changed Look Jerem. 18. ver 6 7 8. If I shall speake to a Nation to pluck it up and to roote it out to destroy it if that Kingdome and that Nation shall turne from their evill waies and repent then saith God I will repent of that evill that I threatned to doe against them The sentence is absolute to the end it may strike a further feare and terrour The sentence is propounded absolutely but intended conditionally Though God doth not change his will yet God doth will a change If wee know how to change our lives God knowes how to change his sentence That is the first thing that he requires The second thing that God lookes for at the hands of his children is an earnest and vehement intercession to God by prayer for pardon That was the condition hee looked for here at this time He said hee would destroy this people but it was with this condition hee would not destroy them if Moses made intercession for them Yea and hee would encourage Moses hee did as much as tell Moses that this was the meanes whereby hee might be stayed And he would encourage Moses to make intercession by his words Moses saith hee let mee alone and let mee destroy this people Why doth hee say let mee alone What is that but because hee would have him be bold O Moses you see what power you have with mee I cannot strike this people if you make intercession hee knew Moses his love to this people therefore let mee alone that I may destroy them I must conclude with the time and with an application There is a fatall period set to all the Kingdomes of the earth sooner or later according as the sinnes of that Kingdome and people come to their full ripenesse and maturity Both Philosophers and Divines have observed by long experience diverse prognostick signes of the approach of the ruine of a people If God should seeme by any of these prognostick signes to threaten our ruine and destruction at this time if God doth seeme to any to doe this let them know it may be that this threatning of God now is but conditionall There are two waies by which wee may get God to revoke and call back his word One is by true repentance from wicked men and the other is an earnest intercession made by Gods children O brethren that wee did but know in this our day what belongs now to our peace O that wee could do as the Ninevites did every one humble himselfe before God and turne from the wickednesse of his waies And O that Moses would run to the breach and now with strong cries and teares begge pardon for who doth know whether the Lord will not yet be mercifull to us and turne his fierce wrath from us that wee perish not I have gone thorow the first thing the revocation of the sentence Who caused it Moses And by what means By standing in the breach I must leave till next time FINIS PSAL. 106. 23. Wherefore hee said hee would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach c. I Spake the last day of the revocation of this sentence I come now to the next thing Who caused the revocation of this sentence but one man Moses but hee was a chosen man Moses whom hee had chosen Marke I pray among Gods elect in every generation in every age there have been some men that have been select Such a man I name Enoch in the old world that God tooke away hence that hee should not see death And such a man I reckon Noah to be a man gracious in the eyes of God when all the world perished And such a man I reckon Abraham to be whom God is pleased to honour with the name of his Friend Abraham my Friend And such a man was Moses whom God was wont to talk with as familiarly as one man talkes with another as the Scripture saith And such men I reckon Eliah and Elisha to be the very Chariots and Horsemen of Israel in their daies And such a man was Daniel a man of Gods affection a man that God did wondrously love and set by and many more These are as deare to God as the apple of his owne eye as the signet upon his right hand these I call the Favourites of heaven Kings upon earth have their Favourites the King of Kings hath his These are the Favourites of heaven these are those principall men Micah 5. v. 5. The Princes of men The hebrew beares it Principall men These are those Excellent ones upon earth that David speakes of Psal 16. My delight is upon the Excellent ones that are upon the earth There is not one of these but are worth a thousand others and have more power with God then many thousands of others And as the people said of David when hee would goe to battell against Absolom No thou shalt not goe lest the light of Israel be quenched for thou art worth ten thousand of us I may say the same of such as these One Moses in the day of Gods hot wrath and vengeance one such a man as Phineas was in the time of a plague One such a man as Eliah was in the time of a drought One such a man as Paul in the companie when men are in a shipwrack is able to doe more good then a thousand others Gods children they are not alway mighty men according to the flesh Not many mighty saith the Apostle not many mighty ones according to the flesh 1 Cor. 1. 