will walke in his paths I thinke I cannot truely say with Hosea that the Lord hath a coÌ„trouersie with the inhabitants of this land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For our heads are not so sicke as our hearts are heauie Isa 1.5 I meane our heads are not so void of knowledge as our hearts are of obedience but I dare boldly say that which followeth By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and whoring Hos 4.2 they breake forth and blood toucheth blood Wil you heare the iudgements annexed in the subsequent words Therefore shall the land mourne and euery one that dwelleth therein shall be cut off This is a terrible curse he that dwelleth in heauen still auert it from vs but yet it is a conclusion which the Lord vseth to inferre vpon such premises Giue me leaue ro repeat a parable vnto you Isa 5.1.2.3 c. My beloued had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it and gathered the stones out of it and hee planted it with the best plants and hee built a Tower in the midst and made a winepresse therein The Prophet in that place applieth it to the land of Iudah Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Israel and the men of Iudah are his pleasant plants me thinkes I may not vnfitly apply it vnto this Island Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Britaine and the men of this land are his pleasant plants Now therefore O ye inhabitants of this and iudge I pray you betweene him and his vineyard what could he haue done vnto it that hee hath not done Hee hath planted it with his own right hand hee hath so hedged it about with his heauenly prouidence that the wild boare out of the woods cannot roote it vp nor they that goe by pull off his grapes Hee hath watered it most abundantly with the dew of heauen he hath gathered the stones of Popery and superstition out of it he hath set the winepresse of his word therein he hath giuen it a Tower euen a king as a strong tower against his enemies whose raigne the Lord continue ouer vs if it bee his pleasure as long as the moone knoweth her course the sun his going down and let all that loue the peace of Britaine say Amen Now hee hath long expected that it shuld bring forth grapes but behold it bringeth foorth wild grapes He looked for iudgement but behold oppression for righteousnesse but loe a crying These were the sinnes of Ierusalem and you know her iudgments he that was Ierusalems God is Britaines God too and therfore if shee paralell Ierusalem in her iniquities let her take heed she tast not of her plagues God though he hath not yet begun to punish her in his fury yet hath he sundry times shaked his rod of correction ouer her if this will not worke amendment her iudgement must be the greater Fearefull was the case of Samaria whoÌ„ Gods punishments could not moue to repentance I haue giuen you cleannesse of teeth in al your Cities Amos. 4. and scarcenesse of Bread in all your places yet haue yee not returned vnto me saith the Lord God I haue with holden the raine from you when there was yet three moneths to the haruest and I caused it to ruine vpon one Citie and brought a drought vpon another yet haue yee not returned vnto me saith the Lord. Pestilence haue I sent amongst you after the manner of Egipt and yet ye haue not returned vnto me saith the Lord. I haue smitten you with blasting and mildew c. yet ye haue not returned vnto me saith the Lord God The Lord hath not hitherto dealt with vs after our sinnes nor plagued vs according to the multitude of our iniquities yet he hath made it manifest that he is displeased with vs His mercy hath pulled backe his hand from drawing his sword of vengeance against vs yet hee hath left vs sundry tokens that hee is angred with our sinnes It is not long since that the heauens were made as brasse Deut. 28.23 and the Earth as yron nay the very waters became as yron or as brasse so that neither the heauens from aboue nor the earth or water from below did aford comforts for the seruice of man This extraordinary cold disteÌ„perature of the ayre might by an Antiperistasis haue kindled some heate of zeale deuotion in our brests when it had not the expected effect Psal 105.16 then he Called for a dearth vpon the land and destroied our prouision of bread euen such a famine that if we were not releeued from forraine countries Ten women might bake their bread in one Ouen as the Lord speaketh Leuit. 26.26 But all this hath not brought vs vpon our knees nor humbled our soules before our God therefore once againe he hath put life in his messenger of death and set him on foote which heretofore of late yeres hath raged in this city like a man of warre and like a gyant refreshed with wine and bestirred himselfe though not with the like violence almost in euery part of this kingdome Psal 91.6 I meane the pestilence that walketh in the darkenesse and the sicknesse that hath killed many thousands at noone day all these are infallible tokens that he is offended with our sinnes Howbeit he is so mercifull that he will not suffer his whole displeasure as yet to arise Horum si singula duras Flectere non possunt poterint tameÌ„ omnia mentes If each of these by themselues cannot preuaile with vs yet if they be all put together they may serue as a threefold cord to draw vs vnto repentance If these be not of force but still wee continue to blow vp the coales of his anger then let vs know for a certainty that they are the forewarners of a greater euill as the cracking of the