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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09970	The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.; Glover, George, b. ca. 1618, engraver.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Ball, Thomas, 1589 or 90-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 20227; ESTC S112474	187,142	312

THE GOLDEN SCEPTER with The Churches Marriage And THE CHURCHES CARRIAGE In three Treatissis BY The late Learned Divine IOHN PRESTON D r. in D. Chap in Ordinary to his Ma tie M r. of Emmanuell Colledge in Cambridge And sometime Preacher of Lincolnes Inne London Printed by R. Badger for N. Bourne A. Boler R. Harford sould at y e Royall Exchange at y e Marigold in Paules Chu yard at y e Bible in Queens head Alley in Pater Noster Row 1639 THE GOLDEN SCEPTER held forth to the humble VVITH THE CHVRCHES DIGNITIE by her Marriage AND THE CHVRCHES DVTIE in her Carriage In three Treatises The former delivered in sundry Sermons in Cambridge for the weekely Fasts 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne By the late learned and reverend Divine IOHN PRESTON D r. in Divinity Chaplaine in Ordinary to His Majesty M r. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and somtime Preacher at Lincolnes Inne PSALM 45 6. Thy throne O GOD is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdome is a right scepter IER 3. 14. Returne O back-sliding children for I am married unto you HOS 2. 7. I will goe and returne unto my first husband for then it was better with me than now LON●ON Printed by R. Badger for N Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the gilt BIBLE in Queenes-head Alley in Pater-noster Row and by F. Eglesfield at the MARIGOLD in PAULS Church-yard 1638. TO THE TRVLY VERTVOVS AND RELIGIOVS Gentleman RICHARD KNIGHTLEY Esquire SIR IT hath beene our custome hitherto who were deputed by the Author to this service to inscribe or dedicate the severall tractates wee have put forth to some or other of his speciall friends as proofs of our fidelity in discharging of the trust reposed in us and speciall emblemes of the Authours great abilities For if in every triviall and small Epistle a man do exarare animam imprint upon the paper some peeces of his soule he doth it much more doubtlesse in his studied exercises wherein he cannot but conceive his memory may live and some part of himselfe be kept alive and sweet to all posterity If he could say non omnis moriar because he was a Poet and think his Poem perennius aere a monument that time it selfe would not be able to divoure how much more may he say it that drawes himselfe unto the life in an immortall Dye and writes such characters as are not subject to decay and perish For all flesh is grasse and all the glory of man as the flower of grasse the grasse withereth and the flower falleth away but the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospell is preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. 24 25. Seeing therefore it hath pleased God to preserve these peeces yet alive and after long deferring and desiring to produce and bring them forth to publike view we have thought good in a prime and speciall manner to entitle you unto them and to send them out unto the world under the covert and shadow of your name For seeing it pleased the Authour to choose your habitation wherein to put off and lay up his then decaying and declining body why should it not bee proper and convenient to send these living and surviving peeces of his soule for to attend it considering especially how much his body heretofore had waited on his soule which otherwise in humane probabilitie might still have beene alive Neither is there any doubt but these vigorous and usefull breathings of his spirit wil find accesse and entertainment where his languid and at last his breathlesse body did Especially these which may more properly be counted his than any thing that hitherto hath seene the light and this wee dare be bold to say for these that none of them did more expresse the Authour to the life Those that did either know him in his life time or since have much and frequently perused his writings shall find these three things every where occurring The foulenesse of sinne the freenesse of grace and the fulnesse of duty which in other peeces onely scattered and sparkling here and there are here collected under proper heads and handled so professedly and clearely as nothing more concerning them can be desired In the first are the danger and deformity of sin driving the spouse to sad and low expressions of her selfe as those virgins were commanded Deut. 21. 11 12 13. Even to shave her head and pare her nailes and bewaile her father and her mother that is her naturall and inbred evils and corruptions In the second is the glorious freenesse of the grace of Christ receiving this dejected and humbled captive unto favour and with that great King Hest. 5. 2. reaching forth the Golden Scepter of his love and mercy to her not onely to the pardon and forgivenesse of all her sin but intitling also of her unto all things for all things are hers whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things prosent or things to come all are hers because she is Christs 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. In the third the fulnesse of her duty is prest upon her for the grace of God that bringeth salvation doth no sooner appeare to any man but it teacheth to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. that as before Ahasuerus had the virgins purified that were to approach his bed with various and costly powders and perfumes Hest. 2. 