under the tearing of a Quartane Ague from Michaelmas to Easter how wilt thou bee able to stand under the fall of such a huge rock as the wrath of the Almighty God which every moment is ready to break downe upon thee How wilt thou doe when these rivers of fire and brimstone shall be powred out upon thee and thou no more able to stand before them than a few dry leaves are able to resist the huge breaking in of many waters Oh beloved would you with due care apply these things to your own hearts and present them to your souls as things present how would they bring down the most stubborn spirit how would they help to break the hardest of your hearts before the Lord But there are two things which keep most people frombeing affected with them The first is These things are looked upon as things a farre off Now it is a rule in Opticks That things farre off though they be marvellous great yet seeme very little a Starre that is bigger than all the earth seemes no bigger than a candle being many miles distant from us So while men look at the wrath of God as they did at the Prophets Vision The Vision that he sees is for many dayes to come and he prophesies of the times that are farre off And put the evill day from them All these threatnings are but light matters Secondly it fares with most men in this point as with some men that have shrewish wives though their businesse lie within doors yet they have no heart to be there for feare of chiding So though it be the most necessary work to think of these things yet because their unquiet consciences upon the least serious meditation are ready to gnaw and teare them and make them sleep uncomfortably they labour to drive off the thought of this thing as farre as they can and will not think of Gods wrath due to sinne from yeers end to yeeres end Whereas if men would bring it in rempraesentem and keep their eyes open to behold it as a thing which unavoydably will come upon them how admirably would it work upon mens hearts To this end let me tell you a story which I have often read to this purpose It is reported of a certaine Christian King of Hungary who being on a time marvellous sad and heavie his brother that was a resolute Courtier would needs know what he ailed Oh brother saith he I have been a great sinner against God and I know not how I shall appeare before him when he comes to judgment These are said his brother melancholy thoughts and makes a toy of them as Gallants use to doe The King replyes nothing for the present but the custome of that Countrey was that if the Executioner of justice came and sounded a Trumpet before any mans doore the man was presently to be led to execution the King in the dead time of the night sends his Deaths-man and causeth him to sound his Trumpet before his brothers doore who hearing and seeing the messenger of death springs in pale and trembling into his brothers presence and beseeches the King to let him know wherein hee had offended O Brother replyes the King thou hast loved me and never offended me and is the sight of my Executioner so dreadfull to thee and shall not I so great a sinner feare to be brought to judgment before Jesus Christ If we would thus suppose with Hierom that we heard this Trumpet sounding Arise ye dead and come to judgment it would work to the purpose O set yóur selves therefore in Gods presence and behold the Lord shaking his lap as Nehemiah when hee shook his lap and said so God shake out everyman from his house Thus will I shake into eternall destruction all the children of Belial and then evidence be brought in against thee how great soever thou art amongst men that thou hast a huge pile of sin heaped up against God and still hast gone on to adde drunkennesse to thirst opposing God his wayes and his cause refusing grace offered freely not willing to be at peace with God while thou hast any meanes to fight against him when all these things shallbe laid open before thee and as thy iust reward God strike theea full blow and sinke thee to the bottome of hell where thou shalt wish that thou hadst been a toad or as one in desperation sometimes wished that thou mightst live there a thousand yeers so thou mightst have any hope in the end that the wrath of God might cease towards thee Would not these things then work upon thee Couldst thou then passe such a day as this without trembling Couldst thou be before the Lord and not have thy heart rent and torn Be perswaded therefore once more to bring it home to thy own soule and say as he said of his green fig this grew in Carthage yesterday This wrath this sea of misery may break in upon me the next moment I am yet joviall and merry but Gods vengeance with woollen feet follows me close at the back and will overtake me if I cannot mourn at the hearing of wrath I must burn at the feeling of it The good Lord melt our hearts with the feare of these things lest we be swallowed up in them And then for the second part for your Reformation would the Lord make this day a day of Reformation to this honourable Assembly what glorious things would be done by you Now what more effectuall motive what Furies whip would more restraine from the practise of sin or more drive to seek a shelter under the wing of