Temple their cancel'd covenants shall be renewed and new covenants sealed and subscribed yea heaven and earth shall be called to witnesse what fast friends they were to God and their guides hands and seals and oaths and all that could be said and done to make sure work and all this lasted very hot how long for a slaying time whilest the sword was at their throats the pestilence in their houses the famine in the fields so long and not much longer vide Psal. 87. 34 35. When he slew them they sought him c. This provoked the Lord exceedingly as it doth a workman to have his work seem to fadge and then to fail him or a sutor to have his beloved accept of a ring and break a piece of gold and then to deceive trust this gauls worse then if there had been a churlish refusall at the first profer The first and suddain dislike of a man is imputed to strangenesse but a dislike upon knowledge charges the party repudiated with unworthinesse in this case all kindes of revolts are grievous but those that are reiterated are insufferable So to know Gods Name and not to trust him is a deserting with a witnesse which he takes so unkindly that if the whole flaming Army of his wrath can expresse the fury of his anger and jealousie the provoking party in this case must look for it It was for this that the Lord discovers so much passion by his Prophets and tells them their desolation should be so great that other Nations should raise the wonder and say Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great City Why what had he done vide Ier. 22. 7. Prepared destroyers not weaponlesse but well armed able and resolved not onely to abridge them of their fuell which we now finde to be a great strait but to make fuiell of their farest houses and then to give satisfying reason for what was done vâ—â— Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord their God To these might be added many more but these enough to let us know that when God gives up a people to robbing and spoiling they would but look inwards and if they finde not these sinnes making way for this judgement under which we suffer let them argue the case with the Judge of all the world and plead with him that he works not by president but if they finde these fore-running sinnes and this judgment of robbing and spoiling following at the heels of them they need no more wonder in this case then to see the Sun rising in the East and putting forward like a Giant in his wonted course untill he sets in the West which being ordinary is not ordinarily regarded But those amongst us that are wise and would be glad to know what 's a clock by our Diall how our time goes it is fitting they should observe it and to this duty we are called in the last place being now come to the consideration required partly by way of a serious acclamation in the scope of the Text and preface partly by a severe objurgation charging it as the great delinquency in Iacob and Israel who though he were set upon by robbers and spoilers yet he was not gagg'd yea they came not like theeves in the night preventing all complaints and succours but comming with such warning as they did the wonder is that God hears not of them either by outcries or at least by sighes and groans this moves the Lord by his Prophet here to expresse himself with this wonder in the preface and complaint in the closure of the words Yet he knew it not yet he laid it not to heart And was not this strange to be rob'd and spoil'd and not to know it The Prophet Hos. 7. 9. thought it strange That gray hairs should be here and there upon them and â—hey not know it that there should be any symptomes or evidences of a declining State and they not foresee it but to have the death-stroaks and tokens of Gods wrath upon them and not to minde it to be fired round about and scorcht and to be insensible of all this If there were any thing left of the man or the beast in this people it could not be but they must feel it as beasts and know it as men and doubtlesse so they did the Prophet Hos. 5. 13. bears them witnesse they did Ephraim saw his sicknesse and Iuda saw his sinne They did so but how confusedly they did but composedly they did not they knew what ayled them well enough what their sinne was and what their suffering was in sensu diviso but to put these together in sensu composito as the cause and effect and to lay them so to heart as God required this they did not And this seal'd up their misery and layes them before us as the sad patterns and presidents of Gods wrath upon a brutish people that onely knows he is angry but not why This he takes to heart because they did not and gives us to know that God takes it ill when sinnes and sufferings are not rightly put together and his meaning known Briefly these things were written for our admonition so much the Prophet implies in the preface where he lifts up his voice to this purpose that posterity may hear him verse 23. Who will hearken and hear for the time to come Or if that reaches not home to us the Apostle takes it from him and stretches it even to our dayes and beyond 1 Cor. 10. 