are so fond of it that it is on their tongues end before the name of God himself This name makes up one quarter of their prayers and fills up all the gaps and breaches that are in their discourses And if there be any expressions of love and court-ship wherewith to caress him he shall not want them They commend him for the primest beauty extol his pedegree admire the riches of grace and if one could tell how to believe them they would willingly dye for the love of their beloved Jesus No Sermon pleases them that extolls not him all discourses are unprofitable in which his name is not often repeated and the very sound of it doth them more good then many wise sentences 4. But you must not think for all this that they are such vowed servants of his as they seem For they love him only as a Beggar doth his good Master or as a souldier doth Alexander Caesar or some such famous Captains of whose great worth and valour he hath heard As the Spartans honoured Lycurgus and the Romans Romulus and all Countreys and Cities love those that have been their founders or procurers of great immunities and benefits unto them so do these persons love the Lord Jesus They look upon him as a noble Heroe a brave man that hath done great wonders and deserved highly of man kind and Especially they are affected toward him as one that is gone to make room for them in a goodly Paradise will there entertain them with all dainty delights Which is no more but what may proceed from education and breeding from Pulpit-discourses and good books from a fancy of those joyes that he hath promised which are enough to make a sensual man love him as well as a Turk doth Mahomet Especially considering that some dispositions are amorous and others are apt to admire gallant acts and great exploits and others are wonderfully taken with the kindnesses that are done them and the honours that are put upon them If they should have lived in our Saviours days and he should have told them Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father they would have said as the Pharisees in another case Are we blind also do not we know who shall go to heaven If he had said You are of your Father the Devil for his works you do they would have answered as the Jews did sometimes Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil If he had told them that he had no blessings but for the humble the meek the mercifull the peace-makers and those that took up their cross patiently of which number they were not they would have joyned with the high Priests to bring him to his execution 5. What though they condemn the Pharisees for killing of our Saviour It is no more then those men said of their forefathers that murdered the Prophets And they are as full of hatred malice and black zeal against Christs most faithfull Servants as the Scribes and Pharisees were against Christ himself They verily think that they have a love to Christ above all the world but did not the Jews dream of as great an affection to Moses Either they do not love the world therefore and their own lusts and desires better then Christs words or they are no better then those Jews were who loved no more but the name of their Master Moses They have a great zeal for the Worship of the Lord Jesus but who knows not that the persons whom they judge as hypocrites were very fierce for the Ceremonial Law and loved to be at the Temple We must see therefore a great care diligence and curiosity used in all obedience or else we cannot afford them any better language notwithstanding all their flattering addresses to our Saviour And you must consider what a vast difference there is between the opinion men are apt to have of those who are dead and of those that are like them but alive All men love naturally 〈◊〉 speak well of the dead especially if they did no harm but good And those that they never saw but hear of their excellent deeds they have in greater admiration then those that are before their eyes And those very persons that they could not affect if they were with them they commend at a distance as they hear them commended by others For they commonly hear of nothing but what pleases them when they are afar off but they would see many actions and hear many sayings if they conversed with them that they could not brook And just so it is in this case our Saviour is dead and he likewise died as they hear for them and therefore they cannot but have many good words for him He is one that they never saw and so they admire him for the good they are told of him while they despise his live images and those that are like him They read of his actions and his words at a distance but they are not spoken from his mouth to their particular persons and therefore they are not so offended at him as they would have been if they had received his reproofs in such sort as they did who then lived CAP. XX. 1. Of false pretences to Inspiration 2. Whence these swellings in the head do arise and how you may know them 3. Concerning the Kingdom of Christ so much talkt of 4. How loth they are to submit to Christs government who think they wait for his Kingdom 5. Opposition to Antichrist a false token of mens being on Christs side 6. For they may have the very spirit of Antichrist in them 1. BUT there are a company of more glorions professors then these who pretend such love to Jesus Christ and take themselves to be so beloved of him that they are lifted up into an imagination of receiving Revelations from him Their Religion is to look after news from heaven to raise themselves into raptures and dreams of Prophetical inspiration They talk of extraordinary light Glorious discoveries manifestations illumination of the Holy Ghost are the words that adorn their discourses And so St. Peter tells the Jewish Christians for to them he wrote being the Apostle of the circumcision that there should false Teachers arise among them 2 Pet. 2.1 as false Prophets had done antiently among their forefathers By these I nothing doubt he means some that boasted of Inspirations and further Revelations from God which the Jews might be most forward of all others to pretend unto because they took themselves to be beloved of God beyond all the people of the earth And St. Jude calls them expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 8. which we render filthy dreamers but it signifies such as were carried with dreams There were you know several wayes of Gods revealing himself of old to his Prophets whereof Dreams and Visions were most usual Now these persons had a strong fancy that they received some impressions from
your seiled houses and this house lie waste So here did you fast to me I say to me who have often declared to you that I care not for these outward performances unless they be accompanyed with the hearty forsaking of sin Sure you cannot think it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aben-Ezra interprets it because of me for my sake for my glory or to do any thing really pleasing unto me Did I command any such Fast as this unto you for so it may be rendred by putting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who bid you fast on this fashion When you did eat and drink as it is ver 6. did you any thing else but satisfie your selves therein The same kind of action is your fasting and I am no more pleased with it then with your eating and drinking If you had bestowed your time the quite contrary way it had been as gratefull to me as all your fasting dayes This is the sense of the Prophets sharp answer which being proposed by way of question is a most peremptory and undenyable assertion that they had not pleased him but themselves with all their labour for he appeals to their own consciences and makes them Judges in the case Do you your selves now tell me saith God in your own sober thoughts whether you can believe that not eating weeping howling and such like things are fasting unto me No you have been told often enough of this and it is not the first time that you have been informed of your duty in this particular Nunquid non sunt verba quae locutus est Dominus c. as the vulgar renders those words ver 7. out of the Hebrew Are not these the words which the Lord hath cryed by the former Prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in her prosperity Have not I told your Fathers by all my servants while you were in this Land before your captivity that such kind of service is not acceptable to me And yet you their children are in the same mistake and come confidently to me telling me of your performing that which I alwayes upbraided them withall Methinks your own hearts should reprove you and spare me a labour of giving you any further answer 3. By which you clearly see that this was one of the ineffectual courses that their sick Nation took for their recovery viz. outward fasting and abstinence from food whereby they much afflicted themselves Very severe and rigorous they were in this thing so that they refrained not only from the delicacies but all the ordinary refreshments of nature And so punctual and nice they were in these austerities that they tell us to the afflicting of the soul by which phrase the great Fast is described Lev. 16. there were four things required beside forbearing all their food viz. abstaining from and laying aside their bathes their ointments their wives and their shooes i. e. every thing which might be a pleasure and delight to their bodies And these may seem to be included in that phrase ver 3. of the 7. of Zach. Shall I weep in the fifth moneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separating my self as I have done these many years So serious they were and scrupulous in this matter that they thought they could not in conscience leave off these exercises till they knew Gods mind about it Would not we have taken them for very pious folks Would they not have passed among us for persons of a very tender conscience And yet the Lord tells them that if they had taken their repast followed their callings annointed their heads done as they used at other times they had equally given him content and found as much acceptance with him who looked for other kind of fasting as the Prophet tells us in the 9 10 11. ver of the same Chapter As a Physitian keeps his patient to a thin diet and takes his ordinary food from his table that he may starve the ill humors so did they think to work a cure upon their souls and by meer fasting from corporal food to make them well Not considering that the fast of the soul consists in an abstinence from those things that are hurtfull to it as the fast of the body is