himself of us 4. Especially if we consider in the fourth place that there is something still behind which as it doth aggravate ours and Israels guilt so it will likewise hasten our punishment as it did theirs before us and that is Hypocrisie a sin of so deep a dye that nothing doth more incense God against a Nation than this doth that no people could possibly be more addicted to this than the Jews is very evident from all their Prophets they made nothing to commit the greatest villanies in the world and defile themselves with the blackest crimes and under a specious pretence of piety and innocency cry out The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Jerem. 7.4 the Temple of the Lord are these They pretended great zeal and love for Gods Worship and Sanctuary and varnished over all their evil actions with the false colours of Sanctity and Holiness But behold how God who seeth through the thickest veils of Hypocrisie the most secret imaginations of the sons of men reproves them for it Will you steal murder and commit Adultery Vers 9 10. and swear falsly and burn Incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom ye know not and come and stand before me in the House which is called by my Name As if God had said Do you think that though you are guilty of all these abominable sins yet your coming to my House your treading in my Courts your calling on my Name shall make an atonement for them So far are such dealings from pacifying my wrath that it will but kindle it the more against you for thus saith the Lord God Behold Vers 20. mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground and it shall burn and not be quenched And therefore no wonder again it is that you find him by his Prophets Isaiah and Amos Isaiah 1.11 12 Amos 5.21 rejecting all their Sacrifices and Oblations and Assemblies and professing that he hated all their New Moons and appointed Feasts and that all their Worship was an abomination to him when he found it so extremely mixed with Hypocrisie for when men pretend to be what they really are not when they draw near to God with their lips Isaiah â—9 13 but their hearts are far enough from him when they think to put a cheat upon him and their own Souls and make Religion a cloak for all manner of impiety this doth so far separate betwixt God and them that it causeth him to hide his face from them till at last he appear very formidable in his robes of vengeance and then misery and confusion is their inevitable lot and portion And if so then in what miserable circumstances are we in again of this Nation whose hypocritical actions do still keep pace with such deceitful Jewish Worshippers How ready are many of us to come and stand before God to visit his Courts and to worship him in his Holy Temple But we hope that it is no offence to bring our sins along with us that our Fraud and Oppression our Pride and our Covetousness our Lying and our Slandering our Malice and Uncharitableness may bear us Company to the Church and yet we our selves are no less acceptable to God Almighty as if God was obliged to us for the outward formalities of his Worship and might very well afford to let us have our sins into the bargain as if Sacrifice was better than Obedience and the labour of the Lips was much to be preferred before the true homage of the Heart And that this is too true daily experience may convince us for may we not see some to day in the Church complementing God into a belief that they are his Servants when behold to morrow we shall find them either the Devils slaves or the Worlds drudges May not we observe some to day very devout towards God whom to morrow we shall find ready to devour their neighbour Blessing God to day and cursing men to morrow Praying to Christ now perhaps with some fervency and anon with no less vigour belying and backbiting or oppressing their fellow-Christian Hearing a Sermon one hour and the very next resolving to act and do clear contrary to what they hear And can we think that God will accept of such worshippers as these That such monsters made up of light and darkness shall be as dear to him as his Children or that such a form of godliness will be as grateful as the power of it if we do we are strangely mistaken for believe it such things as these are the highest provocations and if we in this Nation persevere and continue in them if we take a delight in playing the Hypocrites and make Religion a cloak for the foulest abominations it is but just for God to take from us that Religion which we so grosly abuse to lay open our fallacies and discover our secret wickedness and make us appear by the dreadfulness of his judgments upon us to be what we really are a deceitful impious and incorrigible Generation 3. This I say God may and will do if we do not timely prevent it but God be thanked there is yet a possibility that this may be done God I hope hath not past an irrevocable Sentence upon us but we may yet reverse it if we please our selves now by what means and methods this may certainly be accomplished is the third and last Head of Discourse I am to speak to And here though I might instance in divers things which would be very effectual to this purpose yet I shall contract them all to three and leave them then to your serious consideration 1. It will be very requisite for you to set a due value and estimation upon that Church and Religion which is now established 2. To humble your selves before God and be incessant in your prayers and supplications to him 3. To cast away all those sins and abominations which by reason of their heinousness cry to Heaven for vengeance and may justly provoke God to plague us with such a judgment First Learn to set a true value and estimation upon that Church and Religion which is now established amongst us for that will be one means for God to preserve and to continue it to us He that duly weighs and considers with himself not only the present way of worship which is established in our Church but the purity of its Doctrine and the excellency of its Institutions as he will find that it is not possible for him in any other Church of the World to be a more honest man a more dutiful Subject and a better Christian than he may be in the Fellowship and Communion of the Church of England so ought he upon such considerations to have the greatest esteem and honour and kindness for this Church which doth the best deserve it Now because this regard and