6 10. Now these things were our ensamples and are written for our instruction and admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come So that unlesse we mean to be made pillars of salt to season succeeding generations unlesse we mean to be made examples to others let us take examples by others and be made wise at the best hand and cheapest rate we can to this purpose give me leave to put home the serious consideration of these things premised and lay them to heart as a gracious duty which the Lord calls for at our hands and hath set apart this day to put forth the acts of it being indeed such a work of the day as will imploy all the powers and faculties of the soul and is to be exprest in some especiall acts which I shall briefly open to you for the clearing of the truth and so fasten it upon your hearts by way of application As first it implies An act of the Iudgment commonly called the minding of a thing when the understanding is seen in its office to weigh things aright in the ballance of the Sanctuary and judges of them not according to appearance but with righteous judgment layes the sinne in one scale and the judgment in another and never gives over untill it hath the just weight of what God hath done and we have suffered Thus David that at first had no more leisure but to cast his sinne into the scale
of the fury of his anger which is not yet turned away but his hand stretcht out still Surely then we may know by that sad token the duty is not yet done which the Lord will have done by us before he hath done with us he grants the Land may mourn to him and yet no man lay it to heart so that there is something more to be done then hath been done yet which we shall doe well to enquire after and to that purpose give leave to your unworthy remeÌ„brancer in Gods name to demand Is it done or is it not done lay your hands on your hearts and feele and answer whether these sins premised and this duty required have been laid to heart doe you know what God hath done and our land hath suffered since this great breach hath let in the robbers and spoilers upon us What a strange question you wil say is this to be put to knowing men are the heads of our tribes such strangers in Israel as not to hear and know that which makes the ears and hearts of our State to glow and tingle do not they know what multitudes of men and sums of money have been lavisht and lost amongst robbers and spoilers what hopefull plants of our Gentry and Nobility too have been either cankred or cropt off in the bud what deadly fewds are dayly increased betwixt family and family as if linage and language were to be confounded at once Can other Nations ring of this and ours not know it Can the threats of the sons of violence and the cries of the oppressed scatter the noise of this like so much tempest and thunder and we not hear of it True this is to hear of it by the ear and perhaps at an uncertain sound as many doe that having taken reports upon trust make it matter of discourse others of gain and some make it matter of wit and sport as if fools were seasonabâ—â— in a Tragedy and might have leave to throw darts and say Am I not in sport Shall I praise them that doe this or those amongst us that like and suffer this I praise you not Are Nationall robberies such light matters that Nationall Mercuries may have leave to jeast upon them It was not the Apostles mind but the Corinthians Levity to suffer fools gladly It satisfies not to say that the Court set the kingdome or city on work and that the foole must be answered according to his folly It were safer far to let that folly rest in the bosome where it first began and not to suffer those that should be wiser to fight with the Devill at his own weapons when doubtlesse he will have the ods and the last blow I hope a word in this will be enough to the wise that know this is not the way to lay these things to the heart by tickling the ear with them nay grant we heard these things with the right ear yet is not that enough to work home this duty for the ear may hear more then the eye sees and what the eye sees not we say the heart rues not Yea but some of us you may say are more then ear witnesses of these things we have seen with our eyes enough to make our heartsake we have seen whole Troops and Regiments of as brave and daring men as the earth bears any such as would have made our common adversary tremble to see their courage or fury rather acted in other kingdomes These have we seen to butcher each other in their own countries soyling their land with their own blood as if they meant to make a plentifull harvest for the great destroyer we have seen goodly Lordships plundered and fired upon no greater quarrell but because their owners could not defend them Yea we have seen whole towns upon the like quarrell storm'd and surprised and fired because the Inhabitants durst not or could not be at cost and charges to keep themselves safe within their own wals these are things we have not taken â—pon bare report but our eyes the trustiest sense of all the rest have seen these things and can speak them feelingly as those that have heard with our ears and our eyes have seen them It may be so too yet for al this these things may not be laid to the heart it is true indeed the seeing eye and hearing eare are both the gift of the Lord Prov. 20. 