well Mendacium ex veritate superstitio religionem imitatur Lies come of truth and superstition taketh Religion for a patterne yet for all this lies are not truth superstition is not religion nor the torments which desperate men for euill causes endure shall euer make good mens sufferings to be lesse regarded The sheepe must not leaue off her skin because somtimes the wolfe commeth in her likenesse nor we must lesse esteeme the martyrs paines bicause the diuels souldiers likewise die for his sake by these two reasons it is euident that the prophets sermons are the Lords sermons Nowe let vs make some godly vses of this doctrine The first generall exhortation which we make heereof is that sentence of the Apostle 1. Thess 5. 20. Despise not prophesying That is now it hath been cleerely prooued that the prophets speeches are the oracles of God be not so beastly as swine to tread those precious pearles of deuine wisedome in the filthie dregs and stinking myre of your vaine displeasures It being apparant that God his ministers speake no more without his spirit then the conduit runneth without his fountaines springs those disgracing words which many vse of the spirituall exercises some at their table others in their clossets many at the tauerns and most in their houses are nothing else but meere reuilings and spitefull raylings against the spirit of God Sometimes the preachers want eloquence to smooth the itching eares of gallant persons sometimes they want learning to feede the curious mindes of vaine religion bablers sometimes they want wealth to maintaine their countenance with outward brauerie and sometime they want manners to make them companions to the gentle sort And euerie one of these thinke his sermons and labours in God his church to be nothing worth where he spieth but one want which his vaine conceite desired I like not this sermon saith one bicause he wanted words it was a silly peece of worke saith another bicause it was not bombasted with the sayings of Fathers and he seldome or neuer confuted the papists another saith that the preacher was but a poore beggerly fellowe and therefore it is no matter what hee say none of the great men would haue saide so much and others saide he hath more learning then wit more zeale then behauiour and his confident wordes are impudent speeches vnto all these I say Despise not prophesying See you not howe the diuell driueth you to condemne all for want of one and to a generall neglect for a particular desire shall the spirite of God be blamed because euery mans humour is not satisfied God forbid that such iniquitie should lodge among the professours of religion that those sermons which displease some should be despised of so many there is no pearle which all men will praise there is no garden so pleasant but some will dislike it nor anie house so commodious but some will dispraise it shall wee cast away pearles plowe vp gardens and race downe houses bicause all men are not pleased No verily no more shall prophesying preaching praying and exhorting be reiected although euery mans idle disposition be not answered Oh miserable and lamentable daies wherein men come to the congregation like buyers to a faire and they all crie it is naught it is naught though the Lordes wares be freely solde yet who will buie them at his hands The more plentifully they are offered the more scornefully they are reiected for looke vpon those places where the ministerie hath beene of longest standing and greatest practise where pastors according to the Lords owne hart are planted where the voice of the worde soundeth at least euerie Sabbaoth day I say looke there euen as narrowly as Ezechiel looked ouer Ierusalem and you shal finde them more ignorant in knowledge more lewde in liuing more obstinate in wordes and more disobedient in deedes then other people are Euen thus the diuell laboureth painfully where the Lord speaketh abundantly that he may maliciously condemne where the Lord woulde mercifully saue insomuch that the Lord may say to the congregations of England as he once saide to the assembly of Israel Ierem. 6. vers 10 Vnto whom shall I speake and admonish that they may heare behold their eares are vncircumcised they cannot harken behold the worde of the Lorde is vnto them as a reproch And where the worde of the Lorde can haue no being the wrath of the Lord will take vp the lodging therefore we may say as the prophet speaketh Abak 1. 5. Behold yee despisers and woonder and vanish away for I worke a worke in your daies a worke which you will not beleeue though a man declare it Consider this yee scornefull hearers among vs that God shall punish your contempt with infidelitie and although myracles should be wrought to conuert you yet they shall not profite you euen the myracles of Egypt till yee be vtterly consumed you which with lesse deuotion serue the Lord then your pleasures with lesse diligence followe the Church then the tauerne with more delight exercise vanitie then religion with more labour occupie your trades of life then the words of life euen you I meane are the despisers of heauenly pearles for earthly trash which neuer are pleased with the seruants of Christ It is your condemnation that sleepeth not whose conscience can pretend no excuse at the day of all daies that either yee wanted preachers or leasure or abilitie or time or meanes to beleeue those heauenly oracles Behold this yee despisers and repent shewe your sorrowe by your amendement and redeeme the time by diligence heereafter If the Lorde vtter his voice the earth is mooued and the mountaines tremble Psal 29. Mooue therefore your harts you rebellious sort from the world to god from ignorance to knowledge and from disobedience to faith stirre vp your resty bodies and idle limmes and go from strength to strength till you come to the Lords mountaine let not feare of sicknesse dread of pouertie loue of pleasures desire of profit drawe you from heauen but draw neere vnto God and hee will draw neere vnto you The gates of heauen are open enter you therein Secondly another vse we may adde heereunto is that exhortation of the Apostle 1. Cor. 14. 1. Aboue all other gifts desire prophesie what was more admirable then healing of sicke persons or more commendable then to speake strange toongs or more glorious then to worke myracles or more necessarie then to discerne spirits yet aboue all these saith Paul rather desire Prophesie Neither is it maruell that so great an honour is bestowed on so noble a gift because the Prophets speeches are the Lords sermons Then my beloued as for the merchandise of gold men endure the longest traficke the sharpest pains and greatest charges euen so for the obtaining of prophesie whether it be to preach or heare preachers sustaine my bowels in the Lord Iesus the roughest waies the longest studies the weariest iournies the coldest daies the hottest threats
reason hereofmay be this because no man can haue a perfect faith without the totall conuersion of the hart Rom. 10. 9. and men can neuer liue well that beleeue not well saith Augustine If thou haue one part of thy heart with the Lord bicause thou knowest the truth thou hast another part with the world in louing thy life so in part thou beleeuest God and beleeuest the diuell Canst thou brag of faith when thy heart is distracted louing and liking two contrarie maisters no verily thou deceiuest thy selfe thou canst not loue gold and beleeue in God thou canst not haunt thy pleasures and yet delight in the Gospell Therefore if thou wouldest haue a sound faith thou must first haue a sound hart conuert thy hart and then thy faith will follow if it bee thoroughly thou shalt haue a perfect faith but if thou doe it in part then is it but a painted bodie which can neither goe nor see Another reason because regeneration maketh the heart to bee one Ierem. 32. 39. Indeede they which wander in wickednes haue a hart and a hart but when we come to the Lord we must haue but one hart for the hart is the man wherein are treasured all kind of vnderstanding and knowledge therefore it must not be halfe of flesh and halfe of stone Ezech. 11. 19. but either all flesh or all stone for he that is in part prophane and in part a christian in very deede is no man And for this cause is hypocrisie of all sinnes most abhominable which maketh a man no man dissembling with God the world and himselfe with God in his hart with the world in his life and with himselfe in that he dissembleth Of all sinners fewest hypocrites are conuerted and of all persons are they most odious and therefore hell is called the lake burning with fire and brimstone prepared for hypocrites vnlesse then we will liue as they liue and die as they die we must turne our whole hearts to the Lord. The vses are these First that we draw neere vnto the Lord with a pure hart Heb. 10. 22. Puritie is ioyned with integritie therefore when our hearts be purest then are they fittest for the Lord. In olde time there straite steps to our feete least that which is halting be turned out of the way Heb. 12. 12. 13. we are in great danger by prolonging our amendment to haue all marred and turned out of the way therefore let vs awake ouer our soules that wee may saue those parts which are vnsound for there is not any man but hee hath some woundes and maymes in his soule which must bee speedilie cured or else the longer they runne the more miserable they growe It is a lamentable thing to see men to deferre their conuersion saying one yeere they will doe it next yeere and the next season they will plowe their harts and sowe it with the worde It is also a thing dangerous to lodge but one night in a knowne sinne and therefore as the Apostle saide of anger so we must of euerie other transgression Let not the Sunne goe downe thereon Make speede I beseech you to amende your liues to reclaime your hearts to forsake your vanities to renounce your errours and to put away your pleasures for if your hart delight in any thing beside God it denieth God if it keepe hir naturall corruption and cast it not foorth it blasphemeth God if it delay to returne it abuseth his mercie it despiseth his grace and condemneth it selfe Say not saith Salomon I will giue thee to morrowe when thou maiest to day The whole time of this life is a time of repentance and therefore looke howe much thereof wee spende not in repentance so much we shall want to doe it in which must euery day make vs neerer to the Lorde or neerer to hell The xx Sermon HAuing handled the exhortation vnto repentance nowe let vs proceede to the manner thereof With weepings fastings and mournings the which wordes require a seuerall treatise And first in that they are commanded to weepe we may obserue that with inwarde repentance there must be ioyned outwarde signes thereof and in occasion of greater and more forcible feeling of our sinnes wee shall wring out sorrowes more abundantly This thing is taught by the prophet Hos 14. 3 4. where hauing exhorted the Israelites to a newe life hee biddeth them to take the wordes of repentance and to make a publike profession thereof Peter repented and it was with teares for the Scripture saith hee wept bitterly The selfe same thing doe good men finde in themselues at this day for as where the bodie is wounded there issueth foorth some bloude so where repentance hath wounded the soule there will follow some bloud I meane the teares therof Carnall men thinke they haue repented if they say God forgiue me or I am sorrie for it although afterward they liue neuer so lewdly Looke vpon thy life and see what gutters the teares haue made in thy face which haue distilled from thy eies for thy sinnes looke also vpon the sacrifices of thy lips how lamentable thy praiers haue been before the Lord account with thy self where when thou diddest offer them for without praier thou couldest neuer be conuerted It may be thou hast not wept by reason of some natural infirmity but it must be that thou hast praied or else it cannot be that thou hast repented Therefore let not any man deceiue himselfe think that he hath repented till his life be turned from the world his minde from pleasure his face from ioye and his bodie from desire of sinning The first reason hereof may be this because the Lord hath redeemed vs Isa 44. 22. that is as the Lord hath shewed open tokens of his fauour toward vs so we must shewe open tokens of our repentance towarde him The which reason well considered will teach vs that there ought to bee as great loue in vs for our saluation as was in Christ for our redemption He cared not for his life that hee might saue vs why then should wee care for our owne liues and spare our sinnes he shed his blood and we sent our follies he gaue himselfe for our sinnes and yet we will not let him haue them There is none that is ignorant of this except he had repented hee must haue perished and therefore if thou repent not thou must be damned The Lord hath not beene carefull for thy soule that thou shouldest bee secure but his loue must be a patterne for thee to loue thy selfe All that he did was for thy soule he was reproched he was empouerished he was condemned and crucified for it that thou mightest endure all shame to repent them all pouertie to preuent them all iniuries to lament them and all deaths to mortifie them He walked many miles watched many nights fasted many daies and endured many afflictions that thou mightest labour much watch carefully abstaine continually and endure
preachers tell vs goe forwarde I beseech you in all other sinnes and you shall finde but a verie small number that say I beleeued and therefore I heard The medicine to purge out all these corruptions is a true faith the which if either you leaue at home or lose it by the way the labour is all lost that you take therein Oh how lamentable and damnable a sinne is infidelitie when the iudgements of God are not beleeued and the mercies of God are abused But this greeueth all godly hearts to the quicke that euen in our daies and times there should be such that as a godly father saith are armed with the name of good christians yet fight against the faith of true beleeuers Looke vpon it in time least as death followeth sicknes through want of phisicke so the death of your soules follow their sickenes through want of faith Beleeue saith Christ and al things are possible the dead haue beene raised by faith the sicke haue beene releeued by faith the mountaines may be remooued by faith and the diuell himselfe is droue away by faith therefore bring faith with you vnto the hearing of the sermons the scriptures are the Lords wordes and they are set to sale by the preaching of the ministers themselues beeing his factors faith must buye them as money doth or bee exchanged for them as one thing is for another for there is no crediting vpon wordes no obligations vpon dayes that can get them from vs but present payment of a liuely faith Therefore if any will knowe howe to heare the Gospell with profit and to enioy it with comfort let him bring faith with him that the worde deliuered may bee sealed for truth and sinnes beeing reprooued may bee receiued for truth and suffer no starting holes of infidelitie to carrie our soules from the rocke of God his truth into the sea of heathenish securitie or endlesse aduersitie O yee elders That is you gouernours of the people whom the Lord hath honoured with long life and the world with great authoritie And from hence we note this doctrine that the most honourable must most of all giue eare to the worde of God whether that honour bee in the Church as the ministers or in the common wealth as the magistrates or in the familie as the father thereof or in the warres as the generall thereof all these beeing exalted aboue other haue also a charge aboue other that euerie one walke worthie of his profession which is onely by studying and hearing the word of the Lord. The Lord so commandeth Deut. 17. 19. That the king himselfe shall cause to be wrote a booke for him of the lawe that he keepe it with him and read therein all the daies of his life Those which haue the greatest charge must vse the greatest labour to discharge their places as none could be iudges in Israell till the Lord had giuen them of the spirit of Moses so none can sincerely execute their duetie that the world may be satisfied the Lord may be glorified and their owne soules comforted vnlesse they receiue of the spirit of God and by the ministerie of the word is the spirit deliuered Gal. 3. 2. Hearken therefore you rulers of the Lordes people that which excelleth all glorie being richer then all wealth and wiser then all learning euen the spirit of God may be receiued when the word of God is deliuered Oh how are they deceiued that thinke the ministerie a base profession not meete for any but for the poore to liue by for the lame disfigured for yonger brothers for bankerupt for seruingmen for blunt-headed-schollers and such as can be good in nothing How are they also deceiued that thinke it not an exercise fit for noble men and persons of estate knights and gentlemen and such great ones which haue the world at their wils and the countrey at their pleasures shall these say they make themselues drudges to the Gospell schollers to the preachers and goe on pilgrimage to a publike sermon Yea all these must resigne their crownes of maiestie their gownes of nobility their swords of chiualrie and their estimation of gentrie vnto the voice of the blessed spirit of God speaking in the scriptures and preaching in his ministers And if these must bend their knees we must bow our bodies to the earth and put our necke vnder the yoke of Christ Iesus that he may lift vp our head liues to the participation of glorie The Lord that bindeth kings in chaines and nobles in fetters of Iron and maketh the mountaines to cleaue in sunder at his roaring willeth and commandeth vs from heauen to heare his son and it shal so come to passe that the soule shal be cut off from the Lords people that hath not kissed the prince of glorie and commeth not to offer obedience and seruice to his royall Lord who is able to cast him body and soule into fire euerlasting Let vs therefore study to enter into the courts where the Gospell of Christ soundeth and reigneth least we fall away from grace and glorie after the euill example of those long agoe condemned infidels and reprobated apostataes which gaue their eares to falshood their toongs to blasphemie their liues to vanitie their bodies to luxurie and their soules to euerlasting miserie Let not the graye haires of old men the great wealth of rich men the worship of Magistrates nor the honour of gouernement draw away our hearts from the hearing of this message which being hid from vs maketh vs cursed castawaies but being declared vnto vs regenerateth vs to the hope of eternall happines The reasons of this doctrine are also easily gathered out of the word of God First the same which Samuel vseth in his first booke cap. 12. ver 14. at the annointing or crowning of their new king Saule to perswade them and their king to the diligent hearing of the word and reuerent feare of God he vseth this as a reason That then they shall be the people of the Lord God As if Samuel had said vnto them you know that this is the glorie of our nation that we alone are the selected band and chosen soldiers to fight the Lords battles and this is an honour against all the world beside that they seruing Idoles and worshipping diuels we serue the Lord of hostes if therefore you will indeed be the Lords people you must in truth heare the Lords word what could be said more forcibly to mooue a rebellious nation to a quiet submission And this being the badge and liuerie of the Church of God we may be bold to say openly and defend confidently that they which heare not the Gospell as now it is preached in our English nation are none of the true followers of his heauenly maiestie Euen all whether they be the archenimies of Christ the Papists or the new sectary of Recusants the Brownists or the vaine religion bablers the Newters or the priuy haters of the
did these yoong children yet know I beseech you that that master that forbiddeth is in more bondage then he which is forbidden and hee were better be an humble seruant then such a proud and presumptuous master and if he receiue not the kingdome of God as his seruant he shall neuer enter therein If he labour not for the meate which neuer perisheth if he runne not for the price which neuer endeth if he studie not for the knowledge which alway lasteth and if he obtaine not that faith which commeth by hearing of the word preached but also keepeth other from entring whether they be his seruants or his sonnes or his daughters or his wife or his friends or himselfe the sentence is long agoe denounced that he is the least in the kingdome of God It is an heynous offence to draw away a man though it be but a seruant from obeying the warrant of a magistrate and much more if he wish him to withdraw his allegeance in like case is your estate which by your owne securitie driue other men to forsake God leading the blinde vpon the stumbling blockes making them beleeue that the fire cannot burne and though they pearce their bodies with swords yet they shall not hurt them Secondly another vse hereof shal be that saying of the Lord himselfe Psal 95. 7. 8. To day if you heare his voice harden not your hearts The neglect of the word proceedeth of the hardnes of our hearts and therefore the Lord biddeth vs not to harden our hearts if we will heare his word What a world of hard hearts are now a daies if they be all hard hearts which will not be present at the ministerie of the Gospell The sea is but a soft and slender substance yet it bringeth foorth many hard stones euen so the weake nature of man engendreth many hard hearts This is most strange to see the tenderest place to be the hardest euen the heart which will die if it be but pricked with a needle but as the heart doth helpe all places of a diseased body and it selfe it cannot helpe so when this festering sore of old corrupted consciences and ignorant dispositions inuadeth the mindes of men a thousand to one but they giue him mortall woundes for then cannot the minde helpe it selfe Therefore aboue all euils beware of hard hearts the ground being hard will not let the purest seede grow in it and the heart being hard will not suffer the immortall seede of the Lords word to grow therein it choaketh all pitie and condemneth all pietie Come therfore to heare the worde of God but bring melting hearts thereunto otherwise you shall still remaine the enimies of the truth for hee that gathereth not with it scattereth abroad The priests and scribes and Pharises were present at the most of our Sauiours sermons yet they reaped no benefit thereby bicause their hearts were not touched in the presence of God no more shall many thousands be comforted by the preachers voices bicause their hearts are in their barnes when they should be in the Churches and their eies are shut when they should behold the ministers Many imagine that they preach best which can mooue the people to teares and their hearts to be pricked whose eies fall a weeping yet this is not alway an infallible token of a good pastour or an humble soule the hard marble stones do sometimes sweate out teares abundantly and yet they are neuer the softer euen so may many weepe and howle for their sins be pricked with the word of God bursting out in lamentation and yet remaine reprobates still But let vs breake vp the fallow ground of our hearts let vs keepe them in continuall moisture that whensoeuer the word shall be cast into them it may grow effectually It is a fearfull thing to receiue the graces of God in vaine which they do that without all reuerence and carefulnes come vnaduisedly without former preparation to the hearing of the worde of God that which is rashly heard is quickly forgotten and that which is vnreuerently receiued is presently despised but of this matter we haue already spoken Fourthly when he biddeth them to aske their fathers he thereby willeth vs to call to our mindes those things which haue beene done long agoe the noble and wonderfull works of God are not so slenderly to be regarded that we thinke on no more then wee see and consider nothing but that which we feele But what the Lord doth it standeth for euer and therefore is to be recorded in all generations read the 104. 5. 6. Psalmes throughout where the holy Ghost gathereth togither the sum or rehearsall of the Lords benefits and chargeth oftentimes that we shoulde teach them to our children and that we thinke vpon them to doe them for euermore The reasons of this doctrine may bee these First because as the Apostle saith Rom. 15. 4. Whatsoeuer is written in foretime is written for our learning that wee through patience may haue hope God of his eternall goodnesse and wisedome hath so prouided that the principall and excellent workes of his iustice are by himselfe recorded for times succeeding and so plainly engrauen that as he speaketh by the prophet Abacuck He which runneth may reade them and these saith the Apostle are written for our instruction It is a worlde to see how men forget the workes and worde of God they make no account of Adams curse because it was in the beginning and small reckoning of the flood because it was in the olde world and they little esteeme Ierusalems destruction because it was say they before our time and thus they wash away all feare of iudgements and loue of God So that if we warne them of wantonnesse by the example of the olde world we are not so lasciuious say they if wee exhort them to holinesse by the example of Abraham Moses Dauid Zacharias and the Apostles then they tell vs their examples pertaine not vnto them for then there was more faith stirring in the worlde then now there is and lay what wee can vnto them yet they haue one way or other to escape And all because they thinke that the Lords works are like to musitians labour which causeth men to daunce so long as they heare it and no longer or an almanacke that lasteth but a yeere so they thinke that the ancient workes and former actions of the Almighty haue no farther vse but for the present time wherein they were performed But if they thinke so they will in the ende gaine nothing by the bargaine It was an olde worke of God to make the beastes subiect to man and should they not be so now it was an ancient worke of God to make the rainebowe in the cloude that the worlde might neuer bee destroyed as it was haue wee no benefite by this woonder Christ our Sauiour died long before we were borne and doth it not pertaine vnto vs then haue we made a wrong match if all