some may be reprieved till a further opportunity but when once a whole Polity is laid in desolation every one then is a sufferer the blow is levelled at all and there is none but feels the heaviness and the smart of it And then woe woe to us should this be our condition as we have too great reason to fear it may be still by Gods former proceedings with us and our incorrigibleness under all his methods which he hath made use of to reclaim us we know 't is not many years ago since the Sword did glut it self with the blood of many thousands of our native Inhabitants after that the Plague came in triumph and erected its Trophies over all our Kingdom after this succeeded a dreadful and terrible Fire which laid in ashes the Metropolis of our Nation And since all these three Judgments have not wrought in us that sincere and hearty Reformation which God expected they should what can we expect but that God should give a word of command for the last to come amongst us and so trouble himself no longer to punish so refractory and incorrigible a People And if so we can none of us escape but we shall find the effect of it to be very direful and terrible for when our Church is once in the dust and our Religion subverted when all our Rites and Solemnities of Worship are obliterated and abolished and Gods Holy Word which should nourish us up unto eternal Life is taken from us 't is much to be feared that God will never be so far reconciled as to restore them to us again seeing we managed them so ill when we had the happiness of enjoying them nay though afterward when we perceive the want of them we should seek them carefully with tears and wander from Sea to Sea and from East to North to find them yet shall we be unsuccessful and miss of what we desire lie down we must in the shades of darkness where the Sun of Righteousness will no more arise upon us with healing under his wings 2. And now what it was that provoked God to threaten such bitter and severe things against Israel and upon what particular grounds and reasons we in this Nation may justly dread the same Judgment is the next thing I am to give an account of Where though Israel as I might shew at large was a people notorious for all manner of transgressions against the Law of God for all manner of vices which could possibly be committed so that God had just reason to complain of them by his Prophet Malachy Chap. vers 7. That even from the days of their Fathers they had gone away from his Ordinances and had not kept them upon which account God might justly execute the utmost rigor of his justice upon them yet I shall at present instance but in three or four things which as they did extremely aggravate their guilt so did they call for and hasten the greatest vengeance upon their heads 1. For first they were a sort of people that mocked and despised both Gods Word and Messengers 2. Secondly they made no scruple to deprive their Priests of that which was set apart by God as their Lot and Portion 3. Thirdly they were generally addicted to Irreligion and Profaneness 4. And fourthly if they did not break forth into open profaneness they were no less blameable for their base secret hypocrisie Now when I have drawn the parallel betwixt them and us and have shewn you that we have equalled if not out-vied them in all these things we shall then find from our selves as great reason to fear that God should pour down in this nature his utmost indignation upon us as ever he did upon that wicked and obstinate people 1. Israel was a sort of people that mocked and despised both Gods Word and Messengers He that confults the History of those times will find this very visible in their manners and practices in the days of Amos and Isaiah they were grown to that pass that they silenced their Prophets Amos 2.12 and commanded them not to speak unless it were such things as tickled their ears Isaiah 30.10 or gratified their humours but when this would not do and they found them of such courage and undaunted spirits that they did still cry aloud spare not but lift up their voices like trumpets Isaiah 58.1 to shew Gods people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin why then they began to convert all their Prophets serious discourses into mirth and drollery and made sport with the gravest matters and concernments of Religion they burlesqu'd the Prophet Jeremiah's words and turned the expressions he used into ridicule Jer. 23.33 36. crying in contempt The burden of the Lord which is called perverting the words of the Living God After the same manner did they deal with Ezekiel Ezek. 33.32 In Canticum oris sui vertunâ— Vul. Lat. whose words they turned into pleasant Songs or as the Margents of our Bibles have it they made loves or jests of the most sacred things which the Prophet did utter for their benefit and advantage And no wonder that when the Fathers had eaten sower Grapes Ezek. 18.2 the Childrens teeth were set on edge no wonder that when the Fathers had attained to so good a knack of mocking their Prophets and were so notorious for the obloquies and contempt which they passed upon them that their Children did so readily follow their examples and that the Prophet Elisha could not possibly escape the virulency of their tongues whose years one would have thought should have rendred them uncapable of such vile misdemeanors upon which account no doubt it was that the little Children having sucked in such prejudices against the Prophets with their milk and learnt to rail against them from their very cradles ventured to clamour after that good man with such vile and base language though they paid for it very dearly with the loss of their lives when the best words they could afford him were no better than these Go up thou baldhead go up thou baldhead 2 Kings 2.23 24. In fine their own Chronicles have given us so full an account of their scoffing sarcastick temper that we need look no further for a testimony hereof for 't is said there that they mocked the messengers of God 2 Chr. 30.1 and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no remedy from which it appears that God did for some time forbear the people of Judah beyond what they could have expected waiting for their amendment until they added impudence to their obstinacy and made sport with the Prophets and laughed at every thing that was sacred and religious then the peremptory Decree came forth and there was no hopes of escaping Lament 4.16 then did the anger of the Lord divide them and he did no more regard them because
