multiply silver or gold Deut. 17.17 i. e. private riches they should not strive to gather into their Coffers for this he knew would make them oppress his people and likewise that they should not lift up their heart above their Brethren v. 20. i. e. be proud and despisers of their subjects for this would make them unmercifull and void of pitty toward them And 5 a Prince is called in the holy language by a name viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which teaches him to be like that Ptolomy who for his good deeds was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Benefactor one that doth good to all but harms none of his Subjects And 6 they cause the People to err if they be bad as it is Isa 9.16 so that every one becomes an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly according as you read in the following verse Let us all then from the greatest to the least examine our selves and be well informed whether we be guilty or clear in this matter and let us make the same conscience of doing justly that we do of hearing Sermons and of loving mercy that we do of fasting and praying and then God will dwell in the midst of us And let no mans heart be so wicked as to think that he shall lose by doing thus for God saith In the house of the righteous is much treasure Prov. 15.6 and righteousness exalteth a Nation Prov. 14.34 And The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish but he casteth away the substance of the wicked Blessings are upon the head of the just but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked As the whirlwind passeth so is the wicked no more but the righteous is an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.3 6 25. CAP. XVI 1. A Caution the reason why these sins were more destructive then others 2. Further cleared 3. The reason why men are more apt to be inclined to zeal for religious duties then for justice and mercy 4. A further reason of the same thing 5. This zeal may make men take injustice it self to be a just thing 6. It concerns us therefore to look well to our selves in these matters 7. And Judah should be a warning to England 1. BUT that this discourse may not be liable to any mistakes I shall a little farther open the sense of what hath been said whereby likewise it will become more usefull to the Reader if he please to attend it I do not affirm either of these two things first that these are the only sins that undo a Nation or secondly that these were more heinous in themselves then the Idolatry whereof the Jewish Nation were also guilty No let me not be so understood as if I thought that denying of God blaspheming of his name worshipping of Idols and such like sins as are more immediately against the Deity were not wasting sins more horrid then the other But the truths that I assert are these First that the sins of injustice fraud and cruelty are and have been enough to destroy a Nation without the other and Secondly that they commonly prove the most dangerous and ruinating to a people of any else because they are overlooked when they reform though being duties toward our Brother whom we continually see one would think they should be in our eyes above all other When men reform impieties against God they think themselves to have done him such high service and are so much in those upper speculations that they take no notice of these things under their feet and make no reckoning how they deal with men so they be but zealous and fierce for that which is due to God Or they be content to be religious given to devotion so they may but retain their unlawfull gains pleasures and ambitious ends yea their very religion and forwardness for reformation in such matters may give them a better advantage more colourably to practise these iniquities and their unmortified affections will easily put them in mind to make use of such opporunities 2. Hence I say it is that these sins do more commonly ruine those Nations that know God then corruption in his worship doth not because that is not destructive but because men will a great deal sooner reform in that then in these other for a fair correspondence with God in all the outward duties of his worship is a great deal more easie then this denyal of mens selves in their covetous malitious ambitious and other fleshly desires And beside it is more apt to get a man a great name among others if it be in any good measure of fervency and heat and likewise to beget in himself a comfortable opinion that he is mightily beloved of God seeing he doth those things that are most highly reputed of So much hypocrisie therefore and deceit being in mens hearts and they being so willing thus to put a cheat upon themselves I hope it will not by any be deemed unseasonable that I have treated of this matter rather then of the other And if any will be so censorious as to say that I have not pressed the matters of religious worship so much as I ought they had best take heed that they do not bring our Saviour himself under their lash For when the Ruler asked him Luk. 19.18 what he should do to inherit eternal life He doth not say one word concerning the duties of the first Table but only of the Second in which it should seem they were more negligent then in the rest And when the man answered that he had done all those things that he spoke of Our Saviour doth not Catechise him how he had kept the Sabbath and abhorred Idols and such matters but he desires him only to be careful of this one thing further which was that he would wholly take his heart off from covetousness and the love of the world 3. If any ask how it comes to pass that men should be so very zealous and forward in pious duties when they are so cold in the other I have already given him an answer to this purpose First the religious services in their greatest outward purity do not find the nature of man so averse unto and abhorrent from them but that they may be very forward to do them And Secondly They make also a great sound and dinn in the world and have such a glorious appearance that by the doing of them he may be reputed and also take himself for a Saint And Thirdly Then he may be so pleased with this fine perswasion and so inwardly tickled with the sweetness of such thoughts that he is engaged to mind with all his power the promoting of such matters as have gained him the credit of an holy person without denying his worldly lusts which may rather have a freer liberty under such a brave and splendid Master as stands not upon Punctilio's of honesty and equity between one man and another But Fourthly if we turn our
sin the mourning of their souls after God the rending and tearing of their hearts the doffing off all the fine gay cloathing wherein their hearts secretly prided themselves the uncasing and stripping of their souls of all their coverings wherein they hid and kept warm many beloved sins the laying some grating considerations as close to their hearts as sack-cloth was to their flesh the pouring shame and reproach upon themselves the blushing to look up unto the face of God with any confidence till they were peremptorily resolved against all impediments to be better the trembling prostrations at his feet the fulness of grief that makes the heart unable to speak a word for it self these things they were strangers unto And therefore the Prophet Isaiah cryes out cap. 58.4 5. Is this the Fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sack-cloth and ashes under him wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord No rend your hearts and not your garments saith the Prophet Joel and turn to the Lord with fasting weeping and mourning 3. Then tears are good when they are the companions of a relenting and returning heart when they run out of a soul that is running towards God 1 Sam. 7.2 3. All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord and Samuel spake unto them saying If you return unto the Lord with all your heart then put away the strange gods and prepare your heart to the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you That is if you be in good earnest let us see something else beside your weeping and lamentation and if these be the outward expressions of the in ward relenting of your hearts then put away all those displeasing things that have created you so much mischief and cost you now so many tears Away with all these sins that are such offences to your selves as well as unto God Thrust not these needles any more into your heart these thorns into your eyes carry them all away in this flood of tears Tears are no further liked of God then as they are expressions of a serious inward grief and sorrow which is fed and nourished even by our reasons and have their spring in the deepest considerations And then only are they expected from us when we use to weep in other cases of sadness and upon dolefull accidents If that be our temper to weep bitterly when some mournful object presents it self to us wherein we are concerned it is a sad sign to see our eyes dry when the deplorable condition of our souls doth lie before us But if our sorrow useth to express it self some other way in such cases then that is all the outward token that God requires in this Yet let it be what it will God will not accept of it unless it amount to a great displeasure against our selves base thoughts of our selves that have committed such acts a huge trouble in our mind for what is past hearty wishes that all were undone sense of our obnoxiousness to Gods displeasure humble and earnest requests to be received into his favour Which last thing if it be true is inconsistent with our remaining in a state of sin and therefore this sorrow goes a great deal further and includes in it an hatred of sin a resolution never more to have to do with it a chusing rather to die then willingly attempt such another act An actual declining of it a setting of our selves to resist the next temptation a placing of a watch over our selves and in every thing such a temper as cannot be quiet in the condition it is but which must be better If we find not our selves in this posture all our tears are no better then puddle water our sighs but the reek of a dunghill our tearing of our hair but a fit of madness our mourning but the noise of wolves and there is not so much as the beginning of that work in us which God looks for when we fast and weep and call after him 4. And it will not be amiss to observe what cheap and easie things tears are before we pass any further First there are some weeping tempers and dispositions hearts so soft and tender so full of moisture that they have a flood of tears for any occasion The breaking of a glass the loss of the least thing that they love an unkind word the crossing of their wills in the smallest trifle will make some hearts burst forth into them And therefore easie and soft natures have little reason to lay any weight upon them And secondly you know that stones will be moist and weep in foul weather In a great danger or when some sad judgement is upon them the hardest and most marble hearts may begin to relent and bedew themselves with tears When men have dismal and black apprehensions of a tempest that rattles in their ears when they have a sound of Gods wrath that comes and amazes them with its fearfull noise it may make them shrike and cry out and it may squeeze some sad groans from them which may end in tears Nay thirdly tears being bodily things they are many times sooner caused by bodily calamities then by a sense of spiritual concernments We may weep for the harm that sin hath done us when we think it is for the wrong that we have done to God The loss of our health or goods may most trouble us and not the loss of God and our souls The discredit sin hath brought upon our name may more affect us then the dishonour that thereby we have cast upon our Maker And so while men think that they weep for sin and that Gods name suffers they do but pour out their own private grief lament their own sufferings As the people of Israel whom Zach. speaks of and whose case we are stating might easily mourn and weep all the seventy years if it had been but to think of the great calamities that had befaln them The ruine of their City the burning of their Temple the captivity of their Nation the pouring out their blood like water and sundry doleful circumstances in all these might well make them wish with Jeremiah cap. 9.1 that their head was waters and their eyes a fountain of tears that they might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of their people But what is all this to a sense of sin and a groaning under the intolerable burden of their iniquity To what purpose are all these tears if inward grief and anguish for sin do not give them all their acrimony and smartness if they wash and scour not the soul from all its filth and nastiness Or fourthly tears may be but some heat-drops when men have a great sense of some mercy and the Sun shines very comfortably upon them which though they are very great and bigger then fall in more constant showers yet
