follow it is accounted by God as we brought the evil on purpose upon our selves Surely they set not up silver and gold on intention to destroy themselves but because destruction doth necessarily follow therefore God accounts it done on purpose in Jer. 7. 18. in Pro. 8. 36. All them that hate me love death Surely no man loves death but when you do cast off the instruction of wisdom you do as mnch as if you should say You love death as here that they might be cut off It follows VER 5. Thy Calf O Samaria hath cast thee off THY Calf O Samariah He calls the Idol a calf by way of contempt But why is it called the Calf of Samaria It was not set up in Samaria There is two Calves only that we reade of and yet here it is call'd the Calf of Samaria The reason is this that Samaria was the chief City and because the Calf was by the power and riches and countenance of the chief City of the Land maintained therefore it is call'd the Calf of Samaria Where that 's corrupted the whol Land wil quickly be corrupted where that stands right it goes well w th the whol Land that 's the reason why the Adversaries seek to corrupt and overthrow our chief Citie As all did depend upon what Samaria did therefore the corruption of false worship is attributed to Samaria it is thy Calf Oh Samaria And therefore if God had not moved the hearts of the People of this City but we had brought Popery in it might have been said it was the Popery of London and whereas on the other side if God please to work their spirits right to go on to the end the children not yet born may have cause to bless this Citie and say This is the Reformation that we may bless London for It hath cast thee off Hath cast thee off from me so some have it But rather as you have it in your books Thy Calf hath cast thee off Whence note That though Idolaters promise to themselves safety and protection by their Idols yet they will leave them at last All you that go on in the waies of sin know that those waies of sin of yours will leave you in the lurch at the last as they say the Devil leaves the Witches when they come to the prison when Judas went to the Scribes and Pharisees in the anguish of his spirit and cast down the money and said I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood What 's that to us say they see thou to that Therfore the best way is to cast off our sin and wickedness first But God will not do thus God will not cast off his People in the time of trouble and when our unbeleeving hearts do think that God will cast us off in the time of trouble we make God an Idol as if God would do as the Idols did cast us off We may in Gods Cause be brought into straights but God will never cast us off in them when we are ready to think our selves to be utterly forsaken in straights then God may be working the greatest good for us we have a most notable Scripture for that in Isa 49. 13 and 14. verses Sing Oh Heavens and be joyful Oh Earth and break forth into singing Oh Mountains for God hath comforted His People and will have mercy upon His afflicted But mark Zyon said the Lord hath forsaken me They were in a singing condition and God calls the Heavens to sing and the Earth to be joyful and the Mountains to break forth into singing because of so great a work that God was making for His People but Zyon said The Lord hath forsaken me And so it is with particular souls they are ready to say the Lord hath forsaken me but God will not do so Mine anger is kindled against them When wicked men are brought into the greatest straits then Gods wrath is hottest and then also Conscience belks and burns most hot as mens countenances change red and pale sometimes with anger so it is said here that even the countenance of God grow red and pale with His anger against this people Though superstitious men may think that outward pompous worshipping pleases God most yet we see here that it doth stir up the anger of God so that God grows even pale against them with anger How long will it be ere they attain to innocency Mens hearts are stubborn in their own waies they will not be taken off wicked men will be true to their own principles there is a stubborn constancy in evil as well as a gracious constancy in good How long will it be Again secondly God is very patient a long time Then Thirdly Continuence in sin is no excuse but an aggravation of sin to make it grievous to God when God chastises us we are ready to cry How long Lord Will he reretain his anger for ever Know that our continuance in sin is as great a burden to Gods Spirit he cries out when will they be made clean when shall it once be and in Jer. 4. 14. ver Oh Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou maiest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Ere they attain to innocency The words are He cannot attain that is he is so deeply engaged that he cannot attain to innocency when men are engaged in evil waies they cannot get out Take heed of engagements in that which is evil Secondly If by custom and engagement in evil we have no power to get out this will be no excuse to us In 2 Pet. 2. 