it Oh most gracious good God wee humbly thanke thee that though our sinnes be many great and grievous yet thou hast not suddenly rooted us up and destroyed us as we have deserved but hast for many and many yeares from thy word and workes of mercy and justice on our selves and others warned us Thou never gavest greater and fairer warning to any people than thou hast done to us But seeing thou art a God of justice and when thy patience is long abused and no meanes will serve thou visitest indeed and in dreadfull manner Lord give us grace to take to heart thy threatned judgements and stirre up all thy faithfull servants that they may stand in the breach to turne away thine anger from us yea Lord give to all us that have heard thee this day the spirit of praier and supplication that by our lips and lives we may cry unto thee And because Atheisme and Popish Idolatry are the common plagues wherewith thou dost scourge a people who doe not receive the love of the truth nor walke worthy the glorious Gospell vouchsafed unto them Lord deliver us from these plagues grant thy Gospell a free and powerfull passage and increase every where the love and obedience of it that such judgements as are threatned for contempt of it may be removed and thou maiest continue a good God to us and ours to the comming of Christ Amen For I will not heare thee It is very common in the Scriptures of Old and New Testament to promise and threaten the grant or deniall of mens praiers in this forme of hearing or not hearing One place of Scripture selected out of a great multitude may serve for proofe of this Wee know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth So then the meaning of not hearing is God will denie what the Prophet should thus begge of God If the Prophet contrary to his charge should make his suit unto God to spare his people and preserve them from captivitie hee would not heare hee would not grant his desire he should but sinne against God himselfe and doe the people no good God was now unchangeably resolved Iudah should into captivitie as well as their brethren the ten Tribes he was resolved to cast them out of his sight as he had done the whole seed of Ephraim and it were bootlesse for the Prophet to pray against this which he signifieth thus I will not heare thee Indeed it is true that the judgements of God are commonly conditionall as God himselfe hath said At what time I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to plucke up to pull downe and destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill which I thought to doe unto them And in threatnings sometimes the condition is expressed as divers times God threatneth his people thus If ye walke contrary to me and will not hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more Sometimes the condition is not expressed but necessarily understood as when Ionah threatned Ninivie Yet fortie dayes and Ninivie shall be destroyed the fortie dayes came and Ninivie was not destroyed God changed his revealed will because the concealed condition was kept for Ninivie repented and therefore must not be destroyed Yea the same judgement which at the first threatning may be conditionall yet afterwards may become absolute and unavoidable as the destruction of Sodome was at the first conditionally threatned and therefore Abraham so farre prevailed with God that if there were but ten righteous persons found in it he would spare them for those tens sake but that condition failing it was in the next place absolutely threatned the Angels said to Lot The Lord hath sent us to destroy this City and we will destroy it It might be the case of this people if when Gods servants reproved them for their sinnes and threatned them with captivity they had repented in sackcloth and ashes peradventure the Lord would have heard them and repented of the evill But seeing they would not be reformed but grew worse and worse and unto all their other sinnes adding this crying one of evill entreating yea most shamefully abusing Gods servants who dealt faithfully with them to bring them to the sight of their sinnes and repentance honouring and esteeming none but the false Prophets who preached peace and pleasing things God is now resolved to bring a heavie judgement even the sword of the enemie upon them and to give them over into captivity revealeth this purpose to his Prophet Ieremy The Land shall be desolate the earth shall mourne and the heavens above be blacke I have spoken it I have purposed it and will not repent neither will I turne backe from it Yea to make it if it were possible more sure he told him He had sworne by himselfe that house wherein they so trusted should become a desolation And to adde yet more waight thereunto expresly forbiddeth the Prophet to pray cry or make intercession to him in behalfe of the people in this kinde assuring him if he should he would not heare him or grant his request The sense being given and that which might be said against it prevented now I raise your fourth and last lesson for instruction viz. That such may be the sinnes of Gods deare Church and people in generall and of his faithfull servants in particular that he will bring some temporall judgement upon them and he will not heare themselves nor others for them in this kinde This being a Doctrine which doth so exceedingly concerne us even as much as all our lives and livelihood bodies and goods come to is not sleightly to be regarded but in the holy feare of God to be advisedly considered of and taken to heart In the handling whereof I purpose to spend all my labours here