again chasten them Seven times more untill their Land shall be desolate and their Cities wast But yet so as if when he hath brought his sorest judgements upon them they should by them learn to humble themselves and confesse their iniquity and accept of the punishment of their iniquity God will remember his Covenant and be mercifull Levit 26. unto them Lastly when the rod hath taught all the former lessons if men will not hear it then it teacheth that the Lord may be so provoked as to give over smiting as one weary of striking and to say Why should you be smitten any more you will revolt more and more Isai 1. 5. And because they adde leudnesse to their filthinesse obstinacy and impenitency to their wickednesse the Lord saith to them as to those in Ezekicl Because I have purged thee that is by my judgments would have reclaimed thee and thou wast not purged Thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse any more till I have caused Ezek. 24. 13. my fury to rest upon thee You may in the taking away of his rod if he give over smiting hear him say I have taught and corrected you thus and thus and so long I see all is in vaine I will reserve you for utter ruine and destruction and sith by no means you will learn to know me and the things which concern your own peace and good You shall dye without knowledge you shall dye in your sins I will reserve you to the day of evill All this smiting Job 36. 12. John 8. 24. seeing it will not reforme you shall but prepare you for destruction and be an aggravation of your sin and condemnation There is no man of wisdome but can heare the rod speaking to all the purposes before mentioned You may hear most if not all these lessons of the rod in the thirty and sixt of Job verses 7 8 9 10 11 12. If they be bound in setters and be holden in cords of asfliction Job 36. 7 8 9 10 11 12. then he sheweth them their worke and their transgressions that they have excceded He openeth also their eare to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquitie if they obey and serve him they shall spend their dayes in prosperitie and their years in pleasure But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and dye without knowledge But the Hypocrites in heart that is such as professe they know God but in their works deny him that have a forme of Godlinesse but deny the power thereof they heap up wrath They cry not when he bindeth them that is they do not hear nor obey the voyce of the rod to mourn for their sins to aske pardon and to repent when God doth punish them We are greatly afflicted and under a most heavie Judgement we cannot but be sensible of it I beseech you therefore to hear the voyce of God now speaking by this rod. You do now beleeve it is for the sins of the Land it should therefore put us upon a sad and serious search of our wayes The Lord is now smiting wounding and in the way of destroying of us Let us consider our transgressions that they have exceeded And truely they are so many and so great that I tremble to think of them As God shall bring them to my minde I shall remember you of some of them praying you to remember that this Rod of God is upon us for our sin and for this end that we should humble our selves under his hand that we should repent and turn to him and seek attonement and reconciliation with him This is the work of the day let us with all our might apply our selves to it 1. It did please the Lord long since to begin a happie Reformation The sins for which God is now punishing England of Religion in this Kingdom and shortly after made triall what we would do whether we would stand fast to the Truth received or not But in the generality the Land returned to their vomit and also persecuted the true Religion and shed the blood of many Martyrs in the days of Queen Mary We have cause to judge that the guilt of that blood amongst other sins past doth lie upon the Land and crieth for vengeance and that God is punishing it this day We must not onely look upon present sins to be humble for them and to bewail them but upon them that have been committed long since by our ancestours that have been before us So did Daniel and Nehemiah confesse to God not onely their own Dan. 9. 6 8 16. Neh. 9. 33 34. present sins but the sins of their Kings Princes and Fathers that lived before them professing that for their sins also confusion of face was brought upon them acknowledging Gods righteousnesse therein It pleaseth the Lord many times to seal up as in his treasury Deut. 32. 34. Job 14. 17. 2 Kings 23. 26. 2 Kings 24. 3. 2 Chron. 33. 12 13. the sins of a Land and to keep them as in a Bag not punishing them so soon as they are committed and when they have heaped up more sins upon them and their sins are ripe then he reckons with them and punisheth them for all at once The sins of Manasseh brought judgements upon Judah after his death though he had repented him of his sin 2. Also when there was a Reformation both in King Edward and Queen Elisabeths time though they reformed much yet they wrought not a thorow Reformation Too much of Rome was retained both in Religion and the Government of the Church and the Land hath not been purged of it to this day Another great sin which hath been and yet is committed in the Land is Sacriledge I speak not of the converting of the maintenance of Abbies to other then pious uses which may admit of question whether it were sin or no I insist not on that I speak of robbing God of the maintenance whereby his Ministers were and are to be maintained which hath been a cause why many parts of this Kingdome have been destitute of such Pastours as should and could break unto the people the Bread of life There were none to minister unto them Spirituall things because their Carnall things paid to maintain them was turned another way This Sacriledge lieth still as a sin upon the Land provoking God against this Kingdom and you may believe it that he is now punishing it For you are cursed with a curse saith God to them Mal. 3. 8 9. that lie in this sin It is not possible for the law of man to make it lawfull to take away that maintenance that hath been designed and yet is paid for the maintenance of the Worship of God it making no other sufficient provision of maintenance for the Church in the place thereof I dispute not by what right Tythes are paid But sith they are paid for the maintenance of the Ministery and yet taken
