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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93240	Divine cordials: delivered in ten sermons, upon part of the ninth and tenth chapters of Ezra, in a time of visitation. By that godly and faithfull preacher of Gods Word, Iosiah Shute, B.D. and late rector of Mary Woolnoths in Lumbard-Street London. Published by authority.	Shute, Josias, 1588-1643.; Reynoldes, William.	1644 (1644)	Wing S3714; Thomason E38_7; ESTC R7756	101,687	190

shall bee seconded by fearefull judgements The second observation arising from that clause wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us is this There be degrees of Gods wrath it rises by little and little till it consume Levit. 26. This is proved in Levit. 26. there we finde that as mens sins encrease so Gods plagues shall encrease and if they persist to sin hee will plague them seven times more and seven times more So in Psal 78.38 He that is the Lord Psal 78.38 being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stirre up all his wrath So in Psal 2.12 if his wrath be kindled but a little Psal 2.12 blessed are all they that put their trust in him If therefore the Lords wrath bee turned to fire all the World will be consumed So in Revel 6.17 The great day of his wrath is come and who can stand Revel 6.17 The Prophet David makes it an imprecation against his enemies That God would render seven times into their bosomes their reproach Psal 9.12 Psal 79.12 as if he had said O Lord I know thou dost punish them now but I am sure thou canst punish them much more It was so with Eli one brings him word that Israel was discomfited another that his Sons were slain a third that the Arke of God was taken the hearing whereof caused him to fall backwards and it is a question whether his neck or his heart brake first So it was with Iob one brings him word that his cattell were taken away by the Sabeans another that his sheep and servants were burnt with fire from heaven a third that his sonnes and daughters were slaine with the fall of a house which was the most wofull newes of all Thus the wrath of God rise higher and higher Could Rehoboam make his little singer as heavie as his Fathers loynes and could Nebuchadnezzar make his Oven seven times hotter then it was before and shall not God encrease his wrath Yes hee can at pleasure Vse 1 It meets with a great number who if they have been freed from an ague of which they had foure or five fits they presently say with Agag the bitternesse is past and they shall no more have it What thinkest thou is not God able to visite thee againe or thinkest thou that thou deservest no more at Gods hand Gods manner is first to shake the 10d at his child if that will not deterre him then he gives him two or three stripes if that will not work him to obedience then he layes on more and no wonder if new judgements succeed new sinnes and if great sinnes be inherited by great judgements Vse 2 In the second place whensoever Gods hand is upon us let us know that hee could lay much more upon us if hee would and though his hand lie heavie on us yet there is something beyond that and that is to give us up to our own lusts and that is as bad or worse then to be given up to the Devill when God gave David up to adultery and murther it was much worse then that the sword should never depart from his house spirituall judgements doe farre exceed corporall and temporall Why the one drives men to the other drives men from God Againe there be some judgements beyond these and they be troublers of soule saith Solomon A wounded spirit who can beare these bee so great that none can expresse them but those who have felt them those lashes of soule are insupportable and yet there is that which is beyond all this if men repent not and that is hell Tophet is prepared of old yea for the King it is ordained hee hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Isa 30.33 all the strappadoes in the world are but flea-bitings to this Nebuchadnezzars banishment was but for seven yeares but the paines of hell be eternall when a man hath been punished there tenne thousand millions of yeares he is never the nearer comming out of that Pit for he must goe them over again and again world without end The miseries of this present life be compared to waters which ebbe and flow but hell is called stagnum a standing peole saith Iohn Rev. 20.15 Revel 20.15 Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire There is nothing in that place but sorrow and that for ever So that God can plague thee corporally spiritually and eternally Hath he begun to fleece thee hee could flea thee hath he begun to bond thee hee could break thee doth hee punish thee in thy body hee could plague thee in thy soule nay hee could send thee to Hell and that is the dregs of the Viall Therefore stand in awe and sinne not Hath