14. They have eyes full of adultry and they cannot cease to sin This is the aggravation of sin no excuse A learned man of late hath an excellent Note upon this They cannot bear innocency and indeed according to the Hebrew this may as well be added for explication for in the Hebrew there is nothing else but this They cannot innocency the word attain is not in the Hebrew and it may very well sute with the time wherein Hosea did prophesie and the meaning is this They cannot bear with those who will not joyn with them but will go to Jerusalem to worship and this provokes the Spirit of God against them because they cannot bear those that would seek to free themselves from defilements in the Worship of God there is nothing in the world wherein men cannot less bear one with another than in dissentions about the worship of God and commonly the Nocent party is the most bitter against the Innocent as the Lutherans they were worse in their waies than the Calvinists specially in the point of superstition but they were a great deal more bitter against the Calvinists than the Calvinists were against them it was an expression that Calvin hath Though Luther saith he should call me Devil yet I would honor him as a Servant of Jesus Christ The
is in an high and honorable condition indeed Further The things of Gods Law are great in Gods esteem they are great because the great God thinks them so That is to be accounted great that the most judicious and wise men in the world judg so to be indeed that which a child thinks to be a great thing is no great thing a child may think a bauble to be a great thing so we may think things great indeed we think the things of the world are great for a man to have an estate it 's a great matter to have riches and honors and to be some-body in the world we think these to be great things But what are these in Gods eyes God despises all these things But that which the great God will think to be a great thing certainly that 's great indeed Now mark what a high esteem God hath of his Word in that place where Christ saith Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one jot or tittle of my Word shall pass away As if Christ should say The Lord will rather withdraw his power from the upholding of Heaven and Earth than from making good any one jot or tittle of his Law you may think it a little matter to break Gods Law but God thinks it a great matter and God would have us to make a great matter of every thing that is written in Gods Law I am the willinger to enlarge my self in this because I know it is the ground of all the wickedness in mens hearts and lives because they look upon the Law as a little matter well though they dare sin against Gods Law for the getting of a groat or six pence but God saith I will rather lose Heaven and Earth than one jot or tittle of my Law shall fall and he will make it appear one day that the things of his Law are great things in Isa 42. 21. He will magnifie the Law and make it honorable You may vilifie it a company of wanton spirits we have that consider not what they say or what they do running away with the very word of the Law they think to vilifie it What have we to do with the Law and under that word not understanding what they mean they think to cast a vile esteem upon the Law let them do what they will yet God will magnifie his Law and as it is great in the thoughts of God so it is and shall be for ever great in the thoughts of the Saints the Lord will have his people to the end of the world have high thoughts of his Law the Saints they look upon the Law of God so great as they had rather suffer all the miseries and torments that any man in the world any Tyrant can devise than willingly to break the Law in any one thing surely they account it a great matter when a man shal be willing rather to lose his estate and liberty yea and life to suffer tortures and torments and all because he will not offend the Law of God in any one thing though he might escape all if he would nay saith a gracious heart Let all go rather than I will venture to break the Law of God in any one thing surely he looks upon the Law of God as very great Men of the world think them to be fools and why will you be content to suffer so much lose all your friends what venture to lose your estates which have such a fair way of living as you have what venture a prison and venture your life the world thinks they are but little things and trifles and men are more precise than wise and they need not trouble themselves so much If God would but shew to you how great a thing his Law is and all the threatnings which are revealed therein you would account your estates and lives and all your comforts as little and poor in comparison of that Law hence in Revel 6. 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held Wherefore were they slain Surely it was for some great matter that they would venture their lives it was for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And thus the Saints of God have ever accounted the Law of God a great thing I have written unto them the great things of my Law Hence from what hath been said we may have these Notes for Observation Here are Objects in the Word for men of the greatest spirits to exercise themselves about Many mens spirits are raised up and cannot endure to spend their thoughts and time about small matters and you shall have some mens spirits are so low that they think it happiness enough if they can be imployed in a gutter and get six pence or twelve pence a day to find them bread at night but others have great spirits Oh! let all those who have aspiring spirits and great spirits let them exercise themselves much in the Law of God here are objects fit for great spirits that will greaten our spirits And indeed there are no men in the world have great spirits but the Saints they have great spirits