Christ and to get into the safe condition of the servants of God than the beholding of this devouring fire these everlasting burnings which sinfull men will never be able to abide I know such is the depravation of mans nature that if there were any possibility of avoiding Gods wrath without leaving their sinnes many men would resolve with that wicked Cardinall not to leave their part in Paris for their part in Paradise And with that noble man which Luther speaks of who professed that if this life of going from whore-house to whore-house might last ever hee would not envie any mans going to heaven But this will not last There is great wrath prepared for the workers of iniquity And therefore my humble request is that if any of you finde your hearts unwilling to submit to that godly counsell given you in the morning of turning to God doe but think what your sinnes which you prize so much will cost you They say the Pope hath a book called Taxa camerae Apostolicae wherein men may know the rate of any sinne upon what termes a man may keep a whore be a Sodomite or murder his Father c. But here is a rate-book where any of you may know what a beloved sinne will cost you not a farthing token lesse than to lie under the devouring fire of
to wise men who can well judge what I say First I hope verily we are not yet come to that passe that God should say of us I will passe by England no more blessed bee God wee have a gracious King many Noble Peeres many excellent Commons who have already done great things for God I need not repeat them all the Kingdome knowes them to their comfort Yea and blessed be God the same gracious Soveraigne and Honourable Assembly of Parliament doe yet enquire what is further to be done what wrath is kindled and how it may bee quenched and have called the whole Kingdome to afflict themselves before God that his great wrath might bee turned away from us And as yet wee have a sprinkling of Phinehazzes worthy Magistrates who in their severall Countries and Counties dare appeare in Gods cause against sinne and the boldest sinners And wee have also a good sprinkling of faithfull Ministers who stand on the Watch towre and blow the Trumpet and give the people warning And for ever blessed be the Lord which is not the least pledge of our hopes for the lengthning out of our tranquility we have many ten thousand Saints in England who not onely abstaine from the abomination of the times but mourne for them and give God no rest night nor day untill hee bow the heavens and come downe and set up for himselfe a glorious Throne amongst us And unto these God hath made many promises of sparing the land for their sakes and that their posterities after them shall be blessed But as I hope this so the Lord will bee a witnesse with me that I feare whether all these persons and their graces doe beare a just proportion to the meanes and mercies which God hath given to England or to that huge Inundation of finne wherewith England is over-run at this day And here had I a tongue to speake and you and I hearts and eyes to powre out teares and sorrow wee might make this place a Bochim a place of weepers For what kinde of these sins doe not overflow us You will say at first not Idolatry but I tell you neither were the Germanes carried away with Idolatry when their desolations broke in upon them nor the Iewes before their last destruction The measure of our Iniquity may possibly be full though this sin come not in but God knowes and you know that we have not onely abundance of Idolatrous Papists who are proud insolent and daring but abundance of Popish Idolatrous spirits superstitiously addicted willing to embrace any thing that goes that way onely they will not have it goe under the name of Popery And for the other sinnes of contempt of Gods holy Ordinances his day his servants and all his wayes oppression cruelty defrauding of brethren the sensuall sinnes of uncleannesse especially that of drunkennesse Goe but to the places of greatest resorts Market-Townes populous Cities and Fayres c. and your hearts would tremble to thinke how our Land is overspread with these Oh Beloved the generality of the people of England is extreamly wicked and which argues our case to bee most miserable it seemes to beare downe and to break over all our Bankes multitudes sinning with a whores forehead proclaiming their sinnes as Sodom And the vox populi is that many of the Nobles Magistrates Knights and Gentlemen and persons of great Quality are arrand Traytors and Rebells against God taking part with wicked men and wicked causes against the Truth Patrons of Ale-houses and disorders checking inferiour Officers who discover any zeal for God against an ill cause That in many of their families not to mention Religion there is not so much as a face of Civility Many others of them who seem to wish well dare not draw out the sword which God hath given them and some few others borne downe in their places with the torrent of wickednesse And as for our Ministers how many sad complaints and petitions hath this Honourable Assembly received against many hundreds of them multitudes of them rotten and unsound in their doctrine and so vitious and corrupt in their lives that they