Gospell that it may tarrie with vs beleeue it that we may liue in it receiue it that we may reioice in it professe it that we may die in it professe I saie for his owne sake and for nothing else let thy eies see it thy eare heare it thy toong speake it thy heart regard it thy feete walke in it that thy hande may worke in it thy owne saluation Let vs amende that which is amisse and repent least all be taken from vs least our enimies reioice in our houses least our women lament in the streets our children cry in the fields our old men lie in the graues and all men die in desperation Let vs therefore to auoide all this mischiefe receiue that exhortation 1. Thess 2. 12. that euery one that nowe liueth in our English dominion in the daies of our most peaceable Salomon Walke woorthy of this vocation whereunto they are called If the Lorde shoulde require any great thing of vs ought we not to doe it seeing wee owe vnto him our owne selues much more ought we to walke like christians seeing we professe christianitie Walke we must and not stande still as the idle doe we must be woorthy of our places and not onely fill the roome as an image doth at a feast as our carnall Gospellers do and called we must be and not refuse to come as the greatest part in our age doth The Gospell is the sunne let vs looke on it it is the wedding garment let vs weare it it is the day let vs worke in it it is the salte of the worlde let vs taste it it is the way to saluation let vs trauaile in it it is the life of all thinges let vs liue in it Oh therefore you which are called refuse not to come you which are liuing lengthen your daies you which can see beholde the miseries of your ioy and you which haue legges to walke withall bodies to liue withall space to returne time to repent leasure to practise soules to saue or any grace of God within you walke woorthie of saluation You must not walke as other doe for Christ is our patterne you must not walke as the most doe for the flocke of God is little you must not walke as you haue done for you must bee newe creatures Walke in knowledge for that will make you wise walke in faith for that will make you zealous walke in loue that will make you Christians walke in cleannesse that will make you saints and walke in patience for that will giue you the Lords kingdome Be shod with preparation of the Gospell of peace and let your strength bee encreased to goe on from step to step from vertue to vertue from teare to teare from trouble to trouble from day to day and from the death of this life to the life of this death for the Lords praise in his truth to our ioy in his kingdome The eleuenth Sermon Vers 12. The vine is dried vp and the figge tree is decaied the pomegranate tree and the apple tree euen all the trees of the field are withered surely the ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men THe prophet oftentimes as we may see telleth them one thing the destruction and ouerthrowe of the fruits of their land in the same words and therfore groundeth still the same exhortation bidding them weepe and howle mourne and lament as if either he tooke pleasure to sing such mournefull songs or else to shewe vnto them that the sorrowes of their harts must recouer the plentie of the land And in dwelling thus long in the Lords iudgements and their repentance he teacheth vs how necessarie a thing it is to stand long on a good text and neuer to be wearie of a good matter although it be bitter to the taste of our harts It is a common thing in the word of God to repeate one thing often and therefore Paul desireth of the Corinthians that it should not be greeuous to heare the same things often for we are of this nature that many things we vnderstand not many things we remember not sometimes we giue that to a naturall cause which belongeth to a diuine iudgement and most times we little regarde the heauenly oracles for all these often repetitions are most necessarie And let vs with often repetition ioine some shew of earnest affection as Paul doth Phil. 3. 18. where he saith of those things I haue tolde you often and now tell you weeping c. Many words and many repetitions without notes of singular passion are or at least may seeme to bee friuolous and therefore let this be the exercise of religious minds when they are driuen to vse againe those admonitions which they once vsed that their words shew their meaning their iterations testifie their earnestnesse and signes of griefe and sorrowe expresse their affection thus this prophet hath told his minde by word and vrged the matter by repetition and confirmed the thing by outward tokens In this 12. verse he bringeth in al other things which groweth on the earth when hee nameth all the trees of the fielde and more especially the apple tree the pomegranate tree and the palme tree whereby hee noteth that not onely those creatures which were good for nourishment were taken away that the people should haue no refuge in worldly confidence but also that the outward ornaments of the earth as the ground-growinggrasse the tall springing-trees which serued for comfort onely were destroied Whereby in generall we obserue that there is not any thing so glorious or so comfortable which the Lord hath created in the world but for the sinne of man he will destroy the same as the prophet sheweth at large Zeph. 1. 13 17. If the earth were all golde and the grasse were all pearle and the trees were all siluer the fieldes were full of corne yet would not the Lord spare any for all this Oh my deere brethren it is not the growing corne nor the springing grasse nor the goodly trees nor the stately towers nor the walled cities nor the pleasant apples or the beautifull abundance of the world that can stay the wrath of God from falling on vs the horse saueth not in battell the armour defendeth not in fight and riches cannot redeeme a soule God which made all is not mooued with any thing saue onely with righteousnesse and obedience and to take vengeance of our disobedience he ouerturneth and ouerthroweth all The reasons of this doctrine are these first because he setteth more by his word then by all the works of his hands Matt. 24. 35. the works of God can but shew him but the word of God teacheth vs to come to him and therefore seeing he careth for our saluation more then for the preseruation of any of his creatures he will not spare them because they shew his glorie or giue vs nourishment but all things shall be confounded for the sinne of man Another reason is because for sinne he spared
times yea if it can be most times to cast away ioy to put away pastime to depart from mirth to stop thy eares from musick and thy heart from laughter giuing ouer foolish and vnlawfull iesting merie and pleasant friends and companions and so enter into a deepe consideration of thy sinnes and dangers and troubles and life and death that it may worke an exceeding lamentation for all thy sinnes Remember Moses which forsooke the court of all Pharaohs disports to liue among his poore brethren which daily laboured in making bricke gathering staw and bearing many a heauy burthen and so if we should be exercised in a voluntarie and willing submission vnto teares and weeping sorrowes and lamenting crosses and enduring afflictions we shall kill the hearts of many sinnes and stop the breath of many euils and auoide the danger of many troubles Better it is saith Peter to suffer for well dooings then for euill now when in the feare of God we chastice our selues we suffer for well doing but if we tarrie till famine or warre or sickenes or pouertie or age or death then we suffer for our sins as a thiefe or murtherer for his robbing and killing The twelfth Sermon Vers 13. Girde your selues and lament yee priestes howle yee ministers of the altar c. THe exhortations to the people being finished the prophet goeth on to the priestes and giueth them a speciall direction how to behaue themselues in this time of dearth and famine And this part as hath bin alreadie declared is contayned in this chap. and in the second wherein he putteth thē in mind of their duties which may be reduced to these generall heads particular members First he exhorteth them to a farther humiliation giueth reason for the same vers 13. as that they should be girded with sackcloth vnto lamentation Secondly that they should bee all night long in sorrowing for the same afterward in this chapter he biddeth them sanctifie a fast vers 14. and in the second chapter vers 1. he biddeth them shew the people their woefull danger For the fast he telleth them how it should bee solemnized namely with all the people in the house of God Secondly with praier and the forme or example to pray by is described vers 15. and so to the end of the chapter First when he calleth vnto the priests to be farther humbled whom alreadie he had said to be mourning and lamenting for this matter vers 9. hee thereby giueth vs to vnderstand that there are none so forward in any good action but they haue neede of a farther prouocation and may receiue good instruction to proceed in their godly enterprise For this cause the Apostle 2. Peter 1. 12. telleth the faithfull in his time that he would neuer be negligent to put them in minde of their duetie although they had knowledge and were confirmed in the truth The which thing may reprooue many in our daies which will not abide any wholesome word of exhortation especially there are in the ministerie those which hauing rare gifts and great learning and therefore despise both men and meanes which shall any way put them in minde of their duetie thinking it a disgrace to their persons if any of the inferiour sort shall note vnto them their slips and infirmities But Peter had more modestie which easily yeelded to the reproofe of Paul Would God that men were as much ashamed to commit euill or omit goodnes as they are to be blamed for any default and it were to bee wished that they would as hardly abide the temptation of their enimie the diuell as they will the reprehension of their most christian friends Againe we haue many which haue a little shew of religion and an vnprofitable forme of seruing God the which thinke all knowledge is lapped in their braines and all holines practised in their liues and therefore they despise sermons and preachers reading and hearing conuersion and repentance and will say flatly they haue enough alreadie and therefore will receiue no more Against those let the exhortation of this Prophet and the example of these priests preuaile that they may both either shame them for their folly or reclaime them for their stubbornnes The reasons of this doctrine are these First because it is a true token that we are the Lords when we are exhorted to farther righteousnes Ioh. 15. 3. so that on the other side it is a fearefull signe that wee are none of his when we stop our eares and harden our hearts against the exhortations of the godly ministers wherfore let them which with Peter and Iohn would haue heauen to be on the earth and make a dwelling for their faith on a worldly mount instead of heauēly Sion let them I say know that as the desire of the apostles could not be performed in this life so in this life although they haue clymed vp neuer so great hils of knowledge and secret hidden mysteries and haue seene the graces of God as plainely as they sawe Elias and Moses yet must they come downe againe and labour to goe further before they come to heauen But me thinkes the earnest consideration of this point should make vs all more earnestly to thirst after our spirituall gaine of godlines and neuer to giue ouer till all our vices are remooued all our vncleannes purged and all our wickednes forgotten Doe we not see how the earth after one showre of raine thirsteth for another and so following euery yeere euen so exhortations and reprehensions are like showres of raine to make our hearts to beare fruit the which wee should desire for the loue of more holines as the earth desireth for the encrease of more fruitfulnes Another reason is because it is a notable assurance vnto a mans soule when he beareth exhortation increaseth in knowledge that he hath tasted of the goodnes and grace of God 1. Pet. 2. 3. A yoong childe tasting his mothers milke groweth thereby a sicke man tasting his phisitions potion is strengthened thereby and desireth more phisicke and more meat and therefore if wee can desire to bee more righteous more holy more faithfull more zealous and more carefull of good things we may be assured that our soules are in good and perfect health But alas how many faile herein which taste but finde no relish in the graces of God and suffer the most wholesome foode of their soules to perish in their stomacks they had rather eate the grasse of their own gathering then the meat of the Lords prouiding Stolne bread is swete vnto them that is that which is forbidden them they delight in but that which is commaunded and allowed them they cannot away with they loue better to liue in one forbidden sinne then to liue in a thousand commanded and authorized vertues From this doctrine we may make these vses First seeing there is none so holy and so good in this world but he hath neede of more holines and goodnes then it
of God bicause thither came all the tribes to do seruice and sacrifice to the Lord therefore sometime it signifieth the church of God and all the members thereof as Psal 51. By these words I might note that although the ministers haue a priuate and a publique charge to warne the people yet they must haue a more speciall regard to the publique place Col. 4. 16. Isa. 66. 6. The reasons are First bicause Christ is alway present in the congregation Mat. 18. 20. and therefore if they haue any loue to their Sauiour there they must heare and see him Againe in the publique ministerie of the worde is giuen the holy Ghost Gal. 3. 2. so that if men would haue the pledge of their eternall inheritance thither they must resort where he is freely offered without money yea let them come from strength to strength that is be thy strength little or much vse the same to come to the church of God there is no more dispensation for weakenes then for health and therefore if thou wilt shew thy obedience and thy zeale to saluation then come when thy health and strength is most endangered for then will it bee like the poore widowes mite most acceptable to God If thou be a gentleman vse the helpe of thy horses and men if a woman take the helpe of thy husband if thou be poore craue thy neighbours hand as he did which was sicke of the palsie Mat. 9. 2. If thou be a seruant take so much the lesse pleasure to heare a sermon for in so doing thou shalt please the Lord and not disprofit thy maister Againe despise not the voice of him that speaketh Heb. 12. 25. for God which speaketh in vs is a consuming fire there was neuer angell that spake but the contempt of his words was seuerely punished and Zacharie because hee did a little doubt of the angels message lost his toong till his child was circumcised The ministers of God are called angels Reuel 2. 1. and therefore if thou beleeue them not then feare the losse of thy eares or thy toong or thy hands or thy heart but if thou contemne them and dally with them wantonly or despitefully oh feare the losse of body and soule for euer and euer but of these things we haue often times before spoken Againe if the voice of a trumpet could awake the Iewes and turne them to the Lord how is it that men and voices and Christ and Gospell cannot awake the men of our times the trumpet was blowen very seldome but the word is euery day and euery where preached and yet are not men prepared Nay verily a trumpet in the streets shall haue moe followers then a sermon in the temples and as Michab saith cap. 2. 11. new wine and strong drinke do make men rise early and goe late to bed that they may be filled therewith but yet the wine of the Lords truth cannot preuaile and therefore the wine of his wrath must make them drunken vnto death But in this that he biddeth the inhabitants to tremble at the sound of a trumpet we are taught that we must stand before the Lord with feare and trembling Ier. 6. 10. Ezr. 10. 9 but in our daies men quake in the congregation as steeples in the sea they are ready to laugh at that which should make them sorrow and to loath that which they should long after He is now accounted a milke-sop that will weepe when he heareth sinne reprooued and a very coward that feareth any euill yea though it bee eternall condemnation It is fearfull to consider that the presence of God shaketh the whole world and the power of his worde maketh the deserts to tremble and yet sillie men and in comparison of those like cornes of sand wil not shake nor tremble nor feare for any of all these And aboue all this mischiefe is to be considered that the longer we liue in the world the lesse feare of God or terrour of iudgement increaseth olde men grow carelesse through age yoong men grow dissolute through pleasure children waxe wanton through euill education and almost all men waxe woorse and woorse What is the church more regarded then an ale-house or a preacher more esteemed then an idoll or a saint more honoured then a diuell or religion more loued then Atheisine or the kingdome of heauen more longed after then an earthly inheritance No no truth yeeldeth to falshood charity to enuie quietnes to contention sobrietie to intemperancie law to vnrighteousnes faith to policie and christianitie to infidelity Helpe O you saints of the Lord to lament this mischiefe although we cannot amend it Put to your teares and your praiers that they may sound before God seeing GOD cannot any longer bee heard among men The reasons of this doctrine are these first because God dwelleth in them that tremble at his word Isa 66. 2. And againe this feare and trembling is a most manifest signe of the power of the worde Heb. 4. 12. so that where this trembling is wanting there can bee no true deuotion whatsoeuer diligence bee vsed because the word cannot haue any free passage in our soules For as a childe careth not for his maister whome he feareth not so a man careth not for the gospell when hee trembleth not Yea on the other side wee rebell against the wisedome of God and spurne his word with our feete when we suffer it not to go through our harts We reade that Og and Sihon two great kings would not suffer the people of Israel to goe through their countries the which discurtesie cost them their liues their land and their subiects and all because they woulde not graunt a path-way euen so if we let not the worde of God pearse cleane thorough vs and quietly with curtesie giue it entertainment in our harts he will take them by force and giue vs to be a miserable spoile to diuels If Iudas had had any grace when he heard our Sauiour curse that man that should betray him hee woulde neuer haue gone farther but let his action fall but hee did as our hearers doe heare his owne condemnation and not beleeue it and therefore they shall doe as he did repent when it is too late giuing their liues in stead of their eares and their blood in stead of obedience and yet alas alas all will not serue their turne The vses hereof are these first seeing we must feare and tremble at the ministerie of the worde then it followeth that we shall be comforted thereby for it is written Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted and thus the Lord assureth his people Isa 66. 5. that for their feare he would giue them safetie and for their trembling hee woulde giue them ioy and their enimies should be ashamed at it Therefore if you would feele the sweete taste of the word of God and receiue the ioyfull newes of your saluation then learne to tremble at the hearing thereof
that they might know that as none but God could be the author of these so none but his maiestie coulde bee the sender of them These heauenly signes or rather signes in heauen are described in the two next verses first the shaking of the world secondly the darkening of the lights and thirdly the great and terrible thunders which should then be heard all which is supported by a strong reason vers 11. By this verse we may first of all learne that the extraordinarie signes of heauen are the forerunners and most euident prophets of calamitie and destruction following Isa 29. 6. God which woulde haue all his iudgements not onely felt but feared doth not let them come stealing on the world as if he could not doe them against our will or not hinder them against their nature but proclaimeth them by manifold fearefull signes in heauen The reasons are first because we should knowe that the euill onely proceedeth from him 2. Sam. 5. 24. it doth not any whit distaine the Lords honor to be a reuenger of sinne vpon the bodies and soules of many thousands but rather it maketh for his glorie for hee must iudge the world in righteousnesse Another reason is because by this meanes the Lorde doth most earnestly affect good mens harts and afflict the wicked Ezech. 32. 9. for the sight of terrible signes cannot choose but mooue the brute beastes of the earth much more reasonable men who are more giuen to feare because they are more giuen to sinne and our Sauiour saith in the gospell that mens harts shall faile them because of the signes of heauen The vses are these first let vs not be superstitious or heathenish in fearing the signes of heauen aboue the rule of faith Ier. 10. 2. For alas what can any planet or any signe doe but by the Lordes assignement and therefore in fearing it superstitiously we feare not God we distrust his prouidence we restraine his power and we cast away our owne confidence and faith It was a great signe in heauen when fire came downe and destroyed Sodom and Gomor and all cities cattel and pastures of the plaine Gen. 19. yet little Zoar was saued standing among them when all the residue were burning about it therefore beware of the slauish feare of the signes of heauen for it is the Lorde that gouerneth the starres Another vse as we are not to feare them too much so wee are not to regard them too little but vse them as promptors and furtherances to another life Luk. 21. 28. when you see these saith Christ then lift vp your heads and know that your redemption draweth neere Be it therefore that the heauens be burning the lights be darkening the stars be falling the earth be shaking and the ayre be thundering yet feare it no more then the Israelites did in Egypt but rather now thinke that the Lord will amaze sinners erect his throne of righteousnes to stand for euermore This must much encourage vs in these our later daies wher in euerie hower we looke for the accomplishing of all the signes before Christs comming and let vs watch for the appearing of our Sauiour that we be not comfortles when other shall bee both witlesse and faithles but know that good men shall stand in the middest of all these terrours and fires as the men did walke in the middest of the Babilonish furnace and not haue one haire of our head diminished When he saith that the earth shall tremble he noteth that earth quakes are notable tokens of the Lordes wrath Psal 18. 7. we are not onely to impute it to the ayre shut vp in the furrowes of the earth as in philosophie they do but we must goe to the principall cause which is the hand of God and the finall cause which is to shew his wrath for in his wrath saith the scripture he casteth downe whole mountaines Oh how terrible is this to consider that the whole earth should be shakē at the chiding of God yet man which is made of earth and standeth on earth and liueth on earth and shall returne to earth againe will not shake or tremble for the same I thinke there is more terrour in the dead bones in the graues then in liuing bodies in their houses The reasons hereofare these because the law of wrath was giuen in fire and earth-quakes Exod. 19. 18. Heb. 12. 18. for God did then shew himselfe most terrible when the mountaine seemed to burne and there was nothing but cursing and death for the law that then was giuen did condemne many millions which now do know the same Againe earthquakes do commonly proceede and goe before the alteration of religion Reuel 6. 12. for as when Iehu altered the idolatrie of Baal the prophets and the God were both displaced so when religion is altered God is as it were displaced and all his seruants persecuted which must of necessitie shew the heauie indignation of God for he will not haue his image defaced nor endure that his glorie should be giuen to another Let vs therefore learne that if the strong earth be not able to abide the wrath of God then much lesse shal weake and sinnefull men Num. 16. 1. Againe let vs learne to preach the word more earnestly by the consideration of earth-quakes We may read Amos 1. 2. that two yeere before the earth-quake the Lord sent him to prophesie as it were to plant the minds of his church that they might haue liued without wauering Now it is well knowen that wee haue had one great and terrible earth quake in our times would God it might so worke that the preachers would for that cause preach more diligently and the people heare more attentiuely least it prooue vnto vs a token of the decay of religion Truely as yet blessed be God religion is not altered but it is much defaced and God graunt that as the earth-quake at the death of Christ was the decrease of Iudaisme and Paganisme but the increase of christianitie so that in our time may worke the like effect and may seale vnto vs the decay of Poperie and heresie but may assure vs of the continuance of veritie and pure religion We might also note out of this verse that seeing the heauens and earth are afraide of him therefore the most guiltles creatures of God cannot abide his anger But this we will deferre vnto the next chapter Againe in that the sunne and moone are darkened we may obserue not onely that God is the author of light and darkenes but also that he will not let sinners in his anger haue any benefit of them Isa 13. 9 10. The reasons are First because they are enimies to good men and good things Exod. 10. 22. Secondly bicause they are ashamed of the sinnes of men as we may see at Christs death Matth. 27 45. Let vs therefore so glorifie God in our places as these creatures do in theirs for they
