work whereupon all others depend is the Incarnation of the Son of God that great mystery of godlinesse God manifest in our flesh that was the great work of grace Then redemption of mankinde by his blood The electing of some to salvation before the foundations of the world were laid The vocation of them in Gods good time The justification of them in the blood of our crucified Jesus The sanctification of them by Gods blessed Spirit the resurrection of their bodies and the glorification of them All these are workes of grace Now all the workes of God whether they be workes of nature or of grace they are all great workes There is not a worke of Creation but it is a great worke The Pis-mire is a little creature yet it is a great worke the making of a Pis-mire is as great a worke as the creation of an Elephant It is all one with God hee can as easily make an Elephant as a Pis-mire nay Deus maximus in minimis a man may truely say it God is greatest in the least creatures If you marke it you may see how great God is in every little creature The lesse the Watch is that you carry about you to know the time of the day the greater is the skill of the work-man And surely in every little worke it appeares how great God is There is never a worke so little but it is a great work if it be well considered Workes of Creation are great workes But there are some workes greater then other Those workes wherein the Divine attributes are most manifested such workes wherein appeares the great wisedome of God or the great goodnesse of God or the great power of God or the great truth of God or the great mercy of God or the great justice of God Those workes wherein these attributes of Divine majesty are most apparent those are called great workes Therefore the workes of redemption are greater workes then the workes of creation The workes of grace are greater workes then the workes of nature But now this people had seen great workes in both kindes Great workes of Nature Great workes of Grace There were workes of nature let mee name but one or two of them The multiplication of them in Egypt When they came to Egypt at first there were but seventy souls of them seventy souls that came out of the loines of Jacob no more They were in Egypt but two hundred and fifteene years no longer A great part of this time they lived under oppression loaden with burthens loaden with blowes loaden with injuries yet see how they multiplied this same bleeding vine bare abundance of fruit this Camomile that was thus trodden downe it prospered exceedingly They grew in two hundred and fifteene yeares to be so many that at their coming out of Egypt there were numbred six hundred thousand men from twenty yeares old and upward besides women and children This multiplication was a great work of God a work of Nature Then consider their preservation there how wonderfully they were preserved in the despight of their enemies and how all things were preserved that were theirs As the land of Goshen preserved from those same swarmes of flies with which all the rest of Egypt was pestred Their cattell in the land of Goshen preserved from that murraine of which the cattell through the land of Egypt died The land of Goshen was light when all Egypt besides was darknesse This wonderfull preservation of that that they had and the preservation of their first-born when all the first-born died in the land of Egypt This preservation of them was a great worke There is another work which I know not whether it be the greater their eduction and bringing out of Egypt Their preservation was great their bringing out was as great they came out in despight of Pharaoh and his servants and they came out with vigour of body their veins full of bloud and their bones full of marrow There was not one feeble person among their Tribes Here were great Works but all these were works of nature either of multiplication or preservation Then will you heare the great workes of Grace The adoption of this people to be Gods first-borne the separation of this people from all the people of the earth to be to God a holy Nation a Royall Priest-hood his peculiar treasure The revealing of his promises especially that great promise that out of their loines should come that blessed seed that blessed Lord in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed The promulgation of the Law no Nation had it but they God had not dealt so with other Nations the heathens had not the knowledge of his Lawes Here were great workes of Nature great works of Grace yet this was the unthankfulnesse of this people they forgat God their Saviour that had done these great things for them in Egypt Then Wonderfull things too Mirabilia There be foure sorts of Mirabilia of wonderfull things There be mirabilia naturae wondrous works of nature secret wondrous works of nature That the load-stone should draw Iron to it That this power of the load-stone should be restrained if the Adamant be neare it That the Adamant cannot be broken upon an anvile with an hammer that is easily broken if it be anointed with goats bloud That the flesh of a dead Peacocke should not putrefie Saint Austine saith hee observed it himselfe hee took an experiment of it in an whole twelve-month hee tried it that it putrefied not That a fountaine in Lybia should send forth water so cold in the day that none could drink it and so hote in the night that none can touch it These and a thousand more