the forbearance of such meats as feed its diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cap. 58. Isa When their enemies were upon them saith Procopius they thought by bodily fasting to pacifie God and make him favourable to them abstaining from meat but not from spiritual wickedness And so all their severities amounted to a labour about nothing because whilest they would not for a world touch a bit of bread they swallowed any unlawful gains they tore the flesh and gnawed the very bones of the poor as shall be manifested before I leave their story While they would not moisten their mouthes with a sip of drink they drunk in iniquity like water and were filled with it to a strange excess and it broke out like a sore disease While they pined their bodies they suffered their lusts the body of sin to be fat and well-liking While they took down their flesh and made their faces look thin that which the Scripture calls flesh was lusty and strong pampered and high fed Their Pride was not starved their big and ambitious thoughts were not taken down their inordinate covetous desires were not impaired their luxurious appetites were not retrenched nothing that was unreasonable in them was paired off moderated or abated No all sorts of sins were never more nourished and made more hungry and ravenous then when fasting and its concomitants could in gross the name and reputation of Religion to themselves And so their Fasts were to no more purpose not being thus designed then if they had been feeding their corps with a plenty of more then ordinary cheer 4. I need not tell you that the world hath ever since made use of the same remedy as a cure for all their surfets of sin and wickedness As the Master many times sins and his Man suffers for it so do men use their bodies beating them with fasting and hunger as if they were in the fault and not their souls This present generation hath been so laborious and zealous in their publick and private their weekly and monethly humiliations that few ages can parallel them either in sins or such kind of sorrows We have blown the trumpet so loudly and proclaimed Fasts so frequently that we have made the world ring of them and heaven I fear deaf with them Seeing we intended no more by them then what the Jews performed they have proved but like the vulgar medicines which people take from their neighbours in bodily diseases that leave them as sick as they were before if not in a far worse condition Men sin still at such an height and grow so confident in it that any judicious person may discern they are grown more sick by their remedies and
your selves from the people of the Land and from the strange wives Ezra 10.11 And it may be added that it is part of Gods will and pleasure that we should confess our faults one to another as well as unto him Jam. 5.16 when the heart is truly humbled it will be glad of any wayes to shame it self or to make satisfaction to others that are offended or to convince sinners that they may cease to offend But whatsoever volumes we bring against our selves either before God or others without such a sense of sin as I have described it is but lying unto the Lord and telling him hypocritical stories which will remain as matter of new accusation upon our account We shall but more provoke and incense his anger against us when we think for to avert it and by our own breath kindle a flame that will devour us CAP. V. 1. Prayer is another refuge they betook themselves unto in their misery 2. And so now men expect great things from it 3. But self-love indites them 4. And mens love to their sins makes non-sense of them 5. For when they pray against sin they labour to uphold it 6. And so neither their own prayers nor the prayers of good men will prevail for them 7. What prayers are acceptable to God 8. And for what 1. IT is a saying ascribed unto an Angel in the book of Tobit cap. 12. 8. that Prayer is good with Fasting And of this the people of the Jews had such an opinion that they never neglected it on those solemn dayes but thought that it could fetch down any blessings from heaven upon them God himself commands when he calls for a Fast that they should cry unto him Joel 1.14 This they used to do saith the Book of Judith with great fervency with earnestness with all their power cap. 4. 9 12 15. And sometimes as is there expressed cap. 6. 21. they called on the God of Israel all night for help Their hearts were even dissolved into petitions They seemed to be so far from stoniness that they were more yielding then flesh and could melt into water Their eyes could not flow with tears so plentifully as their hearts did with prayers For so in the Chaldee those words are paraphrased 1 Sam. 7 6. They drew water and poured it out before the Lord i. e. They poured out their hearts in supplications unto him 2. And so now at this day men are content to pump hard for as many buckets full of prayers as will hold them pouring out from morning until night Devouter persons the heavens never saw if this be to be Religious How can God chuse but pour down his blessings on such men who are so free and open-hearted to him and could be content to do nothing else but present him with such services Prayer passing under such a magnificent name as the Key of heavens Gate and having those Scriptures applyed to it which speak of having power with God and prevailng men think that by it they can do great matters and place no small confidence in its authority So I call it because they are ready to apply those words to its office Isa 45.11 concerning the work of my hands command you me Though good Interpreters which I think fit to admonish the Reader of by the way do read that verse with an Interrogation to this sense Do you command me what I shall do and ask me what I mean to deal so with my sons the people of Israel who I say shall go into captivity which agrees well with ver 9 10. Wo be to him that strives with his maker c. Wo be to him that saith to his Father What begettest thou c. And as the words lie in our translation their meaning is only this that they should enquire of Isaiah and the rest of his Prophets concerning the future state of their Nation and bid them tell them what he was about to do with them from whom they should receive good satisfaction both of his Justice in their captivity and his Mercy in sending them deliverance by Cyrus which in that Chapter he is treating of But so I say it is that men advance their prayers to such a prerogative that they have ingrossed the name of Religion to themselves and they have learnt to call praying going to duty as if this were all or the chief of what we have to do And so if in their Confessions they should be dejected and cast down yet their petitions are able to lift them up very high in hopes again Especially since some have taken this new way of boldness to tell God in plain English that he must not that he cannot deny them and that they will have audience and that without any delay also Which are no devised expressions of mine but those which some of name have uttered and which their followers may be apt to imitate as an high token of a zealous Faith If any be offended at this plainness it is their own fault that occasion it and they cannot be more offended then many good souls are at their saucy language 3. But it is now as it was then in another regard also The prayers of the Jews were commonly to no other purpose but that God would pardon them turn again to them and save their Nation from their enemies hands whilest they thought not of turning unto him and putting all his enemies out of their souls Nothing was sadder to them then to be in bondage and slavery and therefore that made their hearts sigh more then their sins Their prayers differed from the desires of good men as the Mahometans Lords prayer from that of the Christians The last thing that we beg of God is that no temptation may prevail over us to make us fall again into those sins for which we beseech forgiveness But the Turks conclude that prayer which they call the prayer of Jesus the Son of Mary in this fashion Let not such an one rule over me See M. Greg. observ p. 165. which will have no mercy on me for thy mercies sake O thou most merciful Self-love and sense of misery can indite good store of petitions adorn them with eloquence inspire them with fervency and thrust them forward with a lusty degree of confidence But as they say of some sort of precious stones that though they are of soveraign vertue yet they lose all their force if they be put into a dead mans mouth So it is with this Christian Jewel which doth wonders when it is it self but languishes and dies when it is in the mouth of unreformed sinners Such mens prayers are but a stinking breath which is very offensive to the nostrils of God They are so far from being a grateful voice unto him that he turns away his ears from them as we do from the braying of Asses or the talk of fools And therefore he tells the people of Israel Isa 58.4 that he would not have them fast
