have fulfilled that of the Apostle and have approved our selves exquisite inventors of evill things Rom. 1. 30. Witnesse our new inventions to finde out strange sinnes Peccata aliena naturae aliena Gratiae monsters in nature prodigies in Christianity witnesse our new devis'd excesses in diet and apparell and our new minted oathes and execrations banded without blushing in every corner of our streetes And secondly I finde it recorded by the Psalmist though with no great honour to the Israelites Psal 78. 34. that when God slew them then they sought him though before they did not 'T were well if but so much could be said of us God hath slaine us now almost a twelve-month together every day brings in the report of a new slaughter some where or other nay very probable it is that God is slaying even whil'st I am speaking Reading Lichfield Leedes Manchester all besieged at that time and yet I feare we are yet to seeke our God At first indeed he only held the rod of his indignation over us and threatned a long time to strike that he might not strike at all and when he did begin to draw bloud he did it rather like a physician then an executioner But now that we have provoked him to draw more bloud then the body can well spare and some of the best bloud too now that the axe is laid to the roote of all that 's deare unto us our Soveraigne our religion our lawes liberties and lives being all in danger Is there an adulterer the lesse Prov. 7. 9. walking in the twilight Is there an oath the lesse darted against the Majesty of heaven Is there any abatement of sinne any improvement of grace under all our stripes Sure I may rather conclude that the tides of sinne are farre more high and overflowing under Judgement then ever they were under mercy Rom. 2. 4. his mercy did not lead us before nor doe his Judgements as yet drive us to amendment And therefore what can we conclude but that without infinite mercy the way whereof we cannot see in Gods revealed will our sinnes are ripe and we are hardned to a swift destruction I know this is harsh and unpleasing but I know also that these are no times for the pulpit to present fine-spun opinions as ornaments to be worne only in the eare Ezek. 3. 17. 'T is the watchmans duty to give timely warning and there is a woe reserved for that spiritual physician that skinnes over the wounds of Gods people to their hurt saying Peace peace whil'st iniquities do separate Jer 6. 14. For when the sword hath done his command pestilence and famine shall be called in to performe theirs nay as if all the written wrath of God were not enough to startle us the 28 of Deut. speakes of unwritten plagues Deut. 28. 61. So that there shall never want a plague to find out that people that stand out in rebellion against God And 't is little lesse then Atheisticall to beleive that God will give over punishing till we give over sinning So that as in the mystery of our Redemption it was not the malice of the cheife preists nor the blindnesse of the people nor the iniquity of Pilate nor the treachery of Iudas but our sinnes that drew our Saviour into that dreadfull Agony of his passion so in the mystery of that providence which hangs over us at this day it is neither the errour nor treachery of counsels nor the destructive factions divisions among themselves nor the ignorance of a seduced people and infatuated nation nor the wild-fire of sedition thrown abroad with so much art and industrie at all which we so much storme and rave no Gods messenger must bid you looke some other way into your selves into your own bosomes they are your owne iniquities that have unhing'd our goodly frames of Government and drawne the Church and State into that dreadfull Agony under which it now labours But your iniquities have separated c. Secondly wherein God separates First God withdrawes from a people in the generall by withholding all good things from them Ier 5. 25. Such is the nastie stench of sinne that it turnes Allmighty God cleane out of his way of mercy just as a man changes his walke when he sees a stinking carrion throwne in his way God will walke with us no longer then wee walke with him and if we forsake him he also will forsake us 2. Chron 15. 2. Secondly God withdrawes by withholding the presence of his protection and Except the Lord keep the City the watchman waketh but in vain Psal 127. â— When God is so highly displeas'd with his people as to put them out of his protection see what follows A Lion out of the forrest shall slay them a Woolfe of the wildernesse shall destroy them a Leopard shall watch over their Cities because their trespasses are many and their rebellions are increased Ier 5. 6. Of so great esteeme was this presence of God in Moses his time that the Israelites durst not march one foote without it If thy presence goe not with us carrie us not from hence Exod 33 15. Thirdly God may very properly be said to withdraw when he takes away his Deputies the men of his right hand Psal 80 17 those visible Gods to whom he hath entrusted the government of his people And however some have more then thought that those may well enough be spared and are at this day acting their opinions yet sure I am they are not guided by that spirit who hath left it upon record for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 28. 