pardon and forgivenesse of them FINIS The Eighteenth SERMON 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night THe first coming of Christ may well put us in mind of his second coming his coming as a Lambe of his coming as a Lion his coming in humility of his coming in glory The day of his first coming ye know is past and yet so past as that we are still to call it to mind and must never forget it the day of his second coming is yet to come yet so to come as that it will come we know not how soone and we must alwayes expect it And therefore as it hath been a Custome in some Countries that when they kept a feast after other dishes a deaths head was brought in and set upon the Table before the guests to teach them while they were feasting to remember their ends So I thought it not unfit at the time of this feast which we celebrate in remembrance of Christs first coming to bring in as it were a deaths head among you by choosing such a Text as may put you in mind of his second coming at the day of judgement because that is a day which is alwayes to be expected whereof the Apostle in the words which I have read gives a double Reason First because it is certain that this day is coming For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes Secondly because it is uncertain when it will come For it so saith he comes as a thief in the night whose coming is uncertain and upon the sudden So that the points to be handled in these words are these the day it self and the coming of it and in the coming of it that it is certain that this day will come though when it wil come it is uncertain And first concerning the day it self The day of judgement is here called the day of the Lord sometimes in the Scripture the great notable day of the Lord. It is called the day of the Lord to put a difference between that day and all the dayes while we live in the world While we live in the World the dayes in the Scripture are called ours For though all dayes indeed be the Lords because he made them as the Prophet David saith Psal 74.16 The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne yet in the Scripture they are said to be ours because they were made for our use Therefore God speaking of the time of mans life Gen. 6. His dayes saith he Gen. 6.3 shall be an hundred and twenty years Thus Job speaking of the prosperity of the wicked They spend saith he their dayes in welthinesse Job 21.13 Psal 90.12 Thus David speaking of the uncertainty of this life Psal 90. Teach us saith he to number our dayes Thus the dayes while we live in this world are called ours But the day of judgement is alwayes called Esay 13.7 Joel 2.1 2 Pet. 3.10 the day of the Lord. So Esay 13. Behold the day of the Lord comes So Joel The day of the Lord comes and is nigh at hand So St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night Thus still it is called the day of the Lord because though all other dayes be ours yet this day he hath wholly reserved to himself to call us to an account of all our dayes To some of us he hath given ten thousand dayes to some twenty thousand to some thirty thousand and all the dayes from the beginning of the World to the end thereof he hath divided amongst us giving more unto some and sewer to others to himself he hath reserved but one day onely and the last of all yet such a day as wherein he will call us all to an account of all things that we have done in all our dayes At this day the Drunkard shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in drunkennesse At this day the idle person shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in idlenesse At this day the voluptuos liver shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in pleasure For this is the day which the Lord hath appointed for the examination of all our dayes The dayes which he hath given us are dayes of mercy wherein he offers grace unto all and invites them to repent this day is onely a day of judgement wherein he will execute his justice on those that are impenitent Therefore it is that the time of this life is called in the Scripture Esay 49.8 Dies salutis the day of salvation as Esay 49. I have heard thee saith God in the time accepted in the day of salvation have I succoured thee Which the Apostle expounds 2 Cor. 6. 2 Cor. 6.2 of the time of this life while grace is offered Behold saith he now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation But the day of judgement is called in the Scripture dies irae the day of wrath Zeph. 1.15 Zeph. 1.15 That day saith the Prophet is a day of wrath And Revel 6. The great day of the wrath of the Lord is come And therefore God who for the time of this lise is called by the Apostle the father of mercies yet after this life when he shall judge the World Psal 49.1.2 he is called by the Prophet David a God of revenge For be that is so mercifull to all in this life that he makes the Sun to shine and the rain to fall both on the good and the bad yet after this life at the day of judgement he will rain snares on the wicked fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be their portion for ever to drink Psal 11.6 We see then the reason why it is called the day of the Lord because in that day he will call us all to an account of all our dayes that such as in their days have done their own will might therefore in his day suffor his will because they would not imbrace his mercy while he offered them grace in stead of mercy they might feel his justice His power had a day when he created the World all things therein and by speaking the word made them all of nothing His mercy had a day when he redeemed the world by giving his only Son to suffer death for man that had so highly offended him And his justice shall likewise have a day when he shall judge the World at which day he will appear so terrible to the wicked Revel 6.16 that when they see him they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them and to the rocks to hide them from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vaine because as they in
in a readinesse Mat. 22.11 Mat. 25.3 that we be not found unprepared like the guest in the Gospel without our wedding Garments or like the foolish virgins without oile in our Lamps To this end we must often think of the day of judgement and remember that whatsoever we do we shall be called to an account of it Therefore the Scripture doth often propound the day of judgement unto us and useth the same as a special Reason to reclaime us from sinne and to move us to repentance This Saint Paul tells the Atheniant Acts 17.30 Acts 17. That God admonishes all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse Thus Solomon tells the young man Eccles 11.9 Eccles 11. That though he rejoyceth in his youth and followes the lust of his eyes and the wayes of his heart yet he must remember withall that God for all these things will bring him to judgement Therefore Basil gives us this Councel to have alwayes the day of judgement as a Schoolmaster before us that so we might be kept from committing evil by having this day before our eyes as a scholler is afraid to do any thing undecent in his Masters presence Damascen makes mention of a certain King who having the day of judgement alwayes in his mind he was so affected with the remembrance of it that he wholly abstain'd from those pleasures delights whereunto he had been before addicted The Kings Brother seeing the King to be so strangely altered knowing withal the cause thereof willed him not to think of the day of judgement but to passe his time in pleasure and recreation as he had done before when he thought not of it The King to argue his Brothers folly caused his Herald