tell them to our parents our wiues our children our seruants our friendes and our neighbours that they may bee signed by the same seale and saued by the same grace Thirdly God will haue none other to bee knowen in Israel but himselfe alone Whereby wee are taught not to stand in doubt whom where whē we ought to beleeue feare loue or worship but onely and perfectly to relie on the Lord. 1. King 18. 21. It is not good to halt betwixt two opinions but either we must bee constant professors or obstinate blasphemers I would they woulde consider this that say they know not whether to be papists or protestants for both liue alike and therefore both shall be saued alike But they must knowe that Cham escaped the flood as well as Sem but yet he escaped not damnation so easily and so wicked professors in this life doe many times as well as good but death and iudgement shall trie the cause The reasons first because the halting part is often turned out of the way Heb. 12 13. and indeede it is fearefull that alway euill doth surpasse goodnesse as weedes ouergrowe corne and sicknesse ouer commeth health Therefore let vs beware least when we doubt what is best we take the worst as Ieroboam did Moreouer while we doubt in religion wee are carried away by the craftie deceit of men Ephes 4. 14. For heretikes and euill men doe alway labour first to drawe vs into wauering and then to bring vs into condemnation Let vs then abide in that which we haue heard 1. Ioh. 2. 24. for that which is first is truth and that which is last is falshood Let vs not haue tickling and itching eares such as many in our daies haue which like not our doctrine our preachers our praiers our gouernment our sacraments our people and our prince and what will they doe shortly but fall in dislike with our God and all manner of religion Let vs also learne to bee constant 2. Tim. 3. 14. that we be not mooued from it but as Ioab would not come out of the temple but would die holding the altar by the hornes so let vs die holding fast by our altar Iesus Christ And that seeing we must die let vs die in his armes for his sake to his glorie and our owne saluation The xxx Sermon Vers. 28. And afterward I will powre out my spirite vpon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie your olde men shall dreame dreames and your yoong men shall see visions 29 And also vpon your seruants and your maidens in those daies will I powre our my spirite THese two verses containe the second part of the spirituall benefits to be powred on them namely the spirite and the graces thereof for when hee saith that he will powre foorth his spirite he meaneth not to diuide the holy Ghost into parcels but by a vsuall figure of the scripture hee putteth the spirite for the graces because wheresoeuer any one grace is there is the holy Ghost 1. Cor. 12. 6 11. By this we may see that the olde fathers and the prophets had some knowledge of the Trinitie of persons in the Godhead for not onely here but in many other places is mention made of the Spirit and we knowe the name of sonne is and was very familiar in the scriptures Hee saith he will powre out his Spirite by a vsuall metaphor taken from water because the holy Ghost is resembled to water Heb. 10. 22. meaning also that hee woulde giue it abundantly in more plentifull manner then heeretofore so that all this pertaineth properly to the kingdome of Christ as Peter sheweth Act. 2. 17. and not to their returne from Babylon By the cohaerence of this verse with the former where is promised knowledge as is heere the holy Ghost wee may note that after God hath giuen vs knowledge hee also will giue vs the holy Ghost Act. 15. 8. so that there is not any one that can assure himselfe that he knoweth God by the word preached but he may also be assured that he is made the temple and dwelling house of the holy Ghost Ioh. 1. 12. this is the onely rewarde in this world of the obedience to the Gospell that we haue the spirit dwelling in vs and opening vnto vs the things of God If the affaires of Potiphar were blessed because he had Ioseph in his house much more blessed are the workes of a christian because he hath the holy Ghost in his hart Oh learne I beseech you to know the Lord by the scriptures for then shall you haue the Lord dwelling in you for then shall not sinne hurt you nor the diuell annoy you you shall not feare any danger nor any death for the spirit shal still comfort you and carrie your spirits into heauen The reasons First because we should euermore haue him in our soules Ioh. 14. 16. the Lord knoweth that wee haue a great deale of sorrow to suffer in the world and therefore he hath prouided for vs a comforter that may helpe vs to beare it and they which care not for their profession care not for the spirit and they which care not for the spirit care not for the Lord. By which we may see how fearefull a thing it is to forsake the profession of the Gospel for then the Lord forsaketh vs seeing vs giue ouer his spirit also the Spirit of the Lord is fire and if it purge vs not it will burne vs. Another reason bicause it may perswade vs that we are in the truth Ioh. 15. 26. for if our profession were but barely gathered out of the scriptures by men then might it be altered as the ministers thereof haue beene altered but the spirit abideth for euer and doth assure our hearts that this Gospell this faith this hope this obedience and this kingdome is the same that Christ taught the saints beleeued good men receiued the disciples liued and all the faithfull haue obtained So that if thou stand in faith and dost peaceably enioy the profession of religion and knowest by the infallible word of God thou art in the way of saluation then reioyce boldly because the holy Ghost is in thy heart as Simeon did when he had Christ in his armes But yet many haue peace in their harts thorough the diuel which are in errour in Poperie in Mahometisme and Idolatrie being perswaded they are in the truth but this perswasion is but counterfaite like as the miracles of the Magitians in Egypt were but counterfaite to the miracles of Moses and therefore not euerie one that is perswaded he is in the truth is to bee thought to haue the holy Ghost but onely they that are perswaded by the scriptures and relye vpon nothing in the world besides Let vs then trie whether as yet we haue had the holy Ghost giuen vnto vs or not for the Lord teacheth Iohn 16. 8. when the holy Ghost is come he will reprooue the
world of sinne of righteousnes and of iudgement of sinne because they abound in it of righteousnes because they want it and of iudgement because they feare it Now search thy soule whether thou haue beene reprooued for these things or not for it wil speake to thee when thou art alone and it wil follow thee whither soeuer thou goest and it will not suffer thee to rest in any sinnes but at the first it will admonish thee gently afterward it will call vpon thee with diligence earely and late if thou amend not It will make thy meate vnsauorie and turne thy sleepe into many feares and then if thou repent not either it will vtterly forsake thee or else lay loade on thee of most fearfull iudgements and terrible wrath of God which will either turne thee into lamentation and great distresse of minde or else into desperation and vtter losse of soule Oh feare my deere brethren for the conscience of these things for it will worke most terribly in you if you haue it you liue in subiection if you offend it you liue in danger and if you lose it you die in trouble Therefore thou art happie when thou art reprooued for sinne thou art more happie when thou art inwardly scourged for thy faults but thou art most happie when thou art repentant in teares and ashes sackcloth and an infinite number of sorrowes so that hereby we see why God exempteth vs from the feare of hell because he keepeth vs vnder continuall correction of sinne Another vse let vs aske for the holy Ghost when wee feele the want thereof Luke 11. 13. for God will send him to those that want him Barren women aske for children sicke men for health olde men for life weake men for strength blinde men for sight and therefore let Christians aske for the holy Ghost For God will be as easily entreated for him as for the other and he will giue vs more ioy then children more comfort then health more good then life more benefite then strength more profit then sight and therefore let vs pray for him more earnestly then for any other of these If you aske how you shall pray for the holy Ghost I answere by the holy Ghost But you will say if you haue him already you neede not pray for him to which I answere you must pray as sicke men doe for life when they haue life so when you haue a little feeling of the holy Ghost pray that it may bee more and that euery little sparkle may be a flame and all our weaknesse turned into strength The persons vpon whom this spirite is to bee powred are sonnes and daughters olde and yoong men and women free and bond for of all these doth the church consist Whereby wee may obserue that there is not any sexe or any man but he is capable of the holy Ghost and so of saluation Isa 44. 3. The reasons are first because they haue receiued the hope of eternall life Tit. 3. 7. secondly the promises are general and there is not any excluded Therefore let vs learne not to greeue the holy Ghost Ephe. 4. 30. nor to quench any motions of the spirit within vs for the beginning of religion is like the blading of the corne if it then bee bitten it neuer groweth more Againe let vs fight against the lustes of the flesh Gal. 5. 17. for the spirite lusteth against the flesh There must bee a pitched field in euery mans soule the soule is one fighter and sinnes are the other the soule is aided by the spirite and our sinnes are aided by the flesh the weapons of the soule are spirituall the word the promises faith hope loue patience and constancie the weapons of sinne are ignorance lustes pleasures ease profite gaine pride selfeloue and prosperitie The meanes wherby they strike are temptations if the soule conquere the sinnes bleede abundance of teares if sinne conquere the soule is quiet and bound in a soft bed of delight that she may liue in perpetuall imprisonment fed with all lothing of goodnesse and starued with vaine shewes of foode stuffed with sweete poisons of many wofull sinnes and so in the end breaketh in peeces and falleth to eternall miserie This is a Christians combate one must needes die the enemies cannot liue in league the battell must needes be fought out and therefore come prepared the lesse thou eatest the better thou shalt endure the more thou watchest in praier the more shall be thy aduantage This battell is like the battell betwixt Dauid and Absolon for our owne sinnes which wee haue begotten doe conspire against vs and as Dauid wept for Absolon when he had gotten the field so wee shall weepe for our sinnes when we haue conquered them and wish that either they had not beene or else that wee had not beene therefore let vs haue the spirite on our sides that we may haue peace in our soules Now follow the effects of the spirite and the first is that they shall prophesie the next that they shoulde dreame dreames and see visions for these were accounted the most honourable works of the spirite before the comming of Christ because herein did the Lorde answere the demaunds of men as we may see in Ioseph Matt. 1. 21. and in Zacharie Luc. 1. And vnder these olde types doth the prophet signifie the abundant graces in the church when euery one shoulde prophesie that is shoulde bee able to speake the worde for the comfort and edification of his brother and euery one should see the counsels of God day and night by dreames and visions and not bee afraide First we may obserue here that none can prophesie but by the spirite of God 1. Cor. 14. 29. It is not possible that any shoulde open the worde of God and speake to the comfort of them that heare him but by inspiration of the holy Ghost therefore those which speake in the congregation and are not able to edifie them that heare them doe nothing lesse then speake by the holy Ghost opening their barren wits to the woonder of the worlde The reasons first because prophesie is an opening of the counsell of God which none can doe but those which haue the spirit of God 1. Cor. 2. 11. Againe it is the spirit of God that openeth our harts and maketh vs able to answere the aduersarie of our profession much more doth it helpe vs when we are to comfort the people of God in the congregation Luke 21. 15. Let vs therefore in our preaching or prophesying learne to prophesie according to the proportion of faith Rom. 12. 6. for as it is a damnable thing before God vnder an oath to couer falshood so is it alike damnable thing vnder pretence of the spirit to teach heresie and impietie Againe let vs learne to trie the spirits 1. Iohn 5. 1. whether they be of God or not for many false spirits are come into the world bringing in againe popery heresie
enioiedst them Therefore beholde iudgement and terrour and thunder and fire and the ouerthrowe of all thinges which one daie shall bee that thou maiest feare thy proude and sinfull nature and so behold mercie the resurrection the life to come the face of God and the fellowship of Angels that thou maiest quietlie repose thy soule in the sweete profession of the Lordes Gospell The reasons of this doctrine are these first because they are base minded if not beastly affected which onely looke to the temporall things that they see and not to the heauenly and eternal things which they see not as the Apostle in the before-named place saith and therefore it is farre more honourable that thou shouldest beleeue the things that are to come when we heare them in the word then the things that are past and present which our eies beholde Againe our Sauiour saith Marc. 9. 23. that all things are possible to him that beleeueth which is verified in nothing more then in this when we giue vp our whole harts to the things that are preached and daily waite when they shall be performed And if all things be possible then is saluation and the ioyes of heauen possible for thee if thou canst beleeue them and so liue as thou maiest obtaine them The vses which wee are to make of this doctrine are these first seeing wee must be instructed by the word of God to behold the things that are to come as if they were present then let vs euermore bee faithfull the which thing the Apostle teacheth vs when hee saith that wee stande by faith Rom. 9. 23. so that as our bodies stand vpon our legs so our soules stand vpon our faith And if this be so how many lame soules are there in the world nay they are not lame that neuer had legs but those that had them yet are they monsters and such monsters are faithlesse and infidel men If thy legs be sicke thou wilt goe to thy surgeon and if thy faith be sicke goe to thy Sauiour what comfort hast thou of the worlde if thou canst not walke in the world and what ioy hath thy soule if it haue no faith to walke in the scriptures Stand by faith and fall not beleeue soundly and strongly bring not a woodden leg I meane a woodden faith such as men can make but a true and substantiall faith which the Lorde onely giueth Let not any thing mooue thee for all things are possible to the beleeuer though the earth remooue bee not thou afraide though the heauens passe yet the world shall not passe beleeue all things say not this will be long or that will be late or the other is doubtfull or God is mercifull his minde may alter or the preachers are but men they may be deceiued or the iudgements be conditionall they may be reuersed or the promises be vncertaine they may be recalled Oh beware of an infidell hart Heb. 3. 12. and depart not from the liuing God Moses because hee did but once distrust God he could not enter into the land of Canaan the gouernour that would not beleeue the prophet was trod to peeces the princes which would not beleeue Ieremie were slaine by the Babylonians and the soules which will not beleeue the preachers shall be ouercome by diuels Oh consider how fearefull a thing it will be for you to say as the Iewes Ezech. 33. v. vlt. surely there was a prophet among vs. Therefore as the husbandman looketh to the haruest in the winter when the corne appeereth not as the seruant thinketh on his wages long before it commeth as the birde thinketh on her yoong ones long before she breedeth and the builder thinketh on his dwelling long before it be finished so doe you thinke on the ioyes and woes which shall bee long before they come And account your selues the happiest men aliue whome God warneth with his owne word that you may auoid the day of destruction for if you liued not vnder the check of the gospell and the controulment of preachers you might goe as other barbarous nations doe blindfolded that is vnwitting and vnknowing to the slaughter of your bodies the butcherie of your soules Surely the Lord doth nothing but he reuealeth the same to his seruants the prophets and therfore blessed are they that liue among them but more blessed are they which heare them beleeue thē loue them receiue them regarde them because God hath sent thē Secondly in this vers we may obserue when he saith In those daies and in that time that God wil haue the redemption and deliuerie of his saints and church to bee most certaine and knowen for vpon this occasion doth the prophet double the note of the time as it were noting both the day and the moneth So as once hee tolde Abraham that his seede shoulde be a stranger in another land fowre hundred and thirtie yeeres and no longer to shewe vnto him that they shoulde bee assuredly deliuered So doth hee heere by this prophet though not so precisely note the assurance of their redemption The reasons of this doctrine are these First because wee are not redeemed with any temporall worldly or earthly price but by and with the most precious blood of Christ Iesus 1. Pet. 1. 18. Againe another reason is because as the Apostle saith 1. Timoth. 2. 6. that this was done in due time The vses which come of this doctrine are these First seeing the Lorde will haue the redemption of his people to bee sealed and certainly knowen then let vs looke for that time and that day when Christ shal finally deliuer vs from the wrath to come 1. Thess 1. 10. What shoulde make good men to feare the latter day their redemption is certaine the Lorde is their Sauiour the Sauiour is their head their head is their brother and vntill Christ come they are subiect to wrath but when he is come they are deliuered from death Againe let vs receiue any pledge or token of the Lordes loue and fauour towarde vs which is shedde in our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5. 5. and seeing this is it that we are certainly redeemed and our soules health is not builded vpon peraduentures but it is surely established then let vs certainly perswade our selues that God loueth vs with an euerlasting loue What will hee keepe from vs that giueth vs his owne sonne and will kill him to acquite vs If this perswade vs not to bee penitent and to loue God againe then is not the loue of God nor the bloude of Christ sprinkled in our hearts Naaman woulde haue giuen to Elisha manie thousande poundes bicause the water of Iorden had clensed his leprosie what woulde he haue giuen if Elisha had cured him by medicine But Christ hath cured our soules and bodies by the riuer of his owne bloud and by the losse of his owne life then are we worthie to giue heart for heart bloud for bloud bodie for
vnfulled which openeth it selfe to euery winde and storme Christ the Sauiour is our enimie and we persecute him and crucifie him the Saints of God we regarde not the promises of God we know not our hope is vanitie and our God is iniquitie Call to your remembrance the houres the daies the weekes the monethes and the yeeres of your life thinke euermore on that mercie and that power that in the ruffe of all this iniquitie forbeareth forewarneth and forgiueth you Thinke thus with your selues I was a helhounde I was a heathen the tyger is better then my parentage and the serpent then my education I was naked without grace and not able to buy it the Lord that solde it was my enimie and I durst not aske vpon credite Howe many enormities haue I runne into against my God which the Lord foreseeing hath forgiuen the curse of my nature he hath remooued the euill of my conuersation he hath remitted the emptines of my soule he hath replenished and the sentence of my condemnation hath he recalled Thus hath the Lorde dealt with my life when I was sinfull he was mercifull when I blasphemed he blessed when I made warre against him hee made peace with me hee tooke my blowes on both cheekes he gaue me his coate and his cloake and to conclude when I walked through the valley of the shadowe of death his rodde and his staffe was my comfort therefore now will I giue my life for his my body for his garment my bloud for his blowes my soule for his sake and my whole person wealth honour dignitie labour and leasure for his saluation Secondlie another vse we may make of recording time past and the seueral works of God with his particular iudgments is the same which the prophet Dauid maketh Psalm 8. which is this after the rehearsall of the glorious workes of God he compareth man with them and saith Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou visitest him Euen so when we see and heare of the great workes of God vpon others lay them to your selues by particular application to your soules and reckon them vp in order for your furtherance Little Canaan tolde his father of his grandfathers drunkennes and nakednes and he was accursed and all his posteritie But I haue in my youth done many thousand greater sins yet the Lord doth stil blesse me was the Lord too rigorous against him or too partiall with me that he all his life long wore such a badge as also disgraceth all his progenie but he laieth not to my charge the follies of my youth Moses and Aaron bicause they once distrusted the hande of God they were neuer suffered to enter into Canaan but I not once onely but many hundred times haue distrusted his promise denied his worde and forsaken his truth why do I liue so long in the lande of promise when more righteous then my selfe coulde not set their foote therein Ananias and Saphira kept backe but a part of their owne to serue them in aduersitie and denying the same were sodainly slaine by the Lord but I haue kept backe not mine but the Lordes from the Lorde and haue lied not once to the holy Ghost but many times and yet I liue my credite not impeached my profession is not blamed my life is not shortened and my daies are not ended Oh beholde the seueritie of God towards these that fell but the mercy of God towardes me that standeth And thus may we say of nations and whole people why was Egypt destroyed and Israell saued why were the Canaanites cast out and the Israelites planted in why was Edom made tributarie to Iacob Babylon to Persia Persia to Graecia Ireland to England Surely surely we might haue beene the slaues and they the Lordes we the bondmen and they the freemen Euil wars might haue beene in our daies as it was in our fathers and that which was greatest poperie or heresie or hethenisme might haue beene professed in these our times as it was long agoe Thinke therefore my beloued how many bonds of obedience the Lorde hath bounde vs in and consider what had beene our hap if we had beene those children that were ripped out of their mothers bellies if we had beene those yoong men that perished in battell if we had beene those women that eate their babes to saue their liues and finally how much more are we bound vnto God that we were not Infidels Pagans Papists haeretikes Atheistes or any other kinde of cursed men Let vs also say with the prophet Psal 147. vlt. With euery nation hath he not dealt thus Let therefore euermore the worde of God bee in our mouthes the praises of God be in our hearts the Gospell in our liues and by howe much more we haue tasted of the Lords goodnes aboue other so much more let him taste of our thankefulnes aboue other The fourth Sermon And tell you your children of it and let your children shewe to their children and their children to another generation NOw the prophet hauing bidde them to enquire of their forefathers also willeth them to tell this wonder to them that shall come after namely to their children with this commandement also that they in time to come being made parents shoulde likewise declare this vnto their posteritie Where first of all the prophet giueth vs this doctrine that it is the dutie of fathers that if anie notable and woorthie worke of God happen in their daies to shew the same vnto their children for the wordes are tell your children c. Euen this doth the Lorde warne the Israelites Exod. 13. 14. to shew the wonders in Egypt vnto their posteritie and peculiarly at the eating of the passeouer For in truth this care and conscience of godlie parents is the verie conduit pipe or kings highway whereby all religion all feare of God and the vniforme profession of the truth is preserued By this meanes came Moses to be a fit and able writer of the Scriptures although hee handle matters done two thousand yeeres before he sawe the worlde he had no recordes nor writings to helpe him but that truth which descended as it were by propagation from father to sonne vnto his daies which began to be corrupt the holy Ghost approoued and Moses recorded Therefore the learned haue obserued that in seauen generations it came to Moses Adam say they taught the Historie of the creation and fall of man with other thinges to Methusaleth Methusaleth told them to Sem Sem shewed them to Iacob Iacob to Kohath Kohath to Amram and Amram to Moses And in this sort was this noble story of Genesis with visions places and persons deliuered from hande to hande from father to sonne and from one generation to another that the wordes and workes of God might be euerlastingly remembred This sheweth how by the carefulnes of parents the pure knowledge of God was maintained and the true worship of
God continued Then euery father of a familie was a magistrate to punish a prophet to instruct a prince to gouerne his owne houshould Then was there no writing but much religion few bookes but many faithfull harts all studied in vnitie to preserue vnfained veritie But in Moses time the church grewe to a nation and therefore although as Ierome saith it were Maior numero yet it was Minor virtute the number of professors grew to be greater yet the zeale and power of godlinesse grewe to be lesser And therefore nowe was it to be put in writing or else all had beene cleane forgotten for the harts of men began to be deceitfull and the words of God coulde not safely lodge in the brests of all and therefore coulde not easilie and effectually bee conueied from one to another The Lorde first of all wrote his lawe then grewe the church to another gouernment more generall then before wherein the priestes did publikely care for the seruice of God and soules of the people and euery father and master priuately for himselfe and his familie and euermore this is to bee remembred that the children praied to the God of their Fathers meaning the same God whome their Fathers taught them to serue And this beloued putteth vs in minde what manner of men fathers and masters ought to bee euen such as are able to commend the true worshippe of God vnto others for sithence the worship of God became publique and generall the priuate neglect of this dutie in the gouernours of families hath wrought the poyson of all mankind and the vndoing of all religion For now the common sort thinke that they must not pray but in a church that they are not bound to teach others but the whole charge dependeth on the minister that the preachers and not the people must learne the word and finally it maketh no matter for their faith and manners if their pastours and teachers haue the knowledge of the Gospell Oh lamentable men Oh lamentable maners which onely is to be imputed vnto this neglect of parents duety By this onely gentilisme and heathenisme grow for if Noahs sonnes had taught that to their children which they learned of their father the world had not beene wearied with many diuelish Idolatries if Dauids children had serued that God which Dauid taught them their throne had continued as long as heauen and earth endured neither had so many women beene husbandlesse so many children beene motherles so many old men beene helples and so many of all sorts and degrees beene vtterly destitute of all worldly ease and heauenly blisse the decay of their faith wrought the destruction of their blood If Christians had taught that religion to their children which they receiued without all corruption from Christ and his Apostles so many countries had not been conquered so many cities had not beene laide euen with the earth so many famous churches had not beene buried in obliuion popery had not so much preuailed Mahomet had not so long prospered wicked ceremonies had not raigned in the place of holy truth and where now is the synagogue of Sathan there had beene the Temple of our Sauiour And I feare me beloued least this parents faulte bring foorth once againe the childrens folly and then oh then will the diuels banner aduance it selfe against Christs standard and so that when the Lord shall come he shall finde no faith on the earth Looke to this you fathers of our bodies and let not the blood of our soules cry vengeance against the parents of our liues teach vs what you haue learned charge vs on your blessing and God his blessing as we will answere before the Iudge of men and angels to saue the soules of our children by the precepts of your doctrine The reasons of this doctrine may be these first bicause as Dauid witnesseth that the workes of God are great and ought to be sought out of all that loue them So that this is an argument of vnfeined affection and true loue to the workes of God when with diligence we obserue them and with conscience we declare them and also it is an assurance of sincere pietie and reuerence towards God when as the same prophet speaketh all the day long we meditate on his iudgements and speake his praises This loue of men to the workes of God is then prooued and approoued when they teach them to those whose liues are in their hands and also it is the playnest token of true loue to your children when you keepe no part of the counsell of God from them which you know your selues For the Lords doings are of that maiestie and authoritie that by them tender hearts are nourished wauering harts confirmed and stubburne mindes are perswaded Your kindest friends will be more kinde vnto you when you shew them the kindnes of the Lord and your deadly foes will be more afraide of you when they shall see and heare the workes of God in your mouth and the word of God in your hands Therefore my beloued in the Lord Iesus seeing we haue no more plainer way to know the Lord then by his workes then haue we also no surer token that we loue the Lord then when we loue his doings Let vs seeke them in the cradles of our childhoode and the beds of our old age making as much of the Lords iudgements as we doe of our children whom we desire to leaue behind vs to the ende of the world euen so let vs leaue the Lords works in remembrance for euermore Secondly another reason of this doctrine is declared by Salomon Eccles 3. 14. That what God doth it standeth for euer that men might feare before him The workes of God are affected not as the ground is ploughed which serueth one for one season but as the earth was established which standeth for euer The Lord in euery age accomplisheth many wonderful things and different the one from the other that men might feare him for his iudgements and honor him for his power And therefore being not willing at all times to make triall and shewe of his omnipotencie hee willeth vs to remember the things that are done vnlesse we would haue him once againe open the fountaines of waters that the whole world might be destroyed or once againe raine fire and brimstone from heauen to confound vs as he did the Sodomites or once againe bring a vniuersall darknes ouer our land as he did ouer the land of Iudea or else once againe suffer our fathers to be burned our goods to be rauened our wiues to be shamed and our selues to be murthered for his sake as some haue bin before vs. Therefore by how much more easie it is for our hearts to consider those things then for our eies to behold them so much more carefull let vs be to instruct others by word of mouth least we our selues our posterity feele in ful measure that heauy hand of his wrath then Oh then