12. but this implies what is said else where that there is an eye that sees not and ear that hears not and yet both wide open and such as can take in sounds and sights very readily and what if there should be such amongst us too that have heard seen as much as can be spoken or heard and are hereby ennbled to write stories and furnish tables with the sad relations of these things O Sirs as eating is not health and drinking is not strength but the means to procure both so the hearing and seeing of these things is not properly the laying of them to heart but the way and means with Gods blessing to doe it the Priest and Levite that past by the wounded traveller in the Gospel may be supposed not only to see the bleeding spectacle but to hear his languishing groans but it was the good Samaritan that properly laid his case to heart that laid him upon his beast poured oyle and wine into his wounds and left him not before some hopes of recovery And hath not our State done this too as far as in them lies have not they took full information of our common calamities sate out many a sad day and night month and some years to consult upon these things and are able for a need to give the world an accompt froÌ„ what quarters this dreadfull storm was first blown in upon us what unhappy constellations and conjunctions are ghest to be the second causes what dammage it hath done by Sea and Land Yea they can tell what goodly grounds this Land-flood hath spoiled and on the other side what durty ditâ—â—es it hath fild good for nothing but to breed toads and Efts In a word they can ghesse who have been gainers and losers by this sorry bargain And truly this is worth the knowing the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush be their cloud by day and pâ—llar of fire by night that their Assemblies may be directed and protected till judgement be brought to victory It is good learning to know Gods wayes in the whirlewind the outgoing of his displeasure in the effects and happy they that can make good advantage of them so but happier they that know them in the right causes they are wise that know how and where these sad distractions began but they are wiser that know where they will end and put forth all within them to be serviceable in that work It is good that these things be laid to the head and that there are so
many able heads to whom they are now entrusted But when they are brought from the heads to the hearts of our State then God hath his end and if his ends and ours meet we shall be happy for all this though this be the day of Iacobs troubles yet the hope of Israel and Saviour thereof in the time of trouble will remember Iacob and all his troubles To this purpose I am to bespeak you all Honourable and beloved according to the severall rankes and files wherein you stand to expresse and improve some acts of this duty required that the Lord may see and say there is many an hearty and affectionate soul amongst us willing to give him a meeting as Iacob did and not let him goe without a blessing to this purpose let me but briefly name some few advertisements that may satisfie you 1 when it is done 2. how it may be done 3. what if it be not 4. what if it be and I shall have done for my part and pray that the Lord would doe his and yours for you and so conclude Know that God takes these things as laid â—o heart when they work in us these two properties viz. 1. a sympathy that we can hear of these afflictions of Ioseph as if they were our own though for the present most of us are under safe roofs many of us under our own and as yet enjoy as much of our former satisfactions in wives and children Families and goods c. as the course of these times can lawfully afford if we can bring our selves to look upon these as if not considerable as Phinehas wife upon her Ichabod and set our selves as neer as may be in the case of the distressed families in our Kingdome that are fain to fast upon other terms then we doe because the robbers and spoilers have taken away their childrens bread if we now feeling a little hunger could be more pincht with the thought of theirs or beholding the sad countenances of each other could bewail the rufull sight of theirs sitting in sad or forlorn postures either in their own houses or which comes all to one under the dark roof of hungry and dismall prisons O it were a brave spirit indeed that could in this case un-Lord or un-Knight himselfe in his heart for a while as good Nehemiah did who had wine and oyl enough to make a glad heart smooth countenauce yea and that which is more then the best He amongst us can boast of for the present he had the Kings favour to maintain and increase this yet as if all this were nothing all was black and dark with him whilest the sepulchers of his fathers lay wast surely it would become us well to look upon our land as a Golgotha rather then Bethel of sepulchers rather then houses a place that may be called after the naâ—ue of Isaacs wels Esek and Sitnah strife and hatred where there hath been great pains taken to dig and keep open the fountain of Justice and as much strife and hatred exprest to trouble the waters if there were no more but this it might make our hearts bleed and sympâ—thize with our State This were enough to see this representative body of our State the glory of our Nation to be accompted as a Traytour with the head upon the block and the hand of many a bloody executioner lifted up to part the head from the body What living member can chuse but sympathize in this case and by fear and trembling shew he laies it to heart When we can sentence our selves to have as deep a share in the sin as in the punishment when we can lay our hands on our hearts and smite upon the thigh and say It is I Lord I know none in some sense a greater delinquent then my selfe if others have been Traitours to our Soveraigne I have been so to his Soveraigne Lord of lords and King of Kings one that hath made me not his creature onely but his favourite doubled many a blessing upon me belonging both to life and godlinesse and so much mercy streaming from the fountain of grace might break my heart if it were not Adamant They that can say and do this feelingly and faithfully may be said to lay this to heart But how may this be done Briefly thus