Gods people and destruction to their enemies Doth there come up an huge multitude of Moabites Ammonites and Mount Seir against King Iehoshaphat let but him proclaime a fast throughtout all Iudah and let them pray and God will make their enemies destroy one another and he and his shall looke on and only sing and praise God Oh Peter is in prison a great calamity is thereby threatned to the Church but if the Church make praiers to God for him the Angell of the Lord came with great power and glory into the prison and brake off Peters chaines opened the prison doores yea and made the iron gate open of it owne accord Loe how the praiers of Gods children are stronger than fetters and gates of iron Yea Christ is gone on high and hath left his Church what is now to be done let them continue in praier and doe their duty after the Holy Ghost commeth as this day witnesseth which and much more that might be said to this purpose doth abundantly confirme your raised Doctrine viz. That Gods faithfull servants by their praiers are powerfull with God to turne away and prevent threatned and imminent judgements to themselves or the Church of God which made zealous Luther say There is nothing omnipotent under God but faithfull praier This commandeth all things in heaven earth hell in all the elements aire fire earth water But it would not be amisse to search that we may know the reasons why the praiers of Gods servants are so powerfull with God and they are principally these two viz. First our praiers are not our owne as the worke of our reason will affections or any thing that is naturall in us but the operation of Gods owne Spirit in us For as for us we know not what to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh request for us and againe It is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father In nothing is there so evident demonstration of the spirit of God as in zealous praier To which purpose Gregory hath an excellent saying The Saints receive from God what they oppose to his blowes and as I may say from him it is whereby they lift up themselves against him and whereby they are enabled to resist him Iacob wrestled with God prevailed but it was God gave him the strength so to doe now God cannot but acknowledge the worke of his owne Spirit and therefore we know that whatsoever we aske of the Father according to his will he heareth us and our Saviour hath said Whatsoever yee shall aske my Father in my name he will give it you But the praiers of Turkes Iewes Idolaters Heretikes Infidels Hypocrites are of no power with God because such are not made by the Spirit of God the praiers of a wicked man are abominable and turne into sinne no more accepted of God than if he cut off a dogs necke God hath threatned that though such doe multiply their praiers hee will not heare them The second reason hereof is Gods owne free love and mercy who is pleased to make all the faithfull his favourites so as Haman nor any favourite could ever doe so much with those Monarchs and Kings that have set their love upon them as the least of Gods Saints may doe with the Lord for if earthly Kings be exceedingly offended favourites must give way Hamans face must be covered he shall never see the Kings face any more But though God be angry and have mustred his Armies yea and besieged and battered so powerfull are Gods servants that they can stand up in the breach and by their praiers turne away threatned judgements Oh who would not be such a Kings favourite who cannot deny any thing which is for his glory and their true good The more I thinke on this the more I am astonished that man poore miserable man weake sicke diseased vile and abominable in his owne eies despised of others yet should be such a favourite to the King of Kings Oh the free mercy and love of God! How should the consideration hereof ravish us This being so when the sinnes of a people are full and when the Lord is purposed to bring a judgement upon a people hee commonly maketh way thereunto As an earthly King purposing to doe a thing which he knoweth is displeasant to his favourite who would hinder him in it will make way by sending him out of the way or forbidding him to speake or some way taking him off So the Lord sometimes by taking to himselfe and calling out of this world such as else would stand in the gap whereof the Prophet Esay thus speaketh The righteous is taken away from the evill to come Thus God tooke away good King Iosiah that in his sonnes daies he might bring the threatned evill upon the Land And God tooke good S. Augustine when his City Hippo was besieged by the Vandals that he should not stand in the breach for them Or if he suffer them to live he restraineth them from praier as here he did our Prophet and rebuked Samuel How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have reiected him from reigning over Israel Or else he takes away the spirit of praier and doth suffer it to be dulled as that they cannot pray fervently as Esay complained that no man did stirre up himselfe to lay hold on God but as it were grew weary As then it is a most comfortable thing to see godly men to live and to see men zealous in preaching praying and serving God as when a storme commeth to see all men betake themselves to their tacklings as the Prophet saith to stirre up them selves to lay hold on God so is it a fearefull thing to see the righteous taken away by death or such as have beene zealous to become cold carelesse and negligent set all at six and seven let others care whom it doth more concerne and so post it over from one to another For hereby God even maketh way to the execution of some great judgement by removing such as might stand in the breach and stop his course And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that within these few yeeres past God hath taken away a great number of his faithfull servants both Magistrates Ministers and Christian people and howsoever in his mercy he hath left a remnant some few Noahs and Lots Nehemiahs and Esaies that being sensible of Gods judgements doe warne this secure and unthankfull world lift up their hearts and hands with Moses against Amalek make intercession with faithfull Abraham mourne for the abominations of the Land wrestle and weepe with Iacob otherwise we had surely beene made long agoe as Sodome and like to Gomorrha yet alas what are these amongst so many prophane carelesse and secure sinners and how are these scorned and derided disgraced and discouraged how are such for signes
it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy The Land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That such may be the sinnes of Gods deare Church and people in generall and of his faithfull servants in particular that he will bring some temporall judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most