as they were wont to do at no greater charge then again to confess it They beg that the acknowledgements of their faults may procure leave to practice the same again with no greater trouble but only to make a new acknowledgement It speaks only that they are sinners that they desire the favour to be so still and they will not stick continually to make Confession of it Confession is the condition of sinning more freely in their Divinity they disburden their consciences by it that they may lay on more load As the mariners unlade the ship to take in new stowage and as the drunkard vomits up his former draughts to continue the merry meeting so do men that are weary with sinning bring up all before God that troubles their stomack that so under the severity as they imagine of his pardon they may fill themselves again when they have a mind unto it They think it not good manners to come to Gods Table smelling rankly of a debauch and so against some such high time they may confess their sins as a means to cleanse and purge their souls Or their consciences are griped and their sins make them sick and ill at ease and so they go to disgorge themselves for by no better name can I call it and make a relation of their case to the great Physitian But then as many patients if they hear but a word drop from the Physitians mouth that their disease is not dangerous but they may easily recover will take no Physick at all but throw away their Bills of advice so if these sinners can but hear one good promise any merciful saying that gives men encouragement to hope away they go with it in their mouthes and with no amendment in their lives And yet many times these Confessions come not from so high a cause but owe their birth to meer custom and imitation being as common as to say Lord have mercy upon us we are all sinners and God help us 3. But whatsoever men may mean by them such Confessions as these signifie nothing at all unto God For the sins that men rehearse unto him are all known by him before and lie continually in his eyes If this be all they have to say that they are sinners and have committed such and such acts against him they may as well let their tongues rest in quiet there is nothing new in all this Then Confession is significant when it is an act of shame and reproach to our selves an act of grief and hatred a disavowing and disclaiming for ever such practices Now we say something unto God this is a new business the case is quite altered and there is forgiveness with him for such persons So the Apostle tels us 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Which is to the same sense with that of the wise man Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy And what Solomon prayes for in the behalf of such supplicants 1 King 8.47 48. God himself promises to them 1 Chron. 7.14 as you may see if you will take the pains to read the places True confession signifies that we are ashamed and blush to look up unto heaven that we have nothing to say for our selves but much against them that we cannot but cry out upon our own baseness and falsness unto God that we had rather not be then do one such vile act again that we are grieved and pained at the very heart and cannot but give vent to our souls in sighs and groans that we cannot with patience think upon our selves nor hold from proclaiming our own guiltiness that we remember nothing with so much sadness as that we have been offenders and that we resolve by Gods assistance and our utmost endeavours to grow better may we but be pardoned such offences It is begotten by a deep sense of the nature of sin and the high affront which it puts upon on God The soul is stounded with such thoughts and struck with a strange palsie and a fearful trembling that it should dare to adventure upon such a contempt The multitude of these depsperate acts makes it groan earnestly for a deliverance from them Every groan every word grates upon the heart as a file doth upon iron which at every rub fetches off some of the rust And the further it proceeds in such Confessions the more is all affection to sin diminished and impaired 4. Now God loves such a pungent sorrow as pricks to the very heart and gives a deadly wound to all our sins Such words are acceptable to him as strike like darts through the very life of our lusts and nail them to the Cross He loves when we look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn so bitterly that our hearts are shot through with an incurable wound to the flesh and all the affections and desires thereof And he loves such a Confession as expresses this sorrow this pain and this torment of our hearts which will be mixed with a vehement displeasure and hatred both against our selves and our sins This he loves more then all sacrifices or such like gifts whereby they thought many times to flatter him And therefore the returning sinners promise as God bids them Hos 14.2 that they will render the calves of their lips i. e. as Kimchi interprets it humble and penitent Confessions instead of sacrifices for thou lovest saith he the words of repentance best And therefore he observes that the scape-goat Lev. 16.21 on which the wickedness of the children of Israel was laid that he might carry them away was not offered upon the Altar but Confession only was offered to God which was far better But then this Confession of ours is to be 1 with a promise never to do so any more and 2 it is to be made good by actual forsaking of sin and 3 it is to be done presently in such instances as we have been most guilty in So we read in Numb 5.7 and the Hebrew Doctors Comments upon it The text saith that in case of a trespass a man was to confess his sin that he had done and to make a recompence for any wrong by a full restitution with some addition to it And Maimon saith the form of Confession was this O God I have sinned V. Ainsw in loc I have done perversly I have trespassed before thee and have done thus and thus but lo I repent and am ashamed of my doings and I will never do this thing again And he saith no atonement could be made for a man no not when he had made satisfaction for the damage he had done his neighbour till he had confessed and did promise to turn away from doing so again for ever And therefore when Ezra exhorts the people to make Confession unto the Lord God of their Fathers he adds and do his pleasure and separate
as they did to cause their voice to be heard on high not regarding either their mournful howlings or their clarnorous petitions whereby they thought to stir him up to help them And by the Prophet Jeremiah he tells them cap. 14. 12. that when they fast he will not hear their cry For he that turns away his ear from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be an abomination Prov. 28.9 If men will not hear God he will not hear them yea he cannot give ear unto them For the things that they love and embrace are such necessary causes of the evils under which they groan and so inconsistent with the mercies that they desire that unless God alter the nature of things or change the method of his proceedings in the government of the world he cannot hearken to their petitions Either he must change his mind or they must change theirs or their prayers be unanswered And therefore unless they heartily renounce their sins and throughly discharge their iniquities all their prayers for sending mercies and for removing miseries are a piece of meer non-sense incoherent ignorant stuff which will be returned with such shame upon them as if he had thrown the dung of the sacrifices in the face of those that brought them 4. When men bear a love to those sins the evil consequents of which they desire may be prevented or remedied that they may not ruine them they are as ridiculous and unsuccessful as if a man should beg health while he continues in his riotous and intemperate course of living It is as if we should desire that the effect may cease while the cause remains in act that God would not be angry though we continually provoke him and that he would not hate us though we do not love him Let a man raise his confidence by what arts he pleaseth and speak with a boldness in his prayers as though he would command heaven and have what he would of God yet he cannot have a true faith that he shall be heard unless he utterly abandon in heart and resolution whatsoever is incompatible and cannot stand with the things that he desires We may call our Fasts by the name of dayes of prayer as we commonly do but though we should pray from morning until night though the whole Nation should cry to God that he would bow the heavens and come to save us though it should be with a voice that would rend the clouds and seem to make way for him to come down to our rescue yet if we be in love with our sins the causes of our trouble we have put in such a strong Caveat such a barr to our suits and petitions in the Court of heaven that we can obtain no audience And therefore some Heathens were wiser then these sottish children of Israel as Jer. calls them 4.22 for when Niniveh was afraid of Gods Judgements they not only proclaimed a Fast and cryed mightily to the Lord but they turned every one from their evil way and the violence that was in their hands Jonah 3.5 8. It is a prudent saying of Cyril of Alexandria Fasting is a choice thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayer is profitable and of great benefit In Isa 58.3 it is to humble our souls in Gods eyes but it is most absurd for those that come in this manner to obtain mercy to provoke the divine Law-giver in another way by not loving to do his commands 5. But so willing are men to deceive themselves that though sometimes they go a little further yet they suffer their prayers to fall short of heaven