And v. 17. Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them And v. 20. But I will remove far off from you the northern Army and will drive him into a land barren and desolate These places make it probable that this Day of the Lord was a Judgment and Destruction upon their Land by the Assyrians and Chaldeans And it seems probable to me that both the Captivity of the ten Tribes and also of the Kingdom of Judah were hereby threatned if they were not the chief things here intended by this day of the Lord the Prophet Joel as most affirm living before them both And this was a very sore and terrible day of the Lord to them indeed when they were invaded and domineer'd over by foreign Armies when they were driven from their own Habitations and rooted out of their own Land and their whole Polity and Government was destroyed when they were driven from Jerusalem their beloved City and the City of the great King the Lord of Hosts and their magnificent Worship at the Temple was quite extinguished and the Temple it self burnt down and destroyed when they were carried away like Slaves into a strange Land from whence the greater Part of them never returned again and the other Part underwent a Servitude of seventy Years before they returned and came back into their own Land again This was a very sore and terrible day of the Lord to them indeed And some do refer this Prophecy of Joel to all the Miseries and Destructions that were brought upon them by the Chaldeans Persians Grecians Syrians and Romans And it seems clear to me that the Prophet's great and terrible Day of the Lord Joel 2.31 is to be understood of that dreadful destruction of the Jewish Nation by the Romans about 38 or 39 years after the Death of our Saviour when they were most miserably destroyed when Sword and Famine both raged horribly among them The great effusion of the Spirit was to be before this day as we may see here in Joel 2.28 And this S. Peter tells us was fulfilled upon the day of Pentecost and afterwards Acts 2.16 which makes it more than probable that by this terrrible day was meant that heavy destruction by the Romans From hence then I shall farther shew that God doth often threaten and inflict very sore and terrible Judgments and Calamities upon Cities and Nations for the great Wickedness of them when it is grown ripe for such a temporal Punishment First We may see that God doth often threaten to send very terrible and grievous Judgments and Destructions upon Cities and Nations for the great Wickedness and Provocations of the Inhabitants of them when they are guilty of such With Sword Famine and Pestilence evil and noisome Beasts and the removing of his Word and Gospel and other such Plagues and Judgments doth God threaten those that abuse his Mercies and rebel against him and the light of his Word and wax bold and presumptuous in Sin and Wickedness Moses hath spent the greatest part of Deut. 28. in telling the Jews what plagues and judgments of God should light upon them if they should forsake God and fall to Idolatry and such grievous Wickedness how they should be cursed every way till they were consumed Deut. 28.20 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from off the land whether thou goest to possess it The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation and with an extream burning and with the sword and with blasting and with mildew and they shall pursue thee until thou perish And much more to this purpose as you may see there The Prophet Samuel tells them after that if they went on in Wickedness they should be consumed 1 Sam. 12.23 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And the Prophets do often warn the Jews and others that a day of the Lord's Vengeance was coming upon them in their days Isa 13.6 saith the Prophet concerning the Burthen of Babylon Howl ye for the day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty And saith God to the Prophet Ezekiel 14.13 Son of man when a land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously then will I stretch out my hand upon it and will break the staff of the bread thereof and will send famine upon it and will cut off man and Beast from it And Sword and Pestilence are threatned too as we may see in the following Verses And Ezek. 30.2 Son of man prophesie and say thus saith the Lord Howl ye wo worth the day For the day is near even the day of the Lord is near a cloudy day it shall be the time of the beathen And the sword shall come upon Egypt and great pain shall be in Ethiopia when the slain shall fall in Egypt and they shall take away her multitude and her foundations shall be broken down And saith the Prophet Zephaniah 1.7 8. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice he hath bid his guests And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the Princes and the Kings children and all such as are cloathed with strange apparel And v. 14. The great day of the Lord is near it is near and hasteth greatly even the voice of the day of the Lord the mighty man shall cry there bitterly And saith the Prophet Zechariah 14.1 Behold the day of the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee For I will gather all Nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the Women ravished Then shall the Lord go forth and sight against those Nations as when he fought in the day of battel By these and such places we may see that God hath oft threatned to bring a Day of Vengeance and Wrath upon the Jews and others and to visit them with some Judgment or other for their Wickedness when it was grown great We may see that such Judgments and Plagues and Calamities are not meerly casual and come not upon Men by blind Chance that they are not the Effects of an inevitable Fate farther than Men make them so themselves and that they are not to be ascribed to such Causes as worldly and carnal Men are too ready to ascribe them But that they are the Orderings and Disposals of divine Providence and the Rods and Scourges of the Just and Righteous Governour of all the World who
THE Watch-man's Voice Giving Warning to all Men OF THE Dreadful Day of the Lord Which he apprehends to be at hand That they may take a due Care to save their Souls and Lives that they Perish not therein and that their Blood may not be required at his hand Written by DIGBY BULL M. A. and late Rector of Sheldon in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed for the AUTHOR And are to be Sold by J. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1695. JOEL ii 1. Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my Holy Mountain let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I Being set up as a Spiritual Watchman over you tho' unworthy of so high and sacred a Calling do conceive that it is my duty to give Warning whensoever I shall apprehend that any great Danger is at hand or that any great Evil is ready to light upon us And also that it is your duty to hearken to the voice of your Spiritual Watchman and to take warning by him And now I conceive that it is high time or more than time that I give you Warning That I give you Warning That I apprehend that the Enemy is at hand That the days of Darkness are coming upon us That the Romish Religion like a violent Flood is ready to overflow us And that that great Stream if we have not a very great care is like to carry us to Destruction and Perdition in the end I conceive that all the humane Power that can be used at this time is not able to stop it and that nothing but a general Repentance and Reformation of our Lives can prevent and turn away this Judgment of God from us which we by our Sins and great Wickedness have brought upon our selves And because such a general Repentance and Reformation of our Lives is now alas to be despaired of therefore I have thought good to make choice of these words of the Prophet for the Subject of my ensuing Discourse that from them I might warn you of this Judgment which I apprehend and am fully persuaded is coming upon us That we may prepare our selves against it and may be able thro' Divine Assistance in some measure to stand in the Evil Day and not be carried away with the violence of Temptation to the ruin of both Body and Soul in the end But before I proceed to these words of the Text perhaps it may not be amiss to premise this to you viz. That I have not made choice of these words thereby intending to blow up any sparks of Rebellion or to give any encouragement to rise up against Government It is not my Province nor my desire to sound any Classicum for the Field but to give Exhortations and some Instructions for the Closet and for a Spiritual Preparation against this Day of the Lord and to dissuade Men from taking up and medling with any carnal Weapons at this time I have always born a Loyal Mind and never entertained any Rebellious Thoughts so far as I am conscious to my self and thro' Divine help Loyal I intend to be in the blackest of Times And I would have no one to entertain any Prejudice and Jealousie against me for I am in Charity with all the World as I hope and thirst after no ones Blood and Destruction and my Office and desire is to be a Messenger of Peace hereby to all Men without any exception that will hearken to my Voice and take Warning by me I am sensible that the sacred Scriptures do strictly enjoin Obedience to Superiors and Governors and do sharply threaten all such as do rise up against their Lawful Rulers and I would have all others to be so too The great Reason