of these devotions When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands c. The Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new moons c. are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them c. And he bids them if they intend that he should speak kindly to them and be friends with them that they should cease to do evil learn to do well and put away the evil of their doings from before his eyes Isa 1.11 12 13 c. Strange indeed it was and worse then all the rest that they should see so much reason to do all those things and yet see no reason to be good But they were like to most men now who will have God to be pleased with what pleases them and gives no great distaste to their natures but will part with nothing that they dearly love though it be the greatest offence to him Very desirous they were to give God content by sacrifices and make him satisfaction even for the most secret sins if we may believe themselves For the burnt-offerings as some of them say was to expiate for the thoughts of the heart or in their phrase for that which goes up in the heart but they forgot what Isaiah saith in another place Isa 55.7 that unless the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and return to the Lord he will not have mercy on him 4. And the Christian world still depends on their prayers which are their daily sacrifices and on their Alms which are another offering unto God and upon their Altar as the Lords Table may be called where they represent Christs sacrifice of himself I heartily wish there were more of all these acts of Religion exercised but if Prayer do but hallow our unjust and unrighteous actions and if Alms be but a bribe for the passing by of our drunkenness and debauchery and if the Table of the Lord be but the putting of a complement upon him after we have many wayes offended him and continue still to sin against him we shall but still maintain and propagate to posterity that false and hypocritical spirit against which God hath of old expressed so much hatred But of this and concerning the ends and uses of Sacrifices See the Sermon hereto annexed more hereafter CAP. VII 1. The sins that we forsake must never be again embraced 2. And without this perpetual forsaking all our strictnesses about Religious performances will not avail us though done out of conscience 3. Let every man make a judgement of himself by what hath been said 1. AND now I might shew that as God expects a through reformation in all things which I have already often suggested and shall more fully ere long demonstrate so we must continue in that state and not put away our sins only for a short time till we think that Gods anger is passed over us and will not fall down upon us To be good for a while after we have fasted confessed our sins and prayed will not quite turn away his wrath though it may deferr it That which God expects is an eternal divorce between us and our sins and that we seek him with our whole heart so as to continue in well doing For else with our return again to folly the stripes which are for the back of fools will return also And commonly the case is more dangerous and the disease harder to cure when we do relapse after we were pretty well recovered and the rods which before were prepared for us will be turned into scorpions But the holy Story is so clear in this that he must be much unacquainted with the condition of this people in all those times that doth not see it and therefore knowing every one can furnish himself with proofs enough if he do but read any one Book of their History I shall herein spare my further labour 2. I might take occasion likewise here to show that though all this be done out of conscience and we would not for any good omit these performances but out of a kind of honesty we observe dayes of fasting times of confession and constant prayer and have pious intentions in the business yet this will not procure our good acceptance But it is plain enough in the temper of this people as I noted in the beginning of this discourse You could not have hired them to have laid down these Fasts and when they could not offer sacrifices at the Temple they were very constant in their prayers at those times that they used to be offered And because they could not in their captivity offer those sacrifices that are commanded to be added on the eight dayes of the Feast of Tabernacles to the constant sacrifices Numb 29. they used certain peculiar prayers which they retain to this day which they recited at that time that those sacrifices used to be offered at the Temple calling the time wherein they recited them Musaph V. Buxt in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an additament to their ordinary devotions And they were very scrupulous in their consciences also a thing that many please themselves in very much as a mark of piety and they came to the Prophet as men do now to the Minister for to be resolved Very loth they were to displease God by the neglect of such good duties and if it were his pleasure they would still perform them but alas poor souls this was the hypocrisie the Scripture so much speaks of the finer sort of hypocrisie that carries so many to Hell in a pleasing belief that they are going to Heaven They were serious and zealous in some things but not in all and so they did but in good earnest as we say and in a more sober way set themselves to cheat their souls They fasted very severely they mourned very bitterly knocked their breasts heartily confessed devoutly and prayed earnestly and sacrificed plentifully but yet they did not search and try their wayes to turn again unto the Lord they did not every one put away the evil of their doings and so all their zeal in the former things instead of doing them good wrought their greater mischief by making them confidently to account themselves Religious persons and to be angry with the Prophets who would perswade them to the contrary 3. It were well now if every one before he read any further would examine his own heart and give himself an account whether he have done thus much as the peple of the Jews did and then whether he have done any more There are not many it is like that have thus fasted and wept and prayed either for their own good or the good of their Nation and at what a vast distance are they from Gods favour who are not come to the porch of his house no are not in the way to become his servants But I doubt they are very hard to be found one perhaps of
considering that on their fasting-dayes they used to examine offences and the Court sate to punish those that were guilty To which sense Valent. Schindler in vocab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a learned man expounds that place in Joel 1.14 Sanctifie a Fast call a solemn Assembly gather the Elders c. i. e. call a Court who may make inquisition into crimes that have been committed and see that they be animadverted upon and reformed And so when Jezabel wrote letters to the City wherein Naboth dwelt that they should proclaim a Fast 1 King 21.9 it was as much as to say Call a Court that may examine and take cognizance of the high sin that Naboth is guilty of But one true reason I suppose that there was not a general reformation in all things made by these Judicatures was because they heard only matters of fact against such Laws of Moses to which there was a punishment annexed Now there was a great penalty inflicted upon all those that did eat upon the great Fast a bit of bread though but as big as a date and on other Fasts the quantity of an Olive but for covetousness unmercifulness and such like things you read of no punishment at all If a man did not fast he was to be cut off by excommunication Lev. 23.29 and besides by the decrees of the Elders he was to be beaten And for the breach of any of the nine first Commandments you shall find some either death or some great punishment threatned But for the breach of the Tenth Commandment which is Thou shalt not covet there is no corporal penalty which they incurred for we find none threatned And therefore they were more carefull to keep the Sabbath not to worship idols c. though in these sometimes they were negligent then to do justly and love mercy Because they might suffer for the one by the hand of the Magistrate but not for the other Their carnal desires not standing in any awe of any bodily infliction they took occasion as the Apostle saith Rom. 7.8 to be more licentious and to work all manner of concupiscence 4. And the sins indeed against this Commandment and those that concern our neighbours were those which the Prophets called chiefly for reformation in if they expected any good to their Land This I will first of all shew you out of the same Prophet Zachary upon whose words I built the former discourse After he had told them from the Lord that they had not fasted to him in all the seventy years of their affliction he proceeds to acquaint them what the true Fast was which God alwayes called for and expected And that he doth chap. 7. 9 10. and again chap. 8. 16 17. which places I desire the Reader to take pains to consider And then I doubt not but he will see good cause for this observation that the sins they were chiefly guilty of more then others were Neglects of the duties of the second Table as we speak not performing of those offices which one man owes to another but violent breaking of all those bonds whereby men are tyed by God together They may be reduced to these three heads 1. Unjust dealing and defrauding one another by lying false-swearing devising to over-reach and ruine their Brethren chap. 7. 9 10. chap. 8 16 17. Speak every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgement of truth imagine not evil love not a false Oath 2. Want of mercy and compassion cruelty hard and rigid dealing with their neighbours which is as bad as down-right in justice chap. 7. 9. Shew mercy and compassion every man to his Brother 3. Oppression of the poor and those that could not right themselves against the mighty Chap. 7. 10. Oppress not the widdow nor the fatherless the stranger nor the poor 5. Concerning all which sins you must note these things That all of the Nation were generally guilty of the breach of the tenth Commandment there being nothing to restrain them from it but only the fear and love of God and the belief of another life of which that stiff-necked generation had very little sense And this covetousness or greediness of the things of this world which God having liberally promised them they were the more desirous of was the root of all that evil which broke out against the other commands of the second Table And their Rulers especially were guilty of this and the rest of the sins that proceeded from it both because they had fairer occasions to satisfie those desires and because though many of their sins against the Law were punishable yet the punishment could be executed upon them who were in the supremacy by none but God And these sins were the greater in them because they ought to have rectified others and given them a better precedent to follow and the greater in the people likewise both because they might easily have learnt better and because they were the sins for which their fore-fathers had been punished very severely by God 6. It is an observation of Philo De animal sacr idon in the book fore-mentioned that among all those living creatures that were offered in sacrifice whether aerial or terrestrial there were none chosen by God but those that were of a gentle and good nature The Dove of all those that love society and company is most mild and the Turtle of all those that are naturally solitary is most easie to be made tame and brought to hand And among the flocks of four-footed creatures those three sorts that were selected for holy use the oxen the sheep the goats are of all other the most gentle and inoffensive one man or a boy being sufficient to drive whole herds of them to pasture and again to bring them back without any rebellion to their stalls and folds And this saith he also is a most manifest token of their gentleness that none of them eat flesh but all of them grass and herbs neither are they armed with such hooked claws and tallons nor with such rows of teeth as other creatures And besides they are the most profitable and useful as well as most innocent and harmless of all others For the sheep afford clothes for our bodies the oxen plow the earth and after it hath yielded its fruit they tread out the corn and the hair and skins of goats make clothes for travellers and souldiers and such like persons whose necessities force them to abide much in the open air From all which methinks we may gather that they were taught by those things wherein they did most confide not only to keep good order by Justice and Uprightness not using any rapacity or crooked dealing but also to be tender-hearted loving gentle living in all peaceableness together and being beneficial and useful unto others God many times said it that it was not the flesh or blood of beasts wherein he delighted and therefore hence they might easily have received documents that he desired mercy more
