we shall finde it thus That these and all other signes mentioned are in great measure come upon us let us answer unfaynedly whether the Lord doth not sensibly threaten and proclaime to depart and leave us altogither unlesse we repent having thus far already withdrawne himselfe from us And to conclude this point whether it be not full time to seeke to pacifie and stay him amongst us if we be not weary of his abode with us and of our happinesse thereby But of this more in the next Chapter where we shall have cause to inquire of the outward tokens of the Lords glorious presence and what a removall he hath made thereof as likewise we see that he hath of this inward Thus much therefore shall suffice to have spoken of this second cause which we have all to watch pray yea even to weepe and cry after him to returne unto us againe in shewing amongst us the power of his Spirit as ever in former time and to abide with us for ever that he never leave us to our bloodie enemies CHAP. V. How the Lord is most unwilling to depart from his Church so long as there is any other remedie which he manifesteth in his oft threatning to take his leave before he goe indeed And of the outward tokens both of his glorious presence in his Church and of his departure from it And what cause we have thereupon to watch and pray continually ANd the Glory of the God of Israel was removed c. A third point specially to be observed is this That the Glory of God removed not once onely but five severall times in this vision before it departed and that it removed not all at once but so oft going away by degrees and that most sensibly By which he would cause the Prophet most clearely to behold his holinesse and justice that he must needs depart from them for their iniquities wherewith they grieved him and that he was now taking his farewell and yet withall also to see his mercy and tender compassion and how he was as we may so speake most unwilling to depart and leave his people to so many miseries even Ierusalem his owne Citie to such a desolation if any remedie would have bin found This he makes knowne unto them to see if it would worke to stir them up to seeke to retaine his presence amongst them For the evident manifestation hereof First the Glory removes from the Cherub and stands upon the threshold as ready to depart Secondly it removes higher and stands over the dore of the house Thirdly it removing from above the dore and standing againe upon the Cherubims the Cherubims mounted upward from the earth towards heaven as ready to take their flight and leave the Temple altogither Fourthly after this the Glory removes to the midst of the Citie thereby seeming to warne the Citie of the Lords departure Lastly from thence it removes out of the Citie unto the Mount of Olives as utterly taking leave of them and giving them a last farewell untill their Captivitie was accomplished and his anger appeased These were the removes Here we are all againe to inquire yet more carefully whether he hath not made as many and as sensible removes of his glory amongst us of this our Nation and thereby given us as many plaine evidences of his departure not now in a vision but so as all men must needs see and confesse it and also whether withall he hath not as clearely and tenderly manifested as I may so say his unwillingnesse to depart from us if any thing can serve to reforme us This is a point of most serious consideration and such a one as it were an exceeding mercy of the Lord and a token of his gratious purpose toward us if he would but vouchsafe us hearts generally to consider of aright as in his presence and as we must all know it one day To the end we may conceive it the better we are first to consider wherein the glory of the Lord appeareth outwardly in his Church so as it may be beholden of all round about it even of the very enemies As for the former evidence it being more inward is to be perceived chiefly of the inward man the soule and conscience when God so speaks unto them This outward Glory consists in three things principally as was said whereby not only the Lord himselfe is magnified amongst his owne people yea to be seene acknowledged of others but also by which he makes his people to be glorious in the eies of others and to be honoured and feared of their enemies The first is when he bestoweth upon his people such aboundance of heavenly and sanctified knowledge of his worde with an hungring after the same as that the earth seemeth to be filled with the knowledg of the Lord like the waters that cover the Sea as the Prophet Esay speaketh This he promiseth to doe in his Church when he will shew his glory in it in the dayes of the Gospell At what time the Church being exalted as upon the topps of the mountaines there shal be such a hungring and thirsting after the word of the Lord that men shal incite and provoke one another saying Come let us goe up to the house of the Lord for he will teach us his waies and we will walke in his pathes Where he thus puts his lawes into the mindes of his people at least in a vehement desire of it That they all seeme to know him from the least to the greatest of them this is a visible token of Gods covenant with such a people and the pardon of their sinnes that he is their God and this is his glory upon them A second visible token is this when this knowledge is accompanied with obedience and holinesse of life when he thus writes his law in their hearts creating in them new hearts and new spirits Thus the Lord promiseth to be sanctified in his owne people before the eyes of their enemies when he shall clense them from all their filthy sinnes as with pure water when he puts his spirit so upon them as to cause them to walke in his statutes to keepe his judgments and to do them when he puts his feare so generally into their hearts as to cause them not to depart from him Then he makes this covenant for himselfe that he wil not depart from them And chiefly when togither heerewith he gives peace unity amongst them that they have one heart and one way That the Lambe may lodge with the Wolfe without danger the poore harmelesse Christian with them who have beene by nature as bloudy as Wolues when the little child may lead the Lion even a child bringing the word of the Lord may perswade and lead them who were otherwise as proude and fierce as Lyons And when the sucking childe may play upon the hole of the Aspe when the poore seruants of
