conveniences of Power without the trouble and the cares of it And if this be not a more desirable Liberty than the other let any rational man judge The pretence of Liberty then in this sense against Government is that men are Fools in taking the best care to preserve themselves that Laws are but instruments of Slavery and every single man is better able to defend himself than the united strength of a people in Society is to defend him And this kind of Liberty we may justly think will be desired by none but mad-men and beasts of prey It follows then that what Liberty is inconsistent with all Government must never be pleaded against one sort of it But is there then so great a degree of Liberty in one mode of Government more than another that it should be thought reasonable to disturb Government meerly to alter the form of it Would it have been so much better for the people of Israel to have been governed by the 250 men here mentioned than by Moses Would not they have required the same subjection and obedience to themselves though their commands had been much more unreasonable than his What security can there be that every one of these shall not be worse in all respects than him whom they were so willing to lay aside and if one be thought troublesome what Liberty and ease is there when their name is Legion So that the folly of these popular pretences is as great as the sin in being perswaded by them And it may be they have not thought amiss who have attributed a great part of that disturbance of the Peace of Kingdoms under a pretence of popular Government to an unjust admiration of those Greek and Roman Writers who have unreasonably set up Liberty in opposition to Monarchy But some of the wisest of them have given us a truer account of these things and have told us that it was impossible the Roman State could have been preserved longer unless it had submitted to an Imperial Power for the popular heats and factions were so great that the annual election of Magistrates was but another name for a tumult and as Dio goes on the name of popular Government is far more plausible but the benefits of Monarchy are far greater it being much easier to find one good than many and though one be accounted difficult the other is almost impossible And as he elsewhere well observes the flourishing of a Common-wealth depends upon its poverty that being alone able to unite the minds of the Governours who in a plentiful state not set about with enemies will be grasping at their own private interests and fall naturally from thence into divisions and animosities but the flourishing of the Monarchy lies in the riches of it the Prince and the People having the same interest and being rich or poor together So that we see the notion of Liberty and the exercise of power in Government is so far from being an inseperable property of the people that the proper notion of it is inconsistent with Government and that which lies in the enjoyments of our Rights and Properties is so far from being inconsistent with Monarchy that they are more advanced by that than by any other way of Government 2. Another principle which tends to the subverting Government under a pretence of Liberty is that in case of Vsurpation upon the Rights of the People they may resume the exercise of Power and punish the Supreme Magistrate himself if he be guilty of it Than which there can be no principle imagined more destructive to civil Societies and repugnant to the very nature of Government For it destroys all the obligations of Oaths and Compacts it makes the solemnest bonds of obedience signifie nothing when the people shall think fit to declare it it makes every prosperous Rebellion just for no doubt when the power is in the Rebels hands they will justifie themselves and condemn their Soveraign And if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liberties of Israel It makes all Government dangerous to the persons in whom it is considering the unavoidable infirmities of it and the readiness of people to misconstrue the actions of their Princes and their incapacity to judge of them it not being fit that the reasons of all counsels of Princes should be divulged by Proclamations So that there can be nothing wanting to make Princes miserable but that the people want Power to make them so And the supposition of this principle will unavoidably keep up a constant jealousie between the Prince and his people for if he knows their minds he will think it reasonable to secure himself by all means against their Power and endeavour to keep them as unable to resist as may be whereby all mutual confidence between a Prince and his People will be destroyed and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation as that which such Men pretend to be the only means to keep it out Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose hands it falls whether into the people in common or some persons particularly chosen by the people for that purpose for in an established Government according to their principles the â—ing himself is the true representative of the people others may be chosen for some particular purposes as proposing Laws c. but these cannot pretend by vertue of that choice to have the full power of the people and withal whatever they do against the consent of the people is unlawful and their power is forfeited by attempting it But on the other side what mighty danger can there be in supposing the persons of Princes to be so sacred that no sons of violence ought to come near to hurt them Have not all the ancient Kingdoms and Empires of the world flourished under the supposition of an unaccountable power in Princes That hath been thought by those who did not own a derivation of their power from God but a just security to their persons considering the hazards and the care of Government which they undergo Have not the people who have been most jealous of their Liberties been fain to have recourse to an unaccountable power as their last refuge in case of their greatest necessities I mean the Romans in their Dictators And if it were thought not only reasonable but necessary then ought it not to be preserved inviolable where the same Laws do give it by which Men have any right to challenge any power at all Neither doth this give Princes the liberty to do what they list for the Laws by which they Govern do fence in the rights and properties of Men and Princes do find so great conveniency ease and security in their Government by Law that the sense of that will keep them far better within the compass of Laws