creatures to bee reuenged on his aduersaries so also hee will and can doe the same to the benefite of his chosen He vsed the rauens to feede Eliah 1. King 17. 6. and wee know that al these noisome creatures which deuoured and destroyed the cattle people of Egypt neither deuoured or destroyed man or beast among the Israelites The viper a hurtfull beast yet it could not harme Paul Act. 28. 5. when it hung vpon his hande What shall we now say my deere brethren to commend the large liberalitie of our God to conuince the intolerable ingratitude of our soules The angels waite on vs aboue to keepe the heauens from ouerwhelming vs the creatures attend on vs beneath to make the earth to yeeld vs maintenance oh how shall they want any thing that leade a godly life yet who doth depend on the Lordes promise or who doth make conscience of the Lords liberalitie We are like to the Iewes which Nebuzaradan left in Ierusalem with the Samaritans seeing the serpents destroying the Samaritans sparing them yet still they continued in their idolatrie so although we see and heare our neighbours our countreymen or any other nation to be wasted and we preserued to be famished wee sustained to be weakened and wee strengthened to be punished when we go scot-free yet still we serue our pleasures we blaspheme the Gospell we prophane the Sabbaoth and we dishonour the almightie although he hath not dealt with any nation as he hath dealt with vs yet we care not for his creatures we loue not his truth we forsake not our sins we embrace not his feare we haue no resolution for our owne saluation the Lord for his mercy turne our harts Another doctrine we may obserue out of this verse which is this that euerie light and little creature can trouble ouercome the welfare ofmen Why did not the Lorde raine downe fire from heauen to consume their fielde of corne or to burne vp their fruitefull gardens or why did he not sende his angels immediately from heauen to weede out the wicked from the land and so to haue made an ende at the very first of these Iewish calamities This he might haue done although he did it not but rather sendeth creeping wormes to ouerthrowe a great nation which is to mans reason as if one sparke of fire were sent to burne vp the whole sea Wee reade Act. 12. 23. that Herod by his flatterers was magnified to be a God the which thing pleased the wretch too well for shortly after it cost him bloude and life to shewe himselfe and his fauorites that he was but a man for it was saide that he was eaten and deuoured of wormes O woorthie example of so woorthie impietie which wearing the crowne but of an earthly kingdome would also be aduanced to an heauenly regiment therefore he receiued the greater condemnation Where were his Phisicians coulde not they purge away the euill which did eate vp the kings hart where were his seruants which woulde doe all things for him and now could not they deliuer him from little wormes nay what did this newe made God if hee were but a god of flies could not he comfort and cure himselfe No no the darte was too deepe the wound was too great and the disease too desperate but he in the midst of these his torments hauing his heart eaten and the wormes crawling out of his body with intollerable anguish cryed out Behold your Godwhich is enforced to die Let all proude persons be warned by the example of Herod especially great men who thinke themselues if not better yet equall to the sonne of God the king of heauen and earth least they be punished after the example of Herod The flies did trouble and terriblie molest the whole lande of Egypt thinke alwaies the Lorde can easily turne our meate into wormes our drinke into flies our bloud into lice our garments into serpents and our ioyfull friends into spoyling beasts We are not so high but there is one aboue vs we are not so lowe but there are some beneath vs we are not so wise but the Lorde is within vs neither are wee so noble but his highnes can confound vs. And this doctrine hath good reasons beside lamentable experience whereon it may be grounded the weakest things of God are far stronger then the strongest of man 1. Cor. 1. 25. 27. and by the weake thinges of this worlde will he confounde the strong the which although it be spoken in another sence then it is heere alleaged yet doth it serue also to this purpose to shewe vnto vs that the Lord will for his glory ouercome by the weaker forces And it is most true that a little beast with his wrath is as forcible to destroy vs as a mightie serpent and the fall of a feather vpon our heads although they were garded with a helmet of proofe yet shoulde it through his indignation be as heauy as a mill stone to dash out the braines of the proudest Hee which made these things is not tied to his owne workes but when hee will he can alter light into darknes turne the lande into the sea the mountaines into valleyes and make iron to swim when lighter matters shall sinke Nowe good men must euer be mightily comforted with the consideration of this heauenly power this made the men of Babylon to offer their bloud to the fierie flaming furnace this made the woorthie Gideon with a fewe persons to aduenture the ouerthrow of many thousandes this encouraged Elisha being besieged with an huge army of Syrians and therefore this must force vs to die in persecution to fight for the Lordes truth to pray where we see no helpe to professe his name though we loose the sweetest pleasures of this life The vses which offer themselues vnto our consideration are these first that it teach vs to thinke most humbly and most basely of our selues as Dauid that noble king that euer was did Psal 22. 6. I am a worme saith he and no man euen the ofscouring of men Seeing the basest creatures of the world are able so easily to destroy vs what can be better signe of our humilitie then as Dauid doth to call our selues by their names Abraham talking with God called himselfe dust and ashes such as lie vnder foote to bee troden vpon by euery one and Dauid giueth himselfe a name which none hath done before him and very few after him by taking on him the title of a sillie creeping worme engendred of the dirt fed onely with earth and the lowest of all kinde of beastes would God the spirite of mildnesse could driue away the spirite of statelinesse which raigneth in those which are many thousande degrees inferiour to Dauid Let them imagine through the wrath of God that the haires of their head were turned to liuing creatures which were an easie thing with God and yet would it not make them humble how if the intrals and bowels of
word of the holy one of Israell But for vs which haue already giuen vp our names to the Lorde let vs with Dauid Psal 73. 28. drawe neere vnto our God that our zeale in preaching our labour in hearing our feeling in praying and our ioy in all manner of reuerence to the holy Gospell of Christ may euer arise higher and higher to the intent that we also may declare his works vnto other rather then in lamentable rebellion be made examples of his feueritie But now let vs come and see the vses of this doctrine as they are left in the holy worde of God and this may be one that seeing only in the word of God is the foreknowledge of hurt and the continuance of our peace oh then let vs beware of whatsoeuer that shall endeuour or any way be able to pull vs away from the same Our Sauiour himselfe hauing preached a long and sweete fermon vnto his Disciples to arme them against troubles and to forewarne them against corruptions shutteth it vp with this exhortation Luk 21. 34. Let not your harts be ouercome with surfeiting and drunkennes and cares of this life and so that day shoulde come vpon you at vnawares whereby the whole church of God are likewise taught that the diuell shoulde mightily labour by these instruments of drunkennesse and worldly care to burie the worde of God and to blot out if it were possible the very names of the elect from the booke of God and when were these daies if nowe they be not Shall we looke vpon the families of all our lande the very speciall and distinct persons therein we shal find very fewe that are not infected with one of these poisons Drunkennes hath banished all religion inuaded the houses of court and countrie and already made the heauens to weepe the earth to fast the beastes to pine the poore to famish the enimies of God to reioice the saints of Christ to be sorrowfull and the soules of many to be vtterly destroied The cares of this life haue also so farre preuailed that hell may seeme to be enlarged and the diuell with golden apples hath raised vp contention in all kingdomes and by this meanes gained infinite possessions Some haue all their minds on warres thinking it long till they be at the spoiles of their enimie do these men either thinke vpon the word of God which is or the day of God which shall be No no the cares of this life haue ouercome their harts some are too noble som are too base some are too rich some are too poore some are too learned and some are too ignorant thus by one way or other many are ouerthrowne But yet let vs not be hindered from preaching or discouraged from hearing let vs not want the meanes to obtaine life eternall and much more let vs not refuse the same being offered If the Niniuites had not repented when Ionah preached within fortie daies had Niniueh been destroyed oh happie Niniueh that thus was warned by the preaching of one yea rather blessed be our God that woulde not suffer a citie to perish before he had called them by his prophet But howe blessed are we that haue had many prophets and preachers and yet haue not repented in sackcloth and ashes yea although the worlde be hardned with preaching and say where is the promise of his comming where is the destruction that you haue prophesied where are the desolations that so many preachers haue threatened Yet take heede although the cocke crowe at midnight yea many times before the day will you say therefore it will neuer be light so although wee haue a great while agoe and yet continue to crie and call on you to awake before danger come bee assured it will come as the morning star after the nightlie darknes Oh then let vs arise put on your clothes trauaile to the Lordes house and hearken euery one what he will enforme vs to amend vs or instruct vs to forewarne vs. Another vse heereof we may make for the conuersion of them that are yet hardned in their sinnes then the prophet hath taught vs that our whole conuersion and safetie dependeth on the word of God in the mouthes of the ministers and we haue learned to watch ouer our liues that none steale away the same from vs. But yet we haue nothing to saie to them that are no drunkards no couetous misers no open and prophane persons nor yet despisers of the ministerie and meanes of reconciliation but rather louing vnto them and yet for all this make no conscience to knowe God out of his worde or to doubt of many maine points of saluation or to disport themselues in vaine and vnseemely mirth and such like euen vnto them I say with Paul 1. Cor. 15. 34. Awake to liue righteously and sinne not You haue liued indeed as Herod that honored Iohn Baptist as Pilate that thought Christ a good man as the Iewes that followed him from towne to towne but what change hath there beene of your liues since you knew these things if there be none as there can be none as yet then let Paul and Ioel crie vnto you Awake to liue righteously I may say vnto these men as Christ said to the Lawyer that they are not farre from the kingdome of God they are asleepe but not heauily asleepe and they may say of themselues as Agrippa saide of himselfe that they are almost perswaded to be Christians but not altogither Yet one thing more wanteth my beloued not the selling of your houses nor the distribution of your goods nor the reliefe of the poore nor the chastening of your bodies but the banishing of your vaine pleasures the ouerruling of your affections the crucifying of your lustes the putting from you your ignorance your pastimes your oathes your tabling your dicing your gaming and all your cost and time that is euill spent You haue indeede made a good beginning but also I wish you to make a good ending you haue cast the diuell out of the hall of your harts oh cast him out also from the parlour you haue thrust his head out of your mindes suffer not therefore his feete to remaine within you Is it as sweete as sleepe vnto you to do as yee do beware least it be as bitter as gall vnto you to receiue as you haue done therefore awake my brethren and cast off the couerlets of your euill forsake the sheetes of iniquitie and leape out of the soft bed of selfe-pleasing delights put on the garments of righteousnes embrace the crosse of christianitie and breake the neck of all your pleasures as Sampson did of his enimies The Lorde biddeth vs awake to iudgement the Gospell biddeth vs awake to righteousnes the church biddeth vs awake to sobernes the preachers bidde vs awake to holines the creatures bid vs awake to obedience the earth biddeth vs awake to fruitfulnes and the heauens from an high bid vs to awake either to saluation or else
vnseasonable showers which haue brought vpon vs this lamentable and miserable dearth for our wet and waterie weeping times are most like vnto them They were in danger of the enimie who watched but the opportunitie to ouerrun them so may we also feare that our enimies which are many within vs and mightie without vs in other countries by these times of opportunity shal likewise aduenture to ouercome vs. They were in danger to haue their raines continued and their dearth increased and so also are we for as yet we haue noted and found the waters sometimes at the bankes sometimes ouer the shoares somtimes in the plaine fields and sometimes beating downe the goodly planted corne turning the wheat into dirt and making dung of that which should be bread Therefore lament I beseech you and tremble euery soule among vs in our houses talking in our streetes walking in our congregations praying and in our meates eating and drinking Let vs make our hearts sorrowfull our teares plentifull our liues pitifull that the Lord may be mercifull Let vs weepe that the heauens may reioice let vs plough our hearts that our fieldes may be fruitfull let vs cast away our sinnes that wee may carrie in our stores let vs weed our liues that we may reap our corne finally in vs it lieth to recouer our plenty therefore pray with Dauid Psal 144. 12 13. that our oxen may be strong our sheepe may encrease thousands our children may be godly our garners may be filled our streetes may be ioyfull and our whole nation may be thankefull The nienth Sermon Vers 8. Mourne like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth THis is the second exhortation wherein the prophet teacheth them by a familiar example how they ought to weepe euen as a virgin lately married or contracted mourneth for her husband who dieth before they haue filled their hearts with loue so the words are an exhortation groūded on a similitude of mourning in sackcloth for the dead for so it appeareth was the auncient custome of lamentation From this similitude we may obserue first in this allegorie this doctrine that our affections in heauenly things must be as passionate and at the least be as earnest as they are in earthly things For thus the prophet calleth vnto them mourne now as bitterly and humble your soules as vnfeinedly as a yoong woman doth for the death of her first loue This our Sauiour prooueth Luk. 16. to vers 13. in the parable of the false and vniust steward how he dischargeth his office and prouideth for hereafter willing vs to be so wise in the heauenly matters as we are in the earthly So that hast thou rode long iourneys for thy profit then thou must do the like for the Lord hast thou spent liberally on thy wife children haukes hounds and other vanities then thou must doe the like for the Lord hast thou watched many nights at cardes dice dauncing and dalliance thou must do as much in prayer hast thou fasted many houres for phisick thou must do as much for deuotion hast thou wept bitterly and wouldest not be comforted for many daies and nights togither for thy wife thy children thy parents thy brothers or any other thou must doe as much for thy sinnes or else as thou hast lost thy friends so shalt thou loose thy soule and to conclude thou must as zealously thirst after the bloode of Christ as euer thou lustedst after thy meate and drinke for thy body or as a chased hart for the water or else thou canst hardly be saued The reasons of this doctrine may easily be rendered although in truth it needeth no reason First if we be not as earnest in heauenly as we are in earthly things then may we be well said to bee those cursed wretches which were prophesied of long agoe 2. Tim. 3. 4. Louers of pleasures more then louers of God What canst thou or darest thousay O wicked man that thou louest God aboue all and thy neighbour as thy selfe for this say the ignorant sort is as much as all the preachers in the world can tell them when thou wilt do more for thy earthly master and go farther for thy whoore and deale more liberally amongst drunkards and labour more painefully for a worldly trade and humane arte or science then thou wilt for God for the gospell for the poore and for religiō so thou maist perswade thy selfe but neuer any wise man will beleeue thee Secōdly if we giue not as much zeale to our soules as we do greedines to our bodies then as Paule saith Rom. 7. 5. wee are still in the flesh and the motions of sinne shall bring foorth fruit vnto death Now if you accompt no disgrace to haue your flesh for your God your motions of sinne for your profession and the condemnation of your soules for your reward then go on still and fill vp your measure to the brim and dare the Lorde to his face not caring for his maiestie No my beloued I will not suffer you to go this way to heauen as God would not suffer the Israelites to go the easiest way into Canaan but you must go another way farther about and safer for your passage Although you would raze your names out of the booke of life as Moses would though not for zeale but for pleasure yet you must not be suffered but rather say with Peter 1. Pet. 4. 23. Hence forward as much time as we shall liue in the flesh let vs liue after the will of God and not after the lustes of men for it is sufficient for vs that we haue spēt the time past of our liues walking in the lusts of the Gentiles in wantonnes drunkennes lustes gluttony drinkings and abhominable idolatries From hence we first learne that which Paul hath taught vs Rom. 6. 19. that as we haue giuen our members to be the seruants of sin vnto vnrighteousnes so now we must giue them to be the seruants of holines vnto righteousnes Now let vs stir vp all the parts of our soules and bodies vnto Christian conuersion our feet must run in it our hands must worke in it our eies must see in it our eares must hear it our taste must delight in it our affections must meditate in it our hearts must conceiue it our memories must remember it our whole man must be spent in it we must walke soberly we must worke righteously we must behold chastely we must heare diligently we must sauour it pleasantly we must thinke on it holily we must receiue it reuerently and we must remember it perpetually Giue vp your members I beseech you vnto righteousnes Was thy mouth made for eating and drinking and not to speake the Lords praise was thy heart made for the world and thy witte to make good and thriftie bargaines or rather for the embracing of heauenly Christ were thy handes made to play at tables to write well to fight for the defence of
of life When Adam came againe to God hee receiued the promise of life when the creatures came to Noahs arke hee kept them from the floude when the Egyptians came to Ioseph he saued them from famine and when the people came to heare Christ preach he relieued their fainting Come you likewise to the ministerie they will giue you the promises open vnto you the kingdome deliuer you the corne and satisfie your soules most plentifully that you shall neuer faint till you come to the euerlasting abiding place Except the priestes had stoode in the riuer of Iorden the children of Israell coulde neuer haue passed ouer euen so wee stande in the troubles of this world to keepe them from you else you shoulde neuer come into Canaan Oh therefore come while wee stande and beare the Lordes arke or else the waters of heresie and Atheisme will come againe and then farewell your hope your health and your saluation The xiij Sermon Verse 14. Sanctifie a fast call a solemne assemblie gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the lande into the house of the Lorde your God and crie vnto the Lorde THat is call and prepare a fast to the which some may say that they might well enough fast seeing their meat corne was alreadie withered and they had more need to seek to saue their liues then to go to fast to endanger themselues farther Vnto which I answere that the forenamed calamitie was but prophetically foretold therefore as yet there was not such want but only it shoulde bee if they repented not Hee biddeth them prepare a fast that is a general humiliation for all the people wherein shoulde bee nothing but mourning and abstinence and this kinde of fast is a great and good part of the worship of God Esay 58. 13. Therefore from hence wee obserue that God taketh occasion by threatning of his wrath against vs to mooue vs to worship him more earnestly so wee may see Iudg. 20. 26 27. when the Israelites in a good cause had beene ouercome of the Beniamites and lost the liues of many braue men it mooued them againe to goe to humble themselues before the Lorde with fasting and bitter weeping and lamentation And surely this seemeth to be the continual course of the Lords dooing in the church that as the grounde is plowed that it might yeelde more fruite so the church is afflicted that it may giue him more worship Wee are for the most part like the disciples which knew not howe to fast or to afflict themselues till Christ was taken from them and then they fasted Mark 2. 20. So when wee are either generallie molested or particularly endangered howe doe we cleaue to the churches and turne ouer the bibles and runne ouer the worde but in times of more ease wee are more idle and take libertie of sinning when wee feele the greatest liberalitie of our Sauiour If wee haue no other cause to reioice in our pouertie and sicknesse and infamie and danger and hunger and famme and all our tribulation then this that we are by them better fitted for the Lordes seruice yet let this make vs clap our harts and hands that we may any waie glorifie our creator And as the Israelites were as willing to fight with the Canaanites as to possesse their lande so let vs bee as willing to fight with manie troubles as to possesse many pleasures The reasons of this doctrine are these bicause such kinde of miseries lamented by such kinde of worship doth turne away our captiuitie and appease the Lordes wrath Lament 2. 14. and therefore wee may take great comfort in the forewarning of our miseries seeing we may be prepared therby against all danger to auoide all wrath if the Lorde did not by the ministerie of his worde humble vs we shoulde euer be subiect to mortall confusion and immortall condemnation But so hee ordereth all things in his church that as the ouerflowing Nilus maketh the earth more fertill so the floudes of troubles going ouer the bodies and liues of his members maketh them more peaceable once the disease purged the bodie is well quieted and once the pride of our sinne and natures scoured and rubbed awaie the soule is more strengthened Another reason is bicause that the Lorde will haue that thinge worke the good of his church which worketh the desperation of infidels for wicked men in their troubles are at their wits ende as wee may see Mich. 4. 5. so was it in Cain and Edom and the Egyptians and Saule and Herod which all perished through affliction The nature of the wicked is like iron which will neuer swimme though it be neuer so little except it be nailed to some woode or other substance so the wicked being banished from the godly they fall downe and sticke fast in an vnresistable mire of afflictions so that wee may see as the crosse of Christ was the life of the church but the death of the diuell so are many other crosses the life of the Lordes deare children but the death of his despitefull enimies The vses which come from this doctrine are these First seeing wee are by our affections stirred vp to serue the Lorde let vs keepe our soules in continuall chastisement that we may continually be mindfull of the Lordes seruice 1. Peter 4. 7. Those which lie in garrisons although they seldome fight yet euery day they discipline and traine their souldiers so although wee seldome lie vnder great danger of exceeding slaughter yet let vs continue our soules in correction and obedience If Dauid had alway vsed this he had not so easilie forgotten himselfe and brought Vrijah to death and himselfe into filthie adulterie Euen so the want of this priuate chastisement and continuall afflicting of our soules for our sinnes maketh vs wanton in wealth proude in prosperitie presumptuous in health and often subiect to sathans temptations Afflictions may rightly bee compared to a hedge which hath thornes on both sides so that that which is within cannot come out and that which is without cannot come in in like manner when our liues are hedged with troubles the good thinges which are in our soules cannot goe out of vs and the euill thinges which are without vs cannot come into vs. Weepe often for thy sins that thou maiest alway bee sorrowfull pray often for thy amendement that thou maiest still bee penitent Thinke manie times on thy later ende that thou maiest neuer bee arrogant so shalt thou saue thy selfe from many euils and gaine thy conscience great peace and procure thy soule euerlasting blessednes for if this life bee contrary to the life to come then it followeth that as there shall bee neuer ceasing ioy for the ceasing of sinne so heere ought to be a neuer ending sorrow for the continuance of sinne Another vse which commeth of this doctrine is seeing our euils make vs more fit to serue God then is it a miserable thing to be made more vnfit
