which kept him from sinning under such great and grievous sufferings O Sirs it is a far greater mercy to be kept from sinnings under our sufferings than it is to be delivered from the greatest sufferings Jobs heart was so well seasoned with Grace that he would admit of no insolent or unfavoury thoughts of God or of his severest Providences In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly or with folly Some refer the former part of this Verse to the mind and the latter to the mouth shewing that Job though he had lost all neither thought in his heart nor uttered with his mouth any thing unmeet and unworthy of God The meek humble patient and gracious bâ—haviour of Job under all his sore losses and crosses is here owned renowned crowned and chronicled by God himself O Sirs sinning is worse than suffering it is better to see a people bleeding than blaspheming burning than cursing for by mens sins God is dishonoured but by their sufferings God is glorified O that the Christian Reader would seriously consider of these twelve things 1. That there is nothing that the great God hates Prov. 6. 16 17. Jer. 49. 4. Rom. 1. 18. Heb. 6. 6. Ephes 4 30. Matth. 26. ult Psal 30. 6 7. Isa 49. 1 2. Mal. 2. 2. Jer. 4. 18. but sin 2. That there is nothing that he has revealed his wrath from Heaven against but sin 3. That there is nothing that crucifies the Lord of Glory a fresh but sin 4. That there is nothing that grieves the Spirit of Grace but sin 5. That there is nothing that wounds the conscience but sin 6. That there is nothing that clouds the face of God but sin 7. That there is nothing that hinders the return of prayer but sin 8. That there is nothing that interrupts our communion with God but sin 9. That there is nothing that imbitters our mercies but sin 10. That there is nothing that puts a sting into all our troubles and tryals but sin 11. That there is nothing that renders us unserviceable in our places stations and conditions but sin 12. That there is nothing that makes Death the King of terrors and the terror of Kings to be so formidable and terrible to the Sons of men as sin And therefore under all your sorrows and sufferings crosses and losses make it your great business to arm your selves against sin and to pray against sin and to watch against sin and to turn from sin 2 Chron. 7. 14. Isa 16 17. Chap. 55. 7. Hos 14. 8. Isa 30. 22. and to cease from sin and to get rid of sin and to stand for ever in defiance of sin Assuredly every gracious heart had rather be rid of his sins than of his sufferings Job 7. 21. And why dost thou not take away mine iniquity or lift up as the Hebrew runs to note that though Job had many loads many burthens upon him yet none lay so heavy upon him as his sin Hos 14. 2. Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously 'T is not take away our captivity and receive us graciously but take away our iniquity and receive us graciously nor it is not take away this or that particular iniquity and receive us graciously but take away all iniquity and receive us graciously take away stain and sting crime and curse power and punishment that we may never hear more of it nor never feel more of it nor never be troubled any more with it Though their bondage was great very Dan. 9. 11 12 13. great yea greater than any people under Heaven were exercised with yet their sins were a more unsupportable burden to their spirits than their bondage was And therefore they cry out Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously And this was the usual method of David when he was under sore troubles and tryals he was more importunate with See Psal 79. 1 5 8. Psal 25. 7. Psal 32. 4 5. Psal 38. 3 4. God to be purged and pardoned than he was to be cased under his troubles or delivered from his troubles Psal 51. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin verse 7. Purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow ver 9. Hide thy face from my sinâ— and blot out all mine iniquities ver 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness O God When Pharaoh was under the Exod. 10. hand of the Lord he was all for removing of the Plagues the Frogs the Locusts c. But when David was under the hand of the Lord he was all for the removing of his sins and for the cleansing purging and washing away of his sins O that all the burnt Citizens of London would be more earnest and importunate with God to pardon and purge and take away all those iniquities that have brought the fiery rod upon them than they are studious and industrious to have their credits repaired their houses rebuilded their Trades restored and all their losses made up to them O that they might all be driven by what they have selt seriously to consider what they have done No man saith what have I done O that they would all blame themselves more and their sins more and to turn to him who has so sorely Jer. 8. 6. Hos 6. 1 2 3. Isa 56. 6. Ezek. 36. 33 37. smitten them and lay hold on his strength and make peace with him that so he may yet build up their waste places and make up their breaches and repair their losses and never turn away from doing of them good Jer. 32. 41 42 43 44. But The eleventh Duty that they are to learn that have been burnt up is to prepare and fit for greater troubles and tryals The anger of the Lord is not yet turned away but his hand is stretched out still The Nations are angry the Isa 9. 12. Rev. 11. 