here delivered as the course God used to reclaim the Israelites but to what is â—eported by the most faithful Historian of those times of the degrees and steps that God made before the ruines of the British Nation For Gildas tells us the decay of it began by Civil Wars among themselves and high discontents remaining as the consequents of them after this an universal decay and poverty among them after that nay during the continuance of it Wars with the Picts and Scots their inveterate enemies but no sooner had they a little breathing space but they return to their luxury and other sins again then God sends among them a consuming Pestilence which destroyed an incredible number of people When all this would not do those whom they trusted most to betrayed them and rebelled against them by whose means not only the Cities were burnt with Fire but the whole Island was turned almost into one continued flame The issue of all which at last was that their Country was turned to a desolation the ancient Inhabitants driven out or destroyed and their former servants but now their bitter enemies possessing their habitations May God avert the Omen from us at this day We have smarted by Civil wars and the dreadful effects of them we yet complain of great discontents and poverty as great as them we have inveterate enemies combined abroad against us we have very lately suffered under a Pestilence as great almost as any we read of and now the great City of our Nation burnt down by a dreadful Fire And what do all these things mean and what will the issue of them be though that be lockt up in the Councils of Heaven yet we have just cause to fear if it be not our speedy amendment it may be our ruine And they who think that incredible let them tell me whether two years since they did not think it altogether as improbable that in the compass of the two succeeding years above a hundred thousand persons should be destroyed by the Plague in London and other places and the City it self should be burnt to the Ground And if our fears do not I am sure our sins may tell us that these are but the fore-runners of greater calamities in case there be not a timely reformation of our selves And although God may give us some intermissions of punishments yet at last he may as the Roman Consul expressed it pay us intercalatoe poenoe usuram that which may make amends for all his abatements and give us full measure according to that of our sins pressed down shaken together and running over Which leads to the third particular 3. The Causes moving God to so much severity in his Iudgements which are the greatness of the sins committed against him So this Prophet tells us that the true account of all Gods punishments is to be fetched from the sins of the people Amos 1.3 For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof so it is said of Gaza v. 6. of Tyrus v. 9. of Edom v. 11. of Ammon v. 13. Moab ch 2. 1. Iudah v. 4. and at last Israel v. 6. And it is observable of every one of these that when God threatens to punish them for the greatness of their iniquities and the multitude of their transgression which is generally supposed to be meant by the three transgressions and the four he doth particularly threaten to send a fire among them to consume the Houses and the Palaces of their Cities So to Damascus chap. 1.4 to Gaza v. 7. to Tyrus v. 10. to Edom v. 12. to Ammon v. 14. to Moab ch 2. v. 2. to Iudah v. 5. I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem and Israel in the words of the text This is a Judgment then which when it comes in its fury gives us notice to how great a height our sins are risen especially when it hath so many dreadful forerunners as it had in Israel and hath had among our selves When the red horse hath marched furiously before it all bloody with the effects of a Civil War and the pale horse hath followed after the other with Death upon his back and the Grave at his heels and after both these those come out of whose mouth issues fire and smoak and brimstone it is then time for the inhabitants of the earth to repent of the work of their hands But it is our great unhappiness that we are apt to impute these great calamities to any thing rather than to our sins and thereby we hinder our selves from the true remedy because we will not understand the cause of our distemper Though God hath not sent Prophets among us to tell us for such and such sins I will send such and such judgments upon you yet where we observe the parallel between the sins and the punishments agreeable with what we find recorded in Scripture we have reason to say that those sins were not only the antecedents but the causes of those punishments which followed after them And that because the reason of punishment was not built upon any particular relation between God and the people of Israel but upon reasons common to all mankind yet with this difference that the greater the mercies