that any may be apt to think that there is at some times to rise up against Authority and Lawful Government will by no means tolerate and make it Lawful so to do but those that do so are like to be sharply punished in the end for such a work Our Lord hath told us Matt. 26.52 That all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword And this was spoken when Peter had drawn his Sword to defend his Lord and Master and to save his Life John 18.26 And if our blessed Lord would not suffer him to use his Sword upon this account to save his life but bid him put it up into its place again we may be sure that we ought at no time to rise up against Government If those then that should take up the Sword were like to perish with it we may well expect the same now And St. Paul doth tell us Rom. 13.2 That they that resist the Power resist the Ordinance of God and that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation And I would not have this to be any of our portion And if this was true Doctrine in Nero's time we may be sure that it is so in ours And saith St. John Rev. 13.9 10. If any man have an ear let him hear He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity He that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword And so I fear it will be now He that shall unlawfully and unjustly use this Weapon must expect to have it returned upon himself and to have his own blood spilt with it if he use it in an unrighteous way to the shedding of the blood of others From these places we may see what those are to expect that rise up against their Lawful Authority and Government And we may see that we are commanded to be Subject to Kings and all in Authority and that there is no such Exception annexed to such Commands that any time or circumstances will exempt Men from their Obedience to them Rom. 13.1 saith St. Paul Let every soul be subject unto the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God We are to be Subject and Obedient to these in all things that are good and lawful because they are ordained of God and in so doing we are subject in a remoter degree to God himself From these and other places we may see how clearly our subjection to Kings and Governors is set down and that we cannot resist and rise up against them without transgressing the Divine Commands of Almighty God It is not to promote any sin and wickedness or any disorder in the Nation but to exhort us all to a general Repentance and amendment of our sinful lives and to implore help and assistance against the Evil Time which I am convinced is coming upon us that I have made choice of these words of the Prophet Joel That we all from hence may be warned to call all our Sins and Iniquities to mind and to be deeply humbled for them and for the manifold and great Provocations and Transgressions of the whole Kingdom That we may make our hearty and earnest Addresses to
Almighty God that he of his great Goodness and for the sake of our dear Lord and Saviour would be pleased freely to pardon and forgive us our great Wickedness that makes such a great separation and distance between us and our God That we may call for and seek to procure a supernatural Assistance from above to keep us from being born away with such a black Stream and Tide of Wickedness as is now ready to break in upon us That we may all be awakened out of our carnal and vain Security and prepare for such an extraordinary coming of Almighty God among us That every one may make clean his own Door against this signal Approach that no Wickedness which is so loathsom to God may be found thereat That Warning may be given and such a Preparation made do I purpose by God's help to say something upon these words of the Prophet wherein this Warning was to be given to the Jews of the Day of the Lord being at hand to them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand In these words we may observe these three Particulars First That the Trumpet was to be blown and an Alarm to be sounded in God's Church and among his People Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Secondly That all were to hearken to and regard the sound thereof and to be moved to fear and trembling upon it Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble And Thirdly The Reason of it because a great Visit and Judgment of God upon them was then at hand for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I purpose to say something to every one of these Particulars but to begin with the last first I. For the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I intend not to trouble my self nor you with any deep Inquiry what Day of the Lord this was which the Prophet here declared to be coming and nigh at hand The Day of the Lord as it is a day and season of Terror and to be prepared for doth signifie several Days and Times 1. The Day of the Lord doth point at the great and final Day of Judgment when our Lord and Saviour shall come in a most glorious manner to judge the whole World and to reward every one according to his works when the Heavens shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up as St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 3.10 And when all sinners that repent not of their wickedness shall be given up to that everlasting Fire that was prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matt. 25.41 This is the most eminent and dreadful Day of the Lord of all 2. The Day of the Lord in the Scriptures doth often respect some Temporal Judgment and Calamity that God doth bring or is bringing upon a Land or Nation for the great sin and wickedness thereof And such doth this Day of the Lord here seem to be 3. The Day of the Lord may be referred to particular Men tho' the Scripture doth not seem often to use the Day of the Lord with respect to single Persons only When God doth send some great Judgment and Calamity upon single Persons it may be looked upon as a Day of the Lord's wrath to them And the day of their Death may well be accounted as such And indeed a terrible day of the wrath of God will it be to them if they be surprised and snatch'd away in their sins without Repentance We may see what a miserable case the Fool in the Parable was in who was snatch'd away in the midst of his Jollity when he was singing Requiems to his Soul and promising himself great joy and happiness to come Luke 12.20 But God said unto him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Like a Dream and a Vapor will all such Worldly confidence and trust leave Men and into this Fool 's Paradise will such be brought The things wherein they trust like the Morning Cloud will soon vanish away and they from their high confidence will drop into the Pit of Destruction We read of the Rich Man Luke 16.22 That he died and was buried and immediately after it follows That in Hell he lift up his eyes being in Torments We may see that the day of Death especially to sinners that die without Repentance may well be looked upon as a day of the Lord and a dreadful one too to them But here the words of the Prophet do seem to respect some temporal and publick Judgment and Calamity of God upon the Jewish Land and Nation and are to be ranked in the second place But what kind of Judgment and Calamity this was which the Prophet here gives this Warning of is not agreed Some do conceive that this day of the Lord here in the Text was a sore and grievous Famine and Calamity brought upon the Jews by Locusts Catterpillers and the like Creatures And some places in this Prophecy of Joel do seem to give testimony this way Joel 1.4 saith the Prophet That which the Palmer-worm hath left hath the Locust eaten and that which the Locust hath left hath the Canker-worm eaten and that which the Canker-worm hath left hath the Catterpiller eaten And v. 18. How do the Beasts groan The Herds of Cattel are perplexed because they have no Pasture And Joel 2.25 And I will restore to you the years that the Locust hath eaten the Canker-worm and the Catterpiller and the Palmer-worm my great Army which I sent among you These and such places do give countenance to this Interpretation that this day of the Lord was a sore judgment of Famine upon the Land of the Jews occasioned by Locusts Catterpillers and such Creatures and that by Famine and other ways they were sorely afflicted by them And we may see in the Book of Exodus chap. 10. That Locusts were one of the great Plagues and Judgments that God sent upon the Egyptians And with a plague of Locusts doth God threaten to scourge his People the Jews if they should revolt and fall from him to Idolatry Deut. 28.38 42. Again some do conceive that this day of the Lord might be some great Destruction and Waste that was to be brought upon them by the Armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans c. that they were to be plagued and scourged by them And some places in this Prophecy do agree herewith Joel 1.6 For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion And Joel 2.2 A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like