and elsewhere this day For method and order wherein and helpe of memory there being so much now to be delivered I will first sufficiently prove it from both positive and exemplary Scriptures that all of us may see and acknowledge the truth of it Secondly declare the reasons thereof that we may see how just and true God is therein Thirdly search what are those sinnes which doe so exasperate and provoke God that he will not spare that so we may take heed of them Fourthly and lastly I will make application to our selves and search whether those sinnes be found amongst us and remove such objections as may be made against it and accordingly presse the use unto you And all these I will deliver with such plaine evidence as I have received from the word which hath onely power over the soule and conscience First then let us see how the word of God maketh this doctrine good First take knowledge that the Scriptures are most
judgement afarre off and like faithfull watchmen from the wall give warning to the City as soone as ever they descry the Lord comming against his people Secondly they must labour by their Ministery to bring the people to repentance that so Gods wrath may be pacified and judgements prevented and to that end they must faithfully reprove them for their sinnes and let them see the hainousnesse of their transgressions and call earnestly upon them for repentance Thus did Noah before the floud Lot before the burning of Sodom the Prophets Isay Ieremy Ezechiel Ioel before the Captivities Rent your hearts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God thus did Christ and Iohn Baptist before the finall destruction of the Iewes Repent repent Except yee repent yee shall all perish Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree and O generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life yea thus have all Gods servants done that desire to be free from the bloud of all men for if they give not warning the bloud is required at their hands and therefore it behoveth them to bestirre themselves that if it be possible they may save Gods people from the wrath to come or at least deliver their own soules and be found a sweet savour unto God even in them that perish Thirdly it is the faithfull Ministers duty to be very tenderly affected towards all such as mourne in Sion and with David are afraid of Gods judgements they must be sure to speake a word in due season to such as are weary God gave the Prophet Isay a charge to speake comfortably to the heart of Ierusalem And hence it is that the Prophets Christ Iohn Baptist and the Apostles did ever interlace reproofes and threatnings with heavenly comforts to prepare them for times of triall and tentations that howsoever they lived amongst the wicked and some great judgement and generall might come yet come what will it should goe well with them yea let vs Ministers be assured the Lord will require as strict an account of us how we have cheared and comforted the godly as that we have reproved and threatned the wicked And I say upon this occasion in the word of the Lord Be of good comfort all godly Magistrates and Governors if your hearts be set aright to advance Gods Religion and holy Gospell of Christ and to suppresse and beat downe Atheisme Poperie and all wickednesse whereby Gods anger is kindled and heavie judgements procured Be of good comfort yee Ministers of Christ that watch and warne Gods people having continuall sorrow and heavinesse to see their sinnes and being farre off from serving the time and flattering them saying Peace peace when there is no peace but faithfully reproving them for all their sinnes and earnestly calling on them for repentance And be of good comfort all yee people whose hearts are broken with godly sorrow to see the sinnes of the Land and you that strive to keepe your selves unspotted of the world and to walke worthy the Gospell and such great mercies as God vouchsafeth and humble your soules before God privately in fasting and praiers and so farre as you can and is lawfull labour to draw on others in the like practise of piety know that you are sealed and maintained of God assure your selves the eie and hand of God are on you for good his compassions shall not faile the hils shall sooner remove out of their places than his mercy can be removed from you his covenant with day and night shall sooner be broken than with you you are written upon the palmes of his hands and are ever in his sight and either God will be pacified and spare for your sakes or as he knoweth best will provide for you either take you to himselfe that you shall not see the evill to come or whatsoever evill come his good Angels shall guard you his spirit support you his grace be sufficient for you he shall enrich you with peace patience and joy and in good time make an end of all misery and set the crowne of immortall glory on your head The second duty particular is for the chiefe Magistrate to command such as are subordinate and inferiour to see execution these are to testifie how greatly they are affected with tokens of Gods wrath and appearance of judgements by labouring to reforme sinne and enjoyning fasting and humiliation for pacifying of Gods anger and preventing of judgements Thus did Moses Ioshuah David Iehoshaphat Nehemiah Hesty King of Ninivie It would aske too long a time to shew you how wonderfully God hath beene appeased and how strangely judgements have beene prevented by this most godly and Christian exercise the Scriptures are plentifull in this point Yea it is registred that even Ahab only thereunto moved with