresie there maintained though they keepe themselves pure from all practise of the one or maintenance of the other And that Thirdly which is an inevitable consequent of the two Reason 3 former if we either way-beare their sinne we shall likewise beare their punishment This is joyned as a further reason of their comming out of Babylon in the place before cited that ye receive not of her plagues And Rev. 18. 4. when the people of God have strength and power they are as much obliged to cast Babylon out from amongst them least they be partakers of her plagues For God will plague Babylon wheresoever he finds her There is no safety in being near them who are under the curse of God Escape for thy life say the Angels to Lot looke not behind Gen. 19. 17. thee neither stay thou in all the plaine Escape to the mountaine left thou be consumed Depart I pray you from the tents of these wicked men saith Moses to the Congregation Num. 16. 26. and touch nothing of theirs left ye be consumed in all their sinnes And if there be so much danger in being neare them what danger is there in bearing them A companion of fooles shall be destroyed When an overflowing Pro. 13. 20. storme sweeps away the wicked the taile of it may dash their best neighbours Fourthly when God doth not punish them with the Reason 4 wicked he usually punishes them by the wicked If they are not scourged with them these become their scourges Especially when for feare of trouble we beare them God to confute our policies makes them both our burden and our trouble Take heed unto your selves saith Ioshuah to Israel that ye love the Lord your God Else if ye doe in any wise goe backe and cleave to the remnant of those Nations even those that remaine among Iosh 23. 11 12 13. you and shall make marriages with them and goe in unto them and they to you Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these Nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thornes in your eyes untill you perish from off this good Land which the Lord your God hath given you A Text whose Comment in a great part hath lately been made in Ireland and is written to us in the bloud of many thousands Of all the evill which hath fallen upon them we may say this is your bearing with evill You have borne them and they have broken you It is better to learne by other calamities then our owne And to take Example then be made One Lastly Not to beare the evill is mercy not onely to Reason 5 the good but to the evill You cannot be more cruell to them then in sparing them The greatest stroake that ever Israel felt from the hand of God was this Why Isa 1. 5. should they be stricken any more Ephraims sorest judgement for Idolatry was this Let him alone If you would Hos 5. 17. be a friend to evill men wound them A kisse is enmity Favour and complyance fattens their sinnes and hardens their hearts whereas reproofe and punishment may possibly reforme and heale them It was the wish of that good King Let the righteous smite me it shall Ps 141. 5. be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyle which shall not breake my head There is no standing still in evill the best if let alone when they doe amisse will be worse How bad then will the worst be if they be let alone And when they are at the worst it is worst for themselves Is it not then