hath said that Vengeance belongeth unto him and that he will recompence Heb. 10.30 And this the Prophet sheweth Amos 3.6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it And saith God to Solomon 1 Kings 9.8 9. And at this house which is high every one that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss and they shall say why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house And they shall answer Because they forsook the Lord their God who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt and have taken hold upon other Gods and have worshipped them and served them therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil And saith our Lord Luke 13.2 Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And saith he by S. John Rev. 2.5 to the Church of Ephesus Remember therefore from whence thou art saln and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent By these and other places we may see that such Judgments and Miseries do not arise meerly after a casual manner but are really Judgments and Decrees in the Grand Court above and are over-ruled and ordered by a divine Hand and do not depend meerly upon the Will and pleasure of Men even when they are the chief Actors in them But farther that we may be the more awaked out of our carnal Security and vain Confidence we may see that the judgments of God and these plagues that are threatned are very terrible and dreadful and that such Days of Vengeance will come upon men especially the Wicked among them when they think little of them and in an astonishing manner will surprize them 1. We may see that the judgments and plagues that are threatned for Sin and Wickedness are set out in a very dreadful manner so as to move us to fear and to give us just cause to tremble at the apprehension of them Moses telleth the Jews that they should be reduced to so great Want and oppressed with so sore a Famine by their Enemies that they should eat the Fruit of their own Bodies even their own Children Deut. 28.53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine Enemies shall distress thee So that the man that is tender among you and very delicate his eye shall be evil towards his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat because he hath nothing left him in the siege With this miserable and terrible Famine by their Enemies doth he threaten them And he sheweth what dismal Fear and Trembling God would send upon them v. 65 But the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have none assurance of thy life In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see In this sad and perplexed Condition and in this shadow of Death were they to abide expecting every hour that their Life would be taken from them And saith the Prophet Isaiah 13.9 Behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land desolate and he shall destroy the Sinners thereof out of it For the Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the World for their Evil and the Wicked for their Iniquity And v. 13. Therefore I will shake the Heavens and the Earth shall remove out of her place in the warth of the Lord of Hosts in the day of his fierce anger In this dreadful Equipage is the day of the Lord's Anger set forth as if all the works of Nature should be disordered thereat as if the Heavens and the Earth should be shaken and quake and tremble thereat and all the glorious Lights above should be put out and extinguished And the Prophet Joel here doth shew that this was to be a very frightful and terrible Day of the Lord. Joel 2.2 3. For the Day of the Lord cometh A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains A great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it even to the years of many generations A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth the Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them Such a black and dismal Day was this to be and such wast and destruction were these Armies of the Lord of Hosts to make That the Land which they found fruitful like the Garden of Eden and filled with all plenty and store they would make and leave like a barren and desolate Wilderness spoiling and consuming all before them And v. 5 6. Like the noise of Chariots on the tops of Mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong People set in Battel aray Before their face the People shall be much pained all faces shall gather blackness And v. 10 11. The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining And the Lord shall utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great for he is strong that executeth his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it Thus dreadful and astonishing doth the Prophet shew this day of the Lord here to be And saith the Prophet Amos 5.18 Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it Wo and sorrow is like to be to such as would have such
no more and the other was kept in Captivity for the space of seventy Years as we may see in the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles And as our blessed Lord had told them when they were fallen to great wickedness again That except they repented they should perish as the Galileans did so for want of their repentance and amendment did God send a most heavy Judgment upon them about 38 or 39 Years after our Saviour's Death and the Romans did destroy and root them out of their own Land in the end The Sword of the Enemy without and Famine and Pestilence and intestine Broils within did make most miserable havock of them The Famine was so sharp in Jerusalem that they eat their own Children through extream hunger as Moses long before had told them And the slaughter of the Jews of all sorts that died first and last in the compass of a few Years by Sword Famine and Pestilence was so great that there perished above fourteen hundred Thousand Persons as it is reported By these and the like Examples we may see that God hath often sent very sore and heavy Judgments and Calamities upon the Inhabitants of the World for their great Sin and Rebellion against him And now as for our selves we can plead no exemption from such Judgments of God We have no cause to believe that our Age and our Nation should be free from the Scourges of Divine Providence and the Lashes of God's Rod when others have smarted so sorely under it and been punished in this dreadful manner if we commit Sin and Wickedness as they have done When our sins grow clamorous towards Heaven and ascend up like the Cry of Sodom and call for Judgment upon us we may well expect that God will hear the cry of them and be moved to wrath and come down in vengeance upon us We are to know that our condition is the same with others and that these menaces and threatnings of Judgments and Calamities to others are to be such to us when our sins and transgressions grow great as theirs did and wax ripe for punishment And these Judgments and Plagues that have fallen upon others are to be Warnings to us what we are to expect if we become great transgressors like them as the Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 10 5-11 Now all these things happened unto them for Examples and they are written for our Admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come And the 2 Pet. 2.6 And if we do but seriously mind how black and dark our Land is grown with all kind of wickedness and how little Light appears in it how bold and daring Sin and Profaneness is grown and what high Affronts and Provocations are offered against Heaven we may well conclude that the righteous God above will not always keep silence but that his patience and forbearance will be tyred out and that he will come in wrath to revenge himself and to still such Clamors and hideous cries that will not let him rest and to ease himself of his Adversaries and to vindicate his Honour and Worship and Dread here among Men. We may see that the unprofitable Husbandmen were to be destroyed and the Vineyard to be let out to such Husbandmen as should render the Fruits thereof Mat. 21.41 And if we observe how little the blessed word of God is regarded how some have not patience enough to hear it and that others lay it but little to heart and let it have but little influence upon their lives to lead them accordingly we may justly fear that God will not suffer his blessed Word to be so slighted and contemned by us but will remove our Candlestick and his blessed Word and Light from us and leave us to grope in the dark a while that we may know the better how to value such a Mercy when we have suffered a while for want of it And if we do not repent but proceed on in wickedness and add new sins to our old ones if besides our former transgressions and provocations we fall to that gross Idolatry which is in the Roman Church which God declares he so much detests and abhors we may well expect that the Beesom of Destruction will sweep us away in the end and that the Sword or some other Instrument of Divine Vengeance will cut us off at the last And what Judgments soever befall us we are to know that the hand of God is therein and that he suffers them to light upon us for our sin and wickedness And that Men may be prepared against such dreadful Judgments of God and not surprized with them that they may repent and provide for their escape and security at such a time is Warning usually given and so we see it is here II. Here we see that Warning was to be given in the Church and among his People that this dreadful Day of the Lord was coming and nigh at hand to them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand Here the Prophet useth Metaphorical Expressions alluding to the Camp and Military Affairs as I conceive when he bids the Trumpet to be blown and an Alarm to be sounded The Trumpet indeed was used among the Israelites for other purposes besides Martial Affairs viz. to assemble the Congregation for the worship of God and for Consultations c. But here the Prophet having joined the Alarm with it he seemeth to allude to Martial and Military Affairs when the Trumpet is blown and an Alarm is sounded at the sudden and unexpected approach of an Enemy that they might put themselves into as good a posture of defence as is possible for the reception of them that they might be able to stand valiantly against them and not be overcome by such a sudden Assault and be beaten and routed by them And so here the Prophet sheweth that as the Trumpet is to be blown and a loud Alarm to be founded at the unexpected coming of an Enemy so was Proclamation to be made and Warning to be given at the approach and coming of this dreadful Day of the Lord. And this was to be done in Zion that is in Jerusalem the chief City of the Jews for Zion was a part of this Renowned City and in God's Holy Mountain that is where the Sacred Temple of his Worship stood or rather in the Land of Judea where God's peculiar People dwelt which seems here to me to be called God's Holy Mountain From hence I shall endeavour to shew how God doth usually give Warning to all but especially to such as will hearken to his voice and take Warning when such a Day of Judgment and Tribulation and Destruction is coming upon Men that they may prepare for it and for their own safety and security in it Such is the wonderful Love of God to Mankind that he desires not the death of sinner but is earnest with them