the very next morning to sound a Trumpet a loud at his Brothers doore which was a signe in that Countrey that he at whose door the Trumpet was sounded had offended the King and was therefore to be led to execution His Brother as soone as he heard the Trumpet came trembling to the King and desired pardon and promised that he would never offend him again Why saith the King art thou so afraid when thou hearest this Trumpet and should not I be afraid of that great Trumpet that shall call me to judgement if thou be afraid because of this Trumpet of offending me much more may I by the last Trumpet of offending God And indeed the most desperate sinner that is if the day of judgement were alwayes in his minde so that he were wholly possest with the remembrance of it it would make him afraid to commit sinne and so hasten his Repentance because he may die and be called to judgement he knows not how soone and if he be impenitent when he dies he will be found impenitent at the day of judgement Hic hic amittitur vita aut recuperatur saith Cyprian In this life the life to come is either lost or gotten lost by continuing impenitent in our sinnes or got by repentance God made this Law Levit. 25. That if a man had had a house in a walled City and had sold the same Levit. 25.29 yet he might redeeme it within the compasse of a year but if he redeemed it not within that time it should afterwards be too late to recover it again which Origen expounding he saith that by this house is understood our heavenly Habitation that house whereof the Apostle speakes We have a house not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 but eternall in the Heavens by him that sells this house is understood a sinner who sells as it were and forgoes Heaven by his sinnes yet such saith he is the mercy of this Law-giver that he hath given a sinner the whole year of this life for the recovery thereof that what he sold by his sinnes he might redeeme by repentance which if he redeemed not before the year of this life be ended it will be too late afterwards He that repents not till this life be past he knocks with the foolish Virgins when the Gates are shut Mat. 25.11.12 and then he cannot be let in Luke 16.24 he that seekes not for mercy till after this life like the rich man he shall finde none no not so much as a drop of cold water to coole his tongue And therefore now while it is called to day think thus with thy self God hath spared me hitherto and not taken me away that I might repent how long he wil spare me I do not know he may take me away before to morrow if he take me away before I repent Christ will condemn me for my impenitencie when he comes to judgement I will therefore now make a vow unto God even now before I goe out of his house that I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor the Temples of my head to take any rest till I turne unto God by unfained repentance and resolve with my self to lead a new life that so I may be sure not to be found impenitent whensoever he comes FINIS
EIGHTEENE Choice and usefull SERMONS BY Benjamin Hinton B. D. Late MINISTER of HENDON And sometime fellow of TRINITY COLLEDGE IN CAMBRIDGE Contra rationem nemo sobrius senserit Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus senserit Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit Imprimatur EDM CALAMY 1650. LONDON Printed by J. C. For Humphery Moseley at the Princes Armes in S. Pauls Church-yard and for R. Wodenothe at the Starre under S. Peters Church in Cornehill 1649. To the Right Worshipfull Master FRANCIS PHILIPS Auditor of LONDON Grace and Peace YOur love and kindnesse whereof I have had so long experience imboldens me to present these few Sermons unto you not as presuming of the worth of them but as desiring to testifie my thankfulnesse having so just occasion I am old and gray-headed wanting not much of seventy years yet not so old in years as I am in infirmities and in my age it pleased God to visite me through a fall whielâ— I took with an incurable lamenesse and through sicknesse which I had with great weaknesse both in my memory and voice whereby I have been much disabled to preach I was therefore the more willing with my pen to supply the defect of my tongue as Zachary wrote when he could not speake and made his pen to make known what his tongue could not Luke 1.63 And though many have done the like before me with far greater ability yet remembring that God at the making of the Tabernacle accepted as well the offerings of the poorer sort who brought thither but Goats-haire and Rams-skinnes as of those who were rich and offered blew silk and purple and scarlet I have offered these few mites into the treasury of the Church out of my want and penury when others offer talents out of their store and plenty And I doubt not of your favourable acceptance hereof as coming from him who will no longer desire your favour then he desires to remaine Your truely loving in the Lord BEN. HINTON Curteous Reader IT was the earnest desire of the Authour my Reverend Father that these Sermons might passe the Presse in his life for the furtherance of others passage to life eternall but being himself taken away by death before his purpose was effected I thought it my duty not to let his works die with him but to impart to others what GOD had imparted to him I desire that as they teach the word of Truth so they may be the word of life And although in these dayes Sermons are neglected by the most contemned by the worst and too little esteemed even by the best yet I doubt not but these will meete with some who will receive the Message for the Masters sake And as formerly the feet of those who brought glad tydings of the Gospel of peace were counted beautifull so will the Gospel it self I hope though plainly preached not be trod under feet but be acceptable and helpfull to augment their peace who indeed seek peace which shall be the prayers of him to the God of peace who is your Christian Friend WILLIAM HINTON The severall SERMONS I. ABrahams offring his Sonne Isaac GEN. 22.2 Take now thy Sonne thine onely Sonne Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountains which I will tell thee of II. The good ground or hearer of the word MATTH 13.23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold some sixty some thirty III. Zacheus converted LUKE 19.8 Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor c. IV. Gaining the world and losing the soule MATTH 16.26 For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soule V. Man like the grasse and flowers of the field PSAL. 103 15. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flowre of the field so he flourisheth VI. The Devil a coward if he be resisted JAMES 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you VII Gods best beloved most afflicted HEBR. 12.6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth VIII No peace to the wicked ESAY 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God IX God the Authour and protector of the Scripture 2 PETER 1.21 For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost X. Christs miraculous Cures MATH 11.5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk the Leapers are cleansed and the deaf heare the dead are raised up and the poore have the Gospel preached to them XI The Churches love to Christ CANTIC 3.1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soule loveth XII Both Poverty and Riches occasions of evil PROVERBS 30.8 Give me neither Poverty nor Riches XIII Gods pardoning great sinners a great comfort to others PSAL. 32.6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou maiest be found XIIII Steven Stoned ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their Charge XV. Lawfull and unlawfull swearing JEREM. 