When men have made their faces sour with fasting they begin sometimes to look angrily upon their sins and to take up some resolutions to be revenged on them And therefore they beg the divine grace to destroy them and beseech him to send his Spirit to purge their souls from them But then as if they had no mind to be heard they resolve to be at no trouble nor pains themselves about this great business They leave all to the care of God whom they would have so far to concern himself in our affairs as not to expect that we should be such creatures as he made us They sit still and wait for an unheard of power from above as if divine Faith were a relyance on God to carry such by force to heaven who have no list to walk in the way thither Such prayers have a perfect likeness to the requests of the man in the Fable to Hercules when his cart stuck fast in the mire who would neither prick forward his Oxen nor lay his own shoulders to the wheels nor unload the waggon but cast all upon the strength of his God expecting that he should come and draw it out And such an answer as was returned to that silly swain will very well befit such petitioners O bone disce pigris non flecti numina votis Praesentesque adhibe quùm facis ipse Deos. Learn Good Sir that God is not moved by lazie desires and sluggish wishes but that thou shalt then find thy God present when thou thy self art busie about thy work It is help that we beg and that supposes we are active though infirm Assistance we crave and that implyes our endeavours though ineffectual unassisted They are in all regards therefore idle prayers which careless sinners put up for divine aid and strength seeing they cannot speak common sense nor know the meaning of their own language They ask succour against their enemies but either they mean nothing or else victory without fighting and if that be it they mean it is as if they asked nothing because there is no such thing to be granted O that all men would at last learn to labour for that after which they seem to long and not make a perpetual trade of praying much and doing little or nothing Let us not meerly run from one Church to another from private Fasts to publick from common to extraordinary devotions for this was the manner of the heathen people who when they could not prevail by their daily sacrifices and prayers betook themselves to more laborious but unsuccessful devices We read of Moab in Isa 16.12 that when he was weary in the high places he came to his sanctuary to pray but he could not prevail i. e. when they had tired themselves with petitions for deliverance after the ordinary form that was used they went to the most holy place in the Land where their great god Chemosh was worshipped and there they doubted not but to speed But as they prevailed not because they did nothing at all but pray no more shall we of whom they are a perfect picture while we have confidence in our repeated prayers without a real reformation This kind of faith which men cherish in themselves is the most horrid infidelity greater then which the worshippers of Chemosh or Baal could not be guilty of For they believe not him at all who
then sacrifice and that they would present him with the qualities of those creatures rather then with their bodies 7. But as the proverb tels us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad bird hath a bad egg So it was with this people These sins being the faults of their fore-fathers they were the more easily inclined to take after them And though they might have learnt by their ancestors harms who were soundly punished for them yet either by the sweetness of these sins that made them forget the punishement or by the conceit of the purity of their Religion wherein they excelled their fathers they trod in the same steps with them and became guilty of the very same faults which had been so fatally mischievous unto others For in the second part of this seventh of Zachary God tells them what words he had spoken to their progenitors by the Prophets of old who for these sins together with two other Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry were turned out of the promised Land Other sins indeed there are mentioned by the Prophets but none so much insisted on as these to be the cause of their expulsion out of Gods Land and banishment into a strange Countrey as you shall discern before I have gone much further Now it seems that their posterity the men of the captivity were grown more observant of the Sabbath and greater haters of Idolatry and because of their Religious services which were more pure took themselves for very good men though they retained their fathers injustice and fraud cruelty and unmercifulness oppression and violent dealing Which was plainly the case of the Pharisees also the posterity of those persons in our Saviours time before this their last and long dispersion They were notoriously guilty of these sins more then any other whilest they could not be challenged with any idolatrous practises or with neglect of the Sabbath-day no nor with less strictness in any other Religious performances Under their Religion they cloaked their unrighteousness and made all their piety good for nothing being stained with covetousness oppression of the widdows and violence toward those that had no helpers with such like wickedness 8. From all which we may be bold to affirm still that God proceeds in such a method of Justice with Nations that where he finds these sins to remain it is in vain to fast and pray and cry to God for mercy yea to reform in other matters which concern Gods worship and service And yet the most noise is commonly made about these out of hope their prayers and preachings and other Religious offices together with the asserting of these from superstition and impure mixtures will drown the cry of injustice cruelty blood oppression and such like sins which are destructive of all humane society But far be it from the Lord and Governor of the world to suffer himself to be fawned upon by such persons who while they cry out against superstition are the most superstitious For out of a great fear and dread of God they crouch unto and speak him fair and lay great stress upon some small things wherein he hath given greater liberty and they hope that because of all this he will wink and connive at their evil doings to their neighbours of whom they stand in no awe at all But as I said he that loves good order and rules the Nations in righteousness and truth will punish for these things as severely as for the other and without reformation in them he will hold no Nation guiltless nor let them long live in peace Of the which that we may be the more sensible I shall digest what remains concerning the state of this people in these particular considerations 9. First I shall make it appear that this of old was the Fast which God required of their Fathers by the Prophets viz. That they should forsake those sins that I have mentioned And that he everywhere urges even in the most reforming times before the captivity their growing more just and merciful in their dealings and their practising those duties which arise from the respect that one man hath to another 2. Then I will manifest that after their return from the captivity of Babylon still these things more then any else are insisted upon as those they were deficient in and should amend 3. That these are noted as the wasting and destroying sins of a people though there should be no other 4. That where men expect peace and settlement quiet and removal of judgements from a Nation they must have an especial care to reform in these particulars And because Nations are most commonly defective in these things and are apt to imagine that some Religious duties are all or the greatest matters that God expects therefore I shall insert such observations in this discourse as shall both discover this mistake and the ground of it CAP. IX 1. The first thing opened how that all the old Prophets required amendment of their manners in point of Justice and Mercy Proved from Hosea 2. 3. From Isaiah 4. From Micah 5. From Habakkuk 6. From Zephaniah 7. From Jeremiah 8. 9. From Ezekiel in all whose prophecies many places are expounded 10 11. Their impudence in mocking at the Prophets who reproved these sins and one reason of it 12. The ten tribes sick of the same disease Four things proposed as observable from this discourse 1. THat the things which Zachariah speaks of in the places now mentioned were the same which the former Prophets had mainly insisted upon and constantly called for is the first thing to be cleared And if we follow the interpretation which Solomon Jarchi gives of that place Hos 1.2 I must begin with the testimony of the Prophet Hosea to whom the word of the Lord came before any of those whose prophesies are extant in the Scripture For so he saith some expound those words The beginning of the word of the Lord to signifie that he was the first of the four Prophets that prophesied in the dayes of King Uzziah And the word that he saith is this The Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the Land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge in the Land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Hos 4.1 2. And in chap. 6. ver 8 9. he accuseth them of violence murther and robbery and chap. 7.1 of falshood and theft and chap. 12.7 8. of their cheating and oppression which he could not make them believe because they prospered and thrived in it These places it is likely may most of all concern Ephraim i. e. the ten tribes as the greatest part of his prophesie doth But you may observe that though he find most fault with them for their idolatry yet these other sins had an hand also in their ruine And as for Judah whose state I shall chiefly enquire into because there was the house of God though they were