house is a forewarning of his fall these bee but the flashing lightnings the thunderbolt will come after The cloud that is long in gathering will make the greater storme he is all this while in fetting his stroke that hee may giue the sorer blow Eurum ad se Zephirumque vocat hee is in bringing the windes out of his treasures that he may rain vpon our heads a showre of vengeance which shall bee the portion of al the vngodly to drink I beganne like a Barrabas I will not end like Boanarges my song had an Exordium of mercy I am loath to bring for an Epilogue a thunderclap of iudgment Wherefore my beloued Brethren now that you see the true causes of the ruines of euery common-wealth and the iudgement that hangeth ouer your heads like Damocles his sword for our iniquities flatter your selues no longer in your own sinnes but turne vnto him by speedy and vnfained repentance that hee may repent him of the euill turne away his plagues from you let the wanton leaue his dallying and the drunkard his carrowsing and the Vsurer his biting and the swearer his blaspheming and the oppressor his grinding and euery one amend one in time before the Lords wrath bee further kindled then will the Lord bee mercifull vnto this land hee will quicklie turne the sowre lookes of an angry and sinne reuenging Iudge into the smiling countenance of a mild and gentle Father Hee will take the rodde which he hath prepared for you and burne it in the fire These plagues which doe hang ouer you for your iniquities he will blow away with the breath of his nostrils as hee did the Egyptian Grashoppers into the red sea he will command his destroying Angell to put vp his sword into the sheath he will open the windowes of heauen and power downe a blessing vpon you without measure Then shall you be blessed in the Citie and blessed in the field blessed at your going out and blessed at your comming in and whatsoeuer you put your hands vnto shall be blessed your sonnes shall a Psa 129.4 grow vp as Oliue branches and your daughters shall be as the b Psal 144. polished corners of the Temple Your grounds shall so abound with grane that the tillers shall laugh and sing your garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store c Ioel. 2.24 your presses shall abound with Oyle and wine your sheepe shall bring forth thousands and tenne thousands in your fields Euery thing shall prosper nothing shall stoppe the current of Gods blessings there shall be no decay nor leading into captiuity and no complayning in your streetes and which is better then all â—hese hee will giue you faithfull painefull Pastors to feede you his spirite to comfort you his word to instruct you his wisedome to direct you his Angels to watch ouer you his grace to assist you and in a word He will be your God and you shall be his people Esther 6.9 thus shall it be done vnto all those whome the King of heauen shall honour so that all the world shal wonder at your felicity say Blessed be the Lord which taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his seruants happy are the people that bee in such a case yea blessed are al they which haue the Lord for their God thus wil he be with you and direct you in the desert of this world till he bring you into a faire and Goodly place the promised land a land that floweth with better things then abouÌ„dance of Milke and Honey the celestiall Paradise the heauenly Canaan the kingdome of glory prepared for you from the beginning of the world euen that kingdome where the King is verity the Lawes charity the Angels your company the Peace felicitie the life eternity To this kingdom the God of al mercy bring vs for his sake that bought vs with his owne blood to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons in trinitie and one God in vnitie be ascribed all honor glory power and Maiestie both now and for euermore Amen FINIS
anger slow to reuenge Esau that was borne red f Gen. 25 25. and rough God disinherited as a Monster and no true Child of his but smooth Iacob hee acknowledged to be his Sonne The child of wrath is no Sonne vnto the God of mercy How often doest thou sinne against thy God By thy blasphemous oathes thou tearest him by thy hypocriticall holinesse thou mockest him by thy vncleannesse thou polutest him by thy arrogant pride thou disdainest him and spittest in his face The least trespasse that thou committest against him is no lesse then treason against his royall person and doth God for euery offence vn-sheath his sword against thee Si quoties peccant homines sua fulmina mittat Iupiter c. If God should in iudgement punish euery sinne vpon the offendor where should wretchedman be now when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiueth thee ten thousand tallents wilt not thou forgiue thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeede his Sonne bee like vnto him be pittifull tender-harted full of mercy and compassion if thou bee angry beware that thou sinne not Eph. 4.26 by speedy reuenge if thy wrath bee conceiued in the morning and perchance increase his heate with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoone and set with it at night 1. Kings 3. Let not the Sunne goe downe vpon thy wrath if its conception bee in the night vse it as the harlot vsed her child smother it in thy bed make it like the vntimely fruite of a woman which perisheth before it see the Sun Psal to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Ierusalem are at vnity amongst themselus