were which any people enjoyed the sooner was the measure of their iniquities filled up and the severer were the judgements when they came upon them This our Prophet gives an account of Chap. 3.2 You only have I known of all the Nations of the earth therefore will I punish you for your iniquities So did God punish Tyre and Damascus as well as Israel and Iudah but his meaning is he would punish them sooner he would punish them more severely I wish we could be brought once to consider what influence piety and vertue hath upon the good of a Nation if we did we should not only live better our selves but our Kingdom and Nation might flourish more than otherwise we are like to see it do Which is a truth hath been so universally received among the wise Men of all ages that one of the Roman Historians though of no very severe life himself yet imputes the decay of the Roman State not to Chance or Fortune or some unhidden causes which the Atheism of our Age would presently do but to the general looseness of mens lives and corruption of their manners And it was the grave Observation of one of the bravest Captains ever the Roman State had that it was impossible for any State to be happy stantibus moenibus ruentibus moribus though their walls were firm if their manners were decayed But it is our misery that our walls and our manners are fallen together or rather the latter undermined the former They are our sins which have drawn so much of our blood and infected our air and added the greatest fuel to our flames But it is not enough in general to declaim against our
that their deformities being discovered their ways as well as their persons might be the better understood and avoided And when he saw by the mighty opinion they had of themselves and their uncharitableness towards all others how little good was to be done upon them he seldom vouchsafes them his presence but rather converses with those who being more openly wicked were more easily convinced of their wickedness and perswaded to reform For which end alone it was that he so freely conversed with them to let them see there were none so bad but his kindness was so great to them that he was willing to do them all the good he could And therefore this could be no more a just reproach to Christ that he kept company sometimes with these than it is to a Chyrurgion to visit Hospitals or to a Physician to converse with the sick 2. But when they saw that his Greatness did appear in another way by the authority of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles then these wise and subtile men apprehend a further reach and design in all his actions Viz. That his low condition was a piece of Popularity and a meer disguise to ensnare the people the better to make them in love with his Doctrine and so by degrees to season them with Principles of Rebellion and Disobedience Hence came all the clamours of his being an Enemy to Caesar and calling himself the King of the Iews and of his design to erect a Kingdom of his own all which they interpret in the most malicious though most unreasonable sense For nothing is so politick as malice and ill-will for that finds designs in every thing and the more contrary they are to all the Protestations of the persons concerned the deeper that suggests presently they are laid and that there is the more cause to be afraid of them Thus it was in our Blessed Saviour's case it was not the greatest care used by him to shew his obedience to the Authority he lived under it was not his most solemn disavowing having any thing to do with their civil Interests not the severe checks he gave his own Disciples for any ambitious thoughts among them not the recommending the doctrine of Obedience to them nor the rebuke he gave one of his most forward Disciples for offering to draw his sword in the rescue of himself could abate the fury and rage of his enemies but at last they condemn the greatest Teacher of the duty of Obedience as a Traytor and the most unparallel'd example of innocency as a Malefactor But though there could be nothing objected against the life and actions of our Blessed Saviour as tending to sedition and disturbance of the Civil Peace yet that these men who were inspir'd by malice and prophesied according to their own interest would say was because he was taken away in time before his designs could be ripe for action but if his doctrine tended that way it was enough to justifie their proceedings against him So then it was not what he did but what he might have done not Treason but Convenience which made them take away the life of the most innocent person but if there had been any tainâ— in his doctrine that way there had been reason enough in such an Age of faction and sedition to have used the utmost care to prevent the spreading it But so far is this from the least ground of probability that it is not possible to imagine a Religion which aims less at the present particular interests of the embracers of it and more at the publick interests of Princes than Christianity doth as it was both preached and practised by our Saviour and his Apostles And here we have cause to lament the unhappy fate of Religion when it falls under the censure of such who think themselves the Masters of all the little arts whereby this world is governed If it teaches the duty of Subjects and the authority of Princes if it requires obedience to Laws and makes mens happiness or misery in another life in any measure to depend upon it then Religion is suspected to be a meer trick of Staâ—e and an invention to keep the world in awe whereby men might the better be moulded into Societies and preserved in them But if it appear to inforce any thing indispensably on the Consciences of men though humane