was a type of Christ in whom God and man were reconciled God will now magnifie his mercy and patience so that * Multa in scriptura efferantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae tamen oportet intelligi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 20. Saepe illa Hebraea particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et graeca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in bibliis usurpatur adversative pro quamuis licet Tarn Exer. Bibl in 1 Sam. 2.25 though man be as sinfull as ever he was and deserves that the ground should be cursed again with another floud as well as ever he did yet God to shew the riches of his grace and mercy will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake though the imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth which leads me to the grounds of reason holden out in the next place The reasons of such Gods wonderfull dispensations somtimes are given in the text And first why he suspends his Judgements so unexpectedly and extraordinarily somtimes Reasons when yet a people do still provoke him even because he will be exalted in his mercy And therfore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you exaltabit Exalted se he shall stir up him self that he may have mercy as intending to show mercy with all his might When the psalmist would have God help the Church to purpose he intreats the Lord to stir up his strength and help her Psa 80.2 so when he intends here to be mercifull to purpose he will stir up himself Or exaltabitur parcendo vobis God shall be exalted in pardoning it shall appeare to be grandis clementia Dei as Hierom cals it when he pardoneth unexspectedly he lifts up his mercy above mens thoughts as far as the Heavens are above the Earth So in the Prophet God speaks of himself when he pardoneth aboundantly Isa 55.7.8.9 I will nor trouble you with the many other interpretations that are made of this phrase as that it signifies the exaltatiō of Gods hand in fimilitudinem percussuri as Oecolampadius or Gods going up again into Heaven from whence he was come down out of his place to punish them and the like The two first interpretations give you as I humbly conceive the genuine sense and mind of the words which holds out the reason of the point even that God may be the more exalted and set up in his mercy There is an ordinary course or path holden out in Scripture wherein divine justice and mercy do commonly proceed in punishing or in pardoning When a people sinne against God they shall be punished when a people repent of their sinne God will repent of their punishment and they shall be pardoned thus it is generally in Gods dispensations and because God hath not tyed or limitted himself to walke alwaies though he hath tyed us alwaies to waite upon and expect him in the way of his word for the dispensation of his justice and mercy there is also a way of Prerogative as I may call it wherein God may and sometimes doth dispense his mercy in reserved cases above the common rule Videtur miscricordiae limites transilire Theodo Suepsius he somtimes repents of punishing a people before they repent of sinning against him as you have heard in the proofe of the point and when he walks in such untrodden paths God is singularly exalted in his mercy these foure waies How God is exaleed in his mercy by such dispensations First In the principle of mercy I mean the goodnesse of his nature whereby he is so strongly so invincibly inclin'd to mercy that he will not retaine anger he will not be provoked somtimes though he be provoked by the sins of his people and this sets him up so incomparable high in the admiration of his people Mica 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage Mica 7.18 he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy According to what the Lord declared of himself to Moses when he made his glory to passe before him Exod. 34.6 The Lord God mercifull and gracious Exod. 24.6 long suffering and aboundant in goodnesse what goodnes is it that God will forbeare to strike in the midst of provocations The Prophet wholly ascribes the praise of our non destruction to that Lam. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3.22 because his compassions faile not What goodnes that the great God on whom all the creatures in Heaven and earth should waite should waite on his poore creatures Secondly by such extraordinary dispensations God is exalted in the freenesse of his mercy punishing lesse then we deserve is confessedly mercy Ezra 9.13 Ezr. 9.13 pardoning fully where punishment is deserved is yet more but how is mercy exalted when blessings are given instead of punishments I say not praeter meritum but contrameritum when there is not only nothing at all in the people to help forward but almost every thing in them that might hinder the exercise of mercy when all the arguments and motives to mercy must be drawn out of Gods own bowels God must needs be very glorious in the freenesse of it Thus God held out the gloriousnesse of his free mercy toward Israel when after their rejection he restores them what blessings he bestowes upon them Ezek. 36.11 Ezek. 36.11 I will setle you after your old estates and will do better to you then at the beginning The very materials of the blessings are large demonstrations of mercy even that he will do such great things for them but lest they should not see the full glory of his mercy toward them therein he presseth them to take notice that he would do these things freely ver 22. ver 