not to delay the time seing we know not what shall be on the morrow Iam. 4.14 First it is a just thing with God to contemne that man dying that despised him living He that calleth not upon God in his prosperity will God heare his cry Iob. 27.9 when trouble commeth upon him The best way to kil a Serpent is to bruise his head and when it is young so the safest and surest way to withstand sinne and Satan will be in the beginning not the latter and of our dayes in health not in sicknesse in life not in death betimes not when it is too late See this in the foolish Virgins that lingred their time of repentance but when the season was past they cryed againe and againe Lord Math. 25.11.12 Lord open unto us And what answer did they receive Verily I say unto you I know you not Luk. 13.24 verifying the saying of our Saviour Many I say unto you will strive to enter in and shall not be able because doubtlesse they strive when it is too late Secondly we must looke for a time when there will be judgement without mercy now is the time of mercy without iudgment Now are the dayes of grace now is the time of turning and repenting when this time is gone and past there will come a day of blacknesse and utter darknesse when there is no place nor time of turning For as the day of death taketh us the day fo judgment shal find us as we see in Caine Esau Iudas the rich man in the Gospell and such like Thirdly the houre of death to which the greatest sort post over their repentance hath many hindrances accompanying it that the sicke man cannot freely thinke of the state of his soule neither call to remembrance his sinnes that he hath committed Lastly beware of all lettes and impediments which as so many stumbling blockes lye in the way and keepe us from repentance Never was there good worke to be done but it hath found many oppositions Satan standeth at our right hand ready to catch hold of us The manifold impediments of true repentance when he seeth us sliding from him and resolued to leave sinne As then they that were bidden and called to the feast had all of them their excuses so such as are stirred up to repentance make not that hast which they ought but are wise to their own hurt and become the greatest enemies to their owne soules Let us therefore see their reasons or rather pretences which they use to hinder their returne into the right way First they alledge that repentance is full of difficulty a way hedged with thornes hard and painfull Be it so the harder the worke is the more excellent it is But what is the hardnesse of the worke in respect of the greatnesse of the wages and reward Besides this yoke of Christ is easie and this burden is light because the often practise thereof will make it so familiar unto us that we shall take pleasure and delight in it because we shall have God to put under his hand and assist us in the practise thereof because such vertue proceedeth from the death of Christ Rom. 6.6 that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serue sinne and we have him after a sort to draw in the yoke with us and because God powreth sweet and secret consolation into the hearts of such as resolve to turne to him whereby they find that peace of Conscience which passeth all understanding Another impediment is presumption of Gods mercy and a foolish and ungrounded perswasion that God will accept of them whensoever they returne to him True it is we have many precious promises of grace and mercy in holy Scripture Ezek. 18.32 33.11 Psal 103. 1 Tim. 2.4 But these men do abuse them and build upon a weake foundation they dreame of a God made all of mercy and forget his justice which is to set up an Idoll in their hearts they dwell so much upon the promises of the Gospell that they cast from them the curses of the law These are like to the Spider that gathereth poyson out of the sweetest flowers The goodnesse of God is published and Proclaimed so often for the comfort of the weake not for the encouragement of the wicked to raise up the penitent not to hearten or harden the obstinate it is bread for the Children to eate not for dogges to devoure To conclude Nah. 1.3 let us remember that as the Lord is slow to anger so he is great in power and wil not surely cleere the wicked The third impediment is contrary to the former and that is despaire of Gods mercy The former hoped too much this sort hopeth too little and both of them without cause This possessed the heart of Caine despairing of Gods goodnesse as if it were lesse than his sinnes Thus also Iudas perished who saw his sinne in the glasse of the Law but could not lay hold on Gods mercy and therefore died without hope Sathan hath two deceitfull glasses and brast asunder through despaire Thus doth Satan shew forth two false glasses to deceive the sight of sinners before sinne is committed he sheweth them his mercies greater than they are and his justice lesse than it is but after the committing thereof he maketh his mercies to appeare lesser and his justice greater than indeed it is But he is a lyar from the beginning and the father of lies trust him not beleeve him not the contrary to that which he speaketh is commonly true God hath mercy in store for all that doe repent from the bottome of their hearts Ezek. 18.21.22 and hath promised to put all their sinnes out of his remembrance To deny the infinitenesse of his mercy is to deny him to be God Remember the examples of old how he hath dealt with penitent sinners with Rahab the harlot with Manasses the King with Peter that denyed him with Paul that persecuted him with such as crucified the Son of God and delivered him into the hands of murtherers Luk. 7.38 with that woman which washed the feete of Christ with teares and wiped them with the haires of her head To conclude let us call to minde the description of the name and nature of God The Lord the Lord strong mercifull and gracious slow to anger and abundant in truth Exod. 33.6.7 reserving mercy for thousands for giving iniquity transgression and sinnes The next impediment is the cares of this life and the deceitfulnesse of riches the pleasures of this world These are dangerous snares and baites of Satan wherewith he hunteth after the soules of men and catcheth them as fishes are with an hooke Luk. 14.17 Math. 13.22 Luk. 12.19 2 Tim. 4.10 and as corne is choked with thornes Luk. 8. For as full hands are able to hold and receive nothing no not the purest gold when they are
his judgments who never once consider the causes thereof not hate their sinnes though heinous and horrible which bring them upon us We deale commonly with our sinnes as the vniust Steward did with his Masters debters and debt for an hundred he sets downe fifty Luk. 15.6 See herein how partiall we are when we censure others we are ready for fifty to set downe an hundred and of every mole-hill to make a mountaine but when we cast up our owne accountes we say to our owne soules Take thy bill and sit downe quickly and write fourscore or fifty or happily foure or five so unequall and unjust are our wayes Againe others acknowledge themselues to be sinners in grosse or in generall as Pharaoh Saul and sundry others but come to the particulars of the law which is the glasse to shew us our sinnes for by the Law commeth the knowledge of sin examine these by it from point topoint Rom. 3.20 who never examined themselues they are not ashamed to pronounce themselues innocent For bring them to their triall as it were to hold up their hand at the barre whether they ever brake the first Commandement Exod. 20 3.4.7.8.13 Thou shall have no other Gods before me they answer readily God forbid I should set up strange gods Or the second To make graven images or the rest To kill To steale To beare false witnesse Math. 19.20 and such like they sticke not to plead not guilty and to say with the young man All these things have I kept from my youth up what lacke I yet These are like to a man that saith he is sicke and being asked where and led a long from the crowne of the head to the Sole of the foot should then say he is well in every particular part Thus they shew they understand not the Law which is spirituall Rom. 7.14 and searcheth into the heart Lastly it is our duty to use all meanes to move us and bring us unto repentance The first may be our present necessity Motives to stirre us up to repentance If there were no other but the distresse and calamity that lyeth upon our Churches it were enough to rouse us up out of the dead sleep of sinne into which we are fallen It is not our fasting and prayer that can call in Gods judgements nay they provoke him the more against us except we repent O let us consider the wofull mortality and the pittifull estate of thousands of our brethren and sisters Psal 80.5 79.8.9 that the Lord feedeth them with the bread of teares and giveth them teares to drinke in great measure and thereby be stirred up our selues and stirre up others to unfained repentance then let us say with the Prophet O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low helpe us O God of our Salvation for the glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sinnes for thy names sake and he will heare us in the end and send us a gracious deliverance Secondly a man that liveth in this world without amendment of life is farre more uile then the basest creatures that creepe upon the ground it had beene better we had never beene borne or beene brought forth as dogs and swine as wormes of the earth nay as Serpents or a generation of Vipers We are worse then all these lying in the state of impenitency for there is an end of them when this life endeth but our misery shall never have end Thirdly such as ate not truly conuerted are in danger of all the judgments of God which as a suddaine and violent flood may breake in upon them or as a mighty host of men may quickly ouerthrow them and destroy them Happy are they that feare them a farre off and can beware by other mens harmes Let us not tarry till they come upon us Exod. 12.30 as the Egyptians did till one in every house was dead God was neuer more prouoked then at this day Hitherto he hath prevailed little or nothing with us Math. 3.10 now the axe is laid to the root of the trees therefore every one which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewne downe and cast into the fire Fourthly God hath used all meanes to worke in us repentance the greater is our sin if we use them not We are fast a sleep he hath sounded his trumpets to awakeÌ„ us He hath the trumpet of his word and commandeth his Ministers to cry aloud and spare not Esay 58.1 to lift up their voyces like a Trumpet to shew the people their transgressions their sins He hath also the trumpet of his judgements to pierce into our hearts when the word findeth no place in us He hath often sounded the alarme and blowne the trumpet of his Word by the Ministery of his seruants that have spoken unto us early and late in the name of the Lord and warned us of his wrath to come and of our wickednesse present and we would not heare them He is therfore constrained to take in hand an other trumpet and to strike us with the pestilence and mortality Ames 3.6 shall this Trumpet be blowne in the City and the people not be afraid Or shâ—ll there be evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it For as when a trumpet giveth a signe or token out of a watch-tower the people hearkneth and is troubled and prepare themselves this way or that way as the trumpet giveth the token so the Lord cryeth unto us by his judgments as it were by the voyce of a shrill trumpet ought we not then to be attentive and be moved at the sound thereof and according to the warning prepare our selves to repentance and heare his voice while it is called to day Psal 95.8 Heb. 3.7 4.7 lest our hearts be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne It were better for us a thousand times to hearken to the sound of the first trumpet then tarry till be sound the second to heare his word then waite till he take up his sword O how much better had it beene for us to have taken his word which he sends among us and to Obey it then to cause and even constraine him to send his destroying Angel to make havocke of us Lastly he that converteth not is in danger of eternall damnation to be separated from Gods presence at whose right hand is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Dan 12.2 to have fellowship with the Devill and his angels to have shame and everlasting contempt powred upon them and to have horrour and anguish of conscience cast upon them arising from a feeling of Gods wrath Then shall the last trumpet blow and waxe lowder that the dead shall heare the sound thereof 1 Cor. 15.52 1 Thes 4.16 when the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a great shout and with thousands
his mercies Hee hath preached unto us by his mercies a long time and the dayes of his patience have long continued among us How neere hath Gods hand bin unto many of us in the great plague When it hath beene in the same house one hath bin taken away and another hath bin spared Nay in the same bed one hath bin smitten another hath had his life granted him for a pray Consider this yee that have forgotten this mercy of God and labour to appease his wrath before his judgement falleth upon us He commeth with a leaden foote but he striketh with a rod of iron and dasheth his enemies in pieces as a potters vessel The Lord complaineth in the Prophet Ier. 8.7 that the storke in the Heaven knoweth her appointed times and the turtle and the crane and the Swallow obserue the time of their comming but my people know not the judgement of the Lord they have rejected the word of the Lord c. Every man even by the light of nature obserueth his times for his several workeâ— Skilfull Physitians have their times of the yeare and of the Moone for their purges and potions The Mariner stayeth not when the tide is come the Husbandman soweth while it is winter the Smith striketh while the iron is hote the Merchant buyeth while the market lasteth thus doe these take their time while the time tarrieth onely men in the matters of God and their owne Saluation know not or will not know the time of their returning Eph. 5.14 They will not awake from their deepe sleepe in sinne they will not stand up from the dead that Christ may give them light and life They will not heare his voyce while it is called to day but suffer themselves to be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne The Lord speaketh in the time present behold now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation but we will take a further day with God as desperate debters doe with men they can abide no present reckonings Thus doth Satan beguile carelesse sinners he promiseth them time enough hereafter like to biting Vsurers as one saith who are wont to give day to young heires from yeare to yeare untill at last they wind and wring their inheritance from them So the Prince of darknesse August Confâ—s lib. 8. cap. 5 the God of this world suggesteth to the children of disobedience that they may let repentance alone a little and it will be soone enough to come anone to repent heereafter Remember that Esau losing the opportunity of the