12 c. so Christ when once the soule is faithfully espoused unto him perfumes and washes her in his most precious bloud and beautifies her with variety of graces that he may present her to himselfe a glorious Spouse not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blame Eph. 5. 27. And now what rests but that these Treatises crave shadow protection from you nay owne you for their Patron Doth not the low and humble posture of your mind intitle you unto the first your high opinion of free grace unto the second and your holy and spotlesse carriage to the third Having so just a title besides other ingagements by this threefold clayme 't is but justice to call your name upon it and by your acceptance of it you shall shew friendship to this Posthume and especially oblige Your already much obliged and ingaged THOMAS GOODVVIN THOMAS BALL The Contents of the first Treatise Doct. 1. GOd afflicts his owne people 3 Reas. 1. Because he loves them 4 2. That his name be not blasphemed Ibid. 3. He will be sanctified in those that draw neare him Ibid. 4. He walks among them 5 Vse 1. To feare the Lord. 6 2. Want of feare provoketh God 13 3. Gods severity to wicked men 18 4. Not to think strange that God afflicts his 19 Doct. 2. God pities his people in affliction 20 Reas. 1. He is

goe and humble my selfe I will goe home to God and change my course and give up my selfe to him and serve him and this we shall finde in these examples mentioned before especially of the Prodigall Luk. 15. he came to this conclusion If I stay here I dye for hunger but in my fathers house there is bread enough here was hope that bred this resolution I will goe home and say to my father I have sinned against heaven and against thee c. here was that true humiliation we speake of So Manasses hee humbled himselfe greatly out of an hope of mercy for a man comes not to this active humiliation wherein he kindly humbleth himselfe unlesse hee hath hope of mercy and the beginning of faith is with a hope of mercy which sets a man a worke to goe to God and say Lord I have committed such and such sinnes but I will returne to them no more I am worthy of nothing Now there are foure severall compositions or foure paires of ingredients that have influence into this second kind of humiliation to cause us to humble our selves 1 Payr an hope of mercy as wel as a sence of misery that whereas before wee did looke upon God as a severe Judge we looke now on him as one willing to receive us both are requisite Sence of misery onely brings a man but to himselfe as the Prodigall first is said to come to himselfe but hope of mercy joyned with it drives a man home to God as it did also him without which sence of misery drives us from the LORD but hope of mercy being added to it causeth this active humiliation wee speake of whereby wee say I will goe and humble my selfe 2 Payre of ingredients are the sence of our own emptinesse together with an apprehension of that Alsufficiency that is in God which we also may see in the Prodigall when he said I shall starve and die if I stay here but in my fathers house is bread enough he lookt to that alsufficient fulnesse that was in God to supply his wants The creature whilst it findeth any thing in it selfe it will stand upon its owne bottome and not bee humbled but when it finds nothing in its selfe but emptinesse then it beginneth to seeke out for a bottome which it seeing to be in God alone it goes out to him for men will not be drawne off from their owne bottome till they see another bottome to stand upon 3 There must bee a sence of a mans owne sinfulnesse and the LORD JESUS his righteousnesse and so a light comes in that discovereth both thus when S. Paul was humbled there was a light shone about him which was an outward symbole of that new light which shone within him of Christ and his owne sinfulnesse A sence of the love of God and Christ joyned with the sence of a mans unkindnesse unto God whereby wee looke upon sinnes as injuries done to God and an unkindnesse shewne therein And now let us see the difference betwixt these two works or parts of humiliation that wee may further understand what it is to humble our selves And first they differ in the matter they are conversant about in that first a man is humbled properly but for the punishment a man indeed is humbled for sinne yet principally as it hath relation to punishment it is guilt works on him he is not humbled for sin as it is contrary to God and his holinesse but as contrary to himself and his own good and thus we are not humbled till we come to love God and to have a light discovering the holines and purity of his nature which one that is savingly humbled hath wrought in him They differ in their grounds and principles whence they arise The first ariseth but from selfe-love and is but a worke of nature though thus farre a worke of God to stirre up self-love by the sence of misery and to awaken it but so as any unreasonable creature if in danger useth to be sensible of it and what wonder then is it for a man when hee begins to have some sence of hel and death let into his conscience to be wounded and apprehensive of it but the other ariseth from the love of God kindled in the