the Armie Divisions in Counsells Divisions every where amongst all sorts in the Kingdome Whilst God doth thus divide us and doth in his just judgement give us over thus to make Divisions certainly he meaneth that by our selves we shall be destroyed We would not in time of Peace agree together to serve him with one consent he will therefore that we shall agree in this By our dis-agreements to destroy and consume one another I beseech you take into your serious consideration those Symptomes which argued our utter ruine and destruction to be neere if not speedily prevented as you heard them so you may help your memories if you can gain time to read them in the ensuing Sermon which as it was Preached so now is Printed by your Order Are not gray haires upon us here and there already Hos 7. 9. Is not much of our strength devoured Are we blind Or will we still winke with our eyes and not see And not know all this Doth not our wickednesse which aboundeth more and more in England even while we are under the Rod testifie unto our faces that we do not return to the Lord our God and seeke him with our whole heart for all this When you were pleased to call me to go before you and to bear a part with you in your day of Fast and solemn Humiliation I looked upon our Nation in this ill Condition I knew no better Subject to Treate of to be applyed to your selves and to all that then heard me then to teach you or atleast to remember you of a timely and profitable Use-making of the Rod of God which is now so sore upon us Namely to learn what God teacheth us by it To be shewed our danger in which we are and the neerenesse of our ruine for our sinnes will be no discouragement unto you in the work of standing in the gap and Psal 106. 23. making up the breach in which you have so long stood and which with unweariednesse and undauntednesse you have to your eternall Renown endeavoured maugre all the mountains of opposition and difficulties which you have met withall But it should rather put an edge to your courage as all difficulties do to men of courage and true valour You are Honoured and worthy Patriots the repairers of our breaches under God Be ye Mosesses and Phineasses to our Israel When Israel sinned in the matter of the golden Calf God said He would destroy them had Psal 106. 23. not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them When Phineas executed Judgement the plague was Psal 106. 30. stayed you are called not extraordinarily as he but in an ordinary way to do it God when he foretold his purpose to destroy the Kingdome of Judah did look for such as you are to make up the hedge and stand in the gap before Ezek. 22. 30. the Lord that he might not destroy it These Worthies by prayer held Gods hands from striking Exod. 32. 10 27. and by executing judgement for him did save the Kingdome did save the people from destruction Whatsoever the event may prove Noble Sirs Let the fear of the Lord be upon you Be strong Let 2 Chron. 15. 7. not your hands be weak deal couragiously The Lord will be with the good and your work shall be rewarded 2 Chron. 19. 11. and you may expect a happy issue But however it is honourable for a Souldier to dye in maintaining or making up the breach and your work shall be with the Lord and if you save not the Kingdome you shal without Ezeck 14. 18 20. fail as it is sayd of Noah Job and Daniel save your own souls and may expect some temporall deliverance Neither should the knowledge of our likelinesse and neerenesse to ruine disanimate any or should it weaken the hands of the people of the Land For when God sent Jeremiah to Prophesie against Jerusalem that he would destroy it and that they should be carried Captive this is the inference from it Therefore amend your wayes Jer. 25. 13. and your doings and obey the voyce of the Lord your God and the Lord will repent him of the evill Jer. 18. 7 8. that he hath pronounced against you Moreover let it be conceived that God is peremptorily determined to destroy a Nation which we cannot be certain of though we can see a Nation deserving it and is neer to it For God is not limitted nor can be prescribed to do what in like case he hath done yet it will be profitable for a people to be warned of it For they that fear God will thereupon endeavour to prevent it or to Ezek. 9. 4. prepare for it That making their own peace with God they may be marked for safety as those in Ezekiel were and may make their adresses to God as to a safe and strong tower thereby entring into the chambers spoken of in Isaiah and shut the doores about them and hide themselves for a little-moment that is cast themselves upon Gods Providence and Protection securing themselves Isai 26. 20. in him untill the indignation of the Lord be overpast No man can apprehend misery and destruction more certainly to come upon a people then the Prophet Habbacuk did at which at the first hearing he was much terrified yet it was much for his good and advantage For it did cause him to humble himself before God and to seek his face That he might rest in the day of Hab. 3. 16. trouble when the Chaldeans should come up and invade them with his Troops Through faith he could see safety and matter of comfort and joy in God so that he could say though he should be deprived of all livelihood and means of subsistance for his person and outward man Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God Hab. 3. 