againe If euer it be needfull that the congregation should be great then it is most requisite to be enlarged when occasion of lamentation is offered that as many mens voices made the Lord to spare the Niniuites so many may cause him to reuerse his iudgements from vs. For truely as in war against an enimie hauing muaded our countrey we are ingenerall to lift vp our handes against him to driue him from vs so ought we being endangered by the hande of God to put on euerie one his complete armour of righteousnes that euery mans heart and voice may be lifted vp to stay his heauy hand from vs. How do men neglect this thing which thinke it in vaine to serue God and therefore though they know other men to be most busie in lamenting for their calamities yet they forsake not their tauerns their shops their counting houses their husbandries their marriages and other their paltries when as the sworde is as neere them as their garments yet they dread not the same and so as before they neglected the graces of God so now they abuse the long suffering of God making their latter ende woorse then their beginning like the old world which would not beleeue though they saw Noah enter into the arke and so the flood came and destroyed them all and so shall it doe with those except God enlarge his mercies and they cast away their stubburnnes Alas alas for the day of the Lord is at hand and it commeth as a destruction from the Almightie Now are we come to the praier which by the mercifull assistance of God his heauenly spirit we will most briefly and effectually handle First therefore the method which the holy prophet vseth is to be obserued wherein he lamenteth generally vers 15. and then particularly the meanes or causes of their destruction In this verse he generally toucheth all the calamitie when he calleth it the day of the Lord the dread and conscience whereof maketh him most yearnefully and pitifully to crie out Alas alas Where first of all commeth to our consideration this doctrine that good men do sorrow and mourne for the Lords iudgement before it commeth as this Prophet which sayeth the cause of his teares to bee this because the day of the Lord is at hand so we may read did Elishah 2. King 8. 10. when Hazael came vnto him and he had annointed him king of Syria it is said that he wept and Hazael asked him why he wept to whom he answered bicause it grieued him to thinke what he should do to Israell for hee should set their strong cities on fire and slay their yoong men with the sword and dash their infants against the stones and rende in peeces their women with childe Was not this a sufficient medicine to looke on and to make a heart of brasse to burst foorth into many teares For I thinke none considering such a destruction in his countrey but he will weepe for it bitterly It is enough many thinke to sigh when they be sore and then to weepe when they bee in paine and why should they torment themselues before they feele the miserie Yea rather why dost thou reason thus against thy God Thinke on the daies of miserie that are comming and doe as these prophets breake foorth into abundance of lamentation to thinke how our towres shall be plough lands our treasures shall be in other mens coffers our coastly buildings be razed in an instant our riuers shall runne with blood our children shall be the pray of souldiers and our wiues bee most cruelly murthered Oh that men before these daies could lament for the same yea although their eies should neuer see it yet let them weepe for them that shal feele it The reasons of this doctrine are these first because they reape this profit by the forewarning of God Iere. 4. 18 19. if God of his great goodnes open the destruction of any people or citie to any of his welbeloued sonnes they are presently astonished men and swallowed vp in many sorrowes but wicked men although they bee neuer so often admonished yet they remaine wicked and obstinate still Oh what a blessing is a soft and beleeuing heart which doth not onely receiue the wordes of God for truth but is presently affected as if they felt the iudgements When Elijah had told Ahab of God his vengeance against him then Ahab wept and fasted and the Lord spared him his time so I doubt not but there be many which hauing heard the trumpe of God his iudgement in the mouthes of the Lords preachers they haue wept bitterly and I thinke the Lord will spare vs for their time but take heed least the godly be deminished and no man consider it least our destruction be the more sudden and lift vp more voices of weepings at the voices of preachers that more time may bee graunted vs to be freed from vengeance Another reason is because good men although they bee assured of themselues yet it grieueth them to thinke how the wicked shal be destroyed Luke 19. 41. Our Sauiour there weepeth for Ierusalem which should be laide euen with the ground A good man is euer mercifull euen to the most vile and wretchedst creatures in the world and therefore it goeth to their harts to heare and see consider and thinke vpon how heapes and multitudes of men shall go to confusion Some would thinke that it is no reason to sorrowe for other men but rather let other men sorow for themselues But Samuel whose teares and praiers came many times before the Lorde for Saule will answere them and instruct them to be carefull for other mens saluation as Ioab appointed his armie that if he were too weake Abishai should helpe him and if Abishai were too weake Ioab woulde helpe him so must we labour to helpe one another which seeme weake although we know some shall go to wracke The vses that offer thēselues to our consideration out of this doctrine are these First seeing that it is the part of a good man to sorrow at the foreknowledge of any calamity let vs receiue that exhortation of the Lord Ier. 6. 8. that we be instructed whē the Lord threateneth vs or else as he there saith His soule shal depart from vs leaue vs desolate as a land that none inhabiteth And I would to God my countrey men of England would learne this instructiō at the mouth of God that whereas there is none of graue or greene yeeres but they haue had many tokens and heard many thunderbolts of wrath drawn from the neuer vncertaine word of God and from the extraordinarie course of manifolde iudgements which we haue felt these late yeres that now we being inuited to this mourning feast we al com not one stay behind Oh therfore receiue this instructiō before the lords soule go away from our nation I bid you not leaue of your callings nor cast away your garments nor put away your
the world and dost breake foorth into wordes for the same Then turne thy complaint into praier or else it is but a murmuring against God as we may see in Moses and Aaron for it is by praier we make our sorrowfull hearts knowen to God and can enter into the Lords priuie chamber This duety also we may see neglected in our time for men were neuer more apt to complaine of the hardnes of the time of the wickednes of the world of the want of corne of the feare of warre of the power of the rich and of the prosperitie of the proude but they are but words for they turne not themselues to praier to shew God of the matter as they ought to do Know therefore my deere brethren that God hath left vs in this world as he left Iobs seruants for still one of them came to tell his master what had happened so we must often vse to pray and to complaine on our selues and on other men for if we confesse our sins God is faithfull that hee will pardon them but if wee iudge not our selues wee shall bee iudged of GOD. The reasons of this doctrine are these first because God forgetteth not the complaintes of the poore Psal 9. 11. 12. meaning of them that pray vnto him otherwise hee remembreth no more the poore mans enuie then the rich mans quarrell therefore let this stirre vs vp to make our complaint in praier as we reade Ezechiah did Isa 37. when Rabsakeh had blasphemed on the name of God Oh that men were as ready to pray as they bee to complaine for they can easily multiply many words to accuse other men and they might as easily finde wordes and matter to complaine vnto God for as an inferiour subiect must alway sue to his prince by petition so must wee alway make knowen all our desires vnto God by supplication Againe when men doe onely complaine of this or that want without praier they tempt God as wee may see Num. 11. 4. Therefore if we will obtaine any thing at the Lords hande to our good let vs aske by praier for although we murmur for raine and drouth and peace and wealth and such like and God giue it to vs as he gaue the Israelites quailes yet we were better want it for it shall in the end turne to our discomfort as theirs did Let vs from hence learne to aske of God without murmuring or grudging at our owne estate or the Lords hand Hos 7. 14 15. for the Lorde will complaine as fast on vs as we complaine to him Hast thou any suite to the Lord that thou wouldest obtaine of him say not oh that I had such a thing or thus thou O God maist giue me such a benefite or thus surely if God doe not heare me I would I had neuer beene borne or thus if God bee able let him doe this for mee for all this is but tempting and mocking of the Lordes power and mercie But goe to the Lorde with all humilitie cast downe thy knees and hart tell him of thy vnwoorthinesse and accuse thy selfe throughly remember him of his promises in the gospell for that must bee the foundation of praier then open thy wants and desire such a remedie as God himselfe shall like of and lastly praise him for all thy former benefites and then if thou want thy will it shall be most good for thee if thou obtaine thy wil thanke him hartily againe and vse it for the Lordes glorie Another vse is this that if complainers without praying be odious in the Lords sight although the cause bee indifferent then much more are those that neuer pray but for vnlawfull and filthie things that they might bestowe them on their lustes as the Apostle saith Iam. 4. 2 3. They desire health of body to wallowe in vanitie they craue many children to hoorde vp euill gotten goodes and to rob the poore they pray for riches that they may raigne ouer other men at their pleasure and liue in sinne without controllment they aske for marriages to abuse them in lust and finally they pollute all things that come in their hands or harts in their outwarde profession they doe but serue the time and therefore their inward constitution cannot bee very holy I am perswaded that a great sort would be ashamed to let men heare those things that they continually and immodestly desire in the presence of God Aske therefore but with wisedome enioy thine owne with thankesgiuing praise God for all things and thinke thy selfe happie whether thou liue or die Againe I might also note out of this verse how afflictions and sorrowes doe teach men to pray most seruently as we may see in Abimelech Gen. 21. 17. and in Dauid Psal 119. 67. and the reason is first because then men beginne to feele their sinnes 1. Sam. 7. 6. for in truth our consciences are all so guiltie that if we haue but our finger ake we presently conceiue it was for some notable sinne or other And for the truth of this we may finde it in many wicked rebels iustified which will then most lamentably bewaile their sinnes when indeede they feele the heauie hande of God vpon them and be either in trouble of life or in danger of death but this is with them but momentanie and like a sommer deaw but with the godly it is perpetuall for they being once spurred will trauell the better all the day following Againe as our afflictions are increased so are our sorrowes for the hart seemeth to bee pearsed with them Lam. 1. 22. let vs therefore in our afflictions not onely pray for our selues in our owne persons but also entreate of other to pray for vs as we see the Israelites did 1. Sam. 7. 8. for if we be once perswaded of the benefite of praier we will neuer cease to stirre vp our selues and others thereunto we shall be minded as Paul was that would haue the whole church of Thessalonica to pray for him 2. Thes 5. 2. for praier will make men more greedie then golde will Againe let vs thinke that afflictions shall not onely make the humble and gentle minded man to yeelde but also the most stubborne and strongest in the world Boast not your selues against the least affliction that can be for as the soft raine will lay along the rankest corne so slender troubles will bring to the earth the most obstinate sinners O Lord to thee will I crie When the prophet saith that he will crie vnto God he noteth vnto vs that in praier we must vse the most earnest and ardent affection that may be for crying is the voice of children or yoong creatures whereby all men are mooued to pitie them Therefore when we come into the Lords presence we are to stirre and mooue affections to the vttermost not with childe-like behauiour but with childe-like sinceritie and feeling as we may see in the godly Lam. 1. 20. where they desire God to behold them
because they bee troubled their bowels are swelled and their hart is turned vpside downe meaning that they were so passionate that their inward partes were woonderfully mooued And this condemneth the colde affection of thousands in our daies which haue as much feeling in their praier as they haue in their dreames and knowe as well how to remooue a mountaine as how to mooue the Lords minde toward them so colde are their thoughts so weake are their desires so wilde are their wordes and so many be their wants in praier that I thinke verily when they haue praied they finde themselues as much fitter for the Lordes seruice as a stone is for building being rubbed ouer with a little oile I warrant you their harts are not turned vpside downe yea I would their liues were turned but I feare they will first bee ouerturned They will make more suite in better words for a dinner they being hungrie then for the Lords spirit or any other meanes for saluation Their voices in praier are like vnborne children crie they cannot much lesse speake any thing no not so much as to say Amen when others haue praied before them The reasons of this doctrine are these because hee careth not for meane and weake wordes but for strong and fearefull passions Isa 29. 13. for the Lorde being highly to be feared will especially be then feared ardently when men speake vnto him by praier Moses fell on his face when hee praied to him and so did Elijah for it is vnpossible but a man of flesh and blood shoulde tremble when hee thinketh on God much more when he praieth to God for then doth the spirit helpe a man more to see into the secret of his maiestie then at other times Yet fearefull is it to see how men in our daies thinke to carrie away the matter with wordes perswading themselues that their bare presence and outwarde dwelling among the church where now and then they heare God spoken of and heare a few praiers in the publike place although their harts honour not the one nor confesse the other yet are they as good religious men as any in the world but let them knowe that they be as good Christians as the Samaritanes were right Israelites Another reason is because that an acceptable sacrifice to God is a broken and contrite hart Psal 51. 17. and therefore when we offer to the Lorde our praiers let vs be sure that our hartes bee broken asunder for as there was no beast sacrificed but his body and shoulders were parted so no man can be offered to God but his hart must be diuided in sunder that is he must be most passionately affected at the Lords house and most lamentably tormented for his owne sinnes most pitifully opened for the Lords mercy most earnestly desire the building vp again of the same The vses which we must make of this thing are these First let vs not iudge euill or rashly of them that are mooued earnestly and labour effectually in prayer 1. Sam. 1. 14. 16. When Annah praied before the Lorde bicause hir lips went and not hir voice Eli tolde hir shee was drunke but she answered no for she was a woman of a bitter soule In like manner the power and working of the spirit in the praier of many through their continuance wordes and gestures is most wickedly mocked and most shamefully blasphemed of the malicious sort who are able to saie as much in their praiers as the olde masse-priestes coulde when they wanted their owne bookes And for this cause without the spirit of God they speake euill of the things of the spirite terming our earnestnes in praier to be rauing our zeale to be follie our continuance to be a heape of idle desires our teares to be hypocrisie our sweate to bee chafing and our forwardnes and willingnes thereunto to be pride and ambition with a number the like as I haue heard which are now opened in the stages where all good gestures are most wickedly derided Well well Eli was not so rash nor prophane but blessed Annah when she had tolde him hir minde and yet for all that hee ended his life with the breach of his necke Howe can it be but the Lorde shall more mercileslie bring these to confusion we may aske this kinde of monsters as Esay did some in his daies vpon whom haue you iested and against whom haue you opened your mouthes surclie against him that made both toong and mouth and shall trie it out As there are many giftes in the spirite of God so are there manie waies to expresse the power of them and as euerie one hath his gift so hath hee his gesture to open and vnfoulde the same Another vse of this doctrine is for our singular comfort that seeing according to our feeling in praier so is the Lorde affected towarde vs when wee are bitter hee maketh vs sweete when we are heauie he maketh vs ioyfull when we are cast downe hee raiseth vs vp and when we are most destitute and desperate he commeth with all speede as a mother to hir childe when it crieth loudest What are our sorrowes but many voices to cry vnto God and as a godly martyr hauing receiued manie woundes in his bodie whereby the bloude issued foorth abundantlie thanked his tormentors bicause hee had as many mouthes more to praise his God as hee had woundes in his flesh much more occasion haue wee to thanke our Sauiour that by sending so many sorrowes into our harts hath prouided for vs many friendes to entreate his mercy for vs. Therefore feare not my deere brethren and sisters for any aduersitie as when the battle is hottest the victorie is neerest so when your miseries are greatest your deliuerance is at hande Of this we haue often spoken before and so also of the other part of the verse following where the prophet yeeldeth the reason of his praier bicause the greene pastures were deuoured and the greattrees were burned vp teaching vs that which before we touched that when famine commeth there is nothing free from the same but it feeleth the smart if it haue any life at all And againe the vnmercifulnesse of it is noted when hee compareth it to fire and flame the fire burneth lowe that is the grasse of the earth and the flame reacheth high euen to the trees of the fielde The beastes of the fielde crie also vnto thee for the riuers of waters are dried vp and the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse Nowe once againe the prophet rehearseth the crie and lamentation of the beasts where I might note that seeing the beastes crie vnto God and to none else how much woorse are those then beasts which either neuer cry or else crie to other then God But this is worthie our consideration that he saith the beastes crie vnto him noting vnto vs that God regardeth the verie crie and voice of dumbe and brutish creatures and therefore the Scripture
and you shall like of it better loue it deerer heare it oftener and leane to it more safer then euer you did Againe seeing we must heare the worde of God with feare and trembling let vs also make an ende of our saluation with feare and trembling Philip. 2. 12. that is feare not onely in the church or when thou art neere vnto danger but all thy life long vntill thou haue made an end of thy saluatiō For so long as thou fearest so long thou art in safetie but when the world shall say peace peace and there be no feare of iudgement then shall come their destruction for as when he in the gospell promised to himselfe greatest safetie in his riches that night did they fetch away his soule so when we say we haue done it is finished I haue sorrowed long ynough I haue endured the crosse of Christ thus many yeeres and therefore now I will take my pleasure then shall our danger bee neerest and our woe bee greatest therefore let vs neuer cease fearing till we be in heauen as the shipmen neuer cease watching till they bee in harbour Oh here is a Christians triall if other men vexe him let him beare it if he be free from other men let him chastise himselfe Feare the Lorde least he be thy iudge feare thy Sauiour least he prooue thy enimie feare thy sinnes least they ouermatch thee and tremble at the word of God least it condemne thee A day of darknesse and obscuritie a day of cloudes and of blacknes as the morning spread vpon the mountaines so is there a great people and a mightie there was none like it from the beginning neither shall be any more after it vnto the yeeres of many generations A day of darknesse Now the prophet proceedeth to describe the great wrath of God in the furie of these small beastes which he doth first by consideration of the qualitie of the day or time when they should come and secondly by the manner of their comming taken from many resemblances and similitudes For the time he describeth it after the vsuall manner of the scriptures which setteth foorth a sorrowfull day of indgement by darknesse cloudes and mistes secondly he sheweth the cause hereofto be the great and mighty people meaning the locusts and the residue for he calleth them a people as Salomon calleth the ants and the conies Prou. 30. 25. and he saith they shal obscure the light as the morning darknes bicause their company should bee so many as we may reade they did in Egypt Exo. 10. 15. And therefore he saith there was not the like from the beginning meaning for a long season nor yet should bee againe to many generations following So that he telleth them that this was a fearful time when all the heauens should be couered with clouds the earth be darkened with an innumerable swarme of noisom beasts Cōcerning the multiplying of these beasts we haue spoken in the former chapter First when hee sheweth them that the day of their trouble shoulde bee cloudie gloomie and full of darkenes wee may learne that these thinges doe put vs in minde of the great wrath of God Psalm 18. 11. For in truth thus the Lorde will haue it that we shoulde bee feared from the heauens aboue vs and from the earth beneath vs. It is reported for a great wonder that wee in Englande seldome haue any daies wherein we see not many cloudes whereas in other countries they see not any cloudes for manie monethes togither Let vs therefore make this aduantage of our countries scituation that on the day time when we beholde the cloudes wee thinke vpon the great iudgement of God whereby from the cloudes hee once rained downe a great floude that destroied the worlde and howe one day in a cloude Christ shall come to iudge both quicke and dead Againe by night let vs meditate on the light of heauen that wee may escape that vtter darknes where shal be nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth The reasons of this doctrine are these First bicause this want of light was the first punishment that God inflicted on the Iewes for the death of Christ Matth. 27. 45. the which thing made them much afraid for they had darknes instead of light to shew them that Christ which should haue beene their light was nowe made darkness vnto them from whom they could receiue no sight to walke to heauen And surely if this outwarde and carnall darknes bee so terrible especially in the daie time then what is the inward and spirituall darknes in the mindes of men whereby they are depriued of all light of God all partaking of the spirite and all the hope of the worlde to come Oh woulde God this their perplexitie coulde prouoke their harde and vnbeleeuing hearts to forsake their damnable securitie this their darknesse is so grosse that other men feele it yet they are so blinded that they cannot see it Let vs therefore my deere brethen know that God will leaue none without excuse but either the word or the world shall tell them their duties and let vs learne to praise the Lord for couering the heauens with cloudes Psalm 147. 8. that by this meanes not onelie watereth the earth and maketh it fruitefull but also admonisheth the mindes of his children of a continuall preparation to iudgement But in our times all these are nothing regarded for signes tokens remembrances of righteousnes yea some knowe not so much as the vse of the rainbowe in the cloudes neuerthelesse in the right vse of God his creatures consisteth one great part of religion so that this is the best kinde of Astrologie or Prophesie to bee made of the starres that they may direct vs to a holy life and prepare vs for a blessed ende Moreouer by this that the Prophet saith The like hath not beene seene nor shall not be in many generations Wee may obserue that God doth verie seldome change the course of nature and turne light into darknes for nature being a rare worke of God he seldome vseth his omnipotencie to alter and change the same since the foundations of the worlde were laide The reasons are these First in regard of the Lordes owne promise Genesis 8. 21. For after the floud he determineth neuer to drowne the world againe and therefore he gaue the rainebowe to be a pledge thereof and also that the continuall course of nature shoulde remaine for euer Now the Lorde is faithfull and will remember his promise or else we knowe that the worlde might manie times since haue beene destroied for there hath beene more sinne since the floude then euer was before Since the floude haue sprung idolatrie the poison of the worlde and many other abhominations not knowen of in the first age as wars and Sodometrie and such other like yet for his promise sake hee forbeareth destruction Another reason may be the same that Dauid vseth Psalm 119. 90. 91. That