the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are vnited in one head with the nerues of a iustifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of loue The branches of this Vine as they are vnited with the boale froÌ„ whence they receiue nutriment so haue they certaine tendrels whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were deuide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine AEneid 3. nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it selfe Virgill tells vs that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a mirtle tree to shadow his sacrifice their issued drops of blood from the boale trickling downe vnto the ground at length he heard a voice crying vnto him thus Quid miserum AEnea laceras iam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels vs that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cryed for vengeance against Polymnestor the Thracian King which had slaine him in like maner wheÌ„soeuer thou seekest the ouerthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to reuenge thy selfe of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree thinke that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cutte downe Thinke that Christ will count this indignitie done to his members as it were done to himselfe Thinke that thou hearest him cry vnto thee after this maner iam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood haud cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Iude. 9.5 Nam Polydorus ego I am Iesus whom thou persecutest Titus 9.5 I am now come neare to a point which I haue pressed heretofore in the other publique place of this citie At the Spittle therfore I proceede no further but turne aside to my second generall point obserued in this verse which was Ierusalems misery The Tree is very fruitfull and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceiued to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughes which when I haue commended to your seuerall castes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true professors if ye can find a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Ierusalem Thirdly that God will bring his iudgments vpon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily vnderstood From these three I collect three propositions from the first Gods flocke militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priuiledged but that it may reuolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor City so fenced but the sinnes of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world PropositioÌ„ and therefore it is great reason that he should haue it all to himselfe yea and hee challengeth it as his owne right c Hag. 2.8 The Golde is his and the siluer is his and all the beasts of the fielde are his and so are the cattell vpon a thousand hils and the heauens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footestoole and the reprobate are his Psal Act. 749 Ierem. 25 for Nebuchadnezzer is his seruant and as Iuda is his so is Moab likewise but in an other kind of seruice in a word The earth is the Lordes and all that therein is Psal 24. the compasse of the worlde and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now ment for that belongs onely vnto men and yet not vnto all but to a few which are appointed to be hâ—yres of saluation Heb. 1.14 God made all men so that they are all his sonnes by creation but hee ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sonnes by adoption our first Father did eate such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandement he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King Gen. 3. his bloud was stained and all his children were made vncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly tearmed the Father of all mercy 2. Cor. 1.3 God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his iustice in punishing the greater part of such as so greeuously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in sauing of some though they deserued as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore it is a Parliament holden before all times it was enacted that the naturall sonne of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnes of time take vpon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certaine number out of that Masse of corruption Austin wherein all mankind lay these be they
GODS MERCIES AND IERVSALEMS MISERIES A Sermon Preached at Pauls Crosse the 25. of Iune 1609. By Lancelot Dawes Master of Arts and Fellow of Queenes Colledge in Oxford Matth. 23.37.38 ¶ O Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would c. Printed for Cle. Knight 1609. ¶ To the Right Reuerend Father in God Henrie Lord Bishoppe of Carlile Right Reuerend THIS Sermon was made for the Crosse not intended for the Presse I was by authoritie commanded the former and by importunitie of many haue at length consented to the latter It may perchance heereafter complaine with the Satyrist Har. lib. 2. Epist 1. Deferat in vitem vendentem thus at odores Et piper et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis But that is no great disgrace in these daies it shal haue Store of company perhaps some to whom it may deseruedly giue the wall As for fault finding carpers I little account of their censure it is well knowne whose liuery they weare it were a strange peece of worke that should haue their approbation Some haue charged nature af a grosse ouersight for placing the oxe