1â— of my Salvation c. I have here given you some account of the choise of the Subject whereof in my Sermon I spake unto you and have prosecuted more fully something which I did then but hint unto you I take the boldnesse to publish it and put it forth under the shelter of your honourable patronage I have onely this maine suite unto you that you would continue resolute for God and his true Religion for the Kings Majesties just Rights for the Laws of the Kingdome and just Liberties to which we are all born And the Lord of Hoasts and King of kings our good God He blesse and prosper the work in your hands wherewith you are intrusted The Lord prosper your handy work So prayeth dayly The unworthiest of those which you have imployed to serve you in the Lord HENRY SCUDDER A Sermon at the monethly Fast Octob. 30. 1644. BEFORE the Honourable House of COMMONS MICAH 6. 9. The voyce of the Lord cryeth to the City and the man of wisedome shall see thy Name
put away by the hand of the Magistrate God will not pardon a Land polluted with innocent blood he will sooner or later be 2 Kings 24. 4. avenged of it How much hath been shed heretofore and the murthers either not brought unto Judgement or not prosecuted in Judgement This polluteth a Kingdom with blood and this blood crieth loud for vengeance upon those into whose hands God did put the sword of Justice to revenge for him and to execute wrath upon such as are murtherers and do it not This causeth the Lord to execute Judgement himself in shedding the blood upon such a People as this 9. The sinnes of Sodom Pride fulnesse of bread idlenesse unmercifulnesse and all sorts of voluptuousnesse have been the common Ezek. 16. 49. sins of this Kingdom and yet are notwithstanding the hand of God is so heavie upon us Our Gentry and such as were born and left rich in estate they in a generality have given themselves so to live as if they had been made and born for nothing else but to eat and drink and play and sleep and satisfie their sensuall lusts They have accounted it to be a blemish and a matter of disrepute to them to live in a Calling or to give themselves unto any thing wherein they might be serviceable and profitable in any place of good employment in Church or Common-wealth Men and women have been most luxurious and wanton in matters of Diet Apparell and Gestures that they know not how or what to eat what to wear or how to attire themselves or what gate or gesture to use They for delicacie in these are too Isai 3. 16. like those inveighed against and threatned Isa 3. 16. The Land hath been and yet is polluted with Whoredoms and Hos 4. 2. Isa 28. 1 7 18. is even drowned with Drunkennesse For these sins also the Lord is now visiting of us 10. Another sin for which God will be wrath with a People and doth scourge them sore is formality in the true Worship and Religion Tit. 1. 16. of God when those who professe the Name of God do in works deny him and having a form of godlinesse deny the power of â— Tim. 3. 5. it This is the common and great sin of this Kingdom We in this declare that we are an hypocriticall Nation and therefore the people of Gods curse and people of his wrath So God spake of his people the Jews against whom he sent the King of Assyria Isa 10. 6. the rod of his anger I will send him against an hypocriticall Nation and against the people of his wrath giving him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like mire in the streets These sins I have remembred you of There are many others which I pray you to call to your remembrance Consider your own sins and the sins you see committed in the Land And be sure that you take this into your serious thoughts That for these and other our sins God is now punishing of us and which aggravates them all we are not amended by his Rod but grow worse and worse What is now therefore to be done You have heard what the Rod hath taught us that It is sor our sins that God is wrath with us We are this day therefore to humble our selves for those sins we must confesse them repent of them and disclaim them and be earnest suitors to God that he would make the Land sensible of Isa 9. 13. their sins and of this his Rod that we turn to him that smiteth us And every one of us must endeavour a Reformation in the Land first of our selves and then of others beseeching the Lord to work it We must with all earnestnesse intreat the Lord to forgive these sins of the Land and that he will be mercifull to us and be at peace with us and heal the Land We have great encouragement from God himself who saith If my people that are called 2 Chron. 7. 1â— by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will for give their sins and will heal their Land We may make this stroke and wound incurable if we go on still in our trespasses if we do not speedily make our peace with our God We have a promise let us take hold on it that he may make peace with us and he will be at peace with us for Isa 25. 7. he waiteth for our turning unto him and seeking favour of him that he may be gracious unto us Isa 30. 