22. Say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for my own holy Names sake which ye have prophaned among the heathen Thirdly God is hereby exalted in the richnesse of his mercy when a people continue in their provocations rebellions against God t is not a little mercy that can stand in the breach When Israel Num. 14.11.12 had very far provoked the Lord num 14.11.12 so that he spake of plaguing disinheriting them Moses prays ver 17.19 ver 17.19 That the Lords power may be great in pardoning and that he will pardon according to the greatnesse of his mercie the Lords great wrath was kindled therefore his power had need be great to keep it in When a man is thoroughly moved with anger there is much ado to keep in his passion that it break not out now nothing can be so provoking to stir up our anger as sin is to stirre up Gods displeasure against a people how great is that mercy then that can keep in divine wrath
And as he prayed that the power of the Lord might be great so he prayes that his mercy may not be little their great sinnes will need the greatnesse of his mercy Eph. 2.4.5 So the Apostle Eph. 2.4.5 when he mentions Gods reconciliation with man who was by nature a child of wrath and had nothing to pacifie but all in him rather to provoke God farther he presents God as rich in mercy and of great love that could love or think of being reconciled to him while yet he was dead in sinnes and trespasses whereby God may be the more exalted Fourthly God is hereby exalted in his faithfulnes that he doth performe his promisses of mercy to his people even when there lye so many and great obstructions and impediments in his way by the greatnesse of his peoples sinnes as many times there do This is the exaltatiō that some Expositors think is meant in the text Moller in locum ut fides eius in promissis testatior fiat apud omnes illustrior that God will break through all opposition to relieve his people with mercy when they are under the strongest holds of sin when he hath entred a Covenant with his people once though they be unfalthfull 't is his glory that hee abideth faithfull 2. Tim. 2.14 2 Tim. 2.13 if they turn aside into spirituall whoredome and Apostasie and well enough deserve a bill of divorce he will not cast them off but recover them by repentance and show mercy unto them according to his promise when he married them unto himself Ier. 3.14.15 Ier. 3.14.15 Turne O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married unto you and though you have broken Covenant with me I will make good my promise unto you I will take you and give you Pastors according to my heart How glorious is the exercise of mercy when this his faithfulnes takes hold of the Almighty if his people provoke him how is mercy exalted in the conflicts that are between justice and mercy in the turning of divine bowels Hos 11.8.9 Ho. 11.8.9 How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not man the holy One in the midst of thee The second Reason showes you why God waits upon a provoking people and doth not cut them off in his Justice because the Lord is a God of Judgement 1. Some take Judgement for Justice here and put the Emphasis upon the word God the God of Judgment Alvarez in locum Judicii Dominus saith Alvarez he may remit the punishment of sinne without showing a reason and spare the guilty if he please without offence to any Voluntas divina suprema lex The Judg of all the earth cannot but do right he is judicii Dominus the God of Judgement whereas if a man Judge should acquit the guilty and let them passe unpunished he should sinne against the Common-wealth and violate his own duty quia non est Judicii Dominus sed Domini vicarius 2. Some take Judgement here for moderation in punishing of sinners in a way of opposition to severity and wrath as Ier. 10.24 O Lord correct me Ier. 10.24 but with Judgement not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing God therefore waiteth upon sinners not only because he is slow to anger but also he moderates the execution of his Judgements I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished saith God to Iacob Jer. 30.11 Ier. 30.11 that his people may not be consumed under his correcting hand Gods wisdom to improve his waiting upon a sinfull people 3. Some take Judgement here for wisdome or spirituall prudence and discretion in God he waits upon a provoking people sometimes because he knowes when to apply mercy and how to improve all opportunities to the best advantage of his owne glory in his administrations to a sinfull and provoking people First He can discerne when a people are fit for mercy and distinguish between penitent and impenitent sinners the deceitfull heart though it be desperatly wicked shall not deceive him but he will give to every man according to his waies Jer. 17.9.10 Ier. 17.9.10 Like a wise Physitian he knows when to purge when to give cordials so that as in mercy he looketh for an opportunity that he may do good so he knows how to take it and when and hence it is that sometimes he waits very long till a people be brought into desperate straits and out of all hopes ere he deliver them because the Church was not in tune for mercy till then he waits Isa 33.8.9 The high waies lie wast the wayfaring man ceaseth Isa 33.8 9. the earth mourneth Lebanon is ashamed and hewen down Sharon is like a wildernes c. and then will he be gracious ver 10. Now will I rise saith the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up my self And yet he is not like Carolus King of Sicily and Jerusalem who