for they exercise themselves in the great counsels of God We account those men to be men of the greatest spirits that are imployed in State-affairs now the Saints they are lifted up above all things in the world and they look at all these things as little and mean and they are exercised in the great affairs of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ hence it is that the Lord would have Kings to have the book of the Law written and the Judges and it is reported of Alphonsus King of Arragon that in the midst of all his great affairs of his Kingdom he read over the Scriptures fourteen times with Commentaries upon them How many have we men of great estates and seem to be of great spirits that scarce mind the Law of God they look upon the Law of God as under them it may be if they can have a book of History and Wars they will be reading over that but for the Scripture it is a thing that hath little in it Another Note It is a special means of obedience to have high thoughts of Gods Law to convince and humble them for their disobedience for that 's the reason why the Prophet here speaks thus I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing As if he should say If they had had the things of my Law to have been high in their thoughts they would never have done as they have done Psal 119. 129. Thy Testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul keep them I have high thoughts of thy Testimonies I look upon them as glorious things I see much of thy self in thy Testimonies and therefore doth my soul keep them He doth not
prayer sweat and spend their strength in prayer but yet a principle of vain glory acting of them all this while they have been sowing the wind all this time Men that are publick parted and do abundance of good in the Church of God and in the Common-wealth but yet having a principle of self and vain glory that acts them they lose all they sow the wind all this while A fift sort that sows the wind are such as leaves the rule of the Word and carry on their actions altogether by the rules of Carnal Policy thinking to do great things by the fetches and reaches they have that way Your Carnal Polititians that have the Word and Worship of God as things under their feet but that which their deep reaches are after are some higher things they sow the wind And thus the people here at this time it was carnal policy that carried them in that way they were in and God cals it all but sowing the wind they thought they had framed to themselves a notable piece of work but saith God It is but sowing the wind Sixtly Such as seek to shift for themselves by sinful waies when they are in any straits such as go out of any lawful courses to help themselves out of trouble these are they that sow the wind to themselves there will nothing come of all the labor they take Now first here the Church of God may have much comfort in this thing That all Idolaters that all false worshipers that al carnal polititions that are working against them in al they do they do but sow the wind they can never prevail be not afraid of them The seed-time of our life is a seed-time for Eternity It 's an evil dangerous thing therefore now to sow the wind to lose this seed-time and to have nothing for our souls to seed upon to all eternity Oh! how sad will it be when we are entring in upon Eternity then to see that we have all our life-time sown the wind Did men consider of their actions that their actions were seeds for Eternity certainly they would take more heed what they do Men are very careful of their seed What Husband-man that is to sow his ground would go into a Merket to buy Chaff to buy blasted stuff to be his seed no he would buy the greatest and plumpest Corn of all to be his Seed So should we be careful of all our actions for they are such seed as must bring forth an harvest of eternal happiness or else eternal sorrow and especially we had need look to our Seed when God gives us a fair opportunity of sowing All Hypocrites and Formalists and False-worshipers they sow the wind their actions are but as the wind but the Servants of God whose works come from Faith and are indeed godly they sow to immortallity and glory their Seed will bring forth a glorious harvest I remember Luther though he were a man that seemed to beat down works very much yet he hath this passage concerning works Take works out of the cause of Justification and no man can too magnificiently commend good works that come from faith And speaking of a good work that comes from faith It is more precious saith he any one good works it is a more precious thing than Heaven and Earth yea he himself that is no Merit-monger yet he lifts up good works that come from faith and saith the whol world is not sufficient reward for one good work that comes from faith Indeed the works of the Saints have a great deal of excellency in them one gracious work hath more of the glory of God in it than all the creation of Heaven and Earth besides I say the whol frame of Heaven and Earth hath not so much of the Glory of God in it as one good work that comes from the Grace of God in the hearts of the Saints and my reason is this because a good work that comes from the Grace of God in the hearts of the Saints it is a reflection of spiritual life that is the very life of God the Scripture calls it The Life of God and the Divine Nature Now an action of spiritual life doth more set out the Glory of God than any Glory that God hath passively