a day of the Lord hasten'd for such days are like to be surrounded with darkness and will look dismal every way and the flying from one danger and mischief will be the making haste to another as the Prophet here sheweth The Prophet Zephaniah also sheweth how terrible such a day of the Lord's Anger is like to be in what he saith of such a day Zeph. 1.15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress and a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced Cities and against the high Towers And I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung Such a terrible day were they threatned with for their sin against Almighty God And saith the Prophet Malachy concerning the day that he warned them of Mal. 4.1 For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an Oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch By these and such like places we may see how dreadful and terrible such days of Vengeance are like to be when God comes in wrath to visit the Earth or any part thereof for the great iniquity of it that we may be the more sensible before-hand of the Terror of such a day when we apprehend it to be coming upon us and may take the greater care for our own security at such a time And in such days of Vengeance and publick Judgments the Rich are like to be equally involved in misery and destruction with the Poor and Needy and their Wealth will then stand them in no stead but rather add to their Misery For Riches profit not in the day of wrath as Solomon saith Prov. 11.4 And so saith the Prophet Zephaniah 1.18 Neither their Silver nor their Gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath but the whole Land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the Land And saith the Prophet Ezekiel 7.19 They shall cast their Silver in the streets and their Gold shall be removed their Silver and their Gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord The Riches of the Rich will not then be able to ward off the direful Blow when God comes to strike in anger And the great and mighty Men cannot escape the lash of his Rod. The great and mighty Man will then find no more protection and security than the mean Man but the mighty Man shall then cry bitterly as saith the Prophet Zeph. 1.14 There is nothing but Righteousness that will deliver Men. Again 2. We may see that such days of Vengeance will take Men unawares and surprise them when they think themselves secure and are not apprehensive of them if they do not watch and prepare for them but proceed on in a sinful course of life Our blessed Saviour tells the Jews that his coming should be like the Lightning Matth 24.27 For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man be This may have some respect to the last day of Judgment but our Saviour hath also confined it to his coming to revenge himself upon the obstinate Jews and his crucifiers Ver. 34. Verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled That generation to wit some of them were to see these things fulfilled and St. John as is related did out-live this destruction of the Jewish Nation and so it is probable did many others Christ's coming in Vengeance upon them we may see was to be surprizing like Lightning And v. 42 saith he Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come And v. 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh And v. 48. But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of And shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth In this unexpected manner are Men especially the Wicked like to be surprised whensoever the Lord shall come to visit the Inhabitants of the Earth in an extraordinary manner with some Judgment for their Wickedness And more places we may see to this purpose Matth. 25.13 saith our Saviour Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh And to this purpose in several other places And saith St. Paul 1 Thess 5.2 3. For your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape And saith our Lord by St. John Rev. 3.3 to the Church in Sardis Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee In this surprising manner like a Thief in the Night doth our Lord threaten to take such as do not repent and mind the works of righteousness when he comes to visit the Inhabitants of the World with his Judgments And by these and such places we may see that God's Judgments and Plagues that he brings upon Men for their great wickedness will strangely surprize them in a vain security when they think not of such but fansie that they are out of Harm's way and safe enough And this will make such Judgments the more dreadful and terrible when they light upon Men in such an unguarded manner and so unprepared for them This will make every blow to fall heavy and to wound deep when we have lifted up no hand towards Heaven to ward it off by our Prayers and Supplications to Almighty God to have mercy upon us and in Judgment to remember Mercy and not to shut up his bowels of compassion towards us Such dreadful Surprizes are like to confound Men's understandings and to damp and quell all their Spirits and Courage and to make them like blind and distracted Men that have no power to use the common prudence and strength that God hath endowed them withal Surprisals do betray the succours that
to persuade them to repent and be saved Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked should turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel So unwilling is he that any should perish and so earnestly and passionately as it were does he desire that all should be saved And as God is unwilling that any should perish at other times so is he also unwilling that any should perish when he comes to sweep with the Beesom of Destruction and brings some dreadful day of darkness upon Men which he is forced to do by their great wickedness If any sinner will repent and return from the error of his ways at the proclaiming and denouncing of such Judgments as God is determined to bring upon that place such is the love of God to Mankind he shall have Warning that he may repent and be saved and not be swallowed up with destruction but that his Soul may be wrapt up in the bundle of Life God does bear long with sinners before he comes in wrath to avenge himself upon them and gives them space to repent before he comes to cut them off He deals with all Nations as he saith he did with mysterious Jezebel Rev. 2.21 And I gave her space to repent of her Fornication and she repented not And that Men may repent and turn at last to God when he is coming in Judgment upon them he does usually give Warning of his coming and does send his Heralds before to declare and denounce his open War against them that they may come to terms of Peace at the last and accept of his Overtures of Mercy before he draws his Sword and makes ready his Arrows against them That his Proceedings may appear to be just and equal and merciful to all the World and that such as will may then take Warning and provide for their escape and Salvation This I have in part shewed already That God doth usually give Warning before he comes in Judgment and brings a dark and gloomy Day upon a Land and Nation All those threatnings of such dreadful Days of the Lord by the Prophets which I have mentioned do prove this that God doth usually give Warning before he strikes in wrath and stretcheth out his direful Hand upon us And this also we may see in many remarkable Instances that the People and Servants of God have notice and warning at such a time and such to whom Warning will do good and usually all others When God destroyed the old World with that dreadful Flood of Water Noah had Warning hereof and was instructed how to provide for his escape from this Judgment by preparing an Ark for himself and his Family Gen. 6.13 14. And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Make thee an Ark of Gopher Wood Rooms shalt thou make in the Ark and shalt pitch it within and without with Pitch This warning and direction did God give Noah for his escape And Warning was given of this dismal Day 120 Years before it came as we may gather