6. But though they be not alway mighty according to the flesh yet in regard of their spirit and grace and their state with God they may be mighty men Saint John Baptist a contemptible man according to the flesh but the Angell fore-told of him that hee should be great in the sight of the Lord. You have some men that have prided themselves in the sirname of Great Antiochus the Great and Alexander the Great and Herod the Great and Pompey the Great and diverse others There be many of Gods children poore contemptible things Ignobilia mundi the contemptible things of the world that are greater men with God and have done greater acts then the greatest of these great ones Which of all those great ones was able to command the sun to stand still Josuah did it Sun stand thou still in Gibeon and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon Which of all those great ones was able to command the thunder Samuel did it in the time of wheat-harvest Which of all those great ones was able to command the raine Eliah did it As the Lord God of Israel liveth there shall be no raine but according to my word 1 King 17. verse 1. Which of all those great ones was able to stand in the breach against the great God of heaven and earth when hee came to execute his fierce wrath upon his people you see Moses did it If one Moses may cause a revocation of a
contemptuously despised so the word signifies they contemptuously despised the pleasant land This same sin of theirs in despising of the land will appeare yet to be more grievous a more great and fearefull sin if you shall but consider two things with mee First that the land was a pleasant land that is the thing that I shall especially stand upon to day To despise any land that God was pleased in mercy to bring them to out of such an house of bondage as he brought them it should not have been but to despise a pleasant land that is a sin sinfull above measure The Hebrew phrase is a land of desire It was such a land as if a man would desire a land hee could not desire a more delightfull land then that land of Promise Wee heare much of this land in Scripture you see how it is called here a land of desire I pray let me trouble you now a little further to shew you the pleasantnesse of this land and then make some use of it as the time will permit First the situation of the land was pleasant It is said usually in Scripture to stand in the midst of the land It had Asia upon the East it had Europe upon the West it had Africa and Lybia upon the South it had Scythia and Armenia and Persia upon the North. That same that you read of in Psal 74. 12. The Lord is my King of old hee hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth It is Allegorically I confesse mystically but sweetly by the Fathers applied to that great worke of salvation that our crucified Jesus wrought for us at Jerusalem in the midst of the earth in medio terrae This is Jerusalem saith God that I have set in the midst of all Lands and Nations about it Ezek. c. 5. God saith of the people of this land that they dwell in the very navell of the earth It is Gods word in Ezek. 38. A people that dwell in the navell in the very midst of the earth Indeed looke in our maps and if it doe not fall out exactly that India is in the midst of the then knowne habitable world yet our Cosmographers agree in this that there is no Country from which there is such an expedite convenient passage to all the parts of the world as from India the situation was pleasant Then secondly the aire was pleasant The climate I know was more hot then ours is by far being distant some thirty two or thirty three degrees from the line a hotter climate then ours yet a sweet temperate climate free as it is confessed by all from ill vapours they were not infested with any pestilentiall epidemicall diseases Yea but for the water of it What water was in it I confesse I finde not any great navigable rivers in it but it so abounded with water-brooks and springs and fountaines both in hills and vallies that it is called by God in Deuter. 8. ver 8. a land of brookes and springs and fountaines Yea but what corne bare it That was one of their questions they would know whether it was a fat land or no. You shall finde in that place againe Deuter. 8. It was a land of wheate a land of barley What abundance of corne grew in that Country you may imagine by this It was in the whole length of it from Dan to Beer-sheba but one hundred and fifty miles the length of it the breadth of that land between fifty and sixty miles at the broadest What a number of people could this land nourish Marke but in the dayes of David hee numbred the people and yet hee numbred not all for he numbred not Benjamin nor the Tribe of Levi yet in the other Tribes hee numbred thirteene hundred thousand fighting men What a number were there then besides these in proportion of women and children old and young Where should they have bread to sustaine such a multitude Surely it was as it is called in Scripture a very fat land Nahum chap. 3. ver 5. O but what trees grow there in it That is another question they would know Excellent Vines The wine of Zarephath was famous even among the Gentiles Besides their Vines they had Fig-trees Pomegranats Almonds and Dates and Olives in abundance therefore God calls it a land of Oyle-olive Yea and which