2. And of those foure things which Agur observes to breed the greatest disquiet in a State the first and cheife is a Servant when he raigneth Prov 30. 22. Fourthly God withdrawes by withholding the presence of his Truth His Gospell and his ordinances are continued but according as they are used in the Prophet Jeremies time The Prophets prophesied lies and the Preists bare rule by the sword and the people were very well content nay they loved to have it so Jer. 5. last And though Ieremy were Israells prophet at that time whose office was to pray for them yet God gives him an expresse command to the contrary Thou shalt not pray for this people nor lift up a crie or prayer for them Ier 7 16. God hath not so entaild his Gospell or perpetuated his Church to any one place or people but that he can remove it when he pleases T is an herbe will grow in any part of the world under the blessing of him that plants it And when he hath just cause given him 't is very likely he will transplant it to a soyle that will answer the husbandrie he bestowes upon it And why not India as well as England I dare not say the viciousnesse of our lives will totally excuse their want of faith yet sure I am
as those Proclamations are seldome without the Proviso of a limited time so Gods mercies have their dates upon them which if once expired they are no longer mercies but the heavy doomes of wrath and Judgement like the same exhalation which distills at one time in a sweet softning showre and at another time by being detained too long is hardned into a thunderbolt To the old world he gave a time of 120 yeares Gen 6 3 To the Citie of Nineve a time of 40 daies Jonah 3. 4. To Jezabell a certaine space to repent of Her Fornication Revel 2 21 To every soule Horam prafixam a certaine limited time Heb. 4. 7. And as he gives his word of Command to the sea Psal 104. 9. thus farre thou shalt come and noe farther so his word is gone out concerning every one of of us here present Thus long my hand shall not be shortned unto you Thus long yee have the Scepter of my mercy held out unto you Thus long I am content to wait and listen to heare but so much as a Quid feci come from you Ier. 8. 6. But not a minute longer then the limited time the glasse is turned upon you and there 's no reversing the sentence after it is once pronounced We know they were all virgins in the parable and all of them alike slumbered and slept Mat. 25. 1. only the foolish ones stayed a little beyond their limited time The time is when God may and will be found Esay 55. 6. The time will be when God cannot will not be found Prov. 1. 28. when his hand will be shortned and his eare heavy c. and then he that is filthy shall be filthy still Revel 22. 11. and he that is unjust shall be unjust for ever 14. 13. And because Non est nostrum c. It is not for us to know when this time shall be How thrifty should we be of those houres which are but given us to prepare for that houre which neither Men nor Angells know of How seasonable and welcome should that hand of mercy be which like our Saviours unto Saint Peter offers at this instant to save mee from an eternall drowning How precious and invaluable that moment that gives me either a Bene or a Male Discessit to all eternitie That part of time which is past will never wheele about againe that which we thinke and presume is yet to come may peradventure never come the only time we can call our owne is the present as yet his Hand is not shortned neither his eare heavy It shall be our wisedome therefore to make Gods time our time the time of his Grace the time of our Reconciliation and let this be thought upon at all times That he that neglects the present time in hopes of future does for the present forsake his owne mercy and shall sensibly find himselfe for the time to come more hardned more unworthy if not uncapable of that mercy he hath slighted 2ly In regard of Temporall preservations his Hand is not shortned c. The same hand of mercy which was a Convoy to the Israelites in the Sea a Exod 14. 2. a Crane to Joseph in the pit b Gen. 37. 28. to Ieremy in the Dungeon c Ier. 38. 13. A protection to Daniell in the Den d Dan 6. 23. to the three children in the furnace e Dan 3 27 The same hand that had the windes in his fist f Pro 30. 4. in 88 The same Digitus Dei that pointed out that horrid though now we cannot say unparrallelled Conspiracie Novemb. 5 The same hand that saved a Crowne The Battell at Edge-hill and sheltered the Royall bloud Octob. 23. at the apprehension of which hazard our Trembling will be and our praises should be as strong and lasting as our memories The same Canopy of good providence and protection does as yet hang over us if we doe not runne away from under it And as it is with the Hand so is it likewise with the Eare Certainely the Eare of the Almighty was very free and open to our forefathers that Joshuah and Hezechiah could command the Sun to stand still or goe backe Iosh 110. 