4.2 Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth in judgement and iâ—â—â—ghteousnesse XVI Jonas sent to Nineveh JONAH 3.1 c. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying arise go to Nineveh that great City and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh XVII Hiding of sinne no small sinne PROVERBS 38.13 He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy XVIII Christs coming to judgement both certain and uncertain 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night THE FIRST SERMON GEN. 22.2 Take now thine onely Sonne Jsaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offring upon one of the Mountaines which I will tell thee of Paradisus Genesis in quo pullulant Patriarcharum virtutes Ambr. Epist 41. THis booke of Moses is resembled by St. Ambrose not unfitly unto Paradise Genesis saith he is a Paradise wherein spring forth the virtues of the Patriarchs For as in Paradise there were variety of trees which brought forth variety of excelent fruits both pleasant to behold and good to eate Gen. 2.9 So in this Paradise this book of Genesis are many worthy plants Gods Children and Servants whose fruits of Faith of Love and obedience are both delightfull for us to read and profitable to imitate Now of all these plants the chief are the Patriarchs of all the Patriarchs the most fruitfull is Abraham and of all the fruits which he
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So saith Zachary Luke 1. That God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets because they spake onely that which God put into their mouthes Therefore we see in the Old Testament that every one of the Prophets from the first to the last have still in their Sermons Verbum Domini or haec dicit Dominus The Word of the Lord came unto me or Thus saith the Lord to shew that they were but Gods Messengers to deliver that which God appointed them and that the Message which they delivered was not theirs that brought it but his that sent them 1 Cor. 15.3 1 Cor. 11.23 So Saint Paul in his Epistles I delivered saith he that which I received and I received from the Lord that which I delivered unto you This was that which Christ enjoyned his Apostles Mat. 28.20 Mat. 28. Teach them saith he to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you this is that which God here enjoyns Jonas Preach saith he unto it the preaching which I bid thee And so leaving the Charge which God gave Jonas I come to the last point Jonas his execution of Gods Charge which containes his obedience to Gods Command So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh When God commanded Jonas the first time to go to Nineveh he was disobedient unto God and refused to go but he paid so dear for his disobedience that he would have no more of it God hath so schooled him by affliction that now he is become another man ready to go whithersoever God would send him and to do whatsoever God would command him like Paul who being struck to the ground from heaven was content to do any thing that Christ would have him Acts 9.6 Doct. Lord saith he what wilt thou have me to do Observe then from hence That affliction is a very forcible meanes to reclaime us when we do go astray and to bring us to ebedionce This David acknowledges of himselfe in particular Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now saith he have I kept thy word and this Esay testifies of others in generall in his 26. chap. 9. verse When thy judgements saith he are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousnesse For Gods judgements are his Messengers which he sends to reclaim us like Officers which are sent after fugitive Servants to bring them home to their Masters So hunger ye know reclaimed the Prodigall affliction Manasses and a tempest as Gods Pursevant reclaimed Ionas and made him ready to execute that vvhich God commanded vvhich before he would not Before he thought it a very hard Commandement that he should leave his own Countrey to go to Nineveh leave the place vvhere he had been bred and borne to preach among strangers leave the people of God to preach among Infidels He thought it vvould be very dangerous for him to carry so unwelcome a Message to the Ninevites that Nineveh should be overthrown after forty dayes He remembred besides that God was so gracious that though God had sent him to proclaim their destruction yet if the Ninevites should repent he would spare the City and so he should be counted a false Prophet among them And many other scruples no doubt came in his mind for which he thought it a very hard Commandement but now he stands not upon any difficulty but goes readily about it His example then may teach us this lesson that when Gods will is made known unto us we must readily yield obedience thereunto and do that which God Commands though it seeme never so difficult never so dangerous It might have seem'd unto Noe a very hard Commandement when God Commanded him to make the Ark and there were many difficulties which might have taken away the edge of his obedience and discouraged him from taking such a work in hand He might have been discouraged with the tediousnesse of the work that seeing God would have him make it so large and so great it would hold him a long time before he could finish it He might have been discouraged by the great cost and charges which he was to be at in making the Arke For besides his extraordinary paines and labour it must needes be an excessive charge unto him The sending up and down to provide such a World of stuffe and timber the felling sawing and squaring of it the bringing it to the place where the Arke was to be made the vvorkmens daily vvages for so many years and the great store of food which vvas to be provided and laid up in the Arke for the preservation and susterance of all the living Creatures vvhich vvere to abide in the Arke for a twelve-moneth and upwards must needes be a matter of excessive charges He might have been discouraged by the continual taunts of the vvicked vvho vvould scoffe and deride him for making the Arke and make him a common by-word among them vvhile he vvas about it But Noe having respect unto Gods Commandement his disobedience brake through all these difficulties and he took the vvork in hand and accordingly finisht it so it might have seem'd unto Abraham a very hard Commandement vvhen God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac and there vvere many difficulties vvhich might have discouraged him from the doing of it and hindred his obedience He might have alleadged that Isaac was his onely Sonne and that he had no other to be his Heire to inherit the goods vvhich God had given him that God had given him Isaac to be a comfort unto him in his old age and had promised that all the Nations of the earth should be blessed in him that he and Sarah his vvife vvere old and so not like to have any more Children He might have pretended that it was a most barbarous and unnaturall Act for a Father to kill his own Sonne that it would make him odious among his Neighbours and be a foule disgrace and reproach unto him vvheresoever he came and many pretences he might have alledged vvhy he should not do it but having Gods Commandement he stood not upon any difficulty therein but vvent readily about it For vvhatsoever it is that God Commands us though it seeme never so hard unto flesh and bloud yet we are bound to yield him obedience because he hath absolute power and Command over us The Command of a Father over his Sonne is very great and vvhat will not a Sonne do that lieth in his power vvhen his Father Commands him Nihil quod pater jubet grave nisi sitimpossibile Nothing is grievous that a Father Commands unlesse he Commands an impossibility We see how the Rechabits Jer. 35. were commanded by Jonadab their Father that neither they themselves nor their Sonnes nor their Daughters nor their Children and Posterity for ever after them should ever drink any wine or build any houses or sow any seed or plant any Vineyards or have any but