him through the Citie and smite let your eye spare none c. IN this next place we are to observe how the Lord bids the destroyers to goe after the marking Angell following him as it were hard at the heeles that so soone as ever the servants of God are marked and safe they should stay no longer but presently execute their charge which was Kill kill and spare none for so the words doe plainely import Herein the Lord would have us all to know yet further that so soone as ever he hath gathered forth those that bewaile the sinnes of the times that is his faithfull ones from among the rest or made sure provision for them then he will stay no longer but presently begin the execution of his vengeance on the rest which remaine This truth the Lord hath left unto us as cleare as any of the former that when we see him taking the godly away all may learne to prepare for themselves to escape or else be left more without excuse To shew this in order out of the former destructions as being in my understanding most fit as so set downe to this purpose and also most plainely for the simplest to conceive of 1. Noah is no sooner in the Arke fast lockt in by the Lord himselfe and so out of the danger but presently the sloud-gates of heaven are set open the fountaines of the great depths broken up destruction rusheth upon them that 〈◊〉 they or climbe they whithersoever they will the vengeance of God still followeth them at the heeles untill they be utterly swept away from the face of the earth without any more pitie and compassion 2. Lot is no sooner out of Sodom and gotten safe into Zoar past all the danger but though it was a goodly morning to see to the Sunne rising gloriously upon the earth as it was wont yet the fire and brimstone came powring downe The Holy Ghost saith that The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven and overthrew all He turned all those filthy Cities into ashes making them most loathsome pits and a terrible monument of his most severe vengeance to all such beastly livers to the end of the world All perish togither in an instant as they were partakers togither in the same filthy sinnes Howling and crying then will do no more good no place is now lest to repentance nor to mercy any longer 3. The Christians are no sooner gotten out of Ierusalem to Pella according to the warning but presently Ierusalem is taken as Iosephus reports and then as great cruelties are exercised as ever upon any Citie or people before and as great miseries followed them according as our Saviour had foretold 4. And lastly that same holy Iosiah hath his eyes no sooner closed that he might not see the vengeance and himselfe taken to his rest as the Lord had promised him because his heart so melted at the hearing of the abominations and the judgements denounced for them but straight-way even within three moneths begins this wofull tragedie of Iudah and Ierusalem As the flying away of the Swallow is a signe of winter at hand so the departing and taking away of these mourners forth of any Church must needs be a fearefull threatning of some terrible winter if not a desolation to come upon that people especially when we consider what such are for the preservation of the place where they are And so much first for the evidence of this truth Now that we may againe returne home unto our selves Let us see whether hereby we have not just cause to be awakened ech to betake our sâ—â—ves to watching and prayer to stay the vengeance of God before it be come upon us and it be too late Have not many of our Noahs I meane many of Gods faithfull servants most famous both in Church and Common-wealth for helping to build and prepare the Arke bin taken away from us not many yeeres ago long before their time And amongst others Did not the Lord specially pluck unto himselfe in a short space togither sundry of our most worthily renowmed and victorious champions so approved against that proud Goliah of Rome Hath he not thus caried up these into the Arke not made with hands as accounting us thereby unworthy that they should remaine any longer amongst us upon the earth to helpe to stand betweene the Lords wrath and us What heart was so flintie which dissolved not into teares for sundry of them or which was not astonished at the apprehension of his manifest displeasure therein and in a fearefull consideration of that which he saith That the righteous are taken away from the evils to come This yet is some comfort That we have still some Noaâ—s carefully preparing and finishing the Arke and warning the secure and unthankfull world All our Lots are not yet pluckt from amongst us The Lord of hoasts hath as yet in mercy reserved us a remnant who unfeignedly feare the tokens of his wrath He hath some that stil lift up their voyces like trumpers to tel his people of their sins Some that lift up their hearts with their hands with Moses against Amaleck Some that made continuall intercession with faithful Abraham Some that mourne in secret who wrastle and weepe with Iacob and who will not let the Lord goe untill he shew us mercy and save us from the scourge which we have justly deserved Some I say for what are they compared with the rest or in regard of our time and meanes or that they have beene in sundry parts of the Land otherwise we had bin made long agoe as Sodome and like unto Gomorrha And we may further say by the infinite mercy of God That the Lords annointed is still preserved for our shelter and the breath of our nostrils by whom alone under the highest we hitherto enjoy our safety in the midst of the greatest furies of our implacable and bloud-thirsty enemies If the Lord had ever or yet should never so little take away his hand for all our provocations which evill of all other he ever turne from us like as hitherto he hath done sith the enemies hunt after his life and the lives of us all continually and our sinnes doe cry for it what then could we looke for Or if he should any way suffer the mouthes of all his faithfull messengers to be shut that there might be none to reprove much more if he once take from amongst us those that sigh and cry out for all the abominations and restrayn utterly that spirit of mourning and prayer what may we expect then And is not this the thing which the Atheist and belly-God with all the company of the wicked and ungodly do desire so much and which the I do latrous murthering enemies doe conspire continually And why Because these are they