12. as they should direct That Elijah had so much power over Israel and the Elements 2 King 20 10. that there could be neither raine nor dew for three yeares but onely at his word 1 King 17 1. And that Moyses had so much power in prevailing with God Numb 16. that he is intreated of God not to intreat for the people And yet Saint James will tell ye these were but men â—am 5 17. men subject to the very same passions and infirmities with any of us Our sinnes have made all the difference that is betweene us Behold his eare is not yet heavy c. The Sunne is alwaies of the same strength and influence notwithstanding an Ecclipse or interposition of a Cloud The needle of the Compasse leanes alwaies to the same point be the weather never so foule or the distance never so farre Gods power is like the Sunne allwaies in full strength there is nothing hid from the heate thereof Psal 119 6. his propensitie to helpe like the needle of the Compasse leanes alwaies one and the same way But we mistake our God because we mistake our selves and with the giddy apprehensions of those that put to Sea we thinke the Land goes away from us when the truth is wee goe away from it God is an Eternall and Immutable essence the two armes of his Mercy and Justice of equall dimension and extent never so strict in Justice but alwaies mercifull never so Gracious in mercie but alwaies Just Nor is it possible he should bee otherwise at any time then what hee hath beene from all Eternitie Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortned c. This Doctrine of Gods immutability laies a strict charge upon the pulpit and the presse to be faithfull and impartiall in those messages that come from God Our doctrine should not bee like the water in the weather-glasse that rises and falls according as the winde sits If God be alwaies the same why should not his word be so too There is not under heaven a more ugly and deformed creature then a changeling in the pulpit And what ever men may hope to gaine or save in desperate and unsteady times by wresting that which was never made to bow The Scripture yet sure I am there 's one text in Saint Iohns Revel will not be wrested That to the bold usurper on Gods word either by Addition or Diminution God shall adde all the plagues that are written in that booke and shall take away his part out of the booke of life Revel 22 18. And in the second place it would bee no shame for the zealous Sectarie to reforme the desperate errour of his way who is now Iesuite enough to contract
the naturall square of the very Indians is enough to condemne our want of obedience He that said Lo I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the world Mat 28 20 saith also in another place Remember from whence thou art fallen and Repent and do thy first worke or else I will come quickly and remove thy candlesticke out of his place except thou repent Rev. 2. 5. Lastly and which includes all the rest God withdrawes by divorcing himselfe from his people the phrase ye have Ier 3. 8. I gave her a bill of Divorcement saith God of rebellious Israell an expression borrowed from those who by matrimoniall contract have lived a long time together with mutuall joy and comfort till some high misdemeanour breakes out which hath noe other remedy but a divorcement And this should be a word of terror and amazement for the covenant once dissolved betweene God and us our joynture is all forfeited all the pledges of his love to be returned his silver and gold and the faire jewells Ezech 16 17 of his wisedome grace and mercy to be delivered up A Divorce at once casheires us of all relations to God If any man draw backe my soule shall have no pleasure in him Heb 10. 38. And 't is not prateritio a passing by but separatio a word that speakes a farre worse condition Better we had never met under the same roofe then to be parted afterwards Better wee had never tasted the good word of God never knowne the way of righteousnesse Heb 6 5 2 Pet 2 21 then after the knowledge thereof to turne away and forsake it A Divorce proves ever scandalous to one side or other the memory of a better doubleth the misery of a worse estate and the highest aggravation of hels torment lies in poena Damni the remembrance of what we once were the contemplation of what we might have beene Wee have seene how God withdrawes It were well we would consider when he withdrawes too but herein is our blindnesse that God is often with us by the visible hand of his mercy and protection whilst with slumbring Iacob and Samuel Gen 2â— 16 1 Sam. 3 7 we are not aware of it And so at other times God withdrawes and will not go forth with us nor have any thing to doe with our designes and yet with infatuated Sampson Jud. 16 20 we are ignorant that God and our strength are both departed that we may therefore be throughly awakened to this danger we are to consider in the last place what condition wee are in when God is departed from us Whensoever God departs from a people or a Citie or a soule he leaves sinne and guilt allwaies behind him If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted Gen 4 7 but if otherwise Sinne lies at the doore and if Sin lie at the doore we know what to expect from such a porter namely That every mercy shall be excluded and every Judgement shall be let in upon us The Prophet Esayes Judgment shall be let in I will take away the hedge of my vineyard and it shall be eaten up and I will breake downe the wall thereof and it shall be troden downe I will lay it waste it shall not be cut nor digged but briers and thornes shall grow up and I will command the cloudes that they shall not raine upon it Esay 5. 