are mirabilia naturae wonderfull things in nature no man is able to give the reason of it yet it is God that did these wonderfull things in nature Then againe there be mirabilia artis wonderfull things in art There were seven buildings that were wont to be called the Wonders of the world one of them was in Egypt the Pyramides another of them above all other was a wonder me thinks above all wonders a wonder of Art It were too long to tell you what a wonder it was It was nothing but a prodigall monument of prodigality and vaine-glory prodigality and vaine-glory that was the sin of them that built it but the skill in making it that came from God Thirdly there be mirabilia Satanae there be wonderfull things of Satan wondrous works that Satan and his instruments Magicians and Sorcerers can doe God did not punish the apostate Angels at the first as the School-men say in their naturall skill and power that is as great now to doe a mischiefe as the skill and power of good Angels is to doe that that is good The Divell hee can doe wonderfull things hee can compasse the whole earth in a little time you finde in the booke of Job that he can raise tempests he can bring down fire hee
you shall see how Gods hand was held from destroying of them Moses his chosen stood in the breach and turned away the wrath of God that hee should not destroy them First bee said hee would destroy them The judgement that God threatens for this sin is not famine nor captivity nor bondage nor pestilence nor the sword of an enemy but it is a totall subversion a totall destruction of the whole Nation The words of God used to Moses Deut. 9. 14. Moses let mee alone let mee destroy this people that I may blot out their name from under heaven Here was the sentence hee would blot out their name from under heaven I will never be troubled againe with such an unthankfull people as this I will blot out their name there shall not be such a people upon the earth as this that have used mee thus unthankfully for such mercies as I have shewed them Hee doth not now threaten to lopp off a bough or two from the tree but to stub up the whole tree hee will not leave roote or branch head nor tayle of this people hee will have them all buried and entombed together in one grave of destruction I will destroy them all Hee said hee would destroy them I will set downe one generall Proposition Great sins such as are sinnes of an high nature when they come once to be committed with an high hand that is with delight with out-rage with impudency and impenitency they are able to bring the judgements of God to the utter destruction of a whole people of a whole country Sins of an high nature I told you when I began to handle this Scripture what sinnes are sinnes of an high nature that is such sinnes as are directly against God As Atheisme As Blasphemy As Idolatry Or such as are directly against nature As Sodomy As Bestiality As All incestuous and unnaturall pollution Or thirdly such sinnes as are directly against humane society As Murther As Robbery As Rapine As The effusion and shedding of innocent bloud Such sinnes as these that are directly against God against nature against humane society when they are thus committed with an high hand they are able to bring destruction utter destruction not only upon whole houses as they did upon the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat upon the house of Basha upon the house of Ahab which houses God swept with the beesome of destruction as the Prophet speakes but they are able to bring the judgement of God to utter destruction upon a whole people upon a whole country they are able to lay the honour of the greatest Kingdom of the greatest Monarch in the dust in a little space in a little time I need not stand long to prove this only two or three examples Some of these sinnes of this nature brought an utter destruction upon the whole world there were but eight persons left in it when it was over-flowne with these sins it came then to be over-flowne with water For some of these sinnes God brought such a fearefull destruction upon Sodome and Gomorrah that he made all that country a proverb of reproach When God is pleased to threaten utter destruction hee saith hee will destroy it as hee did Sodome and Gomorrah For this sinne of Idolatry 2 King 21. 3. God threatens that hee will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish and turneth it upside downe when hee hath wiped it In Ezek. 21. 27. he threatneth Jerusalem that he will overturne it and overturne it and overturne it three times and three times you may say that Jerusalem was overturned It was overturned once by the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezar It was overturned a second time by the Romane army under Titus Vespasian And then the very ruines of it afterward were so overturned by Elius Adrian the Emperour the very carkasse of that City for Titus left it but like a carkasse it was so torne and tortured The carkasse of Jezabell was eaten so with doggs that men could not say This is Jezabell so the carkasse of this City was so torne that had it not been for a turret or two and a piece of a wall that they would have stand a man could not have said This was Jerusalem Idolatry was first established in the Easterne parts of the world I pray looke what miserable destruction God brought upon those Easterne parts Where are now those golden Churches of Asia Where are those learned Churches of Greece As Pius Secundus once said A man may looke for Greece in Greece now and not finde it they are all drowned in Turcisme and infidelity for this sinne of Idolatry I will goe no further in examples In Levit 18. God reckons up the sinnes of the people that lived in the land of Canaan before he brought his people to it and he reckons all those sins that I named to you now some directly against God some directly against nature some directly against humane society Then he warnes his people v. 25. 