was surnamed Cunctator because he was wont to stay til opportunity was lost but rather like Fabius Cunctator so called because he would alwaies stay till opportunity and then would be sure to take it 2ly He waits because he knows how to take his times seasons to prevaile upon and bring in a rebellious people toward mercy who yet are very far from and unfit for it A mans wisdom showes it self much in discerning seasons The Lord spake unto Manasseh but he would not hear and therefore he waites because he knew there would come an opportunity when Manasseh would hear and hearken after the Lord 2 Chro. 33.10.12 in afflictions 2 Chro. 33.10.12 and he waited not in vaine for so it came to passe when he was in afflictions he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers So when the Lord had to do with Israel he complained of their contumacy that they were untractable like a wild Asse in the Wildernesse that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure Ier. 2.24 Ier. 2.24 In her occasion who can turn her away as good seek to take a hare with a Taber as we commonly say yet the Lord knows how to meet with her though for the present all that seek her will not weary themselves in her moneth they shall find her when this wild creature shall be great with young not able thus to run about in the wildernesse then a man may talke with her so when Israel hath made up their iniquity a full burden and that Judgment begins to take hold of them then in their moneth God will find them and as God knows his seasons so he knows by what means to
To the honorable House of Commons assembled in Parliament Honorable and worthy Gentlemen WHEN you were solemnly met before God to mourn over your sins it was my duty to further what I could the melting of your hearts that you might powre them out before the Lord. I knew not a better argument for such a purpose then to set before you God melting over sinners his repentings kindled together and his bowels turned within him fer them it cannot but prevaile upon an ingenuous spirit and make it mourn after the Lord. Qui nolit impendere amorem Aug. saltem rependat saith a father And the voyce of Mercy after the windes and earthquakes and fires of judgement that have gone before and have shaken the mountaines and broken the rocks in pieces be but a still small voyce yet it may prevail more then those if God be in it and I hope he is For if I mistake not Mercy is the present receipt which the great Physitian hath prescribed to make up the cure of sick England a Cordiall after blood-letting and many bitter pills that have pul'd her down God is now powring out one mercy after another upon us and as I may say rubbing and working in the oyle of Mercy to take away the stiffnes of our hearts and to make them pliable Now that the language of providence herein might be both more articulate and impressive I have brought the Word to set home upon the heart Gods own dispensations God makes the doctrine in preaching Mercy and that in most reall demonstrations I have endeavoured to make the application of Mercy unto our hearts that by may of use it might bring us to repentance and teach us to feare the Lord and his goodnesse It seems to be a lesson God would fain have us to learn at this time I have therefore willingly delivered it unto you from the pulpit where you heard it with patience And likewise at your appointment I now deliver it unto you and the world from the Press with prayer that by both or either hearing or reading the Spirit of God may bring it in with a blessing to reach the heart And whereas when you had sent up the cry of your souls unto God upon the fasting day I presented unto your eares the cry of many thousand souls out of the North where they cry for food but there is none to break unto them the bread of life and you willingly hearkened give me leave to renew my motion as Nehemiah to Artaxerxes for the place of my fathers Sepulchers which lieth waste It is a work of so high importance and difficulty that none are worthy to take it hand but a Parliament none can bring reliefe under God but you who are the repairers of our breaches and the restorers of paths to dwell in The noble and worthy Gentlemen of your honorable Committee for sending Ministers into the Northern Counties know that they have long been in darknesse even when the light of the Gospel brake forth gloriously over all other parts of the Kingdome in former times of reformation and yet though that honorable Committee have been zealous and piously diligent in the trust you have committed to them whereby they have procured and sent some labourers into the Vineyards of York and Duresme and Northumberland as a happy fruit of reformation by this Parliament some a Westmorland Cumberland of those desolate Counties have not so much as tasted of your charity in this kind to reap the fruit of your religious Ordinance wherein you have worthily provided for the maintenance of some godly Ministers there The scarcenesse of Ministers the remotenesse of those parts the smalnesse of Church-livings there and the generall backwardnesse in Ministers to goe into those cold Countries are some of the chiefe obstructions For the first I doubt not but your wisdoms will find out a better Antidote against the scarcity of Ministers then liberty of prophesying which some plead for upon this ground if the Ark be shaken Uzzah may not under that pretence put forth his hand to hold it Rather your Parliamentary care to reduce and reform our Universities to view all publick Schools