a base feare of judgement threatned and but fasting and wearing sackcloth in hypocrisie God deferred the judgement untill his sonnes daies Oh what a blessing did this Land receive hereupon in Ann. 1588. I am perswaded never any did humble themselves before the Lord in true fasting and praier but found a blessing from heaven thereon Oh that I could but perswade you to make triall hereof and to prove the Lord herein I assure my selfe God is the same loving God as ready now as ever most graciously to answer the soule that setteth it selfe aright to seeke God by such waies and meanes as he hath prescribed Now let us come and make application of these things to ourselves That God hath many waies testified his anger and displeasure and not only threatned but also in some measure executed his judgements who so blinde as seeth not But how are men and women affected herewith Doe we in the conscience of our sinnes judge our selves unworthy of any common blessing peace food sleepe apparell and most worthy of all those heavie judgements which either he hath threatned or executed on any others Are we afraid of Gods judgements and specially of those that are spirituall I say againe of those that are spirituall and most dreadfull Doe we grieve exceedingly and mourne in our soules that we have so justly offended God and purchased his anger and displeasure and to have the very floudgates and all the sluces of his judgements drawne up to our utter overthrow and destruction Doe we bend our selves with all our strength to pacific God and prevent his judgements And to that end doe we with full purpose of heart resolve to forsake our owne knowne sins and to put in practise all holy purposes and vowes to reforme presently whatsoever we know to be amisse in us and to shew forth more true zeale of Gods glory and the power of godlinesse in our lives than we have done
Doe we poure out our soules in instant praiers and supplications with sighs and groanes unto God for ourselves and his Church and as our callings and gifts enable and give leaue doe we stirre up and provoke others to doe so If this be so it is happy and I cannot but comfortably assure myselfe there are thousands and ten thousands that doe so yea how abundantly have men and women in this Land in this Countrey and in this City declared their love to the Gospell and compassion to the poore distressed Saints that professe it which I doubt not but God hath registred in his booke and will in his good time remunerate with a large recompence of reward and I trust we shall yet see Ierusalem in prosperity and peace upon Israel How ever it please God to deale yet all such shall finde grace mercy and peace with God let such cast their care on God for he careth for them But let me lament that there are too too many amongst us Atheists Papists prophane and irreligious persons as senslesse as blocks and stones of their sinnes Gods anger and Gods judgements who being called to weeping and mourning baldnesse and girding of sack-cloth make songs on those that doe so Psal 69. Doe-slay oxen and kill sheepe and for their parts eat flesh and drinke wine Tell them of the afflictions of Gods people they sit drinking still let Shushan bee in never so great perplexitie yea eat the calves out of the stals and lambs out of the flocks drinke their wine in bouls annoint themselves with best ointment and invent to themselves instruments of musicke like David but are not sorrie for the afflictions of Ioseph Yea I would there were not too many Edomites who rejoyce in the calamitie of the Church and say There there so would we have it persecute and take them there is none to deliver them there is no helpe for them in God Downe with it downe with it even to the ground who would be glad that all religion and the professours were utterly ruined and rooted out and all as prophane as themselves Tell them of their sinnes they doe not know any such things nor beleeve that any are better than themselves Threaten them with judgements pestilence famine sword they make a mocke Let us eat and drinke for tomorrow we shall die The Prophets words are but winde tomorrow shall bee as to day and much more abundant Esay 56. ult Or else desperately say Let God hasten his worke even his great worke that wee may see it Or else presumptuously say I shall have peace though I walke in the stubbornnesse of mine heart and adde drunkennes to thirst no evill shall happen to me Others are secure for They have made a covenant with death and are at agreement with hell when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorow it shall not come neere them they have made lies their refuge and under falshood have hid themselves Others are angrie with the Prophets that threaten as they accused Ieremie to the King that the world was not able to beare his words that hee discouraged the people and was never well till he was in prison Ierem. 38. 