5. The Prophet Ieremies Judgment shall be let in Ier. 13. 13. I will fill the inhabitants of Ierusalem with drunkennesse and I will dash them one against another even the fathers against the sonnes the just character of our unhappy times brother against brother City against City County against County and yet the delusion so strong and bewitching that with Demetrius his rout Acts 19 32 the major part in many places know not wherefore they are come together The Prophet Malachies Judgment shall be let in I will not only powre out my Judgments but I will curse even your Blessings yea I have cursed them already Mal 2. 2. Your Invocations shall become provocations Your Sacraments shall return ye charg'd with more guilt Your Pulpits instead of teaching you to lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godlines and honesty 1 Tim 2 2 shall traine you up into rebellion against God and your King And that meeting so long thirsted after to have clinched and fastned religion and government shall prove a Petar an engine of mischeife to teare all in peices In short when once our iniquities have driven away our God that long roll of judgements that stands upon record Deut 28 will as so many writs be served upon us every mischeife will have his full blow at us in all this extremity that which should be our shelter will prove our snare To shut up all what hath been thus declared in the generall must now be applied to every man in his owne particular When God is driven out of the heart by sin the devill is at that very instant invited to come and take possession this earthly tabernacle of ours will not be long without a tenant 1 Sam 16 14 Saul is not sooner dispossessed of the good then possessed of the evill spirit and whither that evill spirit will lead we may guesse if wee looke after the herd of swine Mar 5 13 or rather indeed to a more dangerous lake then that wherein they perished a lake of fire and brimstone where the worme never dieth nor the fire shall ever be quenched Revel 19 20 Mar 9 43 How much then does it concerne us to separate from that betimes which otherwise will make an eternall separation betweene God and us especially in times of hazard and perplexity with what confidence might we advance against the enemy were but our drunkennes our prophanenesse the poyson of the whorish woman banished our quarters besides the scandall given to the cause sure our strength would not be the lesse without question our successe would be every day more visible and apparent when thou goest out with an army be sure to keepe thee then from all wickednesse saith Moyses Deut 23 9. The meaning is not that wickednesse may be dispenced with at another time 't is spirituall advise tending immediately to thine owne preservation for when thou goest into the feild thou goest betweene the jawes of death within the reach of the Cannon thou art likely enough to take leave of this world Let not thy mind then be so much upon thine honour or thine enemie as to forget what spirituall armes thou hast on to preserve thy soule from eternall ruine Thou wilt not march out without thine armes and wilt thou leave thy God behind thee He that can so easily want his God gives just cause to suspect he was never yet throughly acquainted with him 'T was wont to be a proverbe Let him that cannot pray go to sea and learne and why not into the feild and learne And yet are the hazards of warre so far from startling the military man that as if together with his commission he had a dispensation to be more desperate and daring in his sins then any other man he makes Lust and Rapine essentiall to his profession the most prodigious oathes but as so many necessary accents of passion belonging to the duty of his place as if indeed he were resolved on Hell were practiceing aforehand to curse blaspheme Beleive it the weight of Damnation is no whit lessened by dandling the name of it upon the tongue nor can I see how they can hope to be preserved of God who wish themselves confounded of him every houre Though God will not heare the prayers of wicked men yet 't is likely enough he will heare their curses and bring them home too like water into their bowells and like oyle into their bones nay 't is past being likely 't is most certaine he will ther 's a text for it Psal 109 18. I know not whether we shall more admire or pitty those bold not valiant amongst us that dare goe forth to meet their eternall condition with hearts more hardned then the Armes that cover them The cause indeed requires our lives it doth not require our soules 't is no honour to venture