others nor fearing any from them as you may read ver 8. And in the 3. chap. 1 2 3. he speaks of most barbarous and butcherly actions the flaying and peiling of the people to the very bones And as if that did not make them miserable enough they would have no pitty on those poor Skeletons but broke their very bones and chopt them in pieces as one doth when he puts flesh in a pot which is as much as to say they utterly devoured them and eat them up They did abhorr Judgement and pervert all Equity ver 9. and which is to be observed at that very time they built up Zion and Jerusalem with this blood and iniquity ver 10. i. e. They repaired or enlarged the great City they adorned the Kings pallace which was on mount Zian and in all likelyhood they beautified the Temple for that is mentioned together with these two ver 12. with this robbery and murder that they committed They were reformers of things amiss or decayed in Gods worship at the cost and charges of many a poor innocent that they had rent in pieces and shared amongst them For that these words were spoken in the times of reformation you may learn from Jer. 26.18 where we are told that Micah made this threatning which is mentioned ver 12. of making Zion like a plowed field c. in the dayes of Hezekiah who you know repented of the evil his Fathers had done and so turned away the evil in his time Now what is all this which Micah saith but what the Prophet Isaiah hath already told us chap. 1. ver 10 21 23. and again chap. 3. ver 13 14 15. where God reproves the Elders great ones for beating his people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor whose cause he saith he was come to plead The Rulers then being so bad there is little reason to expect much justice or mercy among the people who also oppressed and offered violence one to another as far as their power would reach For proof of which spare not to read Mich. 6. ver 10 11 12. and likewise the six first verses of the seventh Chapter which tells us largely of the General cruelty covetousness treachery c. both of the Princes and all the people though never so nearly related one to another Which was so great and universal that it was as hard to find a merciful and a just man as to find a bunch of grapes after the gleanings of the Vintage And therefore in the sixth Chapter ver 6 c. God by the same Prophet calls not for their sacrifices and religious services in which it seems they were frank enough and could have been contented to have put themselves to any expence so they might but quietly have kept their covetous griping and devouring lusts and desires but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God 5. And in the dayes of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah things still grew worse and proceeded to a greater height of injustice and cruelty For as he is noted for a most gross Idolater so likewise for a great shedder of innocent blood wherewith he filled Jerusalem 2 King 21.16.24.3 such violence iniquity grievances perverting of judgement there was in his dayes that the Prophet Habakkuk who some think was one of those that God sent to admonish him 2 King 21.10 could not endure to behold it and seems to be wearied with crying to God against it as you may see if you read Habak 1.2 3 4. Whereupon God threatens to raise up with such speed that no body would believe it the Chaldean Nation to destroy them ver 5. And this he did not long after the time of Manasseh when the Chaldeans brought the Assyrian power under their feet of which only the Jews stood in fear 6. If we draw nearer to the time of the first captivity into Babylon by the hands of those Chaldeans which they little dreamed of we shall hear no new Sermons but the very same sins still reproved Zephaniah will be our informer in this matter who lived in the dayes of Josiah a good Prince and very zealous to reform things amiss in the worship of God With him it is manifest from 2 Chron. 35.8 the Nobles of the Realm joyned to purge the Land from Idolatry though we may guess from Zeph. 1. v. 4 5 6. that many of the people did not affect their proceedings And yet if you do but read the five first verses of the third Chapter you will eafily discern how shameless these very Reformers were in their unjust and violent dealing and that they would rather part with any thing even their Idols then these rich and thriving sins And therefore the Prophet exhorts those that had any of those rare vertues in them any mercifulness and righteousness that they would go on to practice them and in those wayes to seek the Lord telling them that it was probable but not certain that they might be secured in that deluge of misery that was like to overflow the whole Land chap. 2. ver 3. And afterwards chap. 3.12 13. he prophesies that the poor and the afflicted they that had been oppressed and stript naked by the great and the rich were the persons that should escape and be left in the Land when all those mens possessions were taken from them and that they should be such a remnant as should not do iniquity nor speak lyes nor have a deceitful tongue in their mouth but should trust in God and not in these evil arts 7. Jeremiah also who prophesied in the dayes of the same Josiah and likewise of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah in the time of both the first and second captivity and afterward also He I say speaks the very same words as will be very evident to those who will do themselves so much right for the understanding of this truth as to ponder these places of his prophesie He tells us in the 3. chap. ver 10. That Judah did not return to God with her whole heart but fainedly which words were spoken as you may see ver 6. in the dayes of Josiah who had made a Covenant to serve the Lord with all their heart and all their soul and all the people stood unto it 2 King 23.3 This is the returning which the Prophet saith was but fained because notwithstanding this great profession they were not sincerely out of love with their sins nor did with all their heart as they pretended abhor them For he tells us chap. 7.9 10. that many of them though they came to the house of God to worship in the time of this reformation yet had an Altar likewise in some private corner for Baal And beside this they were all guilty of cheating oppression stealing false-witnessing and all manner of injustice as you may see there ver 4 5 6 9. Insomuch that he saith ver 11. the house of God was become a den of Robbers a meer nest of thieves
that a man should have such strange Arts of abusing himself as to make himself believe that he is a good man and in a safe condition while he lives in the violation of all these known principles There must be some notable blind some very plausible trick that can cast such a mist before his eyes and juggle him into such a conceited belief which here I think we have discovered They had high thoughts of their divine worship and looked upon their Religious services as hugely pleasing unto God and they knew themselves to be very earnest it is like in this piece of reformation and so they judged themselves to be the people of God the right worship being restored the Altar being cleansed and the Temple repaired by their means Now their great zeal in these matters and their forwardness to introduce the true Religion after so much Idolatry made them over-look these little trifling things as men account them of justice and equity of mercy and compassion and to hope that God would do so also and not be angry with such a reformed people for a small matter What I pray you might they say in their hearts to a Prophet will not God give leave to a people that hate idols and observe diligently his Sabbaths and offer him his constant sacrifices in the right prescribed manner to get a little for themselves in the world and to use all Arts of growing rich after they have been so faithful and liberal to him Will he fall out with such good friends of his upon so poor an occasion Cannot he be pleased that they give him his due and defraud him of none of his right though they be not so exact in their Justice one to another Must he needs take notice what they do among themselves when they hope he hath no reason to complain that he is neglected in any piece of his own worship Will it not satisfie him that they are so zealous in those great and weighty concernments of his which had been so long disregarded and for which they had been so often threatned Yes surely thought they we are in a safe condition God is well apayed and we need not trouble our selves any further but confidently wait upon him that he will be with us and save us 3. Thus the Prophet Micah tells us they found a way to deceive themselves as you may read chap. 3.11 The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet they will lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us They would needs be Gods favourites and thrust themselves upon him and be confident of his goodness to them though they were conscious to themselves of all this wickedness They cryed the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as long as those of Ephesus cryed Great is Diana of the Ephesians And in this Temple-worship and Religion they trusted thinking that God was fixed to that place and that the Temple would secure them as certainly as the Trojans thought themselves out of all danger while they could keep their Palladium And therefore Jeremiah bids them not trust in those lying words saying the Temple of the Lord are these i. e. not hearken to the false Prophets who told them that they were Gods Temple a separated people an holy Nation among whom God did dwell for all this would not avail them and they were words that would not profit or give them any help ver 8. yet they dreamt that as long as they kept their holy place pure they need not fear the taking of their City Just as the heathens thought their fortresses could never be won while they could keep the good Genius of the place from being charmed away out of it And so an excellent Linguist takes that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thele Lud. de Dieu to refer not to the persons but to the several parts of the Temple which agrees well with the words fore-going ver 2. where the Prophet is bid to stand in the gate of the Lords house and to proclaim these words among the rest Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord are these As if he had pointed with his finger to the buildings of the house of God and said to those that came to worship Do not deceive your selves in a vain confidence that these will save you as if God were bound to these dwellings But yet they came and stood before God in his house as he saith ver 10. and said We are delivered and that made them do all those forementioned abominations And therefore he gives them that reproof which you read ver 11. where he asks them Is my heuse become a den of Robbers in your eyes behold I have seen it saith the Lord i. e. Do you imagine to fly to the Temple as thieves to their den and think all is safe if you do but offer me some sacrifices No you are mistaken I see what you are well enough and you cannot so deceive me It is very plain that they were confident none of those things should come upon them which the Prophets threatned but gave God the lye through his messengers ears as you may read Ier. 5.11 12 13. and therefore seeing they were so unjust as he tells us there ver 1 2. and ver 25 26 27 28. there must be something whereby they strengthened their hands in this wickedness And he tells us what it was in that chapter ver 14 when he calls the Temple the house wherein they trusted They did swear by the name of God and pretended great reverence to it but it was not in truth and righteousness Isa 48.1 they stiled themselves by the name of the holy City ver 2. viz. the men of Jerusalem the people of Sion and they stayed themselves on the God of Israel whereas they were stout-hearted and far from righteousnes as you may read Isa 46.12 But they offered to God sacrifices out of their unlawful gains and this they thought would bribe him to take no notice as you may gather from Isa 61.8 The Lord loveth judgement I hate robberie for burnt-offerings And so the Vulgar Latine renders these words Jer. 11.15 Numquid carnes anctae auferent à te malitias tuas in quibus gloriata es Dost thou think thy holy flesh i. e. thy sacrifices shall take away the wickednesses wherein thou gloriest As if he should say Thou canst not expiate for thy beloved sins by making God many oblations as thou thinkest to do no never dream of it for it is a very deceit 4. Yet knowing themselves to be very zealous in their worship they have the confidence to come and challenge God as though they had wrong done them and had hard measure at his hands in not being saved by him from their enemies Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not Wherefore have