then sacrifice and that they would present him with the qualities of those creatures rather then with their bodies 7. But as the proverb tels us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad bird hath a bad egg So it was with this people These sins being the faults of their fore-fathers they were the more easily inclined to take after them And though they might have learnt by their ancestors harms who were soundly punished for them yet either by the sweetness of these sins that made them forget the punishement or by the conceit of the purity of their Religion wherein they excelled their fathers they trod in the same steps with them and became guilty of the very same faults which had been so fatally mischievous unto others For in the second part of this seventh of Zachary God tells them what words he had spoken to their progenitors by the Prophets of old who for these sins together with two other Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry were turned out of the promised Land Other sins indeed there are mentioned by the Prophets but none so much insisted on as these to be the cause of their expulsion out of Gods Land and banishment into a strange Countrey as you shall discern before I have gone much further Now it seems that their posterity the men of the captivity were grown more observant of the Sabbath and greater haters of Idolatry and because of their Religious services which were more pure took themselves for very good men though they retained their fathers injustice and fraud cruelty and unmercifulness oppression and violent dealing Which was plainly the case of the Pharisees also the posterity of those persons in our Saviours time before this their last and long dispersion They were notoriously guilty of these sins more then any other whilest they could not be challenged with any idolatrous practises or with neglect of the Sabbath-day no nor with less strictness in any other Religious performances Under their Religion they cloaked their unrighteousness and made all their piety good for nothing being stained with covetousness oppression of the widdows and violence toward those that had no helpers with such like wickedness 8. From all which we may be bold to affirm still that God proceeds in such a method of Justice with Nations that where he finds these sins to remain it is in vain to fast and pray and cry to God for mercy yea to reform in other matters which concern Gods worship and service And yet the most noise is commonly made about these out of hope their prayers and preachings and other Religious offices together with the asserting of these from superstition and impure mixtures will drown the cry of injustice cruelty blood oppression and such like sins which are destructive of all humane society But far be it from the Lord and Governor of the world to suffer himself to be fawned upon by such persons who while they cry out against superstition are the most superstitious For out of a great fear and dread of God they crouch unto and speak him fair and lay great stress upon some small things wherein he hath given greater liberty and they hope that because of all this he will wink and connive at their evil doings to their neighbours of whom they stand in no awe at all But as I said he that loves good order and rules the Nations in righteousness and truth will punish for these things as severely as for the other and without reformation in them he will hold no Nation guiltless nor let them long live in peace Of the which that we may be the more sensible I shall digest what remains concerning the state of this people in these particular considerations 9. First I shall make it appear that this of old was the Fast which God required of their Fathers by the Prophets viz. That they should forsake those sins that I have mentioned And that he everywhere urges even in the most reforming times before the captivity their growing more just and merciful in their dealings and their practising those duties which arise from the respect that one man hath to another 2. Then I will manifest that after their return from the captivity of Babylon still these things more then any else are insisted upon as those they were deficient in and should amend 3. That these are noted as the wasting and destroying sins of a people though there should be no other 4. That where men expect peace and settlement quiet and removal of judgements from a Nation they must have an especial care to reform in these particulars And because Nations are most commonly defective in these things and are apt to imagine that some Religious duties are all or the greatest matters that God expects therefore I shall insert such observations in this discourse as shall both discover this mistake and the ground of it CAP. IX 1. The first thing opened how that all the old Prophets required amendment of their manners in point of Justice and Mercy Proved from Hosea 2. 3. From Isaiah 4. From Micah 5. From Habakkuk 6. From Zephaniah 7. From Jeremiah 8. 9. From Ezekiel in all whose prophecies many places are expounded 10 11. Their impudence in mocking at the Prophets who reproved these sins and one reason of it 12. The ten tribes sick of the same disease Four things proposed as observable from this discourse 1. THat the things which Zachariah speaks of in the places now mentioned were the same which the former Prophets had mainly insisted upon and constantly called for is the first thing to be cleared And if we follow the interpretation which Solomon Jarchi gives of that place Hos 1.2 I must begin with the testimony of the Prophet Hosea to whom the word of the Lord came before any of those whose prophesies are extant in the Scripture For so he saith some expound those words The beginning of the word of the Lord to signifie that he was the first of the four Prophets that prophesied in the dayes of King Uzziah And the word that he saith is this The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the Land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge in the Land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Hos 4.1 2. And in chap. 6. ver 8 9. he accuseth them of violence murther and robbery and chap. 7.1 of falshood and theft and chap. 12.7 8. of their cheating and oppression which he could not make them believe because they prospered and thrived in it These places it is likely may most of all concern Ephraim i. e. the ten tribes as the greatest part of his prophesie doth But you may observe that though he find most fault with them for their idolatry yet these other sins had an hand also in their ruine And as for Judah whose state I shall chiefly enquire into because there was the house of God though they were
others nor fearing any from them as you may read ver 8. And in the 3. chap. 1 2 3. he speaks of most barbarous and butcherly actions the flaying and peiling of the people to the very bones And as if that did not make them miserable enough they would have no pitty on those poor Skeletons but broke their very bones and chopt them in pieces as one doth when he puts flesh in a pot which is as much as to say they utterly devoured them and eat them up They did abhorr Judgement and pervert all Equity ver 9. and which is to be observed at that very time they built up Zion and Jerusalem with this blood and iniquity ver 10. i. e. They repaired or enlarged the great City they adorned the Kings pallace which was on mount Zian and in all likelyhood they beautified the Temple for that is mentioned together with these two ver 12. with this robbery and murder that they committed They were reformers of things amiss or decayed in Gods worship at the cost and charges of many a poor innocent that they had rent in pieces and shared amongst them For that these words were spoken in the times of reformation you may learn from Jer. 26.18 where we are told that Micah made this threatning which is mentioned ver 12. of making Zion like a plowed field c. in the dayes of Hezekiah who you know repented of the evil his Fathers had done and so turned away the evil in his time Now what is all this which Micah saith but what the Prophet Isaiah hath already told us chap. 1. ver 10 21 23. and again chap. 3. ver 13 14 15. where God reproves the Elders great ones for beating his people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor whose cause he saith he was come to plead The Rulers then being so bad there is little reason to expect much justice or mercy among the people who also oppressed and offered violence one to another as far as their power would reach For proof of which spare not to read Mich. 6. ver 10 11 12. and likewise the six first verses of the seventh Chapter which tells us largely of the General cruelty covetousness treachery c. both of the Princes and all the people though never so nearly related one to another Which was so great and universal that it was as hard to find a merciful and a just man as to find a bunch of grapes after the gleanings of the Vintage And therefore in the sixth Chapter ver 6 c. God by the same Prophet calls not for their sacrifices and religious services in which it seems they were frank enough and could have been contented to have put themselves to any expence so they might but quietly have kept their covetous griping and devouring lusts and desires but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God 5. And in the dayes of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah things still grew worse and proceeded to a greater height of injustice and cruelty For as he is noted for a most gross Idolater so likewise for a great shedder of innocent blood wherewith he filled Jerusalem 2 King 21.16.24.3 such violence iniquity grievances perverting of judgement there was in his dayes that the Prophet Habakkuk who some think was one of those that God sent to admonish him 2 King 21.10 could not endure to behold it and seems to be wearied with crying to God against it as you may see if you read Habak 1.2 3 4. Whereupon God threatens to raise up with such speed that no body would believe it the Chaldean Nation to destroy them ver 5. And this he did not long after the time of Manasseh when the Chaldeans brought the Assyrian power under their feet of which only the Jews stood in fear 6. If we draw nearer to the time of the first captivity into Babylon by the hands of those Chaldeans which they little dreamed of we shall hear no new Sermons but the very same sins still reproved Zephaniah will be our informer in this matter who lived in the dayes of Josiah a good Prince and very zealous to reform things amiss in the worship of God With him it is manifest from 2 Chron. 