vouchsafed to us Because this is an argument of great ingratitude And this we find recorded as a heavy charge upon the People of Israel that they remembred not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side neither shewed they kindness to the House of Jerubbaal namely Gideon who had been their Deliverer according to all the goodness which he had shewed to Israel God we see takes it very ill at our hands when we are ungrateful to the Instruments of our Deliverance but much more when we are unthankful to Him the Author of it And how severely does Nathan the Prophet reproach David upon this account Thus said the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul c. And if this had been too little I would moreover have done such and such things Wherefore hast thou despis'd the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God here reckons up his manifold mercies and deliverances and aggravates David's Sin upon this account And he was very angry likewise with Solomon for the same reason because he had turned from the Lord God of Israel who had appear'd to him twice However we may slight the mercies of God he keeps a punctual and strict account of them It is particularly noted as a great blot upon Hezekiah that he returned not again according to the benefits done unto him God takes very severe notice of all the unkind and unworthy returns that are made to Him for his Goodness Ingratitude to God is so unnatural and monstrous that we find Him appealing against us for it to the inanimate Creatures Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourish'd and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me And then he goes on and upbraids them with the Brute Creatures as being more grateful to men than men are to God The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass her Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And in the same Prophet there is the like complaint Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but the shall see and be ashamed They that will not acknowledge the Mercies of God's Providence shall feel the strokes of his Justice There is no greater evidence in the World of an intractable disposition than not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by mercies not to be obliged by benefits not to be tamed by gentle usage Nay God expects that his mercies should lay so great an obligation upon us that even a Miracle should not tempt us to be unthankful If there arise among you a Prophet says Moses to the People of Israel or a Dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder cometh to pass whereof he spake to thee saying let us go after other Gods and serve them thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet And he gives the reason because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord God of Israel which brought you out of the Land of Egypt and delivered you out of the House of Bondage 3. It is a greater aggravation yet after gteat Mercies and Judgments to return to the same Sins Because this can hardly be without our sinning against knowledge and after we are convinced how evil and bitter the Sin is which we were guilty of and have been so sorely punish'd for before This is an argument of a very perverse and incorrigible temper and that which made the Sin of the People of Israel so above measure sinful that after so many signal Deliverances and so many terrible Judgments they fell into the same Sin of murmuring ten times murmuring against God the Author and against Moses the glorious Instrument of their Deliverance out of Egypt which was one of the two great Types of the Old Testament both of temporal and spiritual Oppression and Tyranny Hear with what resentment God speaks of the ill returns which they made to him for that great Mercy and Deliverance Because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the Wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkned unto my voice surely they shall not see the Land which I sware to their Fathers And after he had brought them into the promised Land and wrought great Deliverances for them several times how does he upbraid them with their proneness to fall again into the same Sin of Idolatry And the Lord said unto the Children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the Children of Ammon and from the Philistins The Zidonians also and the Amalekites and Maonites did oppress you and ye cryed unto me and I delivered you out of their hand yet you 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 This incensed God so highly against them that they still relaps'd into the same Sin of Idolatry after so many afflictions and so many deliverances Upon such an occasion well might the Prophet say Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy sins shall reprove thee know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God It is hardly possible but we should know that the wickedness for which we have been so severely corrected is an evil and bitter thing Thus much for the first part of the Observation namely that it is a fearful aggravation of Sin after great Judgments and great deliverances to return to Sin and especially to the same Sins again I proceed to the Second part namely That this is a fatal presage of ruin to a People Should we again break thy Commandments and join in affinity with the People of these abominations wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping And so God threatens the People of Israel in the Text which I cited before wherefore I will deliver you no more Wherefore that is because they would neither be reform'd by the Afflictions wherewith God had exercised them nor by the many wonderful Deliverances which he had wrought for them And there is great reason why God should deal thus with a People that continues impenitent both under the Judgments and Mercies of God 1. Because this doth ripen the Sins of a Nation and it is time for God to put in his Sickle when a People are ripe for ruin When the