from Gen. 6.3 And the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years These Years were to be allowed him before he was to be cut off with the Waters of a Flood as seems most probable And in this time there is no question but Noah and other good Men perhaps too did preach Repentance to the old World and warn them of this Judgment that was coming upon them And by his Preaching and making an Ark before them were they warned to repent and prepare for their escape that they might not perish And as much as this we may gather from the sacred Scriptures Noah was a preacher of Righteousness as St. Peter sheweth 2 Pet. 2.5 And saith he of Christ 1 Pet. 3.19 20. By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison which some time were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing Christ by his Spirit in Noah and other ways did preach Repentance to them and warn them as we may conclude when God's Long-suffering waited for their Conversion in the days of Noah And saith the Apostle Heb. 11.7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his House by the which he condemned the World Noah had warning of this Destruction and took warning and prepared against it And by his preaching and building an Ark were others warned of it but being hardened in their wickedness they believed it not and did not prepare against it but were still surprized therein When God was about to destroy Sodom he sent his Angels to warn Lot of this dreadful Judgment of Fire from Heaven that he might provide for his escape that he might not be consumed in it Gen. 19.12 13. And the men said unto Lot hast thou here any besides Son in law and thy Sons and thy Daughters and whatsoever thou hast in the City bring them out of this place For we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it And v. 15. And when the morning arose then the Angels hastened Lot saying arise take thy Wife and thy two Daughters which are here lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the City Here we see that the Angels of God give Lot warning of this terrible Judgment that God was bringing upon them that he might provide for his escape and not perish therein And Lot seems to be sent as a preacher of Righteousness and Repentance among them before this heavy destruction came upon them and it is probable that he let them know that their sinful deeds were like to bring the curse of God upon them For he as St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 2.7 was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked And he warned his Sons in law of this Judgment but they heeded not his warning but looked upon it as vain and idle talk Gen. 19.14 And Lot went out and spake unto his Sons in law which married his Daughters and said up get ye out of this place for the Lord will destroy this City but he seemed as one that mocked unto his Sons in law We may see that the Servants of God and others had warning of this most dreadful Judgment upon Sodom that they might prepare against it and righteous Lot we see took warning and provided for his escape And if there had been any other Person in Sodom that would have repented and have turned from his wickedness to God upon
warning of this Judgment I doubt not but that he should have had warning that he might have been saved and preserved from this Judgment But such are the ways of those that are hardened in their wickedness and have sold themselves to work evil that no warning of Judgment will work upon them as we see it would not upon Lot's Sons in law And saith Abraham in the Parable concerning the Rich Man's Brethren Luke 16.31 If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead And if the contemners of God's Word will not be persuaded to repent by one rising from the dead and warning them of the fearful Judgments of God in another World which he hath been an eye witness of we may be sure that the temporal Judgments of this Life though dreadful enough will not be able to work upon them but that they will be surprized still with them after they have had fair warning as Lot's Sons in law were When God destroyed the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan they seem to have had warning of it by the Armies of the Israelites approaching towards them and abiding near them and by that fear that God sent upon them And we may see that Rahab the Harlot that feared God took warning hereat and made preparation that she might escape this Judgment of God upon them Joshua 2.9 And she said unto the men I know that the Lord hath given you the Land and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all the Inhabitants of the Land faint because of you for we have heard how the Lord dryed up the water of the Red Sea when ye came out of Egypt and what you did unto the two Kings of the Amorites And upon her hiding of the Spies saith she v. 12. Now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Lord since I have shewed you kindness that ye will also shew kindness unto my Father's house and give me a true token And that ye will save alive my Father and my Mother and my Brethren And saith the Apostle Heb. 11.31 By faith the Harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the Spies with peace The Harlot Rahab sheweth that they had warning of this Judgment of God upon them and she took warning and escaped When God was determined to destroy the Ninevites if they had not repented he sends the Prophet Jonah to warn them that the Judgment of God was coming upon them that they might repent and amend and so prevent their ruin and destruction Jonah 3.1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying Arise go unto Nineveh that great City and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. And v. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the City a days journey and he cryed and said Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown This warning did God give them of their approaching ruin and destruction that they might prepare against it and by a general Repentance and Reformation prevent it And here we may see that the Ninevites took warning and repented and turned from their evil ways and so prevented this Judgment of God from coming upon them after it was denounced against them Jonah 3.5 And if the old World and the Inhabitants of Sodom would have done so there is no doubt but that they might have prevented the heavy Judgments of God that befell them God sufficiently declared his proneness to Mercy in the matter of Sodom when he told Abraham Gen. 18.32 That if he found but ten righteous Men in Sodom he would spare the whole City for their sakes Again we may see that the Jews had warning of that Judgment and Destruction that came upon them after our Saviour's death by the Romans Our Saviour warned them of it when he was with them Luk. 13.1 and told them that they should perish as the Galileans had done if they repented not And in several places we may see that he warned his Disciples of it Matth. 24-32 Now learn a Parable of the Fig-tree when his branch is tender and putteth forth leaves ye know that Summer is nigh so likewise ye when ye shall see all these things know that it is near even at the doors Verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled And the fiery Sword that hung over them some time before and such signal Acts of Providence did warn them that what our Saviour had foretold was coming upon them And by these and some Divine Admonition which the Christians had as some conceive at the withdrawing of the Roman Armies from Jerusalem the Christians took warning and fled all from thence beyond Jordan and were preserved and there were no Christians in Jerusalem when Titus came against it and besieged it as is reported By these and such Examples we may see that God doth give notice and warning to his People and Servants and such as will take warning and usually to all others when he is bringing any Judgment and Destruction upon a place that they may repent and provide for their Security at such a dreadful time And righteous Men do take Warning and are preserved using the Means that God ordereth for their preservation and some do repent at such a time and so avoid the Judgment that is coming upon them But some will take no warning but still proceed on in Wickedness and after all the Warning that is given them will still through their unbelief be surprized with Destruction before they are well sensible that it is coming upon them And as for our selves besides what I have said before Archbishop Usher that Reverend Prelate hath long since told us what a dreadful Time is coming upon us and the great preparations that are made for War and the Noises of Guns that are heard and the several Attempts that have been made and other Occurrences wherein there seems to me to be something of the Finger of God do admonish and warn us that Misery and Destruction are ready to come upon us and call us all to a speedy and deep Repentance And by all these let us be awaked out of our Carnal Security and Vain Confidence that we may not be surprized like blind Fools but may be wise betimes and provide for our own Preservation and Salvation that we perish not And III. We have here the Duty which the Prophet exhorted them to upon the coming of this Day of the Lord upon them briefly in these Words Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble And this Duty he more largely insisteth on in this Chapter And here we see that the Exhortation is general and all are to be concerned and moved to fear and trembling at the coming of this Day From hence I shall endeavour to shew something of the Duty which we
