for their sins they should be carried into captivitie and with an oath affirmed it it must needs be granted the decree and sentence were absolute and that according to the letter of the prohibition the Prophet must not pray for them in this neither did hee but submitted himselfe to Gods holy will and pleasure The maine objection which I know of that may be made either against this sense delivered or the practice of our Prophet is a like Prohibition to Moses which yet was but conditionall for he presently prayed and prevailed so we reade that in Moses absence the people causing Aaron to make a golden calfe which they worshipped God told Moses what a great sinne they had committed and addeth Now therefore let me alone that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation and Moses besought the Lord and he repented of the evill which he thought to doe to his people I answer that betwixt that to Moses and this to Ieremie there is a great difference for howsoever that be delivered to Moses in the Imperative as well as this yet that carrieth the face of a milde instruction and intimateth that it was in Moses power to give leave or to let God so as Moses receiveth thereby encouragement to pray What is it for God to say Let me alone but to make him bold to pray but this charge is with waightie words Thou shalt not pray nor crie nor make intercession for I will not heare thee Secondly Moses was but once bid let God alone but our Prophet was thrice expresly forbidden to pray for them Now if Ioseph told Pharaoh his dreame was doubled because the thing was established of God he will bring it to passe how much more may I say this charge is tripled to his Prophet to signifie that he meaneth good sooth their captivitie is decreed and established of God and he will bring it to passe Thirdly and lastly God threatned to Moses he would utterly consume the people yea and blot out their name from under heaven that God could not doe but much dishonour his name and therefore Moses urgeth in his prayer wherefore should the Aegyptians speake and say For mischiefe did he bring them out to slay them in the mountaines and to consume them from the face of the earth Againe to doe so were to breake promise and oath which he had made with their fathers and therefore Moses doth specially urge that Remember Abraham Isaack and Israel thy servants to whom thou swarest by thine owne selfe and saydst unto them I will multiply your seed as the starres of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it So that what face soever it carried Moses saw well enough God did not meane he should not pray for them But the case is here altered first Gods glorie is no way endangered no more than it was by the captivitie of the ten Tribes nay this was greatly for his glorie first that all nations might see what a just God he is who will not forbeare to punish sinne no not in his owne people for many nations shall say Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great Citie and they shall answer Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshipped other Gods and served them but his deliverance of them out of captivitie should be much more for his glorie for hee meant that should be more eminent and glorious than their deliverance out of Aegypt was so as after that time it should be no more said The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of Aegypt but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North and from all the lands whither he had driven them See how greatly their captivitie should be for his glorie Neither was this against any promise or oath for hee had already performed them he had cast out the Heathen and planted Israel in Yea rather herein God was as good as his word for hee had threatned them if they were rebellious and disobedient he would give them into the hands of their enemies and they should reigne over them Thus I hope by conference of Scriptures I have sufficiently cleared the sense of this viz. that it was an absolute prohibition and therefore howsoever the Prophet was exceedingly afflicted to foresee in spirit and afterwards to see with the eyes of his bodie the captivitie of the Iewes and desolation of the Citie and Temple neither was hee ever wanting to give them good counsell and pray in other cases for them yet in this he might not in this he did not Now it followeth to build doctrines for Instruction Consolation and Reprehension and by application to make them usefull unto us which doctrines naturally arising are many and namely these First God commonly giveth warning before he bring any judgement upon any place or persons specially on his Church or people or on any place where his people are This doctrine will be sufficiently proved both from positive and exemplarie Scriptures Thus saith the Prophet Surely the Lord God will doe nothing but hee revealeth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets Before God brought the floud God revealed it to Noah who by word of mouth and building the Arke gave warning to the old world for 120. yeeres before hee sent fire and brimstone to consume the Cities in the plaine hee revealed it to Abraham and then to Lot and his children before the judgements were executed on Pharaoh and Aegypt God revealed it to Moses and Aaron before he destroyed Ninivie he gave knowledge thereof to Ionah and he proclaimed Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed The Iewes shall not be destroyed but the day and time shall be first proclaimed that Gods people may betake themselves to fasting and prayer Before the captivitie of the ten Tribes God revealed it to many of his Prophets as Isaiah Iehu Eliah Michaiah Obadiah Hosheah Amos Ioel that as before a great storme the cocks crow loud and thicke so before this great judgement the Prophets threatned and cried loud and shrill before the captivitie of Iudah and Beniamin many other Prophets knew of it and were sent to threaten it as Esay Ezechiel Zephanie and our Prophet who most plainly told them for how long it should continue How were the Iewes abundantly warned before their finall destruction and dispersion how is Babylon fore warned how those golden Churches in Asia Minor how are wee all forewarned of the destruction of the world by fire how are we all forewarned of the destruction of the wicked in hell fire yea what judgement can befall us but our consciences must needs testifie that some way or other yea many wayes God hath given us warning All which doe sufficiently confirme our
it shall be given into the hands of the King of Babylon and he shall burne it with fire saith the Lord The like he counselled Zedekiah the King Bring your necks under the yoke of the King of Babylon and serve him and his people and live why will ye die thou and thy people by the sword by the famine and by the pestilence And as he advised the King and people to yeeld themselves so he wrote a letter to those that were carried away captives requiring them in the name of the Lord to be quiet and to pray to the Lord for the peace of the Citie which sheweth that Ieremie well knew that the Lords purpose was absolute and his prohibition to pray for them so too If any man shall aske me whether Gods threatnings be not conditionall I answer that many of Gods threatnings of temporall punishments are conditionall so saith God by our Prophet At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill I have thought to doe unto them It was the case of Ninivie against which Ionah by commission from the Lord pronounced Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed yet Ninivie repenting Ninivie was not then destroyed God changed his revealed will and sentence the prophesie fell but the Citie fell not yea the same punishment which at the first threatning is conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome conditionally threatned when as at Abrahams suit the Lord was brought from fiftie to ten If there be found but ten righteous persons in Sodome I will spare it for the ten sake but because they could not be found the destruction was absolutely threatned when the Angell said to Lot We will destroy this place the Lord hath sent us to destroy it and if God had not beene mercifull to pull Lot away he had beene destroyed in it Such was the case of this people If when Ieremie began his ministerie reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivitie they had humbled themselves and repented in sackcloth and ashes it might have been prevented but growing worse and worse and unto their former sinnes adding this of extremely abusing the Prophet the Lord grew to be resolute they should into captivitie as well as their brethren he revealed it unto his Prophet and forbade him to pray for them which he did and only counselled them to yeeld themselves into their enemies hands Thirdly by way of prevention God satisfied his Prophet in what he foresaw might be objected The Prophet might object that hereby both his justice and truth might be questioned he satisfieth the Prophet in both first he cleareth his justice and that two wayes first by declaring the greatnesse of this peoples sinne whereof you shall more hereafter for a taste looke but the next verse following my text Seest thou not what they doe in the Cities of Iudah and streets of Ierusalem The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough to bake cakes to the Queene of Heaven Therefore my furie shall be poured out on such a people unworthie to be prayed for Is it not a just thing to send such into captivitie Secondly he declareth his soveraigne and absolute authoritie over all people and nations so as without controll he may justly build and plant or pull downe and destroy which he shewed in the pottershouse in whose hands a vessel that he made of clay being marred he made it another vessell as seemed good to the potter then came the word of the Lord saying O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as this potter behold as the clay is in the hands of the potter so are yee in mine hands The clay is not beholden to the potter for it had being before and the clay never offended the potter yet the potter may make what vessell he will and the vessell not complaine Why hast thou made me thus But we are beholding to God for our being and we have sinned against him and may he not doe with us as pleaseth him This sinfull people shall into captivitie the Prophet must not pray for them yet is God herein most righteous and just Yea but harken how the Prophet bemoaneth Gods truth saying Ah Lord God the Prophets say unto them yee shall not see the sword but you shall have an assured peace in this place Then sayd the Lord the Prophets prophesie lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spoken unto them they prophesie a false vision and divination the deceit of their owne heart but I will bring