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A29531 Tears for Jerusalem, or, The compassionate lamentation of a tender hearted saviour over a rebellious and obdurate people a subject entered upon on the late day of solemn humiliation, December 6, 1655, afterwards prosecuted, and now published as useful at all times, but very seasonable for the present / by John Brinsley. Brinsley, John, 1600-1665. 1656 (1656) Wing B4731A; ESTC R210555 79,536 150

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a few They are growen disaffected not onely to the persons of Ministers but even to their function and calling disclaiming that as Antichristian Thus are the feet of them who bring glad tidings of peace which sometimes were and in themselves are beautifull now become in the eyes of many black and deformed A sad symptome So it was in Jerusalem of which we read 2. Chr. 36.16 The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people on his dwelling place But they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy no Healing This made their disease incurable and the wrath of God implacable When sickmen being distracted shall flye in the faces of their Physitians and there be none to bind them what hope of Cure can there be This was Jerusalems case as the Parable sets it forth Matth. 21.33 God the great Householder having planted a Vineyard the Jewish Church and let it forth to Husbandmen so the Priests he sends his servants some after other to receive the fruites thereof his Prophets former and latter to require that people to bring forth fruits meet for repentance but they beat one and killed another and stoned another so did they use the Prophets Hereupon he sendeth his sonne Christ himself who met with the like usage Now what followe h hereupon That you may hear first from the mouthes of the Jews themselves to whom our Saviour here propoundeth this Parable making them judges in the cause that so he might cōdemn them out of their own mouthes They say unto him he will miserably destroy these wicked men and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen which shall render him the fruites in their season v. 41. which afterwards you find explained and applyed by our Saviour to themselves v. 43. Therefore I say unto you the Kingdome of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof When the Ministers of God come to meet with such intertainment and that for doing their office it is a sad presage that the Kingdome of God the Gospel shall not long continue there and that Judgment is not far from such a people Upon this account our Saviour looketh upon Jerusalems condition as desperate O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate Matthew 23.37 38. Here is a first Prognostick and that a sad one Secondly Let a second be that which I have named and touched upon already 2 Gods withdrawing the light by putting out the Candles Gods withdrawing the light by putting out the Candles I mean taking away his Ministers who are said to be the light of the world Thus was it done to Jerusalem And whether this be in any degree applicable to this Nation or no I shall leave it to those who are privie to the present state of it to judge Of late how many able and faithfull Ministers taken away Now when a Prince begins to call away his Ambassadours it is ordinarily looked upon as a Passing-bell to the peace of that Nation Repl. But howsoever it may be said some be by Providence taken away yet others by the like providence are substituted in their roomes A. True it may be in some places Many places destitute of true Gospel Ministers but not so in all Some Candlesticks there are at this day and I suppose not a few destitute of Candles not well knowing where to find a supply Again as for those which are thus substituted by the providence of God are they also all substituted by his Ordinance Are there not some and not a few Ambassadours without their commission men running before they are sent not called nor impowred to do any Ministeriall act which yet Vzziah like they attempt to do that not onely to preach which the Apostle will tell us none can do except they be sent Rom. 10.15 speak they may but not Preach which is an act of office but also some of them to administer the Seales the Sacraments And by this means the Church in many places cometh to be deprived of an Ordinance upon which all other publick Ordinances have a dependance I mean of a true Gospell Ministerie with which Jesus Christ hath promised his special countenance Thirdly To this add in the third place that where means are continued 3 The Spirit with drawen from the means yet is not the Spirit withdrawen So was it with Jerusalem they injoyed Ordinances but there was no life in them the Glorie of the Lord was gone up from the Cherub And is it not so in many parts of this Nation at this day Ordinances remain but is not the glorie of the Lord departed from them where is that life where is that power which heretofore appeared in them God hath yet his Armies of Prophets many faithfull and powerfull Ministers who may be looked upon as the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but he doth not go forth with these his Armies as formerly giving such successe unto the labours of his servants as heretofore he hath done How is it that in many places where the word is purely and powerfully preached there are such thin Auditories as there are specially upon the week daies in comparison of what they have been some refusing to come not willing to lend an eare to any but their own others neglecting to come out of an irreligious prophanesse and among those that do come yet how few constant conscionable attendants upon this Ordinance A plain evidence that this ordinance hath lost much of that respect as also of that power that sometimes it hath had And what I say of the word I may also apply it to the Sacrament the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Which though held forth in the purest and most comfortable way of Administration according to Christs Institution the Churches primitive practise yet how is it by many sleighted and neglected So as those who heretofore were wont to come as it now seemeth for fear or fashion being now left to themselves will not come for love The feast is prepared and the Guests invited but they find some excuse or other to keep them away A thing which I wish there were not too just cause to complain of even in this place Now surely among other this is also a sad token 4. 4 The eyes of many blinded To which let me add those other which I have also made mention of Gods blinding the Eyes and hardning the hearts of many sending so many false Teachers with strong and strange delusions amongst us giving up many to the believing of them All sadly