Imprimatur Guil. Sill R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã sacris domesticis May. 26. 1679. THE Famine of the Word Threatned to ISRAEL AND GODS CALL To Weeping and to Mourning BEING TWO SERMONS PREACHED On the Fast Day Novemb. 13. 1678. AND On the Fast Day April 11. 1679. By JAMES BROME A.M. Rector of Cheriton in the County of Kent LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard 1679. To the Right Worshipful JAMES BROCKMAN Esq My most honoured Friend and Patron And his Vertuous Consort Madam LUCY BROCKMAN THese Sermons finding so favourable an acceptance at your hands and being so generally desired and called for by all the neighbourhood I thought it my duty to prostrate them both at your feet and usher them out into light under your most auspicious Patronage These perillous Times into which we are fallen as they call for a serious Humiliation on all sides so do they command our joint-endeavours to promote it and if I can be any way instrumental to this good work in the publication of these Papers as it is the utmost of my design so likewise of my desire unless it be further to give hereby a testimony of my real gratitude for the manifold favours so frequently conferred since I had the honour to be under your wings upon Your most obliged Servant James Brome The Famine of the Word Threatned to ISRAEL c. SERMON I. AMOS viij Vers 11 12. Behold the days come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the Land not a Famine of Bread nor thirst for Water but Hearing the Words of the Lord. And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall ran to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it IT was ever an act of great mercy and kindness in the God of Heaven and Earth that he never issued out his Judgments in the World but he gave timely notice of them before their approaches to awaken mens Consciences either by timely Repentance to divert them or else by Vigilancy and Prayer to prepare against them I might give you sundry instances that this is the certain method of Gods proceeding with mankind Thus before he destroyed the Old World and washed away their pollutions by the general Innundation Noah the Preacher of Righteousness was the Harbinger of that news and he forewarned them what would follow their continual disobedience and perseverance in Iniquity After the same manner did he deal with Sodom with Gomorrah and with Niniveh But I need look so far back Israel a people of Gods own choosing had sufficient experience of his loving kindness and patience and forbearance in this particular Though that Generation of men were a sort of people so refractory and stubborn so stiff-necked and disobedient so unsufferably wicked and such notorious transgressours that God might in justice have swept them away with the Beesom of Destruction without giving them the least space of time to consider of their ways or amend their doings I say though he might have opened all the treasuries of his Vengeance and sent down his arrows in great numbers upon their heads by reason of their manifold provocations against him yet did he never do this but first by his Prophets and Messengers for warned them of what would happen he did not strike till he dealt with them as the Angel did with Balaam Numb 22.31 open their eyes that they might see the blow was coming he did not proceed to sentence till he had first convicted them and represented their guilt in a true Mirrour before them he did not make them examples of his Justice till he had first declared what it was had provoked him and what such wilful provocations did deserve at his hands thus did God still temper his Mercy with his Justice forewarn them that they might be fore-armed And for this very end and purpose was this precaution which God gave Israel in the words read unto you Behold the days come saith the Lord God that I will send a Famine in the Land not a Famine of Bread nor a Thirst of Water but Hearing the Words of the Lord c. From which words I shall discourse 1. Of the Nature of that Judgment which is here threatned to Israel and shew you the dreadfulness of it It is a Famine but not of Bread nor of Thirst for Water but Hearing the Words of the Lord. 2. I shall consider the reason of this denunciation what was the ground and original of it and what it was that caused God Almighty to threaten that people with so severe a Judgment 3. I shall endeavour to shew how they might and we may prevent the like Judgment which seems at this time to hang over our heads 1. I begin with the first of these the Nature of that Judgment which is here threatned to Israel 't is Famine A sore Judgment indeed the very name of which is sufficiently dreadful and terrible were it but onely a corporal punishment For if by Famine the Prophet had only meant scarcity of Bread or extream want of Victuals Gen. 43.1 such a Famine as hapned in Canaan in the Patriarch Jacobs days or such a Famine as fell upon Samaria in the days of Elisha 2 Kings 6.25 when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a Kab of Doves dung for five pieces of silver that indeed would have been a sore evil by the fearful effects that would have followed and ensued upon it For to see men and women fainting for lack of Bread and ready to prey upon and devour each other to hear their Children and Sucklings Lament 2.11 12. rending the Skies with their bitter ejulations and crying to their Mothers Where is Corn and Wine whilest their souls were ready to be poured forth in their Mothers bosom nay to behold women eating the fruit of their own wombs 2 Kings 6.28 and children become a feast to their Mothers that newly bore them as it hath hapned many times through the extremity of hunger this must needs be a very doleful calamity which would grieve the heart and afflict the eyes of all such as did behold it And yet this corporal Famine though to us it appears to be the greatest of Evils is nothing to that Famine which is here threatned to Israel which was the Famine of Hearing the Words of the Lord or the scarcity and want of Heavenly Bread by depriving them of all holy Ordinances and Duties For certainly this is meant when God threatens to send a Famine amongst them that is utterly to subvert the whole Jewish Church and Religion to banish them from his Temple and all their legal sacrifices to deprive them of all their Rites and Ceremonies and Sacraments which were most dear and pretious to them take from them the Law with which before he