is a remarkable thing whereas there are some fruits that will not grow but in cold countries and some fruits that will not grow but in hot countries and some that will not grow but in temperate countries about the lake of Genesareth the soyle was of such an admirable nature that all kind of fruits would prosper there with the like felicity I might goe on and tell you what Mines they had God told them the stones of that land were Iron and out of their mountaines they might digge Brasse I might tell you of the Medicines of Herbes about Engedi the best Balsome in the world was there I might tell you of their Fishes in their lakes and many commodities more Let me tell you this that God saith Deut. 8. It was a land that lacked nothing in it There was one City in the land that was Laish it was afterward called Dan after that Cesarea-Philippi you read of it in the Gospell the Scripture saith that that lacked nothing that was upon the earth Judges 18. 10. Not to trouble you more with the commendation of this land hearken what Ezekiel saith of it It was the glory of all lands Ezek. 20. 6. But let mee aske now What is become of the glory of this land If there be any land upon the earth that ever was anathemated smitten with a curse from God it is this land It is now under the Turks It is inhabited where it is inhabited but that is but in a few places of it but where it is it is inhabited by barbarous Turks in the vallies and by wild Arabs in the mountaines The most part of the land at this day lies unpeopled and unhusbanded and uninhabited It is reported by a Gentleman of good worth that did lately see it that in that same goodly valley the eye of man hath seldome seen a goodlier hee found grasse growing to the waste waste-high that so perished unmowen and uneaten it came to no better end then the grasse upon the house-top All those same goodly places that you finde mentioned in the Scripture as fruitfull as any places under heaven are now made nothing but habitations for lions and wolves and wild bores and leopards Here is that that the Psalmist tells us that God brings a fruitfull land to barrennesse for the wickednesse of the people that dwell in it Brethren wee live in a pleasant land too it were too long to reckon up the commodities of this land you know it your selves Your lot is fallen in a good ground and you have a goodly heritage Let us first be thankfull to this good God for this good land that hee hath given
work whereupon all others depend is the Incarnation of the Son of God that great mystery of godlinesse God manifest in our flesh that was the great work of grace Then redemption of mankinde by his blood The electing of some to salvation before the foundations of the world were laid The vocation of them in Gods good time The justification of them in the blood of our crucified Jesus The sanctification of them by Gods blessed Spirit the resurrection of their bodies and the glorification of them All these are workes of grace Now all the workes of God whether they be workes of nature or of grace they are all great workes There is not a worke of Creation but it is a great worke The Pis-mire is a little creature yet it is a great worke the making of a Pis-mire is as great a worke as the creation of an Elephant It is all one with God hee can as easily make an Elephant as a Pis-mire nay Deus maximus in minimis a man may truely say it God is greatest in the least creatures If you marke it you may see how great God is in every little creature The lesse the Watch is that you carry about you to know the time of the day the greater is the skill of the work-man And surely in every little worke it appeares how great God is There is never a worke so little but it is a great work if it be well considered Workes of Creation are great workes But there are some workes greater then other Those workes wherein the Divine attributes are most manifested such workes wherein appeares the great wisedome of God or the great goodnesse of God or the great power of God or the great truth of God or the great mercy of God or the great justice of God Those workes wherein these attributes of Divine majesty are most apparent those are called great workes Therefore the workes of redemption are greater workes then the workes of creation The workes of grace are greater workes then the workes of nature But now this people had seen great workes in both kindes Great workes of Nature Great workes of Grace There were workes of nature let mee name but one or two of them The multiplication of them in Egypt When they came to Egypt at first there were but seventy souls of them seventy souls that came out of the loines of Jacob no more They were in Egypt but two hundred and fifteene years no longer A great part of this time they lived under oppression loaden with burthens loaden with blowes loaden with injuries yet see how they multiplied this same bleeding vine bare abundance of fruit this Camomile that was thus trodden downe it prospered exceedingly They grew in two hundred and fifteene yeares to be so many that at their coming out of Egypt there were numbred six hundred thousand men from twenty yeares old and upward besides women and