Sir Thomas Pilkington Lord-Mayor of the City of London AND THE Court of Aldermen MY LORD IN Obedience to Your Commands I have publish'd this Sermon lately preach'd before You and do now humbly present you with it heartily wishing it may have that good effect for the reformation of our Lives and reconciliation of our unhappy Differences which was sincerely intended by MY LORD Your most Faithful and Humble Servant JOHN TILLOTSON The way to prevent the Ruin of a Sinful People Jeremiah VI. 8 Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited THese Words are a merciful warning from God to the People of Israel by the Prophet Jeremiah the last Prophet that God sent to them before their Captivity in Babylon The time of his Prophecy was of a long continuance above the space of forty years viz. from the thirteenth year of King Josiah to the eleventh year of King Zedekiah the year in which Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon This I observe to shew the great patience of God to a sinful Nation And this is much the same space of time that God gave warning by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles to the same People of the Jews concerning their final Destruction For it was about forty years after the Prediction of our Saviour concerning it just before his Death that the terrible Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation was executed upon them by the Romans or rather chiefly by themselves as I shall presently shew Of which dreadful Desolation the first taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and their Captivity into Babylon was a kind of Type and Forerunner For as Josephus observes the taking of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian did happen in the very same Month and on the very same Day of the Month in which Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar viz. upon our tenth of August And it is not unworthy of our observation that the time of God's warning is wont to hold some sort of proportion with the extent of his Judgments Before the universal Deluge which destroyed the whole World Noah and his Family only excepted God gave a much longer warning by the preaching of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty years Before the destruction of a particular Nation if we may judge by God's dealing with the Jews his time of warning is forty years And before the destruction of a particular City if we may conclude any thing from the single example of Niniveh the time of God's warning is yet much shorter the space of forty days And now to what end doth God exercise so much patience and threaten so long beforehand but that by the terror of his threatnings men may be brought to repentance and by repentance may prevent the execution of them For all the while that God by his Prophet threatens ruin and destruction to the People of Israel he earnestly invites and urges them to repentance that by this means they might escape the ruin that was denounced against them This being a condition perpetually implyed in the denunciation of publick judgments that if a People repent of the evil of their doings God also will repent of the evil which he said he would do unto them as he expresly declares chap. 18. vers 7 8. At what instant I speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounc'd turn from their evil I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them And here in the Text after God had threaten'd destruction to Jerusalem because of the overflowing of all manner of wickedness and oppression in the midst of her he gives her a merciful warning to prevent this ruin and desolation by repentance vers 6 7. Thus hath the Lord of Hosts said Hew ye down trees and cast a mount against Jerusalem this is a City to be visited she is wholly oppression in the midst of her As a fountain casteth out waters so she casteth out her wickedness Before me continually is grief and wounds And yet when he had pronounced this fearful Sentence upon her he tells her that all this misery and desolation might yet be prevented if they would but hearken to the counsel of God and be instructed by him concerning the things of their peace For so it follows in the next words Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a land not inhabited Be thou instructed O Jerusalem that is do but now at last take that counsel and warning which hath so often and so long been tender'd to thee by my servant the Prophet who hath now for the space of forty years continually and that with great earnestness and importunity been warning thee of this danger and calling thee to repentance and a better mind Lest my soul depart from thee In the Hebrew it is Lest my soul be loosened and disjointed from thee as it is in the margin of your Bibles hereby signifying in the most emphatical manner the wonderful affection and kindness which God had for his People and how strongly his soul was link'd to them and how loth he was to withdraw his love from them it was like the tearing off of a limb or the plucking of a joint in sunder so unwilling is God to come to extremity so hardly is he brought to resolve upon the ruin even of a sinful Nation How much rather would he that they would be instructed and receive correction and hearken to the things of their peace But if they will not be persuaded if no warning will work upon them his spirit will not always strive with them but his soul will at last though with great unwillingness and reluctancy depart from them And then no intercession will prevail for them as he threatens by the same Prophet chap. 15. verse 1. Then said the Lord unto me though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet my mind could not be towards this People cast them out of my sight and let them go forth away with them into Captivity for they have lost my heart and no intercession of others for them nothing but their own repentance can recover it And when his Soul is once departed from a People and his heart turn'd against them then all sorts of evils and calamities will be let loose upon them as we may read in the next verse of that Chapter And it shall come to pass if they say unto thee whither shall we go forth Then shalt thou tell them Thus saith the Lord such as are for death to death and such as are for the sword to the sword and such as are for the famine to the famine and such as are for the captivity to the captivity For then God will be weary of repenting as he tells them verse 6. Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou art