in that rebellious Nation Cap. 4. v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. He tells us that God did not only cleanness of teeth in all their Cities and want of Bread in all places and with-held the rain from them so that three Cities wandred to one City to drink water but likewise that he smote them with blasting and with mildew with the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt with the Sword and with Fire as dismal as that which reduced Sodom and Gomorrah to a heap of rubbish and ashes and yet for all this they would not return unto God by reformation and amendment And do we think it possible for Gods Spirit always to strive with such a froward Generation was it not high time for God to use the last and most rigorous means when all other proved useless and ineffectual Was in not high time for God quite to cashier them and cast them out of his sight when all other methods though the Quintessence of the greatest fury and severity could no way reclaim them No doubt it was and therefore to this last of Judgments he threatens to have recourse V. 12. Therefore this will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel resolving hereby that because nothing else would avail to destroy their Nation to root up that Vine and Vineyard which his own right hand had planted to send a Famine in the Land not a Famixe of bread nor thirst for Water but of hearing the words of the Lord by which they should be reduced to so wretched and deplorable a condition as to turn common Vagrants or Vagabonds and to wander from Sea to Sea and from North to East and to run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and yet should not be able after all their wearisom journies after all their narrow searches and disquisitions to find that Word that Law those Ordinances which they sought and hunted after And thus I have acquainted you with the Nature of that Famine and the dreadfulness of it which is threatned to Israel from whose example it will become a duty incumbent upon us to look back upon our selves whose state and condition at this day seems not at all unlike to theirs then for our sins are of as deep a die and our abominations as loathsome and our transgressions as manifold and our provocations as daring and our impieties as provoking as theirs was before us and God seems therefore now to threaten us after the same manner as he did the Jews with as bad or worse a Famine by reason of such hainous and abominable provocations And that this is too great a truth will plainly appear to any one that considers the present posture and state of affairs in this Kingdom for are there not at this day a brood of sanguinary blood-thirsty and wicked Sons of Belial who have endeavoured to subvert both Church and State and reduce us all to a Famine indeed to a real destitution of all true spiritual comforts and refreshments Had they not almost brought their wicked designs to effect and doth not our Religion seem still to lie at the stake Doth not Destruction still hover over our heads And have we any certain security that we may not yet become a prey to these merclless Wolves and Tygers There is more than a probability that God Almighty may suffer these very persons to become snares and traps to us scourges in our sides and thorns in our eyes Josh 23.13 'T is more than probable that those who so industriously consult our ruine may yet attain to their end and so we may all perish through their malicious machinations that our Religion may be undermined our Churches violated our Temples made the Nests and Cages of Popish Superstition and Idolatry and we our selves fall a Sacrifice to the Pope and his devillish Emissaries And if this should come to pass which our sins and manifold transgressions do justly deserve and call for Alas into what unspeakable calamities should we be involved This would be a Famine of the highest degree a Judgment the most grievous of all Judgments as will appear again by these three following circumstances 1. For first this would be a most certain indication that as the measure of our iniquity was full so the cup of Gods anger was full likewise and that he was pouring out his utmost indignation against us If once God should suffer our Church to fall and our Religion to be taken from us if he should once remove our Candlestick and not permit us any longer enjoyment of his sacred Ordinances amongst us we may be assured that his fury was kindled to the utmost height that he suffered all this because he could no longer endure us in his sight because our present service was an abomination to him and our worship being so extreamly tinctured and mixed with hypocrisie did enforce him to draw away his face from us For as true zeal and piety endear men to God and render them his Favourites so hypocrisie and irreligion estrangeth Gods affection utterly from them nay causeth a separation and sets God at open enmity with them and when once God hath declared himself an Enemy then follow his Judgments then are all the Vials of his Anger opened and Sluces of his displeasure plucked up to overwhelm them and these fruitless Fig-trees these unprofitable Servants these wicked transgressors are cursed and made an example of vengeance to terrifie others from the like evil courses So that if God should deal thus with us and punish us after so rigorous and so severe a manner I know not for my part what would become of us there is no further hopes of favour of kindness of friendship from him we might have improved these