put away by the hand of the Magistrate God will not pardon a Land polluted with innocent blood he will sooner or later be 2 Kings 24. 4. avenged of it How much hath been shed heretofore and the murthers either not brought unto Judgement or not prosecuted in Judgement This polluteth a Kingdom with blood and this blood crieth loud for vengeance upon those into whose hands God did put the sword of Justice to revenge for him and to execute wrath upon such as are murtherers and do it not This causeth the Lord to execute Judgement himself in shedding the blood upon such a People as this 9. The sinnes of Sodom Pride fulnesse of bread idlenesse unmercifulnesse and all sorts of voluptuousnesse have been the common Ezek. 16. 49. sins of this Kingdom and yet are notwithstanding the hand of God is so heavie upon us Our Gentry and such as were born and left rich in estate they in a generality have given themselves so to live as if they had been made and born for nothing else but to eat and drink and play and sleep and satisfie their sensuall lusts They have accounted it to be a blemish and a matter of disrepute to them to live in a Calling or to give themselves unto any thing wherein they might be serviceable and profitable in any place of good employment in Church or Common-wealth Men and women have been most luxurious and wanton in matters of Diet Apparell and Gestures that they know not how or what to eat what to wear or how to attire themselves or what gate or gesture to use They for delicacie in these are too Isai 3. 16. like those inveighed against and threatned Isa 3. 16. The Land hath been and yet is polluted with Whoredoms and Hos 4. 2. Isa 28. 1 7 18. is even drowned with Drunkennesse For these sins also the Lord is now visiting of us 10. Another sin for which God will be wrath with a People and doth scourge them sore is formality in the true Worship and Religion Tit. 1. 16. of God when those who professe the Name of God do in works deny him and having a form of godlinesse deny the power of â— Tim. 3. 5. it This is the common and great sin of this Kingdom We in this declare that we are an hypocriticall Nation and therefore the people of Gods curse and people of his wrath So God spake of his people the Jews against whom he sent the King of Assyria Isa 10. 6. the rod of his anger I will send him against an hypocriticall Nation and against the people of his wrath giving him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like mire in the streets These sins I have remembred you of There are many others which I pray you to call to your remembrance Consider your own sins and the sins you see committed in the Land And be sure that you take this into your serious thoughts That for these and other our sins God is now punishing of us and which aggravates them all we are not amended by his Rod but grow worse and worse What is now therefore to be done You have heard what the Rod hath taught us that It is sor our sins that God is wrath with us We are this day therefore to humble our selves for those sins we must confesse them repent of them and disclaim them and be earnest suitors to God that he would make the Land sensible of Isa 9. 13. their sins and of this his Rod that we turn to him that smiteth us And every one of us must endeavour a Reformation in the Land first of our selves and then of others beseeching the Lord to work it We must with all earnestnesse intreat the Lord to forgive these sins of the Land and that he will be mercifull to us and be at peace with us and heal the Land We have great encouragement from God himself who saith If my people that are called 2 Chron. 7. 1â— by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will for give their sins and will heal their Land We may make this stroke and wound incurable if we go on still in our trespasses if we do not speedily make our peace with our God We have a promise let us take hold on it that he may make peace with us and he will be at peace with us for Isa 25. 7. he waiteth for our turning unto him and seeking favour of him that he may be gracious unto us Isa 30. 18 But as I said before let us take heed that we go not on in our sin lest we provoke the Lord to continue and encrease his iudgements even to make us a desolation We are in the high way to it For a kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation There are many Symptomes if we consider the state of the Kingdom as now it is that may cause us to fear that if timely and thorow repentance do not prevent it this Judgement shall not be taken off but be encreased untill the Land be destroyed 1. The first I shall mention is When lesser judgements do Symptomes of our being neer to utter ruine not awaken and amend us especially if we are grown worse thereupon God hath told us that he will destroy such a Nation as this I sent cleannesse of teeth and you have not returned to me Amos 4. 6 7 9 10 11. saith the Lord I withheld rain from you I have smitten you with blasting c. I have sent among you the pestilence I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord therefore thus will I do unto thee that is I will destroy thee utterly This you may reade in Amos 4. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. God sware by his holinesse vers 2. Am. 4. â— that he would take them away with hooks and their posterity with fishhooks they should be carried away captive and utterly ruined 2. A second Symptome is When the sins of a Land grow universall in respect of the severall kinde of sins and severall sorts of persons All sorts of sins are committed and all sorts of persons are grievous sinners Reade Ezek. 22. Adde thereunto these sins Contempt of the Word and holy Ordinances of God despising of those that truely fear God and enmity against the power of Godlinesse Every one wore in them to their Ezek. 22. power to shed blood and so he reckons up many other saying In thee there are that commit such and such sins There are many sins named There is scarce any one sin reckoned there but the salne sins are rife and common amongst us And there you shall also finde Princes and Nobles and Judges and Priests and Ezek. 22. 25 27 29. Prophets and People were