their gross and stupid infidelity and horrible ingratitude to God their Saviour and all their rebellious murmurings and discontents yet he suffer'd their manners for the space of forty years And when they were at last peaceably settled in the promised Land notwithstanding their frequent relapses into Idolatry with what patience did God expect their repentance and the result of all the merciful messages and warnings given them from time to time by his Prophets as one that earnestly desir'd it and even long'd for it O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee that is how long wilt thou delude thy self with vain hopes of escaping the judgments of God by any other way than by repentance And again O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be And chap. 8. ver 6. says God there I hearkened and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying What have I done Where God is represented after the manner of men waiting with great patience as one that would have been glad to have heard any penitent word drop from them to have seen any sign of their repentance and return to a better mind And when they made some shews of repentance and had some fits of good resolution that did presently vanish and come to nothing how passionately does God complain of their fickleness and inconstancy O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away And at last when nothing would do with what difficulty and reluctancy does God deliver them up into the hands of their Enemies How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Judah How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not destroy Ephraim What a conflict is here what tenderness and yerning of his bowels towards them He cannot find in his heart to give them up till he is forced to it by the last necessity And when the Nation of the Jews after their return from the Captivity of Babylon had in the course of several Ages greatly corrupted themselves and fill'd up the measure of their sins by crucifying the Lord of Life and Glory yet how slow was the patience of God in bringing that fatal and final Destruction upon them Not till after the most merciful warnings given to them by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour not till after the most obstinate impenitency of forty years under the most powerful means of repentance that any People in the World ever enjoyed I proceed to the Second Observation from the Text namely What is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the ruin of a sinful People And that is if they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God to become wiser and better then his soul will not depart from them and he will not bring upon them the desolation threatned Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee and I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited intimating or rather plainly declaring to us that if we will receive instruction and take warning the evil threaten'd shall not come For what other reason can there be why God should threaten so long before he strikes and so earnestly press men to repentance but that he might have the opportunity to spare them and to shew mercy to them And indeed as I observ'd before all the denunciations and threatnings of God to a sinful Nation do carry this tacit condition in them that if that Nation turn from their evil ways God will repent of the evil which he thought to do unto them For God never passeth so irrevocable a Sentence upon a Nation as to exclude the case of repentance Nay on the contrary He gives all imaginable encouragement to it and is always ready to meet it with a pardon in his hand How often would I have gathered thee says our merciful Lord when he wept over Jerusalem as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not therefore your House is left unto you desolate God is very merciful to particular persons upon their repentance When the Prodigal Son in the Parable after all his riot and lewdness came to himself and resolv'd to return home his Father seeing him yet afar off coming towards him came out to meet him and had compassion on him and kissed him And can any of us be so obstinate and hard-hearted as not presently to resolve to repent and return and to meet the compassions of such a Father Who after we have offended him to the uttermost is upon the first discovery of our repentance ready to be as kind to us as he could possibly have been if we had never offended him And much more is God ready to receive a Nation upon their sincere Repentance when his Judgments must needs make great havock and so many are like to suffer under them This consideration God urgeth and pleads with his froward Prophet in behalf of the great City of Niniveh And shall not I spare that great City of Niniveh wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern their right hand from their left that is so many innocent children by which we may judge of the vast number of the rest of the Inhabitants For this is a great consideration with God in his sending of publick Calamities the multitude of the Sufferers and that not only the guilty but the innocent also without a special and miraculous Providence must be involved in a common Calamity Sometimes God respites his Judgments upon the mere external humiliation of a People and some formal testimonies and expressions of their repentance When the People of Israel sought God and enquired early after him though they did but flatter him with their mouth and their heart was not right with him yet the Psalmist tells us that being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not that is he forgave them so far as to respite their ruin And much more will a sincere and effectual Repentance stay God's hand and infallibly turn him from the fierceness of his anger Insomuch that after he had fix'd and determin'd the very Day for the destruction of Niniveh and had engaged the credit of his Prophet in it yet as soon as he saw their works and that they turned from their evil ways and how glad was he to see it he presently repented of the evil which he had said he would do unto them and he did it not In this case God does not stand upon the reputation of his Prophet by whom he had sent so peremptory a message to them but his mercy
gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and deliver thee I am weary of repenting By our obstinate impenitency we harden the heart of God against us and make him weary of repenting And when his soul is thus departed from a People nothing remains but a fearful expectation of ruin Wo unto them saith God by the Prophet when I depart from them Therefore be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited Having given this account of the Words I shall observe from them three things well worth our consideration First The infinite goodness and patience of God towards a sinful People and his great unwillingness to bring ruin and destruction upon them lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited How loth is He that things should come to this extremity He is not without great difficulty and some kind of violence as it were offered to himself brought to this severe resolution his soul is as it were rent and disjointed from them Secondly You see here what is the only proper and effectual means to prevent the misery and ruin of a sinful People If they will be instructed and take warning by the threatnings of God and will become wiser and better then his soul will not depart from them he will not bring upon them the desolation which he hath threatned Thirdly You have here intimated the miserable case and condition of a People when God takes off his affection from them and gives over all further care and concernment for them Wo unto them when his soul departs from them For when God once leaves them then all sorts of evils and calamities will break in upon them I shall speak as briefly as I can to these three Observations from the Text. First I observe the infinite patience and goodness of God towards a sinful People and his great unwillingness to bring ruin and destruction upon them lest my soul depart from thee lest I make thee desolate a Land not inhabited How loth is God that things should come to this He is very patient to particular persons notwithstanding their great and innumerable provocations God is strong and patient though men provoke him every day And much greater is his patience to whole Nations and great Communities of men How great was it to the old World when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty years And did not expire till he saw that the wickedness of man was grown great upon the earth and that all flesh had corrupted its way not till it was necessary to drown the World to cleanse it and to destroy Mankind to reform it by beginning a new World upon the only righteous Family that was left of all the last generation of the Old For so God testifies concerning Noah when he commanded him to enter into the Ark saying Come thou and all thy house into the Ark for thee that is thee only have I seen righteous before me in this Generation The patience of God was great likewise to Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them For when the cry of their sins had reached heaven and called loud for vengeance to be poured down upon them to express the wonderful patience of God towards such grievous Sinners though nothing is hid from his sight and knowledge yet he is represented as coming down from Heaven to Earth on purpose to enquire into the truth of things and whether they were altogether according to the cry that was come up to him And when he found things as bad as was possible yet then was he willing to have come almost to the lowest terms imaginable that if there had been but ten righteous persons in those wicked Cities he would not have destroy'd them for the ten 's sake Nay he seems to come to lower terms yet with the City of Jerusalem Jer. 5.1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it What can be imagin'd more slow and mild and merciful than the proceedings of the Divine justice against a sinful People God is represented in Scripture as taking a long time to make ready his bow and to whet his glittering sword before his hand takes hold of vengeance as if the instruments of his wrath lay by him blunt and rusty and unready for use Many a time he threatens and many a time lifts up his hand before he gives the fatal blow And how glad is he when any good man will step in and interpose to stay his hand As we read Psal 106.23 Therefore he said speaking of the People of Israel that he would destroy them had not Moses his servant stood in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them And how kindly doth God take it of Phinehas as a most acceptable piece of service done to him and which he hardly knew how sufficiently to reward that he was a means of putting a stop to his anger against the People of Israel Insomuch that the Psalmist tells us that it was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations for evermore I will recite the whole passage at large because it is remarkable When the People of Israel were seduced into Idolatry and Whoredom by the Daughters of Moab Phinehas in great zeal stood up and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi in the very act By which means the Plague which was broken out upon the Congregation of Israel was presently stayed Hear what God says to Moses concerning this act of Phinehas The Lord spake unto Moses saying Phinehas the son of Eleazer the son of Aaron the Priest hath turned away my wrath from the Children of Israel whilst he was zealous for my sake that I consumed them not Wherefore say Behold I give unto him my Covenant of peace and he shall have it and his seed after him even the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the Children of Israel That which God takes so kindly at his hands next to his zeal for Him is that he pacified God's wrath towards the Children of Israel And thus did God from time to time deal with the People of Israel that great Example of the Old Testament of the merciful methods of the Divine Providence towards a sinful Nation And an Example as St. Paul tells us purposely recorded for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Let us therefore consider a little the astonishing patience of God towards that perverse People After all the signs and wonders which he had wrought in their deliverance out of Egypt and for their support in the Wilderness and notwithstanding