bodie of Saul doe when his soule was so laden with sin for he knew that the Philistines must needes haue his life and the diuell his soule in like manner will the enimie bewitch you when you are in aduersitie Therefore cast down your castles and defences for sin as the Lord exhorteth Hos 10. 14. before the diuell make them inuincible For as the raigne of Abimelech was the slaughter of Gedeons sonnes and the raigne of Athaliah was the ouerthrow of all the kings seede so is it betwixt vs and our sinnes if they raigne we must die if we put them downe we shall liue Let vs therefore cast them downe betimes for as the Israelites did at the first spare the Canaanites afterwarde they could neuer destroy them so if at the first we dallie with our sinnes in the end they will grow vnresistable Oh that we might liue to say of our sinnes as Christ said of the temple that there might not one sinne be left vpon another Let vs bury our sinnes as Ieremy said Iehoijakim should be buried Ierm 22. 18 19. that their deaths be not lamented but let them be cast out of our soules as a dead asse is cast out of a citie for as a dead corps procureth nothing but wormes and stinke and feedeth fowles so our sinnes cause nothing but woe and sorrow and feed diuels Againe let vs not onely cast away our sinnes in heart as many say they haue done but in words and works professe and shew the same Hos 14. 3. for by our words we shall be saued and by our words we shall be condemned A repentant man is knowne by his confession as Rahabs house was knowne by the thred that was tied in her window which caused her all her kindred to be spared and so if we would be spared at the great day of the Lord let vs confesse our selues to be of his family Many I know there be which thinke it sufficient to leaue sin and neuer to make confession thereof so also there be many that thinke it sufficient to beleeue the Gospell although they neuer professe it but in my opinion the one and the other are both deceiued For wee must not bee of Abrahams heart and of Belials life wee may not beare the soule of Dauid and the shewe of Pharisees Good king Iehoshaphat being in shewe like wicked Ahab was in danger to be slaine for Ahab so are all those in danger of death who haue inwardly good heartes and outwardly euill liues Confesse thy sinnes thy faith thy God thy sinnes to thy brethren thy faith to the church and thy God to the whole worlde that thou maiest bee as farre from note of euill as euer is light from the shewe of darknes The xviij Sermon Vers 7. They shall runne like strong men and goe vp to the wall like men of warre and euery one shall goe forwarde in his way and they shall not staie in their paths NOwe the Prophet commeth to the last similitude wherein he compareth these deuourers to souldiours for in truth there is not any mischiefe like to the mischiefe of warre which is well termed the slaughter house of mankinde and the hell of this worlde And in this treatise following I must enter into martiall affaires that as I haue hitherto taught you to be christians so now I must instruct you to bee soldiours and learne you the arte of warre Wherein this Prophet toucheth two things The first is the order of an armie vers 7. 8. Secondly the ouerthrowe or sacking of the conquered For the first he noteth what manner of men souldiors shoulde be namely Strong men Exod. 17. 10. For God hath so ordeined that all men haue their crosses and callings to humble them If thou be bee wise thou art emploied in gouernment if thou bee strong thou art busied in warre if thou be weake thou art tormented in want if thou be a woman thou art vnder subiection if thou bee a foole thou liuest in contempt Therefore thou which art a souldier make this vse of this point that thou encrease thy strength and cast away feare Deuter. 31. 8 Vndoe not thy strength by quarrelling or drinking or watching or fasting or feasting or whooring but keepe thy body in strength to benefite thy countrey Againe make another vse which the Lorde taught Iosuah the most noble captaine and souldier of the worlde who had the leading of sixe hundred thousand men and ouercame thirtie and one seuerall kinges in a little time this exhortation is set downe Ios 1 8. That alway in warre thou looke to the worde of God whether thy cause bee iust thy heart bee willing and thy calling be lawfull whether thy handes strike when God biddeth and thy foote stande when God calleth Looke to this I saie and robbe not kill not and fight not but against a lawfull enimie But alas Iosuah is dead and al those which sawe his doings now in warres there is gaine in steade of godlines courage in steade of equitie bloudthirstines in steade of valour policie in steade of iustice and you seldome see a souldier of any religion and neuer praieth till he bee in danger of death Another instruction ariseth out of this verse when the prophet saith Like men of warre whereby we obserue that souldiers should bee disciplined and instructed before they be sent into wars or else they cannot be like men of war This benefite Dauid acknowledged that he receiued of God Psal 18. 34. it is a dangerous matter to aduenture a whole army vpon yoong souldiers and more dangerous it is to vndoe any through want of skill The reason is bicause men must not onely haue strength but wisedome and cunning in their weapons and sometime vse the stratagems of warre where policie and experience is woorth tenne thousand mens handes as wee may see in Iosuah cap. 8 4 5 6. and in the Israelites Iudg. 20. Wherfore make this vse in thy warfare of this doctrine howsoeuer thy cause be good thy strength be great and thy experience much yet neuer fight til thou haue cōmended the victorie to God 2. Sam. 10. 12. for God is the warrior which daunteth euery enemy and directeth euerie dart to the person appointed Be not too bold as the Israelites were Deut. 1. and were chased backe againe by the Amorites but vse deuotion to God and discretion in thy busines remember well that the sword cannot cut except the Lord whet it that thy arme cannot strike except God enable it that the enimie will not flie except he discomfort him and that victorie will not follow thee except God be on thy side Againe if thou bee an able man for the warre both in strength and skill come willingly when thou art called and refuse not to fight in a good cause although it bee against thy own brother Yeeld obedience to them that shall teach thee and as the captaine in the Gospell said that his souldiers did
as he bid them so doe thou performe what thy generall or captaine commandeth if it be lawful and possible Thirdly he noteth another duetie of martiall men which is this that they performe their busines with all celeritie and speede Ios 8. 19. The reason is because it is the greatest commendation of a souldier that can bee to bee swift and of a ready dispatch Psalm 19. 5. 2. Sam. 2. 18. for as a sluggish seruant a heauie oxe and a tyring horse are verie discommendable so a slowe and heauy souldiour is not tolerable Gedeons armie was but three hundred and their dexteritie was such that they ouerthrew an innumerable rabble of Midianites and so shall souldiours prooue it verie aduantagious to surprise their enimie on a sudden But yet for all this trust not too much in thy legges or in the strength of an horse Psal 147. 10. for they are but vaine things to saue a man Asahell coulde runne well yet Abner slewe him and therefore beware least thou make thy owne agilitie to ouerthrowe thee Neither shall one thrust another but euery one shall walke in his path and when they fall on the sword they shall not be wounded In this verse he expresseth other duties of souldiers which they must obserue in their aray which are first of all that they keepe their places and be not one hurtfull to an other Iudg. 7. 16. 22. Achans gadding out of place was the losse of his owne life and of many moe And therefore let them learne that exhortation of Moses Deut. 23. 19. to abstaine from euill especially when they goe to warre Secondly let them as it is here expressed keepe themselues from wounding although they fall on their enimies sword that is let them looke to the matter that they be not onely carefull to annoy the enimie but also to defende themselues for it is an euill victorie which is purchased with the losse of many mens liues and wee knowe that all Canaan was woon with the losse of a very few men It is a great butcherie of men to presse still on the enimie where there is no hope but of death Therefore it is good for a souldier sometime to looke to his safetie as well by an vnwilling retire as by a desperate and a voluntarie march They shall run to and fro in the citie they shall run vpon the wall they shall climbe vp vpon the houses and enter in at the windowes like a theefe Now we are come to the last part of this similitude wherein the victorie is reported and the manner how the poore conquered are oppressed shewing vnto vs that as it is when a city or towne is sacked so shal it be when this iudgment shal be executed for some shal flee to goe foorth and some shall fight to come in euery mans house shall be sacked great booties shall be obtained and no spare shall bee made of any thing that can bee founde Where we might note that in the conquest or winning of any citie or towne there is a mightie confusion euerie one running to and fro for themselues they tread vpon the aged vpon the women vpon the children and no eie doth so much as pitie them But when he saith they shall climbe ouer the wals and creepe in at the windowes like a theefe we are taught that in warre they account not any thing vnlawfull that is done to an enemie the robbing of houses the rauishing of women the killing of olde men the braining of children the burning of cities the spoiling of corne and the rasing downe of dwelling houses are accounted vertues whereupon a Father saide well Bellum malis videtur voluptas bonis necessitas euill men make a pastime of warre but good men accoūt it a hard necessitie Wherin we may see one sinne punished by another neglect of law in peace is punished by contempt of lawe in warre for there is no lawe to bridle the conquerours Oh how happie is Englande which neuer for these many yeeres hath hearde so much as a trumpet sounded vnto warres wee haue not seene the shaking of a speare wee haue had no leading into captiuitie no complaining nor lamentation in our streetes But yet vnhappie which in these peaceable times hath laide the foundation of hir owne woe and scattered the seede of hir owne destruction Let vs therefore learne to continue our peace if by any conditions of equitie and reason it may be obtained Numb 6. 26. were we not better in these times to buy our peace with gold siluer or other possessions then to aduenture all that wee haue by giuing nothing If the enimie come home to vs it is not ten subsidies that wil satisfie him why are men so wretched as to pinch at one or two were you not better keepe them in doing abroad with your armour and money then suffer them to come home and take away your wiues and children what do I saie take away they will rauish them and you shall beholde it they will slaie your children before your face your houses and landes they will either giue to strangers or set them on fire ouer your heades and if any remaine aliue they shall be made drudges slaues or prisoners and captiues Therefore praie for the peace of Englande vse the meanes to keepe it refuse the waie to loose it let them prosper that loue it For the keeping of our peace let God bee our gouernour let the Gospell bee our lawe let the saints dwell among vs let the churches bee our courtes let the preachers bee our counsellours let religion be our exercise let praiers be our weapons let holines be our armour and then shall the angels be our wals Let vs builde our cities with loue let vs plant our fieldes with truth and then shall peace flourish in our lande For the auoiding of the things that wil break off our peace let vs banish Atheisme and all manner of carnall profession let vs roote out all the weedes of sinne from our harts let vs wash off al the spots of euill from our liues let vs cast downe all the castles of the diuell in our land let vs driue away whosoeuer worketh vnrighteousnesse let vs abrogate all the counsels of wickednesse let vs auoide sedition rebellion and confusion and come from the sea of infidelitie and then shall all be peace because the God of peace dwelleth among vs. Then shall the earth tremble before him the heauens shall shake the sunne and moone shall be darke and the starres shall withdrawe their shining After the former description of the terrible calamitie which these beastes should bring to that nation now he addeth these heauie tidings for their greater daunting and farther astonishment for least they should thinke that all the former came to passe by naturall meanes the Lord not directing it or not regarding it the prophet ioyneth these tokens of the Lords peculiar power to all the former iudgments
all sorrowes to put away thy sins Another reason bicause vnto outward tokens of repentance the Lord is readie to giue remission Dan. 4. 23. when men satisfie their for iniuries distribute their goods weepe for their euils and pray for pardon then is the Lord most willing to seale a release in the blood of his sonne For in truth there must be a change in al the parts of a mans life possessions When a sicke man is recouered he weareth not the same clothes he vseth not his old diet or apparell and rest so when our soules are recouered by repentance then we cannot eate stolen bread nor weare gorgeous apparell nor yet rest in that wealth which wee vnlawfullie gayned but all must bee turned into charitie and pietie The first vse of this doctrine is this Isa 31. 6. seeing wee haue sunke deepe in rebellion let vs turne againe vnto the Lorde from whome wee are fallen as we were not ashamed to sinne so let vs not be ashamed to be conuerted As couetous men care not for their names so they may get wealth and vncleane persons little esteeme their infamie so they may fulfill their lusts and as theeues make but a pastime to rob and steale if they may escape the gallowes so let vs account it a farre lesse discredit to confesse our faults in goodnesse then they doe to commit them in wickednesse Turne therefore as we haue sinned we haue many sinnes let vs shed many teares we haue great sinnes let vs sigh many sorrowes we haue long dwelt in them let vs speedily forsake them we haue watched in sinne now let vs watch in praier we haue loued sinne let vs embrace correction we haue delighted in vanities let vs reioice in teares How can a man reioice in teares verily vnto a good soule teares are more welcome then ioyes and it reioiceth in tribulation finding it more safe to bee washed with weeping then to bee delighted in musicke There is not any man that hath felt the power of godlinesse that will denie this and if he doe let Dauid teach him when he protesteth that teares were his repast when the enemies of God reproched him Looke on thy soule weeping as thou wast woont to beholde thy pleasure reioicing and thinke that this is the Lordes great mercie towarde thee which hath yet knocked at thy hart for amendment loue the meanes which will make thee tender harted delight in those sorrowes which will procure thy endlesse ioyes shed thy teares here that hereafter thou maist be freed lament in sorrowes this life that in another thou maist reioyce in comforts Secondly let vs not alway lie in sorrowes and liue vnreformed but follow the counsell of the prophet Ier. 26. 13. to make our waies of euill good When men are repentant they enter into a new iourney for as before they were ioyfully sailing to hell so now they are painfully trauelling to heauen and seeing a good way is the wish of a traueller let vs amend our waies that we may hasten to our iourneyes ende When thou hast well drenched thy soule in sorrowes then proceede to reformation and remooue those blocks out of thy life which would haue hindered thy passage into heauen If thou hast beene a drunkard be now temperate hast thou been an Atheist now feare God if thou haue beene a swearer vse his name more reuerently and as Paul said of theeues Let him that stole steale no more so say I of all notorious sinners let them be so no more but rather labour to doe good vnto other By this we may see that repentance is not in shew but in hart not in hart but in works not in works but in affections not in affections but in conuersation Some thinke they haue well repented if they be a little sorrowful other thinke they are well reformed if they be a little reclaimed and wearie of theirvanities but these men must knowe that if good liues bee not ioyned with godly mindes and reformed waies with weeping harts neither the one nor the other shall profit them Therefore now my deere brethren let vs win the field from our sinnes and ouerthrowe the troupes of our pleasures let vs now conquere our desires and reforme all the abuses of our liues that wee may yeeld to the gospell liue in the church eate at the Lordes table and worke out our owne saluation with feare and trembling In the second place the Lord biddeth them to fast that is to abstaine from all delights and desire of meates that as they haue alreadie pined their soules with sinning so now they should punish their bodies with fasting And in this place the prophet speaketh of priuate fasting for as yet he is not come to the publike fasts which must be directed by the cleargie-men who onely had authoritie to proclaime them of the which we haue spoken in the first chapter In this place we may obserue that hainous offences and generall must haue greeuous and generall lamentation It is most requisite that when we haue any graund cause to craue at the Lords hand we vse most humble tokens of an instant and longing desire Iudg. 20. 26. The Israelites ouercome by the Beniamites fast and pray al the day till euening and the day following they get the victorie the which is a warrant for vs to doe the like that wee may so slay our sinnes as they did their enimies The which must instruct euerie man in his familie during these times of vengeance wherein we haue no more power to be deliuered then a woman in trauell to cast foorth her childe that they abstaine from glutting and deuouring the Lords benefites For the Lord will not redresse our want till wee haue generally lamented our miserie and we can no way better punish our bodies then by fasting that the Lorde may be mooued to pitie vs as he did Abraham being willing to sacrifice his sonne yet he restrained him The first reason is this bicause fasting maketh vs praie with more feeling affection which our Sauiour insinuated Matth. 17. 21. when he saide that fasting and praier woulde heale the falling euill and nothing else Indeede to shewe you howe men are affected in the time of their fasting I can hardlie doe it except youfelt it howe sweete are their sorrowes howe earnest are their praiers howe strong are their grones and howe acceptable are their hearts vnto the Lorde their teares are their drinke their cares are their meate their nakednes their brauerie ashes their beauty humilitie their health their eies are not drouzie their mindes are not wearie their handes are not filthie and their cries are not easie The Lorde accepteth their obedience in doing that they are not able and their faith in beleeuing that they haue not in them and their praiers in desiring that which is aboue them then can men affoorde to die for God that they may liue for euer for themselues Another reason is bicause fastes doe mightily mooue
the Lorde and blesse the mourners Ezra 8. 23. There was neuer any man that was thus humbled and was not comforted We our selues haue had the trial hereof not long ago that great matters haue bin by this meanes effected And surely if it were more orderly practised neither shoulde the Lordes cause bee so coldly professed nor our liues so fearefully plagued Oh this fulnes of bread hath wrought all manner of mischiefe among vs it maketh mens liues licentious their manners monstrous their mindes wicked and their names odious The tauernes are fuller then the churches the pantries better furnished then the chapples the markets more adorned then any place is with religion men forget not the shambles but their maker and a stewarde or purueior or cater is more thought vpon then the minister The first vse heereof is this that when the Lorde is about to punish vs wee can neuer bee humbled sufficiently no though wee laie open our sinnes setting our liues to shame our health to sicknes our friends to hatred our wealth to pouertie or our brute beasts to mourne with vs Ion. 3. 8. Howe wilt thou nowe humble thy selfe to shewe thy penitent heart when thou seest that all meanes to increase thy sorrowe are little inough Doe not thinke that this is sufficient humilitie to come into the Lordes house and there to vncouer thy head and so sit downe rather as a iudge of repentance then a dooer of repentance or falling downe on thy knee speaking a fewe colde praiers or rather with a lukewarme desire dost thou rest therewithall contented but God is not contented with it nay rather vncouer thy heart with thy head and let thy minde fall downe as lowe as thy knee Strange is it to see that men are not halfe so humble to God as they be to their superiours If I might teach thee to liue penitently I woulde tell thee that thy life must be filled with feare thy heart with sorrowe thy labours with griefe thy comforts with mourning and thy minde must euer be considering the Lordes presence Thou must suspect thy meate least thou delight too much in it thou must feare thy expences least thou offende charitie thou must doubt of thy actions least they prooue hurtfull thou must hinder thy naturall affection least it exceed measure and looke that thy marriage-loue be not too much least you bee both endangered thy labour must not bee continuall thy sleepe must not be too ordinarie thy talke must not be too merrie neither maiest thou thinke thy selfe holy Let the word be as a cocke to awak thee let praier be as darknes to hinder thee let the cogitation of thy sinnes bee as sorrowfull newes in thy eares to trouble thee and then let wisedome rule in thy worldly actions A second vse is this that if we account our selues of the Lords bride-chamber let vs fast when time occasion calleth vs thereunto Mat. 9. 15. for if we fast not either we are no children or no obedient children If Vrijah would not rest in his bed nor in his house till Ioab the Lords hostes were at rest then let vs my beloued except we be woorse then Hittites fast in want not rest in trouble in these dangerous times wherein there hath not bin a creature of God but it crieth nor a childe of God but hee weepeth I am afraide to say that the bridegrome is taken from vs although I am assured we haue deserued it good men suspect it We haue as yet more practise of ioy then of sorrow although we haue more cause to weepe then to reioice thus we are merrie in our woe sorrie in our ioy Alas alas hard hearted men if men or rather vnreasonable beasts which gather the woode and blow the fire to burne themselues withall All time is become too little for pleasure no time is little enough for holines all costes goe to the kitchin none to religion so much eating drinking and so little fasting and praying must needes drowne vp that little goodnes that men had gained by liuing amōg christians til men can leaue their meat to serue the Lord they can neuer leaue their sins to saue their soules Fast I beseech you great men in their pallaces rich men in their houses poore men in their cottages men with their seruantes women with their maides and parents with their children for this kinde of euill will not bee cast out but by prayer and fasting The thirde circumstance of their repentance is mourning whereby the Prophet teacheth vs that a sorrowfull spirite doth accompanie a penitent hart 2. Corint 9. 10. for this cause Paul telleth vs that godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of and Salomon 1. King 8. 35. calleth repentance the tribulation of the spirit Men in our daies woonder at this tribulation because it is so seldome for in deede if it were common then it would cease to be a woonder but yet it is a greater woonder that wee haue repentance so much preached and so little practised But seeing repentance bringeth so much sorrowe with it it may notably comfort those which are distressed in minde liuing in torments of conscience for the burden of sinne surely happy is their estate which are corrected with this rod whereby they are freed from sinne deliuered from wrath and reconciled to God The medicine that worketh most forcibly causeth greatest paine and speediest remedie in like manner those sauing woundes of Christ doe then most sweetely wipe away our sinnes when our mindes are most roughly gawled with a pricking conscience And therefore they cannot be saide to haue repented which affect nothing but pleasure and neuer in their life wept one teare for their sinnes or praied secretly for the distemper of their minds This is a grounded and infallible rule Without repentance there is no saluation without sorrow there is no repentance without earnest praier there is no godly sorrow and without feeling of the Lords wrath there is no praier that pearseth the skie or mooueth the Lord. The first reason of this doctrine is this because there is no comming to our Sauiour till wee bee oppressed Matt. 11. 28. Christ calleth not merrie harts or those that loue pleasure and mirth for this suiteth not with contrition but then is our way open to our Sauiour when our harts are as heauie as lead and our affections like the voices of mourning women And thus the Lord tempereth our estate that when we are lost in ourselues he findeth vs when we are weake he strengtheneth vs and when we are castawaies hee receiueth vs. Oh how happy are our oppressions which driue vs to God as the shipwracke droue Paul and his companions into Melitum where by that meanes many soules were woon to God Harken my deere brother dost thou sorrowe that it is thy hap to endure greefe nay reioice in thy sorrow that bringeth thee to Christ Sorrow is a guide to leade