the day of judgement 2 Pet. 3.3 Know this saith Saint Peter that there shall be scoffers in the last dayes Walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue say they as they were from the beginning of the creation And thus many because the World hath continued so long a time in the same state do perswade themselves that it shall continue so for ever and that there shall be no end of the World nor day of judgement These Saint Peter in the same place confutes by this reason That though the World have continued in the same state for a long time yet it followes not from thence that therefore the World should continue so for ever for it wa a long time from the Creation of the world till the coming of the floud yet the world was then destroyed by one of the elemente whereof it was made namely by water and so though it seems a long time till the end of the world yet in the end it shall be destroyed by another element namely by Fire And as they who lived in the time of Noah would not be perswaded that the world should be drowned till the floud came suddenly and swept them away so the end of the world and Christs coming to judgement shall as suddenly come upon unbelievers while they think not of it Christ indeed doth deferre his coming in divers respects As that the number of the elect may be fulfill'd whom God hath decreed from all etermity to call in all ages by the preaching of the Gospel till the end of the world that the patience of the faithfull who waite and long for the coming of Christ may be tried and exercised and that the wicked may be left without excuse being forborne so long and having had so large a time of repentance In these respects Christ defers his coming but though his coming be deferr'd for a time yet in the end he will not faile to come as the Scripture assures us by evident testimonies by visible signes and by invisible reasons The testimonies are divers The Prophesie of Enoch which is alleadged by Saint Jude is plaine and evident Jude 14.15 Enoch saith he the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deads Where ye see the world was no sooner made but that the end thereof was presently fore-told for Enoch was but the seventh from Adam and yet he prophesied of Christs coming to judgement and that so plainly as if he had seen him coming Ecce venit Behold saith he he comes Dan. 7.9.10 So Daniel prophesied of the day of judgement I beheld saith he till the thrones were prepared and the auncient of dayes did sit there issued forth a fiery stream and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened I saw saith Saint John the dead both small and great stand before the Lord Revel 20.12 and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged c. Where to shew the certainty of Christs coming to judgement he speaks ye see thereof as if it were past because he shall come at the time appointed as certainly as if he were come already I might alleadge many other places wherein the coming of Christ to judgement is plainly fore-told And as the Scriptures have fore-told Christs coming to judgement so to assure us the better thereof it hath likewise given us many signes which go before it whereby we may know that it will not be long before he come When the King ye know is come to a Town he commonly sends his harbingers before him and when they see his harbingers they say the King is coming because they know by the coming of his harbingers that it will not be long before the King himselfe comes Christ hath given us many signes of the end of the world and his coming to judgement which are as his harbingers sent before his coming and these signes which go before his coming are of two sorts either such as go longer before his coming and are further from it or such as go but hard before and shall be nigh unto it Of the former sort are divers signes as the preaching of the Gospell all over the world foretold by our Saviour Mat. Mat. 24.2 Thes 2. Rom. 11. Luke 17. 24. The revealing of Antichrist that man of sinne and sonne of perdition fore-told by the Apostle 2 Thes 2. The calling of the Jews fore-told by St. Paul Rom. 11. The great security want of faith which shal be found in many foretold by Christ Luke 17. And many other signes which the Scripture mentions many whereof are already past and are fore-runners of the end of the world and shall continue and prolong their course till the very day of Christs coming to judgement Of the second sort are those fearfull signes which the Scripture mentions in divers places as that the earth shall tremble and move out of her place Mat. 24.29 Acts 2.20 that the seas shall roare and make an hidcous noise that the powers of heaven shall be shaken that the starres shall fall from heaven that the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into bloud before that great and notable day of the Lord come These things shall come to passe at the end of the world and when these things come to passe they are evident signs that the end of the world is then hard at hand For like as it is in the body of man when the eyes waxe dimme and the sight failes when all the joynts waxe weake and the whole body trembles it is a signe of old age and a manifest token that he in whom these signes are to be seen is very near his end and cannot hold out long So it is likewise in the great Body of the world when the eyes of the world the Sunne and the Moon begin to wax dim and their light failes when the heavens shall be shaken as it were with a palsie and the earth shall tremble and move out of her place as the Scripture speaks it is a manifest signe that the world is ending Lastly As the Scripture hath foretold the end of the world Christs coming to judgment both by evident testimonies and visible signs so likewise by divers invincible reasons For first all other things which the Scriptures have fore-told are come to passe as namely of Christs first coming in the flesh of the destruction of Jerusalem of the dispersion of the Iows of the coming of Antichrist all which and many other as they have been fore told so they have been likewise accomplisht and therefore the