his hornes vpon his head and not vpon his shoulders which are the stronger an ingenuous reader will winke at a fault and approoue that which is good But let these passe my humble desire is that this mite which I haue cast into the treasury for my riches extend not to a talent may find acceptance with your good Lordship who may iustly claime the same interest in me which Paul did in Philemon Vers 19. Seneca lib. 1. de benefic Cap. 8. Thou owest vnto mee euen thine owne selfe I willingly acknowledge it and say as Aeschines in Seneca said to Socrates Seeing I haue nothing to offer worthy so reuerend a Person for to dedicate a Sermon to your Lordshippe is but with Chaerilus to present a few harsh verses to Alexander I offer my selfe promising still to continue London the 27. of Iune Your Lordships in all humble duetie and Seruice Lancelot Dawes GODS MERCIES AND IERVSALEMS MISERIES IEREMIE 5.1 ¶ Runne two and fro by the streetes of Ierusalem and behold now and know and inquire in the open places thereof if yee can find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgement and seeketh the trueth and J will spare it MAny meanes did the Lord vse to reclaim IERVSALEM from her rebellion against him by sundry commemorations of his benefites he wooed her by the sweet promises of the Gospell he incited her by the captiuity of her sister Samaria he forwarned her but yet she continued like her forefathers a Psal 78. a faithles and stubborne generation a generation that set not her heart aright she runnes still on a wrong Bias in stead of beeing a faithfull Spouse she becomes a filthy harlot and b Iere. 3.6 playeth the Whore vpon euery hie mountaine and vnder euery greene tree her c Isa 1.22 wine is mixed with water her siluer is become drosse her Princes rebels and companions of theeues and as shee groweth in yeares so shee increaseth in all impieties shee which at the first did onely pull little sinnes with the small d Jsa 5.18 cordes of vanity doth now draw greater transgressions with the huge cart-ropes of iniquity so that now g Isa 1.6 from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head there is nothing found in her but woundes and swellings and sores full of corruption In this case God h Psal 5.4 which cannot abide wickednesse neither can any euill dwell with him as the Psalmist speaketh beginnes to loath her and to giue her vp into the hands of her most sauage and cruell enemies the Chaldeans who shall i Psal 79.1 defile the holy Temple and make Ierusalem a heape of stones Oh but shall the husband be so vnkind to his Spouse k Ier. 2.2 whome hee hath married vnto himselfe shall a Father be so seuere to his child shall the God of mercy bee so vnmerciful vnto his chosen l Gen. 18.25 Shall not the iudge of the world doe right farre be it from God that hee should slay the righteous with the wicked God answereth that there is no reason why shee should repine against him or accuse him of cruelty her Apostasie is so generall her disease like a Gangraena is spread through euery member of the body her malice is so incurable that hee cannot without impeachment of his iustice spare her any longer Runne to and fro by the streetes of Ierusalem c. v. 8. O yee men of Iuda and inhabitants of Ierusalem doe not say that your teeth are set on edge because m Ezech. 18 your fathers haue eaten sowre grapes doe not obiect that my wayes are not equall it is your wayes that are vnequall it is your sinnes that bringes this heauy doome vpon your heads whether this be so or not you your selues bee Iudges for I beseech you seeke vppe and downe not in the Country townes onely and villages of Iudah but in the Metropolis of the whole Kingdome in the n Math. 4. Isa 52.1 holie Citie runne through euery corner of it search and enquire in the houses and allyes and backe-lanes and high streetes therof marke their conditions obserue their practises consider their behauiour take a full view of their whole carriage if after such enquirie there bee found but one man amongst the whole multitude that feareth me or maketh any conscience of his wayes and I will spare the whole City for that one mans sake but if after you haue sought man by man there bee not one godly man found amongst them all thinke it not cruelty if now at length I inflict in iustice my iudgments vpon her the summe is contained in this short proposition I will spare Ierusalem if there can one righteous man bee found in her Wherein we may obserue these two principall pointes Gods mercy in that hee would haue spared Ierusalem for one mans sake Ierusalems misery in that not one righteous man can bee found in her the former I deliuer in this proposition Gods mercie in sparing doth exceede his iustice in punishing and with this wee will beginne Doctrine But alas who am I dust and ashes that I should intreate of this Subiect it is a bottomlesse depth who can diue into it it is an vnaccessible light who can beholde it Tull de natu deorum if the Heathen Simonides after three dayes study how to describe God was further from any resolution in the latter end then when hee first beganne nay if o Exod. 33. Moses a man more familiar with God then any that euer liued vpon the face of the earth when he was put in a clift of a rocke and couered with Gods hands could not behold the glory of his face then may it not seeme strange if the tongues of men and Angels faile in describing the very backe parts of this one attribute being more proper and essentiall vnto God