say Tush this is no matter of feare unto us we have no Prophets in these dayes to foretell judgements or whose threatnings we need to regard I answer Though the gift of prophecie properly so called be ordinarily 〈…〉 Church neither doe the true Ministers of the Gospell now take upon them to foretell wherewith when and how the Lord will punish the sinnes of a people yet assuredly the providence of God is wonderfull to direct them in their ministerie what texts of Scripture to handle what Doctrines to raise what promises or threatnings comforts or reproofes to use If therefore thou art placed under the ministerie or hearest such an one as thy soule and conscience doth witnesse he is the true Minister of Christ know that the spirit of God doth wonderfully guide and direct his studie and meditation his Sermons and preaching and therefore if he be much in the promises of the Gospell reioyce if in reproofe of sinne be sorrie if in the threatning of judgements feare he speaketh not rashly and at randome the fictions of his owne braine or publish the suggestions of an evill spirit but undoubtedly he delivereth what he hath received from the Lord it is the good Spirit of God directeth his heart tongue and pen to thinke write and speake what he knoweth most needfull for his people and therefore receive it with reverence as from God and submit your selves to such as watch over your soules and must give account unto God for you And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that as God hath many waies testified his anger so hath he stirred up his faithfull servants both here and elsewhere by word and writing 〈…〉 and presse zealously to reprove the great and monstrous sinnes of this age and as sonnes of thunder to cause every corner of the Land to ring with the threatning and denunciation of some judgement or other and to call and cry for repentance whereby the same may be prevented which cannot be without God who undoubtedly without repentance will in his good time make good their word when mens hearts shall breake within them to remember they were told so before And so much for the maine reasons why sometimes God will not be intreated to the contrary but will punish a people viz. The declaration of his justice and truth that he may be feared and beleeved when by his servants he doth threaten It now followeth according to my proposed method to declare what sinnes they are which then did now doe and for ever will so provoke God and exasperate him that he will not spare and namely what were the sinnes which brought this miserable and inevitable captivity upon this people and which threaten the like judgement wheresoever found And therein two things are to be considered viz. The sinnes for their kindes and the measure or proportion of them What their sinnes were will appeare from the Prophets sent unto them to reprove them and threaten their captivity which were our Prophet Ezechiel Nahum Zephany Habacuck and Ioel Wherefore from their Prophesies only and specially of those two great and worthy Prophets I will gather light to this purpose and from them prove what I shall deliver And that I and you may the more orderly proceed and better remember them I will range them in certaine rankes As first the sinnes of the Priests and then of the people the sinnes of the Priests either in regard of their Ministery or conversation the sins of the people were either the greater as against the first Table or lesser as against the second Table The laying open of these things will both declare the justice of God who would not be entreated to spare so sinfull a people and also admonish all people to beware of such sinnes for feare of a like judgement And first note that judgement beginneth at Gods Sanctuary And no marvell for there beganne the corruption of all sorts of men The Prophets did most reprove and cry out against the Priests who in their Ministery first were blinde and ignorant It is true they were wonderfully conceited of their learning and knowledge and like enough they had a great measure at least some of them of worldly wisdome and humane learning but they rejected the word of the Lord and then what wisdome was in them Whereby it appeareth that howsoever the Priests lips should preserve the knowledge of God and God made his Prophets Seers and Watchmen to preserve the people from judgements to come by declaring their sinnes and directing them in the waies of God yet before the captivity they generally rejected the word of God and were simple without any power to tell the people of their sinnes or give direction what course to take whereby to prevent ensuing judgements Secondly they dealt falsely in their Ministery which the Lord complaineth of saying If they had stood in my counsell and declared my words to my people then should they have turned them from their evill waies And the Prophet bewaileth this fault Thy Prophets have not discovered thine iniquity to turne away thy captivitie but gave themselves to serve the time and please men flattering and saying peace peace building and dawbing with untempered morter They told the people all was well and that they should see neither sword nor famine nor any evill And if any one dealt more faithfully with the people shewing their sinnes and labouring to touch their consciences and to humble them that so they might prevent the judgement as Ieremy Ezechiel and some others did those wicked Priests and Prophets were angry and assured the people they did but terrifie and discourage them without cause all was well Yea that false Prophet Hananiah tooke away the yoke which by Gods command Ieremy did weare whereby to signifie their captivity and brake it prophesied falsely Thus within two yeeres will God breake the yoke of Nebuchad-nezzar King of Babylon yea Pashur could not hold his hand but smote Ieremy and put him in the stocks And as they were corrupt in their Ministery and enemies to such as were faithfull so were they most prophane in their lives and conversations being carnall and earthly minded From the least to the greatest every one was given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet to the Priest every one did deale falsely And againe Both Prophet and Priest are prophane yea in mine house have I found their wickednesse saith the Lord Whereas God told Baruch that which I have built I will breake downe and that which I have planted I will plucke up even this whole Land and seekest thou great things for thy selfe seeke them not Ier. 45. 4. As this was the great corruption of the Priests and false Prophets so the people did exceedingly further it and increase it in them For first they approved and liked well of flattery so the Lord himselfe said