35.8 the Nobles of the Realm joyned to purge the Land from Idolatry though we may guess from Zeph. 1. v. 4 5 6. that many of the people did not affect their proceedings And yet if you do but read the five first verses of the third Chapter you will eafily discern how shameless these very Reformers were in their unjust and violent dealing and that they would rather part with any thing even their Idols then these rich and thriving sins And therefore the Prophet exhorts those that had any of those rare vertues in them any mercifulness and righteousness that they would go on to practice them and in those wayes to seek the Lord telling them that it was probable but not certain that they might be secured in that deluge of misery that was like to overflow the whole Land chap. 2. ver 3. And afterwards chap. 3.12 13. he prophesies that the poor and the afflicted they that had been oppressed and stript naked by the great and the rich were the persons that should escape and be left in the Land when all those mens possessions were taken from them and that they should be such a remnant as should not do iniquity nor speak lyes nor have a deceitful tongue in their mouth but should trust in God and not in these evil arts 7. Jeremiah also who prophesied in the dayes of the same Josiah and likewise of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah in the time of both the first and second captivity and afterward also He I say speaks the very same words as will be very evident to those who will do themselves so much right for the understanding of this truth as to ponder these places of his prophesie He tells us in the 3. chap. ver 10. That Judah did not return to God with her whole heart but fainedly which words were spoken as you may see ver 6. in the dayes of Josiah who had made a Covenant to serve the Lord with all their heart and all their soul and all the people stood unto it 2 King 23.3 This is the returning which the Prophet saith was but fained because notwithstanding this great profession they were not sincerely out of love with their sins nor did with all their heart as they pretended abhor them For he tells us chap. 7.9 10. that many of them though they came to the house of God to worship in the time of this reformation yet had an Altar likewise in some private corner for Baal And beside this they were all guilty of cheating oppression stealing false-witnessing and all manner of injustice as you may see there ver 4 5 6 9. Insomuch that he saith ver 11. the house of God was become a den of Robbers a meer nest of thieves
that a man should have such strange Arts of abusing himself as to make himself believe that he is a good man and in a safe condition while he lives in the violation of all these known principles There must be some notable blind some very plausible trick that can cast such a mist before his eyes and juggle him into such a conceited belief which here I think we have discovered They had high thoughts of their divine worship and looked upon their Religious services as hugely pleasing unto God and they knew themselves to be very earnest it is like in this piece of reformation and so they judged themselves to be the people of God the right worship being restored the Altar being cleansed and the Temple repaired by their means Now their great zeal in these matters and their forwardness to introduce the true Religion after so much Idolatry made them over-look these little trifling things as men account them of justice and equity of mercy and compassion and to hope that God would do so also and not be angry with such a reformed people for a small matter What I pray you might they say in their hearts to a Prophet will not God give leave to a people that hate idols and observe diligently his Sabbaths and offer him his constant sacrifices in the right prescribed manner to get a little for themselves in the world and to use all Arts of growing rich after they have been so faithful and liberal to him Will he fall out with such good friends of his upon so poor an occasion Cannot he be pleased that they give him his due and defraud him of none of his right though they be not so exact in their Justice one to another Must he needs take notice what they do among themselves when they hope he hath no reason to complain that he is neglected in any piece of his own worship Will it not satisfie him that they are so zealous in those great and weighty concernments of his which had been so long disregarded and for which they had been so often threatned Yes surely thought they we are in a safe condition God is well apayed and we need not trouble our selves any further but confidently wait upon him that he will be with us and save us 3. Thus the Prophet Micah tells us they found a way to deceive themselves as you may read chap. 3.11 The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet they will lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us They would needs be Gods favourites and thrust themselves upon him and be confident of his goodness to them though they were conscious to themselves of all this wickedness They cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as long as those of Ephesus cryed Great is Diana of the Ephesians And in this Temple-worship and Religion they trusted thinking that God was fixed to that place and that the Temple would secure them as certainly as the Trojans thought themselves out of all danger while they could keep their Palladium And therefore Jeremiah bids them not trust in those lying words saying the Temple of the Lord are these i. e. not hearken to the false Prophets who told them that they were Gods Temple a separated people an holy Nation among whom God did dwell for all this would not avail them and they were words that would not profit or give them any help ver 8. yet they dreamt that as long as they kept their holy place pure they need not fear the taking of their City Just as the heathens thought their fortresses could never be won while they could keep the good Genius of the place from being charmed away out of it And so an excellent Linguist takes that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thele Lud. de Dieu to refer not to the persons but to the several parts of the Temple which agrees well with the words fore-going ver 2. where the Prophet is bid to stand in the gate of the Lords house and to proclaim these words among the rest Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord are these As if he had pointed with his finger to the buildings of the house of God and said to those that came to worship Do not deceive your selves in a vain confidence that these will save you as if God were bound to these dwellings But yet they came and stood before God in his house as he saith ver 10. and said We are delivered and that made them do all those forementioned abominations And therefore he gives them that reproof which you read ver 11. where he asks them Is my heuse become a den of Robbers in your eyes behold I have seen it saith the Lord i. e. Do you imagine to fly to the Temple as thieves to their den and think all is safe if you do but offer me some sacrifices No you are mistaken I see what you are well enough and you cannot so deceive me It is very plain that they were confident none of those things should come upon them which the Prophets threatned but gave God the lye through his messengers ears as you may read Ier. 5.11 12 13. and therefore seeing they were so unjust as he tells us there ver 1 2. and ver 25 26 27 28. there must be something whereby they strengthened their hands in this wickedness And he tells us what it was in that chapter ver 14 when he calls the Temple the house wherein they trusted They did swear by the name of God and pretended great reverence to it but it was not in truth and righteousness Isa 48.1 they stiled themselves by the name of the holy City ver 2. viz. the men of Jerusalem the people of Sion and they stayed themselves on the God of Israel whereas they were stout-hearted and far from righteousnes as you may read Isa 46.12 But they offered to God sacrifices out of their unlawful gains and this they thought would bribe him to take no notice as you may gather from Isa 61.8 The Lord loveth judgement I hate robberie for burnt-offerings And so the Vulgar Latine renders these words Jer. 11.15 Numquid carnes anctae auferent à te malitias tuas in quibus gloriata es Dost thou think thy holy flesh i. e. thy sacrifices shall take away the wickednesses wherein thou gloriest As if he should say Thou canst not expiate for thy beloved sins by making God many oblations as thou thinkest to do no never dream of it for it is a very deceit 4. Yet knowing themselves to be very zealous in their worship they have the confidence to come and challenge God as though they had wrong done them and had hard measure at his hands in not being saved by him from their enemies Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have