18. face of the times seem sorely to threaten us with greater troubles than any yet we have encountered with Ah London London Ah England England the Clouds that hang over thee seem every day to be blacker and blacker and thicker and thicker thou hast suffered much and thou hast cause to fear that thou mayest suffer more thou hast been brought low yea thou art this day brought very low in the eyes of the Nations round about thee and yet thou mayest be Deut. 28. 43. 2 Chron. 28. 18 19. Deut. 32. 36. brought lower before the day of thy exaltation comes When God intends to raise a person a City a Nation high very high he then usually brings them low very low and wheâ— Psal 79. 8. Psal 135. 23. Psal 142. 6. Isa 26. 10 11. Jer. 8. 6. they are at lowest then the day of their exaltation is nearest 'T is commonly darkest a little before break of day Thâ— hand of the Lord has been lifted up high yea very high over us and against us but who repents who
a great miracle and that he should prevail against all that Power was a greater and that after all he should dye in his bed was the greatest of all There are many thousand Instances more of the like nature but enough is as good as a Feast Eighthly The spiritual Judgments that God hath given such up to who have shed the blood of the Just speaks out their blood to be precious blood Oh the dreadful horrors and amazing terrors of conscience that such have been given up to Take a few Instances among the many that might be given The Vaivod that had betrayed Zegeden a godly man professed to Zegedine that he was so haunted with Apparitions Cicero and the Furies of his own Conscience that he could not rest day nor night Dionysius a cruel Tyrant a bitter Enemy Conscience is Gods Preacher in the bosom Conscience is mille testes a thousand witnesses for or against a man Conscience hath a good memory to all good men and good things was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a Rasor he used to sindge his beard with burning coals A sleepy conscience when awakned is like a sleepy Lyon when he awakes he roars and tears his prey It is like Prometheus Vultur it lyes ever gnawing Sin brings a stain and a sting Horror of conscience meets a man in the dark and makes him leap in the night and makes him quake in his sleep and makes him start in every corner and makes him think every bush is a man every man a Devil and every Devil a Messenger to fetch him quick to Hell By this Theodorick saw the face of a man in the mouth of a fish Nâ—ssus heard the noise of murther in the voice of birds Saundes ran distracted over the Irish Mountains This made Cain wander Saul stab himself Judas hang himself Arius empty his bowels at the stool Latomus cry desperately he was damned he was damned and Julian confess that he was conquered It makes man the Lord of all to be Slave to all Lord what is man Certainly 't is better with Evagrius to lye secure on a bed of straw then to have a turbulent conscience on a bed of Doune having Curtains embossed with Gold and Pearl But Ninthly and lastly The shedding of the blood of the Just is a sin of so high a cry and so deep a dye that for it God is resolved except men repent that he will shut them out Gal. 5. 21. Rev. 21. 8. Rev. 22. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 15. Math. 22. 7. of the highest Heaven and cast them down to the lowest Hell as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the Margine together and therefore certainly the blood of the Just is most precious blood Now seeing that the blood of the Just is such precious blood who will wonder if God sets such Cities and Towns and Countries into a flame about their ears upon whose skirts the blood of the Just is to be found Josephus speaking of the desolation of Jerusalem saith Because they have sinned against the Lord God of their Fathers in shedding the blood of just men and innocents that were within thee even in the Temple of the Lord therefore are our sorrowful sighings multiplied and our weepinâ—s daily increased 'T was the blood of the just the blood of the innocents that turned Jerusalem into ashes I have read of one Rabbi Samuel who six hundred years since writ a Tract in form of an Epistle to Rabbi Isaac Master of the Synagogue of the Jews wherein he doth excellently discuss the cause of their long Captivity and extream misery and after that he had proved that it was inflicted for some grievous sin he sheweth that sin to be the same which Amos speaks of For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes The selling of Joseph he makes the first sin the worshipping of the Calf in Horeb the second sin the abusing of Gods Prophets the third sin and the selling of Jesus Christ the fourth sin For the first they served four hundred years in Egypt for the second they wandred forty years in the Wilderness for the third they were Captives seventy years in Babylon and for the fourth they are held in pitiful Captivity even till this day When Phocas that bloody Cut-throat sought to secure himself by building high Walls he heard a voice from Heaven telling him That though he built his Bulwarks never so high yet sin within blood within would soon undermine all Shedding the blood of the Just is a sin that hath undermined the strongest Bulwarks and that hath blown up and burnt up the most glorious Cities that have been in the World And who can tell but that the blood of the Just that was shed in the Marian days might now come