partly from others but yet if thou be this good ground which is here mentioned thou wilt overcome them all and with the Tree that is described in the first Psalme Thou wilt bring forth fruit in due season To draw then to a conclusion of this first signe if fruitfulness be a signe of a good ground then that we may not deceive our selves Jam. 1.22.2 Cor. 6.1 let us not onely be hearers of the word but doers of it let us not receive the grace of God in vain but when the seed of Gods word hath been sowen in our hearts Let us be carefull to practice the same and to bring forth the fruits thereof in our lives We would count him ye know a very bad Husband who when his ground hath been sowen with seed should turne in his swine to root it up or when it is come forth and begins to ripen should let in his Beasts to spoile and devoure it what then beloved may we think of our selves if when we have been partakers of the word of God we give way to our affections and suffer the delights of the world or the lusts of the flesh to hinder this seed from fructifying in us And thus much for the first signe of a good ground that it brings forth fruit I come now unto the second the quantity of fruit which it brings forth some an hundred some sixty some thirty The ground if it be good 2. Sigaâ— it is not onely fruit full when it hath bin sowen but it yields as ye see a very great increase every sâ—ed at the least bearing thirty for one And thus he that is a profitable hearer of the word he is not onely fruitfull in the works of righteousness but he brings forth the same in great abundance I saith our Saviour Christ am the vine and ye are the branches he that abides in me and I in him the same brings forth much fruit John 15.5 So that it is not enough to be fruitful unless we be fruitful in some good measure And now that we know what are the signes of a good ground it remaines that we try and examine our selves whether we be this good ground or no. You will say I have gotten this good by hearing the word that now when I heare it I heare it willingly I take delight in hearing it is not this a good signe surely this is but a good beginning for thou mayst heare the word and that with delight and yet be but an hypocrite for so did Herod he heard John the Baptist and he heard him gladly and yet all the world knowes what Herod was Marke 6. You will say again but I am gone further then so for I do not onely hear the word and that with delight but I have left many sinnes since I have heard the word and is not this a good signe surely this likewise is but a good beginning for first it is not enough to leave many sinnes unlesse thou endeavour to leave all otherwise God that for one sin of pride cast the Angels out of Heaven for one disobedience thrust Adam out of Paradise and for one onely lye shewed his judgement on Ananias will likewise reject thee for any one sin if thou takest delight to continue in the same Secondly as it is not enough to leave many sins unless thou endeavour to leave all So this is not sufficient unless as thou leave evil so thou do good For as that is not to be counted a good ground which onely leaves bringing forth evil fruit except it likewise bring forth good fruit So God will not repute him for a good man who onely leaves evil but doth no good The fruitless Fig-tree was cursed by our Saviour not because it bore evill fruit but because it forbore to bring forth good fruit The unprofitable Servant is condemned in the Gospel not because he did evill with his Talent for he onely hid it but because he did not do good therewith he did not imploy it In a word to those whom our Saviour placeth at his left hand at the day of judgement he gives not this Reason for when I was hungry ye took away my meate when I was a stranger ye took away my lodging But saith he when I was hungry ye did not give me to eat and when I was a stranger ye did not provide me Harbour So that it is not enough for thee to leave evill except thou likewise do good You wil say again but I am gone further then the leaving of evill since I have heard the word for I have done good Come therefore unto the second signe of a good ground and see whether thou hast brought forth fruit according to that measure which is here mentioned Is thy knowledge answerable to that which hath been taught thee hast thou brought forth the fruits of Faith and obedience according to that measure of seed which thou hast received and proportionable to the paines which have been taken with thee You will say this is a hard saying for who is able to do the same Know therefore for thy comfort that if thou bring but forth fruit in some good measure and if thou do but thy best endeavour to be more and more fruitfull God will accept of thy good endeavour and though thou be not so fruitfull as some others are yet this may be thy comfort that God doth as well accept him for fruitfull that brings forth thirty as he doth him that brings forth an hundred And like as the Husbandman when he reapes his Corne he will not refuse and passe by those eares which are not so full as the rest are but will carry them all into the barne together So God will not reject our imperfect obedience but when he shall gather his Saints together he will bring us all to those heavenly mansions whither Christ is gone before to provide them for us FINIS The Third SERMON LUKE 19.8 Behold Lord the halfe of my goods I give to the poore c. IT was the prophesie of Isaiah That the eyes of the blind should be opened at the coming of the Messias Isa 35.5 which words of the Prophet are to be understood both of those that were corporally and spiritually blind Namely that they who were outwardly blind should be restored to their sense of seeing and that they who were inwardly or spiritually blind should be lightned in their mind and understanding And this prophecy of Isaiah was here fulfilled by our Saviour by two notable miracles which he wrought immediatly one after the other the one in the end of the former Chapter where he miraculously cured a blind-man the other in the beginning of this Chapter where he wrought a more miraculous cure in the suddain conversion of a sinfull Publican thereby to teach us that he indeed is that skillfull Physitian that cures both our corporall and spirituall diseases He whom he cured before was a poor beggar he whom he