Scripture having likewise fore-spoken of the end of the world and of Christs second coming they shall also be fulfilled in their due time For Gods will is immutable and what he hath said must needs come to passe at the time appointed Secondly Gods justice requires that all men should be rewarded according to their works and therefore that the wicked should hereafter be punisht and the godly comforted We see many times that the wicked do persecute and oppresse the godly and such as are great do wrong the poor and defraud them of their right and yet in this world they escape unpunisht It remaines therefore that if God be just their judgement is reserved till another world that the wicked howsoever they live here in prosperity may there be punisht and that the godly who live here in affliction and miserie may be refresht and comforted For it is a righteous thing with God as the Apostle saith to recompence tribulation to them which trouble you 2 Thes 1. and to you which are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall shew himselfe from heaven with his mighty Angels Thirdly If there should not hereafter be a day of judgement then many sinnes which have been committed here in secret should never come to light and so Gods justice in punishing offenders could not so well be made known and manifest and therefore that hypocrites may be known and discovered and the very thoughts of their hearts and their most secret sinnes which have been concealed from the eyes of the world may be laid open it is necessary that there should be a day of judgement that so Gods justice may the better appear in their condemnation I might alleadge other reasons but I think it needlesse seeing the coming of this day is so certain that the Apostle saith here You your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes And therefore I will come to the next point That though it be certaine that this day Will come yet when it will come it is uncertaine as the Apostle here shews by saying it so comes as is thiefe in the night Whose coming is on the suddain and when it is not expected Therefore the coming of Christ to judgement is likened by him sometime to the coming of the floud that drowned the old world So Mat. 24. Mat. 24.38 As in the dayes that came before the floud they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage untill the day that Noah entred into the Ark and knew not untill the floud came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be Sometimes his coming is likened to a snare So Christ having fore-told us Luke 21.34.35 Luke 21. of his coming to judgement Take heed saith he to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkennesse and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth Snares ye know are laid for birds wilde beasts while they do not suspect them they securely seek their food and follow the prey as they use to do and are suddenly taken So shall many be at the day of judgement while they are following the profits pleasures of this world as they are accustomed to do this day shall come as a snare upon them when they think not of it And sometimes his coming is resembled to the coming of a thiefe in the night A similitude which is often used in the Gospell first by our Saviour and afterwards borrowed from him by his Apostles Christ saith Mat. 24. Mat. 24.43 know this that if the good-man of the house had known in what watch the thiefe would have come he would have watched and would nat have suffered his house to be broken up watch therefore for ye know not in what houre your Lord doth come So Revel 3. Revel 3.3 If thou shalt not watch I will come on thee saith our Saviour as a thiefe and thou shalt not know at what houre I will come So Saint Peter 2 Pet. 3.10 The day of the Lord comes as a thiefe in the night and so Saint Paul here The day of the Lord comes as a thiefe in the night To shew that it will come at unawares and when it is not expected A thiefe ye know will not come openly to a house in the day when men may see him but he will come in the night when candles are out and men are asleep and think not of him So will the day of the Lord come it will not come on the sudden before men be aware and take them unprovided when it comes upon them If then the coming of this day be unknown this argues their folly who presume to set down the particular time when this day will come though our Saviour saith plainly Mat. 24. Mat. 24.36 That of that day and houre knowes no man no nor the Angels of Heaven but his Father onely For other matters God hath revealed in the Scriptures the definitive time when they should come to passe So for the old World to repent before the coming of the floud Gen. 6.3 Gen. 15.13 Jer. 25.11 Dan. 9.25 he set down an hundred and twenty years So for the Israelites to be afflicted in the Land of Egypt four hundred years For the captivity in Babylon he set down seventy years And for Christ first coming seventy weeks But for his second coming he hath not any where set down the time but concealed it from us and therefore for any man to enquire thereinto as many have done is but vaine curiosity because it is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power For God hath concealed this day from us that we might continually expect this day least it come upon us at unawares Therefore our Saviour whensoever he makes mention of his coming to judgement he wills us to watch that we may be prepared and ready at the time whensoever he comes And indeed great reason If we have a cause to be tryed before an earthly Judge especially if it be in a matter of any great moment as such as concernes our Land and inheritance ye know what great paines we will take before-hand that we may be provided against our cause be handled we will search out our records we will read over our evidences We will make ready our Witnesse and not willingly omit any course we can take that sentence may be pronounced on our side we have every one of us a cause to be tried at the day of judgement even the weightiest cause that ever was handled not concerning our Lands or inheritance but concerning a matter of farre greater importance even the everlasting salvation or damnation of our bodies and soules and therefore it behoves us continually to watch and to be alwayes
not to the wicked We have heard then the thing that is proclaimed that the wicked can have no peace no peace with God no peace with the creatures no peace with men no peace with themselves their vvant of the first their want of peace with God being the cause that they want the rest and have no peace with others Doct. And from hence we may observe That there can be no security to those who continue in their sinnes For how can they have any security who are not at peace with God but have him for their enemy God is never enemy to any but onely for sinne sin is that which incenses his wrath and provokes him to punish them Esay 63. therefore saith the Prophet Esay 63. They rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them And the Apostle to the same purpose Rom. 1. The wrath of God saith he is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousnes and ungodlinesse of men Rom. 1 13. When therefore we see Gods wrath break forth against any place as ye know he hath many wayes revealed of late against this Land by that heavy visitation of Plague and Pestilence whereby he swept away so many thousands by hot burning-Feaver and other grievous diseases in the most places by unseasonablenesse of weather and immoderate showers by suffering the enemy to give us the foile and to have the better of us and many other wayes we may well be assured that our sins have provoked him and if we repent not these are but the fore-runners of greater judgements God is not easily provoked to anger but many times beares a long time with sinners that by his forbearing them he might draw them to repentance but if they go on he will more and more manifest his wrath against them which as their sinnes increase growes further and further like fire which first takes hold of one house and then goes to another He powres not out his whole Viall of his wrath at once but by degrees the former judgements making way for the latter the lesse for the greater first making some smart that others may amend which if they do not his wrath will break forth upon them altogether So we see he dealt with Pharaoh God brought sundry plagues upon him and his people yet the latter were more fearfull and grievous then the former and when none of those judgements which he had powred upon them would make them take warning in the end he drowned them all in the Red-Sea together So when our Saviour Math. 24 had forthtold many judgements that should come upon Jerusalem for their contempt of the Gospel and for their refusing and rejecting of grace