children This multiplication was a great work of God a work of Nature Then consider their preservation there how wonderfully they were preserved in the despight of their enemies and how all things were preserved that were theirs As the land of Goshen preserved from those same swarmes of flies with which all the rest of Egypt was pestred Their cattell in the land of Goshen preserved from that murraine of which the cattell through the land of Egypt died The land of Goshen was light when all Egypt besides was darknesse This wonderfull preservation of that that they had and the preservation of their first-born when all the first-born died in the land of Egypt This preservation of them was a great worke There is another work which I know not whether it be the greater their eduction and bringing out of Egypt Their preservation was great their bringing out was as great they came out in despight of Pharaoh and his servants and they came out with vigour of body their veins full of bloud and their bones full of marrow There was not one feeble person among their Tribes Here were great Works but all these were works of nature either of multiplication or preservation Then will you heare the great workes of Grace The adoption of this people to be Gods first-borne the separation of this people from all the people of the earth to be to God a holy Nation a Royall Priest-hood his peculiar treasure The revealing of his promises especially that great promise that out of their loines should come that blessed seed that blessed Lord in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed The promulgation of the Law no Nation had it but they God had not dealt so with other Nations the heathens had not the knowledge of his Lawes Here were great workes of Nature great works of Grace yet this was the unthankfulnesse of this people they forgat God their Saviour that had done these great things for them in Egypt Then Wonderfull things too Mirabilia There be foure sorts of Mirabilia of wonderfull things There be mirabilia naturae wondrous works of nature secret wondrous works of nature That the load-stone should draw Iron to it That this power of the load-stone should be restrained if the Adamant be neare it That the Adamant cannot be broken upon an anvile with an hammer that is easily broken if it be anointed with goats bloud That the flesh of a dead Peacocke should not putrefie Saint Austine saith hee observed it himselfe hee took an experiment of it in an whole twelve-month hee tried it that it putrefied not That a fountaine in Lybia should send forth water so cold in the day that none could drink it and so hote in the night that none can touch it These and a thousand more are mirabilia naturae wonderfull things in nature no man is able to give the reason of it yet it is God that did these wonderfull things in nature Then againe there be mirabilia artis wonderfull things in art There were seven buildings that were wont to be called the Wonders of the world one of them was in Egypt the Pyramides another of them above all other was a wonder me thinks above all wonders a wonder of Art It were too long to tell you what a wonder it was It was nothing but a prodigall monument of prodigality and vaine-glory prodigality and vaine-glory that was the sin of them that built it but the skill in making it that came from God Thirdly there be mirabilia Satanae there be wonderfull things of Satan wondrous works that Satan and his instruments Magicians and Sorcerers can doe God did not punish the apostate Angels at the first as the School-men say in their naturall skill and power that is as great now to doe a mischiefe as the skill and power of good Angels is to doe that that is good The Divell hee can doe wonderfull things hee can compasse the whole earth in a little time you finde in the booke of Job that he can raise tempests he can bring down fire hee
up his hands and prop them up that they might not be weary Brethren wee should all be holding up our hands to God for mercy If thou out of conscience of thine owne unworthinesse thinkest surely that God will not regard the holding up of thine hands he will never have an eye to thine hands when thou holdest them up yet doe as Aaron and Hur hold up the hands of them whose hands thou thinkest God will respect If thou canst not act Moses his part act Aarons and Hurs Alas the hands of Gods children are faint they are discouraged their knees are feeble with prayer O encourage them lift up their hands it may be God will yet heare their prayers and shew mercy to them Thus much shall serve for the first point It was Moses that got the sentence revoked I come to the other the meanes by which he got it revoked hee stands in the breach had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach A military phrase a phrase taken from the wars If a City be besieged and if the enemy without by a ram or any other warlike Engine hath made a breach in the wall all that are men of courage and valour runne to the wall runne to the breach and strive by all meanes possible to keepe the enemy from entring in at that breach that hee hath made This fearefull sinne of the people had made a breach by which