18 But as I said before let us take heed that we go not on in our sin lest we provoke the Lord to continue and encrease his iudgements even to make us a desolation We are in the high way to it For a kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation There are many Symptomes if we consider the state of the Kingdom as now it is that may cause us to fear that if timely and thorow repentance do not prevent it this Judgement shall not be taken off but be encreased untill the Land be destroyed 1. The first I shall mention is When lesser judgements do Symptomes of our being neer to utter ruine not awaken and amend us especially if we are grown worse thereupon God hath told us that he will destroy such a Nation as this I sent cleannesse of teeth and you have not returned to me Amos 4. 6 7 9 10 11. saith the Lord I withheld rain from you I have smitten you with blasting c. I have sent among you the pestilence I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah yet have ye not returned to me saith the Lord therefore thus will I do unto thee that is I will destroy thee utterly This you may reade in Amos 4. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. God sware by his holinesse vers 2. Am. 4. â— that he would take them away with hooks and their posterity with fishhooks they should be carried away captive and utterly ruined 2. A second Symptome is When the sins of a Land grow universall in respect of the severall kinde of sins and severall sorts of persons All sorts of sins are committed and all sorts of persons are grievous sinners Reade Ezek. 22. Adde thereunto these sins Contempt of the Word and holy Ordinances of God despising of those that truely fear God and enmity against the power of Godlinesse Every one wore in them to their Ezek. 22. power to shed blood and so he reckons up many other saying In thee there are that commit such and such sins There are many sins named There is scarce any one sin reckoned there but the salne sins are rife and common amongst us And there you shall also finde Princes and Nobles and Judges and Priests and Ezek. 22. 25 27 29. Prophets and People were
hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it THe Word of the Lord came to the Prophet Micah in the dayes of Jotham Ahas and Hezekiah Kings of Judah This word concerned Samaria and Jerusalem the head Cities of the Kingdomes of Israel and Judah The word now read unto you concerneth us as well as them being written for our learning and for the admonition Rom. 15. 4. of us upon whom the ends of the world are come according as we are like to them in their sin and in their condition 1 Cor. 10. 11. In this Prophesie the Lord by this Prophet setteth before these Cities and Kingdomes the many and great sinnes which with an high hand they had committed against him And withall foretelleth them of those Judgements which he would certainly bring upon them if they continued in those their sins And that at last both kingdomes should be destroyed and captivated by their enemies the Assyrians and Chaldeans But withall to support and comfort the hearts of the faithfull that were found in those kingdomes he foretelleth the temporall deliverance of Judah out of the Babilonish Captivity also the everlasting deliverance of the Church of God to be gathered out of all Nations through the promised Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ The sins whereof he would convince and for which he denounceth Judgement against these Kingdomes were extream oppression by all from the Prince to the meanest according as they Micah 2. 1 2. had power in their hand The heads thereof judging for reward The Prophets and Priests were prophane and wicked all for their Micah 3. 11. covetousnesse teaching for hire and divining for money They were very licentious promising liberty saying Peace peace to Jer. 6. 13 14. the wicked The Prophets prophesying falsly and the Priests bearing Jer. 5. 31. rule by their means and the people loved to have it so They were also Idolaters Superstitious will-worshippers silencers as much as they could of the good Prophets and Ministers of the Word saying to the Scers see not and to the Prophets Prophesie not unto us Isa 30. 10. right things speak to us smooth things prophesie deceits They did set up and countenance false and wicked Prophets They notwithstanding these sinnes and other their abhominations and notwithstanding the severe threats of God were presumptuously secure because they had the Temple of the Lord a signe of his presence amongst them and because they professed the name and Religion of God having a forme of Godlinesse they promised to themselves impunity and freedome from the destroying Judgement They would yet as the Prophet saith Lean upon the Lord Micah 3. 11. and say Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us All which sins of theirs are aggravated by their ingratitude towards God who had been good unto them and had done great and wonderfull things for them from Shittim to Gilgall even Micah 6. 3 â— 5. from the miraculous leading them forth out of Egypt through the Wildernesse till he brought them into the Land of Canaan and untill this day At the time of this Prophesie the Kingdome of Judah was under the rod of Gods Judgements For in the dayes of Ahas Pekah the son of Remaliah King of Israel and Rezin King of Siria were 2 King 16. 5. confederate and came against Judah and came up even to Jerusalem and though they did not prevaile to take Jerusalem yet God delivered him and the people into the hand of the King of Syria so that They smote him and carried away a great multitude of them 2 Chron. 