done evil thy self but taught it others also And besides thy Idolatry spoken of before in thy skirts or wings is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents which is so plain to be seen that one need not search for it ver 34. As upon the wings of an Eagle or such a bird of prey one shall find the blood of those lesser birds that they have devoured so there were manifest marks tokens everywhere to be seen of their cruelty and injustice And yet they have the face to come and say ver 35. I am innocent Surely his anger shall be turned from me The worship of God was that which they pretended and they would not grant that they had gone after Baalim as you may read ver 23. and so they thought they might stand upon their own justification not fearing the guilt of any other sin but Idolatry 7. Well but when part of Judah her self is gone into captivity then sure we shall hear a new story and find a great change wrought in them One would not imagine but that he should read how they were convinced when they saw Gods judgements come not only to their gates but within their walls But if you look into the Prophet Ezekiel you shall see that they who were left behind and not yet carried away remained in the very same sins and supported themselves with the same false hopes Besides those places formerly mentioned I shall add these that speak of their injustice and violence In chap. 7.10 11. he saith the day of their destruction was near the rod for their backs did blossome and therefore would ere long bring forth its bitter fruits which they might easily gather from hence because pride had budded among them and violence was risen up to a rod of wickedness i. e. As their sins encreased and grew to a greater hight so would their punishment grow more ripe and no man should be able to strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life ver 13. Their silver and gold he saith should not deliver them ver 19. but because of their bloody crimes he would bring the worst of the heathen to possess their dwellings ver 23 24. And chap. 8.17 he saith that to all their abominations which they committed and as if they were not sufficient they filled the land with violence and devised new wayes of heathenish worship also But though they did so and though God had done so already to part of their Nation and threatned to expell them also from their land yet they wearied themselves with lyes as it is Ezek. 24.12 And what they were you may guess from ver 21.25 the Sanctuary was the excellency of their strength the joy of their glory and in this they trusted and thought to be safe though their devotions there were many of them Idolatrous And more then this they that were gone into captivity would not be perswaded that there was any other cause of their expulsion but the prophaning of Gods worship nor any thing more required to the pleasing him then keeping of it pure and so they still retained their unrighteousness under the cloak of serving God The Prophet Ezekiel will bear witness to this also chap. 33. v. 31 32 33. They came and sate before him as though they took a great deal of delight in hearing of Gods word when as their hearts run after their covetousness Which words appear by the whole story to have been spoken to them of the first captivity and that after the taking of the City the second time ver 21. 8. I must add further that this people exalted themselves to such a degree of confidence in their evil wayes that they turned good fellows as we ordinarily speak and fell into drunkenness and gluttony by reason of their wealth and their security See Isa 28.7 8. Yea so haughty were they that they laught at the Prophets when they told them of those Judgements that were coming upon them and used to repeat their words with derision ver 10. The Prophets used to say thus hath the Lord commanded and yet a little while and such or such a thing shall be Now they imitate this language of theirs and say manda remanda c. as the Vulgar renders it Command again and again if you will let us have precept upon precept bid us expect and look for ruine though you say yet a little while yet a little while or nearer to our translation a little while for this thing here and a little for the other there and then the King of Assyria shall come we fear it not Therefore God saith a people of strange lips should come and speak to them seeing they would not hear him v. 11. and because they would not refresh the poor and weary but rather oppress them which he told them was the way to have peace ver 12. And that this is the meaning of this obscure place seems very probable from v. 14. where he calls them scorners who said ver 15. that hell and death was at an agreement with them so that they were as sure they should not dye as if they had a lease of their lives And though the overflowing scourge spoken of chap. 8. 8. should come yet they doubted not but they should escape for they made a refuge to themselves But as the Prophet tells them it was a refuge of lyes and hypocrisie and Gods judgements should come upon them notwithstanding their presumptuous confidence ver 18. And do not think that the way to heaven is so wide that you can go between God and the world thither do not think that the bed in which he layes his Spouse is so broad that it will hold many lovers Coangustatum enim est stratum it a ut alter decidat c. as the Vulgar Latin translates the 20th verse For the Bed is so strait that it will not hold two but one must fall out the covering is so short that it will not wrap them both Either God or the world and all Idols must be thrust out they cannot lye together with us nor cannot he endure any companion in his love Which is just like that of our Saviours No man can serve two masters c. or that of St. Pauls What agreement is there between Christ and Belial And yet notwithstanding all these admonitions they minded nothing but to fortifie Jerusalem to repair the breaches in the walls and to bring a moat about it Isa 22.9 10 11. and when God called for reformation they betook themselves to their pleasures and were jolly and merry as though no harm could befall them ver 12 13. And therefore God threatens ver 14. that this iniquity should not be purged away till they dyed This prophane Spirit which taunted the Prophets was more fit for the children of Esan then of Jacob who as you read Isa 21.11 call to the Watchman i. e. the Prophet and ask him What of the night What of the night
If you would know the reason of this confidence it is apparent that they imagined they were holy persons and said We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us v. 8. which words signifie that they laid the greatest weight of their hopes upon that piece of Religion which hath respect to God though they had no respect at all in their actions towards the good of one another And the very same words you shall find in another place Chap. 6. 13 14 15. and that which deceived them was their Sacrifices wherein they trusted as you may gather from v. 20. where God saith To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet cane from a far countrey Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet to me And you may observe also that when these prophets could not avoid but they must prophesie of some evil that so they might imitate the true prophets and not be suspected for meer flatterers by speaking of nothing but peace and prosperity then they saw for them false burdens and causes of banishment Lam. 2.14 Some little mischief or other they foretold should come if they did not amend some small burden they laid upon them which the people did not much dread and so their threatnings were but mock burdens like the reproof of flatterers who smile while they give them like the Dogs Isaiah spoke of who when they seem to bite their masters they do not fast en their teeth 4. Unto this you may add the words of Ezek. Chap. 22. v. 25 28 29. where he tells us of the defection which both priests prophets princes and people had made from God so that there was not so much as a man among the people to make up the hedge and to stand in the gapp against the wrath of God which had made a breach upon them And particularly he saith of the prophets and priests that they were like ravening Lyons had devoured souls made many widdows dawbed with untempered morter seen vanity and divined lyes Let me intreat you to read the whole 13. Chap. where he relates how the Prophet Prophetess seduced the people preaching peace when there was no peace and strengthening the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way by promising of him life The prophets they promised the people security and built an imaginary wall of defence about them v. 10. The prophetesses they bid them be as quiet and at as much ease as men are when they leane their arms on a cushion And if any mans head did but ache they had a kerchief for it to bind it about and make him sleep in security without any fear of danger v. 18. And all this unfaithfulness to souls they were guilty of for the vilest the smallest gain imaginable For an handful of barly or a bit of bread they would pollute Gods name and slay poor souls that depended on them v. 19. 5. And more then this they persecuted the true prophets who dealt sincerely with the people and told them the great danger that was impending over them One place in the Prophet Jeremiah may serve instead of all for the attesting of this charge against them which is Chap. 26. where they accuse him to the Princes for nothing else but because he prophecied destruction to them v. 8 9. Some of the Elders indeed were affected with his prophesie and brought for his justification in what he had said the example of Micah who had spoken the same words in the time of Hezekiah and yet that King did not put him to death but feared the Lord and laboured for a reformation ver 18 19. But then the people have their story to oppose to this in ver 20. which seems to be their words How that Urijah had lately taken the same boldness to prophesie in the present Kings reign against their City but the King would not endure it but though he fled into Aegypt yet he sent after him and brought him home and slew him with the sword in a disgracefull manner And it should seem that had not Ahikam resolutely stood his friend this last story had prevailed against Jeremiah ver 24. And in the next chapter we read that some of them undertook to prophesie that shortly the vessels of the Lords house should be brought again from Babylon that had been lately carried thither And though Jeremiah assured them of the vanity of this assertion yet in the next after that chap. 28. there arose a Prophet who to please the people assigns the punctual time when it should be done and out of a great conceit sure that they were Gods beloved people whatsoever did befall them there arose Prophets in Babylon among them of the first captivity who foretold the same things with those at Ierusalem as you may see chap. 29. In so much that it became a Proverb among those that were left still there that another captivity would never come whatsoever the Prophets said Ezek. 12.22 23 c. And they plainly intimate Ier. 18.18 that they had