i. e. what hast thou now to say concerning the black night of affliction wherewith thou usedst to threaten us we see no darkness but it is a day of peace with us To which he answers ver 12. True the morning is before the night but ere long your misery will come therefore if you intend to amend you had best do it presently But the seed of Israel did not only imitate them but far exceed them for in process of time they arrived to such an height of impiety as to say in Josiahs dayes The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1.12 And after the first captivity when their iniquity was exceeding great and the land was full of blood and the City of perversness they said The Lord hath forsaken the earth and the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9.9 i. e. they thought there was no providence and that it came but by chance thar their brethren were carried captive so that they might still fare well enough 9. But sure when this party was removed out of their countrey also and but some few of the poorer sort left behind by the Chaldeans we shall find better dealings And yet you must not expect it for they thought of nothing but that they should increase and be strong because they were Abrahams children And thus they reasoned with themselves Ezek. 33.24 that seeing their Father Abraham though but one had the land promised to him they being many should surely possess it and have it for an inheritance especially having escaped the destruction that was faln on others But they became guilty of the very same sins that were formerly committed For they shed blood ver 25. i. e. committed the greatest violence and they stood upon their sword v. 26. i. e. they hoped to protect themselves by that which was the instrument of their violence oppression and such like sins as they practised I wish heartily that all the men of the world at this day would take example by those that have been before them and not think that they shall escape destruction because they did not fall with others God can do with them as he did with this remnant of Judah whose doom read ver 27 28. And above all I desire that every one would apply these things to himself and to this Nation which have been spoken of hypocrisie For as far as we are parallel to them in our manner of sining must we expect the like punishments to be inflicted upon us Beware therefore Beware whosoever thou art that readest these things least thou cheatest thy self with an hypocritical godliness with a great deal of heat in some Religious duties without the most exact and scrupulous justice and the bowels of tender mercy that the Gospel requires of us This deceit is very common in the world and more familiar then many are aware of and yet withall so fatally destructive that men had need to have a mark set up whereby to avoid this rock 10. For you must not think but that the Israelites also as well as the Jews were helped forward to their ruine by this falshood No question but they thought their religion as bad as it was would preserve them and were so confident of it that with the very spoil of the poor they would serve their Gods So you may read Amos 2.6 8. They sold the righteous for silver See also Amos 4.1 4 5. and the poor for a pair of shoes they were very corrupt in judgement and they lay down upon clothes which they had in pledge by every Altar and they drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God i. e. they served God with those things that they had so unjustly and violently gotten and were content to spend something upon him so he would but wink at these unlawfull and cruel wayes of getting This iniquity would in all likelihood have stared them in the face and made them afraid had it not been for this fine deceit this hypocrisie which I speak of that their serving of God and keeping up his worship such as it was would be accepted of by God instead of all other things wherein they might be faulty And so when Hosea saith that the Rulers who loved gifts and bribes should be ashamed because of their sacrifices when they were carried captive Hos 4.18 19. he clearly intimates that in these they trusted while they oppressed the subjects but found themselves miserably deceived and disappointed as all such men will be in such weak supports 11. And how far this peice of self-cosenage prevailed in after times when the Pharisees were in their greatest height I leave to those to judge who read but those passages in the Gospel of their making long prayers fasting twice in the week strict observance of the Sabbath and boasting of their skill in the Law while in the mean time they were the most gross transgressors of the Law and dishonourers of God They thanked God that they were not Publicans but were separated by many many strictnesses from the herd of men and they said with those in Isaiah chap. 65.5 Stand by thy self come not near for I am holier then thou or as De Dieu interprets it for there is no note of comparison in the Hebrew Sanctus sum tibi I am holy to thee Thou being a common man maist not touch me no more then thou maist the holy things And yet these seeming Saints were unnatural to their parents devoured widdows houses absolved men from their oaths were full of extortion ravening and wickedness and derided the Sermons which our Saviour made because not sorted to their covetous humor They would do nothing indeed but what would stand with their worldly lusts and desires or else their own Fathers whose traditions they were so zealous of would have taught them more goodness For this was a saying among them Be as carefull to keep a small precept as a great Ep. 2. pirke 〈◊〉 and they gave this reason for it because the Scripture doth not express what precepts have the greatest rewards which was therefore omitted that with the like diligence they should keep them all But for all this they have found a way to know this secret and their rule is this that the greater the punishment is for a transgression of a command V Paulum Fag â—b the greater will be the reward for the observance I hence they conclude that there shall be a greater reward for keeping of the Sabbath then for keeping of the Passeover because the punishment for neglect of the former was stoning but of the latter no more then cutting off Who knows but from hence th y might glory so much in keeping of the Sabbath and such like things and overlook the matters of mercy and ustice because they found severe punishments for the breach of those but as I noted before covetousness was not forbidden under such penalties 12. Some such thing it was that made them
he is innocent i. e. They were no more sensible of these sins then many Heathen people who knew but little of God and so might more easily forget what was only taught them by themselves But in our translation indeed it is a threatning and thus it may be expounded as De Dieu hath noted most agreeably to the Hebrew text He that steals is cut off on this side viz. of the flying roul according to it i. e. according to the curse and he that swears is cut off on the other side according to it The roul or book that he speaks of ver 2. which contained a curse in it threatned upon all Iudea which was as the roul longer then broad was to fly abroad and spread it self upon all the guilty persons Now one side of the Book saith he contains a curse against all thieves which shall certainly light upon them and the other side of it against all false swearers which shall also come upon them according as is threatned And therefore he goes on further to denounce Gods judgements upon such persons v. 4. and speaking of the woman that sate in the midst of the Epaph ver 7. by whom was shadowed the people of the land whose iniquities should be born withal but to a certain measure he saith ver 8. this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wickedness i. e. iniquity it self the mother of all deceit thefts and perjuries And for this he threatens again unto them another expulsion and dispersion into another Babylon as you may see in the following part of the chapter And afterward God having most plainly told them how the case stood with their Fathers and how angry he had been with them chap. 8.2 he saith that now he was returned to Zion and would dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and it should be a City of truth c. ver 3. And he tells them what great things he would do for them and that as they had been a curse so now they should be a blessing ver 4 5 c. v. 13. But then He adds that these are the things they must do Speak ye every one the truth to his neighbour execute the judgement of peace and truth in your gates and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false oath For all these are things that I hate saith the Lord ver 16 17. 3. And if we look back to Haggai who prophesied but two years before these words in the eighth of Zachary were spoken one being in the second the other in the fourth year of Darius he will tell us no better news of this people For he saith chap. 2. ver 11 12 13 14. That every thing that the people did take in hand was as unclean and polluted as that which was touched by one defiled with a dead body and that though they were an holy people to him yet that did not make the things that they medled withall holy Now if we compare this passage with those that were before gathered out of Zachary we shall easily discern I think what the matter was that made God so offended with their doings At first they let the Temple of the Lord lye waste and builded their own houses after their return from captivity before they built it though God had given them a command to go about it But of this neglect they were awakened by these two Prophets and by many judgements and sore afflictions mentioned Hag. 2.15 16 17. and Zach. 8.9 10. And then they thought all was well because they obeyed Gods voice in this thing and because he promised from that day forward to bless them Hag. 2.19 So the Temple were but carried on to perfection they thought no great care was due to other things and so continued in a world of wickedness making their zeal for Temple-work eat up all their love to justice and mercy 4. If we should trace their footsteps further we should soon find that when the Temple was compleated and finished they were but little better For Malachy who concludes their story in the Old Testament and is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal of the Prophets because he was the last and shuts up all complaining of the iniquity both of Priest and people sets down these sins as famous among the rest chap. 3.5 False swearing oppression of the hireling in his wages of the widdow and fatherless and turning aside the stranger from his right all which they did without any fear of what would follow And particularly of the Priests he tells us that they were partial in the Law chap. 2.9 i. e. they did not judge according to the merit of the cause but according to their love of the person And of the Princes we are told by Nehemiah how heavily they oppressed the people by exacting usury of them chap. 5. By which together with the dearth they became so poor that it was the cause I believe of their detaining the tythes from the Levites chap. 13.10 and that they were tempted to rob God him self as the Princes robbed them Mal. 3.8 To which add the great violence that they all offered to their wives either putting of them quite away as some understand the place or else taking others to them which was worse for their poor wives these the daughters of a strange God Mal. 2.11 This you know they had begun to do presently after their return out of captivity and upon the serious admonition of Ezra repented of it but it should seem that they fell into the same sin again in after times and that so universally and so much to the injury of their wives that they caused the Altar of the Lord to be covered with tears with weeping and with crying out insomuch that he regarded not their offerings any more c. Mal. 2.13 i. e. their wives made such grievous complaints to the Lord of the violence that was offered them so it is called ver 16. that it caused him to despise all their gifts that they brought him he looking more at the others tears then at all their sacrifices And yet they have the front to come and ask God wherefore he would not receive them ver 14. To which he answers that he must deal righteously though they would not and he could not but take notice how treacherously they had dealt with their wives who as they had been their companions merited greater kindness from them and as they were taken by Covenant and contract they were in justice obliged to have dealt better with them And he proves that it must needs be a great offence because it was so contrary to Gods institution in marriage for did not he make one and yet he had the residue of the spirit c. ver 15. i. e. according as we translate it Did not he make one wife only for Adam whereas he having more the same spirit that he breathed into her could have made