better to our advantages whilest we enjoyed them Mat. 21.43 and if the Kingdom of God i.e. the Gospel of Christ be taken from us it will be given to some other Nation to bring forth better fruits under its enjoyment than we have done So that this is the first thing that speaks the dreadfulness of this Judgment because it will be a testimony that God is irreconcilably angry with us that he is resolved to destroy us and root out our memorial from off the face of the Earth 2. But secondly there is another thing which will speak the dreadfulness of this Judgment and that is that it will not onely be a means to cut us off from all hopes of Gods love and favour for the present but for the future too by depriving us of all those means which might be most instrumental to procure and regain it for should such a Famine come amongst us then farewell to Gods Word and Ministers and by consequence if these which are the means and conduit-pipes of Grace were stopped up the way to Heaven would be precluded and stopped up likewise Now that this would certainly be our case should Popery
directly a breach of the eighth Commandment which saith Thou shalt not steal as the taking away a Horse which doth not belong to me would be from another man and now when that which ought to be our shame is our Glory and our Triumph when fraud and downright cozenage is so plausibly swallowed down and they who are guilty of such things yet lay their hands on their mouths and say they are innocent Jer. v. 29. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged of such a nation is this It was St. Austins complaint of old Aug. Serm. de Temp. 219. Hom. 48. that the covetous coldness of some Christians in his time persuading them to rob God and to withdraw part of his portion Tithes from the Ministers was a grand presage of Wars and Calamities coming upon them in Africa as indeed they did soon after when the hand of violence would revenge the injury of Sacrilegious avarice with the Soldiers Rapine saith he or the Exchequers confiscation will take what was grudged for Christ and his Church I pray God the same injurious usage from the Laity at this day do not portend to this Nation the same or worse Calamities that the Popish Harpies do not come in amongst us and revenge our injuries upon those persons who have dealt unjustly by us I pray God I say that this sin be not so far laid to their charge as that some of that rapacious crue do not make as great a prey of them as they have done of us for although it would be but a just one yet it would be a curse indeed a punishment very grievous 3. But I hasten to a third thing which might precipitate such a judgment upon the Jewish Nation and that was their unsufferable degeneracy into all manner of irreligion and profaneness if ever God had any right and title to worship and service from any people it was certainly due from the Jews who were so far his favourites that he was pleased to entrust and deposit with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them his Holy Oracles the Divine Law written with his own finger nay further he did manifest himself to be a God who highly merited their true and sincere service by the manifold deliverances he wrought for them and the wonderful mercy he conferred daily upon their Nation and yet so inconsiderate insensate and stupid a people was this that they were so far from calling to mind those signal favours wherewith he endeavoured to oblige them and from those considerations return him in lieu thereof a just and due proportion of duty and obedience that instead of that they were arrived at so great a height of boldness and impiety Mal. i. 13. as even to snuff at Gods service and grew weary of it and thought it a burden and a grievance to them and therefore upon their Sabbaths and Festival days when they should have paid God the most solemn and serious Devotion they began to think those days most irksome and troublesome because they seem'd to hinder their gain and their Merchandize and had the confidence to cry out Amos viii 5 6. When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the Shekel great and falsifying the ballances by deceit That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the wheat nor did they stick here but they became still greater proficients in that hellish art of irreligion for the Prophet tells us again that they profaned the name of the Lord saying The table of the Lord is polluted Mal. i. 12. and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible now upon these terms it was not possible for God any longer to withhold his hand when he saw his Worship neglected his Ordinances spurn'd at and his Holy Name profaned the next thing he could expect was to have his very Essence questioned and his Soveraignty over them openly disowned and therefore it was high time for him to exert his power and make them smart for their impieties And if we be convicted and found guilty of as evil courses we likewise can expect no less favour or mercy Now that this is our case the Atheism and Impiety of the present Age doth abundantly verifie for men are not content to be modest Atheists and to say secretly in their hearts with the fool that there is no God but impiety appears with a brazen forehead and disputes its place in every company and without any regard to the voice of nature to the dictates of conscience and the common sense of mankind men peremptorily determine against a supream Being account it a pleasant divertisement to droll upon Religion and a piece of wit to plead for Atheism nay as though the fountain of the great deep was broken up and Hell were let loose and the Prisoners there had shaken off their Chains and came upon the earth profaneness and all manner of wickedness grow so impudent and barefaced that men do not only reproach but totally neglect all Religion and Goodness Indeed in former Ages it was for the honour and glory of the English Nation that as their genius prompted them to be very devout and religious so they never omitted any opportunity to shew that real love they had for the Worship of God and how mightily they delighted in a continual veneration of his most Sacred Person and in a constant performance of all the holy Offices