as good Prophets as he and should alwayes have notwithstanding he prophesied their destruction and therefore seeing they could well spare him they devised how to dispatch him out of the way that he might not trouble them 6. But these Prophets who made the people believe the captivity should never come did themselves first feel the burden of it before any other persons The wall of defence that bulwark of security that they built for them in their Sermons being laid together and daubed with untempered morter it fell down upon them that daubed it so that it was said This Wall is no more neither they that daubed it Ezek. 13.15 16. And these two things are remarkable in another vision of his chap. 9. where he sees the slayers sent forth to destroy all those in the City that did not sadly bewail the sins of it First that the Priests were first punished for he bids him begin at the Sanctuary and it is said they slew the Elders which were there and so went forth and slew in the City ver 6 7. Secondly That they were all slain and destroyed none of them being spared for though they are bidden to mark some in the City ver 4. yet you read of none to be marked in the Sanctuary And therefore Ezekiel complains as he if was left alone ver 8. i. e. in vision he was present at this slaughter made among the Ministers in the Sanctuary and he could see no Priest remaining there but himself So dangerous a thing it is to have a form of godliness without the power of it actuating the whole soul that such persons run themselves into destruction by their false hopes and dreams of Gods favour and bring likewise all their credulous admirers and those that hang upon their lips into an unexpected ruine with them I shall not presume so far as to tell you what examples we have
credit to lay aside their angry passions and their covetous affections or else they will be their undoing Man cannot God will not help it CAP. XIV 1. The fourth general head That if a Nation expect settlement it must establish justice and mercy 2. God is desirous of the peace and quiet of the world 3. But it must be on those conditions as is proved from what was said to them before the captivity 4. And from the words of the Prophets after their return out of it 5. From many other places of Scripture with which a conclusion is put to the discourse begun chap. 9. 1. ANd now I shall descend to the fourth and last thing which I am engaged to treat of That where peace settlement and safety is expected by any Nation they are to have a great care to see whether they be guilty of such things as these and if they be deeply to be humbled and speedily to reform This commands our regard with the greater authority because it hath all the former discourses speaking in its behalf But nothing should more awaken us to minde it than this consideration that many cozened themselves by a ready performance of some religious duties into a most dangerous security and vain confidence in God whilest by reason of these sins which are accounted by such persons but small petty matters in compare with their glistering piety they have been working their own ruine And I think no Nation is more concerned in it than this wherein we live because God hath begun shall I say to smite us and lay us low or hath almost laid our honour in the dust to this land therefore I may well use the Prophet Isaiahs words and say as it is Isa 28.22 Now be ye not mockers lest your bands be made strong For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth I mean let us not make light of all Gods admonitions and messages that he sends to us lest we be bound with such iron chains of affliction as we shall never be able to shake off for I have assurance from the Word of God in the mouth of his Prophets that God will make an utter end as he hath begun if we will not put away the evil of our doings 2. God indeed doth really desire the peace and quiet of Nations and he loves not to afflict them but when there is great need which should make us reform more speedily when he chastises us because his chastisements are an indication of great distempers upon us He doth not alwayes use the same courses to make us good but he changes his method as he sees most useful for us As the husband-man sometimes plows and breaks the clods and again at other seasons sows his seed according as it follows in Isa 28.24 25. so doth God sometimes cut and break us by afflictions and sometimes instruct us and teach us by his Word that he sows among us And as the Husband-man doth not draw his Cart wheel over the smaller grains as he doth over his Wheat but beats the Fitches Cummin out with a rod or a switch Even so doth God in his husbandry upon mens souls he sometimes afflicts more gently and lightly and at other times more sharply and heavily according as the condition of his patients require v. 27. And as the same husband-man will not be ever threshing his Wheat or breaking it with his wheel or stamping upon it with his horses hoof but only so long till he hath separated it from the chaff v. 28. so doth God likewise afflict and beat us only so long till he hath loosened us from our sins wherein we were settled as the Corn in the ears and then he ceases God is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working and he oft-times shakes Nations very sorely but it is that they may repent and be divided from their sins as the Wheat by winnowing from the chaff and then he will settle them more firmly again and lay them up safely as the Wheat is reposited in the granary after all its knocks and agitations 3. But then these things which have exercised my pen so long must as I said be carefully repented of and amended For first they were proposed to this people before their captivity as matters to be reformed if they hoped for any favour from God as you may read in Hosea chap. 10.12 and chap. 12.6 and especially in Amos his words to Israel who had been much wasted and spoiled chap. 4. from the seventh verse of the fifth chapter to the sixteenth which is again repeated with abundance of earnestness ver 21 22 23 24. to this sense Do not make a noise in mine ears with good words and flattering devotions away with these offerings and sacrifices in which you are so forward but let me see judgement and righteousness like a mighty torrent carry all before it And to what they say relating to Israel the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah consent when they speak concerning Judah This you may understand if you will be at no more labour but to cast your eyes on Isa 1.16 17 18 19 20. Isa 58.8 9 10 c. and Isa 33.14 15 16 c. in which last place you may observe that when the sinners in Sion saw the great destruction that God had made by the Army of Senacherib of which he had been speaking before those hypocrites began to be surprized with fear lest the same burning should be made among them ver 14. Now the Prophet tells them how to avoid it in the following verses and saith ver 17. that if they did do as he advised them they should see their King in his beauty and God would enlarge their territories and they should be a terrour to all their enemies and they should see no Assyrians among them any more but Jerusalem should stand for ever and be like a Land of rivers yet without any enemy to annoy it ver 17 18 19 20 c. And so you may read in Jer. 7.5 6 7. and Jer. 22.2 3 4 5. where he saith that if they would execute judgement and righteousness indeed c. then Kings should still sit upon the throne of David Which very thing they might have learnt from the experience of their Fathers ver 15 16 17. concerning one of whom it is there said That he judged the cause of the poor and needy and then it was well with him And was not this to know me saith the Lord Yes this is the business though you would fain make the world believe that you know God while you are covetous unjust unmerciful bloody cruel and would perswade your selves that you are a Religious people and shall be in safety yet there is no such matter do not deceive your selves It went well with your Fathers then only when they did execute judgement and justice and then they truly had the knowledge of God Those words indeed are spoken of
I am not so blind as not to see what the actions of some men professing Religion have been among us at whose disease without coming near them to feel their pulse an ordinary skill may more then conjecture And therefore I cannot but suspect that a great many are sick of the same though I do not know them and that their zeal and good affection to some duties of piety is but their disease and not a good habit of their souls 2. This jealousie made me to take this pains and to touch this sore something sharply in many passages of this discourse And let me intreat those that are of greater skil and larger observation that have had more to do in the world then my years and obscurity would permit me and whose books are like to come into more hands let them I say make a more exact inquiry into the state of this nation and when they have passed a judgement upon its proper distemper tell all the people of it as plainly as they can the danger in which they lie of being made the people of his wrath For though I dare not take upon me to be as one of the old Prophets and to say that the nation is generally guilty of all these sins yet thus much I have more then said that as they were the ruine of Israel and Judah so will they bring down Gods vengeance on our heads if they be found to reign among us unless we unfeignedly forsake them And this I shall further say that I very much fear by what I have observed of some that if a Prophet should now arise among us or in other parts of the Christian yea the Reformed world he would thunder out against us the same words that I have cited out of the book of God He would tell us how little difference men make of right and wrong that they invade one anothers rights and properties wallow in blood and cruelty c. and yet cry up the purity of Religion the merits of Christ Jesus and such like things with as loud a voice as they in the Prophet did the Temple of the Lord. And though men talk much of separating themselves from the world yet it is a great doubt with me whether He would have any better language for those who are double-refined from Popery and have reformed even the reformation 3. For sad it is to think what horrid things have been done among us under the glorious name of Christ Jesus It is but a small thing to say that men have winnowed with every wind and gone in every way as it is Eccles 5.9 or that they have taken all wayes