fulfill that which Archbishop Abbot said in his Lectures upon Ionah professing that his heart bled within him to thinke of the miserable condition of the precious soules of many people who had such Ministers as Iohannes Aventinuus speakes of who if they were not in the Ministery would not bee thought fit hog-heards to keepe swine Besides thousands of others who God knowes want either will or skill to doe the Lords worke faithfully And the residue who have endeavoured to give the people warnning and to teach them the good way of the Lord have been a long time both downe and opposed as the troublers of our Israel Sure I am what ever our Ministers are or doe the sins of the land are too strong for them and our people remaine unsubdued to Jesus Christ Yea which is yet worse the very judgements of God have wrought little upon us all the long and heavy pressures of the Neighbour Churches his rods upon our selves terrible and wasting pestilences and famine his blasting all our enterprises his scaring us with rumors of warres and bloud prevaile nothing wee still grow worse and worse Indeed if any sin grow out of fashion as cloathes doe then wee leave it otherwise wee goe on boldly and impudently let God threaten or doe what he will And all these evils are aggravated by being committed against greater meanes and mercies than any nation under Heaven enjoyes this day besides our selves And which is yet sadder oh that I were mistakē upon condition I were tyed to a recantation our dealing this last year is more injurious against God than heretofore The Lord hath gathered such an Assembly of Noble Peeres and Commons who have done such great things that many of us began to hope our Pilgrimage through this wildernesse had beene almost ended and that England would now turne to the Lord and become a people zealous of good workes But verily so far as I can understand the body of the Nation makes little other use of all the mercies of this last yeare but to abuse all the liberties procured both for Church and Common wealth to greater and bolder sinning against God and now also which yet speakes more sadly the Lord God beginnes to appeare against us not onely in permitting many unexpected blocks and rubbs huge trees cast in the way of our Worthies that they cannot march on in their strength and so the much expected Reformation stickes long in the birth but God hath drawne out and fourbished the sword and made it begin to drinke blood in the Neighbour Nation which when it once begins to drinke seldome is put up againe till it bee drunke with blood this God hath suffered to bee drawne out upon our deare brethren in Ireland upon our owne flesh and blood and that by a
birds and fowles who could observe what seasons were fit or unfit for their staying or removing in such or such a Countrey and Gods people remained ignorant of the seasons of Gods approaching judgements Another place you shall find Hos. 7. 9. where the Lord saith of Ephraim that is the ten Tribs gray haires are scattered here and there upon him yet hee knowes it not The meaning plainly is this That as gray hairs are remembrances and plain tokens of declining old age comming upon men so there were symptomes and tokens of Ephraims ruine comming upon him and yet he would take no notice of it Our blessed Saviour also in Mat. 16. v. 1 2 3. tells his hearers that they could make Almanacks for weather and discerne the face of the skie and yet could not discerne the signes of the times implying that Prognostications might also bee made if men would study the right way whereby they might know what God intends to doe with a people So then there is one step gained that something may be known of Gods approaching judgements But that I may not deliver any thing but what you shall have a sull suffrage for I adde in the next place and confesse that because all seasons are in Gods hands and all people under his absolute prerogative so that if hee pleaseth hee may destroy a Nation for one sinne and againe if hee pleaseth hee can exercise so much mercy that no sinnes of a people can set any bounds or limits thereunto nothing but his owne holy will setting limits to his patience long-suffering and mercy and because also God doth alwayes beare such a tender regard to his owne children that where-ever they live hee doth often for their sakes as it were reverse his sentence of desolation In regard of these things and some others which might bee suggested I thinke I may say no mortall man can possibly determine when the precise time of this or that Nations utter ruine is certainly come What Christ said of the day of Judgement may fitly bee applyed here the very day and houre of the last Judgement no man knowes but only the Father and the Sonne to whom it is revealed from the Father and that also since his Resurrection but yet there bee signes whereby wee may know the approaching of that day So wee may say of this though wee cannot know the very time of a Nations desolation yet wee may know when the ruine of it comes neere at hand And what learned men say of them who have studied for the Philosophers stone though they could never finde out the Elixar yet in their search after it they have found out many excellent