many c. Or if we render it with others Did not be who is one make it i. e. the covenant of marriage and he hath abundance of spirit still to breath into our seed And wherefore did that one make that order that a man should cleave to his wife but that he might have a godly seed and therefore take heed what you do in putting away your wives and taking others for hereby you offend him that breaths the spirit of life into us Or if we take it as others interpret it their wickedness is still argued to be the greater because they boasted that they were the children of Abraham Now Did that one i. e. the first of your family do so of whose spirit we are the residue and what did that one he sought a godly seed he put not away Sarah though she was barren which to you would seem a just cause nor matched with an Idolater that he might have issue Or if we receive that rendring of the words which the learned De Dieu prefers above all the rest it argues them of great inhumanity and that they had not common good nature in them which makes the sin still greater No one would do thus that had but any reliques of the spirit of God in him and therefore much less they that seek a godly seed as you pretend to do You see that he might well call this covering violence with his garment ver 16. because it was such a wrong to those that by the Laws of God and nature deserved better at their hands To spread ones garment or ones skirts over a woman is a phrase in holy writ for to marry her Ruth 3.9 Ezek. 16.8 By taking therefore of a strange woman into their society which was engaged before to another they did as it were marry to violence and contract a relation with injustice Or as the forenamed author thinks it should be translated Violence covered their garments i. e. when as they ought still to have cast their garments of love and protection over their wives violence and wrong did cover those garments their marriage was an act of injustice and their skirts which they spread over strangers were all over stained with cruelty hard-heartedness and oppression 5. And Zachary tells us by way of prophesie what should be in after times toward the end of this Nation and what manner of Rulers should be over the people He compares their Shepherds i. e. Governours as I have shewn before unto young Lyons who do not use to protect but to devour the sheep Zach. 11.3 And he calls the people the flock of slaughter ver 4. whom he is bid to instruct either because they were to be destroyed by the armies of their enemies or because they were a prey unto their Governours According as it follows ver 5. Their possessors slay them and they hold themselves not guilty Yea to such a confidence were they arrived in these sins that they Bless God for the riches which they had got in this sort They had some devotion you see left though no honesty nor goodness God is intituled to all wicked possessions and acquisitions that he may make them good and defend them against all the clamors of men and the suits of their own conscience And it seems the people were very bad also for ver 6. he threatens them that he would have no more pitty on them then their Rulers had but let them destroy one another by seditions and at last deliver them all into the hands of the King that oppressed them who should be so far from taking any pastoral care of them that he should only slay and devour them as you may read v. â—6 6. And some understand by that King the Roman Caesar to whom they made themselves a prey by such sins as those I have been treating of That long Captivity which indures to this day had its way prepared by their avarice and cruelty as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of prophecy was again poured forth For our Lord coming and reproving the chief of that generation when he lived for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousness and oppression for being without natural affection and the like sins while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion He declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to be regarded then their strict observation of dayes and the multitude of sacrifices They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought he did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death I believe they took themselves to be very religious persons and were zealous in what they did only their zeal was not equally dispensed nor conveyed alike through the whole body of duties that God commanded Their heat was like the flushing in mens faces or the burning in their hands which we do not take to be an argument of a good temper but rather a sign that there are obstructions as the ordinary language calls them in the body so that there is not a free motion of the vital blood in all the parts I mean they spent so much zeal in a few things that they left no warmth of affection for other most necessary duties In those things their heat was staid and stopt which made them of an extraordinary high colour and to have the repute in the world of very great Saints and most vertuous persons Yea they themselves gazed so much upon this flame that they took no notice how cold they were in matters of common honesty but they committed all iniquity in a comfortable belief that they were good men and most beloved of God Their great zeal for the Sabbath and such like matters made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it whereby it remained there confined made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they pass for godly men 7. And are Christians to this day more reformed who have inherited their promises I wish I could say that we are as free from covetousness rapine and unmercifulness as the Pharises were from Sabbath-breaking and Idolatry R. D. Kimchi upon Hos 2.19 20. hath confessed a great deal of that truth which I have endeavoured to illustrate but I can only wish that the latter part of his gloss were found as true as the former part hath proved He saith those words cannot have a compleat sense till the time of the Messiah and that God uses the word betroth three times because of the 3. captivities after which God doth as it were marry them to himself but in the dayes of the Messiah after a more excellent manner then in former times For when they came out of Aegypt he did not betroth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for
eyes the other way we shall find that justice and mercy pitty and compassion forgiveness and doing good to others especially to those who have wronged us will fall out sometimes with a mans worldly interest and carnal desires and will put him to learn that hard lesson of self-denyall and besides they make no such great noise in the world but must be content to pass with many men for a piece of dull morality It was most truly said by a wise and a great Master Ren. Des Cartes Nulli facilius ad magnam pietatis famam perveniunt quam superstitiosi hypocritae None sooner obtain a great fame for piety then superstitious persons and hypocrites One reason I conceive of it may be that men who have nothing else to shew for their sanctity but their religious performances will be most nice exact and even ceremonious about them and do them with a greater pang of zeal then many cordial Christians And this easily obtains for them the name of holy and devout persons among men when honesty mercy and a sober religion and piety cannot prevail for so much credit because they make not such a buzzle in the world Now you all know how ready men are to stickle for that which draws the eyes of all men to it and if you do not the Apostle will tell you how soon this disease began in the Christian Church For that which St. Paul reproves in the Corinthians was this that they made most stir about that which brought them the greatest glory and most credit preferring gifts of tongues before prophecy and prophecy before love and charity 4. And besides you must consider further how fair an occasion men have to be dishonest when others rely so much upon their credit that they will thank them even when they deceive them and think they have used them very kindly because they say so when they have dealt very hardly with them This makes many dress themselves up religiously because it is a more cleanly way of catching the prey when the Wolf puts on the Sheeps skin He may devour a silly Lamb in a corner and wipe his mouth and none can say that he hath done any harm The well minded people flock very innocently and simply to a man who is famed for piety and now if he be a beast of prey there is no such opportunity as this to devour and raven because he is taken for one of the sheep of Christ And therefore it was anciently observed that no man could so securely commit all wicked actions as he who had gained the repute of an honest man Which made the Poet in Plutarch advise this as a piece of craft Plut. De aud Poetis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do all thou canst to be accounted just and spare to do nothing whereby thou maist be a gainer But then that I may come nearer to our discourse what may not what will not he do that hath secured not only other mens opinion but his own also of his honesty and piety though he hath none and yet hath very gainfull opportunities This man may spoil and devour with a good conscience because he takes himself to be a sheep And having arived to a conceit of his godliness without these paultry vertues of justice and mercy he cannot take it to be any part of his godliness to maintain them If it be a great piece of that policy whereby the Devil rules the world for a man so notably to counterfeit piety that even when he doth most destroy it he shall be counted pious as it was said of Tereus Ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur esse pius He was cryed up for a Saint even when he was committing the