Laws require the contrary if they must not â—orswear their Religion and deny him whom they hope to be saved by when the Magistrate calls them to it then such half-witted men think that Religion is nothing but a pretence to Rebellion and Conscience only an obsâ—inate plea for Disobedience But this is to take it for granted that there is no such thing as Religion in the World for if there be there must be some inviolable Rights of Divine Soveraignty acknowledged which must not vary according to the diversity of the Edicts and Laws of men But supposing the profession and practice of the Christian Religion to be allowed inviolable there was never any Religion nay never any inventions of the greatest Politicians which might compare with that for the preservation of civil Societies For this in plain and express words tells all the owners of it that they muâ—t live in subjection and obedience not only for wrath but for Conscience sake that they who do resist receive unto themselves damnation and that because whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Than which it is impossible to conceive arguments of greater force to keep men in obedience to Authority for he that only obeys because it is his interâ—st to do so will have the same reason to disobey when there is an apprehension that may make more for his advantage But when the reason of obedience is derived from the concernments of another life no hopes of interest in this world can be thought to ballance the loss which may come by such a breach of duty in that to come So that no persons do so dangerously undermine the foundations of civil Government as those who magnifie that to the contempt of Religion none so effectually secure them as those who give to God the things that are Gods and by doing so are obliged to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars This was the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by the first author of it and the practice was agreeable as long as Christianity preserved its primitive honour in the world For so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to Rebellion that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world yet they knew of no other way of promoting it but by patience humility meekness prayers â—or their persecutors and tears when they saw them obstinate So far were they then from fomenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of
ridiculous distinctions by which they would make the case of the Primitive Christians in not resisting Authority so much different from theirs who have not only done it but in spight of Christianity have pleaded for it Either they said they wanted strength or courage or the countenance of the Senate or did not understand their own Liberty when all their obedience was only due to those precepts of the Gospel which make it so great a part of Christianity to be subject to Principalities and Powers and which the Teachers of the Gospel had particularly given them in charge to put the people in mind of And happy had it been for us if this Doctrine had been more sincerely preached and duly practised in this Nation for we should then never have seen those sad times which we can now no otherwiâ—e think of than of the devouring Fire and raging Pestilence i. e. of such dreadful judgments which we have smarted so much by that we heartily pray we may never feel them again For then fears and jealousies began our miseries and the curse so often denounced against Meroz fell upon the whole Nation When the Sons of Corah managed their own ambitious designs against Moses and Aaron the King and the Church under the same pretences of Religion and Liberty And when the pretence of Religion was broken into Schisms and Liberty into oppression of the people it pleased God out of his secret and unsearchable judgments to suffer the Sons of Violence to prevail against the Lord 's Anointed and then they would know no difference between his being conquered and guilty They could find no way to justifie their former wickedness but by adding more The consciousness of their own guilt and the fears of the punishment due to it made them unquiet and thoughtful as long as his life and presence did upbraid them with the one and made them fearful of the other And when they found the greatness and constancy of his mind the firmness of his piety the zeal he had for the true interest of the people would not suffer him to betray his Trust for the saving of his life they charge him with their own guilt and make him suffer because they had deserved to do it And as if it had not been enough to have abused the names of Religion and Liberty before they resolve to make the very name of Iustice to suffer together with their King by calling that infamous company who condemned their Soveraign A High Court of Iustice which trampled under foot the Laws both of God and men But lest the world should imagine they had any shame left in their sins they make the people witnesses of his Murther and pretend the Power of the People for doing that which they did detest and abhor Thus fell our Royal Martyr a sacrifice to the fury of unreasonable men who either were so blind as not to see his worth or rather so bad as to hate him for it And as God gave once to the people of the Iews a King in his Anger being provoked to it by their sins we have cause to say that upon the same account he took away one of the best of Kings from us in his wrath But blessed be that God who in the midst of judgment was pleased to remember mercy in the miraculous preservation and glorious restauration of our Gracious Sovereign let us have a care then of abusing the mercies of so great a deliverance to quite other ends than God intended it for lest he be provoked to say to us as he did of old to the Iews But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And if we look on this as a dreadful judgment let us endeavour to prevent it by a timely and sincere reformation of our lives and by our hearty supplications to God that he would preserve the person of our Soveraign from all the attempts of violence that he would so direct his counsels and prosper his affairs that His Government may be a long and publick Blessing to these Nations SERMON VIII Preached at Guild Hall Chappel JUNE 9 th 1671. Matthew XXI 43. Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof THE time was now very near approaching wherein the Son of God was to suffer an accursed death by the hands of ungrateful men and to let them see that he laid no impossible command upon men when he bid them love their enemies he expresses the truest kindness himselâ— towards those who designed his destruction For what can be imagined greater towards such whose malice was like to end in nothing short of their own ruine than by representing to them the evils they must suffer to disswade them from that which they intended to do But if neither the sense of their future miseries nor their present sins will at all abate their fury or asswage their malice nothing is then lest for kindness to shew it self by but by lamenting their folly bemoaning their obstinacy and praying God to have pity upon them who have so little upon themselves And all these were very remarkable in the carriage of our Blessed Saviour towards his most implacable enemies he had taken care to instruct them by his doctrine to convince them by his miracles to oblige them by the first offers of the greatest mercy but all these things had no other effect upon them than to heighten their malice increase their rage and make them more impatient till they had destroyed him But their stupidity made him more sensible of their folly and their obstinacy stirred up his compassion towards them insomuch that the nearer he approached to his own sufferings the greater sense he expressed of theirs For he was no sooner come within view of that bloody City wherein he was within few days to suffer by as well as for the sins of men but his compassion breaks forth not only by his weeping over it but by that passionate expression which is abrupt only by the force of his grief If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes And when he was within the City he could not mention the desolation which was to come upon it for all the righteous blood which had been spilt there but he presently subjoyns O Hierusalem Hierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Childreâ— together as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not what words could more emphatically expresâ— the love and tenderness of Christ towards his greatest enemies than these do especially considering that he knew how busie they were in contriving his sufferings while he was so passionately lameâ—ting theirs And when their malice haâ— done its utmost upon
him and they saâ—â— him hanging upon the Cross and readâ— to yield up his last breath he imploys thâ— remainder of it in begging pardon foâ— them in those pathetical words Father forgive them for they know not what they do By all which we see that what punishments soever the Jewish Nation underwent afterwards for the great sin of crucifying the Lord of life were no effect of meer revenge from him upon them but the just judgment of God which they had drawn upon themselves by their own obstinacy and wilful blindness And that they might not think themselves surprized when the dreadful effects of God's anger should seize upon them our Saviour as he drew nearer to the time of his sufferings gives them more frequent and serious warnings of the sad consequence of their incorrgibleness under all the means of cure which had been used among them For they were so far from being amended by them that they not only despised the remedy but the Physicians too as though that were a small thing they beat they wound they kill those who came to cure them but as if it had not been enough to have done these things to servants to let the world see how dangerous it is to attempt the cure of incorrigible sinners when God sent his own Son to them expecting they should reverence him they find a peculiar reason for taking him out of the way for then the inheritance would be their own But so miserably do sinners miscarry in their designs for their advantage that those things which they build their hopes the most upon prove the most fatal and pernicious to them When these persons thought themselves sure of the inheritance by killing the Son that very sin of theirs not only put them out of possession but out of the hopes of recovering what interest they had in it before For upon this it is that our Saviour here saith in the words of the Text Therefore say I unto you that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Which words are the application which our Saviour makes of the foregoing parable concerning the vineyard which it seems the Chief Priests and Pharisees did not apprehend themselves to be concerned in till he brought the application of it so close to them so that then they find they had condemned themselves when they so readily passed so severe a sentence upon those husbandmen who had so ill requited the Lord of the Vineyard for all the care he had taken about it that instead of sending him the fruits of it they abuse his messengers and at last murther his Son When therefore Christ asks them When the Lord therefore of the Vineyard cometh what will he do unto those husbandmen They thought the case so plain that they never take time to consider or go forth â—o advise