by putting forth and stirring up some acts of naturall affection which the Lord commands and commends in his own and charges the contrary as an heathenish vice Could we to this purpose consider but these two things viz. 1. How miserable our friends have been made and 2. that our false and uneven reckonings with our God have made them so When we hear of such a County or Town once the pleasing seat of our habitation now made a Stage of watres or cage of unclean birds where the Ziim Iim and wilde Satyrs play When some of us may say There have I left my flock whereof I was once a Minister or my family whereof I was once a Master not as the Estridge doth her eggs in the sand but as the mourning Turtle scar'd from her nest and mate sits groaning at a distance to see or hear some bird or beast of prey to seise upon the nest and young and spoil all If this be not the â—ad case of some of us it is doubtlesse of many in our Kingdom and of some very near in relation to us and if we could but think what prayers and tears they have and do put up for us and others as yet in safety that we may be kept from their condition our hearts would melt into tears to do as much for them And this is a means to set this passion a work 2. What our sins have contributed to their sufferings who can choose but tremble to see his fellow bleed under correction for the same fault wherein he knows himself to be not an accessary onely but a principall agent Doubtlesse there are none of those wasting sins formerly mentioned whereof this Congregation can freely wash their hands and shall the Lord be visiting our sins upon our countrey and kindred fire our Nation round about and we not lay it to heart Cursed be that opinion of the Antinomists whoever either maintains it in his thoughts or takes occasion to start it in so unseasonable a time is doubtlesse a great factour for hell and puts poyson into our wounds that they may not heal Are they greater or better then our father Iacob It is recorded of him that he wept and made supplication doubtlesse then his own and others sins were laid to heart Hos. 12. And if they think God sees not any iniquity in his own for which he is angry with them they may do well to read over this Text once more and I should think that if there were not one more besides this in the Scriptures this alone were enough to let them
in the grosse 2 Sam. 12. 13. I have sinned comes at better leisure to weigh it more distinctly Psal. 51. 3. I know mine iniquity c. q. d. now I know what I have done and what I deserve to suffer This the Scripture calls The returning of a man to himself as Christ expresses it in the case of the prodigall that had lost himself by not considering his wayes in his heart did at length returne to himself No doubt but before his return he knew what his folly was and felt his miserie and hunger and so did the swine he fed but when he laid these together and considered what his father was and minded his return then was he uncharm'd from his swinish disposition changed in the renuing of his minde and he that is brought to this may be said to lay things to heart 2. An â—ct of the will which is the first chosen principle My sonne give me thy heart and the first choosing principle whereby we choose what to do or suffer in a strait commonly called a resolution upon a debate when in evills we choose the least and in good things the best Thus David in the Choise of three evills of penalty chooses the least and Paul in a strait between two good things chooses the best and in this deliberation may be said to lay it to heart According to the Wisemans advise Prov. 4. 25 26. after the pondering of our paths to look upon the right way and pitch there Thus did not these do and therefore were rather wilfull then wife as the Lord upbraids them by the brute creatures They stand not to deliberate whether they were best sinne on and suffer or return and be saved but there they lie like so many blocks under a two-handed Saw the robbers and spoilers if God will snatch them like so many fire-brands out of the fire well and good if not there they lie ready to be sawen and cleft out for the fire smoak and smother out in a carelesse neglect Contrary to this is a faire warning willingly chosen and resolved on to flee from the wrath to come 3. An act of the affections as sorrow grief care c. whereby sad and passionate men are said to lay things to heart as we finde it exprest to the life in Zach. 12. 10 11 12. where they take themselves apart every family apart and person apart and look upon him whom they had pierced as one that had little deserved this cruelty at their hands and fix their eyes upon that sad spectacle of their injustice and at the sight of this they pour out their tears and passions as the parent that weeps for his own childe or as he that is in bitternesse for his first-born 4. An act of the conscience which we commonly call the pricking of the heart when the judgement rightly inlightned reflects upon it self and upon cleâ—â— evidence of the fact takes Gods part against it self accuses judges condemns and executes sentence upon it self smites upon the thigh As God observes it in Ephraims case when he heard him complaining of his own foul misdemeanors Ah I was an untamed heifer therefore ashamed and confounded to think of his youthfull miscariages This the Lord takes as laying his case to heart and finding what carefulnesse it wrought in him what clearing of his God and condemning of himself what indignation what fear what vehement desire yea what zeal and what revenge the