4. Thus they put off the evill day farre from them and approach to the seat of iniquitie going from evill to worse without all feare of God or man hating to bee reformed Oh prophane Atheists Belly-gods and Worldlings know that it is not for your sakes that God spareth it is for his servants sakes amongst whom yee live that yee enjoy so large a share in many good blessings of God such as yee despise and make a mocke of yea extremely hate and persecute are they that stand in the breach and turne away Gods judgements but if our sinnes grow so full and God make way for his fierie wrath by taking away such and that his judgements doe breake out you shall not escape nay you shall drinke deepe of the cup of Gods wrath yea sucke and wring out the verie dregs of the same you shall finde your staves to be but broken reeds and all your shelter for defence lying falshood and vanitie shift and shuffle and flie whither you will you shall not bee able to flie from his vengeance though you could dig to hell as the Prophet speaketh yet Gods hand would fetch you thence though climbe up to Heaven hee would pull you downe though hide your selves in most secret caves and under rocks and mountaines yet even there shall his vengeance finde you out flie whither you will he will command the sword the pestilence and famine to pursue you with terrour of heart and trembling of conscience the Lord will ever and everie where set his face against you for evill and not for good till hee hath rooted out your names from under Heaven destroyed you from off the face of the earth and cast you into hell the place prepared for the Devill and all reprobate ones If therfore thou desirest to finde mercie and comfort Repent be sorrie for thy sinnes mourne that thou hast displeased and offended God tremble to thinke of his judgements doe thy best endevour to prevent them for how soever it shall please God to deale such and such only shall bee most happie And so much for the second Doctrine It followeth The third Doctrine is That Gods faithfull servants are verie powerfull with God and as his deare favourites by their prayers to prevent and turne away judgments and calamities from themselves and Gods people This Doctrine I raise from the word Pagarg which signifieth to resist or withstand as Ierome translateth it Non mihi obsist as Doe not withstand me for the word in native proprietie intendeth a kind of force or violence One place shall serve amongst many for to enlighten this point this word is used in the booke of Iudges where Zebah and Zalmunnah entreat Gedeon Rise thou and fall upon us and is by metaphor frequently ascribed unto prayer wherin Gods servants use an holy force and violence unto God in their deprecations which thing also our English translation signifieth Doe not intercede which is properly a Latine word and signifieth to come betwixt and so to let hinder withstand or prohibit the doing of a thing As if God had more plainly said according to the originall and Translations I am purposed that this people shall be carried into Captivitie and doe not thou by thy prayers come betwixt me and them to let hinder withstand or resist mee The Doctrine thus naturally and properly raised is well fortified and backed by many other both positive and exemplarie Scriptures The Prophet Esay complaining of the great want of prayers doth it in this forme There is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himselfe to take hold of thee First observe how in times of greatest need Gods servants may be so dull as
Gods people and destruction to their enemies Doth there come up an huge multitude of Moabites Ammonites and Mount Seir against King Iehoshaphat let but him proclaime a fast throughtout all Iudah and let them pray and God will make their enemies destroy one another and he and his shall looke on and only sing and praise God Oh Peter is in prison a great calamity is thereby threatned to the Church but if the Church make praiers to God for him the Angell of the Lord came with great power and glory into the prison and brake off Peters chaines opened the prison doores yea and made the iron gate open of it owne accord Loe how the praiers of Gods children are stronger than fetters and gates of iron Yea Christ is gone on high and hath left his Church what is now to be done let them continue in praier and doe their duty after the Holy Ghost commeth as this day witnesseth which and much more that might be said to this purpose doth abundantly confirme your raised Doctrine viz. That Gods faithfull servants by their praiers are powerfull with God to turne away and prevent threatned and imminent judgements to themselves or the Church of God which made zealous Luther say There is nothing omnipotent under God but faithfull praier This commandeth all things in heaven earth hell in all the elements aire fire earth water But it would not be amisse to search that we may know the reasons why the praiers of Gods servants are so powerfull with God and they are principally these two viz. First our praiers are not our owne as the worke of our reason will affections or any thing that is naturall in us but the operation of Gods owne Spirit in us For as for us we know not what to pray as we ought but the spirit it selfe maketh request for us and againe It is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father In nothing is there so evident demonstration of the spirit of God as in zealous praier To which purpose Gregory hath an excellent saying The Saints receive from God what they oppose to his blowes and as I may say from him it is whereby they lift up themselves against him and whereby they are enabled to resist him Iacob wrestled with God prevailed but it was God gave him the strength so to doe now God cannot but acknowledge the worke of his owne Spirit and therefore we know that whatsoever we aske of the Father according to his will he heareth us and our Saviour hath said Whatsoever yee shall aske my Father in my name he will give it you But the praiers of Turkes Iewes Idolaters Heretikes Infidels Hypocrites are of no power with God because such are not made by the Spirit of God the praiers of a wicked man are abominable and turne into sinne no more accepted of God than if he cut off a dogs necke God