upon it but bring in a present answer upon the evidence of the fact They say unto him he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vineyard to other husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their seasons Little did they think what a dreadful sentence they passed upon themselves and their own nation in these words little did they think that hereby they condemned their Temple to be burned their City to be destroyed their Counâ—ry to be ruined their Nation to be Vagabonds over the face of the earth little did they think that herein they justified God in all the miseries which they suffered afterwards for in these words they vindicate God and condemn themselves they acknowledge God's Justice in the severest punishments he should inflict upon such obstinate wretches Our Saviour having gained this confession from them and so made it impossible for them to start back in charging God with injustice in punishing them he now applies it to themselves in these words which I suppose ought immediately to follow the 41. verse Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you c. Wherein we have 1. The greatest judgment which can ever befal a people which is the taking away the Kingdom of God from them 2. The greatest mercy can ever be vouchsafed to a nation which is God's giving his Kingdom to it And give it to a nation c. In the Judgment we consider the cause of it therefore say I unto you c. which is either more general as referring to all going before and so it makes the taking away the Kingdom of God to be the just punishment of an incorrigible people or more particular as referring to the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ and so it makes the guilt of that sin to be the cause of all the miseries which that nation hath undergone since that time In the latter part we may consider the terms upon which God either gives or continues his Kingdom to a Nation and that is bringing forth the fruits thereof We consider the former with a particular respect to the state of the Jewish Nation And therein 1. The greatness of their judgment implyed in those words the Kingdom of God c. 2. The particular reason of that judgment which was crucifying the Son of God 1. The greatness of the judgment which beâ—el the Jewish Nation after imbruing their hands in the blood of Christ. And that will appear if we take the Kingdom of God in that double notion in which it was taken at that time 1. It was taken by the Jews themselves for some peculiar and temporal blessings which those who enjoyed it had above all other people 2. It was taken by our Saviour for a clearer manifestation of the will of God to the world and the consequence of that in the hearts of good men and all the spiritual blessings which do attend it So that the taking away the Kingdom of God from them must needs be the heaviest judgment which could befal a people since it implies in it the taking away all the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings 1. We take it in the notion the Jews themselves had of it and in this sense we shall make it evident that the Kingdom of God hath been taken from that people in accomplishment of this prediction of our Saviour For they imagined the Kingdom of God among them to consist in these things especially Deliverance from their enemies a flourishing state the upholding their Religion in Honour chiefly in the pompous worship of the Temple Now if instead of these things they were exposed to the fury of their enemies so as never any nation besides them were if their whole Poliâ—y was destroyed so as the very face of Government hath ever since been taken from them if their Religion hath been so far from being upheld that the practice of it hath been rendred impossible by the destruction of the Temple and the consequences of it then the Jews themselves cannot but say that in their own
the Roman Power What shall we say then to these things Have we any ground to suspect the truth of the story as either made by Christians in hatred of the Jews or improved mightilâ— to their disadvantage Not so certainly when all the circumstances are related by Jewish and Roman Writers who had no kindness at all for Christians Or shall we say there was nothing extraordinary in all this but that the Jews were a wild and seditious people that destroyed themselves and their nation but it is evident they were not always so they had been a people that had flourished with the reputation of wisdom and conduct and had great success against their enemies And the Romans themselves at this time acknowledged they never saw a people of a more invincible spirit and less afraid of dying than these were But all this turned to their great prejudice and they who had been so famous in former ages for miraculous deliverances from the power of their enemies were now not only given up into their hands but into those which were far more cruel which were their own What then can we imagine should make so great an alteration in the State of their affairs now but that God was their friend then and their enemy now He gave then success beyond their Counsels and without preparation now he blasts all their desâ—gns divides their counsels and makes their contrivances end in their speedier ruine Now they felt the effâ—ct of what God had threatned long before Woe he unto you when I depart from you Now their strength their wisdom their peace their honour their safety were all departed from them Whereby we see how mucâ— the welfare of a Nation depâ—nds upon God's Favour and that no other security is comparable to that of true Religion The Nation of the Jews was for all that we know never more numerous than at this time never more resolute and couragious to venture their