the sword yea and by the sword shall those false Prophets also be consumed speake unto the people and charge them that they harken not to the Prophets Diviners Dreamers Inchaunters and Sorcerers which say ye shall not serve the King of Babel for they prophesie a lie unto you Thus God preventeth his Prophet and declareth that this judgement is well deserved and standeth with justice and truth and would have the Prophet to rest therein and not pray for them Lastly though many temporall judgements be denounced conditionally yet that this is absolute and that he meaneth indeed his Prophet should not pray for them in this may be gathered from the manner of his revealing of this purpose which was first with many words of most earnest and vehement asseveration saying The land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it That must needs stand which the Lord thus avoucheth yet to make it if it were possible more sure the Lord hath sworne it I sweare by my selfe saith the Lord this house shall become a desolation An oath saith the Apostle is amongst men an end of all strife and God that he might fully declare the immutabilitie of his counsell having no greater to sweare by hath sworne by himselfe Loe how the Apostle saith an oath declareth the immutabilitie of his counsell God never sware but hee performed it He hath sworne and will not repent saith David if God sweare he will never repent of it he may change his sentence but never reverse his oath yea God swearing that Moses should not enter into the promised land though he repented of his sinne and most earnestly intreated this favour could not obtaine but received a kinde of rebuke Let it suffice speake no more to me of this matter Deut. 3. 28. He cannot lie much lesse forsweare himselfe he hath seldome sworne but ever made it good Seeing then God revealed to his Prophet that
it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy The Land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That such may be the sinnes of Gods deare Church and people in generall and of his faithfull servants in particular that he will bring some temporall judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most
to have need of stirring up like unto that elegant metaphoricall decomposite of the Apostle unto Timothie Stir up the gift of God The graces of God being like fire must ever and anon be russled and stirred up else will grow cold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh stirre up your selves Secondly being stirred up by prayers faithfull and fervent men lay hold on God And againe I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it Our Saviour speaketh of offering violence to the Kingdome of Heaven and the violent taking it by force wherein prayer hath a speciall part for woe were it with many if bodily strength carried it away but the poorest and weakest Christian sicke in bed and scarce able to breathe yet by sighes and groanes may offer violence and take Gods kingdome by force and S. Paul beseecheth the Romanes For the Lord Iesus Christs sake and for the love of the Spirit that they would strive with him in their prayers to God for him He would have them pray but not coldly and negligently as the Papists mumbling and tumbling over their beads when their mindes are wandring about earthly occasions but hee would have them strive with God and put all their strength to it yea to strive to the shedding of bloud as the word signifieth Christ being in an agonie his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud Thus for confirmation of this Doctrine you have God and his Prophets in the old Testament and Christ and his Apostles in the new To this purpose sweet are the sentences of some of the Fathers An ancient one saith When prayers joyne together in devotions they doe as it were even band themselves together to encounter God And another saith The Saints have God so bound that he cannot punish without their permission and licence Loe loe the incomprehensible mercie and loving kindnesse of God towards such as truly feare and serve him making them in his goodnesse in his bottomelesse goodnesse I say so powerfull and mightie with him that their prayers are as it were bands to tie his hands and as a wall against him that hee cannot execute his anger though most justly deserved unlesse they will suffer him and as it were stand out of his way How may the consideration hereof make us exclaime O Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him or the sonne of man that thou regardest him or as Iob hath it That thou doest set thine heart upon him Iob 7. 17. Will you see how powerfull Gods Saints are with God by their prayers I meane not to obtaine great blessings and doe great works the Scripture is so full in this I should finde no end but according to the Text and Doctrine raised in preventing threatned judgments to themselves or the Church of God Take a few selected out of many for instance When Iacob soresaw destruction threatned to himselfe and wives and children by his cruell and bloudie brother Esau comming out against him with 400. men then saith the Text was Iacob greatly afraid and distressed and falleth to prayer unto God for deliverance yea and with that fervencie that hee is said to wrestle with God and told him hee would not let him goe till hee had blessed him and in the end by his prayers and teares he prevailed and thereupon was his name changed