up into Speeds Chronicle in Queen Mary remembrance before the Lord For in four years of her Reign there were consumed in the heat of those flames two hundred seventy seven persons viz. Five Bishops one and twenty Ministers eight Gentlemen eighty four Artificers one hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers six and twenty Wives twenty Widows nine Virgins two Boys and two Infants I say who can tell but that the blood of these precious Servants of the Lord hath cryed aloud in the ears of the Lord for vengeance against that once glorious but now desolate City Men of brutish spirits and that are skilful to destroy make no more of shedding the blood of the Just then they do of shedding the blood of a Swine but yet this hideous sin makes so great a noise in the ears of the Lord of Hosts that many times he tells the World by his fiery Dispensations that it cannot be purged away but by fire And thus much for the sins that bring the fiery Judgment our way now to the Application is plain THE FIRST PART OF THE Application 1. To see the Hand of the Lord in it Ten Considerations to work to this 2. To mourn under the sense of so great a Judgement WE come now to the Use and Application of this important Point The Explication of a Doctrine is but the drawing of the Bow the Application is the hitting of the Mark the white c. Is it so that God is the Author or Efficient cause of all the great calamities and dreadful Judgements that are inflicted upon Cities and Countreys and in particular of that of Fire then First Let us see the hand of the Lord in this late dreadful Vse Fire that hath been upon us for certainly God is the Author permissively at least he is the great Agent in all those terrible Judgements that befall Persons Cities and Kingdoms Ruth 1. 13. 21. Psalm 39. 9. 1 Sam. 3. 18. Whosoever or whatsoever be the Rod it s his hand that gives the
5. Hos 2. 6 7. burnt child dreads the fire Sin is but a bitter sweet 't is an evil worse then Hell it self Salt brine preserves from putrefaction and salt Marshes keep the sheep from rotting and so sharp Tryals severe Providences preserve the Saints from spiritual putrefying and from spiritual rotting The Rabbins to keep their Scholars from sin were wont to tell them that sin made Gods head ake and Saints under fiery tryals do find by experience that sin makes not only their heads but also their hearts ake and by this means God preserves his people from many sins which otherwise they would certainly fall into Beloved God by his fiery Dispensations has destroyed many or most of your outward comforts but little do you know the horrible sins that by this means the Lord has preserved you from A full Estate lays men most open to the greatest sins the worst of shares and the deadliest temptations The best of men have fallen foulest under their highest worldly enjoyments witness David Solomon Hezekiah c. Under your outward fulness how low was your communion with God how languishing were your Graces how lean were your Souls and how was your spring of inward Comforts dryed up How little had God of your thoughts your hearts your time your strength O Sirs how bad would you have been by this time if God had not removed those things that were but fuel to your lusts and quench-coals to your grace Well often think of this 't is a greater mercy to be preserved from sin yea from the least sin then 't is to enjoy the whole world But Thirdly By severe Providences and by fiery Tryals God designs the imbittering of sin to his people When God shall come and burn up mens comforts round about them then they will cry out Ah what a bitter thing is sin that puts God upon burning work then they will speak that language to their own Souls that the Prophet once spake to the Jews Jer. 2. 15. They made his land waste his cities are burnt with fire Vers 17. Hast thou not procured these things to thy self Vers 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of Hosts So Chap. 4. 18. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thy heart Yea now they will say that sin is bitternesses in the abstract and in the plural number also according to that of the Prophet Hosea Hos 12. 14. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly or with bitternesses as the Hebrew has it Relations and friends may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and conscience may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and good books may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and men under terrours and horrours of spirit may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and the fore and heavy Judgments of God upon others may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and the Spirit by his secret whispers may tell us that sin is a bitter thing and Ministers may tell us that sin is a bitter thing they may tell you that 't is bitter to God it being the only thing in all the world that he has revealed his wrath from Heaven against and that is contrary to the Nature of God the Law of God the Being of God the Glory of God and the grand Designs of God They may tell you that 't is bitter to Christ witness his crying out in the bitterness of his Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and witness the sorrows and heaviness of his Soul and his sweating clods of blood When he hung upon the Cross they gave him gall and vinegar to drink but no gall was so bitter to him as your sins They may tell you that sin is bitter to the Spirit of God Gen. 6. 