Lord pronounces him clear in this matter and gives in his discharge and absolution in the next words No longer a beast now but his dear sonne and pleasant childe ver. 20. So that when the soul is brought to this temper that the sin works upoÌ„ the conscience more then the suffering doth upon the outward man and can freely acquit God in his righteous proceedings as Ezra did in the behalf of this people that after all that these robbers and spoilers had done to them could say verse 13. After all that is come upon us for our evill deeds and our great trespasse Thou O God hast punished us lesse then our sinnes deserve so when our conscience is rightly informed by laying our sinne and sufferings together that God hath done us nothing but right and in weighing the case do so determine it that passion gets not the upper hand of our reason to say O how severe hath God been But O how rude and ignorant was I and in that point a beast Psal. 73. When judgement is thus brought to victory that Gods proceedings are clearly discerned and our deserts faithfully acknowledged and the right use made of all then are these things rightly laid to heart 5. An act of the memory whereby we recall things past and gone and well-nigh lost in the tumults and confusions or dangers and fears which are no friends to the memory but when we can return into our fixed thoughts without any longer roving and wandring and gather them close together to make a good result of them then the heart takes fire as David expresses Psal. 39. 3. He was fain to bring many scatter'd and confused thoughts together before he could work the right consideration of his case upon his heart As he that fetches fire from the Sunne with a burning-glasse gathers the scatter'd beams into a narrow compasse and there must hold them fixt before the matter will take fire so there must bee good skill and pains taken to recollect mercies of old on Gods part and as many forgotten injuries on our parts and when these are brought together by a faithfull act of the memory then the duty works kindly This David cals the examining our heart upon our beds Psal. 4. 4. the Prophet Zeph. 2. 12. cals sifting and searching over and again so the words would be read Excutite vos iterumque excutite Let us sift and search our wayes saith Ieremy Lam. 3. 40. A duty which the Lord seriously looks for of all those that enter covenant with him of better obedidence and promises that he will bestow it upon his own one of the first graces he gives in the new covenant as we find Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall you remember your own evill wayes and doings that were not good c. And loath your selves in your own eyes for all your iniquities c. Lay these things together and we may be said to lay them to heart more then this God requires not and lesse will not serve the turn Therefore charges home the neglect of this as one of the main causes why he proceeds on in the severity of his purposes as we find Ier. 12. 12. The spoilers are come in and made the Land desolate he grants that the Land mourns and yet concludes they laid it not to heart v. 11. Briefly therefore let this be my warrant from God to charge home this duty as ever we look to be 〈◊〉 of robbers and spoilers or see an end
Prophet summons all those that have ears to hear or hearts to consider that they would have a care of this duty Partly by way of exprobration charging home the neglect as a great delinquency Yet he knew it not Yet he laid it not to heart The parts thus set and the words clear enough those that are wise and judicious may reade Gods meaning in them as good Textmen can the originall without points but this being not every ones gift I shall taâ—e leave to condescend to the capacities of the meanest and point out the full scope of the Prophet in these 3. conclusions 1. The robbing and spoyling of a Nation is a very sad and shamefull penalty 2. The Lord seldome or never inflicts this but upon great and weighty considerations 3. He takes it very ill if these be not rightly weighed and well considered This first Truth will appear by that time we have observed it to be Gods usuall course when he means his rods shall smart to the quick to brine them in shame and if shame will serve turn and spare blood he stays there and proceeds no farther As indulgent parents deal with ingenuous children that blush to hear of the Rod it is thought enough to shew it or shake it or at most to stick it at their girdles Look how the Father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that feare him Psal. 103. 13. Yet rather then fail of Reformation he makes them when occasion serves blush bleed at once Thus he dealt with those that dealt falsly with him in the Covenant he threatens to make them greatly ashamed verse 17. meaning he would strip them naked when hee strikes them their penaltie was to be aggravated with infamie to this purpose we finde them pointed at as the ignominious captives of wanton conquerers that gloried as much in their vassallage as in their ransome verse 22. This is a people snared in holes c. their friends were either ashamed or afraid to come at them They are for a prey saith the Prophet and none delivereth for a spoil and none saith Restore an hard case when friends shall not own each other when a common calamity sets them at such a shamefull distance Now when the Lord deals thus with a people he would have you know by that token that he is angry indeed and expects that in their humiliations besides their sighes and tears they should expresse a shame that accompanies their punishment as well as their sin which they were wont in such case to acknowledge Ier. 3. 