as the Glory that he hath in the frame of the Heavens and Earth it is but a passive glory but here the very glory of God is reflected upon his own face it is a glory of spiritual life A man doth not account one so much honored in an Image that is drawn of him as when he seeth his child to act as he himself doth act when his child shall present himself in doing that which he himself doth do Now all the frame of Heaven and Earth it is not so much as a picture it is but as the foot-steps of God and the back-parts of God but in one gracious action of the Saints there God sees his child act as himself doth he sees the workings of his own holiness and his own vertues we shew forth the vertues of him that hath call'd us out of darkness into his mervailous light Ministers of all men they had need take heed they sow not the wind God hath made them Seeds-men of that eternal Seed of his Word if they then either because they are loth to take pains or to be at the charge for good Seed they sow husks and chaff and bring meerly empty words unto their people or if they do take pains enough but bring their own fancies and counsels instead of the precious immortal Seed of the Word they do but sow the wind The Seventy translate this that we have here Sow the wind Thus They sow those things that are corrupted by the wind those actions that pride corrupts will never bring forth good fruit It follows And they shall reap the whirlwind As we sow so shall we reap The word in the Hebrew Tremelius upon this place notes hath a syllable added more than ordinary and that saith he is to encrease the signification of it To note that this is not only a whirlwind but a most terrible whirlwind And mark he doth not say they sow the wind and they shall reap the wind no there is more in the Harvest than in the Seed if men will sow the wind they must expect to reap the whirlwind If thou hast but a little pleasure in thy sinful waies thou must expect a great deal of miseries in the fruit of thy waies Their labor shall not only be in vain but much evil shall come sudden and violent destruction shall come of their labors All sinful actions are like unto the sowing of the wind in the earth Now we know if windy vapors be got into the earth they cause Earthquakes they break forth into whirlwinds into violence and so wicked actions they break forth into violence and
latter end of the former Chapter he would not hearken to the Lord he would not hear the Word of the Lord the Lord threatens to cast him away because he hearkened not to him from whence Luther hath this Note The Word is like a fruitful rain there can no true fruit be without the Word those that will not hearken to the Word no mervail though they be empty it is the Word that makes fruitful it is that that is as the fruitful rain Those that leave and forsake the Word observe them how fruitless they are what empty spirits they have many that heretofore were forward in hearing the Word and loved it the Word was delightful to them Oh! then they were fruitful but since they have been taken off from the Word converse with them now and you shall find their spirits empty and their lives empty and there 's no men in the world so empty as those that would worship God in another way than the Word appoints men that would think to worship God after their own fancies and waies Oh! how empty are they in all their Worship they tender up to God But the main Note and Observation is That emptiness in those that profess themselves to be Gods People is a very great evil Oh! it is a great charge upon those that grow in Gods Vinyard that profess themselves to be Gods to be charged with this That they are empty an empty Vine When we would speak of a man contemptuously as one that hath no natural or aquisite excellency in him we say such a one is an empty or a slight fellow and that 's the meaning of the word that you have in Mat. 5. 22. Whosoever calls his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the counsel the word Racha it is empty it is as much as if he should call his Brother an empty fellow for that 's the signification of the word Empty And in Jam. 2. 20. Knowest thou not O vain man that faith without works is dead The words are Oh empty man knowest thou not O empty man that faith without works are dead There 's many that keeps a great deal of noise of Faith and of Gods free-Grace and yet are extream empty men and understand little of the true excellency of the Covenant of Grace Knowest thou not O empty man that Faith without Works is dead Speak as much as thou wilt of Faith and Gods Grace yet if there be no Works thou art an empty man Nature will not endure emptiness some of the Phylosophers have said that the world would rather be dissolved than there should be any vacuity creatures will move contrary to their nature rather than they will suffer a vacuity Certainly an emptiness in the souls of Gods people it is the worst emptiness that is in the world For First It is the most unnatural thing for a Vine to be empty And secondly For the Saints to be empty they are a dishonor to their Root that they do profess they are upon Christ he hath all the fulness of the God-head in him And of his Fulness we are to receive Grace for Grace To grow upon him upon such a root and yet to be empty Oh! what a dishonor is this to Jesus Christ Thirdly This frustrates the Lord of all the care and cost and charge that he is about if thou wert another plant that grew in the wilderness it were not much but a Vine and one in Gods Vinyard and yet fruitless Oh this is a sore evil Fourthly There 's no blessing upon thy soul if thou beest an empty Vine in Isa 65. 