3. Eph. 4. 29. for nothing grieves him and provokes him and vexes him but sin They may tell you that sin is bitter to the good Angels every sin that you commit is as a dagger at their hearts there is nothing in all the world so bitter to them as to see their Lord and Master daily yea hourly crucified by sinners fins They may tell you that sin is bitter to the evil Angels it being the only thing for which they were banished the Court of Heaven and turned down to the lowest Hell where they are kept in chains of darkness to the Judgment Jude 6. of the great day They may tell you that sin is bitter to the worst of men witness Adams hiding of himself and Gen. 3. 10. Math. 27. Gen. 4. 13. Rom. 8. 20 21 22. Judas his hanging of himself and Cains crying out My burden is greater then I am able to bear They may tell you that 't is bitter to the Creatures who groan under their burdens and who long to be delivered from that bondage that the sin of man hath subjected them to and yet for all this we will not feelingly affectionately experimentally say that sin is bitter till God comes and burns us up Lam. 4. 11. And gives us gall and wormwood to drink Chap. 3. 19 20. Remembring mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me O Sirs how bitter should sin be to you who have seen London all in flames Certainly God by burning up your sweet pleasant and delightful things would teach you to taste a greater bitterness in sin then ever O happy Fire that shall render God and Christ and Heaven and Promises and Ordinances more sweet and sin more bitter to poor sinners Souls Doubtless one of Gods great designs by this late Judgment of Fire is to imbitter sin to all sorts of men When Judgments imbitter our sins to us then they work kindly powerfully effectually and then we may conclude that there was a hand of love in those Judgments and then we shall justifie the Lord and say with the Church Lam. 1. 18. The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against him or as the Hebrew runs Because I have imbittered him he is righteous in all the sore judgments that he hath inflicted upon me for I have imbittered him against me by my most bitter sins But Fourthly By severe Providences and fiery Tryals God designs the mortifying and purging away of his peoples sins Isa 1. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee to wit to correct or chastise thee and purely purge away thy dross or drosses Dan. 11. 35. Mal. 3. 1 2 3. Gods fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem Isa 31. 9. and take away all thy tin or tins in the plural number Some by dross understand gross
from their necessities to beat down the price of their Commodities that so they might raise Were there none within nor without thy Walls O London that used his neighbour without wages and gave him no reward for his work that kept back the hire of the labourer and that were the poor labourers purse-bearers and Cofferers whether they would or no that fleeced the poor to feather their own nests Deut. 24. 14 15. Exod. 22. 22 23. Zeph. 3. 3. themselves on the poors ruine Were there no false weights false wares false lights false measures to be found within and without thy Walls by which the poor has been cheated cozened and oppressed O how did the rich work upon the necessities of the poor bringing them to such under-prizes as hath undone both them and their making good that word Amos 8 4. They swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land to fail O the heavy burdens that have been laid upon the poor by their Aegyptian Task-masters what over-reaching of the poor and what over-rating of the poor have been within and without thy Walls O London Thy poor O London did rise early and go to bed late they did fare hard and lye hard and work hard and yet by reason of the cruelty oppression and unmercifulness of many of thy wealthy Citizens they were hardly able to make any convenient supplies for themselves and their families Oppression turns Princes into roaring Lyons and Judges into evening Wolves 't is an unnatural sin 't is a sin against the light of Nature No creatures do oppress them of their own kind Look upon the Birds of prey as upon Eagles Vultures Hawks and you shall never find them preying upon their own kind Look upon the wild Beasts of the Forest as upon the Lyon the Tyger the Wolf the Bear c. and you shall find them favourable to them of their oâ—n kind and yet men unnaturally prey upon one another like the fish in the Sea the great swallowing up the small 'T is a sin against that great and common Rule of Equity Math. 7. 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them Now no man in his wits would have another to wrong and oppress him in his Estate Name or Conscience and therefore he should not wrong or oppress others in their Estates Names or Consciences and therefore no wonder if God punishes this sin with flames of fire 'T is thy oppressors O London that has turned thy glory into ashes Now this insolent oppressing of the poor is a sin that I cannot make good against the people of God that did truly fear him in that great City 'T is a sin they have often be wailed and lamented before the Lord in their solemn Addresses to God Where this sin is rampant where it rules as a Prince upon the Throne 't is a clear evidence that thâ— fear of the Lord is not in such mens hearts Levit. 25. 