are to set upon when such a dreadful Day of the Lord is apprehended to be coming and near at hand And here the Prophet layeth the Foundation of such a Duty viz. to be moved to Fear and Trembling and this will set us to Repentance and Amendment and to cry mightily to Almighty God for Pardon and Mercy and Help This is one of the first Principles in Wisdom's School Psal 111.10 The fear of the Lord saith the Psalmist is the beginning of Wisdom The fearing of God's great and dreadful Majesty who is a Consuming Fire Heb. 12.29 and the trembling at his terrible judgments and punishments that are threatned against Sinners is commonly the first thing that moveth them to break off their Sins and Wickedness and to set upon a righteous Course of Life When Men are stricken to the Heart with a sense of God's Wrath then will they cry out with great earnestness like the Jailor Acts 16.30 Sirs what must I do to be saved And with such a sense are Men to be touched when a dreadful Day of Judgment is apprehended to be coming upon us and then they will be ready to do what they well can for their own preservation that they may escape God's fiery Indignation And what we are further to do hereupon at such a time we are taught by the Prophet Joel and other places of Scripture And First We are at the apprehension and approach of such a dreadful Day to fast and use some abstinence from our ordinary Food and to refrain from such pleasures and delights and recreations which may be lawful at any other time and to withdraw our Hearts and Minds from too great an Intensness upon worldly Cares and earthly Concerns This is our Duty at other Times but more especially when we are to attone and appease an incensed and angry God and to turn away his Wrath from us and such is our Work when a day of Vengeance is coming upon us And this Duty of Fasting is here enjoined by the Prophet Joel Joel 1.14 Sanctifie ye a fast call a solemn assembly gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God And Joel 2.12 Therefore also now saith the Lord turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning This is here plainly prescribed and commanded by the Prophet that a Fast should be sanctified and set apart upon this very Occasion of the coming of this dreadful Day of the Lord upon them that they should curb and restrain themselves herein and deny themselves something in the ordinary Refreshment of their usual Food And we may see that it hath been a common practice with Men to fast and deny themselves the ordinary Refreshment of Eating and Drinking when they would intercede with Almighty God to avert and turn away his Wrath and procure his Favour and that a good success hath oft attended it When the Israelites would obtain Help of God against the Benjamites by whom they had been twice beaten and a great number of them slain they fasted and after had good Success against them Jud. 20 2â— When Ahab was threatned with evil from the Lord by the Prophet Elijah he fasted and humbled himself before God and obtained a procrastination of the Evil till after his days 1 King 21.27 When Haman had procured of King Ahasuerus to have the Jews destroyed they fasted and mourned and wept seeking to prevent and avoid this destruction that was decreed against them and after did obtain Favour and Help in this Matter Esther 4. And when the Ninevites were threatned with Destruction from God by the Prophet Jonah they used very great fasting Jonah 3.5 So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them And by their Fasting and Repentance c. they obtained a Revocation of this Judgment after it was denounced against them by the Prophet and it was not executed upon them By these and other Examples we may see that this hath been the usual practice of Men when they would turn away some Judgment and obtain Mercy at God's hand to fast and use other austerities towards themselves as to cover themselves with Sackcloth and to lie down in Dust and Ashes or to cover themselves with them and to humble themselves greatly before Almighty God And then are we to withdraw our minds from our pleasures and delights and recreations as not suiting well with a time of Mourning and Fasting And this the Prophet sheweth here Joel 2.16 Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet And saith God by the Prophet Isaiah complaining of the Fasts of the Jews Isa 58.3 Behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact all your labours And the Instruments of Musick were not brought before King Darius when he fasted for Daniel Dan. 6.18 And then are Men also to withdraw their Hearts and Minds a little from their Worldy Concerns and Earthly Matters and not to be too much taken up with them Luk. 21.34 And take heed to your selves saith our Lord lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and 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 By these and such places we see that we are to fast and to refrain from our pleasures and delights and to take our Hearts off from too great an Intensness upon worldly Concerns and mundane Affairs when we apprehend a dreadful Day of the Lord to be coming upon us And now especially doth it behove us so to do and to fast frequently upon this account Secondly When such a dreadful Day is drawing near and at hand we are to afflict our Minds as well as our Bodies and to mourn and weep and bewail our own sinfulness and vileness and our great transgressions and provocations which we have committed towards Almighty God We are then to lay aside all high and proud thoughts and vain conceits of our selves and to call all our sins and evil ways to mind and to be deeply humbled for them We are then to be truly sorrowful and grieved at our very hearts that we have so ungratefully broken the sacred Commands of Almighty God and have made so light of them We are then to repent of our sins and forsake them and to undo them as much as we can and to clear our hands and our hearts of all filthiness and vileness and to make satisfaction for all the Injuries and Wrongs that we have done to others This we are to do at all times but more especially when God comes down to Judge the Inhabitants of the Earth in such an eminent and remarkable manner and to make a discrimination and to put a difference between the Righteous and the
Wicked Then are we in a more especial manner to prepare for such a coming of Almighty God among us and to purifie and make clean our selves for such a Lustration and Visit and to take care that our Habitations and Doors may be cleansed from all sin and filthiness and so distinguished from all the rest of the sinful World that when the destroying Angel is sent forth he may see it and pass over our Dwellings that we may escape the Lash of his Rod and the Stroke of his Blow when he comes to punish and destroy And 1. We may see that this is enjoyned by several places in the sacred Word of God that we are then to mourn and weep and to repent and turn from our sins and evil ways when a dreadful Day of the Lord is coming upon us and that if we do so we may then hope to find Mercy And this the Prophet Joel here sheweth Joel 2.12 Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil This is the Course that we are to take at such a time to mourn and weep and to be heartily sorry for our misdoings and to turn from them to God and then we are like to attone and appease him because he is gracious and prone to mercy And saith God by the Prophet Isaiah 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well And v. 19 20. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it And Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon And as at other times so also at the coming of his Judgments will he shew mercy when this Course is taken and Men forsake their Sins and sinful Deeds and Ways And God complaineth of the Jews by his Prophet that they fasted for Strife and Wickedness and tells them that the Fast that he had chosen was to loose the bands of Wickedness and to undo their sinful Deeds Isa 58.4 Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul is it to bow down his Head as a bul-rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord Is not this the fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Here we see that an outward shew of Fasting and Humiliation and Sorrow so long as Sin and Wickedness are lodged and remain in the Heart and we turn not from our evil Ways will not please God nor appease him towards us and turn away his wrath from us But we see that the Fast that he hath chosen and which will please him is to undo all our wicked acts and to repent of them and utterly to forsake them and to have no more to do with them and to make satisfaction for the Injustice and Unrighteousness and Injuries which we have done to others And saith the Prophet Jeremiah 4.1 If thou wilt return O Israel saith the Lord return unto me and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight Then shalt thou not remove And v. 4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore-skins of your heart ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Their Abominations their idolatrous and sinful Practices were to be put away and laid aside and they were to return to God in Sincerity and Truth and then they were not to remove and be carried away Captive by their Enemies And they were to Circumcise their Heart and to take away all Superfluity of Naughtiness and Wickedness from thence if they would have God's Fury to be averted and kept from breaking out upon them And so are we to do when our Case and Condition is parallel with theirs And v. 14. O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayst be saved How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Jerusalem's Heart is to be washed from wickedness that she might be saved And so are others to do that at any time expect and desire to be saved and delivered And those that forsake their Sins shall find Mercy as the wise Man sheweth Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy There is no way to procure Mercy but this And our Lord told the Jews as I have shewed That they should perish as the Galileans had done if they did not repent of and amend their sinful doings Luke 13.3 5. And this is the Direction that S. James gives to procure the Favour of God and to obtain his Help and Mercy To be afflicted and to mourn for our Sins and to purifie our Hands and Hearts from all things that are sinful and evil Jam. 