whereby children of pregnant capacities may bee brought up in a way of learning to incourage the study of divinity in Colleges to see that Scholars dwel not too long in Fellowships when they are fitted for the service of the Church according to the provisoes that are made already in the statutes of some Colleges in Oxford your wise cosideration I say of these and like things will beget great hopes of a plentifull harvest even of labourers in the next generation And in the mean time as to the want of Ministers in the North a few bright-shining lights well disposed of in those dark places set up I mean in the most eminent towns of Westmorland and Cumberland by preaching there and travelling about would give great light every one of them severally a great way in the circumjacent Countrey For the second and third impediments I need not tell you that their maintenance had need to be such as may encourage Ministers against remotenesse and coldnesse of the countrey which may be sufficiently provided for if it may please this honorable House that the Impropriations which are sequestred and the small Church-livings in those Counties be collected and treasured up in faithfull hands as one publick stock for the maintenance of such as faithfully labour in the harvest there Touching the backwardnesse of Ministers to goe into those Countries since it is God that inclines the hearts of men it hath been and is my prayer that God would stir up the hearts of his servants to undertake so glorious a work as the planting of the Gospel in those barren parts wherein some faithfull Ministers have in former and later times laboured with abundance of blessed successe In the first reformation of Scotland when godly Ministers were so few that many places of the Kingdome were like to be unsuppli d the Ministers advised the great Councell of that Kingdom to use their authority with consent of the Church for the sending of Ministers of ability to bestow their gifts where was most need I presume not hereby to president your godly wisdomes but in all that I have said my desire is to provoke your zealous and mature consultations to find out some effectuall way for the setting up of a godly Ministery in the North wherein as also in all other your weighty undertakings for the Church or Common-wealth that the blessing of heaven may crowne your unwearied labours with success hath been is and shall be the prayer of From my study in Broadstreet Nov. 29. 1645. The meanest of them that serve you in the Work of the Gospel John Strickland MERCY REJOYCING AGAINST JUDGEMENT OR God waiting to be gracious to a sinfull Nation ISAIAH 30.18 And therfore will the Lord waite that he may be gracious and therefore will the Lord be
exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of Judgement Blessed are all they that waite for him IN this Chapter Isaiah prophesieth against the sinnes of Judah which they committed in the time of the Babylonish captivity after the death of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam whom Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel had made Governour over them in Iudae For when as the Lord had promised them deliveranceat length from the Chaldeans if in the meane time they would have sit stil in their own land under the said Governour and would have provided well for their security and subsistence during their captivity Jer. 42.10.11 Jer. 42.10.11 If ye will still abide in this Land then will I build you and not pull you down and I will plant you and not pluck you up Be not afraid of the King of Babylon of whom you are afraid be not afraid of him saith the Lord for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand Yet they transported with fear lest the Babylonians should revenge upon them the bloud of Gedaliah whom they had treacherously slain distrust Gods promise and will needs go down into Egypt to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh verse 2. and to trust in the shadow of Egypt ver 2. which their sin the Prophet amplifies with a double aggravation First That they did carry it cunningly propriis consilijs addicti and in their carnall policie would have covered it pretending to aske counsell of the Lord to colour their design when they were altogether resolved upon their sinfull course Ier. 42.20 So the Prophet tels them Jer. 42.20 Ye dissembled in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord. and so the Prophet v. 1. They take Counsel but not of mee they cover with a covering but not of my Spirit Secondly they did it rebelliously For the Lord had cried concerning this ver 7. Your strength is to sit still ver 7. Yet when the prophet Jeremiah effectually laid the Law to them in this point and admonished them to take notice thereof saying The Lord hath said O ye remnant of Judah go ye not into Egypt know certainly that I have admonished you this day Ier 42.19 Ier. 42.19 Notwithstanding they would not heare the Law of the Lord but rather opposed it saying to the Seers see not and to the Prophets Prophecy not unto us right things ver 9.10.11 ver 9.10.11 So they said and worse unto the Prophet Ier 2.23 Ier. 43.2.3 Thou speakest falsly the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say Go not down into Egypt to sojourne there But Baruch the sonne of Neriah setteth thee on against us for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans that they might put us to death and carry us away Captives into Babylon Against this their sinne thus aggravated the Prophet sets himself to Denounce Gods