divine justice might have entred and have brought an utter destruction upon them all Moses runnes to the breach and sets himselfe between God and the people that God should not proceed further to their destruction Now you must note he stood in the breach two waies First by a due execution of justice And then by an earnest importunate intercession for mercy First I say by the execution of justice Doth the wrath of God at any time burne like fire against a sinfull people There are two things whereby it may be quenched A man may quench the wrath of God in regard of any temporall calamity the fire of Gods wrath with two things two liquors The one is blood The other is teares The blood I meane is the blood of malefactors principall malefactors that shall be shed with the sword of justice The teares I speake of are such teares as are shed by principall men by the Favourites of heaven in their prayers for mercy Moses doth both he pleads Gods cause here against the people and he pleads the peoples again with God First Causam Dei apud populum gladio he pleads Gods cause against the people with a sword of justice hee pleads the peoples cause against God with teares and prayers in both hee shewes himselfe a zealous Magistrate and I cannot tell whether hee shew himselfe more zealous to the glory of God in the one or more zealous of the peoples good in the other For the first his execution of justice There is a way to stand in the breach Moses is said to be the mildest man that was upon the earth but I pray marke what this mild man did when hee saw the glory of God bestowed upon a base filthy inglorious abomination First hee comes from the Mount and brings the Tables of God in his hand and casts down the Tables and breakes them I doe not thinke hee did it through impotency of passion Mark his words Deuteronom 9. ver 17. mee thinkes hee did it advisedly but with some secret warrant from God Hee saw the people had broken the Covenant and hee before their eyes breakes the Tables of the Covenant the most precious monument that ever the world had This was the first thing hee did Hee stayes not here hee goes to the Calfe the sinne that they had made as hee calls it he takes it and breakes it to pieces stampes it to powder hee beats it as small as dust and casts it into the brooke and makes them drink the water of it these are the Gods that shall goe before them Let them looke their god in their urine He is not yet content but cries Who is on the Lords side And the Tribe of Levi come and gird their swords on their sides and run from one side of the camp to the other and slay every man his brother and every man his Father and every man his companion They slew at that time three thousand and with the blood of these three thousand hee slacked the wrath of God The sonnes of Levi never offered a sacrifice of the flesh of beasts that was a sacrifice of so sweet a smelling savour in the nostrils of God as this sacrifice of their brethren When a sinne is committed wherewith earth is annoyed and heaven provoked the justice of God sets out presently against that sin but goes on slowly very slowly hee will see whether mans justice will follow after it or no if mans justice overtake it Gods justice pursues it no further there is an end There may be easily an unmercifull cruelty in the shedding of blood and there may be an over-cruell mercy in the sparing of it Jonah was no sooner cast out of the ship but the sea was quiet Achan and his family were no sooner stoned to death and burned with fire but Israel prevailed The sonnes of Saul were no sooner hanged but the famine ceased Phineas stood up and executed judgement and the plague was stayed in verse 30. of this Psalme As soone as this blood of three thousand men that were principall offenders in this Idolatry as soone as that was shed as soone as that blood was throwne upon the fire of Gods wrath the fire slacked presently But yet it was not quenched till his prayer came There is the second way his prayer The prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much if it be Jam. 5. 16. fervent Can you finde a more fervent prayer then this that Moses made for this people Mark the prayer you shall finde it Exodus 32. where this story is set downe First hee puts God in mind of his propriety in this people It was thy people O God c. God before called them Moses his people as you may perceive when God bids him goe downe Goe downe for thy people that thou hast brought out of Egypt c. Moses disclaimes them as if he should say Lord they are none of my people they are thy people Wilt thou lose any thing that is thine There is his first argument His second argument is from Gods great workes Lord thou hast brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand Wee love not to lose our former benefits our former benefits are lost if they be not seconded with new Lord wilt thou lose thy former favours done to this people The third argument is hee puts God in mind of his glory Lord what will the Egyptians say Thou hast brought them forth with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arme Why is it To kill them in the mountaines To consume them from the earth Lord how will