8. As the new Wine is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it If there be Wine in the cluster then a blessing is found in it but otherwise destroy it No blessing is found in those that are of empty spirits Fiftly If there be grace it is the Divine Nature its self and cannot that bear fruit It is an evil in a Vine to have but a little moisture to shoot forth in leaves and bear no fruit yea but what is that unto Grace that is the Divine Nature its self the most glorious thing in the world Therefore for Christians to be without fruit is an exceeding great evil Doest thou know what fruit is One gracious action that comes from the sap of the Root that is in Christ it is more worth than Heaven and Earth any one gracious Act I say it is more worth than Heaven and Earth Oh the fruit of the Saints is fruit to eternity and to be without this fruit must needs be a great evil those that are empty and without fruit you know they are said in John 15. to be but as branches not branches they that bear no fruit are said to be but as a branch and then such a branch as must be cut off God will cut them off cut off those branches he will cut them off from their profession and suffer them to fall so as they shal not continue in their eternal profession and they shall wither he will curse their very common gifts that they have 6. Oh! how many that heretofore seemed to flourish yet but leaves and bearing no fruit now their leaves are gon too and their common gifts are taken away from them and not only withered but shall be cast away cast away from God and out of the hearts of the Saints and men shall gather them the men of the world they shall catch them and so they shall joyn with them and they shall make use of them and they shall be cast into the fire and burnt cast into the fire not for a fiery tryal but cast into the fire that they may be burned these are the threatnings against those that bear no fruit It is the glory of Gods People to be filled with the fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1. 11. To be filled with the Spirit Ephes 5. 18. Yea to be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 19. So it is expected of the Saints that they should be filled with al the fulness of God Oh! how contrary is this to emptying And surely fil'd the Saints should be with fruit because they are the very fulness of Christ the fulness of him that fills all in all In Ephes 1. last verse the Church is said to be the fulness of Jesus Christ himself And shall the Church be an empty Vine when as it is the very fulness of Him that fils al in al 7. An empty spirit is fit for the Devil to come to possess Mat. 12. 24. he found his place empty and then he comes in where the Devil sees an empty spirit there 's a fit place for him to come It is an evil thing for you to grow upon Gods ground and to cumber it to cumber any part of Gods ground it may be if thou wert gon there
times of distraction wherein we live must account to suffer something things cannot be carried on with that equity as if all things were setled among us therefore though we may in an humble and peaceable way make our moans one to another and seek to inform those that are in Power and Petition yet it ought to be our care what ever we suffer in our particular to preserve what we can the honor of our Supream Court better many particulars suffer hard things than the honor of that should not be kept up for by not keeping up that we make way to suffer worse things than ever yet we have done for how would we have help when we meet with Wrong and Injustice Under God there are but three waies two extreams and one middle for men to have right in case of Injustice The two extreams they are besides our appeal to God I speak to men whereby a man can have any thought to get help against Injustice 1. The one extream is That which heretofore was the Kings Arbitrary Power acted by those that are about him We have tasted enough of this Hemlock heretofore Would we think to have our help that way We know what that Hemlock means The second extream is The appeal to the People that were a remedy worse than tbe disease for then all would seem to come to be in a confusion that way if the People the generality of the people should take up the matter we should then have nothing but murders and robberies Then the meanest man that lives in the Kingdom if he hath but as strong Arms and Legs as the richest of all he is presently equal with them when things come to be redrest by the tumultuous people Therefore the third way of help in way of Injustice it is The Mene and that is by our Parliament that is as things are now is the only regular help that we can have If we see therefore or feel some things amiss we may be sensible and seek help too but in a peaceable and humble way of Petitioning but still we should be more tender of their honor than of our own private right And an appeal to Heaven there may be likewise but of any seeming way of appeal to either of the two extreams certainly in that we make our remedy worse than the disease Pray much for them therefore that there may not one stalk of Hemlock rise up among them or any seed fall down from them but that they may be as the field which the Lord hath blessed Full of the fruits of Justice and Righteousness that themselves and this City and the Kingdom may be the habitation of Justice That Mercy and Truth may meet together that Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other that Truth may spring out of the earth and Righteousness may look down from Heaven so you have it in Psal 85. 