17. Ye shall not oppress one another but thou shalt fear thy God Now this lyes fair in the words viz. That such as do oppress others they do not fear God and such as do fear God they will not oppress others Amaleck was a great Oppressor of the poor people of God and the Holy Ghost hath seâ— Deut. 25. 18. Oppressors are persons destitute of the fear of God and the want of the fear of the Lord is the spring and fountain of the worst of sins and that against which the Lord will come near in Judgment Mala. 3. 5. this black brand of infamy upon him that he feared noâ— God Had Amaleck feared the Lord he would have been so far from oppressing the poor people of God that he would have comforted them and succoured them and relieved them in the midst of their necessities miseries and distresses The Jews oppressing one another is attributed to their not fearing of God Nehem. 5. 9. Oppression is so crying a sin against the Law of God the Law of Grace the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations that certainly it cannot be justly charged upon such as have set up God in their hearts as the great Object of their fear The word for oppression in the Hebrew is Mispach which signifies a Scab a Wound a Leprosie Now oppression is such a scab a wound a leprosie as is not to be found upon those that have fellowship with the Father and the Son Oppressors may boast of their profession and call themselves Saints or the people of God but God accounts them worse then Scythians witness those dreadful woes that God has denounced against them in the blessed Scriptures Zeph. 3. 1. Wo to the oppressing City Jer. 22. 13 Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong that useth his neighbours service without wages and giveth him not for his work Isa 10. 1-3 Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees To turn aside the needy from judgment and to take away the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the dâ—solation which shall come from far to whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory Mich. 2 1 2. Wo to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hand And they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Now by all these dreadful woes 't is further evident that this horrid sin of insolent oppression cannot be charged upon the Called and Chosen of God for where do you find in all the Scriptures the Vessels of Glory under those woes that are denounced against the ungodly But Sixthly Rejecting the Gospel contemning the Gospel and slighting the free and gracious offers of Christ in the Gospel brings the fiery Dispensation upon a people and causes the Lord to lay their Cities desolate Math. 22. 2 3 4 5 6 7. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain King which made a marriage for his Son And he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come Again he sent forth other servants saying tell them which are bidden Behold I have prepared my dinner my oxen and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready come unto the marriage But they made slight of it â—nd went their ways one to his farm another to his merchandize And the remnant took his servants and intreated them spitefully and slew them But when the King heard thereof he was wroth and sent forth his armies and destroyed those muâ—derers and burnt up their City In this Parable the Vocation of the Gentiles and the Rejection of the Jews is set forâ—h
they betrayed their trust they betrayed the lives of men into the hand of divine Justice and the Souls of men into the hands of Satan they polluted the Sanctuary they polluted the Holy things of God by managing of his Worship and Service in a prophane carnal way and with a light slight perfidious spirit and by perverting the true sense of the Law in their ordinary teaching of the people They did violence to the Law or they contemned removed or cast away the Law as the Oriâ—inal runâ— the Hebrew word here used signifies also to ravish Their Prophets and Psal 50. 17. Priests did ravish the Law of God by corrupting the Law and by putting false glosses upon it and by turnâ—ng of it intâ— such shapes and senses as would best suit the times and please the humours of the people Now for these abominations of their Prophets and Priests God denounces a dreadful Wo against the City of Jerusalem in vers 1. Wo to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city Lam. 4. 11-13 The Lord hath accomplished his fury he hath poured out his fierce â—nger and hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured â—he foundation thereof For the sins of her Prophets and the iniquity of her Priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her God sent a consuming flame into Jerusalem which did not only burn the tops of their houses but also the foundations themselves leaving no mark whereby they might know where their houses stood nor any hopes of building them up again But why did God kindle such a devouring fire in Jerusalem which was one of the World wonders and a City that was not only strong in situation and building and deemed impregnable but a City that was Gods own Seat the Palace of his Royal residence yea a City that the Lord had for many years to the admiration of all the world powâ—rfully and wonderfully protected against all those furious â—ssaults that were made upon her by her most potent and mighty Adversaries Answ For the sins of her Prophets â—nd the iniquities of her Priests as God himself testifies who can neither dye nor lye You may see this further confirmed if you please but seriously to ponder upon these Scriptures Mich. 2. 