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded Be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up And this Course are we then especially to take when a dreadful Day of Judgment is coming upon us and we would turn away the Wrath of God from us Then are we to weep and mourn and afflict our selves to call our sins and evil doings to mind and to be truly humbled for them and to repent of them and to be grieved and sore vexed that we have committed them That we have been so foolish and unwise as to slight Wisdom's Voice and to err and wander so far from the paths of Life and Happiness And that we have been so ungrateful and unthankful to Almighty God our great Creator as to transgress the just and righteous Laws that he hath set before us and not to hearken to the Voice of his Word Then are we to grow quite out of love with our sins and to loath and abhor them and to shut our Hands and Hearts clear of them and to resolve firmly to have no
have been destroyed because they were not Righteous but Wicked And this will farther shew that it is our Duty and will be a great Encouragement to us to set then earnestly upon all the works of Righteousness at the apprehension of a dreadful Day coming upon us that we may then escape and find Mercy This God shews to be the Reason why Noah was to be saved from perishing with the Inhabitants of the Old World because he was righteous before God Gen. 7.1 And the Lord said unto Noah come thou and all thy house into the ark for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation This was the Reason why he was to be saved by the Ark when the rest of the World were to be destroyed by a Flood of Waters because God saw him to be righteous When God destroyed Sodom all the righteous Men were to be preserved and if there had been fifty Righteous yea if there had been but ten righteous Men therein they and the whole City too had been spared for their Righteousness sake Gen. 18.23 And we may see that righteous Lot was delivered at that time and that he was delivered because he was a just and righteous Man S. Peter sheweth 2 Pet. 2.6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished Here we may see that Lot was delivered because he was a just and righteous Man and that pious and godly Men from this Example and that of Noah are to be encouraged that God will deliver them from Temptations and Trials and Dangers But that the Unjust must expect to be reserved to the Day of Judgment to be punished for their Unrighteousness When the Israelites were to be consumed and to have their Carkases fall in the Wilderness and not to come into the Land of Canaan because they murmured and sinned against God Joshua and Caleb were then delivered from this Sentence because they were righteous and wholly followed God Num 14.20 and Num. 32.10 And the Lord's anger was kindled the same time saith Moses and he sware saying Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upwards shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob because they have not wholly followed me save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite and Joshua the son of Nun for they have wholly followed the Lord. By the Works of Righteousness did the Harlot Rahab escape Destruction and perished not when Jericho was taken and destroyed when she concealed the Spies and sent them away in peace because she believed them to be the Servants of God By faith saith the Apostle Heb. 11 31 the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace And saith S. James 2.25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way By Works was she justified and by her works of Piety and Mercy was she saved from this Destruction and perished not with the Inhabitants of Jericho By these and such Examples we may see that righteous Men have been delivered in the Days of Vengeance for their Righteousness sake when others have perished and this may serve as a farther Argument to shew that it then behoves us especially to set earnestly upon the works of Righteousness whensoever we apprehend such a terrible Day of the Lord to be coming upon us And what it is that is Good and God requires the Prophet sheweth Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These are the things that are Good and which God requires of us at all times but especially at such a time That we should be just and upright in all our dealings with others and do as we would be done by and rather wrong our selves than over-reach and deceive another That we should be so far from grudging at charitable Works like the Miser that we should love them and take delight in all acts of Mercy and Goodness and chearfully communicate to all the Needs and Necessities of others and be joyful and glad when we can relieve and succour them in their Miseries and Wants That we should be prone and forward to forgive all others that have done any Harm or Hurt to us and contentedly to pass by all the Injuries and Wrongs that have been done to us by others without seeking any Revenge and with Good to overcome all the Evil and Malice that is offered to us by any That we should walk humbly before God in a deep Sense of our own Unworthiness and Vileness and of God's great Goodness and Mercy to us and the continual Dependance that we have upon him and of his dreadful and glorious Majesty These are the things which God requires of us and such works of Righteousness and Mercy and Kindness are we especially to set upon when a dark Day is apprehended to be near at hand And then are we to be more frequent and zealous at all our Services and Devotions to Almighty God But Fourthly Then are we also more particularly to cry mightily to Almighty God upon this very account of his Day of Wrath being coming upon us Then are we to make our earnest addresses to Almighty God in this very Respect and to make Supplications to him that he would have mercy upon us and deal with us according to his great Love and Goodness and not according to our Sins and Iniquities That for his own Name sake and for his dear Son Christ Jesus sake he would be pleased to avert and turn away his Judgments and Wrath from us if it may consist with his Divine Will and Pleasure and if not that we may be covered and preserved in the Day of Wrath and sheltered under the Wings of his good Providence and find Mercy and Salvation in that day And 1. That we are to cry and make great Supplications to Almighty God and to seek to attone him and turn away his Wrath from us at such a time by earnest Prayers we may see by several places of Scripture Our own Nature and Reason will dictate this to us and so do the sacred Scriptures This the Prophet Joel prescribes here 1.14 Sanctify a fast call a solemn assembly gather the elders and all the Inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. And Joel
And when Judah looked back behold the battel was before and behind and they cried unto the Lord and the Priests sounded with the Trumpets Then the men of Judah gave a shout and as the men of Judah shouted it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah When Zerah the Ethiopian came out against Asa King of Judah with an Host of a thousand thousand he cried unto the Lord for help and succour and obtained help from him 2 Chron. 14.11 And Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power Help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy Name we go against this multitude O Lord thou art our God let not Man prevail against thee So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judalâ— and the Ethiopians fled When Jehoshaphat prayed unto the Lord for help against his Enemies the Moabites and Ammonites and they of Mount Seir the Lord wrought a great deliverance for him and the Jews and set their Enemies to destroy themselves and left them nothing to do but to gather the Spoil and return God thanks for the great Salvation that he granted them 2 Chron. 20.3 When Sennacherib King of Assyria sent to Hezekiah and was coming against Jerusalem with his Army Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed unto the Lord and obtain'd help and succour from him against their Enemies and God sent an Angel to destroy them 2 Chron. 