9 10 11. verses Now there 's one Note more that I find Tremelius and Pareus and divers others have The Furrows of the field say they there is in the latter end of the word translated field a Jod which by some is made paragogical and an addition of form only But others to be an affix for the plural number and so they translate it to be thus Hemlock in the furrows of my field And that is a great aggravation If Hemlock should be be in the furrows of any field it 's evil but what my people men that profess Godliness what those that profess to set up Reformation yet Hemlock there in the furrows of my field Oh! this is sad and evil indeed In Jer. 31. 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel As yet they shall use this speech in the Land of Judah and in the Cities thereof when I shall bring again the Captivity thereof The Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness When I bring their captivity again when I 'le own them to be mine then there shal be such eminent Justice and Holiness that this speech shall be used The Lord bless thee O habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness So if we would have any evidence to our souls that God doth own us and that we are his and God indeed hath delivered us from our Captivity we should labor that Justice and holiness may be so eminent that all the people about us may say The Lord bless this Land the habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness Both must go together we must not think to raise up the Ordinances of God and cast out superstition but we must be the habitation of Justice of the Lord that the Lord hath blessed It follows VER 5. The Inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the Calves of Beth-aven YOU heard before that they were convinced in their consciences that they did not fear God For now they shall say We have no King because we feared not the Lord. They feared not God but now they shall fear From whence the Note is this That those that fear God least are most afraid of any thing else Where the fear of God is not other base fear will be and so much the more the less we fear God Oh! how much better were it that our fear were set upon God than upon other things You must love something Were it not better that your love were placed upon God than any thing else And you must fear something Were it not better that your fear were upon God than any thing else And you must rejoyce in something and sorrow and the like Fear it is a very troublesom affection if it be misplaced Oh! learn to place your affections right place them upon God By the fear of God you shall come to fear nothing else Oh! how excellent is Gods fear This one thing sets out the excellency of the fear of God That where the fear of God is setled in the hearts of men and women all other base fears are rooted out Would not you be glad to be delivered from creature fears especially you that have liv'd in many dangers a few months since Oh! if you might be delivered from the fears of the creature how glad would you bee Here 's the only way Let the fear of God be strong in your hearts and the fear of the creature will not prevail with you You see it clearly in the example of Habakkuk in Hab. 3. 16. When I heard God revea'd his will my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entred into my bones and I trembled in my self But now Habakkuk why would you trouble your self with so much fear Mark there was a great good came to him by it That I might rest in the day of trouble when he cometh up unto the people When there shall be a coming up unto the people and the enemy shall prevail and when the figtree shall not blossom nor
these poor people should desire here should be dreadful enough to have the Mountains fall upon them and the Hils to cover them Oh! but 't is not so dreadful as Gods wrath take all the terrors in the world they are nothing to the wrath of the Almighty when that is apprehended sometimes the wrath of God lies more heavie upon a mans Conscience than a thousand Mountains And my brethren if it be so dreadful in outward judgments how dreadful is it like to be when it shal come to be fully powred out upon the wicked and ungodly In Revel 9. 6. They shall seek for death and shall not find it they shall desire to die and death shall flee from them saith the text Oh! when Gods wrath appears against the ungodly it will be dreadful especially when the full vials of it comes to be powred out And further To live in misery is worse than present dreadful death to live in a lingring way of misery is worse than present death even in this world I remember Suetonius tels of Tiberius Caesar that there was one that he had adjudged to death and he that was adjudged to die petitioned to him that he might have his dispatch He answers him thus Sir you and I are not friends yet you must not die you must be kept in misery It is worse than death many times to be kept in a lingring way of misery it is so even in regard of the miseries of this world Oh! how much worse than death is it then to be kept under the wrath of God to all eternity How fearful is it to live in misery for ever then and never to die Why it 's better certainly Sence