lives never better provided of fortified Towns and strong places of retreat and all provisions for War but there was a hand-writing upon the Wall against them Mene Tekel Peres God had weigh'd them in the ballance and found them too light he divides their Nation and removes his Kingdom from them and leaves them to an utter desolation Neither can we say this was some present infatuation upon them for ever since all their attempts for recovering their own land have but increased their miseries and made their condition worse than before Witness that great attempt under Barchocebas in the time of Adrian in which the Jews themselves say there perished double the number of what came out of Egypt i. e. above 1200000 men After which they were not only wholly banished their land but forbid so much as to look on the place where the Temple had stood and were fain to purchase at a dear rate the liberty of weeping over it ut qui quondam emerant sanguinem Christi emanâ— lachrymas suâ—s as St. Hierom seaks i. e. that they who had bought the blood of Christ were now fain to buy their own tears It would be endless to pursue the miseries of this wretched people in all ages ever since the slavery disgrace universal contempt the frequent banishments confiscations of estates constant oppressions which they have laboured under So that from that time to this they have scarce had any Estates but never any Country which they could call their own So that St. Augustin hath truly said the curse of Cain is upon them for they are vagabonds in the earth they have a mark upon them so that they are not destroyed and yet are in continual fear of being so God seems to preserve that miserable Nation in being to be a constant warâ—ing to all others to let them see what a difference in the same people the Favour or Displeasure of God can make and how severe the Judgements of God are upon those who are obstinate and disobedient 2. They make the Kingdom of God to consist in the flourishing of their State or that Polity which God established among them He was himself once their immediate Governour and thereâ—ore it might be properly called his Kingdom and after they had Kings of their own their plenty and prosperity did so much depend on the kindness of Heaven to them that all the days of their flourishing condition migh be justly attributed to a more than ordinary providence that watched over them For if we consider how small in comparison the extent and compass of the whole land of Iudea was being as Saint Hierom saith who knew it well but 160 miles in length from Dan to Beersheba and 46 in breadth from Ioppa to Bethlehem if we consider likewise the vast number of its inhabitants there being at David's numbering the people 1500000 fighting men who ought not to be reckoned above a fourth part of the whole and Benjamin and Levi not taken in if we add to these the many rocks mountains and desarts in this small country and that every seven years the most fertile places must lye fallow we may justly wonder how all this number of people should prosper so much in so narrow a territory For although we ought not to measure the rules of Eastern diet by those of our Northern Climates and it be withall true that the number of people add both to the riches and plenty of it and that the fertile places of that land were so almost to a miracle yet considering their scarcity of rain and their Sabbatical years we must have recourse to an immediate care of heaven which provided for all their necessities and filled their stores to so great abundance that Solomon gave to King Hiram every year 20000 measures of wheat and twenty measures of oyl every one of which contained about 30 bushels And God himself had particularly promised to give them the former and the latter rain and that they might have no occasion to complain of their Sabbatical years every sixth year should afford them fruit for 3 years By which we see their plenty depended not so much upon the fat of their land as upon the dew and blessing of heaven And if we farther consider them as environed about with enemies on every side such as were numerous and powerful implacable and subtle it is a perpetual wonder considering the constitution of the Jewish Nation that they should not be destroyed by them For all the males being obliged strictly by the Law to go up three times a year to Hierusalem we should think against all rules of Policy to leave the country naked it seems incredible that their enemies should not over-run the Country and destroy their Wives and Children at that time But all their security was in the promise which God had made neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year And to let us see that obedience to
followed upon these things very little among themselves we may be sure by the heats and animosities that were continually among them the issue of which was the Temple was profaned by Antiochus rifled by Pompey their own Princes deposed and Usurpers ruled over them and when the Son of God himself could not reclaim them their Temple Nation and Government were all involved in one common ruin Thus we see how these words of the Prophet were fulfilled upon this people But some have been ready to say that God's proceedings with the Iews ought not to be drawn into an example to any other nations because his dealings with them were peculiar and by vertue of a particular Covenant which God made with them which he hath not done with any other nation in the world This objection were of great force if God himself had not in the words before mentioned declared the same concerning any other Nation or Kingdom and if the instances were not as remarkable in other people as in that of the Jews If we search the Monuments of former