from Iacob into Israel which signifieth a Prevailer with God the evill he feared was removed his brother that came out against him as fierce as a Lion when they met was as meeke as a Lambe yea hee confesseth hee saw his face as the face of God When the Amalekites came out against Israel and threatned their destruction Moses went up into the mountaine and prayed and when hee held up his hands in prayer unto God Israel prevailed but when he let downe his hands Amalek prevailed which sheweth that the push of Moses prayers did more than the pikes of all Israel besides When againe for that great sinne of worshipping the golden Calfe God before hee signified to Moses his purpose to consume them and blot out their names from under Heaven bade him let him alone yet Moses by prayer prevailed with God for pardon of their sinne and continuance of his favour whereof David speaketh thus He said he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turne away his wrath where he compareth Moses to a valiant Captaine who when besieging enemies have made a breach in the wall the Citie is like to be lost steppeth up into the breach and defendeth it which Moses did by the power of his prayer and turned away Gods wrath from his people Againe for the children of Israels murmuring against Moses and Aaron the plague beganne amongst them and there died foureteene thousand and seven hundred wherefore Moses commanded Aaron quickly to take fire from the Altar and put on incense and stand betwixt the living and the dead and so the plague ceased whereof in the Wisdome of Solomon we have an excellent paraphrase and fitting our purpose the blamelesse man made haste and stood forth to defend them and bringing the shield of his Ministerie even praier the propitiation of incense he set himselfe against the wrath and overcame the destroyer the words in the Greeke Text are verie significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propugnavit hee fought valiantly hee brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arma Ministerij the weapons of his Ministerie and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he resisted wrath non vi sed precibus all the created powers in heaven and earth cannot resist God yet may a poore man by the power of his prayers turne away Gods wrath and procure an undeserved blessing and remove a most just deserved punishment As the young infant more prevaileth with the father or mother by a teare than the strength of arme so God pitieth us as a father hath more compassion than a mother he cannot but fulfill the desires of such as feare him David saw the Angell stretching his hand out upon Ierusalem to destroy it and yet by praier prevailed with God to spare it who said to the Angell It is enough stay now thine hand In that great tempest by sea when there was no hope of life yet Paul prayed and God gave him the lives of all that passed being to the number of two hundred threescore and sixteene soules so as though they made shipwracke and with the violence of the sea the ship was broken to peeces yet not one soule was lost all came safe to shore And if the praiers of one be so powerfull with God how much more the praiers of many being united Let Hesther and Mordechai and the Iewes fast and pray and then commeth most wonderfull deliverance to
world yet all in love As many as I love I rebuke and chasten If we be without correction we are bastards and not sonnes I beseech you remember this No sinnes so displeasing and provoking God as the sinnes of his people for whom he hath done most and who professe most You only have I knowne of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And this is that which God said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me Nadab and Abihu must die for it if they presume to offer strange fire Small holes in others are great rents in Moses David Salomon they had best take good heed to their walking if they fall they shall be sure to pay for it They are so farre greater sinners than our selves that God will never suffer them to prevaile I answer This is it so offended the Prophets and made them so to expostulate the matter with God as our Prophet Righteous O Lord art thou when I plead with thee yet let me talke with thee of thy iudgements Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deale very treacherously And the Prophet Habacuck complained The wicked doth compasse about the righteous And againe Wherefore dost thou hold thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Whereby it appeareth the Prophet had a great combat in himselfe to thinke that the Babylonians more wicked and ungodly should so prosper and devoure the Israel of God as no doubt but it troubleth many that the Papists such Hereticks Idolaters bloudie men and generally most prophane that they should so devoure the Protestants more righteous than they But let Gods children humble themselves it is just and let not the enemies boast for their day is comming Hearken what God saith by your Prophet Loe I begin to bring evill on the citie which is called by my name and shall ye be unpunished ye shall not be unpunished And againe They whose iudgement was not to drinke of the cup have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shall goe altogether unpunished thou shalt not goe unpunished but thou shalt surely drinke If iudgement first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospell of God