them Nay little do we think how much our evill lives destroy what with our lives we offer to maintaine 'T is said in the first Psalme That whatsoever the godly man doth it shall prosper Psal 1 3 Methinkes that should be of great esteeme as our times are that would make every thing to prosper in our hand Sure it has more vertue then the Philosophers stone that will turne every thing we touch into a blessing and let no man thinke to prosper otherwise for he that may seeme to prosper in his wickednesse may do well to take notice that he lies under the greatest judgement that can be named on this side hell as having no sence of judgment till it cannot be revers'd nor ever awakened till the fire be all about his eares And therefore whil'st ye are ingag'd in warre be sure ye make your peace with God and take heed of giving your selves that deadly wound that will never be cured unto all eternity give no cause to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme 2 Sam 12 14 and let not your good be evill spoken of Rom 14 16 the goodnesse of your cause be suspected and sullied with the foulnesse of your sins lest whil'st you appeare for your Soveraigne and in him for your selves by your purses and your persons ye plat thornes in his crowne some other secret way and unwittingly wound that righteous cause which cannot will not thrive but by holy addresses unto Almighty God It hath been shewed what it is that separates from God wherein God separates from us how miserable we are when God is departed from us What remaines then but that we so demeane our selves in the presence of God whil'st his hand is not shortned neither his eare heavy that upon all occasions we may have free and open accesse unto his eare and may find that hand of mercy which hath hitherto beene enlarged almost to a miracle constant and propitious to us and our designes That God may alwaies owne us for his servants here in this life and acknowledge us for his Saints in that which is to come Which God of his infinite mercy grant c. FINIS
A SERMON Preached before His MAIESTIE AT CHRIST-CHVRCH IN OXFORD On the 18. of April 1643. By WILLIAM STAMPE Vicar of Stepney in the County of Middlesex OXFORD Printed in the yeare 1643. TO THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS PRINCE CHARLES PRINCE OF WALES DVKE OF CORNWALL and Earle of CHESTER SIR IT hath pleas'd your Highnesse to command this Sermon to the Presse and mee to be your servant what you have observ'd from either that might incline you to so much grace and favour I know not unlesse it were my plaine dealing with the Times This indeed your Highnesse mentioned with a deep sence and relish Would God the madde world knew it Certainly it were enough to stop the foule mouthes of some enough to warme the honest hearts of others God Almighty so compose the present troubles of this State that the Government thereof may stand the surer for this shaking and continue and increase his graces in you for the glorious support thereof when it shall please him to lay it upon your shoulders Thus prayes Your Highnesses most obliged humble servant WILLIAM STAMPE A SERMON PREACHED before His MAjESTIE at Christchurch in Oxford on Tuesday the 18 of April 1643. ESAY 59. 1 2. 1 Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his eare heavy that it cannot heare 2 But your iniquities have separated betweene you and your God and your sinnes have hid his face from you that he will not heare IN the precedent Chapter we have the difference stated betweene a religious true fast and that which is merely fictitious and Hypocriticall In this we have the true ground why our fastings at some times become fruitlesse and our prayers unsuccessefull Both common theames yet neither of them unseasonable as our times now are Never did any age produce more fasting more preaching more praying Never did these holy exercises produce lesse fruit Looke we well upon the fruites and we must be driven to conclude by an argument a posteriori that sure some where or other there hath been fasting for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse Esay 48. 4. for of these bitter and accursed fruits have wee abundantly tasted witnesse every Cranny and Corner of two miserable distressed Kingdomes So that our devotion hath neither prevented Gods Judgments nor which is worse Gods Judgments prevented our sinnes What betweene the Atheist in heart the schismaticall factious dissembling Hypocrite and the Atheist in profession the licentious daring resolved sinner we are yet to fast and yet to pray and yet to prosper and prevaile with God wee are at best but under the throes and pangs of our deliverance not but that God is as easily intreated at this day as ever he was since the Creation his power and propensitie to releive England and Ireland is as great at this day as ever it was to releive his owne peculiar Israell The great incapacity we labour under is from our selves Gods Controversie for sinne Hos 4. 