24 25. Shame hath devoured the labours of our fathers we lie down in our shame and our confusion covers us or in case they did not speak out their Ministers were to do it for them As Ezra very feelingly Cap. 9. 6. I blush and am ashamed to lift up mine eyes to thee O my God Why it follows beside the sinne acknowledged there was a shame treading upon the heels of it verse 7. We are delivered up to the sword to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day As their sinne was shamefull and deserved a shamefull punishment so it was a burning shame he thought that Gods Inheritance should be rob'd spoyl'd cow'd conquer'd by his and their enemies and it must needs be so if we examine the grounds and to that purpose consider first the parties secondly the penalty 1. For the parties whether patients or agents spoil'd or spoyling God clothes them both with shame and if Gods anger be the rule and measure of the shame as will appear it will be hard to say for the present which of the two are worst to passe for whilst Gods anger is smoaking and both under the fury thereof it is not easily discerned whether he be more angry with the rods of his fury which are his enemies or the people of his wrath which may be his own Indeed when he hath done striking it is well known but not before as we finde in the 10. Chap. of this Prophesie comparing the 5. verse with the 12. At the first Gods anger seems strongest towards his people but when he hath done with them then he faces about and gives fire upon his enemies verse 16. So that look how far Gods anger smoaks upon a Nation in generall or any person in particular so far they may hang the head for shame as the Lord himselfe intimates in the case of Miriam Numb. 12. 14. If her father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven dayes let her be shut out from the camp seven dayes Surely thus hath the Lord dealt with the daughter of his people amongst us he hath not only spit in our face but cast the excrements of our Nation the robbers spoilers over the surface of our Land In which case we may take up the Prophets complaint Ier. 14. 1 2 3. Our land mourns the gates thereof languish and are black to the ground their Nobles were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads The truth is both noble ignoble agents patients amongst us may well be ashamed the one for being so weak as not to maintain their own right the other for being so powerfull to do the other wrong Psal. 52. 1. That tyrant did but glory in his shame that boasted how mighty he was to do a mischief The oppressed may be ashamed to deserve it so justly the oppressour for doing it so injustly Divine justice frowns on both now the frowns of a King are the shame of the subject whether he be a favourite or malefactour especially when he is known to have been both In the mean time God is righteous and will not foul his hands with the sin of either but glorifies himself in the just-deserved shame of both The wantoÌ„ spoiler drives drags his captive in triumph with bloudy face and bare feet nothing to cover his shame but his eye-lids closed up and his head hung down to think that no lesse penalty would answer his deserts as that good Emperour Mauritius over-powered and villanously abused by his servant and successour Phocas sighs out his shame in the words of the Psalmist Iustus es Domine c. Righteous art thou O Lord c. But that excused not the ingratefull Tyrant Indignus ille qui faceret he might be ashamed to deal so barbarously with one that deserved it not of him as the one was ashamed to know he had deserved no lesse so might the other to do so much In the mean time Gods anger soots them both and their faces gather blacknesse so that the parties whether agents or patients whilest they are in the smother of his displeasure have a sad and shamefull time of it 2. Consider the penalty and then the truth will further appear To be made a prey and spoile is the doome of the beast therefore when the Apostle would shame certain gracelesse men
to the ful he calls or compares thēto brute beasts made to be destroyed 2. Pet 2. 12. And of all men none more sensible of this then holy men Sapiens miser est plus miser c. such as have been in honour with God and such honour have all his Saints Mark therefore how sadly they complain in this case Psal. 79. 1 2 3. It was much that their dead bodies should be beasts meat and their bloud run down the chanells but that which they felt most in this misery was the shame of this penalty verse 4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours a shame and scorn to those about us and had it been in their choise would rather have fallen under thunder-stroaks or plague-stroaks any judgement from heaven would have been more welcome then to lie at the mercy of men vilder then the earth whose tongues hands and hearts were set on fire from hell No plague like that of a plundering enemy that delights in warre so David thought that knew them of old and in his choise prefers the plague before them 2. Sam. 24. 14. He could never think of them without an imprecation Psal. 78. 