blessing sought it afterward with teares Heb. 12.17 and yet found no place for repentance Remember that the rich man cryed for mercy but it was too late Lne 16.24 Remember the foolish Virgins that cryed Lord Lord open unto us Math. 25.11.12 7.22.23 but the doore of mercy was shut and they received their answer verily I say vnto you I know you not Remember that many shall say in that day Lord have we not Prophecied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderfull workes but it shall be said to them Depart from me yee that worke iniquity Let us therefore beginne betimes to turne to God while the day of grace endureth let us cease to doe evill learne to doe well eschew evill and doe good Lastly let no man flatter himselfe with the enioying of earthly blessings health wealth peace plenty and prosperity nor with the bare continuance of the Gospel among us as though it must therefore goe well with us and that we must needes be highly in Gods fauour This was the folly of Micah Iudg. 17.13 Now I know that the Lord will doe me good seing I have a Levite to my priest This was the vaine flattery of the Iewes who because they had Abraham to their father together with the law and the Oracles the Arke and the Covenant thought themselves in a good case and that they must needes be Gods people they cryed the Temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord. But Iohn the Baptist putteth them from this foolish confidence in the flesh Math. 3. Math. 3.9 thinke not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father for I say vnto you that God is able of these stones to raise vp children vnto Abraham And the Prophet Ieremy chap. 7. Ier. 7.8.9 Behold ye trust in lying words that shall not profit will ye steale murther and commit adultery c. and then come and stand in this house before me which is called by my name and say we are delivered to doe all these abominations behold I see it sayth the Lord. O let it not be so with us to prophane the house house of God to continue in our sinnes farre be it from us to bring them to the place of Gods worship for this will cause him to curse all our meetings and assemblies that they shall be for the worse not for the better to encrease our plagues not decrease them and to double his judgements not diminish them Let us therefore leave them behind us and cast them from us never to returne to them againe 2 Pet. 2.22 lest we be like the Dog that returneth to his vomit and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Otherwise let us not boast of the Gospel and flatter our selves because we have the Gospel as the Iewes did glory in the Temple but seeke to bring forth the fruit of the Gospel For our sinnes are the causes of all plagues and judgements neither can we looke that he should stay his hand or say to the destroying Angel 2 Sam. 24.16 It is enough stay now thy hand as he did in the dayes of David And doubtlesse then we have begun to profit vnder the correcting hand of God when we seeke the cause of his judgments within us and acknowledge out sinnes to be the cause of all For what is the true cause of this plague and pestilence Our sinnes And what is the cause of the continuance of his heavy judgement Rom. 1.18 doubtlesse the continuance in our sinnes We must confesse that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all vngodlinesse and vnrighteousnesse of men When Israel had received an overthorw and turned and their backes to their enimes Iosh 7.10.11 When we are chastened we must looke to our sinnes 1 Cor. 11.30 Esay 64.5.7 Lam. 3.39.40 Levit. 26. the Lord said unto Ioshua Get thee up wherefore lyest thou thus upon thy face Israel hath sinned and they have also trespassed my Covenant which I coÌ„manded them for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stollen and dissembled also Nay as we encrease our sinnes in number and measure he will not onely continue his judgements but encrease them also and if we will not for all this hearken vnto him but walke contrary unto him he will walke
sanctifieth all Gods creatures unto our use It obtaineth a good right and title to them and a blessing upon them 1 Tim. 4.5 Our callings our labours our actions and the workes of our hands are sanctified by it as Psal 127. Except the Lord keepe the City Psal 127.1.2 the watch-man waketh but in vaine it is in vaine for you to rise up early to sit up late to eate the bread of sorrowes c. Seing these things be thus that these be the fruits of prayer Ezr. 9.6.10.11.13 Neh. 9.32.33 Psal 79.8.9 80.3 Dan. 9.7.8.18.19 let us put it in practise and double our zeale and never cease to follow the example of this Dresser to cry to the Lord for our brethren Lord let them alone this yeare also spare thy people and give them not over into the hands of the destroyer we are ashamed and blush to lift up our faces to thee O our God for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses are growne up unto the heavens And now O our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy Commandements which thou hast commanded and all this evill is come upon us for our evill deedes and for our great trespasses for asmuch as thou our God hast punished us lesse then our iniquities deserue Now therfore O our God the great the mighty and the terrible God who keepest Covenant and mercy let not all the troubles which are most heavy upon us and our chiefe Cities seeme little before thee howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly and dealt foolishly and frowardly with thee O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low helpe us O God of our Salvation for the glory of thy name and deliver us and purge away our sinnes for thy names sake wherefore should the enemies of the Gospel say where is their God turne us againe O God and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved O Lord God of hostes how long wilt thou be angry against the prayers of thy people O Lord righteousnesse belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces to our Princes to our fathers to our people incline thine eare and heare open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the City which is called by thy name For we doe not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses but for thy great mercies O Lord heare O Lord forgiue O Lord hearken and doe deferre not for thine owne sake for the City and thy people are called by thy name Now is the time of this humiliation now God calleth to us to call upon him now is the time of trouble and affliction Let us give him no rest you that are the Lords remembrancers stand in the breach which his right hand hath made Numb 16.48 as it were betweene the living and the dead let us never give over neither let him alone untill we have received a gratious answer that our iniquities be pardoned his present judgments removed and his ancient favours recovered Till I shall digge about it and dung it The labour of the Lord of the Vineyard hath beene before expressed so that the complaint of the Prophet may be renewed Esay 40.4 53.1 65.23 I have laboured in vaine I have spent my strength for nought and in vaine and in another place who hath beleeved our report Doct. and againe I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walke in a way that is not good We must have hope touching the salvation of others albeit they runne aâ— stray yet the barren fig-tree is not forsaken and given over so long as there is any hope but the Dresser wil still be digging about it and dunging of it This teacheth that we must not despaire of the salvation of any howsoever they have long gone astray We see this in the example of Manasses he built altars for all the host of heaven he caused his children to passe through the fire he used Witch-craft and enchantment he dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards 2 Chro. 33.5.6 he shed innocent blood very much till he had filled Ierusalem from one end to another and wrought much evill in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger yet the Lord was intreated of him 2 King 21.16 and heard his supplication when he had learned by wofull experience that the Lord was God Act. 2.37 10.11.12.13.14.15 Thus it was with those that crucified the Lord of life they were pricked in their hearts and had Salvation preached vnto them Hereunto commeth the vision of Peter he saw heaven opened and a certaine vessel descending unto him as it had beene a great sheet knit at the foure corners wherein were all manner of foure-footed beasts of the earth wild beasts and creeping things and soules of the aire and there came a voyce to him Rise Peter kill and eate And when he refused because he had never eaten any thing that is common or uncleane the same voyce answered What God hath clensed that call not thou vncleane This was the interpretation of the vision that which is uncleane God is able to cleanse Paul before his conversion was a blasphemer and a persecuter and a great oppressour 1. Tim. 1.13 but he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly through unbeleefe The Gentiles wandred many yeares even thousands of yeares in superstition and Idolatry yet at length when the time of their conversion was come Gen. 9.27 Ioh. 10.16 God perswaded Iapheth to come and dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9. and our Saviour speaking of them saith Other sheepe I have 2 Tim. 2.25 which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they shall heare my voyce and there shall be one fold and one shepheard So the servant of the Lord must not strive but be patient and gentle unto all proving if God will give them repentance The reasons are plaine First Reason 1 because God calleth at all houres of the day who hoth the times and seasons in his owne power Math. 20.3.5 6. some at the third some at the sixt some at the ninth and some at the eleventh houre and we have a notable example thereof in the penitent theefe converted by the powerfull word of Christ upon the Crosse Luc. 23.34 he that was running a pace to hell hath promise to be carried into Paradise whereby the common proverbe is verified if in any thing else that he runneth far which never returneth Secondly God waiteth the time that he may be gracious unto us Esay 30.18 and have mercy upon us for he is a God of judgment and blessed are all they that wait for him Esay 30. ought not we therefore to follow his example and to hearken who will
such faire warning to avoyd the stroke of his sword drawne out against us For wherefore doth hee not destroy us Is it for want of desart on our part No doubtlesse he findeth just cause to proceede against us and hee is of infinite power to punish us The Prophet teacheth Num. 11.23 Esay 59.1 that his hand is not weakned as though he could not strike us neither is his arme shortned as though hee could not reach us Esa 59.1 v. Secondly if any man bee overtaken with any judgement he must know thus much that certainely God was true and that his purpose was we should prevent it or else he would never have given warning of it There is no man that can justly say that the silence of God is the cause of his security for Gods manner is never to come with any judgement and to discharge a whole volly of shot but he alwayes sendeth a warning peece before But you will say we have no Prophets to foretell Ob. they are all gone it is not with us as it was in former times Answ To this I make answer as our Saviour saith of the rich man in the Gospell that his brethren had both Moses and the Prophets among them Luk. 16.29.31 when indeed both Moses and the Prophets were all dead long before but his meaning was that they had the bookes of Moses and the writings of the Prophets before them So may I say that wee have the Prophets and Apostles still among us I meane we have the holy Scriptures wherein are contained the workes of the Prophets and of the Apostles and besides these God hath given to us his Ministers that they might as it were put life againe into the dead Prophets that they might open and declare unto us those things which are doubtfull and obscure and therefore if any man be admonished by these that judgements shall certainly come let him take heed he withstand not the Spirit of God for it is as true and evident as if the Prophets and Moses himselfe were alive and uttered these threatnings and it is the wonderfull goodnesse of God that hee will foretell us of his judgements and after a sort send them home to our owne hearts Our consciences tell us that wee are guilty of those sinnes which have formerly beene reprooved and whereof we have beene forewarned let us therefore conclude with our selves that it is the mercy of God that hee doth threaten hell and judgements unto us as well as promise heaven and happinesse and let us blesse his name in our hearts that he hath granted such a gracious warning unto us and endeavour to breake off our sinnes that so hee may bee pleased to proceede no farther with his judgements against us Lastly this dealing of God must provoke us to repentance and to turne unto God Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.13 because his patience serveth to leade us to repentance Rom. 2.4 The daies of his patience last long but they are not everlasting if we repent not Let us meete him betimes while hee is in the way before he approach nearer unto us and come upon us Sinne separateth betweene him and us and maketh God our utter enemy Let us make an attonement with him before his wrath burne like fire True it is he beareth long but if we greeve his Spirit we shall beare his indignation and our owne condemnation whosoever we be He forbeareth long but he will not alwaies forbeare Exod. 34.6 he will come speedily and suddainly upon us The longer he is in drawing his bow the deeper do his arrowes pierce Thus much of the generall doctrine Yet forty daies Before we come to the cheefe point offered to our considerations in these words Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intiellgit post 40. dies non intrà ut quidavolunt Vide Drusij Lection a question may bee demanded how this threatning standeth with the truth of God and the issue and event of the matter mentioned in the end of this prophesy to pronounce such a dreadfull sentence against a City and the inhabitants thereof which tooke not that effect or shall wee thinke that God changed his minde to propose that which he purposed not and doth not the Scripture teach us that he is unchangable and no shaddow of turning with him I answer the threatnings of God are oftentimes conditionall though the condition be not expressed as appeareth in the last verse of the 3. Chapter Chap. 3.10 God repented of the Evill that he had said that he would doe unto them and he did it not True it is he might have destroyed them justly for their crying sins if it had pleased him Chap. 1.2 seeing their wickednesse was come up before him calling for judgement and it had beene as easy for him to have sent a destroying Angell to overturne them as a preaching Prophet to turne them unto him From hence wee learne Doct. 2 that the threatnings of God and denouncing of his judgements are not absolute but conditionall toward his people Gods threatnings are conditionall Gen. 6.3 1 Pet. 3.20 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Eph. 5.5 they containe an exception and limitation except they repent and amend their waies The condition is understood So it was to the old world Their daies were an hundred and twenty yeares which S. Peter calleth the time of his patience while the Arke was preparing See the same 2 King 20.1 Gen. 20.3 Mic. 3.12 and Ier. 26.18 Sometimes it is expressed as Lu. 13.3.5 Re. 2.5 Let us see some reasons Reason 1 First because after threatnings if we repent and lay them to our hearts it causeth forgivenesse and blotting of our sinnes out of his remembrance For sinne the cause of Gods judgements being removed Ezek. 33.14 c. the effect will cease as Ezek. 33. If I say to the wicked you shall dye the death if he turne from his sinne and doe that is lawfull and right none of his sinnes that he hath committed shall be mentioned he shall live and not die Secondly God is a God of long sufferance and much patience ready to forgive and receive to mercy yea in judgement to remember mercy as 2 Sam. 24 16. and Hab. 3.2 when once we turne unto him Ier. 3.22 and 33.20 as Ier. 3. O ye disobedient children returne and I will heale your rebellion and Chap. 31. when Ephraim after his corrections lamented saying Thou hast chastened me and I was chastened as a Bullocke unaccustomed to the Yoke surely after that I was turned I repented the Lord answered My bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him he is my deare sonne he is my pleasant child Thirdly it is a speciall end and purpose why God doth denounce his judgements and threaten his plagues that we should repent and so that he might repent therefore they are not absolute but limited with condition except we change and amend And thus did the King of Nineveh understand