1. is the Cause of all our Controversies among our selves his Mercy and Justice are as immutable as himselfe and therefore if wee are not relieved wee must not blame him but thanke our selves For Behold the Lords hand is not shortned c. This Text is delivered by the Prophet to prevent a mistake which Commonly arises in the hearts of men in their conceipts of God and themselves For if we want what we would have or feele what we would want we rave and storme and impute the troubles of Israell sometimes to Ahab the King sometime to Elijah the Prophet nay sometimes we pin them on God himselfe and instead of humbling our selves under his mighty hand a 1 Pet 5. 6. we behave our selves very frowardly in his covenant b Psal 44. 17. For the prevention of which this text hath a double aspect with one eye it lookes upwards upon Almighty God and there takes notice of an omnipotent hand an attentive Eare both pointed at with an Ecce Bebold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his eare heavy that it cannot heare with the other eye it lookes downeward upon man upon man at distance from his maker upon man divorceing himselfe from his God and by a selfe Excommunication delivering himselfe up into the power and government of Satan So that we have here Aliquid Dei and Aliquid nostri that which belongs to God described in the Negative his hand is not shortned his eare is not heavy c. that is he is alwaies one and the same God That which belongs to us and which indeed wee can onely call our owne are our sins and not barely sinnes but Iniquities too and these with two desperate Consequences following close at the heeles one is they obscure the light of Gods favourable Countenance Lu◠16. 26. the other is they make a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene God and us they make us that which is so odious in the very name Seperatists and of all Seperatists the worst Seperatists from God These are the naturall parts of the text wherein I shall breifely discover Gods power and propensity to releive his people and afterwards enquire into these 3 particulars 1. What it is that seperates from God 2ly Wherein God seperates from us 3ly which results from both in what condition we are when God is depated from us Behold the Lords hand is not shortned c. The words are a large proposall of mercy offered to all that will but make themselves capable of it namely that God hath alwaies an attentive eare and a ready hand to releive those that shall addresse themselves unto him Not that God hath either Hand or Eare in strictnes of speech in both Humanum dicit he speakes to us as the nourse to the child in that language wherein we are best able to understand him Nor is it a single mercy that is here proposed but mercy ingeminated not hand alone or eare alone but hand and eare both not an Hand Shortned or an Eare heavy but an hand stretched out an eare alwaies attentive So that wee can no sooner present a prayer but God immediately meets it with his eare and whilst the prayer is even entring into his eares he meets and embraceth with his hand of mercy Againe the mercies here proposed are of two sorts either Spirituall mercies such as concerne the inward man or Temporall such as concerne the preservation of the outward in both these respects the hand of the Lord is not shortned As for spirituall mercies I shall onely say thus much in briefe that God in that Covenant of Grace which hee is pleased to make with his Creature freely offers unto us his sonne and in him all the Treasures of inexhaustible mercy No otherwise then a King by his Proclamation Royall offers his mercy to those rebels that will but throw away their Armes and come in and submit themselves to him and his Government But
or dilate the Hand of Gods mercy according as he sees the purse open and shut to the cause and himselfe He makes great use of the Devils perspective whereof hee hath one end for the Pulpit and another end for the Chamber This in the Pulpit shall present mercy contracted or like the character hee writes in in short hand That in the chamber shall present it both vaste and neare and under the pretence of Christian Libertie or something that must go for zeale shall instruct ye to swallow any kind of wickednesse whatsoever Thus by his subtle arguments drawne from the paucitie of the Elect the difficulty of being saved at one time and the Cheapnesse of mercy at another he fills his purse by the sale of his Spirituall Comforts and Saints with more confidence and freedome then that Church he so much declaimes against Lastly Let the dejected drooping penitent lift up his eies unto the hills from whence cometh his helpe Psal 121. 1. and from this text take a fayre prospect of mercy to his saving Comfort Behold the Lords hand is not shortned c. He hath given thee all the assurances of mercy thou canst propose unto thy selfe he hath given thee his Royall word his Covenant under hand and seale his many sacred protestations nay he hath bound himselfe by Oath to be reconciled at what time soever thou shalt turne and repent Away then with those feares and Jealousies that make thee uncapable of thy makers mercy The Majesty of a King is never so deeply wounded as when Royall intentions and Declarations become blasted by distrust And 't is just with God that they should forsake their owne mercy that dare not trust it The truth is The weaknesse of our faith proceeds commonly from the foulenesse of our guilt and the reason why we stand in our owne light and turne our backes upon Gods favourable countenance is because our workes are the workes of darknesse Joh. 3. 