greatest villany What a notable piece then it is of the Devils craft so to perswade and inflame a zealous man in religious duties that he shall pass in his own judgement for a Saint How certainly will he ruine both himself and others in what a ready way is he to commit all injustice when he is out of all danger of having his own conscience secretly reprove him of hypocrisie and simulation which the other had not so secured When out of Conscience perhaps he is forward in some things which make such a noise that they quite drown the voice of conscience in other matters how easie is it for him to commit all other wickedness with safety though it be no less dangerous then that which he avoids 5. But there is an higher secret in this hypocritical godliness then hath been yet named and that is when even injustice it self is accounted but a piece of zeal for God When men are so hot that they will even sin against their conscience for Gods sake they take themselves you must needs think to have highly merited at his hands Thus some Greek Christians in Creet did once handle the poor Jews getting their riches from them by false and slanderous accusations of them before the Magistrate and thinking that they did God good service in so doing In so much that their Patriarch Metrophanes was fain to write to them to forbear such violence and injustice under pain of being excommunicated and cast out of the Church Câ—â—s Turcograec L. 4. In which letter he hath this remarkable passage worthy of the consideration of all fiery Zealots Let no man think he is excused of his injustice by saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did not wrong the godly but a fellow that was not Orthodox For our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel said Luke 3.14 Do violence to no man Where he makes no difference of persons nor permits any man for any cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do wrong to those that are of a wrong belief or not of our opinion You see with what absurd fancies a false godliness inspires mens hearts When they are once intoxicated with an high conceit that their religious affections have made them Gods darlings they think that all the world should be theirs that nothing is too good for them but that others deserve to be turned out of all It easily swells them into this fierce belief that it is no wrong to take from those that love not Jesus Christ especially seeing it is to be given to themselves Yea it lifts them up even to a throne it self makes them think it no injustice to thrust another out that one of Gods beloved children may sit in the place And though you shall hear nothing more in such peoples mouths then Justice Justice yet by that they mean nothing else but to have that done which is agreeable to their own desires which are the only rule of right and justice 6. For the Lords sake therefore for your own and the Nations sake mind these things that have been said more seriously And do not look upon these as matters of a less moment and inconsiderable nature which need not be so much
proof I think either of their sincerity or proficiency then the Master of whom they learn their lessons 4. So easie a thing it is to endeavour to destroy others when we think that will save our selves and so glad is hatred of such an opportunity to vent all its fury without any fear a reproof but with great commendations for its pains And so well content likewise will mens false hearts be to labour rather to make others of their mind then to make them good to make their neighbours like to themselves then to make themselves like to God There is some labour and difficulty in destroying the old man and in graving the face of God upon our souls in righteousness and true holiness but to stamp our own image upon other mens minds and to beget children to our selves is a thing to which nature is prone and wenderfully tickled in the doing of it To walk with God undefiled in the way requires great caution watchfulness and circumspection but it is no such hard thing as men imagine to walk over a whole country and tell them that they are damned that they must be baptized again that they must forsake the Church and bid defiance to all Priests with things of the like nature There is as much carnality and sensual pleasure in these things as there is in the most lascivious actions of fleshlymen They are inflamed with their Opinions as Judah was with Idols they have an itching desire to be pouring out their conceits into the womb of every soul that will receive them Let all men therefore take heed how they judge themselves godly because they are hot and ardent in their desires to have all of their way for this may be but self-love or a tyrannous desire to have all wills humbled and bowed down to theirs 5. To this we will subjoyn a third thing because very nearly allied with the former and that was their opposition to the bad party This discourse of our Saviours in Mat. 23. is occasioned by the flocking of the Pharisees to him who were mighty glad that he had put the dull Saduces to silence chap. 22.34 41. A great abhorrence they had of those Epicurean principles which the Saduces held and did strenuously maintain a future state and the resurrection of the dead from whence they did conclude their zeal for God was as great as it was against the ungodly And indeed in this did consist a great part of the Jewish Hypocrisie they had been soundly plagued for their Idolatry and Sabbath-breaking and therefore they studied at last to get as far off from the Gentiles as they could which they took for a mark of great reformation So you may observe throughout the whole new Testament that they would not eat with a Gentile and they abhorred Idols they were ready to kill our Saviour because he did works of mercy on their Sabbath And it is held unlawfull by their Doctors but to stoop down to drink of the water that flows from a Statue lest they should fall into the suspition of worshipping before an Idol And so for the Sabbath they were so exact that they tell us the Lamb of the Passeover which used at other times to be hung upon a staff or barr which lay on two mens shoulders and so flead as it hung between them there being more at that time offered then could be flead in the court if the Passeover fell on the Sabbath then a man laid his hand upon his fellows shoulder and his fellow laid his hand on his and upon their arms the Lamb was hanged and flead by another neighbour because it was not lawfull that day to carry a burden Jeremiah you know threatens them chap. 17. for carrying burdens on the Sabbath day and therefore they were so fearfull of it that they would not venture so much as to lay a staffe upon their shoulders which would have weighed no more then their hands 6. Would not you have taken these men for very pious and tender souls who were so wary lest they should offend God and bare such an hatred to all parties that were irreligious Yes sure they would have passed for men of singular devotion in these dayes and if they were alive among us men would take up the old saying that if but two persons should go to heaven the one should be a Scribe and the other a Pharisee And yet alas these men who abhorred Idols so much had a great abominable image of the world in their hearts and Mammon they daily adored They hated the Saduces more then they did their Opinion and they remembred the keeping of the Sabbath so well that they broke the very next command to it and honoured their Father and Mother no more then they pleased The carnal worldly Protestant is just their Ape He cannot indure the sight of a Cross he is ready to tear the picture of a Saint in pieces but he himself is only a picture of real Saints a meer Statue and as cold as a stone to all Christian vertues He loves the sin of domineering over his Brethren of dictating from an infallible Spirit of heaping up riches and inlarging his possessions as much as his life which perhaps he is ready to sacrifice for the subduing of Gods enemies For so it sometimes is that this opposition to a bad party is accompanied with such a notable hot zeal that makes men willing to die in the quarrel but this zeal is very black and sooty and it sends up such a reek as miserably fouls the Soul 7. Before I come to that thing which I shall chiefly mark in Mat. 23. You may note some colder formalities and more beggerly ceremonies then these I have mentioned which are spoken of in other places and made a shift to creep under the name of Religion in the world They fasted very often and made it known to all the neighbour-hood by covering and hooding of their faces as they used to do in time of mourning Mat. 6.10 They thought themselves defiled by the vulgar the people of the earth and would marvel as the Evang. tells us Mark 7. if a man did not wash when he came to eat or when he came from the market They might wear peahaps rough garments as the Prophets did such hairy cloths as Elias and John Baptist used in token of a course hard and severe life as a sign of great mortification but it was only to deceive as the Prophet Zachary speaks chap. 13.4 and that they might make a prey of simple and well-meaning people Abundance of vilany lurked under their hoods and their hands which they washed were full of blood and covetousness 8. I will not say what knavery lies under a Friers frock nor what wickedness is cloystered from the eye of the world under pretence of Religion because I am not acquainted with their practises but only by report but let us look at home and see if we can find none of this course
barden religion which consists altogether in corporal austeries Some we have seen making as much ado about such a cut of their hair as those Friars about a shaven crown and as fierce for the cuting off their ribbons as if it was the cutting off our right hand which our Saviour speaks of And others we have seen to fast and punish their bodies and make them do pennance by an hard life who notwithstanding have been hard to the poor and harsh and sowr to to others as well as to themselves They look upon these things as great marks of humility but as David Chytraeus well saith with whose words none will be offended though they may with mine Forma humilitatis est non dejectio capitis in alterum latus non vestis sordida c. Reg. Vitae Humility doth not consist in holding ones head awry in wearing of poor cloaths or any other externall gesture but in the hearty casting down of our selves before God and subjecting our wills to his to do and suffer what he pleases 9. They commended likewise good men but especially those that were dead and gone garnishing the very sepulchres of the Prophets And not a small piece of Religion is it now adaies to commend the Preacher as the woman did our Saviour saying Blessed is the womb that bare thee c. Luk. 11.27 O he is a pretious man a sweet teacher I could hang on his lips all day long though they are no wiser nor better by all the Sermons they hear then they were many years ago To throng to the Church to use devout carriage there demure looks sad sighs and groans a sowr face a studied tone a deliberate gate will go a great way in many mens Religion And on the contrary There are some who pride themselves in decrying all these poor formalities which we have named in scufling and fighting with these shadows of Religion dealing more blows at these airy appearances then at