which were enjoyned them by Christianity But since Atheism hath flown over the Seas and infected this Kingdom Good God! what a strange degeneracy is in mens natures and inclinations For if they do not openly discard all Religion yet they have so small a regard and esteem for it that it may justly provoke God to take it from them and let them feel the want of it When we see some so careless and indifferent in performing all manner of religious Duties that they care not whether they serve God or not when we see some absenting themselves from his Worship and making every idle excuse serve to cover their negligence others absenting themselves from the Sacrament and running away from the Lords Table with as much eagerness as if the Plague would break forth upon them and consume them others cavilling at the Liturgy and Offices of the Church because not dressed up nor shaped according to their fancies in fine when we see Gods Houses deserted his Altars unfrequented his Sacred Days profaned his Word despised and all manner of true Zeal and Devotion quite difcarded in our daily assemblies shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my Soul be avenged of such a Nation as this I am sure we have all the reason to expect he should when we give him such just reason to avenge
esteem cannot be better expressed than by laying aside all unjust and undue prejudices against it and by an unanimous embracing all its holy sanctions therefore must these two things be carefully observed by him First It is very necessary in order to the setling men in a due regard and esteem for our present Church to lay aside all unjust prejudices against it it was ever for the honour of the Church of England that her Principles and Doctrines were always found true from error and falsity that in matters of faith she still kept up to the Primitive Rule and never enjoyned any thing to be received as a truth but what the word of God did sufficiently confirm and the first and purest Ages of Christianity did assert and maintain to be so and for what concerns all her outward Rites and Ceremonies all her Government and Institutions although some of her unnatural and disobedient Sons have upon this account bespattered her reputation and flung durt in her face and have endeavoured to pollute her Garments and subvert both her Order and Discipline and like the Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem Psal cxxxvii ver 7. have cryed Down with her down with her even to the ground yet these have been so fully evinced to be only the effects of the deepest malice and envy that we find the judicious Hookers assertion in his Preface to his Ecclesiastical Polity still abundantly verified That surely the present form of Church Government which the Laws of this Land have established is such as no Law of God no Reason of man hath hitherto been alledged of force sufficient to prove they do ill who to the uttermost of their power withstand the alteration thereof and contrariwise the other which instead of it we are required to accept is only by error and misconceit called the Ordinance of Jesus Christ no one proof as yet brought forth whereby it may clearly appear to be so in very deed And if so why should any one be prejudiced against that Church which doth not command any thing contrary to the word of God or which is not agreeable to the first and purest Ages of Christianity Why should any one be so unreasonable to separate from a Church which is stupor mundi the amazement of the world for Piety Learning and true Religion only by reason of a few outward modes and Ceremonies when nevertheless those very Ceremonies contain nothing in them which is any way inconsistent with the substantial parts of Religion but are very useful and necessary to beautifie and adorn it I say who would any longer desert this Church upon such grounds as these are especially when we consider that such prejudices as these give the greatest advantage to our common Enemy the Pope whilst by our difference about trifles he takes an opportunity to open the gap wider to foment our Divisions and increase the Schism and come upon us unawares whilst we are at variance amongst our selves and so work the ruin and downfal of us all And then tell me whether would the yoke of the Church of England or of Rome be more intolerable Which do you think would be more easie to you the bloody Court of Inquisition or the Consistory of our Bishops Which would be most grateful a few innocent Ceremonies in our Church or the constant practice of superstition in theirs Which would be most acceptable a grave Liturgy of Prayers directed to God alone in a Language which you all understand as it is in ours or an extravagant Form of Prayers to Saints and Angels and in a Tongue too of which you are ignorant as it is with them in fine whether had you better adhere to a Church which is guilty of the greatest corruptions both in faith and manners as it is at this day evident in the Church of Rome than submit to a Church which is free from all such things as it is at this day with the Church of England And now if these things strike a dread and terror into you if the Popish Tyranny doth affect you with horrour and you tremble to think of their cruelties and persecutions towards those who do not embrace their monstrous Tenents and Doctrines have a care you provoke not God to deliver you up once more to their power and leave you to be inslaved and tortured by the Janizaries of Rome for your uncharitable practices towards the Church of England let not your unjust cavils and aspersions your prejudices and ill will you bear towards it enforce him to take it away from you since you know not how to value the blessing you enjoy by the establishment of it and leave you to be blinded with the spirit of Error and Idolatry but be at last perswaded to open your eyes and have but once a due regard to that Churh whose Docttines are so sound whose Principles are so firm and whose integrity so unquestioned And when once you have so far considered its worth and excellency as to esteem and value it as you ought to do by laying aside all your prejudices against it you will then quickly be perswaded with one heart and one mind to embrace all those sanctions