hath threatned that though such doe multiply their praiers hee will not heare them The second reason hereof is Gods owne free love and mercy who is pleased to make all the faithfull his favourites so as Haman nor any favourite could ever doe so much with those Monarchs and Kings that have set their love upon them as the least of Gods Saints may doe with the Lord for if earthly Kings be exceedingly offended favourites must give way Hamans face must be covered he shall never see the Kings face any more But though God be angry and have mustred his Armies yea and besieged and battered so powerfull are Gods servants that they can stand up in the breach and by their praiers turne away threatned judgements Oh who would not be such a Kings favourite who cannot deny any thing which is for his glory and their true good The more I thinke on this the more I am astonished that man poore miserable man weake sicke diseased vile and abominable in his owne eies despised of others yet should be such a favourite to the King of Kings Oh the free mercy and love of God! How should the consideration hereof ravish us This being so when the sinnes of a people are full and when the Lord is purposed to bring a judgement upon a people hee commonly maketh way thereunto As an earthly King purposing to doe a thing which he knoweth is displeasant to his favourite who would hinder him in it will make way by sending him out of the way or forbidding him to speake or some way taking him off So the Lord sometimes by taking to himselfe and calling out of this world such as else would stand in the gap whereof the Prophet Esay thus speaketh The righteous is taken away from the evill to come Thus God tooke away good King Iosiah that in his sonnes daies he might bring the threatned evill upon the Land And God tooke good S. Augustine when his City Hippo was besieged by the Vandals that he should not stand in the breach for them Or if he suffer them to live he restraineth them from praier as here he did our Prophet and rebuked Samuel How long wilt thou mourne for Saul seeing I have reiected him from reigning over Israel Or else he takes away the spirit of praier and doth suffer it to be dulled as that they cannot pray fervently as Esay complained that no man did stirre up himselfe to lay hold on God but as it were grew weary As then it is a most comfortable thing to see godly men to live and to see men zealous in preaching praying and serving God as when a storme commeth to see all men betake themselves to their tacklings as the Prophet saith to stirre up them selves to lay hold on God so is it a fearefull thing to see the righteous taken away by death or such as have beene zealous to become cold carelesse and negligent set all at six and seven let others care whom it doth more concerne and so post it over from one to another For hereby God even maketh way to the execution of some great judgement by removing such as might stand in the breach and stop his course And verily herein lieth no small part of our feare that within these few yeeres past God hath taken away a great number of his faithfull servants both Magistrates Ministers and Christian people and howsoever in his mercy he hath left a remnant some few Noahs and Lots Nehemiahs and Esaies that being sensible of Gods judgements doe warne this secure and unthankfull world lift up their hearts and hands with Moses against Amalek make intercession with faithfull Abraham mourne for the abominations of the Land wrestle and weepe with Iacob otherwise we had surely beene made long agoe as Sodome and like to Gomorrha yet alas what are these amongst so many prophane carelesse and secure sinners and how are these scorned and derided disgraced and discouraged how are such for signes
world yet all in love As many as I love I rebuke and chasten If we be without correction we are bastards and not sonnes I beseech you remember this No sinnes so displeasing and provoking God as the sinnes of his people for whom he hath done most and who professe most You only have I knowne of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And this is that which God said I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me Nadab and Abihu must die for it if they presume to offer strange fire Small holes in others are great rents in Moses David Salomon they had best take good heed to their walking if they fall they shall be sure to pay for it They are so farre greater sinners than our selves that God will never suffer them to prevaile I answer This is it so offended the Prophets and made them so to expostulate the matter with God as our Prophet Righteous O Lord art thou when I plead with thee yet let me talke with thee of thy iudgements Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deale very treacherously And the Prophet Habacuck complained The wicked doth compasse about the righteous And againe Wherefore dost thou hold thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Whereby it appeareth the Prophet had a great combat in himselfe to thinke that the Babylonians more wicked and ungodly should so prosper and devoure the Israel of God as no doubt but it troubleth many that the Papists such Hereticks Idolaters bloudie men and generally most prophane that they should so devoure the Protestants more righteous than they But let Gods children humble themselves it is just and let not the enemies boast for their day is comming Hearken what God saith by your Prophet Loe I begin to bring evill on the citie which is called by my name and shall ye be unpunished ye shall not be unpunished And againe