heart by hope of grace and mercy They differ in the instrumental causes that work them the one is wrought by the spirit of bondage by an enlightning meerly to see his bondage and the soule is as one that is in bondage fearing God as a master and he hath no further light than thus to see God as a Judge but this other is wrought by the spirit of adoption making the Gospell also effectuall discovering God as a father They differ in their effects as The one driveth a man from GOD but this latter causeth a man to goe to GOD and to seeke Christ it workes that affection to Christ that the Church in the Canticles had to him who would not give over seeking him till she had found him whom her soule did love Though there bee twenty obstacles in the way yet the soule hath no rest as a stone hath no rest till it bee in its owne center so nor this soule thus humbled but in God and therfore gives not over seeking him though it hath never so many denyalls The first breeds death an acedia a deadnesse and listlesnesse it makes a man as a log that moves not to God in prayer So it wrought in Nabal and Achitophel it breeds such discouragement as often ends in death Of worldly sorrow and such is all sorrow whereof God is not the end commeth death but when it is right and true and kindly sorrow for sinne it doth that which an affection should doe it quickneth him to doe that which he ought to do so feare when it is right worketh and so all other affections which were put into the soule for that end that it might bee stirred up by them to that which it should doe for GOD and its owne good and therefore this affection of sorrow for sinne quickens a man to seeke out to God when it is right The first breeds a fiercenesse and turbulency in a mans spirit as we see often in men whose consciences are awakned to see their sinnes they are fiercer then they were before for guilt of sin vexeth their spirits and where there is no sence of mercy from God there is none to men but hee that is broken for sinne spends his anger upon himselfe frets chiefly for his owne vilenesse and unworthinesse and the Peace of God which his heart hath a sence of makes his spirit gentle and peaceable and easie to be entreated and perswaded bring him Scripture and a child may lead him and perswade him The rough wayes are made smooth the rough and froward dispositions of the heart and every Mountaine-like affection cast downe as it is said they were by Saint

mee doe said hee then and hee was as good as his word Therefore take knowledge you that doe fall away what the defect hath beene and wherein for that will bee a meanes to set you right and recover you againe 3 Property of Humiliation is to have all the affections moderate all delights in worldly things faint and remisse and all his affections taken chiefly up about grace and sinne True affection in him wil eate up the false He esteemeth spirituall things at a high rate and all other things as little Aske such an one what of all things else he would desire and he will tell you Christ and the favour of God and the graces of the Spirit and to have his lusts mortified and his sinnes pardoned and that hee passeth not for the things of this life hee cares not in comparison whether he bee poore or rich bond or free notwithstanding if hee may have a better con dition hee will use it rather as a man that is condemned to die little regards hee his estate or the things of this life his apprehensions are taken up with greater things give him his pardon and take al else So here one truly humbled counts the favour of God so great as he esteemes all things else light in comparison When therefore men are violent in their affections towards worldly things and in their desires and delights in them and endeavours after them it is a signe they are not humbled 4 Property is to love God and Christ much Mary loved much because much was forgiven her that is not simply that much was forgiven her but because withal she had a sence of it apprehended it as much and her sin great by a worke of humiliation and so apprehended it a great matter to be pardoned And so a man having once apprehended death and hell and the wrath of GOD as belonging to him and God comes on a suddaine and tells him thou shalt live when his necke was on the blocke and hee expected nothing but death this causeth a man to love GOD much and to prize CHRIST and this made Saint Paul also to love CHRIST so much that the love of Christ constrained him because I was a persecuter and a blasphemer and he died for me forgave me a great debt Hee that is truly humbled will bee content with any condition as the Prodigall sonne I am content to be as an hired servant sayes hee and am unworthy to bee called a sonne any more hee was content to doe the worke of a servant to live in the condition of a servant to have the lowest place in all the familie And so Saint Paul look'd on himselfe as the least of all the Saints thought hee could never lay himselfe low enough Now this contentednesse is exercised about two things In a contentednesse in the want of these outward good things when a man is content with the meanest services and the least wages to want wealth and credit and gifts as Iacob being truly humbled I am lesse than the least of thy mercies whereas an other man that is not humbled when hee lookes upon himselfe and GODS mercies hee enjoyes he thinking highly of himself thinkes himselfe too big for them and that the disproportion is rather on his side whereas Iacob though he then had many mercies yet said take the least mercie and lay it in one scale and my selfe in an other and I am too light for it lesse than it and it too much for me It is exercised in bearing crosses One that is truly humbled still blesseth GOD as Iob and beares and accepts the punishment of his iniquity willingly and cherefully as we see it made a condition Lev. 26. 