the immediate hand of God rather then endure these manifold miseries that are upon them and those that belong vnto them Secondly it leadeth us to thinke that our hope and comfort is not heere upon the earth Our happinesse and the time or place of our resting and refreshing is not heere We must not looke for an heaven in this life but make our selves ready to take up our crosse and follow our Master Our Saviour never promiseth his Disciples to live ever in prosperity and be free from all adversity O how many followers should he have if the profession of his name were coupled accompanied with honour and temporall glory as appeareth by the Shechemites that would be circumcised for gaine Ioh. 6.26 Gen. 34. and by those that sought him because they did eate of the loaves and had their bellies filled Ioh 6. but he forewarneth them in all places of grieuous troubles he sent them out as sheepe in the middes of Wolves he telleth them that they will deliver them up to the Councils and scourge them in their Synagogues and the Apostle was assured by the holy Ghost Act. 20.26 that bands and afflictions did abide him It shall not be thus in the life to come when the Lord shall wipe away all teares from our eyes 1 Cor. 15.19 therefore the Apostle saith If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable This is the description of such as are wicked men Psal 17.14 their portion is in this life Psal 17. they lay up for themselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt where theeves breake through and steale and where their treasure is there is their heart also Math. 6.19 Math. 6.19.21 they say let us eate and drinke for to morrow we dy 1 Cor. 15. The happinesse of a godly man is heereafter Phil. 1.23 to be dissolved and to be with Christ is best of all Phil. 1. When this earthly house of this his Tabernacle is dissolved he hath a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil. 3.20 2 Cor. 5. his Conversation is in heaven and from thence looketh for a saviour Phil. 3. Col. 3.1.2 he seeketh those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Col. 3. he setteth his affections on things above not on things on the earth Thirdly seing be oftentimes chastiseth his children while worldly men feele nothing at all it behoveth us to beare his chastisements cheerefully humbly and patiently and not faint under the crosse as men out of heart Heb. 12.6 veing he correcteth every son whom hereceiveth and loveth and with this we should comfort our selves and strengthen the feeble-minded support the weake and be patient toward all men This condemneth all murmuring and complaining under the Crosse which causeth the Lord oftentimes not to remove but rather to double his strokes upon us When Parents perceive their children grow stubborne and wayward froward and foolish under the rod doe they not rather encrease their punishment then let them alone Lam. 3.33.36 Thus doe we constraine the Lord to deale with us true it is he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feete and to subvert a man he approveth not but when we are impatient and fret against him this is not the way to stay his hand and to call backe his judgements but rather to provoke him against us to strike againe and againe Motives to patience and to double and treble his strokes upon us Now there are sundry motives to move us to this patience and to stay us from all impatience First God useth bodily afflictions to cure spirituall diseases Every paine preventeth the paines of hell by drawing us to Christ We may learne more by adversity then we can doe by prosperity Manasses learned more in Babylon then in Ierusalem and profited more in prison then in his palace 2 Chro. 33. In prosperity David said I shall never be remooved but in adversity he confessed Psal 30.6.119.71 it was good for him to have beene afflicted that he might learne the statutes of God whereas before he was afflicted he went astray but now he kept his word Secondly the sorrowes and anguish we endure alas what are they if they be compared to those dolours and paines which Christ our saviour suffered for us for he might say more truly then any other Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me Lam. 1.12 wherewith the Lord afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Thirdly our sorrowes are a thousand times lesser then our sinnes have deserved Let us enter into our owne hearts and consciences to try and find out this point and we shall easily discerne our sinnes and offences to exceed all our paines Fourthly nothing commeth upon us but that which the Lord hath sent and laid upon us affliction springeth not out of the dust though dust and ashes judge after that manner We looke too much to second causes to finde the cause of our visitations as also we trust too much in outward meanes and remedies to remove the same The Prophet saith Psal 39.9 I was dumbe and opened not my mouth because thou didst it This consideration wrought patience in him And our Saviour teacheth us to lift up our eyes higher then the earth Math 10.29 and to rest in his providence Are not two sparrowes solde for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father Fiftly God hath not given us ouer into the hands of our enemies to be chastened but he correcteth us with his owne mercifull hand When David had his wish to chuse his owne chasticement either warre famine or pestilence all sharpe weapons able to wound to death he chose rather to be corrected by the hand of God then by men or other meanes 2 Sam. 24.14 2 Sam. 24. Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man for the very mercies of the wicked are cruelty For if we stood at the discretion of mercilesse men as sundry our bretheren at this day in other places doe and heard the alarme of battel sounding in our eares when mourning is in our streets Amos 5.16 and we should heare crying in all our high wayes Alas alas and all places be filled with weeping and wailing when the blood of the Saints shall be powred out like water that cannot be gathered up againe when so many widowes and fatherlesse children are left to lament we would confesse it a great mercy to fall into the hands of God and not of men if we considered aright these things Sixtly all the afflictions of this life are not worthy the glory laid up for us in the life to
threatnings of judgments and punishments are conditionall and to be understood with limitation See this 1 King 8. Now O Lord God of Israel keepe with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him saying There shall not faile thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel so that their children take heed to their way that they walke before me as thou hast walked before me Of this did David himselfe put his sonne Salomon in mind 1 Chro. 28.9 Know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts c. if thou seeke him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever So doth our Saviour threaten the Church of Ephesus to remove the Candlesticke out of his place except it did repent Revel 2.5 The reason is plaine both of the one and of the other He promiseth mercy with condition that we should be stirred up to obedience that no defect might be on Gods behalfe and againe he threatneth judgement that he might not enter into judgement and denounceth punishment that he might not punish but that we should repent and amend our lives and remember from whence we are fallen Revel 2.5 This appeareth evidently in his threatning against Nineveh who can tell Ionah 3.9 if God will turne and repent from his fierce wrath that we perish not When we repent he repenteth we of the evill of sinne he of the evill of punishment but if we repent not of our sinne he will never repent him of the punishment that he hath threatned to bring upon us It reproveth all such as remember what God hath promised to us but forget what he requireth of us Vse 1 God hath made a Covenant with us as he did with Abraham Gen. 17.7.1.2.6 and we binde our selves interchangably one to another He said unto Abraham I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee but how on this condition Thou shalt keepe my Covenant and what was that Obedience whereof circumcision was a signe walke before me and be upright If Abraham had called unto God to performe his part to blesse him as his God and in the meane season had never performed his owne part of the Covenant to walke before him in the uprightnesse of his heart had he not dallied with God and deceived himselfe But thus the case standeth with us we are ready to cōplaine murmur if the Lord do not blesse us when in the meane season we forget what promise we have made to him If we should deale so with men like unto our selves would not all accuse us of folly Secondly let us not flatter our selves and beare our selves bold and presume because we have many precious promises of grace and helpe in time of neede These promises howsoever they be in themselves surer then the heavens and more stable then the earth yea be ratified confirmed by an oath that by two unchangable things wherin it is unpossible that he should lye Heb. 6.18 we might have strong consolation I say these promises are no promises to us if we doe not keepe the Covenant it is all one as if they had never beene made Mat. 6.25.33 Our Saviour willeth us to take no thought what to eate or what to drinke or wherewith to be clothed he promiseth that he will never leave us nor forsake us but it is with condition first seeke the kingdome of God and then all these things shall be ministred unto us then he saith my mercy will I keepe for them for evermore my promise shall stand with them my covenant will I not breake Psal 89.28.34 neither alter the thing that is gone out of my lippes Lastly let us serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind seeke to know his will and serve him when we do know it Let us not be discouraged in his threatnings seing they also are conditionall as well as his promises Let us breake off the course of our sinnes and amend our lives then we may be well assured he will turne from all his wrath and remember our sins and iniquities no more For he is faithfull he never forsaketh us untill we forsake him This is it that the Prophet is sent to tell Asa and all Iudah and Benjamin The Lord is with you while ye be with him 2 Chr. 15.2 and if ye seeke him he will be found of you but if ye forsake him he will forsake you And is it not just with God to deale with us as we deale with him and to measure to us againe as we have measured to him Let us therefore seeke him while he may be found and call upon him while he is neere let us forsake our evill wayes and returne unto the Lord then he will have mercy upon us and he will abundantly pardon all our sinnes If it beare fruit well Doct. The barren estate is very dangerous neare to bee burnt up The fig-tree in this place is not said expresly to be dead but to be barren and to bring forth no fruit at all which is all one This teacheth that the barren condition hath no life nor comfort in it but is full of danger even neere to burning This Iohn the Baptist teacheth Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewen downe and cast into the fire Math 3.10 Math. 3.10 So the Apostle Heb. 6.6 The earth which beareth thornes and briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6.7.8 whose end is to be burned A man may say of such as the Disciples of the fig-tree Math. 21.29 against which the curse was passed by the mouth of Christ How soone is the figge-tree withered away Such then doe lye under an heavy curse We thinke we have said much in praise and commendation of many and indeed of many it is too much to say they are harmelesse men they doe no man any hurt you may live long among them and you shall receive no wrong nor jniury from them but is this enough no doubtlesse for what shall this profit if we bring forth no good fruit Ier. 17.8 Ezek. 47.12 The reasons are plaine for first Reason 1 the law of God is not onely negative but also affirmative it commandeth good as well as forbiddeth evill The negative part is but halfe the Commandement and he that performeth so much hath done but halfe his duty like a Dove that flyeth with one wing or like a lame man that hoppeth upon one legge The Commandement which saith thou shalt not kill saith also inclusively Thou shalt preserue thy neighbours life Secondly to omit the duties which a man ought to performe is a kind of contempt against God For not to honour or obey is to contemne A servant which will not doe what his Master commandeth Mal. 3.6 because a servant honoureth his