28. to take heed Take heed that you defile not your selves and the land with those sinnes wherewith the Gentiles did defile it mark the reason lest quoth hee the land spue you out as it did the inhabitants before you A homely phrase you will say It is so yet it is a phrase observable As it is with a man that hath his stomack overcharged with some meat that hee hath eaten hee never is at rest and quiet till hee have cast up that meat that offends his stomack so is it with a land that is over-charged with sinnes of this nature it is never at rest it is still working and working as a mans stomack is never at rest till it have eased it self by vomiting and have cast out those inhabitants that have defiled it It pleaseth the Spirit of God to use the same phrase in Rev. â— 16. saith God to the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Thou art neither hot nor cold but luke-warme I will spue thee out of my mouth I will cast thee out with loathing and indignation God is a mercifull God and his mercy is over all his workes but when sin once growes to be horrible God can no more forget that he is just then hee can forget that hee is mercifull hee must needs pay it and pay it home in the end with vengeance God may be provoked too farre and patience when it is too farre abused will turne to fury When I consider the manifold sinnes under the burthen where of this Land groanes and I name that first which I named last our luke-warmnesse our neutrality in Religion our halting between God and Baal together with our unmercifull oppressions and our over-mercifull connivance at the vile dishonour to the Name of God I doe not wonder brethren that God hath denied to us this yeare his accustomed plentifull blessing in our corne-fields I doe not wonder that hee hath sent to us divers times such unseasonable seasons I wonder not at the
thy glory be eclipsed Then fourthly hee puts him in mind of their progenitors Abraham Isaac and Jacob Lord these be the children of those Fathers Didst thou love the tree and wilt thou cast away the fruit Didst thou love the Fathers and wilt thou cast away the children Then another is from the promise of God confirmed with oathes thou swarest to them that thou wouldest give them the Land shall not thy promise hold Not thy promise confirmed with oathes Here is his pleading for the people as before you heard how hee pleaded Gods cause with the sword yea how earnestly hee pleaded Gods cause in that very day that hee brake the Calfe Yet notwithstanding all this the good man feared though God might repent of the evill yet it may be he will not be thorowly reconciled to the people there will not be a thorow reconciliation therefore he goes to God againe Lord quoth hee If thou wilt pardon this people It was a vehement pathos If thou wilt pardon it hee saith no more but if thou wilt not put mee out of the booke of life So desirous was hee of Gods glory together with the salvation of the people that hee was carelesse of the salvation of his own soule Lord either forgive them or blot me out of the book of life Here is a vehement prayer and with this he slacks the wrath of God quencheth it It was slacked with the bloud that he cast on it it was quenched with the teares Wee reade of many more in Scripture that stood in the breach Samuel God is wont by Jeremy to joyne him and Moses together If Moses and Samuel stood before mee Then Ezekiel stood in the breach another time Josiah another time And not to heape other examples God complaines Ezek. 13. 5. that the Prophets would not stand in the breach the false Prophets But there is an excellent place worth your observation in Ezek. 22. ver 30. God had spoken of the sins of the people thorow that Chapter and shewed how those sins had made way for Divine justice to breake in among them Then in verse 30. marke what hee saith I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap before mee for the land that it should not be destroyed I found none see I sought for a man When our sinnes have opened such a gap whereby divine justice may come in to the destruction of a whole land then God looks for a man he looks about to see if he can find a man that will come and stand in the gap to keep him that he might not destroy them Brethren hee that doth not see what a wide gap what a wide breach the manifold sins of this land have made whereby divine justice may breake in and hath begun to breake in already hee that sees not this gap this breach sees nothing I pray you brethren doe but remembet Did not God a few yeares agoe make us turne our backes twice or thrice upon our enemies Did hee not make us a very derision and scorne to them that are round about us Doth not God come in now among us as the Prophet Habakuk shewes his manner of coming when hee comes to judgement to wit with the pestilence before him and burning coales going forth at his feet Hab. 3. verse 5. Doe you