28. â— captive and brought them to Damascus And he was also delivered into the hand of the King of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter for one hundred and twenty thousand of the men of Judah were slain in one day which were all valiant men At which time 2 Chron. 28. 5 6 8. the Children of Israel carried away Captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women sons and daughters and took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria In his dayes also 2 Chron. 28. 17. the Edomites had come and smitten Judah and carried away captives The Philistims also invaded their Cities and took many of them with their villages and dwelt there God brought Judah very low at that time because they had transgressed sore against the Lord. This I have premised to leade you unto the Text and to 2 Chron. 28. 19. give some light for the better understanding of it Do we not as in a glasse see our selves in this kingdome of Judah wee being too to like them in their sin beginning also to be too like to them nay in a worse condition then they were if the Lord as he hath begun shall go on to powre out his wrath upon us The likenesse of our condition now with theirs then hath given me occasion to make choise of this Scripture to speak of it and to speak to you by it In these words God doth warn and advise his people what they The Text opened should do now they were under the rod of his anger and were like to be more sorely punished according as it had been denounced against them by his Prophets for their sins That whereas he had by fair and loving means spoken to them and warned them by his Prophets and had gently smitten them by the rod of his mouth that he might reclaim them and they were not sensible of his Word to obey it He now thinketh it best to teach and warn them by the rod of his hand and calleth upon them to hear and learn to be reformed by it Now concerning this admonition and Councell given the Prophet doth three things First to gain attention and that this Word might be entertained with the greater Authority he sheweth who it was that spake unto them Secondly who they were that would see God in his Judgements and would hear his voyce and would learn by his correction Thirdly what it is he warneth them of and adviseth them to do Every sentence in this verse is diversly rendred by Translators and Interpretors each of them two or three wayes but they agree in their scope namely That God would have them to hear him and turn to him that the judgement threatned might not come upon them I have diligently considered the severall readings and compared them with the Originall observing the context and scope of the place and do keep to the last Translation as it is now before you If I should rehearse them all and give reason why I make choise of this reading rather than other it would take up very much time and hinder the delivering of things more needfull First then the Voyce of the Lord cryeth to the City in this sentence we are to observe who speaketh and in what manner he speaketh and to whom The Voyce of the Lord that is God by his Prophet Micah uttereth
this truth The Prophet complaineth of those that when Gods hand was lifted up and his Isa 26. 11. Ezek. 7. 9. Micah 6. 13. judgements were upon the earth they would not see but they shall see saith he and be ashamed He will make them know that it is he that smiteth God will smite them till he make them sick with smiting and make them desolate because of their sins When men in their afflictions shall consider that God hath Vse 3. appointed them it will humble them and calm their spirits Psal 39. 9. They will lay their hands on their mouthes and accept of their punishment because God hath appointed it bearing patiently Micah 7. 9. the indignation of the Lord because they have sinned against him Would we have our present judgement taken off Now we know who hath appointed it let us prepare to meet him let Hos 6. 1. us return to him that hath smitten us and make our peace with him This Rod and Sword being called Gods rod and Gods sword Vse 4. which smite at Gods appointment we may then see that the great Quarrell and Controversie originally is not betwixt man and us but between God and us We must therefore first submit to him and make our peace with him else we shall make no peace or no good peace with man It is not any policie or power nor any other means though good and so necessary that we shall sin if we use them not can remove our evil from us but as we shall obtain it of God who hath appointed it When the Sword of God was called upon to put it self up into the Scabbard and asked How long it would be ere it would be Jer. 47. 6 7. quiet answer is made How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the Sea shore there he hath appointed it The Lord must command it to be put up or it will not cease smiting till it have consumed us It is not any Articles of Peace be they never so equall and reasonable it is not the power of the sword nor of any means we can use though never so lawfull and necessary that can take off the rod from us and give us peace except in the use of all good means to satisfie him we shall obtain it of him who hath appointed it We may haply use such means as may skin over the wound and conclude a Peace but it will break out again if God be not at peace with us and if he do not appoint and make our Peace for us Wherefore I beseech you that with all the good means that possibly we can use we endeavour to the utmost of our power to procure of God to take this rod from us and give us Peace Let us repent of our own sins and endeavour that the Land may repent Let us remove out of Gods sight whatsoever doth offend him Let us seek and finde out and cast out those execrable things which have provoked the Lord to appoint the rod and sword to smite and destroy amongst us Let us give him no rest but continue our wrestling with him with Jacobs wrestlings by humble and earnest and importunate prayer and supplication By this strength we may have power with God Hos 12. 