They whose iudgement was not to drinke of the cup have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shall goe altogether unpunished thou shalt not goe unpunished but thou shalt surely drinke If iudgement first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospell of God And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare Grievous was the calamitie of Gods people the Iewes by the Westerne Babylonians and so affected the Prophet to whom the Lord revealed it that he wished his head were waters and his eyes a fountaine of teares that he might weepe day and night and on which occasion he did write his booke of Lamentations so full of passion but it was nothing to the miserie of Babylon Theirs was a captivitie for 70. yeeres which being finished they were gloriously delivered but Babylon came to perpetuall ruine In the Prophecies of their captivitie many consolations were mixed and they made their miserie the greater through their obstinacie because they did not beleeve nor would obey the counsell of the Prophet bidding them yeeld themselves assuring them they that did so should have their lives given for a prey yea if the King would have done so the citie had not beene burnt with fire But the Prophecies against Babylon are altogether fearefull let me give you a taste thereof When seventie yeeres shall be accomplished I will punish the King of Babylon and the land of the Caldeans and make it perpetuall desolations And againe Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hisse at her plagues And againe Babylon hath beene a golden cup in the Lords hand and all the earth hath beene drunken and the nations mad with her wine but she is suddenly fallen and destroyed her iudgement reacheth to Heaven howle for her Yea he spendeth those two whole large chapters in prophesying the severe judgements of God against Babylon in revenge of Israel and that with such words as who can reade them and not tremble Adde hereunto the prophecie of Esay Babylon the glorie of kingdomes the beautie of the Caldees excellencie shall bee as when God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrha it shall never bee inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation the Arabian shall never pitch his tent there nor Shepherds make folds there but wilde beasts of the desert shall lie there their houses shall be full of dolefull creatures Owles shall dwell there and Satyrs dance And againe I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant sonne and nephew I will make it a possession for the Bitterne and pooles of water and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction saith the Lord of hosts And lastly Come downe and sit in the dust ô virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground there is no throne ô daughter of Caldeans for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate Take the mill-stones and grinde meale uncover thy locks make bare the leg I will take vengeance and thou shalt no more be called the Ladie of kingdomes All which prophesies have long since beene fulfilled by the Medes and Persians But wherefore hath the Lord brought such destruction upon her the Lord telleth her plainly I was wroth with my people and gave them into thine hand and thou shewedst no mercie upon the ancient hast thou verie heavily laid the yoke Oh see what a dangerous thing it is even to be the rod of Gods wrath though his people have well deserved to be scourged if they thinke not so but exercise all manner of crueltie Farre greater is the miserie which the westerne Babylon hath brought upon Gods Church and most cruell instruments are they of Gods anger to his people and for many hundreds of yeeres have oppressed Gods people with the iron yoke of captivitie never more barbarous and bloudie acts heard of than executed by Papists heretofore in this land oh how doe they shew themselves to be the sonnes of that father who was a murtherer from the beginning and of that mother the great whore who is drunke with the bloud of the Saints But that God who by his Prophets foretold and fulfilled the Easterne Babylons destruction hath as plainly fore-told by his Apostle the destruction of this Westerne Babylon and hee hath a Cyrus the Lord of hosts hath a chosen shaft in his quiver wherewith to wound it wee leave the time and meanes to God but doe stedfastly beleeve that the great whore which hath in her forehead a name written Mysterie Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth so long drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Shee shall be hated and made naked and desolate yet they shall eat her flesh and burne her with fire that bloudie and
persecuting Citie which liveth so deliciously and saith I sit a Queene and shall see no sorrow Her purple flatterers vaunt that temporall felicite is a note of the Church and make a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholikes have had and as one saith scarcely ever received the foile in a just warre yet the holy truth assureth us the Beast and false Prophet shall be taken and all the sowles of Heaven filled with the flesh of those Kings Captaines and mightie men which have fought against the Gospell Yea Babylon as a mill-stone cast into the sea shall be throwne downe and found no more and she rewarded double according to her works at whose destruction all the Kings and Merchants of the earth who have lived deliciously and committed fornication with her shall bitterly lament and cry Alas alas that great Citie bow in one boure is she made desolate So Heaven Prophets Apostles and all the Martyrs