thee a broome to sweepe thy passage that nothing hinder thee it is the key that openeth the gate of Christes mercie and a sure friende to sue out thy pardon Another reason is because Christ will not come but to such spirits Luc. 19. 10. so that if thou wouldst goe vp to Christ thy sorrow will lende thee wings if thou wouldest haue Christ to descend to thee thy sorrowe will perswade him Christ is the phisition of the minde and he will not come till thy minde be sicke As in winter the most raine falleth so in distresse of conscience most comforts come downe this doctrine bringeth great ioy of glad tidings which shal be to all harts where godly sorrow dwelleth But let vs not alway lament these sorrowes or rest in the graues of our easelesse cares but let our praiers be multiplied as our dangers are increased so doe the godly Hos 6. 1. Flie therefore to the Lord when thou feelest any smart in thy soule and let not musicall delights or pleasant companions entise with conceites to banish this greefe but let thy greefe be thy meate and drinke and the meanes to stirre thee vp to praier It is to be feared that many haue beene either vtterly condemned or desperately endangered by vsing worldly medicines for these heauenly sores for so soone as their harts waxe heauie by reason of their sinne they call for worldly delights which either driue them to desperation or harden them to condemnation Drinke is good to the thirstie but it is dangerous to them that are sicke of burning feauers in like sort vnto them that haue eaten poison so mirth is good but vse it not to driue away godly sorrow but abide it patiently with praier and fasting As thou seest thy sinnes so let the Lord heare thy praiers and as thy greefe for them is increased so let thy cries against them be multiplied Thinke whome thou hast offended wherewithall thou art greeued and how thou canst be pacified If thou be rich let thy closet bee thy sanctuarie if thou be poore let the woods and secret places be thy temple if thou haue little knowledge resort to them that haue more if thou be heauie and feelest no comfort yet pray still and giue not ouer for the ende shall bee blessed although the beginning bee desolate Againe as Hoseah teacheth chap. 14. 5. let vs in our mourning take with vs the hope of pardon or else a Christian soule shoulde haue no more feeling then a desperate wretch for we may lawfully perswade our selues how sharpe soeuer we feele our pangs and soule-fits yet there is neuer taken from vs the hope of pardon yea if faith bee not vtterly couered we may bee bolde to assure ourselues of victorie What then how if hope and faith be buried and we yeeld vnto death denying the sweete promises of Christ is not this desperation no verily for as there may bee life in the body although men cannot perceiue it so there may be in the soule although none discerne it for although Dauid said This is my death yet he recouered both life and peace of conscience Therefore a contrite spirit is alway regarded of God and if he euermore loue it in other hee doth also like it in thee Be patient the same hand which made the wounde shall heale the greefe and if thou feele a decay of grace stirre vp thy selfe more earnestly by calling on God and hold fast till the Lord come Receiue good comfort in the middest of thy sorrowes as a watchman espying the dawning long before it bee light although it be bitter in thy mouth it shall bee sweete after digestion and say I will abide the Lords leisure I will drinke his potion it is a cup but not of deadly wine I will receiue it for the purgation of my sinne although it make me sicke The xxj Sermon Vers 13. And rent your harts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnes and repenteth him of the euill THese words are another part of the Prophets exhortation vnto repentance wherein hee noteth the greatest measure of Repentance vnder this metaphor Rent your harts Meaning the most extreme and comfortlesse paines in the action thereof not that indeed men should rip vp their breasts and rend in twaine their harts no more then when our Sauiour biddeth vs cut off the arme or plucke out the eie that offendeth vs wee should dismember our bodies for euery fall or ouersight But by the rending of the hearts wee are taught that the paines of true repentance exceede all other paines death excepted neither whipping of the body as the Iesuites do nor launcing it with kniues as the priests of Baal did or pricking it with bodkins or sickenes or famine or trauaile are comparable to repentance for these may bee quickly eased by man but the other cannot bee redressed but by God Vpon this the godly Israelites pray Iudg. 10. 15. that God would deliuer them meaning from the terrours of their sinne and lay whatsoeuer pleased him vpon them besides The insufferable wounds of a tormented minde are the onely paines which are like to the paines of hell so that neither brimstone nor fire commeth any thing so neer vnto it as this doth Wherupon it was said that good men haue their hell in this life meaning that the paines of repentance are so smart vnto them that it differeth many times verie little from the plagues of the other life Now I beseech you that are godly that haue long rested in this restles harbour to acknowledge with me the truth hereof and you that haue perswaded your selues that not onely teares but easie sighing grones doe goe for payment of your sinnes Learne of me this one lesson that your minds must be more perplexed and your hearts more inwardly vexed not onely for a day but for a longer time yea peraduenture a whole life that you may sing with all the godly The paines of hell came about me The first reason bicause that repentance is the dressing of the soules wound so that as the soule is more dangerous than the bodie so the wound therein must needs be more painfull then a wound in the flesh And for this cause are the ministers charged with the soules of men Heb. 13. 17. because they dresse not their woundes and shew not their sinnes that lie secret in their soules The which account is now a daies little regarded of many ministers ' and lesse of many people one careth not for their sinne and the other regardeth not their soule but the more they be the more is the pitie or rather the more shall be their iudgement Neither let vs be amazed to heare of these vnspeakable gripes of minde for they crie continually in the eares of God for mercie as a wound calleth for a salue Another reason because in repentance men feele the wrath of God against
vs and ioyneth vs to God The Lord in this worke is the builder the ministers are the carpenters the worde is the axe the griefe of heart is the stroke and regeneration maketh vs the frame otherwise we are stones refused of the builder Another reason because in our vnrepentant estate wee cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. seeing we cannot please him we run from him we forsake and denie him This would make ones hart to melt to consider that all actions not grounded on a new life doe swarue from God Some obiect if God did not like them they could not doe them So may a thiefe an adulterer or rauisher of women defend his iniquitie but it will not goe for payment for God suffereth you to follow your pleasures against his pleasure that your pleasures may taste of euerlasting paynes Therefore labour for repentance that you may be brought into the Lords sheepefold and be incorporated into his congregation and saued by his deerely beloued sonne then shall your waies be altered and your pleasures ouerturned and you shal pray with Christ Not our will but thy will O heauenly father bee done Being in an vnrepentant estate wee runne away from God yet let vs looke backe on God as Isay exhorteth Isa 45. 22. and then we shall be saued If thou be running from God through a lewd life giuing ouer thy selfe vnto libertie yet looke backe vpon him often the children of Israel if they were stoong by serpēts by looking on the brazen serpent recouered presently And although the sting of thy sinne is greater then the sting of adders yet the Lord is mightier and wholesomer then the brazen serpent therefore looke vnto him if thou wilt be healed Old Simeon so soone as he had seene Christ presently desired to die for ioy and Zacheus hauing but a minde to see him was made that day a notable christian Looke often on the Lord for by beholding him thou maist grow in loue with him wish continually to be with him as the Iewes which being captiues in Babell yet made their praiers toward Ierusalem Esau at the sight of Iacob fell to weeping loued him the better euer after so if thou wilt cast thy eies to heauen behold his glorie then looke vpon the world and see his gouernment then behold the earth and consider his benefits learne his Gospell and note his truth and life thy eyes to Christ to marke his mercie thou wilt surely turne the saile of thy wicked life and come with the Sabaean Queene to worship in his church Consider his workes for they defend thee thinke vpon his iudgements for they threaten thee marke well his kindnes for it maintaineth thee and beleeue his worde for it shall conuert thee cast but one of thy eies vpon the Lord and thou shalt winne him looke often vpon him least minde and eies be both blinded and neuer see him more Another vse wee must lament the plague of our sinnes raigning among vs Isa 59. 9. 10. when the Prophet had shewed them their danger he bringeth them in mourning on this wise Therefore is iudgement farre from vs neither doth iustice come neere vs we waite for light but loe it is darkenes we grope for the wall like the blinde grope as one without eies we stumble at the noone day as in the twilight we are in solitary places as dead men we roare allike beares mourn like doues c. Thus must men that are not yet regenerate re count their miseries after they heare them condemned by the word saying vnto themselues Howe blinde are our eies that we cannot see the glorious light of the Gospell wee are quite forsaken of the Lorde who keepeth vs from beleeuing of his truth wee haue no power to performe the least part of that Gospell to walke in any tollerable obedience sanctification goeth against the haire and though we like it yet wee cannot doe it wee see that hee that refraineth from euill maketh himselfe a praie therefore let the Lord come and reforme our liues and adorne our mindes with righteousnes that wee may bee deliuered from this slauerie of sinne let him turne the heartes of children to their fathers and turne our course vnto himselfe Moreouer think what deadnes is in your soule what sinfulnesse is in your life and what wrath of God hangeth ouer your heads for assuredly except you confesse in this sort you shall be confounded before you be conuerted Let your harts be awaked betimes that wrath ouertake you not and let whatsoeuer may further you to God although it be shame or iudgement or nakednes or pouertie or death bee most speedily receiued The xxij Sermon YOur God After all this preaching of repentance nowe hee beginneth to comfort their distressed mindes which coulde not but be grieued grieuouslie and therefore he putteth them in minde that the Lord is their Lorde and God Howe may this bee if he be theirs then they are his and will he suffer them to bee made a pray vnto brute beasts and to make the heauens to thunder their destruction what comfort haue they by his seruice or what pleasure hath he in their cries verie much for sometimes a tender nurse and louing mother wil make hir childe weepe bitterly that it may loue hir the better so the Lorde to trie his owne casteth them into a bed of sorrowes From hence wee must gather that in our greatest calamitie and aduersitie God is our mercifull God Artthou tormented with sorrowe that it is bitter to thee to liue and better for thee to die or art thou vexed with sore sicknes and intollerable imprisonment hast thou no meat for thy selfe and thy tender babes and seest thou a whole nation in an vprore yet for all this acknowledge with Dauid Psalm 22. 1. that God is thy God although thou seeme forsaken Oh sweete mercy of a father and glorious condition of a sonne whom no pouertie no miserie no iniquitie can part in sunder though he chasten vs yet he loueth vs though wee be helpelesse yet hee remembreth vs though we be in death yet he saueth vs. God is euermore the father of his church and of euery member therein he scorneth not their parentage he refuseth not their pouerty he regardeth their sufferings and desweth their saluation Let vs then say with Iob that although hee slaie vs yet we will trust in him death shall not driue vs in sunder but conioyne vs togither The reasons are First bicause in prosperitie he will bee knowne to maintaine vs and in aduersitie to comfort vs Esay 51. 12. If men would or coulde vndergoe all the former euils without comfort then might they haue some colour torefuse and distrust God but they are not able neuer is any man at one time distressed in bodie and distracted in minde or oppressed outwardly and not comforted inwardly If thy minde be heauie thinke on the comforts of this life if thy bodie bee vexed then confider
fruitfull abounding with many a pleasant herbe let not thy hart be barren and stuffed with filthie stinking sins Come to the spirituall gifts of God see how many preachers thou hast to moue thee to repentance it is the end of preaching the fruit of hearing the motion of praier the sacraments signifie it the Spirit worketh it and the whole church of God liueth in it the bishop watcheth for it the doctor teacheth for it the worker of myracles doth witnesse it the poore mans boxe doth prooue it I cannot run ouer al it is sufficient that euery one do prooue it I would to God that any might preuaile The reason because God woulde be neere vnto all that call vpon him Psa 145. 18. he wil cōpasse vs about with a world of witnesses that they may draw vs to him or else to accuse our disobedience whom the heauēs could not win or the earth admonish or the church perswade or the spirite instruct that all these which could not work our health may further our death And seeing in euery place these are manifest in so much as we despise all warnings of God and his creatures it is most equall that we be pnnished with all torments of hell fire Seeing all things are notes vnto vs of the Lords fauour then assuredly if men will shew any care to serue him hee will neuer hide his face or punish vs extremely 2. Chron. 30. 9. Oh what a comfort is this to a troubled soule to haue all the creatures of the world to witnesse the Lords fauour the birds flying the beastes eating the corne standing the grasse growing and the houses ouer our heads are pledges vnto vs of the grace of God Then turne thee and consider not two or three but euery one in their kinde and thou shalt finde inestimable ioy Why doe men complaine for want of grace when all the world is ful of grace it pearseth the stones it cleaueth the rocks it shaketh the trees it quickeneth the beastes and it descendeth to the bottome of the earth onely the soules of men are not capable thereof Beginne now with thy selfe set these creatures as iudge arraigne thy soule as guiltie bring foorth thy guiltie conscience and waite for the sentence of condemnation Oh no saue thy selfe from these frowarde inuentions Turne I say a little shew a willing minde bring a ready hart pray for an ounce of godly sorrow and let the world and the gospell the creatures and the spirite the earth and the church the angels and the beastes encrease the same gather thou the wood they will blowe the fire thy care shall be augmented as the widowes oile by Elishah that thy debts shall be discharged thy trouble shall be eased thy life shall be amended and thy soule shall be blessed Seeing all the creatures of God doe remember vs of his grace then let euery creature be deere and precious vnto vs Gen. 1. 31. as a pledge of his fauour for the Lorde cōmendeth them all to be good And if he which wrought them doe so then much more ought wee for whose sake they were created Let vs then often meditate on the frame of the world the bodies of men the proportion of beastes and the little greene leaues shall minister vnto vs much instruction to reforme our liues we shall finde not one of them made for themselues but all of them for one another and especially for vs. Wherefore it cannot bee that we were borne for luxurie riot pleasure profite sorrowe loue ioy or hatred no not for the possession of our selues but for the possession of the Lord. Consider these things and thou shalt finde all time too little not spent herein and all ioy but vanitie that is not applied to this When thou canst not heare the worde reade it when thou canst not reade then meditate on it when thou art wearie of meditation then turne to the creatures and solace thy selfe in them as in a most pleasant garden of many sweet flowers marke their diuersitie in colour strange in number infinite in making contrarie and yet in vse all one euen for thy sake that thou mightest be for the Lords glorie Marke their growth that thou maist growe so and their death for thou shalt die so and their spring for thou shalt arise in the sommer of all pleasures with them in the kingdome of heauen Mercifull The second reason is taken from the Lords mercie and that therefore if they will repent he will pardon Wherein I might tell you many thinges woorth the learning of the Lordes mercie and shew you by many arguments howe the scripture in many places doth expresse it sometime naturally as to men and beasts Psal 36. 6. sometime to good and bad Mat. 5. to his church through Christ Luc. 1. 78. and all these he meaneth in this place when hee saith that God is mercifull not simply through Christ whereby he saueth his church but also through himselfe whereby he loueth al his creatures From hence obserue that the mercie of God must leade men to repentance 1. Sam. 12. 24. The which is cleane contrary to the course of the worlde which take it for a libertie of sin and make it not a necessitie to repentance but a good childe is more afraid of a gentle and a kind father then of a sterne and seuere and we if we be the children of God must be as much terrified from sinne with the sweete songs of Sion as with the loud thunder claps of Sinai be as subiect to the Lords censure in his sweete mercies as other in the fearfull curses of the Law Therefore let not our time of peace our healthie bodies our large possessions our heaps of treasure our sweete children and all other mercies of God make our harts fat but let vs vse all these to awake vs from sinning and to restraine vs from offending him that defendeth vs with them yea let vs weepe moe teares for hauing them then for wanting them that we may enioy the promises of this life and of the life to come The first reason because they are mercifull which loue mercie and therefore blessed Matt. 5. 7. If we would see a token of our pitifull harts then let vs thinke how the sweete promises of the Gospell haue pearced them It is no wonder to see such bloodie minds in Papists because they make small account of the Lords mercie teaching vs that men may satisfie for their sinne and for this cause they thirst after blood for the breach of their canons But yet let vs beware how we perswade men to relie on the mercie of God for they say wee teach men to trust to mercie and to liue vily but let vs exhort one another in the Lord that we walke woorthie of his mercie and vse his abundant clemencie for a promptor vnto repentance Another reason because God is more delighted with his mercie then with our sacrifice Hos
6. 6. and therefore so ought we to be sacrifice winneth him therefore let mercie ouercome vs euen those mercies which we read in his word and note in our liues that wee may pull downe more and more vpon vs. Oh I feare seeing of long time we haue had so little regard of mercie and all of iudgement now the thing wee were afraide of is come vpon vs namely wrath for we feele it in our liues in our times making many mens harts to tremble and the bodies of some to die Yet for all this the time of mercie is not all spent therefore let mercie draw vs vnto God and the former and late receiued kindnes from him bee as bands of steele to keepe vs in obedience Seeing the mercies of God must mooue vs to repentance then I beseech you let not our eares be deafe at his sweete promises least the Lord complaine of vs as he did of his owne time Matth. 11. 19. that we are like to children neither dauncing with them that sing nor weeping with them that mourne Austeritie is too hard for vs and mercie is too soft if wee preach the law then men say we speake of malice of else giue iudgement vpon them if we shew them libertie that maketh them woorse and woorse so that our times are like a thiefe being in prison he complaineth of crueltie and being at libertie runneth to robbing againe The mercie of God is much called for and being obtayned is much abused they make it a charter to sinne and thinke if they haue one pardon all their villanie afterward is forgiuen The deepe wounds of Christ doth not asswage their heat of sin but encreaseth their desire O my deere brethren if gentlenes will not winne rigour most perswade You are the Lords schollers learne you must the rod is your tormentor or else you shal be expelled his schoole Make much of mercy while you may haue mercie for if the gate of mercy be shut and the date expired your teares shall be drops of blood and your wounds as windowes for your bones to looke thorough your flesh shall feede the fowles of the ayre and your soules shall feele the torments of hell Secondly seeing mercie must winne vs let vs be mercifull as our heauenly father is mercifull Luk. 6. 36. which is needfull to bee vrged in these hard times wherein are many poore and many complaints for if wee looke to haue mercie of God when we pray vnto him let the poore find mercie in vs when they cry vpon vs. Be mercifull as our heanenly father is mercifull His hand is euer giuing his spirit is euer comforting his mercie is euer pardoning and his liberalitie is euer feeding therefore giue thou to the poore comfort the sorrowfull forgiue thy offenders and let many hungrie soules feede on thy meate Mercie is better then sacrifice hotter then coales of fire softer then liquide oyle and sweeter then pleasant hony Offer this sacrifice kindle this fire touch this oyle and eate this honie thou shalt finde mercie in iudgement in thy death-bed in thy graue and in thy resurrection it shall couer thee as a garment comfort thee as a guide carrie thee as a mother and crowne thee as a king God delighteth in it Angels reioice at it men looke for it and bruite beastes loue it Therefore with mercie delight thy creator reioyce the Angels and satisfie man and beast And bee mercifull to men to beastes and to thy selfe to man for God requireth it to beastes for nature craueth it and to thy selfe for thy soule challengeth it the first is of charitie the second of equitie and the last of pietie therefore practise mercie that christian loue godly kindnes and glorious religion may euermore maintaine thee Of great kindnesse and long suffering This is another argument to perswade them to repentance By the which we may note that God doth not alway take vengeance of sinne so soone as it is committed but winketh at it and deferreth till we repent or growe incurable This thing the Apostle noteth Rom. 2. 4. that God by his bountifulnesse and long suffering leadeth vs to repentance Although for example sake he slew Er and Onan Vzzah and Ananias and Saphira and many other in the verie act of sinning yet he doth not alway take this course For fower hundred yeeres togither did hee beare with the abhominations of Canaan Gen. 15. 18. Let not men thinke bicause they are not killed so soone as they haue blasphemed or denied God or committed adulterie or prophaned the Sabbaoth or the like that therefore their deedes shall go vnpunished no verily for the longer before they reckon the greater shall be their account and the farther a man runneth backwarde the farther hee leapeth forwarde and so the longer that God forbeareth our sinnes the heauier shall bee his stroke for wee shall beare double blame the one for breaking his lawe the other for abusing his patience It were needfull for vs to consider in our soules this singular fauour of God that wee might vse it as the prophet heere doth to further our repentance for let vs be well assured if peace and long suffering doe not prepare vs for God it will annoint vs for destruction The first reason bicause God will bee exalted in sparing vs Esay 36. 18. The Lorde which is most excellent in all his workes is most excellent in forbearing the malice of men for who coulde endure to be denied plainely reuiled openly and blasphemed boldly saue onely the Lorde or who coulde abide to see his workes reproched his worde rebuked and his liberalitie scorned saue onely the Lorde who filleth all in all and beareth much with all or else all woulde bee confounded But this is sufficient that the prophet saith he is exalted in sparing vs that is it magnifieth his honour while hee regardeth not his vengeance nor his maiestie nor his wrath nor his power but his mercy that his chiefe glory might be through clemencie Another reason bicause his chiefe desire is that not one shoulde perish 1. Pet. 3. 9. So that if men woulde or coulde laie holde on repentance they shall finde sufficient time to amende after they haue sinned So deare is the loue of God towardes vs his creatures that for his part he omitteth not any dutie to recall vs We haue the word for the meanes his workes for our helpes his mercies for our comfort and his long suffering for the time of our conuersion so that all thinges are discharged on the Lordes part and nothing on ours In this saying of Peter we must not vnderstande that any were damned contrarie to the Lordes will but rather that hee is vnwilling thereunto for a man may doe that vnwillingly which is not contrarie to his will Let vs not abuse the long suffering of God and although he bee willing to spare yet let not vs be willing to sinne Luk. 12. 46. If the euill seruant shall say in
wicked pastimes and so haue we they were warned to turne all into lamentation and so must we be Therefore if now you looke on the miserie of our time you shall finde it high time for all to be humbled Let the elders beginne the yoonger will followe yea the little children will crie for companie Let vs all take vs to the houses of mourning olde men bicause they haue seene good daies yoong men bicause they haue liued ill liues and children bicause they are appointed to fearefull destinies parents bicause they haue begotten sinne children bicause they were borne in sinne rich men bicause they haue gathered much married folke bicause they haue loued too much and poore men bicause these daies are but the beginning of sorrows Death calleth for the old let them weepe age calleth for the yoong let them bee sorrowfull correction calleth for children let them crie warres call for strong men let them lament and repentance calleth for all men therfore let al mourne But some will say doe you condemne all mirth that is vsed in our times and shall we liue eate drinke marrie and die in continuall sorrow then can we not account it anie benefite to liue in the world To whom I answere that this is no where commanded that men should so liue in continuall sorrowe but rather Eccl. 2. 24. Salomon saith That it is the onely portion of a man to reioice in the things that God giueth him for all men in health shall conceiue a naturall ioy by their eating drinking as Bohaz Ruth 3. 7. and Salomon saide That wine maketh glad the heart of man the which is lawefull for Christians and necessarie for health Againe there is another ioy which is spirituall and heauenlie which is called the ioy of the holie Ghost Rom. 14 17. This maketh all our afflictions seeme light and little to be regarded Rom. 5. 7. and without this inward ioy one can hardly be a christian the which is neuer lost though we endure neuer so many torments yet in repentance it is darkned and seemeth vtterly gone howbeit it returneth againe with greater measure as the sunne rising But whether naturall ioye bee lost in repentance it is hard to say for sometime a hart that is humbled hath no more ioy in meate and drinke then a sicke person As for carnall ioies which are inuented by iniquitie practised with greedines and loued with too much affection they are neither lawfull or necessarie for a christian and whosoeuer receiueth any comfort by them hee may iustly suspect that his sorrowe was not godly but some other heauie conceit which is easily remooued by company or ioy conceiued of pleasure The xxv Sermon Vers 17. Let the priests the ministers of the Lorde weepe betweene the porch and the altar and let them say Spare thy people ô Lord and giue not thine heritage into reproch that the heathen should rule ouer them Wherefore should they say among the people where is their God NOw the prophet sheweth vnto the priests how they must behaue themselues namely that they should weepe and hee telleth them the place betwixt the porch and the altar that is in the vtter court where the people waited for the blessing after the sacrifice For the people must now be gathered as we haue heard and it was not lawfull for them to come within the precincts of the priests wherefore the priestes must come foorth to them and in their place and assembly make their lamentation By the description of this place for the priestes to weepe and pray in we may note that all the publike exercises of the ministerie ought to be done in a place where the people may heare and see them and for this cause are they commaunded to weepe betwixt the porch and the altar So wee may read did Iehoshaphat 2. Chro. 20. 5. when hee made prayer for the people against the children of Moab and Ammon I thinke there is not any in their right mind but they will confesse the necessitie hereof except those which care not whether they pray for or against themselues standing aloofe in the Church as if they were afraid to heare what the preacher saith Let men therefore labour not only to pray but to come with diligence into the Lords house and publique place of praier where they must bestow thēselues with such care as they may pray when the pastor prayeth and heare when the word is preached that there be not one in a congregation but hee may depart better instructed and better edified The first reason because they can haue no knowledge of that which they heare not and vnderstand not 1. Cor. 14 15 16. alas it is a maruell to see that so many haue so little regarde what is prayed or taught in the congregation especially the poorer sort who are thrust behinde the doores in the greater assemblies by which it commeth to passe that all that is taught is little regarded and whatsoeuer is prayed for is coldly desired it is your duetie to presse into the middest of the assembly that you may hear vnderstand the mysteries of saluation modestie in chusing places is not to bee regarded where danger followeth too much curtesie Another reason in a conuenient place of hearing our harts are more touched and awaked by the word Act. 1. 13 14. there can bee no zeale in them that cannot heare the voice of the preacher neither any reuerence to almightie God and it is much better that they come not at all or depart out of the church then to sit there without obedience to God attention to the word or profit to their owne soules Let vs therefore so sorte our selues in the congregation where our eares may be beaten with an vnderstanding sounde and our hearts bee touched with a heauenly power that the coales of zeale may bee enflamed and the light of knowledge may be kindeled Therefore let this bee the forme of a congregation that the minister so speake and the people so heare that with one soule their praier may ascende to heauen and so wee may reade Acts. 4. 24. that the Apostles with one consent lift vp their voices to God and the place shooke where they were assembled one spake and all agreed their eares were attentiue to his wordes and all their harts were lifted vp at once to the Lord. The which honourable practise commendeth a congregation when as they being many make but one man at praier as the wheate-cornes being many make but one loafe at table Our Sauiour hath taught vs that if two or three shall agree on any thing in earth the same shall bee sealed and confirmed in heauen Agreement in battle getteth victorie consent in a common weale maketh peace vnitie in musicke maketh harmonie and the fellowship in praier conquereth the diuell getteth peace of conscience and soundeth sweetely in the eares of God Therefore if euerthou come into the place of any godly exercise ioyne thy mouth