things admirably usefull for mankinde so in this search if wee cannot determine that such a Nation will infallibly bee ruined yet wee may certainly finde such things as thereby to learne what to feare what to expect what to pray against what to strive after c. And so consequently the handling of this question may bee exceedingly usefull to such an Assembly as I am now called to speak to in the name of God This then is a second step that wee may know such things as may make us feare desolation and consequently labour to prevent it or prepare for it Thirdly the maine question is to enquire what are the Tokens the gray haires the flourishing of the Almond tree whereby wee may guesse at mans going to his long home I answer Politicians and some Divines will tell you of the fatall period of Kingdoms that they have their youth their strength and after a time their declination and shew by abundance of experience that States seldome continue above five or six hundred years without some fatall change But we must goe by a surer rule than this It is not length of time which makes God weary of shewing mercy but what Solomon saith of Kings for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof so for the transgressions of a land and the transgressions only many are the ruines thereof Now there is one rule which God hath alwayes proceeded by in the dissolution of Churches and Kingdoms ever since the beginning of the world and that is this That whensoever the sins of any Church Nation City Family or Person you may take it as large or as narrow as you will are come to a full measure then God infallibly brings ruine upon them This is the rule which I shall make plaine to you God hath set severall vessels to limit the sinnes of all Nations beyond which they shall not goe as once God said to the waves of the Sea hitherto thou shalt goe but here thy proud waves shall be staied so God hath said of the sinnes of Nations Families Persons thus farre I will forbeare thee but farther thy wickednesse shall not exceed then comes thy end Take foure or five cleare evidences for it in the Scripture First that speech of God to Abraham I will give thy posterity all this land but not yet because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full though they were Amorites God would beare with them till their iniquities were come to the full and then he would spare them no longer Another is Zachary 5. verse 6. The prophet in a vision saw an Ephah a thing like a bushell and moreover the Lord told him this is the resemblance of the Ephah throughout all the earth as if God should have said this is not only proper to this people but this rule I go by throughout the whole world and what was that the Ephah is brought out and into the Ephah is cast a Woman this woman sate and filled the Ephah then one brings a talent of lead for a cover to it and that stops the mouth of it and shuts the woman in then come two women with the wind in their wings and they take up the Ephah and carry it between heaven and earth and place it in the land of Shinar or Babylon there to build it an house and to set it upon its own base Now what is the meaning of all this there is one word in the vision which is a key to open this lock viz. this is wickednesse the meaning whereof is That the Lord had brought the Jewes from the captivity of Babylon where they had beene seventy yeeres as soone as they came home though they turned not to idolatry yet they proved stark naught God sets them their Ephah puts their iniquity into a vessell and doth as it were say Goe on till yee have filled the Ephah but as soone as that is full I will clap a talent of lead in the mouth of it I will take a course yee shall sinne no longer in this land but will scatter you into Mesopotamia into the land of Shinar and there be as wicked as yee will So you see when the measure is full then vengeance comes Take another instance in the first of Iames verse 15. When
when such men have God Conscience their office the lawes all on their side and yet dare not appeare against Idolatry prophanenesse violence sensuality as it showes the men to be of a base spirit so it argues the sins of that place to be of great strength even fit for judgment Thus it was in the 22. of Ezekiel verse 30. when all such were growne corrupt I sought for a mā among them that is some Phinehas to stand in the gap to make up the hedge some zealous Ministers to stand up and mediate with God for them and testifie in their ministery against them but I found none and therefore I powred out my indignation upon them Thirdly in case any Magistrates or Ministers doe appeare on Gods part as Iosiah Ieremiah and others did in these forlorne times yet they prove too weake stakes they are able to doe nothing the inundation of wickednesse beares them downe and runs over their heads In a word when some Magistrates take part with sinne others afraid of it and the remainder who are faithfull can prevaile nothing this Rampire is likewise overthrowne 4. There is but one more which when it is likewise cast downe destruction is at the very doore and that is Gods lesser judgements God sometimes keepes petty-sessions to prevent great Assizes inferior executions to