Judgement wherin he declareth both what the Judgement shall be and how it shall be inflicted the matter of the Judgement is that God will make the broken reed of Egypt wheron they leaned to go into their hands and pierce them as of Egypt it is said in another Storie Isa 36.6 The strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame Isa 36.6 and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion ver 3. And for the manner ver 3. the Judgment shall befall them unexpectedly and on a sudden as a breach in a high wall at an instant against which there can be made neither resistance nor defence ver 13. And it shall fall upon them heavily in Egypt ver 13. so that they shall be broken all to pieces like the bursting of a Potters vessell that affords not a sheard to take fire from the hearth or water out of the pit ver 14. And it shall fall up-upon them in a way of Retaliation wherin God will make the severall parts of their sin to recoile upon them as severall parts of their Judgement they make Egypt their hope God will make Egypt their shame they would flee from their enemies in carnall Policie against Gods command they shall flee before their enemies for their own necessity they would be swift to escape their enemies God will make their enemies swift to overtake them they were afraid of the Babylonians without cause when God would have had them to be fearlesse but now they shall have cause to fear and flee from their enemies that shall pursue them till they be left as a Beacon on the top of a Mountain Even as one tree left for a Sea-mark in the cuting down of a Forrest and as an Ensigne on a hill or a forsaken Standard when all the men that fought under it are cut off ver 16.17 ver 16.17 But while the Lord was going on so fiercely to Judgement against them he stayes his hand and forbears these rebellious Jewes neare about 150 years as Hierom computes between the denouncing of this Judgement in Isaiahs and in the execution of it in Jeremiahs time If any wonder why our Prophet gives you an accompt that God doth it not to countenance or wink at their wickednesse Alvarez in Isaian sed minatur cupidus non exequendi minas saith Alvarez he threatnes that he might but threaten and thereby bring them into a capacity of mercy that for the present were fit only for wrath and Judgement And therefore will the Lord waite that he may be gracious c. My text is a Sermon wherein the Prophet gives the Jewes an account why God did not forthwith destroy thē though they were even ripe for Judgement Division In this Sermon we have set before us the just lineaments properties of a Sermon viz. 1. A Doctrin The Lord waites to be gracious 2. Reasons of it 2. viz. because 1. He will be exalted in his mercy 2. He is a God of Judgement 3. An application or use of the Doctrin Blessed are all they that waite for him Here you see my Sermon cut out both in parts and method The words opened Ere we come to handle the Doctrin which is the first branch the words thereof are to be explai ned among them particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non est omittenda saith Forerius Therfore the first word therefore is to be well observed This Relative and Illative paritcle bids us look for premisses whereon to inferr the text but the difficulty of finding any hath troubled expositors Some do make the inference from the sin of the people in refusing to waite upon the Lord when he called upon them saying ver 15.16 v. 15.16 In returning rest shall ye be saved in quietnes confidence shal be your strength and ye would not but said no as if the Prophet should have said there must of necessity be a waiting the vision is for an appointed time and seeing you will not waite upon and be obedient to
him behold and be astonished Therfore the Lord will waite that he may be gracious unto you This inference holds out the freenesse and riches of divine goodnesse because God is gracious therefore he will waite that he may be gracious Some do make the inference from the Judgmēt denounced against the sin of the Jewes that since God had determined to bring evill upon them if they repented not for every threatning carries in it a tacite condition of impenitency and therefore till the time that the Decree bring forth The Lord will waite that he may be gracious unto you And this holds out the riches and bountifulnesse of his patience and longsufferance-spoken of Rom. 2.4 But I humbly conceive with others that the word therefore looks best inward into the text it selfe where we find the exaltation and glory of his grace and mercy the spring and as I may say the first mover of God to waite and the finall cause of this his waiting he will waite that he may be gracious and he will waite that he may be exalted in showing mercie and this Gods own design of advancing his goodnesse and patience towards these obstinate and sinfull Iewes offers the fairest and most genuine ground of inference And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious Waite expectabit Waite which signifies locum paenitendo concedere others tell us that this doth not sufficiently expresse the force of the Originall word which signifies as much as a longing expectation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vehementer expecta vit in hiare vel anhelare as a hungry man waits for meat or as a theef doth waite for a man to rob him Hos 6.9 it may denote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a looking after with neck stretched out rendred the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 