11. Isa 30. 10 11. Jer. 5. ult Hos 4. 9. Isa 9. 16. Lam. 2 14. Ezek. 3. 18. Ezek. 22. 25 26. 31. Jer. 23. 11. 14 15. 39 40. Look as the body Natural so the body Politick cannot be long in a good constitution whose more noble and essential parts are in a consumption The enormities of Ministers have the strongest influence upon the souls and lives of men to make them miserable in both worlds Their falls will be the fall and ruine of many for people are more prone to live by Examples then by Precepts and to mind more what the Minister does then what he says Praecépta docent exempla movent Precepts may instruct but Examples do perswade The Complaint is ancient in Seneca That commonly men Seneca de vita beata cap. 1. live not ad rationem but ad similitudinem The people commonly make the Examples of their Ministers the Rules of their Actions and their Examples pass as current among them as their Princes Coyn. The Common-people are like tempered Wax easily receiving impressions from the Seals of their Ministers vices They make no bones of it to sin by prescription and to damn themselves by following the lewd Examples of their Ministers The Vulgar unadvisedly take up crimes on trust and perish by following of bad Examples I will leave the serious Reader to make such Application as in prudence and conscience he judges meet But Eleventhly Sometimes the sins of Princes and Rulers bring the fiery Dispensations of God upon Persons and Places Jer. It is a strange saying in Lipsius viz. That the names of all good Princes may easily be engraven or written in a small Ring Lips de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 25. 38. 17 18 23. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of Hosts the God of Israel if thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the King of Babylons Princes then thy soul shall live and this city shall not be burnt with fire and thou shalt live and thine house But if thou wilt not go forth to the King of Babylons Princes then shall this city be given into the hands of the Chaldeans and they shall burn it with fire and thou shalt not escape out of their hand but shalt be taken by the hand of the King of Babylon and thou shalt cause this city to be burnt with fire Oâ— as the Hebrew runs Thou shalt burn this city with fire that is thou by thy obstinacy wilt be the means to procure the burning of this City which by a rendition of thy self thou mightest have saved So Jer. 34. 2. 8 9 10 11. compared with Chap. 37. 5. to vers 22. Judges and Magistrates are the Physitians of the State saith B. Lake in his Sermon on Ezra and sins are the diseases of it what skills it whether a Gangrene begins at the head or the heel seeing both ways it will kill except this be the difference that the head being nearer the heart a Gangrene in the head will kill sooner then that which is in the heel Even so will the sins of great Ones overthrow a State sooner then those of the meanest sort 2 Sam. 24. 9. to vers 18. But Twelfthly The abusing mocking and despising of the Messengers of the Lord is a sin that brings the fiery Dispensation Turn to these two pregnant Texts and ponder seriously upon them for they speak close in the case upon a People 2 Chron. 36. 15 16 17 18 19 Math. 23. 34. 37 38. Behold your house is left unto you desolate Here is used the present for the future to note the certainty of the desolation of their City and Temple and their own utter ruines and about forty years after the Romans came and burnt their City and Temple and laid all waste before them They had turned the Prophets of the Lord out of all and therefore the Lord resolves to turn them out of all O Sirs will you please seriously to consider these six things First that all faithful painful conscientious Ministers or Messengers of the Lord are great Instruments in the hand of the Lord for stopping or steming the tide of all prophaneness and wickedness in a Land which bring all desolating Isa 58. 1. and destroying Judgments upon Cities and Countries 2. For converting Souls to God for turning poor sinners from Acts 26. 15 16 17 18. Dan. 12. 3. darkness to light and from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ 3. For promoting of Religion Holiness and Godliness in mens hearts houses and lives which is the only way under Heaven to render Cities Countries and Kingdoms safe happy and prosperous 4. For the weakning of the Kingdom of
the lips that men should not speak rashly Words once spoken cannot return A man that thinks before he speaks seldom repents of what he speaks Silence is far better than rash speaking or than vain speaking c. O Sirs the tongue is the nimble Interpreter of the heart If there be piety or iniquity at the bottom of your hearts Matth. 12. 