and institutions which she thinks fit to enjoyn you which is the second thing I shall propose to you Unity is the very Bond and Cement of all Christian Society and 't is impossible to make a rupture in that body which is tied and kept close together by this holy Ligature and this our adversaries know very well and therefore though they endeavour unity as much as in them lies amongst themselves because it renders them very strong and formidable yet they have so far experienced the old Maxim Divide Impera that it hath been their business to cause their business to cause the greatest divisions and separation amongst us that so they may make a prey of us and like the Kite in the Fable carry away the feeble combatants whilst they are pecking at one another with bents and bulrushes and to this purpose it is that they are creeping into all houses and transforming themselves like Proteus into all shapes hence it is that they counterfeit any manner of Sect and cant in all tones and adapt themselves to all humours and become all things to all men though in another sense that S. Paul did even to seduce all And now though we know this to be their project and design to subvert Church and State and are sensible they can no way better do it than by widening the breach of separation yet are we so foolish to hearken still to the bewitching charms of these Sirens till they draw us at last into the sea of destruction Hath not the wisest man that ever lived told us that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Luke xi 17. And did not the ancient Britains experience this truth in this Nation when by their mutual feuds and animosities they fell a Sacrifice to
did not presently pour down the vials of his wrath but upbraid them first for their crimes by Enoch who was an eminent Prophet in those days a fragment of whose Prophesie is still extant in St. Judes Epistle and only threaten them with vengeance upon their perseverance in impenitency Afterwards when the world grew worse and worse and wickedness appeared with a brazen forehead and violence had covered the face of the earth when the promiscuous mixtures of the Children of Seth and Cain had produced Giants and mighty men men strong to do evil and who had as much will as power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus calls them a race of men insolent and ungovernable scornful and injurious and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength despised all justice and equity and made every thing truckle under their extravagant lusts and appetites a character which Lucian gives the men of this Age speaking of the time of Deucalion their Noah and the flood for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. they being men exceedingly contumelious were guilty of the most enormous and unrighteous actions violating all oaths and covenants throwing off kindness and hospitality and rejecting all supplications and addresses made to them I say when mankind was grown to so prodigious a height of impiety and this infection had spread it self over all parts and was become so epidemical that all flesh had corrupted their ways and scarce any but Noah left to keep up the face of a Church and the profession of Religion things being come to this pass quickly alarum'd the Divine Justice and made the world ripe for vengeance the patience of God was now tired out and he resolved to make mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity but yet in the midst of judgment he remembred mercy for he tells them although he would not suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton humours of unreasonable and wicked men and although his spirit would not always strive with them disceptabit as some Divines render it dispute Gen. VI. 3. and reason with them yet that he would bear with them 120 years longer in order to their Reformation so loth is God to take an advantage of the sins of men not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto repentance Well thus it was in the Antideluvian Age and when the world was replenished with new inhabitants who tempted and provoked the most high God afresh by such sins and abominations as were of the deepest dye yet God did not presently open the treasuries of vengeance and speak their ruine and decree their destruction but still endeavoured to reclaim them by seasonable precautions and deferred his punishment and waited patiently for their amendment and to instance in Israel who was a people as signal for their perverseness and rebellion as for the manifold favours they received from the Almighty under the Parable of the Vineyard God is pleased to give a clear demonstration of the tender care and regard he had still for them notwithstanding their reiterated provocations against him for he made this Vineyard upon a very fruitful Hill Isa v. and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vines nay he digged it and dunged it pruned it and watered it used all the art of cultivation that might cause it to be fruitful hoping and looking still for some productions proportionable to his care and industry concerning it nay and when it still year after year disappointed his expectations and brought forth wild Grapes instead of Grapes he was loth to withdraw his kindness from it but continued to dress and to manure it and suffered it Luke xiii 7 8 9. like the Figg-tree in the Gospel an Emblem still of the same People further to trespass upon his patience and would not destroy it till there was no hopes of its improvement And to apply this to our selves Hath not God planted as choice a Vineyard in this Nation and evidenced his Providence and his loving kindness towards it by cultivating and preserving it for many years together in as ample a manner as he did that amongst the Jews Hath any Church of the world received greater notices of his favour more peculiar marks of his affection or more signal testimonies of his care on it than the Church of England of which we profess our selves to be members Hath not the Divine Omnipotency interposed it self many times miraculously for its deliverance and have we not been as fire-brands pluck'd out of the fire rescued from the most apparent dangers snatch'd from the very jaws of death