Saints shal praise God with many a ioyfull Alleluiah Therefore stumble not at it that for the sins of his people hee giveth them into the hands of such as are more wicked than themselves for when his people are sufficiently scourged their enemies shall for ever be destroyed But some object againe wee have continued long in our sinnes and have felt none evill why should wee now be so earnestly called upon and urged to repent and threatned with judgement If wee repent not God is not so hastie I wis as our Preachers would make us beleeve I answer It is the continuance in sinne doth increase our danger as Iudah and Ierusalem were not carried into captivitie for the sinnes of a few yeeres but for their sinnes wherein they had long continued even ever since they were brought up out of Aegypt the men of the old world were spared long even an hundred and twentie yeeres yet continuing in sinne were in the end drowned Iudah and Ierusalem were spared long after their brethren were carried captive even 130. yeeres but continuing in sinne in the end they were carried into captivitie too The Lord is patient and slow to anger yet if there will bee no end of sinne there will be an end of mercie and God may repent so often that hee will repent no more and as our Prophet saith he can no longer beare and as he saith in another place God is wearie with repenting this wee have in the Scriptures illustrated by two familiar and elegant metaphors The first is of a large vessell which by drops asketh a long time of filling so God told Abraham the iniquitie of the Amorites was not yet full and our Saviour bade the Scribes and Pharisies of his age Fill ye up the measure of your fathers The second is of an harvest Corne when it is sowen is not by and by ripe The husband-man saith S. Iames hath great patience Why did not men cut downe their corne at Easter because it was not then ripe why are they now in many places so busie with sithes and sickles because the harvest is come and corne is ripe So God calleth to the executioners of judgements when wickednesse is great as unto his reapers Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe Oh then doe not say we have sinned often or long and what evill hath happened for a vessell at last may be filled with drops and corne may so long grow till fields be white to harvest and readie to be cut The last objection is Oh but England is a most happie and flourishing kingdome blessed with a most wise and prudent King a most hopefull issue wee have many learned and religious Preachers multitudes of godly and sincere professours Gods true religion established by Law and maintained by authoritie God hath heaped such temporall blessings upon us that it is another Canaan flowing with milke and hony God hath most wonderfully delivered it from matchlesse dangers and ruine intended it is a verie Sanctuarie of refuge for the Saints of God elsewhere persecuted Oh the consideration of these things makes many an one so secure that no warning fro heaven or earth word or works of mercie or justice will doe them good but they proceed from evill to worse as though no hurt could come unto them But give me leave as I doe most unfainedly acknowledge the great mercies of God so I would plucke away these pillowes from under their elbowes whereupon they sleepe in security I say then that the greater are the mercies of God unto any people the greater shall be their judgements if they abuse them The higher that Capernaum is exalted to heaven the lower shall it be cast downe into hell if it repent not And God threatneth Coniah As I live saith the Lord though Coniah the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I plucke thee thence and I will give thee into the hands of them that seeke thy life Was there ever any people in the world could compare with Iudah and Israel for privileges and prerogatives yet could they not secure them but their sinnes comming to height God forsooke the house whereon his Name was called yea and gave the dearely beloved of his soule into the hands of her enemies or as some Translations reade his beloved soule Oh if God did not spare such a people as he acknowledgeth to be the dearely beloved of his soule who had such a good and religious King when Ieremy beganne to prophesie viz. Iosiah who reformed Religion destroied the monuments of Idolatry and strictly compelled all to serve the Lord according to his word such excellent Prophets and some learned and worthy Teachers and some good people that mourned for the abominations of Ierusalem yet when their sinnes came to be full he would not heare any for them but gave them over to a long and wofull captivity What have any people to presume on No no this Doctrine shall stand against all the subtill objections of Satan and of flesh and bloud against it That the sinnes of a people may come to that height that God will bring some temporall judgement upon them and not heare any that shall pray for them Now to come to ourselves that we may make good use of all that hath beene spoken and heard You hearken what I should say concerning our owne estate and that you shall doe first from the mouth of an enemy When Ieremie heard the false Prophet Hananiah prophesie much good to Iudah he answered feelingly Amen the Lord doe so Pererius the Iesuite writing on that you have heard in Genesis The sinne of the Amorites is not yet full saith If any doe marvell why England continueth to flourish notwithstanding the cruell persecution of the Catholikes there he doth answer thē with the words of the Text Because their sinne is not full