eares and hand and heart to theirs when they are humbled fall thou downe when they are praying praie with them when they are hearing heare with them when they are singing sing with them and when they are mourning lamenth with them If they ioine in petition to God oh account it happinesse for thee to subscribe thy name for they are blessed that are ioyned to the fellowship of the saints Another vse if wee must seate our selues in most conuenient place to heare then let vs also frequent the places of praier and religion When the church was compelled to a riuers side in steede of a cathedrall church Act. 16. 15. Lydia the purple woman resorted thither and once she had her hart opened and conuerted to the Lord In like manner let vs resort to the churches for at one time or other we may boldly assure our selues that we shall receiue the pledge of life eternall But in our daies men are so affected to this doctrine that the diuell laugheth at it and good men lament it for either they come not at all as the ghestes which were bid to a wedding or else they come without conscience as he did without a wedding garment or else they are present without attention as Eutyches that fell on sleepe at Paules preaching or else they depart out of our assemblies as Iudas did from Christ when hee went to betray him Standing times of praier in the church some say are of Poperie and in the house they are of other condemned for puritanisme so that godly praiers being the sword of the spirite are now growen rustie and dull that few mens sins or liues or harts are parted therewith But my deere brethren come to the times of praier and binde your selues not onely publikely but also priuately with seuere vowes and pay them to the Lord for so shall the fire of the spirite be kindled in you the holy Ghost shall raigne in you the saints shall be comforted by you and you shall trie that all things are possible to a Christian Spare thy people Now we are come to the praier which the prophet teacheth the priestes to make for the people which is thus much in effect Wee haue no refuge but to flie to thee O Lord we are guiltie of the punishment but yet thou maist stay thy hand and spare our liues Giue vs not ouer wee pray thee that our enemies reioice not ouer vs and blaspheme thy blessed name we are the fields of thine owne inheritance reuenge our cause from the handes of strangers oh spare vs that we may serue thee First out of the beginning of this praier we may note that petitioners and those which are suiters to the throne of grace must alway pleade guiltie in the presence of God Luc. 18. 12 13. The example of the Publican prooueth this that the Lord loueth vs better when we tell him of our follies then when we shew him our vertues The Lord which will seldome helpe till there be no helpe but in his mercie biddeth vs alway to condemne our selues so that when wee thinke most basely of our natures and speake most vilely yet truly of our liues and confesse most bitterly against our selues then are we most nigh to the end of our praiers For this cause let vs meditate before praier that we may sufficiently waigh our miseries and more lamentably bewaile our wants and more ardently pray for his mercie that we may more comfortably enioy his fauour The reasons hereof because there is not one man liuing that can bee iustified before God Psal 143. 1 2. but euery man is an vnprofitable seruant for which cause we must alway accuse our sins and call for pardon at the Lords hand This reason being knowen of the baser and wickeder sort they imagine that they haue gained a sufficient charter to continue in their euill why say they the most righteous are guiltie in the Lords sight and what are we more Doe what wee can yet we shall sinne and we can but craue pardon of him for many as well as for few but this is a wicked and an accursed reason For although the best fall into many enormities yet ought not you to sinne good men fall into sinne but you dwell in sinne they are sorrie for them but you delight in them Dauid sinned was therefore Absolom or Achitophel vnpunished because Peter denied his maister might therefore Iudas betray him or because one man falleth into debt by sicknesse may you therefore fall into debt through riot if a sound body doe now and then fall into sicknesse then hee which hath a crazie body had neede to looke to himselfe so if men of sound soules doe fall into euils you which haue sicke soules must bee much more carefull of your health Another reason our Sauiour giueth Luc. 18. 14. for the Lord resisteth the proude and giueth grace to the humble and meeke therefore ought wee to increase in the numbring of our sinnes that the Lord may aduance vs to the beholding of his mercie Let vs be assured if we pray without sorrow we doe but mocke the Lord but if we sorrow with earnest praier we prepare many ioyes for our soules First let vs learne that our praiers must bee ardent and continuall in the eares of the Lord as the Israelites were Iudg. 10. 3. to 13. for as we haue a continuall occasion of sinning so we must take continuall occasion of praying Who is he that hath beene but a little while in the practise of christianitie and hath not learned this lesson My sinnes are euer in my sight too heauie a burden for me to beare therefore as he which is vexed with a continuall want laboureth in a continuall worke and hee which hath a continuall sicknesse turneth on euery side to finde ease so must we which are euermore oppressed with sinne be euermore praying for helpe As the greatest burdens make the porters sweate the greatest drops so will our sinnes if we feele them make vs sweate drops of blood to be released of them therefore pray till thou be heard and take for thy example the poore widow which woulde neuer giue ouer till the iudge had righted her cause neither doe thou cease to pray til thy soule doe cease to sinne Many pray through want but not with want and for grace but not with grace they are cold and not continuall in their suites Who is so hard harted seeing a poore man with as many sores as his body can beare running after him a mile or twaine and begging but a penny that coulde denie him in like manner if wee shewe all our sores and sinnes and miseries vnto the Lord continually that when our voice is wearie our harts may speake and when our harts are sleepie our wounds may crie for mercie so that we may neither eate nor sleepe till we know our sinnes be pardoned Let vs neuer be afraide to come to the Lord notwithstanding we finde
our selues neuer so sinful Psal 9. 9 10. although we bee neuer so poore in spirit yet let vs know that ours is the kingdome of heauen So that if thou reason with the diuell himselfe who will if it be possible deceiue thy soule telling thee that thou art more vile then others and therefore it is but follie for thee to call on God for mercie yet say to thy soule that the Lord neuer despiseth the sighings of the poore although I haue sinned yet I haue sorrowed although I haue neglected grace yet with the Lord there is more grace be it that I haue no goodnesse in me the more neede haue I to goe to God the author of goodnesse Men seeke not to the phisition in health but in sicknesse and the more desperate is their disease the more speedily they sollicite him and a good phisition commeth quickly so I want the health of my soule and I see death standing at the doore and knocking for me therfore my praier shall goe to the Lord my physition and I knowe that he will speedily come vnto me He abhorreth not my weakenesse he hateth not my person he willeth not my destruction and therefore wil I pray for saluation I am exceeding base but he will bende to me I am very poore but he will giue mee the riches of the spirite I am a sinner and he is a Sauiour why shoulde I not goe vnto him and fall downe lowe vpon his footestoole for hee neuer despiseth the sighing of the contrite Giue not thine heritage That is the people whom thou diddest take vnto thy self aboue al the nations of the world from hence we may obserue as in a singular metaphor how deere the church is vnto God Deut. 4. 20. euen as deere as any mans inheritance is to himselfe for indeed an inheritance doth very fitly resemble and shadow out vnto vs the nature and condition of the church First because it is not woorth any thing except a man do plant sow the same and so is it in the church wherin if the Lord plow not and sow not there can no good thing grow therein Againe an inheritance is sometimes sold away for the barrennes thereof so when the church groweth secure and bringeth not foorth good fruits the Lord giueth it ouer for a season to be spoyled by strangers Againe if an inheritance will no way be amended then is it accursed and burned Heb. 6. 8. so if no means will reclaime the world from their wicked life then he accurseth them and giueth them ouer to the fire of hell Also as a man taketh singular comfort in his inheritance so the Lord doth in his church and as a man hedgeth and encloseth his inheritance to keepe it from being wasted euen so the Lord hath set a brazen wall about his church the which all the diuels in hell shall neuer be able to ouerthrow but men and angels shall fight for their safegarde and maugre sinne and hell they shall endure as the earth doth euen for euer and euer The first reason because hee might powre his blessing on it Esa 19. 25. for hee hauing many most excellent benefits in store hath made choise of his church to powre foorth all that he hath thereupon for whether we consider the blessings of this life or the benefits of the life to come they are all ordained for the good of them that be godly He is wise to instruct vs he is mightie to defend vs he is liberall to maintaine vs he is mercifull to receiue vs for our sakes were the heauens created the earth established the waters remooued and the fruits appointed for our sakes were the angels condemned the sonne of God crucified and the age and yeeres of the world is plunged Another reason because we should be holy vnto him Deut. 19. 2. Of all the creatures of this worlde there is none that can bee holy vnto the Lord saue onely mankinde for they are the image of God and if the lande whereupon Moses stood was holy much more is the land of our harts holy whereupon the Lord himselfe standeth for he raigneth in vs. And this is the cause why the Lorde hath made vs his inheritance that we should serue him in holines and righteousnes all the daies of our life for the heauens are holy whither wee are going the angels are holy with whom we shall dwell the church is holy wherein we liue and therefore we must bee holy or else we are accursed Seeing we are the inheritance of God purchased by his sonne then let not any of vs liue to our selues but to him that redeemed vs 2. Cor. 5. 15. how many waies might I vrge this doctrine that as the earth beareth not fruit for it selfe but for vs so should not we eate the fruits of our owne labours but offer them to the Lord. Our harts are the grounds our bodies are the hedges God his law is the plough the worde is the seede and himselfe is the husbandman Oh let vs not be ploughed and planted in vaine let vs not frustrate the Lords expectation and our soules saluation If we were but seruants yet we ought to worke for our hire but being his inheritance we must liue and die day and night to beare him fruit wee cannot put him away but he may put vs away our fruits do not profit him and yet the want of them will curse vs. Let vs not be for the weedes of sinne nor for pleasures to feede on as bullockes do on pasture-land but let vs bee his garden of sweete flowers his vineyard of fruitfull grapes his field of fine planted wheat and his possession for an euerlasting inheritance Let our words be as gratious fruit let our religion be as pretious pearle let our loue be as rockes of golde and let our bodies bee as fruitfull garners let vs bring him all for first fruits tenthes and offerings and sacrifices that we may be his blessed land vnto the worlds end Another vse seeing we are the Lords inheritance we may see that the Lorde will be very hardly driuen to forsake vs for he gaue a lawe Numb 27. that none shoulde sell awaie their inheritance but at the ende of fiftie yeeres euery one should reclaime thereunto So that if the Lord shall giue ouer his inheritance as hee did Israell Hos 5. 15. the case is very desperate but not perpetuall A man that hath manie barren fieldes doth not presently sell them away no more the Lorde which hath many barren soules in the compasse of his church doth presently forsake them but rather dresseth them by the ministerie of the worde that they may be made fruitefull Oh heare this you that are in the Lordes folde although he beare for a season with your barren hearts and suffer you manie yeeres to lie in rest thinking at the last you will bring him some profit bring it foorth with speede or else knowe that the Lorde which redeemed you from
Againe let rich men especially looke to themselues Iam. 5. 1. for they for the most part esteeme more of gaine then of grace and of a great gentleman though he be an infidell then of a poore and true member of Christ Let them remember how fewe good rich men are named in the Scriptures and let them alway set before their eies that most dreadful saying of our Sauior It is easier for agable to goe thorough the eie of a needle then for a rich man to enter into heauen Let them bee liberall to good vses courteous to euery christian sparing in all expenses humble in all authoritie not gorgeous but clothed with Christ not couetous but open handed not ambitious but content with their place and not infidels but as farre exceede other in faith as they doe in wealth He shall giue you the first raine In those countries they had ordinarily two raines in the yeere especially desired wherof the first was most acceptable when they first sowed their seede and the latter raine was in the spring of the yeere which is here called the first moneth answering in some part to our March and Aprill because the world was made as it were in the spring of the yere But in this that the Prophet promiseth them the first and the latter raine we must obserue that it is the Lord that ruleth the cloudes giuing al seasonable and vnseasonable weather 1. King 18. 1. The reasons are bicause he will onely be knowen to blesse the workes of our hands Deut. 28. 1. Againe it is onely hee which decketh the heauens with clouds Psal 147. 8. Let vs therefore learne to feare the Lord by the consideration of raine Ierem. 5. 24. for hee reserueth for vs the appointed weeks for haruest Me thinkes that euerie creature of God do so admonish vs of our duetie that not so much as the little drops of raine but they teach vs to feare him Oh that our soules could so thirst for the mercie of God as the earth thirsteth for the water drops or the grace of God might so fall from heauen on our hearts as the raine doth issue from the cloudes on the ploughed land Againe let vs seeke for the testimonie of the Lords fauour towards vs in them Act. 14. 17. the Apostle sheweth the raine of the clouds the spring of the earth and the encrease of temporal things to be a sufficient meanes for the old world to haue searched for and found out God but yet they did not search into it and so is it now a good meanes for many ignorant soules to leade them to God at the first if they consider the world continueth the grasse groweth the corne increaseth the raine falleth down from heauē that by these as it were by the crosse-row of letters they might com to greater knowledge in religion When he saith that their barnes shall be full of wheat and their presses shall abound with oyle and wine he noteth thereby that their decaied houses shall be builded againe and their full ioy restored And also that if God do once begin to do good to his people hee neuer thinketh any thing too much that is bestowed on them if they be repentant The xxix Sermon Vers 25. And I will render vnto you the yeeres that the grashopper hath eaten the caterpiller and canker-woorme and palmer-woorme my great hoste which I sent among you NOw he toucheth the restitution of their goods lost in famine telling them that all their former yeeres deuoured by the beasts shall bee restored againe By which we may note a woonderful example of the Lords kindnes that he wil giue to the repentant whatsoeuer they haue lost in trouble It were enough for him yea more then he oweth vs if he did onely ease our miserie yet is he not contented therewith but giueth vs as much as we desire and beyond our desires as much as we lost so he dealt with Iob. cap. 42. 10. giuing him a thousand for fiue hundred sixe for three fourteene for seuen The first reason because he would haue none to be like him in mercie and liberalitie Mich. 7. 18. Secondly that the wicked may note a difference betwixt the iust and the vniust Mal. 3. 18. therefore let not any thing in the worlde hinder thy conuersion Ierem. 7. 14. for thy sinnes shall bee chaunged into much holines thy pouertie into great wealth thy sorrow into double ioy and thy short life into twise so many daies If thou hadst little ease now it shall be more or little peace it shall be increased or little grace it shall bee augmented or little ioy it shall be multiplied and thus will God take away curse and change it into blessing and turne our punishment into pardon Againe let vs hereby be instructed that there shall neuer be any hinderance to the ioy of the Lords saints Isa 40. 2 3. the crooked shal be made straight the high shall be made low the low shall be made high the weake shall be made strong the sicke shall be made whole the lame shall be made wel limmed the sorrowfull heart shall bee reioysed and the contrite soule shall be glorified the great power of sathan shall not hinder the tyrannie of sinne shall not preuaile nor the space twixt heauen and earth shall keepe vs from ascending to ioies Oh come on my brethren with hope and comfort and bestow your labour in the word more cheerefully that our single sorrowes may receiue double ioyes So you shall eate and bee satisfied and praise the name of the Lorde your God that hath dealt maruellouslie with you and my people shall neuer bee ashamed Hauing signified vnto them their plentie nowe hee granteth vnto them the free and lawfull vse of euerie creature telling them they shoulde eate and drinke them and praise the name of God for them When hee saith They shall eate and bee satisfied we may note a great blessing of God vpon meate temperately receiued for it satisfieth vs meaning it nourisheth and maintaineth life Hag. 1. 6. but when it is riotously and gluttonously deuoured then men fall into sicknesse in steade of health into raging in stead of quietnesse and this is the very cause why our affraies and quarrels are begunne at tauernes and alehouses and at great idoll and glutton feastes bicause men receiue them not in moderation but in excesse The first reason bicause meate so taken giueth strength to the body 1. Sam. 1427. Ionathan tasted but a drop of hony and his wearied body was strengthened and his eies almost blinde recouered their sight Another reason because meate thus taken cheereth the hart of man Ruth 3. 7. Let vs therfore learn what a singular benefit it is to eat be satisfied with the labours of our owne hande Eccle. 5. 16. 17. for if the Lord should breath thereon then were our trauaile in the dust meate hath no life in it and yet it
away the peace from the church take away all glory from God and all comfort from men Let vs which liue in these blessed times looke to our selues aboue all other for as God hath made our earthly estate better then other mens so will he doe our condition in the other life woorse then all mens for the abusing heereof Let me lament my countrey as Esaie lamented Israel cap 43. 22 23 24. saying Thou hast not called vpon me ó Englande but thou hast wearied mee Thou hast not brought mee the sheepe of thy burnt offeringes neither hast thou honoured mee with thy sacrifices I haue not caused thee to serue with an offering nor wearied thee with incense Thou hast not bought mee sweete sauour with thy money neither hast thou made me drunk with the fat of your sacrifices but thou hast made mee to serue with thy sinnes and wearied me with thine iniquities O my brethren thus may the Lorde complaine of vs. We haue had peace who hath beene honoured for it we haue had money who hath beene worshipped for it we haue had cattle and corne to whom haue wee sacrificed surely wee haue honoured our policie for our peace wee haue worshipped our goods and landes with our money and wee haue sacrificed our corne and flesh to our bellies What coulde the Lorde giue more then he hath or beare more then he doth or tarrie longer then he must or we receiue more then hath beene cast vpon vs Oh that I could now powre foorth my selfe in words to lament the estate of our times We haue much preaching but little religion for the prophets scant beleeue themselues wee haue much peace but little knowledge of God is reaped thereby we haue great plentie but verie small thankfulnesse our peace hath bred pride our pride hath bred want our want hath caused mourning our mourning hath brought foorth plentie and our plentie hath hatched pride againe Let the harts of men cleaue in sunder to consider this point that now we fall as fast to our former vomites as any ruffian to his former follies We haue beene humbled and God hath heard vs God hath heard vs and we regard it not for the rich men eate their flock in plentie lauish out their money in wantonnesse spende God his fruites in riote and neuer thinke of thankefulnesse This saith hee my friendes left me or I gained by such a bargaine or I wonne at such a game or got by such an office or I saued in my shop and nowe I will bee merrie with it And the Lorde hath no sweete sauour by their money nor any sacrifice by their flockes But to come to the point they beginne alreadie to forget that there was a famine and as the staruen kine in winter become wanton and wilde in the spring so they which of late coulde speake pitifully and mourne bitterly for want now they begin to forget their want and their God and all Oh my deere brethren we are nowe in more danger to perish by plentie then wee were to fall by famine for ease slaieth the foolish and the prosperitie of the wicked shall destroy them When the children of Israell went euery day poore and rich to gather Manna and to eate thereof they liued well but when the quailes came and they eate thereof the plague tooke them while the meate was in their mouthes so not want of foode but want of grace and thankefulnesse destroieth men Therefore now let the magistrates looke to the lawes let the ministers discharge their places let the fathers admonish their children and let all men gouerne themselues least our plentie of fruits cost the death of our soules Nowe be as diligent to render praise as you were woont to bee vigilant in praier let the teares burst foorth for ioy for our peace reioiceth both men and angels We are come to our first heauen I meane the peace of our church if we now waxe proud and grow insolent as the diuels were cast out of heauen aboue so shall we be out of heauen beneath Remember sicknesse followeth health death followeth sicknesse iudgement followeth death and damnation followeth iudgement nowe are our soules sicke let vs recouer thē for else they die if they die they will be iudged if they bee iudged they will be damned Secondly he promiseth that a fountaine shall goe foorth of the house of the Lord to water the valley of Setim meaning that the Gospell should be preached to the Gentiles for it began at Ierusalem as at the spring head and so flowed thorough the whole world of the which the Prophet Ezechiel saw a vision Ezech. 47. 3 4 5 c. whereby wee are taught first that God caused saluation to flow from the Iewes vnto the Gentiles they had both spring and streame and yet wanted grace to drinke thereof whereupon shee speaketh Cant. 1. 5. that they made her the keeper of the vines but she kept not her owne vine Secondly in that the Gospell is compared to a running water we may note that it neuer standeth still but goeth as it were a flood thorough the world and there is no power to resist it And this is the cause why all the kings and counsellers of the world could neuer stop the course thereof onely the Bishop of Rome is that starre called Wormewood Reuel 8. 10. 11. that fell from heauen and corrupted these fountaines of water whereby they beeing made bitter caused the death of many that dranke thereof Thirdly the valley of Setim was a very dry place and these waters made it fruitful so were al the Gentiles wherof we are a part if these waters of the Gospel had not come vnto vs we had remayned vnfruitfull lande verie neere vnto cursing and burning Lastly we may see that no other doctrine or profession whatsoeuer is to be receiued but this which is deriued from Ierusalem We must not fetch our water frō Rome or from Mecha or from any other place but take of these which flowed from the temple And it is verily thought that God would not suffer Ierusalem or the temple to stand nor conuert it into a Bishops-seate least the antiquitie or dignitie of the place should challenge authoritie to send forth what waters and what Gospell they pleased into the world Egypt shall be wasted and Edom shal be a desolate wildernes for the iniuries of the children of Iudah because they haue shed innocent blood in their land Once againe he mentioneth the destruction of their enimies for in their ouerthrowe standeth the felicitie of good men when they shall not be able to molest the church by their power nor to corrupt it by their euil example Hereby we see first of all noted vnto vs that the blood of the Lords saints shal be certainly reuēged although it cost whole coūtries Isa 9. 12. The reasons First bicause they are the images of God Gen. 9. 6. the Lord saith that hee will haue his blood shed that sheddeth