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A05342
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A sermon preached before his Maiesty at Windsore, the 19. of Iuly. 1625. By Henrie Leslie, one of his Maiesties chaplaines in ordinary
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Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.
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1625
(1625)
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STC 15494; ESTC S108502
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20,921
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41
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are the staires that lead vnto the chambers of death and the steps whereby the wicked doe descend into this pit of obduration But as S Austin saith in another case if the towne be on fire we should not be so curious to know how it came in as carefull to put it out Therefore in the last place let vs bethinke our selues of a salue for this soare Indeed it is a most dangerous desperate disease The stone in the heart is a great deale worse than the stone in the bladder for after hardnes commeth the heart that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 and without repentance there can be no saluation So that he who hardeneth his heart shill fall into euill Prov. 28.14 Eccles. 3.27 and as the Wisâ—man saith Cor durum habebit malè in navissimo It shal be in an ill case at the last day Therfore you see that as when God would shew mercy to a people he hath no more forcible meanes to expresse the same then to say I will take away the stonie heart so when he would take vengeance on any he hath no more grieuous way to doe it then by hardening of their hearts or giuing them vp to the hardnes of their hearts It is no maruell then that the Scripture doth so carefully dehort vs from this hardnes of heart and on the other part doth so earnestly recommend vnto vs the contrary to a hard heart Deut 10.16 Luc. 6.15 Iâ—s 51.17 Isa 66.2 2. King 22.19 Ezech. 36.26 which is set forth in Scripture by sundry properties as that it is a circumcised contrite heart a good and honest heart a broken and contrite heart a relenting melting trembling heart a poore humble and obedient heart a tender heart a new heart sprinkled with the blood of Christ washed by his grace heated inflamed by his holy spirit In a word a heart of flesh or a soft heart that is soone checked controlled soone pierced soone made to bleed soon stirred vp to amendment Now that we may get such a heart these remedies are to be vsed which will be like a pretious balme to soften and supple our hearts 1. We must beware of frequent sinning and learne to make conscience of euery sinne since customable sinning is that which hardens the heart In the next place let vs labour after true ill mination for the hardnesse of our heart is from the blindnes of our mind vnlesse the mind be first inlightened the heart can neuer be softened After this we must lay our hearts open and naked to all admonitions threatnings exhortations of the word applying them to our owne conscience for that is the hammer that breaketh the stones it is the fire that melteth the hardest mettals it is the two edged sword that pierceth to the diuiding asunder of the soule and spirit This Recipe is prescribed by the Apostle a litle after exhort one another daily while it is called to day v. 13. lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sinne Fourchly we must often enter into a consideration of our own estates for we perish for want of consideration because we mind not what we doe or in what case we stand to Godward No man repented saith Ieremie but why No man said what haue I done but as thâ— horse rusheth into the battaile so they into their sinnes Therefore it behooueth vs to examine our wayes to erectan inquisitioÌ„ keep an audit in our hearts looking vpon our selues continually in the glasse of the Law and therein meditating often vpon the Iustice of God his greathatred against sin vpoÌ„ the truth of God's threatnings vpon the last judgement and the fearefull torments prepared in hell for hard-hearted sinneâ—s And if thou thus strike the rock of thy heart with the rod of the Law riuers of Water will gush forth 5. But lest after that in the Law we haue seen our miserable desperate estate we should presently raue rage against the Lord we must laboâ—r with the sight of our sinnes to get a sight of Gods mercie reuealed in the Gospell The remembrance of his fathers house made the heart of the Prodigall to relent so will the consideration of Gods mercies towards vs worke vpon our hearts when once our hearts are inflamed with the sense of Gods loue towards vs oh then the working of our bowels the stirring of our affections the melting and relenting of our repenting hearts Sixtly let vs obserue duelie the judgements of God for all afflictions whether vpon our selues or vpon others should stirre vs vp and make vs looke about vs. The famine the sword the pestilence are Gods three Champions to fight his battails to revenge his quarrels but especially the Pestilence that is called Bellum Dei contra homines These three should be vnto vs as the three arrowes which Iona. than shot to forewarne Dauid of the Kings displeasure As Dauid vnderstood thereby that the King was angry and so got vp and made hast to be gone So may we by those darts that come from Heauen fall so neere vnto