name of good workes which neuerthelesse are neither the onely good workes nor the chiefest good workes For we looke upon our selves in the glasse of the law and try our selves thereby These workes are of two sorts some generall and others speciall The generall are such as concerne all among which the workes of the first Table being the first and great Commandements Math. 22.38 must have the first place to love God above our selves to feare him to beleeve in him to trust in him to pray unto him to serve and worship him to reverence his name and to sanctifie his Sabbath and the workes of the second Table are like Gal. 5.22.23 for the fruits of the spirit are manifest love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse faith meekenesse temperance and such like These belong to all and must be practised of all persons high and low rich and poore none may excuse themselves The speciall workes are such as belong to every man in his particular calling For as we have all a generall calling as we are Christians so we are set in severall callings such as are superiors and inferiors as the Magistrate and subject the husband and wife father and sonne master and servant we must labour to be found faithfull in these how low so ever our place be if we be found carefull and conscionable even the meanest servant that drudgeth in the Kitchin if his calling be nothing but to scoure spittes Eph. 6.6.7 or to wipe shooes yet if he be obedient to his Master as unto Christ not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servant of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men he is no lesse accepted of God in his place then he that preacheth the word or he that ruleth a kingdome Well or thou shalt let it alone These words are expresly mentioned but they or some such like must necessarily be understood as if it were said let it stand and continue in the Vineyard that it may bring forth more fruit as Ioh. Ioh. 15.2 15. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Doct. This teacheth us that the fruits of repentance obtaine the pardon and forgivenesse of all sinnes and offences Repentance obtaineth forgivenesse of sinnes and the favour of God and prevent Gods wrath and judgements and procure his love and favour He hath made a sure promise of remission of former offences to all such as truly turne unto him Thus the Prophet hath Wash you make you cleane take away the evill of your workes from before mine eyes c. then though your sinnes were as crimsin Esay 1.16.18 55.6.7 they shall be as wooll and though they were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and chap 55. Seeke the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neere let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous his owne imaginations c. let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Ezek. 18.23 And the Prophet Ezekiel chap. 18. I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live where he coupleth these two together The truth of this point is farther confirmed by sundry examples as 2 Sam. 2 Sam. 12.13 12.13 When David had acknowledged his sinne against the Lord the Prophet said for his comfort The Lord also put away thy sinne The like we see in Manasseth when he was carried away captive and clapt up in prison being in great tribulation prayed unto the Lord 2 Chr. 33.12 and humbled himselfe greatly be fore the Lord God of his fathers and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him backe againe to Ierusalem and set him upon the throne of his fathers The Publican smote his brest saying Lord Luk. 18.13.14 be mercifull to me a sinner I tell you this man went downe to his house justified rather then the proud Pharisee The like I might say of Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 he obtained mercy and forgivenesse when he was converted so the penitent theefe upon the Crosse said to the Lord Iesus Lord Luk. 23.42.43 remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome and Iesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Mar. 1.4 Hence it is that the Evangelist witnesseth that Iohn did baptise in the wildernesse and preach the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes where we see he knitieth repentance and forgivenesse of sinnes together The reasons first Reason 1 all penitent persons shall have the blood of Christ Iesus to wash clense their soules from all their sinnes a singular benefit This reason the Prophet vrgeth Esay 1.17.17.18 For to speake properly nothing can clense us but Christs blood so foule and filthy we are and therefore it is called cleane water Ezek. 36.25 1 Ioh. 1.7.9 I will powre cleane water upon him and thus the Apostle Iohn saith If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne clenseth us from all sinne Secondly such shall have right to carthly blessings and to a right use of them to their everlasting comfort as Esay 1. Ye shall eate the good things of the land Esay 1.19.20 but if they refused and rebelled they should be destroyed for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Let us apply these things First conclude Vse 1 that all impenitent persons are out of Gods favour and protection and lye under all the plagues and punishments that God denourceth against sinners This is a fearefull estate and condition Deut. 28.16 to be cursed in the whole course of our life at home and abroad in the City and in the field in all that we put our hand unto Deut. 28. The curse of God bringeth with it all miseries of this life and of the life to come If then we repent not we die Secondly they that are truly penitent are truly happy for that man is blessed Psal 32.1.2 38.4 whose transgressions are for given and whose sinne is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity There cannot be a greater blessing befall us in this world then to get pardon of our finnes for all the burdens that we can beare are not to be compared to the burden of sin and therefore to be lighted of it is one of the greatest blessings of all the spottes staines that can sticke unto us Iam. 1.21 sinne is the filthiest and therefore to be clensed and washed from it maketh us cleane in his sight Lastly hence ariseth matter of comfort to all such as earnestly endeavour this worke of clensing and purging of themselves The vvay and the meanes to attaine
taken sometimes personally and sometimes essentially Personally when it is restrained to one of the Persons as to the first Person in the holy and blessed Trinity Matth. 28.19 Ephes 2.3 2 Cor. 13.13 to wit God the Father begetting the Sonne and sending forth the holy Ghost whensoever mention is made of any of the other Persons also Thus likewise it is taken when it is limited to the second Person in Trinity to wit God the Sonne begotten of the Father before all worlds â—say 9.6 as Esay 9.6 Vnto us a Childe is borne unto us a Sonne is given his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counseller the mighty God the everlasting Father And in this sence the holy Ghost the third Person proceeding from the Father and the Sonne may also be called Father because he together with the Father and the Sonne giveth being to all things Sometimes the Word is taken essentially without consideration of any personall relation and then it is referred simply to God and is extended to all the three Persons Deut. 32.6 as Deut. 32.6 Doe yee so reward the Lord Mal. 2.10 Iam. 1.27 O yee foolish people is not he thy Father that hath bought thee and Mal. 2.10 Have yee not all one Father and thus it is taken in this place for the whole God-head the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost who have a Soveraigne Father-hood over the Church loving it defending it delighting in it caring for it bestowing all blessings upon it and withholding nothing that is good from it Doct. 7 This title teacheth us that God is the Father of his Church and Children As a Father loveth his Children to whom hee hath given breath and being as he feedeth and clotheth them nourisheth and layeth up for them so God loveth his Children to whom he hath given their first life their second life and to whom he will give a third life The first life is in the flesh the second in grace the third in glory The first is a naturall life the second a spirituall life the third an eternall life The first is their generation the second their regeneration the third shall be their glorification and therefore he loveth them with a love infinitely above the love of all Parents toward their Children whose love must needs be as finite as themselves when it is at the highest What the love of Parents is toward their Children the Scripture setteth downe by sundry examples 1 King 3.26 2 Sam. 18.23 1 King 3.26 Esay 66.13 Zach. 12.10 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 49.1 1 King 14.2 Esay 49.15 Psal 103.13 17. 68.5 Esay 63.16 69.8 2 Thes 2.6 2 Sam. 18 23. they rejoice at their good Prov. 101. they moutne for their trouble and evill that befalleth them Zach. 12.10 they comfort them in sorrow and anguish Esay 66.13 they procure them what good and preferment they can 2 Sam. 19.37 Gen. 17.18 they provide for the time present and to come Gen. 49.1 they tender them in sicknesse and in health 1 King 14.2 they prevent dangers that doe hang over their heads and may befall them Gen. 27.43 28.2 they regard them in prosperity and adversity in wealth and in poverty so that they cannot leave them nor forget them nor forsake them Esay 49.15 All these being onely in part and unperfectly in men are fully infinitely and perfectly in God as his nature and essence and therefore he commendeth his love to us above all this Esay 49. Matth. 7. of which places before The Prophets and Apostles are full of such testimonies as Psal 103. As a Father pittieth his Children so the Lord pittieth them that feare him and as the Heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that feare him And 68.5 A Father of the Fatherlesse and a Judge of the Widdowes is God in his holy habitation So Esay 63.16 Doubtlesse thou art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting And 64.8 Thou O Lord art our Father we are the clay and thou our Potter and wee all are the worke of thine hand Thus the Apostle 2 Thes 2.6 The Lord Iesus and God even the Father which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation comfort your hearts This title is indeed proper to God alone Reas 1 that albeit there be that are called Fathers as indeed there be many upon the earth Magistrates Ministers Masters naturall Parents Exod. 20.12 and all Superiours Exod. 20.12 Yet to us as there is but one God and one Lord so there is but one Father as we heard before out of the Prophet to whom this name is properly and peculiarly belonging Matth. 23.9 This Christ himselfe teacheth Matth. 23.9 Call no man Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven neither be yee called Masters for one is your Master Obiect even Christ But is it unlawfull to call any Father the Apostle calleth himselfe the Father of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.15 1 Cor. 9. Though yee have ten thousand Instructours yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell Answ I answer He doth not simply forbid the appellation but restraine them from ambition neither condemneth he properly the title but absolutely the affecting of the title We may not therefore imagine that Christ would utterly abolish from among Christians the name of Father or Master or Teacher as if it were unlawfull for Children to call those their Fathers of whom they received their beeing or for Servants to call any their Masters to whom they owe their service forasmuch as the Scripture willeth Children to honour their Fathers and Servants to be obedient to their bodily Masters but his purpose is to forbid these names in such sort as the Pharises were called by them who loved or desired to be called Rabbies Fathers and Masters and challenged the names as proper and peculiar to themselves It is not therefore the bare title but their vaine glory that is condemned Againe so to be called Rabbi Father or Master that the people of the Lord should wholly and absolutely depend upon their mouthes 1 Cor. 7.23 to become servants of men and rest slavishly in their opinions and traditions as the onely true Teachers and Fathers of the Church as the Iesuits would be accounted in these dayes may not be admitted in any case or that their doctrines were not subject to triall and examination by the Scripture is wholly to be rejected forasmuch as the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 Thus to be called Father or Master agreeth to no mortall man but God is the onely true Father and Christ Iesus the onely true Master as the onely Law-giver that is able to save and to destroy Jam. 4. whose Precepts we must receive and are bound to obey though all the world should teach otherwise God then must be held to be supreme others are
sackcloth God deferred his judgment threatned how much more shall true repentance obtaine the love and favour of God and blot out all our offences out of his sight From hence arise sundry uses Vse 1 First from the nature of contraries we learne that to such as continue in sinne and have hearts that cannot repent there is no mercy to be looked for because they treasure up vnto themselues wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his deeds And therefore the Apostle saith Vnto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse shall be indignation and wrath Revel 2.5 tribulation and anguish upon every soule of man that doth evill of the Iew first and also of the Gentile Woe then to all such as lie in sinne and please not God they fill up their sinnes alway and his wrath shall come upon them to the uttermost True it is every unrepentant sinner can say the Lord is mercifull and Christ is the Saviour of the world but to whom is he mercifull and whom will he save Not every one that can say Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of the father which is in heaven To this purpose consider these few rules First God hath made no promise in all the Scripture to impenitent persons Search the Scriptures for in them ye looke to have eternall life but in the whole volume of that booke ye shall not find one line or letter that will minister comfort to the soule that continueth in evill doing Secondly they deceive themselues that looke for mercy that lie under wrath and see not their owne misery Indeed there is promise of mercy yea sundry promises in every Prophet and in the writings of the Apostles but they are made to the penitent The Lord God hath no pleasure at all that the wicked should die but then they must returne from their owne waies Ezek. 18.21.23 that they may live he will put all their wickednesse out of his remembrance but first they must turne from all their sinnes that they have committed and do that which is lawfull and right he hath promised to draw neere unto them Iam. 4.8.10 but then they must draw neere unto him yea they must clense their hands and purifie their hearts he hath said he will lift them up but first they must humble themselues in the sight of the Lord. Thirdly Christ Iesus is a Saviour but he saveth none but such as are his people none are his people but such as beleeve in him and none beleeve in him but those whose hearts are purified by faith Except we be new creatures let us never say we are in Christ or that he is a Saviour unto us he hath wrought the great worke of redemption and paid a deare price to ransome us his own pretious blood but let us remember and never forget that he gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes Tit. 2. Lastly consider that notwithstanding the shield sheiter of the mercy of God to which every man runneth he hath brought sundry both generall and particular judgments upon the children of disobedience and his wrath hath beene revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men Rom. 1.18 who no doubt builded with the untempered morter of supposed mercy but were swallowed