30. Rebuke O Lord the multitude of spearmen together with the bulls and calves of the people Scatter thou them that delight in warre When God gathered these rods and bundled them together he suspected the fury of his anger and strength of battell and if God will honour him with the choise of penalties he will not consult so much shame to himself and family as to fall into their hands It grieves not an ingenuous child so much to be scourged immediatly by the Parent as to be turned off at the second hand to a base and mercilesse groom the plague-stroak comes from Gods hand and here we commonly cry Lord have mercy on us But who can find in his heart upon his knees to ask his life liberty at the hands of a mercilesse plunderer or if he do who can be sure to speed that knows he shall lose his suit breath together since God and their consciences give them no quarter how can we expect that from them which they have not received But of all spoiling penalties none like that of a Civill warre if a malefactor must die better by any hand then his own and if a Nation must needs bleed to death better any do it then they of their own bloud and bowels for there is much of Gods anger and consequently much more shame in such a misery God was too angry with the Israelites to let them die by the strength of battell and therefore expresses his fury more in consecrating their brethrens swords to do execution upon them as so many condemned malefactors Exod. 32. 29. To have a mother sentenced to death by the wanton cruelty of her own children is such a shame and misery as goes beyond the penalty in the Text and yet this being our case it will be worth our labour to pause upon it a while and make the truth our own by way of application This being so that the robbing spoiling of a Nation is actively a sin and passively a shame this will concern us all before we passe forward to consider what we have to do or suffer in this case To this purpose it wil be worth the while to take notice of this penalty and consider these robbers spoilers as they fal under a twofold cognizance for they may be viewed as a double-faced piece look one way and you see a beautifull face on the other side a deformed monster So if we consider them efficienter you may see more of God then man in them but if you view them instrumentaliter you shall see more of the devill then either and both these wayes we shall do well to view them for our better information Consider them in Gods hand gathered and bundled up for his own ends which are ever high and holy viz. his owne glory and his Churches good here we may call them as David doth the men of Gods hand Psal. 17. 14. for though their will be their own and that be bad enough yet their power is Gods and therefore good so that if he commands us to kisse these rods no childe of wisdome will refuse it if he command us to spare and forgive these it may it must be done David was wise that did it even whilest he smarted under the shame hee looks upon the Act as Gods doing 2 Sam. 16. 10. Who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so Here we have nothing to say much lesse to doe but something to suffer as we shall see in the next point when we come to view these rods in Gods hand In the mean time we shall consider them as unlucky Instruments faln out of his hand and such as have gone beyond their Commission as an axe or edge-tool falling from a shelfe hath weight and sharpnesse enough in it to doe a mischiefe without a guiding arm so it is certain that though these rods can do nothing beyond permission yet beyond their commission they may and so much the Lord himselfe observes of them Esay 10. 5. You shall finde that God had given a large Commission to the Assyrian the rod of his fury to plunder and spoil this people very severely but yet with a purpose to leave in the midst of them a poor and afflicted people that should trust in the name of the Lord God hath some mercifull purposes to reserve a number and to let the proud Conquerour know that his Commission was limited under pain of his displeasure Howbeit as God observes of him ver. 7. he thinks not so but it is in his heart to destroy and on he goes with this resolution to the 15. ver. where the Lord takes him up with indignation Shall the Axe boast it selfe or the rod shake it selfe against him that lifts it up In doing thus God leaves them to be dealt withall as those that have gone beyond Commission Esay 47. 6. If they be such as shew no mercy we may be sure by that token they are beyond commission and we have leave in this case to say and doe something too and are to blame if we doe not we are not in this case to conceal our rapes wrongs as Dina but to complain as Thamar and though it be with blushing to let our Father know what folly or fury rather hath been committed in Israel yea to send out hue and cry after them as the Levite did the quarters of his Concubine thorough all the Tribes and make out for right against them or at least for a just hearing of our complaints This then being an hearing day I shall make it my next work to move you all that have ears to hear and hearts to consider and tongues to complain to joyn with me in this duty of the day to joyn our humble