Rom. 8.19 the summe is huc tendit in hoc totus est ut misereatur The Lord waits as being very desirous to be gracious unto you though the Iewes were unfit for mercie and fit for Judgement at the present the Lord in waiting suspends his justice and looks sot a time that he may be mercifull That be may be gracious He is so alwaies in himself Gracious but doth not alwaies appear such unto his people they are not alwaies capable of the sweet aspects of grace by reason that their sins do sometimes bind them overto his Justice so that he cannot be gracious salvâ justitiâ till they repent return to him then he will be that is declare himself to be gracious unto you in pardoning your sin in taking off your punishment in delivering you from the sentence gone out against you and in setting you at rest in your own land And therfore will the Lord waite that he may be thus gracious unto you _____ The point Sometimes God wonderfully suspends his Judgments Doct. and waits upon a provoking people that he may be mercifull to them What the Poets faine of their Jupiter that he never throws his Thunder-bolts but when furies wrest them out of his hands in a sense is true indeed of God he never takes his rod in hand unprovoked nor alwaies when he is provoked by the sinnes of a people Si quoties peccant homines sua fulmina mittat Jupiter exiguo tempore inermis erit God is provoked every day yet is he slow to anger Yea somtimes when he has determined to bring evill upon a people and put himself into a posture of Judgement drawn out the sword and smitten them though they cease not to provoke him he ceaseth to punish them as a tender Father in correcting a rebellious and graceless child holds his hand somtime before the child begg for mercie and of meere grace forbears so God did w th Israel Psa 78.38 Psa 78.38 Notwithstanding their dissembling with their flattering tongus covenant breaking hearts He forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and would not stir up all his wrath Multus in co suit ut averteret iram suam Musc The words are He multiplyed to turne away his anger as they multiplyed to provoke it he multiplyed to turne it away and so at length overnumbred their sinnes with his mercies that they were not destroyed And when the same people of the Iewes elsewhere seemed to confront Gods Judgements with their obstinacy by persisting in their sins as if they meant to contend with God whether he should prevaile in punishing or they in sinning yea when in all reason if we look upon it with humane judgement their punishment should have been increased rather then mercy should have been extended to them Behold how admirably the Lord breaks out into a way of mercy Isa 57.17 18. Isa 57.17.18 For the iniquity of his covetousnes was I wroth smote him I bid me was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his waies and I will heale him I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners What Logick can draw an argument of mercy from this Topick I have seene the frowardnesse of his waies Their sinne was a foul sin committed against their experience of the evill of sinne he had made them tast of the fruit of their doings and Gods eye is a pure eye and cannot behold iniquity so that one would have thought God would have concluded I have seen his waies and I will punish him but that he should conclude I have seen his waies and I will heale him is an astonishment As it was the commendation of Theodosius his clemency sweet disposition Theodosius that it was to him as if he received a benefit if he might have an opportunity to forgive an injury So it is the excellency of divine bowels that the Lord is very desirous to forgive be cause mercy pleaseth him and will rather somtimes make an occasion then want one to take up his displeasure when it is incensed against his people if they be not in themselves yet in a capacity of mercy he will waite til they be that he may be mercifull to them It is observable upon what ground the Lord seems to take up a resolution never to destroy the world any more by a floud Ge. 8.21 Gen. 8.21 I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth He drowned the world before Gen. 6.5 because the imaginations of mans heart were evill Gen. 6.5 and will he now spare it because the imaginations of mans heart are evill Gen. 8.21 what riddle is this is the evill in mans heart any lesse then it was or is it lesse hatefull in Gods eye then it was neither so nor so but the Lord having now smelled a sweet savour in Noahs sacrifice Gen. 8.21 which
prevaile by Judgements or by mercies some must be brought in by an earth-quake others will be brought in as easily by a still voice Thirdly He waits because he is a God of Judgement to know when the giving in of mercies will bring God most honour and when Gods hand will be most clearly seen to give in mercies so that they may be convincing mercies thus he waited on his stiff-necked people that he might be mercifull to them even till Antiochus had broken all their power so that there was no help to be expected and then the Lord came in with Michaels deliverance Dan. 12.1.7 when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people Dan. 11.1.7 for then they could see that their help was from God Thus he waited upon the wastful Prodigall till he had spent all so that he must either have God or nothing Luk. 15. and then the Fathers imbraces are sweet and welcome Luk. 1. Before I come to the Use of the Prophets doctrine which the text presents you let us consider whether this age