would apprehend it better for a man to be dispacht presently than to live in lingring misery yet if we did know all it were better to live in the greatest misery in the world for a wicked man than to die the fairest death thou wert better to live as a Dog a Toad yea as a stock-log at the back of the fire if it were possible than to die if thou knewest all being a wicked man but however hereafter in Hell then it were better if it were possible to perish than to live so as thou hast yet then thou shalt not die though it would be the greatest happiness to thee if thou shouldest after a thousand yeers cry to God Oh Lord that Mountains might fall upon me The Lord would answer You and I are not friends yet and if after a thousand years more thou shouldest cry Oh Lord that I might be crush'd to pieces the Lord would answer you still You and I are not yet friends Saith Bernard Oh! I tremble to think of that that I should fall into the hands of living death and of dying life where men do not die that they might for ever die saith he they do die that they may for ever die they are alwaies dying but never die but are kept by the Almighty power of God on purpose that they might be fewel for his wrath and subjects for his revenging Justice to strike upon Oh! consider of this you that are so ready to desire death because you are in a lingering misery at any time Is a lingering misery so evil Then what will be the lingering evil of eternity Fifthly observe The wonderful misery of wicked men in their affliction they have no whither to go for help they have not God they have no refuge but to the mountains and hills and what 's their refuge there but that they may fall upon them Oh the difference between a Saint of God and a wicked man in times of affliction When in times of affliction thou if thou beest wicked shalt rage and be mad and know not whither to go and the uttermost help that thou canst think to have is from the Hills and Mountains to fall upon thee but then the Saints of God shall be able to look up to Heaven and Cry Heaven is open for us open to receive my soul Angels come and guide it and bear it in Oh Arms of Mercy Bowels of Mercy spread open your selves to imbrace me here 's a difference And is not this better than to cry to mountains to fall upon thee and hills to cover thee And yet such a difference in mens estates doth sin and godliness make And then the last is Oh the wonderful evil of despair what a dreadful thing is desperation It suggests nothing else the greatest benefit it doth suggest it is to be crush'd in pieces so the help that many have it is a halter to strangle them a knife to murder them the water to drown them Oh desperation is a dreadful thing Francis Spira feeling the dreadfulness of desperation Cries out Verily desperation is Hell its self Upon all this Luther concludes with this exhortation Oh let us stir up our selves to the fear of God let us fly Idolatry let us beautifie the Word by our holy lives and pray to Christ that we might escape such things as these are that God inflicts upon the contemners of his Word If you would not come into this wonderful despairing condition Oh learn to fall down before the Word fear God now that you may not despair you that contemn and slight and scorn the Word now this may prove to be your portion ere long that this desperate cry may be the greatest ease that your forsaken souls can have VER 9. O Israel thou hast sinned from the daies of Gibeah O ISRAEL I am speaking this to you it meerly concerns you you have sinned from the daies of Gibeah you think there is no great matter in your sin why there should be these dreadful threatnings that you should come to this desperate condition Why say the men of Isrrel what means the Prophet to be so terrible in his threatnings pray what 's our sin Yes you have sinned as in the daies of Gibeah From the daies of Gibeah so it is in your Books or it may be read Beyond the daies of Gibeah or more than in them as Ezek. 16. 52. From the daies of Gibeah From what time was that You may reade the story of Gibeah if you reade the 19. and 20. of Judges and their sin I shall not need to spend much time now in opening what Gibeah was or the sin of Gibeah was because that in the 9. Chapter of this Prophesie and the 9. Verse there I met with those words that they had corrupted themselves as in the daies of Gibeah But it is not only the 19. and 20. Chapters where we have the story of that horrible wickedness of the abusing of the Levites Concubine but likewise that that we have in the 18. touching their Idolatry that there was among the people there was Micahs Idol so that the Prophet hath reference to the 18 19 20. Chapters of the Book of Judges Now you have sinned as in the