up with his justice Such were the old world who no doubt set up an Idol all made of mercy but they found him to be a God of justice Such were the Cities of Sodome and Gomorrah with the rest of the plaine Gen. 19. Such were Pharaoh and the Egyptians that pursued Israel to the red Sea and infinite others Nay see how God hath whipped his owne children Pro. 11.31 1 Pet. 4.17.18 and scourged them with greevous chastisements as we see in David and other Saints if judgment have begun at Gods owne house what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare Secondly hence ariseth matter of much comfort to the humble and contrite spirit that is weary and heavy laden with the waight and burden of his sinnes lying heavy upon his conscience Math. 11.28.29 Nothing indeed can come hereby to the impenitent that is to the obstinate and wilfull offender thaâ— resolveth to continue in his sinne neither can he looke for any thing but judgement that hangeth over his head and lyeth at the dore but to the humble and repentant sinner there are a thousand comforts a treasury of mercies laid up in store for him to keepe preserue him from doubting and despaire Such Christ Iesus calleth unto him embraceti them in the armes of his mere that they should not be dismaied all the multitude or greatnesse of their sinnes but rather lay hold upon the multitude and greatnesse of his mercies which are infinite higher then the heavens broader then the Seas deeper then the earth and surmount all the sinnes which they have committed O what comfort is it to a sicke man lying and languishing upon the bed of sorrow to heare of a certaine and Soveraigne medicine a present and effectuall remedy of his discase and ought it not to find rest in our soules when we are willed to come to Christ the Physitian of the soule ought it not to be as marrow unto our bones and bring peace to our soules forasmuch as his yoke is easie and his burden light Who ever came penitently unto him and weat away heavily or discomfortably Suet. in vita Titirespatâ—c If it were the saying of a great Prince that none should depart from his presence heavy-hearted how much more may we be assured it is the voyce of the King of kings that no penitent person shall ever go from him without grace and favour comfortlesse Repentance is a salve that healeth all the woundes of the soule Search into the examples of all the Saints from the beginning of the word What was it turned Noahs drunkennesse into sobriety Gen. 9.25 19. cum 2 Pet. 2.8 1 Tim. 1.13 2 Chro. 33.12 Esay 11.9 Repentance What changed the unnaturall lust and excesse of Lot into eleannesse and purity repentance What was it that cast Manasseth Paul and many others into a new mould and of oppressors persecuters blasphemers made them meeke and gentle as Lambes repentance No man was ever saved without repentance for finall impenitency bringeth damnation Damnation is a necessary effect of divine justice from the just God brought upon vniust offenders Such sinners and transgressours can have no peace with God without reconcilement there is no reconcilement without remission no remission without Christ no Christ without faith no faith without repentance Woe
are sinners So then this rule teacheth that all men are under the guilt and punishment of sinne which is a matter of such danger as it were better to have the whole weight of the world upon us then to lye under the burden and bondage of one sinne because the wrath of God which is the heaviest thing under heaven doth hang upon sinne and sinners for ever We are all of us condemned men there is not any one which is not in himselfe damned and forlorne Their is nothing in our whole nature but corruption we are loathsome and abhominable in his sight the heires of death and destruction the enemies of God the bondslaves of Satan held under his dominion even from our mothers wombe This doth admonish us of the miserable condition of all mankinde through sin no creature more wretched we have no cause to aduance or magnifie our selues It stirreth up our mindes to seeke after a Saviour Luk. 15.32 to find us being lost and to quicken us being dead It teacheth us to thinke seriously upon the riches of Gods mercy Eph. 2.4 to praise his name for his great love wherewith he hath loved us It putteth us in mind by our owne estate of corruption to reprove others with compassion Gal. 6.1 considering our selues that are no lesse sinners and stand in the same case and condemnation as well as they The fift rule is The fift rule that the naturall man can doe nothing at all that can please God For untill we have faith and repentance all that we do or can doe is sinfull and abhominable in his sight Euery thought of the heart of man is evill and onely evill Gen. 6.5 8 21. and continually evill Gen. 6. 8. It is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it The wised me of the flesh Ier. 17.9 and therefore the best thing in a carnall man even whatsoever he understandeth or perceiveth is enmity against God Rom 8.8 7 18. 3. for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be The Apostle saith of himselfe I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing and generally of mankind he pronounceth Tit. 1.15 There is none righteous no not one they are all gone out of the way and againe Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeuing is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled The doctrine of Pelagius The opinion of Pelagus that a man that is an infidell and unregenerate hath in himselfe and of himselfe a sufficient power to beleeve and to fulfill the law Ezek. 36.26 is as contrary to the whole doctrine of the Scriptures as light to darknesse as sweet to sower For the Prophets and Apostles teach that the heart of man is stony and therefore in it owne nature unfit and uncapable to receive the impression of the law of God unlesse God write on that stone with his singer that the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 Eph 2.1.5 Col. 2.13 for they are foolishnes unto him neither can he know them that the Ephesians before their calling yea and all of us are dead in sinnes and trespasses Hence it is that the Scripture calleth the change of man by regeneration sometimes an other birth Ioh. 3. Sometimes the creation of the new man Eph 4. Sometimes an other resurrection from the dead Luk. 15.32 Ioh. 5.25 For as a dead carkasse can by no meanes dispose nor prepare it selfe to the refurrection as Lazarus lay in his grave stinking untill by the powerfull voyce of Christ he was raised up to life or as a thing that is not created cannot further it selfe any thing to the creation of it selfe so man in the state of nature and before his regeneration hath nothing whereby he may dispose himselfe or further his new birth or spirituall life This rule teacheth that many there are who albeit they blesse themselues as men in a good case yet are found the children of wrath the enemies of righteousnesse haters and hated of God Such are they that rest in outward or ciuil honesty that boast and bragge that they are no adulters no theeues no murtherers that they live peaceably and quietly among their neighbours and pay every man his owne and are not all these good Yes doubtlesse they are good but they are not good enough these must we doe Math. 23.23 but other things may not be left â—â—done For if they could looke throughly and unpartially into their soules they should finde there a filthy sinke and puddle of all manner of sinne and nothing else It teacheth that we have no freedome left in any faculty of the soule to spirituall goodnesse and therefore beateth down the doctrine of the Church of Rome that setteth up and aduanceth mans free will as if it were not lost but onely weakned It teacheth that before the naturall man be washed and purged every thing is uncleane unto him yea he tainteth and defileth every thing that he toucheth which way so ever he turneth himselfe all his actions spirituall civill or naturall are polluted because they proceed from uncleane hearts and consciences His spirituall actions which may seeme best of all his hearing the word reading the Scriptures praying to God receiving of the Sacraments all being the sacrifices of the wicked Pro. 15.8 28.9 are abhomination unto the Lord the person must please him before our workes can please him These divine ordinances how pure and precious soever in their owne nature as instituted of him are turned into sinne His civill actions and honest dealings in the world his buying selling giving lending his labours in all the workes of his calling are in him and to him no better then sinnes Lastly his naturall actions as eating drinking sleeping and the like all are vncleane unto him and in his use To conclude it teacheth us the necessity of regeneration in every part especially it should move us to beware that we approach not neere the Courts of God neither compasse his altar without washing our hands in innocency Psal 26.6 and to pray unto him to sanctifie us throughout and to wash the whole man both soule and body The last Rule is The sixt rule that the posting over the denying and diminishing of our sinnes is one of the greatest hindrances of repentance Some post them over and thinke to save themselues by appealing and appeaching of others as Adam his wife Gen. 3. Some deny their sinnes and so thinke to hide them as Ananias and Sapphira Act. 5. Some extenuate and excuse them as Saul 1 Sam. 15. Thus we stop the passage to repentance and harden our hearts that we cannot turne unto God Whereas we should feare our sinnes more then his plagues How many are there that stand in feare of
of his Angels Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish We have heard before that the scope of Christ in these words to which the examples one going before the other following after are referred is to perswade men to repentance This we must lay as the foundation of our weekly meeting together to make profession before God before men and Angels of our repentance to renew our Couenant with God and to seale to it with our hearts and to cry unto him to remove his judgements that lye heavy upon us Consider in this threatning farther an other doctrine to wit what danger it is to omit and reject repentance such persons are subject to death and destruction thâ—â— repent not Doct. This teacheth Such as continue in sinne without repentance shall certainly perâ—â— that howsoever God for a time spare and forbeare the Church and do not alway strike upon every occasion as he might do yet it is a sure and certaine thing concluded with him that such as continue to walke and wallow in evill without repentance their end is confusion their reward and wages is to perish See the truth of this in the Prophet remembred in a parable answearable to that which followeth of the Vineyard he had pruned trimmed and hedged about it he had digged and dunged done all that he could Esay 5.4 he looked for grapes but it brought forth wild grapes the conclusion is this I will take away the hedge and it shall be troden downe I will command the clouds and they shall raine upon it I will lay it waste and there shall come up briers and thrones This will farther appeare by sundry examples and by the wofull experience of many desolations made in all ages of the Church through default of repentance When the Lord had heaped his mercies upon the old world Gen. 6.3 and given them 120. yeares the dayes of his patience as the time of their repentance he sent the Patriarkes that called upon them and appointed Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 who confirmed his doctrine by building the Arke which was a figure of the destruction of the world of the ungodly yet they continued their evil wayes Luc. 17.27 eating and drinking c they never though of the day of the Lord they never considered the day of their visitation the flood come and destroyed them all a small remnant reserued and a few soules saved The like we might say of the Sodomites Gen. 13.13 19.25 Gen. 19. They were exceeding sinners before the Lord and were overturned with fire from heaven because they repented not And was it any otherwise with the Israelites themselues 2 Chro. 36. he sent to them by his messengers rising up betimes because he had compassion on his people and desireth not the death of a sinner 2 Chro. 36.16 Math. 23.37.38 but that they should turne vnto him but after all this they mocked his messengers and despised his word and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord in the end arose against his people till there was no remedy So then howsoever God sometimes spareth the sonnes of men yet such as continue in sinne and wholly delight in the workes of the flesh the end of them is fearefull they repent not and therefore they must perish Reason 1. Reason 1 He hath pure eyes and cannot like or allow that which is evill For can two walke together Amos. 3.3 except they be agreed but the Lord hath no agreement with evill neither have the evill any agreement with him He is holy in all his wayes but impenitency is contrary to his wayes and hath all sinnes following after it and attending upon it and consequently also all plagues Ier. 5. Secondly he taketh away his mercy and louing kindnesse from such What is it then that turneth away his heavy wrath and displeasure from us Is it any worthinessein our selues we are alas an uncleane thing Doth any deserve life or can he plead with his maker we are all corrupt and abominable The world the Church the Common-wealth our selues our owne Consciences know it and witnesse against us Lam. 3.22 It is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions faile not His mercy is not reserved for the impenitent that proceed and goe forward in their sinnes this were to confound heaven earth nay heaven and hell God and the devill Therefore the Prophet Ieremy declareth that God had taken away his mercies from them Ier. 5. If then he will not shew mercy to such as walke in the stubbornnesse of their euill hearts conclude with me this point for a certaine truth that howsoever God forbeare the children yet wearying him by vrging and provoking him by our sinnes destruction is reserued for such impenitent persons Seeing such as have hearts that cannot repent Vse 1 doe heape up wrath as a treasure against the day of wrath and iust declaration of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 let us put farre from us the wayes of the impenitent let them not clea◠〈◊〉 as pitch unto our soules lest if we follow their workes we be partakers of their Plagues Let us be grieved for our former evils and returne to the Lord that be which hath sâ—ricken us may heale us againe But alas while we goe forward in our wicked wayes doe we hold this point that the impenitent are reserved to wrath So many of us as hold and beleeve this truth let us depart from our old courses and labour to heape up mercy upon mercy Iob. 21.30 being assured that the wicked is reserved to the day of wrath and destruction O how many things have we neede to repent of the dayes of our ignorance the sinnes of our youth our presumptuous sinnes If the Lord call us to an account who shall be able to abide Secondly let no man mocke at his judgements or set light by them let no man thinke himselfe safe and secure and no danger to be neere him because he seeth not his judgements at hand or upon him or evermore to fall out O how deepe are his judgements how neere oftentimes when we suppose them to be farthest off how unsearchable are his Counsels and his wayes past finding out Esâ—y 28.15 2 Pâ—t 3 3. Carnal men promise peace and have made a covenant with death and with hell and make a mocke of all judgements They see the wicked prosper and the ungodly florish but they cannot mealure him that is not to be measured there is no measure of that which is infinite God hath more workes to worke then one he will not speake peace for ever Esai 28.24 The husbandman doth not plough al the yeare long neither reap or gather into his barne all the yeare and God hath given to man this wisedome and understanding to observe the times and seasons and shall we not thinke that the Lord also hath his times of his judgements and of