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
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
if he please so visite us with sicknesse that like the woman in the Gospell We may spend all that we have upon the Physicians Nay he can Luke 8.43 Deut. 28.23 if he please make the earth as iron and the heavens as brasse and send a famine as he did in the time of Elias and then what would all that we have do us good if we were debarred from the fruits of the earth which should sustaine and preserve us And therefore we must not ascribe what we have to our selves or our friends but unto God who gives as Agur saith both poverty and riches Secondly Seeing it is God that gives them this may therefore teach us Vsc 2 To be content with that portion which God hath given us whether it be more or lesse Though we have a lesse portion then many others have yet we must remember that we have it of God of his free-gift and therefore ought to be contented with it and not to murmure that we have lesse then others lest we provoke him by our murmuring to lessen that portion which he hath given us The Jews in their Talmud have an Apologue to this purpose That the Moon upon a time did murmure and complaine that God had not appointed her for so good a use as he appointed the Sun because the Sun shines in the day and she in the night time and that God therefore for her murmuring did as they say diminish her light and lessen her shining Which though it be but a fable yet it hath a true morall that if we be not content with that portion which God hath allotted us we do provoke him thereby to make it lesse The Lord saith Job hath given and the Lord hath taken Job 1.21 blessed be the name of the Lord. If we should fall into poverty by the hand of God as Job did yet we are not to repine and murmure against him because whatsoever he takes from us he takes but his own which he gave us before of his free-gift and not of our deserving And indeed if we consider our own deserving though we have but little yet even he that hath least hath more cause to wonder that he hath so much then that he hath no more because we have more then we do deserve though we have never so little For that which we have is of Gods free-gift as Agur here acknowledges Give me neither poverty nor riches Thirdly Seeing riches are from God Vse 3. it may therefore teach us to use them well and to imploy them to good uses For God hath given them that we might use them to the glory of God the maintenance of our selves and the good of others which if we do not we abuse his blessings Mat. 25.28 The servantâ—which imployed not the talent well which his Master had given him had it taken from him and was cast besides into outer darknesse What then may we think shall become of those that imploy them ill and abuse the blessings which God hath given them to surfetting drunkennesse and voluptuous living These God will call to a fearfull account at the day of judgement for abusing wasting and mispending his gifts And in the mean time God many times suffers them to want that which they have carelesly wasted that they may see their fault what it is to waste by their want of it I have read of a Duke in another Countrey who seeing through his window a company of young Gallants that were a hunting and ridde up and down over the corn-fields and tread down the corn he sent to bid them the next day to dine with him And when they were come he made them great cheere but took order that no bread except a manchet for himselfe should be set on the Table One of the Gallants spake to a Servitour to bring in some bread he went out as if he would fetch some but came not again another spake to another who likewise went out but came in no more at last they told the Duke that they wanted bread And well saith the Duke do ye deserve to want bread with your meat who so trampled down the corn under your horse-feet And thus doth God many times deal with those that do waste his blessings causing them to want what they have formerly wasted as the Prodigall did Yet many that live wastefully will excuse themselves and think their fault the lesse both because as they will say they have enough to spend and are able to do it and because it is their own and not anothers which they spend But will this excuse them Though thou hast enough mayest thou therefore use it at thy pleasure and is it no fault to waste and mispend it If thy Cook that dresseth thy meat for thee because thou allowest him to have salt enough alwayes lying by him should therefore put too much salt in the pot or cast too much on thy meat and when thou reproovest him he should excuse himselfe and say that he did it because he had salt enough and therefore need not to spare wouldest thou take this for a sufficient