this place perceiue that the wrath of God is kindled against vs And therefore we shall doe well to get vp as Dauid did and make hast to flee from the face of an angry God whose wrath is a consuming fire hiding our selues in the holes of that rocke Christ Iesus who is a propitiation for our sins But this is not all to perceiue by Gods judgements that he is angry In the next place we shall doe well to looke backe into our selues and enquire what we haue done that hath prouoked the Lord to wrath for he neuer strikes without a cause â— Sam. 21.1 So Dauid when the famine was vpon the land consulted with the Lord and he found that it was for the bloud of the Gibeonites shed by Saul Yea so much deuotion we may learne from the Assyrians After the king of Ashur had sent into Samaria new Colonies from Babylon Cutha Ana Hamath and from Sepharuaim there came Lions and destroyed them And they rightly apprehended the cause of it to be for that they did not worship the God of the land but serued idols in that place which the Lord of hosts had sanctified for his owne worship Wherevpon the king gaue order that one of the Preists should be carried backe 2. King 17.24 c. to teach them the manner of the God of the land Belike they knew that the Arke of God Dagon wold not dwel vnderone roof So if we search into the cause that hath prouoked God to wrath we will finde such as this and many more in ourselues So the consideration of Gods judgements will bring vs to the sight of our sinnes which is a good meanes to make our hearts relent Seuenthly let vs bath our hearts in the hot bloud of Iesus for the consideration of his death and passioÌ„ is a most effectuall meanes to make our hearts relent and resolue into the teares of vnfained contrition for did Christ for our sinnes shed his heart bloud did our sinnes make him sweat water bloud should not we ourselues shed bitter teares should not our hearts bleed for them Did the vaile of the Temple rend and the stones cleaue asunder when Christ suffered shall not our stonie hearts breake for whom he suffered Did the earth moue and shall our earthly minds stand immoueable No no if we could be setled in this without doubt that we were the men that crucified Christ as guilty of his death as was Pilat Iudas or the Iewes that our sinnes were the nailes that boared his hands and his seete and the speare which pierced his side and the thornes that pricked his head If I say this meditation could take place in our hearts bitternes of spirit with wailing and mourning should take place in like manner Thus Peter in his sermon Act. 2. strooke the Iewes as with a thunderclap from Heauen when he told them that they had crucified the Lord of glory so that 3000 of them were pricked in their hearts Act. 2.37 and cried Men and brethren what shall we doe Euen so if we be of the number of those vpon whom God hath promised to powre forth his spirit in the last dayes We shall looke vpon him whom we haue pierced and we shall lament for him as one mourneth for his onely son Zach. 12.10 Finally because a soft heart is the gift of God let vs haue recourse vnto him by earnest and frequeÌ„t prayer beseeching him of his fatherly goodnes that according to his promises in the new couenant he would take away this stonie heart from vs and giue vs a heart of flesh which may receiue the stampe of his word be pliable to the operation of his blessed spirit and tremble at his iudgements And vnto prayer we must sometimes adde fasting which is like scouring now theÌ„ to be joyned with ordinary washing When destruction was threatened against Niniveh the King proclaimed a solemne fast so hath our religious King done at this time Not as the king of Niniveh For that king did proclaime the fast vpon the warning of a Prophet but he himselfe gaue warning to the Prophets and like the good Kings of Iuda we haue seene him goe before the Priests in the zeale of Gods seruice I will not forestall the market but reserue the worke of the day for the day it selfe Onely giue me leaue to blow the trumpet in Sion for sanctifying of this fast and to ring a peale this day before giuing you warning that if ye will heare his voice meete the Lord by repentance in that day of humiliation yee must not harden your hearts AMEN
threatnings restraine vs from sinne In the last place he visits our iniquities with the rod our sinnes with scourges knowing that if our case be not desperate we will at least be reclaimed by his judgments Thus the Lord hauing complained much of the rebellion of his people Isa 1. in end he promiseth them mercie and sheweth how he would reforme them euen by casting them into the fierie surnace of affliction thereby to purifie them and consume away the drosse of their sinnes that they might shine againe in their wonted beautie V 25. I will turne my hand vpon thee and purely purge away thy drosse and take away all thy tinne The like promise is Isa 4.4 that he will wash the filthinesse of the daughter of Sion by the spirit of iudgment and by the spirit of burning Likewise Hos 5. both Preists and people all being so corrupt that their case was desperate the Lord resolues what to doe I will goe and returne to my place that is I will withdraw all the testimonies of my loue fauour from them till they acknowledge their offence and seeke my face V. 15. in their affliction they will seeke me earlie Which was accordingly verified in the euent for in the next words the Prophet