be not one of these sometimes wherein God wonderfully suspends his Judgments and waites upon a provoking people that he may be mercifull to them Are we not astonished and like unto them that dreame this day while wee looke upon the God of our salvation answering us as he doth by terrible things in his righteousnes doing terrible things that we looked not for whereby the moūtaines even the mountains of enemies and opposition do flow down and tremble at his presence he that hath formerly drawn out the sword and bent his bow and like an enemy fought against us giving Iacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers has in the midst of wrath remembred mercy and when he saw that there was no man and wondred that there was no intercessor his own Arme hath brought salvation to him and his righteousnes it sustained him Who would have thought in a few months past that we should have seene such a change in England in so short a time that our solemn fasts the fast of the 4th monetle and the fast of the 5th and the 7th and the 10th month should be turned into solemne feasts of joy and gladnes that our thanksgiving dayes should over number our dayes of humiliation Yet am I so farr from the opinion of laying aside our humiliations in these times of rejoycing as if they were inconsistent with our joyfull feasts that I conceive the duties of humiliation and rejoycing spiritually performed very helpfull one to another and to spiritualize one another blessings obtained by prayer and fasting cannot but affect the soul and raise it unto a greater pitch of spirituall thankfulnesse and when mercies have made the soule to rejoyce in God it cannot but mourne over sinne more ingenuously then before If mercies will not work with a people this way when God gives them in after judgements they will be but lucida intervalla presages of greater Judgemēts to follow Sim. like the Sunshine between two dread full stormes or rather like a reviving between two fits of a feaver when the patient dyes of the latter Chorazin that had been lift up to heaven by mercies and the great works that were done in her was afterwards thrust down to hell in Judgements Ingentia beneficia ingentia flagitia ingentia supplicia If great wickednesse follow great benefits great punishments shall follow great wickednesse as is confessed by Ezra 9.13.14 Ezra 9.13.14 Repentance and reformation is the point that we must be brought unto either by Judgments or mercies and since former Judgements have not brought us to it O that the Lord would melt our hearts this day with his astonishing mercies that our hard and frozen Spirits which would not be broken hitherto by the hammer of his Judgements might now be softened by the fire of his mercies And truly honorable and beloved mercies especially when they are given in to an undeserving people as our mercies are are very proper premises and principles of godly sorrow and shame for sin seeing that this is promised as a fruit of mercy I have looked into the Book of God to see whether God hath been wont in former times to bring in his people to repentance and reformation by deliverances and mercies For if God have never gone in such a way with a people heretofore I should feare that notwithstanding our many and wonderfull publick mercies wherewith God hath at present blessed our Land we should have an after-clap and be brought back again into the refiners fire and furnace of affliction that our drosse which is not yet severed from us may be purged out and our filthinesse depart from us which is the way whereby God ordinarily prevailes with a people in that kind And of all the hopefull presidents I could find wherein God hath brought in a people by mercy this is the most eminent Ezek. 36.31 32. Applied Ezek. 36.31.32 Then shall yee remember your own evill wayes and your doings that are not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Not for your sakes doe I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes O house of Israel You may look upon Israel in this chapter as Englands parallell in our present condition They had defiled their own land with the bloud that they had shed and with their Idols yea they had profaned the name of God among the heathen also and therefore the Lord had powred out his fury upon them V. 17-21 v. 17 -21 but the Lord pitied them for his own holy Name which they had profaned and he resolved to sanctifie his great and holy Name by delivering them from captivity and setting them at peace in their own Land V. 21-25 v. 21 -25 And further he would reform them according to his covenant and make them a holy people and their land which had been laid waste a fruitful land v 25-31 V. 25-31 And when the Lord shall have done all this and that without the least desert of theirs as the Lord bids them take notice of it Be it known unto you then shall they repent and be ashamed He is a stranger to England that hath not seen England like unto Israel in their sinnes it hath been defiled with bloud and idols whereby the Name of our God hath been profaned and like to Israel in their punishments the Lord hath powred out his fury upon them and like unto Israel in their deliverances and mercies God is now sanctifying his holy Name which we had polluted by delivering us and making way to settle us at peace in our own land The Lord make England like unto Israel in their repentance and reformation also Now because the undeservednesse of mercie and that they are given to those that could not expect them has a great influence upon the heart