of getting riches and become any ones creature to become great or that they have broken the Laws and Sanctions of the place where they live to make them serve their ends with such like things For rapine and oppression cruelty and bloodshed falsness and perjury and whatsoever the covetousness or ambition of men would put them upon have been blanched and whited over with the most specious and fair names of Religion and the honour of God And one cannot chuse but have a fear that this infection hath spread far and near in the Nation seeing it hath been almost an honourable thing to wrong an enemy and seeing men have had so many rich and inviting occasions which they call providences to do against known Laws principles of Conscience Who can then hold his peace from speaking of these things how can I forbear to wish that I had a voice as loud as Stentor or like that of Mars in Homer that I might make these things that I have said to ring in the ears of the people of this Land Though you exalt your selves as the Eagle in high flown devotions and though you build your nest in the stars and talk of glorious illuminations though you think you dwell in the rock and shall hide your selves in Christ Jesus yet from thence will these sins bring you down and shame shall cover you I have the word of the righteous Lord for what I say and I the testimony of all ages and mine own eyes have seen those things done which I verily thought would be the ruine of the Actors of them and so they have proved 4. Let every man therefore enter into his own heart and consider whether there be any violence in his hands when he lifts them up in supplications to heaven any of the blood of the poor and oppressed running about his fingers when he layes hold of Gods mercy any unjust acquisitions that he is conscious of when he devotes any thing to his service If these things be not found among us we may have hopes that God will not make us a desolation but if they be we ought deeply to be humbled for our hypocritical fastings prayers and humiliations and for that whilest we would needs lean upon God and cry the Temple of the Lord and called for the building up of Sion we have not minded so much as matters of common justice equity and mercy between a man and his neighbour And we may fear that the Lord will make an utter end of us unless we do with all speed amend our wayes and doings For the Hypocritical Nation is the people of Gods wrath Isa 10.6 And he will be avenged of such enemies and ease himself of his adversaries Isa 1.24 When he goes into his vineyard as it is Isa 5.7 and looks for judgement but behold oppression and for righteousness but behold a cry when men are come to that pass that they take the matters of Justice but for a trifling business and hope that the change of so small a thing as a letter the placing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the room of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will make no great change in Gods affection to his people and be accounted but a petty oversight Then immediately comes out a woe in the following verse and a loud asseveration that many houses shall be desolate even great and fair without an inhabitant ver 8 9. and see ver 20. unto 25. 5. If I may be allowed to say any more it shall be only this that the Rulers of the land must carefully and impartially inquire into themselves about these matters For first they are more then others concerned in them as many of those places which I have alledged will tell him that reads them and 2 They have greater power and temptations to do these things then most of the people and 3 They raise these sins nearer to the height of the prophetical expressions then the ordinary sort of men can do in regard of whom many of those phrases that I have cited must be interpreted with some diminution and abatement and 4 God gave a particular command concerning the Kings of Israel V. Schickarti jus reg Hebr. cap. 3. Theor. 11. that they should not
barden religion which consists altogether in corporal austeries Some we have seen making as much ado about such a cut of their hair as those Friars about a shaven crown and as fierce for the cuting off their ribbons as if it was the cutting off our right hand which our Saviour speaks of And others we have seen to fast and punish their bodies and make them do pennance by an hard life who notwithstanding have been hard to the poor and harsh and sowr to to others as well as to themselves They look upon these things as great marks of humility but as David Chytraeus well saith with whose words none will be offended though they may with mine Forma humilitatis est non dejectio capitis in alterum latus non vestis sordida c. Reg. Vitae Humility doth not consist in holding ones head awry in wearing of poor cloaths or any other externall gesture but in the hearty casting down of our selves before God and subjecting our wills to his to do and suffer what he pleases 9. They commended likewise good men but especially those that were dead and gone garnishing the very sepulchres of the Prophets And not a small piece of Religion is it now adaies to commend the Preacher as the woman did our Saviour saying Blessed is the womb that bare thee c. Luk. 11.27 O he is a pretious man a sweet teacher I could hang on his lips all day long though they are no wiser nor better by all the Sermons they hear then they were many years ago To throng to the Church to use devout carriage there demure looks sad sighs and groans a sowr face a studied tone a deliberate gate will go a great way in many mens Religion And on the contrary There are some who pride themselves in decrying all these poor formalities which we have named in scufling and fighting with these shadows of Religion dealing more blows at these airy appearances then at foul and deadly sins Both of these men are of the same Genius accommodating themselves to the mode and fashion of the times imitating as far as they dare with safety to their sins those who are taken to be truly Religious They would wear the cloaths but not be the men they would fain have these things to be putting on of Jesus Christ but like not a religion that will lie near the heart and make them put off themselves And indeed when I have considered all things I find that there is nothing so poor and mean about which men may not spend their zeal so excessively that it may pass with them for a religion They would have the kissing of the Son spoken of Psal 2.12 to be but such a ceremony as the kissing of the hand was among the heathen when they worshipped bowing and kneeling unto the Lord our maker Psal 95. they can easily think to be no more but bending their hams bowing their bodies before him Praying and lifting up the soul to God to be but turning up the eyes and lifting up the hands purifying and cleansing to be nothing else but outward Baptism and receiving of Christ to be eating and drinking of the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper And all the great duties of a Christian to be fulfilled in a good will to them which God will accept instead of the deed 10. We must learn therefore not to Judge of men by their talk and brave expressions by their little strictnesses and trifling zeal or any thing that is cheap and easie but by their self-denial and abasing of themselves and by all real acts of righteousness which are chargeable and cost them something As they say that at Venice they will give you the title of Magnifico and solemnly invite you to their houses to dinner but if you accept of the invitation and expect what they profess it is a piece of the greatest rudeness incivility and ill breeding Even so it is here there are many men that speak honourably of God and seem to be very desirous of his company and invite him to their souls by many prayers and earnest petitions that promise him fair and profess great respect to him but he is ignorant and rude in the world who expects they will be as good as their word and they themselves take it very ill that God should require all that at their hand They love to talk of Remission and reconciliation the flowing forth of Christs blood the bleeding his heart to sinners the freeness of his grace and twenty such good words and phrases They will chat all day long of fulness and freeness of riches and kindness communion and communication and such like things but you must not think that they mean any thing more then Christs casting a covering over their sins and hiding their iniquities Christ must speak as much of their kindness and love also if they be holy for they see no obligation to such exactness And therefore all they bestow on God is large promises and some petty inconsiderable actions of obedience If he will have more he must take it of Christ and not of them for he is best able to pay what is owing Though they are engaged and stand bound to God in many duties yet they intended in conclusion to cast the whole debt upon Christ and to discharge little or none of it themselves 11. And I cannot but admire at the strange impudence of the world who ordinarily brand the Ministers with the name of Scribes and Pharisees because they wear long cloaks or have respect and honour from the people which they do not seek though they be men of upright lives and whose hands were never fouled with any dishonest gain but stretched out many times to relieve those that are in need And yet never consider how like they themselvs are to those persons in their covetouseness hard-heartedness hatred desperate malice implacableness against all that oppose them and other things of this high nature All that bear any similitude to their outward garb must be hypocrites and they that resemble them in their diabolical nature must be Saints Who can help it if men will be mad and consider nothing They themselves perhaps make long prayers as the Pharisees did and yet they would be loath and so would I also that therefore they should be esteemed hypocrites if all things else were correspondent and their lives were holy They might learn then one would think if they be not quite frantick that the hypocrisie of the pharisees did not consist in wearing long robes or any such outward thing but in placing their religion in them and living under that shadow in all covetousness pride Lordliness over their Brethren spite anger and desire to destroy all contrary minded and such like wickedness If men be guilty of these things then they are Pharisees in grain though they wear short cloaks and are not called Masters CAP. XXIII 1. The Pharisees great zealots for some things but neglecters