them into your hearts As first That such is the vileness of every sin as it seperates the soul from God and puts it under an eternal Curse This one Truth you must get this into your hearts and get it deep into your hearts it will help to unloosen the roots of the thorns and bryars that are there the setled apprehension of this Truth And then secondly This Truth That there is such a breach between God and my soul by sin that all the power in all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth is not able to make up this breach here is a sharp plow-share to get into the heart And then thirdly This Truth that by nature I am full of this sin my heart is full of it all the faculties of my soul are filled with sin that is of such an hainous nature Here is a sharp plow-share to get into the heart And then fourthly That every action that ever I have done in all my life in my unregenerate estate it is nothing else but sin nothing else but sin that hath such a vile nature Yea further That if any sin be pardoned to me it is by vertue of a price paid that is more worth than ten thousand worlds This Truth Now here 's the Gospel as well as the Law for the plowing is but the spiritualness of the Law the Truths of the Law in a Gospel way for you must take notice that the Law as Law accepts of no humiliation for sin it is as it is reveal'd in a Gospel way in a Gospel way it doth tend to humiliation for let men be humbled never so much the Law never accepts of them for their humiliation but the Law in a Gospel way so it comes to humble the soul so as to do it good Now therefore the Consideration of the Truths that the Law requires having reference to the Gospel they serve for the humbling of the soul Now get in these truths and see what they will do in thy Soul you must work them in And let conscience be put on to draw this plow These are as the Plow-share and the working of Conscience is the drawing of this plow while the plow stops as when it meets with a thorn and bryar now a strong Conscience will draw it on and will make the thorns and bryars to be rent up by the roots if the Conscience be put upon with strength to draw these Truths in the soul and though they put you to pain yet you must be content to draw them on in the soul And if these and the like Truths be got into thy soul and thou beest at plow and thy Conscience be drawing This is that I shall say God speed the Plow yea God speed these Truths that Conscience is drawing on in the soul for it may tend to a great deal of good to prepare thee for the seed that may bring forth Righteousness and Mercy to thy soul for ever I confess it is a hard work to be thus plowing Indeed for men and women only to hear Sermons and be talking and conferring of good things these things are pretty easie but to go to plow to plow with such Truths as these are to get up the thorns and bryars by the roots this is a very hard task but we must be willing to do it and to continue plowing as the fallow ground must not only be plowed once but it may be it may stand in need of plowing the second and third time before it may be fit for the seed to be cast in and so it must be with our hearts It may be some of you have got in some Truths and you have been plowing yea but since that time you have had many weeds and thorns grown up and you must to plowing again it may be it is divers yeers ago since you have been thus plowing and your hearts have lain fallow all this while do not think it enough that once you have been humbled but be often plowing up this fallow ground you were as good have the plow get into your hearts though it be sharp as to have the Sword of Gods Justice be upon you We have in these times a wanton generation that have risen up that cannot endure to go to plow they would be doing nothing but taking in the sweet as I told you before in a former Exercise Treading â—ut the Corn. But this plowing they cry out of meerly through a wantonness and tenderness of their spirits a sinful tenderness because they would have nothing but jolity and licentiousness in their hearts and waies yet the Scripture in Luke 9. 62. compares the Ministers of the Gospel to the plow He that puts his haud to the plow and looketh back is not fit for the Kingdom of God not fit to be imployed in the administration of the Gospel Though these men cry out so much of humiliation for sin which is as strange a Generation as ever have risen up that should cry out of that when there 's nothing more humbles for sin than the price that was paid for sin in the blood of Jesus Christ and there is no such sharp plow-share as that If I were to preach one Sermon in all my life for the humbling of men for sin I would take a text that might shew the great price that was paid for it and therein open the breach that sin hath made between God and mans soul But they will not make use of the Gospel neither so much as to be a plow to plow the heart for the work of humiliation Well God hath prospered this work heretofore and notwithstanding al the wantoness of mens spirits this way yet I say still God speed the plow God speed this way of plowing the hearts of men and getting in those Truths that do humble the hearts of men for their sins these were the Truths that God hath blest in former times and there 's none that ever did live to the honor of the Gospel so much for this generation that is come up they talk of the Gospel but they live not to the honor of it the Gospel hath not honor by them nor Jesus Christ hath not honor by them But the former generation of men though in some things they might fail yet certainly God blest them in their way so far as it was according to Truth No mervail though these men bring forth such little fruit of Righteousness it is because they sow among thorns presently they are up at the top and so confident presently in their way their seed is among thorns and therefore it doth not prosper And thus much for this expression about the plowing up of fallow grounds both in reference to general Reformation and Humiliation and concerning mens Souls in particular It follows For it is time to seek the Lord. It is time First Yet you have time to seek the Lord 'T is well for you that you have