all guilty of some of the sins before mentioned Therefore the Lord saith to the Prophet Wilt thou judge Wilt thou judge the bloody Citie Thou shalt Ezek. 22. 2. shew her all her abominations He would have the Prophet declare to them that he would punish them more then yet he had done Indeed before he did bring that destroying Nationall Judgement before he brought the Caldeans upon them after he had threatned it he did wait to see whether any would make up the Ezek. 22. 30. hodge and stand in the gap before him for the land that he might not destroy it So if there be amongst us that will indeed get into the breach and in a right way stand in it and make it up namely by prayer executing judgement and reformation we may have hope that God will not destroy us We have reason to blesse God that you our Worthies of the Parliament do endeavour it But if the sinnes of the Land shall be too hard for you because they make breaches faster then you can make them up or if the Lord be not pleased that you shall continue in the breach to perfect the making it up if the Lord be so angry with us that nothing shall prevail in this way then we may fear that now this cloud of blood which hangeth over us and hath fallen in most parts of the Kingdom shall fall in all other parts till it have gone thorow the whole Nation to destroy it 3. That which may cause us much to fear is another Symptome God is now visiting this part of the world bringing the Sword upon it Gods manner is in such visitations to begin with his own people as he did when Jeremiah was to take Jer. 25. â—5 18. the wine-cup of Gods futy and cause all the Nations to drink of it beginning with his own people to wit Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah Thus the Lord hath begun with Bohemia the Palarinate and almost all Germany and other parts of Europe I am perswaded all this part of the world shall drink of it The dregs of this cup as that of Jeremies was reserved for Heathenish Babilon Jer. 25. 15. 18. who drunk of it last so the dreggs of this our cup shall be reserved for Antichrist even for spirituall Babylon for Rome that mother of fornications and for all those that are drunk with the wine of her fornications she happily shall drink last and drink up this cup of the Lords fury It was a great while before we began to drink of it but unlesse by a specialty of humbling our selves before God and turning to God and seeking of him more than ordinarily we do procure that it may passe and God do take it from us as true as God hath threatned such sinners as we are and hath begun to execute it the sword shall not be put up till we be destroyed Our times are very troublous and God useth to build his Dan. 9. â—â— Church as he did Jerusalem in such troublous times we are ready to hope that God will now reforme and build up his Church and make it a glorious Church in this Nation and we would gladly beleeve that these shakings are but preparations to a happy reformation I doubt not but these wars and commotions amongst the true Churches of God are preparations thereunto But whether we of this present generation may not for our sins and for our tryall be much wasted and destroyed with the sword and which is worse be put under the power of those that are for Antichrist we cannot promise to our selves I know that ere long that mother of abhomination with her Rev. 17. 6. children who have been drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus shall receive double Rev. 18. 6. In the cup that she hath filled it shall be filled to her double But whether sith the time of Antichrists raign is but short he may not have a lightning before his death as to rise to have so much power added to his malice as to shed more blood that the Lord may take a just occasion by it to execute vengeance upon that State for all the blood shed by it we cannot tell we have some cause to fear it if we do but observe that already the Palatinate and other Churches that were reformed are brought under the power of those that are Antichristian why should we not think that the like may befall us nothing but an unfained turning from our sins unto God and a through reformation which yet we are far from can hinder it I speak not this to discourage any but that we should be prepared for the worst and to put us upon a more through humbling of our selves before God and of getting into and making up the breach which our sinns have made that he may spare us and not destroy us 4. To adde one Symptome more A Spirit of perversnesse a spirit of Division is in the midst of us and is spread through all the Kingdome Divisions in Church divisions in Common-wealth A Kingdome thus divided how can it stand When the Lord is wrath with a people then he mingleth a perverse Isa 19. 13 14. Spirit amongst them he makes their Princes become fools and their Counsellors become brutish destitute of right reason yea he divideth them in their Councels He setteth Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim to the making Isa 9. 19 20 21. of a Land dark through miseries when no man shall spare his brother because of the discords and civill wars which God in his wrath should raise amongst them as a just punishment of their not joyning together to serve the Lord with one consent It will not be much out of the place to mention a sin which I omitted before which is the growth of Errours and Schismes in this Kingdome which are so much the more dangerous because this errour also is grown up with them a strong means to nourish them Namely that men must enjoy Liberty of Conscience denying it to be in the power of any no not in the Magistrate to restrain them This is grown to a great height and hath many abettors and pleaders for it Little course is taken to represse it Some to whom it belongs to do it I fear are corrupted with this Errour This is an in-let and ground for the toleration of all Religions Errours and Heresies are Gangrens which if their course be not stopped will increase to the destruction of the whole The Apostle will have that such should not onely be shunned but that their mouthes should be stopped lest they deceive others and it encrease Tit. 1. 11. to more ungodlinesse and he requireth Timothy to 1 Tim. 1. 3. Command that men preach no other Doctrine every one therefore may not teach what Doctrine he pleaseth but if he teach false Doctrine he is to be restrained I know the first way