41. If their uncircumcised heart be humbled and they beare or accept the punishment of their iniquity if the Lord lay upon him a sharpe disease say the plague disreputation poverty yet hee beareth it willingly and chearefully for when a man thinkes in earnest that which is said Ezech. 36. that hee is worthy to be destroyed whatsoever befalls him from God which is lesse than destruction hee blesseth God for it and rejoyceth that he escapeth so The humble man therefore is in all conditions contented alwayes chearefull and blessing God if he hath good things they are more then he is worthy of if evill though never so sharpe yet they are lesse than destruction and then he deserves when as an unbroken heart is alwayes turbulent and thinkes in the secret murmurings of his heart that he is not well dealt with I should come now to the application of this Doctrine but before I must resolve a case and scruple which doth use to trouble the hearts of many The Case in question is whether to right and true humiliation it be necessary that such a solemne humiliation and such a measure of sorrow and violent Legall contrition goe before it There is a double kind of sorrow wrought in the hearts of men the one is a violent tumultuous sorrow which ariseth from the apprehension of hell and punishment the ground whereof is self-love and is commonly in those who are suddainely enlightened and so amazed therewith being taken on the suddaine as wee see in Saint Paul who was taken suddainely as hee was going to Damascus and it was discovered to him that hee was guilty of so great a sinne as he could never have imagined a voyce from heaven to strike his eares on the suddaine why persecutest thou me And this wee find by experience to have beene in many who never have true humiliation as wee see in Iudas God indeed sometimes useth it to bring men to humiliation as he did in Saint Paul But again we find in experience in some a cleaving to God and holinesse of life and a constant care to please him in all things without this violent vexing sorrow and many that have had their hearts deeply wounded amazed affrighted and have therupon taken up great purposes which have come to nothing the ground whereof having beene a violent passion as that the roote withered so the fruit withered also but a true apprehension and conviction of sin as in it selfe the greatest misery is more reall and drawes the heart nearer to Christ so that in this case we may say of these two sorts as Christ said of those who were bidden to goe into the vineyard They that said they would goe did not and others that said they would not goe yet went and therefore wee answer that it is not alwayes necessary to have such a violent sorrow or that a man should lie any long time in such an evident sence of wrath though alwayes there is a right apprehension of sin which doth humble a man which will appeare by these considerations 1 That is not alwayes the greatest sorrow that is thus violent though it seeme to bee so it is not alwayes the greatest sorrow which melteth into teares as that is

it serves to make thee willing to match with Christ Wee are Christs spokes-men and woo you every Sabbath day but wee finde all the world like them who thinke themselves beautifull and rich and that they have matches enow who though they are contented to have Christ for their husband in Heaven yet not on the earth with all those crosses they must take him with Now humiliation comes and makes men willing when a man comes to see and say I have no such thing in mee as I imagined no riches c. but I am in debt and shall be arrested and laid in prison and my life must goe for it unlesse Christ will marry mee in that a man sees hee shall be kept from all arrests by him this makes a man willing to match with Christ yea glad though he have many crosses follow in this life upon the marriage Now therefore if thou findest this wrought that thou canst sincerely say I am willing to take Christ and to bee subject to him in all things to follow him in all conditions to give a full consent to take him as I finde that hee in the word hath a full consent to take mee then certainely thou art humbled else not if thou hadst taken him onely in a fit and not out of Judgement thou wouldest have repented thee ere now The second end which humiliation serves to is for Sanctification as the other helpt him in his Justification that every unruly lust may bee broken and mortified in thee that thou mightest feare to offend and bee plyable to the Lord in every thing whereas another that is unbroken quarrells with every thing thinkes his worke too much and his wages too little and knowes not why he should goe a contrary way to the world but an humbled man will doe all this chearefully like a broken Horse that turnes at every check of the bridle when another casts his Rider Doest thou finde that thou tremblest at the word and fearest sinne and darest not venture in it and so for duties thou darest not neglect them and