soone be changed the difference wil soon be espied They are now as a Lyon within a grate or a Wolfe kept in a chaine Let the Lyon loose set the Wolfe at liberty ye shall soone see him as fierce and cruell as ever he was Remember what they were when they bare sway such as they were then such they are now in heart affection such as the fathers were such are their children a cruell a barbarous a bloody generation ever delighted with shedding blood Blessed be God the father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath not given us as a pray unto their teeth and let them fulfill the measure of their sinnes that upon them may come all the righteous blood which they have shed upon the face of the earth Above all the Galileans c. or those eighteene c. The examples of others and the miserable event upon them are propounded to teach the Disciples and all others to turne o God these men judging these punishments to be the wages of unrighteousnesse Doct. Examplesf Gods judgments upon some are profitable to others This teacheth that the example of Gods judgements which he useth and executeth upon nations kingdomes cities families houses and particular persons are profitable meanes to stay from that euil which God hath chastised in others In the glasse of others wee may looke upon our owne faces We see this Deut. 24. Remember Miriam Deut. 24.9 what the Lord thy God did upon her by the way 2 Sam. 11.20 21. after ye were come forth out of Egypt the Like is noted 2 Sam. 11. Wherefore approched ye so nigh the City when ye did fight knew ye not that they would shoote from the wall who smote Abimelech the sonnes of Ierubesheth 2 King 9.31 did not a woman cast a piece of a Mil-stone upon him from the wall that he died c. Math. 24.37 The words of Iezabel are grounded upon this foundation Luc. 17.27.32 Had Zimri peace that slew his master Christ our Saviour chargeth all to beware of excesse propounding the examples of Noah and Lot to tye up their hearts to looke after the appearance of Christ in glory and to draw them from the love of the world and afterward he addeth to the same end Remember Lots wife So that we see Dan. 5.20.22 the examples of Gods judgment in former times are profitable to them that come after to hold them in the wayes of righteousnesse and to keepe them from the pathes of death This is proved plainely from the unchangable nature of God Reason 1 he is one and the same now as he was in former times his words are not yea and nay but yea and amen he is not variable and unconstant Mat. 3.6 Iam. 1.17 like a reed shaken with the winde hither and thither but remaineth ever the same Psal 102.27 With him is no variablenesse neither shadow of turning he is the Lord he changeth not and his hatred against sinne is no way diminished 1 Cor. 10.11 6. Secondly from the end of Gods chasticements which is to respect others as well as those that are chasticed for they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come Rom. 15.4 and these things are our examples to the intent we should not lust after evill things as they also lusted Now let us apply these things Behold here the great kindnesse of God who teacheth and instructeth us many wayes Vse 1 not onely by his word by his mercies by his present judgments by his promises by his threatnings but even by examples of things recorded that have fallen out all of them were written for our good The moe wayes we have the moe meanes God hath used the more inexcusable we are We are giuen to looke upon examples and to behold what is done by others and to follow them even in evill but as we see the examples so let us beleeve the punishments that befell them also Woe unto them and wretched is their estate that are not moved by examples of Gods judgements What will move and peirce our stony hearts if these things will not move us to turne unto him neither the hammer of his word nor the iron rod of his judgements Nay while we lye under a grievous visitation are we any whit softned or do our hearts relent What teares have we shed or what hath our behaviour beene or what sinnes have we forsaken O what can be said of us but that we are brasse and iron a stubborne and stiffe necked generation a people that are secure and senselesse and have our consciences as it were seared with an hote iron God hath executed sundry judgments upon us he hath given us cleannesse of teeth and want of bread in all our places Amos. 4.6.9 yet we have not returned unto him he hath smitten our great Gardens and the fruits of the earth with blasting and mildew yet we have not returned unto him he hath sent among us the pestilence after the maner of Egypt and now threatneth us with the sword of the enemie yet we have not returned unto him what marveill then when we profit by none of them and nothing will doe us good if he make us fearefull examples to others This we read Deut. 29. When God hath brought all the curses of the law upon the land the generation to come of their children that shall rise up after them when they see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it made like the overthrow of Sodome and Gomorah shall say Deut. 29.24.25 Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land what meaneth the heat of this great anger then men shall say because they have forsake the Covenant of the Lord God of their fathers c. The Lord God setteth former examples before our eyes to teach us and he will teach our posterity by the examples of his judgments before our eyes to teach us and he will teach our posterity by the examples of his judgements fallen upon us When the generation to come shall read and heare of his great judgments upon us that he hath smitten downe many thousands of us in his great wrath and heavy displeasure so that the former plagues will be forgotten in comparison of this if yet we will not returne and repent he will double and trebble his strokes and encrease his plagues yet seven times more and cause this to be forgotten in comparison of those to come and when any shall aske wherefore hath the Lord done this unto his people shall not men say as the truth is because they were warned and they would not be warned Is it not for the raigning sinnes in it that cry to heaven He hath spoken unto us and besought us by innumerable his mercies but they will not enter now he is constrained to send his destroying Angel and to scourge us with furious mortality and yet our dul
standeth Esay 1.6 might I not say with the Prophet from the sole of the foote even unto the head there is no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores they have not beene closed neither mollified with oyntment and after this might I not lead you a long in the spirit Ezck. 8.6.15 as God did the Prophet Ezekiel and after many sinnes much prophanenesse say Turne thee yet againe and behold greater abominations then these I might point out unto you such not to speake of the greater and higher sort whose doings I know not as make religion nothing else but a matter of pollicy and forget the high God that hath set them up on high but turne ye yet againe and ye shall see other abomination How many in this cleere light of the Gospel remaine in darknesse and blindnesse and in the shadow of death that know not the right hand from the left that is truth from errour which know nothing of God neither can give any even the least account of their faith worse then children in understanding yea how many say to God with the wicked Iob. 21.14 Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes what is the almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him and behold greater abominations then these Others are wholly given over to the world men possessed with a spirituall dropsie the more riches encrease the more they desire and the more they set their hearts upon them that they bury the remembrance of heaven and of heauenly things as if they should abide and continue upon the earth for ever the cares of this world and the deceitfulnesse of riches choke all good things How many perswade themselves to be highly in Gods favour because they are blessed with outward blessing who shame not to say I see God blesseth us as well as the purest and precisest of them all But understand ye unwise among the people must all needes be well because God forbeareth for a time to punish or shall we continue in our sinnes because he continueth his mercies towards us What should I speake of the contempt of his word and the prophanation of the Sabbath May we not turne our selves yet againe and see these greater abominations then the former which are common and capitall crimes swarming in every place And might we not from these turne our selves to swearing and and drunkennesse in every streete A rare thing to find a parish without a common drunkard and as rare to find an house without a common swearer These are the principall causes of his visitations these are the sinnes that bring the pestilence among us let us labour to keepe out these The ends of Gods lenity and patience or all the care we can take and diligence that we can use shall not be able to keepe it from us Let us not therefore flatter our selves in our sinnes and so abuse his patience let us not thinke we are justified because we are not striken Gen. 15.16 Math. 23.32 There are other end of Gods bounty and patience First to let us alone to fill up the measure of of our sinnes that then he may fill up the measure of his judgements from whence arise sundry profitable meditations we see his infinite mercy and compassion who ceaseth not nor giveth over to waite for their conversion who have deserved already to be punished and such as he hath determined to destroy so that we may say with the Prophet he desireth not the death of a sinner Ye see that he is most just and never punisheth without our deserts neither will he suffer sinners to go unpunished albeit he hold his peace keepe silence a long time We see that howsoever we offend all is cast upon an heape that the measure being full Ioh. Feri in Gen. 15. enarrat pressed downe and running over certaine destruction might fall upon us Let us not account sinnes to be small or slight matters for how light and little soever they may seeme to be yet they adde somewhat to the heape as every graine of corne serveth to fill the bushell We see it is a speciall token of his mercy and favour when he punisheth quickly or at the beginning and suffereth us not to runne on from one sinne to another for thereby the heape of our sinnes is diminished We see on the contrary it is a token of Gods great displeasure when he delayeth and differeth to punish for thereby the heape of sinne groweth and encreaseth and consequently the punishment Lastly as God is faithfull and suffereth not his to be tempted above that they are able so also he is just and beareth with the wicked untill they proceed to a certaine point or period beyond which they cannot passe Thus he suffereth sinners to grow to their height to teach us that our nature declineth from worse to worse unlesse we be staied by a stronger hand And this is the first end of his lenity Secondly it may be the dressers of this barrâ—ne vine by their continuall intercession as his faithfull remembrancers have obtained some respit and forbearance as this fig-tree mentioned in this parable Thirdly it may be there is yet a remnant to be gathered from among us and the number of the elect not yet accomplished as Iob. 10. Other sheepe I have that are not of thiâ— fold them also I must bring and they shall heare my voyce Ioh. 10.16 and there shall be one fold and one Sheepheard Such then as belong unto him must in his good time be brought to repentance Fourthly that the reprobate may be more and more hardned and so perish everlastingly 1 Sam. 2.24 Secondly concluded the wofull wretched estate of those that despise the riches of his goodnesse and patience For they are most certainely in worse case of all others whom God doth most blesse and beare with all except they repent nay worse then Turkes and Infidels and it had been a thousand times better for such prophane sinners that they had never received such blessings and tasted so plentifully of his fatherly kindnesse then to take occasion by his bountifulnesse to continue and increase in sinne as may plainely appeare by those cities which our Saviour upbraided where his word had beene preached and his workes had beene seene Math. 11. Math. 11.22.42 because it should be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment and more easie for the land of Sodome and Gomorah then for them It shall not be enough for us to say Oh God is mercifull and Christ died for us For because God is mercifull shall we be sinfull or because he hath beene more mercifull to us then to others shall we be more sinfull then others Or because Christ Iesus hath died for us shall we live in our sinnes Heb. 10.29 and by our prophanenesse crucifie him againe and tread under our feete