answer And will God take this as an answer from thee That because that he hath given thee enough thou mayest spend it wastefully and though it were thine own as indeed it is not for thou art but a steward to use what thou hast as God hath appointed yet if it were thine own and not anothers mayest thou therefore mispend it as thou pleasest mayest thou not say as well that thy tongue is thine own and mayest thou therefore speak what thou listest but as thou shalt answer for the words which thou speakest so for the goods which thou spendest because thereby thou doest wrong unto him who is the giver of them Lastly Vse 4. Seeing riches are the gift of God therefore we are to be thankfull to him for them Qui serit benesicium metere debes fructum He that sowes a benefit great reason he should reap some fruit of it the fruit of thankfulnesse for the use of his benefits Therefore they were commanded in the old Law To offer unto God their first-fruits that so they might acknowledge that they had them from him and therefore were to return them to him from whom they had them as the rivers saith Solomon return to the sea from whence they came and as Hannah did dedicate her Son Samuel to God Eccles 1.7 1 Sam. 1.27.28 from whom she received him FINIS The Thirteenth SERMON PSALM 32.6 Therefore shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found THe Prophet David having committed two hainous sins Coherence one upon the neck of another adultery and murder and having continued a long time secure and impenitent at the last as we read 2 Sam. 12 Chapter God sent Nathan the Prophet to him to denounce the judgements of God against him by reason of his sins which when David heard he
presently acknowledged his sins unto God and so by his confession obtain'd pardon whereupon he wrote this Psalm and gave it this Title A Psalm of David to give instruction shewing thereby both the Maker of this Psalme and that is David and the end why he made it to give instruction The instruction which he gives is of no ordinary matter but of one of the greatest matters that ever fell into controversie and that is mans felicity teaching us in the first and second verses wherein we are to repose our felicity and happinesse not in those things which the Philosophers taught but in that which they never once thought upon the forgivenesse of sins For the Philosophers being guided only by the eye of reason which is more then purblinde in matters of religion hence it came to passe that while they aimed at felicity every one shot his bolt so wide at the mark one placing felicity in honour a second in pleasure a third in riches in a word so many Philosophers so many felicities But David here a divine Philosophâ—â—â— in regard of whom all the rest were but naturals confutes them all by his own example for David here that lived in more true pleasure then the best of them that had more riches then any of them more honour then all of them he leaves all these and ascribes felicity in the first and second verses of this Psalm to the pardon of sin Blessed saith he is he Whose wickednesse is forgiven and whose finis covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin Now as a cunning and skilfull builder if he have any goodly building in hand he will be sure to lay a very sound foundation So David here having so weighty a Doctrine to instruct us in as the felicity of man he grounds the same upon a very excellent reason a reason drawn from his ovvn experience because he found himselfe to be most miserable and wretched till his sins were pardoned For saith he in the third and fourth verses while I held my tongue my bones consumed so that I roared all the day long for thy hand was heavy upon me day and night and my moisture was turned into the drought of summer Whereby he shews That while he plai'd the hypocrite and cloaked his sin while he held his tongue agagg'd as it were his own conscience that he might not confesse his sin what a coile God had with him how he was fain to lay him as it were upon the rack and to stretch him asunder almost every joynt from other before he could bring him to acknowledge his sin and to ask for pardon And this was the misery which David was in while he continued in sin Then in the fift verse he shews how he was freed and delivered from this misery and that is by the confession and acknowledgement of his sin I said saith he I will confesse my sin and thou forgavest me the punishment thereof Dixi confitebor I did but say or I had no sooner said I will confesse my sin but thou O Lord that mightest have taken me at the vantage and condemned me out of mine owne mouth thou forgavest me the punishment of my sin Whereupon being struck with admiration of Gods mercy he infers in this sixt verse a notable consequence out of the former Doctrine That seeing he had sped so well by the confession of his sin that therefore others should be moved by his example to do as he did and to obtain pardon Therefore saith he shall every one that is godly pray unto thee therefore wherefore why because thou hast been so gracious unto me that was so grievous a sinner because thou hast met me as it were in thy mid-way with thy mercy so that I could no sooner think to confesse my sin but thou likewise thoughtest to forgive me my sin therefore shall every godly man though he have committed never so many sins against thee be incouraged by my example to pray unto thee And thus we see the coherence of these words with the former In the words for order we may observe these four things Division First