when it was offered unto them he adds this That the end is not yet and that all these are but the beginnings of sorrows as they found afterwards by wofull experience For in the end vvhen he had many wayes plagued them before and they were ne're the better he powr'd out his wrath in full measure upon them and brought utter desolation upon them all They might have understood by the former punishments which were the beginning of their sorrowes that there were greater coming except they prevented them as when a man sees the smoke breaking out of the house he may know there is sire which will break forth into a flame if it be not looked to in time And so may we we may understand by Gods former judgements that there are greater hanging over our heads except we prevent them by unfeigned repentance Let every one therefore in the feare of God turn unto him by true humiliation assuring our selves that as long as we continue impenitent in our sinnes we make God our enemy and so can have no peace And thus much for the thing that is here proclaimed That there is no peace to the wicked I come now briefly to the person that proclaims it the Prophet from the mouth of the Lord Thre is no peace to the Wicked saith my God Doct. The Prophet proclaiming this fearfull doome against the wicked he shewes that he is but Gods Herald that he doth not proclaime it in his own but the Lords name and that it was God that spake by him And from hence we may observe That it is God that speakes by the mouth of his Messengers and that the Message which they deliver is not theirs that bring it but Gods that sent it Which serves for the instruction both of Gods Ministers and of those that hear them That Ministers are to deliver nothing but the Word of God that they may be able to say as the Prophet here saith saith my God And as St Paul saith That which I delivered unto you I received from the Lord. Non valet haec ego dicâ— haec tu dicis sed haes dicit dominus It is not sufficient saith St Augustine to say I say thus or thus thou sayest unlesse we can say the Lord saith thus That while we deliver no more then that which is agreeable to the Scripture we may be sure we deliver Gods Message and that we speak that which God puts into our mouths Secondly This serves to instruct the hearers that they must make account that they hear the Lord while they hear his Messengers Therefore it is that the faithfull say Esay 2. Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways as making account that they were taught by God while they were taught by his Ministers He saith our Saviour Luke 10.16 1 Thes 2.13 Luk. 10. that heareth you heareth me And therefore St. Paul commends the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. that when he preacht among them they heard what he delivered not as the word of man but as the Word of God Ye know when a Cryer doth make Proclamation in the Princes name the Proclamation is to be heard not as his that utters it but as his that sent it Now Ministers are as it were Christs Heralds to proclaime and make known his will unto us which while they Proclaime we must make account that we hear him while we hear them And therefore as this serves to shew their folly who make the lesse account of hearing the Word because they are but men like themselves that deliver it so it likewise serves to reprove those who are offended with Ministers when they reprove their sinnes For what reason hath any man to be offended with the Messenger for the Message lie brings seeing he speaks not in his own name but in his that sent him and it is not his but his Lords Message FINIS The Ninth SERMON 2 PETER 1.21 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost THe scope of the Apostle in these words is this to shew us the infallible truth of the Scriptures And this
therfore our Saviour excused his Disciples for not fasting by an argument drawn from the time Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them Mat. 9.15 as long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast Giving of almes is another duty which is much commended in the Scripture unto us yet giving of almes hath a limitation of persons for all are not injoyn'd to give almes but onely such as are of ability and they that are of ability are not injoyned to give almes unto all but onely to such as are in want and necessity but as every one is injoyn'd to pray so to pray for all men I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men So that if we put all these together That every one is injoyn'd to pray to pray for all persons to pray at all times to pray in all places and to pray with all manner of supplications and prayers This must needs be a very necessary duty because it is so generally and absolutely injoyn'd us And indeed there is great reason why prayer should have no limitation because every man may easily performe the same If God had commanded us to offer goats and bullocks unto him the poore and the needy might have excused themselves for want of ubility if God had commanded us to go a pilgrimage into faâ—re Countries and there do him service the blinde and the lame might have excused themselves by reason of their impotencie But no man can pretend any just excuse why he should not pray because every man may easily performe this duty And thus much briefly for the necessity of prayer The Object of prayer Object of prayer ye see is God Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee He doth not say shall pray to Saints or Angels or the Virgine but unto thee For this is the Title which David gives unto God That he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65.25 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For prayer is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be given to no other but God Therefore God commands us to pray unto him Call upon me faith God in the fifty Psalm Christ teacheth us to pray unto God Our Father which art in heaven c. The Spirit teacheth us to pray unto God For God saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father So that if we would be instructed to whom we must pray can we have better instructers then these the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghest who teach us to pray unto God onely Therefore if we search all over the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation among all the prayers which are registred therein among all the Psalmes one hundred and fifty whereof two parts at the least are prayers yet we finde not one prayer among them all which was ever made to Cherubin or Seraphim to Raphael Gabriel or any of the Angebs to Abraham or Isaac or any of the Patriarchs to Moses or Samuel or any of the Prophets to Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles to the blessed Virgine or any of the Saints but onely to God Thus if we would have presidents of prayer can we have better presidents then these which the Scripture records and which have been made by the faithfull in all Ages And the reason is plain because they had no warrant out of Gods word to pray to any other but God and they knew besides that God and no other hears our prayers and sees our wants Indeed the Papists who pray to Saints and Angels hold that they cannot but see our wants and hear our prayers For How say they should not they see all things who sea the face of him that seeth all things as if by seeing God they must see all things that God sees which if it were true their knowledg ye know must needs be infinite as God is And besides this is plainly confuted by Christ for Christ who tells us Math. 18. Mat. 18.10 Mar. 13.32 That the Angells do alwayes behold the face of his Father in Heaven He likewise tells