Ages and consider the strange revolutions which have happened in the mighty Empires and Kingdoms of the World we shall find no one circumstance more considerable in them than this That the Nations which God hath made use of for a scourge to others have been remarkable for nothing so much as for the vertues opposite to the most prevailing vices among those who were overcome by them Thus when the Chaldean Monarchy fell the Persians who were the sword in God's right hand were eminent for nothing more than their great temperance and frugality while the Babylonians perished by their luxury and effeminacy And when the Persian Monarchy degenerated into the same vices the Macedonians were raised up to be the executioners of God's wrath upon them because they were at that time freer than any other people from those softening and destroying vices And when the Persian luxury had infected their Conquerours the severe Discipline and Vertue of the Romans made them more successful in subduing the remaâ—nders of the Groecian Empire than their courage and number could And when the Romans themselves after a long time of God's forbearance with them and several respites from punishment by the vertue and conduct of such excellent Princes as Antoninus and Alexander Severus in the Heathen and Constantine and Theodosius in the Christian Empire fell into as great a degeneracy of manners as any we ever read of then did God let loose as it were the Goths and Vandals and other barbarous Nations out of their several Dens who seemed to be designed rather to destroy than to conquer So sudden so numerous so irresistible in most places were the incurâ—ions they made But what was it which gave them so strange success was it their long practice and skill in military affairs No they were rude and unexperinced was it their mighty courage No they were despised by the Romans as great Cowards and begged for peace when it was denied them But as Salvian tells us who lived in those times and knew the manners of both sides the Goths and Vandals were of a very severe chastity among whom fornication was punished sharply and adultery a crime scarce heard of whereas all manner of uncleanness and licentiousness did abound among the Romans who yet were then called Christians The Goths were devout and pious acknowledging divine providence making their solemn supplications to God before their victories and returning him the praise of them afterwards but the Romans were fallen into that degree of Irreligion and Atheism that nothing was more common among them than to droll upon Religion A nostris omnia fermè religiosa ridentur as Salvian speaks they thought all things managed by chance or fate and ascribed very little to God And where these sins abounded most they were carried up and down as by a divine instinct as they confessed themselves and where they conquered as he particularly speaks of the Vandals in Africa they purged all the stews of uncleanness and made so great a reformation by the severity of their Laws that even the Romans themselves were chast among them Thus we see how those great and mighty Empires have been broken to pieces by the weight of their impieties falling upon them May the consideration then of these things move us in time to a reformation of our lives beâ—ore our iniquities grow full and ripe for vengeance We have seen many revolutions and God knows how many more we may see if that should be true of us which the same Author saith of the Romans in the midst of all their changes Sola tantum vitia perdurant their vices remained the same still Thanks be to God that things have a fairer appearance at present than they have had and never so good a time to amend as now but if men flatter themselves with present security and their sins increase as their fears abate the clouds which seem dispersed may soon gather again and the face of the Heavens will change if we do not And if it be not in our power to reclaim others from their sins let us endeavour to preserve the honour of our Church by amending our own and convince our enemies by living better than they And give me leave to say and so I conclude that among all the expedients which have been thought of for the peace of this Church and Nation that of leaving off our sins and leading vertuous and exemplary lives will at last prove to be the most successful SERMON XI Preached at WHITE-HALL MARCH 27. 1672. 2 CORINTH V. 2. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men IF ever any Religion was in all respects accomplished for so noble a design as the reformation of mankind it was the Christian whether we consider the Authority of those who first delivered it or the weight of the arguments contained in it and their agreeableness to the most prevailing passions of humane nature Although the world was strangely degenerated before the coming of Christ yet not to so great a degree but that there were some who not only saw the necessity of a cure but offered their assistance in order to it whose attempts proved the more vain and fruitless because they laboured under the same distempers themselves which they offered to cure in others or the method they prescribed was mean and trivial doubtful and uncertain or else too nice and subtle to do any great good upon the world But Christianity had not only a mighty advantage by the great holiness of those who preached it but by the clearness and evidence the strength and efficacy of those arguments which they used to perswade men The nature of them is such that none who understand them can deny them to be great their clearness such that none that hear them can choose but understand them the manner of recommending them such as all who understood themselves could not but desire to