The reason why men shall come unto God implyed in this first word therefore Secondly The persons that shall come unto him every one that is godly Thirdly The manner how they shall come namely by prayeâ— And lastly the time when they shall come unto him in a time When he may be found Therefore shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found And first for the reason why men shall come unto God the reason is drawn from Davids own example as if David had said thus As I did to obtain mercy when I had sinned against God so shall every godly man do but I did pray unto God in a time when he might be fouÌ„d Therfore shall every one that is godly pray unto thecin a time when thou mayest be found Thus David alledges his own example to encourage us to come with considence to God for the pardon of our sins though we have been never so hainous sinners And from hence we may learn That it is our duty to use well the examples of others and to apply Gods dealing with them to our selves For therefore have the holy men of God set their examples before our eyes that we might be bettered by their experience For as they which first sailed over the seas gave proper names unto dangerous places where they themselves hardly escaped with their lives as the Sage-bed the Lavander-bed with other like names best known unto Saylers And as wain-men use to set up some bush or other like marke where their waggons stuck fast for a caveat to them that should come after them So have the holy men of God furthered us in the Scripture by their experience and taught us to eschew many incumbrances which they could not so easily see and avoid because they broke the ice first themselves The whole Scripture is written for our instruction and there is not so much as one example in the whole book of God but a man may make excellent use of it if he will apply it unto himself For to what end are there set down in the Scripture so many examples of the judgements of God upon unrepentant sinners but that their examples might be a bridle to us to restraine us from falling into the like sinnes for feare we undergo the self same punishment When we read of the rich-man that is tormented in hell because he did not relieve poor Lazarus Luke 16. are we not to apply this example to our selves that if God have given us wealth and riches and yet we will not relieve those that are in want necessity the like judgement will befall us which befell him When we reade of that unmercifull Servant Mat. 18. who when his master had forgiven him ten thousand talents he afterwards meeting with a fellow-servant of his that
the King of Navarre died both for the suddennesse and violence of it who feeling great anguish in all his nerves was by the advice of his Physicians to be close wrapped in linnen cloth which had been well steeped in Aquavitae and the cloth to be sowed strait all about his body one having sowed it not having a knife ready to cut the thread took the candle to burn the thread in sunder and the thread flaming to the cloth took sudden hold of the same and the Aquavitae that the King in this flame was burnt to death before he could be helped by any And many come to such fearfull ends and yet we cannot judge of them by the kind of their death because even the godly whose death is precious in the eyes of the Lord howsoever they die do sometimes die a violent death and that suddenly So did old Eli that was a good man vvho hearing that the Arke of God was taken 2 Sam. 4.18 fell backward from his scate his neck brake and he dyed So Job's Children no doubt were holy persons having had godly education and their Fathers prayers laid up in Heaven for them yet While they were feasting together in their elder brothers house Job 1.19 the house on the sudden fell down and killed every one of them If therefore we judge of men by the kinde of their deaths we shall condemn the generation of the righteous and may bring on ourselves the like censure from others For we do not know by what kinde of death we shall glorifie God whether we shall die an easie or a painfull death whether a naturall or a violent death whether a lingring or a sudden death The times have been God grant the like times may never come again when there have been so great persecutions in the Church that the faithfull have been put to all manner of deaths whether God hath reserved us to the like times or no we do not know we know we have no promise to the contrary and therefore ought to prepare our selves for the like times that if they come we may constantly maintain the profession of Christ though it cost us our lives as here it did Steven And thus much likewise for the second point the kinde of his martyrdom And so I come to the third by whom he was thus martyred namely by the Iewes They stoned Steven Ye all know that the Iewes were the people whom God had chosen to himself above all other Nations Behold saith Moses Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords Déut. 10.14 and the Earth and all that is therein notwithstanding he hath set his affection on thy Fathers to love them and hath also chosen their seed after them Even you saith he hath he chosen above all people For as for all other Nations God counted them strangers and left them to themselves and did not vouchsafe them his Statutes and Ordinances but suffered them to walk in their own wayes But as for the Iewes he first taught them himself and delivered them his Law from his own mouth and because they desired to be instructed rather by men like themselves and therefore spake to