foul and deadly sins Both of these men are of the same Genius accommodating themselves to the mode and fashion of the times imitating as far as they dare with safety to their sins those who are taken to be truly Religious They would wear the cloaths but not be the men they would fain have these things to be putting on of Jesus Christ but like not a religion that will lie near the heart and make them put off themselves And indeed when I have considered all things I find that there is nothing so poor and mean about which men may not spend their zeal so excessively that it may pass with them for a religion They would have the kissing of the Son spoken of Psal 2.12 to be but such a ceremony as the kissing of the hand was among the heathen when they worshipped bowing and kneeling unto the Lord our maker Psal 95. they can easily think to be no more but bending their hams bowing their bodies before him Praying and lifting up the soul to God to be but turning up the eyes and lifting up the hands purifying and cleansing to be nothing else but outward Baptism and receiving of Christ to be eating and drinking of the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper And all the great duties of a Christian to be fulfilled in a good will to them which God will accept instead of the deed 10. We must learn therefore not to Judge of men by their talk and brave expressions by their little strictnesses and trifling zeal or any thing that is cheap and easie but by their self-denial and abasing of themselves and by all real acts of righteousness which are chargeable and cost them something As they say that at Venice they will give you the title of Magnifico and solemnly invite you to their houses to dinner but if you accept of the invitation and expect what they profess it is a piece of the greatest rudeness incivility and ill breeding Even so it is here there are many men that speak honourably of God and seem to be very desirous of his company and invite him to their souls by many prayers and earnest petitions that promise him fair and profess great respect to him but he is ignorant and rude in the world who expects they will be as good as their word and they themselves take it very ill that God should require all that at their hand They love to talk of Remission and reconciliation the flowing forth of Christs blood the bleeding his heart to sinners the freeness of his grace and twenty such good words and phrases They will chat all day long of fulness and freeness of riches and kindness communion and communication and such like things but you must not think that they mean any thing more then Christs casting a covering over their sins and hiding their iniquities Christ must speak as much of their kindness and love also if they be holy for they see no obligation to such exactness And therefore all they bestow on God is large promises and some petty inconsiderable actions of obedience If he will have more he must take it of Christ and not of them for he is best able to pay what is owing Though they are engaged and stand bound to God in many duties yet they intended in conclusion to cast the whole debt upon Christ and to discharge little or none of it themselves 11. And I cannot but admire at the strange impudence of the world who ordinarily brand the Ministers with the name of Scribes and Pharisees because they wear long cloaks or have respect and honour from the people which they do not seek though they be men of upright lives and whose hands were never fouled with any dishonest gain but stretched out many times to relieve those that are in need And yet never consider how like they themselvs are to those persons in their covetouseness hard-heartedness hatred desperate malice implacableness against all that oppose them and other things of this high nature All that bear any similitude to their outward garb must be hypocrites and they that resemble them in their diabolical nature must be Saints Who can help it if men will be mad and consider nothing They themselves perhaps make long prayers as the Pharisees did and yet they would be loath and so would I also that therefore they should be esteemed hypocrites if all things else were correspondent and their lives were holy They might learn then one would think if they be not quite frantick that the hypocrisie of the pharisees did not consist in wearing long robes or any such outward thing but in placing their religion in them and living under that shadow in all covetousness pride Lordliness over their Brethren spite anger and desire to destroy all contrary minded and such like wickedness If men be guilty of these things then they are Pharisees in grain though they wear short cloaks and are not called Masters CAP. XXIII 1. The Pharisees great zealots for some things but neglecters
of others and for their own Traditions more then Gods commands 2. They loved acts of Piety better then acts of Mercy and Justice and those acts of Piety that were outward more then the inward 3. That which agreed with their humour better then that which was against it 4. More scrupulous of a little sin then a great 5. Just in one case that they might be unjust in many and sometimes charitable that they might be constant extortioners 6. They would do more then was commanded in one thing rather then what was commanded in all things 7. Great need therefore we should examine our selves Observe well what moves you when extraordinary zealous for one thing 8. Observe what your zeal in one case is apt to make you neglect in others 1. AND this will lead me to the great mark of the Pharasaick spirit which comprehends all the rest and that is a fierce zeal for some things with a plain neglect of all the rest As it is easier to talk then to do so some things are easier to be done then others And if you read the Gospel you will see that they pickt out those things that were of easie digestion and would nourish their diseases but rejected every thing that might make them sick and vomit up all their filthiness To make this more apparent I will instance in some particulars which clearly discover their partial and unequall zeal in performance of their duty And First you may observe that they loved their own Traditions better then they did Gods express commands There are many learned men and St. Hierom among the rest that think God did not command them to make Phylacteries but only carefully to remember the Law Deut. 6.8 9. And yet they were more carefull to have these scripts of parchment about them then to have the Law of God written on their hearts which was contained in them But though that be not certain yet it is most indubitable that God commanded them to honour their Father and Mother but no where bids them offer and consecrate all their estates to him And yet notwithstanding they took themselves to be excused from all obligations to relieve their poor Parents So Theophylact interprets it if they could but say that they had devoted all that as a gift to God whereby they might do them any good Mat. 15.5 which was a most lensless thing and as if what was given to the poor especially to our parents were not given to Gods uses And yet now at this day men are wont to swagger more in a new fashion and late invention in Religion of their own contriving then to contend earnestly for the manifest precepts of our Lord Iesus They are all on a fire for a doubtfull opinion for a mode of Government which relies on no clear Scripture but have scarce any sensible heat for that love and charity which Christ hath undeniably commended over and over again to his disciples 2. A Second thing which you may observe in the Pharisees is this that they loved actions of Devotion to God better then actions of Mercy and Equity to men That you may see by their long prayers Mat. 23.14 and their Corbans or gifts they offered to God just now mentioned There was more of Pomp and fame but less of Self-denyall in the one then in the other and they would alwayes chuse that which was most easie especially if it conduced to their credit and glory And therefore thirdly you may observe that of all actions of Piety they chose those that were most outward and done with least trouble As to praying they were much addicted but with meditation inward admirations of God adorations of his excellencies we may be sure they were little acquainted And just so now it is men think that actions of piety merit more of God then others do and that he is so pleased with them that he can be content if they overlook others while they are so very kind to him and therefore Mercy and Kindness to others are meer strangers to them And you may observe that men had rather pray with others then alone by themselves and they account it a greater attainment to be a speaker in a congregation then to be humble and lowly-hearted They are strangers to inward and deep thoughts of God for if they were acquainted with his holiness and goodness they would mind nothing more then to purge themselves from all their filthy passions and affections and to do good to all as he doth 3. And indeed fourthly it was generally true of them that they loved that which was outward more then that which was inward Mat. 23.25 28. And they loved that which agreed with their own humour better then that which was against it v. 15. They scoured the out-side that it might shine and glister and dazzle all mens eyes with its brightness but they cared not how black or cankered they were within and how vile they appeared in Gods eyes so that all their neighbours would suspect no foulness And they endeavoured the conversion of others to their Religion which did but feed their own vain humor and popular desire of being accounted great and glorious Saints while they took no care to turn their own hearts to God and true righteousness from which they had so monstrously degenerated Of this sort are all they who are highly zealous against all carnal sins but live in those that are spiritual They hate all riot and drunkenness as we all ought to do but are drunken themselves with rage anger and pride They reprove others sharply but cannot indure a fair reproof from others They cry out perhaps against injustice but think it no robbery to take away a mans good name They detest unclean embraces but yet have an unchaste complacency in themselves and their own Opinions They would have no wicked men govern us but they think themselves fit for their places and are desirous of preheminence 4. A fifth token of their hypocrisie was that they were more scrupulous in committing of a little sin then of a great They would take false witness against Christ though they would not enter in the Governours hall for fear of being defiled Which was as if one should strain his liquor if there were a gnat in it but make nothing of swallowing a Camel Mat. 23.24 The heat and sap of their souls spent themselves in such broad leavs and fruitless suckers as you see in a Vine undressed and he that should but pluck off one leaf strike off one ceremony or uncommanded duty that they imposed was a greater enemy to God in their account then he that broke most of Gods Laws He that knows the world cannot but see that this leaven is not yet cast out of mens hearts We have many that are Christians just as Domitian was a Souldier that are enemies to flies and flies to their enemies Very braving and daring they are against that which is called Superstition but easily