hee begun to plague thee Repent if thou dost not hee can plague thee ten times more and ten times more And it is fearefull to fall into the hands of the living God Sermon IV. Ezra 9. the last Verse O Lord God of Israel thou art righteous for we remaine yet escaped as it is this day Behold wee are before thee in our trespasses for wee cannot stand before thee because of this IN this verse Ezra pleads guilty to the inditement acknowledging God to bee just though hee should renew his judgements afresh upon them There bee two things in it First his justifying God in these words O Lord God of Israel thou art righteous Secondly the reason which hee gives for it first on Gods part he had used all possible meanes to bring them to Reformation Wee remaine yet escaped as at this day secondly on their part they were still in their trespasses And therefore they were the fresh fuell of Gods indignation Before we come to these particulars give me leave to speak a word or two of the stile hee gives God he calls him Lord God of Israel The title Lord signifies his greatnesse the God of Israel his goodnesse A fit Preface for a prayer for the word Lord it is a terme well befitting God in the holy Scripture he is said to be strong in power and wonderfull in working Nay so powerfull he is that nothing whatsoever is impossible to him The Scripture demonstrates further That he doth what he pleaseth in heaven and in earth in the seas and all deep places Psal 135.6 And what hee will doe Psa 135.6 all the world cannot hinder Secondly the holy Scripture sets out Gods power by this that whatsoever hee doth hee doth without difficulty hee knowes how to sit still and work and to work and sit still Yea so farre is his power extended that his will is his power as appeares in the creation he said the word and all things were created and though some Atheisticall spirits have asked

encreases at other times it decreases so that it keeps at no stay but if wee shall therefore neglect to humble our soules and bodies in the presence of God we shall so incense him as to encrease this plague among us without measure but if we shall turn to him that smites us by unfained repentance and amendment of life hee will not only take this grievous sicknesse from us but hee will leave a blessing behinde him So much for the two generalls We now descend to the particulars as they were laid down Wee begin with the indictment preferred by Ezra against Israel in which is remembred Gods mercy and their rebellion Gods mercy is laid down in the thirteenth verse and that three wayes First he shewes that they were not punished without cause Secondly that God punished them lesse then they deserved Thirdly that he had totally delivered them First for the first particular in the gradation of Gods mercy thou our God hast punished us that is thou hast punished us deservedly Tyrants will and doe punish men without cause nay they desire to pick holes in mens coates that they may punish them but the Judge of all the world never proceeds to punish but when hee is provoked In that Ezra saith seeing that thou our God hast punished us take notice in the first place of this observation Doct. 3 Whatsoever is the instrument Isa 45.7 God is the Authour of the punishment This is proved in Isa 45.7 where the Lord saith I make peace and create evill I the Lord doe all these things so in Amos 3.6 Shall there be evill in a City Amos 3.6 and the Lord hath not done it yee must understand these places not of the evill of sinne but of punishment for Deus non author sed ultor peccati God is not the authour but revenger of sinne it was hee that opened the bottles of heaven and sent the deluge on the earths it was hee that rained that igneum imbrem shower of fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah it was he that shut up the wombs in Abimelechs house and that plagued Egypt with those successions of plagues the Magicians could not or would not see digitum Dei the finger of God in them but had they not been blind they might have seen ambas manus his ten fingers in those tenne judgements which hee inflicted on them It was hee that offered David his choyce of three plagues and upon his choyce sent the pestilence and in 1 Cor. 11.32 S. Paul there labours to perswade the Corinthians 1 Cor. ●● ●● that God chastened them Psal ●9 9 and David saith Psal 39.9 I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it mistake mee not I know that sometimes God makes use of instruments for the execution of his wrath hee made use of the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram he made use of the water to drown Pharaoh and his Host hee made use of the fire to slay the Captaines and their fifties which came to apprehend Eliah he made use of a Lyon to kill the disobedient Prophet and of Beares to destroy two and fourty children that called Elisha bald-pate and