19. and therefore we hate that â—ight that will discover them Beware then of shortning the good hand of God Remember Moses at the rocke Num. 20. 10. and that great favourite that perished at the gate of Samaria 2 King 7. 2. 17. by the weight of that mercy he would not beleive Though more miscarry by presumption yet the more desperate are they that ruine themselves by their own despair If therefore thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and beleive with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead and steere thy course according to this beleife thou hast the Apostles warrant thou shalt bee saved Rom. 10 9. In the meane time for the great extremities we labour under the same Apostle assures that God is able to doe exceeding abundantly for us above all that we can aske or think Ephes 3. 20. It may seeme strange what above all that we can aske or thinke Sure that must be a vast circumference of mercy that extends it selfe beyond our thoughts and if deliverances would come with thinking we could soone thinke our selves into a better condition But mistake not This hand of mercy is not held out to every idle squandring thought every extemporary indigested prayer but confin'd to prayers qualified with faith thoughts regulated by obedience fasting governed by sincerity 'T is expected all these should move from a pure heart a good Conscience and from faith unâ—ained Ephes 1. 5. Wee aske and receive not and St James gives the reason Jam. 4. 3. because we aske amisse we thinke high and thinke in vaine because indeed we doe little else but thinke wee fast oft and miscarrie when all is done and the reason followes in the text because the obstruction continues unremoved Behold the Lords hand is not shortned neither his eare heavy but your iniquities have separated betweene you and your God and your sins c. First then what it is that separates Saint Paul makes the Quoere Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate from the love of Christ shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword If these would separate we were but in a very ill condition as our times now are by these indeed faith may seeme at some time stupefied or as it were strangled for the time it cannot be extinguished as there be many things that will cast into a traunce that doe not separate the soule from the body Nothing from without can make this separation the Enemies that must doe it must be of our owne house of our owne cabinet and familiar acquaintance the text calls them here by two names Sinnes and Iniquities that is they are severall sorts of sinnes and severall degrees in sinne what these Iniquities were and what a mischeivous influence they had upon the Common-wealth of Israel may be seene in the verses immediatly following the text Their hands were defiled with innocent bloud their lips blacke with lies their tongues furr'd with murmuring their hearts so mischeivous that they hatch'd Cockatrice eggs they weaved the Spiders web their feet swift to shed bloud the way of peace they knew not they made themselves crooked paths that whosoever went along with them might not know peace this the extract of their Sinne and therefore their punishment followes They groaped as men without Eyes and stumbled at noone day they roared all like Lions and mourned like Doves and sate in desolate places like dead men c. In the seventh of Ier. 12. God commands his people to take notice what he had done to Shiloh the place of his name the dearly beloved of his soule Deut. 12. 11. Jer. 12. 7. onely for the wickednesse of those that dwelt there and the Iudgment wee read of in the first of Sam. namely the Arke of God which had continued among them almost 300 yeares was taken by the Philistines their Preists slaine and their people miserably discomfited 1. Sam. 4. 11. The time will not give me leave to present ye with observations taken from Gods dealing with the old world with Sodome and Gomorrha with Egypt Ninive Ierusalem with some neighbouring Kingdomes of late yeares or to compare our peace and plenty with that of Samaria and Ierusalem The light of our knowledge with that of Chorazin and Bethsaida The sinnes of our nation with the villany of Gibeah when there fell by the sword threescore and five thousand Jud. 10. The pride of our nation with Davids ambition when there fell by the pestilence seventy thousand 2 Sam. 24. 25. The rebellion of our nation with that of Corah and his company when there fell by the same plague 14 thousand and 7 hundred besides those which the fire and a strange death devoured Num. 16. I shall onely adde a double aggravation of our sinnes wherein we have out-stripped all that ever were before us First as if in all the mire of our forefathers there had not beene roome enough for us to wallow we