accounted worthy to escape the euills approching but also that ech of vs may still helpe to preserue the Island like as our most compassionate Father hath in the riches of his mercy vouchsafed to accept vs vntill this day And this likewise he in his wisdome directed to come forth at the very instant yea in the midst of the last apparant danger which we in our parts were in for the insurrection about inclosures which howsoeuer it might seeme nothing or small to them who dwelt far from it yet to vs who expected the approching of the rebells euery houre and heard how the hearts of the people were generally bent it was no lesse terrible than any of the former but so much more fearefull the neerer it was Now therefore in the third place forasmuch as all men may behold all kinde of wickednesse and impietie still increasing fearefully without hope of redresse so that vnlesse we will put out our owne eyes we must see the iudgement of God hasting faster vpon vs and being at the very dore I haue taken it my bounden dutie and my best seruice that I could doe and possibly performe to his heauenly Maiestie his Church and my Country to adde this third part to the end to set before the faces of euery one of vs the heynousnesse of our sinnes in euery degree and so the equitie of the Lords proceeding against vs that we may all be inforced to iustifie his Maiestie though he come to execute whatsoeuer he hath so often threatned when no kinde of forewarning can doe vs any good And also to try if yet at length he will vouchsafe to recall vs againe to his couenant and put new life into vs to meet him falling vpon our faces in fasting and prayer to pacifie his wrath and that ech of vs may begin to put that in practise which was intended and sought in the two former parts that is to watch and pray continually not in words any longer but in deed and truth for the preseruation and lasting welfare of vs and our posteritie That the heauiest iudgement must needs be feared to be so much the neerer as the anger of the most High is more kindled against vs no man can doubt and that his wrath is incensed to the vttermost is most apparent to all whose eyes he hath opened or who doe but beleeue his heauenly word for that in stead of hauing any of our greeuous abhominations which we may behold set before our faces in the Treatise following euen by the Prophets themselues and forwhich he hath so often threatned us yet vnfeignedly repented of we haue indeed increased them many times more The couenant of our God which the whole land professeth and ech of vs in our Baptisme haue solemnely entred into we haue most grieuously transgressed And this many of vs haue done with so high a hand as that we haue caused that his heauenly Gospell to be blasphemed inforcing him to threaten to take his couenant with all his blessings from vs yea to leaue vs to be made a prey and a spoyle vnto our enemies which thirst after our bloud continually This all confessed when they so despightfully and proudly came against vs as being ready to swallow vs vp quicke and ech of vs then acknowledged that his wrath was most iustly kindled against vs for the same so as if he should then haue cast vs off vtterly for euer being his people or a nation any more that yet we had most righteously deserued it This we haue in like manner many a time since acknowledged in all our dangers and plagues which we haue had vpon vs plague after plague as those ten plagues of Aegypt More especially in the grieuous dearths and chiefly in that most poysoned plague of pestilence as the sundry confessions of sinnes then made and still extant doe and shall euer beare witnesse But aboue all other times when we were all ready to be consumed in the hot fierie furnace at once yea this we ordinarily and daily euery one confessed whilst we liued in imminent danger euery houre before the Lord so miraculâ—â—sly and graciously set vp his Anointed ouer vs. Euery one then could say Our sinnes are so â—heynous as that we must needes haue some terrible vengeance without speedie repentance This wrath therâ—fore we must needs acknowledge to be farre greater now than euer heretofore not onely for that in stead of repenting our sinnes are so growne vp in euery kinde but also because we are now so generally and so much further off from repentance or any purpose of amendment yea of so much as of any sense of our sinnes or feare of any iudgement to be toward vs for the same than euer we were in former time notwithstanding all the meanes which he hath so long vsed to awaken vs and to bring vs to repentance How then can this fire of the Lords anger be euer quenched we deliuered from the violence thereof that we should not be consumed of it but onely by seeking out the principall causes of it to wit our maine transgressions against the couenant of our God by which he hath bin so prouoked and also by confessing and acknowledging them and turning backe ioyntly to the humble obedience of that his most holy Couenant againe Israel cannot stand before their enemies vntill Achans sacriledge be found out and punished neither can the dearth be stayed in the dayes of Dauid vntill the causes of it be found out and the Lord pacified by taking away the iniquitie Nor yet can the storme vpon the Seas be quieted so long as Ionah lyeth asleepe in his sinne How much losse now when so many Achanâ— be in euery corner and Ionah asleepe euery where in the eyes of all As it is with a particular man so is it with a whole Nation That like as there must be first a searching out of his sinne with confession of it and turning againe vnto the Lord before his anger can be appeased so must it be for a whole Nation so far as we can iustly conceiue before any sound assurance can be giuen that his wrath is turned away This seemes euery where most euident thorow all the booke of God How Poperie is growne vp againe the late proclamation for preuenting it and the furie of that bloudie Religion and for the preseruation of his Royall Maiestie and his Seede set forth vpon the occasion of the cruell murther of the French King doth sufficiently witnesse And likewise the generall vrging the Oath of Allegeance inforced therevpon besides so many lamentable experiments and our ouer-iust feares for their trecheries expected ech howre How Atheisme also with all kinde of outragious iniquitie and scorning at all true pietie doe ouerflow in euery place aboue all former times no man can denie Indeed some sinnes haue bin odious heretofore and especially when they began first to spring vp