know that he hath just cause to be angry not onely with the sinnes but even the persons and prayers of his people and when he is so takes it very ill if they take it not to heart A truth so clear that I am perswaded there are few or none amongst us Antinomians in judgement and open profession but certainly every remorselesse carelesse sinner amongst us is such an one in his practise and to such as these I have no more to say but this as Mordecai to Esther And do you think to escape better then the rest of the Kings loyall subjects Have you any Charter to secure you and yours from the common calamities and to ensure you that neither you nor yours have any sins to be prayed out of the sealed Ephah nor any hand in raising this storme Well sirs do not venture to sleep under hatches whilest others are sweating and tugging to get the vessell to shoar It will be in vain for us to work at the pump if such as these stop not the leaks and all of us with one heart and minde confesse and bewaile our guilt and interest in these common calamities I beseech ye therefore without any more ado as many of us as meane well to our own souls and love our Nation let us yeeld up our selves to justice and accept of this punishment For if our uncircumcised hearts relent not to think what others suffer and what we have contributed to their sufferings we have not reacht the main duty in the Text for which the dreadfull spectacle of Gods anger is set up even like a pillar of fire either to lead us if it may be to repentance never to be repented of or if that may not be it will make us examples to posterity and it will be written of us as of these That the robbers and spoilers were sent amongst them as the avengers of the quarrell of the Covenant but there were a generation amongst them would not beleeve that God had any such quarrell against them yea they themselves were some of them scorcht with the flames yet they gave not glory to God by acknowledging and bewailing the guilt and accepting the punishment therefore the Lord poured upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of battell c. But say some of these looser sort what if we do not what if we cannot do this it is not every mans gift to put the finger in the eye for every sin or to have tears at the fingers end the task is too harsh for some mens complexions and therefore the Physitians of Church and State may do well to indulge to some mens tempers that think this remedy as harsh as the disease as good say they have our houses afire about us as our consciences within us and it is pity to over-presse soule and body at once if God take away our states we have the lesse to reckon for and ther 's an end of their care Say ye so but what if God will not have it so he expects the work he is now about should work a carefulnesse in you and a clearing of your selves but the truth is it is with many of us as with Bankrupts that had rather be in the Counter then their Counting-houses So we as soon enter into hell as into our hearts to examine what is amisse there therefore are resolved to let it alone untill God come to reckon once for all But this will be a sad reckoning and so we shall see and say if we come to be judged of the Lord and condemned with the world at once it will be a terrible plea when God shall charge it upon any of us that he spared our lives and liberties bodies and goods on purpose that we should make use of these forfeited mercies for his glory and the publike good that we should runne into the gap upon these dayes of publike humiliation and upon our bended knees say as Ezra 9. 8 9 10. that we should bring forth that which hath escaped the fire and give it up to his disposing not reserving any thing of our selves which he would have us deny for his sake The misery of our times hath taught us in our common discourse to say We can call nothing our own Let us learn to speak this in good earnest Nay then will some say let him take our lives also we shall never live merry day more if we come to yoak our selves to the strict courses of covenanting and reforming as good be rob'd and spoil'd by our enemies as be hamper'd and fetter'd by such precise and religions yoaks as are likely to be laid upon us which neither we nor our forefathers were able to bear To which I answer first Better so then be suffer'd to run wilde and loose into hell But secondly there is no such matter intended this is the cavill onely of the sons of Beliall that had rather take sanctuary at Rome then in a reformed Church Assuredly God intends no bands for us but what will be golden and glorious even the easie yoak of Christ hard to none that have their sound mindes It was a yoak to the young Prodigall that his portion should be in his fathers keeping but by that time it fell out of his own into the Harlots keeping and nothing left of it to keep him he was brought to think that the yoak of his fathers servants was far better then his miserable freedom So doubtlesse by that time our Nation findes as it is now in a fair way for it what it is to waste the publique stock in riotous living and come at length to be beneath the hopes of borrowing no remedy but we must hire out our selves to those that may feed us with husks it is likely we may be brought at length to think our fathers house and home worth looking after where it is likely he will provide something beyond the bashfull modesty of those that think our former commons good enough if they may be got again but if the Lord provide better and we thrust off our mercy with a pretended humility it is possible we may meet with that check which Ahaz had for his modesty when it was construed infidelity and impiety Es. 7. 8. 9 10. To conclude if upon these considerations we can be perswaded to see and know the day of our visitation if the Lord warning us by a burning shame hath brought us to that temper that it appears to him and the world that his proceedings are laid to heart there is more comfort belongs to such then the heart is able to bear without breaking forth into tears of joy As it was with Ioseph and his brethren by that time he hears them lay the fact to heart and say Verily we are guilty c. he can hold no longer but must make known he was a brother So by that time the Lord Jesus hears this Church of