not see beloved brethren what a number of new upstart heresies there be in the world It bodes no good surely new heresies broached every day and old heresies renewed Doe you not see what miserable rents and schismes there be in the Church while some hold of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas some of all of them and some of none of them Doe you not see the aspect one upon another is like the aspect of malignant planets Is not Christ divided Then doe you not see what jealousies and discontents there are in the secular state Brethren surely God is looking for a man to come to the breach Help men fathers and brethren come to this breach help Magistrates it is not enough for you to looke upon our miseries though with teares in your eyes unlesse your hands be put to the redresse of it Are there no houses of correction for these vagrant persons that live under no Magistracy under no Ministry Have you no carts for bauds No whips for harlots No pecuniarie mulcts for others No punishments for transgressors It is for us too that are Ministers to runne to this breach If ever wee did preach with power and evidence and demonstration not of nature or art but of grace and of the spirit it is time for us now to preach and to preach againe in season and out of season O that wee could be Boanerges sons of thunder and crie downe those sins that crie for vengeance And hearken Masters Fathers and Governours of families run to the breach In cleansing of the City if every man sweep before his own door the streets will be kept cleane Why doe you suffer revelling and swearing and quarrelling and drinking in your families Your houses should be Churches for God Where be your old exercises of Religion in your housholds Where be your prayers and your reading of Scriptures and your singing of Psalmes Where is your catechising I say no more but high and low rich and poore let us all run to the breach by earnest intercession to God privatly by continuall teares of repentance I conclude now as I did the last day Who knowes yet whether the Lord will have mercy on us and turne from his fierce wrath that wee perish not FINIS PSAL. 106. 24 25 c. Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. WE have two things in the Text The sinnes of the people And their punishment The sins of the people are set down in the two former verses And the punishment in the two later Their sinnes are foure The first is their unthankfulnesse in despising the pleasant land They despised the pleasant land The second is their infidelity that was the cause of that same unthankfull despising of the land They did not beleeve his Word The third sin was their accustomed sin of murmuring They murmured in their tents The fourth sin was their rebellion and disobedience They hearkned not to the voice of the Lord. They despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word they murmured in their tents they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord. You see their sinne see their punishment The Lord threatens that hee will punish them for this you heard before my Text The Lord said hee would destroy them Now hee sweares it Hee lift up his hand against them The lifting up of the hand was a ceremony among them used in swearing and God is said to doe it to lift up his hand when hee sweares He swore against them now And what did hee
the same thing in two words Others do think the latter word is of somewhat larger extent then the former The first word doth signifie an almes-deed or such reliefe as wee give the poore that is Well-doing The second word Communicate containes under it all mutuall offices of love and kindnesse that passe between man and man For the better knowing of that communicating what it is to communicate let me first tell you that as severall Countries have their severall commodities as you know one Country abounds with good corne another Country hath good wine another hath good fruit another Country hath good breed of cattell Solomon had his oaks from Bashan but his cedars from Lebanon his firre from Shebar his Almug-trees and gold from Ophir his spices and sweet odours from Arabia his fine linnen and horses were brought out of Egypt his ivory apes and peacocks were brought out of Selvesia by his navy and fleet of Tharshish As severall Countries have their severall commodities so severall men have severall gifts or blessings which they are to communicate to others as every Countrey by Merchants communicate the commodities that abound in them to other Countries and they from other Countries receive in other commodities they want God would have one Country to stand in need of another for some commodity or other So it is among men God hath so disposed of his blessings as that there is no man but stands in need one of another There is a necessity of receiving and communicating Solomon Eccles 5. 