and the pit of destruction How frequently have the crafty Foxes of Geneva endeavoured to undermine us and the wild Boars of Rome to root us up and devour us and yet notwithstanding all their secret Cabals their slie insinuations and politick projections have been disappointed of their hopes and frustrated in their expectations As nothing could be more cruelly contrived than the present Popish Plot so nothing could be more secretly managed for as if the Devil and the Jesuits had laid their heads together and joyned in a league to ruin and dispatch us nothing could seem more to favour their barbarous enterprize they had strengthened themselves against us with Foreign interests abroad they had drawn into the confederacy many of their friends at home a general Massacre was resolved upon and most of us to be entombed in the ruins of our Kingdom whilst they erected triumphant Trophies upon the piles of our murdered and mangled Carkasses but behold when they thought themselves most sure when they were pleasing themselves with the thoughts of a prosperous success in their designs the Lord in mercy looked upon us by discovering their wicked intentions by defeating their cursed projects and bringing to light their mischievous practices and machinations against us and though in justice by reason of our manifold offences against him he might have suffered us to be taken by their wilyness to be ensnared by their devices and fall a prey to these malitious and blood-thirsty Boutefeus yet he hath reprieved us for some longer time from their tyranny and cruel dealings and is resolved to try what effects this his gracious and merciful providence will have upon us hoping still that this his patience and forbearance will lead us to repentance 3. Which brings me to the third Consideration I proposed from the Text the end of all Gods callings to mankind 't is to work in them a thorough and sincere humiliation for their transgressions In that day did the Lord God of Host call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with Sackcloth now although these put together are but the exteriour superficies of repentance yet they are very good signs and symptoms of the reality of its performance and necessary in order to its acceptance with God Almighty a weeping
would make ones heart ake to read the History of their Times when in the space of less than seven years there perished of the Jews at home and abroad both in their Civil and Foreign Wars as Lipsius hath computed the number no less than duodecies centena quadraginta millia twelve hundred and forty thousand men De Constantia lib. 2. cap. 21. to fulfil the tenor of those threatnings which had so frequently been issued out by their Prophets against that Nation And now since the mercies have been as great which God hath vouchsafed to us and our incorrigibleness as remarkable under the greatest of them what remains for us but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour all Gods adversaries What can we say for our selves that God should not suffer us to fall into their hands whom we most fear since we have trampled upon his goodness whom we have most reason to love It is but just with God to punish one sin by another and so fit us for destruction by the permission of it to change our indifferency in Religion into a blind Zeal and superstitious practice of it our open Prophaneness into professed Idolatry our contempt of Order and Discipline into rigorous Censures and a bloody Inquisition our despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities into a Yoke of Tyranny and Romish Usurpations And I know not what can any way avert the one but our hearty and sincere resolutions to retract and utterly forsake the other and with prostrate bodies and contrite souls unanimously to implore the divine mercy in that excellent Form of Prayer which our Church affords us for this occasion GLORIOVS and gratious God whose judgments against obstinate offenders are most severe and terrible but thy mercies insinite to all that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto thee We sinful people of this Land do acknowledge before thee to thy glory and our own shame that never any Nation had more experience of thy goodness nor yet did ever any more unthankfully abuse it when thou gavest us great and long prosperity we fed our selves to the full waxed fat and kicked against thee when thou threwest us into horrid confusions from which we saw then little hopes of arising even in the time of that distress did we trespass yet more against thee when by miracles of mercy thou hadst turned our captivities we soon returned to folly to our vomit and to our wallowing in our former or greater filthiness Even while thou hast of late appeared for us by discovering the Plots and Contrivances of our implacable enemies of the Romish Faction we have been in the mean time by our sins sighting against Heaven and against thee And now we are no more worthy to be called either thy sons or thy servants whom neither thy fear hath driven nor thy goodness led to repentance In mercy awaken our drowsie consciences and subdue our hard hearts into deep contrition Pardon the many great offences of us thy servants and the crying sins of the whole Nation Remove the evils we now lie under Avert the judgments which we justly fear because we most justly deserve Discover more and more the snares of death and Popish treachery and let us never fall into the hands of those men whose mercies are cruel Vnite all our hearts in the profession of the true Religion which thine own right hand hath planted amongst us and in a holy conversation answerable therete Pour out thine abundant blessings upon our gracious King and his great Council the present Parliament Keep him as the apple of thine eye hide him under the shadow of thy wings Inform his Princes after thy will and teach his Senators wisdom And grant that all their counsels resolutions and endeavours may tend to and end in the glory of thy great Name the preservation of the Church and true Religion amongst us and the security peace and prosperity of these Kingdoms All which we humbly beg in the Name and through the Mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Saviour Amen FINIS