bringeth theÌ„ in speaking thus in their affliction Come let vs returne vnto the Lord c. Hos â— 1 and finally the Lord promising to incline his Church namely to obedience he sheweth by what meanes he will doe it euen by bringing her into the wildernes Hos 2.14 Behold I will incline her and bring her into the wildernesse or after that I haue brought her into the wildernes by the wildernesse is meant extreame miserie the reby shewing that the Iewes could not be inclined to obedience vntill they were pressed with diuers calamities as it were cast into a desert of desperation So that the Lord dealeth with vs as the Smith with the iron Iron is very hard but the Smith knoweth how to mollifie it and make it flexible by putting it into the fire so our hearts are so hard that when God would make them flexible vnto his obedience he is faine to cast them into the fierie furnace of affliction whereby they are mollified Yet many hearts are so hard that the fire it selfe will not soften them nor God's judgements moue them So the Lord complaineth of his people Isa 9.13 The people turneth not to him that smiteth them And Ier. 8.7 the Storke in the heauen knoweth her appointed times c. but my people know not the iudgments of the Lord. Amos 4. And by the Prophet Amos he reckoneth vp his seuerall judgements wherewith he had afflicted them as famine pestilence the sword and after euery one of them is subjoyned yet haue ye not returned vnto me saith the Lord. This contempt of God's judgments hath three degrees 1. carnall securitie when a man is not moued with God's judgments before they seaze vpon him but although they be threatned against him and he see them already vpon others and he find in himselfe the cause that will procure them yea he perceiue God's instruments set on worke to effect them yet he blesseth himselfe in his heart and hauing made a couenant with death and with hell he sleepes as secure as Ionas did in the ship Thus it was with the old World they ate dranke Math. 24.38 married wiues and knew nothing that is feared nothing till the flood came and tooke them all away Thus it fared with Belshazzar he was feasting with his Princes his wiues and his concubines and carousing out of the holy vessels at the same time when the hand-writing on the wall denounced his destruction so the whore of Babel Dan. 5. euen then when her fall is begunne saith in her heart I sit a Queen Revel 18.7 and am no widow and shall see no sorrow But especially see an example of this securitie in the Israelites Isa 22.12 In that day did the Lord of hosts call to weeping and mourning to baldnesse and girding with sackcloath and behold ioy and gladnes c. If this should be found to be our case we haue great cause for to feare for the Scripture hath alwayes marked this securitie as a certaine fore-runner of destruction and experience hath taught vs that quos perdere vult â—upiter hos occaecat The 2 degree is senselesse indolencie and blockish stupiditie when a man is not affected with greife euen then when Gods hand lieth heauy vpon him but puts off the feeling thereof with desperate contempt labouring to outface his greifes and forget his soares by goeing into merry company gaming feasting reuelling and such other carnall delights who may be compared to Salomons drunkard who sleepes securelie in the middest of the sea and on the top of the mast whom he bringeth in speaking thus Prov. 23.24 they haue stricken me and I was not sicke they haue beaten me and I felt not Amongst the Heathens we haue many examples hereof Aristides was not moued with his banishmeÌ„ts nor Regulus with his exquisit tormeÌ„ts nor Scipio with all those indignities which his ingratefull countrimen offered vnto him nor Paulus Aemilius and Horatius Puluillus with the death of their children This was commended by the Stoicks for great patience but indeed as Seneca saith nulla virtus est quae non sentias perpeti there can be no patience where there is no passion And here there is no feeling for this indolencie is a kind of dead palsie or sleepie lethargie and as S. Austine saith it is stupor morbi De patient â— 23. non robur sanitatis The Israelites are taxed with this Ier. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they haue not sorrwed thou hast consumed them but they haue refused to receaue correction The last degree is when a man is moued with Gods iudgements but not effectually Thus there are many who being afflicted mourne too much complaine crie houle and wring their hands and yet the sense of judgement neuer driues them vnto true repentance But either their sorrow is onely naturall for the affliction they say with Pharaoh Take away the plague not with Dauid take away the sinne or els they are so farre from any humiliation for their sinnes that they are rather moued to thinke that God must needs loue them because he corrects them Or finally if the sense of iudgement bring them to the sight of their sinnes yet there followeth no amendment but they are swallowed vp of despaire and hauing a sight of their sinnes in the glasse of the Law without any sense of Gods mercie revealed in the Gospell their hearts are broken and battered but not dissolued and softened Prov. 27.22 So that though thou shouldest bray a foole in a morter yet will not his foolishnesse depart from him Thus haue I discouered this monster with many heads You see that a dry soule that is void of grace is a hard heart a stiffe and