strong servants of God strong in faith that send up many strong cries to the throne of grace nay the strong God that hath commanded this duty to pray one for another hath also promised to heare them This no doubt was a comfort even to Peter himselfe put in prison that he knew Act. 12.5 Heb. 12.5.12.13 Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him and for his deliverance Let us not therefore faint under the Crosse when we are rebuked of him neither despise the chastening of the Lord who aymeth at our profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse but rather lift up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees and not cast away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward And let this be our comfort in these rerillous times that God heareth us for our brethren and our brethren for us and our elder-brother Christ Iesus our mediatour for us all who for his mercies sake for his truthes sake for his promise sake for his sonnes sake will in his good time send an happy deliverance that albeit for a season we be kept in affliction 2 Cor. 1.5.12 yet as our sufferings have abounded in us so our consolation should abound through our restoring when we had in a manner the sentence of death in us that thankes also may be given by many on our behalfe Secondly seeing Gods children for our comfort and consolation make request and intercession for us and are heard O how much more ought we to remember the sweet mediation of Christ Iesus our Lord and Saviour and comfort our selves and one another therewithall True it is we may and ought not a little to comfort our selves with the prayers and intercessions of other weake men our fellow servants like to our selves and subject to the same passions we are especially seing we know our whole Church at the same time assemble together to pray for us and to turne away his wrath from us and to call backe his destroying Angel that he may at length say It is enough 2 Sam. 24.16 stay now thy hand and so repent him of the evill upon our repentance and humiliation if I say we have much matter of comfort offered unto us by the publike prayers of the Church often as it were with one mind and with one mouth made and renewed on our behalfe how much more doth peace and consolation arise unto us by the mediation and intercession of Christ our Saviour the head of the Church the beloved sonne of God Heb. 1.2.3 Math. 17.5 the sonne of his love the heire of all things the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his person in whom the father is well pleased Herein consisteth our cheefe comfort that we rest and repose our selves in him as our Advocate and rely upon the merit of his passion Ioh. 11.42 whom the father alwaies heareth Indeed he commandeth that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thankes be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 and that we pray one for another that we may be healed Iam. 5.16 But if God at any time vouchsafe to heare any of his children it is for his sonnes sake not for any worthinesse or merits in them but for the Lords sake that is for Christs sake Dan. 9.1.7 for he is the Angel of the Covenant Revel 8.3 to whom was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the throne Therefore also the Apostle saith Heb. 5.16 In the dayes of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares was heard in that he feared because he prayed to him that was able to save him from death Lastly it is our duty to performe this duty our selves toward others and to require this duty to be performed for us by others Thus did Daniel a man greatly beloved of God who had many deepe mysteries by vision declared unto him he spake to his Companions Dan. 2.18 that they should desire the mercies of the God of heaven to reveale his secret to him that they might not perish So the Apostle prayed the Church of the Thessalonians 2 Thess 3.1 to pray for him and the rest of his fâ—llow-labourers that the word of the Lord much hindred by the opposition of potent adversaries might have a free passage As then he prayed before for the Thessalonians so here he prayeth the Thessalonians to pray for him that he might be comforted together with them by the mutuall prayers both of them and of him The use of mutual praier To this duty we should be stirred up in regard of the mutuall profit that proceedeth from the practise and performance thereof For first it serveth as the ordinary meanes ordained and sanctified of God to prevent judgments threatned and to remove judgments already inflicted Remember the devout and zealous prayer of Salomon 2 King 8.33.35.37.44 when the people of Israel be smitten downe before their enemies because they have sinned against thee when heaven is shut up and there is no raine c. if there be in the land famine if there be pestilence blasting mildew locust or caterpiller c. whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse there be heare thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive the sinne of thy servants c. Secondly it is a cordiall to preserve and strengthen us in all spirituall graces as we see that by Christs prayer Peters faith was kept from failing Luc. 22.32 Luc. 22. and thus he prayed not onely for the rest of the Apostles but for all them that should beleeve on him through their word Ioh. Iob. 17.20.24 17. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me c. Prayer therefore is a notable preseruative to keepe the precious treasures and iewels of grace in the Closets of our hearts and serveth to strengthen and encrease good things in us For as it obtaineth blessings at Gods hands so it procureth the encrease of them and it is no lesse vertue to keepe and continue to enlarge and encrease what we have obtained then at the first to obtaine it Thirdly to bring remission of sinnes to subdue in us the power of sinne Iam. 5.15 Psal 19.13 Iam. 5.15 The prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him For the cause of sicknesse and all diseases is sinne and therefore our Saviour healing the man sicke of the Palsie said unto him Math. 9.2 Sonne be of good cheere thy sinnes be forgiven thee dealing like a good Physitian who removeth the cause that he may remove the effect So then faithfull prayer and a purpose or resolution to continue in sinne cannot poffibly stand together Lastly it
is not so easie to let it out againe so it is with sinne it is no hard thing to make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience and to pull up the bankes of the feare of God whereby sinne is kept out but we shall find it one of the hardest things in the world to cast it out of the heart when it hath gotten firme possession and therefore it must be our labour and wisedome to prevent sinne in the beginning lest by continuance it take roote and be as a disease that is incurable Secondly it serveth as an instruction to the Ministers of God that we cease not with the Dresser in this place to digge about them that remaine unfruitfull and dung them that is to labour 〈◊〉 â—yeth in us to further their conversion Let us all follow the example of Peter when the Lord had said unto him Launch out into the deepe and let downe your nettes for a draught he answered Master Luk. 5.5 we have toyled all night and have taken nothing neverthelesse at thy word I will let downe the net Matt. 13.27 so must we cast out the net of the Gospel into the sea and gather the good into vessels but cast the bad away And if it fall out that we draw none to the shore 2 Cor. 2.15 yet are we the sweet savour of God as well in them that perish as in them that are saved and God no lesse accounteth of our labours if we have beene faithfull and conscionable then if we had converted many thousand soules To this end the Lord himselfe commandeth Paul not to hold his peace at Corinth Act. 18.10 but to speake boldly because he had much people in that City The husbandman must digge and dung his ground and cast the seed into the earth but he cannot give the earely and the latter raine and albeit he finde a thinne harvest he may be greeved yet het he is not discouraged We are commanded to feed the flocke committed unto us woe to us if we preach not the Gospel but we must evermore commit the successe to him that hath the hearts of all men in his owne power Mat. 3.11 Iohn Baptist did baptize with water to the remission of sinnes but he could not Baptize with the holy Ghost So we may teach and preach the word of the kingdome but as it fell out with the sower that went out to sow some fell by the high way side Matt. 13.4.5.7 some in stony ground and other among thornes so must we make our account it will be with us yet this is our comfort our judgment is with with the Lord and the reward of our worke with our God Esa 49.4 1 Pet. 5.4 and when the cheefe shepheard shall appeare we shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away Lastly it teacheth generally a good duty and direction to all the faithfull namely that upon this ground we exhort and admonish one another and seeke to winne and gaine them to God that so we may bring home the lost sheepe upon our shoulders This the Apostle prescribeth exhort one another daily Heb. 3.13 while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne Who accounteth not him a mercilesse man that having escaped danger of robbing or drowning yet giveth not warning to him which traveleth that way lest hee fall into the hands of theeves and be robbed or passe by the waters and be drowned but much more is he without mercy and guilty of the blood of the soule that seing his brother overtaken in sinne and taken in the snare of the Devill ever seeketh to set him at liberty Now we have sundry motives to move us to this worke of mercy farre more profitable to men and acceptable to God then the sacrifice of Almes-giving that toucheth the body in respect of God in respect of our selves and in respect of others In respect of God Rom. 11.23 for it maketh manifest his power to be infinite that he is able to graft them in againe as the Apostle speaketh of the unbeleeving Iewes albeit through unbeleefe they were broken off and it turneth to the greater praise of his glory and the honour of his name which we ought to seeke above all things The more dangerous the disease is and the longer it hath continued the more doth the skill and learning of the Physitian appeare Rom. 5.20 so are we the more to magnifie the mercy of God in that where sinne bounded grace doth much more abound Touching our selves we thereby exercise the giftes that God hath given doe not as wicked and sloathfull servants Mat. 25.26 digge them in the earth and hide our Lords mony besides we know not how soone it may be said to us Come give an account of thy steward-ship Luk. 16.1 for thou maist be no longer steward Lastly we shall free our owne soules and not make our selves partakers of other mens sinnes for by conuivence and holding our peace we draw guiltinesse upon our owne soules In respect of others we may be meanes to save a soule as Iam. 5. Iam. 5.19.20 If any of you doe erre from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes Vers 9. And if it beare fruit well and if not then after that thou shalt cut it downe We heard before of the intreaty and intercession of the Dresser now the condition followeth which is double first if after all his labour it bring forth fruit Secondly if it bring not forth fruit one of the twaine it must of necessity doe there is no third either it must be fruitfull or vnfruitfull either we must make the tree good or evill The first part of the speech is defective for there is nothing in the originall to answere to the Condition the translaters have supplied the word Well and somewhat is necessary to be supplied to make the sense and sentence perfect I would thinke a word might be borrowed and supplied out of the former verse where the Vine-dresser saith Let it alone this yeare also so in this place If it bring forth fruit Let it alone or thou shalt let it alone as also appeareth by the contrary condition in the last words If not thou shalt cut it downe He expresseth bearing fruit first besore he mention the cutting of it downe because it was the chiefe and principall in the dressers intention and because all his labour of digging and dunging tended to this end and purpose Now he intreateth that it may be let alone if it bring forth fruit he yeeldeth to the cutting of it downe Doct. if it continue unfruitfull This teacheth in both the conditions Promises and threatnings are both of them condicionall 1 King 8.25 that as well the promises of grace mercy as all the
grace life by Christ be fruitfull effectuall Let us then be warned that we do not coÌ„tent our selves to live in the Church for so false Israelites doe and hypocriticall Christians who professe Christ in word Tit. 1.16 Revel 3.1.2 but deny him in their workes who have a name that they are alive but indeed are dead Let us therefore be watchful strengthen the things which remaine that are ready to dy repent speedily because wee know not what houre hee will come upon us This is the use that the Apostle teacheth having shewed that in a great house are sundry vessels some to honour some to dishonour he addeth 2 Tim. 2.21 Let us purge our selves from these that we may be vessels unto honour sanctified meet for the masters use and prepared to every good worke Math. 3.8 Let us strive to bring forth fruit worthy amendment of life Let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the feare of God and purging our consciences more and more from dead workes that so we may gather comfort and assurance that we are vessels to honour and for our better assurance let every one depart from iniquity that nameth the name of Christ 2 Tim. 2.19 Doct. After that thou shalt cut it downe Here is the finall doome of this fig-tree without any farther repriving or sparing thereof Though the Lord suffer long yet he punisheth at the last if it cannot be made fruitfull From whence I might observe that the Lord howsoever he be very patient and doth forbeare long yet at the last he wil come to visit and punish men for their sinnes Ier. 5.7.9 How shall I pardon thee for this thy children have forsaken me and sworne by them that are no gods when I had fedde them to the full they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troupes in the harlots houses So Esay 42.14.15 1 Sam. Reason 1 5.6 The reasons first in regard of his love and mercy to his children he will not suffer them to live in their sinnes unpunished thus he doth manifest his goodnesse yea that he is goodnesse it selfe and consequently opposite to evill and so will visit them for their sinnes Secondly his justice will not suffer him to let the wicked escape but hee will and must punish He is just nay justice it selfe and therefore cannot but doe justice Rom. 2.6 3.5.6 and give to every one according to his workes as Rom. 3. Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speake as a man God forbid for then how shall God judge the world This teacheth the children of God Vse 1 that they have no cause at all to be envious against the wicked for their prosperity and happinesse in this world for let them waite a while and abide but a short time which the Lord in his providence hath appointed they shal behold him comming against them with his drawne sword and visit their iniquities to the full Exod. 34.7 for hee will by no means clearethe guilty Secondly it admonisheth every man to labour to breake off his sinnes whatsoever they be and not to harden himselfe because God spareth him because howsoever God spareth him and maketh as though he did not perceive him yet at the last he payeth home How neere hath Gods hand beene to many in this great visitation in the same house and in the same bed when the one hath beene taken away and the other spared and his life given him for a prey O consider this ye that have already forgotten this mercy of God and labour to appease his wrath before yee come to his judgement-seate for then it will be to late to call and cry for mercy let us labour too repent betimes here that so we may find mercy before the throne of God hereafter Lastly it warneth us of the wofull estate of all such as despise his patience for what doe such but heape up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. Thou shalt cut it downe Dcto The Lord of the Vineyard waited yeare after yeare to receive some fruit Such as grow desperate are neere to destruction and the dresser thereof obtained the continuance of the standing thereof another yeare if nothing will serve none will intreat any farther it must be cut downe This teacheth us that when once we grow desperate without hope of amendment and past recovery God is determined to destroy us and to pull us up by the rootes as trees that are altogether withered dead and rotten Thus it was with the sonnes of Eli the sonnes of Belial 1 Sam. 2.12.25 they knew not the Lord neither would they give eare to the warning of their father but what was the end They hearkned not to the voyce of their father because the Lord would slay them This we see also 2 Chro. 36. the Lord gave his people over into the hand of the Caldeâ—s but when came the wrath of the Lord upon them to the uttermost when there was no remedy He had sent his Prophets continually and successively one after another among them 2 Cor. 36.15 16. but they could do no good with them they grew worse as those that are desperately diseased caÌ„not be healed There was therfore no remedy neither other way with them then to cut them off utterly Thus our Saviour speaketh Math. 23.37.38 I would have gathered you together but ye would not behold your house and habitation is left unto you desolate Esay 6.10 so that it came to passe as the Lord had threatned Make the heart of this people fat and make their eares heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and herewith their eares and understand with their heart and be healed The reasons are first because there is nothing left that can doe them any good Reason 1 All the meanes that the Lord hath used or can use will not profit them but like Dogges and Swine they tread the precious pearles of the Gospel under their feet Ier. 17.6 They are like the heath in the wildernesse which shall not see when any good commeth but shall inhabit the parched places in a salt land and not inhabited The heath hath good meanes comming upon it to make it good the Summer commeth the Sunne shineth the raine falleth the influence of the heavens descendeth yet euermore it remaineth the same a dry and barren heath It is with the barren soule as with the barren soile the word the Ministers the Sabbathes the Sacraments the dayes of grace nay Christ Iesus himselfe can doe them no good no good nay the Word which in it selfe is the savour of life to life becommeth to them the savour of death to death 2 Cor. 2.16 Christ himselfe is a recke of offence and a stone to stumble at and all the rest of the meanes ordained to Salvation turne to their finall destruction 1 Pet. 3.8 Secondy such
the Rod should shake it selfe against them that lift it up or as if the Staffe should lift up it selfe as if it were no wood Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the Potsheard strive with the Potsheards of the earth Wherefore albeit he shewed no mercy on Cain Esau Saul Ahab Judas and sundry others yet is he not herein unjust for hee was indebted unto them nothing at all Nay more then all this had he denyed mercy to all mankinde and appointed all the sonnes of Adam of whom they come as out of a corrupted masse to endlesse torments as he did the Angels that fell yet had he done them no wrong but executed upon them just judgement and their deserved punishment so that no man can justly utter a word of complaint against him Rom. 11.51 Hence it is that the Apostle saith Rom. 11. Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him againe This reprooveth two sorts First Vse 1 such as set up mans free will and make the beginning of our salvation to come from our selves This crosseth the doctrine of the holy Scriptures which teach that in our will is no good at all untill God from above give it and graft it in us as the earth is dry and barren the dryest of all the elements untill it receive the showres from Heaven to make it fruitfull This error setteth up mans nature and puffeth up flesh and blood It abolisheth the grace of God and derogateth much from the glory of his mercy because we are no more able of our selves to doe good then the stone can of it selfe mount up aloft If you take it and throw it into the aire it flyeth upward so if the Sonne take us and make us free Cant. 1.4 then we will and worke freely and if wee bee drawne Obiect wee runne after him What then may some say Are we stockes and stones without will without life without motion I answer Not so Answ wee are not utterly as blockes or stones without understanding For our will is capable of good when once it is wrought in us whereas stones sencelesse creatures and bruit beasts are not Nay we have a certaine freedome and liberty in naturall and civill things and some Ecclesiasticall so farre as both sence and reason may guide us But to any thing that is simply good and well-pleasing to God before he make us willing that are unwilling wee are worse then stocks I meane to doe good in a good holy and sanctified manner For not onely wee have stony hearts but also we rebell against God and lift up our selves against him which stockes and stones never doe against their Maker Ioh. 15.5 Ephes 2.1 so that Christ saith Without mee yee can doe nothing And the Apostle Wee are borne dead in sinnes and trespasses Whosoever therefore shall tell us and perswade us that we have power of our selves to doe that which is good and that wee stand in need of nothing but to be gently holpen with the hand to walke in his waies and need not to be wholly assisted and prevented by grace they are lying spirits and false prophets beleeve them not bid them not God speed neither receive them to house What a stirre hath there beene heretofore and is yet in the Church of Rome and among other Sectaries and who is ignorant of it about the matter of free will Were he not a fond man who being fast bound in chaines and irons would talke of nothing but of his present freedome and liberty Yet this is the case with us we are bondmen and yet we hold our selves to be free men wee have just cause therefore utterly to abolish this name of Free-will and learne to reason of our bond-will another while For we are as unfit to begin any good in our owne selves as the greene wood is to kindle in it selfe and of it selfe any fire or heat which being kindled it is rather apt to be put out againe These never knew the greatnesse of the fall of man and the deadly wound that nature hath received for it is God that worketh in us the will and the deed And if both the deed and will it selfe be Gods gifts I would gladly know what good gift we have left unto us in nature or what we can rightly challenge to our selves God is Alpha and Omega the first and the last the beginning and the ending and therefore all power and ability is taken from us quite and cleane of doing any thing that is good True it is the first man Adam before his transgression had free will to chuse the good and to refuse the evill but by his fall hee lost both it and himselfe both his liberty and his innocency Mans freedome is a very bondage For now our freedome is onely to be free to sinne too free alas we are to it if that may be called a freedome which indeed is the most miserable and slavish bondage while wee can doe nothing else but sinne lying as it were fast bound in chaines and fetters hand and foot O but a man that is fettered hath at least a will and desire to be loosed It is true of bodily captives and prisoners but it is not so with the naturall man that is unregenerate For as he is fettered so of himselfe he is willing and desirous to be so he doth evill and he will doe it he loveth his chaines as if they were of gold or silver Ephes 5.14 2 Tim. 2.26 and hath no will to bee raised from the dead sleepe of sinne Hee thinketh himselfe at liberty and as free as the best when he is faster holden then the worst Gally-slave He is the servant of corruption and yet hee is offended with him that moveth him to shake off those heavy bolts and fetters and to come out of that bad and bond condition The Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 2.14 that the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Secondly it reprooveth such as teach that faith and workes foreseene are the causes of our election to life and salvation This were for us to choose God Faith foreseene is not the cause of our salvation and not for God to choose us whereas he witnesseth the contrary This is to reject all infants from Gods Election who are taken away by untimely death as corne that is reaped downe in the greene blade This maketh election to be uncertaine and to depend upon the will and pleasure of men This teacheth that grace is not the totall cause of faith This is as much as to begin our spirituall life at our selves and to give the praise to our selves at least in part and not to God for the blessings that we receive from him This is to be afraid lest we should bee too much beholding to God for our salvation and too little
to our owne selves 1 Cor. 1.29 The doctrine of the nevv Sectaries This is to reioyce in an arme of flesh and not in the mercy of God 1 Cor. 1.29 The new Sectaries teach that Election resteth and dependeth upon the foreknowledge of faith and that it is made for faith foreseene which the sounder sort of Papists begin to be ashamed of as appeareth in Bellarmine The Apostle teacheth plainely Ephes 1.3 4. that all spirituall blessings whatsoever are given us according to Election before the foundation of the world Ephes 1.3 4. and therefore Election must of necessity bee before those blessings Againe we are elected that we should be holy and without blame he saith to holinesse not for any holinesse and consequently to faith not for faith So Paul obtained mercy 1 Cor. 7.25 Acts 22.14 That he should be faithfull 1 Cor. 7.25 not because God considered him as already faithfull Christ Iesus chose his Disciples not already bearing fruit but that they should bring forth fruit Ioh. 15.16 Acts 13.48 Ioh. 15.16 This also Luke sheweth that such as were ordained to eternall life beleeved Act. 13. Election therefore is before faith and it is the cause why men doe beleeve whereas our new Sect-masters and Strife-makers set the Apostle and the rest of the Church to Schoole and teach him to speak as they do yong children that they beleeved afterward were ordained to eternall life Rom. 9.16 The words of Paul It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy could not be true if God had mercy on men for faith foreseene For what could he foresee but his owne gifts which himselfe determined to bestow upon us This teacheth us also to pull downe all high conceits of our owne worth as if our salvation depended upon our owne selves and that wee were able to guide our waies and order our steppes to life and on the other side admonisheth all Gods Children to thinke humbly of themselves and of all that they can doe or have done touching the cause and foundation of their salvation and withall to magnifie highly the riches of the mercy of God and the aboundance of the love of Iesus Christ our Saviour shed abroad in our hearts acknowledging the beginning proceeding continuing and finishing of our salvation to spring from him onely True it is our destruction is not of God Hos 13.9 Iam. 1.13 14 15. but of our owne selves but our salvation is not of our selves but of God Wherefore then hath God chosen us and refused others made us vessels to honour 2 Tim. 2.20 Rom. 2.5 and left others to be vessels to dishonour why hath hee taken away the hardnesse of our stony hearts and given over others to walke in their hardnesse and hearts that cannot repent as he did Pharaoh Wherefore hath he sanctified us with his Spirit and passed by many thousand others that they might worke out their owne destruction and damnation Doubtlesse he hath not done all these nor any one of all these things for any good he saw in us nor for any goodnesse he foresaw would be in us nor for any inclination to goodnesse hee could perceive in us nor for any workes of preparation to make us fit for grace for what could he see in us though he be of pure eyes but matter of his wrath to feed upon as the fire doth upon the fuell It was not greatnes of wealth noblenesse of birth highnesse of estate worthinesse of condition multitude of friends that hee respected who respecteth no mans person so that when we consider what we are of our selves and how graciously God hath dealt toward us we should cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his iudgements and his waies past finding out Rom. 11.33 Lastly seeing it is of Gods good pleasure that he saveth us and not any thing that is in our selves that moued him this ought to stirre us up to thankefulnesse and our thankefulnesse to dutifulnesse and obedience toward him The greater his mercy is and the more free his grace is the more wee ought to praise and magnifie his great Name It is he that hath given us all let him therefore have the praise of all We have nothing in our selves therefore let us challenge nothing to our selves The worke is his owne and properly belonging to him let us take heed we commit not sacriledge and robbe him of the glory due to his Name They are pure or rather impure naturall men that set up nature and they are destitute of grace that pull downe the post or piller of Gods grace which holdeth up the whole building We cannot ascribe too much to him wee cannot detract too much from our selves We cannot deny too much to Nature we cannot ascribe too much to grace Our good thoughts our good desires our good deeds our good words if we have any come from without Matth. 15.18 as evill thoughts come from within and doe defile us as water comming from an uncleane fountaine All our good is of his good pleasure and therefore it is good reason that hee should bee honoured and glorified in it and for it Hence it is that the Apostle saith What is it that thou hast not received Wee are so farre from comming to our iournyes end without his direction that we cannot set one foot forward in the right way Wee are so farre from being able to practise any thing that is good that wee haue no power to prepare our selves to it Psal 10.17 forasmuch as it is he that prepareth the heart Psal 10.17 And the Apostle saith We are not sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 but all our sufficiency is of God This use doth Christ our Saviour point unto Mat. 11. I thanke thee O Father Matth. 11.25 26. Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes even so Father for it seemed good in thy sight That which Christ our Saviour doth ought we all to practise and performe It belongeth to all the Elect and godly to shew great love to him that hath loved us first and continuall thankefulnesse toward him because wee hold our selves and all that we have of his gracious favour We enjoy not any good through our owne deservings but all besides our merits nay directly against our merits For by the guilt of sinne we deserve to be in the same condition with the reprobate and it is the great goodnesse and mercy of God who hath separated us and allotted unto us a better estate and that it goeth better with us How often doe we requite his love with unkindnesse for wee give him nothing but he giveth us all neither doe we prevent his liberality but he preventeth our ability if