this thou hast experience of in the whole course of thy life then surely this worke of humiliation hath beene in thy heart Though thou seest not the fire yet if thou findst the heate it hath beene there for these are the effects of it and as I speake this for the comfort of those that have not felt such violent sorrows so let mee on the contrary say to others who it may bee have had such fits of sorrow yet if thou find an unwillingnes to submit thus to Christ findest thy necke stiffe to the Lords yoke and such an unbrokennesse in thee that thou canst not live without satisfying this or that lust but canst sin and beare it out well enough let thy sorrow have beene never so great and now they are past and gone and were not right let men therefore examine themselves by the effects for men are deceived on both sides and then 1 Vse is for exhortation to stirre up to the dutie This exhortation I direct to two sorts of men first to those who are already truly humbled and secondly to strangers to it First you that are already humbled and have obtained the assurance of the forgivenesse of your sins you must be humbled more for if the Lord suspend his promise at this then the duty is to be done daily When God requires a dutie of Sanctification and his promises are made onely to such there can bee none excuse there may bee a let in preparative humiliation a man may bee swallowed of two much sorrow but not in this which is a duty of sanctification and know this that all degrees of grace arise from the degrees of this true Humiliation which I make good to you thus Faith and Love are the great radicall graces all elseare but branches springing out of them Now they are strengthened by this humiliation and graces the more they grow there is an addition still made to them as there is an addition made to our humiliation First for Faith know that the more strongly a man layes hold on CHRIST and prizeth him the more he goes on to apprehend his sinne and is emptied of himselfe and though a man tooke CHRIST truly at his first conversion yet there are degrees of prizing him when a husband takes a wife though at their feast marriage there was such love betweene them as they would have chosen each other before any other in the world yet so as this their love may admit degrees after marriage they may see more grounds of loving each other more so that though the match is made yet they may be more confirmed in their choice which may be made more full and absolute So towards Christ the will and affections may be wound up to a higher peg which is done by a further degree of humiliation What is faith but a laying hold of Christ Now the emptier the hand is the further hold it takes and the more we are taken off our own bottome the further we will cleave to Christ. A man in a river that is like to be drowned and hath a rope cast to him he wil be sure to catch as fast hold as hee can you shall not need to bid him And to this end it is that Christians are still taught more and more by the spirit to see the vanity of the creature the vilenesse of their natures and they are led through this wildernesse to humble them that so Christ may have the higher place in their hearts Againe the greater the thirst is the greater will a mans draught be and the more you adde to your humiliation the more will your thirst bee after Christ and you will drinke deeper of the fountaine of life and draw more sap from him And secondly it increaseth your love for thereby wee come to see our selves more beholding to God as having a greater debt forgiven us What made Mary love much but because shee was sensible much was forgiven her Therefore labour more and more to bee humbled especially as you fall into new sinnes which the Lord oft lets him to doe that they might bee humbled more and the more light a Christian gets to discover his owne vilenesse and the vanity of the creature the stronger he will grow in grace and the more established in well doing Now secondly for those that are strangers to this grace of Humiliation that they may come to be humbled let them observe these two rules First labour to see the greatnesse of sin Secondly to see your owne weaknesse and unability to helpe your selves for the first doe not weigh sin by common opinion but in a right ballance doe not doe with your soules as some doe with their bodies when their beautie is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses and from others by painting so do we for the most part

as you are should not bee saved Hereby the bloud of Christ is improved that it is sprinkled on many for great sinnes Thinke not therefore that God is backward to pardon Psal. 130. 3 4. There are two arguments more to helpe us in this If hee should marke what is done amisse who should stand none should be saved Now it is not his will that all flesh should perish and therefore hee will not take the advantage to cast men cleane off for their sinnes againe none else would worship him There is mercy with thee that thou mayest bee feared It is his full purpose to have some servants to feare and worship him Yea shall I goe further God is not onely ready to forgive but desirous of it yea hee is glad at the heart when a great sinner doth come in which is noted to us in the Parable of the lost sheepe and the lost groat how did the woman rejoyce for the finding of her groat and the Shepheard for his sheepe And likewise in the Parable of the lost Sonne how glad was hee when he heard that his Sonne was comming home that yet had lived riotously and spent his goods it was to shew that GOD was so affected when a great sinner returnes to him Besides he doth not onely say if you will come I keepe open house I will not shut you out but inviteth them calleth them yea more sends his ministers to fetch them in yea more entreateth beseecheth commandeth threatneth But you will say is it possible that I should bee forgiven that have committed so many sinnes so great so hainous and continued so long in them Yes it is possible for you Marke that place 1 Cor. 6. 