he used Serpents to sting to death the rebellious Israelites but the primus motor the chiefe efficient is God who is the Lord of Hosts and hath all creatures at his beck Ioseph was not ignorant that his brethren had a hand in selling of him into Egypt yet he tels them that God had sent him thither and Iob knew well enough that the Sabeans and Caldeans had taken away his goods yet he saith The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord though men were the instruments yet he knew God to be Authour of what he suffered Vse 1 This may informe us what is the ground of all the impatience in the world there be a number which repine and murmure when Gods hand is upon them what is the reason they stick in the second causes and look so much on the lower links of the chaine that they forget him that hath the top of it in his hand one complaines of his brother another of the ayre hee lives in a third of the meat he eates and hence it is that they repine whereas if a man looked up to God in what he suffers he would say as Eli It is the Lord let him doe what hee will and with Iob The Lord gives and takes and blessed bee his Name Nay if a man would doe this it would not only make him patient but to profit by his affliction for no man sees himself so clearly and truly as in the glasse of adversity every affliction that God laies upon us seemes to say as Ehud to Eglon I have a message to thee from God which if a man would consider it would make his affliction a Bethesda to cure him of his spirituall infirmities and by so doing hee would come out of that fornace cleare gold purged from the drosse of his corruptions Vse 2 Secondly here is a Use of admonition ever look up to God in all thy afflictions look to him in thy Feaver in thy Ague in the Plague I know there may be an infected ayre there may be ill humours in the body which may help forward infection I know also that a man may bee infected by being conversant with infected persons these be second causes but God is the chiefe and principall The Heathens call the plague a judgement sent from God and surely there is something more divine in it then in other punishments and a man may say of those that die of the Pestilence as Moses said of the death of Korah and his Complices they die not the common death of men for as there is something in this disease for the Physitian to look on so something for the Divine Vse 3 Lastly when the Lords hand is upon us and that we would have it removed the nearest way we can take is to have recourse to God by prayer for as our Saviour told Pilate that he had no power but what was given him from above so afflictions could not seise upon us without Gods giving them a commission a man may spend all that he hath to be cured of his disease as did the woman in the Gospel that had the bloody issue and yet unlesse God please all shall doe him no good Saul may goe to the Witch of Endor for help and Amaziah to the god of Ekron to bee healed but except the God of heaven work the cure it shall never be effected let us therefore in all our afflictions seek to God and to him alone for he that is the inflicter must be the restorer I now proceed to the point which even now I named Ezra saith God punished them not without cause which guides mee to this Observation Doct. 4 God doth never punish any without desert Gen. 18.25 Saith Abraham

a wave of the Sea driven with the winde and tossed neither let that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord And in Chap. 5 1● The prayer of faith shall save the sick Iam. 5.15 and the Lord shall raise him up and if hee have committed sinnes they shall bee forgiven him Fourthly wee must pray constantly this is that which our Saviour commends to us from the importunity of the poore women who would not cease troubling the unjust Iudge till hee had granted her request and done her justice this also is that which the Apostle Paul meanes when hee saith continue in prayer Colos 4.2 to wit that men should bee importunate with God in prayer Coloss 4.2 and if any man think it ill manners to be sollicitous in pressing God by prayer Gregory tels him it is a good violence and affects God who loves that his servants should take the Kingdome of heaven by force Further there be two other things to be observed in our prayers First Wee must aime at the glory of God in all the prayers wee make This our blessed Lord teacheth us in that absolute forme of prayer which hee hath left us the first petition whereof is hallowed by thy name The glory of God must be preferred before all things yea before the salvation of our soules as we see in the examples of Moses and Paul who chose rather to have their names rased out of Gods book then that hee should lose his glory in the salvation of his people Therefore when a man is in affliction hee ought to pray to God to deliver him but for this end that hee