43 44. your tongues will discover it The stream riseth not above the fountain We know not what mettal the Bell is made of by the Clapper What is in the Well will be in the Bucket What is in the Ware-house will be in the shop So what is in the heart will be in the mouth if there be any thing of God of Christ of grace of heaven of hell of sin of the world of self in the bottom of your souls your tongues will discover it Man saith one is like a Bell and his tongue Plutarch like the Clapper So long as this standeth still he may be thought to be without any flaw craze or crack in him but let it once stir and then he discovers himself presently No man can so change himself but his heart may sometimes be seen at his tongues end Men watch Interpreters Oh that on the Lords day especially you would make more conscience of watching your tongues if the tongue be not watched it will be sins Solicitor General it will be a Bawd to all lusts it will plead for sin and defend sin and lessen sin and provoke to sin and shew the pleasure of the heart in sin There are but five Virtues of the tongue reckoned up by Philosophers but there are twenty several sins of the tongue reckoned up by Peraldus The Arabians have a Proverb Take heed thy tongue cut not thy throat Many a mans tongue James 3. 3. 11. The Holy Ghost sheweth the mischief of the tongue by the several characters by which he brands it He calls it the flattering tongue the double tongue the deceitful tongue the the lying tongue the perverse tongue c. Psalm 52. 2. Prov. 18. 21. Eccles 10. 12. Psalm 19. 4. Psalm 73. 9. Mat. 28. 13 15. has cut his throat that is it hath been his ruine Our Chronicles make mention of one Burdet a Merchant who living at the Sign of the Crown in Cheap-side in the dayes of King Edward the fourth in the year 1483. jestingly said to his Son that he would leave him heir of the Crown meaning the Sign of the Crown where he lived for which he was apprehended and within four hours hanged drawn and quartered The tongue is often like a sharp Razor that instead of shaving the hair cuts the throat If a man do not look well about him he may every day be in danger of dying by his tongue Life and death saith Solomon are in the power of the tongue Gaping mouth'd men are noted for fools by Lucian and a better and a wiser man than Lucian hath told us That the lips of a fool will swallow up himself Ah how good had it been for many that they had been born dumb The tongue can easily travel all the world over and wound mens names and credits in this Countrey and that in this City and that in this Town and that in this Family and that it can in a trice run from one place to another here it bites and there it tears in this place it leaves a blot and in that it gives a wound and therefore you have cause to watch your tongues on every day but especially on the Lords day There are many whose tongues do more mischief and travel further on the Sabbath day than they do on all the other dayes of the week You ought to keep a strict Guard upon your tongues every day but on the Lords day you should double your Guard Satan without you and that strong party that he hath within you will do all they can so to oyle your tongues on that day as to make you miscarry more wayes than one if you do not carefully look about you Are there none on that day that do watch your Jer. 20. 10. It is better for a man to watch and stop his own mouth by silence than to have it stopt by others reproofs words to deride you and jear you Yes Are there none on that day that do watch your words either to ensnare you or trapan you Yes Are there none on that day that do watch your words that they may find matter if possible either to reprove you or to reproach you Yes Are there none on that day that do watch your words that do hang upon your lips expecting to be instructed edified confirmed comforted and strengthned by you Yes Well then if this be your case how highly it doth concern you on this day to watch your words I shall leave you to judge O Sirs all your words whether good or bad are all noted and observed by God as you may see by comparing the Scriptures Psalm 139. 4. Isa 59. 3. Jer. 33. 24. Chap. 44. 25. Mal. 3. 16 17. Job 42. 7. Matth. 12. 37. in the Margent together If a person were by us that should book all our words from Sabbath day morning to Sabbath day night and the like on other dayes would we not be very careful what we spoke Why God is by and hears all Athenodorus a Heathen used to say that all men ought to be very careful of their actions and words because God was every where and beheld all that was done and said And Zeno a wise Heathen affirmeth that God seeth and taketh notice of our very thoughts how much more then of our words O Sirs how many men and women are there that are choice of what they eat that are not choice of what they speak that are curious about the food which goes into their mouths lest it should hurt or poyson them who are no wayes curious about the words that go out of their mouths lest they should hurt or poyson others Oâ— all the members in the body there is none so serviceable to Satan as the tongue And therefore Satan spares Jobs tongue his grand design being not to make Job a begar but a blasphemer Job was blistered all over by Satan only his tongue was not blistered Satan thought by that member to work Job to fight against God and the peace of his own soul It is queried in the Schools what was the first sin of the first Angel that fell for they assert that one fell first then the rest Now there are very many opinions about it Some say it was envy others discontent and some say it was their refusing to undertake the charge that was given to them to Minister unto man Others think it was a spiritual luxury others ingratitude The most and best say pride but wherein that pride consisted is not easily determined nor by them unanimously resolved and by some it is as confidently observed that it was a sin