us Marke 13. That the Angells are ignorant of the day of Judgement And for the Saints departed the Scripture tells us That they know no more what is done upon the earth and have no understanding of the affaires of the living So Solomon tells us Eccles 9. That the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a portion for ever Eceles 9.6 in any thing that is done under the Sunne If any of the dead should have any knowledge of the state of the living then questionlesse Princes of the state of their Subjects and Fathers of their children But that Princes after they are departed have not any knowledge of their Subjects we see by Josias where God gratiously promises to take him away 2 King 22.20 that he might not see the evill which he would bring upon the Jewes And that Fathers have no knowledge after their departure of the state of their children Job plainly tells us in his 14. Chapter the 20. verse speaking of a Father that is dead and leaves children behind him His Sonnes saith he come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceives it not Nay Abraham the Father of the faithfull to whom God promised that he would multiply his seed as the Starres of Heaven yet he had no knowledge after his departure what became of them And therefore the Israelites Esay 63.16 ver acknowledge that Abraham and Jacob that were dead had no knowledge of their miseries Doubtlesse say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Jacob know us not yet thou O Lord art our Father and Redeemer thy name is for ever Si tanti Patriarche c. If saith St. Augustine so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of the people that came from their loines How shall the dead have ought to do in the knowledge or aide of the affaires and actions of their dearest survivers But suppose they did know our affaires and actions yet our hearts they cannot know for this is proper to God onely who is the searcher of the heart Now our hearts ye know are the seate of our prayers the lips do but vent them to the eares of men And therefore Solomon in the 1 of the Kings the 8. Chapter useth this as an argument why we are to pray to no other but God because God and no other can hear our prayers because he onely knows our hearts Hear thou saith he 1 King 8.39 in Heaven thy dwelling place and do and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men So that he
unto God for the pardon of our sinnes to shew that as vve daily sinne so vve are daily to pray for pardon vvhich ye know vvere in vaine if no man vvere pardoned that sins after Baptisme But God here not onely pardon'd Jonas but set him againe in his former place and renewed his Commission which before he had given him The Word of the Lord came unto Ionas the second time Did God then deale so graciously with Jonas who had so highly offended him Let us therefore first learne by Gods example to deale graciously with those that offend us to pardon their offences and to receive them into favour as God did Jonas It cannot be while we live in this world but that offence will be given us and that we shall have just cause to be offended with others yet that we may not be so offended as to seek to be revenged the Scriputre still mentions Gods pardoning of them that offend him to provoke us thereby to forgive others God speaking as it were by his example unto us and saying as Gideon did to his followers Iudg. 7.17 Judges 7. Looke on me and do ye likewise But we see that God is prone to pardon them that do grievously offend him as here he did Jonas and therefore we must forgive those that offend us This the Apostle requires of us Eph. 4 Forgive one another Ephes 4.32 as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you This Christ requires of us Math. 6. both with a promise that if we forgive others God will forgive us and under a penalty that God will not forgive us if we forgive not others and binding us no otherwise to ask God forgivenesse then upon this condition that we forgive others Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us Whensoever therefore thou art offended with any and thinkest to be revenged on him that wrongs thee consider the great danger if thou do it consider the great benefit if thou do it not and set GOD as a patterne before thine eyes and remember how he pardons our offences For what canst thou or any one pretend why God should be willing to forgive thee if thou be unwilling to forgive him that offends thee If thou sayest that he that hath offended thee is one that hath many times done thee vvrong that thou hast forborne him a long time and forgiven him often and therefore canst not indure to forbear him any longer seeing he still provokes thee to be revenged on him I would ask thee again and hast not thou more often offended God then any can possibly offend thee Hath not God forborne thee ever since thou wert borne and dost thou not still every day offend him Well therefore may'st thou forgive him that offends thee if God have so often forgiven thee Forgive him that offends thee an hundred pence when God hath forgiven thee ten thousand talents If thou sayest againe But I have been alwayes a friend unto him that hath done me wrong I have shewed him much kindnesse and never deserved but well of him and therefore seeing he requites me evill for good how can I forgive him I would ask thee again But hath not God deserved alwayes far better of thee then thou of him that offends thee Is it not God that gives thee life and health and all things besides Is it not he that gives thee rain from Heaven and fruitfull seasons Acts 14.17 filling thy heart as the Apostle speaks with food and gladnesse Is it not he that continually preserves both thee and thine from a thousand dangers And yet thou notwithstanding dost daily requite him evil for good by sinning against him and therefore if he do thus forgive thee then why shouldst not thou forgive him that offends thee If thou sais t again But if I still pardon and forbear him that wrongs me I cannot but reap discredit thereby because every man will think the more hardly of me I would ask thee again But did ever any man reape discredit by doing that which God commands him And if thou shouldst reape discredit thereby yet were it not better that thou shouldst be discredited then that God should be disobeyed Were it not better that men should think bardly of thee then that God should condemn thee men thingk hardly of thee for suffring wrong then that God should condemn thee for revenging the same And therefore howsoever thou art wrong'd or oftended regard not what others will think of thee but what God commands thee and let his example move thee to forgive others who here forgave Ionas that had so highly offended him and restored him to his Propheticall office Secondly Seeing God dealt so gratiously with Jonas that had so grievously offended him Let it therefore teach us how heinunsly soever we have offended God not to despaire of pardon For Gods merty to others may well be a comfort and incouragement to us Ye know it was an incouragement to King Benhadad and the Syrians to submit themselves to the King of Israel 1 Kings 20. and to hope he would pardon them because they had heard that the Kings of Israel were mercifull Kings We know that God the King of Kings is mercifull and gracious Psa 116.5 Gracious is the Lord and righteous ye our God is mercifull Bis misericordiam posuit saith Ambrose semel Justitiam He saith but once that God is just or righteous but twice in one verse that God is gracious that as his justice might keep us fró sinning so his mercy grace much more might keep us from despairing Therefore to shew that he is gracious and mercifull