been should do this this is a thing which God cannot but take more heynously at our hands then at others So the Lord maketh his complaint concerning Israel Isaiah 1.2 3. I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The oxe knoweth his owner c. But Israel doth not know my people doth not consider And may not he take up the like complaint against England God hath nourished and tendred us as children yet we have rebelled against him England hath not known England hath not considered Now this he cannot but take worse at our hands then at the hands of any other nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thou O England that thou shouldest do this that thou shouldest make such a return to thy God for all his mercies and favours This is an heinous aggravation of Englands sin And aggravating the sinne Threatning a proportionable judgment what can we expect but that it should also aggravate thy Judgment So it did Jerusalems here Her sin being uppon this account greater then the sin of any other place so was her Judgment as the verses following set it forth No one place that the hand of God fell so heavy upon as it did upon Jerusalem And have not we of this nation just cause to fear the like that in as much as our sins have exceeded the sins of other nations our judgments should exceed also And what is said of the Nation in general Application to the Town of Yarmouth in special let it be applied to this place in special Upon which it cannot be denied but God hath bestowed many singular mercies both Spiritual and Temporal Among other preserving us in the midst of this late fiery furnace which hath burnt so hot in most parts of the nation to this day continuing our peace and liberty not suffering the sword though shakē over us to break in upō us in an hostile way as it hath don upon māy other Cities Townes Now shal we stil persist and go on in our sinful provocations in sleighting of Ordinances profaning Sabbaths abusing creatures c. what can we expect but that as our sinnes upon this account shall be greater then the sins of other places who have not enjoyed the like mercies so should our judgments be Vse 2 For the preventing of which suffer a word of Exhortation Exhortation To indeavour an answerable return to mercies All of us be we excited to indeavour an answerable return to the mercies and favours bestowed upon us Publick mercies Private mercies Spiritual Temporal Take notice of all and study to answer all Looking upon these differencing and distinguishing mercies as so many obligations and Engagements upon us binding us to duty above others let it be our care to walk answerably In as much as God hath been pleased to exalt and prefer us above and before others let it be our endeavour to go before others in all grateful and exemplarie obedience That so these blessings which through the mercy and goodnesse of our God we have and do yet in so great a measure injoy may not be what otherwise they will as so many testimonies against us affording matter of a just Exprobration Which is a sad thing when God cometh to upbraid a people with his favours Mark it That is Jerusalems case the Text to whom our Saviour here speaketh as both Calvin and Beza taking it from Budaeus conceive of it not onely by way of Commiseration A sad thing for God to upbraid a people with his favours but also of Exprobration As pitying so upbraiding them Pitying them in regard of the Calamitie which he saw coming upon them but withall upbraiding them with the mercies and favours which God had bestowed upon them above others to which they had made a most unworthy return Even thou Thou whom I have done thus and thus for thou for whom I have done more then for any other place upon earth O it is a sad thing when God shall come thus to upbraid a people with his favours A thing which he is not ready and forward to do So much we may learn from St. James A thing which he is not ready to do Jam. 1.5 If any man lack wisedome let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not viz. those who receiving his blessings thankfully indeavour to make a right use of them But as for those who being ungrateful for them shall not walk in measure worthy of them them he will upbraid So he often doth ungrateful Israel as elsevvhere so Isaiah 5.1 2. vvhere comparing Israel to a vineyard Yet being provoked by ingratitude he will do it he reckons up what offices he had done to it in fencing and planting and mannuring of it c. accommodating it with all necessaries and conveniencies And this he doth by way of exprobration upbraiding them with those favours for which they had made so ill a requital And the like again Jer. 2.5 Thus saith the Lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me c. Neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness And so he goeth on reckoning up the many favours he had done for that Nation which he doth in an upbraiding way inasmuch as they had shewed themselves so ingrateful and forgetful as they had done And the like doth our Saviour to those Cities in the Text forenamed Mat. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He began to upbraid them Be thankful for and walk worthy of publick mercies O take we heed that we do not give God just cause to do the like by us And therefore what special mercies and favours God is pleased to bestow upon us take notice of them be thankful for them endeavour to walk worthy of them This do we for publick And this do we for private mercies Private mercies Is it so that God is pleased to bless any of us above other of our brethren in any kinde Be it in our Bodies with health and strength In our Estates with larger portions of this worlds goods advancing us above the common ranke In our mindes inriching us with inward gifts and indowments of wit wisdome knowledg c. O take we heed that these be not a matter of exprobration to us that by our abusing of them not improving them not walking worthy of them we do not give God just cause to upbraid us with them Considering that in this case every of these mercies will be as so many several aggravations of our ingratitude This is that which the Lord by his Prophet Nathan tels King David 2 Sam. 12.7 8. Where reckoning up the many favours he had done and was ready to do for him how he had delivered him out of the hand of Saul how be had set him upon the Throne of Israel giving him his Masters House and Wives and the House of Israel and of Judah