Moses Loquere tu nobiscum et audiemus c. Speak thon say they with us and we will hear Exe. 20.19 but let not God speak with us lest we dye God yielded to their request and first taught them by Moses afterwards by the Prophets Luke 19.26 of whom Abraham said to the rich-man They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But the Iewes were so far from hearing these that Steven could here upbraid them Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And Christ complaine of them O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee as here they did Steven Their sinne then is aggravated in regard of the persons by whom it was committed They were not the Gentiles or any Heathenish people that knew not God for then their sin had been the less but they were the Jewes Gods chosen people who commonly if they were offended with any upon every occasion were ready to stone them If they be offended with Moses Exod. 17.4 because they were thirsty and had no water to drink they are presently ready to stone him for it If they be offended with Caleb and Joshua Numb 14.10 for contradicting the spies that were sent into Candan and for giving a good report of the Land they are likewise ready to stone them for it And how often in the Gospel did they take up stones to have stoned our Saviour And here they stone Steven for bearing witnesse unto him And this vvas a greater sin in them being the people of God then if they had been heathen The heathen shall rise up in judgement against them for they reverenced their Priests though they were Idolaters The Marriners that were so tender-hearted to Jonas shall rise up against them for they hazarded their lives to save the Prophet though it were for his sinnes that they vvere in danger to perish but these mercilesse Iewes did stone him to death who sought to bring them to eternall life And therefore as the voice of Abels bloud did cry aloud in the eares of the Lord against Cain that shed it and was vox sanguinum a voice of blouds as the Scripture calls it as being not onely the voice of his bloud but of all the bloud that might have come of that bloud if it had not been shed So here the bloud of Steven did cry aloud against the Iewes that shed the same and the bloud of all those that might have come from him nay upon them was laid all the righteous blood that was shed before him Mat. 23.34 for so our Saviour told them Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise-men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and Crucifie c. that upon you saith he may come all the righteous bloud shed upon the earth from the bloud of righteous Abel to the bloud of Zacharias Sonne of Barachias whom ye slew betweene the Temple and the Altar We read of Tomyris the Queen of the Scythians that because Cyrus the King of Persia had slain her son she gathered an Army and made War upon him and having vanquisht the Persians she took Cyrus and cutting off his head she cast it into a barrell that was filled with bloud thus insulting over it Thou that wast so thirsty and insatiable of bloud that thou slewest my son shalt now have thy fill till thou be glutted vvith it And thus the Jews vvho vvere so insatiable of the bloud of the Prophets had in the end their fill of bloud vvhen the bloud of all the righteous vvho had been slain from Abel to Zacharie vvas laid upon them And that may fitly be applied unto them vvhich the Angell saith Revel 16. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus
falshood But now when a man binds a lye with an Oath he sinnes not onely himself by lying but endeavours to entangle God in his sinne by calling God to witnesse that which he knows to be false Hence it is that even the heathen themselves have alwayes been religious in observing their Oaths We read of Alexander that leading his Army against a City with a ful resolution to have utterly destroyed it he saw Anaximenes the Philosopher who had been his Tutor coming towards him thinking that Anaximenes would be very urgent with him to spare the City he swore in a fury that whatsoever it was that Anaximenes desired he would not grant it Anaximenes desired that he would destroy the City Alexander seeing that he could not destroy it but he must break his Oath returned with his Army and to save his Oath withall saved the City And we read of Regulus and some other of the Romans that Hanniball had taken prisoners that having taken an Oath that they would go to Rome and if some of the Carthaginians vvere not exchanged for them they themselves vvould return vvhen they came to Rome and effected not that for vvhich they were sent yet they vvere so religious in observing their oaths that though they knew for certaine that the saving of their oaths vvould be the losse of lives yet they returned againe So heinous a sinne vvas perjury their accounted even among the Heathen And hence it is that this sinne hath alwayes been so grievously punisht sometime vvith banishment as among the Romans sometime vvith death as among the Egyptians for they inflicted no lesse then death upon every perjured person as upon one who was guilty of two horrible crimes impiety to the gods and insidelity to men Nay in this one there is a three-fold sin First against God by an infinite wrong to his holy Name If the King should commit the broad seale unto any Subject to seale some matter which were for the honour of the King and the good of the whole Kingdom and the Subject should seale some other matter with it which the King utterly detested as being a dishonour to himselfe a disadvantage