may live to glorifie him This was the end of good Hezekiahs request when God sent him word by Isaiah that hee had added fifteene yeares to his life saith hee What is the signe that I shall goe up to the house of the Lord Isa 38.22 Isa 38.22 as if hee desired health upon no other condition but that hee might glorifie God in his Sanctuary Secondly a man must so pray to God that withall hee use meanes to accomplish his desires This is the advise of Solomon Prov. 2.3.4.5 If thou cryest after knowledge Prov. 2 4.3.5 and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid Treasures then shalt thou understand the feare of the Lord and finde the knowledge of God There yee see that crying and calling seeking and searching must goe together and in vaine dost thou pray to God if thou follow not thy prayers with thy endeavours for the attaining of that for which thou art a petitioner as for example thou prayest to be delivered from thy filthy excesse but unlesse thou strive to forsake it thou wilt never bee rid of that filthy vice to doe otherwise is to bee like the man in the Apologue who when his Cart stuck in the mire prayed to Hercules for help but never set to his shoulder to lift it out If wee lay the men of these dayes to this square Vse wee shall finde them to fall very short of what wee have said doe the pray sensibly Alas when they pray their hearts like Nabals bee as dead in them as stones Secondly doe the pray fervently alas no for their prayers bee even key-cold Thirdly pray they constantly O no they desist and are soone weary they would have God presently to heare them but they will not stay his leasure Fourthly doe they pray in faith Alas they have no promises to lay hold on Againe doe men ayme at Gods glory in their prayers And doe they use the meanes to accomplish their prayers I am perswaded these bee things scarse thought of much lesse practised but by a few well let us observe the true properties of supplication and wee shall finde to our comfort that hee is a God hearing prayers and if hee please not to give us the very individuall things which we beg of him yet wee shall have something that is as good or better for us so as hee shall bee glorified and wee comforted So much for Ezra his first act The second act performed by him is his confession the Text saith when hee had confessed Augustine saith confession is twofold confessio laudis a confession of prayse and confessio fraudis a confession of sinne First there is confessio laudis a confession of prayse such was that of our Saviour Christ in Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth Matth. 11.25 because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes The second is confessio fraudis the confession of a mans sinne and this is either publike or private First publike when the Minister goes before in confessing sinne and all the people follow after him this is the custome of our and all reformed Churches Secondly there is a private confession and that is of a particular man and this is fourefold First when hee confesses his sinne to God as did David Psal 32.5 saith hee Psal 32.5 I confessed my sinne unto the Lord and my iniquity I have not hid Secondly when a man confesseth his sinne to the whole Church this was that which the incestuous Corinthian was driven unto Thirdly it is to the Minister in private and such was that of the people to Iohn Baptist Matth. 3.6 It is said Matth. 3.6 they were baptized of him in Iordan confessing their sinnes such also was that of David to Nathan 2 Sam. 12.13 Lastly 2 Sam. 12.13 it is to a mans neighbour or brother as when a man that hath offended his brother goes and confesses his fault desiring him to bee reconciled to him This is that which our blessed Saviour aymes at Matth. 5.24.25 Iam. 5.16 Matth. 5.24.25 and which S. Iames meaneth Iam. 5.16 Now for confession whether publike or private first it is that which is commanded Numb 5 6.7 Look into Numb 5 7. See what God saith there When a man or a woman shall commit any sin and doe a trespasse against the Lord and that person bee guilty then they shall confesse their sinne which they have done Secondly forgivenesse is promised to those that doe confesse their sinnes Prov. 28.13 1 Iohn 1.9 Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth his sinnes shall have mercy And in 1 Iohn 1.9 If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all iniquity Thirdly wee have examples of holy penitents going before us in this way as David Nehemiah Daniel the Prodigall and those Converts in Acts 19.18 The Text saith Acts 19.18 They confessed and shewed their works This confession standeth First in accusing our selves for our sinnes in generall but more especially for our particular sinnes thus did David 2 Sam. 12. hee accused himselfe for his adultery and murder 2 Sam 12. and in like manner Paul that chosen vessell accuses