3 4. and to speak with holy reverence to his Omnipotency we may have power over God to prevail with him Then we may expect that he that hath appointed the rod will lay it by if not cast it into the fire and will command it to cease smiting and will command the sword to be put up into the Scabbard and then we shall have peace and not till then Is we would cast away our sins God would certainly cast away his rod. If we prepare to meet him he will be friends with us But to conclude with a word of comfort to those that truely Vse 5. fear God That God is the appointer and orderer of the rod in all punishments is a Ground of stay and support of their hearts and spirits in the greatest afflictions Be enemies never so powerfull and malicious we need not fear them it shall not be as they intend either for the greatnesse or continuance of the evil which they would bring upon us but according to the will of God who hath given them charge to asslict us As it was in the case of the children of Judah when the Lord gave a charge to the Assyrians to war against them saying O Assyrian the sword of mine anger and the staff Isa 10. 6 7. of mine indignation I send him against an hypocriticall Nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil c. Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so namely to correct or punish for God in measure and for their good he never thinketh that he is but a rod in Gods hand But he being let loose to his own covetousnesse and ambition and malice against Gods people it is in his heart to destroy Nations not a few and to raise himself upon the ruines of Gods people But God put a hook in his nostrils that he could not have his will of them and afterward for his rage and cruelty in executing his charge in smiting Gods people God did utterly destroy him God doth with them as with Isa 10. 7 12 16 17. the proud waves which would overflow the mountains they have their chanell to flow in Gods appointment doth set Bars to them and saith Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther and Job 38. 11. there shall thy proud waves be stayed It is well for Gods people that the rod and sword is in the hand and at the appointment of God their Wise Almighty and tender Father God punisheth his children in measure both for how much Isa 27. 8. 9. and how long not so much nor so long as the enemy intendeth He measureth every dram for weight and every minute for time His rod shall be upon us no longer then he hath appointed it no longer then is needfull to purge us from sin and Heb. 12. 10. make us partaker of his holinesse As he hath appointed a time of trouble and tryall so he hath appointed an end thereof And the rod of the wicked shall not Psal 125. 3. alwayes rest upon the Lot of the Righteous He will not alwayes Isa 28. 28 29. be threshing his smiting is for correction and for our good not for our destruction He is wonderfull in Counsell and excellent in working When he hath sufficiently smitten us with his rod he will take his rod and burn it then he holdeth it to be sufficient Levit. 26. 41. when our uncircumcised hearts are humbled and when we shall accept of the punishment of our sins acknowledging that he hath punished us lesse then our iniquities when we 2 Chron. 7. 14. shall kindly submit unto God and reform our wayes pray and ask forgivenesse he hath then promised that he will forgive our sins and heâ—l our Land he will take this strok from us And when God useth the wicked His and our enemies to be his rod when he hath attained his end our troubles shall end in their destruction God may use Papists Antichrist and his Abettors to be his rod and sword whereby to correct and refine his people which when it is done They because God hath appointed it shall certainly be destroyed Let not your spirits sink nor fail while you are under the rod though it may happen to be much worse with us then yet it is for it shall be onely so much and so long as he in his wisedome hath appointed for our good I will end with that comfortable Scripture touching his Church then and Babilon in Chaldâ—a which is as applyable to us and to Babilon at Rome Yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease saith God and mine anger in their destruction Isai 10. 25. For he hath appointed the rod of Iron to break in peeces his enemies as well as his rod of men to correct his children comfort we our selves with these thoughts nothing commeth to passe in the way of correction of his children but as he hath appointed Let us therefore for all these good purposes Hear the rod and who hath appointed it FINIS ERRATA Page 10. line 25 for â—â— reade see p. 14. l. 2. for that rod read the Sâ—n p. 2â— l. 24 for upon read the p. 35. l. 8. blot out these P. 19. l. 24. for professing reade confessing P. 23. l. 18. for murthers reade murtherers