32.20 For this cause Hezekiah the King and the Prophet Isaiah the Son of Amoz prayed and cried to Heaven And the Lord sent an Angel which cut off all the Mighty men of Valour and the Leaders and Captains in the Camp of the King of Assyria so he returned with shame of face to his own Land And when he was come into the House of his God they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the Sword And the Angel of the Lord slew an hundred fourscore and five thousand as it is in 2 Kings 19.35 And this was the command of the King of Nineveh when the Prophet had proclaimed the Judgment of God against them That they should cry mightily to God Jonah 3.8 But let man and beast be covered with Sackcloth and cry mightily to God And we see that they did obtain pardon and mercy By these and many more Examples we may see how men have cried to Almighty God in their distress and when they lay under the apprehensions of great dangers and miseries and have obtained mercy and help from him And these do farther teach us to do the like and shew it to be our duty to supplicate his Divine Majesty and Goodness in an extraordinary manner whensoever we apprehend a dreadful Day of Vengeance to be coming upon us But to qualifie us for such a calling upon Almighty God and to make way for an access of our Prayers to him we must first clear our hands and our hearts from all Sin and Wickedness and set upon a Righteous and Holy Life as I have shewed otherwise we may expect that God will not hear our Prayers when we cry to him in the day of Trouble We must first make satisfaction to our Brother for all the injuries that we have done him before we can offer any Sacrifice or Prayer to God to attone him and procure his favour and mercy Matth. 5.23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar saith our Saviour and there remembrest that thy Brother hath-ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift This is the course that our blessed Lord hath appointed to be taken And the Psalmist shews that so long as our hearts are inclined to wickedness the Lord will not hear us Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me And no more will he hear us except we withdraw our hearts from it And saith Job of the Hypocrite Job 27.9 Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Hereby intimating to us that there is no likelihood that God will then hear him And saith Wisdom Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me for that they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord And so may we expect to be dealt with if we do not now hearken to Wisdom's voice and follow her blessed Instructions and amend and set upon a pious and holy Life If we will now stop our Ears at her Charming and cast the fear of God behind our backs we may justly expect that he will laugh at our Calamity and mock when our fear cometh And God declares to the Jews that he would not hear their Prayers because they were defiled and polluted with blood and wickedness and had not cleansed themselves Isa 1.15 And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Wash ye make you clean This is to be done first or else our Prayers are not like to be heard And saith God to the Prophet Jeremiah 11.10 11. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers which refused to hear my words and they went after other Gods to serve them the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers Therefore thus saith the Lord behold I will bring evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape and tho' they shall cry unto me I will not hearken unto them And saith the Man that was born blind John 9.31 We know that God heareth not sinners By these and such places we may see that there is an absolute necessity for Men to leave their Sins and become Righteous before they are in any fit capacity to address themselves to Almighty God and to pray to him for mercy and help in the needful time of trouble It is needful also at such a time that we place our trust and confidence in Almighty God and do not make any Idols to our selves that God may not say to us as he did to the Jews Judg. 10.13 14. Ye have forsaken me and served other gods wherefore I will deliver you no more Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation It behoves us to make no
Reason offereth and make Men's hearts to fail them and recoil back upon them and turn all into confusion and disorder without and within too These fill Men's minds full of horror and amazement and make their Faces to gather blackness and set their Limbs a tottering and quaking And this farther shews how dreadful and astonishing these Judgments of God will be when they surprize Men in this manner when they are careless and secure and do not prepare themselves against them by clearing their hands of all wickedness and by calling upon God for pardon and mercy and help Secondly We may see as for matter of Fact that God hath often sent great and dreadful Judgments upon the Inhabitants of the World for their great Sin and Wickedness when they have been ripe for Judgment We may see that God hath often brought the days of Vengeance upon them when they have in a manner totally revolted from him and become rebellious against the Light And we may see that the Wicked and Unrighteous have been surprized with such Judgments when they thought not of them or believed them not and have been swept away with the Beesom of Destruction when they expected it not For the great wickedness thereof did God destroy the old World and swept them away with a prodigious Flood of Water Gen. 6.5 And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth And Gen. 7.21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man This heavy judgment did God send upon them for their Wickedness when they were so wholly given up to it and made this total riddance of all Mankind but Noah and his Family And with this Deluge of Water were they all surprized when they expected it not as our Lord sheweth Matt. 24.37 But as the days of Noe were so shall also the coming of the Son of man be For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noe entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be In this unexpected manner were they all wrapt up in destruction before they were well sensible of it In a prodigious manner with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven did God destroy the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the grievous Sin and Wickedness of them Gen. 28.20 And the Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous And Gen. 19.13 For we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it And v. 24 25. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground In this astonishing manner did God destroy these Cities for their egregious Wickedness and consume them with the Fire of his Wrath And the very Ground where these Cities stood is turned into that Lake which is called the Dead-Sea or the Sea of the Plain And in this terrible Destruction were all these Sinners surprized and thought not of it till the Flame was all about them and had seized upon them Luke 17.28 29. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all Here our Lord doth shew how they were surprized with this Fire from Heaven when they thought not of such a thing but were busie in pursuing their Sins and worldly Concerns For their wickedness did God send sundry Judgments and Plagues upon the Egyptians as we may see in the Book of Exodus And at the last in a surprising manner overwhelmed them in the Red Sea Exod. 14.23 And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the Red Sea even all Pharaoh 's Horses and his Chariots and his Horsemen And v. 27. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the Sea and the Sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared and the Egyptians fled against it and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the Sea This surprising destruction swallowed them up at the last For the great wickedness and high provocations of the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan did God bring a heavy Judgment upon them to destroy and root them out of their own Land by the Children of Israel God delivered the Kingdoms of Sihon and Og to Moses and he Destroyed the Inhabitants thereof Numb 21. And Joshua destroyed 31 Kings on the other side Jordan Joshua 6 And we may see that this heavy judgment of the Sword came upon them to their utter ruin for their great wickedness and abominations Gen. 15.16 saith God to Abraham concerning his Posterity But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Hereby intimating that when their Iniquity was full ripe for Judgment they were to but cut off for it And saith Moses Deut. 18.12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee It is clear that they were driven out and destroyed for their great wickedness and abominable practices And we may see that God's own People the Jews were often scourged by other Nations and sold into their hands for their own wickedness and for revolting from God Judges 2.13 14. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their Enemis round about so that they could not any longer stand before their Enemies And we may read that God did often punish and afflict them with the neighbouring Nations for their wickedness towards him With the Mesópotamians and Moabites and others Judges 3. with the Canaanites Judg. 4. with the Midianites and others Judg. 6. with the Philistines and Ammonites Judg. 10. With these and others did God often scourge them and afterwards let the Assyrians and Chaldeans carry them away Captive out of their own Land for their Rebellion towards God and backsliding from him and one part of them returned