to his subjects and a benefit to his enemies in so doing he should be guilty of high Treason And thus is he guilty of high Treason against God that abuseth his Name to the ratifying of falshood For God hath committed his sacred Name as a seale unto us Heb. 6.6 for the confirmation of the truth and the ending of strife both which the confirmation of truth and the cutting off of contention make much for the glory of God and the good of all men Now he that swears falsly abuseth Gods Name to the confirming of a lie which is most dishonourable to God who is the God of truth most acceptable to the devill who is the father of lying and most injurious to men among whom there cannot possibly be any society if there be no truth nor fidelity among them If a man having a Tower or Castle committed to his keeping should betray it to the enemy he should be counted a Traitour to his Prince and Countrey Gods Name saith Solomon is a strong tower whereunto the righteous resort Prov. 15.10 Now when a man swears falsly he betraies this Tower unto the devill who is Gods enemy which is an infinite wrong to Gods sacred Name Secondly he that swears falsly is most injurious to men for by this means many times it comes to passe that the Jurors give up a false verdict the Judge pronounceth an unjust sentence and the party that is innocent is deprived of his right Thirdly against himselfe for by calling God as a witnesse to that which is false while he seeks to escape the censure of men he falls most fearfully into Gods hands and to avoid a pecuniary mulct or a bodily punishment doth bind his soule over unto Gods judgements who hath threatned before-hand that he will not hold him guiltlesse This then being so hainous and horrible a sinne both before God and man what may we think of those who hold it lawfull to swear and for-swear and both practise it in action and defend it in writing Thus the Romish Priests and Jesuits being brought before the Magistrate and put to their oaths they hold it lawfull to swear and for-swear themselves For this is the doctrine which is maintained among them that unto dangerous interrogatories a man is not bound to answer according to the meaning of the Magistrates demand but that he may lawfully equivocate and frame a safe meaning unto himselfe and swear unto it As if a Priest being examined before the Magistrate whether he be a Priest or no though indeed he be yet he may mean that he is not one of Baals Priests and so he may equivocate and swear that he is not Thus Garnet Superiour of the Jesuits in England being examined before the Councell put to his oath whether he had not had any conference with Hall the Priest while he was in prison he took it upon his oath that he had had no conference with him and when it was proved to his face to be false and that he was for-sworne he answered onely this that he had offended if equivocation did not help him Thus Tresham the Traitour while he lay in the Tower upon his death-bed and died presently after he took it upon his salvation that he had not seen Garnet of sixteen years before which being afterwards found to be false and that by Garnets own confession Garnet being askt what he thought of Tresham he answer'd he thought that he did equivocate And thus under the pretence of equivocation they hold it lawfull to swear and for-swear any thing But this is most certain that when we take an oath and swear otherwise then that which we know to be the truth whatsoever we pretend we are reputed as perjured in the sight of God Quacunque arte verborum quis utitur Isidor de summo bonè lib. 1. Deus tamen saith Isidore qui conscientia testis est it a hoc accipit sicut ille cui juratur intelligit What cunning soever we use in swearing yet God that sees the conscience takes it in the same manner as he understands it to whom he sweared And thus much for the first condition of an oath Thou shalt swear in truth I come to the second Thou shalt swear in judgement Now there are two kindes of oaths which are contrary hereunto First inconsiderate and unadvised oaths as when we take an oath of that we do not understand or when we swear to perform that which is not in our power Such an oath is that which the King of India alwayes takes at his coronation namely That he will make the Sun to keep his course and to give them light that he will make the clouds to send them seasonable showers that he will make their rivers that they shall never be dry but run continually
that which is poured out of it comes but guttatim drop by drop and is long coming out So it is when god punishes his punishments come slowly that even while he is punishing men might be drawn to repentance And if they repent how many soever their sinnes have been hovv hainous soever and hovv long soever they have continued therein he is ready to forgive them You will say indeed if I could repent of my sins I doubt not but God who is so infinitely mercifull would receive me into favour and be reconciled unto me in Christ Iesus but I have so hard a heart that still I go on and continue in sinne and cannot repent I would therefore aske thee But art thou not displeased with the hardnesse of thy heart and doest thou not desire to forsake thy sins and to be reconciled unto God Oh this you vvill say is that which I desire above all things in the World Then knovv for thy comfort that thy state is better then thou supposest and I may say unto thee from Christ as Christ said to the Scribe Mark iâ— 34. Marke 12. Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God For could'st thou be displeased vvith the hardnesse of thy heart if thy heart vvere hardned could'st thou be desirous to forsake thy sinnes if thou vvert not weary of them and could'st thou desire to be reconciled unto God If thou didst not love him for these though thou thinkest thou canst not repent are signes of thy repentance vvhich though it be weake yet he who hath promised that he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smeaking flax will accept of it and notwithstanding thy sinnes will he gracious unto thee as he was here unto Jonas And so from Gods gracious renewing of Jonas his Commission I proceed to the Charge which God gave Jonas which containes two things First The place which God sends him unto Arise and go to Nineveh that great City Secondly The work which God appoints him to do Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee The place which God sends him unto is Nineveh The Ninevites were so hainous sinners that their wickednesse as we heard before was come up before God and cried up to Heaven unto God for vengeance yet God would not destroy them before he had sent unto them that before their destruction they might have warning Doct. Here then observe Gods dealing with sinners He commonly first sends to admonish them of their sinnes before he inflicts his judgements upon them God might if he pleased and that without any breach of justice be revenged on the sudden upon the wicked without sending unto them and giving them warning but first he threatens before he punishes to teach them thereby to avoid his judgements Deut. 20.10 God made this Law Dent. 20. That no City should be destroyed before that peace had been offered unto it that before their destruction they might have warning and might imbrace if they would the conditions of peace to prevent their ruine As God will have us to deale in mercy with our enemies so he himselfe likewise deales with sinners First Giving them warning and threatning his judgements before be inflicts them Though God was highly offended with Pharaoh for dealing so cruelly with the Children of Israel yet God would not send his judgements upon him till Moses was sent to fore-tell him of them Though God vvere so offended with the old World for their sins that he purposed to overwhelme it with water and by an universall deluge to destroy all flesh yet he vvould not do it till Noah had forvvarn'd and admonisht them of it And at the end of the World when the World shall be destroyed and consumed by fire Luke 21.25 yet there shall be vvarning of it for there shall be signes in the Sun the Moon and the Starres as our Saviour saith that the very Heavens may become Preachers as it vvere unto us to admonish us to repent by fore-warning us of the end of the World and the day of judgement And here though the Ninevetes vvere so hainous sinners yet he sends unto them that being fore-warned of the danger they were in they might repent and avoid the same Now Nineveh vvhereunto God sends Jonas is here said to be a great City And so it is else-vvhere called in the Scripture Thus Moses speaking of Nineveh Gen. 10. Gen. 10.12 The same saith he is a great City and here in the next verse it is called an exceeding great City of three dayes journey And by that which Histories report of it it seems to have been the greatest City in the World and fevv ever since for largenesse and beauty have been compared to it Indeed if it be true which some vvrite of the City Quinsai in the Kingdom of China it vvas a City far larger then Nineveh as being in compasse a hundred miles but aftervvards it vvas overthrown by an earthquake and another Quinsai built but far lesse being but thirty miles in compasse which is just halfe of that bignesse which Nineveh was For Nineveh was in compasse no lesse then four hundred and fourscore furlongs which make threescore miles The Walls of Nineveh were an hundred foot high and they were of that thicknesse that three Carts might go side-long together upon them and upon the Walls were fifteen hundred Turrets and each of them an hundred foot higher then the Walls The City of Babylon was so great that Aristotle in his Politicks calls it a Countrey rather then a City and vvrites that when it vvas besieged and the enemy had taken one part of it some part of the City did not heare thereof till three dayes after so large was Babylon from the one end to the other Yet Babylon was not so large as Nineveh but lesse in compasse by almost an hundred furlongs Nineveh was many years in building and by no fewer at once then ten thousand work-men and it was so populous that God tells Jonas in the next Chapter the last verse That there were six-score thousand in it that knew not their right hand from their left and therefore if there were so many infants what a multitude were there of all other ages no doubt but many more in that one City then there are now in some Kingdoms But now what must Jonas do vvhen has was come to Nineveh Preach saith God unto it the preaching that I bid thee What this was which he was to preach we see afterwards in the fourth verse namely That Nineveh should be overthrown after forty dayes This God commanded him to preach and gave him his message And from hence we may observe That the Prophets had their direction from God what they were to deliver God put into their mouths what they were to speak and they spake onely that which they were appointed by God 2 Pet. 1.21 So saith Saint Peter That Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but 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