9. tells us The King is served by the tillage of the field the very King stands in need of husbandry The Citizens sometime stand in need of the Country man and the Country man another time hath as much need of the Citizen The poore man cannot stand in so much need of the rich man at one time but the rich man at another time stands in as much need of the poore There is never a member of the body can say to another I have no need of thee as the Apostle tells us The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee nor the head cannot say to the foot I have no need of you Nay quoth the Apostle those members that are feeble are necessary Those poore men that peradventure are contemptible in the sight of the world are necessary God hath so disposed of his gifts and dispensed them with such wisdome as that hee would still have an intercourse of kindnesse betweene man and man There is a necessity of receiving a necessity of communicating of gifts Some men can tell how to receive but they know not how to communicate Nabal and his servants received a great deale of kindnesse at the hands of David and his servants they confessed it Davids servants was a wall about them by day and by night they protected and defended them from all dangers all the while they were in the wildernesse but when David sent to Nabal for some reliefe in the day of Nabals sheep-shearing What quoth the Churle Shall I take my bread see how hee appropriates things still My bread and my water and my flesh that I have prepared for my shearers and give them to men that I know not whence they come 2 Sam. 25. 11. Hee knew how to receive kindnesses but he knew not how to communicate As God hath established a distinction of proprieties among men while every man governes his owne house and rules his own servants and tills his owne land and feeds his owne cattell and mannageth his owne affaires I say while God doth thus every man finds sweet experience of Gods particular providence As God hath established thus a distinction of propriety of house and goods and land among men so God on the other side hath established a Communion of Saints and Communion of Saints doth not abolish the distinction of Propriety nor the distinction of Propriety doth not abolish the Communion of Saints they may both stand together a distinction of the Propriety and the Communion of Saints God will have us in regard of possession to have things private and severall that are our owne but God would have us make these things common in regard of use upon severall occasions and then a man doth good when he communicates that good that God hath given him to the good of others Every man must consider with himselfe wherein hath God enabled me to doe the greatest good as Sampson knew wherein his strength lay and then to his uttermost power to doe good and communicate to others of that which God hath given him Forget not to doe this for with such sacrifices God is well pleased This same doing of good and communicating may be done many wayes and mark them because there is no body may be exempted from this precept of the Apostle it concernes every man and every man may doe good and communicate some way or other Wee are forbid to call our brother Racha which in the Syriack signifies empty vacuous A man empty saith St. Ierome upon that word how can a man be said to be bare and empty whom the Spirit of God hath filled and replenished with some gift or other that hee may communicate and in so doing doe good There are many wayes of doing good First a man may doe good to the Publike or hee may doe good to the Private hee may doe good to the Church and Common-wealth in generall or a man may doe good to some speciall persons in the Church or Common-wealth in particular And to distribute and doe good both to the one and to the other forget not For the first to the Publike a man may doe good many wayes These wayes especially come to my mind First a man may doe good to the Publike by the building or enlarging or adorning Churches and Chappels and Oratories for the service of God A man may doe good to the Publike by erecting and endowing of Schools and Colledges for the education of youth A man may doe good to the Publike by making High-wayes and Causies and Bridges for the Travellers A man may doe good to the Publike by the conveyance of water that may be usefull either to City or Countrey and many other things There are many wayes more that a man may doe good to the Publike in and to doe good to the Publike forget not for with such sacrifice God is pleased For some such works as I have named the memory of some good men is blessed to this day and will be hereafter from generation to generation for such publike works Then secondly a man may doe good to some speciall person in Church and Common-wealth and that two wayes 1. A man may doe good to the body or 2. To the soule The good that a man communicates may be either a Corporall or Spirituall good Then doth a man good to the body to the outward estate I meane when hee communicates such a thing as is a means of his comfortable
being in the state of Nature But a man doth good to the soule when he doth communicate such a thing as may be a means of a wel-being here in the state of grace and of his eternall wel-being hereafter in the state of glory Now to doe good both to the soule and body of thy brother forget not for with such sacrifice c. I begin with the soule first that is the principall part Doest thou see thy brother ignorant of some truth that hee should know that is necessary to salvation Thou canst not doe him a greater good then to instruct him Doest thou see him doubtfull what to doe Why then doe him good to direct him Doest thou see them over-taken with some infirmity Why then restore them againe as the Apostle saith Brethren if any of you be over-taken with infirmity you that are spirituall restore such a man The Greek word is put him in ioynt againe hee is out of ioynt set him right put him in ioynt with the spirit