And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare Grievous was the calamitie of Gods people the Iewes by the Westerne Babylonians and so affected the Prophet to whom the Lord revealed it that he wished his head were waters and his eyes a fountaine of teares that he might weepe day and night and on which occasion he did write his booke of Lamentations so full of passion but it was nothing to the miserie of Babylon Theirs was a captivitie for 70. yeeres which being finished they were gloriously delivered but Babylon came to perpetuall ruine In the Prophecies of their captivitie many consolations were mixed and they made their miserie the greater through their obstinacie because they did not beleeve nor would obey the counsell of the Prophet bidding them yeeld themselves assuring them they that did so should have their lives given for a prey yea if the King would have done so the citie had not beene burnt with fire But the Prophecies against Babylon are altogether fearefull let me give you a taste thereof When seventie yeeres shall be accomplished I will punish the King of Babylon and the land of the Caldeans and make it perpetuall desolations And againe Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hisse at her plagues And againe Babylon hath beene a golden cup in the Lords hand and all the earth hath beene drunken and the nations mad with her wine but she is suddenly fallen and destroyed her iudgement reacheth to Heaven howle for her Yea he spendeth those two whole large chapters in prophesying the severe judgements of God against Babylon in revenge of Israel and that with such words as who can reade them and not tremble Adde hereunto the prophecie of Esay Babylon the glorie of kingdomes the beautie of the Caldees excellencie shall bee as when God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrha it shall never bee inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation the Arabian shall never pitch his tent there nor Shepherds make folds there but wilde beasts of the desert shall lie there their houses shall be full of dolefull creatures Owles shall dwell there and Satyrs dance And againe I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant sonne and nephew I will make it a possession for the Bitterne and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction saith the Lord of hosts And lastly Come downe and sit in the dust ô virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground there is no throne ô daughter of Caldeans for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate Take the mill-stones and grinde meale uncover thy locks make bare the leg I will take vengeance and thou shalt no more be called the Ladie of kingdomes All which prophesies have long since beene fulfilled by the Medes and Persians But wherefore hath the Lord brought such destruction upon her the Lord telleth her plainly I was wroth with my people and gave them into thine hand and thou shewedst no mercie upon the ancient hast thou verie heavily laid the yoke Oh see what a dangerous thing it is even to be the rod of Gods wrath though his people have well deserved to be scourged if they thinke not so but exercise all manner of crueltie Farre greater is the miserie which the westerne Babylon hath brought upon Gods Church and most cruell instruments are they of Gods anger to his people and for many hundreds of yeeres have oppressed Gods people with the iron yoke of captivitie never more barbarous and bloudie acts heard of than executed by Papists heretofore in this land oh how doe they shew themselves to be the sonnes of that father who was a murtherer from the beginning and of that mother the great whore who is drunke with the bloud of the Saints But that God who by his Prophets foretold and fulfilled the Easterne Babylons destruction hath as plainly fore-told by his Apostle the destruction of this Westerne Babylon and hee hath a Cyrus the Lord of hosts hath a chosen shaft in his quiver wherewith to wound it wee leave the time and meanes to God but doe stedfastly beleeve that the great whore which hath in her forehead a name written Mysterie Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth so long drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Shee shall be hated and made naked and desolate yet they shall eat her flesh and burne her with fire that bloudie and
persecuting Citie which liveth so deliciously and saith I sit a Queene and shall see no sorrow Her purple flatterers vaunt that temporall felicite is a note of the Church and make a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholikes have had and as one saith scarcely ever received the foile in a just warre yet the holy truth assureth us the Beast and false Prophet shall be taken and all the sowles of Heaven filled with the flesh of those Kings Captaines and mightie men which have fought against the Gospell Yea Babylon as a mill-stone cast into the sea shall be throwne downe and found no more and she rewarded double according to her works at whose destruction all the Kings and Merchants of the earth who have lived deliciously and committed fornication with her shall bitterly lament and cry Alas alas that great Citie bow in one boure is she made desolate So Heaven Prophets Apostles and all the Martyrs Saints shal praise God with many a ioyfull Alleluiah Therefore stumble not at it that for the sins of his people hee giveth them into the hands