9. Hee reckons up as great sinnes as can bee named And such were some of you but now you are washed You see what kind of people there were forgiven whence wee may gather that those that are guilty of those sinnes now may bee forgiven as well as then such were some of you Whosoever thou art it is no matter what thou hast beene all the matter is what thou wilt bee Put case any of the old Prophets should come to thee or any man in particular and say wilt thou bee content now to turne to GOD if thou wilt all thy sinnes shall bee washt away and thou shalt bee made an heire of Heaven it would cause him that hath any ingenuity to relent and say LORD canst thou now bee so mercifull to mee as to forgive mee after all this loe LORD I will come in and turne unto thee I aske thee this question whether art thou content to quit all thy sinnes presently upon assurance of being received if thou dost if thou answerest no art thou not worthy to bee destroyed if yes is not this great comfort But some may say if heaven gate stand thus wide open I may come and bee welcome at any time Thou vile wretch that darest to have such a thought Dost thou not know that every such refusall of such an offer is so dangerous as it may put thee into hazard of never having the like againe If the gate of heaven stood thus alwayes open why then did God sweare in his wrath of some Israelites that they should never enter into his rest and what is the reason that God said of those that were invited to the feast but refused to come that they should never taste of it The reason is there given it is said the master of the feast was full of wrath at the refusall of his offer both because his love and kindnesse was despised that filleth a man with indignation and so the Lord and also because the thing offered was of so much price it being the kingdome of heaven and the precious bloud of Christ. Therefore whensoever such an offer is made and refused God is exceeding angry There goes an axe and a sword with this offer to cut downe every tree that will not bring forth good fruit Say not when you heare of this offer I am glad there is such a thing I will accept of it another time but it comes too soone for mee now Consider this that the end of the comming of the Lord Iesus was not onely to save the soules of men if onely so then indeed this might have beene done at any time even at the last but his end also was Titus 2. 14. That he mtght purifie to himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes ' which is a greater end than that which went before in the verse to redeeme us from all iniquity to purchase to himselfe a people that should serve him in their life time and canst thou thinke that thou that hast served thy lusts all thy life time shalt yet bee accepted at death It is a common saying with you that if a man bee called at the eleventh houre hee shall be received 't is true if thou beest called then first and not before as the thiefe who was not call'd afore was then accepted but what if thou hast beene call'd afore and hast not accepted but put off till death thy case then will bee exceeding dangerous Againe I aske thee what is it makes thee resolve to come in at death If love to Christ then it would sooner if to thy selfe how shall such conversion be accepted Come we now to the last words And I will heale their land WE have these three points may be observed out of them 1. That all calamities and troubles proceede from sinne this I note from the order of the words hee first forgives their sinnes then heales their land 2. That if calamities bee removed and sinnes be not forgiven they are removed in judgement not in mercy 3. That if sinne bee once forgiven the calamity will soone be taken away For the first all calamity is from sinne troubles from transgression In the chaine of evills sinne is the first linke that drawes on all the rest as grace is in the chaine of blessings and comforts Consider this in all kinds of judgements which wee may reduce to three heads 1. Temporall calamities about the things of this life they are all from sinne both publike and private What was the reason of Salomons troubles The Lord stirred up an adversary against him because hee departed from the Lord and had set up idolatry so the sword departed not from Davids house because of his sinne with Bathsheba and the murther of Vriah So Asa 2 Chron. 16. the Prophet tels him Hence forth thou shalt have warre because thou hast not rested on the Lord. I could give a hundred instances for this 2. Sort of judgements are spirituall which are much more grievous than the former when a man is given up to his lusts and to hardnesse of heart and this proceedeth from some other sinnes that went before and it is a sure rule that you never see a man given up to worke uncleannesse with greedinesse or to such open