of meeknesse and gentlenesse Doest thou see thy brother unruly and rush into sinne as the horse into the battaile Thou mayest doe a great deale of good to admonish and reprove him to pluck him as Iude saith in his Epistle out of the fire that hee perish not Doest thou see thy poore brother feeble and weak-hearted Thou shalt doe a great deale of good then to encourage him Doest thou see him deiected and cast downe and almost swallowed up of despaire Thou canst not doe a greater good then comfort him These things you may doe And if thou see thy brother past all help from men then thou canst not doe a greater good then to pray and beg help for him at Gods hand And in very deed that sweet Communion of Saints that we believe in the Creed I believe the Communion of Saints that Communion of Saints appears in nothing more then the doing of good thus to the soule one man of another to edifie and build up one another in our holy faith to exhort one another to holinesse of life to provoke one another to love and good works to comfort one another in sicknesse to mourne one over another for your corruptions This they may doe when they are together And then pray one for another and that they may do when they are a thousand miles asunder This is the Communion of Saints Thus wee may doe good to the soules of our brethren and to doe this good to the soules of your brethren forget not with this sacrifice God is well pleased To the body we may doe good in the outward estate many wayes I will think of these three especially First wee may doe them good defendendo by defending of our brother by defending his person from violence by defending his goods from ruine by defending his name from reproach and dishonour Pro. 24. 11. Deliver him that is appointed to die if it be in thy power Deliverance it is a thing that holy Iob among other works of his hee speaks of this I delivered the poore when hee cryed and helped him that was fatherlesse I brake the iawes of the wicked in pieces and took the prey out of his teeth If thou canst doe it by thy calling if thy calling will allow thee to doe it thou art bound to doe it to doe that good to right them when they suffer wrong either in their person or goods or good name if it be in thy power to right thy brother doe good that way defend him That is one way Secondly thou mayest doe good accommodando by lending and indeed sometimes a man may doe as much good by lending as by giving And this is a work of mercy that God requires of his people mark that place Deut. 15. 7 8. Thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poore brother But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth Thou shalt help and help him wide so the word is Thou shalt open wide to thy brethren and shalt surely lend to them The Originall word doubles it in lending thou shalt lend that is thou shalt surely lend and lend sufficiently according to his need So the Old Testament And Christ in the New Testament saith Lend looking for nothing again Luke 6. 35. And it is the commendation given to the righteous man A righteous man is mercifull and lendeth Psal 112. 5. but then mark the words that follow after too hee guides his affaires with discretion That is the second way Thirdly a man may doe good donando by free giving Of what That which is according to the necessity of our brother If he be hungry then we shall doe good to feed him to give him bread if hee be thirsty we must give him drink if hee be naked we must give him clothes if hee be sick if it be in our power wee are to give him remedy if hee be dead then to give him buriall decent buriall and among the works of charity and works of mercy you shall ever find reckoned in Scripture the buriall of the dead When the Traitor Iudas grudged at the box of Spikenard that was bestowed upon our blessed Saviour saith hee Let her alone shee hath done a good work towards my buriall And The Lord shew mercy saith David to the men of Iabesh-Gilead because they shewed mercy to his Master Saul What mercy Many they buried his bones It is a work of mercy Thus you see how many wayes there be of doing good and communicating A man may doe good you see to the Publike many wayes And then to the Private a man may doe good to the soule to the body To the soule by instructing by directing by admonishing by reproving by encouraging by comforting by praying for them A man may doe good to the body by defending them from wrong by lending that which is necessary by giving according to their necessity that aske And thus to doe good to the Publike to Private to the soules and bodies of our brethren when it is in our power forget not it is a sacrifice with which God is pleased Seeing there are so many wayes of doing good thus I will set down two Correllaries and Consectaries two things follow on it The first is this Since there are so many wayes of doing good certainly as long as wee live here in this life wee can never want oportunity of doing good some way or other That is the first We cannot want oportunities of doing good there be so many wayes to doe it either a man shall find some ignorant poore body that hee may instruct as David did Come yee children hearken unto mee I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Or a man may find some person wronged whom hee may help and succour as Iob did Or a man may sit in his tent doore and find some stranger passe by that hee may entertaine as Abraham did