of such as are more wicked than themselves for when his people are sufficiently scourged their enemies shall for ever be destroyed But some object againe wee have continued long in our sinnes and have felt none evill why should wee now be so earnestly called upon and urged to repent and threatned with judgement If wee repent not God is not so hastie I wis as our Preachers would make us beleeve I answer It is the continuance in sinne doth increase our danger as Iudah and Ierusalem were not carried into captivitie for the sinnes of a few yeeres but for their sinnes wherein they had long continued even ever since they were brought up out of Aegypt the men of the old world were spared long even an hundred and twentie yeeres yet continuing in sinne were in the end drowned Iudah and Ierusalem were spared long after their brethren were carried captive even 130. yeeres but continuing in sinne in the end they were carried into captivitie too The Lord is patient and slow to anger yet if there will bee no end of sinne there will be an end of mercie and God may repent so often that hee will repent no more and as our Prophet saith he can no longer beare and as he saith in another place God is wearie with repenting this wee have in the Scriptures illustrated by two familiar and elegant metaphors The first is of a large vessell which by drops asketh a long time of filling so God told Abraham the iniquitie of the Amorites was not yet full and our Saviour bade the Scribes and Pharisies of his age Fill ye up the measure of your fathers The second is of an harvest Corne when it is sowen is not by and by ripe The husband-man saith S. Iames hath great patience Why did not men cut downe their corne at Easter because it was not then ripe why are they now in many places so busie with sithes and sickles because the harvest is come and corne is ripe So God calleth to the executioners of judgements when wickednesse is great as unto his reapers Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe Oh then doe not say we have sinned often or long and what evill hath happened for a vessell at last may be filled with drops and corne may so long grow till fields be white to harvest and readie to be cut The last objection is Oh but England is a most happie and flourishing kingdome blessed with a most wise and prudent King a most hopefull issue wee have many learned and religious Preachers multitudes of godly and sincere professours Gods true religion established by Law and maintained by authoritie God hath heaped such temporall blessings upon us that it is another Canaan flowing with milke and hony God hath most wonderfully delivered it from matchlesse dangers and ruine intended it is a verie Sanctuarie of refuge for the Saints of God elsewhere persecuted Oh the consideration of these things makes many an one so secure that no warning fro heaven or earth word or works of mercie or justice will doe them good but they proceed from evill to worse as though no hurt could come unto them But give me leave as I doe most unfainedly acknowledge the great mercies of God so I would plucke away these pillowes from under their elbowes whereupon they sleepe in security I say then that the greater are the mercies of God unto any people the greater shall be their judgements if they abuse them The higher that Capernaum is exalted to heaven the lower shall it be cast downe into hell if it repent not And God threatneth Coniah As I live saith the Lord though Coniah the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I plucke thee thence and I will give thee into the hands of them that seeke thy life Was there ever any people in the world could compare with Iudah and Israel for privileges and prerogatives yet could they not secure them but their sinnes comming to height God forsooke the house whereon his Name was called yea and gave the dearely beloved of his soule into the hands of her enemies or as some Translations reade his beloved soule Oh if God did not spare such a people as he acknowledgeth to be the dearely beloved of his soule who had such a good and religious King when Ieremy beganne to prophesie viz. Iosiah who reformed Religion destroied the monuments of Idolatry and strictly compelled all to serve the Lord according to his word such excellent Prophets and some learned and worthy Teachers and some good people that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem yet when their sinnes came to be full he would not heare any for them but gave them over to a long and wofull captivity What have any people to presume on No no this Doctrine shall stand against all the subtill objections of Satan and of flesh and bloud against it That the sinnes of a people may come to that height that God will bring some temporall judgement upon them and not heare any that shall pray for them Now to come to ourselves that we may make good use of all that hath beene spoken and heard You hearken what I should say concerning our owne estate and that you shall doe first from the mouth of an enemy When Ieremie heard the false Prophet Hananiah prophesie much good to Iudah he answered feelingly Amen the Lord doe so Pererius the Iesuite writing on that you have heard in Genesis The sinne of the Amorites is not yet full saith If any doe marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of the Catholikes there he doth answer thē with the words of the Text Because their sinne is not full