prevent utter desolations which when they prevaile not it is a certaine token of extreame wrath Sometimes God afflicts neighbour Nations destroying their Cities that the rest might receive Instruction and their dwelling not be cut off As Judges will hang up a thiefe upon a Gibbet to keepe others from the gallowes I have overthrown some of you saith God as Sodom I have smitten you with blasting and mildew I have sent among you the pestilence yet yee have not turned to me why should ye be smitten any more You shall see this notably expressed in the 24. of Ezekiel Where God compares Ierusalem to a pot and all the Inhabitants to flesh boyling in the pot but all the boyling would not ferch out their scum no threatnings no visitations no inferiour Judgements could prevaile with them but still their scumme their blood their filthinesse and lewdnesse abode in them marke then in the 13. v. what doome God gives of them because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged I have tryed all means to doe thee good and thou wilt not bee reformed thou shalt never be purged from thy filthines any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it and I will doe it And that example in the sixth of Ieremy is most remarkable where God useth such a parable as this the bellowes are burnt the lead is melted in the fire the founder workes in vaine for the wicked are not taken away reprobate silver shau men call them for the Lord hath rejected them God here compares himselfe to a Silver-smith who takes a piece of oare and tryes all his art to divide betwixt the drosse and the metall but cannot doe it and at last throwes it away with indignation saith it is base stuffe on which hee will never bestow any more labour So God seems to say my Ministers have spent their lungs dryed up their throats all my other judgements have been tryed but the wicked are not taken away they are all base drosse I will bestow no more paines upon them And now you understand what the gray hairs of a State or people are and when a people are ripe for destruction when the time is come that God will passe them no more you shall not need to enquire by what meanes he will doe it he hath all in his owne hands he hath famine and pestilence and sword wilde beasts and fire and earthquakes if none of all these doe it hee hath flies and lice and grashoppers rats and mice enough to destroy the strongest Kingdome in the world in a moment if hee but whistle hisse or call for them Objection It is true may some say if people goe on in their wickednesse and prove Incorrigible no marvaile though God proceed thus against them but that it should be the case of a people who set upon Reformation this is strange And how wil this stand with the doctrine preached in the forenoon that whē a natiō repents God wil repent c Answer In such an assembly as this a short answere if true will satisfie First God never promised that the sincere Reformation of a few should prevent the judgement of a multitude if Gods time of Execution be come Noah Daniel and Iob shall deliver neither son nor daughter who are not turned home to God Secondly I answere that though the Nation joyned in the Reformation it was not in sincerity if it had been sound the doctrine in the morning would have carried it away and I must have had another Interpretation of my Text It is true Iosiah carried it by his authoritie but the peoples hearts were not right And Ieremy saith no lesse when I removed Samaria out of my sight her treacherous sister Iudah turned not to mee Yes might the people say wee did turne to thee under good King Iosiah but it was but fainedly saith the Prophet and it appeares to be so for as soone as ever Iosiah was dead they made a universall Apostacie from the Lord and so their Reformation was but like that of the Nation of the Iews in Christs time which our Lord compares to the uncleane spirit going out for a while and returning againe with seven Devils worse then himselfe As if England by the help of this noble Parliament who lay the cause of God to heart should joine in a reformation though against the haire it would come to nothing in the end And so I have in some measure cleered this doctrine in Thesi how far the approaching ruine of a Nation may be knowne and what the signes of it are The second followes and that is Whether this concerne us And what answer would you have me give you I could willingly answer in this as Daniel did Nebuchadnezzar when he was to interpret a dreame to the King which in the true exposition foretold Nebuchadnezzars fall It is said Daniel stood still for an hour and his thoughts troubled him and in the end speakes out My Lord the dreame be to them that hate thee and the interpretation of it to thine enemies So say I Oh let the parallell of this be some other people Oh that it might not fit England but doth it fit it Right honourable and beloved your great wisdomes your diligent inspection your ample intelligence your faithfulnesse and sincerity makes you better able to judge then my meannesse can attaine unto who am none of the wisest observers of the time but I must speake and what I speake I shall speake freely and humbly I would I could speake sorrowfully I know I speake