he commonly bears a long time vvith sinners he doth not punish them so soon as they offend him but doth long forbear them that his forbearance and long-suffering might lead them to repentance He cries to such as go on in their sinnes Prov. i. 22 Prov. 1. Vsque quo simplices How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and ye fooles hate knowledge He cries to Jerusalem Mat. 23.37 Mat. 23. Quoties volui How often Would I have gathered thy children together as a her doth gather her brood under her wings and ye would net He was content Luke 13. to expect fruit of the fig-tree the fourth year when he had forborne it three years before He was able to charge them Numb 14 that though they had seen his glory Num. 14.22 Psal 95.10 yet they had provoked him ten times Nay he was able to charge them that forty years long he had been grieved with that generation So gracious is God in forbearing them long that do offend him And as he is long-suffering so he is slow in punishing not inflicting his judgements altogether and at once but by little and little and by degrees Therefore it is said Revel 16. That the Angels powred out the vials of Gods wrath upon the earth Revel 16.1 Now ye know a viall hath a narrow mouth
the upright for the end of that man is peace and in the next verse But the end of the wicked shall be cut off For God being the just Judge of the world it cannot be otherwise but that between the end of the godly and the end of the wicked there must needs be great difference Therefore when Abraham prayed for Sodom that it might be spared for the righteous sake that were therein Gen. 18.23.25 wilt thou saith he Gen. 18. destroy the righteous with the wicked that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be farre from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right to shew that it cannot stand with the justice of God to respect them alike and to make no difference between the godly and the wicked We see many times that the wicked do flourish and prosper in the world and live in great credit and estimation the godly on the contrary are many times vilified and privily slander'd whereby their good name which is the godly mans Heire is much called into question but God who never failes to help them to right that do suffer wrong at one time or other brings the wicked to shame and makes the innocency of the godly known This is that which God promises Psal 37.6 Psal 37. He shall bring forth thy righteousnesse as the light and thy judgement or just dealing as the noon-day the meaning is that though thy innocency and just dealing may be obscured and hidden for a time as the light in the night yet God will bring it forth like the light in the morning and make it more and more to appear like the Sun at noone whereby both thy innocencie and the falshood of those that unjustly accuse thee shall be openly known This we see by the example of Daniel who was cast by his accusers into the Lyons Den Dan. 6.16 Dan. 3.21 and by those who were cast into the fiery furnace yet God miraculously made known their innocency and brought those that accused them to shame and destruction It is very memorable which we find recorded to this purpose in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Three grace leâ—e Companions accused Narcissus a holy Bishop of an hainous crime and used fearfull imprecations against themselves if the thing were not true whereof they accused him The first wished that if it were not true he might be burnt The second that he might die of some grievous Disease And the third wisht that he might lose his sight And not long after God was reveng'd on every one of them in the same manner For the first had his house set a fire in the night where both himself and his houshold were burnt to death The second fell sick of a fearfull disease and died of it And the third seeing what 〈◊〉 befallen his Companions confessed how they had wrongfully accused the Bishop and with weeping and mourning lost his sight Whereupon the Bishop who had been deposed upon their accusation was restored unto his Bishoprick God having thus made his innocency known and brought them to shame that so falsly accused him And thus much for the former part of these words the description of an impenitent sinner who is described as you have heard both by his property that he covers his sinne and by his condition that he shall not prosper The penitent person is described by a double property he confesseth his sinnes and withall forsakes them and his condition is that he shall have mercy I will speak briefly of them in a word or two Those words of St. John 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse are as it were a commentary upon my Text and the one place may serve well to explain the other St. John names onely our confessing our sinnes If saith he we confesse our sinnes implying under confessing our sinnes our forsaking of them because as St. Ambrose saith Confessio peccati est professio desinendi our confessing of sinne is a profession of leaving the same Solomon in my Text doth name them both who so confesses and forsakes his sins and so expresses what St. John implies And Solomon addes that he shall have mercy but what mercy he doth not shew St. John therefore shewes what this mercy is that God will forgive him his sinnes and will cleanse him from all unrighteousnesse which you know is the greatest mercy For if we consider how highly God is offended with sinners how deeply we are indebted unto God by our sinnes or the great benefit we reape by Gods forgiving us we cannot but see Gods infinite mercy in forgiving our sinnes upon so easie a condition and requiring no more of us for the forgivenesse of our sinnes but that we confesse them If a Creditor should require no more of his Debtor that were indebted in a great summe unto him but to acknowledge the debt he would freely forgive him would not every man magnifie the Creditors bounty in releasing his Debtor upon so easie a condition but thus deales God with us he requires no more of us but to confesse our sinnes and promises to forgive us If saith St. John we confesse our sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes faithfull and just and so we need not make any doubt thereof because his faithfulnesse and justice are ingaged upon it But some may say it may seeme that seeing God is just he should rather punish us then forgive us our sinnes because his justice requires that we make him satisfaction and that he reward us according to our deserts We are therefore to remember that confession of our sinnes and faith in Christ for the pardon of them do alway go together so that we cannot truly confesse our sins but we must needes have an eye unto Christ for the forgivenesse of our sinnes God therefore cannot but forgive us our sinnes because he is just for otherwise he should be unjust to his Sonne who hath made satisfaction to God in our roome and by his active and passive obedience hath merited for us that our sinnes should be forgiven And herein appeares the admirable wisdome and goodnesse of God in so contriving the work of our redemption that his justice should plead for the forgivenesse of our sinnes which pleaded before for our condemnation For if ye aske why God should condemn us for our sinnes the Reason is because he is just and justice requires that having offended him we should make him satisfaction And yet if ye aske why he should forgive us our sinnes the reason is here given by St. John because he is just and justice requires that Christ having made satisfaction for us we should be forgiven And so we see what mercy it is which he shall have who confesseth his sinnes namely the